by Glenda Larke
"Taquar has been very secretive about whether you are having any success. That's why I decided to drop by today and find out for myself."
"We have two sessions a day," he said, not seeing any reason why she should not know. "Whatever he can bring out of the ocean, I can shift. Unfortunately, it is about half of what Granthon achieved, even at his sickest. Taquar finds it exhausting. He really isn't a stormlord."
"Ah. That explains his bad temper, I suppose." She was examining her nails as if they suddenly fascinated her. Without looking up, she said, "He told me he was insisting you fill the Scarcleft mother cistern before you send water elsewhere."
"That's right. He is quite vociferous on the subject."
Her sharp gaze stabbed at him. "Taquar may be too exhausted after your sessions to sense where you send the clouds, Jasper, but I am not. That cloud you are manipulating as we speak is heading off to the northeast, outside the Scarpen. At a guess, you are going to make it rain in the White Quarter."
Sandblast, of course she would feel the cloud; she's not a bad rainlord. I should have thought of that. "Sometimes the clouds wobble across the sky in unexpected ways."
She dismissed that excuse with the contempt it deserved. "Are you mad? Taquar may not have sensed it, but he does have two rainlords in the city's employ, quite apart from waterpriests. True, they are old men, and not particularly talented, but they are experienced. And there's our new Lord Gold. Sooner or later they'll wake up to what is happening, especially if Taquar asks them to watch out for it. Anyway, his reeves will tell him the level of water in our waterhall is not what he expects. You, of all people, should know what he is like. You don't thwart Taquar with impunity."
"So? Without me, his clouds go nowhere. I am the only person who can move them, just as he is the only person who can make them, and only then if he has my help. He's hardly going to kill me. Or even risk making me so furious I won't cooperate."
Laisa gave another snort. "As if you would do that. He reads you like a scroll. You haven't the guts to cut off water to the people of the Scarpen by refusing cooperation."
"Exactly. I won't cut off water-to the people of the Quartern."
She stared at him for a little longer, then shook her head. "Don't come running to me when you rile Taquar, Jasper. There is a point beyond which I won't risk my neck. You are playing a very dangerous game with a very dangerous man."
"Laisa," he said with a sigh, "there's a point beyond which you won't risk a broken fingernail."
Her eyes narrowed, but she didn't waste any breath on a reply.
After she had gone, he continued to work on sketching out a comprehensive program of water distribution. His biggest problem was that Taquar could not raise much water vapor. He tired too quickly. Their clouds were small.
His second problem was what to do about Qanatend and Breccia, both now in the hands of the Reduner warrior armies. And he had to include Portennabar in the problem, too; the port might still have had its freedom, but it received its water via tunnels from Breccia. Just thinking about it all was enough to make him feel ill. If he sent storms to the Warthago catchments for those cities, the Reduners would benefit, continue their occupation and steal water to send back to the Red Quarter. If he didn't send storms, the people who thirsted first would be the Scarpen inhabitants, not the Reduners.
He sighed, regretting the limitations of even a stormlord's power. The only way to move large amounts of water, from a distance and over long distances, was through stormshifting clouds. Moreover, to change clouds into water was fiendishly difficult without cooling them first, and it was tough to send the clouds high enough to do that without being aided initially by the updrafts along the slopes of the Warthago Range. Even clouds for the other quarters had to be lifted over the Warthago first, then moved to wherever they needed to be broken.
Always the limitations…
If the Sunlord wanted to help us, why the withering winds didn't he just send us regular rain in the first place? The people from across the Giving Sea say it rains all the time there!
He was still mulling over the best course of action when he heard Senya's voice, shrill with indignation, outside, arguing to be let inside.
"You can't go in there like that," Jasper heard a guard say. "The stormlord is cloudshifting-he needs to concentrate."
"I need to speak to him!" she snapped. "Is Lord Taquar there, too?"
"He left some time ago. If you wait, the stormlord will attend to you when he has completed this cycle of rain."
"He doesn't know I am here!"
"He always knows when someone comes."
