“Liege, I had to tell the blond Black Chinaman who smiles like a jackal how to open the doors with a serpentine so that Ull would let him at the controls.”
“His name is Kine Larz. I wondered what was up.”
“He was supposed to switch the defenses from nonlethal to lethal, and run the reload check. Thanks to him, everything should be online and warmed up.”
“Better than I hoped! Back to business: to get me to the sarcophagus, I am going to get you up here to this nice suit of powered armor next to me, except it will hurt, and you might get killed.”
“I was shriven by the chaplain before I hibernated, Liege. I am good to go.”
Ull and the Blue Men were watching the assault on Rada Lwa with narrowed eyes.
Ull said, “Preceptor Illiance! This commotion partakes of deception. Is this not Relict His Excellency Grandmaster Sir Guiden von Hompesch zu Bolheim, whom we have confirmed is a Tomb Guardian? What attempted the relict Rada Lwa to say, that the Judge of Ages sends this man to suppress his words? Relict Beta Anubis! Translate Rada Lwa’s comment at once!”
But Illiance was looking perturbed. “I happen to disagree, wise Mentor. I have studied the facial tells and muscular contractions of the Judge of Ages. Relict Sir Guiden is not one of his men. His expression shows he does not recognize him.” Illiance, of course, was looking at Scipio, who did not recognize Sir Guiden at all.
Menelaus said in Iatric, “Mentor Ull! As Preceptor Ydmoy warned us, the relicts are behaving with unexpected eccentricity! I am speaking to calm down those two, one of whom attempted most uncouthly and unwisely to assault one of your Followers. Rada Lwa’s comment was to the effect, Mentor Ull, that two or more of your Followers, while afflicted with mange, brain damage, scrofula, and syphilis, copulated with your mother to produce you, passing their infirmities along, but cheated your mother of the transaction money involved, despite the extremely low fee and reasonable rates. The matter being biologically and economically unlikely, I presume some scurrilous insult is intended. The Judge of Ages is disturbed, and demands that the albino be ejected from the chamber at once, pending his further displeasure!”
Illiance was looking back and forth. “Corporal Beta Sterling Anubis and Grandmaster Sir Guiden von Hompesch zu Bolheim are cohorts and associates of each other. The signs are unmistakable. How it is none of you see it?”
Menelaus said, “None of them see it, Illiance, because they have their weirdness chip switched on and their emotion chip switched off. But I can explain! I know that man because he was my master when I was an interred here, learning how to take care of coffins. I asked him to step up and hinder the eccentric albino, who was annoying your Follower. My purpose is to allow the Judge of Ages to conduct his hearing without further delay or commotion. Is that not clear? Is that not reasonable?”
Illiance turned and looked at him in wonder. “Also, the Judge of Ages did not speak. You are practicing a deception on me. You are lying. I was not able to hear the nuances of pitch that indicated this previously. I wonder why?”
Menelaus grimaced. He was certain the Blue Men’s circuits would detect the moment he brought the chamber weapons up to ready. He did not want to jam the door until everyone was within: from outside, the murmur of the footfalls of the approaching Giant was audible.
“Not to worry, Preceptor Illiance! I will inquire of the relict what you wish to know. What was the question again?”
Illiance was merely staring at him, dumbfounded.
Despite his hopes, Oenoe the Nymph left the circle of the Nymphs, and glided across the floor to Sir Guy. He could not embrace her with a snarling albino in one hand and a knife in the other, but she could put her cheek up against the cloak on his back, and she closed her eyes in joy. She was rather short, and her cheek did not even reach his shoulder blade.
But she could see his abundant joy in his eyes, and, reflected there, her own.
9. Aanwen Concludes
On the dais, Montrose muttered, “Whoops. The jig is up.”
The only other man in the chamber who spoke English, Scipio, whispered back, “What just happened? The knight just kissed the showgirl. So what?”
Montrose muttered, “One clue too many. The Blues are about to figure what’s up.”
The Widow Aanwen said in Intertextual to Illiance, “Observe the embrace between Relict Oenoe Psthinshayura-Ah and Relict Sir Guiden von Hompesch zu Bolheim. Perform a third-level Cliometric analysis using the negative information system. Contemplate the results. There is no pattern of events whereby that woman could know that man, she having been found on a lower level of the Tombs, unless the man calling himself Beta Sterling Anubis is also one of their order, and a Knight Hospitalier.
Illiance said, “I do not have a basis to agree. Any client of the Tombs could have woken and met Tomb Guardians at any time.”
She said with weary patience, “This Tomb Guardian thawed a high-status matriarch of the Natural Order, and they took the time to learn each other’s languages and cultural-neurological assumption structures, and formed a mutual love-relationship? And this same Tomb Guardian thawed a Beta-rank Chimera, and formed a master-servant relation with him?”
Illiance gave a liquid shrug. “Human relationships are multivariable.”
“Are you men blind to these things?” demanded an exasperated Aanwen. “It was clear from his tone of voice and demeanor that the man calling himself Beta Sterling Anubis gave Sir Guiden commands, but Sir Guiden is the Grandmaster of the Order of Knights Hospitalier. There is only one superior to the Grandmaster. Observe the similarity of facial features between the man pretending to be a Chimera and the man pretending to be the Judge of Ages. They are Clades, or family-relations. The man pretending to be the Judge is close enough genetically to have fooled our DNA tests; and as a contemporary, he drinks that bitter black liquid stimulant.”
Illiance said back, “Your theory founders on the calculus of vocabulary analysis: we confirmed that the Judge of Ages was speaking words only he could have spoken.”
She said, “The interpreter is himself the man who originally spoke them.”
Illiance said, “Cogent meaning fails to be conveyed.”
She rolled her eye and turned away from Illiance. “Mentor Ull, do you follow my argument?”
Ull looked down at Aanwen, his eyes heavily lidded. “I apprehend the steps, but not the conclusion. What explanation would fit this pattern? Are you saying the Judge of Ages woke in the time of the Chimerae, and fathered a son named Anubis, who is now acting as his interpreter? The idea is without merit. It is confirmed from independent sources that the Judge of Ages is as loyal to his mate as a Simplifier. He would not mate outside the marriage covenant. Sterling Anubis cannot be the son of the Judge of Ages, for the simple reason that half-Chimerae cannot achieve Beta rank.”
Aanwen said, “He has no rank! He is not a Chimera! Sterling Anubis is Menelaus Montrose. That man is the Judge of Ages.”
Ull merely harrumphed. “You indulge in absurdities. Anubis is clownish and dull-witted.”
She said, “Very well. Let events unfold with no further contribution from me. I have done my part and more. You are not Simple, none of you! You have become Locusts!”
With this, Aanwen threw her pistol to the floor and it chimed and rang like a dropped wineglass of crystal.
She turned grandly toward the center of the room and held out her hand, palm up, toward Menelaus. “Judge of Ages, hear! I remind you of your obligation to spare Preceptor Illiance from your vengeance. Again I walk from you, and live. Sometimes the simplest solution is best.”