Aiken Drum
Names: Aiken DrumAikenDrumAikPeter Panthe little man in goldthe dragonflygolliwog youththe jesterthe tricksterShining Onegolliwogthe CandidateAcekidgolden manikinlittle tricky-pocketsTricky-PocketsFancy Pantsthe nightjarthe human youththe Fancy Pants Kidgolden youthLugonnthe Young LugonnLord Aiken DrumLugonn Aiken DrumLord Lugonn Aiken DrumLord Aiken-LugonnHermes ChrysorapisLord of MisruleBattlemasterAiken-LugonnLord Lugonnthe false Shining Onethe nonborn Shining Onethe damn little gold swindlerthe AdversaryAmadán-na-BrionaMy LordAmadánthe Lowlife usurperthe FoolKing of the MayKing Aiken-Lugonnthe Nonborn Kingthe usurperKing of the ElvesGolden Boythe KingExalted LaddieShining UsurperLord KingLittle KingHigh KingHis Exalted ShininessNonborn King of the Many-Colored LandAikenladdiebuckHermes Tris-megistosChiefthe Tanu Kingthe ThagdalKing AikenGolden FutterbugNiccolo MacGregorGolden PismireBottle KnightKing Golden BritchesShining Hope
First appears in Book 1: THE MANY-COLORED LAND, chapter 7 (6)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: THE MANY-COLORED LAND
- Ch 7Aiken Drum is a gifted, charming, normally chromosomed man of high intelligence, raised on Dalriada, who is a natural crook and leader.
- Ch 7He steals, lies and cheats, enjoys breaking rules, and has resisted all behavior modification and moral conditioning, including deep-redact, electroshock, narcotherapy and religion.
- Ch 7Aiken is one of thirty thousand test-tube colonists on Dalriada, engendered from selected Scottish sperm and ova; his body is small, described as troll-like.
- Ch 7At twelve he blew up a stranded whale carcass with homemade plastic explosive, showering a town and visiting Milieu dignitaries with flesh.
- Ch 7At fourteen he stowed away on a liner to Caledonia and used a radio-controlled robot mouse to steal jewelry, intending to fence it in New Glasgow.
- Ch 7He built black boxes in engineering school that gave illegal access to much of the Sector's computerized credit systems.
- Ch 7At twenty-one, offered incarceration, a docilization implant or euthanasia as a recidivist, he chose Exile instead.
- Ch 14Aiken Drum plans to go to the Pliocene as a Scottish-style Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, a Jack-of-all-trades, with a costume kept secret.
- Ch 14Aiken is an irreverent gnomish man with black eyes and reddish golliwog hair; he is friendly with Elizabeth.
- Ch 19Aiken wears a gold suit of Franconian mollusk byssus covered in pockets full of tools, plus a chameleon poncho; he plans to be a Pliocene Connecticut Yankee.
- Ch 19Aiken admits he is terrified of the time-gate and tried to back out, but counselors did not believe his promise to reform.
- Ch 19Aiken says he may aim higher than 'Sir Boss' in the Pliocene.
- Ch 20Wears a glittering golden suit with tools in his pockets; asks Mishima for a description and diagram of the time-gate and keeps the plaque.
- Ch 24Aiken picks the lock of his locked room with a leatherworking fid and sneaks through the castle, hoping to exploit the situation.
- Ch 24Aiken hides from guards under his chameleon poncho in a window bay while Stein breaks out.
- Ch 24Creyn fits Aiken with a silver torc, signifying a latent metapsychic made operant. Aiken enjoys its mental contact and pleasure, and accepts it.
- Ch 24Aiken had presented himself to Tully as a harmless little clown-handyman and drank only half a cup of coffee, avoiding drugging.
- Ch 27Aiken goaded Sukey into probing Stein, then jokes about it; he can conjure moths with his silver torc.
- Ch 28Has a coercive mental power and teases Raimo; he is chained at the ankles while riding.
- Ch 30Alone among the newcomers he is completely at ease with the Tanu, joking and bowing mockingly to the ladies.
- Ch 32Aiken discovered he can fly, and also has an illusion metafunction letting him appear as a butterfly; he delights in his new powers.
- Ch 32Aiken resolves to become 'Sir Boss' of this world and feels he has found his heart's home in Exile.
- Ch 32Aiken blocks Elizabeth's mental probe with a hastily raised but effective barrier, and threatens to zap her if she persists.
- Ch 34Wearing a silver torc that suppresses his metafunctions, he claims the inhibition programmed by Creyn does not bind him and says he is working out how to switch the torc off.
- Ch 34He is fascinated by the Tanu way of life and says escaping seems stupid for now.
- Ch 36Aiken wears a silver torc and is a companion traveling with the group.
Book 2: The golden torc
- Ch 1Aiken Drum woke with his silver torc cold and useless, its circuitry overloaded by his growing metapsychic power, which remained active.
- Ch 1Aiken can shape-shift into a dragonfly and fly fast; he tried farsensing toward Muriah and was nearly seized by an unknown mind.
- Ch 1After Creyn promised special privileges in Muriah, Aiken decided to stay with the boat for as long as it suits him.
- Ch 1Aiken Drum flippantly mocks Sebi-Gomnol and says he could learn tips from him; Creyn or Elizabeth dismisses him mentally and he obeys.
- Ch 2Aiken says he has been working around the curb placed on his metafunctions and implies he can make objects move; he flexes his silver torc.
- Ch 2Aiken privately sent Stein and Sukey an intimate mindspeech message; he promises Raimo this party will be unlike the last and plans mischief.
- Ch 2Aiken Drum joins the dancing with Raimo and jokes that the toast should emphasize love.
- Ch 3Aiken bid to kill Delbaeth, the Shape of Fire, as the price for Stein, shocking the Tanu, whose mind-probes could not penetrate him.
- Ch 3Aiken says his torcing set off a continuing mental chain reaction that makes him unreadable and that frightened Creyn.
- Ch 3Aiken secretly told Elizabeth he bid to save Stein from the Tanu combat-school, which would recharge Stein's berserker energy irrevocably.
- Ch 5Aiken Drum is locked up in Farsense House by Mayvar after an incident at a feast.
- Ch 7Repaired Mayvar's golden dragon-and-knight clock and is her lover, having passed her 'love testing'.
- Ch 7Boasted he would kill the Firvulag giant Delbaeth, which forced the Thagdal to send him and annoyed Nodonn.
- Ch 10Aiken must demonstrate his new martial skills in the arena; passing lets him join the Delbaeth Quest. Opening odds on him to take the Shape of Fire were 300 to 1.
- Ch 10Aiken chose a purple banner bearing an obscene hand-gesture emblem as his arms, signifying raffish defiance; Mayvar allowed it.
- Ch 10Aiken fixed the Tanu computer, helped restore the glass works' annealing machine, worked with Gomnol on the mental-assay device, and introduced kite fighting and 3D chess to Muriah.
- Ch 10Aiken uses limited redaction to block Raimo's pain and build a mental refuge, though redaction is not his strongest metapsychic skill.
- Ch 10Aiken Drum, raised on the Scottish colony Dalriada, had never seen a crocodilian and took Phobosuchus for a dragon.
- Ch 10Aiken forgot to control his chaliko's mind, was thrown, then outmaneuvered Phobosuchus by pole vaulting on his lance and riding its back.
- Ch 10Aiken killed Phobosuchus by driving his lance through a parietal opening in its skull, located with his farsense.
- Ch 10Aiken is knighted by King Thagdal but keeps his human name until Mayvar chooses a Tanu name for him.
- Ch 10Aiken tells Stein that if he fails, Mayvar will bring Stein to where Sukey is hidden.
- Ch 12A charming young human protégé of Mayvar, fertile and possibly able to challenge Nodonn in the Grand Combat and then the Thagdal.
- Ch 13Aiken must kill Delbaeth within the Quest's time or his service-bid for Stein is voided and he is barred from the Heroic Encounters.
- Ch 13Aiken and Stein transform into bats, fish and back, though Aiken is unsure whether the shape-shifting is real or illusion.
- Ch 13Aiken can farsense through solid rock but cannot walk through walls or zap mountains.
- Ch 13Aiken hid a secret weapon: an iron-wire sparkler brought through the time-gate long ago, which he ignited with his creative metafunction.
- Ch 13Aiken kills Delbaeth with the sparkler, then pours water on it to put it out.
- Ch 18Aiken Drum is a talented friend of Felice and Claude; he was made a silver by the Tanu and might have joined them.
- Ch 20Aiken Drum is in Muriah and is wanted for help recharging the Spear, though Claude warns against telling him the whole plan.
