John Dalmas - Yngling 4 - The Yngling in Yamato

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BAEN BOOKS BY JOHN DALMAS

The Regiment

The White Regiment

The Regiment's War

The Yngling and the Circle of Power

The Yngling in Yamato

The Lizard War

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JOHN DALMAS

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THE YNGLING IN YAMATO

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to

real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN: 0-671-87634-1

Cover art by David Miller First printing, December 1994

Distributed by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020

Typeset by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH Printed in the United States of America

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For

Jon Inouyejan & Jerry Numata, Yaska Huff,

John Nishimura, Paul Koshi

and most particularly for

Jess Roe: cowboy; swordsmith; scholar

and practitioner of the martial arts,

both armed and unarmed;

and friend

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PROLOG

The Black Castle of Osaka, though considerably smaller, was scarcely less handsome than the Emperors

palace, and much more ancient. Its massive outer walls were thirteen centuries old, far older than any written

record in Yamato. Within them, of course, the original buildings were long gone, burnt during the Great Plague.

But some of their older replacements, whose jet-black roof tiles gave the castle its name, dated back as far as three

centuries.

High in the residence of its lord, two men sat in a comfortable chamber, with wall panels open to the evening breeze.

The day had been hot, was still hot, and they'd exchanged the formal karm-shimo of the wedding ceremony for light

kimonos. Both were takaidaimyo-lords overlords. One was ArakawaHideo, master of the castle and father of the bride.

The other was Kyushu Tadaki, a maternal uncle of the groom, Ten-no-Suji Terasu.

Even given the groom's ambivalent status with the imperial court, one might have expected a wedding between

such elevated families, traditionally less than friendly, to be attended by daimyo and their retainers from numerous

districts. This ceremony, however, had been small, attended mainly by members of Arakawa's immediate family

and senior retainers, and those of Lord Kyushu.

Absently, Kyushu sipped sake from the delicate porcelain bowl he held, then muttered, "It's as if we were

hiding the wedding."

He said it sourly. Arakawa grunted. "What we're doing is dangerous enough already. It is best we made small of

this ceremony."

"Hikari will hear of it soon, nonetheless. And it calls attention to itself by its very smallness."

True. But it also shows deliberate avoidance of anything resembling imperial ambitions, and thus disarms his

suspicions to a degree. Hikari may be reluctant to act, but he is not a fool And what he lacks in steel is made up

for by the men around him-and by the restrictions his father imposed on us."

Arakawa said this last with distaste. The older man scowled but did not argue. He simply said, "I do not care for

subterfuge or delay. They are foreign to my nature."

"I understand. But if the blood-bath comes to pass before we are ready, it will be our blood, and the blood of our

armies. And our families will be wiped out, root and stock; we will have no second chance."

ONE

Fanns allri nannan som Ynglingen han-

milt som mjök (önar leene),

stark som storm (men allri rastne),

vis somjodens sälva annen.

Å varelse var han, ej dykt.

There was never other like the Youngling,

mild as milk (his eyes smiling),

strong as storm (but never raging),

wise as the spirit of the earth.

And Living man he was, not myth.

Prefatory verse of Thejarnhann Saga,

Kumalo translation

Matthew Kumalo didn't wonder why he was playing chauffeur to a Neoviking chieftain. It paid off: the big

barbarian had been their entry into remarkable areas of study. And of course, there was the Northman's charisma: you

tended automatically to do what he wanted.

Besides Matthew and Nils Järnhann, a woman and two men rode the pinnace, skimming some fifty meters above a

rolling sea of grass. Grass turned tawny by drought and late-summer frost. Waves swept it, the heads of fescue and

deschampsia bending to a fresh breeze.

He flew on manual, guiding on an ancient, overgrown highway, its cuts and Ms still evident. Its pavement,

though, had long since disintegrated and been buried by dust storms. In these times it knew only the hooves of saddle

mounts, the tough splayed feet of pack camels, and the infrequent herds of sheep and cattle being driven to China.

Nils Järnhann watched as if the blank glass eyes in his sockets were functional, then spoke to the pilot in front of him.

"Fly higher," he said. "We'll be there soon."

Matthew Kumalo pulled gently on the control and soared to five kilometers, gaining speed. Ahead, the undulations

became rounded hills. Beyond them, from his new altitude, he could see a broad basin, and on the far side, mountains

high enough that the upper slopes were dark with forest. Moments later, the pinnace left the final rounded hill

behind, and Matthew slowed.

