She nodded her thanks as she took it from him and began reading the packaging. “Damned outlandish script! Why don’t they write it in a civilized language like Sholan,” she grumbled.
“Look at the back,” Brynne said. “Way down near the bottom. It’s one of the coffees exported specifically for Shola.”
She glanced across the table at him from under lowered eye ridges. “So it is. Thank you for your consideration, Brynne Stevens. It’ll be interesting to taste the difference between this and the kind I usually get.”
Brynne shrugged, hearing the door behind him close as the other two males went out. “I take it Teusi goes out to the store a lot.”
“Depends on who’s visiting. He’s my apprentice, some things he’s not ready to know yet. Jurrel said you wanted to talk about visions and dreams you think you’ve been having. Said Dhaika sent you off with a cuff round the ears about a week ago, telling you not to bother him or Father Lijou again with such rubbish. What makes you think you got anything worth me hearing?”
“The fact I’m sitting here talking to you,” he said, watching her lift a jug of coffee and start pouring it into the first of the two mugs.
“Don’t do yourself any favors, boy, I’m just curious.” She handed him a mug then poured her own drink, leaving him to add what sweetener and whitener he wished from the pots on the table. “Yes, you can light one of your smoking sticks. Use the dish beside you for the ash. I’ve a fancy to see this strange Human habit for myself.”
Floored, he was left with nothing to say as he reached for the shallow pottery dish at his side of the table.
“What else do you know about me?” he asked, fishing his tobacco tin and lighter out of his pocket.
“You don’t really expect me to answer that, now, do you?” She took a sip from her mug. “So you were the pupil of the Derwent person that ran off from Valsgarth. The fake mystic who tried to teach our younglings that religion and telepathy went together, and our world is a male entity—Vartra in fact.” She snorted loudly in derision. “He’s a typical Terran patriarch from what I hear. No wonder he disliked Shola! We’re a matriarchal world, we just let our males think otherwise.”
Brynne choked on his coffee.
“You don’t believe me? Who d’you think runs the Clans, my lad?” she asked, raising an eye ridge. “That’s where our roots are. All the rest is commerce. Let the males play with it, we got enough females there to keep ’em on track, too.”
“But many senior positions are held by males.”
“Seem’s the word, lad. Yes, it goes to the best person for the job, but if the best’s a male, then look to the female beside him. Much easier to keep things on track from alongside your mate than out in front.”
He looked disbelievingly at her. “Stronghold.” He opened his tin and began rolling a cigarette.
“Kha’Qwa has a rather different kind of mate,” she said thoughtfully. “That Lijou, he’s more like us. Tallinu was the one I had hopes for, but his path lay elsewhere. Teusi, now, he’s a good apprentice. He’ll do well if he sticks it out with me. Maybe you’re one of the different ones, too. Being Talented helps. Gives you an appreciation of your female side. But then, we Sholans are more balanced than you Humans when it comes to that. Once the males get past thirty, they settle down some. They’re mostly past the drives to sire a family on the first pretty female they meet. You Human males never seem to get past it.”
“How many Humans have you met, Noni?” he asked, putting his cigarette to his lips and flicking open his lighter. “I heard I’m only the second.” He inhaled deeply, waiting for her answer.
Her brown eyes twinkled at him over the top of her mug. “I don’t have to leave here to meet Humans, lad. Nor do they need to come here to visit me.”
He frowned. What on earth was she talking about? How could she meet people without actually meeting them? Did she mean she talked to them on the comm? And he was like Tallinu and Teusi? He shook his head, confused. He couldn’t make sense of what she was saying.
Noni’s mouth opened in a gentle smile as she continued to sip her coffee. He had potential, right enough. She could use him, but not yet. When he was ready, he’d hear what she was saying clear enough.
“In all Derwent’s mishmash of ideas, he did get one or two things right,” she said. “At least you got through the barriers he put up about your Sholan side, lad, or you wouldn’t be here. Now, tell me about those dreams of yours.”
* * *
When he’d left, Noni called the Temple of Ghyakulla in Ghyasha.
