Transcendence

by Transcendence [lit]

  „We will meet one more time,“ the woman said to Pagonel. „And then we will fight.“

  „You could relent,“ the mystic replied. „They have offered you a chance to run back into To-gai and be free of Behrenese rule. Is that not all that you wanted?“

  Brynn took a deep breath, understanding that she was playing a very dangerous game. But she held firm to her resolve against the doubts. Her demands were the insurance against another invasion, one that she knew would come soon enough after Behren solidified itself once more, if Yatol Bardoh had his way.

  The next day, Mado Wadon came alone to Dharyan, under the flag of truce, as Brynn insisted. In a quiet room, the Yatol, the Dragon of To-gai and the Jhesta Tu mystic sat and talked.

  „Dharyan-Dharielle, then,“ Brynn improvised, as the Yatol again argued the one sticking point in the negotiations. „We will call the city Dharyan-Dharielle, and leave it as an open city, to Behrenese and To-gai-ru alike.“

  „And what would possibly prompt the Behrenese to come here, other than to scorn the invading To-gai-ru?“

  „Invading?“ Brynn echoed. „It is a word you should take care when speaking. Your people will come for the trade, open trade, between To-gai-ru and Behrenese. And your scholars will come for the library.“

  „Library? Do the To-gai-ru even write?“

  „The library formerly of Pruda,“ Brynn said with a crooked smile, and Yatol Mado Wadon’s eyes widened indeed!

  „Yes, I have it, buried and hidden in the desert, never to be found un­less I so deem it,“ Brynn explained. „I will retrieve the items, and build a new and grander library here, open to all the scholars of our respective kingdoms.“

  Mado Wadon waved his hands and shook his head. „You speak foolish­ness! Why should I hear these words? Why should I allow for any conces­sions from the Behrenese? You are beaten, if we choose to attack! Meyer forget that!“

  „But at a great cost.“

  „Greater costs have already been paid!“

  Brynn nodded, conceding the point. „But greater gains are hard to find,“ she said. „Yatol Mado Wadon, I asked you to come out here alone this last day of our discussions because you above all others should understand the true prize I offer to you now.“

  „And that is?“

  „Alliance,“ said Brynn.

  „Between To-gai and Behren?“

  „Between Dharyan-Dharielle and Jacintha,“ Brynn corrected. „Between the Dragon of To-gai and Yatol Mado Wadon. If you force me from this city, then who will replace me? One loyal to Jacintha, or to Avrou Eesa? „

  The man did not reply.

  „And if you send your hordes against me, or I charge mine out against you, then who will be blamed for the thousands of Behrenese dead on the sands, and the hundreds I will execute in my dungeons? Yatol Bardoh or Yatol Mado Wadon?“

  Brynn leaned forward and grabbed the man’s hands suddenly, moving very close to his face, locking his gaze with her own. „And I offer to you a vision of a better way between our peoples, one of strength and not of ani­mosity. Can you not see the wisdom of that course?“

  „Do you believe that you can eliminate centuries of mistrust and hatred in one action?“ the Yatol asked sincerely.

  „I believe that we two can take one large stride, that is all,“ Brynn replied. „And will Jacintha not benefit from the alliance with Dharielle?“

  „Dharyan-Dharielle,“ Mado Wadon corrected a moment later, and Brynn smiled wide and looked to the side, to a nodding Pagonel.

  The great army encircling Dharyan-Dharielle stood down that same afternoon, even sending supplies in to the beleaguered To-gai-ru.

  „It was not done without arguments among the Yatols,“ Pagonel assured Brynn.

  „Let them fight, then,“ the woman replied.

  „You risked much.“

  „Every step of my journey,“ said Brynn.

  The city under Brynn’s control actually had more Behrenese citizens than To-gai-ru, once the situation had sorted itself out after that long winter of God’s Year 844-845. Many To-gai-ru did come down from the steppes though, including some old friends, Barachuk and Tsolona.

  „You will be prized advisors,“ Brynn said to them, after many hugs and kisses. „Our way is not yet clear.“

  „Indeed,“ said the old man who had just come down from the steppes, where the tumultuous ripples of Brynn’s surprising victory were only then reverberating. „Indeed!“

  As she had promised, Brynn Dharielle left the gates open to men and women of either land, and many Behrenese merchants flocked in to reap the rewards of open trade with the To-gai-ru for their prized horses.

  Late that spring, the first column bearing items from the Library of Pruda arrived, while craftsmen worked to construct a new and more fabulous li­brary. Though the scholars of Pruda offered a letter of defiance and com­plaint, they did begin showing up in the city to peruse the ancient tomes.

