The Eye of the Llama

by Gary D. Snyder

Part 24:

The group that met in the formal reception hall of the royal palace that evening was arguably the most diverse that had gathered together in the recent history of Felangie. In addition to Jimmy, Cindy, Sheen, Libby, and Carl there were April and her parents, a half dozen Needleheads, several Brains, and several robots, including Exjay Nine. Princess Leama had harbored some private concerns that her xenophobic subjects might object to so many different races gathered together in one place at one time, but she was pleased to see that her fears were groundless. The actions of the off-worlders in foiling Khormak's attempted coup had earned them a considerable amount of goodwill on the part of the Felangians and the invited Felangian guests mingled freely and amiably with Gorlocks, Needleheads, Brains, Terrans, and automata.

Immediately upon returning to the palace the princess had given orders to her servants and guards to prepare a special gathering for that evening and to send special invitations to the leaders of the orbiting fleet. Then, after giving instructions that she and her guests were not to be disturbed for fifty chronals, she had led the party to a private chamber to discuss what had happened. Most of the questions were directed at Jimmy, as he had been missing for the past couple days, and his friends as well as Princess Leama were eager to hear what had happened.

"Well," he had said, "there really isn't much to tell. Exjay Nine told me that Cindy was in the hospital so I went with him to see her and –"

Cindy had interrupted him at this. "You thought I was hurt? And you were coming to see me?"

Jimmy had shrugged. "Well, yeah."

"How sweet," Libby had commented with a smile.

Cindy had also smiled, making Jimmy redden and rush on with his story to avoid any further embarrassment. "Anyway, we hadn't gone far when I was hit from behind with some sort of paralysis beam – apparently the same kind of thing they used on Carl when Khormak's thugs brought him from Earth."

"A stasis ray," one of the princess' Royal Guard had commented.

"Yes, that's probably it. The next thing I knew I was in a locked compartment. I didn't know where I was or what was happening, but I could hear Khormak's voice outside the door giving instructions to his assistants. He was telling them that he had decided that I would be more valuable alive as barter to King Goobot in exchange for the Yolkians' assistance in his plans to overthrow Princess Leama. I guess if he had waited a few minutes more to pass that on I wouldn't be here now."

"How awful!" Cindy had exclaimed.

"Yeah. But being taken to Yolkus wouldn't exactly an improvement."

"I do apologize for your distress," the princess had said. "My guards had all of you under surveillance and were aware of your plight but I knew that if they intervened immediately Khormak would very likely have cancelled his plans and plotted to strike another day in another matter I might not discover. If it means anything, it was a difficult decision to not interfere. I was certain that Khormak would not dare harm you on Felangie, but it appears that I was wrong. Had I known, I would have done something."

"The fault was mine," the High Captain of the Royal Guard had put in. "I advised Her Highness. If anyone is to blame, it is I."

"That's okay," Jimmy had assured them. "Things worked out, and I fully realize now what the stakes were."

"You have your friends to thank for much of that," Princess Leama had continued. "I learned that Cindy and Libby had become aware of your plight and were on Khormak's trail. The guard assigned to your friends advised me of their actions and was instructed not to interfere. They managed to convince Khormak that they would be able to locate you and prompted him to hasten his plans to send you off-planet. Once you were in space I knew I could send a dispatch vessel to intercept the transport and rescue you, although there was still the chance that Khormak would learn of my actions. Fortunately, once again, Cindy was able to take action and save me from having to reveal that I knew anything of his plans."

"So the chauffeur really did deliberately keep us from stopping that ship," Cindy had said. "I thought so."

The High Captain had nodded. "Yes. If Khormak's henchmen had been arrested it could have warned Khormak that his plot had been discovered. All our efforts to trap him would have been in vain."

Jimmy had given Cindy a look of frank admiration. "So you managed to force Khormak's hand? Nice going."

It had been Cindy's turn to blush at that. "It was nothing. Really. Like the saying goes, 'The wicked flee where no man pursues.' Getting Khormak to cough you up was easy. Getting you back was little harder. All I had was April's name and the name of her planet. Luckily she was something of a celebrity after being on Galactic Showdown and the Gorlock communications center was able to find a listing that I could send a message to. I wasn't sure how much Khormak could find out so I had to keep the message a little terse and cryptic. I wasn't even sure that April got the message until the stellagram arrived."

"Yes," April had put in. "Her message said only 'Important package dispatched. May be damaged on Yolkus. Please help. Say hello to Jimmy.' Since the message said to say hello to Jimmy but he was not on Gorlock I decided that the message meant that he must be the package on a ship to Yolkus and that he was in danger. My father checked with the Felangian space authorities and learned that only one transport had left for Yolkus. He notified the Gorlock space patrol to intercept it."

"I really appreciate that," Jimmy had said soberly. "I mean, having the space patrol come to help me and all."

April had smiled at Jimmy and in spite of herself Cindy couldn't help feeling a wave of jealously when Jimmy had smiled back. "You and your friends saved our planet. We could do no less."

"So the Gorlocks saved you from being taken to Goobot," Libby had commented. "Then what?"

Jimmy had looked startled. "What? Oh, yes. Well, the space patrol intercepted the transport and took me to Gorlock. Once there we needed a plan. One on hand we had to make sure that Khormak didn't know about my rescue. We also had to make him believe that his plan had succeeded so he'd reveal himself as a traitor. We were able to kill both birds with one stone."

At this the Brain had added his part to the story. "It was a rather logical solution to the situation. Deception was needed, and with our mental powers deception is quite simple. We convinced King Goobot that Minister Khormak had contacted him to verify the time of the arrival of the Yolkians fleet and to delay the plans by one day."

