Engor

Julien and the Nine Worlds

Book II
Julien the Emperor

Chapter 1
Last night in sweet slumber…

Julien was looking at the pale figure of Ambar, who was making his way back to the bed. In a few seconds he would be snuggling against his warm, soft body. The thought of embracing him was already starting to give him an erection…

"Berthier! You're asleep again! Perhaps two hours of detention on Saturday morning will teach you not to ruin your brain by sitting up watching television until after midnight!"

Startled into wakefulness, Julien felt himself sinking into a terrible bottomless pit of despair. The horrible reality of his classroom and the voice of the awful 'Julliard Witch', a maths teacher who remained completely impervious to the spirit of liberty which had supposedly been broadcast continually since the Spring of 1968 forced their way into his consciousness. All that remained of his beautiful dreamed-of world was a heart-rending memory. In that world he had loved a boy and been loved in return. It was a world far more real than this dull one, and its image, far from drifting away like the mist in the morning, seemed burnt into his mind in order to torment him further.

On his left Gallier, who shared a double desk with him – a desk that dated back to the days of metal-nibbed pens and ink-pots – was carefully copying from the blackboard the diagram that had been drawn there by a humourless woman whose fate it was to try to explain Euclidean geometry to a set of children whose only wish was to be somewhere else. Gallier was a good friend, and in another world Julien was sure that he'd have been happy to join in with the sort of games that couldn't even be mentioned in this world.

This world! The thought of being stuck in this horrible reality was too much for him, and he gave a sort of strangled sob…

"Julien! Julien! What's wrong?"

In the dim light of the kang he saw Ambar, who looked positively alarmed. Julien felt overwhelmed by a wave of relief that was so strong that for a few seconds he didn't even try to withhold the sobs that were stopping him from answering Ambar's question. He just pulled the smaller boy into his arms and held him tight until eventually his breathing settled back into its normal rhythm. Finally he got himself under control.

"It was a nightmare," he explained.

"Huh?"

"I dreamed I was back in my world. None of this had ever existed: it was just a dream, and I was waking up from it. You can't begin to imagine how horrible it was, waking up to find myself in the middle of a nightmare… Tell me that you're real!"

Ambar didn't need to speak, because the kiss he bestowed instead would have convinced the world's biggest sceptic. Besides, nobody that Julien had known on Earth would have dared to press against him something as insolently hard as the thing that Ambar was favouring him with.

***

The morning revealed the form of Dillik who, as he had recently started doing almost every day, had crept into the bed between the two friends in order to take part in the early morning cuddling session. He was still asleep, but Ambar was in the process of waking him up in his usual unrestrained way – a way which would have horrified Julien's parents if they had known about it. They were having breakfast not so very far away, and as far as they were concerned there were things that a young boy wasn't supposed to put in his mouth. Actually, in their world young boys weren't even supposed to get erections, let alone actually do something with them And as for their own beloved son, it was completely unthinkable that he should witness such goings-on without trying to put a stop to it.

Outside it was raining heavily, and the quays on the lake would no doubt already be flooded. The rainy season had started two months previously, a fortnight after Julien's parents had surprised him by organising a little party for his thirteenth birthday. They weren't completely sure that it was the right day because the calendars weren't the same, but they thought it was close enough. However, the noise of the storm didn't bother Ambar at all, and he just got on with what he was doing, in a way that his partner clearly found thoroughly satisfying.

Once Dillik got his breath back he sighed contentedly before rolling over to face Julien.

"Good morning!" he said. "You didn't wake up when I got into bed. You must have been really tired. I bet that was Ambar's fault!"

"In a way," said Julien. "But he only did it to help me forget a bad dream I'd had."

"Don't you want me to help you forget it too? I bet there are still a few little memories you'd like to get rid of!"

"No, thank you. You can give me a good morning kiss if you like, but Ambar is really efficient and there's nothing else that needs getting rid of."

Dillik had obviously been hoping for a different answer, but although he went on making puppy eyes at him, Julien remained unmoved.

"I've got an appointment with Master Subadar," he said. "I'm sure you don't want me to keep him waiting."

"Why not, if it's your health that's at stake? I'm sure you don't want people saying that he doesn't care whether you're healthy or not!"

Julien laughed as the door chime sounded.

"Put on a laï and go and open the door instead of lying there talking nonsense," he said. "I expect it's breakfast."

With a slightly sulky expression Dillik went over to the door.

"Hello," he said. "You're new, aren't you? Is Kardok on holiday?"

But the muttered reply of the servant was drowned out by the whirr of Xarax's wings as he crossed the kang at full speed and collided with the servant, who was knocked back into the corridor as the plates and precious china shattered on the marble floor.

Obviously Tannder's training was having the desired effect, for within a few seconds Julien and Ambar were both at the door, naked but armed, one with his viciously sharp nagtri knife and the other with his deadly mini-crossbow. A little further away Tannder's door flew open and the Silent Warrior emerged wielding his short sabre. It only took him a moment to work out what was happening and to rush to the woman, who was struggling to get up despite the efforts of the haptir, whose razor-sharp fangs were tearing at her wrists while his claws ploughed into anything that was within reach.

"Xarax!" cried Tannder. "Don't kill her!"

Reluctantly the haptir obeyed, relaxing his tail which was around the woman's neck and strangling her. He also stopped tearing at her flesh. Tannder leaned down and took from her ruined hand a small device, which he slipped into the pocket of his laï. And now finally Julien had a moment to look around, and he was able to see the bodies of the two guards who usually guarded his door a short distance away along the corridor.

"What happened?" asked Dillik in a shaky voice.

Julien turned around and saw him, his face almost as pale as his white laï and looking as if he might faint at any moment. He quickly ran to the smaller boy and hugged him.

"Don't be afraid," he said. "It's all over now. I think Xarax just saved our lives."

***

Tannder put something on the table. It was a small object of grey metal, egg-shaped, with three dents in its surface that looked as if they could have been made by someone pressing their fingers into it.

"This is an explosive device, My Lord," he said. "It's certainly powerful enough to destroy everything in this kang. I just took it from that woman's hand. I'll hand it over to the illegal weapons experts, but I can already tell you that this does not come from any manufacturer, legal or otherwise, in the Nine Worlds. Once we're sure that it's safe I'll ask your father if it might have come from Earth."

"Look, Tannder… yes, it's true that my father was in the army for a while, but he certainly isn't a weapons specialist. And I'd much rather you didn't mention this to my parents at all. You haven't spoken to them about it yet, have you?"

"No, My Lord, but…"

"Then please be good enough to issue orders forbidding anyone from mentioning it to them."

"As you wish, My Lord. But…"

"Look, Tannder, if you tell them what happened this morning it'll only frighten them, and there's nothing they could do to help, anyway: you and Aldegard are already doing far more than my father could. It's difficult enough for them being here at all – yes, it's a nice place, but it's still a long way from their home. I don't want to make things even harder for them."

"Very well, My Lord."

"I don't suppose you know who that woman is?"

"Not yet, My Lord, but as soon as the Health Masters have stabilised her she'll be mentally probed, and then we'll find out."

He turned to Xarax, who was now perched on Julien's shoulder.

"My congratulations, Master Haptir," he said. "You managed to neutralise her without killing her with your venom. That must have taken a great deal of self-restraint."

Xarax continued to stare at Tannder with his big red eyes, and at the same time he spoke inside Julien's head.

Don't say anything, he said. It would be better if you're the only one who knows that I don't have any more venom. I haven't even told Dillik.

"Anyway, My Lord," Tannder went on, "until we find out how an assassin managed to get this close to you I think you ought to move to a different location."

"That's sounds sensible," agreed Julien. "I also think it'd be a good idea if Ambar and Dillik didn't stay too close to me."

"What!?"

Both boys immediately broke into a torrent of protest. If Julien thought they were going to abandon him as soon as things got dangerous, he had another think coming. What did he take them for? Ambar flatly refused to go away, and if he was removed from Julien's side by force he would run away from his guards and find a way back. As for Dillik, he was sure that Xarax wouldn't want him to go away…

Julien let them shout until they started to repeat themselves, and then he told them to shut up and listen.

"One hour ago," he said, "someone tried to kill us. All of us, even though the only one she actually wanted to kill was me."

"Yes, but…"

"I know, Ambar. If Dillik hadn't been here and I'd answered the door myself I would be dead now. That's true, but it won't happen again. If we stay together, not only do we risk there being three corpses instead of one, but it also means that Tannder and the other people guarding me will have to defend three people instead of one. I'm sure Tannder doesn't want us to make his job harder than it already is. As for Xarax, I'm sure he'd prefer to stay with you, Dillik, but I'm afraid that's impossible right now, for several reasons. We have to stay together, me and Xarax, and that means that we're both going to have to leave someone we love very much indeed. Please don't make it harder for us."

"But… we'll be able to come and visit… won't we?" asked Dillik.

"Think," said Julien. "If they find out that you visit us, all they'll need to do to find us will be to follow you. Or, even worse, if they discover that I value you enough to risk putting my security in jeopardy they'll probably try to harm you in order to get at me."

"But that's hardly a secret," said Dillik. There must be loads of people who know about us being friends!"

"No. Actually I think that the few people who know about you staying with me – apart from our families, that is – think that you're just a pair of privileged boys that I keep with me to share my bed. I don't think that even Aldegard is aware of quite the way things are."

"But that isn't true!"

"Of course it's not true. But it's a lot safer if that's what people think. With a bit of luck it means they'll leave you alone."

"But… it's not fair!!"

Dillik was crying by now, and Ambar looked close to tears as well. Julien sighed: he didn't want to think about the loneliness he was setting himself up for.

"Tannder," he said, "I imagine you've got an idea as to where we go from here."

"Yes, My Lord," he said. "I think we can at least keep Ambar and Dillik together if we send them to Dak Manarang to stay with Lord Tahlil."

"Why not with Niil?"

"Because I'm fairly sure, knowing Niil as I do, that he'd insist on coming with you if he found out about it. And there's another reason, too: if we send them to Dak Manarang Dillik will be with his father, Master Dendjor. Lord Tahlil offered him the captaincy of his new trankenn, and Dendjor is supervising its fitting out. I was going to mention it to you, but I didn't get a chance."

"It's good news. I didn't even know that Tahlil knew Dendjor."

"I took the liberty of introducing them to each other. It struck me that here was a capable captain whose loyalty is unquestionable, and that it would be an excellent idea if he stayed close to the seat of power on Dvârinn."

"That was good thinking – not that I'm an expert on Dvârinn, of course. All right, once Ambar and Dillik are safe we can decide what I'm going to do myself – and of course we'll have to make some arrangements for my parents."

"I've been thinking about that, My Lord. The Imperial House owns a number of estates in and around Aleth, and I'm sure we could assign one of them to your parents. They're both capable of speaking Tünnkeh now, so they should be able to manage their household well enough. Furthermore, I understand that the Honourable Guide Wakhann really likes them and is fascinated by Earth civilisation, and so will certainly be happy to stay with them. And of course that will give them mobility: having a Guide in the house might be essential if there is any danger."

"That woman's mind was blank, My Lord. She had no memory at all that was more than three hours old."

"Was?" queried Julien.

"She's dead. The Health Masters had her fairly well stabilised, but it looks as if her body just decided to stop working. None of us has ever seen anything like it."

"But she must have come from somewhere! Even if a Guide brought her here there must be some sort of a clue to tell us where she came from!"

"Yes, there are clues: she can only have come from Aleth. Actually we think she was a genuine employee of the Tower. We'll know for sure soon enough. In any case I strongly recommend that you leave here as soon as possible. Clearly someone has found a way around our security."

"So where do you advise me to go, Tannder? I hope you're not going to suggest the Palace. We've already seen that it's about as leaky as a sieve, and I really don't want to bump into another death squad."

"There are places in the Palace that only the Emperor can get into."

"That's pretty much what everyone told me before I got jumped in the Ocean Rotunda."

"I'm not talking about places that are sometimes open to visitors, like the Rotunda."

"I know, Tannder. And I know you're not stupid. What I meant was that if the Palace's defences have been breached once, there's no guarantee that they can't find their way into those other places as well."

"That's true, My Lord. However, when you're in the Palace you have access to resources that you can't use anywhere else. Remember how you burned your attackers to ash once Xarax had shown you how?"

"Yes, but if I go and hide myself away in the Palace our enemies will have gained a huge advantage. They'll have chosen the ground, because I can't believe they aren't expecting me to do exactly what you're suggesting. It's the most sensible course, and by far the most obvious."

"That's true, My Lord."

"You're responsible for my security, and so obviously you have to make whatever suggestion you think will keep me safest. But be honest, Tannder: if you were in my shoes, instead of being the one who had to protect me, would you want to go into a place where your enemies would know for certain where to find you?"

"If I was in your place, My Lord, I would take risks that I can't advise you to take simply because you're not me. Forgive me for speaking plainly, but you have neither the training nor the knowledge to deal with this kind of situation."

"All right, but forget that for a moment and tell me what you would do."

Tannder didn't answer straight away: he knew Julien well enough to recognise that the boy might easily take whatever he said as advice in disguise. However, he also recognised that the boy's reasoning was perfectly sound. He knew he could be setting in motion something whose consequences were impossible to foresee, but he still decided to answer truthfully.

"They're expecting you to run and hide in the Palace. If I was the Emperor I would indeed go to the Palace, just to demonstrate that I'm not prepared to abandon my own territory, but I'd leave it again immediately. Then I would start to make public appearances all over the Nine Worlds in order to defuse the rumours that suggest I have actually disappeared or am fatally weakened. Most of the time I'd avoid spending two nights in the same place, but every now and again I'd stay in the same location for a few days, just to keep my opponents off-balance. I'd make sure that I stayed in communication with my Mirrors, but I'd also start to contact – discreetly – those allies I know I can definitely count upon."

"Why? Are you expecting it to come to war?"

"It looks as if our enemy has decided to act, and they might well try to stir up trouble anywhere in the R'hinz. I suspect that Nandak's stupid plan was actually inspired by those who want to overthrow you. And last, and most important, I'd try my hardest not to get paranoid. Once you start expecting to see traitors everywhere, you'll start seeing them even when you're actually looking at loyal allies. I'd make a point of leaving suspicion as the province of my head of security."

"That's better! I definitely prefer you when you're being open with me. Now, we still have to decide what we're going to do about Niil. I've got an idea about that, but I want to hear what you think first."

"Well, obviously you want to protect him, but in any case it's impossible to separate his fate from your own, because on several occasions now you've made your feelings towards Lord Niil known in public. Everyone in the Nine Worlds knows that striking at him would be a way of getting at you. So you're going to have to stay together."

"I agree. And in any case I think he would refuse to leave me even if I ordered him to. We'd have to lock him up on his own trankenn! So we'll do exactly what you've advised me not to do. I hope you're still prepared to come with me, even if you do think I'm making a stupid choice."

"Of course, My Lord."

"I never doubted you for a moment. Right, so from now on nobody must know my intentions, not even Lord Aldegard."

"He won't like it, but he will understand."

"We're going to need Aïn, too, if he's prepared to come with us. Can you think of anything else?"

"I'd like to take Karik with us. He's a good lad, and he could be useful."

"All right – he's your pupil, after all. But you have to let him decide for himself."

"Oh, I don't think there's any questions about that. He got very angry a little while back when I suggested sending him with Ambar and Dillik. He even had the cheek to say that he could be positively useful to me, and that if I still wasn't convinced I should come to you. 'Ask Julien,' he said. 'He's my friend, he is. He'll understand that I don't want to let him down the moment things start to turn nasty.' The fact that he dared to argue with me demonstrates how seriously he feels about this. Normally I'd have dealt with that sort of insubordination by sending him to clean out the pak tchenn pens, but because he was clearly sincerely upset I simply confined him to his room."

"Then you may console him and tell him that I'll be very happy if he comes with us."

"I shall do no such thing – he'd take it as a compliment! Nothing would be more certain to sabotage the progress of a high quality student like him."

"All the same, I hope you're not going to tell me not to treat him nicely. Don't forget that he stopped me from jumping off the top of Bakhtar Tower."

"What!?"

"Didn't he tell you?"

"No, he most certainly did not!"

"There you are, then: that proves he can be trusted with secrets."

"I like him more and more each day. But please don't tell him I said so! He is, as I said, an excellent student, and I hope I can train him up to a very high level indeed, provided…"

"Provided that I don't mess up his training?"

"Well, obviously I wouldn't put it quite like that…"

"Don't worry, interfering with his progress is the last thing I'd want. Bear in mind that I was there when he agreed to become your pupil in the first place, and I've always believed that if you make a silly decision you should have to live with the consequences…"

***

The mood at the Berthiers' table was very positive. Julien's parents, carefully shielded from the news of the assassination attempt, had spent the day visiting four properties owned by the Imperial House and had finally settled for the last one, saying that they couldn't possibly ask for more. It was neither the largest nor the most opulent, but it matched their idea of a dream residence. Actually it wasn't far from the house owned by Izkya, Lord Aldegard's daughter. It was on the bank of the same river and had its own private mooring, and the old butler who had shown them around had an avuncular air that instantly entranced Lady Isabelle. As for Lord Jacques, the prospect of leaving Bakhtar Tower for a place of his own made him feel very happy indeed.

