Part 14 (2/2)
”He didn't have any choice, or any time. We are in a race, after all. He told me to practice.”
”Oh, well, that absolves him of all. Will you defend everything that he does?”
”This is ridiculous. I'm not obliged to defend anything or anybody, to you. Why should I?”
”Why indeed? Why should you give the slightest thought to anything in the world beyond your own determination to get whatever you want, at any cost? Only now that you have secured this d.a.m.ned gun, and the golden Grewzian who egged you on is nowhere to be seen, perhaps you aren't too proud to let me show you how to use it?”
”What?” For a moment she was unsure that she had heard him correctly.
”We'll probably take the same s.h.i.+p for Aennorve. We'll have a few days, I can show you how to handle the Khrennisov. If you wish.”
”Oh.” She drew a deep breath. He had taken her by surprise, and she did not know how to react. After a moment she confessed, ”This isn't what I expected. I was sure you'd think it a dangerous mistake for me to carry a gun.”
”I do. But I can think of an even more dangerous mistake-for you to carry a gun that you don't know how to use. Will you let me show you?”
”Yes.” The a.s.sent emerged easily, but the next words required effort. ”Thank you.”
”Tomorrow, then.” He was too well bred to display anything resembling triumph.
”Girays?”
”Yes?”
”What in the world possessed you to enter this race?”
”Let's talk when we have more time, aboard s.h.i.+p. That's what long sea voyages are good for, you know-time.”
”Time and talk may be all that this one will be good for. We've fallen so far behind, we'll need a miracle or magic to catch up with the Stornzof kinsmen now.”
7.
THE SUN WAS HIGH IN THE SKY when the when the Inspiration Inspiration embarked from Lanthi Ume, speeded on its way by the salutes of the Grewzian patrol vessels. For hours she hurried east across the Jeweled Expanse, whose blue waters echoed the color and mildness of the cloudless skies. The air was magnificent, and the scenery uncommonly noteworthy by seagoing standards, for the s.h.i.+p threaded a path among the countless steeply pitched, colorfully vegetated islands that lent the Jeweled Expanse its name. embarked from Lanthi Ume, speeded on its way by the salutes of the Grewzian patrol vessels. For hours she hurried east across the Jeweled Expanse, whose blue waters echoed the color and mildness of the cloudless skies. The air was magnificent, and the scenery uncommonly noteworthy by seagoing standards, for the s.h.i.+p threaded a path among the countless steeply pitched, colorfully vegetated islands that lent the Jeweled Expanse its name.
Karsler Stornzof stood on the deck watching island after island go by, some so close that he needed no spygla.s.s to distinguish the close-packed white-stuccoed houses clambering up the sharp-graded slopes. The grey-green bemubit trees with their gnarled white trunks were likewise distinguishable, along with terraced gardens dripping voluptuous cascades of the purple khilliverigia, known as Youth's-Excuse, already abloom in these sunny climes.
Not all of the islands were inhabited, or even clothed in flora. Many exposed their naked volcanic rock to the skies. Others, devoid of humankind, sheltered colonies of bright-winged liftzoomers, whose iridescent plumage decorated expensive hats all over the world.
The hours and islands pa.s.sed under the sun, the memories of war receded, and earlier memories seeped to the front of Karsler Stornzof's mind; recollections of colder seas, harsher terrain, duller grey skies, and other times, better times, wherein principle and discipline supported understanding, or so he had once imagined.
But he had been a simpleton, he was starting to realize. He had been so credulous, so ignorant of reality, so unprepared. He had thought the truth of the Promontory the truth of the world, and he had been a sorry fool.
He hadn't seen that for himself, not for a while, and most of the rest of the world still didn't see it. In fact, most of the world seemed to regard him with exaggerated admiration, a phenomenon he scarcely comprehended. The troops under his command had won a few gaudy victories, the drama and significance of which had been vastly inflated by the popular press, but how many readers had ever considered the deflating reality of trained, well-equipped Grewzian strength, and enemy disadvantage?
