Quest

by Shannah Jay

  Herra, watching anxiously from below, didn’t dare to speak. Under stress, another of Katia’s Gifts was ripening swiftly. It might be dangerous to stop her in the middle of an incantation, however primitive the method she was using to support her actions and move the metal. Biting her lip, Herra watched, prepared to intervene if Katia were in danger.

  ‘ O-pen! O-pen! O-pen! ’

  A breath of wind whirled up the charred leaves around Herra’s feet. Oh, child, she thought, take care! Your wind is blowing, and you’re scarcely ready for it yet.

  Above her the hatch yawned slowly inwards, and Katia tumbled through it, her strength momentarily drained by the effort she had made.

  She will be the greatest of us all, thought Herra. To do that, untutored! Even I couldn’t have managed it at her age.

  She waited below for some sign from Katia, but none came. After a while she could bear it no longer. Gathering her forces, she laid the emergency kit on the ground and used her own Gifts to twitch another rope up over the first projection. She began to climb it slowly and carefully.

  At the top she rested, casting her senses around the flying wagon to check that Those of the Serpent were not close, then nodded in relief and entered the wagon. Inside the hole she found no sign of Katia, but there was a second hatchway leading down into a curved metal passage. Presumably Katia had gone that way. Herra prepared to follow her.

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  Chapter 12: THE BONDING

  When the door in the side of the strange metal wagon opened, Katia tumbled into the hole behind it, too surprised to control her body properly. She lay for a moment near the edge of the hatchway, still panting from her exertions, then lifted her head like a dog questing for a scent. She could sense their Brother.

  Lowering herself into the passage behind the main door, she crept forward, her heart pounding with excitement. As she turned a corner, she came upon the little room which they’d seen on the farspeaker image. Now there were no lights winking on the walls and her Brother lay motionless on a long chair.

  She moved swiftly to his side and felt for his pulse. Ah, good! He’d slowed down his body processes, though it would have been better to have gone still slower. At her touch, the pulse began to speed up again. She watched consciousness return to his face as his breathing quickened. His eyes flickered open.

  'Katia!' he said in a tone of wonder. 'It real y is Katia.' He reached out to touch her cheek.

  When she saw Davred lying there as vulnerable as a child, Katia forgot he was the Manifestation of their God, for she sensed a deep pain, not only in his body, but also in his mind. His own people had hurt him. She forgot her state of undress, forgot about herself entirely, and took his cold hand in her warm one. Carrying it to her cheek, she cradled it QUEST Shannah Jay 70

  there for a moment, then reached out to touch his face. 'Oh, my dear Brother, how they have hurt you.'

  Herra paused in the doorway, then retreated silently to the outside entrance. This bonding between Katia and the Manifestation of their God must take place without any interference from her. She’d made the prophecy herself, not realising it was Katia who would become the God's mate. How quickly events were sweeping them along! If only she could see more clearly the path they must tread. But it was hidden in a shifting mist and the God only occasionally granted her glimpses of the way ahead.

  Inside the cabin, Davred reached out his other hand and stroked Katia's cheek with one fingertip. 'How soft your skin is!' He had enjoyed healthy relationships with several women, but not one of them had filled him with this aching desire to hold her in his arms and just stay close. Not one of the wel -educated women he had known had possessed a cloud of soft hair that made you long to bury your face in its perfumed depths.

  Katia gathered him in her arms, knowing instinctively that he needed cherishing. She wondered a little at her presumption, but she that he needed the comfort she could give him, also that this was right.

  They pulled apart and stared at each other shyly. Before they could blunt their feelings with words, Herra made her presence felt in the passageway, walking with a noisy step foreign to her nature and even, solemn and important though this moment was, with a slight smile curving the corners of her mouth. Those who could not remember their first loves were sad souls.

  'Thank you for the comfort you gave me, Little Sister,' said Davred formally as Katia stood up.

  Herra could see the bond between them as if it were a ribbon of light. Katia had a look of innocent wonder glowing on her face and their Brother an expression of puzzled tenderness.

