John Norman - Telnarian histories 03 - The King.pdf

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The King
norman, john - telnarian history 03 - the king v3.0.rtf
etext based on the 1st paperback printing, September 1993, ISBN 0-446-36240-9
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Revision History:
v 1.0 spell-checked scan; saved as RTF because of extensive italics use.
v 3.0 proofread against DT, complies w/ ABEB versioning standard 3.0
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The King
John Norman
***
This book is dedicated
to all who approve of, and welcome, and celebrate,
the liberty and glory
of the human imagination.
***
PROLOGUE
" And there were wolves in the land."
-The Annals
"Let us laugh with steel."
-An Otung Saying
"Let us see if there are men here."
-A Drisriak Challenge
"The laurel is unpicked; We have forgotten the festivals; The laurel is unpicked; The
statues are broken; The limbs of the gods lie in the dust; The holy places are defiled; The
temples are in ruins. The laurel is unpicked; It has died upon the branch; The tree is
dead; It is winter; It grows cold. Night has fallen upon the empire."
-Alarion
"I have heard the drums; I have seen the riders on the hill; The breath of their horses is
like fire; Their hoofs are like thunder; On their arms the sun blazes; The lords have
come; I will come forth from the forest; I will plant again; I will find a wife; It is a new
morning."
-Anonymous, after Alarion
Note:
It has been the custom of the chronicler, or chroniclers, as the case may be, and as some
have argued, to include certain observations, or reflections, in a manner prefatory to the
Telnarian manuscripts. Here, however, we seem to encounter a departure from that
practice. We have only these three quotations, and the two short poems. I do not
understand them, or, at any rate, their placement here. Their inclusion with the
manuscript may be the result of some accident, or mistake. This sometimes happens with
complex papers. Certainly they seem, the poems at least, to have little to do with the
story. I have included them, however, as they were with the manuscript.
-Editor
CHAPTER 1
"Let us see if there are men here," said Abrogastes. He handed the empty drinking horn to
a shieldsman. He wiped his face with the back of his right forearm.
Retainers, and clients, pounded on the long tables lining the edges of the hall.
Drinking vessels were brought hastily by former ladies of the empire.
The drinking horn, refilled, was handed to Abrogastes by his shieldsman.
Abrogastes, seated on the bench, between the tall, carved high-seat pillars, looked down
from the dais, on the hall, and the tables, grasping the drinking horn, formed from the
horn of the hoofed sorit , adorned, enwrapped, with golden filigree, foaming with bror ,
spiced and honeyed, brewed from golden lee .
This was the season of the storms, of the rain of stones between the world of the
Alemanni and its yellow star.
The lionships slept in their steel sheds.
In the season of the storms was sealed the world of the Alemanni, the stones in their
annual tides, streaming in the skies, some visible at night, closing the gates of the world,
closing it to those without, locking within, as well, those on its surface.
But in the spring the skies would clear.
It was then that the lionships would awaken.
Abrogastes was moody of late.
He stared sullenly into the drinking horn.
Bror was on his beard.
Behind him, to his left, his shieldsman carried his sword. On the bench beside him, at his
right, lay an imperial pistol. It was a simple, yet precious weapon. In the empire, only one
of senatorial rank, or above, would be likely to possess such a weapon, or a limited
number of charges for it, privately. In billions of years, you see, resources which once
seemed inexhaustible proved themselves finite, after all, and often unrenewable.
In many places even imperial troops were armed with simple weapons. A parity, thus,
had developed in many places between the empire and its encroaching foes, and foes not
unoften, former federates , within its own borders. The advantages of the imperial troops
on many worlds lay sometimes in little more than military engineering, discipline, and
tactics. Acres of land, or a woman, had often been exchanged for no more than an ancient
bullet. Yet there was no doubt as to the strength of the empire yet, an empire concerned
to husband its resources, and resist tenaciously incursions into its central systems. It
could still destroy worlds. Yet there were many worlds and once one was destroyed, the
energy, the means, to destroy such a world no longer existed. That bullet, so to speak, had
been fired.
There was the sound of slim, belled ankles, as former ladies of the empire, bearing great
wooden trenchers, hurried barefoot over the dirt, rush-strewn floor to serve the guests, the
clients, the retinue, the men at arms, the high men, the ambassadors, the merchants, the
scholars, the sons of chieftains in fosterage, the hostages, seated beneath the high-roofed
hall of Abrogastes, lord of the Drisriaks, largest and fiercest of the eleven tribes of the
Alemanni nation, that nation referred to commonly in imperial records as the Aatii.
Abrogastes handed his drinking horn, emptied, to his shieldsman, who laid it to one side.
Such a horn must be drained before it can be put down.
This is common among the Alemanni, the Vandals, and other such nations.
