Julian May - The Non-Born King

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TTie Galactic Milieu

and the Pliocene Exile

THE GREAT INTERVENTION OF 2013 OPENED HUMANITY S WAY

to the stars By the year 2110, when the action of the first

volume in this saga began, Earthlings were fully accepted mem-

bers of a benevolent confederation of planet colonizers, the

Coadunate Galactic Milieu, who shared high technology and

the capability of performing advanced mental operations known

as melafunctions The latter—which include telepathy, psy-

chokinesis, and many other powers—had lurked in the human

gene pool from time immemorial, but oniy rarely were mani-

fest

The five founding races of the Milieu had observed hu-

manity's development for tens of thousands of years After

some debate, they decided to admit Earthlings to the Milieu

"in advance of their psychosocial maturation" because of the

vast metapsychic potential of humanity, which might eventually

exceed that of any other race With the help of nonhumans,

people from Earth colonized more than 700 new planets that

had already been surveyed and found suitable

Earthimgs also learned how to speed the development of

their metapsychic powers through special training and genetic

engineering However, even though the number of humans with

operant metaftmctions increased with each generation, in 2 HO

the majonty of the population was stiii "normal"—that is

possessing metafiinctions that were either meager to the point

of nullity or else latent, unusable because of psychological

barriers or other factors Most of the day-to-day socioeconomic

activities of the Human Polity of the Milieu were earned on by

"normals", but human metapsychics did occupy privileged po-

sitions in government, in the sciences, and in other areas where

high mental powers were valuable to the Milieu as a whole

At only one period between the Great Intervention and 2110

xin

XIV

SYNOPSIS

did it seem thai the admission of humanity to the Milieu had

been a mistake This was in 2083, during the brief Metapsychic

Rebellion Instigated by a small group of Earth-based humans,

this attempted coup narrowly missed destroying the entire Mil-

ieu organization The Rebellion was suppressed by loyalist

metapsychic humans and steps were taken to insure that such

a disaster never would occur again A certain number of bat-

tered rebel survivors did manage to evade retribution by passing

through a unique kind of escape hatch, a one-way time gate

leading into Earth's Pliocene Epoch, six million years in the

past

The time-gate was discovered in 2034, during the heady

years of the scientific knowledge-explosion subsequent to the

Great Intervention But since the time-warp opened only back-

ward (anything attempting to return became six million years

old and usually crumbled to dust), and since it had a fixed

focus (a point in France's Rhone River Valley), its discoverer

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sadly concluded that it was a useless oddity without practical

