by Unknown
She made no move to resist him, but her rigidity was itself a form of resistance. He held her for only a moment, then let her go. At first, it seemed that she would move back into his arms, but then she moved away instead and turned her face to the viewscreen.
"They could have done that," she said in a slow, careful voice, as though denying it even as she spoke. "All my memories could be false."
"But not your recollection of the time it took to reach Tevingi," he pointed out. "You were beyond their influence then."
When she said nothing, he went on. "If we're unable to capture this Warlock and discover the Coven's whereabouts from him, we'll search the planets within a five-day journey from Tevingi."
She merely nodded, and Miklos finally turned his attention back to the screen. Their quarry would reach Gavon within hours, and they themselves wouldn't be far behind if he pushed their craft to its limits.
"He landed here, on a plain," the base commander said, indicating a spot on the huge planetary map in his office. "But by the time we got there, he was gone. We were there within minutes, but there was no sign of him."
"He 'ported himself out of the area," Miklos said.
The look on the face of the Vantran commander pained Jalissa. His horror and disgust were plainly evident.
"It's true then, that he's a Warlock," the man said, clearly hoping that Miklos would deny it.
"Yes. Specialist Kendor and I will take over from here. All that we require is a fast hovercraft."
The commander shot a look at Jalissa. "Don't you want some troops? I can give you a squad of my best men."
Miklos shook his head. "It's better if we go alone. I know Gavon fairly well."
The commander nodded. "That's right. You were here during the last uprising."
Jalissa frowned, but said nothing. She'd never heard of an uprising on Gavon. It was a small world, notable mostly for its mines, which produced several valuable ores. As soon as they were airborne, she asked Miklos about the uprising.
"It resulted from a foolish mistake on the part of the mining company. The Vantran who was in charge was overly eager to please his superiors back home and refused to give the Gavonese miners time off for a festival. They celebrate the old Coven festivals. This one was the Festival of the Suna strange name for a festival held at that time of year."
Jalissa smiled. "Perhaps the title loses something in translation. It's a festival celebrated to persuade the sun to return, and is held when the sun is at its nadir."
"I see. In any event, we discovered that the supervisor had been working them far more hours than is permitted under galaxy law. By the time I arrived, troops had put down the rebellion, but there was a heavy loss of life. I was here for nearly three months, trying to stablize the situation." "What do you mean by 'stabilize'?" she asked suspiciously.
"Not what you're apparently thinking," he replied. "I saw to it that the supervisor and his henchmen were removed and that the families of those who'd lost their lives were reimbursed. The Gavonese are probably the least primitive people in the Outer Ring, and some of them had been educated on Tevingi, so I had little difficulty in communicating with them.
"We set up a system to permit them to bring their grievances to the base commander, and promoted some of them into new positions of responsibility within the mining company, which happens to be owned in part by my family."
He must have seen her skeptical expression because he smiled at her. "I know you think that Special Agents do nothing but stir up trouble, but that's not true. Our mission is to maintain stability."
"Even when that means stifling democracy," she finished for him disgustedly.
"Sometimes," he admitted. "Democracy is always our goal, but the path to it isn't always as clear as you might think. In the case of Gavon, however, there is a long tradition of tribal democracy. Unfortunately, there's an equally long tradition of tribal warfare. But things have been quiet since then."
A short time later, they landed beside an ancient hovercraft that was surrounded by Feder- ation troops. Miklos got out of their own craft and went over to examine it, then turned to the woman in charge of the troops.
"Destroy this so he can't use it to get away. He could 'port back here and be gone before you captured him."
The young officer wore the same expression Jalissa had seen on the commander's face earlier. "Are you saying that he is a Warlock, sir?"
"Yes. And remember that you are not to kill him. If you can use the stunners, do so. If not, then let him go. At least he won't be able to leave Gavon."
Jalissa said nothing, but she felt a quiver of sympathy for Kavnor. He was trapped nowand so was she. She had no choice but to work with Miklos and trust that he wouldn't harm Kavnor himself.
"We'll start with the closest towns," Miklos told her when they'd returned to their hovercraft. "Can you reach him?"
"Telepathically, you mean?" she asked, then went on after he nodded. "I'm not sure. Since he knows I'm looking for him, he could be shielding himself from me."
"Then he doesn't trust you?"
"No, I don't think he doesand he certainly won't if he sees me with you."
"I refuse to allow you to hunt him on your own, Jalissa."
"Because you don't trust me," she said angrily. "Because he might try to harm you."
"He wouldn't do that," she protested.
"How can you be so sure? You said yourself that he doesn't trust you."
"The Coven abhors violence," she stated firmly.
"The Coven also does what their gods tell them to do, and if you were to get in the way of his carrying out what he believes to be orders from the gods, he wouldn't hesitate to kill you."
Jalissa turned away. She felt sick. There just could be some truth in what he said. She was about to tell him that even if he tried, Kavnor couldn't kill her, but then she checked herself. She couldn't be certain about that because as far as she knew, no Witch or Warlock had ever turned magic against one of their own.
"Try to reach him," Miklos ordered. "Explain that we simply want to talk to him."
