The Witches of Karres (14 page)

He reflected again. "Have they found out where the Worm World is? Vezzarn thought..."

"That's strategy, Captain," Goth said, rather coldly.

"Eh?"

"If anyone on Karres knows where it is, they won't say so to anyone else who doesn't have to know they know. Supposing you and I got picked up by the Nuris tonight..."

"Hm!" he said. "I get it."

It sounded like the witches were involved in interesting manoeuvres on a variety of levels. But he and Goth were out of all that. Privately, the captain regretted it a little.

Their own affairs on Uldune, however, continued to progress satisfactorily. Public notice had been posted that on completion of her outfitting by the firm of Sunnat, Bazim & Filish, the modernized trader
Evening Bird,
skippered by Captain Aron of Mulm, would embark on a direct run through the Chaladoor to the independent world of Emris. Expected duration of the voyage: sixteen days. Reservation for cargo and a limited number of passengers could be made immediately, at standard risk run rates payable with the reservations and not refundable. A listing of the
Evening Bird's
drive speeds, engine reserves, types of detection equipment, and defensive and offensive armament was added.

All things considered, the response had been surprising. Apparently competition in the risk run business was not heavy at present. True, only three passengers had signed up so far, while the
Venture's
former crew quarters had been remodelled into six comfortable staterooms and a combined dining room and lounge. But within a week the captain had been obliged to put a halt to the cargo reservations. He'd have to see how much space was left over after they'd stowed away the stuff he'd already committed himself to carry.

They were in business. And the outrageous risk run rates made it rather definitely big business.

Of the three passengers, one was a beautiful darkeyed damsel, calling herself Hulik do Eldel, who wanted to get to Emris as soon as she possibly could, for unspecified personal reasons, and who had, she said, complete confidence that Captain Aron and his niece would see her there safely. The second was a plump, fidgety financier named Kambine, who perspired profusely at any mention of the Chaladoor but grew hot-eyed and eager when he spoke of an illegal fortune he stood to make if he could get to a certain address on Emris within the next eight weeks. The captain liked that part not at all when he heard of it. But penalties on cancellations of risk run reservations by the carrier were so heavy that he couldn't simply cross Kambine off the passenger list. They'd have to get him there; but he would give Emris authorities the word on the financier's underhanded plot immediately on arrival. That might be very poor form by Uldune's standards; but the captain couldn't care less.

The last of them was one Laes Yango, a big-boned, dour faced businessman who stood a good head taller than the captain and had little to say about himself. He was shepherding some crates of extremely valuable hyperelectronic equipment through the Chaladoor, would transfer with them on Emris for a destination several weeks' travel beyond. Yango, the captain thought, should create no problems aboard. He wasn't so sure of the other two.

When it came to problems on Uldune, he still had a number to handle there. But they were business matters and would be resolved. Sunnat appeared to have realized at last she'd been making something of a nuisance of herself and was now behaving more sensibly. She was still very cordial to the captain whenever they met; and he trusted he hadn't given the tall redhead any offense.

SEDMON THE SIXTH, the Daal of Uldune, was a lean, dark man, tall for the Uldunese strain, with pointed, foxy features and brooding, intelligent eyes. He was a busy ruler who had never been known to indulge in the frivolity of purely social engagements. Yet he always found time to grant an audience to Hulik do Eldel when she requested it. Hulik was a very beautiful young woman who, though native to Uldune, had spent more than half her life in the Empire. She had been an agent of Central Imperial Intelligence for several years; and she and the Daal had been acquainted for about the same length of time. Sometimes they worked together, sometimes at cross-purposes. In either situation, they often found it useful to pool their information, up to a point.

Hulik had arrived early that morning at the House of Thunders, the ancient and formidable castle of the Daals in the highlands south of Zergandol, and met Sedmon in his private suite in one of the upper levels of the castle.

"Do you know," asked Hulik, who could be very direct when she felt like, it, "whether this rumoured super spacedrive of Karres really exists?"

