Quest

by Shannah Jay

  'My name's Berno,' he snarled.

  'And you are . . . ?'

  QUEST Shannah Jay 94

  'A gamekeeper. On Lord Benner's estate. Brought here recently to help the search for you.' Sweat was standing out on his brow and his fear was like an aura. His shoulders were hunched as if to protect himself.

  'My name is Herra. I'm Elder Sister at Temple Tenebrak.'

  His breath hissed inwards in shock.

  'My younger Sister's name is of no concern to you. And it's my sad duty to tel you, Berno, that your brother is dead.

  May he find a better path in the next life.'

  A spasm of anguish twisted the man's features briefly, to be replaced by a look of hatred. 'So you did kill him. I felt a sharp pain in my back and knew he was hurt. I'll make you pay for that one day.' He spoke hoarsely, forgetting his fear for a moment, then shrank back as he realised how rash he’d been.

  'I think such retribution will be beyond your power.'

  'I suppose you're going to kill me too, now.'

  'Of course not. Why should we?'

  The quiet certainty of her response made him goggle in astonishment.

  'We killed your brother only because there was no alternative. And the pain of having to do such a thing is still with us.'

  'You surely don't expect me to believe that! Everyone knows how you Sisters torture and pervert the girls you steal from their families. Yes, and worse! Else why would normal women give up the company of men?'

  'An interesting way of twisting of the truth. But we neither torture them nor make them give up men. My younger Sister here has a husband whom she loves dearly.'

  Grief and desperation made him reckless. 'I don't believe you! It's well known that you Sisters deny your normal instinct of satisfying men's needs. The Serpent knows why women were created, and it wasn’t to live away from the world and tell men what to do! And a normal woman wouldn't kill herself at the prospect of making a sacrifice to the Serpent, like those Sisters did in Setheron. No, it's plain that you do something to those girls you steal from their families. Something disgusting. But we're putting an end to this Choosing of yours, ending it once and for all. I'd kill my daughters, rather than have their minds and bodies warped by such as you!'

  He spat on the ground to emphasise his disgust and Katia flinched. 'How did he die?' he flung at her abruptly.

  'Did kill him?'

  'Tell him, little Sister. Tell him exactly how his brother died and with what he threatened you. It will help you both.'

  In a low voice, using Recall, Katia did as she was bid and Herra ensured that the man didn't interrupt her.

  When Katia had finished, Berno said angrily, 'I don't believe you! Metz wouldn't even threaten such a thing, let alone do it! Not to a dead woman! He was just trying to frighten you.'

  'I won't use my arts to make you believe us, Berno, but I will assure you that my young Sister isn't lying. She's just told you precisely what happened.'

  He swallowed. He would rather not have believed the young whore - except that she had used words and phrases that rang so clearly of his brother. Even her facial expressions had parodied those of Metz in the telling. And his brother had lately been admitted to the Inner Shrine. Metz had hinted at sexual perversions in which Berno, with straightforward tastes and a well-behaved wife who suited him, would not have wished to participate.

  Those who were admitted to the Inner Shrine gave up wife and family to serve the Serpent - a very laudable thing in the battle against those hell-spawned witches of course, but Berno would not, could not have done it. He had five sons to rear, of whom he was very proud, and two daughters, who gave him no trouble, and who were responding well to his wife's training in women's duties and skills. They would be worthy mates for men of his choosing one day, when they were older, and he meant to make sure that they made their first sacrifice to the Serpent with the most adept of the Servants of the Shrine, the ones trained to deflower decently-raised virgins, so that they were not QUEST Shannah Jay 95

  damaged or spoiled for pleasuring their husbands. No, he could never leave his family like that to serve the Serpent in the Inner Shrine. He looked at Herra. 'It was just a threat,' he repeated lamely. 'Metz didn't mean it.'

  'You will know the truth of that better than we can,' Herra said, stern and unsmiling, awesome as no woman had a right to be. 'But my Sister and her friend believed him. And such practices have been known. How do you think men become Initiates of the Inner Shrine?'