- Ch 21Aiken says he can probably recharge the Spear's powerpack, and will cut off Stein's and Sukey's torcs once the northerners arrive with an iron chisel.
- Ch 21Aiken persuades Stein not to tell Sukey of the plot, fearing a Tanu redactor like Culluket might read it from her mind.
- Ch 21Aiken restores a mangled daisy by will and levitates, showing his power; he claims he might win a fair lady or kingdom in the Combat.
- Ch 23Aiken Drum is a small, cheeky man who sees Gomnol as a rat deserting a sinking ship; Gomnol hints at human unity against Tanu.
- Ch 25His mind showed no knowledge of Stein's marriage or the plot against the torc factory and time-gate, though Tanu suspect collusion.
- Ch 27Aiken Drum secretly allies with Gomnol against the Host, planning to be king with Gomnol as grand vizier.
- Ch 27Aiken has been in the Pliocene only three months yet has powerful matured metafaculties.
- Ch 27Aiken insists Stein and Sukey must not be killed, or his deal with Gomnol is off.
- Ch 27Aiken deceived the saboteurs with a false plan: a rubbish door and a promised inside man, both traps arranged with Gomnol.
- Ch 27Aiken took the Spear and its power pack, claiming he would repair it, and left as a nightjar toward Europe, never intending to return.
- Ch 29Aiken can shapeshift into a nightjar; he searched from the air for Claude and Angélique, planning to turn back and lead a castle search party to them.
- Ch 29Aiken intended to kill Claude and Angélique swiftly and mercifully to spare them being dragged to the Grand Combat and distilled alive as traitors.
- Ch 29A small tornado from a strange cloud picked up Aiken and flung him three kilometers away, so he could not stop the old pair.
- Ch 29Aiken had arrived secretly, flying up the Rhône and hiding the Spear in a plane tree; the castle personnel did not know he was there.
- Ch 30He can act fully operant without his golden torc, which he can stretch like elastic, but must hide this from the Host.
- Ch 30He refuses Mayvar's suggestion to kill Stein and Sukey, saying he cannot harm them.
- Ch 30He aspires to be king; he plans iron-armed gold-torc humans and wants to pacify the Firvulag with threats rather than slaughter.
- Ch 31Aiken Drum is a young human, called a trickster, with all faculties except redaction; Mayvar judges he will beat any Tanu or Firvulag champion.
- Ch 31If Aiken Drum becomes king, the antibattle faction plans to free the grays, end human concubinage, abolish the Hunt and make peace between Tanu and Firvulag.
- Ch 32Aiken is a small human in glass armor with a black, violet-edged cloak, standing in the front rank of the Farsensor Battalion carrying a banner.
- Ch 33Aiken Drum holds the Spear and is popular with petty nobility; provincial contingents and High Table champions have declared for him.
- Ch 33Aiken denied knowing of the escapes, and Culluket and Imidol confirmed he was telling the truth.
- Ch 34Aiken could fly, which Stein suggests Felice or another person might also have done.
- Ch 35Aiken Drum was designated by Mayvar to lead the Farsensor Guild's fighters.
- Ch 36Aiken Drum, small and glowing in gold armor on a black chaliko with a purple banner, killed a Firvulag attacker and rescued Raimo.
- Ch 37Aiken Drum lures Nukalavee and a Firvulag legion into an ambush, riding a hipparion and protected by a metapsychic barrier.
- Ch 37Aiken's banner has captured more than twenty Firvulag battle standards and the head of Bles Four-Fang.
- Ch 39Aiken Drum, a small gold-clad human, challenges Nodonn's position and rallies Tagan, Bunone, Alberonn and Bleyn to his banner.
- Ch 39Aiken proposes to kill Pallol in a human way, as he killed Delbaeth; the High Table agrees to let him fight Pallol without prejudice.
- Ch 40Aiken Drum killed Pallol by slinging Lord Gomnol's steel cigar cutter into Pallol's normal right eye after his mental shield held against the Eye's blasts.
- Ch 40Aiken Drum turned Pallol's severed head into a golden death mask with a star ruby in the left eye socket and displayed it on Pallol's standard.
- Ch 40Mayvar bestows the Tanu name Lugonn on Aiken Drum, declaring him the Shining One; he then defies King Thagdal by driving the Sword of Sharn into the salt.
- Ch 41Aiken Drum survived the flood by making an air capsule, then boarded the drifting Kral and rescued Mercy.
- Ch 41Aiken Drum restored Mercy's clothing in gold and black, and told her they would talk tomorrow.
Book 3: The nonborn king
- Ch 4Aiken Drum rules Goriah in Nodonn's place, and his metapsychic powers kept growing through the winter, awing the surviving Tanu Great Ones.
- Ch 4Aiken admits he already loves Mercy, though he first denies it. He fears her and hoped to control her through love.
- Ch 4Aiken grew up on Dalriada, a Scottish world, as a test-tube child with certified tartan chromosomes.
- Ch 4Aiken confesses he did not cause the meteor shower. It recurs every spring and marks the end of the rainy season.
- Ch 4Aiken secretly envies Mercy's unborn baby and weeps, then rages at the idea of her pity.
- Ch 6Aiken Drum is consolidating power in Goriah, offering Tanu status and humans golden tores for fealty, and invited Elizabeth to live under his protection.
- Ch 7Aiken is Battlemaster of Goriah, a usurper who replaced Nodonn, recolored the castle in black and purple, and is about to be king.
- Ch 7Aiken needs many trained mounts for his strategy against the Firvulag and is searching for missing aircraft.
- Ch 7Aiken orders Congreve to welcome human and Tanu arrivals equally, ending the stringent searches imposed under Nodonn.
- Ch 10Aiken Drum is a human operant ruling the old Tanu kingdom and recruiting followers, giving out gold collars.
- Ch 11Aiken is a small, young human from Dalriada, banished by his fellow citizens, who has usurped Goriah and aspires to become High King of the Tanu.
- Ch 11Aiken has strong psychokinetic powers, but Tanu custom treats overt displays of metapsychic prowess as a lack of humility.
- Ch 11Aiken plans to invite the Firvulag royals to the Grand Loving and to propose a modification of the Grand Combat next October.
- Ch 11Aiken gilded the new maypole with gold foil using psychokinesis, to symbolize his own virility; its cost, he claims, will be repaid from what he takes from the Firvulag.
- Ch 11Aiken pressed Alberonn's suit to Eadnar and Rocilan, arguing the city needs a High Tabler and fighting specialist to defend it.
- Ch 11Aiken killed Delbaeth the Shape of Fire and Firvulag Battlemaster Pallol One-Eye, and triumphed at the Grand Combat, winning the support of great captains.
- Ch 11Aiken rules the Castle of Glass and rides Goriah by usurpation, and is suzerain over settlements around Bordeaux and Armorica.
- Ch 11Aiken is the only remaining credible candidate for Tanu king, argues he is stronger than all the High Tablers, and plans a May coronation.
- Ch 11Aiken is Mercy's affianced bride-to-be partner, determined to make her his queen; he comes from Dalriada six million years in the future.
- Ch 11Aiken proposes a royal progress to win over reluctant cities before his coronation, starting with Afaliah, and says he can easily overpower Celadeyr.
- Ch 12Aiken Drum, the false Shining One, once duped Felice into giving up the Spear; she believes the Flood destroyed him.
- Ch 17Aiken Drum promises golden torcs to compatible humans and full civil rights to the rest.
- Ch 17Aiken immobilized Celadeyr and the knights of Afaliah with his powers, then displayed a 400-strong rainbow army and a thousand armed human golds.
- Ch 17Aiken is to marry Mercy-Rosmar in May at Goriah and sent wedding invitations to Tanu lords.
- Ch 17Aiken found seventy years of smuggled contraband weapons in the cellars of his Castle of Glass in Goriah, previously Osgeyr-era or others' caches.
- Ch 18Aiken-Lugonn installed amethyst faerie lighting in Mercy's balcony that she finds chilling; Mercy thinks of him pityingly as 'Poor Aiken'.
- Ch 20Elizabeth expects Aiken sooner or later to make a move toward the iron of Peo's people.
- Ch 22Tony expects Aiken Drum to grant sanctuary because war with the Firvulag is coming and iron weapons would matter.
- Ch 23Returned exhausted to Goriah from a three-week progress; levitating about four hundred people and chalikos drains him for a day or so afterward.
- Ch 23Hides his exhaustion from guests and his own people, relying on Culluket to help maintain a good face.
- Ch 23Took a stem-shield generator from the General Store to protect his mind while he sleeps, since he is poor at self-redaction.