The basin was a broad valley, a river flowing through it in wide looping curves, with groves and strips of

woods along its banks. In the distance westward, a vast dust cloud rose. As seen from the pinnace, it could have

been a great herd of cattle being driven to new pastures, but in fact, the khan's personal tümen was in training

there, 10,000 strong. Much nearer, on the south side of the river, was a large encampment, laid out in orderly

lines and rectangles like a city of the ancients.

"Is that it?" Matthew asked pointing.

"That's it," Nils answered. "That's Urga. Stop above it, and I'll find which is the ger of the khan."

After her husband had parked five kilometers above it, the

senior ethnologist, Nikko Kumalo, set the viewer on "scan." Then she moved aside to let the eyeless barbarian

operate it. She was still not entirely used to the ease with which Nils .used equipment. Nor did she stop to

wonder why, with his psionic vision, he even bothered with the scanner.

The Buriat encampment was an orderly set of sub-camps distributed over an area several kilometers on a

side. The Northman adjusted the magnification until it occupied almost all the screen. A brief scan showed which ger

was the khan's: the largest-a felt tent a dozen meters across, shaped like an inverted serving bowl. It was

whitewashed like most of the others, but a banner hung from a pole in front of it.

Nils didn't at once Sock onto it. A little apart from the others, outside their pattern, was another splendid ger scarcely

smaller than the khan's, with other, lesser gert close around it, their arrangement different from that of the

Buriat camp. Nils recognized it as the camp of the Chinese ambassador, though it was larger than when he'd seen it

last. Near it was a paddock a hectare in size, the horses in it notably bigger and finer than the tough Buriat ponies.

Only after several seconds did Nils return his attention to the khan's ger, and lock the viewer on the ground in front

of it.

"There is something wrong here," he said to Matthew. "Take us down to ten doubles,1 and I'll hail them."

Pinnace Alpha began a silent descent, accelerating down a gravitic vector that intersected the ground within

meters of the khan's door. There was activity in the camp-women and some older children pursuing duties, other

children playing, and male slaves tending lactating mares in the vicinity-but no one noticed the descending pinnace

till it was within three hundred meters of the ground and slowing. These were not a people who looked upward much,

except when falconing. Then a child saw it, and called out. Others looked up, first children, then their elders, and the

Alpha's sound pickup caught the spreading shouts. People scattered, some ducking into gert, others running

away. Some emerged with bows in hand. At

--- 1A double is a length measurement equal to about 1.7 meters. It is called a double because it is two strides long.

fifty meters the pinnace stopped, and Nils used the loud-hailer, speaking Buriat.

"I am the Northman," he boomed, "come from the sky to find my anda,2 Achikh,"

A woman had emerged from the khan's ger with a bow and quiver, a broad heavy woman of perhaps fifty years.

Nils recognized Dokuz, the khan's mother.

"Achikh is not here," she shouted. "Go away!"

He answered her in the formal style: "Then I will speak with his brother Kaidu, the khan. Achikh s brother, the

Great Khan Kaidu, who was my friend. Noble Kaidu, the Great Khan who hosted me and gave me rich gifts, and asked

me to be his shaman."

She didn't answer at once, squinting upward, afraid but brave, her wide mouth slightly open. It wasn't necessary to be a

telepath like Nils to see her mental wheels spinning. "Kaidu is hunting," she called at last, "with a large party of

warriors. Achikh is with him."

"Hunting where?"

"In the Changajn Nuruu, far to the southwest. He will be impossible to find."

"I will be back," Nils answered, then switched off the hailer and turned to Matthew. "Rise and go north."

Ted Baver, the junior ethnologist, spoke then. He knew Buriat, and had understood Dokuz. "North?' he asked. "She

said southwest."

"She lied. He is hunting, all right, but in the mountains southeast of Baikal."

Matthew didn't question. Presumably the Northman had read her mind. Releasing the vector lock, he began to

climb, swinging northward. At 5,000 meters, the planetologist leveled off, called a map onto the screen, then on it set

and locked cross-hairs over the general area Nils had asked for. That done, he set the pinnace on auto-pilot.

Ted Baver looked curiously at the Northman. "Lied? Why?'

"She was afraid for Kaidu. Since we left, Achikh killed Fong,

--- 2Anda, in the Mongol dialects, means blood brother or soul brother, someone to whom special loyalty is given.

the Chinese ambassador-drew his sword and cut him down inside the khan's ger, which is a serious violation of the

yassa. The usual punishment for that would be suffocation, or exile in special cases, but Kaidu has made him a slave,

instead, adding the humiliation of wearing a yoke."

The fifth person on board, young Hans Gunnarsson, stared at Nils, his angular juvenile face shocked. "Kaidu did that

to his brother? When he could have exiled him instead? Achikh would much rather be exiled than wear a yoke."

