Free Garan the Eternal by Andre Norton Page B

it was furnished with a massive table, hewn from a single log and treated with the famous carbonizing process of the Emperor’s laboratories until it was as hard and durable as the age-old rocks of the Imurian Sea. Precisely in the center of this board, placed so that its occupant faced the single entrance to the chamber, was a chair of the same substance and, on either side of that, backless benches.
    By virtue of my position I was well-known to the Emperor and the members of his all-powerful council. For the most part the latter were just, though severe, men, requiring of those under their authority a steadfast and utterly devoted loyalty to the state. Once convinced of my trueness, they had granted me an almost free hand in my own department, asking merely for a semimonthly report. In the past, since I had assumed my high office, our relations had been friendly enough, though never growing warmer than the austere formality of the court permitted.
    But now there was a change in their attitude. Long years of almost constant warfare and soldiering had supplied mewith that sixth sense permitted those who live under the thin hem of Danger’s cloak. And now I felt instantly the tension, the certain chillness, which met me even as I stepped within.
    Whether I stood in personal peril of some sort, or whether some event beyond my control had aroused them, I had no means of knowing. But that same feeling, which had guided my hand to my sword that morning as I had hurried to meet the Emperor’s messenger, again twitched my fingers toward the weapon on my hip. I felt the skin across my shoulders roughen. There was trouble here.
    “The Marshal of the Fleet greets the Lord of the Air, the Ruler of the Five Seas, the Beloved of On — “ I began the formal salutation.
    “Enough.” The Emperor’s voice severed my greeting dryly. “Be seated, Lord Garan — there.” He motioned toward a stool some six paces to the right of where I stood. I obeyed, but now my tongue moved in a mouth suddenly gone dry. There was danger here — to me!
    “You maintain a secret system of information, do you not?”
    “Aye, Great One. That being part of my duties.”
    “And is this also part of your duties?” He handed two metal plates to the attendant at his side. The man arose from his seat and, passing around the table, came to stand before me, holding what he bore so that I might look upon it.
    Incised in the soft surface of the metal were drawings and formulas totally strange to me. Wholly bewildered, I raised my eyes to the cold mask which was the Emperor’s face.
    “I have never seen these before, Sire. Nor do I understand their meaning.”
    “And yet they were discovered among the private records of your intelligence office,” he answered meaningly.
    I faced him squarely. “I repeat, Great One, I have not seen these before.”
    Whereupon Malkus of Throt, a lean, bare bone of a man, totally devoid of all the softer emotions, cackled faintly behind his skinny hand. That evil parody of a man’s full-throated laughter aroused me, doubtless even as he had intended.
    “Is the Marshal of the Fleet standing trial for wrongdoing, Great One? I beg you, my Lords, be a little plainer with your servant”

    The Emperor frowned. “A complaint has been lodged against this nation and you by the men of Koom —”
    Koom! The name burst red-hot in my mind. Koom ! Then I had been right in assigning some devilish meaning to Kepta’s unannounced arrival.
    “Certain private matters of the Master have been spied upon —”
    I started. There my conscience was not clear. I had been searching for the key to the dark riddle of Kepta. Of that I was guilty.
    “And now, even as Lord Kepta had foretold, these are found among your records.” The Emperor’s mouth was grim.
    “Sir, and my Lords, I can only say as I have before, these plates you show ma I have never before seen. If they were found among the records of the Fleet, I have no knowledge of how they