"I have no proof of it," the Daal admitted. But I would not be surprised to discover it exists."

"And if you did, how badly would you want it?"

Sedmon shrugged. "Not badly enough to do anything likely to antagonize Karres," he said.

"Or to antagonize the Empire?"

"Depending on the circumstances," the Daal said cautiously, "I might risk the anger of the Empire."

 
Hulik was silent a moment. "The Imperium," she said then, "very much wants to have this drive. And it does not care in the least whether it antagonizes Karres, or anybody else, in the process of getting it."

Sedmon shrugged again. "Each to his taste," he said dryly.

Hulik smiled. "Yes," she said, "and one thing at a time. To begin with then, do you believe a ship we have both shown interest in during the past weeks is the one equipped with this mysterious drive?"

The Daal scratched his neck. "I'm inclined to believe the ship was equipped with the drive," he acknowledged. "I'm not sure it still is." He blinked at her. "What are you supposed to do?"

"Either obtain the drive or keep trace of the ship until other agents can obtain it," Hulik said promptly.

"No small order," said Sedmon.

"Perhaps. What do you know about the man and the girl? The information I have is that the man is a Captain Pausert, citizen of Nikkeldepain, and that the child evidently is one of three he picked up in the Empire shortly before the first use of the drive was observed and reported. A child of Karres."

"That is also the story as I know it," Sedmon told her. "Let's have a look at those two….”

He went to a desk, pressed a switch. A picture of the captain and Goth appeared in a wall screen. They came walking toward the observer along one of the winding, hilly streets of Zergandol. When their figures filled the screen, the Daal stopped the motion, stood staring at them.

"To all appearances," he said, "this man is the citizen of Nikkeldepain described and shown in the reports. But there are still unanswered questions about him. I admit I find those questions disturbing."

"What are they?" Hulik asked, a trace of amusement in her voice.

"He may be officially the citizen of Nikkeldepain he is supposed to be, now masquerading with the assistance of my office as Captain Aron of Mulm and still be a Karres agent and a witch. Or he may be a Karres witch who had taken on the appearance of Captain Pausert of Nikkeldepain. One simply never knows with these witches…."

He paused, shaking his head irritably. After a moment Hulik said, "Is that what’s bothering you?"

"That is what is bothering me," Sedmon agreed. "If Captain Pausert, alias Captain Aron, is in fact a witch, I want no trouble with him or his ship.

"And if he isn't?"

"The girl almost certainly is of the witches," the Daal said. "But I might be inclined to take a chance with her. Even that I would not like too well, since Karres has ways of finding out about occurrences that are of interest to it. "

"May I point out," said Hulik, "that the entire world of Karres was reliably reported to have disappeared about the time this Captain Pausert was last observed in the Nikkeldepain area? The official opinion in the Imperium is that the planet was accidentally destroyed when the witches tested some superweapon of their devising, against the impending arrival of a punitive Imperial Fleet."

The Daal scratched his neck again. "I have heard of that," he said. "And, in fact, I have received a report from one of my own men in the meanwhile, to the effect that Karres does seem to be gone from the Iverdahl System. It is possible that it is destroyed. But I don't believe it."

"Why not?"

"I have had dealings with a good number of witches, Hulik, and for many years I have made a study of Karres and its history. This is not the first time it was reported that world had disappeared. Nor, when it was observed again, was it necessarily within some months of ship travel of the point where it had been observed before."

"A super spacedrive which moves a world?" Hulik smiled. "Really, Sedmon!"

"As to that, I will say nothing more," replied the Daal. "There are other possibilities. For all I know, Karres still is at present in the Iverdahl System but made invisible, undetectable, by the skills of the witches."

"That, too, seems rather improbable," Hulik remarked.

"It may seem that way," said Sedmon. "But I know it to be a fact that, before this, ships have gone to the Iverdahl System in search of the world of Karres and were unable to find it there." He shrugged. "In any event, it seems much safer to me to assume that the world of Karres and the witches of Karres have not disappeared permanently..."

