“The Travelers pushed this into your mind.” I was almost close to her, and she stepped back until her body met the chairs. Do it! An unsure hand raised the knife. I can't do it. She is no longer... I can't. Do it!
“Someone named Xiriaxis will help you.”
“Who told you this name?
“Armin. I met Armin. Listen to me, it was Armin...”
*
“There is a bounty on our heads,” I whispered to Houston, trying to keep my calm. “The Galax Market.”
“Was it necessary?” Batranu asked. We have already agreed that Houston was somehow involved in this.
“Your cooperation is going well,” she smiled. “I suppose that it was,” she suddenly said in a strange voice that shut our mouths. What the hell is this? “Sorry,” she gestured to calm us. “I have reasons to think that Deceneus published them.”
“What?”
“The Observer, yes. The creator is always the best placed to control the creation.” This must be a dream. A nightmare. I pinched my nose. It hurts, it’s not a dream. “It’s not a dream,” Houston confirmed. As if I can really know... “By the rules of the Galax Market, no other bounty can be placed onto your names, for six months. So...” Six months ... the period Xiriaxix would keep them... “The old Deceneus is no longer in charge of this planet. They were able to replace him with their Observer.” What the hell do we do now? “They tried to cancel the womb-tanks interdiction. They failed.” Failed ... is their Observer. “The third Faction opposed the move. On the galactic power scale, the third Faction is one Level up compared to the old ones. That means a lot; we need to keep it neutral as long as possible, meaning until they gather enough information. The interdiction was kept for another six months. Enough for the third one to create its own reality here. After six months...”
“Armin said something about a third Faction being necessary to balance the things here. He have read this in the Lines of Time, whatever that means,” I involuntary mimicked Xiriaxix. “And about a Nexus in the west area...” A bloody killing Nexus. “The Anogi are there.”
“The Erins assimilate their mental computations of the future with reading the Lines of Time; the handicap of missing a culture to match their brains. He told me the same thing. From the womb-tanks story, it seems that he was right, and the old Deceneus thought the same. I guess.”
“The Anogi...” I pushed again.
“Yes, the Anogi are in the west, everybody knows this.” Everybody... Did Armin anticipate this? “The Observers have strong mental capabilities too – less than the Erins, but more than the Travelers. The planet gained some notoriety, and several Observers are now involved, working with the three Factions. They will shape the future in subtle ways; the game here is no longer the simple game we knew.” Simple...
*
“Be careful,” Altamira whispered in the silent corridor just before I left. “We... Be careful,” she repeated. I passed an arm around her shoulders and held her tight against my body; she embraced me too, and all things disappeared from my mind. “Let’s think that we are dancing again at the ball.” A shy smile appeared on her sullen face. “Do you remember too?” Her face was young again when asking. Then we are two... “I will be back.” I hope.
For the cadets it was just a new war game, and their laughter was torturing me. How many will return? You are responsible for them. I am responsible for me too. The weather was nice, a charming sun greeting us every morning in a very Tuscan end of summer. Camping was easy, scouts wandering far in front, going back and forth to announce nothing, but it was good schooling in the field to acquire stalker habits and knowledge about finding easily defensible night halting places if ‘Erins were suddenly upon us’. After several days, the enthusiasm faded from endless walking; it was all about perception, repetitive tasks mean boredom, especially for young men. Pure human behavior, as Houston used to say. The fifty Baramunti left us after a week; they were instructed to go to a different western area. I couldn't even curse them, it was not their fault. I have only Xerix. Just one man…
The cadets' boredom was interrupted on the tenth day by a storm of dust appearing behind us and slowly closing the distance. Tension filled the world with short whispers: they are Erins, they are ten, twenty... Fear mounted, swords raised in the air, bows strung, arrows nocked, horses nervously kept trotting in fixed position, whispers moved into silence. Finally, the riders showed themselves in the dust, one, two, three, and all three were Baramunti, led by Maug. Everybody talked at once.
“Scharon will try to kill you by a night attack arranged to look like an Erin thing. I talked with the Queen, as you instructed me to, and the King gave me an errand in the south with the intention of going west.” Your links in the Baramunti chain of command are priceless, Maug. For them you will be a traitor... “They have two people on the death list: you and ... Airan.” Soon, you will be the third one.
“Airan is on their side.” If Airan dies, Altamira will be queen. They want Scharon, I want something else. Should I let Airan...? “Don't tell him, he will never believe it.” Why the hell have they sent you with only two soldiers?
That moment, Xerix came in sight, and Maug’ whispered: “Are you sure that we can trust him?”
“We will be sure after the first fight.”
*
“Maug, we have no chance of resisting in the open field.” I could not find the slightest strategy to improve our chances for a fight in the plain.
“I know an old fort, now half ruined, not far from here... A company will not be able to mount an assault even on those half-demolished walls and Scharon may be inexperienced, but not so inexperienced as to risk such an attack. His second-in-command is a skilled warrior.”
“It’s not about desperation, it is about conditioning; they are no longer acting on their own will, and this is their weakest point. If they were set to kill us they will try it until the last of them dies – or almost. How far is that fort?”
“Five days from here. On second thoughts, your plan will have a chance if they wait for us near the border, and we continue until the last moment as though we’re going there. Their scouts will surely spot us, and we can make a u-turn after we pass the fort and go east; the northern path from the main road to the fort is shorter than the southern access. If we are able to move down that road without being attacked, we can defeat them at the fort.”
“Our mission is to protect the borders,” Airan complained. “We have to patrol, not sleep in old ruins.”
“Nothing would change. We have a fortified base, just in case, and we send patrols to the border.” I checked his eyes. You look normal…. How are they doing it?
