The Daal scratched his neck again. “I have heard of that,” he said. “And, in fact, I have received a report from one of my own men in the meanwhile, to the effect that Karres does seem to be gone from the Iverdahl System. It is possible that it is destroyed. But I don’t believe it.”
“Why not?”
“I have had dealings with a good number of witches, Hulik, and for many years I have made a study of Karres and its history. This is not the first time it was reported that world had disappeared. Nor, when it was observed again, was it necessarily within some months of ship travel of the point where it had been observed before.”
“A super spacedrive which moves a world?” Hulik smiled. “Really, Sedmon!”
“As to that, I will say nothing more,” replied the Daal. “There are other possibilities. For all I know, Karres still is at present in the Iverdahl System but made invisible, undetectable, by the skills of the witches.”
“That, too, seems rather improbable,” Hulik remarked.
“It may seem that way,” said Sedmon. “But I know it to be a fact that, before this, ships have gone to the Iverdahl System in search of the world of Karres and were unable to find it there.” He shrugged. “In any event, it seems much safer to me to assume that the world of Karres and the witches of Karres have not disappeared permanently….”
He stared at the frozen figures in the screen, pursed his mouth in puzzled worriment. “And besides …”
“Well?” said Hulik as he hesitated.
The Daal waggled his fingers at the screen. “I have the strangest feeling I have encountered that man before! Perhaps also the child … And yet I find no place for either of them in my memories.”
Hulik glanced curiously at him. “That must be your imagination,” she told him. “But your nervousness about the witches explains why you have been conducting your search for Captain Pausert’s mystery drive in what I felt was an excessively roundabout manner. “
The Daal grinned briefly. “I have,” he said, “great faith in the basic unscrupulousness of Sunnat, Bazim & Filish. And in the boldness of Sunnat. The story that came to her naturally did not mention the possibility that her clients were witches. But she and her partners are completely convinced the superdrive exists.”
“And have been searching most industriously for it in the course of rebuilding the ship,” Hulik added. “Sunnat also has attempted to bedazzle Captain Aron with her obvious physical assets…. you, in the meanwhile, hovering above all this, hoping they would discover the drive for you.”
“That in part,” nodded the Daal.
“Yes. Sunnat has the greed and fury of a wild pig. I think she is not quite sane. She has not bedazzled Captain Aron, and nothing resembling concealed drive mechanisms has been found so far in the ship. Before the Evening
Bird is ready to leave, you expect her then to resort to actions which will force this Captain Aron or Pausert to reveal whether or not he is a witch?”
“It will not surprise me if that occurs,” Sedmon admitted. “ If it becomes apparent that he is a witch, I simply will be through with the matter.”
“And still be unimplicated,” Hulik agreed. “Of course,” she went on, “if he is not a witch and does not have a mystery drive to produce, even if strenuously urged, it’s probable that he and the child will be murdered before Sunnat decides she may have made a mistake-“
Sedmon shifted his eyes from the wall screen to her, said slowly, “This drive, if I can get it, and have afterwards a little time to work in, undisturbed, will restore Uldune to its ancient place in the hierarchy of galactic power!”
“A point,” said Hulik, “of which the Imperium is well aware.
He watched her, his face expressionless.
“We shall work in different ways,” Hulik smiled. “If I get it, it may bring me great honor and rewards from the Imperium. Or it may, which really seems at least as likely, bring me quick death, by decision of the Imperium.” The smile became almost impish. “On Uldune, on the other hand…. well, I would be most interested in seeing that the House of Eldel is also restored to something approximating the place of power it once held here.”
“An honorable ambition!” Sedmon nodded approvingly. “As for me, I am perhaps overly prudent and certainly not as young as I was, I could very well use a partner with youth, audacity, and intelligence, to help me direct the affairs of Uldune. In particular, of the greater Uldune that may be.”
Hulik laughed. “Great dreams! But very well…. We shall work carefully. I have not yet made a report that the ship once named the Venture appears to be at present on Uldune.”
The Daal’s eyes lightened.
“But,” Hulik went on; “I shall proceed exactly as if I had made that report. If, in spite of Sunnat’s efforts and yours, the Evening Bird lifts from Uldune on schedule I’ll be on board as passenger… Now, I believe that little Vezzarn they’ve signed on for the ship is your man?”
“He is,” Sedmon said. “Of course be doesn’t know for whom he’s working.”
“Of course. I know Kambine’s background. He’s nothing.”
“Nothing,” the Daal agreed.
“Laes Yango?”
“A man to be reckoned with in his field.”
“What specifically is his field? I’ve been able to get very little information on him.”
“He deals. High-value, high-profit items only. He maintains his own cruiser; makes frequent space trips, uses other carriers for special purposes, as in this case. He banks a considerable amount of money at all times, makes and receives large payments at irregular intervals to and from undisclosed accounts by subradio. Some of his business seems to be legitimate.”
“He should not become a problem then?” Hulik said.
“There is no reason to assume he would be, in this matter.” The Daal looked at her curiously. “Am I to understand you intend to continue your efforts to obtain the drive, even if Captain Aron turns out to be what I suspect he is?”
“I do intend that,” Hulik nodded. “I have my own theory about your Karres witches.”
“What is that?”
“They are, among other things, skilled and purposeful bluffers. The disappearing world story, for example. Karres has been described to me as a primitive, forested planet showing no detectable signs of inhabitation. There are many such uninhabited worlds. Few are even indicated in standard star maps. It seems most probable to me that the witches, instead of moving Karres through space, themselves move by more conventional methods of travel from one world of that sort to a similar one elsewhere and presently let it be known that Karres was magically transported by them to a new galactic sector! I believe their purpose is to frighten everyone, including even the Imperium, into leaving them severely alone. That they are capable of a number of astonishing tricks seems true. It is even possible they have developed a superdrive to transport ordinary spaceships. But worlds?” She shook her head skeptically. “Pausert may be a Karres witch. If so, his mysterious powers have not revealed to him even the simple fact that Vezzarn was planted on him as a spy…. No, I’m not afraid of the witches!”
“You don’t feel afraid of the Chaladoor either?” the Daal asked.
“A little,” Hulik admitted. “But considerably more afraid of not getting the drive from Captain Pausert, if it should turn out later that there really was such a thing on his ship. When the stakes high, the Imperium becomes a stringent employer!” She shrugged. “And since success in this might be a deadly to me as failure, you and Uldune can count on me. … afterwards.”
A colored, soundless whirlwind was spinning slowly and steadily about the captain. He watched it bemusedly a while, then had his attention distracted by a puzzled awareness that he seemed to be sitting upright, none too comfortably, on something like cold stone floor, his back touching something like cold stone wall. He realized suddenly that he had his eyes closed, and decided he might as well open them. He did. The giddily spinning colors faded from his vision; the world grew steady. But what place was this? What was he doing here?
He glanced around. It seemed a big underground vault, wide and low, perhaps a hundred and fifty feet long. Thick stone pillars supported the curved ceiling sections. A number of glowing white globes in iron cages hung by chains from the ceiling, giving a vague general illumination to the place. Across the vault the captain saw a narrow staircase leading up through the wall. It seemed the only exit.
On his right, some thirty feet away, was a fireplace….
He gazed at the fireplace thoughtfully. It was built into the wall; in it was a large, hot coal fire. The individual coals glowed bright red, and continuous flickerings of heat ran over the piled mass. A poker shaped like a small slender spear stood at a slant, it tip in the coals, its handle resting on a bronze fire grate.