Slowly Dhal proffered his hand. As they moved away from the crystal, the male came up on his free side and startled him by taking his other hand.
Instantly Dhal pulled it away, reading entrapment in the male’s action. The female stepped forward. “Meer, let me take our guest to the sun chamber,” she suggested softly. “You go and tell l’Tamorlee that the Seeker has arrived.”
Meer looked at Dhal, then nodded. Turning, he trotted off toward the cave exit and the stairway leading down and outside. Following the gentle pull on his hand, Dhal allowed himself to be led from the cavern down to the sun chamber, the same place where he had laid hand to the stone relief and had locked into the crystalline lifeform called Tamorlee.
He stared down at the carved lines in the stone, remembering the strange warmth that had reached out and touched him, the pressure within his mind, as if something was trying to get inside his thoughts, and the pain as he fought against that intrusion. Here is the place for answers, he thought silently, and this time I won’t run away before I know the truth.
He turned to the Ni standing beside him. Her green hair, caught into a single braid over her right shoulder, was streaked with glints of silver. She was older than he had first thought. Her gray eyes regarded him calmly. If she had been afraid of him, she was no longer. “What is your name?” he asked her.
“Ceera.”
“Ceera, how did you know I would be there in the cavern?”
“We didn’t know. We were only told to watch for you, as were many others. L’Tamorlee was sure you would return.”
“When you were given the order to watch, did l’Tamorlee say why he thought I’d return?”
“No. He only said that there had been a misunderstanding between him and you and that because you were a Seeker, you would return. He said it was imperative that you not be frightened away again. Dhalvad sar Haradan, it is rumored that you are a Healer as well as a Seeker. Is this true?”
“Yes.” He started to explain about his healing power when the sound of hurried footsteps interrupted. Danner, Thura, Meer, l’Tamorlee, and two others entered the sun chamber. Ceera stepped back a pace, bowing to l’Tamorlee.
L’Tamorlee acknowledged her presence with a nod, then his eyes went to Dhal. Hoping Ceera hadn’t spoken falsely, Dhal inclined his head to l’Tamorlee. “Greetings, sir.”
L’Tamorlee bowed. “Greetings, Dhalvad sar Haradan. We are pleased that you have returned to us.”
“I’m sorry to have to intrude upon you once again, but I had to come. I have questions that must be answered.”
“As do all Seekers,” l’Tamorlee responded carefully, stepping forward a pace. The other Ni stayed where they were. “I wish to apologize for the violence of our last meeting,” he continued. “It was uncalled for. It had been a long time since we guested a Seeker and we made demands that were not in keeping with our customs.”
“Apology accepted,” Dhal said, matching the Ni’s tone. “I think perhaps the fault was not yours alone. As I told you before, I’m new to the ways of the Ni-lach and in my ignorance may have seen enemies where I should have seen friends.” I hope, he added silently.
“Perhaps,” l’Tamorlee said softly. “Now that that is settled, will you tell us how we can help you?”
Dhal looked at the Ni Speaker and decided to trust. His own world could not supply him with the answers he needed. He hoped the Ni of this ring world could. “I’m lost,” he began. “Your world and mine seem much the same. I have found a place in my world that is a duplicate of all you have here, minus the people and the Tamorlee. I’m confused and would ask if the Tamorlee has ever known another home site identical to this one? The Learning Arc, the tunnels, the cavern, has it all been built before, in another land perhaps far from here?”
The Ni Speaker frowned. “No, not to my knowledge. The Tamorlee has been here as long as any can remember.”
“Is it possible that there is more than one Tamorlee? Another crystal? Another group of Ni who have patterned their home after this place? Perhaps a group of Seekers or long-ago visitors to your land?”
L’Tamorlee nodded. “I suppose that could be possible, but I think it highly unlikely. If there was more than one Tamorlee, I believe we would know about it. Seekers have traveled far in our world and never once has any reported finding another crystal like the Tamorlee. It’s our belief that the Tamorlee is unique, its origin and life force as mysterious as the gifting among some of the People. Some say that the Tamorlee was created by the Ni thousands of years ago. Others claim that the Tamorlee was here before the Ni and that our contact with the crystal is alone responsible for our special talents.”