  There was silence, during which Berno avoided her eyes. Herra looked at Katia. 'There remains the question of what to do with our friend here.'

  'Stop calling me your friend!' Berno's wife would have recognised and sighed over the way he blurted out his thoughts. It was that which had prevented him from obtaining the same degree of advancement as his brother in the service of the Lord Claimant.

  'We are the enemies of no one. I will tell you, friend, what we shall do with you, since you offer no suggestions.

  First, I shall heal that stiff shoulder which has troubled you for years. The Servants of the Serpent have not our healing skills. Then I shall - just temporarily - remove your memory of this day. You will remember these events again in two weeks' time, but you’ll not be able to tell anyone about them for a month after that. When that month has passed, you can decide for yourself whether to speak of what has happened here. I give you my word that no memory shall be tampered with. However, during that month you shall study the ways of the Serpent, especially those in the Inner Shrine, and think whether you would have your wife and daughters subjected to such indignities as are now practised in Tenebrak.'

  'It's women's duty to obey men and to serve their needs. And it's the duty of all to serve the Serpent in whatever way is needed.'

  'Women's duty to obey any man, at any time? Suppose a stranger ordered your wife to make sacrifice to the Serpent with him. Should she do that? Would it please you? Or one of your daughters, perhaps, young as they are?

  Would you like to see their backs raw from the scourge?'

  'No one would do such a thing to them! They're decent women, properly brought up, not Sister-loving whores.

  They dress modestly and they keep their eyes down. Only whores are used like that in our shrines.'

  'In Tenebrak even modest women dare no longer pass near the shrines, for Those of the Serpent heed only their own desires, which grow daily more depraved.' As he was about to burst into hot denials, she held her hand up.

  'Don't take my word for it, Berno. Go and look the next time you visit the city. Watch the women stagger weeping out of the shrines. Look at their bloody backs! Think of it happening to your daughters and your Immela. She's a good wife, isn't she? Would you stand by and let them hurt her?'

  'I don't believe you! No one would touch my family. I won't listen to your lies.'

  'You can soon find out the truth of that for yourself. Now, enough.' With a slight gesture she stilled him, then moved to massage his shoulder. Afterwards she laid her fingers lightly on his brow and his eyes became glazed. That finished, she stood up. 'Come, Katia. We must cleanse your spirit.'

  Without a backward glance, Herra led the way through the woods. Since her Renewal she seemed younger, with more authority in her voice and a spring to her step.

  'If only I had known how to still someone,' Katia mourned.

  'Vain regrets! You waste yourself upon them. Is it your love for the Lord Davred which is making you lose your self-control, or is it your own weakness that makes you wallow in self-pity? Gather your inner forces together, Sister.'

  Katia gasped at this stern rebuke, and followed Herra to the cave without saying anything else.

  While Katia lay recovering in the Discipline of Cleansing the Spirit, dreaming her way through her guilt and troubled ideas, Herra took Davred firmly in hand. Every moment of the next two days was filled either with activities such as exercising his leg, so that the weakened muscles would lose their final stiffness; with in
creasing his overall fitness, which she said was poor; or with practising and perfecting some of the basic Disciplines of the Sisterhood.

  She was an even stricter taskmistress than Katia, and a superb teacher. During his rest periods they would talk, she QUEST Shannah Jay 96

  finding out about his people and the Confederation, he about the Sisterhood and how she felt he could help in the Quest.

  'You can help in two ways, Lord,' she said on the second day. 'And neither shall be to your taste. First, there will be an actual Quest, a journey to make, tasks to fulfil. I cannot say when, but I know that.'

  'It doesn't sound too bad.'

  'When you've walked for weeks across rough country and every bone in your body is aching, tell me how you're enjoying it. When you must fight, lie and steal to keep yourself and your companions alive, tell me again of the pleasure of such a Quest.'

  Even Davred flushed when Herra spoke in that tone. Her words could be as swift and as penetrating as arrows.