He stared at the frozen figures in the screen, pursed his mouth in puzzled worriment. "And besides..."

"Well?" said Hulik as he hesitated.

The Daal waggled his fingers at the screen. "I have the strangest feeling I have encountered that man before! Perhaps also the child ... And yet I find no place for either of them in my memories."

Hulik glanced curiously at him. "That must be your imagination," she told him. "But your nervousness about the witches explains why you have been conducting your search for Captain Pausert’s mystery drive in what I felt was an excessively roundabout manner. "

The Daal grinned briefly. "I have," he said, "great faith in the basic unscrupulousness of Sunnat, Bazim & Filish. And in the boldness of Sunnat. The story that came to her naturally did not mention the possibility that her clients were witches. But she and her partners are completely convinced the superdrive exists."

"And have been searching most industriously for it in the course of rebuilding the ship," Hulik added. "Sunnat also has attempted to bedazzle Captain Aron with her obvious physical assets... you, in the meanwhile, hovering above all this, hoping they would discover the drive for you."

"That in part," nodded the Daal.

"Yes. Sunnat has the greed and fury of a wild pig. I think she is not quite sane. She has not bedazzled Captain Aron, and nothing resembling concealed drive mechanisms has been found so far in the ship. Before the
Evening Bird
is
ready to leave, you expect her then to resort to actions which will force this Captain Aron or Pausert to reveal whether or not he is a witch?"

"It will not surprise me if that occurs," Sedmon admitted. "If it becomes apparent that he is a witch, I simply will be through with the matter."

"And still be unimplicated," Hulik agreed. "Of course," she went on, "if he
is
not
a witch and does
not
have a mystery drive to produce, even if strenuously urged, it's probable that he and the child will be murdered before Sunnat decides she may have made a mistake--"

Sedmon shifted his eyes from the wall screen to her, said slowly, "This drive, if I can get it, and have afterwards a little time to work in, undisturbed, will restore Uldune to its ancient place in the hierarchy of galactic power!"

"A point," said Hulik, "of which the Imperium is well aware."

He watched her, his face expressionless.

"We shall work in different ways," Hulik smiled. "If I get it, it may bring me great honour and rewards from the Imperium. Or it may, which really seems at least as likely, bring me quick death, by decision of the Imperium." The smile became almost impish. "On Uldune, on the other hand... well, I would be most interested in seeing that the House of Eldel is also restored to something approximating the place of power it once held here."

"An honorable ambition!" Sedmon nodded approvingly. "As for me, I am perhaps overly prudent and certainly not as young as I was, I could very well use a partner with youth, audacity, and intelligence, to help me direct the affairs of Uldune. In particular, of the greater Uldune that may be."

Hulik laughed. "Great dreams! But very well... We shall work carefully. I have not yet made a report that the ship once named the
Venture
appears to be at present on Uldune."

The Daal's eyes lightened.

"But," Hulik went on; "I shall proceed exactly as if I had made that report. If, in spite of Sunnat's efforts and yours, the
Evening Bird
lifts from Uldune on schedule I'll be on board as passenger… Now, I believe that little Vezzarn they've signed on for the ship is your man?"

"He is," Sedmon said. "Of course he doesn't know for whom he's working."

"Of course. I know Kambine's background. He's nothing. "

"Nothing," the Daal agreed.

"Laes Yango?"

"A man to be reckoned with in his field."

"What specifically is his field? I've been able to get very little information on him."

"He deals. High-value, high-profit items only. He maintains his own cruiser; makes frequent space trips, uses other carriers for special purposes, as in this case. He banks a considerable amount of money at all times, makes and receives large payments at irregular intervals to and from undisclosed accounts by subradio. Some of his business seems to be legitimate."

"He should not become a problem then?" Hulik said.

"There is no reason to assume he would be, in this matter." The Daal looked at her curiously. "Am I to understand you intend to continue your efforts to obtain the drive, even if Captain Aron turns out to be what I suspect he is?"