"Fong had long since put a spell on Kaidu," Nils replied. "Also, Kaidu fears the Chinese emperor."

"Just a minute," Nikko said. "The woman you spoke to is Kaidu's mother, right? And Achikh is his brother. Doesn't

that make her ..."

"Dokuz is not Achikh's mother; Kaidu and he are half-brothers. The Buriat do not differentiate."

Matthew held the pinnace to subsonic speed to avoid sonic boom, but even so, in half an hour they were over the

Jablonovyj Chrebet, land claimed by the Yakut-Russ but often encroached upon by Buriat hunting parties. These

were low but intermittently rugged mountains, their forest interspersed with lobes and islands of grassland. The AG

generators raised the pinnace to twelve kilometers then. From there Nils panned the land with the viewer, while the

others watched a monitor. If this failed to find the Buriat hunting party, they could fly a search pattern.

They spotted the camp in an open draw, not far above a broad grassy valley. Seventy or eighty leather shelter tents

had been set up in the orderly rows typical of Mongol hunting camps. A creek ran past it at a little distance. Nils

examined the camp at increasing magnifications; numerous horses grazed in the vicinity, remounts and pack horses.

There were also men, not a lot of them. Slaves they'd be. Some tended fires, and large racks where meat dried and

smoked. Others, perhaps camp keepers, seemed to have little to do. Some fished with spears, and those who worked,

worked leisurely.

One of them wore a yoke. Achikh, Ted decided, though from twelve kilometers, image waver precluded

recognizing the face. "Shall we go down and get him?" he asked.

Nils shook his head. "We'll wait for Kaidu to return. I don't want to steal Achikh from him. Let him be released

formally. That way, at some future time, Achikh can come home if he'd like."

Nils began to scan the country round about. Soon enough he found a large party of horsemen, slowly

sweeping the length of a steep-sided valley whose grassy bottom contained a brook. Other horsemen, barely

glimpsed, rode through coniferous forest on the slopes. Conifer groves bordered the brook, and he glimpsed

animals trotting through them: elk3 and wild horses.

Not long afterward he found a force of men, five or six hundred of them, mostly on foot. They were perhaps

twenty-five miles from the Buriat camp, hiking along a sparsely forested ridge crest. These were not Mongols of any

tribe; their hair hung in heavy braids. "Yakut-Russ," Ted guessed aloud, and Nils nodded. They carried bows and

quivers, and swords rode at their belts. They seemed to know where the Buriat camp was, at least approximately; the

ridge they were on would lead them near it.

Aboard the Alpha, everyone napped intermittently, but with someone always on the viewer. Hans found another,

seemingly smaller hunting party riding toward camp, pack horses loaded with game, mostly elk. Nikko and Matt

casually discussed projects they might undertake after delivering Nils and Hans back to their clan. Ted suggested

they explore the situation on the Japanese islands. Japanese was one of the languages he'd deep-learned before leaving

New Home, and the history and culture of pre-plague Japan had intrigued him.

The sun was low, coloring the clouds, when the larger party of hunters returned to camp. Matthew turned to Nils.

"Shall we go down?"

"Not now. Take me to Urga, first. There is something there I want to have with me when I meet Kaidu."

--- 3 The term "elk," as used here, refers to Siberian animals (the Altai maral) of the genus Cervus,

closely related to the European red deer. They are much larger, however, equivalent in size to the North

American Cervus commonly termed elk or wapiti.

Matt frowned but swung southward, setting the controls for Urga. When they got there, Nils waited till after

nightfall, then had Matthew put him down some four kilometers from the encampment. There was no moon. The

opaqued pinnace, hidden by darkness, sat on the steppe in the shelter of a force shield for more than six hours. After

the first two, Matthew and Nikko had grown increasingly uneasy at Nils's continued absence, but surprisingly, to

them, Ted Baver seemed quite relaxed. Hans had begun the wait a bit sourly; he'd wanted to go with Nils, but the

eyeless giant had refused, saying that in this, stealth was vital, and numbers a disadvantage. But having had a strenuous

and sleepless night, the night before, Hans had soon fallen asleep, curled on the deck like some long angular animal.

When Nils returned, only Matthew was awake. The Northman stood just outside the force shield, and spoke

in Swedish, as if to establish his identity without question. As soon as he was inside, Matt re-formed the domed shield.

Nilcko had wakened, as had Ted; Hans still slept. Nils appeared to have been sprayed with blood, obviously not his

own or he wouldn't be there. He'd taken with him a clear plastic bag. Now he tossed it on the deck. Matthew

looked, and almost threw up.

