by Shannah Jay
'You don't know what you're talking about, old woman! You're just mouthing the words you've learned from Davred. A primitive like you can have no conception of what the Confederation means, no understanding of its powers.'
Kerem gasped in shock at this open admission of the Confederation's existence to a group of people who were mainly primitives. Whatever Davred betrayed to them, there was no need for Robler to confirm it.
Herra smiled. 'Indeed, I remain most humble about my knowledge of your satellite, Robler. Others will deal with the situation there. I must remain here and see what happens on Sunrise. But you will remember my words one day, Robler. By then, however, it will be too late for you to turn back from your dark path.'
Silence wrapped around them, as it always seemed to do after a prophecy, and even Robler didn’t interrupt.
Eventually, Kerem took advantage of his Exec's strange withdrawal to lean forward and ask, 'Have you heard from Mak, then, Davred? We've heard from Soo, but not a whisper from Mak.'
'Shut up, you fool!' snapped Robler, trying to gather his wits together. 'Stop feeding them information.'
Kerem drew himself up. 'I resent that tone. You're becoming irrational, Robler. I'm not following meaningless orders just to boost your ego.'
'In a State of Emergency, you'll do as you're told.'
'In a State of Emergency,' corrected Kerem, in that flat unemotional tone peculiar to those from his planet,
'I work for the good of the group, not for the aggrandisement of one man.'
Robler suddenly realised that their quarrel was being broadcast to those below and leaned forward to switch the com-unit off. 'Don't ever speak to me like that again!' he ordered, glaring at Kerem.
'Don't ever push me too far again, then, Robler. I wasn't in favour of threatening Soo and Mak in the first place, and I'm sorry I let you and Lizan persuade me. I won't be a party to any more irrational behaviour, nor will I deprive anyone else of their liberty. And that includes Davred. He's doing no harm that I can see, and he's learning a lot about this planet. Those people have certainly accepted him as one of them. If he says he can start the Catharsis best from Sunrise, I'm inclined to believe him. He is a recognised Cathartic Agent, after all, something you like to ignore when it suits you.'
' Potential Cathartic Agent!'
'I have a copy of a recording in which he says the Catharsis has started, and that he's a full CA now, doing the task he was trained for.'
'Lunatic ramblings of a madman. Davred Hollunby has become quite unbalanced.'
'If so, he's not the only one,' snapped Kerem.
There was a pregnant silence, then Robler said coldly, 'You're released from all duties and confined to quarters until further notice.'
'For what reason?'
'Good of the whole team. Aberrant behaviour.'
Kerem stood stock-still and stared at him. 'I see. Well, just in case you get any funny ideas, I should warn you that I've already left concealed messages to be delivered to Confex if anything happens to me. And I'm not the only one to have done so.'
'What do you mean by that?'
Kerem smiled. 'Ask Soo and Mak.' He walked out of the com-room, leaving Robler glaring at him. That night, Kerem modified the door of his personal quarters and invited Meera to spend the night with him.
Though Robler quickly lifted the ban on Kerem leaving his quarters, because he could see that it upset the other team members, Kerem was very careful from then on not to leave himself open to attack. The days passed and Robler made no move against him that he could see. Still, better safe in a cage than dead on the open plains, as they said on his home world.
* * *
Davred whistled in astonishment as the communication with the satellite cut off abruptly. He exchanged glances with Herra. 'Did you hear that?'
'Yes. It's good to know that Discord doesn’t slip easily into all your people's hearts. Is this Kerem in danger, do you think?'
'I don't know. But he sounded confident enough. He's a tough character, Kerem, from one of the newer worlds. I'm not surprised that he's defying Robler. It's Robler's behaviour that continues to amaze me. I can't believe how much he's changed. He used to be a reasonable enough officer, though we were never what you might call close, but I hardly recognise him now.'
'He's acquired a taste for power. You can sense the taint. Discord is breeding rapidly within his soul.'
