Part 102 (1/2)

”I wouldn't dream of it. You taught me my lesson very effectively.”

The King herded Elizabeth and the others to the exit. He said over his shoulder, ”Nothing personal, Marc-but when I get back I'd better find you gone. We've about come to the end of the line in this friendly enemies routine. Fair warning.”

Marc nodded. ”En garde, then, Little King.” And to Elizabeth: ”Au revoir.”

The true disparity between the Tanu and Firvulag numbers became evident as preparations for the mental tug-of-war neared completion. Emptied of all nonmetafunctional humans, the Tanu grandstand had ominous expanses of empty seats, but the accommodation of the Firvulag was jammed to overflowing.

Greggy and Rowane had been banished from the royal enclosure of the Little People along with the rest of the nonpartic.i.p.ant Howlers. But rather than joining Sugoll and Katlinel on the sidelines, they sneaked down to the booth between the stands that housed the control room of the Staging and Properties staff.

”Rank do hath its privileges,” the Genetics Master crowed to his awed protegee. ”And down here, we'll see not only the dragons but also the monitoring panels showing which minds are faltering and ready to drop out of the metaconcert.”

”Ooo!” said Rowane.

Out on the Field of Gold an astonis.h.i.+ng contrivance had been erected in place of the morning's fiery fountain. Its base was an artificial hill as wide as the paired grandstands and fifteen metres high, it was roughly conical in shape, with large cavelike apertures on the right and left flanks and a summit crater.

The sham mountain harboured monstrous twin serpents.

The one on the righthand Firvulag side was glistening black with fangs and eyes as red as carbuncles. Its opposite number had golden scales, and eyes and teeth of bright amethyst. The heads of the snakes protruded from their respective lairs with jaws agape. It seemed that somewhere in the depths of the mountain their bodies met, entwined, then reared upward from the central crater mouth to form a great knot high in the air.

From this sky-knot the tails of the serpents curved down in identical arcs, the black tail apparently being swallowed by the golden serpent and the golden tail by the black. The overall effect given by the huge stage prop was that of an enormous wheel, half golden and half black, mounted in an upright position and partially embedded in the base of imitation rock.

”I call it the double Ourobouros,” the senior of the two human technicians in charge of the spectacle informed Greggy and Rowane. ”But old Lars, over there at the grandstand grounding monitors, likes Siamese Mithgarthsormr better.”

”Will you explain its functioning, Master Baghdanian?”

Rowane requested. ”You must pardon my simplicity, but I am not quite able to grasp how such a device is to be used in a metapsychic tug-of-war.”

”I'm all at sea, too!” Greggy giggled. ”My golden torc's honorary, you know. But I must say, the gadget is madly impressive.”

”Wait till you see the electrostatics in action,” Lars offered with a grim smile. ”I just wish the voltage was high enough to fry these exotic sonsab.i.t.c.hes insteada just making their brains twinge.”

Baghdanian gave his colleague a resigned look. ”Just ignore Lars' xenophobia, folks, and observe instead the displays in front of him that monitor the Tanu and Firvulag grandstands.

Red lights for Little People, amber for the Tanu and human torcers. Intensity of light roughly proportional to cerebral wattage.”

”The twinkling yellow jobbie on the Tanu display is our s.h.i.+ning Hope, Aiken-Lugonn himself,” Lars said.

The senior man listened to some message coming through his comset headpiece. He thumbed a few switchpads, checked out something or other, and said, ”We'd better make this quick, folks. We're almost ready to start. Okay ... all the people in both grandstands are incorporated into the game's electrical circuitry just as long as they keep their seats. They stand up, that means they resign the game. Got that?”

”Mm,” said Greggy, suppressing a snicker. ”Fundamental antagonism!”

”You know about mindpower, metafunction having electromagnetic components?” the technician asked rather dubiously.

Greggy sighed. ”In my less irrational moments I am a doctor of medicine, of genetic science, of philosophy, and of humane letters (honorary).”

”Right,” said Baghdanian. ”Now just take a careful look at the snake setup out there. What we've really got is a gigantic ring, standing up like a skinny ferris wheel. The tails of the snakes going into the mouths make a complete circle through the inside of the mountain and also through the knot up top.

The central twisty-twiney part just disguises the frame that supports this big scaly ring made of electroconductive material.”

”The whole ring's not conductive,” Lars interrupted.