Requiem for Anthi: Anthi - Book Two (27 page)

An uproar went up at this. Even some of the council members waved their palms down. But Unar rose to his feet. He looked weary and held himself as though he had hurts not yet healed.

“The leiil speaks with truth. But what choice have we but to try and trust them? We have fought and fought hard. We killed many. But their machines best us every time. They will hunt us all down if we continue to resist. Either way we have a small future.”

“Has Noble Asan brought us machines?” shouted a voice from the crowd. “He speaks of war and bravery. He wears the sword of death and the medals of victory. But how do we fight for him? How do javelins pierce the sides of ships?”

Asan signaled for quiet. He said, “I have brought you no machines. But I offer something better.”

Bban barking rose up, deafening Asan and drowning out the words of Dame Agate. With visible annoyance, she repeated herself.

“We are tired, noble leiil. We are hungry. The protected fields of the Soot’dla have been confiscated. They offer us food if we surrender. You bring us nothing but old legends and the cry of hope. We cannot listen to such things any longer.”

“I bring you the Merdarai. If you want them,” said Asan.

Shock reverberated around the cavern. Dame Agate and Unar exchanged astonished glances. The Bban elders were on their feet, gesturing angrily at Ggil, who lifted an impatient hand to quiet them. Someone in the crowd began to wail, and there were cries of fear.

“Silence!” shouted Asan in command tone, and the hubbub vanished.

They were afraid and they were doubtful. Some of them even looked at him as though he were mad. But for the first time he had their complete attention.

He turned to Dame Agate, who was scowling, and spoke directly to her. “Look upon me with truth if you dare.”

“There are many tales about the shadow land.”

“Look upon me.”

“Thou would have us believe that old legend about a mythical army led by a mythical Asan.”

“I stand here,” he said grimly. “So shall they.”

“If they had existed, they would have returned to save Tlartantla. Instead, our ancestors had to flee here.”

“It did not serve the purpose to bring them back during the last days. But now they are our only hope. Look upon me, Dame Agate.”

He dropped his shields and opened his rings to her. She glared at him a moment longer, but with all watching her she could not show cowardice. She touched him with her rings as warily as she might have approached a viper. He could have crushed her with a flicker of thought, and she knew it. But he kept very still and showed her the truth.

When she withdrew she looked shaken. The color faded from her face, and suddenly her age seemed plain. She retreated a step and sank down in her chair.

Rroge put his hand upon her shoulder. Everyone stared at her.

“He speaks truth,” she said in a whisper. “The Merdarai remained frozen between time. They can be brought back. They can be used to defeat the
n’kai
.”

Rroge removed his hand, looking pale himself. He turned to stare at Asan. Unar also stared. Uxe Ggil tried without much success to hide how shaken he was, but the other Bban elders pulled out their amulets and gestured to one another.

“If the shadow land is opened,” said Ggil hesitantly, “what else will come forth besides thy demons?”

Asan stared into his hideous, plated face with its double mandible and glowing eyes. “Perhaps a way back.”

Ggil looked startled, and so did Dame Agate. But no one else seemed to be listening.

Unar stepped forward. “Do it. Bring them. Let us drive away the
n’kai
for all time.”

“Noble Unar, you are too hasty,” said Rroge in alarm. “You would involve us in war again when we might have peace.”

“There is never peace with the Institute,” said Asan. “I know them. They are a worse threat than any enemy our people have ever faced before.”

Dame Agate rose to her feet. “It is dangerous, noble leiil.”

“Yes, yes, very dangerous,” said Rroge.

“Not in that way, fool,” she snapped. She stared at Asan, and her eyes held understanding. “After all this time, has thou the strength?”

“Unknown.”

“Vauzier and Rim.” Her brows lifted. “Does thou require their assistance? Would thou have them raised to walk beside thee?”

It was tempting. He wasn’t sure he alone could handle the forces that would soon be unleashed. But Vauzier and Rim would require recovery time, and they might not agree to help him.

“Who, Dame Agate, would you have die as their catalysts? I cannot ask that of anyone.”

Her gaze dropped from his. “Then it is settled. Tell us what thou needs done and we shall do it.”

“I must go to Anthi.”