application

After the time-gate discoverer's death in 2041, his widow,

Angelique Gudenan, learned that her husband had been mis-

taken

The Intervention had seemed to open a Golden Age for

humanity, giving it unlimited lebensraum, energy sufficiency,

and membership in a splendid galaxy-wide civilization But

even Golden Ages have their misfits in this case, humans who

were temperamentally unsuited to the rather structured social

environment of the Milieu As Madame Gudenan was to dis-

cover, there were fair numbers of these, and they were willing

to pay handsomely to be transported to a simpler world without

rules Geologists and paleonlologists knew that the Pliocene

was an idyllic period, just before the dawn of rational life on

our planet Romantics and nigged individualists from almost

all of Earth's ethnic groups eventually discovered Madame's

"underground railroad" to the Pliocene, which operated out of

a quaint French inn located outside the metropolitan center of

Lyon

From 2041 until 2106, the rejuvenated Madame Gudenan

transported clients from Old Earth to "Exile," a presumed nat-

ural paradise six million years younger After suffenng belated

THE NONBORN KING

XV

qualms of conscience about the fate of the time-travelers, Ma-

dame herself passed into the Pliocene and operation of her inn

was taken over by the Milieu, which had found the time-warp

to be a convenient glory hole for dissidents By 2110, nearly

100,000 time-farers had vanished into an unknown destiny

On 25 August 2110, eight persons, making up that week's

"Group Green," were transported to Exile Richard Voorhees,

a grounded starship captain, Felice Landry, a disturbed eigh-

teen-year-old athlete whose violent temperament and latent mind-

powers had made her an outcast, Claude Majewski, a recently

widowed elderly paleontologist. Sister Amene Roccaro, a phy-

sician and burnt-out pnest, Bryan Grenfelt. an anthropologist

following his lover. Mercy Lamballe, who had preceded him

through the gate, Elizabeth Orme, a Grand Master metapsychic

who had lost her stupendous mental powers after a brain trauma,

Stem Oleson, a misfit planet-crust driller who dreamt of life

in a simpler world, and Alken Drum, an engaging young crook

who, like Felice, possessed considerable latent metapsychic

power

Group Green discovered, as other time-travelers had before

them, that idyllic Pliocene Europe was under the control of a

group of mavenck humanoids from another galaxy The exotics

were also exiled, having been dnven from their home because

of their barbarous battle-religion

The dominant exotic faction, the Tanu, were tall and hand-

some In spite of a thousand-year sojourn on Earth, there were

still less than 20,000 of them because their reproduction was

inhibited by solar radiation Since their plasm was compatible

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with that of humanity, they had for nearly seventy years utilized

the time-travelers in breeding, holding Pliocene humanity in

benevolent serfdom

Antagonistic to the Tanu and outnumbenng them by at least

four to one were their ancient foes, the Firvulag Often called

the Little People, these exotics were mostly of short stature,

although there were plenty of human-sized and even gigantic

individuals among them They reproduced quite well on Pli-

ocene Earth

Tanu and Firvulag actually constituted a dimorphic race—

the former metapsychicaily latent, and the latter possessed of

operant metafimctions, mostly limited in power The Tanu.

XVI

SYNOPSIS

with their higher technology, had long ago developed mind-

amplifiers, collars called golden lores, which raised their latent

mind-powers up to operancy Firvulag did not require tores to

exercise their metafunctions Certain of their great heroes were

the mental equals of the Tanu in aggressive action, but most

Firvulag were weaker

For most of the thousand years that Tanu and Firvulag re-

sided on Earth (which they called the Many-Colored Land),

they were fairly evenly matched in the ntual wars fought as

part of their battle-religion The greater finesse and technology

of the Tanu tended to counterbalance the superior numbers of

the cruder Firvulag But the advent of time-traveling humanity

tipped the scales in favor of the taller exotics Not only did

Tanu-human hybrids turn out to have unusual physical and

mental strength, but humans also enhanced the rather decadent

science establishment of the Tanu by injecting the expertise of

the greatly advanced Galactic Milieu It had been strictly for-

bidden for time-travelers to carry sophisticated weaponry back

to the Pliocene, and the Tanu were very conservative in the

types of military hardware that they permitted their human

slaves to build Nevertheless, it was human ingenuity that even-

tually gave the Tanu almost complete ascendency over their

Firvulag foes (who never mated with humans and generally

despised them)

