Gordon Dickson - Wolfling

As they were about to land, however, he took Harn II and Adok aside.

“Adjutant,” he said to Harn, “I want you to keep the men aboard ship here after we land. Don’t go directly to your quarters to report back. Wait here in the ship until I send for you.”

Harn stood still without saying anything for a long second.

“This is against usual practice,” he said at last. “I assume it’s an order?”

“It’s an order,” said Jim.

“In that case…” said Harn, “the only thing that can override it would be either orders from the Emperor or reason for us to believe that our staying aboard would be contrary to the Emperor’s wishes. After what we’ve been through, I’m inclined not to think that these orders of yours can be contrary to the Emperor’s wishes.”

“You can believe me, Adjutant,” said Jim slowly. “It’s the Emperor’s welfare I’m concerned about. And that welfare may be better served if you men stay out of sight aboard this ship instead of going back to your quarters.”

“Sir!” said Harn II acknowledgingly. “You’re returning to your own quarters, Sir?”

“I am,” said Jim, “and I’m taking Adok with me.”

He touched Adok on the arm and shifted them both back into his own quarters. They were empty. He shifted to Ro’s apartment.

Ro was there, in the room with all her pets—hers and Afuan’s—cutting the nails of the apelike creature. But she dropped her tools and practically tackled him in her enthusiasm at seeing him again.

“Jim!” she said. “Jim!… ”

He let her squeeze him for a moment, and hugged her back briefly. Then, patting her head gently, he reached behind him and unlocked the grip of her hands so as to put her arms away from him.

“I’m sorry,” he said gently. “But the situation’s rather urgent.”

She giggled, almost wickedly, ignoring the fact that he held her hands. Her eyes ran over him.

“Is that your Starkien uniform?” she asked. “How big you look in it!… Are those bands you’re wearing still powered?”

“Yes,” said Jim, not knowing quite what to make of this sudden, mad humor of hers, and hoping that a calm answer would calm her as well.

“They are?” she giggled again. “Show me! Smash that wall there down for me—”

She broke off suddenly and did sober up.

“No, no. What am I saying?” Abruptly the ridiculous humor was gone from her. She looked up at him gravely. “What is it Jim? You look worried!”

“Worried?” He let go of her wrists. “Not exactly—but there may be something going on to be worried about. Tell me, Ro. What on the Throne World here is blue?”

“Blue? You mean the color blue?” she asked. He nodded his head. “Why… white is the color we usually use. You know that. Occasionally, a little red. I don’t think there is much blue on the Throne World nowadays, except a stray object or two that one of the High-born might’ve brought back from one of the Colonial Worlds.”

“Think,” said Jim, staring steadily at her. “Think hard.”

“But, there really isn’t any—oh,” Ro interrupted herself, “unless you want to count the usual things. The sky here is blue. And the water is blue. Oh, and”—she paused to smile again—“there’s the Emperor’s Blue Beast still hidden somewhere in the palace someplace, if you want to count that.”

“Blue Beast?” His question was so sharp and abrupt that she paled.

“Why, yes, Jim,” she said, staring at him, “but it’s nothing. It’s just a toy that he used to have when he was a baby. Only he started to have nightmares about it, and they hid it from him. I don’t know who hid it, or where it was hidden, and I don’t think anybody knows nowadays. But it got so bad that anything blue-colored was likely to—upset him. That’s why there’s never anything blue left lying around where the Emperor might see it. Why is it so important to you?”

He heard the question at the end of her speech, but it was like hearing an unimportant noise far off. His mind was whirring, and he did not bother to answer her.

“I’ve got to see Vhotan right away,” he said. “How do I find him, Ro?”

“Jim, what is it?” She was really alarmed now. “Vhotan’s with the Emperor. You can’t just go charging in on the Emperor. Oh, I know you did it once and got away with it. But you can’t do it now. Particularly now.”

“Why, particularly now?” Jim asked.

She took a small step back from him.

“Jim…” she said, uncertainly. “Don’t…”

Jim made an effort to return his face to calmness.

“All right,” he said. “Now tell me. Why is now so particular?”

“It’s just that right now there’s all this trouble going on, on the Colony Worlds,” said Ro. “Vhotan’s been sending out Starkiens to help the Governors of the lesser races put down the trouble, until there aren’t any left here on the Throne World. He doesn’t have a moment to spare to talk to anyone—”

She broke off, staring at him again. “Jim, will you tell me what it is!”

But again he hardly heard her. His thoughts were galloping far ahead under the impetus of this new piece of information. For a moment he gazed unseeingly out the transparent window of the pets’ room at the ocean shore. An ocean shore, here too? The idea that Ro must carry a sandy beach and a piece of ocean around with her to provide a view for Afuan’s pets was so ridiculous that it jolted his thoughts back into effectiveness.

“I want to get in touch with Slothiel,” he said, looking back at Ro. “Then, the four of us—you, I, Slothiel, and Adok—must go and find Vhotan, whether he’s with the Emperor or not.”

“Are you crazy, Jim?” she said. “You can’t go into the Emperor’s presence wearing power bands like that! No one’s allowed in his presence with anything more than a rod. His Starkiens would kill you out of reflex the minute you appeared. If you have to do this wild thing, at least take those power bands off! You too, Adok!”

She glanced past him at the Starkien. Her own fingers were already busy stripping the power bands off Jim’s left arm. The wisdom of what she said was undeniable, and after a second he began to assist her. A moment later he had no weapon left but the rod in its loops at his belt. Looking around, he saw that Adok had similarly rid himself of power bands.

“Now,” he said to Ro. “To Slothiel’s. You’ll have to find him for us. I don’t even know where his quarters are.”

She touched his arm, and they were abruptly in a different suite of rooms.

“Slothiel!” called Jim. But no answer came back through any of the three doorways leading off from the room in which they had appeared.

“He’s not here,” said Ro. “And it’s no use our moving all over the Throne World looking for him. He could be one jump ahead of us, and we’d never catch up with him that way. The best thing is just to wait here for him, Jim.”

“Wait?” said Jim. “Waiting is the one thing we can’t afford to do. Can’t we—”

He broke off. For Slothiel had just appeared before them.

“Welcome home, Jim,” said Slothiel. “You’re the first of our conquering heroes to get back. I heard you’d landed ship, but when I went to your quarters just now, you weren’t there. I tried Ro’s—and all I found was a batch of discarded power bands. So I came back here to look for messages—and, here you are!”

He smiled and waved Ro and Jim graciously to hassocks. Adok he ignored.

“Sit down,” Slothiel said. “How about something to eat and drink? I can get you—”

“Nothing!” interrupted Jim. “Slothiel, are you loyal to the Emperor?”

Slothiel raised his eyebrows.