"I understand that all our expenses will be paid by the Imperial Treasury," he said. "Of course there really isn't much alternative, but I do feel a bit… well, awkward. The idea that my son is providing for me…"

"Dad, we owe you – both of you – a lot. After all, we more or less forced you to leave Earth, and we can't exactly tell you to go and work in a coal mine to support yourself, can we? Just enjoy it. Pretend you won the lottery, or something. I'm really glad you're here, anyway. I'm sure that Ugo would like to come for a visit now and then with Master Subadar. And I'll come by as often as I can…"

"I suppose you'll be on the move most of the time," sighed his mother.

"Well, someone in this family has to earn a living!"

"You know, Duckling," she said, "it's a pity you never had a chance to meet your grandparents, but I don't think your father and I would have been able to just drop everything on Earth and leave if they'd still been alive instead of dying during the war…. Anyway, your father and I have an announcement to make."

Julien braced himself: this sort of formal introduction usually heralded a problem of some sort.

"Well," said Mr Berthier, "you're… you're going to have a little brother."

"Or a little sister," added Mrs Berthier.

Julien burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked his mother.

It took him a while to get himself back under control, but when he'd finally mastered his fit of the giggles, he managed to explain, "It's your faces. You're both bright red."

And that set him off again.

When his father thought that Julien could actually hear him, he said, "Obviously it's silly for us to be embarrassed to talk about the birds and bees in front of someone who I'm sure has full access to the educational literature of the Nine Worlds. Isn't it, darling?"

"Oh, yes! How do you translate it again? Something about a precious necklace?"

"No, it's called The Precious Garland of Delights," said his father.

Now it was Julien's turn to blush. He had to fight like mad to stop himself from hiding under the table. Who the hell was the bloody idiot who had disobeyed his explicit order to keep his parents away from this element of R'hinz civilisation?

"I'm afraid it was our dear friend Wakhann who gave the game away," explained Jacques, as if Julien had actually spoken aloud. "He innocently suggested that we buy you a good quality copy for your birthday. And you have to admit that it would have been a lot more classy than the hatik belt we gave you instead."

"In fairness to Wakhann," said Isabelle, "he still hasn't quite assimilated every aspect of Earth culture. I wonder if you've had a chance to investigate The Secret Garden of Enchanted Flowers yet? Although I really hope you haven't yet found a copy of The Complete Cornucopia of Blissful Spouses…"

"All right, all right," said Julien. "Stop it! You win!"

"Look," said Jacques, determined not to leave a cloud over them, "to be completely honest I would have really liked to have owned a book like that when I was at school. But I don't think the school chaplain would have been terribly impressed."

Somehow Julien managed to smile.

"Anyway," his father went on, "I understand that you'll be leaving tomorrow. so next time we meet it will be in our new home. Thank you – even if you say you had nothing to do with it."

"If you like," suggested Julien, "you could ask Wakhann to take you both to Kardenang to do a bit of sailing with Gradik and Tenntchouk. You don't know them, but they are my friends. And their boat is called, for some reason, Isabelle."

"It's kind of you to suggest it," said Isabelle, "but probably I ought to take it easy for the next few months. I'll make sure your father goes sometimes, though."

***

Ambar and Dillik were playing Territories while they waited for him, and it looked as if Dillik was going to win. But as soon as Julien appeared they abandoned the game and jumped to their feet, throwing themselves into his arms. It was obvious that they were both very unhappy.

"You can't do this to us!" cried Ambar. "I love you, and when Xarax isn't around Dillik looks like a shadow of himself."

"And we don't care if it's dangerous!" added Dillik.

"We know you're doing it to protect us," said Ambar, "but we reckon that someone who is strong enough to attack the Emperor and evade his security is sure to know about us. And he'll know that if he hurts us…"

"Yes," interrupted Dillik, "and if Xarax is worrying about me he won't be able to concentrate on his job. You said that, remember, when you persuaded my father to let me come here!"

"So you can see there's no choice," said Ambar. "We have to stay with you!"

"Stop!" shouted Julien. "Yes, I'd like to be able to take you with me more than anything, but I don't see how I can. Anyway, Tannder's the one who is in charge of security, and I really don't think he'd take a lot of notice if I told him I wanted you to come with me. But if you think you can change his mind, go ahead. You certainly won't get any argument from me."

"Are you serious?" asked Ambar, scarcely able to believe what he had just heard.

"Yes, I'm serious. Just go along the corridor to his kang. I'm sure he won't be in bed just yet."

"Right! We'll do that!"

"Wait! I want to make myself perfectly clear here: you can tell him that I agree that you can come with me if he thinks it practical. You may not tell him that I said you had to come and that he has to find a way to make it possible. Is that clear?"

"Yes, it is."

"And if he says no, I want that to be final, and I want you to promise that in that case you'll do what he says even if it breaks your heart. All right?"

"Yes."

"Right. Off you go, then!"

The part of the Palace they were in was somehow even more disconcerting than the area outside with its klirk-flagstones. In fact the atmosphere here reminded Julien a bit of the Interworld and its bizarre geometry. Xarax was sitting on his shoulder, guiding them through a labyrinth of changing colours and fluctuating gravity. Beside him Ambar and Dillik were doing their best to look brave, but they were hanging onto his hands like grim death. Just behind them was Tannder, who looked quite relaxed as he walked along with a watchful Aïn beside him. Karik, who had been delighted to be included in the expedition, wasn't with them: he had been sent to help Niil to organise their passage to Dvârinn and prepare for the rest of their journey.

"Have you ever been here before, Tannder?" asked Julien.

"Never, My Lord. I think nobody except the Emperor and perhaps one or two of the Masters of Major Arts ever came here."

Even their voices sounded distorted.

"Xarax tells me that it's impossible to get here by klirk, and apparently not even a Master Guide can jump in here."

"Ohw get out eithzew," added Aïn, whose voice in this place was almost incomprehensible.

They went on for quite a long time, following translucent corridors along which ran ripples of constantly-changing light. Nobody except Xarax would ever have been able to find his way through such chaos, and even a blind man would have been unable to cope with the bizarre geometry and the variations in gravity. Dillik, despite being used to travelling by boat on rough seas, vomited up his breakfast in a yellowy geyser which, to add still more horror to the situation, fell in slow motion to the floor, indicating that normal gravity had gone walkabout once more. But he still didn't complain when Julien wiped his mouth for him using a fold of his own abba.

Finally they reached their destination, which was a circular hall, not quite as big as the Ocean Rotunda but still big enough to look very impressive. Here the universe seemed to have recovered its normal stability, and daylight – or something very like daylight – seemed to be filtering into the room through a translucent ceiling.

In the centre of the hall was a hemisphere about thirty metres across which appeared to be made of black glass or some highly polished metal and which – at least as far as they could see – didn't appear to have any doors or other means of entry. Julien pulled his hands free from the grip of his two friends.

"You'll all have to wait here," he said. "Nobody can enter the bubble except the Emperor and his haptir."

"Be very careful, My Lord," said Tannder. "It could be a trap."

"Possibly, but I'm not going to touch anything."

"I still think you're taking an unnecessary risk."

"Tannder, we're not going to solve our problems without taking a few risks. I really need to see what's in there."

At that moment Xarax spread his wings and flew straight at the polished wall, penetrating it with no apparent difficulty.

"Apparently Xarax hasn't forgotten his duty, My Lord," observed Tannder.

The slight smile that accompanied this remark suggested that Julien should have thought up this solution himself – after all, what is the point in having such an efficient scout if you don't use him?

"Of course," said Julien. "But I don't like to see him putting himself at risk instead of me, even if it is the right thing to do."

Xarax soon returned and perched on Julien's shoulder once more.

I don't think there is any danger, he said, but things don't look too good in there.

Why? What's up?

They are all dead.

All of them? Aren't there any left alive at all?

No. Do you still want to see for yourself?

Er… what do they look like? Are they skeletons? Or… I don't know… do they smell bad? Are there maggots?

No, nothing like that. If you didn't know they were dead you wouldn't notice.

Then I think I'd better have a look.

He told the others what Xarax had told him.

"It looks as if all the spare bodies are dead," he said. "I told you the Palace was about as secure as a paper padlock…. anyway, I'm going to look for myself, but I'm not intending to stay there very long."

Like Xarax, Julien was able to walk through the apparently solid wall with no trouble. He found himself inside an iridescent bubble. Around the edge of the room were a score of grey metal pedestals, each of which supported a sort of transparent sphere that appeared to be liquid, quivering now and then like a drip of water hanging from a tap. Inside each sphere was an adolescent of around sixteen or seventeen, floating weightlessly, eyes wide open and with a mane of dark hair spread like a halo around a face that looked coldly perfect.

If their eyes were closed you would think they were asleep, he commented.

They're dead, replied Xarax. Trust me. I checked all the generators. They normally produce an anentropic field.

A what?

Those bubbles that look like water to you are actually anentropic fields. It means that nothing inside them can change. That is why they are perfectly preserved.

Well, they obviously work really well, because they're all dead!

They are dead because somebody killed them.

Do you know how?

Somebody must have modified the fields. It wouldn't take very long.

But who could have done that?

I have no idea. Theoretically it could only have been you or me.

Me? But I've never been here in my li… You mean Yulmir?

Well, it wasn't me.

But why would he have done that?

I can't think of any reason.

Could the machines have malfunctioned?

These generators are no more likely to malfunction than the stars themselves. And the probability of twenty-three generators all malfunctioning at the same time can't even be calculated. And there's more."

Julien followed Xarax to the centre of the room. There, on a field generator which was clearly not working, sat a big blue egg marbled with gold.

This was my successor, said Xarax.

The next Haptir to the Emperor?

Yes.

And he's dead too?

Yes.

I'm sorry.

Xarax offered him the mental equivalent of a smile.

I didn't really know him, he said. He hadn't been born yet.

That's true. I'm an idiot.

You certainly are, but it's part of your charm. Come on, we'd better get back to the others before they start worrying.

The First Trankenn of the Ksantiris was in a state of fevered activity: His Imperial Highness the Emperor had been kind enough to honour it with a visit, and that despite the disgrace which had fallen upon the House as a result of Nandak's treachery. Fortunately Lord Niil was nothing like his wretched brothers, and the word was that the Emperor held him in high esteem. He must, otherwise why had he performed the ancient Rite of Trust with him? And he had even gone so far as to insist that Lord Niil take up his rightful place as First Lord of the Ksantiris. And so the whole ship had been scrubbed from top to bottom, and everything that could be done at such short notice had been done to make it look at its best. The most eminent members of the Noble Families who lived in the Ksantiri domains had shamelessly bribed the few Guides available in order to be able to attend the reception which had been hastily organised by Lord Niil's overworked administration, and the trankenn was consequently swarming with grandees dressed in their finest ceremonial hatiks.

Away from the throng, the members of what was starting to become a team were in Niil's private kang discussing Julien's macabre discovery.

"So if anything happens to you, you won't be able to move into a new body?" asked Niil.

"Strangely enough I don't find that too much of a shock," said Julien. "Where I come from you only get to die once. And to be honest I don't think I'd want to find myself inside one of those spare bodies."

"Why? Are they ugly?"

"No, but… it's just… they don't look like me."

"Of course they don't look like you! They look like the person you used to be!"

"It's a bit more complicated than that, but it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that someone managed to kill them, and the haptir's egg, too. Someone is really keen to make sure there aren't any more Emperors in the R'hinz."

"Well, either that, or someone has decided to take the Emperor's place," commented Tannder. "Whoever is behind it must have access to some very significant resources. We knew that already, of course, but after this last discovery…"

"There is one thing that bothers me," said Julien. "When Yulmir disappeared the first time Aldegard told me that they knew he wasn't dead because he hadn't reappeared in one of his spare bodies. Since nobody can get into that room except for the Emperor and his haptir, I suppose Xarax must have been the one to go and check."

"I suppose so," said Tannder.

Yes, I went to look straight away, said Xarax in Julien's head.

And the bodies were still alive then?

Yes. I stayed long enough to make sure.

"He says he checked that the bodies were in working order then, which means they must have been killed since," reported Julien. "I wonder if we could go back and look for some sort of a recording system that could tell us exactly when it happened…"

There's no need to go back. I've kept an image of the biometric indicators.

Julien saw a quick succession of numbers and incomprehensible diagrams recorded by the haptir's eidetic memory.

The date of their death does not appear, Xarax told him. The record has been tampered with.

You said that the biometric indicators did not lie.

I was mistaken.

Then they could still be alive.

No. I am certain of that. It is simply that the person who did it was careful to leave no clue.

Julien relayed this to his companions.

"That's it," he concluded. "That's all we know for now. And now you'd better go and smarten yourselves up, because the party will be starting shortly."

"Can't I stay here with Xarax?" asked Dillik.

"I'm afraid not," said Julien. "Xarax is coming to the party too, although nobody will be able to see him – not even you, Dillik."

"Um… My Lord?"

"Yes, Tannder?"

"Erm… I don't want to bother you, but… well… your hair…"

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"It's quite long, My Lord."

"Nonsense – you're imagining things! And in any case I'm determined to set a fashion here. Lord Niil, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't use your poutri quite so often."

"As you wish, My Lord."

"And that goes for you too, Noble Brother Ambar."

"Your Lordship knows that I will do anything to please him."

"As for you, Dillik, I'll leave it to the judgement of the Honourable Xarax. And of course I'll let the Honourable Master Tannder decide for himself and his pupil – I don't want anyone saying I'm a tyrant! And as for Master Aïn, I think his blue fur suits him perfectly. It would be a pity to change the colour."

***

In his sumptuous bronze-green hatik Julien looked worthy of the admiration of the crowd. His face, decorated with the white curlicues of the Imperial Marks and framed by locks of a deep reddish-brown, expressed the noble self-assurance which comes from the certainly of one's own power and status. His green eyes scanned in turn each of the people who crowded into the hall in the hope of being introduced, expressing a courteous benevolence and completely masking the uneasiness he felt. By his side Niil was producing a continuous stream of small talk adapted to the circumstances, while Ambar tried to avoid the attentions of ladies – far too many of them – who cooed to each other that he was 'simply adorable, my dear!', often adding in an audible whisper, 'you'd never guess he found him on a quay in Aleth, would you?'

Dillik was happily surprised to bump into his mother, Mistress Nardik, who had been invited and transported here on Julien's orders. He had also urged her to choose from the five sets of top-of-the-range clothes his messenger had taken with him: it was unthinkable that the mother of Xarax's friend should suffer the humiliation of appearing at the party looking like a provincial who had been invited by accident. Of course it helped that she was very much aware of her new status as spouse to the Emperor's Mirror's First Captain, and this allowed her to sail through the dangerous waters of High Society as if she had been doing it since birth.

Dillik's little sister Nirchenn had come very close to throwing a most unladylike tantrum when she discovered that her presence at the party would not be required, but her mood changed when she discovered that a box sent to her from the Emperor contained – amazingly – a perfect copy of the five sets of clothes sent to her mother in a size that would perfectly fit the doll Julien had given her previously. Organising all this at very short notice had probably cost a fortune, but Julien reasoned that the treasury had had virtually no expenditure during the thirteen years of his enforced absence from the R'hinz, and so it could certainly afford a little extravagance now and again.

The feast, a fairly small-scale affair of a hundred and twenty-eight guests, was a great success, thanks in no small measure to the exceptional quality of the liquid supplies drawn from the Imperial Cellar. Julien himself drank only a little innocuous raal and clear water, but some of the eminent sailors present showed no such restraint, and by the time dessert was served they had started to sing a fine assortment of sea songs, not all of which were suitable for mixed company.

Lady Axelia, mother of Niil and, latterly, Ambar, sat with a small group of her friends at the Emperor's table, charming him with a stream of light and frothy conversation that carefully steered well clear of anything too serious or too personal. But she still managed to say a few words of sincere admiration about her newly-acquired and already very dear son's singing ability, and by so doing she won a permanent place in Julien's heart.

"I should also mention," she went on, "how unhappy his former mathematics teacher, Master Sandeark, was when Ambar went back to Nüngen. He said that Ambar was exceptionally promising, and he begged me to ask if he himself could be transferred to Nüngen so that he might continue to help Ambar to develop his great talent. He swears that doing nothing about it would be like digging a huge rough gemstone out of the ground and then refusing to cut it. And he was close to tears when he said it."

Julien had no great enthusiasm for mathematics himself, but he was aware that this discipline, no matter how dull it seemed to him, was considered a Major Art to some people, and if Ambar had a talent for it…

"Noble Lady," he said, "you know that I'm willing to do practically anything that will benefit Ambar. Please tell Master Sandeark that he can certainly come to Nüngen to continue as Ambar's teacher, but that he's going to have to wait a bit before that can be arranged. For reasons you can probably guess I have to keep Ambar with me for his own protection at the moment. Like Niil he'll have to stay with me, and I'm likely to be on the road for some time yet. But as soon as things are back to normal we'll be happy to send for Master Sandeark."

