“Incinerate? It means reduce to ash with great fire. This guy sounds like a real piece of work. How in the hell did he get to be a Mystic High Master?”
“We do not know such things,” Bahan said.
“Are their many other adepts–any other halaena training with the High Master?” She knew in fact that there was at least one.
Iika shook her head. “Only one other at this time besides you. Usually the students come here and train with the Master in pairs. Male and female. One of the nicer males left just before you came. A powerful halaena he was. Very mighty. The female remains, but she is away right now. She does not care for the Tua and can grow angry at us also.”
Bahan added, “Neither she or the Master come here very often, but when they do, it can be a time of terror and great distress for the Tua.”
“Then why don’t you leave? It’s a big planet. Just pack up and go somewhere else. Get away from him if he scares and abuses you so much.”
They looked confused again.
Bahan bowed and touched his forehead again.
“The Tua have always served the halaena, for as many generations as we can recall. From the beginning.”
Iika agreed. “They have not always been as this Great One or his current student. Most have been kind, gentle. They are a great help to the Tua. We do not know sickness. They heal our injured. We always have plenty food and clean water. Most of our people live in scattered groups in all directions. They do not even see the halaena or the Great Ones, and live out their lives as the Tua always have.”
Bahan held up his hands and gestured “Tua’Ka is a world of many dangers beyond the borders of our quiet lands. The Great Ones protect us from those dangers. We know not how. If a few must live in fear or face death for a time to protect the many, we would give our lives and even the lives of our kits…gladly. If we must.”
A strange, keening call, not unlike an alarm or siren, sounded in the distance, toward the nearest mountain range.
Naero sniffed the air and smelled water. Pine trees. A mountain gorge or river nearby. The Tua said they and the halaena lived in caves.
Most of her welcoming party melted away, using the same trick they came in with, skirting at the edges of her vision somehow.
“That’s a great technique, and the way you blur your images. Is it psyonic?”
Iika smiled. “We know not your words. But the power to sluna–was a gift to the Tua from the Great Ones long ago, to hide us from creatures that fed upon us.”
“Can you teach me how to sluna?”
“If it is possible, we will. Not all halaena can learn it.”
No matter. Sluna or not, Naero had their scent now, and she would remember it, and be able to detect them by that alone when they were near. She could even single out individuals like Bahan and Iika.
The urgent call sounded again.
“We must go,” Bahan told her.
“We are called. The Great One sent us to welcome you, and bring you to him. We must hurry.”
“Lead on, MacDuff.”
They blinked at her and at each other. Then they led the way toward the caves, almost at a run. Naero hurried to keep up with them.
14
The vast azure sky hung expanded over them. There were many new and strange smells of plants and animals on the air. The short grass and dry soil crushed slightly beneath her feet with each step. They passed through the odd varieties of native trees and underbrush. Weaving their way through the larger trees and standing bursts of the yellow-green crystal formations.
Om warned her well ahead of time.
We approach a mighty Cosmic force. It affects and controls this entire plane at will. It is even suppressing my abilities somehow; as if it is putting me to sleep. Making me go dormant. Getting stronger as we approach its proximity. I must focus all my energies and efforts on finding a way to shield us both from these effects.
Do what you need to do, Om. Whoever or whatever this High Master is, I have to try to learn as much as I can from him. If he has all of this knowledge and power, perhaps he can help me figure out some of my problems.
No answer.
Om? Om?
Was he cut off from her already?
They kept moving toward the honey comb of caves on the cliff face directly in front of them, out of a sandy, rocky clearing between the thick dark trees and the high cliff.
To their right she spotted a thundering high waterfall in the distance further down the side of the great mountain, crashing down into what must be an enormous river gorge, feeding a great river for that entire region.
Out of nowhere, great hide drums echoed down the gorge and out from the cliffs.
All of the Tua turned out, lining the way on either side, leading up to the caves. Hundreds of them. Nearly a thousand, bowing their heads and touching them with their fingertips as Naero went past them.
Again, no old Tua. No signs of age or gray or white hair among them.
Bahan and Iika peeled off to either side.
Then it struck her.
The Tua divided up equally between male and female, whether old or young.
The great booming hide drums stopped.
Naero looked up, standing before the cliff at its base. There were no steps. Just knobby hand and foot holds leading up to the many caves. The Tua must be expert climbers.
Something else odd, besides everything new around her.
Each cave had one of the large greenish crystals imbedded in the rock just above the opening. A source of natural light after dark?
But of course the most noticeable object of all was the primary cave opening, in the exact center. Separate from all the other caves, much larger and ringed with huge blocks of the same luminous crystal.
When they pulsed and blazed with light, the Tua gasped and shrieked, falling flat upon their faces.
Over thirty meters up, a gray-robed and hooded figure appeared at the opening. Ominous red light flickered and flashed from within the deep hood.
As if in answer to his very appearance, the once sunny sky darkened within mere seconds, and thunder rocked the crashing clouds.
Even Naero could sense the waves of pure energy emanating out from this being.