Most of the enslaved time-travelers actually lived a pretty

good life under their Tanu overlords All rough work was

done by ramapithecines, small apes who wore simple tores

compelling obedience and who were, ironically, part of the

direct hommid line that would climax in Homo sapiens six

million years in the future Humans who occupied positions of

trust or engaged in vital pursuits under the Tanu wore gray

tores These did not amplify the mind, but did allow telepatmc

communication with the Tanu, who were also able to administer

punishment or reward through the device If psychological test-

ing showed that an arriving tune-traveler possessed significant

latent metafunctions. the lucky person was given a silver tore

This was a genuine amplifier similar to die golden collars worn

by the exotic race, but having control circuits Silver-tore hu-

mans were accepted as conditional citizens of the Many-Col-

ored Land Rarely, and only if they proved themselves, the

silvers might be granted golden tores and full freedom

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THE NONBORN KING xvn

The expanded tore technology, developed from the original

golden devices worn by the Tanu, was the fruit of a single

misfit genius—Euseblo Gomez-Nolan, a human psychobiol-

ogist who was eventually granted gold and who rose to become

the President of the Coercer Guild, one of the five metapsychic

quasi clans that formed me basis for Tanu society Under the

sobriquet of Lord Gomnol, Gomez-Nolan played a manipula-

tive role in the power politics of the Many-Colored Land until

he fatally overreached himself

The overall destiny of both the Tanu and the Firvulag was

subtly guided by a mysterious woman who belonged to neither

race but served as guardian to both This was Brede the Ship-

spouse With her mate, the Ship, a gigantic rational organism

of mtergalactic travel, she had originally brought the exotics

to Pliocene Earth Brede could foresee the future—although

not perfectly — and she came to know that the destinies of Tanu,

Firvulag, and time-traveling humanity were inextricably united

A pivotal point in thisJOint destiny was reached with the arrival

of the eight members of Group Green at the Tanu reception

center. Castle Gateway

It was Tanu custom to test all arriving time-travelers im-

mediately for metapsychic latency Latents, and those with

unusual talents of other kinds, were sent south to the Tanu

capital of Munah. located on the Aven (Balearic) Peninsula in

the nearly empty saline basin of the Mediterranean Normal

humans were shared out among the Tanu cities, taking their

places in the working or (in the case of presentable women)

breeding pools Presorted caravans, escorted by gray-tore hu-

man troops, normally left Castle Gateway each week

Group Green proved to be anything but typical when ex-

amined by the Tanu overseers in residence. Lord Creyn and

Lady Epone

Most notable was Elizabeth Onne The tnp through the time-

gate had restored her to metapsychic operancy, a fact which

Creyn was instantly aware of Elizabeth's awesome power of

farsensmg and redaction (mind-alteration) were convalescent.

but when she recovered, it was evident that she would be far

superior to any Tanu having those particular powers Creyn

predicted that a "wonderful life" lay ahead for Elizabeth m the

Many-Colored Land She herself was not so sure The Milieu

XV111

SYNOPSIS

had expressly forbidden the time-travel of any operant meta-

psychics, since such persons would be in a position to exercise

unfair mental domination over normal humans in a primitive

environment mat lacked the mental restraints of the Milieu's

"Unity." Elizabeth was a totally nonaggressive personality as

well as a self-centered one, and the only way she found to

defend herself from what she regarded as a temptation to hubris

was flight—either physical or mental.

A second member of Group Green, the recidivist youth

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Aiken Drum, was found to possess powerful latencies. He was

collared with a silver tore and promised that if he behaved

himself (a dubious prospect) he would enjoy special privileges

after being trained in Muriah. Aiken's friend, the huge ex-

driller Stein Oleson, tried to escape from imprisonment in the

castle, killing several guards with his Viking axe. Stein was

subdued with a controlling gray tore and was earmarked, be-

cause of his heroic physique, to become a kind of gladiator in

Muriah.

Richard Voorhees, the disgraced starship captain, also tried

to escape. He stumbled into the chamber of the Tanu coercer

Lady Epone, who brain-burned him and consigned him to a

prison dormitory where other "normals" awaited the departure

of the weekly caravan to Epone's city of Finiah, situated far

northeast of the castle, on the River Rhine-

The anthropologist Bryan Grenfell had no metapsychic la-

tencies, but Creyn was nevertheless impressed by his profes-

sional credentials. It seemed the Tanu had a certain urgent need

for a cultural anthropologist! Bryan was also destined for Mu-

riah and accepted the prospect with equanimity, since he ex-

pected to find his beloved Mercy Lamballe in the capital.