"I'll let him know," she said. "I'm sure it'll make him happy."

***

Then came the main event of the evening. Julien had flatly refused to lead out the first dance of the ball: even though he had unwillingly taken a few lessons from Tannder, he knew perfectly well that never in a million years would he be able to dance with the ease and grace of Niil, who was happily performing a set of intricate steps right now. And that is why the First Lord of the Ksantiris had been given the great honour of leading his mother out in a set of choreographed near-gymnastics, while the cream of Ksantiri society watched in awe.

As soon as he could reasonably do so Julien slipped away, heading back to his kang while behind him the throng continued to party and intrigue the evening away. He found Karik waiting for him in the kang.

"Did Tannder tell you to stay here?" he asked.

"No, but I am on duty," said Karik. "I'm here to make sure that nobody slipped into the kang while you were away."

"Well, if you want to go and have some fun now, you have my permission. I know you've got some party clothes, too, so put on your best hatik and go and enjoy the party. I'll be safe here – I'm sure Xarax is somewhere close by."

"Thanks, but – quite apart from the fact that Tannder would tan my hide if I left my post without his permission – I'm not really in the mood for parties. He had a whole heap of food brought to me here, so I'm not hungry, and I wouldn't have the remotest idea of how to talk to the high-ups out there. I'd much rather just stay here with you – if that's all right with you, of course."

"That suits me perfectly… um… what exactly did you have in mind when you said you'd prefer to stay here with me?"

Karik offered him a big grin. "Well, since there's nobody here except us, you seem to be completely at my mercy. I could abuse your body any way I wanted…"

"Right!!"

"Except…"

"I see. Another broken promise!"

"No, it's just that Mistress Nardik came to see me a couple of minutes before you got here. She told me she's going to bring Dillik back here just as soon as he stops puking up the ratchouk he drank when she wasn't looking. She came by first just to check that it would be all right to do that."

"Poor bugger," commented Julien. "Puking his guts up twice in one day, I mean. He's really unlucky."

"How can you feel sorry for him? All right, this morning in the Palace it wasn't his fault, but this time he was simply asking for it. I mean, how could he be stupid enough to drink the dregs out of every glass he could get hold of? And he grew up in an inn, too, so he knows what happens if you do that sort of thing!"

"Perhaps you're right, but…"

At that moment the door chime sounded and Mistress Nardik, her face singularly lacking in sympathy, dragged a greenish and damp Dillik into the room before she noticed that Julien was there.

"I'm sorry, My Lord," she said. "I thought…"

"Don't apologise, Mistress Nardik," said Julien. "Just go back and enjoy the party. Karik and I will take care of this idiot."

"The stupid little sod has been drinking dregs! Can you imagine?" she said. "And him born in an inn, too!"

"That's exactly what Karik just said," Julien told her. "Don't worry, you have my personal guarantee that he won't do it again."

"Tell him that if he dares to touch alcohol again before he has hair on his… on his chin, I'll give him the spanking of his life, and his haptir friend won't be able to stop me, either! I've seen far too many drunkards to want one in my own family!"

By this point Karik had quietly taken Dillik off to the bathroom: despite what he had said he was far too soft-hearted to leave the boy exposed to his mother's anger. And shortly after that Mistress Nardik realised what she must look like.

"I'm sorry, My Lord," she said, rather more quietly. "I do beg your pardon…"

"It's all right," Julien assured her. "I understand why you're angry. I'm not making light of it, either. But I think you'll find that Dillik will learn from this, and I suspect it will be quite a long time before he can even look at a glass of ratchouk without it making him ill."

"And may the Powers of the R'hinz make it so!" she said.

"Go back to the party and forget about it," he said. "I'll make sure Dillik comes and says goodbye to you before we leave tomorrow."

***

Julien went through to the bathroom and found that Karik had finished undressing Dillik and was about to help him into the shower.

"Need a hand?" asked Julien.

"No, thanks. I can manage."

"Sure?"

"You're just looking for an excuse to take me away from my duty, aren't you?"

"Would I do a thing like that? Let's just deal with Dillik, and then…"

The door-chime interrupted what would probably have been a highly entertaining plan. It was Tannder.

"Is everything in order, My Lord?" he asked.

"Yes. Dillik had a bit of an accident, but it's under control. How's the party going?"

"It's a great success. And Lord Niil is performing magnificently: he's already danced with half the heiresses here, as well as with some of their mothers. And nobody is really missing you – after all, you're not a potential husband!"

"Good. What about you, Tannder – why aren't you out there dancing? I know you can, because you taught me… even if I'm not very good. Aren't you a potential husband?"

"Theoretically, yes, although I'm nothing like as good a catch as Lord Niil would be."

"Don't underestimate yourself. I'm sure there are plenty of girls and women out there who would be more than happy to marry the Emperor's right-hand man. I think you're well worth going after, even if you are a bit dangerous."

Julien thought he detected the hint of a blush on the warrior's cheeks.

"Thank you, My Lord, but I have no intention of getting married."

"Oh… sorry if I'm sticking my nose in!"

"You aren't, not at all. Anyway, we're going to be living in each other's pockets for quite a long time, so I suppose in the end you'll know everything there is to know about me."

"Well, you already know a lot about me, so fair's fair. And I've lost count of how many times I've asked you to call me 'Julien' when we're in private. I know you don't really like doing it, but it would make me feel a bit more relaxed."

"Then I promise to make an effort to do so."

"Are you going to stay and keep us company for a bit, or do you want to get back to the party?"

"I can stay for a bit if you like. In any case you're going to have to go back yourself in a while to do some more mingling. Your guests would feel insulted if you let them go home without giving them an opportunity to take their leave of you."

"I suppose that means I'm going to have to put my formal clothes back on."

"Yes, but there's no rush."

"Tannder, have you got a family? You never talk about it, and I haven't asked Karik – in any case I don't think he'll tell me if I did ask, and I didn't want to put him in the position of having to refuse to answer me."

"I don't have a family. I lost my parents and the rest of my family when I was still a baby. It happened as a result of one of those nasty little fights that pop up between clans now and again. It doesn't matter how hard we try to suppress these customs, they still keep coming back. I suppose little feuds are better than large-scale violence… I escaped the slaughter because my mother was sick and the Health Master had recommended that I be sent to a wet-nurse for a few days until she was better. As often happens in that situation I was then adopted by a small community of Silent Warriors and, when I was old enough, Master Habderim of Aleth decided that I had the ability to be trained.

"And, to answer the question that you still haven't asked, yes, Silent Warriors do sometimes marry – or at least they take a partner. Chastity doesn't usually work out so well. And sometimes it happens – more often than some people seem to think – that people are not attracted to members of the opposite sex. That would apply to me."

"Like Tenntchouk and Gradik, then?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"They told me that sometimes it's seen as… a bit…"

"Some people are certainly capable of being narrow-minded. But usually, provided you use a bit of discretion, people overlook it. In any case most people would think twice before insulting a Silent Warrior."

"Personally I think everyone should be free to love whoever they want," said Julien.

"I know – though I understand that it's not like that in the world you come from."

"Well… we don't talk about it much. Actually we don't talk about anything to do with sex much. Before I came here I had no idea that people like Tenntchouk and Gradik even existed. We sort of knew that there were men who like men, but my friends and I just had some vague idea that people like that went into dives in Pigalle or hung around on street corners. We didn't think of them as proper men at all, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be like them."

"And have you changed your mind since?"

Julien blushed.

"Well, to be honest nobody would think of Tenntchouk and Gradik as fairies, and obviously the same goes for you. But, still… I mean, me and Ambar…"

"You realise that what your body enjoys at your age is no real indicator of what you'll like when you get older?"

"I know – they make that point several times in the Delights. But somehow I have the feeling that with Ambar it's something different. It's not like him and me are just about… you know. And I don't actually care if I'm not like other people."

Tannder chuckled. "You? Different from other people? Surely not!"

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. What you mean is that you like boys, you're happy that way and you don't want it to change. And also, if I understand you correctly, that you love one boy in particular and that he loves you back. I'm happy for you, honestly – although it isn't exactly news to me, of course. Anyway, anything that makes you happy is fine by me."

"Thank you, Tannder."

Karik had tactfully waited for a break in the conversation before re-entering the room.

"Dillik's in bed," he told them. "I gave him an anti-seasickness sweet – they work against alcohol too, provided that you're careful not to take too much, because if you do that you'll actually make things a lot worse. Anyway, he's asleep."

"Good."

Tannder got up.

"Now that Karik is available for duty again I'm going to take a walk round and make sure nobody's making trouble. I'll come back to collect you shortly."

***

Once Tannder had gone Julien asked Karik to come and sit near him. He was pretty sure that Karik had heard his conversation with Tannder, and so he didn't beat about the bush.

"What about you?" he asked. "Do you think you'll get married one day?"

"Certainly not!"

"You sound very sure."

"I am sure. Girls really aren't my bowl of raal."

"Ah – you too, huh? So what is your bowl of raal?"

"Well, to be honest, it's Tannder."

"Tannder?!"

"Well, yes. Unfortunately when I tried to… anyway, he shoved me out of bed. He told me – very gently, mind you, but still – that I can't be both his friend and his pupil. I had to choose. I know it sounds stupid, but…"

"You chose to be his pupil."

"Yes. But as far as I can see there's nobody else in his life, so I think I still have a chance."

"Maybe you're not his bowl of raal."

"I think if that was the case he'd have told me so clearly, instead of giving me the choice."

"You might have to wait quite a long time."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Maybe he'll meet someone else."

"It's possible."

"And he is a fair bit older than you…"

"I don't give a damn. Age doesn't enter into it."

"I think I still have a lot to learn about R'hinz customs."

"Well, as we seem to have a little time on your hands, I could teach you a few of our customs if you like."

"Like the reason your laï is sticking out?"

"That'll do to start with…"

At breakfast next morning Julien made a point of not mentioning Dillik's misdemeanours: what he had done carried with it its own punishment, and he was quite prepared to let Dillik learn his own lesson without being reminded of his misdeeds. The rest of the company was good enough to follow his example, and as a result Dillik's usual pixie-like smile gradually reappeared.

"Where are we going next?" he asked, licking jam from his fingers.

"If Tannder agrees, I think you're going to be making a little trip to Dak Manarang. You'll be able to say hello to your father. I'll be coming with you, and after that there's something I need to do with Aïn."

He was actually planning a training session on how to use the klirks. Now that he could travel once more with the expectation of anonymity, it was vital that Julien learn to master his Guide Gift as quickly as possible, and he also had to learn the operation of the complex network of klirks that linked a huge number of places throughout the Nine Worlds. He knew he couldn't ask for a better teacher than Aïn, even if their only previous attempt had ended in a catastrophe that had almost cost them their lives.

There had been plenty of good reasons for postponing this training, and now that Julien was aware of what the Neh-kyong Tchenn Ril had told him he was very glad indeed that they had. But now that he was rid of the tell-tale change to his essence which had made him easy to track whenever he used a klirk, it was clearly time to get on with his training. It was important because, while a Master Guide like Aïn could transport up to fifteen people without difficulty if he was following the clearly-defined network of the klirks, if he left those clear paths he was unable to move more than two or three people without help. He'd managed it once using Julien's unmastered Gift, but it had been touch and go, and it had triggered a number of uncontrollable external phenomena which had resulted in the greatest Guide of his time being unflatteringly labelled 'Aïn the Deafening'. Furthermore, it was unthinkable that Julien, if he was to fulfil his duties as Emperor, should not be able to travel unassisted.

So once the whole company, which now included Niil and Karik, had arrived at Dak Manarang and been greeted by Master Dendjor, Aïn took Julien to the klirk in the main warehouse. Xarax joined them unobtrusively.

The first step, explained the Guide, is quite straightforward. Any Guide simply has to look carefully at the pattern on this klirk and think 'tchoktseh' to be taken immediately to the Orientation Table. That's what you're going to do now. Xarax is safely on your shoulder and you're holding on to me, so we'll come with you.

Julien concentrated on the metal plate and thought 'tchoktseh' (which means 'table') and the world around them changed. They found themselves on a vast circular esplanade surrounded by a wall that was low enough for them to be able to look over it at a landscape of green hills not unlike the wooded countryside of Normandy. A soft scented breeze was blowing some little fluffy clouds through a deep azure-blue sky.

Oh! Where are we? he asked. This looks like Earth!

It's more like your own idea of what Earth looks like. Every Guide sees the Table in his own way. In reality we're nowhere. We've disappeared from Dvârinn; but you haven't yet decided where we're going to reappear. And at the moment we're outside time. It might seem to us that we stay here for a long time, but that period will have no equivalent in what we call the Manifest Universe, which is the reality that everyone usually perceives. Actually this place has a lot of things in common with the Narthex you've been using with Master Subadar. The main difference is that the Orientation Table is an immutable element for everyone who comes here.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic. We're the only ones here.

Actually there are probably a thousand Guides carrying passengers right now. But we can't see them or interfere with them, any more than they can with us. Nobody can really explain how it is that this place is outside the Manifest Universe. Some think it's outside Time, and some say that it's outside Space, but all you really need to know is that every Guide recreates the intrinsic reality of the Table for himself and his passengers.

'Intrinsic'?

A reality based on the essential nature of the Table itself and which cannot be altered in any way. It modifies itself whenever a new klirk is created. Actually the Table is itself the totality of the klirks. The metal or stone the symbols are carved on is completely unimportant – and actually, if you want to be even more accurate, the symbols themselves are only a sort of shorthand that we use to give ourselves access to the true nature of the klirks. They're not actually essential to our purpose. All those lines that you can see carved into the metal or stone and that appear to be random squiggles are actually a map showing which way a Guide needs to go in order to reach his destination.

A map? But there aren't any proper directions on it! At home we'd call it a mute map, and so far as I can tell they only exist to allow teachers to torment their pupils!

I see what you mean, more or less. Now, if you'd like to turn round…

Julien turned round and found himself facing the low wall. But about three metres of it had disappeared and it and the green scenery beyond it had been replaced by a view of the inside of the warehouse they had just left.

Now, said Aïn, if you'd like to take a step sideways so that you step off the line under your feet…

Instantly the warehouse disappeared and was replaced by the wall and the rolling hills of Normandy.

That's it, said Aïn. If you step back onto the line the warehouse appears again, and if you back up a few steps… good… you'll see that the wall is continuous once more and the warehouse has gone again. You will also notice that there's a symbol carved onto the wall in the place where the warehouse appeared. That symbol is identical to the klirk in the warehouse. If you look to your left and your right you'll see other symbols on the wall, but if you step off the line you're on to try to get to one of them nothing will happen. If you want to get to another symbol you have to follow your line until you reach a junction, where you'll be able to change direction, and maybe another two or three junctions will enable you to follow a line to the symbol you want.

A bit like crossing Paris on the Metro, then, said Julien.

I don't know what a metro is, but the Table is a bit like a set of roads and paths without any short-cuts.

But how do you find your way? There must be thousands of destinations! And of course it gets even more complicated, because each time you'll be starting from a different place…

That's true, but if you concentrate hard enough on the symbol of the klirk you want to reach, the line and the junctions that lead to it become somehow sharper than the others.

Provided that you know what your klirk looks like!

Exactly. And that's one reason why it takes so long to become a Master Guide.

But… it'll take me years to learn them all!

No, it won't, because you'll be cheating.

How can I cheat?

You'll be able to use Xarax's memory. He knows all the klirks and he can communicate the images to you. It's one of the duties of the Emperor's Haptir. Over time you'll start to remember a number of symbols for yourself, but he's got the whole network stored in his memory. It's a little out of date at the moment because he's been out of commission for thirteen years, but I can soon bring him up to date. Let's try right now: see if you can take us to the klirk you arrived at the first time you went to Dvârinn.

Xarax, said Julien, do you remember that klirk? It's the one that was drawn on my bedroom floor back on Earth.

Of course I do, said Xarax. Here it is.

The complicated pattern appeared clearly in Julien's mind and at the same time the route that he had to follow became clear, just as it had been obvious to him when he was crossing the Palace Square with Niil and Ambar which flagstones he had to step on. Very soon they came to a portion of the wall where the symbol he was looking for was carved, and once they got close enough to it the wall disappeared and they found themselves looking at the prickly bushes that grew close to Tchenn Ril. The light in the sky above them suggested that it was late afternoon. Julien hesitated briefly and then stepped forward past the limit of the Table, and as he set foot on the grey metal of the klirk he knew that he was back in that lost corner of Djannak Island. The smell of the vegetation reminded him intensely of that moment when he had first arrived here some months previously. He turned around and was not surprised to find that the bushes surrounded him in every direction: the Table and the idyllic world around it had gone.

So now what do I do to get back there? he asked.

Just like last time: you simply say 'tchoktseh'.

He did that and took himself and his colleagues back to the Orientation Table.

Before we leave here, he said, I would like you to explain something. You told me that there are thousands of possible destinations, and that each one is carved onto the wall. But there is at least a metre between one symbol and the next. The wall is only around three hundred metres or so in length, and so how is that possible? You could never fit that number of symbols onto it!

