Prophecy

by Sharon Green

  “Oh, yes, I remember that practical joke with Water magic too,” Lorand agreed, and then he grinned sheepishly. “I was feeling so out of place at the time, that I thought I was the only one the joke was being played on. So I decided to show I was sophisticated enough to ignore the prank, while privately hoping that I was ruining the joke for whoever played it.”

  “That someone had to be Holter, because it certainly wasn’t me,” Vallant Ro said with a snort of remembered annoyance. “I thought at the time that he might be tryin’ to challenge me or somethin’, but nothin’ ever came of it.”

  “Are you saying you were a victim of that practical joke too, Vallant?” Jovvi asked softly after she and I had exchanged a glance. Personally I also felt a chill, and I had a suspicion that Jovvi shared that with me. “It’s odd, but I was also treated to that same practical joke, and from her expression and emotions, I’d say Tamma makes the fifth victim.”

  “All of you?” Naran said, looking around at us. The men were now wearing expressions that probably matched my own, odd twists of the face that reflected the confusion and muddiness of their thoughts. I remembered thinking at the time that the stupid joke had to have been done by Vallant Ro, and I’d been furious when I gave him the chance to apologize for it but he hadn’t. Now … if all of us had had the same experience again…

  “And now that we’retalking about practical jokes and odd happenings, I remember something else,” Jovvi went on, looking at each of us in turn before turning her attention to Rion. “You mentioned something about a joke involving Air magic, but had decided that it was your own mind playing the trick. What specifically was involved with that, Rion?”

  “It … wasn’t at all like the other occurrences,” Rion answered slowly and carefully, his expression grave despite his having Naran’s hand in his own. Usually when they held hands, he seemed very much at peace with the world. “Years ago I fashioned a … number of different shapes and forms out of hardened air to … help me with my exercising and working out. After I received one of Mother’s—that woman’s—letters, I happened to need those shapes and forms to work off my anger. Finding it right there in front of me to satisfy the need must have been nothing more than my own mind seeing to the matter… Wasn’t it?”

  The plaintive note in his voice was perfectly clear, but with my hand over my eyes I could no longer see his expression. Not that I needed to. Once again it must have been a lot like mine, as I remembered an invisible net swing that had to have been made out of hardened air too. Lorand groaned and Vallant Ro made a sound deep in his throat, and then Jovvi sighed.

  “To answer your question, Rion,” she said, “I wondered at the time how you knew about the refuge I’d had as a child, and also how you knew I needed it so badly right then. It was exactly the proper shape and size but it was invisible, so I concluded it was made of hardened air. With you being the only Air magic user in the residence…”

  Rion voiced a groan like the one Lorand had produced, and I took my hand away from my eyes to see that everyone else was also looking around. And looking drawn, which was very much the way I felt.

  “That’s Fire, Water, and Air magic accounted for,” I said, hating the way some sort of noose seemed to be tightening around us. “I’m going to mention something reluctantly, and only because it falls into the realm of Earth magic—in a way. If no one else had a similar experience, please say so right away as I happen to need the reassurance rather badly.”

  “Of course we will,” Jovvi said encouragingly with a smile. “Go ahead and tell us.”

  “All right, it was at the mastery tests,” I said, wishing I could feel more foolish about discussing what had to be a flight of fancy. “I … was more than a little unsure and nervous, especially since there were two of the Adepts and I was alone. I didn’t like being alone, so I … pretended that a bird was … giving me encouragement and company, a bird which didn’t seem to be afraid of the fire I used…”

  “Oh, that’s marvelous,” Jovvi cut in, her smile now wide and relieved. “I don’t remember anything at all about a bird, only about a spider which happened to be in the testing building with me. This is a definite break in the pattern, which has to mean the pattern isn’t really there at all. We’reall just—”

  “Jovvi,” Lorand said abruptly, sounding as though he’d had to force himself to speak. “I really hate to say this, but … the bird … it was there for me as well.”