'I wonder how the others on the satellite feel about that, or if Kerem's the only one to rebel. I wish I knew this team of observers better. I was very reclusive after Lenlin left, probably because I was changing so much myself.'
'As were your friends Soo and Mak after your departure.'
'Mmm. I wonder where Soo is. If she and Mak are separated, she could be in danger. And what about Mak? He knows even less about the planet than Soo. I hope he hasn't fallen into the hands of Those of the Serpent.'
'I think not,' Herra said thoughtfully.
Davred grabbed her arm. 'Do you know something, Herra?'
'Only what I prophesied when Soo was preparing to come down. We shall meet them again, but only after they've both been tried and tested.'
'That means they are in danger!'
'We are all being strengthened for our task, Davred. Never forget that. And our own trials are not over yet.'
She put her hand on his shoulder and looked up at him, her love for him shining in her gold-flecked eyes, behind which gleamed that strange brightness. 'We ourselves and our desires are not important compared to our Quest. Unless we can bring sanity back to the people of the Twelve Claims, unless we can defeat Those of the Serpent, there is no hope for Sunrise and no life worth living for those we love.'
Davred's eyes flickered towards Katia.
'Your love for each other is great indeed,' Herra said softly in his ear. 'But it is secondary to our Quest.
Never forget that.'
A shiver ran down Davred's spine, but he didn’t press for more information. He found it hard even to contemplate anything happening to Katia, hard to imagine life without her, whatever the demands of the Quest. He pushed the very idea of a separation from her out of his mind.
CHAPTER 24 PINDERAK
The four great wagons creaked into the small town. All the women were now wearing voluminous dark gowns and were sitting out of sight in the backs of the wagons. The men were all dressed in gaudy garments and some had brightly embroidered codpieces.
They came to a halt in the market place, next to the field set aside for deleff, used in the old days for the spring Festivals of Choosing. Instead of walking out of their harness and ambling over to the field, as they usually did, the deleff stayed where they were, snorting and sniffling, pawing the ground, and generally showing that they didn’t wish to stop here.
'The deleff don't look happy, Pa,' said Ivo in a low voice. 'And I can't see any sign of Chand. Do you think something's happened to him?'
'Of course something's happened to him, you fool. He'd be here to meet us otherwise, wouldn't he? But we can't leave without him, so let's just act normally and see what happens.' Giff got down and made clicking noises to the deleff, who blew spice-tree scented breath at him, stirred their great feet in the dust and whined in their throats.
'What do you think is wrong with them?' Ivo stood staring at the deleff. 'I've never seen them acting like this before. Since Meneffen came to us as deleffal, they've been a particularly easy group to work with. He's a good leader. You - er - you don't think they're planning to leave us, do you?'
'Don't even think about that possibility!' snapped Giff. 'Just start unloading, like we normally do. When the deleff realise that we're here to stay, they'll go out to browse in the town field.'
'Giff!' called Nyris in a low voice. 'There's two men coming towards us from the back of the square.
Servants of the Inner Shrine, by the looks of their black robes.'
'Keep quiet back there, then.' Giff strolled round to the rear of the wagon. 'Give you the day's gr
eeting, honoured Servants.' His demeanour was that of a man quietly confident, but his sharp eyes missed nothing.
Trouble, he thought. They're just radiating trouble. What's happened to Chand?
'Are you named Giff Bel-Nathryn?'
'Indeed I am, honoured Servants.'
'Then I have to inform you that a man claiming to be your son, one Chand Bel-Giff, lies in custody in the shrine.'
'What's he done now?' asked Giff in a weary voice.
'You expected trouble from him?' one of the Servants asked incredulously.
'Not trouble, exactly, just that he's a trifle dull-witted. He was a stupid lad, and he hasn't improved since.
Might I ask what he's done?'
'He's refused to make sacrifice in the Shrine, refused to honour the Serpent.'
'But we traders never make sacrifice. Didn't he tell you why?'