“Rhuna, what can I do for you?” the Head Priestess asked.
“Looking tired, Tokui,” Noni said, noticing the lowered eye ridges and darker green of the Sister’s eyes.
“Setting up these colleges for our priesthood is hard work, Noni. No one is getting enough sleep these days. Almost overnight I’m expected to train up some twenty senior acolytes to the standard of priests and priestesses to cope with it. If they were Talented, it would be so much easier.”
“Everyone’s in the same den, Tokui. I sympathize with you, believe me.”
Sister Tokui reached up to tuck a wayward lock of golden-flecked, brown hair behind her ear. “You didn’t contact me to offer sympathy, Noni. I really am busy. Please make your point.”
“We need to meet tonight,” she said. “At the temple. You contact the other Guardians.”
“Tonight?” Tokui’s ears dropped in surprise before hurriedly righting themselves. “What’s so important that we have to meet tonight?”
“That’s what the meeting’s about,” said Noni.
“Noni, be reasonable! We all need more notice than this! I’ve got meetings scheduled . . .”
“Then cancel them or send a deputy,” interrupted Noni. “Seventeenth hour, usual place.”
“Noni! You can’t do this!”
“Just have,” she said with satisfaction and cut her comm connection.
* * *
Ghyasha was the town midway between the Kysubi and Lyarto Plains, the heartland of Shola’s grainfields and almost the center of the Kaeshala continent. It was the perfect place for the Green Goddess cult’s main temple, though that was disputed by the one in the Ferraki Hills, it being the older of the two. As with other Sholan towns and cities, Ghyasha existed to support the temple and the acolytes who lived and worked there. It was the place where mothers took their cubs to be blessed as newborns, where farmers went for help with their herds when all else had failed, and the center for the old folk remedies that the Guild of Medics frowned on. More, it was the core religious support for the majority of Sholan females of all ages. And it was where the Guardians met.
Teusi accompanied Noni into the antechamber of the meeting room before leaving her to join the other aides in the refectory. As she entered the chamber, she scanned the seats, spotting Lijou instantly. Hobbling over to his side of the semicircle of chairs, she glared pointedly at the male sitting next to him.
Rhio sighed and got to his feet. “Speak to you later, Lijou,” he said, moving over to an empty seat at the other end.
Lijou stood, offering his arm to her. She accepted his help, even though she didn’t need it, and sat down. Didn’t do any harm for them to think she was more frail than she actually was. Gave her another edge over them.
“Noni, what the devil was so important you had to drag us all out on such short notice?” demanded Keaal, tapping her foot impatiently on the floor.
“Don’t you try to rile me before the meeting’s begun, Keaal, because you won’t,” she said. “Who’re we waiting for?”
“Tulla,” said Lijou. “Storm over the desert delayed her. She’s coming in to land now.”
Noni gave him an appraising glance. “You’re pretty good, not many can send and receive that far. But then, you should be. If I remember right, weren’t you the second choice for Clan Lord?”
He smiled gently. “You know I was, just as you knew where Tulla is,” he replied equally quietly
.
“How’s that lifemate of yours doing?” she asked, changing the subject. “When’s your cub due?”
“Less than seven weeks now,” he said. “Kha’Qwa’s going to ask you to be the birther. She’s determined to have our cub at Stronghold rather than in the hospital.”
“I intended to be there anyway,” she said. “I’ll come see her tomorrow to organize things well in advance. How’s the nursery going? Finished it yet?”
Lijou’s ears flicked back in embarrassment. “Not yet. Kha’Qwa keeps nagging me to take her to Shanagi to choose furniture and things, but I’m not so sure. I’m afraid it’s tempting fate.”
Noni looked sharply at him, a look he thankfully missed. “Don’t you go taking her anywhere, Master Lijou,” she said, poking him gently in the ribs with her index finger. “She’s too far on to go traipsing out to Shanagi. You get those merchants to come out to you! They’ll jump at the chance, believe me. Get to see inside the most secret place on Kaeshala, if not Shola itself? You’ll have to fight ’em off!”
