Wizard's Holiday, New Millennium Edition (34 page)

“Dreams again?”

“Partly. But I was thinking,” she said.

Kit sat down beside her with his back against the dune, and Nita told him what she’d been thinking about. At the end of it all, she looked at him and said, “Does that make any sense to you?”

Kit nodded. “More than you’d think. I was doing some exploring this morning… ”

He told her where he’d been. Nita’s eyes widened as Kit told her about the conversation he’d overheard, with Ponch’s help, between Druvah and the Lone Power. When he finished, Nita looked down at the sand and started digging in it idly with one hand.

“What I don’t like,” Nita said, “is that what for us is the most interesting part of the Choice, and the weirdest part, almost didn’t seem to matter to Quelt at all. She just skipped past it… ”

“And we took her at her word that it was just a boring part.”

“A cultural blind spot maybe?” Nita said.

Kit shook his head. “I don’t know. But I think that now we’re going to have to go see the Relegate’s Naos.”

Kit stood up. As he did, Ponch came running up the dune behind him.
Are we going somewhere?

Kit reached down and roughed up Ponch’s ears a little. “Yeah,” he said. “To see the Lone Power. Come on… ”

***

Getting there took no time. But after they arrived, Kit and Nita stood there on the edge of the valley gazing down into it for quite a while.

The valley itself was huge. Looking across it, Nita wondered if this spot had indeed been one of the impact craters she’d been expecting to see, for it was like a gigantic bowl. It had its own mini-horizon inside the greater one, where the snowy mountains of the Tamins range could be seen off to the north and east. Away down in the middle of the great round valley, Nita could just see something small and pale: a little building.

There was nothing else visible for what looked like miles and miles except flowery meadows, some scattered patches of woodland, and occasional flocks of
ceiff,
ambling from place to place or taking flight without warning. “That’s it?” Kit said.

Nita nodded. “It’s probably a lot bigger than it looks from here,” she said. “The distances keep fooling me.”

“We can do a quick transit spell over to it,” Kit said. Nita nodded, and Kit constructed the spell and spoke it. The hush of the universe listening to the words leaned in around them; they vanished, and the soft
bang!
of the air rushing away from them as they reappeared reached them before the more distant
bang!
of their disappearance.

The Naos turned out to be a simple structure done mostly in the peach-colored sandstone that the Alaalids favored. Nine tall columns upheld a round dome that glittered in the sunlight as if polished slick. Inside the dome was another, smaller structure, constructed of screens of the same stone, intricately carved and pierced. Pointing toward each of the directions of the Alaalid compass were six broad sets of steps, running down to the surrounding greensward from the main pedestal-level on which the columns stood. The whole structure gave an impression of elegant and airy lightness, at least as far as architecture was concerned. To Nita, it suggested an extremely beautiful trap.

They walked slowly toward one of the flights of steps and paused there. Ponch looked at it, wandered over to the side of the steps, lifted one hind leg, and made a liquid comment.

Are you ready for this?
Kit said silently.

Nita nodded. She had ready a set of wizardries that had been effective enough against the Lone Power in other times, and she had some newer defenses, not yet tried, that might work even better if it turned out she needed them.
Let’s go,
she said.

They walked up the stairs slowly, in step, in the hot sunlight—she and Kit, with Ponch between them. Nita felt a little grim amusement, for the only thing missing from the present scenario was the jingling of spurs, and someone whistling menacingly off in the distance. At the top of the stairs they stopped, looking through the columns toward the curved, pierced stonework shell inside. That was the
naos
proper, the center of the structure. It wasn’t precisely dark in there, but by comparison with the bright day outside, it seemed shadowy enough. Right in front of them, the stonework was interrupted by a wide doorway that led into the interior.