She took a deep breath as if to berate him still further, so Jasper opened the door. He inclined his head politely. "Senya. Please come in."
She entered, her ruffled feelings evident in the irritable way she tilted her chin.
"What's the matter?" he asked. He indicated the chair Laisa had vacated. "Sit down. Did you come for a lesson on how we go about cloudshifting?" He waved a hand to take in the shutter flung wide to display a distant view, the book spread out on a lectern close to the window and the table strewn with maps and instruments.
She looked at them vaguely with a complete lack of interest. "It's Mother," she burst out. "She's going to marry Taquar!"
He nodded. "Yes, I know."
"You knew? Why didn't you tell me?"
"It was up to your mother to do that-as I see she has."
"How can she do it? Papa is only just dead! And Taquar! If anyone should marry Taquar, it's me."
"He's a good deal older than you," Jasper said reasonably, "and your parents have always hoped you would marry me."
"But you're a nobody from the Gibber! And I'm the daughter of a highlord, from a long line of stormlords and highlords. Just as Taquar is."
"Actually, from what I understand, Taquar was a nobody from Breakaway. And his mother was from the Gibber. But that's not really the point. The point is that he's childless. The whole point of your marriage-or mine-is to produce water-sensitive children with the potential to be stormlords."
"There's nothing to say you would have stormlord children," Senya said. She looked him up and down. "I don't want to marry you. I think you're ugly and stupid and you behave like a-a-lowleveler. I hate you."
Expressionless, he considered her words. "And if the future of the Quartern depends on having more stormlords?"
She stamped her foot. "I don't care. Why should I care about what happens years hence? While you are alive, we are all safe. Why should I have a meddle of half-Gibber brats just in case one of them is a stormlord?"
He inclined his head. "Good point." He stood up straight, his smile deliberately warm and encouraging. "Why don't we forget the whole thing then?"
Ducking her head, Senya looked at him through her eyelashes. "But Mama says I must-and so does Taquar-"
"No one can persuade me to marry if I don't want to," he said. "No one can force me to do anything. If I don't want to marry you, I won't."
"Can you talk to them?"
"I will. I promise. Don't worry about it, Senya. You may not get to marry the person you want, but I swear you'll never have to marry someone you hate."
She blinked, and he suspected she was disconcerted. He went to the door and opened it politely for her to leave. "Thank you," she said in a small voice, as if she was wondering why she felt so dissatisfied.
Once she'd gone, Jasper went to the window and looked out. He stood very still, sensing the water in the sea, feeling its presence: overpowering, seemingly endless.
"Terelle," he murmured aloud. "Oh, blighted eyes, how I wish you were here!"
There was nothing he wanted to do more than ride after her, wherever she was. Nothing he would like more than to rescue her from Russet. He would even have killed the old man to do it.
But he held a secret inside, where it gnawed at him from within, eating away his esteem, his hope, his future. He had analyzed his abilities, he had studied all Granthon, then Taquar
, did when he helped them to raise clouds from the sea. And beyond all whisper of doubt, he knew the crucial foundation on which to build the ability necessary for that task was absent from his mind. Somewhere in his childhood he had missed the moment to develop the basis for the skill, and so it had atrophied and vanished. He could boost Taquar's power to effect the change but the technique-the magic-was all the rainlord's.
I am never going to be able to change salt water to pure water vapor.
Which meant he was forever tethered to a man he despised. For the rest of my life…
CHAPTER TEN
Scarpen Quarter Scarcleft City Scarcleft Hall, Level 2, and Sun Temple, Level 3 Jasper had more time on his hands than he'd expected. He could have worked much harder and longer hours, but Taquar could not. Or would not.
He filled his spare time in a number of ways. His priority was to study all the documents and information Cloudmaster Granthon had given him on stormbringing until he knew them all by heart. To improve his fighting skills and keep fit, he asked Taquar's permission for some of the Scarcleft Hall guards to become his sparring partners.
"Practice your blade skills?" the highlord asked, amused. "Think you'll be good enough to take me on one day?"
