Star Winds

“Now sit down,” grunted Matello with a grin. “We have something to discuss. How best make use of this.”

Once more he tapped the book. In his woozy state, Rachad wondered how long he could keep from revealing that the book was of little help without its supporting text, the Asch Mezareph, which thanks to his silence had been left behind on Earth. “I am to help you make gold, my lord?” he said, slurring his words a trifle. “You have an alchemical laboratory?”

Matello threw back his head and laughed loudly. “What, me make gold? What in space for? Not far from here I can show you a moonlet composed entirely of gold.”

His eyes twinkled to see Rachad’s startlement. “I can see that you’re a real backwater boy. Maybe gold’s something special back on Earth where you come from, but here in Maralia it’s worth no more than iron. Real wealth takes the form of power. Power over men, over territories.”

Rachad lowered his head, biting his lip. He should have thought of this before, he realized. Out here among the stars there would be a plenitude of every kind of material.

He looked up. “Then why do you need the book, my lord?” he asked, puzzled.

Matello slammed his goblet on the table. “Not to make gold, you may be sure! This book is bait. I need it to help me to get a man inside the Duke of Koss’s Aegis. Do you understand me?”

“No, my lord.”

Matello sighed. “I feared not.”

“What is this ‘Aegis,’ my lord?”

“An aegis,” Matello answered, with self-conscious patience, “is an impregnable fortress. It is built of adamant, a substance which is absolutely indestructible, and once inside it there is no known weapon that can harm you, and no way that the fortress can be breached. Now, as to the Duke of Koss, who lives in its protection—” Suddenly Matello rose to his feet. “Let someone else give you an indication of his character.”

Beckoning to Rachad, he strolled to the far end of the hall, stopping at the iron tank. As he followed, the fog of yellow powder stung Rachad’s nostrils and made him cough. He looked into the low tank, and recoiled with a gasp.

“Don’t be afraid,” the baron murmured. “He’s as civilized as you or I.”

Rachad guessed that the tank was deeper than it appeared from the outside and was set into the floor. It was filled to within a foot of the brim with fine yellow powder, resembling flowers of sulphur. The powder was waving and rippling. “Swimming” just beneath its surface was an undulating shape.

“Flammarion!” Matello said in a loud voice. “I have with me the young man I mentioned.”

The swimming shape surfaced. The creature was gray in color and resembled a stingray, with a waving, flapping cape. From beneath it came slim tentacles which tapped the sides of the tank, but Rachad could not properly see what else the cape hid. He forced himself to be calm as the beast flopped part of itself over the side of the trough, splashing out gouts of bright yellow powder.

“I sense you, humans. Greetings, Rachad Caban.”

“Er—greetings,” Rachad stuttered. The creature’s voice was soft and human-sounding, yet somehow larger

than a man’s without being louder.

“This is Flammarion,” Matello said to Rachad, “a master builder from the other side of the galaxy. He it was who built the duke’s Aegis, long ago, and he and I are now united in a common purpose—somehow to break into that aegis. It is an ambition not altogether unique to us, for the duke has many enemies.”

He turned to the tank. “Tell Caban your story, Flammarion. It is best he should know the background to his mission.”

There was a pause, while the alien creature flapped and stirred in the powder-bath. “It is a sad tale, a pathetic tale, one that can only bring bathos and pity,” the voice said mournfully. “I am an acknowledged expert in the building of aegises. I alone know the secret of adamant, a material impervious to any weapon, unaffected even by alkahest, the universal solvent. No gun, arbalest or sonic trembler can break it, no acid can corrode it. It deadens even the shriek of Vurelian war trumpets, whose vibrations pass through stone and steel to kill those within.”

Flammarion paused again and went surging through the powder. “Thinking to employ my talents in foreign parts of the galaxy, I traveled to that region where humans dwell. Here I was commissioned by the Duke of Koss to build an aegis for him. I labored mightily, constructing, I believe, the best example of my skills so far. Finally the work was finished, the duke took up residence, and after a decent interval to allow inspection, I presented myself before the gate to collect my fee: two tons of heavenly water, a rare commodity much prized by my kind.”