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"The Crown of Boundless Knowledge"
May. 24th, 2022 07:49 am"The Crown of Boundless Knowledge"
8/22/1981
I.
Jeremy Bane parked his dark green Ford Mustang by the side of the country back road and hopped out. At twenty-four, the Dire Wolf was at a physical peak and burning with excess nervous energy he needed to vent. Almost exactly six feet tall and weighing one hundred and seventy pounds, he looked slim and athletic without being obviously muscular. He was built like a runner rather than a weight lifter. The black slacks, turtleneck and sports jacket gave him a sinister appearance which was accented by the pale grey eyes under dark feral brows. Those eyes never stopped moving, analyzing, accusing.
He was gazing at a yard about fifty feet to each side, with tall dry grass which had not been mowed in some time. A one-story white house with a slate roof, no more than five rooms, stood at the rear of the yard up against the birch and elms which marked the forest. The hard-packed gravel driveway held a beat-up Dodge Ram with considerable rust around the rear wheels, and two old tires were stacked with other debris next to the pick-up. As Bane closed his car door, a redheaded man in blue jeans and faded work shirt stood up from where he had been kneeling by his garden.
The Dire Wolf strode quickly toward the man without a greeting. He had read all the KDF files on him but wanted to add up his own impressions. William Scott Delaney was forty-five. Standing an inch over six feet tall, he would weigh about two hundred and twenty pounds. The man was obviously in great shape, with wide shoulders and a narrow waist, hard biceps stretching the sleeves of his shirt. Delaney had dark brown hair and eyes in a lined, weathered face. The deepset eyes, long straight nose and lantern jaw gave him a mournful Puritanical look.
Just the easy way he rose from a kneeling position without having to use his hands for balance or to push himself up showed he was fit. "What do you want?"
"My name is Bane. Jeremy Bane, from the Kenneth Dred Foundation," the Dire Wolf replied. He stopped while well out of reach, standing with feet apart in a ready stance.
"Oh, the great Dire Wolf!" Delaney scoffed. "Yeah, I've heard lots of wild stories about you. I repeat, what do you want?"
"We need your help, Mr Delaney. You may be the only one who can help us keep powerful talismans out of the hands of a dangerous sorcerer."
"None of my business," Delaney snapped. "The world leaves me alone and I leave it alone, we're both better off that way. Get out of here."
Bane frowned more than usual. This was not going at all as he expected. "I've heard about you, too. The Kumundu Kid. Back in the early '60s, you were quite a hero. You were the best knight Tel Shai had, and the youngest if I remember right. Nineteen when you started."
"That was the wrong thing to say! Goddam it, you have got some nerve bringing up Tel Shai to me!"
"I know you were expelled from the Order--" Bane began but he was cut off by furious swearing from the man.
"Expelled! That's a nice way to put it. After all I did, all the monsters I tracked down and the maniacs I captured, after six years of risking my life time after time, the Teachers threw me out like a used rag. And do you know why?"
The Dire Wolf had not reacted to the anger, his voice remained quiet and controlled. The pale eyes were fixed on the man he had driven all day to see. "No. I don't."
"Because I tried to save my sister. Alicia was fourteen. She was in horrible pain, dying of kidney disease, the doctors said there was nothing they could do. So I shared what Tagra I had with her. She started getting better and then the Teachers summoned me to Tel Shai. That high-and-mighty bitch Anulka had seen in my mind what I had intended. You can't hide anything from telepaths for long. I had to stand before all eight Teachers and take their sermons without flinching. Then, just like that, they disowned me."
Bane had moved closer, still with his hands down by his sides, not assuming any threatening pose. "What happened to her?"
"She died, what do you think? The light of my life. My baby sister. It wasn't luck until I ran out of the Tagra leaves and there was nothing I could do for her." Delaney folded his arms across his broad chest and took a breath. "Go away. Get out of here."
"I don't always agree with the policies the Teachers have established," Bane told him. "They're wise and a hundred years old and all that, but they are not perfect. No one is. They've set rules I think are wrong. But being a knight means access to all the training that helps me carry out my mission in life, so I go along with it. It's compromise."
"Well, aren't you the little diplomat? I told you to get lost once, I'm going to throw you off my property in a second."
Again, Bane did not respond to his hostility. He pointed at the rectangle of soil lined with plants that Delaney had been tending. "Those purple leaves look awful familiar. Arrowhead-shaped, growing on short stalks that way, I'd say those are Tagra plants."
"I smuggled a handful of seeds back to this world before the Teachers threw me out," Delaney said. "It's not easy growing these plants, they're delicate and they need constant care. And they didn't start sprouting until long after my Alicia was gone."
"There's nothing we can do about the past," Bane said. "I'm asking you to step up now and do the right thing. Feeling sorry for yourself won't save all the other Alicias out there."
Delaney raised his hands and curled them into knobby fist. "That's enough! I know about you, Bane. I'm not intimidated. I have been trained in Kumundu too, I have been living on massive amounts of Tagra tea and most important, I really want to beat you into a bloody mess that can't even beg me to stop. Let's go."
