Gordon Dickson - Call him lord

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The galaxy is a broad screen upon -which sagas and 'mighty'

adventures can be castor trivial, diminutive stories. Gordon

R. Dickson is one of the very few writers who is aware of the

true size of our universe, and of the possibilities inherent -

this new scale of things. His Emperor has the ring of a true

emperor, and behind him we are aware of that star-spanning.'

empire and of the problems it must present. This is a story"

with a ring of truth to it, and it is a story that moves. Perhaps

this is the reason that Mr. Dickson's fellow writers chose this

as an award winner: because he is not afraid to entertain us. .

Nebula Award, Best Novelette 1966

CALL HIM LORD

Gordon R. Dickson

He called and commanded me

Therefore, I knew him;

But later, on, failed me; and

Therefore, / slew him!"

"Song of the Shield Bearer"

The sun could not fail in rising over the Kentucky hills, ac-

could Kyle Arnam in waking. There would be eleven hou~

and forty minutes of daylight. Kyle rose, dressed, and weat~

out to saddle the gray gelding and the white stallion. He ro~e

the stallion until the first fury was out of the arched andS

Spowy neck; and then led both horses around to tether them

outside the kitchen door. Then he went in to breakfast.

The message that had come a week before was beside his

plate of bacon and eggs. Teena, bis wife, was standing at the

breadboard with her back to him. He sat down and began

eating, rereading the letter as he ate.

". . . The Prince will be traveling incognito under one of his

family titles, as Count Sirii North; and should not be ad-

dressed as 'Majesty.' You will call him 'Lord' . . ."

"Why does it have to be you?" Teena asked.

He looked up and saw how she stood with her back to him.

"Teena" he said, sadly.

"Why?"

"My ancestors were bodyguards to hisback in the wars of

conquest against the aliens. I've told you that," he said. "My

forefathers saved the lives of his, many times when there was

no warninga Rak spaceship would suddenly appear out of

nowhere to lock on, even to a flagship. And even an Emperor

found himself fighting for his life, hand to hand."

"The aliens are all dead now, and the Emperor's got a

hundred other worlds! Why can't his son take his Grand Tour

on them? Why does he have to come here to Earthand

you?"

"There's only one Earth."

"And only one you, I suppose?"

He sighed internally and gave up. He had been raised by

his father and his uncle after his mother died, and in an

argument with Teena he always felt helpless. He got up from

the table and went to her, putting his hands on her and gently

trying to turn her about. But she resisted.

He sighed inside himself again and turned away to the

weapons cabinet. He took out a loaded slug pistol, fitted it into

the stubby holster it matched, and clipped the holster to his

belt at the left of the buckle, where the hang of his leather

jacket would hide it. Then he selected a dark-handled knife

with a six-inch blade and bent over to slip it into the sheath

inside his boot top. He dropped the cuff of his trouser leg

back over the boot top and stood up.

"He's got no right to be here," said Teena fiercely to the

breadboard. "Tourists are supposed to be kept to the museum

areas and the tourist lodges."

"He's not a tourist. You know that," answered Kyle,

patiently. "He's the Emperor's oldest son and his great-grand-

mother was from Earth. His wife will be, too. Every fourth

generation the Imperial line has to marry back into Earth

stock. That's the lawstill." He put 'on his leather jacket,

sealing it closed only at the bottom to hide the slug-gun

holster, half turned to the doorthen paused.

"Teena?" he asked.

She did not answer.

"Teena!" he repeated. He stepped to her, put his hands on

her shoulders and tried to turn her to face him. Again, she

resisted, but this time he was having none of it.

He was not a big man, being of middle height, round-faced,

with sloping and unremarkable-looking, if thick, shoulders.

But his strength was not ordinary. He could bring the white

stallion to its knees with one fist wound in its maneand no

other man had ever been able to do that. He turned her easily

to look at him.

"Now, listen to me" he began. But, before he could

finish, all the stiffness went out of her and she clung to him,

trembling.

"He'll get you into trouble1 know he will!" she choked,

muffledly into his chest. "Kyle, don't go! There's no law

making you go!"

He stroked the soft hair of her head, his throat stiff and

dry. There was nothing he could say to her. What she was

asking was impossible. Ever since the sun had first risen on

men and women together, wives had clung to their husbands

at times like this, begging for what could not be. And always

the men had held them, as Kyle was holding her nowas if

understanding could somehow be pressed from one body into

the otherand saying nothing, because there was nothing that

could be said.

So, Kyle held her for a few moments longer, and then

reached behind him to unlock her intertwined fingers at his

back, and loosen her arms around him. Then, he went.

Looking back through the kitchen window as he rode off on

the stallion, leading the gray horse, he saw her standing just

where he had left her. Not even crying, but standing with her

arms hanging down, her head down, not moving.

He rode away through the forest of the Kentucky hillside.

It took him more than two hours to reach the lodge. As he

rode down the valleyside toward it, he saw a tall, bearded

man, wearing the robes they wore on some of the Younger

Worlds, standing at the gateway to the interior courtyard of

the rustic, wooded lodge.

When he got close, he saw that the beard was graying and

the man was biting his lips. Above a straight, thin nose, the

eyes were bloodshot and circled beneath as if from worry or

lack of sleep.

"He's in the courtyard," said the gray-bearded man as Kyle

rode up. "I'm Montlaven, his tutor. He's ready to go." The

darkened eyes looked almost pleadingly up at Kyle.

"Stand clear of the stallion's head," said Kyle. "And take

me in to him."

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