'May I ask why not?'
'Because no one sees them.'
'No one?'
'No one from outside. It is no longer done.'
'Is that because of the friction between you and Dondak-Sajamir?'
Gitamorn Suul’s lips quirked testily. 'That idiot! But no — even if he were performing his duties properly, it still wouldn’t be possible for you to reach the ministers. They don’t want to be bothered. They have heavy responsibilities. The Pontifex is old, you know. He gives little time to matters of government, and therefore the burdens on those about him have increased. Do you understand?'
'I
'I can’t help that. Not even for the most urgent reason can they be disturbed.'
'Suppose,' Valentine said slowly, 'the Coronal had been overthrown, and a false ruler held possession of the Castle?'
She pushed up her mask and looked at him in astonishment. 'Is that what you want to tell them? Here. Application dismissed.' Rising, she made brisk shooing gestures at him. 'We have madmen enough in the Labyrinth already, without new ones coming down out of—'
'Wait,' said Valentine.
He let the trance-state possess him, and summoned the power of the circlet. Desperately he reached toward her soul with his, touched it, enfolded it. It had not been part of his plan to reveal much to these minor officials, but there seemed no alternative but to take her into his confidence. He sustained the contact until he felt himself growing dizzy and weak; then he broke it off and returned hurriedly to full wakefulness. She was staring at him, dazed; her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were wild, her breasts heaved in agitation. It was a moment before she could speak.
Finally she said, 'What kind of trick is that?'
'No trick. I am the Lady’s son, and she herself taught me the art of sendings.'
'Lord Valentine is a dark-haired man.'
'So he was. Not any longer.'
'You ask me to believe—'
'Please,' he said. He threw all the intensity of his spirit into the word. 'Please. Believe me. Everything depends on my telling the Pontifex what has happened.'
But her suspicions ran deep. From Gitamorn Suul came no kneelings, no homages, no starburst gesticulations, only a kind of sullen bewilderment, as if she might be inclined to think his bizarre story was true, but wished he had inflicted it on some other functionary.
She said, 'The Su-Suheris would veto anything I proposed.'
'Even if I showed him what I’ve shown you?'
She shrugged. 'His obstinacy is legendary. Not even to save the life of the Pontifex would he approve one of my recommendations.’’
'But this is madness!'
'Exactly so. You’ve talked to him?'
'Yes,' Valentine said. 'He seemed unfriendly and puffed up with pride. But not mad.'
'Deal with him a little longer,' Gitamorn Suul advised, 'before you form your final judgment of him.'
'What if we were to forge his approval, so that I could go in without his knowing?'
She looked shocked. 'You want me to commit a crime?' Valentine struggled to maintain his even temper. 'A crime has already been committed, and not a trifling one,' he said in a low, steady voice. 'I am Coronal of Majipoor, deposed through treachery. Your help is vital to my restoration. Doesn’t that override all these petty regulations? Can’t you see that I have the power to pardon you for breaking those regulations?' He leaned toward her. 'Time is wasting. Castle Mount houses a usurper. I run back and forth between subordinates of the Pontifex, when I should be leading an army of liberation across Alhanroel. Give me your approval, and let me be on my way, and there’ll be rewards for you when everything’s again as it should be on Majipoor.'
Her eyes were cold and suddenly bleak. 'Your story makes great demands on my powers of belief. What if it is all false? What if you are in the pay of Dondak- Sajamir?'
Valentine groaned. 'I beg you—'
'No. It’s entirely likely. This is a trap, perhaps. You, your fantastic story, some sort of hypnosis, all designed to destroy me, to leave the Su-Suheris unchallenged here, to give him the supreme power he has so long desired—'
'I swear by the Lady my mother I have not lied to you.'
'A true criminal would swear by anybody’s mother, but what is that?'
Valentine hesitated, then boldly reached forth and took Gitamorn Suul’s hands in his. Intently he stared into her eyes. What he was about to do was disagreeable to him, but so was all that these petty bureaucrats had been doing to him. The time had come for a little shamelessness, or he would be forever entangled down here.
He said, peering close, 'Even if I were in Dondak-Sajamir’s pay, I could never betray a woman as beautiful as you.'
She looked scornful. But color flared again in her cheeks.
He went on, 'Trust me. Believe in me. I am Lord Valentine, and you will be one of the heroes of my return. I know the thing you want most in the world, and it will be yours when I have regained the Castle.'
