The Towers Of Melnon

Chapter ELEVEN

Blade and Mir-Kasa were lying in the queen's great bed, amid tangled sheets and tumbled pillows. The queen lay sprawled on her back in a gloriously wanton pose, eyes glazed and dark hair spread out in a fan against the white sheets. Any stranger looking at her would have called her an absolutely satiated woman, beyond all thoughts of sex.

Blade knew better. He knew that those glazed eyes were deceptive. The real clues lay in the quivering red mouth and the long-fingered hands that plucked at the sheets-and occasionally wandered over to pluck at Blade's flaccid organ. He hoped it would not stay flaccid long. One of these days Mir-Kasa was going to demand of him more than he had it in him to give. That might easily be the end of his power in Melnon and perhaps even of his life. Certainly it would be the beginning of the end.

There was a peculiar five-beat knock on the door. Blade rolled out of bed, reaching under his pillow for the short sword he kept there. «Who goes there?» he called out sharply.

His voice awoke Mir-Kasa from her erotic daze. She sat up and shook her head, then made a placatory gesture with one hand. «Do not worry, Blade. It is the man sent by Bryg-Noz. Clothe yourself and bring me my black robe from the closet.»

Blade did as he was ordered, but the name «Bryg-Noz» started his mind churning. Bryg-Noz, the elder brother of Kir-Noz, sent down among the Low People some years before? It could hardly be a coincidence. But then what was a disgraced and degraded former warrior doing sending messengers to the queen herself? Blade had a feeling that the mysteries were getting more instead of less numerous.

When both he and Mir-Kasa were fully clothed, she signaled him to open the door. A Master of the Third Rank entered, bowing deeply.

«Blessings of the night upon Your Splendor,» he said. «Bryg-Noz bids me say that all is in readiness.»

«Good.» Mir-Kasa went to a cabinet and drew out a broad green belt with two daggers on it. «Blade, arm yourself. We go to the lower levels now. I think most of your questions about my plans for Melnon will be answered there.»

«I will follow where you lead,» said Blade. It was a polite remark, carefully chosen to conceal his own excitement. Now perhaps he could start to make some sense of the mad ways in which the Towers of Melnon ran their affairs.

Following where Mir-Kasa led meant following her out of the bedchamber, out of the queen's chambers, and into the shaft of the queen. The car there was smaller than the one in the shaft of the warriors, and decorated in Mir-Kasa's favorite silver gray. But it dropped just as fast. Only a few minutes later they were at the level of the balcony, in the center of the network of corridors that ran out from the shafts to the doors that led on to the balcony itself.

Blade expected Mir-Kasa to lead the way down one of those corridors and out on the balcony. But instead she went only a few yards before turning into a side passage that led off into total darkness. Both the queen and the master seemed to know the way, but Blade could not fight back a moment's uneasiness. Could this be a trap for him?

Then he shook off the thought. Mir-Kasa would hardly have needed to roam about the tower in the middle of the night to get rid of him if she had so wished. No, she was telling the truth. Tonight he would find out her plans-or at least as much of them as she chose to tell him. And perhaps a little more besides, since he was determined to keep his eyes open.

After perhaps fifty feet the master came to a stop, and walked over to the wall of the passage. Again that peculiar five-beat knock sounded. This time a section of the wall moved aside with a faint hiss. A dim greenish light flowed out of the opening. In the glow Blade could see a long flight of well-worn steps spiraling downward.

«Do not fear, Blade,» said Mir-Kasa. «What I plan to do must be prepared altogether in secret.» Blade nodded and followed the master and Mir-Kasa down the stairs.

He expected that the stairs would come to an end after about two hundred feet, when they reached the level of the Waste Land. But they did not. They kept on going, and Blade realized that they must descend deep into the foundations of the tower.

Very deep indeed, for it was at least another two hundred feet farther down before another door opened in front of the party. Again the master knocked, again a door slid open with a faint hiss. But this time a human figure was visible in the dimness beyond the doorway. As they stepped forward toward it, Blade saw that it must be Bryg-Noz.

The family resemblance to Kir-Noz was unmistakable. Bryg-Noz was two inches or so taller than his brother, though, and some pounds lighter. Good living was hard to come by among the High People in Melnon, let alone among the Low People. His hair showed more gray and his eyes showed more strain than his brother's but they might otherwise have been twins.

