by Candy Rae
“Soon,” answered Paul, “by tonight at latest. I’ll give you the power core as soon as they get here.”
“We’ll stay until morning then,” decided Thalia after a quick look to Vya, “with your permission of course. We don’t wish to be a burden.”
“It is my honour,” replied Paul, “I have a feeling though that if it was peace and quiet you were thinking of that you will not get it. I predict that this barn will soon be overfilling with children and not a few adults, all wanting to get a peek at a real, live Lind.”
“We do not mind,” said Josei, wagging his tail. He liked children, at least those who did not ask endless questions. Vya however, looked a bit apprehensive.
“I’ll leave you to it then,” said Paul with a smile, “my servants will bring you hot water and food. Daniel? May I have a word?”
“Yes, yes of course My Lord,” said Daniel, getting to his feet, “I didn’t think you’d recognised who I was.”
“You have the look of your father about you,” answered Paul in a kind voice as he drew him away.
* * * * *
When Daniel returned he looked upset and his eyes were red.
“My father is dead,” he muttered to Thalia and ignoring her outstretched hand he went to his bedroll. He got into it, lay down and turned over, his mind in a whirl about what Paul Hallam had just told him. He was now Kellen Daniel Ross, not Kellen-Heir Daniel Ross. Everything was now different. He had a title, responsibilities.
What am I going to do now? he thought miserably into his pillow. Queen Antoinette will be expecting me at Court to swear allegiance. Duke Paul expects that I will accompany him there when he goes but I don’t want to go. I want to go with her. Lai’s wings, what am I going to do?
* * * * *
-59-
THE FAVOURITE MANOR HOUSE OF THE DUKE OF HALLAM - DUCHY OF HALLAM - KINGDOM OF MURDOCH
“I’ve called you all together for a reason,” announced Paul later that day, “a reason and an admission. Settle down everyone and I shall explain.”
There were rustles as the visitors to Paul’s solar settled down.
“When I was a young man,” Paul began, “not long before my stepfather was killed, I made a visit to the northern continent. You’ll remember Robert?”
“I was there,” smiled his old friend.
“So you were, I’d forgotten that. Anyway, we were in the north for some months. We went to some of the more westerly islands in the Great Eastern Sea, Argyll, Vadath, we even ventured a small way inside the Rtathlians of the Lind. In Vadath,” he smiled, “that is where my admission stems from.”
“What is it Father?” asked the eager Robain.
“Have any of you, apart from Robert, Robain and Liam here heard of the Avuzdel?”
All but the three shook their heads. Robert Crawford was nodding to himself, a smile on his lips.
Paul explained what the Avuzdel was and continued, “I made a promise that day, a promise I’ve kept all this time. It’s been difficult, I am also one of our Queen’s most loyal and devoted subjects bound by duty and oath to her and to my people. But I have over the years also aided the Avuzdel in their quest to maintain peace in our world. I will continue to do this, on their behalf, for what remains of my days.”
There was rapt attention from all the listeners, who sat, not making a single sound.
“Now to the reason for this meeting. I wonder if any of you have noticed some groups of strangers passing through the manor in the last few tendays?”
“The traders?” ventured his daughter Jill, who was as her father well knew, a young damsel of sixteen famed for seeing far more than was good for her.
“Among others.”
They looked at each other. Liam shook his head.
“No? None apart from my Jill here? Well, no matter. These groups are at present camped some miles from here, beside an abandoned mine, remember the cave-in Liam? They are there because that is the place from where they will leave. Who are they? They are our country’s Avuzdel and their families who have chosen another life, in another place.”
“I, I don’t understand father,” said Liam.
“I’m not surprised, I couldn’t quite believe it myself at first. I’m now going to explain where the other place is and while I do, I wish you all to consider well what I am saying. You see, as a member of the Avuzdel, I too have been given the choice of going or staying. The choice also extends to my family.”
* * * * *
After he had finished there was a long silence as his audience digested the news and the full import of what he was saying.
“You wish us to go?” asked Robain at last.
“It is your choice son, to go or to stay. I will not influence you but remember that that those who go, go for ever and also remember that our planet will change with the Lind, Lai and Larg gone. The prohibitions the Lai kept in place will be lifted. Development of new technologies will advance and I should think very fast. I have been informed that some of the technological knowledge we brought with us has been destroyed, including the data which gives us the information to make destructive weapons but I have a feeling that man will work it all out again, given time. If you stay it will be your job to keep it under control, by force if necessary.”
“Are you going?” asked his daughter Elizabeth, widow of the slain Charles Karovitz. She was dressed in black, as befitted her new status.
Her mother answered on Paul’s behalf. A Princess of the Blood, although from a cadet branch, Duchess Elizabeth had always been imposing. She looked even more so now. She flicked a quiet smile at her husband.
“Your Father and I both intend to stay,” she said. “We are older and believe that this adventure is for the young. Also, your father will not leave his people and I will not leave him.”
