“In what way?” The captain found himself much intrigued by all this.
The Worm World more recently had developed the tactics of turning selected individual human beings into its brain-washed tools. It was suspected the current Emperor and other persons high in his council were under the immediate influence of Moander’s telepathic minions. “One of the reasons we don’t get along very well with the Imperials,” Goth explained, “is the Emperor’s got orders out to find a way to knock out Karres for good. They haven’t found one yet, though.”
The captain reflected. “Think the reason your people moved Karres had to do with Manaret again?” he asked. Goth shrugged. “Wouldn’t have to,” she said. “The Empire’s politics go every which way, I guess. We help the Empress Hailie, she’s the best of the lot. Maybe somebody got mad about that. I don’t know. Anyway, they won’t catch Karres that easy….”
He reflected again. “Have they found out where the Worm World is? Vezzarn thought….”
“That’s strategy, Captain,” Goth said, rather coldly.
“Eh?”
“If anyone on Karres knows where it is, they won’t say so to anyone else who doesn’t have to know they know. Supposing you and I got picked up by the Nuris tonight….”
“Hm!” he said. “I get it.”
It sounded like the witches were involved in interesting maneuvers on a variety of levels. But he and Goth were out of all that. Privately, the captain regretted it a little.
Their own affairs on Uldune, however, continued to progress satisfactorily. Public notice had been posted that on completion of her outfitting by the firm of Sunnat, Bazim & Filish, the modernized trader Evening Bird, skippered by Captain Aron of Mulm, would embark on a direct run through the Chaladoor to the independent world of Emris. Expected duration of the voyage: sixteen days. Reservation for cargo and a limited number of passengers could be made immediately, at standard risk run rates payable with the reservations and not refundable. A listing of the Evening Bird’s drive speeds, engine reserves, types of detection equipment, and defensive and offensive armament was added.
All things considered, the response had been surprising. Apparently competition in the risk run business was not heavy at present. True, only three passengers had signed up so far, while the Venture’s former crew quarters had been remodeled into six comfortable staterooms and a combined dining room and lounge. But within a week the captain had been obliged to put a halt to the cargo reservations. He’d have to see how much space was left over after they’d stowed away the stuff he’d already committed himself to carry.
They were in business. And the outrageous risk run rates made it rather definitely big business.
Of the three passengers, one was a beautiful darkeyed damsel, calling herself Hulik do Eldel, who wanted to get to Emris as soon as she possibly could, for unspecified personal reasons, and who had, she said, complete confidence that Captain Aron and his niece would see her there safely. The second was a plump, fidgety financier named Kambine, who perspired profusely at any mention of the Chaladoor but grew hot-eyed and eager when he spoke of an illegal fortune he stood to make if he could get to a certain address on Emris within the next eight weeks. The captain liked that part not at all when he heard of it. But penalties on cancellations of risk run reservations by the carrier were so heavy that he couldn’t simply cross Kambine off the passenger list. They’d have to get him there; but he would give Emris authorities the word on the financier’s underhanded plot immediately on arrival. That might be very poor form by Uldune’s standards; but the captain couldn’t care less.
The last of them was one Laes Yango, a big-boned, dour faced businessman who stood a good head taller than the captain and had little to say about himself. He was shepherding some crates of extremely valuable hyperelectronic equipment through the Chaladoor, would transfer with them on Emris for a destination several weeks’ travel beyond. Yango, the captain thought, should create no problems aboard. He wasn’t so sure of the other two.
When it came to problems on Uldune, he still had a number to handle there. But they were business matters and would be resolved. Sunnat appeared to have realized at last she’d been making something of a nuisance of herself and was now behaving more sensibly. She was still very cordial to the captain whenever they met; and he trusted he hadn’t given the tall redhead any offense.
FIVE
SEDMON THE SIXTH, the Daal of Uldune, was a lean, dark man, tall for the Uldunese strain, with pointed, foxy features and brooding, intelligent eyes. He was a busy ruler who had never been known to indulge in the frivolity of purely social engagements. Yet he always found time to grant an audience to Hulik do Eldel when she requested it. Hulik was a very beautiful young woman who, though native to Uldune, had spent more than half her life in the Empire. She had been an agent of Central Imperial Intelligence for several years; and she and the Daal had been acquainted for about the same length of time. Sometimes they worked together, sometimes at cross-purposes. In either situation, they often found it useful to pool their information, up to a point.
Hulik had arrived early that morning at the House of Thunders, the ancient and formidable castle of the Daals in the highlands south of Zergandol, and met Sedmon in his private suite in one of the upper levels of the castle.
“Do you know,” asked Hulik, who could be very direct when she felt like, it, “whether this rumored super spacedrive of Karres really exists?”
“I have no proof of it,” the Daal admitted. But I would not be surprised to discover it exists.”
“And if you did, how badly would you want it?”
Sedmon shrugged. “Not badly enough to do anything likely to antagonize Karres,” he said.
“Or to antagonize the Empire?”
“Depending on the circumstances,” the Daal said cautiously, “I might risk the anger of the Empire.”
Hulik was silent a moment. “The Imperium,” she said then, “very much wants to have this drive. And it does not care in the least whether it antagonizes Karres, or anybody else, in the process of getting it.”
Sedmon shrugged again. “Each to his taste,” he said dryly.
Hulik smiled. “Yes,” she said, “and one thing at a time. To begin with then, do you believe a ship we have both shown interest in during the past weeks is the one equipped with this mysterious drive?”
The Daal scratched his neck. “I’m inclined to believe the ship was equipped with the drive,” he acknowledged. “I’m not sure it still is.” He blinked at her. “What are you supposed to do?”
“Either obtain the drive or keep trace of the ship until other agents can obtain it,” Hulik said promptly.
“No small order,” said Sedmon.
“Perhaps. What do you know about the man and the girl? The information I have is that the man is a Captain Pausert, citizen of Nikkeldepain, and that the child evidently is one of three he picked up in the Empire shortly before the first use of the drive was observed and reported. A child of Karres.”
“That is also the story as I know it,” Sedmon told her. “Let’s have a look at those two….”
He went to a desk, pressed a switch. A picture of the captain and Goth appeared in a wall screen. They came walking toward the observer along one of the winding, hilly streets of Zergandol. When their figures filled the screen, the Daal stopped the motion, stood staring at them.
“To all appearances,” he said, “this man is the citizen of Nikkeldepain described and shown in the reports. But there are still unanswered questions about him. I admit I find those questions disturbing.”
“What are they?” Hulik asked, a trace of amusement in her voice.
“He may be officially the citizen of Nikkeldepain he is supposed to be, now masquerading with the assistance of my office as Captain Aron of Mulm and still be a Karres agent and a witch. Or he may be a Karres witch who had taken on the appearance of Captain Pausert of Nikkeldepain. One simply never knows with these witches….”
He paused, shaking his head irritably. After a moment Hulik said, “Is that what’s bothering you?”
“That is what is bothering me,” Sedmon agreed. “If Captain Pausert, alias Captain Aron, is in fact a witch, I want no trouble with him or his ship.”
“And if he isn’t?”
“The girl almost certainly is of the witches,” the Daal said. “But I might be inclined to take a chance with her. Even that I would not like too well, since Karres has ways of finding out about occurrences that are of interest to it. “
“May I point out,” said Hulik, “that the entire world of Karres was reliably reported to have disappeared about the time this Captain Pausert was last observed in the Nikkeldepain area? The official opinion in the Imperium is that the planet was accidentally destroyed when the witches tested some superweapon of their devising, against the impending arrival of a punitive Imperial Fleet.”