“Greetings to you, guests of the Dominion. Today we grieve for your loss, and we are deeply ashamed, for this crime happened in our very stronghold, the seat of our Council. Rest assured that the Scourge who planned this will not go unpunished. Nor will the traitors who made it happen.”
It sounded almost like a vow. I didn’t have any sympathy for the Scourge, yet there was so much raw power behind her words, so much passion, that in that brief moment I pitied them.
CHAPTER 21 (ELIZABETH)
I remain alone with Oriel, free to speak my mind. I don’t have anything to hide from my human guests, yet some discussions are better to stay private.
The Queen of Matter is her usual brisk non-nonsense self, not prone to chit-chat and subtle overtures:
“The Scourge presence on Merdun, so close to our centre of operations is ill-advised, to say the least. The Council should have consulted with the rest of us before proposing this.”
“It was your Sister’s proposal.”
“I’m well aware of that. Faun is playing her own hand but it’s a dangerous game, now more than ever. Merdun is effectively cut in half. My part is sealed, but I’m not sure that’s enough since for so long we’ve dealt with their proxies rather than the masters themselves. Faun has also sealed the Spirit Palace against outside intrusion, including myself, as per agreement with the Scourge. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen, that we are playing in the enemy’s hands.”
“I completely agree. As you know, I opposed having the talks here, the same way you did. I can’t see what else I can do, especially now after being side-lined by the Council. You should talk with Faun or better yet, with Verdid.”
“My sister is secluded by her own choice. And I did talk with Verdid.”
“And?”
“She advised me to come to you. By her own words, at this moment you are the only one who has nothing to lose, the only one free to act. The Scourge did an excellent job painting you, as their nemesis and nothing you say or do can make matters worse. They can hardly complain when you stay in character because they were the ones who created it in the first place.”
I’m lost in thought. In a roundabout way, Verdid is effectively encouraging me to act, to get back into the game and Oriel has agreed to be the messenger. The Spymistress could have contacted me directly, for I worked with her network before, last time around on Caldeor less than twelve cycles ago. I was probably the only queen, other than Verdid herself, who was always ready to give up the comfort of her station and get her hands dirty. Yet Verdid avoided any direct involvement and decided to stay clean.
I can think of at least two reasons to do this, possibly more as the Queen of Dreams always had her fingers in a thousand pies. If I’ll screw-up, she wouldn’t want to be seen anywhere near me, being able to carry on her own game with the Scourge. Plus, there was of course the matter of the rogue adept, reason in itself to keep my association with the Shadow Network a secret.
“What do you want me to do?”
The question is for both Oriel and Verdid. I’ve no doubts they both cooked a plan, and the Queen of Matter is here to sell it to me.
“You should come to Merdun and be Faun’s backup from the shadows.”
“What’s your role in all this?” I ask. She should have been the ideal backup for her sister, should my co-rulers not be overly concerned with the Scourge reaction to another interference.
Oriel gives me a crooked grin.
“I’m to be your backup in turn, dear sister, if things get really ugly and we don’t care anymore about maintaining this charade.”
Trust Verdid to pile a contingency on top of another. The woman was utterly paranoid, but she had saved the day so many times before, so admittedly her paranoia was in itself an art.
“How about Faun? Is she in this too?”
“My Spirit sister is too proud to accept she needs help in her own stronghold. She has her own people she can rely upon, strong adepts all of them. Only that we all know, Faun included, that there is at least a traitor in their midst.”
“I agree we need to keep an eye on the Scourge and whoever is working with them. I even agree to be the one to do it and keep the rest of you true to the truce agreement. Yet I don’t see how I can get to the Spirit Quarters against Faun’s wish.”
“Verdid’s shadows have an illegal portal in place and a small network on the Spirit side of Merdun.”
Why am I not surprised? Verdid’s network seems to have at least an illegal portal on each and every planet, planetoid or moon in the Dominion space.
“If she told you this, she may have a suggestion about my appearance. I’m not exactly inconspicuous, and the first Spirit patrol I’ll meet on Merdun will politely but firmly escort me back to the gates.”
Once again, being human was proving to be more of an inconvenience than I expected. I didn’t have this problem before when acting from shadows, but I can hardly disguise being more than a head taller than everyone around.
“You have no choice than to pose as an alien.”
“A human?” I snort. “Faun’s guards will kick me out even faster.”
“A sievrin. They have roughly the same height and the same bulk you have now.”
They do. They are also communal insectoid creatures. I somehow believe I was at least a set of mandibulae short from posing as a sievrin, not to mention bug eyes and antennae.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“A sievrin trader monk. They are permanently shrouded in black robes from head to toe, their features undiscernible under their hoods. Besides, they are known to deal occasionally with the Spirit side of our House.”
I must admit the perspective of playing cloak and dagger games in the Spirit Quarters had a certain appeal. I’ve never dealt with the sievrin monks, yet somehow my memory produced images of a procession of black-clad figures marching in pairs and chatting some complicated rhythms. Ghost memories again, for we don’t have such complex tunes. Liz’s ghost choosing this moment to make itself known.