Danner had not given off that much power. This entity dwarfed anything she had ever experienced.
Then he shouted in anger, and his words boomed out over the throng until they split the very air and rocked the great trees.
He used the psyonic power of the voice to project his words. Naero had never experienced anyone so strong in that ability. His voice literally thundered.
The Tua whimpered and wept.
“GET THIS BITCH OUT OF MY SIGHT. SEND ME ANOTHER!”
With that the robed figure flung a naked Tua female from the ledge, shrieking and screaming as she plummeted down through the open air.
Naero gasped in surprise, reacting instinctively.
She let her gear drop.
From a standing position Naero crouched and leaped nearly fifteen meters into the air with her enhanced strength and agility.
She caught the falling Tua girl while she still flailed, putting her over one shoulder. Naero grasped and sprang from hold to hold, slowing their descent down the cliff side.
At last she leaped back down the final several meters to the ground, and checked the Tua girl for injuries.
Other than being winded and terrified beyond all belief, the Tua girl seemed all right.
Iika and a few other Tua females crept forward to help on all fours.
Three other young Tua women, shaking visibly and with eyes cast down, already started to climb up toward the primary cave. For the Great One to choose among them.
Then all the Tua cried out in fear and abased themselves once more.
Even those climbing leaped back down and did so.
The robed and hooded figure floated quickly down through the open air toward them. Throbbing with raw power.
Naero rose up to a standing po
sition, fists clenched, angry and defiant.
No, she needed to rethink that attitude. Not a good idea.
Klyne had warned her about this guy, and with good reason apparently.
The gray hood still hung down over the Great One’s face. But his voice boomed again. It struck her like a blast of sonic force.
“So, another Maeris whelp, come to trouble the universe. Are there not enough of you wretches?”
Naero gritted her teeth and forced herself to kneel before him.
“I come to train with the Mystics. To learn what I can learn. I humbly ask to be your student, Great Teacher.”
He even chuckled.
“Humbly? I’ve never known any Maeris to have the slightest concept of humility. What is there that I can teach you? I sensed what happened with your testing. You are a growing threat to all. A massive quantabomb of raw, uncontrollable, corrupt Cosmic energy, just waiting to detonate.”
Naero bowed her head.
“Please, great teacher. I have been sent to you. I admit. I know next to nothing about my abilities. I need your help. I want to learn what these abilities and powers of mine are, and how to control them, and use them to do some kind of good. I truly want to make the universe a better place. I just don’t know how.”
Naero guessed the High Master’s job was to keep refusing her, insulting her in this guy’s case, making it harder and harder for him to accept her.
He either played the role to the hilt or he really meant it.
“At least you know what a dangerous fool you are. But what can I teach a fool? Why should I waste my time?”
“I’m willing to learn. Please. I respect knowledge and wisdom.”
“Do you indeed? Spacers and all of that poet-warrior, philosopher king crap. Yes, you’re a poet of all things. I can see it in your eyes. I was right in calling you a fool. What do you know of the universe and the great powers that define and guide its course?”
He actually lifted the back of his hand to strike her.
Naero did not flinch. And stared straight up at him.
He pulled back and lowered his hand.
He chortled again. “You think yourself brave, courageous, defiant. You think that you are good. What is goodness? Stupid vanity. Nothing but a trap that leads in itself to the very evils you seek to avoid. When you have true power to wield, what do you do with it? How do you waste and squander it? The Mystics do not need to destroy your kind. They need only stand by and watch as you destroy yourself, and everything around you that you claim to love and protect.”
“Great teacher. You can insult me all day if you wish, but that is wasting time for both of us. Please, if you will only try to teach me, I will attempt to learn whatever I can. Put me to the test.”
“You are being tested, fool. Do you not yet understand? Everything is a test. If you wish to take the Mystic path, you are always being tested, and tempted, and tried–each second of your existence. Accepting that fact, can only be the beginning of wisdom.”
“I am willing to learn. Again. Please help me. Please teach me. Or else refuse me outright and send me away to fend for myself. Why would the Mystics agree to send me all the way here if there was no chance for me to learn or grow? I’m willing. Please teach me.”
Master Vane openly laughed. “No, Maeris. I’m afraid this time that there is no ‘send you back,’ adept. We have indeed crossed a rubicon here. Like your uncle and your brothers. You are all dangerous savants–aberrations–freaks. Either I agree to teach you–or I destroy you. Either way, there is no going back without my permission. And that decision is wholly mine and mine alone at this time. Not yours.”
Naero nodded. “Then I accept your authority. Please help me learn. I await your judgment.”
He studied her for a long while.
Naero waited.
She swallowed hard.
“Please, great teacher. Forgive me, but I have never met you before. If you are going to have the power of life and death over me, I must ask. You are High Master Vane, correct?”
A large part of the Tua fainted dead away when she spoke his name.
In answer, he ripped back his hood.
Naero stared at his face.
Oh no, not him.
His bald head and skin literally glowed bright, blood red. Pulsing with scarlet energies. And not only that. His skull was covered with glowing red menacing eyes, staring and blinking in all directions. A truly terrifying visage.