  “And me,” Vallant Ro said in a lifeless voice, a perfect match to the way my heart sank. “I felt like a fool thinkin’ it was there to give me support, but that’s just what it seemed like.”

  “And Jovvi, about your spider,” Rion said, his body slumped back in his chair. “I had a spider companion as well, there in the testing building. That means there were birds out of doors and spiders indoors, with both falling under the aspect of Earth magic. What were you saying about a broken pattern?”

  Jovvi simply shook her head, the relief she’d shown completely gone. But at least she’d felt it for a little while, and I envied her that…

  “Why are you all looking as if the world was in the process of ending?” Naran demanded, her bewilderment tinged faintly with exasperation. “Everything you’ve been saying simply supports the contention that you five are the Chosen mentioned in the Prophecies, and that’s wonderful! You’remeant to be on the Fivefold Throne, so you will be.”

  “Naran, dear, I don’t quite know where to begin the answer to your question,” Jovvi said, sighing as she groped for the proper words. “For me, at least, this all began as something which circumstance forced me into, and then, considering all the people who were being hurt, it became something that had to be done by me because I had the necessary strength. I’m fairly certain that my groupmates felt the same way, but now…”

  “Now someone is telling us that doing this is our destiny, that it’s what we were born for,” I took up the explanation, too … upset to just sit there. “Choice isn’t involved in something like that, and you don’t dare even think about failure, not when you’ve been chosen to do the thing. I hate being told that I have no choice, but even more I just keep remembering that I’m a plain, ordinary woman who has made more than her share of mistakes. How can I think of myself as chosen, when I’m certain to make even more of them, probably at the worst time possible?”

  “And when you’rechosen, people expect things of you,” Lorand put in in agreement. “I have enough self confidence not to mind when people expect ordinary things from me, but something like this? When not only my life and future depend on how well I do, but everyone else’s along with mine? How am I supposed to live with that?”

  “But … if you’reChosen, all you have to do is continue on the way you’ve been going,” Naran protested, obviously still not understanding. “For anyone else that might not be enough, but for you it has to be. If it wasn’t, why would you be the chosen ones in the first place?”

  “Naran, my love, it isn’t quite that simple,” Rion said, trying his hand at it. “When I was a small boy, one of my nurses taught me a poem. It was a simple thing and I learned it quickly, and then I spent a good deal of my time reciting it over and over. One of those times my mother—that woman—heard me reciting, and she thought it was the most marvelous thing. The next I knew, she was dragging me in front of a group of her friends and telling me to recite the poem. With everyone watching and listening so closely, the words completely disappeared from my head. I could have recited the poem in my sleep or standing on my head, but with everyone listening and watching I couldn’t do it at all.”

  “That sounds like the time I had to be certified as capable of bein’ an officer aboard ship,” Vallant Ro put in with a nod. “Two members of the certifyin’ board shipped with us, since a skipper’s word about a member of his crew is never accepted without support—especially when the crew member is also the fleet owner’s son. I knew every one of my duties cold and could have commanded that vessel rather than just bein�
� its lowest officer, but you’d never have known that to look at me. Bein’ watched made me so nervous it’s a wonder I didn’t fall overboard and drown.”

  “And we’renot talking about just a few people here,” Naran said with a nod and a sigh. “Once the word begins to spread, you’ll have everyone you pass watching avidly. Whether or not you want to do this thing, everyone will insist that it’s your duty and destiny. Yes, I think I finally understand.”

