Berserker - Earth Descended Part 5

Scratches on the sullen, handsome face, and a bruise on one bare shoulder-Theseus was attired in the Cretan gentleman's elegant loincloth now-suggested recent strenuous activity, and the King's words filled in the story.

Icarus had not been the day's only truant, and Theseus would have been wiser to bruise himself in some activity so innocuous as seeking birds'

eggs on the crags. Instead he had led some of his restive cla.s.smates on an escapade in town. Tactical Leadership, thought Daedalus, even while he kept his face impeccably grave and his eyes suitably downcast in the face of the Minoan wrath.

Violence against citizens and their valuable slaves. Destruction of property. Shameful public drunkenness, bring disrepute on House and School alike. All topped off by the outrage of the daughters of some merchant families who were too important to be so treated with impunity.

Theseus held his hands behind him, sometimes tightening them into fists, sometimes playing like an idiot with his own ma.s.sive fingers. His heavy features were set in disciplined silence now. This was probably like being home again and listening to his father.

"...cla.s.smates involved will be expelled and sent home in disgrace," the King was saying. He paused now, for the first time since the soldiers left. "To do the same to you would of course be an insult to your father and a danger to our alliance. Daedalus, did I not set you in charge of this young blockhead's schooling?"

In the face of this inaccuracy, Daedalus merely bowed his head a little lower. Now was not the moment for any philosopher's insistence on precise Truth; rather, the great fact that Minos was in a rage easily took precedence over Truth in any of its lesser forms.

"His schooling is not proceeding satisfactorily, Daedalus."

The engineer bowed somewhat lower yet.

"And as for you,Prince -now you may speak. What have you to say?"

Theseus shifted weight on his big feet, and spoke up calmly enough. "Sire, that school is driving me to drink and madness."

Now Minos too was calm. The royal rage had been used up, or perhaps it could be turned on and off like one of Daedalus' water valves. "Prince Theseus, you are under house arrest until further notice.

Except for school attendance. I will put six strong soldiers at your door, and you may a.s.sault them, or try to, should you feel the need for further recreation."

"I am sorry, King Minos." And it seemed he was. "But I can take no more of that school."

"You will take more of it. You must." Then the King's eye swung back again. "Daedalus, what are we to do? I and the Queen leave in three days for the state visits, in Macedonia and elsewhere. We may be gone for months."

"I fear I have been neglectful regarding the Prince's problems, sire. Let me now make them my prime concern."

Shortly after dawn a few hours later, Daedalus came visiting the White Bull's quarters once again. This time he found the dais uninhabited, and he sloshed through the moat and stood beside the odd chair.

There was never any need to call. Shortly the silver-and-snow figure emerged from a darkened doorway, to splash gratefully in the salt moat and then climb onto the dias to bid him welcome.

"Learn from me, Dae-dal-us! How are you learn-ing?"

'White Bull, I come not on my own affairs today, but on Prince Theseus' behalf. He is having trouble-well, he informs me that this testing in the Labyrinth, in particular, is like to drive him to violent madness. Knowing him, I do not think he is exaggerating. Must this Tactical course be continued in its present form?"

"The course of stu-dy of tac-tics is pre-scribed. In part, as fol-lows; The teach-er shall e-voke from the stu-dents facts as to their de-term-in-a-tion of spa-tial lo-ca-tion-"

He couldn't stand it. "Oh great teacher! Master of the Transmission of Learning-"

"Not Mas-ter. My rank is that of A-dept, a high-er rank."

"Master or adept or divinity or what you will. I suppose it means nothing that the Prince's fate in battle, even insofar as he may escape all the sheer chance stupidities of war, is not at all likely to depend on his ability to grope his way out of a maze?"

"He has been al-lowed to choose his course of stu-dy, Dae-dal-us. Beyond that, spe-cial treat-ment can-not be ac-cord-ed a-ny stu-dent."

"Well,I have never fought anyone with a sword, White Bull.I have never bullied and challenged men and cheered them on to get them into combat. Once, on the mainland, watching from the highest and safest place that I could reach, I saw Prince Theseus do these things. Some va.s.sal's uprising against Aegeus.

