Barrington Bayley - Star Winds

When he could he avoided Matello who, nominally Duke of Koss now, had taken to prowling the Aegis in a fury of pent-up energy, lashing out angrily with his tongue, and sometimes his fists, at anyone he met. Rachad, who himself was utterly appalled by the way events had turned out, did not see how the baron would be able to endure his imprisonment, even in so capacious a refuge as the Aegis. He feared that he would do something foolish, such as open up the Aegis again so as to go down in a blaze of glory.

He had spoken to Zhorga about the dismal prospects for them all. The former merchant airman had stuck out his lower lip glumly.

“We’ve got two choices: either to stay here or take our chances with the Kerek,” he had said. “They’ll be crawling all over Maralia by now—and I reckon it won’t be long either before they get to Earth.”

One night, as Rachad lay in his private room, restlessly trying to sleep, the door opened slowly, and someone entered.

Rachad quit his bed and raised the wick of the night lamp. The intruder closed the door behind him and stared solemnly at Rachad.

“Wolo!” Rachad exclaimed in surprise. It was one of Amschel’s assistants, clad in a plain blue robe. Wolo nodded his head in greeting.

“The master has sent me to take you to him,” he said calmly. “Kindly get dressed, and come with me.”

Rachad felt an acute embarrassment “Why does he want me? He knows?…”

“That you opened the Aegis to the duke’s enemies? Yes… but the fastness of the Aegis is not, after all, Master Amschel’s concern. His work nears culmination. He reminds you of his promise.”

“Promise?”

“He made a bargain with you.”

“Oh. Yes.” A note of suspicious belligerency entered Rachad’s voice. “Well, what if I refuse to come with you?”

Wolo lowered his head, as if understanding something. “I see… Then I will bid you good night, Master Rachad. I will inform the master that you have no interest in the Stone of the Philosophers.”

“Wait!” Rachad said as the other turned to go. “I’ll come.”

Quickly he dressed. Having come this far in pursuit of Gebeth’s goal, he might as well see the business through, he thought. At least it would provide a temporary diversion in what promised to be a lifetime of tedium.

Wolo led him calmly and confidently toward the maze. The Aegis seemed to be sleeping. Once they heard the sound of carousing, as some of Matello’s troops, in defiance of King Lutheron’s orders, disported with the Duke of Koss’s former courtesans. Then they were in the maze, and a distracted look came over Wolo as he repeated the sequence of numbers he had learned, guiding Rachad through into the dim wood.

In the laboratory, Amschel was waiting, wearing a colorful smock on which were woven patterns of star clusters. He sat at a table on which lay The Root of Transformations , the two halves bound together now in lead covers. Beside it was a thick pile of loose papers.

“Good evening, Rachad,” he greeted genially. “Your intrusion into our lives was not, it seems, entirely from honest motives.”

Rachad reddened, and felt sufficiently stung to retort angrily. “What I said was true—I did come to Maralia to obtain the secret of the Stone, though originally I had expected to look no farther than Mars. As for the other thing—yes, I admit it. Baron Matello sent me in here, to open the Aegis and unseat the duke. And for good reason!” Rachad’s voice became more heated. “Don’t you know what’s going on outside? Humanity is being invaded! Koss’s estates could have helped in the war—but now it’s too late!”

“Oh, I am aware of what is happening,” Amschel said quietly. “Did I not tell you that I am a much-traveled man? At a time when Matello and his ilk took cognizance only of their own private quarrels, I already knew how scant mankind’s chances were of prevailing against the Kerek.”

“And so you hid yourself in here and studied philosophy!” Rachad accused. “Why didn’t you invent new alchemical weapons to fight the Kerek, instead? That’s all alchemy is good for anyway, Baron Matello says.”

“Weapons alone will not prevail. The Kerek are too numerous, too ferocious, too resourceful. They will swallow Maralia, then Wenchlas, as they have swallowed others. As they go their numbers increase by reason of their control over captured populations. A large part of the galaxy, if not all the galaxy, may one day comprise the Kerek empire.”

“How readily you seem to accept it,” Rachad muttered.

“I fight the Kerek in my own way,” Amschel told him. “At last I have made azoth . I have impregnated it with all five elements in equal measure. Now only the last two operations remain to be performed: reduction to prima materia , and the creation from that of the Stone. I believe I now have sufficient information to carry these operations through to completion.” He gestured to the book and file on the table. “There is The Root of Transformations , together with a set of my explanatory notes. Together they form an extremely valuable corpus of knowledge. You may take them, in fulfillment of my promise.”

“Why are you giving them to me now? Why not after you have made the Stone?”

“Immense energies are involved in the final operation,” Amschel explained. “The process could go wrong, the laboratory could be destroyed. Then this knowledge would also be destroyed.”

“I see… But how will the Stone help you fight the Kerek? Is it some sort of weapon, then?”

Amschel smiled. “No, the Stone is not a weapon. The true secret of Kerek strength is not, in fact, in their fighting ability but in the factor known as the Kerek Power. I have visited a Kerek planet, and I have seen how this power works. It is a mental force that takes command of cogitation. When under the Kerek Power a man’s thoughts are not his own—they are given him by the Power, and he is unable to generate thoughts from his own consciousness. This force is such that the human mind is unable to withstand it, and that is why the galaxy may, in time, be dominated by a single mentality, a single thought.”

He paused before continuing. “But a man who possesses the Philosopher’s Stone is proof against the Kerek Power. His thoughts are his own, his consciousness is complete and invulnerable. He can rotate the elements, he can expand his consciousness into the macrocosm.” Amschel shrugged, spreading his hands. “Perhaps, with Hermetic art, I could indeed do much to help combat the Kerek. I could create armies of semi-beings. Armed with the Stone, perhaps I could even turn Ouroborous, the great serpent of nature, against them. But still they might be victorious, and then we would have lost forever, with no man free of the Kerek Power. No, I must think centuries ahead. I shall be subtle. I shall train adepts. I shall formulate simpler paths to the Stone, paths requiring but rudimentary apparatus so that the great work may be carried out in secret. Only in this way can I ensure that others besides myself remain free of the Kerek Power—for it is a law that only he who himself prepares the Stone may possess it. A secret brotherhood of those not subject to mental slavery will come into being, albeit that the whole galaxy lies under the Kerek Power.”

“Is this the reason for your work?” Rachad asked.

“I sought the Stone for its own sake. But to save mankind—that, certainly, has increased the urgency.”

“And the duke—was it also his aim?” Rachad continued, thinking that perhaps he had wronged the haughty aesthete.

Amschel snorted softly. “The duke? No. His interests always began and ended in himself.”

Again Amschel indicated the documents on the table. “Take these, then. Wolo will take you back through the maze and stay with you. After three days you may return.”