“Wait!” said Rroge in alarm. “Is this wise? The last time he went to Anthi, he took her from us. This could be a trick.”

“Rroge, you are a fool!” snapped Dame Agate. “I have looked upon him with truth. Do you now question my word? Besides, he may die from this. Speak respectfully now or bide your tongue.”

Abashed, Rroge signaled a request for pardon. Unar joined Asan’s side.

“Let us go to Anthi, noble leiil. Thou has my help.”

“And mine,” said Ggil.

Asan flipped up his palm. “It is enough.”

He started into the crowd, but just then someone shouted, “Hold! Noble Unar, we have caught a
n’ka
spy in the transport of the Tlar leiil.”

Asan exclaimed under his breath. He looked around to see guards dragging in a struggling Udge. The pale blue gear suit was smeared with black as though Udge had been knocked flat and dragged through the ashes outside. Why hadn’t the old fool stayed in the shuttle where he belonged?

Unar’s hand closed upon Asan’s arm. “What trick is this?”

“He is human but not of the Institute. He saved my life,” said Asan.

But no one was listening.

“A trick! A trick! We have been deceived again! Death to the
n’ka!
Death to Asan!”

Dame Agate lifted her hand. “Kill that man!”

There was a brief struggle in the crowd, and the shouting stopped.

Asan, motionless, found himself breathing hard as Udge was dragged up to him and shoved sprawling. His helmet had been torn off, and his bald head gleamed under the merciless light cubes. He looked very small and very human.

Wincing slightly, he struggled to his knees and stared up at Asan in unspoken apology. There was a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth.

“I thought maybe you needed some help. You’d been in here a long time, Tob—uh, noble one.”

He needn’t have bothered to be careful what he said. No one here understood Standard, and Asan saw no medallions of tongues in sight. The harm was all in his presence.

Asan’s mind felt numb. He could not think of how to salvage the mistake. But once again he chose attack.

“And the other passenger aboard my transport?” he said with icy anger. “Well, pon? Have you disposed of her, or have you given her to your men? Do you know the penalty for abusing a Tsla leiis?”

The masked pon before him flinched slightly. His fingers spread out as though he were confused. “Tsla leiis? I—I do not—”

“Bring her here at once and with courtesy!”

Rroge shouldered forward. “Perhaps the wily leiil need not give orders quite so freely until this is explained. Or do we want to listen to more of his lies?”

“Be careful, dung of the Spandeen,” said Dame Agate with a hand on her jen-knife. “You speak against our only hope.”

Rroge laughed shrilly. “This is hope? Oh, he may want to help us, noble dame, but he is obviously under
n’ka
control. And we have here his handler.”

By this time Udge was back on his feet, but he was so short, so breathless, and so bald that Rroge’s words were ludicrous. Asan smiled in spite of his tension, and beside him Unar did also. They exchanged quick glances, and Unar released his hold on Asan’s arm.

“So what do I do now?” muttered Udge. “Turn backflips on your command? I screwed up. Shoot me if you want.”

“I may have to,” muttered Asan back in Standard, and had the satisfaction of seeing Udge turn pale.

“Who is the master, and who is servant?” said Unar. He tapped his fingers on his wrist and stepped back. “Not all Tlar’n support our stance. It is logical to assume that not all
n’kai
belong to the Institute. I accept Noble Asan’s word on this matter.”

Before the others could inject their opinions, more guards appeared with Zaula. Hot-eyed, Asan glared at all of them, but she was treated with respect as she was brought forward. Puzzlement rippled through the crowd, but Zaula was masked and she would stay masked. The face of a Tsla leiis was not for public viewing.

She broke from her guards and ran to him, extending her hand which he grasped. Her fingers trembled against his.

“We were so worried. Is thee well?”

“I’m fine. And thee?”

“Yes. I—” She turned up her palm. “I thought they would kill Udge.”

“I know this voice. I recognize this pattern,” said Dame Agate. “Dame Zaula?”

Zaula turned to her with dignity. “It is so, revered dame.”

“Thou art honored,” said Agate. “The noble leiil has called thee by thy former title.”

“The title remains,” said Asan.

Surprise showed on their faces, and Zaula stared at him. He squeezed her hand in reassurance.

“She is my ring-mate. She stands at my side.”

