The Wizard of Anharitte (11 page)

‘I’m aware of the situation,’ said Catuul gravely. “I’ve seen what the coming of the spaceport has done to us unwittingly. Thus I’ve no doubt of what would be the outcome of more deliberate manipulation. Frankly, that’s why we opted to work with you. You’ve an appreciation of what a separate identity means both to an individual and to a culture. That’s something rare in an outworlder.’

‘You can thank the director. I guess I caught my attitude from him.’

‘Well, here’s our proposal. Dion-daizan maintains many large estates and farms in Magda province. The value of the produce is a major source of Magda’s income.’

‘More than the spaceport revenue?’ Ren was learning something new.

‘Certainly much more. But the point I wish to make is that the
Imaiz
’s success in his estate policy depends on close coordination of the various estates and markets. If we destroy that coordination, his growing and marketing schemes will fall apart. Prices will rise, setting popular sympathy against him _ and he will soon acquire huge stocks of surplus. He will also find himself with excess manpower and will be forced to start selling slaves on a massive scale. A disaster of such consequence will smash his myth of omnipotence as nothing else will.’

‘How could you bring this about?’ asked Ren.

‘Dion operates a schedule of runners who daily travel between the various marketing centers and estates. We could stop a high proportion of these runners getting through—and in some cases substitute false messages of our own.’

Ren was enthusiastic. ‘When an organization as large and as dispersed as that hits communications trouble, things can come wildly unstuck. How long would it take to show real effect?’

‘Many weeks, I’m afraid. But the main harvests are nearly due, If Dion were left with those on his hands, he’d be in real trouble both with his estates and with the populations he normally supplies. Of course, he’ll send out armed patrols to try and prevent our interference—but the clansmen were born to the game and Dion doesn’t have anything like the army he’d need to stop us.’

‘So all you really require to bring the
Imaiz
to his knees is sufficient time?’

‘Time and money. I want to bring in some of the provincial societies, because the area to be covered is immense. Though we shall start hurting the
Imaiz
immediately, the effect won’t be apparent in the markets for some weeks. Therefore you’ve got to hold off the Free Traders while we do it our way.’

‘I don’t have that much influence myself, but I’ll try to make the director see the sense of it. In the meantime, muster your forces and make a start. If we can get a good scheme under way we’ll have a sure method of resisting those who want to do it the rough way.’

Vestevaal, on his return, gravely heard out Ren’s problems.

‘I wasn’t aware that Hardun was here in any capacity other than a technical backup for you. I know he has an allegiance to Renee, but this is our fight. You’ve every right to complain if he’s contemplating any actions other than those specifically agreed to by you. I respect your judgment on this issue, Tito, and I’m damned if I’m going to see you pressured into making a mistake.’

‘I’ve seen his copy of the Free Trade security sub-committee directive giving him power to act on Roget. And that battle cruiser of his is a fully equipped civil murder weapon. So I want a plain answer, Director—am I in charge here or has Hardun the right of unilateral action? Because I want no part of some of the ideas he’s outlined to me.’

‘You say you’ve seen his directive? Can you recall who signed it?’

‘Po Cresado, as I remember.’

‘Damn! I thought as much. The merchant-world pressure lobby. You can take it from me, Tito, that his directive doesn’t have the consent of the full council. Unfortunately the merchant worlds do predominate on the security subcommittee. It looks as though the internal political battles of the council have become extended to include affairs on Roget.’

‘Are you going to let them get away with it?’

‘Of course not. But it’ll take a full council session to settle the issue. I’m afraid I’ll have to return there to get the matter straight. Do you think you can contain things until I get back?’

‘I’ll try, but I’ve no jurisdiction over Hardun in the face of that directive. And if he thinks you’re out to stop him, he’s likely to move fast.’

‘Then try pretending to work with him for a while. It might just be that he’ll actually do the job for you—and at a fraction of the price. Though I fear that even our friend Alek may not find the project as easy as he thinks.’

‘Can you explain that to me?’

‘I mean the
Imaiz
himself is under no doubts about Hardun or his infernal space machine.’

‘How could you possibly know that?’