Kit and Nita glanced at each other, walked toward that opening. Inside, it wasn’t as dark as it had seemed on first glance. For one thing, the dome that topped off the building wasn’t solid stone, or if it was, it wasn’t any thicker than half an inch or so—like the thickness of an eggshell compared to its size. Sunlight filtered through it in a soft, vague shimmer of pink, gold, cream, and white, all mingled together. That light fell on something inside, a structure all by itself in the center of the
naos,
which was circular like the pedestal and columns that contained it. It was another pedestal, of only three great, broad, shallow, concentric steps, with six long, curved, stone benches arranged around it. On the pedestal sat a huge blocky chair, exceedingly simple, made of blocks of squared-off and polished creamy stone—a back slab, two side slabs, and a horizontal slab between them.
It’s kind of like the one in the Lincoln Memorial,
Nita thought.
Except
—

—except that sitting with her legs curled up under her in that great chair, and leaning on one arm of it, with her chin in her hand, looking at them with an expression of ineffable boredom, was an Alaalid woman of staggering beauty. Mahogany-skinned, she wore a loose white sleeveless tunic over a long, loose white skirt. She had a long and perfect face, striking red-and-gold-streaked hair that tumbled down around her on all sides, and eyes that shone like orange amber with the sun behind it.

Kit and Nita came to a standstill and simply looked at her for a moment. Ponch, between them, regarded the woman sitting in the chair, and let out one long, low growl. Then, rather to Nita’s surprise, he fell silent and sat down.

Nita looked at Ponch hurriedly to see what was the matter… if the Lone One was doing anything to him. But Ponch was simply looking at It, with his head tilted slightly to one side and a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Fairest and Fallen… ” Kit said.

“Yes, yes, greeting and defiance, thank you very much. I really wish you people would come up with something
else
to say,” the Lone Power said. Her voice was as beautiful as her face, but it had an edge to it.

Nita stood there, wondering what in the world to say next. “So nice of you to drop by,” the Lone One said. “You’re a nice change from the school groups and the mothers with bored toddlers. But don’t just stand there glaring at me,” Esemeli said, and she waved a languid hand at the bench nearest to where they were standing. “Go on, sit down. That’s what they’re there for. I’m a tourist attraction.”

Nita glanced at Kit and then sat down. “Do a lot of people come and visit you here?” Kit said, sitting down beside Nita.

“Not that many,” the Lone Power said, leaning on one elbow. “Of those who do, most think I’m some kind of live entertainment meant to follow that little multimedia show they’ve got in the valley. A few of them… a very few… realize what I really am, and have the sense to be scared. But most of them never make it past vague interest. It’s been too long since they’ve had any
real
trouble in this world.”

“I can see how that would bother you,” Kit said.

The Lone Power’s smile was slow and grim. Nita had to shiver at it, for she had never seen a look of such malice on any Alaalid face. “Well, I do try to keep my sense of proportion about me,” It said. “Earth, for example; there’ve been some changes there.”

“Tell us about it,” Kit said. “But I wouldn’t call them changes for the better.”

“There speaks a typical, shortsighted human being,” the Lone Power said. “Things always get a lot worse before they get better. You’d know that if you took the long view of the worlds. But you can’t help yourselves; you’re stuck in time. Those of us who just visit Time but live in Eternity see things a lot differently.” It sighed and sat back in Its chair. “Look, can we put that aside for the moment?”

“Sure,” Nita said, “as long as it’s to tell us exactly what you’re doing here.”

“I’m doing what I don’t have any choice but to do!” It said. “Which is to sit around in the Relegate’s Naos. I’m the Relegate! I’ve been relegated! Left over, dumped, thrown out of the running. Into
this.”
It waved a hand around at the beautiful warm stone, the polished floor, the exquisite, shell-like dome.

Nita looked over at Kit. Ponch yawned and lay down on the floor. The Lone One gave him an exquisitely dirty look. “See that?” It said.
“That’s
the kind of respect I command these days. Nine-tenths of the people here don’t even begin to understand the import of the events that left me sitting here. They’ve even given me a sweet little nickname: Esemeli, the Daughter of the Daughter of Light.” She made a face.

“Well, you
were,
once,” Nita said.

