Angus got to his feet and walked about the smoky, oak-beamed room.
In the reddish light his naked chest and thickly muscled arms seemed
coated with crimson. The short crop of red hair on his rounded,
square-jawed skull added to the illusion. He planted his hands on his
hips and stood in front of his lieutenant.
"I turned pirate when the last Diktor executed my father for leniency
with his servants. The Diktor said he was undermining governmental
discipline. I took my mother and fled into space. I found a safe spot
on Yassinan. I built a pirate empire with your help. I'd offer up all
that--all the wealth we've amassed in Yassinan--to smash the setup
here!"
Tandor spat on his hand and rubbed his palm dry on the flat of his bald
dome. He said drily, "You make me mad, Angus. You aren't satisfied with
things. Always you have to change them. Isn't life full enough for you
now?"
Angus ignored him. "If I could get the Book of Nard and free Moana and
take her away to safety we might stand a chance. If we could develop
science undisturbed on Yassinan we could do it."
"Why fret about Moana?"
"She became my vow-companion. You know what that means to somebody like
the Diktor." Angus slapped his broad leather belt decisively. "I'll do
it. I'll go in his globe-ship and try and find the Book. Tandor, you
stay here. Raise men to fight for us."
The big man with the bald head nodded gloomily. He poured wine from the
wooden tankard, downed the brimming goblet in one long gulp. He wiped
his lips on the palm of his hand and rubbed it dry on his bald head. "I
hear you. I think you're mad but I hear you. What are you going to do
with that?"
His thumb jerked at the limp scientist in the long cowled robe. Angus
shrugged. "He'll come around. When he does I'll pretend I've fought off
his assailant. Meanwhile, you find out which globe-ship he means to
give me. Can you do that?"
The big man rumbled, "Tandor can do anything. I'll find out without
leaving the room." He lifted his voice and bellowed. When the door
opened and a red face peered in, Tandor grinned, "Find that wharf-rat
Plisket and send him in here."
Plisket limped in, grinning at Angus, bobbing his head. His eyes opened
when he heard what Tandor wanted. He chuckled, "The hierarchy plot like
a pack of fools. Everybody outside the Citadel hates them. It happens I
hate the Diktor more. They gave me gold to build a ship."
"The Skimmer?" asked Tandor. "That wonder-boat you were telling me
about?"
"It is a wonder-boat. It incorporates the--"
"Never mind the details," rapped Angus, leaning his palms on the table.
"Is that the boat the hierarchy want me to use?"
"It must be. It's the only one unchartered. And Angus--if you are to
control it--remember that it will submerge. And it has four speeds, two
more than...."
Tandor slapped the table with his palm, making the goblets bounce.
"Enough, enough. Plisket, your tongue wags like a hound's tail. Angus,
are you ready?"
Angus stretched his tall, heavily shouldered body. He went and bent his
lean height over the shallow-breathing scientist and swung him up in a
fireman's hitch. He walked firmly, steadily, as he headed for the oaken
door.
* * * * *
The man with the zigzag scar on his cheek drew back into the darkness
of a jutting second storey as a door creaked open down the street.
His eyes glittered, watching Angus emerge with a cowled body atop a
shoulder. The hidden man touched a glittering knob strapped to his
wrist, turned the knob and lifted it to his mouth.
Angus did not see him, did not hear him whisper into the voxbeamer. He
heaved up, settling the body on his shoulder. He began to trot, with
space-devouring strides. He went by the spot where Tandor's bully had
struck down the cowled man. He went ten paces beyond it, and halted. He
lowered the man to the ground and began to shake him.
"Wake up ... he didn't hit you that hard. Come on. Man, stir
yourself ... that's better ... see me, do you? Who am I? Angus. Good.
You're better? All right ... on your feet ... here, I'll give you a
hand."
The scientist teetered weakly, tried to smile. "I told you it was a
place for rats. What happened?"
"I beat him off. I carried you a bit, thinking he might come back.
We've lost some time."
"Sorry. I'll make a report to the Hierarch. He'll be glad to know you
didn't run out on him."
Red Angus clipped coldly, "I wouldn't leave Moana to that Diktor devil.
The Hierarch knows that."
The cowled man nodded. "Just the same, I'll tell him. I like you,
Angus. If I can ever help you, remember Thordad."
"You're all right? Sure you can go on?"
"I can go on. Hurry. Never mind me. I'll make it."
* * * * *
They saw the towering ball of the globe-ship as they broke from the
squat buildings framing the square at the waterfront. It was a ball
of golden brilliance, riding the slight sea-swell despite its bulk,
occasionally rubbing against the soft snubbers attached to the dock.
In the moonlight it loomed majestic and awe-inspiring above the wet,
rounded stones of the quay. Its soft _slip-slup_ motion on the waves
made it seem alive in the salt-laden breeze moving in from the sea.
The scientist halted. "I leave you here. You know how to get to the
Flaming Land? Good."
Thordad held out his bony hand. Angus grinned and clasped it. He
chuckled, "Tell the Hierarch to dust off a shelf in his Literatum. I'll
fill it with the Book of Nard."
Thordad smiled, turned on a heel and strode off into the darkness of an
alleyway. Angus went on, eyes gleaming up at the hulk of the ship. He
heard the wind whistling in the rooftops, and across the flat stretch
of the square. With eyes and ears already occupied, he did not hear the
sobbed cry Thordad managed as a hand closed on his throat, nor did he
see the dagger dripping crimson in the hand of the man with the zigzag
scar, rising to fall again and again in Thordad's body.
Angus went across the gangplank into the curved port. He pressed a
stud and the door slid into place. Lights sprang to full illumination,
revealing shimmering metal beams and cross-braces, glittering crimson
floor, and long banks of control panels. Glowing tubes, slowly warming,
flooded the gigantic room with a soft blue color.
Angus studied the meters. He drew down a red-handled lever. Far below
the plasticine-sheltered engines throbbed, roared their power. Slowly
the great hull of the globe-ship began to revolve, circling the inner
ball. The fine margin of air-space, charged with electronically
regulated magnets, made a soft, swooshing sound as the outer ball
rotated faster. The inner ball, a gigantic gyroscope set in a magnetic
field, held steady, while the outer globe swirled rapidly.
The globe-ship seemed a huge ball that some giant's hand was shoving
through the water. It flipped water from it as it raced. Its bulk,
designed for the minimum amount of friction in water, danced across the
waves with terrific speed.
Angus watched the great bulk of swaying, restless water ahead of him,
saw combers flee by, watched huge swells come and go, split by the
globular hull. He flipped over the light-map and studied his progress,
making changes in the directional needle.
He headed out across the heaving Car Carolan Sea toward the Flaming
Lands, where no living man had ever gone before.
* * * * *
The Diktor turned from a contemplation of the serried bands of light
glistening across the beaded spectragraph screen. A young attendant
in golden jacket and breeches touched a button at his command and the
screen went dead.
The drapes over the arched doorway at the end of the room billowed
aside as an officer entered, clicked heels and bowed. His voice was
hoarse. "Teoman has returned, Eminence. He bears news of the pirate."
The Diktor came striding across the floor, sweeping his cloak behind
him with a short, thickly muscled arm. He gestured peremptorily and the
billowing curtains lifted. A man with a zigzag scar on his cheek bobbed
his head up and down, sidling into the room.
"The pirate has gone in a globe-ship across the Car Carolan Sea,
Highest One. A scientist of the Dragon Class was assisting him. I
daggered the scientist but I could not reach Angus in time."