"I'll need it later tonight," Nils said. "Now I want to go back to Kaidu s hunting camp." He turned to Nikko then; she

looked pale enough to faint. Gesturing at his leather breeches and bare torso, he said, "When I had the chance, I

wiped myself off with grass as well as I could, but it had mostly dried by then."

They were all awake when the autopilot brought them to the coordinates of the khan's hunting camp. Matthew

stopped above it at 1,000 meters. "Now what?" he asked.

"Lower to a hundred doubles, then light all the inside lights, and make the hull one-way transparent."

That would make the hull opalescent, seen from outside. The Northman warrior, it seemed to Matthew, never

forgot anything he'd seen or heard, assimilating it all as part of his mental universe, ready for use in analysis or action.

And he'd

shown more than once a mastery of dramatics. Matt nodded. "Right," he said, and began to take the Alpha

down.

Aibek, son of Elbek, stood guard outside Kaidu's tent. Not that the khan was in danger here, for aside from

the double handful of slaves, the men were sworn nökür to Kaidu. But guards were always set. It was the

latter part of the night, in the time of the new moon, and very dark, so when the light flashed on in the sky,

Aibek looked up immediately in alarm. Overhead, at some uncertain distance, an object shone like a brilliant

oval moon.

His shout came unbidden from his throat, at the same moment as the other guards, and as he stared, it

seemed that the glowing object was slowly lowering. Then two bright fingers of light speared down from it, focusing

on the tent of the khan, and at once Aibek's skin rucked with chills. It was all he could do not to duck inside to

hide. Other shouts followed, as men emerged sleepily from tents and looked upward. They stood transfixed, no

one drawing a sword or stringing a bow, for surely this was a very powerful god, perhaps even great Tengri

himself.

Finally, a short stone cast overhead, it stopped. And spoke! Then Aibek knew fear beyond imagining, his knees

quaking so that he almost fell. He was aware of the khan standing beside him now in his sleeping robe.

"KAIDU!" called the glowing god, much louder than necessary. "I AM THE NORTHMAN, COME TO

SEE MY ANDA, ACHIKH! BRING HIM OUT TO ME!"

Aibek remembered the Northman, a giant wizard, hugely muscled. He'd been impressed then. But now, to

see his true form!...

Kaidu called out that Achikh be brought forth. Haifa minute later, the Mongol veteran stumbled into the light,

impelled by a guard. Achikh's neck was bent from the yoke he wore, and his hands were tied to it, as they always

were at night.

"IS THIS WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO MY ANDA? YOUR BROTHER?"

Kaidu's voice cracked, but he answered. "He drew his sword in rny ger, which is against the yassa, and killed a

man there,

the Chinese ambassador, which is also against the yassa. The law called for his death. I have spared him."

"YOU LIE TO ME! YOU COULD HAVE EXILED HIM! I WARNED YOU ABOUT THE CHINESE

AMBASSADOR. HE WAS AN EVIL WIZARD, WHO'D COME TO YOU ONLY TO BEGIN THE

ENSLAVEMENT OF THE BURIAT. ACHIKH DID THE BURIAT AND ITS KHAN A GREAT FAVOR BY

KILLING HIM, BUT AFTERWARD YOU WELCOMED ANOTHER CHINESE VIPER TO YOUR

BREAST, A NEW AMBASSADOR. DO YOU STILL HOPE TO ALLY YOURSELF WITH THE

EMPEROR?"

Kaidu gathered himself in defiance. Squinting upward against the light, he called, "I have already allied

myself with him."

"AH, KAIDU! MISGUIDED KAIDU! YOUR ALL-POWERFUL ALLY DIED IN HIS PALACE

LAST MORNING AT DAYBREAK, ALONG WITH HIS TROLLS AND MOST OF HIS CIRCLE OF POWER.

THEIR BLOOD SPRAYED THE WALLS, AND RAN ACROSS THE FLOOR LIKE A RIVER!

"NOW! FREE ACHIKH!"

The khan stared a long moment, then turned to the keeper. "Free him," he husked. The man slashed the thongs that

held Achikh's hands, then drew the pins that held his head enyoked. His torso bare, Achikh stood like some mythical

mountain troll, his thick body knotted and sinewy, his neck and back crooked. He had to twist and look sideways to

see the glowing god above them.

"EVERYONE BUT ACHIKH AND KAIDU! FLAT ON YOUR BELLY NOW, THAT YOU DO NOT SEE

THAT WHICH MIGHT BLAST YOUR SOUL FOREVER!"

Aibek dropped on his belly without hesitating, wrapping his arms around his head that no light should get in.