Lijou laughed. “A good reason to keep them away, Noni. Rhyaz would have my hide if he could hear you!”
“That’s as may be. It isn’t his mate that’s having a cub. All you do is get the stores to use the comm link to show you round their place so Kha’Qwa can choose. Then you send someone out to fetch the crib and whatnot that she thinks she wants so she can see it in the comfort of the nursery. Only need a couple of the store’s attendants, no more, and your own folk to bring ’em and take ’em back. No security breached, is there?”
“I suppose not,” he admitted.
“You tell Rhyaz I said you were to do it. If he wants to argue, tell him to come and see me and we’ll discuss old times.”
The door opened and a breathless Tulla scurried over to the last vacant chair. “Sorry I’m late, everyone, but there was a storm over the pass and we had to fly round it.”
“Get on with it, then, Noni,” said Keaal. “We’re all here, waiting breath-bated to find out why you dragged us out tonight.”
“Wait your turn, Keaal,” Noni snapped. “Tokui’s in charge tonight.”
Sister Tokui waved her hand tiredly in Noni’s direction. “Carry on, Noni. You called the meeting.”
“I want some information first,” she said, fixing her glare on Dhaika. “I want to know why Dhaika’s been ignoring the decision of this Council and not passing on information concerning visions and dreams.”
Startled, Dhaika looked over at her. “What’re you talking about, Noni? I pass on anything relevant. I always have.”
“Ah, but who decides what’s relevant?”
“I do, of course.”
“Well, you’ve messed up this time, you old fool! Where’d you get the brains to dismiss the visions that Human Brynne’s been having? From one of your students?”
“Brynne? He’s come to you with his dreams and you think they’re visions?” He shook his head. “It’s you that’s got no brains if you believe his ramblings, Noni.”
Beside her, Noni felt Lijou stiffen slightly. So he knew more about this than he was letting on, did he?
“What’s this all about?” demanded Keaal, looking from one to the other. “What dreams? What visions?”
“It’s nothing,” said Dhaika defensively. “Noni’s gotten it all out of proportion. If she’d bothered to contact me first, I could have explained it to her and we could have avoided this meeting.”
“Explain it now!”
“Someone better had,” said Tokui impatiently. “This is also my concern.”
“There’s nothing to explain. He’s having vivid dreams, that’s all. The kind that every new student gets at some time or another. And he’s Human, which means what he’s learning makes even less sense to him. It’s his subconscious adjusting to our ways, that’s all. Until recently, he’d had hardly any formal training as a telepath. He’d shut off his Sholan side, the part of him that he’s inherited from his Leska. Now he’s having vivid dreams.”
“You said that already,” said Miosh. “I disagree with you about Brynne. I know him a little, I’ve seen him around our estate, talked to him a few times. He’s not one given to flights of fancy. The opposite, in fact. He’s the kind that’d turn his back on anything that seemed mystical. Remember that it was Ghyan, our priest, who advised him to go to Stronghold because of the nature of what he was seeing. He believed it to be more than him finally coming to terms with his altered state of awareness.”
“More to the point, what are his dreams about?” asked Tokui.
“Nothing worth hauling us across Kaeshala at this time of night for!” said Dhaika.
“Oh, I’d say that visions of someone running through the forest and avoiding a hunt were worth passing on to the rest of us,” said Noni lazily, mouth open in a slight smile. “Wouldn’t you? Especially considering who we have loose on Shola. Namely that Valtegan general and the Derwent male.” Now she felt a very positive reaction from Lijou.
She turned her head to look at him. “You didn’t think we knew nothing about Kezule, did you?” She arched an eye ridge at him before looking back to Dhaika. “There’s more, isn’t there, Dhaika? Dreams of a creeping danger threatening Shola, of a darkness waiting out beyond our world. I’d say they were good enough to pass on, wouldn’t you?”
“I want to know why you ignored Stronghold’s directive as well as the Council one,” said Lijou grimly. “You know why we sent him to you. He’s been with you for over a week and you haven’t seen fit to inform me of any of this? Dammit, we’re supposed to be working together for the same ends here, the safety of our world! You forget in the isolation of the Retreat that out there in space are the beings who murdered millions of Sholans without a second thought! Anything that touches on them must be reported to me!”