Claude Majewski. the old paleonlologist, and the female

priest Sister Amerie were tested and showed no latencies. But

when Lady Epone attempted to test the girl Felice Landry, the

little athlete seemed to go into hysterics. Her agitation made

an accurate mental calibration impossible. Felice perpetrated

this charade because she knew very well that she possessed

very strong latent mind-powers; but she had no intention of

being subjugated by a lore, especially after she discovered that

both she and Sister Amerie were to be used as brood stock by

the Tanu. In a private moment with the nun, Felice grimly

resolved to "take" the entire Tanu race. Ludicrous though this

THE NONBORN KING xix

vow of revenge seemed at the time, Sister Amerie felt no

inclination to doubt Felice's ability to carry out her threat.

When caravans left Castle Gateway that evening. Group

Green had been split in half. Bound northward for Finiah with

a sizable group of normals were Felice, Sisler Amerie, Claude,

and the still groggy Richard. Six gray-lore soldiers and Lady

Epone conducted the train, which rode horselike Pliocene beasts

called chalikos. Also in this group were Basil, a mountain-

climbing former don; Yoshimitsu and Tatsuji, who wore sa-

murai garb reflecting their heritage; and one Dougal, who had

been driven half-mad by the unwelcome attentions of Lady

Epone.

The southbound caravan was much smaller. Led by Creyn

with a minimum two-guard escort, it consisted of the unforced

Elizabeth and Bryan, Aiken Drum in his silver collar, uncon-

scious Stein wearing a gray tore, and two other latent humans

who had been gifted with silver: Sukey Davies, a former ju-

venile officer from a colonial satellite, and Raimo Hakkinen,

a glum Finno-Canadian forester.

The caravan heading for Muriah look ship at the River Rhone

and made a fairly uneventful trip south. Creyn proved to be a

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tolerant overlord, deeply sympathetic to Elizabeth. Aiken Drum

and Raimo became buddies and co-conspiralors, and Aiken

discovered that the latencies inside his brain were unfolding at

a wondrous pace that boded all kinds of fun and games. Stein

recovered from wounds inflicted during the fracas at the castle.

and he and Sukey pledged themselves to each other after she

entered his mind and helped lo heal a severe psychic trauma.

In the riverside city of Darask, Elizabeth helped a human gold-

tore woman, Estella-Sirone, give birth to twins—one Tanu and

one Firvuiag. And when the party eventually arrived in Muriah,

they were greeted by a triumphal procession of magnificent

Tanu chivalry, all clad in glowing, multicolored glass armor-

The welcome was primarily for Elizabeth, who was soon to

discover herself a pawn between several scheming factions at

the Tanu court.

Meanwhile, on the trail north of Castle Gateway, the other

four members of Group Green were plotting a prisoner revolt.

Felice, a professional athlete, was abnormally strong, and her

XX

SYNOPSIS

latent metapsychic powers enabled her to mind-control animals

She also had a small steel dagger, little more than a toy. which

had been overlooked by searchers

When the caravan reached a remote shore of the Lac de

Bresse. Felice's plan for escape was put into action Richard,

disguised in Amene's religious garb, surprised the head guard

and stabbed him to death Then Felice compelled the caravan's

escorting pack of huge bear-dogs to attack Lady Epone and the

other soldiers In the ensuing fray, the samurai Tatsuji was

killed, as well as the entire escort of gray troops Richard

approached Epone. thinking that she, too, was dead But the

exotic woman seized him with her powerful mind, in spite of

the fact that she was nearly torn to pieces Richard would have

perished had he not stabbed her with Felice's little dagger

(Much later, the nun, who was a physician, deduced that

the nearly invulnerable Tanu were fatally poisoned by iron

weapons For this reason, they had proscribed the use of iron

in Pliocene Europe, making do with copper alloys and a kind

of supertough glass, vitredur, in its place )