"So they'll be arriving here tomorrow to take over Felangie and invade Earth?" Carl had asked fearfully.

"No, not really," Jimmy had replied. "There's a war fleet around this planet, remember? Even if King Goobot wouldn't cancel his plans because Khormak couldn't deliver there's one thing I've learned about eggs. They all turn chicken."

"To continue," the Brain had gone on dryly, "gathering the Gorlock fleet and disguising it with our illusion-casting powers as a Yolkian armada took some time. We had to stall Khormak until we could arrive."

Cindy had finally understood why Jimmy had asked her to keep the fight from ending. As long as the fight kept going it would keep Khormak from having an excuse to accuse the princess of treachery. "So that's why you called me and asked me to find some way to keep the fight going?" she had asked Jimmy.

Jimmy had nodded. "That's right. How did you do it?"

"Uh…" Cindy had fidgeted uncomfortably. "I sort of…told Carl that Princess Leama was counting on him to win the fight." She drew a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Carl. I didn't…I mean, what I said to you was…" Words had failed her at Carl's innocently bewildered stare.

To her relief Princess Leama had interrupted. "What Cindy is trying to say, Carl, is that what she said was only a pale reflection of my feelings. I am truly and eternally grateful for your efforts on my behalf and on the behalf of my people and planet. I think that in many ways I and my subjects owe this victory to you more than anyone else."

Carl had dug his toe bashfully into the deep carpet. "It was nothing, really."

"It was everything," the princess had answered, "and tonight at a special reception I should like to honor and award you all for your efforts on my behalf." At this there had been a buzz of embarrassed delight. It had been cut short by Sheen's sudden comment.

"All right, fine," he had said. "I can understand everything that's been said. But," he had gone one, pointing at the Needlehead. "why did you need to bring the Needleheads? What did they do?"

At this the Needlehead had gone up to Sheen and begun speaking rapidly. "Mib mib mib, mib, mib mib…"

Sheen had covered his ears and had screamed, "All right, all right, I'll take your word for it! Just stop talking!"

At the reception that evening Princess Leama had presented special medals of valor to the Gorlock, Brain, and Needlehead leaders, to Jimmy, Cindy, Sheen, and Libby, and to Exjay Nine. To Carl's puzzled and abashed delight she did not award him a medal, instead knighting him as Sir Carl Wheezer, Honorary Officer of the Felangian Royal Guard. Following the ceremonies the attendants were free to mix and mingle.

Jimmy was interested in speaking with Exjay Nine. "Tell me," Jimmy said, "why is it that you chose to help Princess Leama when technically you were assigned to Minister Khormak? Wouldn't that violate your fundamental programming?"

"An interesting observation, Master Neutron," the robot responded. "But you are incorrect in stating that my service to ex-Minister Khormak was my fundamental programming. My fundamental programming is to respect all sentient species. Perhaps someday it will be accepted that robots are also a sentient species worthy of respect from organic ones. Under ex-Minister Khormak's rule I could never hope to be anything more than a machine to him and others. But through Prncess Leama's policies that time may yet come. Perhaps not during my serviceable duty life, but perhaps my replacements will function long enough to see the day."

"Call me Jimmy." Jimmy eyed the medal on the robots burnished torso. "And maybe it will be sooner. Maybe today you made a lot more progress towards that than you think."

The robot regarded the medal thoughtfully. "Yes. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps, Master – I mean, Jimmy."

As a member of the Royal Guard one of Carl's first duties was to act as Princess Leama's official escort. After making the rounds of the guests they found themselves alone by a table in a corner of the great hall. The princess seemed very quiet and Carl wondered if he had done anything wrong.

"No, Carl," Princess Leama answered when Carl asked about it. "You've done nothing wrong. I was just thinking."

"What about?"

"About how close Khormak came to succeeding with his plans. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps I am not fit to rule. The world seems to me so bleak and hopeless at times. I have fought evil like Khormak's for so long to make this a planet where people can be free to choose…but perhaps it is not a fight I can win."

"My friend Jimmy says that the only fights that evil wins are by forfeit," Carl answered. "Whatever that means."

The princess thought about that and smiled. "Your friend is very wise." She paused and said hesitantly, "May I ask you a personal question?"

"Umm…okay," Carl said uncertainly.

"Khormak referred to you as 'kids'. Why did he do that?"

Carl looked relieved. "Oh, that's easy. Because we are."

The princess looked stunned. "What?"

"I'm only twelve…almost. So are Cindy and Libby and Jimmy. Sheen is a couple years older, but he's still not very old. We won't even be adults for another six years or so."

Princess Leama shook her head in disbelief. "I'm sorry. I did not know. I thought you were adults, not a child like me."

Now Carl looked perplexed. "Why?"

"In our species, we change physically as we grow so that we can tell adults from younglings. When I spoke with Cindy and Libby I was told that humans look very much the same though life and only changed in size. But no one ever told me how big an adult human was. The dangers you each faced…and the courage you all showed…" She shook her head again. "It is hard to imagine."

Musicians had begun to play at the other end of the hall and the guests began to pair together and dance, except for the Needleheads who seemed determined to dance in groups of three. Carl gestured towards the dancers and tried to sound casual despite his quavering voice and sweaty hands. "Well, now that you know I'm a kid, would you like to dance?"

The princess regarded him gravely before smiling. "I would like that very much."

After the reception ended sometime after midnight Princess Leama retired to bed and lay awake thinking for awhile. Five Earth children had traveled light-years through space and had helped to remove a serious danger that had long threatened her world. Children, she thought, that were much like her. If they could stand and triumph over such odds, perhaps she could as well.

Suddenly her world did not seem so bleak and hopeless.

End of Part 24