‘My dear Ren, what do you think Zinder and I talked about while we were waiting to register her bond? She gave me Dion’s ultimatum—either I remove Hardun and the battle cruiser or Dion-daizan will do the job himself. Until now I’ve had reservations. But from what you’ve just told me I can see the justification. I’ll set out to have Hardun and his ship removed—but don’t feel surprised if somebody does the job for me.’

‘I’ve told Catuul to go ahead with his plan to cause disruption of Dion-daizan’s estate-management policies. That will at least give me a lever I can use to slow Hardun down. But it will be difficult to stop him if he does want to try a decisive strike of his own.’

‘Then play it carefully, Tito. Take advantage of his successes and don’t become implicated in his failures. That way you stay on top and the name of the Company stays clean.’

‘You’ve just expressed a philosophy,’ said Ren, ‘that makes me appreciate why you have so much influence in the Free Trade Council. You never lose, do you?’

‘I can’t afford to lose,’ said Magno Vestevaal seriously. ‘And believe me, I’ve a few tricks up my sleeve the rest of the council haven’t even thought of yet. If all goes well at the council meeting, I’ll probably go on to Terra before returning here. I’ve been developing a few thoughts of my own about how to deal with the
Imaiz
—and if I can get acceptance of my ideas on Terra I can assure you that Alek Hardun won’t be rated as any serious sort of competition.’

Following through on the next part of his campaign to seek influence with the Anharitte nobility, Ren had dispatched a message to Krist Di Rode requesting an audience the following morning. The reply was favorable. Before he retired, however, Ren took advantage of the caution offered by Di Irons—he posted a guard in his chambers lest the
Imaiz
should feel inclined to take the initiative. An attempted assassination did not seem likely, but Ren had been an agent long enough to learn that warnings from an indigenous source were better not disregarded. Fortunately the night passed without incident and, at the appointed hour the next day, Ren traveled to the most eastern point of Firsthill and presented himself at Castle Di Rode.

The contrasts between this establishment and that of Di Guaard made him realize what a fortune Di Guaard must spend on useless defence projects. Di Rode was a prodigious spender, but his considerable income from spaceport revenues had not been wasted. Castle Di Rode was bathed in an atmosphere of opulence and splendor.

Though the castle was slightly smaller than that of Di Guaard, it differed in none of its essential features except that the walls and mural towers of Di Rode displayed none of the former’s austerity of outline. Here the masonry was fully overgrown with a magnificent wealth of copper-burnished creeping vines, which garnished the old stone like an overlay of finely wrought metal. Expenditure on the guard was nominal, and mainly slaves and serving-men in splendid costumes tended the gatehouses and the trim gardens.

Everywhere Ren sensed the hand of a connoisseur of gracious living, not the least extravagance being the maintenance of the gardens and the beautiful decoration of the halls. Di Rode was obviously an intellectual and an artist, possessed of an unerring sense of the overall unity of his establishment as an aesthetic whole. The numerous slaves were well tended and nourished and probably chosen for their clean, straight limbs and physical fitness. In the whole castle he discerned not one slave whose back bore the telltale scars of whip or wire. The whole atmosphere was one of serenity and quietude. This, thought Ren, was the way money was intended to be spent.

The keep of Castle Di Rode was built into the southeast extremity of the inner bailey. It held a commanding view over the Aprillo river and across the shipping lanes that connected with the inland waterways. The keep itself was no longer a simple structure. Later buildings along the walls of the inner bailey had crept around the base of the round-tower and risen to a height equal to the walls themselves. Thus the entrance to the keep was no longer gained by crossing a sterile courtyard, but rather through a delightfully random series of halls, libraries, galleries, corridors and sweeping staircases.

As Ren followed his young slave-caste guide he found himself, unaccountably at first, becoming increasingly discomforted. This feeling was in part associated with the increasing richness of the perfumes and incense with which the air was saturated, but this was only a factor—and not the prime cause of his unease. A gradual analysis of his feelings made him conscious of the fact that the rooms through which he passed were in a careful sequence of ascending extravagance and descending taste, and had already attained a level where the lavish dissipation of resources made nonsense both of the function and the intrinsic value of the items involved. This was so extreme a contrast with the exterior of the castle and the earlier rooms, that the only answer that suggested itself to Ren was that Di Rode, like Delph Di Guaard, was beset by advancing madness.