Only Kaidu, with Achikh, remained standing. He'd known the Northman was a powerful wizard, but he'd

never imagined such power as this. The glowing light settled to the ground, and now he could see what form it had. In

shape it was somewhat like an oblong ger, but smooth as steel. It had stubby legs to

stand on, and a stalk stuck out the top. Two great eyes stood out on shorter stalks; it was from them that the fingers of light

came. It settled on its feet with a hiss.

"Achikh, come here." The voice was softer now, but still not truly human. Kaidu saw Achikh walk toward it, unfaltering,

and wondered if he could have done as well himself. He saw a mouth open in the side-no, a kind of door!-and the giant

Northman stepped out. Perhaps not a god then, but a magical vessel. The Northman helped Achikh into it, then turned and

looked out at the Buriat khan.

"Kaidu," the Northman said loudly, in his own voice now, "I commend you to your people. In most matters you have

been a great khan. Only in the matters of the emperor and Achikh have you seriously erred, and that because the

ambassadors were wizards who laid a spell on you. I now declare you free of it.

"Meanwhile a strong force of Yakut-Russ is on its way. They can arrive tomorrow; be warned!

"And here! I have brought you a gift from Urga tonight!"

The Northman threw something toward Kaidu that landed almost at the khan's feet, then he disappeared inside the vessel

of light. The door closed behind him. After a moment, the fingers of light went out, and the glowing vessel began to ascend

back into heaven, while around Kaidu, his warriors still lay prostrate. When it had risen a short Way, it paused. One of the

fingers of light reappeared, moved, found the object the Northman had thrown. And the vessel spoke again. "OPEN

YOUR GIFT, KAIDU! THE GIFT OF FREEDOM I BROUGHT TO YOU FROM URGA!"

Kaidu bent and picked it up. It was a bag with something in it, something hard. He found the opening, reached in, and

pulled the object out.

By its blood-encrusted hair. It was the new ambassadors head.

TWO

As the pinnace lifted, Nils seated Achikh cross-legged on the floor. Then he knelt behind him on both knees,

kneading and pummeling his neck and shoulders while Ted Baver watched. "We need to straighten your neck

and back," Nils told him. "As they are, it would be difficult to fight." After a bit, his large powerful fingers and even

his knuckles, began to explore the muscles. Occasionally they dug hard, so that the Buriat winced. It took more than

a little pain to make Achikh wince; Ted knew that from a year of close association. After a while though, Achikhs

spine was straight, and the probing stopped. Nils began to rub again, and Ted could see the residual tension drain from

the Buriat, who got down on the deck and lay slack while the Northman finished the treatment.

By that time they were 450 kilometers above the Earth, parked on the gravitic vector through the hunting

camp. Matthew had turned away from the pilots panel to watch. "Nils," he said at last, "you're familiar with the

sanny. Your friend might enjoy a session in it; it ought to feel good to him. And he may have brought some, uh,

bugs with him. Lice, maybe, or fleas. Have him strip, and you can show him how to use it while I run his breeches

through the cleaning drum. I should probably run your things through, too. You might have picked up some while

you gave him that massage."

Achikh understood Anglic, but not this; key words were unfamiliar. Nils explained, and in a minute, Achikh stood

nude. Then Nils demonstrated the sanny to him, motioned Achikh inside, and closed the door behind him. Ted

Baver waited, curious. It seemed to him the small booth might waken a latent claustrophobia in the Buriat, who was,

after all, a man of the open. A moment later they heard a muffled shout, and some

thumps against the wall. The spray took him by surprise, Ted thought. But Achikh did not come bursting out. After a

few Buriat oaths and a few more bumps, they heard only the soft hum of the water recycler till the door opened and a

dripping Achikh stepped into the cabin, a grin on his face. Nils shooed him back into the sanny, showed him how to

turn the drier on, and closed the door again.

Then the Northman too stripped, to wait his turn. Matthew handled their clothes at arm's length, tossing them into

the drum and setting it on wash and microwave. It troubled him to have Nils walking unabashedly naked in the pinnace,

certainly more than with Achikh. The Northman was always imposing, almost intimidating in his size and

muscularity, but one got used to thai. Completely naked though... It occurred to him then that it wouldn't bother

him if Nikko weren't there, even though she sat pointedly facing the windscreen. You're jealous, Matthew Kumalo! he

told himself, and thethought disturbed him. So far as he knew, Nikko never thought of Nils sexually, and surely he'd

know; there'd have been some sign. Or was it a different sort of jealousy? Perhaps he simply didn't want her to see

Nils's-equipment, so much larger than his own, as Nils himself was so much larger. And why should that trouble

him? The course in psychology he'd taken, at the university, had insisted that penis size was not an important factor

with most women. Most women; that meant not all of them. And important? How important did something have to

be, to be important? For that matter, how did the textbook's authors know?

