Jaysu then got painfully to her feet, her knees chapped and bloody from the swaying on the rocks. “All of the others are notified?” she asked, her voice barely functional after not drinking anything for almost thirty hours. She was dehydrated and on the brink of starvation, but refused to allow it to affect her.
“Yes. They were not surprised. I do not understand this. It was as if they all, everyone, knew.”
“They did. The notification was purely formal.” She arose and used the staff as a cane to get her inside.
Most of the others were there, and looked surprised when she entered, followed by Macwa. Now all were staring at Jaysu, some in fear.
“What is it?” she demanded of them. “Why do you look on me so?”
“You—You glow,” one of the priestesses responded for them all.
She herself could not see it, but all the others could. It had begun only in the last few moments, but as she moved among them it grew stronger and could not be denied as a real phenomenon.
All around her a soft golden light shimmered, beginning centimeters over her skin and feathers and extending out in a series of connective golden rays for perhaps five centimeters, but ending irregularly and thus giving the sense of a burning aura. Jaysu looked at her hand, pressing on the staff, and saw a barely perceptible milky sheen. It was odd, but clearly they were seeing far more.
She managed to sink down, not on her sore knees but on her side, and on impulse priestesses ran about, one getting a thin, sweet drink that was high in sugar to help her, another bringing light cakes that were supplemental staples along with the fish and meat. Jaysu accepted them graciously, and though having difficulty getting them down, forced herself, knowing she needed to get something inside her to live.
“How do you feel?” Macwa asked, tired herself but in awe of the glowing priestess and the total fast she’d obviously been on.
“Strange,” Jaysu responded. “Light-headed, but that may just be the fast. I have grown incredibly thin. Both exhausted and highly energized, as if there was a power within me, a power I do not understand and do not have the training to use. I fear I have been chosen to become that which I neither desired nor sought, and for which I am most unworthy and, too, unqualified. This—aura. You have not seen it on anyone before?”
“No, never,” Macwa responded, and the others nodded or muttered their agreement.
“Well, I shall sleep now, perhaps a long sleep. Let us see if these things are still there when I awaken. Thank you, my sisters. Thank you all.”
She was out cold in moments, and remained unconscious for two more days.
During that time rumors spread of her devotion and her mark of the gods, and much was made of it. Within the priesthood, a majority of priestesses decided it proved that the Grand Falcon desired her to be the next leader of the clan. While Jaysu slept, they hand bathed her, kept her forehead moist, and shifted her and propped her here and there, very gently, to ensure she did not hurt herself.
She had a fever, and when it broke her color seemed stronger and the aura, if anything, more brilliant. Too, after the fever broke, her knees healed with remarkable speed. Within hours all the scabbing and bruising was gone.
Gayna was not impressed. “It’s all trickery!” she insisted to any of her sisters who would listen. “Just potions and either great ambition or just ignorance.”
“You studied at the highest levels of alchemy,” one of the others pointed out. “What potions or drugs could cause the glow?”
She was stumped, but didn’t admit it. “Who knows what was in that stuff she mixed? We all know that much of what we do is for show, to keep and hold the faithful. I don’t know how she found this, but, new or not, it is no godlike blessing. What is more suspicious is that our Mother died while only she was there, and, although in bad shape, she was not as we found her only minutes later, wizened and drained of all fluids.”
“You’re not saying she—” They were aghast at the mere suggestion.
“I say nothing of the sort,” Gayna responded cleverly. “What I do say is that we do not know where she came from. Our Mother once said to me that she believed Jaysu was an alien creature from the stars, changed by the Well and reincarnated. How do we know that she has no memories? How do we know they did not return? How can we know that she is not in fact one of those monsters in reincarnated flesh that are now ravaging the far end of the great ocean? Could any of us have endured the ordeal she just subjected herself to? Would any of us still survive it? Perhaps now the alien spirit inside is come to the fore, and through blasphemous miracles and mock piousness intends to lead all of our people into slavery or slaughter. Don’t you see? High Priestess here, then after a while a visit to the elderly Grand High Priestess, another sad demise, and where are our people then?”
“I for one do not believe it!” Azia, one of the fence sitters up to now, exclaimed. “I have flown with her and prayed with her and I do not believe she is capable of these things! It is you who are spouting blasphemies here!”
Gayna smiled. “Yes? And you are so certain, with no doubts, that you would risk all our clan, perhaps all our people, on your—intuition? Would you, sisters? I say we simply cannot take the chance.”
“And who would be raised as High Priestess in her place?” Macwa challenged. “I do not believe that you yourself are exhibiting any faith in the gods and spirits to whom we have pledged our lives. You are saying they would deliver us into the hands of a monster? If they would, then perhaps we deserve it. I do not believe it. I have been at the palace of the Grand High Priestess; I have spoken with the worldly priestesses and their trusted agents in the Gathering Place. There is a darkness coming, there are alien monsters in the flesh of beings native to here, but in every case they have infected races that were already evil and already had these horrors. They called down the evil on themselves, as we could as well! But we do not call on evil. Our god is good and just. If you believe we serve the Grand Falcon, then you must have faith that She has chosen what is right and good as always. Or are you saying that the god we follow, the god our Mother followed, the god we pledged to suffer and die for, is false and powerless?”
