The Icerigger Trilogy: Icerigger, Mission to Moulokin, and The Deluge Drivers (94 page)

“Maybe so, but all that time we spent out on the ice, I kind of got the feeling that maybe Milliken was … you know.”

“I thought similarly, feller-me-lad, which makes recent developments all the more intriguing. You think about it, though, and everything matches up pretty well. Our friend Cheela’s a bit on the domineering side, for all that she’s a petite little package, and …”

“Don’t you have something of more consequence to speculate on?” Ethan said disgustedly.

“I sure don’t,” September replied cheerfully. He waved at the ice sheet speeding past, the broad monotonous plain of pika-pina. “Not out here I don’t. I was just wondering what the Tran would make of such goings-on. Species or no, this is a bunch of sailors we’re keeping company with. Sailors are sailors no matter what shape their pupils or feet.”

“Just keep it to yourself, Skua. What you find amusing they might consider blasphemous or bad luck or something. We don’t know their attitude toward shipboard romances.”

“Tran wouldn’t be like that, but you’re right about one thing, young feller-me-lad. I should keep my big mouth shut.” He nodded toward the quartet of scholars. “It ain’t going to be easy to keep it a secret the way those two are carrying on. Why, do you realize that yesterday they…?”

The wind roared over the bow, drowning out the rest of his words as he strolled away.

Now that the idea had been planted Ethan found his gaze drawn back to Williams and Hwang like filings to a magnet. Damn September anyway for distracting him with inconsequentials. It was none of his business or anyone else’s what the two were about. If it were true, though, he was happy for Milliken.

He discovered he was grinning to himself.

The following afternoon they encountered not a herd of the achivar but a veritable spiny army, sweeping toward them from the south. Brown and blue spines stretched from horizon to horizon. Females and offspring swerved neatly around the
Slanderscree
’s skates while an occasional larger male would try to jab the metal supports with his forespines. The icerigger sailed on through an ocean of flag-waving spikes.

“Must be a hundred thousand of them!” yelled the ecstatic Moware as he tried helplessly to decide which way to aim his recorder.

Hunnar and Ethan watched the astonishing spectacle side by side. “Never have I seen or heard of a migration so large. It is not the proper time of year.”

“Maybe their habits are different in this part of the world,” Ethan suggested.

Hunnar executed a gesture of concession. “Perhaps. You would think they would stop in such a rich region to graze, yet they push steadily northward. One would almost think they were running away from something.”

“P
OYOLAVOMAAR ON THE HORIZON
!”

All eyes turned to the lookout’s bin atop the mainmast. Then there was a concerted rush forward as crew and passengers alike strained for their first sight of the powerful city-state which had allied itself with Sofold following the battle outside Moulokin. The scientists were anxious to set eyes on the seven islands they had been told about, while Ethan, September, Williams, and the Tran wondered what kind of government had been established in their absence. Would they still be welcomed as friends, let alone as allies?

An hour later they were in among the outer islets, steep-sided volcanic buttes whose tops projected up through the frozen ocean. Neatly terraced hillsides were dotted with farmhouses of dressed stone. Smoke rose from tall chimneys. The first of the seven large islands that were home to the majority of Poyolavomaar’s population lay dead ahead.

Ethan scanned the slopes for signs of war or discord and allowed himself a silent sigh of relief at finding none. Their deposition of the homicidal former Landgrave had not sparked a civil war in their absence. “Looks peaceful enough.”

September nodded. “Someone’s taken control here, and without a heavy hand. I see new decorative wood carving on some of the buildings and the docks. Oppressed people don’t decorate. Wonder who the new Landgrave is. Maybe that young officer T’hosjer T’hos who finished off Ra-kossa.”

“Could be, but I think the nobles would choose someone with a closer connection to the throne if they could find a distant relative who wasn’t as crazy as Rakossa. We’ll find out soon enough.”

Small ice craft were turning from their courses to parallel and escort the
Slanderscree.
There was no mistaking the icerigger for any other ship on Tran-ky-ky. Those Poyolavomaarians who had been present when it had passed through on its way to fabled Moulokin recognized it immediately. Citizens of the city-state filled the rigging and lined the rails of their much smaller vessels to offer whistles and shouts of greeting.