- Ch 23Insists only fighters and strategic workers get gold tores, and only after Culluket's people certify loyalty; he never meant a democracy.
- Ch 23Believes strength is all that barbarians like the Tanu and Firvulag understand, so he invited the Firvulag as guests to the Loving.
- Ch 25Aiken hosts a preLoving houseparty for the Firvulag Gnomish Council and leads them on a Flying Hunt, keeping them airborne with his psychokinesis.
- Ch 25Aiken proposed replacing the lethal Grand Combat with a nonlethal Grand Tourney scored on points, with losers paying winners in treasure and battle standards.
- Ch 25Aiken hoped to arrange a mass assassination of top Firvulag but abandoned the idea because their combined metapsychic power may exceed his own.
- Ch 25Aiken acts as bait for the dragons and crocodiles, and goads Sharn into a dangerous plesiosaur hunt over the sea.
- Ch 27Aiken Drum has used a mechanical brain-shield that made three nights of Firvulag attempts to blast him asleep fail.
- Ch 27The Firvulag bolt fails: Aiken is with Olone, and he remarks that maypole magic may have worked for him.
- Ch 27Aiken is crowned King of the Many-Colored Land with a black glass circlet and takes the presidencies of the Coercers and Psychokinetics guilds.
- Ch 29Aiken Drum has been crowned king and married; Marc thinks he is a gifted politician with unknown potential and vulnerabilities.
- Ch 31Aiken is king of the Many-Colored Kingdom, burdened by daily demands from allies, subordinates and rebellious workers, and he rules by coercion and a coercive elite guard.
- Ch 31Aiken secretly probed his sleeping wife Mercy's mind, suspecting she caused a metapsychic disturbance, then felt ashamed and vowed never to probe her again.
- Ch 31Aiken plans to find Felice's hoard in Spain and use the Spear against her before she emerges from the room without doors.
- Ch 31Aiken suspects Abaddon is a former Paramount Grand Master whose brother and sister-in-law crushed his Rebellion.
- Ch 32Aiken Drum, a Lowlife, forced the Tanu to accept him as King and is on a Quest to Koneyn for the Spear.
- Ch 32Rumor claims Aiken Drum was not born of woman, and that he and Mercy have Tanu genes.
- Ch 33Aiken Drum has armed his human elite guard with twenty-second-century weapons, reportedly from a magazine in Goriah's dungeons, and wants to lure away Lowlife metallurgists.
- Ch 33Aiken does not yet know about the expedition to the Ship's Grave, according to Elizabeth.
- Ch 35Aiken is about twenty-two and took over the Tanu establishment after its catastrophe; his fleet is due at the Genil base camp at dawn.
- Ch 36Aiken dismisses Elizabeth's warnings and proceeds with the raid on Felice's lair, after Abaddon's scans show Felice is not within 80,000 square kilometers of Mulhacén.
- Ch 36Aiken tells his army the Quest aims to recover the Spear of Lugonn and Felice's cache of golden tores as survival insurance for the Tanu.
- Ch 36Aiken takes the Spear and the tores from the cave, then destroys Felice's lair with a metaconcert blast as a calling card, nearly burning out his own brain.
- Ch 36As King, he leads his horde back to the Rio Genil, carrying the Spear of Lugonn, which he intends to use against Felice, the Firvulag and Nodonn.
- Ch 36After a near-fatal overload he recovered, and said he was glad Felice was killed by mindpower rather than the sacred Spear.
- Ch 37Aiken Drum has been acclaimed King by the battle-company, and is greatly weakened after being badly injured in the fight with Felice.
- Ch 37Aiken has claimed his blood is Tanu, like Mercy's.
- Ch 38Aiken Drum is an enemy leader whom Basil fears would receive a stolen flyer and the parking site location.
- Ch 39He survived the fight with Felice by holding back his metaconcert blast; Cloud expects him to adapt the program safely and go after Nodonn's faction, then Marc.
- Ch 40Aiken accepted Mercy's thin story without probing her mind, content that she was back and responsive to his lovemaking.
- Ch 40Aiken is still suffering brain damage and weakness from his fight with Felice, but heals a bit every time he is with Mercy.
- Ch 40Aiken wept over Mercy's silver-and-emerald helmet on the way back to Goriah, though he knew she was alive.
- Ch 40Aiken suspects Mercy was sent to him by Felice and reports to him, and uses stacked mental screens against Felice.
- Ch 40Aiken keeps screens up and claims the Spear works fine and that he has surprises stowed in his dungeon for Felice.
- Ch 40Aiken uses psychokinesis at great cost to save Vilkas and the blue kite when Sullivan's kite crashes.
- Ch 40Aiken insults Sullivan as impotent and a would-be betrayer, humiliating him with a remark about fertility.
- Ch 41A human who now leads the Foe from Goriah, entrenched there; he reportedly promised tores to those who join him.
- Ch 42Aiken Drum rules the Many-Colored Land with Lowlife support, has spies everywhere, and is recovering from his injuries, which Mercy helps heal unwillingly.
- Ch 43Aiken Drum waits at the stair in black, discovers the betrayal, and kills Sullivan-Tonn cruelly, saying it was Mercy's doing.
- Ch 44Aiken Drum hung hundreds of conductive kites over the Castle of Glass as a trap, which grounded and destroyed both of Nodonn's aircraft.
- Ch 44Aiken Drum shields himself from farsight with his cunning and portable Milieu-technology screening devices, so he must be found physically or lured out.
- Ch 44Aiken stays silent, absorbs Nodonn's full attack, and lets him exhaust himself so onlookers see the result. He then drains Nodonn's power, killing him.
- Ch 44After Nodonn's death, Aiken catches his blackened hand and returns to his castle at dawn while his people sing a Song.
Book 4: The adversary
- Ch 1Aiken was left with his heart stopped and mind wrecked on a gravel bank; Elizabeth believes his body and mind can be healed.
- Ch 1Aiken Drum survived the experiment but is badly damaged; Marc expects his healers to restore him in time.
- Ch 2Returned to his castle with a silver hand as a trophy after his great victory; he was silent, empty-eyed and psychically swollen as if full to bursting.
- Ch 2Refused to go to his own bedchamber and said he would deal with the prisoners at twenty-one hundred hours, ordering High Table members to be ready.
- Ch 2Said that 'the two of them' would not let him rest, hinting at something else within his mind.
- Ch 2Forbade Ochal's column to go die at Bardelask, insisting the Milieu equipment be safeguarded from the Foe at all costs.
- Ch 3Won his duel against Nodonn at Goriah, killing Nodonn and Queen Mercy and subsuming their metapsychic complexus.
- Ch 4Aiken-Lugonn has subsumed portions of the minds of Nodonn and Queen Mercy-Rosmar and has abolished the Grand Combat in favor of a Grand Tourney.
- Ch 4Aiken shows a steel boltcutter and explains that cutting a tore with iron is a painful but usually survivable way to remove it, leaving Tanu powers latent.
- Ch 4Aiken lets the prisoners choose their own punishment, then frees them after Kuhal's submission and demands proof of loyalty, asking where the remaining aircraft are hidden.
- Ch 5A newly powerful king who has subsumed metafunctions of others and is drilling his golds in metaconcert; he risks mental breakdown without Elizabeth's help.
- Ch 7He destroyed or absorbed Mercy and Nodonn and fears he swallowed their minds; he can barely use his powers because the subsumption has disrupted his metafunctions.
- Ch 7He hides his weakened state from nearly everyone, including Olone, who guesses; only Elizabeth knows its full extent, and he plans to bluff and stall.
- Ch 7He orders the Firvulag king Sharn to call off a planned strike on Roniah, threatening to send the Hunt that night.
- Ch 7Aiken is a king who retains the power to conjure an illusion of invisibility, though his farsensing is strained.
- Ch 7Aiken secretly hid a book on the Guderian tau-field generator a year and a week earlier, and begins reading it after Marc's message, wondering if he wants to go home.
- Ch 8Arrives as an aureate falcon, nearly drained of power, and swears Yosh, Vilkas and Jim to secrecy about a trick that could topple his throne.
- Ch 8He plans to rise very high and hurl the Spear at the lead North American ATV, using Yosh's scanner coordinates to aim.
- Ch 8Aiken was banished from the Milieu to the Pliocene because he was considered a menace; he claims his cunning remains though his metapsychic power is currently diminished.
- Ch 9Aiken is the High King of the Tanu, small, red-haired, and wearing a golden storm-suit and black glass circlet.
- Ch 9Aiken will keep the Bastards torced until the time-gate is finished, promising not to coerce or punish them if they behave.