Felice coveted Epone's golden tore. knowing that the mental

amphfer was capable of releasing the great metafaculties now

locked within her brain But before she could take the tore

from the Tanu woman's body, mad Dougal grabbed it and

threw it into the lake Amene had to drug Felice with a sedative

to prevent her from killing Dougal

Bewildered and frightened, the ex-pnsoners realized that

news of the fight must have been tetepathically flashed by the

dying Epone to the nearest fort They would have to disperse

quickly One group elected to follow Basil, the ex-don They

would sail in small boats down the Lac de Bresse to the Jura

Mountains

Claude, the 133-year-old paleontologist, was more wilder-

ness-wise after years of roughing it on wild planets in the

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Milieu He advised his friends of Group Green to avoid the

open lake and instead head into the heavily forested Vosges

Mountains, which were much closer than the Jura The sur-

viving samurai wamor, Yosh, decided to go his way alone,

heading north in hopes of reaching the sea

The large group of escapees out on the lake was eventually

almost entirely recaptured and taken in chains to the city of

Finiah But Claude, Richard, Amene, and Felice went deep

THE NONBORN KING xxi

into the Vosges, where they Finally made contact with a group

of free outlaw humans, fugitives from Tanu settlements, who

called themselves Lowlives

The Lowlife leader was an old woman, Angelique Gudenan,

former keeper of the time-gate and the ultimate author of Pli-

ocene humanity's degradation Around her neck was a golden

lore, the gift of the Firvulag, those deadly enemies of the Tanu,

who had formed a very tentative alliance with the Lowlives

Madame had modest metapsychic powers

The killing of Epone by the escapees were unprecedented

Never before had a mere human been able to bnng about the

demise of one of the tough exotics, who normally enjoyed life

spans of hundreds of years Tanu searchers, under Lord Velteyn

of Finiah, now swarmed the Vosges region, looking for the

ones who had done the deed The remnant of Group Green,

together with Madame Gudenan and some 200 Lowlives, hid

in a great hollow tree until things should cool off Inside the

refuge, Madame explained to the newcomers her great plan to

free Pliocene humanity from the Tanu yoke, a task she had

undertaken in order to expiate her own guilt

Madame's deputy, a Native Amencan named Peopeo Mox-

mox Burke, who had once been a judge, was keenly interested

in Amene's theory about the deadliness of iron to the exotic

race This might be an invaluable secret weapon in the liberation

of humanity

A friendly Firvulag named Fitharn Pegleg joined the Low-

lives inside their sanctuary and told Group Green the legend

of the Ship's Grave The great space-going organism that was

Brede's mate had died in making the leap from its home galaxy

to our own Tanu and Firvulag, passengers in the Ship led by

Brede. escaped from the hulk m small flying machines just

before it impacted upon the Earth, making a great crater known

as the Ship's Grave

For some time. Lowlives, working with Firvulag, had

searched for this ancient site Even though a thousand years

had passed, it was possible that some of the sophisticated flying

machines left at the Grave might still be operational And inside

one of them, entombed after a ntual duel, was the body of

Lugonn, Shining Hero of the Tanu. together with his sacred

weapon, the Spear The latter was not a blade, but rather a

XX11

SYNOPSIS

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photonic projector that delivered laserlike blasts of energy. This

Spear, in the hands of Lowlife humanity, could turn the balance

of power -

Madame's people had looked in vain for the Ship's Grave.

But Claude, knowledgeable in future geology, told them that

the crater could only be the astrobleme known as the Ries,

located some 300 kilometers to the east, beyond the Black

Forest, on the northern shore of the Danube River.

It was decided to mount a new expedition at once. With

luck, the searchers might return before the end of September.

The Hcvulag would then Join humanity in a joint attack against

the city of Finiah—provided that me fighting took place before

the start of the Grand Combat Truce, which began at dawn on

October 1. Unknown to Filham, who agreed to accompany the

party, the Lowlives who remained behind intended to go to

another site designated by Claude, where they hoped iron ore

might be found. They would smelt whatever iron they could

and then forge weapons to be used in the Finiah attack. The

iron was to be kept a secret from the Firvulag, since Madame

was dubious of their loyalty.