One sleek, high-sailed ice boat pulled alongside long enough for a member of its crew to perform a feat of acrobatic derring-do which had even the hardened sailors of Sofold cheering. Using his strong claws to maintain his grip on the wood, he crawled out on the starboard rigger of his ship until he was squatting directly above the single skate at the end. Then he lifted one paw long enough to wave to his helmsman. As that individual delicately manipulated sails and wind, the ice boat’s starboard rigger rose slowly off the ice until it was careening along at sixty kilometers an hour on its fore and aft skates only. A hair more to port, and the boat would roll, smashing itself and its crew against the ice. Back to starboard too suddenly, and the impact would certainly jar the precariously balanced rider loose, to be battered against the ice or thrown beneath the massive skates of the
Slanderscree.

Neither happened. With his boat heeled as far to port as possible the daredevil young Tran gathered himself and leaped, his claws and fingers slamming into the scaling ladder built into the icerigger’s side. Immediately his own boat dropped back level with the ice. Several of the
Slanderscree
’s sailors roared their approval. Others extended willing paws to help the boarder onto the deck.

He was a tall, sleek male, not long out of adolescence. His fur glistened with youth and his eyes shone with excitement as they tried to take in everything at once. They stopped moving only when they caught sight of Ethan and September.

“It is you who helped us to regain our freedom from the tyrant Rakossa. You have come back to us.”

“Just passing through,” said September. “As for regaining your freedom, you did that yourselves.”

“Who reigns in Poyolavomaar now?” Ethan asked.

“T’hosjer T’hos, he who deposed the tyrant.”

“Picked the right individual instead of the right bloodline,” September murmured. “Sensible folk, our Tran.”

“We are looking forward to meeting with your new Landgrave,” Ethan told their visitor.

“And he glad will be to greet you. I hight Neravar Blad-Kagenn, soldier in the Island Guard. I would be honored to accompany you to the castle.”

“Glad to have you aboard.” September looked past the young warrior. His small ship had sped away, probably to convey news of the
Slanderscree
’s
,
arrival.

Blad-Kagenn’s gaze traveled from one part of the huge icerigger to the next. “I am almost enjoying myself.”

“Any reason why you shouldn’t?” Ethan inquired curiously.

Blad-Kagenn turned yellow eyes on him. “Because the world is going mad, of course. Have you not heard in the northern lands?”

“I guess not.

“What is such talk?” Hunnar had joined them in time to overhear the warrior’s last comment. Redbeard’s attitude was more formal than that of the two humans, though not unfriendly. For his part Blad-Kagenn lowered his voice out of respect for the senior knight.

“The world is going mad, or so it is said. Perhaps it is nothing more than a rumor.”

Hunnar glanced at Ethan. “Something we should be looking into?”

Ethan shrugged. “Too soon to say. We’ve business of our own to take care of. One crisis at a time.” He returned his attention to Blad-Kagenn. “Tell us of your new Landgrave. We met him only briefly when last we passed through your territory, and at that time he was only a soldier, not a ruler.”

Blad-Kagenn told them of how Rakossa’s line had been formally deposed and how the nobles, to make peace quickly, had settled on the young soldier to lead them. None were sorry to learn of Tonx Ghin Rakossa’s death. His madness and not-so-private depravities had been both an embarrassment and threat to the population for many years. Rakossa’s spies had been everywhere, but when T’hosjer removed the head of the monster, the body dissipated quickly.

The
Slanderscree
was in among the seven main islands now. Ta-hoding slowed the ship lest they run over one of the smaller vessels plying the iceways. At the main island more cheers awaited them, though Ethan thought the shouts and roars oddly subdued.

Blad-Kagenn proudly escorted them around the harbor and up the steep slope that led to Poyolavomaar’s castle. T’hosjer T’hos was still the tall and, by Tran standards, slim soldier Ethan barely remembered from their previous visit. He greeted Ethan and Skua as friends and embraced Elfa and Hunnar, his recently acquired allies in the Union of Ice. Court retainers looked on approvingly. It was a good thing, this alliance. There was none of the nervous whispering or sidelong suspicious glances that normally attended such a meeting. The sycophants and fawning bodyguards who had surrounded Rakossa were gone.

Chairs were brought forward. They were wide enough to accommodate folding winglike dan—or a loose-fitting survival suit. Drinks arrived in the company of a court recorder who would write down whatever was said between Landgrave and visitor.