You're right, Aïn told him. Well spotted. You need to remember that what you're looking at is a representation of something which is in reality infinitely larger and more complicated This is the easiest way for our minds to handle that complexity. In reality this wall has no finite length, and the same goes for the lines which we use as paths. However, the junctions and symbols do correspond to operations you need to perform in order to point yourself in the correct direction. But the number of symbols that the wall can accommodate is infinite. Now I suggest that we go back to Dak Manarang. We can move on to other aspects of the Art of Passage once you have sufficiently mastered this one.

Without waiting to be prompted Xarax caused the appropriate symbol to appear in Julien's mind, and he was able to follow the path back to the warehouse without any problem. They left the warehouse and went back to the office, where Master Dendjor was proudly showing the others the plans for the ship before taking them out into the yard.

"Did you forget something?" asked Ambar.

"No, we've finished for today."

"Already? You've only been gone five minutes!"

"We work fast. But we can go away and leave you to it if you want."

"That's not what I meant at all!"

"I know. Where we were time passes differently. We had plenty of time to do everything we wanted to."

"I've been showing Lord Niil the plans for Lord Tahlil's new trankenn," Master Dendjor told them. "It's a wonderful vessel, completely different from the behemoths that are in fashion at the moment. This ship is designed for speed and agility in combat, as well as for handling heavy weather."

"Combat?" queried Julien.

"You have to scare off pirates."

"There are pirates on Dvârinn?"

"Anywhere there is sea trade you'll find pirates. It's always been like that. It's the First Lords' duty to see that their activities are kept to a minimum. But the Emperor's Mirror should be especially feared, and he needs to be able to intervene swiftly and in places where he isn't expected. A lot of First Lords are reluctant to risk their beautiful trankenns in dangerous sea-battles. They leave the job of policing to their vassals, who generally take compensation for any damage to their vessels in the form of any loot they can capture from the pirates. But apparently Lord Tahlil sees things differently."

"Really?"

"Indeed. He thinks that dealing with the issue in that way is a sign of decadence. It gives rise to all manner of corruption. Some people even whisper that it's hard to tell the pirates apart from their quarries. Or, to put it more clearly, they hold the shipowners to ransom under the pretext of protecting them. That's less dangerous than fighting experienced corsairs and can be just as lucrative."

"And Lord Tahlil thinks he can change that?"

"He doesn't know, but he's not prepared to let things go on as they are now."

"He'll make some enemies, won't he?"

"Very probably, but he'll gain the sympathy of every honest sailor on Dvârinn. He's got mine already."

"Good. But if you're going to be the captain of this magnificent ship, what about the captain of his current First Trankenn? Won't he get jealous?"

"Oh, not at all. Master Daldehar is quite happy to stay with his current ship. He's going to be First Captain of the trading company Lord Tahlil is setting up, and that will mean a substantially larger salary. Besides, he's getting on in years, and the idea of fighting pirates doesn't have quite the appeal for him it once did."

"Well, if everyone is happy, I am too. I imagine you won't mind giving us a tour of this marvellous vessel?"

"I was just about to suggest that."

***

Julien was expecting to see a bare frame under construction in a dry dock, so he got a surprise when he was led to a wharf where a large ship was tied up. The masts were in the process of being installed and quite a lot of the deck furniture was already in place. It was already an impressive-looking vessel, and although it didn't match the colossal proportions of the Ksantiri First Trankenn it still looked imposing. There was also something in her general appearance that immediately suggested that it would be highly unwise to challenge her. It was clearly a vessel of war.

"She looks amazing!" said Julien. "But you must have been working flat-out!"

"Lord Tahlil can be very persuasive. He added a bonus from his own pocket for each week the shipwrights managed to shave from the original estimate. All the best craftsmen in the yard are fighting to work on our ship. The other yards aren't happy, though, because they're losing workmen to us. But Lord Tahlil has also declared substantial monetary penalties if there are any accidents, because he didn't want the supervisors turning into slave-drivers. And he seems to know the job as well as the craftsmen themselves, and he's not afraid to crawl into the smallest spaces to check the quality of their work."

"So when do you think she'll be ready?"

"I estimate that we'll be ready to sail in around forty days. The sail-makers have almost finished their work and the way things are going the rigging should be finished in three or four days. If necessary the onboard work can continue even during the maiden voyage and the first few weeks afloat. In ten days we'll be ready to start transferring the Rent'haliks' administrative services to this vessel. I'm already on the lookout for officers, and I've prepared a recruitment announcement which is currently being posted in every part of the Rent'halik Domain. We've recruited a very capable hold-master and he's already started to get the non-perishable foodstuffs on board. We need to maintain a good trim and so we might need to make adjustments once we've completed the first trial journey."

Niil who had been listening in silence up to this point, sighed.

"I really wish I could swap the Ksantiri First Trankenn for a vessel like this," he said. "Unfortunately my great-grandfather was serious about quality when he had the ship built. She's just about indestructible! And I can't even do what you did and convert her into a merchant vessel, because about half the clan has taken up residence aboard – at least, the ones who are too sensible to try to show off by building their own trankenns have. Master Dendjor, I hope you really enjoy commanding this beauty."

"Thank you, Lord Niil. The First Trankenn of the Ksantiris is a good ship. It's true that she's a bit too big, but at least it was built before the overblown and pretentious style which we have now and which seems to think that size is the same thing as elegance."

He turned to Julien.

"My Lord," he said, I wouldn't want to inflict a full visit on you, because I know that this sort of thing can be terribly boring for those who are not great fans of ships…"

Julien was a great fan of ships, and so he allowed himself to be taken with Niil on an extensive guided tour of great detail, while Tannder and the others, who didn't share his enthusiasm for all things maritime, headed off to a nearby beach to make the most of the splendid weather and warm sea.

In the depths of the hold Master Dendjor was demonstrating the clever system the ship used to balance its ballast to his two fascinated visitors when he was interrupted by a young midshipman who, from the way he was gasping for breath, had run very fast to get there.

"The Honourable Master Tannder," the young man eventually managed to say, "presents his compliments and requests the presence of Their Lordships whenever they are able to attend."

That clearly meant that Tannder had an emergency on his hands and needed them to get to him as soon as possible, and so they followed the young officer back through the maze of passageways and stairs until they reached the main deck. Here they found Tannder and the others, still wet from their interrupted swim, waiting for them. Tannder led them off to one side to explain the reason for the urgency of his summons.

"My Lord," he said to Julien, "I've just received a message from Master Subadar. Despite your request not to do so he showed your father the weapon taken from the assassin in the Tower Of course he didn't explain where it came from, and nor did he give the least hint that an attack had taken place – he simply asked if the weapon could have come from Earth.

"Your father examined it carefully and then said that he was fairly certain that the device had not come from Earth, but that we should be careful with it because it looked a bit like an Earth weapon called a 'hand grenade'. He said that he might be wrong about the nature of the object, but he was confident that it wasn't from Earth – the few signs carved into it didn't look like any Earth language with which he was acquainted. The fact that your father seems to have been able to detect the nature of the device suggests that he's probably also right about its origins, and consequently we now have to consider the possibility that the attack on you at the Tower had its origins outside the R'hinz."

"But I thought there was no contact with any world outside the R'hinz," argued Julien. "Well, apart from Earth now, obviously."

"That's what we have always thought. But it looks as if we have been found by someone whose intentions are hostile."

"But didn't you say that the woman who attacked me came from Aleth?"

"Yes – we now know who she was, and her family has been identified. They are honourable people and they couldn't possibly be involved in a plot against the Emperor. We sounded their minds, obviously, but there was nothing to suggest that they are anything but loyal to you. What makes it even more worrying is the accuracy of the attack: they knew exactly who you are and where to find you. The enemy, whoever it is, wanted to destroy the head of the R'hinz, which proves that he knows just how unique and irreplaceable you are."

"And even more irreplaceable now that the spare bodies have all been destroyed."

"Exactly – which leads us to think that whoever was responsible for the attack on your person was also the one who destroyed the Sleeping Bodies."

"Well, I hope so – things are bad enough without more than one unknown enemy to deal with. So what do you think we should do now?"

"I think we have to keep moving. If they're capable of corrupting or coercing a member of the Bakhtar Tower staff, they'll be able to do the same thing to other people. For now you'll have to stay only in places where nobody is expecting you to be."

"Fine," said Julien. "Do you think Aïn could be persuaded to invite us to visit his place?"

***

Aïn took no persuading at all: he thought that a visit to the Emperor's Mirror on Yaï Ho was a good idea, but he suggested that it should not be an official visit but a low-key affair with no publicity. He also suggested that Julien should do the actual Guiding, using Aïn's family's private klirk. This was the first time Julien had tried to act as a Guide to people who didn't have the Gift and who, unlike Xarax, were not able to see the Orientation Table and the strange non-space in which it stood. He found himself transporting a group of obedient zombies who clearly had no awareness of their surroundings, and who would afterwards retain no memory of the journey. Of course he wasn't actually leading them across the paved surface of the Table: that was simply the way in which his mind chose to view the complex process of the transfer. Their luggage followed them as if magnetically attracted to the group of travellers.

They appeared on a hill in Yaï Ho close to Aïn's residence. If Julien had been familiar with the works of Tolkien he would have thought that they had materialised in a hobbit village because, although the Guides had attained a high degree of civilisation and developed a refined culture, they had nonetheless retained their fondness for underground dens of the type originally used by their distant ancestors. So as far as was possible their habitat was at least partly underground and melted inconspicuously into the landscape.

Their society grouped families into vast clans in which every member found his place according to criteria which were absolutely incomprehensible to humans, and where actual genetic relationships held only a subsidiary role. In other words, a young Guide might be raised by adults who were not his blood parents, but he would nonetheless be considered by everyone, including himself, to be their son.

Of course in view of the prevailing danger Julien had erased his Marks and was standing a little to one side. And apparently his attempt to look anonymous was working nicely, because while Aïn and the members of his clan were exchanging greetings, he was approached by an apparently fearless young Guide barely bigger than a puppy. Julien recognised straight away that the guide had taken up that posture which his species always used to invite communication, and so he bent down and put his hand on the silky silvery fur of the young Guide's neck.

Are you here to serve? the Guide asked him.

To serve? No, I'm one of Master Aïn's guests. Who are you?

I am Yalil Wilah ek Aïn. You owe me respect. The Great Master Aïn is my father, you know. So do you serve Lord Niil of the Ksantiris?

I don't serve anyone. Lord Niil is my friend.

And the Noble Brother Ambar – is he your friend too?

Yes.

And Karik shel Tannder – he's Master Tannder's student?

Yes.

What about Dillik? Is he your servant?

No.

So who are you, then?

I am Julien.

So why are you here, if you're nobody's servant?

Do you promise not to tell anyone?

Why?

Can't you keep a secret?

Of course I can! But why don't you want me to tell anyone?

Because if you do I won't get a moment's peace all the time I'm here.

All right, I won't tell anyone.

Well, Master Aïn invited me here because I'm a Master of one particular Art.

What Art is that?

Tickling!

The young Guide jumped and tried to escape, but Julien easily rolled him onto his back and began tickling him in a way that only a nimble-fingered primate can achieve. The Guide's hysterical yelping attracted the attention of his father, who glanced in his direction for just long enough to see what was happening and then abandoned him to his fate. And his protests, which were in any case not serious, ceased when Julien stopped tickling him and started scratching him behind the ears instead.

Julien had wanted to do this since the first time he had met a Guide, and he'd had to struggle hard against the temptation to do so. Only Aïn's status had spared him this indignity so far. But the young Guide was clearly enjoying it, because after a few seconds he closed his eyes with an air of complete happiness and pushed up close to Julien. He was obviously totally satisfied with the situation.

Tannder laughed, bringing Julien out of the trance-like state into which he had fallen.

"Julien, you've fallen into the oldest trap there is on Yaï Ho," he said. "This good-for-nothing has had you under his thumb for quite some time now. Young Guides try it on with every human they meet who is naïve enough to pet them. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but with you it's worked like a charm."

Julien stopped scratching at Yalil's head and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck instead. He was both amused and annoyed at the same time, and the stiffness in his legs when he tried to stand up indicated that he'd been crouching next to the juvenile Guide for quite a long time.

You didn't need to do that! said Julien.

Leave me alone!

Julien could tell that these words came with a sort of mental pressure which was supposed to force him to obey, but the youngster hadn't yet mastered the technique.

Stop that at once! responded Julien. Listen, you look like a nice kid, and I'm quite happy to scratch your head any time you like, provided I don't have anything else I should be doing. But don't ever try to mess with my head again, you understand? Don't forget I'm a friend of your father's, and I don't think he'd like you doing that at all.

Julien was immediately aware that the young Guide was now feeling distressed.

"Don't worry," he said aloud. "I'm not mad at you, and nor is Master Tannder. I'll say no more about it – and actually I'd look a bit of an idiot if I did, wouldn't I?"

Yalil took that to be a rhetorical question, so Julien let go of him and dismissed him with a light swat to his rump. Then he stood up and looked at Tannder.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"They're inside – except Xarax, who is probably hiding in the grass somewhere close by. I wonder why he didn't decide to intervene."

"He didn't need to – there was no danger, and if he had he'd have terrified the poor kid. Actually that mind routine is quite impressive. How old do you think he is?"

"I'd guess no more than five cycles. I don't think he'll do it again."

"That's what I told him. Anyway, he said he thought I'd come to serve, or something. What did he mean by that?"

"It's a very old story, as old as the Nine Worlds, in fact. I should have told you about it before this."

"We've had other things to worry about."

"Well, to keep it short, the Guides decided to help humans once the humans said that they were willing to use their manual dexterity to help the Guides. Basically, humans do everything that the Guides can't do for themselves because they lack an opposable thumb. The humans make sure they're comfortable, cook the sophisticated food they prefer to the berries and raw meat they would otherwise have to eat – though they can get by on that sort of fare when they're away from home – and generally look after them. In return the Guides make their services available to the whole of the R'hinz and, because they charge quite a lot for transporting people, they can afford to pay their human servants very good wages. In fact it's counted a privilege to spend time serving a family of Guides. But the humans here on Yaï Ho are only here for a fairly short time and have to maintain a home on their native world. The Guides insist on this, and obviously they're in a position to be able to make sure people stick to the rule. The idea has been to discourage any thoughts of humans settling here and forming their own colonies, and that's basically kept the Guides safe from being taken over for thousands of cycles.

"The Guides might not use writing, but they do have a very well-developed high culture. They are essentially philosophers and poets, but they have also produced some mathematical geniuses, and they are the only race who have been able to come up with theories regarding the physics of the Outside."

Julien gave a whistle of admiration.

"I'm glad I didn't go scratching Aïn's head, then," he said. "And that boy of his seems quite gifted. Has he got any other children, do you know?"

"Four others, I think. Two are already adults but they don't possess the Gift. Yalil has a brother a little older than himself who has started his training, and a younger one who isn't old enough to verbalise yet."

"Sorry?"

"I mean he can only communicate by yelps and emotions – a bit like a human baby who hasn't started to talk."

"And does Yalil have the Gift?"

"They don't know yet – he's still too young. They'll have to wait at least two more cycles to find out. And in any case not every guide who has the Gift actually becomes what we think of as a 'Guide'. They won't be authorised to travel unless they are strong enough to learn how to control their own minds. It's called 'Opening the Gift'."

"Well, you seem to know all there is to know about Aïn and his family. Do you know everyone as well as that?"

"No, but I'm doing everything I can to learn about anyone who gets close to you. The rest of it, though – the Guides' culture and way of life – more or less everyone knows about that."

"I don't. I'll have to start doing some serious research."

"Then I'll give you a little more information: the Guides have two spoken languages. They can mangle Tünnkeh the way you've heard Aïn do, but they also have their own language which they use for communication when they can't get close enough to touch each other and so communicate mentally, which is what they prefer to do when possible. They don't use their spoken language when they're away from home, but as this is their place you'd better prepare yourself to put up with a lot of yelping. It's really rather unpleasant."

"Thanks. I'll try not to put my fingers in my ears while anyone's watching…"

Lord Aldegard, Lord Tahlil and Master Subadar arrived just after Julien and his friends had finished settling into the servants' accommodation that Aïn's family had loaned to them, and a council meeting was held almost immediately. This was also attended by Niil, Aïn, Tannder and of course Julien himself, who asked Aldegard to take the chair.

"My Lord," Aldegard began, "we're facing a situation that has never before occurred in all the time since the R'hinz was founded. We don't know anything about our adversary, other than assumptions and a few facts. I'll start with those: we can be reasonably sure that it was this adversary who was responsible for the attack on you at Bakhtar Tower. Considering the nature of the weapon used, it seems highly likely that this adversary does not come from any of the R'hinz worlds, or from Earth. This adversary was able to manipulate the mind of a member of my own domestic staff without leaving any trace of his tampering. He also knows a great deal about the way our society functions and would seem to know exactly who you are, as well as recognising the essential role you play in keeping the Empire together and your irreplaceable role as the transmitter of the Major Arts.

"Indeed, in the light of what has just happened we have to ask ourselves if this same enemy was not also responsible for both your recent disappearance and the one thirteen years ago which deprived us of you for so long. It seems likely that the attack on your flybubble and the attempt against you in the Ocean Rotunda are also the work of the same enemy. And that's about all we have as far as facts are concerned.