The former ladies of the empire hurried about. The switches of lads in attendance, here
and there, in colorful garments, in colorful cloaks, a livery of sorts, would brook neither
delays nor dallyings on the part of the beauties.
Abrogastes seemed angry.
He was often so, of course, when the sword, his signet on the pommel, for signing deeds,
was not in his hand, when he was not aflight, when he was not adventuring.
Yet Abrogastes was not a simple adventurer, no ordinary raider, no simple brigand or
pirate, sniffing about here and there, watching for his chance, prowling at the outskirts of
cities, then slipping into a port at night, bringing the storm of fire and steel to some town,
and then slipping away again, almost as swiftly as he had come, before the imperial
cruisers could, or would, reach the scene.
Some worlds, he was sure, had been abandoned to the predations of such as he, as they
lay open and inviting, whereas others, doubtless richer, were zealously guarded, so much
so that they might cost a fleet.
Was this supposed to constitute an unspoken contract, he had wondered, a concession of
sorts, that he might occupy himself somewhere, and content himself with what he was
offered?
That he should then give up the rest?
Did they think to cast him a bone, that he might carry it away, and gnaw on it, and worry
it, thereby being distracted from the stores of roasted beeves, the scent of which was on
every wind?
Did they think he was a dog, to be so easily distracted?
Those of the empire, he knew, regarded him, and his kind, as dogs.
But they did not know the dogs of the Alemanni, he thought to himself, one of which lay
to his right, on the dais, humped, alert, its crest half-aroused, watching the tables between
half-closed lids.
The dogs of the Alemanni, and of many worlds, were large, agile, restless, vicious beasts.
Dogs, mused Abrogastes, have teeth, and will.
With some worlds, still nominally within the empire, many of which on whom federates
were housed, he had formed arrangements. On many of these worlds citizens still
sacrificed to the empire on the public altars, whereas resources, and tributes, secured their
impunity from incursions. These became, in effect, tacit client states of the Alemanni.
They increased the power of the Alemanni, and, indeed, of other peoples who were
engaged in similar projects, enterprises of an economic and political nature. Imperial
insignia, and standards, continued in such places to dignify public buildings, theaters and
such, whereas, in justice, a banner of pelts, flown from a pole in a field, or mounted on a
great wagon, might have been more appropriate.
At this very assemblage in the hall were men from such states, and others.
There were representatives here, as well, from each of the eleven tribes of the Alemanni
people.
Too, present, were others, from other tribes, and other peoples, some officially allied, or
federated, with the empire, at least in some titular fashion, and some not, and there were
present, too, others from outworlds, of diverse species, eager for soil, seeds, gold, and
power.
The shieldsman, the sword of Abrogastes in its leather sling behind his left shoulder, like
the dog, surveyed the assemblage. At such gatherings he did not drink. He, a shieldsman,
would remain, like the dog, watchful, and alert.
Abrogastes was no ordinary bandit, no ordinary brigand.
He saw far, he thought deeply. His appellation was the Far-Grasper. Abrogastes, the lord
of the Drisriaks, Abrogastes, the Far-Grasper.
Had he been an ordinary brigand, he would not have called, nor could he, in plausibility,
have called, this gathering.
There were present guests of many tribes, and many species.
There was a small sound of chain, from the dais, to the left of his bench, with the high-
seat pillars. He felt something soft press itself against his fur boot. He thrust with his boot
to the side, irritably, forcing it away. There was another sound of chain, that of a heavy
chain, and a tiny whimper of misery, of timid, pleading protest.
"Would milord be fed?" inquired the shieldsman.
"I would be fed," said Abrogastes, the Far-Grasper.
The shieldsman lifted his hand, and made a peremptory gesture.
CHAPTER 2
"The greatest danger to the empire," said Iaachus, the Arbiter of Protocol, "is not from
beyond the stars, not from the ships of barbarous dogs, but from traitors, within the
empire."
"Surely," she said, putting down her tiny bowl of kana , and leaning back in the chair.
It was late at night, in one of the many palaces of the imperial family. It does not matter
which palace, as it might have been any one of several. Nor was the palace on the
Telnarian home world. It was, however, within the first imperial sector. I mention this
that one may conjecture the nature of its grounds, the extent and arrangement of its
gardens, the splendor of its fountains, its securities, the fields, forces, and armaments, the
richness of its furnishings, the lavishness of its appointments and such. Many rich
individuals in the empire, incidentally, had their own palaces, members of ancient
families, some of whom putatively dated back to the early worlds of the empire, some of
them members of the hereditary senatorial class, still officially required to confirm the
appointment of an emperor; high officials, such as prefects civil and military; rich
merchants; great landlords, and such. But this was a palace of the imperial family, though
none of the imperial family, Aesilesius, the emperor; Atalana, the empress mother; or the
two sisters of the emperor, blond Viviana and brunet Alacida were currently in residence.

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