“Rishana, the Council is large and often unwieldy,” Ayne explained. “They can spend many days deliberating, when immediate action is necessary. More importantly, they don’t have key information which we don’t dare give them. Isn’t that true?”
Rishana wasn’t about to answer Ayne until she could be certain how much the old woman knew, and if she could be trusted. Openly studying each Allesha, she tried to form a picture of their relationships and intentions.
Dara seemed almost relaxed, though that may have been a pose for Rishana’s sake. Her limbs were too well arranged, her return gaze unexpressive.
Pushing a strand of hair back into her bun, Hester didn’t hide her irritation, which seemed directed more at the other women than Rishana. But then, Hester was one who didn’t easily tolerate delays in what she perceived as the proper order of things. What had the others done that she considered out of order? Or was it something they were about to do?
Peren was anxious, glancing often at Rishana, trying to restore the connection they once had. In her lap was an open journal, its pages yellow with age.
Ayne was the most difficult to read, but then Rishana hardly knew her. At first, she was a blank slate, sitting rigidly unreadable until she released her pose under Rishana’s gaze. What Ayne allowed her to see was someone who was concerned, friendly and open.
The one thing that all four women exhibited was an apparent lack of fear. Despite all that was happening in their Valley, in this place and with this company, they felt safe and confident.
“What key information are you referring to, Ayne?” Rishana kept her tone even and noncommittal.
“For one thing, your boy, of course,” Ayne responded.
“What about him, Ayne?”
“That he’s Mwertik.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Please, Rishana, don’t banter with me. It’s a waste of time.”
“Then tell me what you want from me, and I will try to assist you.”
“Rishana, you can be open with Ayne,” Dara tried to reassure her. “She’s one of us.”
But too much about this meeting was unorthodox for Rishana to relax her guard. “Us?” she asked.
Dara gestured at the other women in the room. “We four — now five — who know the truth about your boy and have laid plans to use that truth to save our Peace.”
“You mean use the boy.” Rishana’s words were clipped and sharp.
“Yes, of course,” Ayne acknowledged. “As any Alleman is used. As we ourselves have devoted our lives to being useful for the sake of our Peace.”
“It’s not the same thing. He didn’t have the chance to choose.”
“And you did, Rishana?” Ayne asked.
“None of us was truly given a choice,” Dara said, “Not an informed one.”
“Rishana, you have been very naïve, and your naïvety has been useful to us. Now you must assume a new role in our plans,” Ayne informed her.
Rishana felt buffeted from all sides by people she had once trusted. “What if I refuse the role you’re offering?”
“It isn’t an offer.” Ayne said.
“Are you claiming I have no alternative but to blindly accept… whatever it is?”
“No,” Dara said. “But to refuse would be against your nature.”
“A nature we helped formed,” Hester added, “which we know as well as our own.”
“How dare you!” Rishana jumped up so quickly that she almost lost her balance. “I am not your puppet!”
“Rishana, sit down! Get control of yourself!” Ayne actually raised her voice.
“If you walk out of this room, you’ll never know the truth.” Peren was the one who spoke softly now. “Never again have this opportunity to learn it all.”
Rishana hesitated. “Everything?”
“Everything you will need to know, which is more than almost anyone else.” Ayne immediately resumed her cool, quiet way, perhaps as an example to Rishana of proper Alleshine discipline — or perhaps because the slight emotion she had displayed had itself been a mask, used for effect, then discarded.
“Consider Ayne’s answer carefully, Rishana,” Hester cautioned. “She could have lied or hedged, but she is being honest enough to say some things will still be withheld.”
“You think that’s good enough?”
“It’s all we have to offer for now. Perhaps in the future, when your role again changes…”Ayne said.
“How can you sit there so calmly and inform me you plan to continue manipulating me?”
“Because it’s the truth,” Ayne responded.
“Just as we were all manipulated.” Dara glanced at Ayne. “Are manipulated.”
Clearly, Dara was referring to something specific, and it related to Ayne. “Tell me, Dara.”
“Rishana, this isn’t relevant to the reason for our meeting,” Ayne insisted.
“Ayne, if you want me to stay and listen, and it appears it’s important to you that I do, then it’s on condition that Dara tells me what she meant. If I am to trust you, I need to know the truth.”
Ayne stared at Rishana for several breaths, but Rishana didn’t flinch under the older woman’s scrutiny. Finally, Ayne nodded to Dara. Rishana pulled the chair slightly away from the others before sitting down.
“Rishana, you know I selected you as my successor. In a similar way, Ayne selected me. But what you don’t know is that it’s about more than learning how to handle problem boys. The strength of will and personality that makes us equal to that task is also what allows us to become more than we seem. Of course, I didn’t know that when Ayne chose me, just as you were kept in ignorance.”
Hester scowled. “But Rishana was kept in the dark much longer.”
“For her own protection,” Peren responded to Hester, almost too quickly, as though this were an old argument.
“My protection! To keep me ignorant?”
“To allow you to remain innocent for a while longer,” Peren explained. “And to keep you from being a target for those who would try to stop us.”