She did as told, closing her eyes and willing herself into a semi-trance, then sending her thoughts out in a wide circle. For one brief moment, she thought that she'd touched something, but the feeling was vague and she couldn't pinpoint the direction. If it was Kavnor, he'd quickly reinforced his shieldsbut now he knew she was here. She explained all this to Miklos a few minutes later.
"It doesn't matter if he knows we're here. He would have guessed that in any event. What I need to know is just what he's capable of."
Jalissa stared at him, shocked not at his ques- tion but at her failure to consider it herself. "I'm not really sure," she said after a minute.
"We all have certain basic skills: using the fire, 'porting, casting some spells."
"What sort of spells?" he asked in a taut voice.
"I don't really know." She wondered why he seemed so uncomfortable. Until now, it had begun to seem to her that he might be accepting her. A foolish hope, she thought. I'm just deceiving myself.
"We never use spells," she went on. "Or at least not on each other." She did, of course, use them on herself, to bring about the trance that allowed her to communicate with the Coven.
"I know that spells have been used on our enemies. That's in our histories. Kavnor, the Warlock, could be using them to reinforce the feelings of his audience, for example."
"And you use them in your work," he said.
"Not deliberately. I already told you that. It's a fine line, Miklos, and not so easily discernible. We're both trained to use certain powers of persuasion."
"Then you could be casting a spell and not even be aware of it?" he asked.
She thought it was a strange question, but she shrugged. "That's possibleeven likely where my work is concerned."
"And other times as well?"
She frowned. "I don't understand." But then suddenly she did understand. "You think I've cast a spell on you."
His silence and his failure to look at her provided an eloquent answer. Jalissa felt a chill that penetrated to her very bones. How could she convince him when he'd expect her to lie about it?
"I haven't cast any spell on you, Mikloseither intentionally or unintentionally." But her words were spoken with far more conviction than she felt. How could she be sure? She'd been attracted to him from the beginning. What if she'd subconsciously cast a spell on him?
He said nothing, and she retreated into her thoughts. She'd left the Coven at such an early agetoo young to fully understand the subtleties of her powers. Besides, until she left the sheltered world of the Coven, she'd had no need to understand certain things. In that world, there'd been no need to question whether or not one was using one's magic.
Jalissa thought now about the few times when she'd been attracted to men and how they'd invariably returned those feelings. She knew she was considered to be beautiful by most men, and knew too that her position as a Whisperer gave her a certain allure. But what if their attraction to her hadn't been a result of that? Maybe she had subconsciously cast a spell.
Perhaps he is right to be concerned, she thought with a shudder. Maybe I have cast a spell on him. Certainly, she'd never felt toward any other man what she felt for Miklos Panera.
"If I have cast a spell on you, it wasn't my intention," she said, surprising herself. Her outburst took the unmistakable form of a plea for understanding.
He turned to her, and his green eyes seemed to be seeking something, but whether or not he found it, she couldn't say, because he abruptly turned away and announced that a town lay just ahead.
The difference between the Gavonese and the inhabitants of the other worlds they'd visited became apparent the moment they entered the town. People stared unabashedly at them, but nowhere did Jalissa see the hostility they'd encountered on other worlds.
Very quickly, she realized that it was she who was attracting the greater attention. She was clad once more in her Whisperer's robe, with the crystal prominently displayed. No Whisperer had ever visited Gavon before, but from the comments translated through the crystal, she knew that they understood what she was.
Miklos had landed the hovercraft in a field adjacent to the graceful town square, and they walked across it toward a rather large building that she assumed must be the seat of local government. But before they could reach it, two men came out and started toward them, their expressions welcoming. ''Agent Panera," the older of the two men exclaimed, putting out a hand to Miklos. "It's a pleasure to see you again, but I hope that your appearance does not signal trouble."
As he spoke, his eyes moved to Jalissa. "And you have brought a Whisperer as well."
Miklos made the introductions. The older man was the town's tribal chieftain, and the other man was in charge of security. It was obvious that they both knew and liked Miklos.
Since they were all conversing in the Tevingian tongue, Jalissa had no need to use her crystal. Both men, as it turned out, had been educated on Tevingi. Jalissa knew that many Gavonese came to Tevingi regularly, and she had met some of them. It amused her to think that on Tevingi, the Gavonese were considered to be a backward people, but after what she'd seen here in the Outer Ring, they now seemed very civilized indeed.
They were ushered into the tribal council building, where they were quickly surrounded by what Jalissa assumed were the tribal elders. There were no women among them, but Jalissa was treated well and her presence wasn't questioned. In fact, they treated her with that excessive gallantry that she'd encountered in other worlds that were in transition from primitive, male-dominated societies to a more egalitarian way of life.
When Miklos explained why they had come to Gavon, there were gasps and looks of utter astonishment.
"The Coven still exists?" the tribal leader asked, clearly as astounded as the others.
"Yes. There is no doubt that this man is a Warlock. We need to find him, so that he can lead us to the Coven."
"For what purpose, Agent Panera?" the leader asked, his voice now sharper than before.
"So that we can try to reason with them. We don't yet know if this Warlock is acting on their authority or on his own."