  Davred turned to Herra. 'We meet at last, Elder Sister.' He stretched out a hand to clasp hers and as she touched it, she could feel the fever throbbing in his body.

  'You're hurt, Brother.'

  He tried to move and winced. 'My leg's broken, I think. As is this ship.' He gestured at the damaged control panels.

  Herra ignored the inert metal and knelt to examine her Brother's injured leg. First he had to show her how to open the strange fastenings on his garments. She blocked out most of his pain so she could concentrate. The leg was indeed broken, and the skin was badly bruised, but it was a clean break and the bone had not pierced the flesh.

  'I haven't used my skill as a Healer on broken bones in many years, Illustrious Brother, but if you will permit me, I can pull the bones together so that healing may begin.'

  'Can you? That's a start, anyway, but it'll be weeks before I can walk on it.' He moved fretfully in his chair. 'And Herra, you of all people know that I am no God. I'm a mere man, and one who has failed in his task. I came down to try to help you, not to be a burden to you.'

  ' You are the Manifestation of our God, come down in our time of greatest need, and you will be of great help to us,' Herra said in her special voice. ' Though the task will take the whole of your life.' She blinked and went on in a more normal tone, 'If you are not prepared to pay such a heavy price, there is yet time to call your friends and ask them to rescue you.'

  'I'l stay gladly. I feel quite sure that my destiny lies on Sunrise. But how can you speak so surely?'

  Herra closed her eyes and shivered slightly. 'It's one of my Gifts, Lord Davred. Foreknowledge. A very painful Gift, sometimes. One pays a price for everything, does one not?' She sat breathing slowly and deeply for a few moments.

  Katia knew better than to interrupt her after a Speaking, and Davred correctly interpreted the younger Sister's gesture to keep silent. He lay back, lost in his own thoughts, relieved that the pain had eased.

  Herra's breathing changed.

  'She's now preparing to start the healing, Lord Davred,' Katia whispered. 'She was a Healer before she became the Elder Sister, one of our greatest Healers, people say. Let me help you to lie more comfortably. Does this - this chair thing move?'

  'It's fastened to the floor, but it will lie flatter than this - if the mechanism isn't broken. Ah, that's it.' With a whirring QUEST Shannah Jay 71

  sound, the couch straightened itself. Katia watched curiously, but showed no sign of fear. It's we who are primitive, Davred thought. The control they have over their own bodies and emotions puts our so-called medical knowledge to shame.

  Herra sank to her knees beside the couch and Katia helped Davred to straighten out as much as possible, wincing in sympathy at the pain his leg gave him. She could sometimes feel the pain of others. That was another of her Gifts.

  'What must I do, Katia?'

  'Why, nothing, Lord Davred. It's for the Elder Sister to do the healing.'

  As Herra opened her eyes again and turned to Davred, Katia wondered whether she should leave the room.

  As if she read her youngest Sister's mind, Herra spoke, 'No, Katia. Stay with me, to enhance my powers. Lord Davred, give me your hand. Yes, that's right. Hold me tightly. Feel my fingers. Feel my strength. Yes, that's it. Now, try to think of your leg as whole. Yes. That's right. Concentrate all your thoughts upon it. Your leg – whole and healthy, healthy and whole. No pain. No pain .
. . no . . . pain . . . at . . . all.' Her free hand began to stroke his leg and he showed no signs of pain as it passed lightly over the bruised flesh. He gave a long sigh and closed his eyes, his breathing becoming very slow and deep.

  ' No pain. No pain,' Herra chanted, like a litany. Then her chant gradually changed to ' Healthy and whole,' and Davred's breathing began to speed up again.

  After a while his eyes flickered open.

  'There, Lord Davred, how does that feel?' Herra let go of his hand and smiled, the gentle, satisfied smile of a Healer who has been successful.

  Davred stared at his leg as if it were an alien thing. The swelling had gone down, the bruising had turned to a faint yellow and the pain had subsided to a mere ache. 'How did you do that?'