Bryg-Noz's voice was cool as he addressed the queen. Obviously he stood in no awe of her, for all his low station and ragged and soiled garments. «So this is the mighty stranger who bested my brother. Are his wits as fast as his swords?»

«You have my word for that, Bryg-Noz. You know well that I am a good chooser of men.»

«Of men for one of the uses of men-yes. Of men who can think as well as please you-we shall see.»

«You bandy words with me, Bryg-Noz,» Mir-Kasa's voice held a note of gentle reproach. That was surprising. Had anyone else attempted to «bandy words» with her this way, Mir-Kasa would have flown into a screaming fury and had them punished memorably and painfully. But with Bryg-Noz she was almost gentle. Well, they had been lovers once. Some of the old bond must still link them.

Bryg-Noz shrugged. «I try to make sure you see clearly, Your Splendor. But I can only do so much. Now-is this man Blade-Liza to see tonight's test?»

«Yes. I suspect that he may be able to give good advice about using the Great Wands. His own people, the English, have strange ways of war. I believe they use such devices commonly.»

Bryg-Noz looked inquiringly at Blade, who nodded. He could not have understood less of the conversation if it had been in Mongolian. But it seemed wiser to say yes when in doubt.

«Good,» said Bryg-Noz. He turned his head away and called softly into the darkness. «Kun-Rala, prepare the testing.»

«That I will do,» came a clear female voice from the darkness. Then the master shut the stairway door behind all of them. In the next moment another pale green light glowed in the darkness.

Blade saw that they were standing on the hard earth floor of an immense vaulted chamber. As the glow lit up the walls and ceiling, he saw the chamber was two hundred feet wide and a hundred or more high. Its walls and ceiling were not the universal green. They were raw, rough, stonelike material, sullen gray even under the green light of the torch, and grimed and crusted with age. Down here in the depths of the Tower of the Serpent there was no need to color things green or keep them clean. Then Blade saw the people standing nearby.

There were five of them, four of them wearing the loose work tunics of the Low People and one, a girl, entirely nude. One of the Low People stepped forward and raised a hand in salute to Bryg-Noz and the queen.

«We are ready,» he said.

But it was a she. It was a woman's voice, clear and cool. Blade could see the lift of breasts under the ragged and dirty green tunic-and the two short swords worn at a slender waist. A woman of the Low People, wearing swords and giving and receiving orders in the presence of the queen! Definitely the Peace Wisdom was not being followed here tonight!

One of the other Low People had a large sack slung over his shoulder. Now he lowered it to the ground and opened it. From it he took out a device somewhat like one of the administering wands. But this one was twice as long and twice as thick as the ones Blade had seen. It was silver gray instead of green, and around its butt end were a number of foot-long cylinders, like gigantic flashlight batteries. The man handed it to the girl Kun-Rala, who ran her fingers quickly over it, like an expert rifleman checking a newly issued weapon.

«Very well,» she said, and turned to one of the other Low People. «Start the-the girl.» Blade thought he detected a slight catch in Kun-Rala's voice as she said that.

One of the other Low People pulled out a standard wand and touched it to the naked girl. Only lightly, only briefly, and to the back of her knees rather than the back of her neck. So instead of screaming and falling to the ground to writhe in agony, she gave a little whimper. And then she turned and ran.

She ran out into the center of the huge chamber, toward the opposite wall. She went so fast that her white legs were nothing but a blur in the dim light. Blade wondered where she thought she could go. As far as he could see, there was no exit from this chamber except the stairs he had come down. And the girl was running straight away from those.

But she did not run much farther. She was perhaps a hundred feet away and still moving when Kun-Rala snapped the great wand to her shoulder. One slim arm bent, and long fingers pulled back on a handle. There was a crack, a sizzling sound, the smell of ozone in the air-and the running girl simply flew apart. One moment she was there, an intact and entire human body. The next moment there was only a sort of bloody mist settling to the floor where she had been. Blade felt saliva welling up in his mouth. By a heroic effort he swallowed it, and turned an impassive face to Queen Mir-Kasa, who was looking inquisitively at him.

«Well, Blade? Have the English such as the great wands?»

«Not precisely such, Your Splendor. But we have things that can do as well.» He was not going to admit that this-this death ray was far ahead of anything in England, or that the demonstration of it had nearly made him sick.

«Did you expect to find such as the great wand here in Melnon?»