After receiving permission from Yeochee IV, King of the

Firvulag, the expedition set out. Itcomprised Madame Guderian,

Richard, Felice, Chief Burke, a former aircraft technician named

Stefanko, a dynamic-field engineer named Martha, Claude, and

Fitham. Felice was especially anxious to go. She was certain

that the body of the ancient hero, Lugonn, would have a golden

tore about its neck that she could appropriate.

Disaster struck the party even before it reached the Black

Forest. In a Rhineside swamp, a giant pig killed Stefanko and

badly wounded Chief Burke. Frail Martha, who had borne four

children in quick succession as a Tanu slave, began to hem-

orrhage from the shock. It seemed that the expedition would

have to be abandoned. But Martha insisted that she would

recover, and Felice agreed to carry the sick woman if need be.

Martha was a vital member of the group, now the only one

with the technical skill to put the photon Spear and/or a flyer

into operation once the expedition found them. The Firvulag

Fitham agreed to take Chief Burke back to the Lowlife village

of Hidden Springs, where Amerie was recuperating from a

broken arm.

After many vicissitudes, the reduced expedition crossed the

THE NONBORN KING

XXlll

Black Forest range and came into the territory of a certain

Sugoll. Only nominally under the authority of the Firvulag

King, Sugoll ruled a large band of grotesque mutant Firvulag

called Howlers. His own hideously deformed body was hidden

beneath a handsome illusion- Sugoll at first scorned to assist

the expedition and threatened to kill the humans. But when

Claude pointed out the source of Howler deformity—radio-

active rocks among which they had lived for many genera-

tions—the ruler relented. Claude hinted that the Howlers might

relieve their plight by seeking help from human geneticists—

if such persons were released from Tanu slavery. The liberation

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of humanity (and helping out the expedition) was thus to the

Howler advantage- Sugoll finally agreed to assist the party in

finding the River Danube, on which the humans could easily

voyage to the Ship's Grave. Once again the four travelers set

off.

On 22 September they arrived at last at the crater. Richard

and Martha, who had become lovers, set about repairing one

of the flying machines and the great Spear. Feiice, after a fit

of rage brought on by her discovery that Lugonn's skeleton

had no golden tore, calmed herself and was a model of co-

operation. Even so, time was getting desperately short if they

were to meet the deadline before the Grand Combat Truce.

Martha's old affliction returned and she grew dangerously weak

from loss of blood; but she would not let them return to Hidden

Springs until the testing of the photon weapon was complete.

Meanwhile, a great Firvulag army had gathered on the bank

of the Rhine opposite the Tanu city of Finiah- Additionally,

several hundred Lowlives had been recruited from scattered

wilderness hamlets and surreptitiously armed with iron- At dusk

on the twenty-ninth the flyer finally landed at Hidden Springs

with the Spear ready for use. But Martha was in shock from

hemorrhaging, and Amerie could only rush her away for trans-

fusions and pray for a miracle. The distraught Richard could

not even remain with his beloved; he had to pilot the flyer in

its bombardment of Finiah. ^

Screened by Madame Guderian's limited metapsychic power,

the flyer hovered over the city while Claude blasted holes in

both city walls. Then he turned the Spear on Finiah's barium

mine, the only source in the Many-Colored Land of the elemeni

XXIV

SYNOPSIS

thai was vital in making all kinds of tores- The mine was

destroyed, and waves of Firvulag, wearing the illusory shapes

of hideous monsters, invaded the city alongside Chief Burke

and his Lowlife forces. After a desperate fight, Finiah fell. Its

surviving Tanu populace, including the ruler. Lord Velteyn,

fled in the direction of Castle Gateway. The erstwhile human

slaves (some of whom had been quite content in their bondage)

were given the choice of freedom or death. Those wearing gray

or silver tores had to submit to their removal with an iron chisel,

a painful process that left many of them in a state of profound

nervous collapse.

