“Yes?” the emperor asked.
“Your Magnificence,” said the geshe, “your Circle of Power has been questing. And we have seen a man …”
3
He opened his mind to his emperor then, rerunning the experience.
When the geshe had completed his brief report, he was dismissed. The emperor sat with the manuscript ignored on his lap. The Circle had learned nothing explicit, except that the man existed and what he looked like. And that he’d been aware of them observing him, and had broken the connection. A man of unusual power then, obviously, but where he was, and of what people, there’d been no clue.
There had been a limited knowingness with the vision, however: the man was far away, and was important to him. There’d been no sign of what the importance might be. Logic suggested that the man would lead an army against his, when the time of conquest came, but that was only logic, not knowledge.
Songtsan Gampo sat with his mind clear of thoughts, waiting quietly for more, but no more came.
PART ONE
DEPARTURE
ONE
The council fire flickered ruddy-yellow, lighting the Neoviking chiefs who sat around it. It was a very large fire, by the standards of a people whose summer fires normally were small: fires for cooking, and smoke fires to drive the mosquitoes from their log houses.
Ted Baver squatted unobtrusively as part of the ring of chiefs, an honor granted him as a representative of the star folk. He had no role in their council, of course. He was there to watch, listen, record, and in the process learn. He held a small audio-video recorder before his face, as if aiming a pistol, and through and around its simple, fold-out viewing frame he watched the proceedings.
He’d grown used to squatting, this past year. Occasionally, absently, he squashed mosquitoes on his face with his left hand. The thump of an insect-hunting nighthawk braking overhead did not catch his attention. He was engrossed in the dispute before the council, aiming his recorder at whoever was speaking, capturing their words and image.
7
8
Jäävklo,* chief of the Glutton Clan, got to his feet. He was wide-framed, with remarkably muscular arms, his muscles more ropy than bulky. His face was creased, but at fifty feet by firelight, his black hair seemed ungrayed, and the skin on his arms, shoulders and neck was still tight. Baver guessed his age at between forty and forty-five.
Jäävklo spoke loudly, that the throng of northmen could hear, the hundreds who squatted unseen on the slope above the council fire. “Here is my answer to Ulf Varjsson of the Wolf Clan,” he said. “In the Homeland, we of the Glutton** Clan had the poorest territory of all the Svear. It was poorest to start with, and as the world grew colder, it became impossible to feed ourselves adequately. Nor would the Reindeer Clan or the Salmon Clan adjust their boundaries with us. When we brought it up in council, Axel Stornäve refused to require it of them. There was bad blood between the two of us, Axel and me, and so he refused.
“Now the tribes have come to a new land, and possessed it, dividing it, each clan marking its own. The Glutton Clan has built cairns at their corners, and other cairns at needful places, according to the agreement among the tribes. Yet here at the ting, we find the Wolf people complaining that we encroach on them! We encroach on no one! We have done all things according to the agreement!”
He looked around the circle scowling, then squatted down again in the place that was his.
Nils Järnhann got up then, a huge, muscular young man only twenty-two years old, scarred on legs, face, and shoulder. His eyes were sky-blue glass, crafted by a machinist aboard the jump ship Phaeacia. They fitted properly but were conspicuously artificial, and around them the sockets were sunken. He turned his face to
*For those who are interested, a brief pronunciation guide for Neoviking names and words is included in the appendix. **Also known as the wolverine.
9
Jäävklo as if the glass eyes saw. He was lagman of the People—reciter and interpreter of the Law and arbiter of disputes, who also presided when crimes were brought before the council.