  Herra rose to her feet with the grace that was peculiarly her own. 'I am a Healer. I exercised my Gift, as I was taught, that's all. And you, Lord Davred, are a very responsive patient. That's because you share some of our Gifts. I shall be honoured to help you discover and develop them.'

  'I thought men didn't share our Gifts,' Katia exclaimed before she could stop herself.

  'Many men do not. They've given themselves too much to conflict and violence. But Lord Davred wil be one of the Fathers of the next Stage, as will the infant son of Danver, about whom I shall tell you one day. And there are other men like them, too, scattered about our world. The gifted ones increase in number, in spite of Discord. Though few are as rich in Gifts as you two, yet the others will be vital to our Quest.'

  Davred looked puzzled.

  Herra tried to explain. 'The Gifts are inherited, from parent to child. We not only keep track of the families endowed with such Gifts, we try to encourage them to bear children. We call them our Gifted Lines. Upon their descendants rests the success of the next stage.'

  'What is the next stage, Herra?' It was one of the most important questions he had ever asked in his whole life.

  'The next stage, Lord Davred, is the banishment of Discord from this world for ever. For that, we must learn to know ourselves and to develop our powers. It'll be a hard struggle. Your earlier Manifestations helped set our feet upon the Path of Wisdom. You shall help us to take further steps towards our goal.'

  Davred stared at her. At times she treated him as the Manifestation of the God to whom she had devoted her life, at others as a lesser being who was the Manifestation of that God, and at others still, as Davred Hol unby, representative of the Galactic Confederation. 'I find all this rather confusing,' he admitted.

  'We all do, Lord Davred, we all do. It's never easy to follow the Path of Wisdom. It's taken the Sisterhood a very long time to walk a short way along it. I think your people lost a great deal when they became so reliant upon machines.'

  She gestured around her. 'If things like this do everything for you, why should you bother to find your own Gifts, let alone work hard to develop them? But I speak too much. Even now, Benner's men are searching for your wagon. No -

  QUEST Shannah Jay 72

  you call it a ship, do you not?'

  'A lifeship.'

  'Lifeship,' she repeated, enjoying the strangeness of the word. 'We must be gone before they arrive. You won't be able to walk very far on that leg today, but perhaps our Katia can find another cave for us, where we may lie hidden for a few days. What do you need to take with you?'

  But Davred hadn't heard her last question. 'Walk? You mean my leg is healed enough to walk on already?' he whispered, staring down at it as if it did not belong to him.

  'I wouldn’t normally advise that. You should real y exercise it by swimming, and not walk on it for more than a few paces. It will be a day or two yet in the healing and walking on it will give you pain. But the bones have knitted together well enough to bear your weight in an emergency like this, and the pain will be bearable. Katia, go and find us another cave, a bigger one this time. Lord Davred, what do you need to take with you?'

  Katia slipped out of the room and slid down the rope. You didn’t argue with Herra when she used that tone of voice.

  Her robe still lay on the ground where she had left it and she blushed to think that Lord Davred had seen her in her undershift. She hesitated beside the robe for a moment, then shrugged and flitted away through the woods with it slung around her neck. Robes weren't at all practical for walking through undergrowth. What you really needed was soft boots like her grandfather made, and leather leggings and tunics like the foresters wore.

  * * *

  'Still watching that renegade? I thought your watch was over. 'Robler's harsh voice made Soo and Mak jump.

  'Oh! I didn't hear you come in,' Soo said, feeling foolish. ‘I was so interested, I decided to stay on watch.'

  'All night?'

  'I took a couple of stims.'

  'You always did have a soft spot for that traitor.'

  As Robler stretched out his hand to switch off the com-unit, Soo put her hand out to protect the switches. 'It's too important that we watch this, Robler. Things are happening fast down there. Let me tell you what we've just seen.'

  'Davred Hol unby has made his bed. Now he must lie in it.' But Robler didn’t move towards the switches again and he watched the image carefully.

