Stal Tay held high court before his ruby throne. He sat with right hand
on his knee, bent forward, thin lips smiling. Before him stood the
Hierarch, rigid with rage, black eyes burning under the shadow of his
white cowl. To the Hierarch's left an almost naked Moana was crumpled
on the cold stone floor, manacles rivetted to her wrists and ankles,
her white flesh gleaming through torn garments.
Stal Tay taunted, "You come too late, Hierarch. I know where Red Angus
went, what he went for, and who sent him."
"It was done in your interests," rasped the scientist. "I brought her
to you that you might know the truth."
Stal Tay glanced at the weeping Moana. "So many odd things are done
in my supposed interests these days. At that, I'm almost inclined to
believe you but what really bothers me is this--did Angus find...."
The Diktor snapped off his speech abruptly. He rose half out of his
throne, fingers clutching the jeweled arms. The Hierarch whirled. Even
Moana turned her head to look, the sobs still racking her body.
A yellow glow was forming in midair a foot above the stone tiles of
the Audience Chamber. The yellow glittered, coruscated and faded away.
Where the color was now stood a flat black dais with three chairs
whose curving legs were rivetted to the floor of the dais. A man turned
from the control panel that rose between the seats, a man with red hair
and a tanned body. The man looked at them and laughed.
"Angus," whimpered Moana.
"Seize him," raged Stal Tay.
Angus bent and lifted something and held it up. It glittered in the
light filtering through the arched windows of the Audience Chamber.
Angus said, "This is the Book of Nard. I've come to bargain with you,
Stal Tay."
The Diktor sank back into his throne, gesturing his guards aside. He
said, "What do you want for the Book?"
"Moana."
"Moana," said the Diktor in surprise. "Is that all? Take her ... but
wait. How do I know this isn't a trick? How do I know I'll get the
Book?"
Angus stepped from the dais to the floor of the chamber. He placed the
book in its golden covers on the floor. "I went to the City of the
Ancients. I met Stasor and took the Book of Nard from him. I came to
bring it to you. I see I came just in time to save Moana."
Stal Tay came to his feet. "That thing you ride. What is it? Tell me
its secret and I'll pardon you."
Angus laughed in his face. "Stasor calls it a teleportator. It shifts
space, draws sectors of space together in an instant. In it a man can
move from here to anywhere on Karr. Stasor knows many things, Stal Tay.
One of them is how to bring you off that throne!"
The Diktor's face purpled. He started to talk but his eyes caught the
golden covers of the Book of Nard and he controlled his anger. "Take
her," he said, "before I decide the Book isn't worth your insults!"
Irons clanking, the girl stepped to Angus' side, let him lift her to
the dais. Then Angus turned and studied the Diktor through narrowed
eyelids.
"I'm giving you the Book now, Stal Tay. But it's only fair to warn
you--I'll be back for it!"
He stepped onto the dais, turned a knob on the control panel. The dais
fled and the golden bubble came back, and then that, too, disappeared.
Moana sobbed as the dais fled through shifting white mists. Angus knelt
beside her, using his disintegrator on the links of her manacles. She
said, "The Diktor will send men for you. He'll never let you get away
with this. You've only won a temporary victory."
Angus chuckled, "He'll be too busy with the Hierarch and the Book of
Nard to go after me for a while. When he does, it will be too late."
He dropped the severed chains to the floor of the dais. "You see, none
of the scientists in the Citadel will understand the sciences in the
book. They'll tell Stal Tay that and he won't believe them. There'll be
a minor war between the Diktor and the Hierarchy. Once a breach between
them is made, we'll step into it."
* * * * *
The dais settled on something solid. The golden veil dissipated as
before a wind, to reveal the smoke-blackened beams of a tavern room.
Tandor was there, a wooden mug in one hand, straining forward from the
tableside, his other hand clutching its edge, staring at them.
Angus helped Moana down. Tandor drained the mug and slammed it on the
tabletop. He demanded, "Well? Got a bellyful of it? Ready for the star
trails?"
"Not yet, Tandor."
Tandor growled and rubbed his palm on his bald head. He grumbled,
"You'll be a martyr yet. You watch. You'll see. Red Angus--who died
saving nothing!"
The pirate grinned at him, leaning his palms flat on the tabletop.
"If I win, you know what'll happen, don't you? You and I will have to
rule Karr. You'll be my majordomo. You'll wear fine clothes and make
decisions and listen to people bellyache."
Tandor howled, leaping up so suddenly that his chair went skidding.
He slammed his palms on the table. "Not me!" he bellowed. "I want no
office and no snivelling folk to spoil my days! I--"
Angus moved a hand. He put it flat to Tandor's chest and held it there.
The bald giant snapped his lips together. He grew silent as a clam, and
as still.
The door was opening.
Something that looked like a man, that was swathed in white bandages
from toes to head, with just two slits for eyes and a hole for a
mouth, was coming in the room. Tandor's hand swooped and lifted with a
disintegrator.
"Angus," whispered the apparition. "Red Angus! I need help."
The pirate was across the room, catching the bandaged figure in
cradling arms, lowering him to the couch. He whispered, "This is the
second time you've been on that couch, Thordad. What happened to you?"
"When I left you at the globe-ship dock one of Stal Tay's spies knifed
me and left me for dead. The Hierarch sent men to find me. They
doctored me and were carrying me to the Citadel when the Diktor jumped
us. He sent me to his torture dungeons."
The man shuddered under the bandages. The eyes, through the slits, were
wide with horror and remembered pain. "The Diktor wanted to learn what
the Hierarch was after. I wouldn't tell him. Before that he confronted
me with the Hierarch who disowned me. He told Stal Tay to do with me
what he wanted!"
The raw hate throbbed in Thordad's voice. It sent a cold ripple down
Angus' spine. The pirate leaned closer to the bandaged mouth. "The
Diktor let his beasts at me for three days. It was horrible. But I got
away. I think I went mad with the pain. I crept to my cousin's house
and was bandaged and partially healed there. Then I came here. You're
the only hope any of us have. You've got to do something--anything--to
stop that madman and the Hierarch!"