Theseus put it down, almost single-handedly, you might say. I think he would not be likely to learn much from me in the way of military science, were I to lecture on the subject. No doubt you, however, have great skill and knowledge in this field to impart?"

"My qual-if-i-ca-tions as teach-er are be-yong your ab-il-i-ty to com-pre-hend, much less to ques- tion. Your own pro-gress should be your con-cern."

"If Theseus fails, I may not be on hand to make any progress through your school. Minos will be angry at me. And not at me alone."

But argue as he might he still could not get his ward excused from Tactical training and testing in the Labyrinth. For the next couple of days the Prince at least stayed in school and worked, and Daedalus'

hopes rose; then, emerging one afternoon from his own cla.s.sroom, he saw a page from the Inner House coming to meet him, and knew a sinking feeling. The Princess Ariadne required his presence in the audience chamber at once.

He found Ariadne perched regally on the throne; but as soon as she had waved her attendants out and the two of them were alone she came down from the chair and spoke to him informally.

"Daedalus, before my father's departure he informed me that Prince Theseus was having -difficulties-in school. The King impressed upon me the importance of this problem. Also I have-have talked with the Prince myself, and find that the situation does not seem to be improving."

Ariadne sounded nervous, vaguely distracted.

"I fear that you are right. Princess." Then before he had to say anything more, another page was announcing Theseus himself. There was no escort of soldiers with the Prince; evidently the house arrest inst.i.tuted by Minos had already been set aside.

The exchange of greetings between the two young people sounded somewhat too stiffly formal to Daedalus, and he noted that Ariadne scarcely looked directly at Theseus for a moment. Certainly she had not so avoided watching him during the wrestling match. And when the Prince looked at her now, his face was wooden.

For a few moments Daedalus thought perhaps that they were quarreling, but he soon decided that the absolute opposite was more likely: an affair, and they were trying to hide it.

In response to an awkward-sounding request from Ariadne, Theseus' related his day's continued difficulties in school. Now she turned, almost pleading, to the older man. "Daedalus, he will fail his Labyrinth tests again. What are we to do? We must findsome means of helping him." And a glance flicked between the two young people that was very brief, but still enough to a.s.sure Daedalus of what was going on.

"Ah." He relaxed, looked at them both with something like a smile. He only hoped infatuation would not bring Ariadne to any too-great foolishness. Meanwhile, Theseus' problem might be easier to solve while Minos, with his awe of the Bull, was not around.

Conferring with the Prince, while Ariadne hovered near and listened greedily, he made sure that the maze itself was indeed the key to the young man's difficulties. In courses other than Tactics the Prince might, probably could, do well enough to just sc.r.a.pe by.

With a charred stick Daedalus drew, from memory, a plan of the key portion of the Labyrinth right on the floor near the foot of the throne. The griffins glared down balefully at the three of them squatting there like children at some game.

Theseus stared gloomily at the patterns while Daedalus talked. Ariadne's hand came over once, forgetfully, to touch her lover's, and then flew back, while her eyes jumped up to Daedalus' face. He affirmed that he had noticed nothing, by holding his own scowling concentration on the floor.

"Now try it this way, Prince. The secret...let's see. Yes. If you are finding your wayin the secret is to let your right hand touch the wall at the start. Hey?"

"Yes, I can always tell my right hand from my left. Out here anyway." Theseus was trying grimly. "Right always holds the sword."

"Yes. So if you want to go inward, as I say, first let your right hand glide continuously along the walls, in imagination if not in fact. Then, whenever you must climb a stair, switch at its top to gliding your left hand along the wall; in other words, when there's a choice, turn always to the left. Whenever a stair leads you downward, switch again at its bottom to going right. Now, if you are seeking your wayout, simply reverse-"

"Daedalus." The Prince's voice stopped him in mid-sentence. "Thanks for what you are trying to do. But I tell you, when I am put in there I cannot help myself." Theseus got to his feet, as if unconscious of the movement, his eyes fixed now on distance,"in there I forget all your lefts and rights, and all else, except I know the walls are crushing in on me, the doors all sealing themselves off-" Ariadne put out a hand again, and drew it back. Now she was standing too. "-so there is nothing left but the stone walls, all coming closer... I wish you had never told me that some of them are four men's bodies thick."