He shook himself out of it when Achikh walked into the cabin and Nils disappeared into the sanny. Matthew

handed Achikh a robe, then took the cap from the bottle of debusing compound, and had him sit on a chair while he

worked the compound into his scalp. To kill any little biters, he explained in Anglic.

By the time Matthew was done, Achikh's breeches were ready. The Buriat showed no sign of the cangue now, the

yoke he'd worn, except for heavy callus on his shoulders. Nils had come out of the sanny while Matthew was finishing the

delousing treatment. Nils and Hans had been deloused the day before,

when they'd left Miyun, so Nils waited patiently, naked but with his back to the pilots seat. Matthew reddened

slightly; it seemed to him the Northman must have read bis mind earlier. Except that he was sitting with his back to

Nikko, however, Nils acted as if he'd read no thoughts at all. Perhaps he hadn't, Matthew told himself. Perhaps he

tuned people out most of the time.. Otherwise things could get pretty confusing, even for him, at least where there

were a lot of people.

Nikko had glanced over her shoulder just as Nils stepped from the sanny, and her head jerked back to the

windscreen at the sight of himjiaked. An after-image stayed with her for a moment, and irritated, she banished it by

rapping keys on her console. Calling up data: the inventory of their edibles and potables. She looked it over

critically. They were adequate for two or three persons for a while, but wouldn't last long for six. They shouldn't

postpone a return to Varjby or some other supply base, any longer than they needed to.

I wonder what Nils has in mind for Achikh? she thought, then wondered if Nils had read the question in her mind.

She still didn't know how much of the time he was aware of the thoughts around him, nor did she know him well

enough to read his body language. She wasn't even sure he had body language, he was so different from other

people. Including his own. Similar but different.

She remembered, too, his thoughtfulness that evening in the Neoviking encampment, when new to him and to

Earth, she'd made such a fool of herself. He'd had real eyes then, with pupils, not the opaque eyes of pale blue

glass they'd machined for him on board the Phaeada., after he'd been blinded in Kazi's dungeon.

With Achikh on board, Matthew had felt uncomfortable as they'd lifted. Would the Mongol panic, lose control?

But it had been dark, moonless; he couldn't see the ground receding beneath them. And Nils had been massaging him;

though the Mongol was obviously very strong, Nils could have controlled him.

Still- The planetologist spoke to Nikko, who got up and

sedated Achikh with a mild morpheate. The Buriat blinked at the spot on his arm where she'd pressed the applicator,

then lay down on a pallet by the boat's side and was asleep in a minute or two. Nils laid out pallets for himself and

Hans, and followed Achikh's example.

"Why don't you sleep, too," Matthew suggested to Nikko, and glanced at the chronometer in one corner of his

screen. "I'll set the wakeup for a little before noon."

"Aren't you going to sleep?"

"In a few minutes."

She opened her sleeping compartment, little more than a cabinet containing a shelf-like bunk with a storage net

above it. Ted opened one of the spares. Matthew rotated the pinnace a hundred and twelve degrees, till east was in front

of him out the wrap-around windscreen. He could see the moon now, a hair-like crescent sitting on the eastern horizon.

From the ground it would be invisible in the morning light. Even from 450 kilometers up, the horizon outshone it,

another silver thread, but broadly curved and scintillant, lit by a sun not yet visible to him, and bordered above by

a band of powder-blue atmosphere.

He became aware of Hans crouched beside him, also looking. "It's beautiful," the boy murmured, then pointed.

"What is that which shines like the sun on a sword edge?"

"It's the curve of the Earth, with the sun shining on it from the other side. If you watch for a minute or two, you

can see the sun rise."

"But-the sky is still dark. It's not dawn yet."

"This high, the sky is always black. The sun will shine like a bright bright moon or a very large star, but the sky stays

black."

Hans said nothing for a moment, staring at the vivid stars. "How high are we?" he asked then.

Matthew touched some keys, converting kilometers to measurements more familiar to the young Northman.

"Two hundred and seventy tusen,4 he said, adding, "I brought us so high because it's safe up here. No ores, no trolls,

no storms.

---4 A Neoviking tusen is 1,000 doubles, or about 1,700 meters-roughly 5,580 feet in the old British and American systems.

And because it gives me-perspective." He doubted the boy knew the Anglic word; he himself didn't know the

Scandinavian word, assuming it had survived the primitive centuries since the plague.

Then the limb of the sun topped the horizon, spilling light across a stretch of sea. He reached, adjusting the

windscreen to filter the sunlight. In a minute or so, the sun's entire disk had risen free of the horizon. In another

minute Hans spoke again, his voice hushed with awe.

