The man looked steadily at him for several minutes. Kickaha looked back and whistled softly.
“I’ve been following you for some time,” the man suddenly said. “I still don’t know who you are. Let me introduce myself. I am Red Orc.”
Kickaha stiffened, and he blinked.
The man smiled and said, “Who did you think I was?”
“A Lord who’d gotten stuck in this universe and was looking for a way out,” Kickaha said. “Are there two Red Orcs, then?”
The man lost some of his smile. “No, there is only one! I am Red Orc! That other is an impostor! A usurper! I was careless for just one moment! But I got away with my life, and because of his bad luck, I will kill him and get back everything!”
“Who is that other?” Kickaha said. “I had thought … but then he never named himself… he let me think . . .”
“That he was Red Orc? I thought so! But his name is Urthona, and he was once Lord of the Shifting World. Then that demon-bitch Vala, my niece, drove him from his world, and he fled and came here, to this world, my world. I did not know who it was, although I knew that some Lord had come through a gate in Europe. I hunted for him and did not find him and then I forgot about him. That was a thousand years ago; I presumed he had gotten out through some gate I did not know about or else had been killed.
“But he was lying low and all the time searching for me. And finally, only ten years ago, he found me, surveyed my fortress, my defenses, watched my comings and my goings, and then he struck!
“I had grown careless, but I got away, although all my bodyguards died. And he took over. It was so simple for him because he was in the seat of power, and there was no one to deny him. How could there be anyone to say no to him? I had hidden my face too well. Anyone in the seat of power could issue orders, pull the strings, and he would be obeyed, since the Earthlings who are closest to him do not know his real name or his real face.
“And I could not go to the men who had carried out my orders and say, ‘Here I am, your own true Lord! Obey me and kill that fool who is now giving you orders!’ I would have been shot down at once, because Urthona had described me to his servants, and they thought I was the enemy of their leader.
“So I went into hiding, just as Urthona had done. But when I strike, I will not miss! And I shall again be in the seat of power!”
There was a pause. Orc seemed to be expecting him to comment. Perhaps he expected praise or awe or terror.
Kickaha said, “Now that he has this seat of power, as you call it, is he Lord of both Earths? Or of this one only?”
Orc seemed set aback by this question. He stared and then his face got red.
“What is that to you?” he finally said.
“I just thought that you might be satisfied with being Lord of the other Earth. Why not let this Urthona rule this world? It looks to me, from the short time I’ve been here, that this world is doomed. The humans are polluting the air and the water and, at any time, they may kill off all life on Earth with an atomic war. Apparently, you are not doing anything to prevent this. So why not let Urthona have this dying world while you keep the other?”
He paused and then said, “Or is Earth Number Two in as bad a condition as this one?”
Red Orc’s face had lost its redness. He smiled and said, “No, the other is not as bad off. It’s much more desirable, even though it got exactly the same start as this one. But your suggestion that I surrender this world shows you don’t know much about us, leblabbiy.”
“I know enough,” Kickaha said. “But even Lords change for the better, and I had hoped . . .”