Ren’s senses protested the wrongness they recorded. When he reached the confines of the keep itself his feelings heightened to revulsion despite his efforts to contain them. Here was monumental waste with neither art nor comfort to commend it. Even the occasional alcoves were lit by candelabra mounted on the heads and shoulders of undraped slaves who stood with statuesque patience, performing a function no more important than could have been achieved by an iron pin driven into the wall.

This final debasement of living humanity caused Ren as acute a pain as he had experienced on seeing the degraded labor force at Castle Di Guaard. Profitable exploitation of others was a human weakness Ren could comprehend. To waste members of the species by forcing them to fill functions usually performed by inanimate objects was, in his view, irrational and completely indefensible. Fortunately he regained both his outward composure and his objectivity before he turned the final corner to come face-to-face with Krist Di Rode himself.

He needed all his resources to contain his amazement. He had been shown into a bare cell, whose stone walls were as stark and undressed as had been the human candelabra he had passed. A high, square window without glazing looked out only to the blankness of an empty sky, and the shaped wooden bench on which the Lord Di Rode reclined offered no possible aspect of comfort. The floor of stone flags was unrelieved by carpet and the ceilings of arched stone’ had neither light nor beauty.

Di Rode himself was also a shock to Ren. He had imagined an older, more sophisticated type of man, perhaps one trying to ward off old age by the frantic pursuit of new experience. Instead, he was’ confronted by a pallid figure of a man in his early thirties, with a face which epitomized dissipation and overindulgence yet still possessed an undeniable strength. Ren had the feeling that this curious lord had tried and become dissatisfied with almost every aesthetic and sensual experience known to man. The physical dissolution was manifest, but the evidence was that the intellectual and aesthetic interest was yet unquenched. While Di Rode’s face held a searching interest and unquestionable intelligence, it was obvious that unrestricted wealth, like absolute power, had wrought a remarkable corrosion on its owner.

With a trader’s acumen Ren had summarized this much of the man before he began to speak, subtly modifying his arguments in order to stress aspects of Dion-daizan’s activities that might have an effect on Di Rode. The latter listened to him attentively, stopping him occasionally to query some chain of fact that led to Ren’s conclusions. Then he remained for a long period in contemplative thought.

‘To summarize, Agent Ren, you’ve presented an excellent case predicting what Dion’s policy might take away from me. But you’ve mentioned nothing about the loss of what I receive from Dion while I remain his friend.’

‘We have access to the resources of all the known universe,’ said Ren. ‘There’s nothing that Dion can supply that we can’t better. Nothing at all.’

‘Does that include understanding?’ Di Rode was quietly mocking. ‘Do you have access to .some cosmic source of that?’

The unexpectedness of the question fazed Ren momentarily. ‘I don’t follow you.’

‘Think about it. If you had an unrestricted opportunity to indulge whatever whims you chose—how long would it take you to destroy yourself?’

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Ren. ‘I’d at least have one hell of a fine time finding out.’

‘Spoken with all the complacency of one who’ll never have the opportunity! But what does a man need when he’s tasted everything, satiated every appetite and yielded to every conceivable temptation?’

Ren did not answer. The question was beyond the scope of his imagination.

Di Rode continued. ‘He needs understanding. He needs discipline. He needs a father-figure who can pick up the mess he’s become, squeeze out the rot and put back enough self-respect for the man to become a man again. That’s what Dion supplies to me—psychological rehabilitation. He picks up the pieces when I’ve torn myself apart and establishes new values to replace those I’ve lost. Do you have something better to offer as a replacement for Dion’s prowess with people?’

‘We have doctors—’

‘Doctors are for the sick,’ said Di Rode cuttingly. ‘I’m not sick—just unusually privileged. With Dion’s aid I can probably crowd the pleasures of a hundred lifetimes into one. So you see, Ren, there’s nothing you can offer me in exchange for my allegiance. Wizards don’t come in tonnage lots.’