  And she didn’t even try to spare the Manifestation of the God, who was young and unskilled as yet. It was part of her task to help him discover and develop his Gifts.

  'And the second way I can help?' Davred asked after a pause.

  'The second way will be to leave your seed in the bodies of as many Sisters as possible, so that we may bear your children and breed them with our other lines. You are to be one of the Fathers of the next Stage, a literal title, believe me!'

  'I can't do that. I have a wife whom I love, and I want no other woman. I'll not betray my love for Katia!'

  'Did I ask you to love these women, Lord?' Herra was meticulous in giving him his title, even when she was forcing him to do as she wished.

  'No, but . . . '

  'We shall choose their fertile time. You need see each of them only once - and in a darkened room, if you prefer, so that you won't recognise them and feel shame if you meet them afterwards.'

  'That's horrible! It's treating them like - like breeding animals. Anyway, I don't think I can do it I'm not . . . ' he squirmed in embarrassment, 'I've never been a man who can take a woman at any time. I need to feel affection -

  respect.' He took a deep breath. 'I not only won't do it, I can’t!'

  'They'll be skilled enough to help you to respond, Lord. Don't worry about that. And I can't allow you to monopolise Katia if you don't help us in every way within your power. If your love for her prevents you from doing what needs to be done, then it were better to end the love now, painful as that would be for you both.'

  Davred shivered at the mere idea. 'I couldn't live without her now, Herra. And how do you think she'd feel about it? She loves me too.'

  'You judge her by your own people's standards, Lord. Just as you judge us. You're on Sunrise now, not a Confederation planet. We of the Sisterhood have been working towards true peace for millennia. We're proud to bear children of the gifted lines. It's not a forced duty. It's a privilege. Do you think we shall allow one man's squeamishness to jeopardise our Quest? After all this time?'

  'But . . . '

  'Katia is a Sister and will know her duty, even if you shirk yours. How can we risk you having children by only one woman? There wouldn't be enough of them for safe assimilation of your line. We've been breeding carefully for thousands of years and it shall not stop now.'

  'That seems very - cold and ruthless.'

  'Should we be any less careful of ourselves and the kind of children we produce than we are of our animals? Or do you wish Katia to produce all your children and carry a baby every year till her body is worn out in a desperate attempt to ensure the safety of your line?'

  'No, of course not, but I . . . '

  'Always I, I, I! Can you think of nothing but yourself and your own desires? You are not alone in this world as QUEST Shannah Jay 97

  you were on the satellite. You must do your duty by the Sisterhood here if you wish to be part of it. Moreover, if I know my Katia, she will count the sharing of your seed a fair price to pay for the privilege of being your one wife, of indulging herself to such an extent. Generations of Sisters have not had such a privilege. Generations of Sisters, myself included, have had to renounce happy marriages for the sake of the Quest. Already Katia's conscience is troubling her.'

  'You're as ruthless as Those of the Serpent!'

  'I am as determined, Lord. Indeed, we of the Sisterhood are far more determined. Such as they have come and gone during our history. We alone have endured. And shall continue to do so.' She turned away. 'We'll discuss this again, Lord, after you've seen what Discord does to people - to the weak in particular. Women, children, the old, they're all beginning to suffer under the rule of the Serpent. Sen-Sether in Setheron, Benner in Tenebron, and other Lords Claimant of that ilk - these are the apostles of evil in our land, who would lead people down a wrong turning in the path. We of the Sisterhood have fought such as them before, and have always defeated them. But this will be our hardest struggle.'

  'How can you abandon your gentleness, your tender ways, to fight them?' For he’d come to Sunrise seeking a different way of life, one that avoided conflict.

  'Because there is dire need, Lord, the most dire need ever known. And do not think that we go unscathed. Next time I’m born, I very much fear that I shall be no Elder Sister. I'm afraid that my soul will require a cleansing before it can again climb the ladder of life.'

  He frowned. 'What do you mean by "next time you're born"?'

  'Death is but a gateway into a new life. Surely your people acknowledge that?'