- Ch 9Aiken displays awesome psychocreative power, then claims Marc Remillard will probably have to face him alone since his old metapsychic allies are worn out or unsuited.
- Ch 9Aiken recalls the night he first came to Muriah, at King Thagdal's feast, and a little silver human redactor woman who sang there.
- Ch 9Aiken claims Marc is weaker than himself; the Children's weapons and aircraft are meant to win the conflict.
- Ch 10Greatest coercer in Europe and a natural talent who resisted and conquered his tore, but Elizabeth considers him badly damaged and near dissolution.
- Ch 10Has agreed with young North Americans to try reopening the time-gate from the Pliocene side.
- Ch 10Aiken acts as he pleases; he has decided to help Marc's children escape from Marc, and Elizabeth says she cannot sway him.
- Ch 11Aiken demanded reparations for Bardelask and asked for Tony Wayland's return, offering to reduce the reparations.
- Ch 11Aiken is a small man raised under Tanu ethics, which Sharn thinks constrains him during the Truce.
- Ch 12Aiken is leading an ATV caravan from Calamosk back to Goriah, bluffing the young North Americans into accepting his authority.
- Ch 12Aiken is suffering a severe breakdown from his subsumption: insomnia for ten days, pain when farsensing, little but illusion-making and coercion left, and grotesque hallucinations growing worse at night.
- Ch 12Aiken fears Marc will find out about the gate project and try to burn him, and calls himself more than outmatched even by a damaged Marc.
- Ch 12Aiken desperately begs Elizabeth for help and insists nobody else must know of his weakness.
- Ch 12Aiken is hiding the weakness by being tricky; he is secretly in the cave, producing a shadow chimaera of himself in a sexual frenzy.
- Ch 12Aiken is found lying on his face, weak but alive, in a subsidiary chamber, his golden storm-suit split in every seam and in rags.
- Ch 12In a dream Aiken sees two stern strangers, a dark-haired man and a red-haired woman, who vanish; he feels bitter reproach toward them.
- Ch 12In his dream Aiken passes through ordeals involving a dragon, an eagle and a fallen enemy, and emerges with a restored, integrated self symbolized by a proud chimaera.
- Ch 12Aiken was called a psychopath on Dalriada and was nearly locked away or killed there before coming to the Many-Colored Land.
- Ch 12Aiken subsumed the metafaculties of two extraordinary minds in pursuit of kingship, which nearly destroyed his original mental self; he had to rebuild it.
- Ch 12Elizabeth says the lion means he must accept the pain of defending the pride, even to death, and give up some Trickster freedom.
- Ch 14Aiken-Lugonn is Tanu King who is seeking gadolinite and xenotime to build a time-gate machine; Sugoll resents his unpaid Tourney expenses.
- Ch 14Aiken left his own dull party disguised in shorts and a straw sombrero to go drinking with Yosh and Raimo.
- Ch 14Aiken recognised the noble lady Morna-Ia despite her veil and mind-screen, and was alarmed when he saw a tall gray-haired elite guard buying ice.
- Ch 14After glimpsing the curly-haired man, Aiken stamped his sombrero into the cobblestones and said he wanted to go to the Mermaid and get very drunk.
- Ch 16Aiken removed the mental booby trap from Marc's metaconcert program and can now use it against Marc without danger.
- Ch 18Aiken is King of the Many-Colored Land and has a mental disability that rivals believe weakens him; he drives his own ATV and disdains protective mechanical screens.
- Ch 18Aiken plans to display steel weapons at the Grand Tourney to show Sharn and Ayfa that destroying the Lowlife Iron Villages failed.
- Ch 18Aiken warned Hagen that silver tores could be put on the North Americans, though he doubted they would work on non-coadunate operants.
- Ch 19The King is preparing for war with the Firvulag and intensifying recruitment, with conscription rumored among displaced persons.
- Ch 21Aiken is keeping Hagen and Cloud on a tight leash, working on the Guderian device under Celo's watch, and wears portable sigma shields against Marc.
- Ch 21Aiken recently foiled a Bessemer converter coup, which drained him too much to fly; Hagen's crowd does not know this.
- Ch 21Aiken promised on his honor not to contact or interfere with Stein, Sukey and Thor.
- Ch 23The King needs niobium wire alloyed with dysprosium for the Guderian device and offers Tony house arrest, privileges and a reward in exchange for cooperation.
- Ch 24He appears as a golden mental projection holding the Sword, which weapons cannot harm, and offers to trade it for Tony Wayland.
- Ch 24He demands Wayland unharmed plus the ten boatloads of weapons stolen from Roniah, and says he will deliver the Sword at sunset tomorrow.
- Ch 24He mockingly dubs Sharn-Ador an honorary Tanu knight, Lord Ador the Wart-Biter.
- Ch 25Aiken, the High King in Goriah, hears Basil's mind-roar, praises him and grants his request for a solo summit attempt.
- Ch 26Aiken is High King, flippant on the surface, who has given the Firvulag leaders Sham and Ayfa the sacred Sword, a gamble that could enable the Nightfall War.
- Ch 26Aiken gave Elizabeth a one-day entry to the Guderian Project labs, wanting her to tell Marc how the work was progressing.
- Ch 28Aiken, in gilded leather, wraps Hagen and Cloud in a psychocreative envelope, asserting that the decision is his; Marc backs down.
- Ch 28Aiken is called the King; he tells Marc he needs time to think carefully before giving a decision.
- Ch 28Aiken and the young Remillards leave Black Crag by flying out through the storm, hooded and unrecognizable.
- Ch 29The King flew Hagen and Cloud back from Black Crag to Goriah in under ninety minutes, then sent Kuhal and Diane to meet them and told them everything.
- Ch 29When Hagen and Diane return, the King, the Guderian Project laboratory, the sigma-generator and twenty-one aircraft are gone from the castle.
- Ch 29Aiken moved the entire Guderian Project from Goriah to Castle Gateway in a single evening and shielded it with a sigma-field.
- Ch 29Aiken commands thousands of minds meshed in metaconcert, using a program Marc gave him at the Rio Genii.
- Ch 29Aiken offers Marc a truce: sail Kyllikki up the Seine to the Field of Gold under a white flag as a guest of the Grand Tourney.
- Ch 29Aiken threatens to find and destroy Kyllikki if Marc attacks, and has integrated the powers of Nodonn and Mercy.
- Ch 30As King, he ordered every human in the land to attend the Grand Tourney, and told operant subjects to be ready for metaconcert against the Foe.
- Ch 30He staged an air show over the Roniah Fair with twenty-seven rhocraft, raining candy balloons and displaying his golden hand emblem to hearten his subjects.
- Ch 30He is learning to fly rhocraft and fears he will need every strong mind for his metaconcert, leaving the Flying Corps with conventional weapons and screens.
- Ch 30He found an anomalous, skipping image on the Seine about a hundred kilometers inland, possibly Kyllikki, but chose not to probe it to avoid detection.
- Ch 31Aiken nominated a full slate of Great Ones to complete the High Table, secretly including Katlinel and Sugoll as simulacrum members.
- Ch 31Aiken reports that Sharn boasted of a scheme to trigger Nightfall at the climax of the Grand Tourney.
- Ch 31Aiken is fitting Royal Flying Corps rhocraft with zappers; most should be armed by tournament time, though the reticular skin field complicates refitting.
- Ch 32Aiken answers Burke's farspeech call and says he is on his way.
- Ch 33The King owes Minanonn, Dionket and Elizabeth a debt for saving his life at the Rio Genii and his sanity at Quicksilver Cave.
- Ch 34Aiken-Lugonn is King of the Tanu, small in stature and golden-armored; he says he will stay in his land until he dies.
- Ch 34Aiken-Lugonn demonstrates immense power in the Flying Hunt by levitating 900 knights alone, then holding 26 rhocraft aloft with their rho-fields off.
- Ch 34Aiken protects the black-torc children and refuses to open the Gateway sigma in exchange for Marc stopping Götterdämmerung.
- Ch 34Aiken wants to fly Elizabeth to Goriah to put her aboard Kyllikki, which sails tomorrow night.
- Ch 35Quietly competes in the games as the silver-tore Niccolo MacGregor, winning a windsurfer heat before adoring Tanu ladies.
- Ch 35Gave in when Cloud's Tanu lover demanded she watch the chariot race, taking her to the royal enclosure and guarding her closely.
- Ch 35Tells Elizabeth his feeling for her is neither sexual nor brotherly, more like a father to a little girl, and wishes she could be his Queen.
- Ch 35Asks Elizabeth to let him look into the hidden part of her mind, saying it is for everyone's sake.
