Star of Gypsies
- Автор: Силверберг Роберт
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Star of Gypsies». Краткое содержание книги:
After a time I said in a quieter voice, under the tightest control I could manage, "I want to assure you that I'm still very much in my right mind. Just in case any of you happen to doubt that. My abdication may have been a tactical mistake, though I'm not yet convinced of that, but it wasn't the arbitrary and capricious action of a crazy old man."
And I launched into the full explanation: how I had come to feel that we were slipping away from our underlying nature, how we were being drawn more and more deeply into the GaJe Empire when in fact what we needed to do was to begin preparing ourselves for the return to Romany Star that had been our goal for so many thousands of years, and which was now perhaps just a couple of hundred years away. I told them how I had felt the need to do something dramatic in order to shake people up. That I had decided to go away for a few years and leave them leaderless, so they could ponder the error of their ways. And how I had planned to return and resume the throne, stronger than ever, once the full impact of my absence had been felt.
They listened to me soberly, almost grimly. Ammagante seemed to be engaged in some abstruse set of interior calculations. Damiano was scowling, Chorian looked astounded, Biznaga almost in tears. The others seemed puzzled or bothered or dismayed, all but Syluise, who had heard all this before and merely seemed bored. And Bibi Savina, whose invincible serenity remained unbroken. It occurred to me that the old woman might not even be listening to me, might not even be here, might be off ghosting somewhere at the far end of time.
When I was finished Jacinto said, softly, coolly, "And did you imagine that we could run a caretaker government for you forever, Yakoub? That five years or maybe ten would go by with the throne vacant and there'd be no pressure to elect a new king?"
"I thought there would be attempts made to get me to come back, before that happened."
"There were," Damiano said. "Do you know how many men I had out searching for you, starting the year after your disappearance?" "I left my patrin behind me all over the place."
"So you did. We picked your signs up eventually. It still took three years for Chorian to find you. But we were at it constantly all those years."
"As were various lords of the Imperium," I said. "Julien de Gramont was sent after me by Periandros. And of course Chorian was working not only for you but for Sunteil. Well, I expected to be found a little sooner than I was. And I never dreamed that Shandor, of all people, would make a grab for the throne."
"But he did," said Damiano.
"And it serves you right," Valerian said. He is never gentle with me. "You created a vacuum and that son of a bitch moved right into it.
Does it get us any closer to Romany Star to have Shandor as our king?" "Shandor is not the king," said Bibi Savina suddenly, in a voice that seemed to come from another solar system.
Everyone turned toward the phuri dai.
"The election was not an election. The abdication was not an abdication. Yakoub is still the king."
"Of course he is!" Chorian shouted, and instantly looked shamefaced at having dared to speak.
"And the other king on the throne on Galgala?" Biznaga said. "What is he, a figment?"
"Some figment!" Valerian boomed. "He saw his moment and he reached out and grabbed. And now we're stuck with him. Unless you want to set off a civil war, Rom against Rom. While the Gaje sit back and laugh at us."
"That must not happen," Thivt said.
"Are we supposed to accept Shandor as king, then?" Damiano asked. They all began to talk at once. Then Polarca's dry sharp voice came cutting through the babble:
"Bibi Savina is right," he said. "We can simply ignore Shandor. Yakoub's abdication didn't mean a thing. There was never any such custom as abdication among us in the first place. A king is king until he dies, or until the krisatora depose him. I haven't heard anything about an act of deposition. And even if there was, we can claim that it was done under duress, and is therefore invalid. Yakoub is our king."
Biznaga shook his head violently. "But Shandor holds the seat of government. Shandor is recognized by the Imperium as the head of the Rom people. What legal means do we have of displacing him now?"
They started to babble again. This time I held up my hand for silence. "I have a plan," I said. "I brought this whole mess down upon us all by myself when I chose to leave the throne. And now I intend to clean it up. All by myself."'
"How?" Valerian demanded.
"By going to Galgala. Alone, without any sort of escort. In person, not a doppelganger. And walking all by myself into the king's house of power and telling my son Shandor that he has to get his ass out of the place inside of five minutes, or else."
"That's your plan?" Valerian asked, looking amazed. "That is my plan, yes."
"Go to Galgala?" Jacinto said. "Go before Shandor alone and give him an ultimatum?"
"Yes," I said. "Absolutely."
I saw them looking at each other again. Gaping, staring. General disbelief. Their faces saying that they knew now beyond any doubt that I had lost my mind.
"And what happens then?" Valerian wanted to know. "He smiles politely and says, Of course, daddy, right away, daddy, and clears out? Is that what you expect, Yakoub?"
"It won't be that simple."
"I think it'll be very simple," Valerian said. "You'll make your speech, and when he recovers from his amazement he'll take you and toss you in a dungeon nine miles deep. Or do something even worse." "To his own father?" Ammagante asked.
"This is Shandor we're talking about. He's an animal, he's a wild beast. You remember what he did that time on Djebel Abdullah, when the stardrive failed and the food ran out? This is a civilized man? This is a son to be trusted? Authorizing the use of the bodies of his own passengers for food, for God's sake?"
"Valerian-" "No," he said angrily. "You want me to pretend it never happened? This Shandor is our king! This is the man whose sense of tradition, whose mercy, whose benevolence, you plan to appeal to! How do you think those passengers got to be dead in the first place? And what do you think he'll do to you, Yakoub, if you put yourself within reach of him?"
"He will not harm me," I said. "Madness. Absolute madness."
"He may try to imprison me, yes. I don't believe he would dare to harm me. Not even Shandor would do that. But if he does imprison me he'll forfeit whatever support he may have among our people. I can wait out a little time in a dungeon. At my age you learn to play the waiting game."
"But this is crazy, Yakoub!" Valerian said. "Why not send a doppelganger, at least?"
"You think that would fool him? The first thing he'd do is test me to see if I'm real. "'
"And when he finds out that you are-" "I mean to risk it."
"And if he does kill you? Can we do without you?"
"He won't. But if he does, I become a martyr. A symbol. The instrument of his overthrow."
"And who will be king, then?"
"Do you think I'm the only man who can be King of the Rom?" I shouted. "Jesu Cretchuno, am I immortal? Some day you'll need another king. If that day is sooner instead of later, what of it? Shandor has to be cast down. No matter what the cost. I made it possible for him to seize the throne-by the Devil, I made it possible for him to be alive-and I will be the one to pull him down from the place he has grabbed. I will do it by going to Galgala. Alone."
"This is very rash," Jacinto murmured.
"If it will avoid a war between Rom and Rom-" Thivt said. "No. I'm with Valerian," said Polarca. "We can't afford to lose you, Yakoub. There's got to be some less risky way of pushing Shandor aside. Proclaim the abdication null and void, ditto the election of Shandor, set up a legitimate government here on Xamur, remind Rom everywhere of their loyalty to Yakoub-"