Gayna saw the trap, and that there was no gracious way out. “I accept all that you say,” she responded carefully, “but I also point out that we are given a choice here. Native born, a lifetime of devotion, no fancy tricks, what you see is what you get, or one who may be a demon. With the alien evil coming, with us possibly being called to face it, perhaps we are now being judged whether we are worthy of being saved. This is, perhaps, what our Mother was training us to face. Have you thought of that?”
They hadn’t, but the seed of doubt planted by Gayna gave them pause, and for a moment there was silence.
Suddenly, and to everyone’s shock and surprise, Jaysu walked into the room carrying the staff. She glowed brightly, looked remarkably fit, and was staring at Gayna. “So, a meeting of the sisterhood? Am I not one of you?” She paused. “Or is that what this meeting is deciding?”
“You are one of us,” Gayna responded, “but the question is whether or not you are the best one to lead us. You yourself know that your training at the higher levels is minimal. Your knowledge of rituals, prayers, spells, and potions is not sufficient to manage the whole of the High Priestess’s responsibilities, and by your own admission your knowledge of what goes on beyond our clan boundaries is next to nothing. Even you admit you do not know your origins or the true nature of your spirit. I just do not believe you are qualified, and I say so in love and fellowship.”
Jaysu suppressed a smile. “Very well. I agree with most of your points, although I know more than you believe. I seem to have some sort of—power. I cannot explain it. But when I look at potions, their names and purposes and composition are instantly available to me. When a ritual is proper, it comes to me, it consumes me. And while I knelt out there during the period of mourning, it seemed that all the High Priestesses, all of those now of the clans, and many who hav
e passed on, were with me, teaching me. Still, I will not lead any who lack faith in me. I cannot. Any who cannot accept me as their Mother must challenge my right, and leave if they cannot do so should their arguments lose. We are not warriors. I will not battle for this, and I have too much faith to debate it. If the sisters are not willing to place their faith and minds and bodies at my bosom, then someone else who can command this should be chosen. And, in that case, sister, you must realize that with our polarized followings, we must both step aside and accept someone who is undoubtedly and universally acknowledged as guided entirely by faith. I therefore suggest that we lay our doubts aside and select someone, perhaps Azia here, who has been guided in these matters only by faith and her own heart.”
Gayna knew she could not argue with this, and yet was too infuriated to agree. She reached to her neck, pulled off the beads that identified her priestly function and rank, and threw them on the cave floor. Then she glowered at the others. “Mark me well! I have spent my life in preparation for the work you now so callously throw away to an—an alien creature! I have studied rigorously, and denied myself all pleasures of the flesh. And this is how my life, my devotion, is repaid! I curse you! I curse all of you! I shall be gone with the sun!”
And with that she walked out, leaving them silent, and some of them stunned.
Finally Azia said, “I believe we have been given our answer. I, for one, will pledge all that I have to Jaysu and call only her my Mother from this moment on. Who will bare her neck and kiss the feet of their Mother as I shall do?”
There was some hesitancy, but before long the rest of the priestesses all did so, even those who had originally stood with Gayna.
“I feel very sad for Gayna,” Jaysu told them when it was done. “Her knowledge and skills would be most valuable to us, and it saddens me to see someone of such devotion leave with such a stain left on her spirit. Those of you who are her friends please try and seek her out tonight and minister to her and try and bring her back to the fold. I fear for her if you fail.”
“It will be done, Mother,” several responded.
“I shall introduce myself to the Grand Falcon,” she told them. “If she disapproves of your choice, then Gayna will be all the easier returned to our fold.”
But the Grand Falcon did not disapprove. Jaysu entered the Inner Chamber, where none but a High Priestess could go, and saw for the first time the grand and ancient inner chapel with its whooshing fumaroles, sulfurous jets, bubbling multicolored mud pots, and, facing the altar, the huge and awesome idol of the Grand Falcon, whose form was Amboran perfection but whose face was that of a great and powerful bird’s.
And before she was even proclaimed to the assembled clan, her tail feathers began to fall out, and she began to molt, with old feathers falling away to be carefully saved and used in rituals. Within a month she had a new set of bright white wings that lacked sufficient power and lift for her to actually fly. The aura remained and continued to strike awe and reverence in all her flock, but while she looked very much the angel now, she would never fly again.
In fact, her grand and beautiful appearance, and the added wonder of the aura, which was even visible in bright daylight, if lessened, made the clan feel they had been singled out, that they were indeed the clan of clans, the highest of all the clans of Ambora.