“And the truth?” Dhal asked.
“The truth is that we don’t know. Not even the Tamorlee knows. The Tamorlee’s conscious memory goes back hundreds of generations of Ni, but it doesn’t go back to its own beginnings. Its first memories are of the original Seekers, those Ni who carried shards of the crystal for good luck in their wanderings. When these shards, or fire stones as they came to be called, were carried back to Val-hrodhur, there was a rejoining with the Tamorlee. The crystal wakened and began to learn, absorbing all that the fire stones had recorded while with the Seekers.
“It took many years for the Tamorlee and the People to form a working relationship. The first step was more spiritual than physical, a joining with the Seekers which instilled the feeling of reverence for the fire stones and the large crystal from which they came. Then came the revelation that the crystal was another lifeform rather than a spiritual force.”
“Lifeform—not god,” Dhal said.
“The term god is rooted in the sun travelers’ language, Dhal-vad. The Ni knew nothing of gods when first they met the Tamorlee. If they worshiped at all they worshiped life and the right of all lifeforms to exist. The crystal was not a god to them, but only another lifeform, one to be studied. The original Seekers were a curious and wandering people and the crystal’s thirst for knowledge was just as great as their own. Once they understood that and discovered that the Tamorlee remembered all it was ever taught, they learned that they could use the crystal to help teach the following generations of Ni. It seems a fair trade to us. We help the Tamorlee learn and it in turn teaches us and remembers for us, so that no knowledge is ever lost.”
Dhal felt a great tiredness wash over him. He must have looked unsteady on his feet, for suddenly Ceera was there, her hand under his arm. “You’re very pale, Seeker. Would you sit down?”
LTamorlee moved forward and helped Ceera lower Dhal to the floor. When he asked if Dhal were ill, he told them about Saan Drambe and what had happened in the caverns in his world. His small audience sat quietly through the telling. LTamorlee interrupted only once, to ask a question concerning the Ni-lach healing power that Dhal had used to close the wound in his side. “How long ago did this healing take place?”
“Seven days ago.”
“Like most Ni gifts, the use of such power is draining. It was unwise for you to use the fire stone so soon.”
“After all that’s happened to me these past few weeks, it seemed important that I return here, sir. I’m alone, the last of the Ni in my homeland. I and my friends have nowhere to go. If you or the crystal could only tell me where you are in relation to the place I found in the Mountains of the Lost, we would know which direction our path lay. I would like to bring my friends here, where they’ll be safe from the Sarissa and others like them. I would like to learn more about my people. Please, can you help?”
“We can try,” l’Tamorlee said softly.
“The crystal?”
L’Tamorlee nodded. “Once before I asked you for your ring and you refused me. Do you still feel the same way?”
When Dhal did not respond, l’Tamorlee reached out and tapped the ring with his finger. “It is a part of the Tamorlee, Dhalvad. It records all that the Seeker experiences. When each Seeker returns to Val-hrodhur, he brings the fire stone to this chamber and places the stone there,
in the small hollow above the palm print. Then the Tamorlee is activated and all that the fire stone has absorbed is transferred to the crystal. From what you told us before, the ring you wear was worn by your father and perhaps his father before him. Should you activate the Tamorlee, all the information that your fire stone holds will be freed and we could well learn about your father and where your homeland is. The Tamorlee has evidenced a great interest in you. I know it would like a joining. The ring is the way.”
“You’ve already told the crystal about me?”
“Not my doing, your own, the day you laid your hand on the stone and failed to remove your ring. Had the joining been complete you might already know the answers to your questions.”
Dhal glanced beyond Ceera to the stone pattern, then to the green crystal that hung over the stone relief. Did the Tamorlee hold the answers he wanted? Dhal looked to 1’Tamorlee. There seemed to be only one way of learning the truth. Slipping the Seeker ring from his finger, he offered it to l’Tamorlee.
As the Ni Speaker took the ring, he looked deep into Dhal’s eyes. “Do you ask a joining, Dhalvad?”
“Yes.”