Dame Agate smiled and turned up both palms. “This is well. This is right.”

“And clever,” said Rroge, looking just as suspicious as ever. “He has gained the place of Leiil Hihuan, the widow of Leiil Hihuan, and the regency of Hihuan’s child. What have
you
to say to this, Noble Unar?”

Unar turned as though stung and glared at Rroge. “You speak with the babblings of an idiot, Rroge. Your purpose is to make trouble and divide us. Perhaps it is you we should suspect of evil intent here and not the noble leiil.”

That shut Rroge up. The Bban elders barked softly among themselves.

“How much time do we have?” asked Asan, bringing them back to the important matter at hand.

“Little until we must reply,” said Unar. “Do we go to Anthi?”

“Yes.”

Udge stepped up to Asan. “What about me?”

Asan frowned at him. “You can’t help me with this. Keep an eye on Zaula and stay out of trouble.”

Udge’s gaze kept straying to the Tlar’n and Bban’n around him. He looked troubled. “I’m not nuts, am I? You really are Tobei somewhere inside that golden hide, ain’t you?”

Asan clapped him on the shoulder. “Just remember you’re a general. Try to be diplomatic.”

“How long will you be gone?”

Fear came up in Asan’s throat. He thought about the difficulties of what he was about to do and the danger. He swallowed hard to be sure his voice remained steady.

“I don’t know, Udge. Stay loose.”

Anthi greeted him with rapid pulses of light. Asan took a couple of deep breaths and told himself there was no point in delay.

“Anthi, lower your shields,” he said. “We must join.”

“Acknowledged.”

The blue haze of light surrounding the crystalline, geometric structure that was Anthi faded. Asan stepped up to her and gently pressed his palms against the surface. It was not hard and polished, like it looked, but instead reacted against his touch with the warmth of almost living tissue. Their shields went up together as intelligence met intelligence.

“This is the old purpose,” said Anthi.

“Yes.”

“Prepare.”

Asan closed his eyes and extended his rings into the void. There was a flash of scorching energy that seared him. Perhaps he cried out, but he was no longer aware of the physical world. He was going back…back…Time streams flowed around him, some distorted into folds, others winding.

He was falling into a blackness so black he could not see. He was falling into a depth so deep he became a speck, diminished and flattened. It was worse than seizerting, yet this was the greatest seizert of all, this displacement through the black hole.

Infinite falling, falling toward no bottom, no end, no existence, no life, no feeling, no sentience.

Then he felt an abrupt lurch, and for a moment he forked as though his consciousness became two separate entities. Blaise and Asan confronted each other, and Blaise knew fear. He could no longer survive without Asan, even an Asan that had essentially faded into subconsciousness. He tried to reach out. He tried to speak. But there was no movement and no speech here as they went on falling. They must get back together and re-merge before they slipped into separate time streams and were parted forever.

Asan
.

It was Anthi. Gratefully Blaise clung to the point of reference she provided. Asan did also.

Suddenly they were reunited as though two bands had snapped back into place.

Light burst over him, as blinding in its way as the previous darkness. There was a sensation of tremendous heat, burning his skin and warming the air so that every breath brought the heat inside his body. The air was dry enough to sear his nostrils. He felt an urge to cough and mastered it.

“Noble leiil?”

The voice was gruff and strangely flat as though some of its modulations had been suppressed. Asan opened his eyes halfway against the glare of light around him.
The sun
, he thought in confusion. Then memory returned. Of course. They were engineering an enormous seizert hole out of the older of the two stars in their system. There wasn’t much time.

His vision adjusted, and the puzzling moment of disorientation passed. He saw wide, undulating grass plains ahead of him, stretching out from the lake where water moss bloomed scarlet across its surface. Sisens called mournfully, splashing and diving and flapping their wings.

The temperature was climbing steadily every day. By tomorrow it would be too high for the lake’s ecosystem balance. The water moss would die first as the lake heated its roots. The sisens were already beginning to leave although their normal migratory patterns would have kept them here throughout the summer months. He frowned at the scene, regretting what was happening, yet unwilling to stop it. Perhaps it was fatigue, but the lake shimmered before him like a mirage. He blinked and grew uncertain of its existence.