Meanwhile, after Gayna stalked out of the assembly of the priestesses, she could not be found. Inquiries to other nearby clans brought no clue, either. Many feared she had killed herself. Others believed she had exiled herself beyond Ambora, although exactly how and where was not known.
The ceremony of investiture was a grandiose one, held one month to the day after the death of the old High Priestess, in front of the entire assembled clan and with many high-ranking members of other clans attending. It was three days of joy and feasting, although also a great religious show as well. Even the Grand High Priestess had come, borne by four strong warriors of four different clans upon a grand bamboo platform designed for the purpose. While Jaysu had been functioning as High Priestess since the night she was elected by her peers, she only now was officially so. She was no longer Jaysu, but Holiness to the flock and Mother to the priestesses. She already seemed to radiate the confidence and power of the old one, and the same sort of radiance the others from the other clans who could attend also had, perhaps even stronger.
Now the High Priestesses met, alone, for the first time as equals and without anyone else present, on the evening before they were to journey back to home.
The Grand High Priestess looked at them, and at their newest member, and came straight to the point.
“There is going to be a grand council in Zone,” she told them. “It will be like nothing in any living memory. The last time one was held was to face down the threat of an earlier empire now lost in legend. If one looks over the great and long history of this world as it is recorded in the grand libraries of the nation Czill, repository of this knowledge and existing for it, we see that there have been many crises over the millennia. Evil ones have come with the keys to the Well of Souls, but the Well has summoned the watchers to deal with them time and again. But when it is conquerors, when the evil is native grown, even if nurtured and encouraged by those from Beyond, there is no call. Then it is up to us. We do not know or understand the logic of it, but we are certain of this. The evil that spreads now in one area will begin to march out, perhaps within a year. Much of the plans and preparations were already under way; the evil that came to infect them further only has the skills and experience to know just how to use them to best advantage. It cannot be reasoned with. It cannot be dealt with. It desires only absolute power. It only understands power. It arose once somewhere in the stars, and, somehow, at great loss, they beat it back. Now it has been chased here. Now we must do the same.”
“How will it come?” one of them asked her.
“By sea, by ship, by any means necessary. It does not march, it engulfs. By the time it reaches here, they will probably have subjugated and turned a flying race or two as well. They would like to engulf and turn us as well for that very reason. There is no hope of us fending them off alone, not with all the power of our gods. They, too, have gods of the most horrible sort. For the first time in our history we will have to ally with each other and with other races as well. Otherwise we either perish or, far worse, become another part of their army. I should like four of you to come with me to the Grand Council as my staff, one from each of the cardinal points, so that you may then deliver the news and decisions to the others nearby. I will talk to everyone before this is done. The one from this western district will be the High Priestess of the Grand Falcon.”
Several others gasped, and a lot of pride was wounded. The new High Priestess felt like she was going through the Gayna business all over again.
The surprised reaction was soon silenced by the Grand High Priestess. “I choose her not because she is new, but because this clan territory directly faces the westernmost point of land in Ambora and is very likely to be a target for them before any others, first in attempts to weaken, demoralize, and undermine, then to invade. It would not matter who was High Priestess for the Grand Falcon. Whoever it was, she would be my choice.”
That cut them short, at least for now.
“Most High, when do you wish me at your side?” Jaysu asked the older woman. “I am new enough here that I feel as if I will be deserting them before they are even used to me.”
“The council takes some preparation, and we feel we have some time. Plan on six weeks from today to begin your journey to me. Use the gate at the Center. It will bring you to me instantly, and return you there when done. I assume you can get transport of some kind from here to there and back? I, too, do not want you away any longer than you have to be.”
“I can do it, Most High. But surely one of the others, the Frog to the north or the Rodent to the south, would be equally likely targets and would serve as well, and they are both more experienced than I.”
>
“Enough!” the Grand High Priestess snapped. “It is decided!” And that, of course, was that.
It was not necessary that she explain her actions, and the Grand High Priestess had no desire to show weakness by doing so. It might not ever be necessary for any of them to know that the new High Priestess had been specifically requested.
Ochoa
It was hell to have to get most of the news and information second- or thirdhand, but Tann Nakitt did what she could. Maybe she didn’t have a translator and might never afford one, but you would have thought that the crew of these big international ships would all have them, she thought sourly.
They didn’t, though. Only the officers and some of the mates were so outfitted. It made things simpler when things got rough. You might desert if you could speak all the languages and negotiate your way home and onto other ships, but you wouldn’t be much of a risk if the only others who could understand you were those who spoke the nautical shorthand language developed over thousands of years for the crews, and your own, often unique tongue which others might not even recognize as a language.
Nakitt could still remember Ghoman, which was even less useful here than on, say, the City of Modar, and the Realm’s standard commercial language, which might help if she ever encountered one of those who got here the same way she did. On the other hand, she thought automatically in Ochoan now, a language so unlike the other two that none who didn’t have the right physical equipment in the throat, which meant being of the Ochoan race, could hear it as more than grunts, growls, squeeks, clicks, and squawks.
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