  Brynn heard reports of many battles being fought in the east, mostly south of Jacintha along the coast, and she knew that Pagonel’s estimate of the crisis now befalling Behren had not been exaggerated. She determined to be a good neighbor, though, and take no gains from the Behrenese dis­tress. In truth, she had enough trouble in keeping her own kingdom, To-gai, united - and for the first time! Things were not going smoothly on the steppes, for there remained many outposters and much bitterness.

  But they would get through it, Brynn believed. After what she and her friends had accomplished, no obstacle seemed too great.

  That spring brought a pair of partings, as well, one expected and somewhat welcomed, and the other one that caught Brynn completely by surprise.

  „Agradeleous has agreed to fly me to my home before he returns to his own,“ Pagonel announced to her, the dragon standing behind him.

  „My wounds have healed enough for me to fly again,“ Agradeleous added „How good it will be to feel the wind upon my face!“

  „You will return to the Walk of Clouds?“

  „I must,“ Pagonel replied, and he took her in his arms. „For how long, I do not know. But it is my place to go to Master Cheyes and Mistress Dasa that we three might determine where the Jhesta Tu can fit into this new or­der of Behren and To-gai. With the death of the Chezru Chieftain and the Kaliit of the Chezhou-Lei, there may be some gains to be made between our orders. It must be explored.“

  Brynn wanted to argue against it all, wanted to beg Pagonel to stay beside her as she continued to work through this confusing and dangerous time. But as she had let Belli’mar Juraviel and Cazzira go, so, too, must she grant Pagonel this priority.

  „I will return there one day,“ she promised.

  „And I will be there to greet you, with arms wide,“ the mystic replied. „Unless, of course, I have already returned to you, in which event, I will es­cort you up the five thousand steps, to a place of greater enlightenment.“

  Brynn fought back the tears and so did Pagonel. It was a bitter parting, but was made with the sincere understanding and belief between these two that they would indeed meet again.

  „And of you, good Agradeleous,“ the woman said suddenly, turning away from the mystic. „You will return now to your mountain home?“

  „I will mark a cave for the bearers of treasures and the bearers of tales, the dragon replied, reminding Brynn of their bargain.

  „Promise me that you’ll not eat them.“

  „You ask much.“

  „Agradeleous - “

  „Promise me that their tales will be good!“ the dragon roared.

  They shared a laugh.

  „If I need you again, will you come out?“ Brynn asked.

  Agradeleous put on that typically awful grin, and despite the joyous mood, both she and Pagonel shivered as the dragon replied, „With pleasure.“

  Each day brought new challenges, new victories, and new frustrations, and though she worked tirelessly, Brynn felt as if she simply could not keep up with it all. For To-gai, she demanded so
lidarity, a unison of purpose, though she did not argue when the leaders of her people insisted that they return to their ancient tribes.

  Of the Behrenese, Brynn asked for little and was asked for less, as their kingdom continued to dissolve into chaos, with open wars declared. Through it all, the woman hoped that she would one day find the opportunity to ex­act her revenge upon Yatol Bardoh.

  But it was a fleeting fantasy, lost in the swirl of the everyday realities of aoverning both a city and a kingdom behind it. She had to establish prof­ile trade, to keep her people happy and prosperous, to bring them to work through the centuries of tribal feuding that had maae them vulnera­ble to the Behrenese in the first place.

  It struck her as curious how the situations in the two kingdoms had sud-j-nlv reversed, with To-gai uniting and Behren breaking apart. There was a difference though, in that Brynn and her people would never try to take advantage’of that situation, as Yakim Douan had done.

  There had to be a difference, else all of it, the killing and the dying, the loosing of Agradeleous upon Behrenese cities, and the last desperate fight 3 hold Dharyan-Dharielle, would truly prove meaningless.

  Brynn knew that, in her heart, and so she was glad when the turn of au­tumn brought the first open market in Dharyan-Dharielle, one that at­tracted Behrenese caravans from all across the desert kingdom.

  But then soon after, she was confused, as well, for word came to her that fall of 845 that the kingdom north of the Belt-and-Buckle, too, had been shaken to its core, that a new king had ascended the throne. It was a name Brynn knew all too well.

  King Aydrian, the son of Elbryan Wyndon.

  And she who had been schooled in the elvish tongue recognized the sur­name the young man had chosen, as wdl - Boudabras - and understood its true meaning. Maelstrom.