"He must be acting on the authority of the priests," the leader stated. "This is a very grave matter. My people revere the Coven. In fact, none of us would be here now if it weren't for them."
When he saw the puzzled looks on the faces of both his visitors, he went on. "More than a century ago, a terrible sickness swept our world. People were dying in the streets. Word reached the Coven and they camedozens of them. They couldn't save everyone, but they did their best, working day and night until their hands screamed in pain from their healing efforts.
"We owe the Coven our livesand we would do nothing to betray them," he stated firmly, to nods all around. "We are also grateful to you, Agent Panera, and to your family's intervention that saved lives during the unfortunate incident with the minesbut our first loyalty is to the Coven." "I understand your position, Chief Tabbos, but I give you my word that we mean no harm to this Warlock. We merely wish to speak to him."
Miklos glanced her way as he spoke, and she froze, wondering if he intended to tell them who she was. It might have bolstered his case, but he didn't do it.
"Chief Tabbos," she said, "You must know that Whisperers and Special Agents are generally at odds with each other." She paused and received a nod, then went on.
"But in this case, we are working together. I too wish to speak with this Warlock, and because I am Tevingian, I think he might be willing to talk to me."
"That is true," the chief agreed. "Tevingians were always the strongest ally of the Coven. But how is it that they have continued to exist and yet no one knew it?"
"Some of us on Tevingi have always known," Jalissa said. "But the Coven preferred to keep it secret."
The chief eyed her thoughtfully. "Your family name is Kendor, a name I recognize."
Jalissa nodded. "Danto Kendor, of whom you may have heard, is my uncle."
He nodded. "Yes, I know the name, although we do not trade directly with him. He has an agent in Da-Hiran, a man named Shem Lattos."
Jalissa recognized the name as being one that Danto had given her. "How far away is that?" she inquired.
"Several hours by hovercraft," the chief replied. "The chief there is an ally of mine."
He turned back to Miklos. "The Warlock you seek is not here, but even if he were, we could not help you, Agent Paneraunless he wished to speak with you himself. No one in this world would give up a Warlock to a Vantrannot even to one who has helped us in the past."
Then, obviously in order to soften his rejection, the chief invited them to stay for a meal. Jalissa thought that Miklos would refuse, but he accepted. The chief led them to his home nearby, where they were joined by his wife and a teenaged daughter whose soft brown eyes kept straying to Miklos even as she attempted to make polite conversation with Jalissa.
Both women spoke Tevingian, but without the fluency of the chief. They had been taught, the older woman explained, by Gavonese teachers who'd learned it on Tevingi. The pleasure they took in showing off that fact to her told Jalissa that speaking Tevingian was obviously a mark of great distinction on this world. Accustomed as she was to seeing Tevingians being regarded as inferior to Vantrans, Jalissa was amused at their elevation to such high status here.
Through careful and discreet questioning of the women as the men discussed mining and other matters, Jalissa decided that to the Gavo- nese, Vantrans were regarded with considerable respect and awe, but perhaps with an undercurrent of resentment as well.
The Gavonese had good reason to resent the Vantrans: two reasons, in fact. The Vantrans had destroyedor tried to destroytheir saviors, the Coven, and the Vantrans controlled the mines that formed the bulk of wealth on this world.
The two women were as shocked as the men had been at the news that the Coven had survived. The mother made the sign of the Coven as she beamed.
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"The gods saved them after all," the woman breathed happily.
The gods and the Tevingians, Jalissa thought, but didn't say. For all their powers, the Coven could not have saved themselves from the Vantrans' weapons. It was the Tevingians who had removed them from their doomed world, after receiving the information that the Vantrans intended to explode their world.
"What do we do now?" she asked Miklos as soon as they were back in the hovercraft. "Going to the other towns will do no good, Miklos. They will protect him."
She paused for a moment, then forged on, hoping he would agree to her plan. "If I go alone to seek him and show the Gavonese my true identity, they would bring me to him."
"No," he said the moment the words were out of her mouth. "You cannot take that risk, Jalissa."
"What risk is there? The Gavonese would never harm a Witch."
"That isn't the risk I'm thinking of," he said, circling low over a meadow and then, to her surprise, setting the craft down in the midst of a field of brilliant purple flowers, interspersed with tall, lacy ferns.
"Why are we landing here?" she asked.
"So we can talk," he said over his shoulder as he got out of the craft.
She got out too, and stood there for a moment, enjoying the beauty of the spot. It was a far cry from the ugliness she'd seen too much of recently. Miklos too was silent as he stared out at the scene. Then he turned to her.
"I am the only one who knows your true identityand it should remain that way. That is, unless you want to return to the Coven."
She stared at him. "You mean that you won't tell your superiors?"
"Not unless it becomes absolutely necessary."
"Why, Miklos?"
He glanced briefly at her, then turned away again. "Tell me, could you cast a spell to make me forget who you are?"
"I . . . I don't know."
"If the priests could take away your memories, then it must be possible," he persisted.
"Perhaps, but I don't know how to do it. And why would I want to do it in any event, since you've promised to keep it a secret?"