"The young woman is here," the Skandar told him. "The one who comes to you at night."

Was that a note of disapproval in his voice? From a Skandar?

"Send her in," Harpirias said.

In the middle of the night he was awakened from deep and happy slumber by m.u.f.fled thumps, angry shouts, and then the sound of a long agonized wailing scream. It took him a moment, or perhaps more than that, to realize that he was not dreaming. As he struggled up toward full wakefulness another scream came, and another, and Harpirias recognized the voice of the screamer as that of Korinaam, calling out for help. He scrambled out from under the pile of hides. Ivla Yevikenik clutched sleepily at him, trying to draw him back, but Harpirias shook her off. Hastily dressing, he rushed into the corridor. A blast of glacial air struck him there: the main entrance to the building stood ajar. He looked into Korinaam's room. Empty. There were signs of a struggle. Harpirias could hear Korinaam still howling, his shrill cries a mixture of rage and panic. Quickly he ran outside.

A strange scene was being enacted in front of the lodge. Two burly Othinor warriors were dragging the writhing.

screaming, kicking Korinaam toward the stone altar, where King Toikella, the high priest, and some of the other important men of the tribe waited in a grim little circle. The king, clad from head to toe in a bulky swaddling of black haigus furs, gripped with both his hands the hilt of an enormous sword that stood before him, its tip thrust into the icy ground.

Eight or ten of the Skandars were in the plaza also. They must have emerged from the lodge in response to Korinaam's cries for help, and were following uncertainly along behind the Shapeshifter now. They held their energy-throwers at ready, but obviously they were unwilling to take action without a direct order from Harpirias.

Harpirias caught up with them and asked Eskenazo Marabaud what was happening.

"They are going to kill him, prince." "What? Why?"

But the Skandar only shrugged.

Indeed Konnaam had arrived at the altar now and his Othinor captors had flung him down upon it. He lay spread-eagled, quivering in fear, his body flickering through a host of apparently random form-changes with unsettling rapidity, entering some bizarre b.e.s.t.i.a.l shape for a moment, then becoming disturbingly human, then reverting to the Metamorph form, but terribly contorted and almost unrecognizable. Several of the Othinor, kneeling beside the stone slab, held him tight. Plainly they were startled by the strange flurry of changes, but they gripped him valiantly all the same. A couple of them seemed to be fastening ropes around Korinaam's limbs and tying them to pegs that were set in the ground alongside the altar's perimeter.

Cursing, Harpirias went sprinting forward. The king, somber and immense in his thick black furs, held up a hand to halt him when he was still fifteen or twenty paces from the altar. Solemnly Toikella pointed to the great sword, pointed to Korinaam, made a graphic gesture of execution.

"No!" Harpirias bellowed. "I forbid it!" He stamped his foot and gesticulated ferociously with outspread arms. Toikella might not understand his words, but he would certainly comprehend the displeasure that his urgent tone of voice and violent movements conveyed.

The king scowled, shook his head, pulled the sword from the ground, and slowly began to swing it aloft.

Harpirias responded with even more frantic gestures and a desperate babble of words in what he hoped was comprehensible Othinor-fragments of half-understood phrases that he had learned from Ivla Yevikenik, a torrential stream of blurted exclamations which might or might not make sense, but which perhaps would at least give King Toikella a moment's pause.

His garbled outcry seemed to have the desired effect. The king, with a puzzled growl, halted in mid-swing and thrust the sword back into the ground, rocking forward and pressing his weight on it, all the while staring at Harpirias as though he had gone out of his mind.

Harpirias approached the altar. Toikella remained utterly still. To the mystified king Harpirias signaled in furious pantomime that the cords binding Korinaam must be removed. The king made no response, but merely continued to lean on the great sword and glower. Out of the corner of his eye Harpirias saw other Othinor warriors, brandishing spears and swords, quietly heading across the plaza toward the altar.

Some of the Skandars had come up behind Harpirias now also. He beckoned them in even closer to him. "Spread out in a semicircle in back of me," he told them. "Draw and arm your energy-throwers. But be very careful not to point them in the direction of the king. And no matter what happens, don't fire unless I say so."

He looked down at Korinaam, supine and trembling on the altar.

"All right. What in the name of the Divine has been going on here?"

Korinaam's slitlike lips moved, but no coherent speech came out. His eyes were glazed.

"Speak, man! Tell me!"

With intense effort the Shapeshifter said in a faint quavering voice, "They thought-spying-enemies - "

"Enemies? The high-country Shapeshifters, you mean. Their name means 'enemies' here. Eililylal."

From Toikella, at that recognizable word, came a grunt of perceptible surprise.

"Speak to me," Harpirias said to Korinaam. "The king thought you were a spy for the wild Shapeshifters up there, is that it?"

Feebly Korinaam nodded.

"And was going to sacrifice you on the altar?"

