The Adversary - 4 Read Free Page B

weapon, which he promised to recharge and return to them. Actually, Aiken had no intention of aiding his former compatriots. Encouraged by both Mayvar and Gomnol, he aspired to become King of the Many-Coloured Land by defeating Nodonn in the upcoming Grand Combat. He warned his confederate Gomnol to protect the torc factory against the saboteurs; then he flew north, disguised as a bird, in order to thwart Claude and Madame's attempt to close the time-gate. In this he failed. Sacrificing themselves, the elderly couple carried a warning back in time to the Milieu authorities, and the time-gate operation was suspended.
    The saboteurs infiltrating the torc factory were surprised by a force of Tanu knights, members of the Host of Nontusvel, who had been sent by Nodonn. Of the surviving humans, Felice was turned over to Culluket the Interrogator for torture, while Sister Amerie, Chief Burke, and Basil were thrown into a dungeon to await death during the Grand Combat. The human Lord Coercer, Gomnol, was mind-blasted to death by the Host in a subterfuge, and the blame was put on Felice.
    As the time of the Grand Combat approached, a number of crises reached a critical stage. Aiken, deprived of his powerful ally, Gomnol, found himself endangered by Stein. The big crust driller had been imprisoned with Sukey, now his wife, and his sanity was beginning to totter because of the unhealthy effect of the grey torc he wore. There was a chance that Stein might inadvertently reveal that Aiken conspired against the Tanu.
    Resisting the temptation to kill his friend, Aiken asked Mayvar to get Stein and Sukey out of Muriah, beyond range of the Host's mental snooping. Mayvar agreed, then went to a meeting of the clandestine Tanu Peace Faction. This group hoped that Aiken would succeed in his bid for the kingship and bring a new era of peace and civilization to the Many-Coloured Land. Among the peacelovers was Minanonn the Heretic, once Tanu Battlemaster, who had been forced into exile deep in the Pyrenees.
    Brede Shipspouse let Elizabeth leave the room without doors when she saw that the human metapsychic was determined to live a life free of responsibility. Elizabeth agreed to take Stein and Sukey away with her in her three-place hot-air balloon. She awaited arrival of the pair on a mountaintop above Muriah.
    Creyn the redactor fetched them from prison-but he could not help bringing Felice, too, whom he had found unconscious and near death in an adjoining cell, in hope that Elizabeth would give up her place in the balloon to the tortured young athlete.
    Elizabeth was trapped by her own altruism, even though convinced that the Shipspouse had planned this to forestall her escape. Finally, Elizabeth sent Felice, Stein, and Sukey away in the balloon, and she returned to the room without doors, where she withdrew into a fiery mental cocoon that isolated her from Brede and all other minds.
    The time of the Grand Combat had come. Virtually the entire population of Tanu and Firvulag-together with large numbers of human slaves, assembled on the White Silver Plain below Muriah for the ceremonies and the ritual war. Aiken was appointed by Mayvar to be a leader in the Combat; he had attracted many adherents among the Tanu and hybrid warriors.
    In a preliminary contest, Mercy overcame Aluteyn Craftmaster to become the new President of the Creator Guild.
    Hundreds of kilometres west of the White Silver Plain, the three escaping balloonists were enacting a drama that would ultimately affect the fate of the unsuspecting combatants.
    In his torture of Felice, Culluket the Interrogator had unwittingly duplicated a drastic mind-altering technique that Elizabeth had used on Brede to raise her to operancy; now Felice had gone operant, too, and no longer needed a torc to exercise her metapsychic powers. These powers-at least the destructive aspects of psychokinesis and creativity-were greater than those of any other person in the world. The girl's incipient psychosis