  “Let’s not forget about the people who will be watching and hoping that we fail,” I said, wanting to round out the picture properly. “Some of them will be people who don’t believe in the Prophecies at all, and some will be those who believe in them utterly—and don’t want any ordinary humans cluttering up their picture of ideal perfection. And then, of course, there will be those who just like to see people fail, not to mention the members of the nobility, who will be praying that we fail…”

  “So you see that we’renot in a very enviable position,” Jovvi summed up, closing the circle. “Until now we were just a group of people out to make as much trouble for our enemies as we possibly could. Now… Everyone will know what we’resupposed to do and how, and most of them will tell us about it. Some of our supporters will try to direct our actions, being convinced that they know the proper way to handle this thing. Others will try to direct us because they don’t want us to win, not when their fortunes and/or loyalties are tied up with the other side. Once all that nonsense starts, we’ll be lucky if we reach Gan Garee in time for next year’s competitions.”

  “You’reright, and that means we can’t allow it to start,” Vallant Ro said, suddenly looking more alert. “That army comin’ behind us from Astinda won’t take that long to get here, and they’ll be destroyin’ things every step of the way. We can’t turn to face them until we know our backs are secure, and that means takin’ on and bestin’ those five on the Throne. We’ll just have to tell our new allies that they’rewrong, and then we can get on with what has to be done in peace.”

  “Simply telling them that won’t work,” Lorand disagreed with a grimace. “They know about the fireballs, which is what led them to us in the first place. That happening is a fact, and unless we can come up with a good, logical reason for that happening other than the one they believe, we’rewasting our time with denials.”

  “How can we possibly come up with another reason?” Rion asked, vexation strong in his voice and manner. “We can’t simply say that that sort of thing happened all the time in our respective home towns, so another episode simply means nothing. They know better than that, as will anyone else who hears the excuse.”

  “Why can’t we just offer a suggestion?” I asked slowly as the idea came to me. “What I mean is, we suggest a different interpretation of what happened, and then leave it to them to think up the logical reasons. For instance, if we said we thought that someone arranged for those fireballs to make people believe we’rethe Chosen when we aren’t, that would make them stop and think. The reason would be to take the support away from the real Chosen in order to make the real ones fail, or maybe to protect them.”

  “And since the fireballs are the only evidence they have, they’d have to consider the idea seriously,” Jovvi agreed at once as she brightened. “They don’t believe that the nobility knows about the fireballs, but how can anyone prove that they don’t? If someone caused the fireballs to appear in order to misdirect people, they’d also make certain that the nobility knew about it.”

  “They chose us because we were all heading for Gan Garee at the same time for testing,” Lorand jumped in with enthusiasm. “They knew we were strong enough to justify belief in the claim that we’rethe Chosen, and that’s why they picked us. The real Chosen are probably among the group of people coming here more slowly, and are perfectly safe as long as everyone is looking in our direction.”

  “And considering the fact that we’resimply pawns in their plan, we don’t even have to know who they are,” Rion said, delight putting a grin on his face. “We can leave the speculation to the Guild people, and simply get on with our own affairs.”

  “We may even be able to get their help in Gan Garee,” Vallant Ro said musingly, his mood lightened as well. “If the real Chosen are among those followin’ us, helpin’ us will be helpin’ them. We can say we’remeant to protect them and get them where they’resupposed to be, and that’s why we’releadin’ this bunch.”

  “Now, this is what I call a decent solution,” Jovvi said with a laugh. “Not only does it get us out from under, it even lets us make use of the assistance we need. Let’s just make sure not to give anyone a reason to doubt the story, and we ought to get away with it. And who knows, if we’revery lucky, the story may turn out to be true after all.”

  We all made some sort of comment agreeing with that last part, and my own agreement was extremely fervent. I’d been chosen for enough things in my life by my parents; to now find out that I was chosen by people centuries dead would be close to the last straw. Anger rather than dread was beginning to rise at the thought of that, but also an intense curiosity. All those hundreds of years ago … how could they possibly have known? And how could they now be causing the things we’d all experienced? It all made very little sense, and I knew I’d have to find some time to think about it.

