I wore an old red-and-white checked shirt and a pair of breeches that barely fitted. Around my waist in a cheap leather scabbard and belt hung a rapier and main-gauche I had borrowed from Trylon Vektor. I stared ahead and I could feel my heart thumping. This — this homecoming was what I had craved for twenty-one unendurable years on Earth.
Islands flashed past below. I saw the cream of surf, the windblown trees, here and there the orderly signs of cultivation. Villages and towns flashed past and then more open sea. Ships sailed down there, toy models with swelling sails. I looked ahead. Valka! Yes — there rose the high battlements of the Heart Heights, those inner mountains where the freedom-fighters had rallied to oppose oppression. Now I could see the coastline, the whole fantastic sweep of the Bay, with Valkanium dotting the bright slopes with white and multicolored buildings. The high fortress of Esser Rarioch atop its hill, the banners and streamers, the brave red and white of Valka, the suns streaming their glorious mingled rays upon all that vivid scene; it was a fusion of color and movement and brightness as the voller swept in a lancing curve to land on that high terraced platform.
I stepped out.
I looked around.
By Zair!
Home — home after twenty-one years and four hundred light-years. I felt dizzy, dizzied with the sheer ache of longings fulfilled.
People came running.
Many I knew. Many I did not know. There rose a babblement of voices. I laughed. I, Dray Prescot, laughed. Up above my head a patrol of flutduins curved, those famous saddle birds of Djanduin with my riders of Valka perched on them. A voller swung away, assured by the people below that all was well. Panshi came forward, smiling, holding his great staff of office, full well understanding the importance of this occasion.
"Master!" he said. He looked at me and I saw the expression on his face and I clasped him by the hand, mightily shocking him and yet perfectly conveying the impression of welcome and homecoming we both experienced.
"The Princess Majestrix! Prince Drak and Princess Lela! Prince Segnik and Princess Velia! Where are they?"
"My Prince!" he said.
And I chilled.
"Prince Drak is in Vondium with his grandfather, the Emperor. Princess Lela and Princess Velia stay with the sisters of the Rose. Prince Zeg is gone to a far-off place that must exist, for he has been there and returned, but it is beyond all men’s knowledge."
My hands were gripped together. I was aware of the throng pressing, the shouts as the word passed:
"The old Strom is back!"
I hardly understood what they said. The old Strom.
"And the Princess Majestrix?"
I did not like the look on old Panshi’s face. But he was a good and loyal man. He straightened up.
"She too is gone, my Prince."
"Gone!" I was shouting. "Gone where?"
He waved his hand before his face. The great staff of office shook against the flagstones.
"I do not know, my Prince, I do not know. But she is gone."
Chapter Eight
My private rooms, my inner sanctum, were smothered in dust. Dust and decay harbored here. I smashed the rapier flat against a chair and the dust flew. Sitting, I stared at Panshi, who had followed me here. All others I had waved away.
"Fetch me food and drink, Panshi. Send for it. You must tell me all that has passed."
"Yes, master."
A Fristle fifi I did not know scurried in with refreshment, looking frightened. When she had gone I said:
"You said Prince Zeg?"
"Yes, Prince. He is no longer Prince Segnik." Then Panshi revealed he was still the same old retainer, for he added in a more sprightly voice: "He said he would not have the nik added to his name any longer, and he fought Prince Vanden, whose father visited here, and gave the brat — I beg your pardon, my Prince
— gave the young lord a bloody nose."
That sounded likely. This young Prince Vanden’s father was that same Varden Wanek, Prince of the House of Eward of Zenicce, a good comrade to Dray Prescot, so something at least of the old alliances continued.
"Go on, Panshi." I spoke more calmly now. This was not the homecoming I had expected, hungered for. The emptiness in me rang hollow with mockery of my hope. But, after so long, how could I expect everyone to be home waiting for me?
"Prince Segnik went away — to a place — and when he returned he called himself Prince Zeg." I fancied I knew where Segnik had been, and you who listen to these tapes will have no difficulty in understanding just where he had been and what he had been about.
"And the Princess Majestrix has gone there too?"
"I believe so, my Prince. But I cannot be sure."
"Tell me."
"Men came. Strange men. They were closeted privately with the Princess, and Turko the Shield had to be told by me most stringently that she was not to be disturbed. We waited and fretted and when the Princess bade the men remberee she looked — I crave your indulgence, master — she looked sad and tired. We wanted to help; but she would not confide in us."
"Didn’t Prince Drak have anything to say?"
"He was in Vandayha over a matter of a silversmith who had adulterated his metal. There was a scandal and Prince Drak-"
"Yes, yes." I saw then that young Drak had been carrying on my government while I had been away. Well, wasn’t that the proper function for a dutiful son?
"The young Prince and Princess-" began Panshi, but in my impatience I interrupted.
"And Turko and Balass and Naghan, Melow the Supple — they are all with the Princess?" He looked thoughtful and adjusted the upper hem of his robe, for he had somehow managed to find the time to dress himself in his full regalia so that he looked at once imposing and faintly ridiculous, an eminently practical appearance for the Chief Chamberlain. "I do not know for sure, my Prince. They were called away with the Elten of Avanar to — ah — attend to the disturbances of the Strom of Vilandeul. He conceived the idea that he was entitled to the lands west of the Varamin Mountains and led an expedition-"
I felt not so much the shock of that as the annoyance. The Elten of Avanar was my old blade comrade Tom Tomor ti Vulheim. He was my Chuktar in command of the army of Valka. If the Strom of Vilandeul, a Strom governing his Stromnate on the mainland of Vallia, conceived that land in my island of Can Thirda belonged to him, there was going to be trouble. The shock, when I thought about it, was the wonder that the trouble should occur at all in the Empire of Vallia. Surely the Emperor was not so decayed as to be unable to maintain law and order? This was a matter that must be looked into. But not now; now I only desired to find my Delia. The children were quite clearly making their own lives. It was my Delia I must concern myself with.
"In this trouble, the young Prince would have been-" started Panshi.
"And so the Princess Majestrix went alone?"
He did not like my tone. He lifted his thin shoulders. "She would not listen, my Prince. We tried — she left when the Strom of Vilandeul played a false tune. I think, if I may be permitted to say this, my Prince, that when the Princess went the Strom fancied his chances."
"But Tom will fix him," I said. With Vangar and the air fleet, the cavalry and aerial cavalry and the superb Archers of Valka, my Stromnate should be able to resist this upstart Strom’s plans for conquest and occupation.
"Master, men did go with the Princess, a small bodyguard she agreed to take, and Melow the Supple-"
"Ah!" I said. At once I felt more reassured.
Staring about the dusty room with the furnishings so carefully chosen, I wondered. As Panshi poured a fresh cup of tea — that superb Kregen tea on which I dote — I prowled around the familiar room, seeing that the weapons adorning the walls had all been most carefully greased, noting the books in their serried ranks, the pictures, the banners, marking all the old items, domestic and flamboyant, that made this room and these chambers a place to feel at home, to relax, to laugh and enjoy life.