"As for conjecture, we can't be sure of any of this, but we should consider it nonetheless: first, it seems likely that the enemy can master the Art of the Guides – or, alternatively, that he has some Guides working for him, which I have to say is highly unlikely. Second, the fact that so far he has attacked you and you alone would tend to suggest that he doesn't have the resources for a full-scale invasion of the R'hinz, or that he doesn't intend to launch one at this stage. His goal appears to be to weaken us by lopping off our head. Of course we have no means of knowing what he might do if he achieves that goal, but what he has done so far doesn't look good. And that's about all I can say at this point."

"Thank you, Aldegard," said Julien. "Unfortunately I have something to add to your statement. I'd rather this wasn't made public, but you need to know that the Sleeping Bodies in the Palace are all dead. We don't know exactly when they were killed, but Xarax is certain that they are definitely dead."

Aldegard opened his mouth to speak, but Julien interrupted him.

"I know what you're going to say," he said, "and it's exactly why I didn't tell you about this sooner. You're going to suggest that I should be hidden away somewhere, because if anything happens to me I won't be able to regenerate any longer, aren't you? Well, I don't think that's a good idea at all. In fact, I think that's what our enemy hopes I'll do, because that would make it possible for him to spread the rumour that the Emperor is either dead or too scared to show his face, or any other rumour which he thinks will damage everyone's morale. Plus, that would leave me stuck in one place, and sooner or later he'd find me. I'd much sooner find him and then confront him at a time and place of our choosing."

"If I may, My Lord," said Tannder, "I'd like to draw attention to the use of ghorrs in the first attack. That suggests either that the enemy has links to a circle of dark sorcerers, or that there's a second enemy following his own agenda. Either way it's extremely disturbing."

"Indeed," agreed Julien, "and I don't think we can just leave the situation to resolve itself, because it won't. I think we need to do the exact opposite of what a sensible councillor would advise, because if nothing else it ought to confuse the enemy. So I'm not going to go and hide in a deep hole somewhere. I also think that sensible councillors would advise us to keep all this secret in order to prevent panic, and so instead I think we ought to make sure everyone gets to hear about it. Yes, it might frighten people, but it'll make it much harder for anyone trying to spread gossip about the Emperor being absent or in hiding. And if we're careful about how we tell the general public what is going on it should be possible for us to get them in sympathy with us, and then if things get really nasty later on and we have to deal with an actual invasion, it will be easier to persuade people to fight. What do you think, Aldegard?"

"I really hope we don't end up having to fight on a large scale, My Lord. But maybe you're right, and it would be better to keep the population informed as to what is going on. Better to do it now that to suddenly spring it on them when things have got completely out of control."

"Does anyone have any other ideas?" asked Julien. "Subadar?"

"Yes, My Lord. I'm going to call a meeting of the Circle of Major Arts and ask everyone to watch out for any suspicious activity, particularly in the forbidden domains. That's supposed to happen anyway, but for far too long now we've let our guard down. And if we're going to be open about what's happening we'll be able to make some serious enquiries without having to dream up cover stories for them. I also think it would be a good idea to talk to every Neh-Kyong we know about. We'll probably need you to do that for us."

"Obviously I'm entirely at your disposal to do anything you can't do yourselves," Julien assured him. "Just try to bear in mind that I'm likely to have plenty of other things that need my attention."

"Of course, My Lord."

"Tannder, did you want to say something?"

"Yes, My Lord. I would like this council to authorise my Order to train and arm small combat units and deploy them throughout the R'hinz. I'd also like permission to train a few elite units in the use of explosive weapons, both heavy and light."

"That decision can only be made by the Council of Mirrors," Aldegard told him.

"Or by the Emperor himself if he deems it expedient," said Tahlil. "I spend quite a while reading the Rules, Traditions and Customs of the Nine Worlds before I became Mirror for Dvârinn."

"All the same, I think I'd prefer to call a meeting of the Council of Mirrors," said Julien. "Where I come from we tend to look at people who assume sole authority for stuff with some suspicion. I'm sure Aldegard can arrange a meeting for sometime in the near future, and once the Council has made its decision I'll back it all the way, whichever way they decide to go. I'd also like Niil to be able to act on my behalf for the day-to-day running of things, because I don't want the whole system to seize up if I have to disappear for a few days to deal with some emergency.

"Tahlil, can I ask you to start to put together whatever we need in order to start telling the people what's going on?"

"Yes, My Lord."

"If anyone needs money, Niil will have access to the Imperial Treasury until alternative funding can be arranged. I'd be glad if you could all help him to recruit sufficient administrative staff to deal with that."

"Who is going to be in charge of your security?" asked Aldegard.

"Xarax will be with me at all times, and I'm sure Tannder can organise a team of specialists to help secure the places I'll be staying for more than a day or so – can't you, Tannder?"

"Indeed, My Lord. I'll deal with that."

"Otherwise I suppose we'll just carry on the way we'd originally planned," Julien went on. "I'll keep on the move and I won't tell anyone where I'm going. Aïn can organise liaison teams among the Guides, and that should mean that we can all stay in touch with each other."

"What about those who are travelling with you now?"

"Well, Karik shel Tannder is, as his name makes clear, the responsibility of his master, so Tannder will decides what happens to him. And everyone knows that Ambar of the Ksantiris and Dillik son of Dendjor are my friends, and that makes them ideal targets for anyone wanting to hurt me. So they'll be staying with me unless I'm actively engaged on some operation where they would get in the way."

"What about your parents?"

"Once I've explained the situation to them they can decide for themselves what they want to do. Right, so unless anyone has any other urgent business I suggest we close the meeting here."

Subadar gave a discreet cough.

"One more thing, My Lord," he said. "I'd like you to talk to a team of Masters of Life Sciences about creating some new Sleeping Bodies."

"All right. I don't really like the idea, but I can see why it might be an issue for you, so I suppose I could do that. Now I think it has to be time to eat and – provided we're not presuming too much on your hospitality, Aïn – I'd like you all to stay and share the meal with me."

***

Aldegard and Subadar declined the invitation, but Tahlil said that he'd be happy to stay. The service house that was looking after Aïn's guests wasn't on a par with what Bakhtar Tower had offered, but it was certainly more than adequate and catered perfectly for the needs of humans. Unlike the Guides' own homes this one was built above ground and, from an Earth-dweller's perspective, looked much like an Alpine mountain refuge, but without the problems of being at altitude. The human staff attached to Aïn's residence were aware of the importance of his guests and so had done the very best that they could, and this meal was of a very high quality indeed. Sadly the prevailing mood was not exactly celebratory, and fairly soon the conversation had turned to serious topics.

"Tannder," said Julien, "I didn't want to make too much of this earlier, but where are you intending to take those weapons you spoke about? I mean, we are talking about forbidden weapons here, aren't we?"

"Yes. It's completely illegal to use or even own them. The only exception is that the headquarters of my Order on the three human worlds is authorised to own a few of each of these weapons, just to make sure we don't completely forget how to use them or what they can do. Of course we've always assumed that there are no other worlds within reach of our communications, and so what we're facing now is completely unprecedented, but it's always been considered a possibility – even if it was only a tiny one – and so it was felt that we should not deprive ourselves completely of something that we might need one day. On the other hand it was strongly felt that we should prevent the people of the Nine Worlds from having access to any means of killing each other more efficiently than is absolutely necessary in a society where aggressiveness is sometimes seen as a sign of vitality."

"Right, but what do you intend to do with your weapons? I'm sure you haven't got enough of them to fight off a serious invasion. Are you intending to make more of them? I'd have thought that might not be easy, given that about the most advanced piece of kit I've seen anywhere in the R'hinz so far is a flybubble."

"It won't be necessary to make more in the short term unless things go very badly indeed, because we still have some warehouses where we store weapons of that type."

"I thought all the illegal stockpiles were destroyed as soon as they were found?"

"True, but there are others. And only one person in the whole Empire knows how to find them."

"Let me guess: that's me, isn't it? And obviously they'll have to probe my mind again to dig out that particular memory, won't they?"

Tannder smiled. "Actually, this time you're wrong," he said. "You're close, but it's not you."

"Xarax, then?"

"Correct. And he'll have to take us to them once the Council has given its permission."

"If the Council gives permission, you mean. I'm certainly not going to twist their arms or lean on them."

"I don't understand."

"I don't think it should be just down to me, or even down to me with a rubber stamp from a puppet Council. All right, yes, they call me 'Emperor', but I have no intention of becoming a dictator. That's someone who governs without consulting anyone else," he added, when he saw the confused look on Tannder's face.

"What's more," he went on, "this reminds me a bit about something I was reading a little while ago, a legend of one of the peoples of Earth – the Greeks, in this case. In that story a young girl called Pandora opens a box that she should have left closed, and all sorts of troubles and bad things escaped and spread all over the Earth. She did try to close it again, but she couldn't do it quickly enough. The only thing left in the box was Hope. Well, these arms depots of yours sound to me a bit like Pandora's box. My world is literally poisonous with weapons like that. They're everywhere. We've even got enough atomic weapons, like what we found in Tchiwa Ri Kor, to destroy the entire planet several times over. And that's why I don't want to be the one who decides to open Pandora's box, because if we once open it we might not be able to close it again until it's too late."

Julien went to meet his parents as soon as the meal was over. He was afraid it was going to be a difficult interview and just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. He found them at their new house just preparing to go into Aleth. As he had known would happen, his mother reacted very badly to the possibility of war.

"Is this never going to end?" she asked. "We had to endure the Boches during the war, and your grandparents were killed in an air-raid. And now this!"

"Mum, we're not at war yet, but we have to take some precautions. It would be stupid to…"

"It would be stupid to stay here! Let's go back home – you don't owe these people anything. You didn't ask them to whisk you away here, did you?"

"We've already discussed this, and you know it's not as simple as that. But if you want to go back to Earth I'm sure Aïn will find a way to get you there."

"How can you think that we're going to run away and abandon you?"

"I honestly don't know what's best. You don't need to be here, and I'd certainly feel a bit more relaxed if I knew that you were out of danger."

"If you came with us you'd be out of danger, too. What do you think you're doing, playing at being a general? The only thing you know about war is playing wide games with the Scouts!"

"Isabelle, stop it," interrupted Mr Berthier. "He's not responsible for what's happening. He only wants to make sure we know what's going on. Don't make things harder for him than they already are. He's already told us why it wouldn't do any good if he went back to Earth. The people looking for him would still find him, and then they might start getting ideas about attacking Earth as well."

"Well, what do you think we should do, then? Stay here and wait for the bombs to start falling?"

"If you want to go back I'll certainly come with you. I expect we could arrange it easily enough."

"You know I won't go back to Earth without Julien!"

"Mum," interrupted Julien, "you know I can't leave. But you're going to have a baby, and I can understand why you don't want him caught up in a war."

"Well, let's be realistic," said Mr Berthier. "It's not as if war isn't likely to happen on Earth. There are already wars going on all over the place – Vietnam, for example. And there's always a chance that someone in Russia or America will press the wrong button by mistake and kill all of us. I can't imagine that it would be any more dangerous to stay here. And if we do stay I'm not just going to sit on my hands, either: after all, I do have combat experience, even if I'd prefer not to have been through that. Algeria wasn't a bundle of laughs… and I'm still a reserve officer on Earth. I'm starting to like the people here, and if it comes down to it I'll volunteer to fight to defend them. I'd just like them to give me something a bit better than a bow or a crossbow."

"If that's really what you want I'll mention it to Tannder," promised Julien. "I'm sure he'll be happy to have the use of someone who knows about modern weapons. But it's quite possible that there won't actually be a war – all we're doing at the moment is taking some basic preparations, and trying to find out who's attacking us, of course. Anyway, there's no rush – think about it carefully, and I certainly won't argue if you decide you want to leave. There'll be a security detail with you tonight or tomorrow. Tannder will bring them with him himself, and he swears they won't be a nuisance.

"Anyway, I have to go, but Wakhann can find me at any time if necessary. Aïn is explaining to him how to do that right now. And Wakhann also has orders to evacuate you to somewhere safe in a emergency."

***

Possibly it was true that there was no emergency just yet, but Aïn still thought it would be a good idea to push Julien's education forward a bit.

I don't think you'll have any real problems using the klirks now, Aïn told him. You've already shown me that you can use the common klirks, which lead to the Orientation Table. There are also specific one-way klirks like the one that brought you to Nüngen that first time: they lead only to a particular destination whose symbol they bear. You could say they're a sort of short-cut that bypasses the Table. These two categories of klirks can be used by any Guide, and in fact the vast majority of us never use any other type. They're all we need for almost all communication within the R'hinz.

Then there are target-klirks. Those are personal to each Master Guide. You'll remember that I placed one on your boat on Dvârinn. They can only be used by the Guide who owns them and they act a bit like a specific klirk, insofar as you don't have to go via the Table when using them, but unlike the specific klirks they are only marker-buoys on the way to a destination. In order to use them you have to be able to jump into the Outside, and only a Master Guide can do that.

Finally, there are the beacon-klirks. Their use has to be authorised by the Council of Guides, and they are used to aid navigation to a completely new destination. In theory, when I visited your world I could have left a beacon-klirk there and used it to open up a whole new navigation route to Earth. Obviously I didn't, because we have no intention of opening up a connection with Earth.

And now you have to free yourself from the limitations imposed by the use of the common klirks and move on – like a small number of Master Guides – to being able to travel without using klirks at all.

The last time I saw the Outside, Julien responded, it almost killed me. If Xarax hadn't been with me I'd still be stuck there, and by now I'd probably be completely round the bend.

When you saw the Outside, Aïn pointed out, you were unprepared for it, and you had also just received a shock which almost killed you. The Outside is scary, but only to those who are unaware of its true nature or those who cannot impose even a small measure of control on their own mind. But now you have learned to control your mind. Your meeting with the Neh-Kyong Tchiwa Ri Kor proves it.

Now I'm going to tell you what you need to know about the Outside. Fort a long time nobody had the faintest idea about its nature and the Guides tackled it armed only with their courage, rather like the way in which early sailors took on the oceans and its storms without any knowledge of what causes the wind, the waves or the tide, or even why the sun rises in the morning. But eventually our species started to understand certain things, and a theory about it has been developed, first from the boldest speculation and later it was more or less confirmed by experience.

'More or less'? commented Julien. That's not exactly encouraging. That's a bit like giving me a flybubble and telling me you think it will 'more or less' stay in the air.

It's not really the same, said Aïn. For a start, generations of Guides have crossed the Outside without any problem. However, I would have to admit that normal logic doesn't always work when we're dealing with this aspect of reality. We have been able to find out a lot about the Outside, but it doesn't always fit neatly into the usual straightforward idea that every proposition has to be either true or false.

Sorry, said Julien. I don't quite follow that.

Well, the usual rule is that something either exists, or it doesn't. It can't both exist and not exist at the same time. Two plus two always equals four, not three and a half. In fact our minds cannot really conceive of any other type of reality. Obviously we can SAY that something is both what it is and the opposite, but we can't actually imagine it to be like that. You see, what we call 'outside' actually belongs to what we call the domain of the limit. It's very difficult to perceive because it isn't actually located 'outside', as we usually say, but both 'beyond' and 'below' our usual view of reality. It is the fabric hidden behind what we call real, or true. We see the world the way we do because our minds and our senses somehow filter out what we call 'Outside' – or, to be more accurate, they filter out what the Outside is made of. And what the Outside is made of, the very foundation of our reality, exists in a way that cannot be described as either 'being' or 'not being'. Some mathematicians say that the whole universe is defined by a kind of limit that appears to divide being from non-being, but that, contrary to what we experience, the reality of the world has no limit at all. I know that this is extremely difficult to understand, but it does enable us to have a vague idea of how travel in the Outside actually works.

You mean, said Julien, that even if I don't understand what you're talking about, it will still help me not to panic?

Exactly! Nobody, not even our greatest mathematicians, can figure out the true nature of the Outside. Our minds are unable to grasp it. But that doesn't stop us from being able to work in that reality and get results in our ordinary world. In order to do that we use symbols. These symbols have a certain reality in our mind. They present themselves as images or sounds, sometimes simple and sometimes complex, but they are also connected to this 'domain of the limit' which is the key to our reality.

A good example of this is the whole set-up of the klirks and the Orientation Table. The advantage of those symbols is that they don't just exist in the Guide's mind: they really exist, and so we don't have to recreate them every time we want to use them. Some philosophers believe that the world doesn't in fact have a different nature and that the time and space we think we experience actually only exist within our own minds. Others believe that there is a genuine physical reality which exists independent of our experience. And some claim that the reality of this world is something beyond either of these explanations. Now, obviously nobody is ever going to be able to demonstrate categorically that one of these views is the absolute truth, but it is interesting to see that the theories developed from these three differing views actually lead to verifiable results which can be put to practical use. And one of these results is the klirk network.

In other words, said Julien, it works, and it doesn't really matter why it works.