“Until you were fully trained, anyone could have read you and known the truth,” Dara added.
“And until we could be sure of you, we didn’t dare expose ourselves to you,” Ayne asserted.
“Sure of me?” Rishana turned to her husband’s Allesha, the woman who had been her friend and confidante her entire adult life. “Peren, you weren’t sure of me?”
But it was Ayne who responded. “You are Jared’s widow. You, more than any of us, have every reason to despise the Mwertik.”
“But you know me, Peren, better than almost anyone.”
“That is why we couldn’t be certain that Peren’s judgment of you wasn’t tainted,” Ayne answered while Peren remained silent.
Rishana refused to allow her anger to divert her from extracting whatever she could from these women. “Dara, please continue. You say you were kept in ignorance, but not as long as I was. What did they withhold from you? Did you also have a boy who wasn’t what he appeared?”
“No,” Dara replied. “Ayne never told me about the Guardians until she was sure that her training of me had taken effect. Only when she was certain that I’d never betray them, and that I’d be a suitable candidate to join them, did she even hint at their existence.”
“Who or what are the Guardians?”
Dara glanced at Ayne as though she were asking permission to answer. Instead, Ayne nodded to Peren, who picked up the journal in her lap and handed it to Rishana. “This will provide you with some answers, dear. Please be careful with it. It’s very old, very brittle — and very dangerous.”
Rishana took the journal from Peren and gently leafed through it, fearful that the dry, yellow pages would disintegrate at her touch. Though the ink was faded, the handwriting was neat and round. “What is it?”
“Veitas’s Dialogues, compiled by Faen,” Peren explained. “We are the only ones alive who have read it.”
“Veitas? I’ve
never heard of her.”
“Few have, and that’s one of our responsibilities as Guardians, to assure that she remains unknown. But over four hundred years ago, she was a great teacher and the original framer of our Peace.”
“I thought it was Alleen.”
“No. Alleen taught people to dream of peace, but it took several generations to take root. And it happened only after some of the bloodiest wars recorded.”
“Why all the secrecy? What makes this book so dangerous?”
Peren paused before answering. “Among its many dangerous ideas is the formation of the Guardians, an inner circle of Alleshi who are the true architects of our Peace.”
Rishana felt a chill against her back, though her skin was hot.
“The hidden authority,” Ayne added. “We oversee the Peace by influencing the actions of others according to the principles laid out by Veitas.”
Rishana reminded herself to move slowly, concentrate on the details. Closing the journal, she placed it on her lap and crossed her hands over it “What are these ‘principles’ that give you the right to subvert the very essence of our Peace?”
“Not subvert it, dear. Protect it and ensure that it continues,” Peren countered.
Rishana’s jaw ached with the effort of keeping her rage in check. “With no respect for the right of councils and consensus.”
“What we do is what allows our Council to be the voice of consensus and authority it must be,” Hester insisted.
“I understand how difficult it is for you to accept this right now,” Dara said. “I once sat in that seat, just as angry and astounded as you are. We all did.”
“You have three choices at present, Rishana.” Hester counted them off on her fingers. “You can sit there quietly, seething at us for all that we have done to you. You can bolt out that door and never know the truth. Or you can open that book and read.”
“You have in your possession a book that few know exist, and even fewer have ever seen,” Peren said. “We could go in circles all day with questions, accusations and justifications. Instead, I suggest you go into my second bedroom and read the Dialogues, which hold so many of your answers.”
“And the four of you will wait out here while I read?”
“We have other business that will keep us occupied.” Ayne dismissed her with a wave of her hand.
“Perhaps I should stay and hear…”
“After you read the journal.” Peren gestured toward the bedroom door, then smiled, and Rishana thought she saw her old familiar friend re-emerge for a brief moment.
Chapter 78
Rishana closed the bedroom door behind her and leaned back against it, taking comfort in the solidity of the barrier between her and the four Alleshi beyond.
Here, in this room, Jared had once spent a Season as a Blessed Boy. He had slept in that narrow bed, his feet probably sticking out from the sheets as they always did. In that armchair, he had read some of the books lining these walls, or gazed out the window, dreaming, thinking, planning. And through that door, he had entered Peren/Savah’s inner room, becoming the man, the Alleman, she had loved so completely.
She had come here, herself, as a widow, to mourn with Savah, sleeping in the same bed Jared had once known, though visitors from the outside usually stayed in one of the Battai’s inns. At the time, she hadn’t thought of it as breaking with tradition so much as two women needing to comfort each other. Rishana now wondered if that had been the beginning. Had it been her own idea, after all, to return to The Valley two years later to become an Allesha, or had Savah influenced her decision even then, that spring they had mourned Jared together?
Rishana curled up in the oversized armchair. The book was leather-bound and small enough to fit into a large pocket. Stained and worn, the cover was mottled, with leather missing in places. The paper was foxed and brittle. The opening page said only Veitas’s Dialogues, told to Faen by Aefna.