Jasper shrugged. "I doubt it. Anyway, we both know I will never be able to give you the death you deserve. You are too valuable to the people of the Scarpen. My sword practice keeps me fit and prepared for the day the Reduner hordes ride down on Scarcleft, that's all."
"Fine. Keep fit, by all means, but allow me to worry about Davim. He will not approach this city, never fear."
Even with the sword practice, the cloudshifting and his self-imposed studies, there was not enough to fill all his time, and it was therefore almost a relief when-after he had been in Scarcleft ten days-Jasper received a request from the new Lord Gold to present himself at the temple on Level Three. Almost. His memories of the man's ill-concealed dislike, his uncompromising religious pedantry and his hypocrisy were too fresh in his mind for there to be any real pleasure in the idea that the Quartern Sunpriest wished to see him. He thought of insisting, just to make a point, that Lord Gold come to Scarcleft Hall to meet him rather than the other way around, but decided it would be more interesting to visit the Sun Temple.
In the end, it was Lord Gold who made the point by keeping him waiting for half the run of a sandglass. Jasper didn't have the slightest doubt the withering petty bastard intended it as an insult.
When an acolyte finally ushered him into the office on the top floor of the temple's tower, Gold was standing talking to a waterpriest, a man whose spine was hunched with the gnarling of old age. They stood beside a large desk and matching chair, all made of hardwood, itself an extravagance considering the scarcity of trees. The other chairs in the room were made of bab palm. The ceiling above had skylights, unglassed holes positioned to allow direct sunlight to beam in at different times of the day. The man Jasper had known from Breccia as Lord Basalt was now standing in a pool of light. The other man stood where he was untouched by the sun's rays.
He timed it, Jasper thought, incredulous. Just so that when I entered he'd be illuminated by the Sunlord's radiance. He almost laughed. "Lord Gold," he said, inclining his head.
"Stormlord." Basalt nodded in turn. "I do not think you have yet met the High Waterpriest of Scarcleft City, have you? This is Lord Taminy."
Jasper murmured a greeting; the other man bowed. "It is a pleasure to know we have a stormlord once more," Taminy said. "Forgive me for not presenting myself at the hall to welcome you, but Lord Taquar informed me you have been too tired."
Did he indeed? "Being the Quartern's only stormlord is an exhausting task," Jasper said blandly. "However, I am sure I will benefit from the walk down here today."
"I understand Lord Taquar is doing much to help you," Basalt said.
"He tries," Jasper said. "However, he is not a stormlord and cannot stormshift." There, Taquar, you will learn it is unwise not to give me my due… "Tell me, don't you feel a little unsafe using the tower in its present state? I understand the top was damaged in the earthquake. I notice there is still scaffolding around it."
"The Sunlord protects his own," Basalt said, his tone admonishing.
"He certainly protected you," Jasper agreed amiably. "I'm amazed you managed to escape from Breccia. There was so little time between the warning and the Reduner attack. You must have moved quickly."
"The previous Lord Gold and I had my escape planned. Just in case."
"Ah. A farsighted man. It is a pity he did not arrange his own escape. I must admit, I am surprised you have taken on the mantle of his post without waiting for confirmation from other senior waterpriests of the Quartern."
He knew he'd hit a raw nerve when he saw Taminy look away uncomfortably.
"And just how can one obtain such confirmation?" Basalt asked, sour-faced. "There is hardly an open line of communication to the priests of Breccia or Qanatend at the present time, if any are still alive. There is, however, a need for continuity of prayer and worship and leadership. The other cities have been informed."
"Informed?"
"They were informed that I have taken on that mantle. It is, after all, normal for the High Waterpriest of Breccia to become the next Sunpriest. And the Cloudmaster assented. But there is no need to concern yourself with temple matters."
"The Cloudmaster? We have a Cloudmaster?"
Basalt blinked in surprise. "Lord Taquar is Cloudmaster!"
"It is my understanding that after the death of the last Cloudmaster, a new one needs to be confirmed by his peers. There has been no such confirmation. Lord Taquar is not yet the Cloudmaster. Nor was he the heir, either. Cloudmaster Granthon withdrew that post from him on evidence that he was a traitor to the Quartern."