His best Promontory teacher, the Elucidated Llakhlulz, would have had words to offer. But then, what had E. Llakhlulz himself known of the real world beyond the Promontory?
Time, salt water, and islands flowed. Karsler Stornzof watched and remembered, until a whiff of costly tobacco invaded his air. He turned to confront the Grandlandsman Torvid, and a flash of something like annoyance singed his mind before he remembered his duty.
”You dream, Nephew,” Torvid observed with amus.e.m.e.nt. Sunlight glanced sharply off his coin-bright silver hair and his monocle.
”There is little else to do up here on deck, Grandlandsman.” Karsler uncomfortably attempted to match the other's light tone.
”Ah, to be sure. And what could be the subject and source of your dreams? Victory, one might hope?”
”That is the goal of the race.”
”Sometimes I fear you forget it. There are other dreams to fill ardent young minds.”
”Or even ardent old ones.”
”Oh, Nephew, you kindle my hopes. Could you be something less of a prig than I had supposed? Is it possible, Promontory notwithstanding, that you are truly a Stornzof?”
Karsler bit back an acrid reply. The anger that filled him was irrelevant and counterproductive, as E. Llakhlulz could so well have explained. He might have echoed the grandlandsman's sarcasm, but only at the expense of large values, and therefore he contented himself with the mild query, ”You are a qualified judge of the breed?”
”As good as any,” Torvid responded easily. ”Good enough to judge the response of a healthy Stornzof male to a female in heat. Do not take my observation in the wrong way, Nephew. The little Vonahrish thing contrives to make her presence known, and it is only natural that your glands should feel the pull.”
”You allude to Miss Devaire?”
”Bravo.”
”You often cite our family name, Grandlandsman. Is it characteristic of a Stornzof, in your opinion, to defame respectable women?”
”Ah? It seems I was mistaken. You are indeed a prig of the first water.”
”That being so, I will relieve you of the tedium of my presence.”
”And an offended prig, at that. Stay where you are. I intended no affront to your well-developed sense of propriety. Quite the contrary, I compliment your taste, and I withdraw an earlier complaint. The fair Devaire is less boringly bourgeoise than I had initially supposed. She possesses a certain quality of impertinence that is not unamusing. I daresay there is entertainment to be found in bringing that one to heel.”
”The point is academic, Grandlandsman.” This time Karsler did not trouble to mask his disgust. ”As you yourself have observed, we are unlikely to encounter Miss Devaire or any other Grand Ellipse contestant again before the conclusion of the race. Your influence with the Overgeneral Brugloist has effectively crippled the compet.i.tion.”
”Yes, and I do not recall receiving thanks for it.”
”Your efficiency no doubt deserves credit. Nevertheless I cannot help but wonder if an honest race, fairly run, might not have yielded a far more satisfying victory.”
”You are perhaps too much the connoisseur, Nephew. Victory is victory and always sweet, particularly in light of the sole alternative. Moreover, your fine distinctions are inconsistent in their application. You never whined of inequity or dishonesty when the Szarish woman's peculiar conveyance was running us all into the ground.”
”In that case the advantage stemmed legitimately from Szett Urrazole's own talents and accomplishments. And her initial lead might well have evaporated later in the race. Now we shall never know, thanks to the murderous zeal of the Lanthian resistance.”
”Desperate characters.” Torvid tapped a precarious cylinder of ash from the tip of his cigarette.
”I believe so, and therefore wonder at the absence of enemy action directed specifically against us. I am the only Grewzian contestant. The Overgeneral Brugloist has interceded on my behalf, all but ensuring my success; an abuse of power-that is to say, a manifestation of Grewzian solidarity-deeply offensive to rival nations.”
”If Brugloist's intervention strikes you as morally objectionable, then you need scarcely have availed yourself of his a.s.sistance,” Torvid observed dryly. ”The Inspiration Inspiration could and should have sailed without you, for what is worth a blot upon a sweetly pure conscience?” could and should have sailed without you, for what is worth a blot upon a sweetly pure conscience?”
”As the affair was arranged by an overgeneral of the Imperium, I scarcely enjoyed the luxury of choice.”
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