THE YNGLING AND THE CIRCLE OF POWER by John Dalmas

One of them was Chen! “Excuse me, honored grandfa­thers,” Jik said. “I am lost. Can you tell me where I can find the temple?” The temple, he knew, was very near the bailiff’s.

Liang peered at the boy. “Who are you?” he asked.

Chen interrupted; it wouldn’t do to have young Wu identify himself “You are young Tung, are you not?”

Jik swallowed. “Yes, sir.’

‘Why do you want to go to the temple?” Liang asked. “It’s not open at this hour.”

Again Chen answered for him, or seemed to. “It’s the darkness; he’s gotten lost.” He pointed. “The temple is just up the lane, boy. Not more than eighty meters.”

Jik bobbed. “Thank you, honored grandfathers.” Only eighty meters! And not far past it was the bailiff’s wall! Alone he hurried past the two old men in the direction Chen had pointed. He could hardly stay and wait till they’d gone on; Liang would ask more questions. He’d go, then hurry back for the barbarian when the way was clear. He could tell from their breath, and indeed by the physician’s speech, that the two men had been drinking. Hopefully they’d fail to notice the barbarian standing in the niche.

He stopped in a gateway and watched the two amble past the barbarian’s hiding place. Not much farther on they stopped at a gate, and after a moment went through it, taking their lamp with them.

Jik went back to find the barbarian and take him to the bailiffs. The barbarian wasn’t there.

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The boy’s stomach sank. Where could he have gone? Then an answer struck him: The barbarian might have gone back the way they came. He might have lost his nerve. The boy shook it off and waited a few minutes, hoping that Nils would pop up after all—that he’d simply found a better hiding place—but the barbarian didnt show. Finally Jik left. Being alone, and knowing now where he was, he made his way through the village to the main road, and turning right, followed it south out of town.

He’d go to the Pine Point, where the blanket was hid­den, and his mother’s hat, and the barbarian’s bow and quiver. The road turned almost sharply there; he should be able to find that, at least. And the things were just within the edge of the woods, eighty-three steps from the road; he’d counted. He hardly dared go home with­out the blanket. If the barbarian’s quiver and bow were still there, he’d wait for him. Otherwise he’d go straight home, as his father had ordered.

As soon as Nils heard, telepathically, Chen’s answer to Jik, he slipped back through the darkness to a cross lane, and waited there. After a minute the two older men entered Liang’s yard, but still Nils stayed where he was. He didn’t want the boy with him at the bailiffs wall. He’d serve no purpose there, and if something went wrong, Jik might be unwilling to run away soon enough, and be caught.

He watched until the youth left, then moved swiftly past the temple to the compound. There he padded around the wall, scanning telepathically for the locations of any guards.

Four were posted atop the wall and one at the front gate. The men on top had probably been assigned one to a corner, but those for the southwest and northwest corners had met on the middle of the west wall, where they were smoking hemp together, chuckling, and talking in murmurs. Chen had told him there should be no dogs; his daughter had mentioned that her husband despised

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barking. Nor scanning could Nils sense one, watchdog or lapdog, though there could be one asleep in the house.

The compound’s wall was about six meters high, the compound perhaps sixty wide and eighty long. Nils de­cided to go over the back wall some meters from the deserted northwest corner. When he reached there, he took the rope from his shoulder and laid the coils on the ground. Then he swung the grapple and tossed it onto the top. Wrapped as it was, it landed with only a dull clunk, not loud, but certainly audible in the night.

Nils stood motionless, scanning. With so few minds awake nearby, his psi reach was sufficient that he could sense even the guard at the front gate. In the quiet of night, three had heard the sound: the two hemp smokers, and the man at the northeast corner. But they weren’t alarmed. The latter told himself it was the guard at the northwest corner; that was the most convenient supposi­tion. The hemp smokers listened hard for perhaps twenty seconds, then dismissed the sound. It was too dark, they were enjoying their conversation, and anyway it was nothing.