"I think I should sleep now."

A few minutes later, Matthew locked the controls and got ready for bed himself. Already Hans was asleep,

and the planetologist wondered what his dreams would be like. Achikh, he felt sure, was out for a few more hours at

least, and there was no reason to suspect he'd explore the controls if he woke. But locking them cost nothing.

THREE

The high-pitched beeping of the wake-up drew Matthew from his bunk and Nikko from hers. Ted, he supposed, was

awake but not yet emergent. A blurry-eyed Hans sat up on the deck, where he'd either crawled or rolled offhis pad in his

sleep. Achikh seemed not to have stirred. Nils had awakened earlier; he sat in a lotus, head upright, eye-lids exposing

uncanny-looking, featureless blue glass. God knows where his mind is, Matthew thought. Matt himself had been

dreaming. Already the threads of it were gone, but it had been about the Northmen. Beyond that, a single word

remained from it in his mind: perspective. If the Northmen had a word for it, Nikko would probably know.

It was his turn to make breakfast: Danish barley and oats ground together in the pinnace's own mill, and pre-

baked. He moistened it with Danish milk, dried and reconstituted in the pinnace's liquids processor, then served it

with Danish cheese on the side, and Danish apples processed into sauce. He'd gotten used to that land of fare-palatable

in an uninspiring way, and most of all nourishing.

When they'd eaten, they talked: Matt, Nikko, Nils, and Ted. Achikh still slept, while Hans gazed rapdy out at the

Earth below. Matthew might have switched the hull to one-way transparent for him, but feared the sight might

panic Achikh when he awoke.

"I presume you want to take Achikh with us back to the Balkans," he said to Nils.

"Ted Baver would like to visit Jih-pen first."

Matthew blinked, then realized. Japan. "We can go there after we take you home."

"I would like to visit Jih-pen too. There is someone there I'd like to find, someone Jampa Lodro told me about."

It was Ted Baver that answered. "It might be hard to find one specific individual in Japan. What's his name?

Where does he live?"

"Jampa called him Chicho-san, and said he usually lives in the mountains."

Ted frowned. Chicho-san. The name meant nothing to him- unless-I'E bet that's Shisho-san, respected teacher, he

thought, as mispronounced by a Chinese or Tibetan. Not really a name. He became aware of Nils's eyes on him.

"He is also called Ojiisan Tattobu," the Northman added.

Ojiisan Tattobu-Revered Grandfather, more or less. In Japan, a lot of people might be called Respected Teacher, or

Revered Grandfather. And as for living in the mountains-

"Ninety percent-nine parts in ten-of Japan is mountains," Ted replied. "Or probably more. And Japan has a lot of islands;

four main islands. Which one of them? Did he say?"

Nils shook his head, answering in Swedish. "Nej, sa ikke."

Ted turned to Matthew. "If we go, I could ask about him. Assuming the language hasn't changed too much. He

could be someone everyone knows about."

Matt felt resistance within himself; he didn't want to go. And recognized the source: He was uncomfortable

with landing at unfamiliar places. Back on New Home he'd fought, so to speak, for his place on the expedition. Then,

when the Phaeacia was due to go home, he'd argued to stay, and won out. Earth was where the excitement was, the

potential for learning.

Yet he was afraid, or perhaps anxious was the word, after the traumas they'd gone through with the orcs, those first

weeks on Earth. But fear wasn't something to give in to. As best you could, you considered its sources in the mind, and the

external factors, consulting with others if need be. Then you acted accordingly.

"What do you think?" he asked his wife.

"Let's do it. Exploring fits our job purpose; it's why we're here."

"Um." Nothing about risks or- But then, there were risks everywhere on Earth. Though they were worse in some places

than others, sometimes much worse. He dismissed the question

for the time being and dredged his memory. He'd not only been the expeditions senior planetologist; he'd been in

charge of all ground operations. And for years had crammed ancient information about the mother planet, preparing.

Commonly he didn't have to check the computer for geographic information. "Honshu's the main island," he said, "and

along with Kyushu it's closest to the mainland. To Korea, specifically. That makes it a better prospect for finding-" He

paused, groping for the name. "Shisho-san.

"And the Kanto Plain is most likely the major population center," he went on. "It has the biggest concentration of

agricultural land, and the initial flyover found towns and villages there."

No one else had anything to add. "Okay, we'll go. Secure all gear." The map was still on the screen. He set the

controls for a gravitic vector through southeastern Honshu, and when Nikko and Ted had finished securing, they

headed southeastward, gradually losing altitude as they went. Nikko sat in the copilot's seat beside him.