- Ch 36Aiken threatens Tony Wayland by telepathic image that eighty thousand Firvulag and the Angel of the Abyss are at stake if the core isn't fixed.
- Ch 36Aiken secretly fought as the Bottle Knight in the jousts to boost morale, then deliberately let Marc defeat him to make the Firvulag overconfident.
- Ch 37Tanu King; left the royal enclosure and returned in his flagship to take Elizabeth away, suggesting the time-gate might be ready.
- Ch 37Led the Tanu metaconcert to victory in the tug-of-war, using unexpected subsumed faculties.
- Ch 38Aiken announces the time-gate to the Milieu is open and offers passage to any who wish to go, while he stays to rule as High King.
- Ch 38Wearing a CE rig lent by Marc, Aiken destroys Sharn, Ayfa and over half the Firvulag host with a devastating psychocreative blast.
- Ch 38Aiken, weary, wonders whether to start over a third time or flee to Elder Earth.
Connections
- inDalriadaraised there
- member ofEcology Corpscrew at age twelve
- friend ofElizabeth Orme
- member ofGroup Green
- friend ofStein Oleson
- related toSukey DaviesAiken egged her on to probe Stein
- enemy ofRaimo
- friend ofRaimoRaimo calls them buddies
- ally ofElizabeth Orme
- ally ofStein Oleson
- partner ofMayvar Kingmaker
- has memberStein OlesonStein serves Aiken Drum as his master
- related toMayvar KingmakerMayvar's Candidatehas taken him to kin as protégé
- enemy ofDelbaethkilled him
- ally ofSebi-Gomnolsecret treasonous alliance
- enemy ofFelice Landrybetrays her group while pretending to help
- related toSebi-Gomnolaccused by the Host of conniving with him
- enemy ofClaude Majewski
- created byMayvar Kingmakerhis Making
- ally ofMayvar Kingmaker
- ally ofCeladeyr
- ally ofBunone Warteacher
- enemy ofNodonnrivals for Tanu field leadership
- ally ofTagan
- ally ofAlberonn Mindeater
- ally ofBleyn
- enemy ofPallolkilled him
- enemy ofThagdal
- ally ofMercedes Lamballeco-hosts the houseparty
- partner ofMercedes LamballeBetrothed; he loves her, she has not said she returns it
- leadsGoriah
- ally ofBenjamin Barrett Travis
- ally ofCulluket
- has memberCongreveserves
- enemy ofCeladeyrundermines him
- ally ofYosh
- family ofAgraynelimplied father; Aiken asks after her
- ally ofMarc Remillardtentative deal to defeat Felice
- family ofMercedes Lamballehusband and wife
- leadsOrganic Mindprime executive director
- enemy ofMarc Remillardwary; Marc hopes to make him an ally
- has memberSullivan-Tonncourtier of the King
- enemy ofMercedes Lamballe
- ally ofBleyn the Championserves as deputy of the King
- ally ofOchal the Harperdeputy
- partner ofLady Olone
- enemy ofSharn
- related toMarc RemillardMarc addresses Aiken as king and warns him
- has memberYoshserves as his loyal engineer
- has memberOchal the Harperserves
- ally ofParthol Swiftfoot
- has memberBleyn the ChampionDeputy Lord Psychokinetic
- ally ofthe children
- related toElizabeth Ormeindependent of her influence
- ally ofDionkethelped sustain his redaction
- ally ofCreynhelped sustain his redaction
- has memberKuhalserves as Second Lord Psychokinetic
- friend ofYosh
- ally ofDougalcourt jester and informant
- ally ofKuhal
- enemy ofFirvulag
- has memberBleynserves the King's orders
- ally ofHagen
- related toGuderian's deviceprotects it
- ally ofMr. Betsyflight instructor to the King
- ally ofKatlinel the Darkeyed
- ally ofSugoll
- ally ofPeopeo Moxmox Burke
- related toTony WaylandAiken paid a high price for him and directs his work
- leadsTanu
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 7The whale explosion
Aiken's Ecology Corps crew disposed of a beached whale by blowing it up, spattering the town and visiting Milieu dignitaries.
- Book 1 · Ch 7Aiken chooses Exile
After failed reform attempts, twenty-one-year-old Aiken is offered incarceration, a docilization implant or euthanasia, and rejects all three, choosing Exile.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Choosing vocations
Over lunch Elizabeth and Aiken read the list of Pliocene vocations; Aiken chooses to be a Jack-of-all-trades Scottish Connecticut Yankee, and Elizabeth chooses balloonist.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Orientation lecture in the Petit Salon
Group Green meets for the first time and Counselor Mishima presents a holographic tour of Pliocene geography and explains the weapons ban and available information on earlier travelers.
- Book 1 · Ch 19Last night terrace talk
After the last supper, Group Green's members discuss metapsychic powers, Pliocene coal and plans, Felice's unhappiness, and Aiken's Connecticut Yankee costume as a storm gathers over Lyon.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Second group translated into Exile
Aiken gets the device's diagram, then he, Claude, Annamaria and Elizabeth are translated. They arrive in a bright green-and-blue place and are helped out of the gate.
- Book 1 · Ch 24Aiken is collared
Creyn finds Aiken hiding and fits him with a silver torc. Aiken, feeling pleasure and telepathic contact, accepts it and is locked in a fresh room to await transport to Muriah.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Sukey's botched redaction of Stein
Sukey, urged by Aiken, tried to heal Stein and was caught in his rage. Elizabeth intervened, freed Sukey, calmed Stein and began healing him.
- Book 1 · Ch 28Aiken and Raimo's psychic fight
Aiken teases Raimo about spooky trees; Raimo lifts him from his saddle with PK. Aiken forces Raimo to drop him, and the two fight until Creyn stops them.
- Book 1 · Ch 28The Hunt glimpsed
The party sees a fast, multicolored streak of light, the Hunt, cross a ridge. Creyn refuses to explain it but hints Aiken might suit it.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Arrival at Roniah
Creyn's caravan with the captive time-travelers reaches the illuminated city past midnight, enters through the gate, and is greeted by Tanu nobles in the marble quarter.
- Book 1 · Ch 32Dockside antics at Roniah
Aiken and Raimo sneak out, fly as butterflies over Roniah, then perform telekinetic stunts at the docks, destroying a bollard, until Creyn stops them and imposes mental restraints.
- Book 1 · Ch 32Shooting Cameron's Sluice
The party boards the Mojo and rides the Rhône through violent rapids; most passengers are asleep or calmed, while Bryan stays awake and Highjohn offers him a job.
- Book 1 · Ch 34Prisoners lodged at Darask
The travelers stop at the Riverside Palace, where Kennedy locks the prisoners in a tower chamber, and Elizabeth is summoned to help Creyn with the dangerous birth.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Aiken's farsense contact and fall
Aiken, flying as a dragonfly, hails Muriah by farsense and a mind locks onto him; he breaks free, falls and barely recovers, waking the others.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Creyn persuades Aiken to stay
Creyn tells Aiken that special privileges await in Muriah and that fleeing is pointless, so Aiken returns to the boat.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Arrival at Aven
Tanu and human riders welcome the boat at Aven; hellads haul it toward Muriah while Bryan seeks Mercy and Highjohn explains torcs and Tanu society.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Welcome at the Tanu palace
The boat arrives at the King's palace in Muriah, where Lady Eadone greets the time-travelers and Elizabeth replies in Tanu and English before the escort erupts in celebration.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Time-travelers appear at the feast
The five time-travelers meet in new Tanu finery, joined by Aiken, who hints at coming mischief and shows he is working around his metafunction curb before the court procession.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Toast to Elizabeth and fellowship
Thagdal declares Elizabeth a gift of Tana and announces her training under Brede; the court toasts fellowship, then feasting and dancing begin.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Stein's sword display and auction
Stein cuts flung oranges and the Tanu bid for him as a gladiator. A bid of Delbaeth's death by Aiken Drum halts the auction.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Mayvar takes Aiken to kin
After Aiken displays his growing mind, the assembly grants him a test. Mayvar takes him to kin and leaves with Aiken and Stein; Thagdal departs.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Mayvar prepares Aiken for the Delbaeth Quest
After repairing her clock and another testing, Mayvar gives Aiken the golden torc, explains the politics behind his boast to slay Delbaeth, and promises training and a secret weapon from her cellar.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Stein's arena trial
At the Sport Meeting Stein slays the hyainailouros, is given the King's accolade, while Aiken upstages him, irritating Thagdal.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Nodonn arrives
Nodonn and Rosmar arrive; Rosmar reunites with Bryan. Nodonn goes to the arena, and Raimo desperately seeks Aiken.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Aiken aids Raimo
Raimo begs Aiken for help; Aiken eases his tormented mind, but six Tanu women arrive and carry Raimo off.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Aiken kills Phobosuchus
Thrown by his terrified chaliko, Aiken evades and rides Phobosuchus to the crowd's delight, then kills it with his lance through the skull.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Aiken's accolade
King Thagdal knights Aiken; Mayvar forbids him a Tanu name for now, and he is sent on the Delbaeth Quest.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Dispute over Gomnol's plan for Elizabeth
The Host demands Elizabeth's death, fearing hybrid operants; Gomnol and Eadone defend the plan. Aiken Drum's possible challenge is raised, and the Queen proposes demanding a ruling from Brede.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Aiken and Stein enter Delbaeth's cave
After the Hunt loses Delbaeth underground, Aiken and Stein defy the King's ridicule, shed armor and vanish into the cave as bats while several Tanu agree to wait three days.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Delbaeth killed with iron
After two days searching the caves, Aiken and Stein find Delbaeth's lair. Aiken throws a lit iron sparkler, which extinguishes and kills the Shape of Fire.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Stein reaches Sukey by farspeech
Stein's attempt to farspeak Sukey appears to fail, but Aiken later detects her faint reply that she loves him.