He could not tell that lie with a straight face. «No, I did not.»

«Well, they did not exist until a few seasons ago. They were the idea of a worker of the First Rank, a very good idea, wouldn't you say?»

«I would. But what are they for? I can see that they are an immense improvement over the regular wands, but surely you do not need these for-«

«For administering the Low People? Hardly, Blade. These are for use on warriors. The warriors of the other Towers of Melnon. And on the Low People, if necessary.»

Swiftly, in clipped sentences, she told him of her real plans, and of how the great wands that could kill at a distance were the heart of them. She made the picture exceedingly clear to Blade-much too clear.

What she dreamed of doing was raising the Low People of the other towers in revolt against their High People. Perhaps they would not actually succeed. But they would shake and weaken the other towers so that they would be easy pickings for the warriors of the Tower of the Serpent.

«Armed with the great wands?» asked Blade.

«Perhaps. But I hope we will not need to use them elsewhere. They are for use mostly in my defense, and in the defense of the wise High People of Melnon.»

The «wise High People of Melnon» were those who could or would follow her lead, and submit to her absolute rule. She expected there would be many, after she had made the Tower of the Serpent supreme in Melnon. But she could not be sure of all her High People even then. And certainly there would be many who would balk beforehand, if they knew of what she was planning. Raising revolt among the Low People was the most horrible of all violations of the Peace Wisdom, and the slightest rumor of it would raise a hornets' nest of opposition.

«And of course it is always possible that the Low People of my own tower may learn of what is going on, and try their own revolt. They would kill both the wise and the foolish High People, and leave the Tower of the Serpent too weak to support my rule over Melnon. So I must defend myself against the High People who would attack me, and against the Low People who would attack my friends among the High People. Therefore, the great wands.»

The great wands, in short, would arm Mir-Kasa's private army, the instrument of her personal rule over both the Tower of the Serpent and the other towers. With them, such an army would be invincible and her rule unshakeable.

«No doubt of that,» said Blade. At least no doubt he felt like expressing to Mir-Kasa.

But where to build up this private army, so that it would be all ready for the day it might be needed? Where in the Tower of the Serpent could the necessary secrecy be maintained?

The answer was obvious. In the levels of the Low People, the degraded and dishonorable brutes whose doings no one of the High People could properly care about. So when Bryg-Noz was degraded and sent down among the Low People-quite properly-he was sent down with instructions and advice from Mir-Kasa. He did not need very many of these, for he was a highly intelligent man. And each time one of the High People was degraded, if Mir-Kasa trusted him or her she told them of Bryg-Noz, and sent them to him. He used them well. By now he had-

«How many, Bryg-Noz?»

A look passed between Bryg-Noz and the warrior girl Kun-Rala. It was a look of complicity. Blade caught it. Mir-Kasa, fortunately, did not.

Bryg-Noz shrugged. «Oh, at last count, more than two hundred.»

«Not badly done, my friend. But we need more.»

«Of course we do,» said Kun-Rala. «We know all about your thousand and more great wands in the secret compartments of the work chambers. But all it takes is one person with a loose tongue, and Nris-Pol or someone like him will have the tower howling about our ears. And you have as much to lose by that as we do. So don't urge us to move faster than is safe, I beg you.»

The look Mir-Kasa shot at the girl was filled with chill rage. Blade hoped Kun-Rala would learn to control her tongue and her temper better than this if she was going to be involved in a revolution.

Then the queen took a deep breath and shrugged. «You are indeed the ones in danger, so it is just that I defer to your judgment. But remember-it will go hard with you if I find that you delay when there is no danger. Come, Blade. Have you seen enough for tonight?»

«I have, Your Splendor.» He turned and followed the queen toward the stairs.

As they wound their way upward through the green dimness, Blade was turning the night's events over and over in his mind. Obviously his guess had been right-Queen Mir-Kasa was interested in upsetting the Melnonian applecart to increase her own power, not to help anybody. And she was playing a more dangerous game for much bigger stakes than he had ever realized.

But there were still some pieces missing from the puzzle.

Where were those Great Wands stored-and did he dare ask? And did Bryg-Noz and that hot-tempered Amazon Kun-Rala really see eye to eye with Mir-Kasa on the goal of the whole «revolution?» The looks he had seen passing between the two made him wonder. That was another point that needed exploring, before he took any active part in the affair.

Fortunately, it looked as though he would have plenty of time.