  But not now, when voices and footsteps down the hall said we were about to have some company…

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Rion heard the sound of voices and footsteps in the hall approaching their sitting area, which meant they’d found their solution to the problem just in time. That it wasn’t a true solution to the actual circumstance couldn’t be thought about right now, not when the truth would put them in an extremely untenable position. Or at least what seemed to be the truth. For some reason believing in something special about another person was a good deal easier than believing the same about oneself.

  “Ah, I think we’reabout to have company,” Jovvi said in a normal voice, one which was certainly heard by those in the hall. “See, I was right. It’s Dom Mohr and his friends.”

  “We bid you a good evening, Excellences,” the man Mohr said with a bow as he looked around at them. “I thought this might be the perfect time to introduce you to my associates, but if we’reintruding…”

  “Not at all, Dom Mohr,” Vallant assured him when the man’s voice trailed off. “There’s no question of intrudin’. There are certainly enough seats in here for all of us, so please join us.”

  “But I’m afraid we have some bad news for you,” Lorand put in as the four men bowed and began to make their way to the empty chairs. “We’ve been discussing this matter of being Chosen, and we’ve discovered that that incident with the fireball was the only one of its kind. Since there were definitely supposed to be more signs, we’ve been forced to conclude that we’renot the ones—but we may know who is Chosen.”

  “If not you five, then who?” Mohr asked, stopping in front of a chair rather than sitting in it. “And it’s always possible that you missed the other signs, since they’resupposed to manifest in private. You must think back to any odd incidents you may have been involved with, but dismissed at the time. You—”

  “We’ve already done that, sir,” Rion interrupted, forcing himself to sound friendly rather than curt. “There just isn’t anything of that sort, but we’ve thought of a reason why that is. We aren’t the Chosen ones, but they must be among the hundreds of people following us. Someone wanted to protect them, so they made it seem as though we’re the ones.”

  “So that the enemies of the Chosen will try stoppin’ us instead of them,” Vallant added, rounding out the explanation with a smile. “It makes a good deal of sense, and we don’t mind in the least. We’ll blaze the trail, so to speak, so the real five can simply walk in and do what they’remeant to.”

  “I … don’t think it’s meant to work in quite that way,” Mohr said as he slowly seated himself. “Have any of you actually read the Prophecies, and I mean as they w
ere written down? Not heard about them or had someone paraphrase or interpret them for you, but actually read them? And for that matter, how familiar are you with the ability of Guild members?”

  Rion exchanged looks with the others, but none of them spoke up to say they’d read the Prophecies. He certainly hadn’t, nor had he ever heard anyone else say they had. And as far as being familiar with Guild practices went, everyone probably knew just what he did.

  “It seems that our education is lacking in more than one way,” Rion told Mohr ruefully, speaking for them all. “It’s fairly obvious that none of us has read the actual Prophecies, and we also know almost nothing about the Guild. Your members are unable to use magic yourselves, but you’reable to judge the use of it in others—or so I interpret the matter.”

  “Your interpretation is correct, if incomplete,” Mohr replied with a smile and a gesture of his hand. “But that subject may be left for later, after we’ve discussed the Prophecies. In point of fact there is just one Prophecy, with more … minor supporting statements which are also called Prophecies. The major statement is as follows: ‘Beware and be warned. In three hundred years will come a time of greatest crisis, a time when the teachings of wisdom are no longer followed. This will presage the reappearance of the devastating evil of the Four, which nearly destroyed our empire.’”

  “Just a moment,” Jovvi interrupted the man, clearly as surprised as Rion felt. “That isn’t precisely what everyone claims the Prophecy says. There’s a difference between the reappearance of the Four, and the reappearance of their evil. Most people claim that it’s the Four themselves who are supposed to reappear.”

  “I’m of the opinion that those who first interpreted the Prophecy were possessed of overactive imaginations,” Mohr said with a smile more wry than his previous one. “That or secret believers in the supernatural, which would certainly color their thinking. In point of fact the Prophecy reads exactly as I’ve quoted it, a matter I made sure of personally.”