- Book 2 · Ch 21Aiken and Stein plan torc liberation
Stein learns Group Green is coming with the Spear; Aiken promises to free the torcs and withholds the secret from Sukey.
- Book 2 · Ch 23Gomnol approaches Aiken Drum
Gomnol invites Aiken Drum for a talk, offers help and proposes human unity amid an approaching power struggle. He tosses Aiken a cigar clipper marked as Solingen inox steel.
- Book 2 · Ch 25Aiken Drum and Gomnol examined
Culluket and Gomnol probe Aiken Drum's mind and find nothing, raising suspicion that Gomnol is allied with him.
- Book 2 · Ch 27Aiken and Gomnol plot the ambush
On the Guild Headquarters turret, Aiken and Gomnol discuss the incoming saboteurs, their fear of the Host, and plan to catch the rebels red-handed while keeping Stein alive.
- Book 2 · Ch 27Aiken deceives Felice's group
Aiken meets the saboteurs in a cave, talks Felice out of attacking him, offers a false plan and map, and leaves with the Spear, then reports to Gomnol that they bought it.
- Book 2 · Ch 29Claude and Angélique close the time-gate
Under invisibility, the two run to the gate and jump into the tau-field, linked by hands. The field reverses and they vanish, closing the gate while Aiken flies back too late.
- Book 2 · Ch 30Aiken learns Stein's thoughts are a threat
Aiken and Mayvar overhear Stein's leaking thoughts; Mayvar suggests killing the pair, Aiken refuses, and she promises to send them out of Muriah that night.
- Book 2 · Ch 32Opening of the Grand Combat
Tanu and Firvulag armies assemble on the Plain; Eadone declares the First Day, and Nodonn pierces the clouds with the photon Sword so the sky opens and the Combat begins.
- Book 2 · Ch 33Thagdal confides in Nontusvel
After the chariot races, Thagdal tells the Queen of defections, escapes and Aiken Drum's rising support. They console each other.
- Book 2 · Ch 36Raimo's failed desertion
Raimo, armored and sent to fight, is rescued by Aiken Drum from a Firvulag, hides among corpses until sunset, but is found by two Tanu women and sent to the Great Retort.
- Book 2 · Ch 37Aiken's ambush of Nukalavee
Aiken Drum lures Nukalavee's Firvulag legion into a corridor of illusory corpses where Tanu knights lie hidden; Bunone, Alberonn and Bleyn give the command to strike.
- Book 2 · Ch 39Banners are planted for the Heroic Encounters
Firvulag and Tanu champions rally behind Pallol, Nodonn and Aiken Drum, revealing a split among the Tanu. A cloaked woman with the chain of silence calms the crowd and the Marshal opens the Encounters.
- Book 2 · Ch 39Aiken gains permission to fight Pallol his own way
After Imidol's loss, Aiken offers to kill Pallol the human way, showing the champions his plan. Nodonn confers with the High Table and permits it.
- Book 2 · Ch 40Aiken Drum kills Pallol
Aiken shields himself from Pallol's Eye, then slings a cigar cutter into Pallol's right eye, felling and beheading him.
- Book 2 · Ch 40Aiken named Lugonn and defies Thagdal
Mayvar names Aiken the Shining One, Young Lugonn. He plants the Sword of Sharn before Thagdal instead of giving fealty; Brede ordains a final Combat of Sword and Spear.
- Book 2 · Ch 40The great flood
The Spain-Africa dike collapses and a 230-meter wave sweeps over the White Silver Plain as the champions clash, drowning Thagdal and the gathered multitude.
- Book 2 · Ch 41Aiken Drum rescues Mercy
Adrift and despairing, Mercy is found by Aiken Drum aboard the floating Kral, who lifts her aboard and restores her.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Meteor shower on the spire
Aiken has the city lights put out and brings Mercy to the Castle of Glass parapet to watch the March meteors; he conjures a false crown of lights, which she dismisses as illusion.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Aiken's love exposed
Mercy probes Aiken's mind and discovers his love. They quarrel over Nodonn and the baby. She says she will marry him in May, and he admits he already loves her and that the meteors were not his doing.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Breaking the wild chaliko
Brazos Ben subdues a huge wild roan chaliko with a running W and gentle mind contact while Aiken, Culluket and Alberonn watch.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Arrival of recruits at Goriah
Aiken and Culluket meet a batch of Tanu and human recruits from Afaliah and Calamosk, including Sullivan-Tonn, Olone and Aiken's old friend Raimo.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Aiken welcomes the newcomers
Aiken rebukes Congreve, ends searches of arrivals, and invites everyone to a party at the Castle of Glass.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Rocilan guests welcomed at Goriah
Aiken and Mercy greet Eadnar, Morna, Tirone and Bleyn from Rocilan on the quay with the Tanu Song; Morna criticises Aiken, who appeals to her telepathically and wins a grudging concession.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Tour of the Grove of May
Mercy leads a flight, with Aiken carrying the guests, to the Grove of May. He reveals the Firvulag royals are invited, gilds the maypole with psychokinesis, and Culluket announces a coronation at the Loving's finale.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Guests object to premature kingship
Morna, Bleyn and Eadnar warn that full-blooded Tanu are not ready for a human king and that Celadeyr's resistance could divide the cities, urging Aiken to secure the city-lords first.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Aiken pleads for kingship
Aiken rallies the High Tablers with spoken and mental persuasion, recalling his victories and showing no other viable king candidate exists against the Firvulag.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Royal progress planned
Using Mercy's idea, Aiken plans to tour the cities before his coronation, starting with Afaliah, accompanied by the High Tablers. They fly back to Goriah.
- Book 3 · Ch 17Aiken Drum overawes Afaliah
Aiken appears, paralyses Celadeyr after a mindbolt, shows off his armies and smuggled weapons, calls Celadeyr a death-seeking coward, and invites him to the wedding; Celadeyr reluctantly accepts.
- Book 3 · Ch 17Yosh Watanabe left to repair the mill
Aiken leaves Yosh at Afaliah to help fix the mill; Aluteyn leads Celadeyr and Yosh to Treonet's lab.
- Book 3 · Ch 23Aiken's cavalcade returns to Goriah
Aiken returns secretly by night, exhausted, and recounts the progress including the VarMesk assassination attempt by Miakonn, foiled by Culluket.
- Book 3 · Ch 23The General Store
Aiken shows Mercy the hidden armory of confiscated technology and retrieves a stem-shield generator to guard his mind during sleep.