  Soo's voice was quiet and sure. 'I was about to come and tell you what we've just seen. We'll have to apply to Confex for a change of status for Sunrise now. Full protection and close observation, I should think, even if we only exercise minimum intervention, as Davred insisted. I really believe, from what I've heard and seen lately, that the things which happen on Sunrise, things which ought to be impossible, according to our knowledge of the universe, are significant to the whole Galactic Confederation.'

  'You're fooling yourself, Soo. And I shall forward no such application. Your evidence is merely based on the play-acting Davred's putting on for our benefit. Did you see anything? Were the visuals working, even for one moment?'

  'Not in the ship. We could only hear what was happening at first. But Davred's life monitor was still broadcasting, and he couldn't have been faking that. When Herra arrived, we began to receive pictures from her tracer. Davred's leg was most definitely broken - and as definitely healed.'

  Robler snorted in disbelief.

  'I don't know how Davred survived the crash,' Soo went on, refusing to let the Exec bully her, 'or how he managed to slow the lifeship down so much at the end. Do you? Most of the instruments were smashed. It should have been impossible to control it at all.'

  'Sheer chance. Favourable malfunction.'

  Mak joined in. 'I have to back Soo in this, Robler. Some improbable things have been happening and we've recorded QUEST Shannah Jay 73

  most of them. That's proof enough for me - and for Confex, I don't doubt. We formally request that you put through an application for a change of status for this planet.'

  'Definitely not!' Robler slammed out of the com-room.

  Soo gaped after him. 'But he can’t refuse!'

  Mak's expression betrayed his shock. 'What's happening to him lately? Has he run mad?'

  'I don't know, but I no longer trust him.' Soo mouthed the words softly, afraid Robler might be eavesdropping.

  'Nor I.' Mak's hand grasped hers for a moment.

  After a few moments, she sighed and moved away. 'I'd better bury these recordings in a few deep holes. Stand behind me, so that what I'm doing can't be observed.' Her fingers were dancing over the control panel as she spoke.

  When she’d finished, Mak nodded in satisfaction and relief. Communications and computers were not his speciality.

  If Soo had hidden a copy of the recordings in the computer's memory banks, then only she or another expert of her calibre would ever be able to find it again. And Robler was not an expert. 'Can you try to . . . ?' he began, but she gestured to him to be silent.

  Sim came into the com-room. 'I've got orders to relieve you two. What's up? Robler's in a fury. He wants to see you in his cabin.'

  'We've made a formal request for a change of status for S
unrise. Total wardship. No intervention. Play back the recording we made and see whether you think Davred is faking, as Robler claims.'

  'Is it ready to go?' Sim looked shifty.

  'Yes.'

  'I'l just have a quick look at it, then.'

  I bet you will, thought Mak. Robler's almost certainly told you to wipe it. Aloud he said, 'Come on, Soo, let's go and beard the lion in his den. He can't stop us from forwarding the evidence to Confex, if we insist on our rights. He can only put in a dissenting report.'

  He held out his hand to her and she took it, leaving Sim gaping at them. Mak was notorious for his lack of feelings and Soo for her reserve. Now they were holding hands openly, like young lovers. What had got into those two? And what had they done to put Robler in such a fury? He decided that he would definitely look at the recording himself before he wiped it, whatever Robler said.

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  Chapter 13: THE CAVE

  Davred stood up and very tentatively put his full weight on the leg which had been broken. As Herra had predicted, it was painful to walk on, but not too painful to bear. He stared at her, then down at the leg. 'I can't believe it!'

  'How not, when you see for yourself that it's so?' she countered. 'Your fixed beliefs about the world around you prevent you from even trusting your own senses.' She smiled and softened the rebuke by adding, 'Even the Sisters suffer from this problem at times, when they're developing new Gifts. They have to overcome what your people might call logic before they can do the things we of the Sisterhood know to be possible. But enough of that. We must leave this place quickly. We'll have time later to share our thoughts. What do you need to take with you?'

  Davred indicated a bulging pack and a small box. With Herra's help he managed to get out of the hatch and slide carefully down the rope, taking care to land on his sound leg. Herra lowered his pack, then the precious box of QUEST Shannah Jay 74