The look in his eyes was one that Daedalus had seen there only rarely in the past, and now Daedalus too got to his feet, moving with deliberate care.

"If that G.o.d-blasted cow dares lecture me on courage and perseverance in my stu-dies one more time, I swear by all the G.o.ds I'll break its neck." "Very well, my friend." He laid a hard hand gently and briefly on the Prince's shoulder. "There are other ways that we can help."

Midafternoon of the day following, and in his own cla.s.sroom Daedalus had fallen into a day-dream of numbers that his stubborn mind kept trying to fit to flying gulls. He was roused from this state by a hand shaking his own shoulder.

Stomargos stood at his side, looking down at him in obscure triumph. "Daedalus, the White Bull wants to see you, at once."

He would not ask what for, but got to his feet and followed the educator in a silence of outward calm.

Daedalus had expected that when they reached the Bull's private quarters Stomargos would be sent out.

But the Bull, waiting for them on its tall chair, made no sign of dismissal, and the young man, with the smug look on his face, remained standing at Daedalus' side.

Today for once the Bull did not saylearn from me. "We have dis-cov-ered the Prin-ce's cheat-ing, Dae-dal-us."

"Cheating? What do you mean?" He had never been any good with lies.

"The thread tied on his right hand. The ti-ny met-al b.a.l.l.s to bounce and roll and sleek al-ways the down-ward slope of floor, how-ev-er gen-tie. How did you make a met-al ball so smooth and He had dropped them molten from a tall tower, in-to water. He wondered if the Bull would be impress-ed to hear his method. "I see," he said aloud, trying to be non-committal, admitting nothing. "What to you mean to do?"

"Leave us, Sto-mar-gos," the White Bull said at last. And when they were alone, it said: "Now learn from me, Dae-dal-us. As you have sought to learn."

...and he reeled and almost fell into the moat before he could sit down, as the pictures came into his mind, this time with painful power. There were the wings, not much different in their gross structure from those he had in his workshop, but these were pierced through at many points with tiny, peculiarly curved channels. Soft, sculptured cavities that widened just slightly and quickly closed again as in his vision the wings beat and the air flowed through and around them. With each beat, the air below the wings, encountering the channels, changed pressure wildly, a thin layer of it turning momentarily almost as hard as wood. Somehow in the vision he could feel as well as see the fluid alterations...and justso the pinions'

width and length must be, in relation to the flyer's length and weight, and so the variation in the channels that went through the different regions of the wing...

It all burned into the brain. There would be no forgetting this, even if forgetfulness were one day willed.

But the iippruiting vision was soon ended, and he climbed shakily up to a standing pose.

"Bull...why did you never before give me such teaching?"

"It will not make of you an ed-u-cat-ed man Dae-dal-us."

"I thank you for it...but why, then, do you give it now?"

The Bull's voice was almost soft, and it did not seem to be looking directly at him. "I think this teach-ing will re-move you from my pres-ence. One way or a-no-ther stop your dis-rup-tion of my school."

"I see." In his mind the plan for the new wings burned, urgent as a fire in the workshop. "You will not tell Minos, then, that you accuse me of helping Theseus to cheat?"

"Your val-ue to the King is great, Dae-dal-us. If he is forced to choose be-tween us I may pos-sib-ly be sac-rif-iced. Or my school closed. There-fore I take this step to re-move you as my ri-val. I see now you are not wor-thy of fine ed-u-ca-tion."

The wings still burning before his eyes, he had let himself be led off through the Labyrinth for a hundred paces or so (Stomargos, triumph fading into puzzlement, his escort once again) before it came to him.

"And Theseus? What of him?"

"I am a witness to the Prince's attempt at cheating," said Stomargos, firmly and primly. "And the Bull has decided that he now must be expelled."

"That cannot be!" Daedalus was so aghast that the other was shaken for a moment.

But for a moment only. "Oh, the Bull and I are quite agreed on that. The Prince is probably receiving his formal notification at this moment."

And Daedalus spun around and ran, back toward the inner Labyrinth.