“Don’t they always travel in multiples of four. Where do I find three genuine sievrin to escort me?”
“I’m afraid we don’t have any on hand, so you’ll have to do with some of your own retainers.”
“It won’t work. My escorts will be normal size, and I’ll stick out between them like a sore thumb.”
Oriel looks at me pointedly and enunciates slowly:
“Your … other… retainers.”
For the moment I’m lost, then I realise what she’s asking me to do.
“Have you lost your mind? Do you want me to bring the humans into this after they just proved completely vulnerable to the Scourge?”
“You don’t need to bring them anywhere near the Scourge. You don’t need to be physically close to the Scourge to keep tabs on them and act in case you sense any betrayal.”
It all sounds good in theory, but how many times does a plan work as initially devised?”
“I don’t like this. The humans can’t do anything for me, so they’ll end up being just a distraction.”
“Leave them in Verdid’s people care as soon as you are close enough to the meeting chambers to respond to any threat in real-time.”
Up until now, I always tried to keep my human friends away from danger. I managed so well that six of them are dead, including Koslowski who is as good as gone. Yet now Verdid is asking me to put them in the harm’s way, to bring them into a battle they are so totally unequipped to fight.
Borrowing their ship on Aldeea was one thing, but the very thought of Charles and Peter sneaking around alongside Verdid’s crew is ludicrous.
✽✽✽
“We’ll do it, of course! Of course we’ll come with you!”
I haven’t even finished detailing Verdid’s hare-brained scheme, and Christine is already jumping to agree. Are these humans completely devoid of self-preservation skills?
“Hold on, Christine. It’s just an idea,
and one not very well thought through. Not only you’ll be in danger from the Scourge, but you’ll be actively defying a Council edict. And since I’ll be doing the same, I won’t exactly be in the position to defend you.”
“I don’t quite understand,” complained Hank. “If all of you agree these talks are dangerous, if you are all certain that the Scourge plot something, why the need for all this subterfuge. Why don’t you agree with the Spirit Queen to lay in wait and strike at the first sign of betrayal?”
“It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. Faun personally guaranteed the conditions for these talks and besides she considers herself fully capable of taking care of the security arrangements. She’s also very old, and old people tend to be stubborn sometimes.”
“You are equally old,” bursts Charles.
“Oh, thank you, Charles! How very considerate from you to remind me.”
Charles is factually correct, yet I keep having this awful tendency to tease him, arising from some deep desire to see him embarrassed. Not that I’ve ever seen Charles embarrassed. The man is as emotionless as a piece of furniture. Or a sievrin insect, for that matter.
“I agree with Christine,” says Peter. “We have a debt to you we’ll never be able to repay. We’ll stay away from the Scourge and hence out of danger. I somehow doubt the Council will act against us if you are also involved, Elizabeth, so please don’t even try to continue the argument. Joining you is the least we can do to repay our debts.”
I don’t need to be repaid. Neither on Aldeea nor now on Tao Bellona, have I acted aiming for a reward. Although, if a reward is in play, Earth’s location will do nicely. But I would never use my friends’ lives as bargaining chips for increasing Dorien’s fortunes.
The thought of putting Peter in danger is so unbearable that almost makes me sick. I consider for a moment abandoning everything and telling Oriel that I changed my mind, that she should be there and protect her Sister, negotiations be damned.
Yet I don’t do it. I can’t do it, for that would mean putting my feelings, putting myself above the Haillar creed. Above my duty to my people, all my people not just a human for whom I seem to have feelings I cannot explain.
“I’m the obvious choice as the third participant in this ill-thought adventure!”
I’m speechless. Charles is the last person I was expecting to volunteer to come with us on Merdun, yet here he is, dropping his hat in the ring as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Hank obviously couldn’t believe his ears. No doubt he expected that the biologist and Dr Fiorelli wouldn’t join this folly and hence he’d be called to complete the human trio.
“Say it again, Doc? Why would you offer to do this?”
“I’m the closest to a medical expert amongst us, so my presence would be essential, don’t you think? Believe me, I’ve no intention to go and play being a hero like our other two volunteers. I’m simply the logical choice, much to my chagrin.”
I try to find Charles’ angle in his latest stance, and I have to admit I can’t find any. There aren’t any hymns to be sung, no awards of valour waiting to be bestowed on the human heroes. They are simply offering to do a shadow service for me, without the prospect of a reward. The biologist’s proposal is either the result of a newly found sense of duty, or a convoluted scheme to ingratiate himself to the Dominion, though I can’t guess to what ends.
Hank Mertens seems set to argue for his right to join the expedition, then thinks better and gives up with a resigned sigh. Whatever motivates Charles, his argument is true. He’s the only human in this group with Life affiliation, his medical skills second hand as they may be.
In the end the biologist joins the team, as the third human to escort an eccentric alien queen in a place where she officially has no business being.
CHAPTER 22 (PETER)
“Morris is dead, Sir. We probably lost Commander Koslowski as well. He’s in a coma for the time being, but we are told his chances of waking up are almost non-existent.”