'He just said he couldn't do it because he was a trader. Only we don't excuse people for flimsy reasons like that in Pinderak. Everyone must do their duty here. No exceptions. Even if they can't make sacrifice, they can attend the shrine and accept chastisement, for the Serpent's sake.'
Giff beckoned the two men closer. 'Honoured Servants, surely you know how it is with us traders? If we enter a shrine and join in the ceremonies in any way, we lose our deleff. They just walk away. Then we can't trade.'
'So you say.'
'So it is. We realise we're not doing our duty to the Serpent in one sense, but on the other hand, we're doing our duty in a different way, serving the community by keeping trade going.'
'A real man shouldn’t be at the mercy of dumb animals.'
Giff shrugged. 'I can do nothing about that, honoured Servants. Nothing. Who can change a deleff's mind?'
'Well, we have only your word that the deleff will leave you if you attend. We prefer to see that for ourselves.'
Giff sucked in his breath and a dull weight seemed to settle in his stomach. His whole livelihood was at stake here. No wonder the deleff had been uneasy. They always seemed to know when trouble was brewing.
Why, oh, why, hadn’t he realised that Meneffen and the other deleff were trying to warn him?
'Sir, what would I do without my deleff? I'm carrying a big order for the shrine in Fenlanik. If the deleff leave me, I won't be able to deliver it. Nerids don't have either the strength or the stamina to pull traders'
wagons.'
Both Servants folded their arms and looked at him with an intractable expression on their faces.
Giff sent up a silent plea to his Brother to help him. 'Perhaps,' he began delicately, 'the honoured Servants will accept a donation from us instead?'
'No. Though you may make a donation as well. All men must do their duty, and their womenfolk, too. So go and get your women and come into the shrine.'
'But honoured Servants, it's dangerous for traders to - '
Even as he spoke, the deleffal and his partner stepped out of their harness and came over towards the two black-clad Servants. As they came, they started trumpeting, not their usual shrill sounds, but loud, near-screaming shrieks that tore at the eardrums. At once, the square emptied of bystanders. Many knew enough to guess what was coming and dragged their fellows away.
The two Servants shrank back. 'What's wrong with them?' shouted one.
Giff shook his head. 'Never seen them like this before. It might be as well if you went back into the shrine, honoured Servants. You'd be safer there.' And though it was true that he hadn’t seen the deleff get angry like this, hadn’t seen the usually invisible wings start to flicker and unfold, he'd heard of them. Oh yes, who had not heard of them who travelled the roads? Pray you never see the wings, traders told each other. Just pray you never see them.
One of the men began edging away towards the shrine. Before he could reach it, the deleffal had pounded towards him and pushed him so hard that he fell to the ground. The man's yell choked to a whimper in his throat as one great foot hovered over his chest, hovered, then passed on. Another foot hovered, but it, too, passed on. The deleff turned aside, but as its wings swept over him, the Servant screamed in agony and began to writhe about on the ground. The nearest wing continued to beat across him and he jerked to and fro with each great sweep, uttering broken pleas to the Serpent to save him. Then, as abruptly as he had moved towards the man, the deleffal turned and moved on. The Servant's voice choked into silence as the wing left him and he lay retching and moaning.
His companion was leaning against the nearest wagon, shaken and white, but as the two deleff turned their attention towards him, he let go of the wagon and fled back across the square towards the shrine, leaving the other man lying on the ground. He was allowed to go, though the other deleff, still standing in their harnesses, snorted at him as he passed, so that he yelped in fright.
Meneffen and his mate trampled round the square one last time and gradually, as the trumpeting died away, the flickering of their shimmering transparent wings faded. When all was quiet, they walked calmly across into the town field and began to browse. Only then did the other deleff leave their harness and follow them.
No one came out of the houses to see what had happened, though there were faces at some of the windows.
'They're frightened they'll get into trouble from the Servants,' Giff muttered to his son. 'They'll not be coming outside for a while.'
'Should we go and help him, Pa?'