If you like. Once you understand that, you only need to possess the Gift – which you know you do; to discipline your mind – and you've already started to do that; and to know a couple of tricks which I'm going to teach you. After that it's no harder than sailing: it's just a question of intuition, method and endurance. It's also helpful to be able to memorise as many klirks as possible, unless you want to have to invent a new route every time you want to go somewhere. But in your case, as I've already told you, you'll be able to cheat and use Xarax's infallible memory instead.

One more thing: it's important to recognise that you don't actually 'move' in the Outside. Your mind simply explores aspects of the limit I've been talking about. And when you were lost in the Outside you were actually nowhere – you were simply confronted with an aspect of the domain of the limit that you had never explored before.

Thank you, said Julien. That completely sets my mind at ease.

Aïn recognised the sarcasm straight away.

It should, he replied. It means that all the time you decide to stay in the Outside there's nothing to be frightened of provided that you remain calm. Nothing can actually reach you from 'outside'. The only enemies who can harm you there are the products of your own imagination. All the same, I'll gladly admit that a complete novice might easily conjure up such a level of terror that his sanity would collapse. That's why nobody – not even confirmed Guides – is given instruction on how to jump into the Outside.

But you're going to instruct me anyway, commented Julien. All right: when do you want to start?

There's no time like the present. So: first I want you to imagine a square circle…

It took Julien two months of intense training before Aïn was satisfied that his technique for entering the Outside was sufficiently competent to allow him to make a first jump unaccompanied by anyone except the indispensable Xarax. And that first trip took him no further than the nearest klirk, which was about two hundred metres away. Aïn said that there could be no question of heading off to somewhere previously unseen any time soon.

They were currently on Nüngen, making use of the unoccupied summer residence of a Noble Lord who was distantly related to the Bakhtars. He had been perfectly willing to let them use the place for a while: it was currently winter and the summer residence was close to the Arctic Circle. At this time of year the place was completely inaccessible by normal means, looked distinctly sinister and was lit by a weak sun that only appeared above the horizon for a couple of hours a day, and even then was visible only when the weather was not hurling near-horizontal blizzards of vicious powdered ice at everything. The house was heated, dry, tastefully furnished and well stocked with good food, but it was uninhabited, since there was no permanent staff. Tannder, of course, had no objection whatever to this state of affairs, since he was by now obsessed with security.

In other circumstances one might have thought that Ambar and Dillik would get bored in that frozen and isolated place, but Tannder had managed to take time off from trying to find ways of unravelling the plots of a hitherto unseen enemy in order to arrange some education for the boys and, no matter where in the Nine Worlds they stayed, a number of teachers were found for them. Julien himself transported these teachers as part of his Guide training, making huge round trips every day in order to do so.

Master Sandeark, the distinguished mathematics tutor who had taught Ambar while he was living in the First Trankenn of the Ksantiris, had asked Lord Niil, on one of his brief visits, how his former star pupil was getting on, and when he learned that Ambar was now living an itinerant life he had begged to be allowed to travel with him in order to help develop a potential which he feared would otherwise go to waste. He was serious about it, too, because when Niil hesitated Sandeark said that he'd be happy to work without pay, and that in any case he'd have no regrets about leaving his current job, which apparently consisted of trying to explain the beauty of mathematics to a set of dullards who weren't remotely interested in it.

Sandeark was no great speaker, and if his speech had been written down in the form of a petition it certainly wouldn't have persuaded the First Lord, but something in his manner prevented Niil from sending him back to his teaching with a few kind words. Clearly this man saw something in Ambar that Niil himself had been unable to spot, and so instead he said he would think about it and then informed Julien and consulted with Tannder, and in due course Master Sandeark was permitted once again to share his knowledge with Ambar.

Of course, it would be an exaggeration to suggest that Ambar himself, an innate ability for the mysteries of numbers and figures notwithstanding, was happy about this. After all, it seems unlikely that a gemstone that is being polished particularly likes being held against a grindstone. But he put up with the extra lessons without too much complaining, and before long he found himself quite liking them.

Master Sandeark was still quite young, but he was still unwed to anything except the science of mathematics, and since he had no family ties he was able to persuade his hosts to let him become a permanent member of the company, who permitted his presence all the more readily when they found out he had a talent for cooking which would have provided him with a solid and prosperous career had he decided to follow that path.

***

The Council of Mirrors had authorised the use of the forbidden weapons and now the military preparations were moving ahead steadily. Of course at this stage there was no talk of any general mobilisation: only the various Orders of Warriors were concerned. They were now united under the leadership of Lord Shigyal, the Emperor's Mirror on Der Mang. As a result, Julien saw, with mixed feelings, his security team equipped with strange hand weapons that looked futuristic even by twentieth century Earth standards. Tannder had offered to give him one, together with the training necessary to use it, but Julien had turned him down, pointing out reasonably enough that if his perfectly trained guards weren't up to stopping an enemy it was fairly unlikely that he'd be able to do it himself. He thought that the only thing he'd manage to accomplish with anything more powerful than his nagtri would be to kill his own men accidentally. Niil, on the other hand, had no such scruples, and had happily trained in the use of a weapon which he thought would make it easier for him to defend his friend.

Julien had been deeply disturbed by the opening of one of the imperial arsenals. He had to take part in the operation because although Xarax knew the location of each depot, only the Emperor could talk to the Neh-kyong who guarded it and persuade him to open it up. There were apparently a number of these depots on each world, but to start with they had decided to confine themselves to a single one on Der Mang, just to give them an idea of what was available should the need arise.

The depot held enough equipment to delight any general, but the sight of these rows of heavy weapons, some of which were clearly designed to fly, filled Julien with foreboding. The idea of unleashing these monstrous killing-machines on the world brought him back inescapably to the myth of poor, stupid Pandora. Despite assurances from Tannder and the other warriors that the depot contained no nuclear or chemical weapons, and that the very thought of spreading infectious diseases through germ warfare was anathema, Julien felt as if he was on the edge of an irreversible catastrophe.

He forbade the test-firings loudly demanded by a general staff eager to test their power by devastating a piece of isolated land far from inhabited areas and ordered them instead to get the knowledge they sought by reading the abundantly documented user's manual that came with each type of weapon. The frustrated Warriors were starting to argue more and more insistently when Master Subadar fortunately discovered the equivalent of a simulation room where one could witness any test you could wish for from a position that seemed very close to the action. And the result was so realistic that some of the people who had clamoured most loudly for live tests now found that they weren't quite so keen on using these weapons after all and, indeed, declared that they would prefer not to witness any more of what the room had to offer.

***

"I don't like this, Niil," said Julien, once they were back at their Arctic retreat. "It feels to me as if some of this bunch actually want to use these weapons. I think some of them will be disappointed if we don't end up fighting a war."

"I know what you mean," said Niil. "But I'd sooner see them like this than cowering in a cellar, scared out of their tiny minds."

"Even so, they really ought to be at least scared enough to hope it doesn't happen. It's like they're drunk or something, and want to use their toys. On Earth there are always wars going on. People die in their thousands, and the dead are sometimes the lucky ones, because these weapons maim and cause terrible injuries. Believe me, that kind of war is nothing like the clan vendettas you're used to."

"The Warriors know that. They might not have lived through a war like that, but we've all studied history."

"Well, maybe, but even the ones who don't want to use the simulation room any more are still drooling over the weapons like kids in a sweetshop. I don't want to think about what will happen if we ever have to use those things, and I'm terribly afraid that once they've used them they won't want them sealed away again."

"If we do end up using them it'll only be because things are desperate, and if that's the case then sealing them away again afterwards will be the least of our worries."

"I suppose you're right…"

They fell into a gloomy silence, which was broken only by the sound of the blizzard that was once again futilely hurling itself against the house.

"I've got to take Dillik back to his mother's in a minute," said Julien. "Do you want to come?"

"Well… I've got quite a lot to do…"

"So have I, but I'd like to spend a little while with you away from all that. What about it?"

"All right, then. Is Ambar coming?"

"No, he's working with Sandeark this morning. The amount of time Ambar's spending with him, I suppose I should be jealous, but actually I'm glad he's found something he's really good at. So, you're coming, then?"

"Should I perhaps get dressed first, or should I come like this?"

"You look nice in your undies. I'm sure Mistress Nardik will think so, too. Dillik!"

Dillik wandered into the room, with Xarax curled around his neck as usual. He was stark naked and had apparently just woken up.

"Hurry up, you idiot!" said Julien. "Have you forgotten we're going to visit your mother?"

"It's not my fault!"

"Xarax! Have you been keeping him awake all night sharing your experiences again?"

A haptir doesn't have a large range of facial expressions, but his bodily attitude and his suddenly-chosen neutral colour-scheme looked almost exactly like a cat who has eaten the canary. It was obvious that he'd been pursuing his ongoing series of unsuccessful attempts to share dreams with Dillik. He was determined to succeed, and no amount of reasonable argument from Julien could persuade him to abandon his quest for what he saw as the Holy Grail of friendship. Sadly, however, these attempts sometimes disrupted Dillik's sleep – not that Dillik ever complained about it. On the contrary, he had also embraced his friend's enthusiasm and was equally keen for them to attain this semi-mythical union.

"I see," said Julien, laughing. "Look, as long as you only do that on nights when you don't have to get up the following morning, fine, but you're both completely bonkers. And no, Dillik, it's no good making that face at me, because I'm not going to come and have a shower with you. If you wanted company you should have got up at the same time as Ambar."

Julien suddenly felt a lot better. The good-natured triviality of their domestic life offered him a chance to forget about his Imperial worries for a while. Although it seemed odd to consider the relationship of a haptir with a young human as 'trivial', particularly when you're about to transport them both to a different world…

The main room of the inn was half full. Julien and Niil were sitting at their favourite table talking to Tenntchouk and Gradik. As usual Julien had erased the Imperial Marks so as to avoid the constant expressions of respect that people would otherwise feel compelled to offer him every time he appeared in public. Mainly he had done it to put the inn's patrons at ease. Of course the regulars, although they pretended to notice nothing out of the ordinary, immediately recognised that flaming red hair, the excessive length of which was already setting something of a fashion. But with no Marks visible everyone was happy: the patrons felt free to go on behaving as normal, flattered to be included in the little charade, and Julien could pretend to be travelling incognito. Most people in the inn recognised Niil as the First Lord of the Ksantiris, and he was generally well liked, although nobody would make the mistake of trying to be over-familiar with him. The two sailors, however, had a particular status of their own, almost as if they were part of the family, and so they could speak freely and informally in a way that would be unthinkable for anyone else.

"So it's true, then, whaat they say?" asked Gradik. "We moight be going to be at waar with folk as aaren't fraam the Noine Worlds?"

"How do you know that?" asked Julien.

"Waal… the crier 'as made announcements, an' there be papers as paass around…"

Julien had of course authorised the distribution of these flyers.

"An' there be people as do say thaat you was attaacked at Laard Aldegard's," added Tenntchouk.

"Well, that's true but, as you can see, it didn't succeed."

"An' you're naat afeared to go about loike naaw, without protection?"

"Who says I'm unprotected? Niil's sitting right here, and so are you, and you know Xarax won't be far away. I'm among friends here."

"True," agreed Tenntchouk. "Baat you were amaang friends at Laard Aldegard's."

"Well, in any case I've decided that I'm not going to spend my entire life hiding aw…"

A loud noise, like a piece of cloth being violently torn in two a few metres behind him, interrupted him. Before he could turn around he saw Tenntchouk kick away his chair and jump over the table with a knife in his hand, and at the same time Gradik grabbed hold of Niil to stop him from following the other sailor. At the same time the characteristic stench of a ghorr flooded Julien's nostrils. He jumped up and turned around, conscious of the sudden weight of Xarax landing on his shoulders in the way that they had practised many times in training.

Immediately everything seemed to slow down. He still couldn't move any faster than his muscles were able to move him, nor could he stay for any length of time in that state of heightened awareness into which Xarax had put him, but he could use this short delay to assess the situation. Tenntchouk had just been hit by the ghorr: he had thrown himself between it and Julien in order to buy the boy the fraction of a second he needed to react. Julien knew that he had no hope of fighting a ghorr with a nagtri – or, indeed, with anything else. On the other hand, he would be able to escape, just jumping into the Outside and then transporting himself to a klirk. Any klirk would do. But if he did that he would leave behind him a terribly frustrated ghorr that would simply slaughter everyone in the house and would go on killing until it could finally be destroyed. He was fairly sure that Niil wouldn't be able to kill it, even armed as he was with his new science fiction weapon. And that meant that everyone in the inn was going to die a painful death. So clearly it was now time to try to do something which Aïn had expressly told him not to do on his own until Aïn was sure he was able to do it successfully.

He cleared his mind and concentrated on visualising an area of space that included nothing except himself, Xarax and the ghorr. He checked that nothing else was inside the transportation envelope he had just envisaged and then he jumped – in other words, he assembled in his mind the elements of the graph which would automatically trigger his transition to the Outside. He'd only done this once before, the previous day, but it worked nonetheless. He was so relieved that it had worked that for a moment he almost lost his concentration, but Xarax steadied him with a quick mental nudge, and then he was able to start thinking about what to do next. At the moment he was surrounded by the chaos of the pseudo-limit he'd been slowly getting accustomed to through his training, and he had with him a ghorr that was helpless where they were but which would doubtless be eager to slaughter him the moment they materialised in the normal universe. Obviously the next step would be to land on a klirk and then immediately jump once more, leaving the ghorr stranded before it had time to attack him. In theory it was simple – well, about as simple as pulling three hairs from a tiger's tail… and obviously he couldn't leave the ghorr to roam free and wreak havoc with the local population.

I know the place you need, Xarax told him. You just have to remain steady and hold your breath while we're there. I'll show you the image of the klirk you want. Just keep still and don't move once we arrive – in fact don't do anything except jump back into the Outside – that klirk doesn't lead to the Table.

Right, replied Julien. Let's do it.

The image of the klirk appeared, razor-sharp, in Julien's mind. At once he felt solid ground under his feet, and in the dirty light filtering in through heavy purple clouds he caught a quick glimpse of the ghorr falling, its hideous limbs flapping uselessly, towards the surface of a greenish lake from which obviously toxic vapours were rising. He was there just long enough to see that the klirk on which they had materialised occupied the entire surface of the summit of a dizzying peak which rose in an impossible island in the centre of what seemed to be a lake of acid in a volcanic crater. Then they were again in the Outside and Xarax, without waiting to be asked, showed Julien the familiar symbol of the klirk which had been established in a back room of Mistress Nardik's inn.

***

Julien rushed back into the main room of the inn less than a minute after the attack and found some of those who had witnessed it still paralysed with a mixture of terror and incomprehension. Gradik had let go of Niil, who was scrambling to where Tenntchouk lay curled up on the ground. Julien elbowed his way through the people who were converging on the fallen sailor and crouched down next to Niil.

"Niil, send these people away," he said gently. "I need to get Tenntchouk to Bakhtar Tower – they'll know what to do and I won't have to waste time explaining to the Health Masters there what needs to be done because they've dealt with ghorr wounds before, unlike the ones on your Trankenn. Gradik, carry him into the blue kang. I'll be right with you."

The 'blue kang' was actually the room that held the klirk, but there was no need to announce to all and sundry that the inn contained such a thing.

"I'll stay here to calm everyone down," said Niil. "You can come and pick me up later."

When he reached the blue kang Julien saw that Tenntchouk's blood had already soaked Gradik's clothes: Gradik was still holding his friend in his arms. Julien wasted no time examining him: instead he just took them to the top of Bakhtar Tower, where the Health Masters, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night in Aleth, were there and ready to work inside three minutes. Julien didn't stay: he just explained quickly what had happened and then jumped to Djang Kang, the Arctic estate he had left only half an hour previously.

***

He was really worried and half expected to find the place a pile of smoking ruins, but in fact everything seemed to be the way he had left it. He found Ambar and Master Sandeark in the room they normally used for studying and sent a security guard to find Aïn, who would no doubt be able to tell them where Tannder was. Xarax could probably have found them faster than the guard, but he was unwilling to leave Julien until he was sure it was safe. Ambar, who had kept quiet until now, opened his mouth to ask a question, but Julien forestalled him.

"A ghorr jumped us at the inn," he said. "Don't worry, it's over and there's no more danger. Tenntchouk was injured and I've taken him to the Health Masters."

"What about Niil? Why isn't he with you?"

"Niil's fine. He stayed at the inn to reassure the crowd. We'll go and join him as soon as we can get hold of Aïn."

The Guide arrived a few seconds later, dripping all over the carpet: obviously he'd been swimming in one of the small pools inside the house, something he loved to do 'in order to exercise the muscles that get insufficient use because of the unhealthy life you make me lead.' Actually, as everyone knew perfectly well, he just enjoyed splashing about in nice warm water. Ambar started drying his fur while Julien put a hand on his neck in order to bring him up to speed.

Tannder and Karik have gone to Zenn R'aal to sort out what forces are available to us there, the Guide told him. I'll go and tell them what has happened and bring them back here.

No, tell him to stay there and finish what he's doing and then come back when he can. We're leaving for Kardenang right away. I'm going to stay with Niil until things there are back to normal and then we'll come back here. I'd like you to let Lord Tahlil and Master Dendjor know what has happened, and reassure Dendjor that his family are all well.