I said it plainly, as there was no point in sugar-coating the news and besides Thomas Holt always favoured short, succinct reports. Though this particular report was more like a thunderbolt catching him in the open. The Captain had taken poorly the loss of our crewmates and friends one month ago, and our news was his worst nightmare come true.
“How was this possible? The Haillar assured us you were invited as honoured guests.”
“It wasn’t the Haillar. We came across the Scourge, Sir and our officers died while defending the rest of us. They put their duty first and gave their lives to keep us safe.”
“What’s more,” interrupted Charles, “the Scourge knew about us and apparently were keen to somehow use our presence here in a plot against the Haillar.”
“One more reason to return to Aldeea at once. Whatever information we gained from this sortie, it wasn’t worth the risks and the death of our people.”
“Err, about that, Sir. We arranged our return by portal, so we’ll cut travel time to nothing, but we can only depart later this week. We have a job to do for Ellandra, something that might turn the tables against the Scourge.”
The Captain was about to interrupt Christine, no doubt intending to order us back without delay, when the last part of her statement registered. He swallowed his words and honoured us with a long, appraising look as if suddenly doubting our sanity.
“You have a job to do for Ellandra. You mean … for the Haillar Queen who perished on Aldeea, the one who blew to bits together with Endeavour.”
I had a feeling that whatever we were going to say would not convince the Captain that we were in full control of our minds, that we weren’t the victims of some nefarious plot, mind-wiped by our hosts or mass hallucinating.
Charles proved to be our saviour, the last person who could be suspected of naïve trust in our hosts. In his pedantic lecture-mode, the biologist launched himself in a convoluted exposé entirely out of place under the current circumstances.
“It appears, my dear Captain, that we were entirely wrong to regard our hosts’ beliefs in Ashar’s rebirth as merely myth and superstition. While there is a certain element of mysticism associated with a Haillar queen’s reincarnation, and I have no doubt about this, we now have irrefutable evidence that the process is real and somehow the alien rulers can transmigrate after death. Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests….”
“Are you telling me Ellandra’s alive?”
“At least part of the entity’s consciousness survived, it seems. In an altogether different … package.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“He means that she reincorporated as an impossible gorgeous babe”, intervened Mertens, trying to cut through the pseudo-academic jargon. “A human one, to be precise.”
“All of this is nuts!” uttered Thomas Holt in a rather informal way I would never have associated with the Navy officer.
“I can assure you, Sir, she’s genuine, as you’ll have the chance to see for yourself in a not too distant future. Ellandra, or more precisely Elizabeth Ashar, as she calls herself these days, will join us on Aldeea to discuss with you the Scourge threat to Earth.”
“Why do I have the feeling that this will end with a request of leading them back to our world?”
“Because it most likely will. Yet with the Scourge being a clear and immediate danger for our race, we all believe this is the least of the possible evils. We cannot fight the monsters by ourselves, Sir. We can’t even resist their mind control, and our meeting with them removed any doubt about this.”
“Can you even reconstruct the jump algorithms with the limited capabilities we have?”
“I don’t think they need them, Captain. From what I’ve seen their hyperspace fold works in a completely different way, with no inherent limitations to the length of the jumps. We covered the space between Aldeea and Bellona in one go, and that’s more than twice the distance to Sol. Taking Aldeea as a reference point, they only need the radius and t
he azimuth, and I’m pretty sure they can figure out the rest.”
“Back to Earth in no time, you say?”
“Back to Earth in less than forty-eight hours, to be more precise.”
Thomas Holt watched us quietly while wrestling with his own thoughts. I was sure he wanted to go home as much as any of us, and by now he likely understood the danger the Scourge presented. Same as me, he was in two minds about the threat posed by the Haillar themselves, no matter how noble their intentions seemed. Yet I couldn’t see any other answer than an alliance, for ignoring the Scourge threat would be impossibly reckless.
✽✽✽
Merdun was not at all what I imagined.
Elizabeth had told us briefly the history of this Diessa estate, and for some ill-defined reason, I believed it to be a low gravity world, a grey and dreary place very similar to Earth’s moon. It was complete nonsense, of course, for I should have realised that the Haillar would make their lives comfortable, and not choose to jump around in imponderability, while dressed in vacuum suits.
The moon was likely the size of Bellona, or very close, for the gravity was nearly the same. However, unlike the open vistas we’ve become accustomed when visiting the Mirror World, the Spirit Quarter was an urban agglomeration that apparently combined hundreds of different architectural styles in a chaotic, yet charming mix. We were prodding our way through a giant bazaar, by far the busiest crowd we’ve ever seen in the Haillar realms.
Three days ago, when visiting the Dorien estate for the first time, we were amused by our guide calling the place subdued. Now I understood the context, for compared to Merdun, the Chaos Queen’s residence was a modest rural refuge. I guessed it was a matter of scale. While the Dorien sisters were content to expand across a decent-sized island, the Diessa had overdone it and requisitioned an entire world. Not to mention this wasn’t even their primary residence, their seat of power being on Diessa, their Sector’s hub.
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