“I don’t think they are visions! I see them as the product of a fertile imagination and an alien mind trying to adapt to our ways! Why would the Entity speak to him, a Human, when we have so many more Talented people of our own?”
“Gods, you disgust me!” said Keaal. “I’m not fully at ease with a Human learning our religions and becoming a priest, but even I don’t see why Ghyakulla shouldn’t choose him to send Her messages through. They’re part of our world now, Dhaika, their nature changed by our people as much as they’ve changed ours. There’s no excuse for that kind of prejudice!”
“I’m not prejudiced, just skeptical!” exclaimed the beleaguered guardian. “How do you know they’re true visions and not what I say they are? How many of you would have decided differently in my place?”
“How come you know all this, Noni?” asked Lijou. “What brought it to your attention?”
“Don’t you go blaming Brynne for not coming to you, Lijou. Dhaika told him not to bother you with his ‘hallucinations,’” said Noni. “Jurrel had the good sense to bring him to me. If he hadn’t, we’d still be in the dark about it. Sensible lad, that Jurrel.”
“Thank Vartra he did,” said Lijou, turning back to Dhaika. “Had you not kept this information to yourself, I could have told you that we’ve had confirmation of his visions,” said Lijou. “I lacked the information I now have to tell the Council more. Dammit, Dhaika, I cannot make sense of what our visionaries see if I only have half the picture!”
“What information do you have for us?” asked Sister Tokui.
Lijou looked over at Miosh, then Noni. “This must go no further for now,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry to have to break the news to you like this. The ship carrying the Aldatans and Tallinu has been reported missing. A scheduled transmission they should have made before entering jump is now ten days overdue. A search was mounted as soon as we heard, but so far, we’ve found no trace of them.”
Stunned silence greeted the news.
“Missing?” echoed Rhio. “What happened? Has there been an accident?”
“We don’t know,” said Lijou. “They were on a U’Churian vessel because it had the cryogenic facilities
our trading ship lacked. The U’Churians’ technology lags behind ours, but not significantly enough to have put their lives at risk by traveling on the vessel.”
“They could have forgotten, had a transmitter failure even,” said Miosh, her voice hushed. “Maybe they’re in jump already.”
“That’s what we’re hoping, but frankly, we couldn’t take the risk of waiting to see if they arrived at their rendezvous. With the treaty just having been signed between the Alliance and the Free Traders, we needed to show our new allies that we take our responsibilities to all our member species seriously.”
“Why did they need cryogenic facilities, Lijou?” asked Noni quietly.
“Carrie Aldatan was seriously wounded. They had to rush her to the medical facilities on the rendezvous ship. We don’t plan to tell the family until every effort has been made to trace them.”
Noni was still trying to absorb this first piece of news but something made her catch Lijou’s eye. “We’ll have the rest, if you please, Master Lijou,” she said, surprised at how gruff her voice sounded. She grasped the head of her walking stick more tightly. It was something solid and familiar in this nightmare she’d suddenly been thrown into.
“I’ve been warned by Vartra Himself that there is a threat to Shola from space. It’s quite possible that our missing ship is the beginning of something far more sinister. The Brotherhood is preparing now. Rhyaz is speaking to the Governor tomorrow.”
“It seems I was very wrong about Brynne’s visions,” said Dhaika, his voice barely audible.
“Dzaka came to me nine days ago with a tale of the cub Kashini crying inconsolably one night, and transmitting to him and Kitra a deep fear for her parents. I thought it impossible in a cub so young.”
“I remember the night,” said Miosh, voice trembling. “I was with Rhyasha. Kashini was beyond comforting for hours. Then suddenly, she stopped and just fell asleep.”
“Dzaka told me that they felt that whatever was happening was over,” said Lijou. “I should have paid more attention to him. He wanted us to start searching for them then. We all need to be less judgmental about what we hear, less afraid of seeming gullible to each other,” he said, looking round the semicircle of Guardians.
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