Another nod.

"I ought to let him do it!"

"You know I am no spy." Korinaam could barely get the words out. "Please. Please, prince. Tell him that." "You want me to tell him?" "I am-too frightened - " The merest whisper. "Too frightened to beg him for your own life?" "Please-please -" The Metamorph on the altar quivered and shook.

Scared out of his wits. Harpirias snorted in frustration. The king was looking restless. Already he seemed to be on the verge of pulling the great sword from the ground once again. It was time to invoke a higher authority. "Coronal!" Harpirias cried, waving his arms about importantly. "Cor-o-nal." King Toikella frowned. "Coronal," Harpirias said again, putting a snap of command into his tone. He pointed to the sky. "Lord Ambinole. Coronal of Majipoor." He groped for words. But his Othinor had deserted him in the confusion of the moment. Conversing with Ivla Yevikemk in the privacy of his room was much easier for him. Suddenly, what little Harpirias had learned of the grammar was mostly rubble and half the vocabulary was gone from his mind. But he had to speak. He remembered the Othinor word that he thought meant "lordship," and offered that: "Helminthak." The word seemed to have an effect of some sort on the king. Then Harpirias pointed at Toikella and shook his head emphatically. Lamely he said in Majipoori, "You must not kill him. Coronal say, must not kill. Must -not-kill. Servant of Coronal!"

Toikella appeared baffled. But he allowed the sword's tip to remain embedded in the ground.

"Cor-o-nal," said Harpirias once more, enunciating slowly and carefully, as though the word were a powerful talisman. "Coronal of Majipoor. Helminthak." He pantomimed the undoing of Korinaam's bonds and the rising of the Shapeshifter from the altar. Toikella stared at him. And stared. And stared. His eyes grew wider and wider. A low rumbling sound came from him.

He certainly must believe I've gone crazy, Harpirias thought.

Then he realized that the king was staring not at him but at someone or something behind him. Was that quietly encroaching band of tribal warriors about to break into all-out attack? Were the Skandars up to something?

Harpirias glanced quickly back over his shoulder.

Ivla Yevikenik stood there. In the frosty midnight air she wore only a short cloak of loosely st.i.tched hides casually thrown over bare skin. Fear and uncertainty were visible on her face. She was the only woman of the tribe out here by the altar, and plainly she had no business being here. The look of astonishment and barely suppressed rage on her father's face seemed to confirm that. But when she looked toward Harpirias her eyes began to shine with unmistakable love.

She sees that there is trouble and she has come out here to offer me her a.s.sistance, he told himself. At great risk to herself. That must be it. Must be.

In one swift movement Harpirias reached for the girl, caught her gently but firmly by one wrist, and drew her to his side. He folded his arm close around her so that he and she would confront the king as a single ent.i.ty. Her warmth against his body was welcome in this stinging night chill.

Speaking hesitantly, doing the best he could with his lame and barely comprehensible Othinor supplemented with much pointing and miming, Harpirias told her that he was indeed in need of her help, that Korinaam must be spared from Toikella's anger.

Did she understand? It was galling not to be able to communicate clearly in words with these people. But a little of his meaning appeared to have registered on her, at least. She spoke at some length to her father, who scowled and growled as he listened, but he heard her out, however reluctantly. When she was done he replied with no more than a few curt syllables. She spoke again; and again the king replied, more elaborately this time. He signaled to one of his men. The ropes tying Korinaam to the altar were loosened.

Haltingly Ivla Yevikenik explained to Harpirias what he already knew in essence: that the Othinor had observed Korinaam's recent comings and goings in the high country, and they believed that it was his intention somehow to betray the village to his kinsmen of the mountains. As a suspected ally of the Eililylal, therefore, Korinaam's life was forfeit to the Othinor. Only as a courtesy to the great Coronal Lord of Majipoor had the Shapeshifter been spared, she said. But if Korinaam made any further attempts to contact the Elilylal he would die regardless.

"No," Harpirias said. "He is not the ally of the Eililylal. He is the enemy of the Eililylal. Tell the king that."

She gave him a questioning frown. He said it all again, slowly and with gestures. There was another long colloquy between Ivla Yevikenik and the king, too low and fast for Harpirias to catch the sense of it. He heard the word "Eililylal" repeated many times. At one point the king seized the hilt of his sword and shook it furiously.

To Korinaam Harpirias said, "I could slit your throat myself. Look at the mess you've caused! Tell me what they're saying now, will you? Are they going to kill you or not?"

The Shapeshifter, who had arisen and stood shivering nearby, seemed to have recovered somewhat from his terror.

"The king will permit me to live," he said in a tentative, shaky voice. "But I am to be expelled from the village at once."

"What? What? By the Divine-"

"You yourself are permitted to remain," Korinaam said. "The treaty negotiations will continue."