- Book 3 · Ch 23Aiken and Mercy become lovers
After Mercy calls him Amadán, Aiken kisses her and they go upstairs for their first true coupling under auroras.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Announcement of the Grand Tourney
Aiken and Sharn reveal that the Grand Combat will become a nonlethal Grand Tourney held at the Field of Gold, with a new Singing Stone trophy. Celadeyr and Betularn are dismayed; the Craftsmaster accepts.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Crocodile hunt in the bayou
With Aiken as bait, Fafnor spears a phobosuchus and kills it with a sword stab behind the eye, after Aiken's advice. Aiken gives him a tusk as a trophy.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Sharn kills the plesiosaur
Goaded by Aiken, Sharn hunts a bull plesiosaur over the sea. Bitten in the leg, he beheads it using his sword and throws the head to Aiken as a trophy.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Firvulag strike fails on the Night of Secret Love
During the masquerade, Sharn, Ayfa and ten ogres mesh minds and fling a bolt at Aiken Drum, who is occupied with Olone; the bolt apparently fails.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Tanu mass wedding and maypole night
On May Day the Tanu and human couples wed, led by Aiken and Mercy; that night they dance up the maypole in a mystical ecstasy and Mercy asks whose he is.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Coronation of Aiken Drum
Before 6000 Tanu, Firvulag guests and 15,000 humans, Elizabeth presents Aiken with a black glass crown; he names his High Table and is acclaimed King.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Aiken probes Mercy
Aiken secretly probes sleeping Mercy's mind, learns of a hidden beloved named Joy, nearly alerts her subconscious, and vows never to probe her again.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Abaddon contacts Aiken
Abaddon farspeaks Aiken from across the Atlantic, reveals Felice's hideout near Mount Mulhacén, and they agree to a deal including a stronger metaconcert program and a rendezvous at the Río Genil in a week.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Aiken sees Nodonn in Mercy's dream
After the contact, Aiken probes Mercy's dream again and confirms her lover is Nodonn Battlemaster, alive and hidden.
- Book 3 · Ch 32Moreyn finds Nodonn
Moreyn meets the cast-away Nodonn on the beach, learns of his plans and the kingship law, hears the Tanu-human kinship rumors, and takes him toward Var-Mesk to hide him.
- Book 3 · Ch 36Elizabeth warns Aiken that Felice is loose
Elizabeth farspeaks Aiken that Felice escaped and killed Amerie, urging him to abort the Quest and hide Culluket. Aiken refuses, curses her, and proceeds after scans suggest Felice is far from Mulhacén.
- Book 3 · Ch 36Fleet sails up the Genil; metaconcert assembled
Aiken addresses his army on the plan, then the fleet's rivercraft head up the Genil while operants assemble the Organic Mind. Abaddon hands it to Aiken as executive director.
- Book 3 · Ch 36Raid on Felice's cave
Aiken sneaks into the cave as a spiderling, takes the Spear and tores, stashes them along the ridge, and destroys the lair with a metaconcert blast. The blast nearly harms him, and Marc coaches him as the army retreats.
- Book 3 · Ch 36Felice finds her lair destroyed
Felice returns to Mulhacén and finds her home buried and her treasure stolen. She blames Culluket and Aiken Drum and flies in pursuit.
- Book 3 · Ch 36Aiken kills Felice with the metaconcert
Aiken blasts Felice, who d-jumps overhead as Owen Blanchard's death breaks the shield. Marc Remillard patches it and Aiken's second full blast destroys her. A cliff collapses into the Genil.
- Book 3 · Ch 36Aiken recovers
Elizabeth's redaction restores Aiken. He learns the casualties, thanks Minanonn, and returns to cheering followers.
- Book 3 · Ch 37Nodonn and Mercy reunite
The lovers reunite, confess their defilements, and discuss deposing Aiken, Mercy's foreseen death, Abaddon and Cloud Remillard. Nodonn asks she may have to return to Aiken, though she may stay a while.
- Book 3 · Ch 39Cloud analyzes the fight with Felice
Cloud explains Marc likely set Aiken up to die via the metaconcert program, that Felice d-jumped and may have hurt Marc, and warns that Aiken is a common threat to Tanu and humans.
- Book 3 · Ch 40Kite demonstration on the dunes
At the Strait of Redon, Yosh and Vilkas demonstrate man-carrying combat kites with naginata for Aiken and Mercy; Yosh shreds Vilkas's kite.
- Book 3 · Ch 40Aiken saves Vilkas
When Sullivan's coaching fails and Vilkas's kite falls, Aiken strains his damaged mind to lift Vilkas to safety and steady the blue kite.
- Book 3 · Ch 40Aiken confronts Mercy
Aiken accuses Mercy of serving Felice, taunts about Nodonn's plans, and warns she may engineer her own defeat; Mercy stays and gives herself to him.
- Book 3 · Ch 43Aiken's vengeance
Aiken Drum confronts them, tortures and burns Sullivan-Tonn to death, then takes Mercy upstairs where the Spear consumes her, leaving only ashes.
- Book 3 · Ch 44Kite trap destroys Nodonn's aircraft
Nodonn's two rhocraft fly into Aiken's conductive kite swarm and are grounded. Nodonn's flyer falls into the sea, and Aiken's Spear destroys Thufan's trapped flyer.
- Book 3 · Ch 44Duel of Nodonn and Aiken Drum
Above the Strait of Redon, Nodonn attacks furiously while Aiken stays passive. After Nodonn spends all his power, Aiken disarms him and absorbs his power, killing him, then returns home at dawn.
- Book 4 · Ch 1Aftermath of the gigantomachy
After the great psychocreative blast, Elizabeth and the Tanu descend to the ruined battlefield. Dionket and Creyn go to save Aiken and organize rescue.
- Book 4 · Ch 1Marc's report after the failed experiment
Gravely injured, Marc tells his helpers the experiment was a qualified success: Felice is gone, Aiken Drum damaged. He orders the CE rig repaired and sent to Europe for a plan to destroy the time-gate site.
- Book 4 · Ch 2The King returns from his victory
After the duel, Aiken Drum returns to the castle with the silver hand, silent and psychically swollen. Bleyn, Alberonn and Tirone settle him in a retiring room; he declines healing, orders them to oversee mop-up, and plans to judge prisoners at 2100.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Hagen contacts Cloud by farspeech
Hagen and Cloud learn Papa is coming, probably crippled. They discuss Aiken Drum's subsumption of Nodonn and the plan to bargain with Aiken. They also learn Kuhal faces execution.
- Book 4 · Ch 4Judgment of the captured knights
The 129 surviving rebel knights are brought in chains before Aiken-Lugonn and the High Table, judged guilty of treason, and given the choice of choosing their own punishment.
- Book 4 · Ch 4Kuhal's submission
Kuhal pleads guilty on behalf of the company and pledges their service. Aiken frees them and demands to know where the other aircraft are hidden.
- Book 4 · Ch 4Aiken reveals Firvulag threat
Aiken reveals that the Firvulag are attacking Bardelask and threatening Roniah's weapons cache, and that Abaddon is coming.
- Book 4 · Ch 7Decontamination task assigned
Aiken and Bert Candyman examine the poison foam in the storage area; Bert devises an acetone solvent and Aiken gives him a team of Tanu nobles and seven days to finish.
- Book 4 · Ch 7Aiken orders Ochal and warns Sharn
Aiken instructs Ochal to retrieve the Wimborne prisoners and run to Calamosk, then mentally forces Sharn to abort the attack on Roniah.
- Book 4 · Ch 7Aiken's night of turmoil
Aiken revisits the emptied royal apartments, rebuffs Olone, reflects on his weakened powers, and farsenses Marc Remillard aboard the Kyllikki, who smiles at him.
- Book 4 · Ch 7Marc reveals the rebels' true goal
Marc tells Aiken by farsensed contact that the young people, including Hagen and Cloud, want to reopen the time-gate from the Pliocene side to return to the Milieu, and warns him to be careful.
- Book 4 · Ch 7Aiken turns to the Guderian book
After the vision fades, Aiken hides his state from approaching workers with invisibility, retrieves the hidden Guderian book-plaque and starts reading it, wondering whether he wants to go home.
- Book 4 · Ch 8King Aiken's secret plan
King Aiken arrives at Calamosk's tower as a falcon and enlists Yosh, Vilkas and Jim to help stop the pursuing ATV column with the Spear, hiding his weakened powers.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Aiken's proposal to the Bastards
Aiken tells them the Remillard children plan a second time-gate and want the Bastards to fly and maintain aircraft. He keeps them torced and demonstrates his power. Basil agrees to cooperate.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Dougal recognizes Aiken
Dougal falls weeping before Aiken's display, hailing him as the savior, then advises seeking Tony Wayland for the tau-generator wire. Aiken is unsettled and has the North Americans brought in.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Basil's mind-call to Elizabeth
Basil tells Elizabeth of the Children's alliance with Aiken and their plan to open the time-gate. He asks her to tell Peo about the open gate, then waits for her advice.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Aiken recalls his arrival in Muriah
Aiken asks Ochal to remember the feast at Muriah and the silver woman who sang, then plays the harp and sings for the North Americans.