“They need us,” explained Paul, “as does Queen Antoinette and her daughter, to help them get through what must lie ahead but you children must decide on your own.”
The Duchess looked first at Elizabeth, her eldest. “Elizabeth, what do you say? Charles is gone so you must decide both for yourself and for your sons.”
There was silence as Elizabeth pondered. She raised her head at last and gazed fearlessly and steadily at her mother. “I will go with the children,” she said. “There is little for me here with Charles gone and I would like both Charles and Michael to grow up in a peaceful place without the threats of assassin’s swords behind every corner.”
Duchess Elizabeth then turned her attention on Liam, the next oldest who gulped and looked at his wife Marie. She shook her head.
“We stay,” he declared, “like Father and you Mother, we feel that we have a duty to remain. Marie?”
“Agreed,” she did, nodding her head so hard that her head-dress tilted itself over and smiling at her mother-in-law.
Now it was Robain’s turn. He was smiling at his very pregnant wife, Pauline, the Daughter-Heir to the Duchy of Gardiner.
She looked at her sister-in-law Elizabeth, all dressed in black and made her decision.
“I would like to go Robain,” she said. “I never wanted the duchy anyway. Grand-uncle Vincent can find another heir, whoever he thinks best.”
Robain nodded. He looked pleased. He was the most adventurous of Paul’s two sons although he was not in the same league as Jill.
“We go.”
Now it was the turn of the two youngest, eighteen year old Judith and sixteen year old Jill.
They were sitting on the couch next to their mother and were holding hands. They had always been close these two. They had always known that they would be separated one day, either by marriage or the cloister but this was different.
“I wish to stay Mother,” said Judith with a rosy blush.
“Philip will be pleased,” her mother answered with an understanding look. Negotiations were well in progress, indeed they were almost at the signing stage for her marriage and Judith obviously wished to marry him.
“Jill?” she a
sked.
“I want to go,” Jill declared, a sparkle in her eyes. She caught her father’s eye and he nodded. He was the only other person in the room who knew of her meeting with Maru. He had expected this choice but gods, but he would miss her.
Judith turned a stricken face to her sister but Jill couldn’t meet her eyes.
Thus the two inseparables as they were called, became separated in that instant, although they continued to hold hands.
“How long will the journey take?” asked Elizabeth Karovitz.
“About seven years I’ve been told,” Paul answered.
“Will they be able to return, at some time in the future?” asked Judith.
Paul shook his head. “The re-location is a permanent one, there is no going back.”
“When?” she asked.
“The day after the day after tomorrow,” he answered, “the time between knowledge, choice and leave-taking, is, of necessity short. The final spaceships will all leave at the same time, on all three continents. Most of the Lind, Lai and Larg are gone already.”
* * * * *
“Where do we take it now that we’ve got it?” asked Daniel the next morning, “north? Or back to Dagan?”
“I’ve received my orders,” she answered, “Susa Malkum and Freya were very insistent, Daniel, I think this is goodbye.”
“Goodbye or farewell?” queried Daniel who knew Thalia by now. There was something in her face that was telling him it was the latter.
: You should tell him : advised Josei. He wasn’t referring to the imminent departure of the spaceship and Thalia knew it.
: Why? It would only upset him :
: He loves you :
: He’s torn between the life he knows and in his heart wants and me. He needs to go home, back to the life he knows, to his family :
: Vya says that he no longer thinks of Jill Hallam and it is you he talks about, you he cares for :
: He cannot go with us Josei :
: He could and he would go with us if you asked him. Is it so difficult to admit that you love him as much as he loves you? :
: He’s younger than me :
: What difference does that make? :
: I can’t do it to him Josei :
“It is a farewell,” Thalia told Daniel, tears pricking, “you are right. Josei and I, well, we’re leaving.”
“Leaving for where? Vadath?” asked Daniel, “I can come with you. Don’t do this to me Thalia, please. Don’t you see how much I care for you?”
“You don’t understand,” the words burst from Thalia’s lips.
“Not if you don’t tell me.”
: Tell him : commanded Josei.
“Me and Josei are leaving Daniel, we’re leaving the planet.” There, she had done it, the secret was out. “Some have already gone. There have been spaceships arriving and departing for years now.”
“How long have you known?” asked Daniel.
“Only a few days. The Larg began to leave first.”
“When we met the Largan he knew and didn’t tell us?”
“Yes. There must be only about a few thousand Larg left on the planet,” she laughed, “seemingly the Largan has been hard pressed to give us the impression that Larg numbers were intact.”
“But where are you going? And who’s taking you?”
“To a planet a long way away from here.”
“Will you be coming back?” Daniels’s voice was breaking with bereft emotion.
“No, we won’t be coming back.”
Daniel gulped, “and the who?”