  'It has been a belief of some sects at various times in our history. Few give it credibility now.'

  'Then they're mistaken.'

  'There have been religions on Old Earth with similar beliefs about reincarnation. They died out a long time ago.'

  She nodded. 'When your people took a wrong turning on the path. Nothing is wasted in nature, and certainly not souls. Some creatures climb the ladder of this cycle of lives and pass through the final gateway to a new level; some fall, to be reborn and try again. I was, I think, nearing the final gateway of this level. To move on to the next level would have been very sweet to me, too sweet, perhaps. I may have been in danger of growing complacent. Perhaps the whole Sisterhood has become too complacent. Well, that complacency is being shaken out of us now, is it not?'

  Davred was finding it hard to come to terms with the ideas she had expressed. 'Herra, do you really believe in reincarnation?'

  'Believe in it? I know it to be true.'

  'How can you be so sure?'

  'I can't offer the sort of proof that your people require. But I am sure, nonetheless. I feel the rightness of that knowledge inside me.' After a pause, she spoke in a more normal tone. 'Now, that's enough of such talk. I expect too much of you. It takes years to train a Sister. Can it take less to train a Manifestation of the God?'

  'Herra, I'm not . . . '

  'My friend, must you doubt everything? You are the Manifestation of our Brother the God. And when we return to Temple Tenebrak, you'll see that the darkness behind the Statue of the God has slipped back to reveal your likeness.'

  'It can't have!'

  'Can it not?'

  He stared at her. 'But I'm not a God!'

  'Did I say you were? You are his Manifestation come down among us - his messenger, if you like, or his vessel.

  QUEST Shannah Jay 98

  Accept that fact, for I know it to be true.'

  'Herra, I'm just a . . .'

  She sighed. 'You are not just anything. You are Davred Hollunby to your own people, Lord Davred to us. You were a potential Cathartic Agent to your own people; you're the Manifestation of the God to us. You've already prophesied the birth of a daughter and you're learning to listen to the God within you. Let this be the last time you doubt your own abilities or mine.'

  He bowed his head, unable to contradict such certainty.

  'And don't expect too much of yourself,' she added more gently. 'You'll learn our inner secrets in
full, Lord Davred of the Satellite, but not all at once. Now, apply yourself, if you please, to the Discipline of Pulse Control. A minor one, but vital, nonetheless, in the control of the whole body.'

  Herra closed her eyes and went into meditation so rapidly that Davred couldn’t question her further. He stared at her for a moment. She was tiny, compared to himself and Katia, but regal in bearing, with an aura of power that was almost tangible. He’d already begun to believe that if she said a thing was so, then it was so.

  Katia woke the next morning at dawn, refreshed and clear-eyed.

  'Good,' said Herra. 'Now we can get back to Tenebrak. We're desperately needed there. We shall leave as soon as you're ready, Katia.' But her eyes softened as she looked at the two of them, for all her brisk words.

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  Chapter 16: TENEBRAK - THE ARCHIVES

  Davred bowed to the Sister on duty and took his place in the Chamber of the God. How he loved this room!

  Twenty thousand years of the Sisters' patient listening for the God to speak, either to them or within them, seemed to have left tranquillity ingrained in the very stone of the walls. He smiled as he thought of how Robler would scoff at that idea.

  With muscles made supple by over a year of training with the novices, Davred sank gracefully to his knees in front of the transmitter, sat for a moment to gather his thoughts, and then spread his precious bundle of parchments out on a rug that the richest art collectors in the Confederation would have sold their souls to own.

  At the appointed hour there was a crackling and Soo's face appeared on the screen. 'Davred, thank goodness you got my message! Mak is keeping Robler occupied, but he won't be able to keep him out of the way for long. Whenever I'm on duty, Robler comes in and out all the time. He keeps an eye on any contacts I make - not that there are many now, with so many temples locked in stasis. He said yesterday that we should stop keeping watch on the temples, that it's a waste of time when Central can't send us any more personnel.'