- Book 4 · Ch 11Roniah raid plan and Tony Wayland
Sharn and Ayfa plan a disguised water raid on Roniah and decide not to quickly return Tony Wayland to the Tanu, suspecting him of killing Skathe and the Worm.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Aiken and Elizabeth confer by farspeech
Aiken outlines the expedition to Monte Rosa and the time-gate plans, then breaks down, confessing his hallucinations and metapsychic collapse; Elizabeth agrees to come secretly to a cave to help him.
- Book 4 · Ch 12The chimaera shadow
In the cave the party sees a monstrous three-headed shadow engaged in a frenzied sexual display ending in a flash of light; Elizabeth recognizes it as a chimaera and rushes in.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Elizabeth finds Aiken
Elizabeth, guarded by Minanonn and coercers, enters the subsidiary chamber and finds Aiken Drum weakened, his suit in rags but his body normal.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Aiken's dream of rebirth
Aiken dreams of dragon, hag and eagle ordeals, defeats and kisses Stein Oleson, and sees the chimaera as his reflection; Elizabeth explains he is reborn with an integrated psyche and resolves to be a true King.
- Book 4 · Ch 14Katlinel's gown and gifts
Katlinel models her finished Tourney gown; Sugoll presents a necklace and coronet, then reveals Aiken's time-gate plan and his pledged cooperation.
- Book 4 · Ch 14Aiken's night out
Bored with his party, Aiken disguises himself, joins Yosh and Raimo, visits the neputa workshop, and is jostled by a Most Exalted's retinue.
- Book 4 · Ch 14Aiken sees the guard in the Gyre
Aiken spots Morna-Ia heading to the Bijou, then sees a tall gray-haired man in elite guard mufti buying raspberry ice who nods at him. Shaken, Aiken stamps his hat and leads friends to the Mermaid to drink.
- Book 4 · Ch 18Converter attack
During the first blow of the Bessemer converter, the North Americans apparently turned it with their minds to burn Aiken's party. Aiken shielded everyone in a force globe and floated them to the floor.
- Book 4 · Ch 18Aiken subdues the coup and executes Vilkas
Aiken coerced Hagen into acknowledging his authority, forced all present to affirm his kingship, then read Vilkas's mind and killed him through his tore.
- Book 4 · Ch 21Aiken and Elizabeth confer
Aiken and Elizabeth discuss Marc's teleportation, a meeting to settle matters, and the Monte Rosa assault. Elizabeth shows him Stein, Sukey and baby Thor, and Aiken promises not to interfere.
- Book 4 · Ch 23Tony agrees to build the time-gate wire
Tony advises Aiken on niobium and dysprosium and, after assurances, gives his word to cooperate. Kuhal escorts him to the Roniah docks to join Neyal's convoy bound for Sasaran.
- Book 4 · Ch 24Aiken Drum's projection interrupts
Aiken's mental projection offers the Sword for Wayland and the stolen weapons. The royals agree to trade Wayland for the Sword at the Northern Track tomorrow, and Aiken knights Sharn-Ador, whom his father forces to repudiate it.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Descent and Basil's request
The party slides down an avalanche runnel, reaches the aircraft and reactivates flyers. Basil asks Aiken for a day's rest and a solo summit climb.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Elizabeth and Minanonn arrive at the Castle of Glass
Flying through storms, they land at Goriah and Aiken greets them; Elizabeth reveals she has come on Marc's behalf and that Marc d-jumped Basil Wimborne from Monte Rosa.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Tour of the Guderian Project laboratories
Aiken shows Elizabeth the heavily secured labs and the Guderian device, explaining its progress and the deception about Tony's wife Rowane.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Elizabeth conveys Marc's proposal
Elizabeth tells Hagen and Cloud that the Milieu would accept them after atonement, then relays Marc's invitation to meet at Black Crag, with a hint about their genetic heritage.
- Book 4 · Ch 28Marc reveals the Mental Man truth
Marc tells Hagen and Cloud they are the parents of Mental Man and the last source of his immortal strain; he proposes they lead the project on a conquered planet.
- Book 4 · Ch 28Aiken asserts control
When Marc warns of the Milieu and the time-gate, Aiken seizes Hagen and Cloud in a psychocreative shield, declaring the decision his. Marc backs down.
- Book 4 · Ch 28Aiken and the young Remillards depart
Aiken asks for time to consider Marc's demands; Marc gives two days. Aiken, Cloud and Hagen fly off into the storm through the French windows.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Hagen shows Diane Marc's plan
Hagen reveals to Diane that Mental Man means bodiless brains. They resolve to flee to the Milieu with Aiken's help and conceive a child, then find the King and his laboratory gone.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Aiken shields the Guderian Project
Aiken moves the Guderian Project to Castle Gateway under a 900-power sigma-field, takes Cloud and Hagen under his protection, and offers Marc a truce invitation to the Grand Tourney.
- Book 4 · Ch 30King's air show over Roniah
Twenty-seven rhocraft led by the King's emblazoned ship dropped candy balloons over the Roniah Fair and shot them down as a show of strength before vanishing.
- Book 4 · Ch 30Survey of the Seine
Aiken, Dougal and Betsy scanned the Seine from high altitude seeking Marc's hiding place and found only a hopping anomaly, which Aiken chose not to probe.
- Book 4 · Ch 31High Table completed
Aiken commemorates the dead and traitors, receives oaths from sitting and newly nominated Great Ones, and secretly seats Katlinel and Sugoll as allies who repudiate the Firvulag throne.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Aiken warns of Sharn's Nightfall plot
Aiken tells the Table that Sharn plans to touch off Nightfall at the Tourney. Katlinel and Sugoll offer mediation; the Table prepares for war under Aiken.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Tony ordered to Fennoscandia
Contaminated dysprosium threatens the time-gate wire; Aiken sends Tony Wayland to Fennoscandia to ensure proper refining despite Yotunag danger.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Burke finds Kyllikki
Burke spots the moored Kyllikki on the Seine and calls Aiken, who heads there.
- Book 4 · Ch 33Plan to flee to the Blessed Isles
Minanonn reveals the King's news of Marc's escape and possible Firvulag alliance, and proposes evacuating the babies and Peaceful Folk on the captured Kyllikki to the Blessed Isles.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Opening of the Grand Tourney
The royals and nobles ride in procession to the Field of Gold; Aiken and Sharn jointly open the sky, and the new Song and the Singing Stone are presented.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Aiken makes Elizabeth remove the mask
Aiken refuses to let Elizabeth help while hiding behind Brede's mask, insists on his terms, and tries to send her to Kyllikki; she removes the mask but still resists leaving.
- Book 4 · Ch 34The Flying Hunt and Star of Morning
Aiken demonstrates overwhelming psychokinetic power, shaking Sharn. Sharn presses Sugoll, then receives Marc Remillard, who calls himself Star of Morning.
- Book 4 · Ch 35Rebels bid farewell to the Children of Rebellion
Aiken brings the mutinous metapsychic Rebels through the force-field to Castle Gateway, where Walter parts from Veikko and Irena as the Guderian device nears completion.
- Book 4 · Ch 35Elizabeth dances at the Ground-Star Ball
Aiken persuades Elizabeth to open her mind and she sees a galaxy vision. She then finds herself dancing with Marc, who confronts her about loving him, before Aiken holds her again as the music ends.
- Book 4 · Ch 36First power-up of the tau-generator
The Guderian device is tested with a potassium wafer on a stool; the stool is sliced and the potassium returns dated ~11.78 million years old, proving the gate works but is only a handspan wide.
- Book 4 · Ch 36Marc unhorses the Bottle Knight
Marc defeats the Bottle Knight, who is Aiken in disguise; Aiken says it makes the Firvulag overconfident, and they agree the mind tug-of-war is tomorrow.
- Book 4 · Ch 37Aiken takes Elizabeth away
Aiken arrives with advisors and removes Elizabeth for a ride, warning Marc to be gone when he returns.
- Book 4 · Ch 37Tanu win the metapsychic tug-of-war
Aiken's Tanu metaconcert overpowers the Firvulag, Ayfa's split fails, and the black serpent burns, giving the Tanu victory.
- Book 4 · Ch 38The Adversary breaches Castle Gateway
Marc, empowered in the CE rig, shatters the dome and shields, captures his paralyzed children, takes Elizabeth's surrender and sends four people through the time-gate to the Milieu.
- Book 4 · Ch 38Final hurley match and time-gate exodus
Aiken opens the time-gate for evacuation as the Tanu and Firvulag play the final Tourney match. Firvulag, using Marc's metaconcert, take a big lead.
- Book 4 · Ch 38Aiken's blast on the Rainbow Bridge
Marc lends Aiken the CE rig; Aiken strikes the Firvulag leaders, killing Sharn, Ayfa and over half their host in a wildfire, and wakes to be named High King.