“The Lai,” Thalia answered. “They came from a planet a long time ago. It was dying and they sent out spaceships to find a replacement. One succeeded. However, some that they sent out got, I suppose you could describe it as lost. They’ve been looking for then. These ships wouldn’t have known that a new Diaglon was found. For eons, they’ve been looking for the ships and the descendants of those who went. They were on the trail of the Ammokko for years, generations; the Dglai attack on us two hundred years ago shouldn’t have happened but they couldn’t prevent it because their spaceship was damaged and they lost contact for a while. By the time they found the trail it was too late. They arrived here about sixty years ago, found the destroyed remains of the Ammokko and went looking for the creatures who had managed to destroy it, most, if not all, places the Dglai attacked you see, they won.”
“Go on,” ordered the fascinated Daniel.
“The Lai here have been looking after us for thousands of years. Since the defeat of the Dglai they have been observing the rising tension between humans and the Lind and Larg as well as how we are developing. They decided that war will be inevitable and that the losers would be the Lind and the Larg. They believe that as human technology advances, advanced weaponry they call it, the Lind and Larg will be wiped out. They’ve been trying to slow down advances but have realised that they can’t do this indefinitely. Then the Diaglon came and found them.”
“Bet they were surprised.”
Thalia laughed, “they probably were, anyway, they decided that the Lind and the Larg, and the Lai themselves, should leave. The majority of the Larg went first and the Lind of the rtathlians began their journeys last summer. The evacuation is well under way. The Vada and their families are joining them.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t any want to stay?” asked Daniel, unable to envision the world without the presence of the Lind and the Larg.
“We all leave,” interrupted Josei.
“Even the old?”
“Yes. We are sad to go but the place we are going to is beautiful. We will live in peace there, without being threatened.”
“You’re going to co-habit a planet with the Larg?”
“The hate and distrust between us is over. The humans who come with us, they are as one with us, they share our beliefs and our hopes. Most are mind-bonded or have children who will be.”
“I want to go with you.”
“You can’t,” said Thalia.
: I still think I should ask if he may go. He has earned the right to go, if he so wishes :
: No! : was Thalia’s fierce response.
* * * * *
-60-
THE STRONGHOLD OF THE VADA - VADATH
Tara stumbled away from Alyei on a mission to find a place, any place where she could cry out in her misery. All her hopes and dreams for the future had disappeared in a flash. She and Alyei had not been destined for each other. There had been no burst of discovering each other’s mind, no chance of forming a bond, in fact neither had felt anything at all.
How could Dsya have got it so wrong? Now there was no chance of her pairing with a Lind and leaving with him for the stars. She would be left behind here at the Stronghold when the final group left at the end of the tenday.
Then what? She would be sent back home, back to the life her father wanted for her.
“I can’t bear it,” she cried as she stumbled into the cubicle in the cadet barracks which had been allocated to her when she had arrived. The cubicle was on the ground floor and one of only three occupied. The junior cadet pairs who usually inhabited the lower level were gone. They had gone as escorts for the previous train when it had left under the command of Weaponsmaster Alkin. With them had left the new-paired who had accompanied Tara and Dsya to Vada. Tara missed them, Louis the baker’s son especially and skinny Jak who had been a laugh a heartbeat.
She flung herself on to her bed face down and the tears poured, soaking her pillow.
So distressed was she that her mind was had she known it, transmitting her distress a considerable distance away. Dsya had been right about the empathic part of her if she had been wrong about the fact that her relation might prove suitable.
Not knowing anything about this Tara continued to cry until at last, she dozed off.
* * * * *
Some miles distant, a male Lind called Kolyei by his mother after one of the most
famous Lind of all time stopped and pricked up his ears.
At last! After over a season searching he could sense a human’s mind. A human female too! Where was the emotive send coming from? Kolyei sniffed at the air.
Vada!
It was coming from the direction of Vada!
He was surprised. He had left Vada not long before and when he had been there, why, there had been nothing. His special human had not been at the Stronghold when he had left to rejoin his rtathen for the exodus. He was sure of that. How had she got there? The borders were closing, they might be barred by now.
Kolyei shook himself and wiped the blood off his muzzle. He would leave the carcass of the elderly kura buck. Hunger didn’t matter. He would have to hurry back to Vada before it was too late.
Run fast Kolyei my lad, he told himself as he stretched his legs. His amble towards Vada became a canter and the canter turned into the easy lope of the Lind. He would stop for nothing except to drink, not even for food.
Kolyei was running.
He would reach her in time, he would, he must!
* * * * *
Tara woke, her mouth like sandpaper and her head pounding and looked in misery around the cubicle. There was not much in it, some well used furnishings and the few possessions she had brought with her plus the few items the store man of the Vada had issued to make her stay more comfortable.
She lay there, there was no point getting up and stared at the empty rundle bed in the corner. This was the bed the cadet Lind slept on, this was the bed her Lind should be lying on but he wasn’t, wouldn’t ever be. She would just have to accept it. She would never become vadeln-paired. She would remain here, thinking about what might have been when the last Ryzcks left.