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Emperor?"
"Talk to the Emperor?" Ro stared at him and then burst out laughing. But she stopped quickly and put an
apologetic hand on his arm. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have laughed. But the chances are you'll spend your
whole life here and never talk to the Emperor."
"The chances are wrong, then," said Jim, "because after the bullfight the Emperor asked me to come and
see him as soon as I'd had a chance to rest a bit."
Ro stared at him. Then slowly she shook her head.
"You don't understand, Jim," she said sympathetically. "He just said that. Nobodygoes to see the
Emperor. The only time they see him is when he has them brought to him. If you're going to see the
Emperor, you'll suddenly find yourself brought into his presence. Until then, you just have to wait."
Jim frowned.
"I'm sorry, Jim," she said. "You didn't know it, but the Emperor often says things like that. But then,
something else comes up and he forgets all about it. Or else he just says it without meaning it, just
because it's something to say. Like paying a compliment."
Jim smiled slowly, and Ro's face paled again.
"Don't look like that!" she said, catching hold of his arm again. "No one should look savage like that."
"Don't worry," said Jim. He erased the grin. "But I'm afraid you're wrong. I'm going to see the Emperor.
Where would he be?"
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"Why, in Vhotan's office, this time of day " She broke off suddenly, staring at him. "Jim, you mean it!
Don't you understand? You can't go there "
"Just show me the way," said Jim.
"I won't!" she said. "He'd order his Starkiens to kill you! Maybe they'd even kill you without waiting to
be ordered."
"Oh? And why would the Starkiens want to kill our wild man?" broke in Slothiel's voice unexpectedly.
They turned to discover that the tall High-born had just materialized in the room with them. Ro wheeled
upon him as if he were the cause of her argument with Jim.
"After the bullfight the Emperor told Jim to rest awhile, then come and see him!" said Ro. "Now Jim
wants me to tell him how to get to the Emperor! I told him I won't do it!"
Slothiel broke out laughing.
"Goto the Emperor!" he echoed. "Well, why don't you tell him? If you won't, I will."
"You!" flared Ro. "And you were the one who said you'd sponsor him!"
"True," drawled Slothiel, "and I will because I admire the man and because I'll enjoy the look on
Galyan's face when he hears about it. But if what did you say his name is Jim is bound and
determined to get himself killed before the sponsorship can be arranged, who am I to interfere with his
fate?"
He looked at Jim over the head of Ro, who had pushed herself between them.
"You really want to go?" Slothiel said.
Jim smiled again, grimly.
"I'm a Wolfling," he said. "I don't know any better."
"Right," said Slothiel, ignoring Ro's frantic attempts to silence him by her voice and her hand over his
mouth. "Hang on. I'll send you there. For all the Emperor and Vhotan will know, you found the way
yourself."
Immediately, Jim was in a different room. It was a very large circular room with some sort of transparent
ceiling showing a cloud-flecked sky above or was the sky with its clouds merely an illusion overhead?
Jim had no time to decide which, because his attention was all taken up by the reaction of the half-dozen
people already in the room, who had just caught sight of him.
Of the half-dozen men in the room, one was the Emperor. He had checked himself in mid-sentence on
seeing Jim appear; and he stood half-turned from the older, powerfully bodied High-born who had sat at
his right during the bullfight. Standing back a little way from these two, with his back to Jim, and just now
turning to see what had interrupted the Emperor, was a male Highborn whom Jim did not recognize. The
other three men in the room were heavily muscled, gray-skinned, bald-headed individuals like the one
Galyan had referred to as his bodyguard. These wore leather loin straps, with a black rod thrust through
loops in the belt around their waist, and about the rest of their body and limbs were metallic-looking
bands, which, however, seemed to fit and cling to position on them more like bands of thick elastic cloth
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than metal. At the sight of Jim, they had immediately drawn their rods and were aiming them at him when
a sharp, single word from the Emperor stopped them.
"No!" said the Emperor. "It's " He seemed to peer at Jim without recognition for a second; then a
broad smile spread across his face. "Why, it's the Wolfling!"
"Exactly!" snapped the older High-born. "And what's he doing here? Nephew, you'd better "
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