Where should she begin? Reading the entire volume would take the rest of the afternoon and late into the night. But to read only those sections marked with leather strips would be to allow them to dictate what she learned from this book. Still, it would be a good place to start. She turned to the first marked section.
Veitas did not meet with us for several days after receiving news of the battle of Ronefield. She sequestered herself behind her closed door; we thought it was to grieve, and perhaps that was part of it. But when she came out, she appeared neither sad nor defeated.
And Veitas said, “Alleen’s dream is collapsing. Her cancer of hope has spread, but what good is it? As long as our world is organized for the purpose of war, war will be inevitable.”
Aefna asked, “How is society organized for war?”
And Veitas said, “The prime purpose of every town and city is to support the great armies. With warfare, they acquire land and goods, attempt to secure their borders and consolidate power in preparation for the next war. In exchange, the people contribute the products of their hands and fields to the upkeep of the armies. How could they not, when the army exists to protect them? Are the soldiers not their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers? Should a farmer or smith refuse, the army takes by force what is not given freely.”
Aefna asked, “Why does that make war inevitable?”
And Veitas said, “Cities exist to support the armies. But the demands of large armies often outstrip the ability of the cities to support them. So they must forage farther and farther afield. Should a city be prosperous, easily able to meet the needs of their army, what man can sit still and not do the task for which he was trained? Armies exist to fight, and so they fight. Even a city that lacks its own army soon may find itself garrisoning and provisioning one.”
Aefna asked, “How should society be organized?”
And Veitas said, “We must abandon the cities and start with the towns and villages, seeding them not only with the dream of peace, but the tools to accomplish it. Help each develop a specialty it can trade with others. Have no single town or village able to stand on its own without raw materials or products from its neighbors. When trade and not war is the basis of prosperity, war becomes a disruption to profit. Armies become inconvenient drains, unnecessary and impractical.”
Aefna asked, “And you believe we can change the entire structure of society around us?”
And Veitas said, “I cannot see the whole world… only as far as the horizon. But if you walk a day, can you not see farther? We must start with the three closest towns, then the next three and the next, building an ever-expanding circle of peace around our valley. Each generation that follows us will create a wider horizon.”
Aefna asked, “But won’t we still need to defend those who live at the borderline between our circle of peace and the world of wars?
And Veitas said, “We must find some way to defend them that doesn’t require large armies.”
Rishana was surprised that the entry ended so abruptly. But it certainly didn’t contain anything she would consider dangerous. She turned to the next marked section.
The converging armies were coming closer every day. Runners reported about 12,000 from the west, another 15,000 from the northeast and a third army of 20,000 from the south.
Rishana stopped and reread that last sentence several times, making sure she hadn’t seen the wrong number of zeroes. Never in her life had she heard of such large groups of people, such enormous armies. How could they move, stay supplied, coordinate maneuvers? No wonder Veitas talked about how their world had to be organized to support such vast fighting forces.
Runners reported about 12,000 from the west, another 15,000 from the northeast and a third army of 20,000 from the south. Though they came out of hate for us, what need did they have for so many against a few score women? No, we were merely the rallying cry for massive armies destined to fight and destroy each other. When they finally clashed, we would be among the spoils.
Men who believed in our vision of a world without armies came from nearby c
ities, towns and villages to protect us, but Veitas sent them away, not wanting to be the cause of their deaths. Then Veitas called us together.
And Veitas said, “The armies will soon overrun us. Those of you who wish to flee to safety should leave tonight, while there is yet time.”
Aefna asked, “Will you come with us?”
And Veitas said, “I will stay, because if I run, there will never again be any place where armies don’t rule.”
Aefna asked, “But how can you still hope to change the world? They will kill you.”
And Veitas said, “Perhaps. They certainly hate us enough. Our ideas threaten their very existence. But if I don’t resist, if I survive, I may yet find a way.”
Aefna asked, “May we stay with you?”
And Veitas said, “If you do, you must realize you cannot fight them. You must allow them to do whatever they wish. You will watch them as they destroy everything we have and are, and you will do nothing. Those of you who are beautiful will survive because of your beauty, and the soldiers will use you until that, too, is destroyed. And still you will do nothing. If you stay, it must be with the understanding that you will obey me in this and in everything I ask.”
Of all the women of the valley, only a handful escaped into the night. All the others stayed with Veitas. When the armies clashed, blood ran like streams down our mountains, pooling in our fields. The men who died were among the luckier ones, for they did not linger screaming to the sky, hacked into pieces that no healer would ever be able to build back into living creatures. When it was over, we were given the bodies of our sisters who had run but had failed to escape, and we buried them far from the mass graves of the armies.
Rishana laid the book on the table, unable to continue reading. In her mind, she saw this beautiful valley overrun with armies so massive they would have covered the mountains and spread out onto the fertile plains of her home beyond. Where now there were gardens and paths, there had once been swords clashing, body parts strewn. She imagined the mud she had walked through to get here today, and pictured it made of blood rather than melted snow. The dead and dying everywhere.
The Winter Boy Page 50