The Protector of Hestia, a Satanic figure with horns and glowing eyes, scattered settlement grants among swarms of dwarfish, misshapen creatures who poured gold into his palm in return. In another part of the mental image, winged, haloed angels in shining armor from the planet Zenith were in battle with the dark legions of worlds settled by the Asian Sphere. Behind these angels, the dwarfs spread across Greenwood despite anguished looks from the hard-pressed Zeniths.
Mark dabbed his finger at the viewer's switch. The fantasy images stopped, but he couldn't sit up when he first tried to. "Wowee!" he said.
The software was close but not quite the same as Mark's hypnagogue had been designed for. The unit had filled his head with the personified moods and emotions of the book's author rather than the stated facts on which those beliefs were based. The influx was totally disorienting.
"Wowee," Mark repeated softly.
He'd thought he'd be able to pick up better information about the frontier as he got closer to it, but he'd found very few books for sale after he left Quelhagen. Part of the problem was that what book chips there were had been published in quirky local formats, so that you had to have a special viewer to read them.
Mark had shopped for information on every planet where he laid over, but he'd found only one place that had both books and viewers of the same style for sale. That was Heavenly Host, a world settled by a sect which believed rocks had souls and which published tracts explaining its faith on carbon-based chips. Using silicon would have been sacrilege.
Mark hadn't bought any of their material.
When Mark found a geography text published in standard Atlantic Alliance format that his hypnagogue could read, he'd thought it too good to be true. As usual, such apparent windfalls were too good to be true.
The world spun for a moment. When it stopped, Mark was no longer seeing double, though he was a little dizzy. Wowee.
He got up from the bench very carefully. Normally hypnagogue software either worked or it didn't, so this had been a real surprise. There were probably people who'd pay for the experience. A different subject matter would have more appeal, though.
Despite the book not being suitable for sleep-learning, Mark could still read about Greenwood. Not in this room, though. He picked up the viewer and went out into the domed court again. It wasn't so much that he wanted company; he just didn't want to be alone with the echoes of heaven and hell fighting in his head.
The four Zeniths had finished their meal and were passing a bottle around. Mark tried to imagine them with wings and haloes. He couldn't, but at least the effort made him smile.
Somebody had left a heavy metal bucket overturned on the other side of the circle of benches. Mark went to it, checked for other claimants, and sat down. He switched on his viewer, this time using it to project text in air-formed holograms instead of as a hypnagogue.
Nearby, two men with linked arms sang, "From this valley they say you are going," lugubriously. Then they sang, "From this valley they say you are going," again. Each man held an empty bottle in his free hand. Their voices weren't bad.
Mark began to read about the settlement of Greenwood. The Alliance administered newly discovered worlds through the protectors of established colonies. There was no point in sending personnel to an unoccupied planet, and it wasn't practical to govern directly from Paris a place weeks or months out in the interstellar boondocks.
Grants of extraterritorial authority to the protectors were generally fuzzy, because nobody on Earth really had a clue about what was going on at the frontier. Inevitably, some protectors exceeded their proper authority. One of the worst examples of this was the long-serving Protector Greenwood of Hestia. He'd sold settlement grants for a planet that was clearly under the jurisdiction of the Protector of Zenith. To add insult to injury, Greenwood had named the planet after himself.
According to the book's author, Greenwood had gotten away with this arrant banditry-besides payments to the Alliance, the grantees paid fees to Protector Greenwood himself-because the protectors of Zenith during the period were lackadaisical. Furthermore, Zenith's chief citizens were wholly occupied in prosecuting the war against proxies of the Eastern Sphere.
Mark snorted and set down the viewer. That wasn't how he'd learned history on Quelhagen. The chief citizens of Zenith had always been concerned first with avoiding risk to their own skins. Their closely second desire was to make money. So long as the Proxy Wars went on, there wasn't enough money in those settlement grants to make them worth arguing about. Greenwood was wide open to Eastern attack, particularly before Alliance forces finally captured the huge Eastern base on Dittersdorf Minor. When the fighting stopped, it was time for Zenith money-grubbers to get interested.
Mark started to read again. His surroundings were a living hum, but he wasn't aware of any single aspect of them.
Somebody kicked the bucket out from under him.
Mark jumped upright, squarely on his feet. The bucket clattered from the bench between the two friends as they moaned, "From this valley…"
Mayor Biber's four baggage handlers ringed Mark. The leader, Griggs, looked disgruntled. He'd obviously figured that when he kicked Mark's seat away, Mark would fall on his ass.
That would have been Mark's guess too. It looked like instinct and his gymnastics training had paid off. The Zeniths didn't seem about to applaud, though.
"What you reading, cutie?" one of the men said. He flicked a hand at the hypnagogue. Mark jerked it clear. The Zenith behind him jolted him forward hard; Griggs pushed him back.
The caravansary watchman hunched down in his kiosk to avoid seeing what was going on in the common court. He wasn't armed, so there wasn't a lot he could have done anyway, but Mark would have appreciated even a shout just now.
The Zeniths' breath stank of the liquor they'd been drinking. Based on the smell, Mark suspected that a lab report on the booze would read: YOUR HORSE HAS GONORRHEA.
This was a bad situation, and it was likely to get worse fast. Other travelers moved quietly away from Mark and the Zeniths. Even the two singers stood up and wove across the common court toward the latrine.
"I don't like cute boys, fellows," Griggs said ironically to his companions. "Do you guys like cute boys?"
"Gentlemen, I'm very sorry if I've given you offense," Mark said. He tried to keep eye contact with Griggs while he folded the hypnagogue shut. It was a fairly rugged unit, but it could be broken if somebody tried hard enough.
So could Mark himself.
"Don't have no use a'tall," another Zenith said. He swept a big boot at Mark's ankle to knock his feet out from under him. Mark skipped over the kick. The Zenith swore and punched Mark hard on the shoulder.
There was absolutely no reason for what was happening, except that Mark had been reading. And, of course, that he was available.
Dr. Jesilind opened the door of Room 14 and peered out furtively. He caught Mark's eye for an instant, then ducked back. Jesilind's lock clacked shut audibly.
"Let's see what you got there, cutie," Griggs said. He stepped forward, reaching for the hypnagogue. Mark dodged between Griggs and another Zenith. He walked-just short of ran-toward Room 36. He wished he hadn't locked the door when he came out.
"Hey, where you think you're going?" A Zenith demanded, grabbing Mark's arm. Mark tried to shrug loose. He couldn't. Two of the luggage handlers were a bit bigger than Mark, while Griggs and the fellow holding Mark's arm outweighed him by a good hundred pounds.
"Sir, I must ask you to let go of my sleeve!" Mark said in a voice that snapped with authority. Only moral authority, though, and that wasn't what was called for at the moment.