'Well, we can't leave him there, can we?' Giff hurried over to the man on the ground. 'Let me help you up, honoured Servant.' He and Ivo pulled the man to his feet, and he clung to Ivo dizzily, groaning and swaying on his feet.
The other Servant left the shelter of the shrine's gates and came across to help his friend, keeping an eye on the deleff as he did so.
'You've attacked a Servant! The penalty for that is death.'
Giff refused to show the panic that was making him first hot, then cold. 'Me, honoured Servant? I've attacked no one. In fact, I warned you to get back into the shrine, tried to save you - but if you don't want me to help you now . . . ' He gestured to his son to move away but the injured Servant clung to Ivo convulsively.
'Don't let me go. I can't - can't focus properly.'
The man who hadn’t been attacked grabbed at Giff's tunic. 'Come here, you! Help us to get him back to the shrine!'
'It's all spinning round me,' muttered the other man. 'Spinning. Pain. Whirling lights. Can't see straight.' His face was chalk white and terror still flickered in his staring eyes.
'Lean on me,' said Giff solicitously. He and Ivo half carried the man across the market square, but left him at the gates of the shrine, making no effort to go inside. 'There you are!' Giff said loudly. 'You'll be safe now.'
'It was your animals which put our lives in danger!' the other man said, putting a hand on Giff's arm to restrain him.
'And for that, I'm prepared to make amends - but I daren't make sacrifice in your shrine, daren't even enter it, or I'll lose the deleff and then the shrine in Fenlanik will lose its consignment of goods. And they'll be furious.'
'We're furious.'
'If I did try to make sacrifice, the deleff would probably go on the rampage again.' Giff saw that this had got through to the bigot and pressed his point. 'Why do you think we were given our tokens of exemption?
Not just for ourselves, but to keep the shrines safe.'
'We don't want those deleff breaking into the shrine,' mumbled the man who had been attacked. 'Don't want them in the town, even. Evil, they are.' Another Servant, who must have been watching from the safety of the building, now came through the gateway to help him inside.
The remaining Servant's eyes were sharp with avarice. 'Very well, then. A donation it shall be, but it'll need to be a generous donation to cover this outrage.'
Giff suppressed a sigh. 'Yes, of course, though I'm not a rich man, honoured Servant.'
'We'll talk about the size of the donation once we've inspected your wagons.' The man peered across the square. 'Have your d
eleff settled down now?'
'Yes, honoured Servant. They've gone into the town field. They won't come out till we leave.'
'Well, if they attack me again, nothing will save you from the wrath of the Serpent. You'll die slowly, in great agony, you and all your family.'
'They won't attack you, I'm sure,' Giff promised fervently.
'Very well then, I'll come back and do my duty.' He nodded to another of the Servants hovering in the gateway to join him, then turned back to Giff. 'Go and get your women.'
'Certainly, honoured Servant. I'll just tell them to wait at the rear, shall I? That way, you can check them over afterwards.'
'We'll check them over first of all. We want no flaunting whores in our town. Women should save that sort of thing for the shrines, though if your womenfolk are as badly trained as your animals, who knows what trouble they could cause here.'
Inside the wagon, Nyris made a clucking sound with her teeth, then bent to whisper to Soo, 'That means they want to fumble with our bodies. Dirty business, but it's soon over. I always have a good wash afterwards, myself.'
Soo gasped. 'You mean, we can't stop them? Even after the deleff - Nyris, what did the deleff do? They -
they seemed to have grown wings.'
'Don't ask. Just be thankful it saved us all from having to make sacrifice in one of those filthy shrines. It's not often you see the deleff's wings. Pray you never see them again. It's a bad sign. They never actually harm people, the deleff don't, but the wings hurt those with violence in their souls, throw it back at them, like. I've seen it myself once or twice. But when the wings touch those of us loyal to the God our Brother, we don't feel a thing, other than a tingle or two. Though I'd still rather not see the wings. Now,' she clasped Soo's hand and looked into her eyes, 'you won't protest or complain when the Servant touches you, will you?'