It was him. The horrifying being from several of her nightmares.
More of the Tua fainted. Some of them like the young girl she had rescued lay on the ground, foaming at the mouth and convulsing. Then she choked and went still.
I am indeed High Master Vane, One of the Three, the Master of the Forces of Chaos, Entropy, and Destruction. These are my domain, my areas of explicit expertise.
“I have been sent to you for a purpose. Please. Allow me to be your student.”
“Hmmm…I think I should destroy you. But I will not do so today. Orient yourself among the vermin, Adept-Maeris. Seek out my primary adept, Adept Hashiko to learn our routines. Perhaps I will attempt to teach you something…tomorrow or the next week.”
“Thank you, Great Teacher.” Then she looked down at the Tua girl.
She lay very still and staring, and her brown eyes began to cloud over; her lips even turned blue.
The poor little thing had been literally frightened to death.
“She isn’t breathing!” Naero yelled.
Immediately Naero pumped her clasped hands over the center of the girl’s chest three times, then checked her airway and breathed three deep breaths into her mouth, closing off the nose, inflating her lungs.
Still no pulse. Nothing.
Master Vane turned back to her and laughed. “So there is one less of these furry little rats. What of it? There are always more. Have them drag it away and dig a filthy hole for it as is their pathetic little custom.”
Naero glared up at him for an instant and then averted her angry gaze.
Everything was a test now. She needed to keep that in mind.
“I thought all sentient life was held to be precious by the Mystics, Great Teacher.”
“Oh, really? Then know that that is a great lie. In all this universe and its zillions and gazillions of galaxies, most life is nauseatingly abundant and infinitely worthless. Anyone who truly understands the Laws of Chaos and Entropy accept this plain truth. You think the life of this creature truly matters in any way? Then you save it. You bring it back to life. Come on. Show me.”
“I’m trying. She’s not responding. I can’t restart her heart pumping, get her to breathe again.”
Naero redoubled her efforts.
Master Vane hissed, almost like spitting.
“I don’t know which of you is more pitiful. A few minutes without oxygen to the brain and you’re both nothing but rotting meat. And you expect me to teach you? Complete ignorance. No understanding of biomancy. Not even the basics. You cannot quicken. You cannot regenerate. What good are you?”
Naero called on Om.
Om, can you help me heal this girl?
No reply.
Master Vane pulled his foot back and kicked both the lifeless Tua and Naero out of the way in utter disgust.
“Adept Hashiko will return in the morning to spar with you in the training circle to the west. Meet her there. Now, stay out of my sight.”
He paused and jabbed a finger at another young Tua woman who jumped back, one of the three who had started climbing before.
“You. I choose you, you little beast. Attend me this night. See to my baser needs when I call, and then be silent and cringe out of my way otherwise. Or I will do even worse to you.”
She nodded, speechless, trembling hard with her eyes cast down. But she climbed up quickly to obey.
Master Vane floated back up toward his cave without another word.
But the High Master’s blow had in fact imparted some kind of life-re
storing energy to the dying Tua girl.
The girl suddenly gasped. Her eyes popped wide open.
Naero picked her up and gave her over to the other Tua women to attend to her. The revived girl still frantic and hysterical with fear from her ordeal.
The High Master was long gone by then. His new native concubine slipped into his ominous cave behind him and vanished from sight.
Naero shuddered and stood staring all around her in her own kind of shock.
They said the High Masters could each be difficult in their own ways…yet she never expected anything like this.
Iika and Bahan came to her.
They both knelt and each of them kissed her hands.
They attempted to kiss her feet, but Naero pulled away from them.
“Please…don’t do that. It’s degrading, to all of us. I don’t see you and your people as my slaves to exploit.” She looked up and felt her own face flush scarlet with shame, and not a little anger.
“Not like some, obviously. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Iika smiled. “You have done nothing wrong. You stood up to a Great One for one of our kind–when he could have destroyed you.”
“You got him to restore life to young Jemi,” Bahan said. “Her life is yours now. When she has recovered, we will send her to you.”
“I don’t want any…servants.”
“But…she is yours. She belongs to you now. She owes you a life debt.”
“No, she doesn’t. If so, then I set her free and release her from it. Just tell her to live her life and be happy. That is all I wish.”
The two of them almost looked disappointed.
“Very well,” Iika said. “But it is a terrible waste.”
As if on cue, Naero’s head started to throb.
Great. She rubbed her temples.
“Where is my cave? I think I need to get some rest before tomorrow. I’m sure it’s going to be a fun day.”
They both climbed up to one of the lower caves and Naero followed, reaching the one already prepared for her.
It was pretty much a cubicle of stone. Luminous crystals stuck out of the wall, with covers of the same brown hide for each to darken the chamber if desired. A pile of fairly clean hides and rushes to sleep among. A wooden pot carved out of a hunk of log to use as a toilet, with a pile of big soft dark leaves to wipe and clean with as needed. How quaint.
Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit Page 10