"How do you say perspective in Scandinavian?" Matt asked her.

She looked at him as if wondering what brought that question up. "Pehr-spehk-TEEV," she answered, putting the main

stress on the third syllable and secondary stress on the first.

"Is that old Scandinavian, or modern?"

"Both, but it was Latin originally."

He grunted. So the Scandinavians still had the concept. Surprising, considering the post-plague collapse into

primitivism, nearly eight centuries past.

When they arrived at forty kilometers above southern Honshu, the sky below was almost innocent of

clouds. He stopped above Omori Bay, and took the Alpha down to 10,000 meters. There was no sign at all of the ancient

Tokyo-Kawasaki-Yokahama megalopolis. Matthew traversed the area more closely, with the scanner at

intermediate settings, changing to higher magnification at times, while the ship recorded what he saw. One would

have expected most of the city to have fallen, a victim of weather and molecular decay. The great

majority of it would have been the disposable, recyclable construction of the period 2015 to 2105. But where older

sections had been retained, he'd expected visible ruins, and there were none. Pre-plague European cities had preserved

neighborhoods of ancient masonry buildings, and after eight centuries, parts of old walls still stood, occasionally even

a shell. But not here. Perhaps Japanese cities had retained little of the old. That and scavenging, and Japans

earthquake frequency, might account for the lack.

There was a living town on part of the site; he guessed its population at fifty thousand or more. It was well laid out

along wide streets that were dirt but nearly unrutted, perhaps serving as much for firebreaks as for traffic. He saw no

vehicles beyond handcarts, but pedestrians were numerous, and there were people on horseback. Most of the

buildings seemed classically Japanese, wooden, with shake or tile roofs. Many windows- indeed many whole fronts-

were open to the early autumn air. At one end stood a palace, with gardens and high protective stone walls.

Interesting. He lowered to 5,000 meters and circled more widely over the Kanto Plain, remaining high enough

not to draw attention. If anyone down there happened to examine the sky closely-which was unlikely-the most

they'd see, if they noticed the pinnace at all, they could explain away as a hovering bird too high for its wings to be

seen.

There was extensive farmland on the Kanto Plain, though commonly there were strips of woods and brushland

along its streams and flood channels. Small villages were frequent, and small towns were scattered here and there,

occasionally with a castle by them. And here, at least, agriculture was no longer dominated by rice. In September, rice

paddies would still be green, unharvested, and he did see some. But mostly he saw vegetable crops, stubble fields,

and pastures.5

---5 Even in medieval Japan, arable land was in short supply, and rice, though requiring much more

labor, could produce much heavier yields per hectare than barley or wheat. With Yamato's much

smaller population, labor, not land, is in short supply. Thus barley has become the staple grain, and rice

something of a luxury.

He swung west-southwest then, paralleling the coast. Here the country was mountainous and forested, with

clusters of farms in the larger valleys. And-it struck him then, and he turned to Nikko.

"Who did the overflight here when we first got to Earth?"

"If it wasn't you, it was probably Chan."

Matthew shook his head, wondering how anyone could overfly southern Honshu and not notice, or noticing,

have failed to report it: Fuji, beautiful Mount Fuji, was dead ahead-and utterly changed! Its stately,

symmetrical cone was gone! While Nikko manned the camera, he called up the data on Fuji as it had been

before the plague, then angled downward to examine the mountain more closely, busy with his instruments,

muttering his observations to the computer. The old crater had been 600 meters across; now it was 4,100

meters across, and still nearly circular. Its high point, on the southwest side, stood only 2,350 meters above

mean sea level; the old height had been 3,776. It had blown! Sometime after the plague had ended travel

between Earth and her colony on New Home, Fujiyama had erupted, and the explosion had been stupendous.

Given the various measurements, he had the computer estimate the volume of mountain that had blown off:

approximately 5.9 cubic kilometers! Then he called up what the computer library had on the eruptions of Tamboro

and Krakatoa: This one seemingly had been even greater-the largest, then, in human history. And clearly, from

the asymmetry of the present crater, she'd blown northeastward, in the direction of the Kanto Plain. The

damage from the blast, followed by the meters-thick ashfall, must have been terrific.

Now her flanks were forested again. Even on the northeast slope, the trees were large and old, so it had happened

centuries ago, perhaps not long after the plague. In her cone, a large lake spread marvelously blue, with two small

cones emergent, also forested. Mount Fuji still was beautiful, but now it spoke not of cool symmetry. Now it said, "See

what I have done, and remember. For I can do it again."

What effects the event must have had on Japanese culture! A post-plague, sub-technical culture! Certainly the story

would

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