"Stay! Stay!" Stomargos shouted, trotting in pursuit. "You are to leave the precincts of the school at once..." But just then the roaring and the struggling sounded from within.

Theseus and the Bull were grappling on the central dias, arms locked on each other's necks, Daedalus saw as he burst on the scene. The tall chair was overturned, fruit scattered underfoot. In Theseus' broad back the great bronze cables stood like structural arches glowing from the forge.

The end came even as Daedalus' feet splashed in the moat. He heard the sickening bony crack and the Bull's hoa.r.s.e warbling cry at the same instant. The Prince staggered back to stand there staring down at what his hands had done. The gray-white mound of fur, suddenly no more man-like than a dying bear, dropped at his feet.

Stomargos came in, and splashed over quickly to join the others on the dais. He pointed, goggled, opened his mouth and began an almost wordless call for help. He turned and ran, and it was Daedalus who had to stop him with a desperate watery tackle in the moat.

"Theseus! Help me! Keep this one quiet." And in a moment the Prince of Athens had taken charge.

Stomargos' head was clamped down under water, and soon the bubbles ceased to rise and make their way to the splash gutter at his side.

The two men still alive climbed out onto the dais. Theseus, still panting with his exertions against the Bull, seemed with every working of his lungs to grow a little taller and straighter, like some young tree just freed of a deforming burden, resuming its natural form. "Does he still breathe, Daedalus?" A nod toward the fallen Bull.

Daedalus was crouching down, prodding into gray fur, trying to find out. "I am not sure."

"Well, let him, if he can. It matters to me no longer. My ship and men can be got ready in an hour or two and I am going home. Or somewhere else, if my father will not have me in Athens now. But better a pirate's life, even, than..." His eyes flashed once at the convoluted walls surrounding.

Daedalus started to ask why he thought he would be allowed to leave, but then understanding came.

"And myself:" he asked.

"Ariadne will come with me, I expect."

"G.o.ds of sea and sky!"

"And her sister Phaedra. And you are welcome, friend, though I can promise you no safe workshop, nor slaves, nor high place at a court."

"I want no place as high as a sun-dried pirate's, which I fear Minos might make for me here, when he comes home. Now we had better move swiftly, before this violence is discovered."

"Dae-dal-us." The unexpected voice was a mere thread of sound, stretched and about to break.

He bent down closer beside its head. "White Bull, how is it with you?"

"As with a man whose neck is broken, Dae-dal-us. Af-ter to-day I teach no more."

"Would I had learned from you before today, White Bull. And would you had learned from me."

They walked out together, looking a little shaken no doubt, as was only natural for two students who had probably just been expelled. Theseus muttered to pa.s.sing teachers that the Bull and Stomargos were talking together and did not wish to be disturbed. They walked without hurrying to Ariadne, and then one trusted servant was sent to gather Theseus' crew. And another to help Daedalus look for his son, when he discovered that Icarus was truant yet again today, not to be found in school.

The wild lands where boys looked for birds and dreams swept up mile after mile behind and above the House of the Double Axe.

"We can wait no longer for him, Daedalus. My men's lives are all in danger, and the Princesses' too. As soon as the bodies are found, some military man or sea captain will take it upon himself to stop my sailing, or try to do so."

And Ariadne: "Theseus must get away. My father will not deal too grievously with you, Daedalus; he depends on you too much."

Phaedra was silent, biting her full lips. Her fingers as if moving on their own caressed Theseus' arm, but Ariadne did not see.

Daedalus saw in his mind's eye the sun-dried pirates on the dock; and his workshop with the hidden, unfinished wings, and he saw how the small trusting shadow would cross the threshold when Icarus came running home...

Long, helmed shadows came first, the black triangles of shadow-spearheads thrust ahead of them. This time they held their weapons ready as they marched him deeper into the House, and Icarus, returning wearily from some adventure, was only just in time to see his father arrested, and he swept up like a dropped crumb by tidy soldiery.

A month must pa.s.s before Minos came home again, and the de facto military government, taking over after the Princesses' desertion, did not want to a.s.sume responsibility for judging Daedalus. He and his son were confined under strict house arrest in his workshop and quarters, and allotted also a small areaof Labyrinth that lay between.