David Grace - The Accidental Magician

The three Grays seemed nonplused by Buster's announcement. They shuffled their feet, each one looking nervously at his fellows. At last, somewhat diffidently, Hanther spoke up.

"You say that Obron cast the stones at your command, but this is not the accepted way. If Obron wishes to retire, then she should call in the witnesses, make her declaration, and then proceed with the proper ceremony. I confess I don't quite understand what your meeting here tonight has to do with us."

"Obron has resigned. With or without witnesses it is no longer her wish to be decision maker, as she will confirm now if you ask her. She having resigned, the stones were thrown; your lots were drawn and you are bound."

"What do you ask of us, then?" Velo responded.

"First the stones must be thrown and our leader chosen. Then I have much to ask of him and of all of us."

"Obron, is that true? Have you resigned?" Brax asked.

Obron looked up and sucked in her breath as if about to make a speech, then, eyeing Buster's hand on the pommel of his knife, she nodded her assent. In spite of his twisted frame Buster's eyes were clear. He fixed a demanding gaze upon the three candidates. After a moment a shiver of resolution passed through the Ajaj. Brax shrugged his shoulders and spoke for the group.

"Very well then, let us throw the stones and have done with this business." Brax knelt down, picked up the three dice, and made a show of offering them to Hanther and Velo, each of whom hurriedly signified that he was not anxious to participate.

Again Brax shrugged, juggled the tokens, and spilled them upon the floor. The uppermost numbers were a two, a four, and a six, a surprising correspondence with the first number of each Gray's token, a rare tie.

Brax again offered the stones to his associates, and, after some hesitation, Velo finally accepted. The dice rattled hollowly in the enclosure of his palms, then spilled out with a clatter. When they danced to a stop the result was a second tie. The stones refused to give a hint of whom the random factor favored.

A nervous glance passed between the Grays. Velo pressed the tokens into Hanther's unwilling hands. Stiffly Hanther bent to the floor and executed a clumsy toss. When the dice settled for the third time they revealed another tie.

Brax let out a long sigh and shook his head in bewilderment. "The stones refuse to choose," he whispered.

"Not so!" Buster declared. "The result is unmistakable. It is ordained that all three of you shall jointly share the post."

"No, we cannot," Hanther objected. "That is not the way. One only must be chosen."

"Our way is the way of the random factor," Velo asserted, displaying a new-found decisiveness. "Our brother is right. The stones have chosen us. They demand that we rule. I propose that the decisions of two of us on any subject shall become our law.

"Very well. Buster, we are the decision makers, chosen as you have demanded. State your proposal, and we will decide what must be done."

"Fair enough. What I have to say is precisely this:

"Hazar must be stopped before he conquers the humans and our brother Pales beyond the mountains. The Hartford with his ring and his Fanist companion are powerful allies in this enterprise. They should be freed to aid us in our struggle. Castor, our brother who was betrayed, is an Ajaj of vision and courage who should not be abandoned. The three must be rescued from the dungeon, hidden in a place of safety, and their aid against the Gogols requested. We should counsel with them on how best to spike Hazar's plans and each of us cooperate with the others in achieving this goal."

"An ambitious plan, to be sure, but practical? I hardly think so. You speak as if all we have to do to free them from Hazar's dungeon is snap our fingers. Where shall we hide them once released? How do we get them out of the city? It is all madness."

Buster was about to answer Hanther's objections but Brax spoke up first.

"I agree the task should not be underestimated-but madness? Of that I am not convinced. Hundreds of Grays work in the city. A few of them armed with simple blades could easily catch the guards unawares. As for getting them in and out, there are always the emergency caverns."

"The emergency caverns! That I would like to see. Some of the openings are barely big enough for us to crawl through. How do you propose to arrange for the passage of one as broad-shouldered as the Fanist?"

"That could be arranged, I think," Velo answered in an abstracted tone. "Most of the passages are natural caves, with more than enough room for the passage of the prisoners. At only two or three points do they narrow sufficiently to block a human. If we arouse the community possibly we could enlarge these points. It is a bold plan, to be sure, but not an impossible one."

"Madness! Madness I said before and say again. You would condemn the whole tribe to extinction with this act. Did we ask the human or the Fanist to come here? No, of course not. Their fate is their own. I say leave them to it."

"And what of Castor?" Buster shouted.

"Castor was a troublemaker-always has been and always will be. He was warned, but he went ahead anyway. He has no one to blame but himself for the trouble he's in. Why risk all our lives for his perversity?"

"You call stopping the Gogols perversity? One of our own is betrayed to the devil-worshipers and you want to throw him away like an overripe fruit? What's become of us that we can think this way?"

"Calm yourself, Buster. Hanther did not mean his words the way they sounded. Of course we are not insensitive to our brother's plight, but, not to put too fine a point on it, the truth is that the question is not whether we can rescue the three but whether we should. Is the chance of the safety of the human, the Fanist, and one of our own worth the risk? Of that we must be convinced before we can turn our backs on our instincts."

Buster took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. Passion and threats would not sway them.

"Very well, I will give you my answer as best I can," Buster began in an even, though strained, voice. "For the time being we will overlook the bondage under which we have labored for these hundreds of years, for even if we should succeed I cannot guarantee that our domination will cease. We will pass by the killings of our friends and mates, the casual tortures, the countless Ajaj killed for their pelts.

"All these tortures and terrors we will put aside, for the harm which this plan might wreak upon the Gogols will be too late to relieve the horrors already endured. I will not argue that to defeat Hazar's plans may improve our lot in the future, bring food to the bellies of those who have starved, or lessen those of our number who will die in the labor gangs when the Gogols decide that their city has grown too small and that they need a new wall beyond the one which now bounds Cicero. Hazar's defeat, the wrecking of his plans, the sowing of distrust and terror among the Gogol overlords, will no doubt distract them and turn them inward to feed upon each other, but I cannot guarantee that it will better our lot.

"Nor will I speak of abstract concepts. Not of courage, for we have not shown courage, merely cowardice, and thought to call it prudence. Not of pride or honor, for we have neither and have called their lack humility; nor of the strength needed to build a better life, for we have been content merely to survive to breed one more generation of slaves and thought to damn ourselves with the virtues of meekness and self-sacrifice.

"I will not praise the benefits to be gained from freedom or honor or the simple enjoyment of life, for none of us value these things. They are a burden too demanding to be borne. And lastly, I will not speak of the sweetness of revenge; of the extermination of those who glory in pain; of someday, after a struggle that might create terrors almost equal to those we face every day, expunging from Fane the curse of the worshipers of hell. Obviously none of these are important to you. If the lives of yourselves and your mates and your cubs, the prevention of your children's being ripped from your arms and disemboweled as an offering in a Black Mass, will not dissuade you from your course, then surely these abstract concepts can have no effect upon your decision.