“I did not expect to see any of you so soon again,” the young Landgrave told them.

“Nor we you,” replied Elfa.

T’hos adjusted his dan and leaned forward. “I think I preferred soldiering to administration, but I could not refuse the honor to my family. Tell me now: What changes in the north? What have you seen, where have you been, and how does the Union progress?”

“The Union is solid as the rocks and grows larger and stronger every day,” Elfa told him. “As for what changes there have been”—she nodded demurely toward Hunnar—“I have taken a mate.”

T’hos smiled broadly at the Sofoldian knight. “This means that I will not be able to strengthen the Union by a marriage between our two states.”

Hunnar nodded and kept a straight face. “There are many young females of marriageable age and noble birth in Sofold.” His tone turned serious. “Much have we seen and learned since last we made landfall in Poyolavomaar. Enough to last a curious soldier several lifetimes.” He nodded toward Ethan and Skua. “Our new friends have ships that fly through the sky and devices that enable them to talk across more satch than separate Sofold and Poyolavomaar. As soon as the Union becomes strong enough and we are able to join in this greater union they call their Commonwealth, we too may be permitted to make use of such wonders.”

T’hos’s whiskers rose. “This is a time I must live to see! I have sent emissaries to Warreck and Vem-Hobar asking them to join in our Union. They have reacted with suspicion and evasion, which is to say, normally. I have hopes of winning them over together with several smaller outlying city-states. We could compel them to participate by force of arms but”—he glanced sideways at Ethan—“you say this is not how your government prefers a union to be formed.”

“Not really.” It wasn’t much of a prevarication, he reflected. Actually the Commonwealth didn’t care how primitives created their planetary governments. Conquest was as acceptable as argument. But the Tran were warlike enough. By giving soldiers like T’hos no option Ethan hoped to preserve lives and property. A union that came into being with as little bloodshed as possible would be the stronger for it.

“Continue your discussions.”

“Such is what we are doing,” T’hos assured him. “In the end I am confident reason will prevail. It is merely a matter of time. It is only that I am personally impatient to qualify for these benefits you spoke of when last you paused among us.” A puzzled expression crossed his face. “Was I then wrong in believing that you would not return here?”

Elfa dipped her head slightly and cut her eyes sharply toward her human companions. The double gesture was rich with suggestion, not all of which Ethan comprehended despite the months he’d spent living among the Tran.

“It seems that Sir Ethan and Sir Skua found our company so pleasing they decided to remain awhile longer among us.”

“Not on your whiskers,” September growled, not caring if he insulted half the organized government of Tran-ky-ky.

“I came along to keep him out of trouble and that’s the only reason I came along.” He nodded toward Ethan.

“We know well what a rugged and unfeeling person you are,” Hunnar said sardonically.

T’hos was staring past them, toward a high window which overlooked the harbor below. “Do you wish to know what I have thought of every day and night since you left? To ride one of your sky boats and see my world from above, as the long-winged
urlus
do. I have climbed all the major peaks of Poyolavomaar but it seems to me not the same.” He extended both arms to display his veinous dan. “These flaps of skin make chivaning a delight, but they will not allow us even to glide.”

“I promise,” Ethan told him, in defiance of any relevant regulations, “that as soon as the Union is accepted by my government, as representative of the Tran I’ll get you up in a skimmer or a shuttle somehow. I’ll have to have an aircar to carry out my new work here and I’ll bring it to Poyolavomaar just so you can have a ride.”

“Wonderful, wonderful!” The young Landgrave clapped his paws like a cub. “If only the world does not end before this happens. Some say it is going mad.”

“We heard the rumor,” September commented. “Maybe you could tell us a little more about exactly what—”

“Your pardon for interrupting.” Ta-hoding had been waiting patiently off to the side until he could stand it no longer. “We have a problem that is based on fact and not rumor, good Landgrave. As many of our crew were desirous of returning to their homes, we have sailed here with a minimal crew. My people are exhausted and in need of relief. The humans who are our passengers have been as helpful as they can be, but experienced ice sailors they are not.” He indicated Williams, Cheela Hwang, and the rest of the research group who were studying the wall hangings and stone carvings that decorated the Landgrave’s hall.