Can I ask how you got rid of the ghorr?

It's a long story. I'll tell you later.

All right. I'll go to Zenn R'aal, then. I'll meet you either at the inn or back here as soon as I'm done there.

Aïn disappeared with his usual elegance. Julien went with Ambar, Xarax and Sandeark to the house klirk and jumped back to the inn on Dvârinn.

***

The inside of the inn now looked more or less as it usually did, but outside things were far from normal. There were wild rumours afoot that the Emperor had personally destroyed a whole horde of ghorrs that had come to attack Lord Niil. Others claimed that it was in fact Lord Niil who had valiantly fought off the ghorrs, protecting his Emperor from a vicious and unprovoked attack. Some even swore that it was a lowly local sailor who had defeated the monster armed only with his courage and a small sailor's knife. The few Guards of the local militia, who normally only had to deal with the odd tavern brawl, were hard-pressed to keep the crowd away from the doors of the inn.

"Niil, I think you ought to go and talk to them," said Julien, looking out of one of the inn's windows.

"What do you want me to tell them?"

"The truth."

"Really?!"

"It would be better than whatever rubbish they invent for themselves if we don't tell them anything. And you can tell them we'll keep them informed, too."

Niil went out and stood in the entrance, and at once a murmur ran through the crowd, followed by complete silence. Niil climbed onto a stool that he had taken from the bar – he wanted everyone to be able to see him – and composed himself.

"Good people of Kardenang," he began, "and you who are just passing through: go and tell everyone the truth of what happened here. A ghorr appeared, unleashed against Yulmir, Guardian and Protector of the Nine Worlds, by an enemy who is currently unknown to us. It is thanks to a sailor from Kardenang, Tenntchouk son of Tanndjar, that we were able to destroy the beast before it could accomplish its purpose. That man, my friend, is currently in the hands of the finest Health Masters in the Empire, and I urge you to join with me in wishing him a speedy recovery from a grievous wound.

"There is no more immediate danger and the Emperor's servants are busy seeking out and destroying those who would threaten the peace of our world. You will be kept informed of their progress by official announcements bearing the Seal of the Imperial House. Of course some will claim that what I am telling you, and what you hear from us later, is propaganda designed to conceal the real truth. But I swear to you, on the honour of the Ksantiris, that we have no intention of lying to those who trust us, and that the Emperor will not put the Imperial Seal to any information that he knows to be false or biased. On the contrary, I urge you to consider with caution any information that does not come from official sources. Sometimes rumours are based on truth, but more often those who spread them find that they are unwittingly aiding the perpetrators of evil deeds. Go now, and tell everyone what you have heard!"

"Noble Lord!" cried a woman in the crowd. "Is there going to be a war?"

"Good lady, I don't know, but it is possible. We are preparing for it and you will be informed as soon as we know what we are facing. All that we know so far is in the pamphlet which has been read in the public squares and handed out to passers-by. I'm sure there are still some copies if you ask at the Community Centre. Now I have to go and perform my duty, as must you all. May the Powers of the R'hinz protect you and bring you good health."

He stepped down from the stool, deliberately ignoring further questions aimed in his direction, and went back inside, closing the door behind him.

"Nice speech!" commented Julien. "Well done, Niil."

"It's something I've been trained to do, and I had some good teachers."

"I was worried that they'd want to see me."

"They wouldn't dare ask. It's one thing to expect the local Lord to talk to them, especially if he's seen as fair, and another thing altogether to speak to the Emperor before he speaks to you."

"But what about Mistress Nardik?"

"Don't be fooled. She talks to you the way she does because she knows that's what you want. But believe me when I tell you she had to work hard to make herself do that."

"Do I really have that effect on people?"

"There's nothing you can do about it, so you just have to accept it."

"And what about Tenntchouk and Gradik – do they look at me like that too?"

"I don't know. After all, you spent quite a long time sailing with them before they found out who you are, so maybe it's a bit easier for them."

"Tenntchouk really saved our bacon, didn't he?"

"Well, actually I think that was mainly down to you. I don't know exactly what you did, but if you hadn't taken it away it would have chewed up the lot of us."

"Yes, but Tenntchouk bought me and Xarax the time we needed to do that. I really hope he pulls through – he was in a real mess when I left him at the Tower. And I saw that you were about to jump in, too, and you would have done if Gradik hadn't grabbed you. Thanks, Niil."

"Oh, right. Some effort I made – he stopped me with one hand!"

"He did it because he knew that otherwise you'd have been gutted without being able to stop the ghorr for a second."

"Well, maybe. It's just because I hadn't thought it through."

"You're a hopeless liar, you know."

"All right, all right… so, anyway, what happened after you disappeared with the ghorr?"

"What?!?" interrupted Ambar, who until this point had been convinced that Niil had destroyed the ghorr with his new wonder-weapon. Now it seemed that instead of the warrior protecting his friend, as would have seemed logical, the complete opposite had happened.

"Calm down," said Julien. "It wasn't that hard."

"Howw? Dizappeawed wizz ze ghoww?!"

Tannder had just entered the room accompanied by Karik and, of course, Aïn, whose scandalised yelping said much about his astonished state of mind. Julien blushed like a schoolboy caught in the act.

"Well, we had to get rid of it,"' he pointed out, "and I could hardly ask it nicely to come to the klirk with me. You'd explained how it works, and it wasn't so very difficult. And I'd already jumped without a klirk."

"Wonce! Yestewwday!"

"Well, anyway, it worked. Then Xarax showed me a place… come to think of it, I think it was on Zenn R'aal. It was on top of a high peak in the middle of a lake of what looked like boiling acid."

"I've heard of that place," said Tannder. "I often wondered what was the point of having a platform somewhere like that. Now I know."

"Yes, it was really easy. There was only room on the klirk for one person, and so of course the ghorr fell and I went back. And talking of going back, I think perhaps we should go back to Djang Kang. If Mistress Nardik wants to come with us to recuperate for a while, she would be more than welcome."

But Mistress Nardik decided instead to stay and look after her customers.

Julien, said Aïn, please forgive me for my reaction back at the inn. I was just scared. Of course you did what you had to, although I'd definitely prefer you to train for a bit longer before you try that again – especially if you're carrying your friends as passengers. You have to remember that if you're a few centimetres out when you construct the jump envelope the consequences can be very nasty indeed. But it's not your fault: I was in a bad mood because I should have been there to deal with the ghorr instead of swimming about in a warm pool.

Don't blame yourself, said Julien. If I succeeded it was entirely down to your training. You are an excellent teacher.

Thank you, but flattery isn't going to get rid of me. From now on I'm staying with you all the time. I'll find another Guide to deal with transporting the staff. Incidentally, the choice of Zenn R'aal was a piece of genius.

That was entirely down to Xarax. He kept completely calm throughout. I wonder if anything could make him panic…

I really wouldn't advise you to try to find out..

No, I'd rather not know. Still, since we're on the subject: why didn't you use the Zenn R'aal trick when we were attacked in Aleth?

There were several more ghorrs close at hand. Since you were able to lend me your power it seemed best just to try to evacuate everyone.

Julien smiled as he remembered their spectacular arrival on top of Bakhtar Tower. But then he looked serious once more.

I wonder how Tenntchouk is doing, he said. He was in really bad shape…

I'll go and ask in a moment. Anyway, I need to go to Aleth to recruit the Guides we're going to need. At the moment our communications are too slow – we need some couriers. Actually I'd like you to come with me.

Julien thought for a moment. He didn't really like the idea of being carried hither and yon on the pretext of his own safety. He'd come to appreciate the freedom given by his ability to travel without anyone's help except Xarax's, and he really didn't want to find himself dependent on Aïn once more. But before he could say anything Tannder walked into the room.

"Julien," he said, "we need to talk."

Aïn headed for the door, but Tannder stopped him.

"Stay," he said. "This concerns you, too."

He closed the door carefully.

"Obviously our security isn't what it should be," he said. "Someone is passing information to our enemies – someone close to us."

"Well, I promise it isn't me!" said Julien.

"It's no laughing matter, My Lord. Hardly anyone knew about your visit to Kardenang."

"It would only take one spy there to report my arrival."

"The attack happened less than ten minutes after you got there. Aïn will confirm that you can't send a ghorr to a specific destination like that at the drop of a hat."

That's true, Julien, said Aïn. You need plenty of advance preparation to do that sort of thing.

"All right, Tannder," said Julien. "What are you thinking?"

"Since this started we've tried hard not to plan everything too far in advance. Dillik's visit to his family was only decided on yesterday evening. Only a few people knew about it: you, me, Xarax, Aïn, Dillik, Niil, Ambar and Master Sandeark."

"And the security team," added Julien.

No. I didn't tell them. I didn't need to because there's another team, known only to me, stationed permanently in Kardenang – they're there to make sure that nothing suspicious happens either in the inn or on your boat while it's in harbour. Not even Karik knew about it, and in any case he was with me on Zenn R'aal."

"Well, that doesn't help us very… oh. Sandeark?"

"I'm afraid so."

Julien jumped up. "But he's with Ambar right now!" he cried.

"Not any more," said Tannder. "I took the liberty of anticipating your orders a few minutes ago. He's now with two guards and Xarax. Do you want to talk to him before I take him to be probed?"

"I don't suppose it'll do much good, but yes, I think I'd like to look him in the face now that he's been uncovered."

"We haven't actually told him why he's been arrested yet, but he's sure to have guessed."

***

Sandeark was sitting in the small library where he had been confined, and Julien's first thought was that he didn't look as concerned as he should have been. He tried to stand up when Julien entered the room, but one of the guards pushed him back onto the chair.

"Do you know why you're here?" Tannder asked him.

"If you mean 'Do I know why I'm stuck in the library and being guarded like a dangerous criminal by two men and a haptir', I've had a little while to think about it and I've come to the conclusion that you think I was involved in what happened in Kardenang. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"Then I suppose you're going to order that I be probed, and given the nature of the offence I imagine there's a fair chance that my brain won't be quite as intact once you've discovered my innocence as it is now."

"Or your guilt."

"Forgive me, but unless those doing the sounding are themselves part of a highly improbable plot they can't declare me guilty. I know that I didn't do what you think I did. And therefore I ought to warn you: I understand that this sort of probe, as well as being highly unpleasant and potentially damaging to the subject, can take some days to complete. Days during which you'll be sure you've already found your traitor. Once again, whatever you might think, I know I'm not the one you 're looking for – and so for those few days you're going to be at the mercy of an adversary whom you think you've already unmasked. I won't say that I'm not afraid of what's awaiting me – in fact I'm terrified. But my first duty is to protect the Guardian of the Nine Worlds, and that's why I urge you to go on looking elsewhere while I'm being interrogated."

Julien was impressed by the way in which Sandeark managed to say all that with a kind of detached calm. Of course he could have been faking, but if so it was hard to see what he was hoping to achieve.

"Now," Sandeark continued, "perhaps you could tell me what leads you to believe that I could be part of such an appalling plot. Apart from the fact that I've only been here a short time, of course."

"Indeed," said Tannder. "Well, to start with, you did everything in your power to get yourself assigned to this place. You even went so far as to offer to work for no pay."

"That's true. Selflessness is always highly suspicious, isn't it? I expect that you started to suspect me as soon as you heard about that. But it's hardly enough on its own to accuse me."

"In order to launch an attack like the one at the inn," said Tannder, "it was necessary to know exactly when His Imperial Highness would be there. The decision to go to Kardenang was only taken yesterday evening, and only eight people knew about it."

"If you're including me in those eight people, I'm afraid you're mistaken. I didn't find out about the trip until this morning, when Lord Ambar told me about it. In fact he didn't tell me until Dillik came to say goodbye. You can ask him – we had just started studying Dzal Niyang's Theorem. I'm sure he'll remember."

"Perhaps you found out about it from someone else."

"You know I didn't learn about it from you. His Lordship will confirm that he didn't tell me. The Honourable Master Aïn here will tell you the same thing, as will Lord Niil, if you'd take the trouble to ask him. As for the Honourable Xarax, I'm sure his devotion to the keeping of secrets is even stronger than yours. Still, I know that you can't just take my word for it and that I'll have to be probed anyway. I just want to urge you not to stop looking for your traitor while that is happening."

"It's hard to fault your logic, Master Sandeark. But as you say, my duty requires…"

"Your duty," interrupted Julien, "requires you to ask my opinion before deciding to release someone who may or may not have betrayed us. Of course, you were going to ask me, weren't you?"

Tannder had to make a visible effort to curb his temper. He wasn't used to people interfering in what he saw as his own specialist field, and nor, as Julien knew perfectly well, did he have any intention of releasing Sandeark. But he managed to bite his tongue and just nod instead.

"Master Sandeark," said Julien, "I've listened to what you had to say and I have to admit that your arguments are convincing. If it was just a personal matter I would definitely let you go. But the stakes here are far higher: we're talking about the Empire itself. Normally I would tell the Honourable Tannder to take you to Aleth to be probed. However, I don't want to be like those people who use 'State Security' as an excuse to condone the sort of unpleasant acts they consider to be necessary, and so I'm going to make you an offer: there is someone here whom I trust absolutely. I owe him my life many times over and in a way he's the guardian of my honour. If you're prepared to submit yourself to the Honourable Xarax's judgement I will be satisfied with the outcome. However, I should warn you that he might decide to kill you immediately if he has even the least shadow of doubt about you. But I know for a fact that it's extremely difficult to deceive him, and that no argument you may offer will in any way affect his judgement. Or, if you prefer, you can try your luck with the Masters of Major Arts."

"If you are prepared to trust your life to the Honourable Xarax," said Sandeark, "why should I be afraid to do the same? Let him be my judge, and if he should kill me I will at least know that he is doing so to protect the Empire, as his honour compels him to do."

"Excellent. Xarax!"

Xarax jumped onto Sandeark's shoulders and wrapped his tail around his neck. At once the mathematician's expression became blank and his body, which had tensed under the sudden contact of the haptir, relaxed so much that there seemed a danger that he might fall off his chair. A few seconds later the man seemed to wake up and Xarax jumped across onto Julien's shoulders.

The man is loyal, he said. He has taken no action against you – at least, he has no memory of doing so. But I don't think he has been manipulated, even unconsciously. He would give his life for you, as is his duty. I am certain that he played no part in the attack.

Julien approached Sandeark and offered him his hand.

"Stand up, Sandeark," he said. "I hope that now you can use your excellent logic to help us to find out from whom and how our enemies obtained their information. Tannder, this man is innocent, and I'd be glad if you would accept Xarax's word on the subject. Sandeark, please go and tell your pupil what has happened."

***

"My Lord, I must protest."

"I know, Tannder. And I'm sorry for interfering like that, but you were about to send Sandeark off to be probed. I would never want to tell you off for being suspicious because that's basically your job, but I hope you won't mind if I don't always agree with you. In this case I was almost sure he was telling the truth. I know you're still not convinced, but what he said was true: if we had stopped looking for the traitor because we thought we'd already caught him, even though there was no substantial evidence, we'd have been putting ourselves at the mercy of the real traitor. So tell me: do you think you could lie to Xarax?"

"I don't know, but that's really not the po…"

"All I can say is, I'd really advise you not to try. Personally I wouldn't dare. I'd rather trust his ability to detect a traitor than that of the whole Circle of Major Arts."

"Even so…"

"Tannder, we're wasting time. If you're going to keep feeling angry about what just happened we're all going to be in trouble before very long. I think you should make use of Sandeark's intelligence. Talk over what happened with him. There has to be some clue we haven't found yet."

"As you wish, My Lord."

"Call me Julien. And don't look like that – you might be angry, but you don't need to make that face."

"I'm not angry – I'm just annoyed because I know you're right. I'll go and talk to Sandeark. See you later… Julien."

The Health Master didn't look optimistic. Julien hadn't yet seen Tenntchouk but a look at the elderly man's face was all it took to tell him that the news wasn't good.

"Right now, My Lord, it's impossible to say what's going to happen. He's a strong man and in excellent condition, but a number of organs have been damaged. He's also lost a great deal of blood, and that would be dangerous enough on its own. But the real problem is that this wound was inflicted by a ghorr and it had already started to blacken before he got here. I have to say that I am extremely worried. I think I should prepare his friend for the worst."

"I am his friend," said Julien.

The doctor seemed to become even more worried.

"Oh," he said. "Please forgive me – I didn't mean…"

"No harm done. You couldn't have known. I'm sure you and your colleagues have done everything possible, but I really hope he can pull through. And if there's anything I can do…"

"We already have everything we need. The only thing we lack is some sort of magic power that even the Emperor of the Nine Worlds probably hasn't got."

"Would you like me to talk to his friend? I know him well, too."

"If Your Lordship thinks he could lessen his grief I'd be glad of it."

Julien went through to the room where Tenntchouk was being kept in a deep sleep in which he was at least free from pain. Gradik was asleep too, worn out by shock and anguish in an armchair beside the bed. He was wearing a powder-blue laï supplied by the Health staff. While Julien was still hovering by the door, unsure as to whether he should come in or not, Gradik opened his eyes, which were still red from crying.

