“Good as new in a few days,” he predicted.
“But what are we going to do with a wounded rat for a few days?” Helm almost wailed. “Helping him, fine; but it’s already crowded in here!”
“Easy,” I said. “Throw him back out in the rain.”
Helm and Smovia both stared at me; Smovia was grinning slightly.
“Sir! You wouldn’t!” Helm blurted.
“That’s right, I wouldn’t,” I told him. “You were about to suggest…?”
“Well, Colonel,” he offered, “as to that, I―” He let it hang, then, “Well, sir, I guess . . . I guess I was out of line―again.”
“It’s all right, Andy,” I said. “That’s how we all learn. Let’s get him into a bunk.”
“What bunk, sir?” Helm wanted to know.
“Yours,” Smovia said. “You’re junior officer here. They made me a lieutenant colonel.”
“Later,” I suggested, “we can clean out the auxiliary stores bin and fix him up in there.”
“Sure, sir,” Helm offered. “I’d be glad to―”
“The colonel said ‘later,’ son,” Smovia reminded him.
Swft was stirring; his eyes opened and sought me. When we’d made eye contact, he gasped out, “Colonel! We’ve got to get away from here at once! We’re in the Desolation! You have no idea―!”
“I think maybe I do,” I corrected him. “We have our own Blight, remember, surrounding the Zero-zero line.”
He went on to describe the utter, well, desolation of the Desolation. Here, the gone-wrong experimentation had actually created a flaw, or discontinuity in the fundamental creation/destruction cycle, with the result we could see outside. Life hadn’t prospered here.
“Who were the fellows who shot you?” I asked him out of context. He looked surprised, if I can read alien emotions.
“Why do you say I was shot?” he demanded.
“The doctor has just removed the slug,” I told him.
“ ‘Slug’?” he queried. “Oh, one of your projective weapons. As you know, we have no such guns. So it was some of your chaps who, ah, shot me, eh?”
“It was a group of Ylokk,” I corrected. “They seemed very interested in the coach.”
This time, I know he was surprised. “Please explain,” he begged. “Insofar as my briefing has informed me, a coach’ is an animal-drawn conveyance no longer in common use.”
“Except,” Lieutenant Helm contributed, “for special circumstances, such as royal state ceremonies.”
“Describe it,” Swft came back tensely.
Helm did so.
“The armorial bearings,” Swft persisted. “What―?”
“Sable, a griffon or,” Helm told him. “On a bend argent, three mullets of the first.”
Swft nodded, then with a sudden snap! of his needle-sharp teeth, twitched and rolled to all fours.
“I see it, now,” he hissed. “A vile plot within a plot, hatched within the palace itself―” He broke off and twisted his head to stare up at me. “But what have you―?”
“Nothing,” I informed him. “We came along and stumbled on the coach, just sitting there―”
“The draft animals, the kwines,” he demanded. “The attendants―?”
“No coachman,” I told him. “No footmen. No nursemaid―”
He broke in with a yell. “What of the prince?”
“There was no prince,” Smovia spoke up. I looked at him, feeling surprised. Why was he lying?
He glanced my way. “More of a princess,” he told me in Swedish, which it seemed hadn’t been included in Swft’s briefing. The general had retreated as far as he could into the corner, and was still baring those big incisors of his.
“Easy, General,” I started, but Swft burst out, “Then how…?” He lowered his voice. “Why did you say there should be a nursemaid? Eh? Speak up! I warn you, I’m not to be trifled with in this matter! Speak!”
“Mind your tone!” Helm interjected. “You will address the colonel with respect, sir!”
“Of course,” Swft muttered. He was visibly pulling himself together. “I beg of you, Colonel Bayard, if you know of anything of―” He changed his tack. “The swine who shot me. Where did they go?”
“They ran off,” I told him. “We couldn’t see where.”
“I saw them,” Swft said coldly. “But I hardly imagined such personages would stoop to attempted murder. There was the Lord Privy Seal, Sctl, and General Rstl, and some young fellows of the Guard, and―treachery!” he wailed. “Treachery on a grand scale! It is not to be borne!”
“Relax, for now, Swft,” I suggested; then, to Smovia, “show him the baby.” He nodded and ducked into his cubicle and a moment later handed the sleeping infant to the wounded general, now on his hind feet and making small, ecstatic noises.
“Your Royal Highness,” he crooned, looking down at the small face. He looked up at me. “He’s all right? They didn’t?” Just then the baby uttered a squall and Swft almost dropped her.
“Why is it, General,” I asked him, “that you refer to this little female as ‘him’?”
“ ‘Female’?” He almost dropped her again. Smovia stepped in and reclaimed the tot.
“Can it be?” Swft inquired of himself. “Is it possible that we all―that the entire Movement is based on a lie? But of course! That explains a great deal!”
“I guess I’m slow,” I said. “I still don’t get it.”
“Gentlemen,” he addressed us formally, “the Noblest of All is in your debt. The Governance itself must acknowledge that debt. I thank you.”
“You think these fellows would have harmed the baby?” I wanted to know.
“They would have killed him―or especially her,” he answered me. “You see, great issues devolve on the matter of succession. This child, who certain traitors claim is an impostor, is the key to the fate of Great Ylokk. We must conduct ourselves with great circumspection, lest we precipitate yet another disaster to add to those which have already befallen Great Ylokk.”
“Like your damn-fool invasion,” I suggested. To my surprise, he nodded. “I did what I could,” he said.
“Wait a moment,” I cut in. “You told me all about how it was your idea.”
He looked at his feet. “Either way my honor is compromised,’ he muttered. “I lied to you, Colonel; I was under sentence of death for my opposition to a scheme already endorsed by the Noblest. It was Grgsdn who―Never mind. I was unable, Colonel, to admit that I had been dominated by another, coerced. I had to pretend, even to myself, to be in control of matters. You should have let me die.”
“It’s not quite that bad to be shown up as a fool,” I comforted him. “It’s happened to me plenty of times. You’ll survive. Who’s this ‘Grgsdn’ character?”
Swft showed his incisors in a snarl. “He is an elusive scoundrel and rabble-rousing treacher whose vile counsels have been insinuated into the deliberations of the governance. He hopes to overthrow the ancient dynasty and place his own unspeakable clan in the Jade Palace!” The general broke off, apparently overcome by the enormity of whatever he was talking about.
“What does the baby have to do with all this?” I pressed him. “And why abandon her here in Zone Yellow?”
Swft shuddered. “They would have challenged the Noblest,” he snarled. “Defied her to show the presumed heir. When she was unable to do so, the entire structure would have come crashing down. The little of peace and order that has survived the Killing would have dissolved in chaos. I had hoped, perhaps”―he paused and gave me a sideways look with those disconcerting red eyes―”somehow, this adventure―the invasion―might disrupt their plan, and allow me the opportunity to rally the forces of Right. Otherwise…”