“Thaddeus, we have to talk this over. You don't need to do all this,” Geste said.
“Oh, I don't? What do you know about it?” Thaddeus sneered.
“I know that it's stupid! What can you get from ruling an empire that you can't get peacefully?"
Thaddeus smiled with bitter amusement. “Are you really asking that?"
“Yes, I am! Look, can we go somewhere and talk about this?"
“You don't want these people to hear?” Thaddeus asked, with a wave at the others.
“No, that's not it,” Geste said. “All right, we can talk here."
“No, no,” Thaddeus said, holding up a hand. “We'll find someplace more comfortable. Come along, Imp."
“No!” she said. “No! I won't leave Aulden!"
Thaddeus shrugged again. “Suit yourself. Monitor, watch her closely. Don't let her out of this room, or obey her orders. And don't disturb me.” All but the first phrase he addressed to a red light that gleamed above the door. It blinked an acknowledgement, and he turned back to the Trickster. “All right, Geste, come along.” He waved, and Geste followed.
Bredon started to follow as well, and Thaddeus gestured. “Leave that here, though,” he said.
Geste said nothing, but Bredon stepped back, and waited politely until Thaddeus and Geste were out of sight.
Chapter Twenty-Two
"’… so you have found me,’ Aulden the Technician said. ‘Now, what do you want of me?'
"'They say, in my village, that you can do anything,’ Golrol said. ‘Is it true?'
"Aulden stared at him for a moment, and then said, ‘Very nearly, at any rate.'
"'You can do anything?’ Golrol persisted.
"'Yes,’ Aulden said, ‘I can.'
"'Really?’ Golrol asked.
"Yes, I said,’ Aulden told him. ‘I can be anything and do anything.’ He instantly transformed himself into a giant, a hundred meters tall, and then vanished completely, and then reappeared as a sunflower with Aulden's own face, and then appeared human once more. ‘I can fly to the stars,’ he said, ‘or make their fire burn here on the ground. I know the secrets of time and space. I can make birds swim and fish fly. I can build a tower in a single night that will reach so high you cannot see the top. I can shake the earth and shatter the sky.'
"'So you say that you can do anything,’ Golrol said.
"'Yes, I told you,’ Aulden answered. ‘Try me; name a task, and I shall perform it.'
"'Can you bring me snow from the mountaintops, even now in midsummer?’ Golrol asked.
"'As easily as you can snap your fingers,’ Aulden replied, and he spun about, and held out a handful of snow.
"'Can you lift an entire mountain, then?'
"Aulden laughed, and said, ‘Easily.’ And he waved his hand, and with a rumble and a roar, one of the distant mountains tore itself free of the earth and rose into the sky, like the Skyland itself.
"'And can you create a mountain from nothing?'
"'Of course!’ said Aulden, and behold, with a great rending crash a mountain rose from the plain where none had stood a moment before.
"'And can you create a mountain so great that even you cannot lift it?’ Golrol asked innocently.
"And Aulden paused, and stared at him, and slowly a smile spread across his face, and he began to grin, and then to laugh, and then to roar with laughter.
"'Oh, mortal,’ he said, ‘you have me there. I should have known better than to boast so freely! Of course, I cannot. I am no true god. I can do many, many things that you cannot even imagine, but I cannot untangle such a paradox any more than you can… ‘"
– from the tales of Atheron the Storyteller
When Thaddeus and Geste had vanished through the doorway Bredon turned back to the prisoners. Lady Sunlight still showed no sign of interest in him, so he addressed himself to the group as a whole. “Now what?” he asked. “Is there anything I can do to help?"
“I don't know,” replied Sheila-the Lady of the Seasons, Bredon remembered, the goddess of the weather, who brought the warm sun in summer and the cold winds in winter.
Except that the woman he saw before him, although she was healthy and attractive apart from her fading burn, was just a woman, not a goddess. The Powers were only human, and their power lay in their technology.
And the seasons had nothing to do with technology, in any case.
“I don't know,” she repeated. “But I hope so."
“I'd like to get you out of those chains, but I don't have a key or anything that will cut them."
“Thaddeus keeps the key with him, I think,” the small man Bredon had identified as Rawl said.
“Why are you people talking to this savage?” Madame O whined. “What good can he do?"
“Thaddeus obviously doesn't think he can do anything at all,” Lady Sunlight said, “but Thaddeus has been wrong before."
Bredon felt his pulse quicken as Lady Sunlight eyed him appraisingly.
“He's not wrong this time,” O spat.
“Maybe not,” Bredon admitted. “I can try, though.” He looked around the room, but saw nothing useful. The red light above the door caught his eye. “Monitor, where is a key for these chains?” he asked.
The intelligence hesitated. “I am uncertain whether you are authorized to ask that,” it said at last.
“Why?"
“I have no record of your existence."
“Monitor,” Sheila demanded, “answer this man's question."
“No,” the intelligence replied at once. “The prisoner Sheila is forbidden all service beyond stated necessities and emergency aid."
Imp looked up from Aulden's chest for a moment, then glanced at first Bredon, then Sheila, then back to Bredon. “Aulden,” she whispered, “Bredon took a lot of imprinting at Arcade; he's no technician, but he can run machines. Thaddeus doesn't know that, and he didn't give the machines any orders about him. What can he do to stop Thaddeus?"
Aulden's expression slowly lost its underlying hopelessness as he considered this. He glanced up at the red light, then motioned silently for Bredon to come closer.
The mortal came and knelt beside the chained technician.
“I can't do anything about the machines Thaddeus designed himself, like Monitor up there,” Aulden whispered, “but they're all pretty stupid, because Thaddeus is a lousy technologist, so most of the fortress is run by intelligences we brought with us from Terra, or ones I designed for Thaddeus. I think you can do something with those. Except for Monitor, none of the machines can hear any of us immortals any more, but they ought to be able to hear you. And Thaddeus doesn't use purely biological intelligent systems because he doesn't trust them, since they have a habit of turning independent, so you won't have to worry about creatures, just machines."
Lady Sunlight glanced up at the red light that represented Monitor, and asked, “Aren't you afraid that that machine will hear you, and tell Thaddeus?"
“No,” Aulden replied. “You weren't listening. Thaddeus told it not to disturb him, with no qualification. Even if it hears us it won't tell anyone. It's a really stupid machine."
“What should I do?” Bredon asked eagerly.
“First,” Aulden told him, “you need the emergency codes."
Two levels and a corridor away, Thaddeus settled into a grey floating chair and gestured for the Trickster to do the same.
Geste obliged. Something felt very odd about the room, and he realized as the chair adjusted itself that no music was playing.
When both were comfortably seated, Thaddeus asked politely, “Now, why do you think I should stop my efforts to rebuild my stolen empire?"
“Because it's stupid and pointless,” Geste replied quickly.
“Oh?” Thaddeus's reply was cool.
“Yes,” Geste said. “Seriously, Thaddeus, what can you get by ruling an empire that you can't just buy now, with what you have? You can have any material possession you could possibly want; our galaxy is jammed with raw materials and energy, and all it takes is time and technology to make whatever you want-food, shelter, clothing, amusements, even women, whatever creatures you want. What good will an empire do you?"
Thaddeus cocked his head and smiled cruelly. “Can you really be that naive?” he asked. The smile vanished, and his voice turned hard. “I can have power. I will prove my superiority to all you young upstarts, with your foolish egalitarian beliefs and petty social rituals. I'll get the human race organized again, put an end to all this hedonistic anarchy."