"Don't get up, Gradik," said Julien. "I only came by to see if there's any news and to find out if there's anything you need."

The sailor got up all the same. He looked about ten years older.

"Tis very koind of ye, laddie," he said. "Baat Oi'm sure as you have more impaartent things to do."

"Gradik, you and Tenntchouk… you're like part of my family."

"Ye've seen the Health Maasters, laddie – whaat d'they say? They'll naat lie to you."

"They don't know yet."

"He's gonna die, ain't he?"

"It's possible. But they say that there is still a little hope."

"It's thaanks to you that we ain't been etten. I haaven't said 'Thaank you' yet."

"No, it's thanks to him. Without him I'd have been dead before I got a chance to do anything. I swear that's the truth. He didn't know whether I could do anything, but he still jumped on the ghorr so that at least I could run away. And I should thank you for stopping Niil from jumping in after him."

"Oi thaaght for a moment as he was gonna kill me with his funny little whotsit. But aafter ye'd disappeared he caalmed down an' we both tried to help Tenntchouk."

"Gradik, I know you're really worried, but don't give up hope just yet. I asked them to keep me informed of his condition, and I'll come as soon as he wakes up. Make sure they tell me straight away."

"An' whaat if'n he dustn't waake up?"

"If he doesn't wake up I shall still come to be with you and to do whatever needs to be done. But we haven't got to that point yet."

"So… how did they knaaw ye was there?"

"That's what we're trying to find out. Someone must have informed them, but we haven't found out who yet."

***

Tannder had suggested moving to another base, but he recognised that until they'd dealt with their breach of security such a move would be little more than going through the motions. So that evening's meeting was once again held with a background noise of the by now familiar Arctic gale.

"Master Sandeark has come up with an interesting theory," Tannder told them, "and if it turns out that he's right it will simplify our job a bit."

Julien looked at the mathematician.

"I'm sure Niil and Aïn are as keen to hear your theory as I am," he said.

"Well, there aren't very many variables in this problem. We have a piece of information: you'll be in Kardenang on a particular date. We know that if this piece of information is going to be of any use to the enemy they need to have it some hours in advance. This therefore excludes any possibility that the information originated in Kardenang from someone who saw you arrive."

"Isn't it possible that they were permanently on stand-by and ready to set their plan into motion as soon as Julien arrived?" asked Niil.

"Yes, but we're dealing with ghorrs here. And Master Subadar," said Sandeark with a nod in Subadar's direction, "says that to the best of his knowledge that isn't possible. Those who use ghorrs have to keep them tranquillised and wake them two or three hours before they go into action. That sort of scenario excludes an off-the-cuff action such as you suggest."

"What's more," added Subadar, "if they don't actually have a tame Guide they must be using a Neh-kyong or some similar entity, and you can't improvise that."

"In short," resumed Sandeark, "the enemy must have known of Julien's movements at least two hours, and probably considerably more, before the attack. Now, since that decision was taken, only two people could possibly have left this house, and since those two persons are Julien and Master Aïn we must obviously discount that possibility."

Nobody seemed inclined to argue with that, so he went on, "So the actual question can be rephrased like this: how can information have left this house and travelled quickly enough to reach our enemy in time for them to make use of it when the only two Guides who knew the facts have been ruled out?"

"A radio!" blurted Julien. "On Earth we have the means to send messages instantly, and over enormous distances, too."

"Exactly, My Lord," said Sandeark with a big smile. "I don't know anything about that sort of technology myself, but when I told Tannder what I was thinking he said that such a thing does indeed exist and that some of the forbidden weapons actually use it for remote steering. With your permission I'd like to move on from the how to the who: now that we know that the means to do such a thing exists, the question is who might have done it. In theory anyone who knew about the planned trip to Kardenang could have done it, but we've already agreed that none of the people who were in the know is likely to have done such a thing."

Once again nobody contradicted him.

"Therefore," he continued, "someone here did something he could not have done. At least, not consciously."

"Someone could have planted a microphone!" suggested Julien.

"Pardon me, My Lord?"

"Well, microphones. They are small devices that hear what you say. Back home spies plant things like that hidden in telephones or power plugs… sorry. Please go on."

"I don't know about the devices you're talking about, but Tannder and I have examined the possibility that something of that nature could have been planted in the house. It seems unlikely to have happened before we arrived – after all, nobody knew we were coming here until we got here. If we set aside for the moment the possibility of a traitor in the security team we only have a small number of other lines of enquiry.

"Perhaps the enemy chose the inn for their attack because it would be easier for them there than in an official or military location. Also it's not watched quite so carefully and people come and go from it all the time without attracting attention. And if they wanted to mount an attack there they'd only need to keep track of what Dillik is doing. If I was in our adversary's shoes I'd concentrate on Dillik. And that's the point in our discussion where the Honourable Tannder came up with a minor miracle – but I'll let him explain it for himself."

"I started," said Tannder, "with the idea that some sort of information collector could be hidden in Dillik's possessions or clothing. Not only is he the obvious target, but it would be comparatively easy to tamper with his possessions – as Sandeark has said, there are always people coming and going from an inn, and I'm sure it's not impossible to sneak into Dillik's own room there without being noticed. So I got one of our teams of scientists who are already looking at the forbidden weapons to examine Dillik's belongings, and they soon found what might be the devices we're looking for. They are tiny grains of some sort of metal sewn into the hem of some of his clothes. Examined under high magnification you can see that they are actually constructed devices, and we're confident that they are in fact the sort of transmitters Julien mentioned. Unfortunately they are not from the Nine Worlds and we haven't yet been able to ascertain how they work.

"We're now working our way through everyone else's possessions, including yours, My Lord, but we haven't found anything yet. It would probably still be best to destroy all your current clothing just to make sure. But it's difficult for us not knowing how they operate. They don't radiate the kind of energy used by our military transmitters. In fact so far we haven't been able to discover if they're radiating anything at all, and indeed we can't even be sure that they are what we think they are. However, we are confident that their location is not traceable by the enemy, or not accurately, anyway. If the enemy could pinpoint exactly where they were they would almost certainly have launched a ghorr at you in your bedroom in the middle of the night."

The very thought of that sent a shudder through Julien.

"The Masters of the Major Arts are currently trying to find out exactly how they work, or at least what they are actually doing. But at least now we have a clue: someone in Kardenang planted the transmitters, and eventually we'll find out who and how. So we left two of them alone. They're well hidden, so hopefully the enemy won't suspect that we know about them, and we'll be able to use them to send false information. We'll make them believe that we're confident that we've found and destroyed all the transmitters. I can use the ones we've left to send our enemy accurate but harmless information, and then later, when we know a bit more about the enemy, false or subtly altered data."

"And are you sure there aren't any more of them hidden elsewhere?"

"We're fairly sure, but we won't be completely certain until we catch the person who planted them. But it seems highly unlikely that anyone could come here at this time of year and install anything under the gaze of our security team. But since you ask, I think I'd suggest that we continue to act completely normally while we're in this house, but if we're going to have any more meetings like this one to discuss sensitive topics we should hold them somewhere else. I've located and security-checked a number of possible sites and we can pick one at random just before the meeting.

"There's one more issue: the teachers we've been bringing here to teach the boys are a weak point. I'm sure they're all completely loyal, but there's always a danger that they might let something slip about the place they were taken to. And of course they might also be unwittingly carrying transmitters, too. So we now have a choice: either we keep them here full-time or we dispense with their services. I suspect that not all of them might share Master Sandeark's strong sense of duty…"

"Our dear little boys are going to get a long holiday," said Julien. "I'm sure they'll be heart-broken…"

"Well, we'd hate it if they got bored to death," said Tannder. "So I thought that maybe we could find them some teachers from among members of my Order. Some are now too old to be on active duty, but they're still knowledgeable enough to be able to offer excellent training. And if we only pick widowers or bachelors they won't be put off by the likelihood of being stranded away from home for long periods. And of course they'd have no difficulty in observing security rules…"

"I'm not sure about having Ambar and Dillik constantly under the command of a lot of old war-horses," said Julien.

"The teachers will do what we tell them to, and if we explain that they should only exert authority during actual lessons I don't think there will be a problem. I have a few names in mind…"

"Fair enough," said Julien. "But you retain overall control of their education, all right? They respect you enough not to do anything to annoy you. Incidentally, I imagine that Karik is also going to be involved. Where is he?"

"He's now stationed in Kardenang, working as an assistant cook at the inn. Mistress Nardik is happy to have him and he'll be my eyes and ears while he's there. It's unlikely that the enemy will try the same trick twice by planting more transmitters in Dillik's clothes, but he'll almost certainly want to keep an eye on the place in the hope of gaining some useful information."

"Good. Now, unless Niil has any objection to his brother being consigned to the tender mercies of the military, I think we can happily endorse your suggestions and then retire to enjoy what little private life we have left…"

What little private life…

The time Julien valued most was when the adults had retired and left him and his friends alone together. Of course, Xarax was always lurking unobtrusively in a corner, but as well as being more or less invisible his strange relationship with Dillik did a lot to lift him out of the ordinary 'adults' category. There was an unspoken agreement to avoid the subjects they had been talking about during the day, even though they still sometimes found themselves having the sort of serious discussion that could dampen their usual happy mood. Oddly, they were still capable of laughing and messing about even though they had recently come within a hair of being killed. They hadn't forgotten about it, but they were still able to put it to one side once they no longer needed to worry about it.

Dillik, who was partnering Niil in a hard-fought game of cards against Julien and Ambar, was currently doing his best to distract his opponents using some rather underhand means.

"Dillik," Julien warned him, "it's no use pretending that your laï is too short. Sit properly or I'll make you go and put some underwear on."

"Don't pick on me – I didn't start it! Look at Ambar! It's his fault Niil keeps playing like an idiot and costing us points…"

"That's nonsense. Ambar's just too hot – and, anyway, Niil isn't interested in that sort of thing. Everyone knows that."

"Is that what you think? Don't forget that Karik's been gone for five days now."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Well, it's obvious Niil is missing him."

"I suppose I can understand that – after all, Karik can be quite witty at times."

"It's not his wit he's missing – it's his…"

"Dillik!" interrupted Niil.

"…cuddliness in bed," finished Dillik, ignoring him.

"Would you please stop talking about me as if I wasn't here?"

"You should be happy Karik isn't here," said Julien, pretending that he hadn't heard Niil. "With him out of the way Niil will be likely to spend more time with you."

"Can we get on with the game?" asked Niil.

"Oh, he is spending time with me," said Dillik. "And I'm glad about that. But he says there are some things I can't do as well as Karik does."

"I'm sure he's just teasing you," said Julien.

"No, we tried. He says that my sang neh… well, it's too small, apparently!"

"Dillik!" cried Niil.

"That's nonsense," said Julien. "Your sang neh is perfect!"

"Well, it's still smaller than Karik's. In fact yours is smaller than Karik's, too, even though you've got some hair now."

This was a rather flattering exaggeration: true, there were a few colourless, translucent hairs just starting to appear at the base of Julien's penis – a fact which delighted their owner – but you had to be under a bright light and close enough to just about touch them with your nose to be able to see them.

"Well, all right, but you know that size isn't the only thing that matters," Julien pointed out.

"He says it still has to be big enough to… well, mine isn't, anyway. He says that Karik is perfect for it. But I expect that you could…"

"Dillik!!"

"…you could do it. Ouch! Stop hitting me, Niil – you'll make me drop my cards!"

"I'm not jealous, or anything," said Ambar. "I don't mind if he does, provided that he does it with me first…"

"Ambar!" exclaimed Julien.

"What? Just because he's older it doesn't mean he has to be first in line… oh, good, that's it – we win again. It's quite late, isn't it? Perhaps we should go to bed – Yes, I think you're definitely ready for bed…"

"Move your hand, you moron! Whatever will people think?"

***

In spite of appearances and all the suggestive remarks the common kang wasn't a place of unbridled debauchery. Although the boys did spend some time perusing the Delights they approached their subsequent explorations with a certain restraint due not to shame or embarrassment but rather from the tenderness that was at the root of their relationship.. It was accepted that anything went, that you could try anything and say anything, provided that you clearly respected your partners. That respect meant that there was never any danger of an older boy forcing a younger boy to do something that he didn't want. Of course it had taken Julien a long time to get used to this: sometimes he was propositioned to do things which shocked to the core that part of him which was still a young French boy from a conventional middle class home, and he quite often said 'no' to such suggestions even though the rest of him was clearly thinking 'yes'.

Ambar had become expert at bypassing Julien's defences by making jokes about things that would otherwise have embarrassed him. Niil often played along by taking the part of an older brother who was outraged by his younger brother's shameless behaviour. And once Dillik worked out how the game was played he was happy to take on the part of an enthusiastic and rather sensuous young creature who was ready for just about any adventure on offer. So the scene which had just taken place had a meaning which everyone understood perfectly: it was an invitation for Julien to perform certain acts with two or more consenting partners which would have scandalised polite society. But they had approached it in the way they had because, while Julien was happy for such subjects to be approached obliquely, he would have run a mile if Dillik had said something like 'Niil and Ambar want you to take them up the bum, and Niil really wants you to because my dick is too small.' Furthermore, it would have totally betrayed the spirit in which the suggestion had been made.

So Ambar was claiming the right to be the first one to try this brand new pleasure with Julien. And Julien, who had so far resisted several attempts to persuade him to take a step which he thought was a step too far, had to admit that if he was finally to give in to temptation it was only right that he should do it with the person he truly loved. So, after an unusually tame evening bath – after all, it wouldn't have done to dissipate his precious energy – he went to the bedroom, where he found Ambar sitting on the bed and holding a precious ceramic jar full of an ointment that gave off a delicate flowery scent and which was, more importantly, a most excellent lubricant. This ointment, the recipe for which was given in an appendix to the Delights, wasn't new to Julien: it had already been used for a number of different activities that involved rubbing one's more sensitive parts.

Scrupulously following the advice given in the Book, Ambar carefully prepared the serki dodjeh, the 'Golden Sceptre', by copiously anointing it with the wonder balm, while taking great care not to overdo the stimulation – after all, the idea was to delay the final event for as long as possible. Then he got into the recommended position, on his back with his knees pulled up to his shoulders, and thus presented Julien with the soul-stirring sight of a pink-centred light brown flower blossoming in the hollow of a valley between the golden orbs of velvety buttocks that simply cried out to be kissed. Julien was unable to resist the invitation, although a last reflex from his rather more inhibited past almost prevented him from touching his lips to the centrepiece of the arrangement. But since he'd already committed himself to crossing the Rubicon he overcame his reluctance, and was rewarded with a big surprise: who could ever have thought that it could feel so good to kiss an…? Never in a million years would he have guessed that being in this position – his nose gently tickling the raphe, that tiny ridge linking scrotum to anus, and with his lips pressed to the delicate pink and brown flower – could fill him with such a feeling of total and absolute intimacy and tenderness towards the one who was offering himself so completely to him, holding nothing back. It actually took something of an effort not to prolong that kiss and perhaps to develop it in audacious ways that he thought might be possible. But he managed to break away and return to the path suggested by the Delights, applying good quantities of the scented balm to the gawa kortchung, the 'small pleasure ring', and its surroundings and not forgetting to ensure that a decent amount of the balm was placed within the entrance with the help of a fingertip.

In fact Ambar's 'pleasure ring' wasn't completely unprepared for this, or even to accommodate a 'golden sceptre' even larger than that of his friend, because for some time now he had been experimenting with vegetables of appropriate form and texture. In fact he'd started doing so at an age when the average European boy is barely out of kindergarten, and so he knew that it was possible to do this without damage, and even with a fair amount of pleasure. But Julien, because he was scared of causing pain – or possibly because he was overestimating the size of his equipment – said that he didn't want to do it like that, and instead he lay on his back and invited Ambar to sit on him.

Ambar gladly accepted the invitation and sat down. He did so with calculated slowness, allowing Julien to savour every second and every sensation of this new realm which he was just beginning to experience for himself.

Julien felt the head of his penis press against the yielding surface, slipping a little in the lubricant before it settled into the perfect spot. And then the supple muscle against which he was pressing began to open, widening into a ring that gradually admitted him, slowly extending the area being stimulated until finally he was completely engulfed and Ambar could lower himself no further.

His eyes closed, Ambar seemed lost in a world of bliss, radiating intense satisfaction that he had finally achieved his goal. His soft scrotum rested on his friend's groin, the skin almost translucent and revealing the outline of his two little eggs, and his small penis hard, the skin slightly retracted to reveal the dark cherry of his glans. Julien took hold of it, enjoying as he did every time he did this the texture of the skin and the warmth of the organ, both surprisingly hard and velvety soft at the same time.

And then, finally, Ambar grabbed Julien's hands in his own as he allowed himself to reach orgasm, jerking and writhing and squeezing Julien's organ with his insides in a powerful and irresistible caress. Julien went into spasms of his own as he was dragged into an overwhelming climax, at the height of which he arched his back, trying to bury himself yet further inside his partner as he reached that moment of perfect and impossible union with the boy he loved.

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