( the rest of the story )
8/22/1981
I.
Jeremy Bane parked his dark green Ford Mustang by the side of the country back road and hopped out. At twenty-four, the Dire Wolf was at a physical peak and burning with excess nervous energy he needed to vent. Almost exactly six feet tall and weighing one hundred and seventy pounds, he looked slim and athletic without being obviously muscular. He was built like a runner rather than a weight lifter. The black slacks, turtleneck and sports jacket gave him a sinister appearance which was accented by the pale grey eyes under dark feral brows. Those eyes never stopped moving, analyzing, accusing.
He was gazing at a yard about fifty feet to each side, with tall dry grass which had not been mowed in some time. A one-story white house with a slate roof, no more than five rooms, stood at the rear of the yard up against the birch and elms which marked the forest. The hard-packed gravel driveway held a beat-up Dodge Ram with considerable rust around the rear wheels, and two old tires were stacked with other debris next to the pick-up. As Bane closed his car door, a redheaded man in blue jeans and faded work shirt stood up from where he had been kneeling by his garden.
The Dire Wolf strode quickly toward the man without a greeting. He had read all the KDF files on him but wanted to add up his own impressions. William Scott Delaney was forty-five. Standing an inch over six feet tall, he would weigh about two hundred and twenty pounds. The man was obviously in great shape, with wide shoulders and a narrow waist, hard biceps stretching the sleeves of his shirt. Delaney had dark brown hair and eyes in a lined, weathered face. The deepset eyes, long straight nose and lantern jaw gave him a mournful Puritanical look.
Just the easy way he rose from a kneeling position without having to use his hands for balance or to push himself up showed he was fit. "What do you want?"
"My name is Bane. Jeremy Bane, from the Kenneth Dred Foundation," the Dire Wolf replied. He stopped while well out of reach, standing with feet apart in a ready stance.
"Oh, the great Dire Wolf!" Delaney scoffed. "Yeah, I've heard lots of wild stories about you. I repeat, what do you want?"
"We need your help, Mr Delaney. You may be the only one who can help us keep powerful talismans out of the hands of a dangerous sorcerer."
"None of my business," Delaney snapped. "The world leaves me alone and I leave it alone, we're both better off that way. Get out of here."
Bane frowned more than usual. This was not going at all as he expected. "I've heard about you, too. The Kumundu Kid. Back in the early '60s, you were quite a hero. You were the best knight Tel Shai had, and the youngest if I remember right. Nineteen when you started."
"That was the wrong thing to say! Goddam it, you have got some nerve bringing up Tel Shai to me!"
"I know you were expelled from the Order--" Bane began but he was cut off by furious swearing from the man.
"Expelled! That's a nice way to put it. After all I did, all the monsters I tracked down and the maniacs I captured, after six years of risking my life time after time, the Teachers threw me out like a used rag. And do you know why?"
The Dire Wolf had not reacted to the anger, his voice remained quiet and controlled. The pale eyes were fixed on the man he had driven all day to see. "No. I don't."
"Because I tried to save my sister. Alicia was fourteen. She was in horrible pain, dying of kidney disease, the doctors said there was nothing they could do. So I shared what Tagra I had with her. She started getting better and then the Teachers summoned me to Tel Shai. That high-and-mighty bitch Anulka had seen in my mind what I had intended. You can't hide anything from telepaths for long. I had to stand before all eight Teachers and take their sermons without flinching. Then, just like that, they disowned me."
Bane had moved closer, still with his hands down by his sides, not assuming any threatening pose. "What happened to her?"
"She died, what do you think? The light of my life. My baby sister. It wasn't luck until I ran out of the Tagra leaves and there was nothing I could do for her." Delaney folded his arms across his broad chest and took a breath. "Go away. Get out of here."
"I don't always agree with the policies the Teachers have established," Bane told him. "They're wise and a hundred years old and all that, but they are not perfect. No one is. They've set rules I think are wrong. But being a knight means access to all the training that helps me carry out my mission in life, so I go along with it. It's compromise."
"Well, aren't you the little diplomat? I told you to get lost once, I'm going to throw you off my property in a second."
Again, Bane did not respond to his hostility. He pointed at the rectangle of soil lined with plants that Delaney had been tending. "Those purple leaves look awful familiar. Arrowhead-shaped, growing on short stalks that way, I'd say those are Tagra plants."
"I smuggled a handful of seeds back to this world before the Teachers threw me out," Delaney said. "It's not easy growing these plants, they're delicate and they need constant care. And they didn't start sprouting until long after my Alicia was gone."
"There's nothing we can do about the past," Bane said. "I'm asking you to step up now and do the right thing. Feeling sorry for yourself won't save all the other Alicias out there."
Delaney raised his hands and curled them into knobby fist. "That's enough! I know about you, Bane. I'm not intimidated. I have been trained in Kumundu too, I have been living on massive amounts of Tagra tea and most important, I really want to beat you into a bloody mess that can't even beg me to stop. Let's go."
( the rest of the story )