'You know it?'
'Yes,' he whispered, gently stroking the hands that now lay limply in his. 'To have sole authority over the inner Labyrinth, is that not it? To be the only major- domo?'
She nodded as though in a dream.
'It will be done,' he said. 'Ally yourself with me, and Dondak-Sajamir will be stripped of his rank, for making himself an obstacle to me. Will you do that? Will you help me reach the chief ministers, Gitamorn Suul?'
'It will be — difficult—'
'But it can be done! Anything can be done! And when I am Coronal again, the Su-Suheris loses his post! I promise you that.'
'Swear it!'
'I swear it,' Valentine said passionately, feeling foul and depraved. 'I swear it on my mother’s name. I swear it by all that’s holy. Is it agreed?'
'Agreed,' she said in a small faltering voice. 'But how is it to be done? You need both signatures on the pass, and if mine is on it, he’ll refuse to add his.'
Valentine said, 'Write me out a pass and sign it. I’ll go back to him and talk him into countersigning it.'
'He will never do it.'
'Let me work on him. I can be persuasive. Once I have his signature, I can enter the inner Labyrinth and achieve what I must achieve. When I emerge, it will be with the full authority of the Coronal — and I will have Dondak-Sajamir removed from office, that I promise you.'
'But how will you get his signature? He’s refused all countersignatures for months!'
'Leave that to me,' said Valentine.
She drew from her desk a dark green cube of some sleek glistening material and placed it briefly in a machine that cast an incandescent yellow glow over it. When she removed it, the surface of the cube was infused with a new brightness. 'Here. This is your pass. But I warn you that without his countersignature it is worthless.'
'I’ll get it,' Valentine said.
He returned to Dondak-Sajamir. The Su-Suheris was reluctant to see him, but Valentine persevered.
'I understand now your loathing of Gitamorn Suul,' he said.
Dondak-Sajamir smiled coolly. 'Is she not hateful? I suppose she refused your application.'
'Oh, no,' said Valentine, taking the cube from his cloak and placing it before the major-domo. 'She granted that willingly enough, knowing that you had refused me and her permission would be worthless. It was her other rejection that wounded me so deeply.'
'And which was that?'
Serenely Valentine said, 'This may sound foolish to you, or even repellent, but I was powerfully overcome by her beauty. To human eyes, I must tell you, that woman has extraordinary physical presence, a nobility of bearing, a luminous erotic force, that — well, no matter. I threw myself before her in an embarrassingly naive way. I made myself open and vulnerable. And she mocked me cruelly. She scorned me in a way that was like a blade twisting in my vitals. Can you understand that, that she would be so merciless, so contemptuous, toward a stranger who had only the warmest and most profoundly passionate feelings for her?'
'Her beauty escapes me,' said Dondak-Sajamir. 'But I know her coldness and arrogance quite well.'
'Now I share your enmity for her,' Valentine said. 'If you will have me, I offer myself to your service, so that we can work together to destroy her.'
Dondak-Sajamir said thoughtfully, 'Yes, this would be a fine moment to bring about her downfall. But how?'
Valentine tapped the cube that rested on the major-domo’s desk. 'Add your countersignature to this pass. I’ll then be free to enter the inner Labyrinth. While I’m there, you launch an official inquiry into the circumstances under which I was admitted, claiming that you gave no such permission. When I’ve returned from my business with the Pontifex, summon me to testify. I’ll say you rejected my application, and that I got the pass, already fully countersigned, from Gitamorn Suul, never suspecting it might be forged by someone meaning to spite you by admitting me. Your accusation of forgery, coupled with my testimony that you had declined to approve my application, will be her ruination. What do you say?'
'A magnificent plan,' replied Dondak-Sajamir. 'I could have devised nothing better!'
The Su-Suheris slipped the cube into a machine that gave it a brilliant pink glow superimposed over Gitamorn Suul’s yellow one. The pass now was valid. All this intrigue, Valentine thought, was nearly as much of a strain on the mind as the intricacies of the Labyrinth itself; but it was done, and done successfully. Now let these two plot and scheme against each other as they wished, while he made his way unimpeded toward the ministers of the Pontifex. They were apt to be disappointed with the way he fulfilled his promises to them, for he intended, if he could, to sweep both the bickering rivals from power. But he did not ask pure and total saintliness of himself in his dealings with those whose chief role in the government appeared to be to impede and obstruct.