Both Claude and Madame were wounded by bolts of Vel-

teyn's psychoenergy during the air attack. Richard lost the sight

of one eye, but managed to return the flyer safely to Hidden

Springs- There he discovered that Martha had died. Mad with

grief, he took her body and soared away in the gravomagnet-

ically powered aircraft, to wait for his own death in an orbit

thousands of kilometers above Pliocene Earth.

Below, Felice was walking toward the ruins of Finiah. She

bitterly regretted missing the war; but she knew that she would

find her long-sought golden tore somewhere in the devastated

city, and then she would attain the powers needed to fulfill her

vow to destroy the Tanu race. Felice finally did find a tore; it

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raised to operancy her latent powers of farsensing, psyhcho-

kinesis, coercion, and creativity. Some time would have to

elapse before she learned to use these powers correctly, and

so she returned to Hidden Springs in order to assist Madame

Guderian in the next phases of the liberation of humanity.

Meanwhile, far to the south in the Tanu capital of Muriah,

the other four members of Group Green encountered an utterly

different face of the Many-Colored Land.

Upon their arrival, the Green quartet and their fellow hu-

mans, Raimo and Sukey, were presented to the Tanu aristocracy

at a lavish feast. Elizabeth learned from Thagdai the High King

that she was to be taken to Brede Shipspouse in order to be

initiated into Tanu ways—an unprecedented honor. After the

initation, which might take a month, she would be impregnated

by the King and found a new dynasty of fully operant (i.e.,

torcless) Tanu-human hybrids. Queen Nontusvel seemed en-

THE NONBORN KING xxv

rirely agreeable to this arrangement and Elizabeth herself showed

no emotion as Thagdai unfolded his plans-

The other honored prisoners learned their own fates. Bryan

the anthropologist was commanded to make a careful study of

me impact of humanity's advent upon the Tanu socioeconomy.

A certain faction, headed by Nodonn Battlemasler, the most

powerful son of Thagdai and Nontusvel and heir presumptive,

maintained that the coming of humanity had been detrimental

to Tanu culture rather than beneficial, as Thagdai and most of

the Tanu aristocracy believed. Bryan, using the advanced an-

alytical methods of the Milieu, was to settle the matter. It went

without saying that Thagdai felt confident that Bryan would

confirm the royal policy.

The gigantic Viking Stein, Raimo Hakkinen, and Sukey

Davies were forced to display their talent before the company,

Sukey's silver tore had activated a powerful latent faculty of

redaction. She would be apprenticed to the Redactor Guild,

headed by the compassionate and civilized Dionket, and learn

the art of mental healing. Poor Raimo, who possessed only a

weak psychokinetic power, found out that he was destined to

become the sexual plaything of Tanu women, who found it

difficult to conceive by their own males. Stein was presented

to the festal throng as a gladiatorial candidate for the Grand

Combat, the annual rituai war between the Tanu and Firvulag

in which certain humans also participated. Stein was about to

be auctioned off to the highest Tanu bidder when an incredible

event threw the entire mass of Tanu aristocracy into a turmoil.

Aiken Drum put in his bid for Stein-

This charming young rogue's awesome latent mind-powers

had been released in a psychic torrent by the donning of the

silver tore. So great was the power of Aiken's liberated mind

that he had actually burned out the control circuits of the silver

tore. He was now in the process of going fully operant—

metafunctional without artificial augmentation. Only Elizabeth,

who had been a masterclass teacher of young metapsychics

back in the Milieu, knew what was happening. The Tanu re-

alized that Aiken Drum was far above the usual type of human

file:///F|/rah/Julian%20May/May,%20Julian%20-...ene%20Exile%203%20-%20The%20Noborn%20King.txt (10 of 329) [1/15/03 7:43:01 PM]

Julian May - The Non-Born King

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