"Without an interpreter? And who's going to lead us back to Ni-moya when this is over? Oh, no, no, Korinaam, we aren't going to let you be expelled!" An idea was beginning to spring to life in Harpirias's mind. He released his grip on Ivla Yevikenik and reached for the Metamorph instead, catching him by the loose fabric at his throat. "What's going to happen instead is that you're going to go up into those mountains and find the Eililylal, and you're going to order them to clear out of the neighborhood. And you'll make it stick with whatever spooky Shapeshifter magic you're able to command."

Korinaam looked horror-stricken.

"What are you saying? Magic? I am no magician, prince! I am simply one who guides visitors that wish to see the north country. Find yourself some little Vroon, if wizardry is what you want. And as for ordering those people to do anything - how could I possibly do that?"

"You'll do it, all right, and that's all there is to it." Harpirias let go of Korinaam's garment and shoved him a few paces away. To Ivla Yevikenik he said, "Tell your father that we offer our services in ridding his land of the Eililylal. Do you follow me? Eililylal- out. We will do! Korinaam and I, with my soldiers! Yes? No more Eililylal. By my solemn oath. But the a.s.sistance of Korinaam is needed. Needed very much. Tell him that!"

The girl smiled, turned to her father, began to speak.

"Prince, what are you promising them?" Korinaam asked. His face was a study in anguish and despair.

"What I have in mind is this," said Harpirias. "I'm going to tell you and then, if you think you have your wits about you again, you'll explain it to the king for me. I want you to stand on your hind legs in front of him and let him know that you are a mighty sorcerer and that on his behalf you will devote all of your energies and powers to driving off the wild Shapeshifters of the mountains, whom you loathe and despise. Is that clear? Tell him that the army of the Lord Coronal of Majipoor, led in person by me, will go back up into the high country in the morning and make a maximum show of force to impress the Eililylal while you are casting your spells; and in return for all this, once the Eililylal have been duly driven off, the king will free the hostages and we will take our leave of his village and everyone will live happily ever after. Tell him that, Korinaam."

"Prince-this matter of casting spells-"

"Tell him what I want you to tell him," Harpirias said ominously. "Every word, just as I spoke it. Ivla Yevikenik will be listening, and she'll report to me on the accuracy of your translation. Nothing will help you if you try to trick me, Korinaam. I'll let the king know that it's fine with me if he wants to put you back on that altar and slit your throat, and I'll help tie you down myself. Is that understood, Korinaam? Is it?"

"Yes, prince. It is."

"Good. Start talking, then."

Finding the Eililylal, of course, was easier promised than accomplished. It took three days, three disagreeable days of marching hither and thither in the heights, while the north wind blew almost unceasingly and occasional sprinklings of light snow fell to remind Harpirias that the short Othinor summer was almost at its end.

More than once his plan began to seem like a fool's errand to him. A huge expeditionary force had gone up into the mountains: not only Korinaam and Harpirias and the entire military force of Skandars and Ghayrogs, but also King Toikella and the high priest Mankhelm and some thirty or forty warriors of the tribe. For this spa.r.s.ely populated part of the world, that was an enormous army. Surely the Eililylal, watching such a horde make its way up the canyon trails from the village to the high country, would prudently take to their heels and scurry back to their own territory in the deep north until it seemed safe to venture into the vicinity of the Othinor again.

But Harpirias was reckoning on two factors that he hoped would work in his favor. One was the mischief that the wild Shapeshifters had been up to among the king's hajbaraks. He suspected that the killing of the first two, and the hurling of them into the Othinor village, had been only the prelude to some more elaborate hostile event that they were contemplating. Since that had not happened yet, they were probably still somewhere in the neighborhood.

The other factor was sheer Eililylal malevolence: their obvious love of making trouble, their eagerness to do things like slaughtering the king's sacred beasts and tossing them down into the village, or of dancing and capering obscenely on a high ridge when the king came up from the village to look for them, or the reception that they had provided for Konnaam. This bigger force, with its mult.i.tude of armed Othinor warriors and its array of great lumbering Skandars, might just tempt them to come forth again for an even livelier display of mockery than before.

Which indeed proved to be the case.

They appeared, finally, just when Harpirias had almost given up hope of finding them and King Toikella -was beginning to study Korinaam in a sinisterly appraising sort of way. It was Mankhelm who saw them first. The gaunt high priest had gone off the trail by himself to perform some morning ritual on an outcropping ledge looking into a shallow side canyon; and suddenly he came rushing back all helter-skelter, trailing his holy ribbons and pouches of sacred powders casually from one hand, signaling wildly with the other, and crying loudly, "Eililylal! Eililylal!"

They were arrayed along the upper crags of the opposite face of the little side canyon: a band of scrawny ragged-looking creatures, twenty, thirty, perhaps even fifty of them, perching on the rocks and quietly staring down at the army of the Othinor.

