“if YOU do, lad, you’ll be the first fatality. And if I don’t come back, the Peregrine will start bombarding.” Then, with a smile: “But let’s not fight, Ed. We’re old friends, and I know this isn’t my business. As a matter of fact, I wanted to pass the word to you.”
“What word?”
“Palace scuttlebutt. Maybe@ it means something, maybe it doesn’t.”
“How could you learn secrets I can’t get?”
“I’m a stranger. The women find me interesting-really, that purdah you keep ‘em in must get awful boring. They
know III be, gone tomorrow and meanwhile I give ‘em some nice presents. Why should’dt they talk to me? And why
shouldn’t they intrigue in the first place?”
Thorkild tugged nervously at his queue. Joachim could almost read the thoughts inside that narrow skull. There was no chance for a noble to torture secrets out of the royal concubines. “What have you learned?” he asked finally.
“Well-2’ Joachim looked at the ceihng. “I’ve always thought of you as my friend, Ed. I gave you some 1)rethi good things yesterdays
They argued over the bribe till Joachim bad recouped a fair percentage of his earlier outlay. Then he said, untruthfully-but it was based on a shrewd guess-“Kogama has barem and royal guard contacts you may not know about. Word circulates. There’s a rumor that you and several others are associated with Kogama in building this fleet. Only the ships are staying right here,”
Thorkild’s face was utterly masklike. To Joachim, that was as good an indication as any. He fecl the noble a concoction of hints and whispers suggesting that Kogaina had plans for his own allies, when their mutual scl-ierne had gone through. It might even be COTT(l@-t, at that!
There was a silence when the narratve was fi-,iished. Thorkil,l sat resting his chin in one hand, the fingers of the
other drumming on the desk top.
Joachim waited a moment, then leaned forward confidentiaviy. “I’d like to make a guess, Ed,” he m-aniiiired. “I think there’s another civilization in this volume of space. I think they’re hiding from man, Cosmos knows why. But you’re building ships for them, you and your clique. Thestrangers-are paying you well, I imagine in gold, so that you can build up an organization. The present Arkulari’s a pretty smart boy. He’s arranged things so it’d be hard to overthrow him, but you think you can do it with that new wealth. Am I right?”
“If you were, what would you do with the knowledge?” “I do@t know. It might be sort of interesting to meet
those aliens. May be money in it. Or if they’re hostile to us, the ships ought to know about it.” His eyes lifted and held the other man’s. “I’d like to ask you one thing, though, Ed. If a powerful otberling empire grows up all around Erulan, what good is the throne here to you’r”
“They aren’t otherlings, or natives.” Thorkild’s tones were strained. “They’re human.”
Hi,iinc,n!
“They’re a str,-Dge sort. Tilk Basic with the weirdest accent, don’t wear clothes, don’t-I don’t know. They have the ways of natives, but they’re human, I’ll swear.”
“What do they want?” asked the Peregriiie.
“Ships. They contacted us about five years ago. Yes, thev pay in metal, and I gather they’re from somewhere in the Cross. But that’s a very big reg,.0n, Joachim, Maybe it’s foolish of us to deal with them, but you don’t get ahead exce-,-it by ttkidg chances.”
“No,” agreed Joachim. “No, you don’t.”
CHAPTER X
The Lurking Fear
IT WAS NEAR evening of the first day that an Eralani brought a scribbled note from Joachim out to the spaceboat. “All
right to go prowling in town, but @t go too far. We y have to leave -In a hurry.” Sean stood for a moment in the
airlock, straining his eies to read in the last dull light. The wind was low and cold; beneath the castle, roofs and towers were black against the sky.
Ilaloa sat up on one elbow as he entered the bunkroom.
“It’s too late to go out now”, be said. “We’ll do it tomorrow
morning. Is that all right?”
She nodded.
“I know you dodt like being penned here,” he said.