"Without Lord Taquar there is no Quartern! He tells me we would thirst to death without his aid to you."
"You'd thirst to death without me, Lord Gold."
Taminy looked sick with worry. Basalt, however, was purple, with anger Jasper guessed, although he was managing to keep it under control.
"These matters are not your concern," Basalt snapped. "I asked you to come because your spiritual health concerns me."
"Just as your health-and the health of all the Quartern's people-concerns me. No one will be particularly healthy if there's no water."
"You cannot have a truly healthy body without a healthy spiritual life. And your spirituality has always been suspect. You are our only stormlord. You must be seen to be pious and devout. You should be devout."
"Oh, I am." Devout about doing my job, anyway. "I just feel it is more important I stormshift than that I be seen at the Temple, spending my time in prayer."
"You have the power to stormshift only through the Sunlord and the gift of knowledge made to the Watergiver. You must be seen to give thanks for their gifts at the Temple. And you should continue to receive spiritual teaching from me or one of my colleagues until you have a full understanding of the nature of our faith. I am sure Lord Taminy can arrange for a suitable teacher."
"I already have a deep understanding of your faith, Lord Gold. And I shall, of course, present myself at the Temple for festival days such as the Gratitudes. You have my solemn undertaking."
"The understanding of faith is a lifetime undertaking-"
"For a priest, such a lifetime undertaking is indeed a necessity. I hope you, for example, are indeed growing in your faith and piety. I trust you will pray for my spiritual wellbeing as I am sure I am not as steadfast as I should be. I shall have to rely on your prayers to guide me, in fact, Lord Gold, seeing as the Sunlord has seen fit to put me in a situation requiring constant use of power and its debilitating consequences, leaving me no time to attend to religious study. I feel sure you will be a great source of comfort and spiritual sustenance to me with your prayers. And now, if you will excuse me, I need to return to my more… temporal duties."
Basalt's face was dark with suppressed rage, but he inclined
his head and said, "Lord Taminy will see you out."
As the High Priest escorted Jasper down the stairs, the rainlord waterpriest said neutrally, "Lord Gold feels you mock him and the one true faith."
"And you, Lord Taminy? Do you agree with him?"
"I do not know you well enough to say, Lord Jasper. Although Lord Basalt informs me that you came under the influence of a person from Khromatis while living on Level Thirty-six."
Jasper's interest quickened. "Do you know anything about Khromatis, Lord Taminy? And what has my acquaintance with someone from there got to do with anything at all?"
"They are blasphemers, my lord, denying our faith, usurping the story of the Holy Watergiver and making it their own. Contact with them is the reason the Alabasters are heretics! The people of Khromatis taught the 'Basters to deny that the sun is the outward manifestation of the Sunlord, pouring his beneficence down upon us. It is of concern to Lord Gold that you have come under the influence of such a blasphemer. They are anathema to our faith."
"I assure you, Lord Taminy, the man from Khromatis whom I met did not alter my faith by as much as a grain of sand."
"I think Lord Gold was referring to a woman, my lord."
"A woman? I know no women from Khromatis."
Taminy frowned. "I am sure he said a young woman."
"Perhaps he was thinking of a friend of mine, Terelle Grey. If so, he is mistaken as to her origins. She is Gibber born and has never set foot in Khromatis, let alone been taught anything of their faith. She sacrifices to the Sunlord."
"I am relieved to hear it."
To Jasper's amusement, he did indeed appear relieved. They stepped out into the sun at the foot of the tower just then and the heat blasted down on them. I could wish for a little less of the Sunlord's beneficence, he thought wryly.
"My lord," Taminy said, clearing his throat in an embarrassed fashion. "I do know it is unwise to tease Lord Gold. He has a low threshold for insult, imagined or otherwise. I also know it is unwise not to give due respect to the Sunlord and his Watergiver. They are the bringers of life-without them there would be no sun and no water. They are to be adored, and are mocked at your peril in this life and the life beyond. Have a care, my lord."