The distance across to them was not great; it seemed possible almost to reach across and touch them. In the bright morning sunlight it was beyond question that they were Metamorphs. They had the long frail attenuated bodies, the minimal facial features, the pale green skins. They seemed to have set up a camp over there, with five or six crude tents of roughly dressed animal skins. Tools and what looked like simple weapons lay scattered around in front of them - spears, and bows and arrows, and, perhaps, blow-darts. Savages like the Othinor is what they are, thought Harpirias. Brutish primitive folk who lived dark and difficult lives in this pitiless land.

They had two of Toikella's hajbaraks with them. The big thick-furred quadrupeds lay on their sides with their hocks tethered together and gazed sadly into s.p.a.ce. Very likely, Harpirias suspected, the Eililylal had been making ready to do some harm to the sacrosanct beasts for Toikella's greater displeasure, but had halted when Mankhelm had come upon them.

Harpirias glanced toward Korinaam and said, "Tell the king to send half his warriors around to the right and half to the left. It should be possible to get over to the other rim of this canyon not very far from here. They should take up positions flanking the Eililylal on either side and wait there for orders."

While Korinaam was relaying these instructions, Harpirias moved his own forces forward onto the ledge facing the Metamorphs, arraying them in a long line against the breast of the mountain with their energy-throwers armed and ready.

"Now," Harpirias told the Shapeshifter, "you go out to the edge of the outcropping and call across to your friends over there. Tell them in your own language that they are ordered in the name of all the G.o.ds of the Piurivars to depart from the territory of the Othinor at once."

"They won't understand a word I'm saying."

"Very likely that's so. Do it anyway. Tell them that the G.o.ds in their holy wisdom have a.s.signed this territory to the Unchanging Ones, or whatever it is that you people call us, and that all Piurivars have to leave here right away."

"We do not exactly have G.o.ds in the sense that you -"

"You have something that you regard as divine. Invoke it."

Korinaam sighed. "As you wish, prince."

"I should tell you, also, in case you're unaware of it, that Eskenazo Maraband is fluent in the Piunvar language." So far as Harpirias knew, that was untrue; but he doubted that Korinaam would call his bluff. "If he should notify me that you've said anything treacherous instead of what I've asked you to say, Korinaam, I'll push you off that ledge with my own hands."

Icily the Shapeshifter said, "What treachery would be possible? I've told you already that those creatures over there are unfamiliar with any civilized language."

"You've told me that, yes. But can I be sure that it's true?"

Anger flared in Korinaam's eyes. "I am here to do your bidding, prince, and nothing but your bidding. You may count on that."

"Good. Thank you. Now: after you've made your little speech about the -will of the Piurivar G.o.ds, you're going to start casting spells. You'll make them up as you go along: I know you're good at that. Cry out any sort of crazy mumbo-jumbo that comes to your mind. Just do it m an appropriately awesome incantatory tone. And while you're doing it, I want you to screech and howl and dance around exactly as we saw the Eililylal doing the last time we were up here. But with five times as much frenzy and noise."

Korinaam gasped in astonishment. "Surely this is not a serious request!"

"You'd be wise to treat it as one."

"Then you are asking a great deal of me. This is a clown's work, prince. Do you take me for a performer? Someone from the Perpetual Circus of Dulorn, perhaps?"

"You don't need to be a stage actor in order to screech and howl, Korinaam. Just give it everything you've got, nothing held back, some nice wild shrieking and leaping around. Do you follow me? I want you to scare them. I want you to scare yourself. Give us the kind of act that would get somebody locked up if he did it on the streets of Ni-moya, do you understand? This is no time for being shy, Korinaam. Really put your heart in it. Or whatever it is you may have that pa.s.ses for a heart."

"But this is humiliating, prince! What you ask me to do goes against my temperament, my character, the very integrity of my being!"

"I take formal note of your objections," said Harpirias calmly. "I remind you that there's an altar waiting for you down in the village if you prefer not to cooperate."

Korinaam glared, but made no reply.

"And while you're casting your spells," Harpirias went on, "you will also be making a series of highly dramatic changes."

"Changes?"

"Changes, yes. Bodily metamorphoses. Shifting of shape. Piunvars are known to have that capability, I believe. You will do changes. Your entire repertoire, and possibly some that you have never done before. The stranger the better, do you know what I mean? I want you to make yourself into six kinds of monster. I want you to look demonic and horrifying. I want you to show those cousins of yours over there that you are an absolute master of sorcery and witchcraft and that if they don't obey you you will bring down all the forces of darkness upon their heads. It will be your job to make yourself look just as frightening as anybody has ever looked upon this entire planet. A diabolical ogre. A thing out of everybody's worst nightmares."

The Shapeshifter's eyes were bright with fury.

"What you require of me, prince, is - "

"Is simply to do as you are told."