“Don’t you dare patronize me.
I was the Star of the Morning!”
the Lone Power shouted. “I was foremost of Powers among the Powers! I was what quasars are a watered-down version of; the light of me denatured
space
when I had cause to turn it loose!” Her voice dropped to a furious, mellifluous growl. ‘Daughter of the daughter of… ’”

She trailed off, making an annoyed gesture with one hand, then letting it flop in her lap. “And now it comes to
this,”
Esemeli said after a moment, “that
you
two come along and I have to ask you to—” She rubbed her face.

Nita and Kit waited, but nothing further seemed to be forthcoming. Finally, Nita said, “You have to ask us to what?”

“You know what’s wrong here,” It said. “Something’s missing. They made it impossible for themselves to achieve it. But they’re not a whole species without it… not really.” She smiled. “And the funny thing is, I even warned them of what they were doing. But none of them believed me. Well, maybe one.” Esemeli’s expression darkened. Then the look passed. “But they froze their species’ nature in place when they made their Choice; they walled it away from any possible assault. Either from me or from other sources.”

Meaning good ones,
Nita thought. “And you can’t do anything to them, either.”

“I couldn’t do anything to them a hundred thousand years ago,” It said, just barely annoyed.
“You
saw it! They made their Choice and rejected me in about fifteen minutes. It happens… but I don’t often get invited to stick around afterward. I saw what they did to themselves, or failed to do. And afterwards I couldn’t do anything but sit here and wait for help to arrive.” Esemeli scowled at them. “And you’re finally here. You took long enough, by the way. Can we please get on with this?”

Nita and Kit looked at each other. “Before we ask you what we should get on with,” Kit said, “tell us why we should believe anything you say! After everything we’ve been through with you—”

“Atomic explosions,” Nita said. “Stars going nova or snuffed out. Being chased all over two different Manhattans by you and your homemade monsters!”

“Nearly being eaten by sharks,” Kit said. “Losing Nita’s
mom.
”

The Lone Power actually looked bored, and waved one languid hand in a “spare me” gesture. “You’ve been through all that,” It said. “I admit it. But not with
me.
Listen—” It sounded more annoyed as It saw the glance Kit threw Nita. “Why are you going to give me trouble about this? It’s not just in your world that there have been changes.
I’ve
had my share of them. Huge ones… which you were deeply involved in, you and your sister. How is she, by the way?”

“Grounded,” Nita said. “You should count yourself lucky. Otherwise, she’d be here instead of us, and she’d have fried you to a crisp already, just on general principles.”

“No, I doubt that,” the Lone One said. “For one thing, she’s well off her peak power by now, and dealing with all kinds of trouble secondary to that. For another thing, she wouldn’t have been sent
here.
She wouldn’t have been the beginning of the answer to the Alaalids’ problem. Whereas you two
are,
unfortunately for me. They
would
send me creatures with whom I have so much history.” It looked disgusted. “Just common pettiness, that’s all it is with Them… ”

Nita threw Kit a glance. The Lone One sat there for a moment, drumming Its fingers on the arm of Its severely plain throne.
“You
know how the shift in me happened, a while ago,” the Lone One said. “You two and Dairine were simply party to a change of nature that the Powers That Be and just about all of creation had been pushing on me for aeons… slowly wearing me down until the last big push came. You just happened to be part of the breakthrough, part of the point of the spear. Because you live in Time, it looks to you like that was a thing that happened
then
and was over with, whereas
outside
of Time, the event both happened aeons ago and is still happening.”

It gave them an annoyed look, seeing their expressions. “Sorry, even the Speech doesn’t have some of the syntax needed to talk about this kind of thing. Or it does, but since you’re still stuck inside Time, you can’t parse it… Anyway, I
did
tell you at the time that there would be shadows of me around for a long, long while, doing what they’ve always done. That’s part of the nature of time in physical universes; it helps things persist.” The Lone One looked resigned. “We shadows all partake of the nature of the Power that casts us, but in different degrees, according to the local ‘lighting.’ Some are ‘darker,’ more aggressive than others… fighting the final realization of the shift, trying to make it take as long as possible.” It smiled slightly. “The one that went after your mother, for example: That one was pretty proactive, or maybe I should say abreactive. Others have been less effective.”