The eyes softened. “The ways of the Tamorlee are unknown to you. Your choice shows courage. Because it is your first joining, I think it wise that someone attend you. Agreed?”
L’Tamorlee indicated a slender, middle-aged Ni who wore his hair cut short. “Breen is qualified to assist in a joining, as are Danner, Thura, and myself. The choice is yours.”
Dhal glanced at the others, then turned back to l’Tamorlee. “I would have you.”
“I am honored. Shall we begin?”
While the others moved back to the wall of the chamber, l’Tamorlee led Dhal to the star pattern and positioned him facing the palm print on the floor. Then, walking the outside circle, he touched the fire stone to the points of the star.
Dhal was aware of a subtle change in the green light overhead. Crossing over, l’Tamorlee told him to match his hand to the handprint on the floor. As Dhal’s fingers slid into place he held his breath, ready for the strange, pulling sensation he had felt before. Nothing happened.
Dhal looked up. L’Tamorlee was watching him and read the question in Dhal’s eyes. “The crystal is only activated by a fire stone. When you touched hand to the stone before, you were wearing your ring and were captured and held by an energy we call polu. It will happen again when I place the ring in its proper place. Ready?”
Dhal nodded. L’Tamorlee covered Dhal’s hand with his own, then carefully placed the stone in a small circular opening a hand’s span in front of Dhal’s fingertips.
The flush of warmth came so quickly that Dhal nearly pulled away, but he could feel l’Tamorlee’s arm around him, and in his mind there was the whisper of the Speaker’s voice.
Dhal felt himself moving forward down a long corridor of green light. L’Tamorlee was there, speaking softly and calming his fears. Dhal could not see him but he could feel his presence. It was like a cloud of morning mist, which one can feel yet never capture and hold.
The warmth increased. Cloaked in l’Tamorlee’s embrace, Dhal was nudged forward. When he reached the end of the corridor, the green light began to change to gold, then deep red. There were shadows within the colored mist, all of them pulsating with life. As questions formed in his mind, the shadows melted into pictures and he was drawn into those pictures as he had once been drawn into the ring world. Worlds within worlds within worlds—was there no ending?
Confused by all that he was experiencing, Dhal felt panic rise once more. But l’Tamorlee’s voice came to him. I’m here with you. Don’t be afraid. You are but seeing our world as recorded in the fire stone. Watch and learn. It’s what you came to do.
So Dhal watched and saw those who had carried the Seeker ring before him. The Tamorlee revealed brief glimpses of his brother and his father, then other faces, most of them Ni. He saw places that he recognized, the Enzaar Sea and Annaroth, then he came upon scenes that were unfamiliar. He saw small riverside communities where Ni lived high above the ground in sheltered platform homes; he watched Ni-lach diving from cliffside ledges, plunging deep into the sea where they swam and raced one another; he saw a gathering of Ni-lach dancers who sang and guided draak for fun and challenge.
Then there was a shifting in the scenes and the fire stone showed the great Ni city of Jjaan-bi hidden high in the branches of a forest of centuries-old aban trees. The Ni who carried the Seeker ring to Jjaan-bi stayed there many years, and scene upon scene folded one over the other: names, places, information, everything was recorded from the most important to the least important.
A sense of peace grew within Dhal. The fire stone had absorbed life as seen through the eyes of those who had carried it, recording thoughts, actions, and all else that came within its sphere of perception. Peace came from knowing that nothing would be lost, that no single Ni would pass beyond remembering once held by the Tamorlee.
Time passed. Once again Dhal felt l’Tamorlee’s voice within his mind. The crystal isn’t satisfied, Dhalvad. There is something wrong in the joining, a variant which seems to have something to do with you and the fire stone you carry. We must search further.
We?
We are one now and must remain so until the variant is understood.
Dhal became aware of an undulating movement around him. He lost all sense of up and down, then there was a strange softness wrapping around him. He could not see any bonds but he could feel them as they wove themselves around his body.
L’Tamorlee, what is it? What’s happening?
Suddenly there was another presence within his mind. You are Ni-lach child, but not one of mine. Seeker you are, and Healer, and mystery guest within my realm. You would learn where you come from. I too would know the answer to that question. Stay. We will learn together. It was the crystal speaking to him. Awed by the impossible, Dhalvad forgot to be afraid.
