Free The Super Barbarians by John Brunner

impresshim too greatly. After all, as your under-ladyship is well aware”—and I nodded towards the can of potion—”we are not without ability.”
    “Did you purchase a drink of artificial courage, steward, at the magicians home in the Acre?” Shavarri said mockingly. “To hear you speak, one would think you another man from your habitual self.”
    She was certainly perceptive. I wondered how I had come to underrate her all the time since I arrived here. Shrugging, I answered, “An Earthman about Earthman’s business is a different person from an Earthman about petty tasks.”
    “Would you that I repeat what you have said to my superior sister-wife Llaq?”
    “I think, Under-lady, that she knows already.”
    Shavarri smiled unexpectedly. “In other words, panic for her blockheaded son’s behavior has made her turn to you for help. Well, I counseled this when the thing first became known—but it was natural, I suppose, for her to wait till she could wait no longer.”
    “May I inquire why your under-ladyship gave such advice?”
    “Bolder and bolder! You may not inquire. Work it out for yourself. You have my leave to go away.”
    That took me by surprise. I felt in my pocket for the slip of paper with the directions printed on, and ventured, “But—the potion, your under-ladyship? Its mode of use?”
    “I know already, steward. Plainly there can be only one way such a drug will work. It must make the subject listen more readily to what is said to him, and it must inflame his mind with passionate desires. Oh yes, steward!” she added quickly. “I was sure you would ask the seller what you were bringing to me, and I don’t doubt you have already decidedfor what purpose I wanted it. That was why I paid your extra platinum. For your discretion. Not for you to read me the directions. I have been instructed—so much as will cover a- thumb’s end, five to ten times at sunset in food or drink.” She laughed; I had never quite got used to Vorrish laughter, a high neighing sound ending in a savage grunt.
    I stood up, a little at a loss. “Your under-ladyship is a person of remarkable talent and imagination,” I said sincerely. “Scheming is a skill we Earthmen admire.”
    “I know! I know!” She tapped the can on the table. “You would not otherwise provide such excellent aids to it.”

    Her laughter was still in my memory as I returned to my room. That woman was going to be hard to cope with, I thought—probably harder than Llaq and Pwill combined, now she had revealed herself to me as a plotter and contriver.
    But I hadn’t made much progress with my new line of thinking before I reached my room again and found the door was ajar. It might have been that Dwerri had changed his mind, found himself a passkey and returned to wait for me; I looked cautiously past the edge of the door before I went in.
    The boots outflung from my one low chair told me my guess was wrong. My uninvited guest was Pwill Heir Apparent. He looked in a bad way, I saw as I quietly pushed the door to behind me. His face was flushed, set in the same scowl I had seen earlier, but he kept biting his lower lip in a typical Vorrish gesture of nervousness, and he had to thrust his hands deep in his breeches pockets to stop them from shaking.
    He must have arrived directly after I went to see Shavarri, for he had had time to ransack the room, turning out particularlymy food store—after coffee, no doubt. Finding none, he had dropped into the chair to await my return. Beside him on the table he had laid a scattered collection of coins.
    I tried not to look at the coins as I bowed to him.
    Raising his head, he glowered at me. Back in the days when I had been his tutor on Earth, he had been consistently unfriendly to me for two reasons: first, that I was appointed to supervise him, and he detested anyone who had power to order him about, and second, that I was an Earthman and a member of a defeated race. I’d never managed to learn to hate