Dhal was sitting on the cool stone floor of the sun chamber, the voice of l’Tamorlee speaking softly in his ear. “All is well, Dhalvad. Wake now.”
Breathing deeply, Dhal lifted his head and straightened up. “Are you all right?” l’Tamorlee asked, as he and Danner helped him to his feet.
Dhal looked at them, the shock of the knowledge gained making him tremble. “Alternate worlds!”
L’Tamorlee smiled. “The fire stones don’t lie, Dhalvad. In your time the theory of alternate worlds has become a reality.”
Dhal shook his head, hardly daring to believe. For months he had lived with the thought of a separate world entrapped within the ring stone, a world which he could visit once he had learned to unlock the door. To discover that there were other worlds, not one within another, but rather standing side by side, was enough to make one feel lightheaded.
“What’s all this about alternate worlds?” Danner demanded. “Is there another Val-hrodhur?”
Dhal turned to the Ni and shook his head. “No, Danner there is—was—only one Val-hrodhur.”
“Was?”
Dhal looked at l’Tamorlee and saw him nod. L’Tamorlee answered Danner’s question. “In Dhalvad’s time Val-hrodhur is dead.”
“His time?” Danner echoed.
“I realize that this may be difficult to accept, but what we are going to tell you is the truth, as the Tamorlee interprets it. You see, Dhalvad is a Seeker, but he doesn’t come from our time. He is the son of our future. The Val-hrodhur he has found in his time is this same place, but long abandoned. The fire stone he carries is a shard broken from our present-day Tamorlee—that’s why he returned here and not to some other time. We can’t be sure of the number of years separating us, but I should think they might number in the thousands, because the crystal didn’t recognize any of the names Dhalvad uses to describe his world.”
“You’re telling us then,” Thura said, “that at some time in the future—our future—the Tamorlee will be moved from this place.”
“Yes,” l’Tamorlee said.
“Why?”
“According to all that Dhalvad has told us about the Sarissa war against the People, I would guess that the Tamorlee was moved for safety’s sake.”
Leaning down, l’Tamorlee plucked the fire stone from its place on the stone floor. “This stone is new in our time but old in Dhalvad’s. It had recorded hundreds of years of Ni-lach history before it ever came to Dhalvad. In him, it found a very special Seeker, one able to transport it back to its origin where it could disgorge all of its information to the Tamorlee.”
“But why didn’t it go to the Tamorlee of his time?” Danner wanted to know.
“Because it isn’t in our world any longer, friend. You all know how long it had been since we guested a Seeker. Is it because they are so few now, or is it because they’ve gone elsewhere?”
L’Tamorlee’s emphasis on the last word roused Thura. “Elsewhere—as in an alternate world?”
“Yes, Thura. The fire stone Dhalvad carried back to us speaks of doors to alternate worlds, of the energy patterns which create those doors, and of the Ni-lach Sensitives who guard them. It will be years before we’re able to assimilate all the information Dhalvad brought back with him, but when it is accomplished I believe we will find that his coming to us at this time will direct us to new paths of learning. Now that we know that there are other worlds which touch ours, we can send our new Seekers to look for them. For if the future is to be as Dhalvad describes it, we may have need for one of those doors, not only for the safety of the Tamorlee, but for the continued existence of the Ni-lach.”
Thura turned and looked at Dhal. “And you, Seeker, will your search for the Tamorlee in your own time continue?”
“Yes,” he said, looking down at the fire stone. “I’ll keep looking. Something inside of me tells me that I hold the key to unlock the doors to those alternate worlds. Once I understand the key, I believe those doors will open.”
“Perhaps, child,” Thura said softly. “But do not go too boldly, for doors that open can also close.”
L’Tamorlee touched Dhal’s shoulder. “I think it is time you were leaving us, Dhalvad, lest you become locked within our time forever.” Leaning forward, he touched his lips to Dhal’s forehead. “May your search be successful, Seeker Dhalvad.”
Where The Ni-Lach Page 24