“We lose precious time coming back and forth, I don’t like to vegetate there,” he was unmoved. It must be a pattern inserted in your mind; they don’t want us behind those walls. Now I am sure that I want that fort. You have to stay with us until the end. The Queen asked... The Queen is a bitch.
“Never let the enemy have the initiative.” His face hardened. Now, your conditioning will fight for me. I need a fine balance between the implant and your own thoughts. “Mood is not for wars, Airan. We are warriors, not young chatting ladies.” Mood is not for… I almost smiled. That’s Houston... His mouth opened without words. Dismiss him with an order. “Announce the new course to the cadets.” He turned unwillingly, tried to say something again, but left without a word.
I closed my eyes for a second. When I opened them again, Cotiso appeared as if jumping from underground. “Yes, Cotiso.”
“I saw Marsius this morning.” Marsius was our best scouting cadet.
“I saw him too.”
“I saw Marsius talking to an unknown soldier.” I glanced around; Airan was already far off and did not hear Cotiso. “They met in that valley,” he pointed the direction to us. Scharon … real soldiers, not cadets. You knew this from the beginning. Why complain now? “A Baramunti soldier,” he confirmed. “Are they coming to help us?” Yes, to help us die. We wil
l ‘help’ them too.
“No, we are here to replace them.” His face lost some expectations. “Are you afraid?”
“No,” he managed a slow answer.
“Good, no one else should know about this.” I glanced at Maug, who nodded to him. “Only the three of us. And Marsius,” I added in haste. “They are afraid, don’t let them know.”
“And Marsius?” he finally asked.
“Don’t tell him, he would be ashamed of being discovered. Tomorrow you take the first scouting place.” He left with a tinge of pride, suppressing his fear, and Marsius was pushed away.
“We need five bloody days,” I whispered to Maug. “Five bloody days to keep this secret. I will ask Marsius to take Cotiso’s place in my team. I have to keep him busy.”
“If he tries to run ... I cannot kill him,” Maug bluntly stopped me.
“We alternate the watches; and I will make him my secretary. For five days only. He will learn some things I want to keep secret, but once in the fort it will be too late to pass them to Scharon.” Maug was still unconvinced. “We need him in the fight. He can slay the enemy killing you, or take an arrow meant for you. I suppose we are trained enough to keep watch on a young cadet.” Are you okay now? I don’t like to kill boys either. Marsius is no longer a boy. He is subverted, but still a boy. Something changed on Maug’s face. I hope I’ve got you.
“He will take the arrow meant for me,” he whispered. I have a fight to win. If you want to die... “You always ask or say things I never thought about, bad things. Like: Who are the papers’ owners? Nobody else thinks like you. You always imagine the worst things, you and the Travelers.” This is what I am really missing now. “You are not a Traveler,” he hastily added, “yet you think like them.” He glanced at me unsure about my reaction.
“I have a war to win.”
“We are partners,” Xerix was not happy with his exclusion from the daily briefings, after Maug’s arrival. “We don’t need to make love, but...”
“No, we don’t need to make love; we just need to stay alive the next two weeks,” I cut him short, the same way Houston used to do it ... with me. Voice mastering was perfect, eyes thinned in a severe look. A bit of arrogance, just a bit, giving Xerix the understanding that he was listened to, but his worries did not really count in the great scheme of things. His mouth shut. Good. “They are already here. I don’t really know what ‘they’ mean. Maybe one hundred Baramunti, and maybe some Anogi. Keep in mind, that no one here knows about Anogi, Mr Partner. We go to hide in a fort over that mountain.”
“Well, we know. We won the bid to destroy the womb-tanks, and got a recommendation for the new Faction here.”
“Who hired you?” The old Deceneus?
“Galax Market is blind, deaf and mute. An ovoid with many displays, arranged, like books in libraries, in categories. Plenty to choose.” Ovoid... Why do they like it so much? “No one knows who the publisher is, only its payment reliability. You don’t shout when hiring someone to kill your partner, so to speak.” I am sure.
“Can you fight Anogi?”
“One... With some good luck, two. You really don’t match this planet’s Level.” I am sure there is a reason for this.
“A Fourth Level was killed by a Nogi. Physically they are the same as the Anogi.” I played him again, and it worked again. Can I do the same with a higher Level? You already failed with Xiriaxix. Maybe a Fourth Level. Maybe.
“Five Nogi against our man. Two of them died too. All of them died in the end, but only two by his sword. There will not be many Anogi in this fight, and they are less intelligent.” The night covered his smile, the voice could not. “The Faction we represent pushed for a status quo: the womb-tank-born Anogi were displaced to a remote island. A temporary measure.”
“You moved fast, thank you.”
“Not so fast, we need more people here. When back,” If back... “you must find them. We help, you help.” You know when to put on pressure...
“Have you no other weapons than swords?” Why the hell did I not ask this before?
“You don’t usually run around the galaxy with swords.” Then? I gestured, forgetting the darkness. “You think of us as being some sort of unruly pirates. Don’t you? Shadowminds’ rules are tough, and the restrictions put upon us are even harder than for Factions.” Sure, I hear this all the time. And it is really true. “We are allowed to use only weapons already available here, individual weapons; the same on every other planet.” ‘An arsenal of advanced weapons will increase the chance of there being a reality in which you will have to use them.’ Houston’s words struck me from the past, almost a physical blow that made me step back. Pressure tightened my mind, and fog mounted. Please! No SAT-mines. “Something wrong?” Xerix’s voice was worried. We are partners... The world started to rotate around me. ‘Relying on them, you are setting the path for the most likely future. The more dangerous the weapons are, the more dangerous the reality.’ Her words whispered again to me. Stop this! ‘She let me choose to create my own timeline,’ I remembered. I did it. That moment, Ency materialized, for the first time, inside my mind: the shape of a woman, dressed all in white. “I was instructed to deliver this message, to you, when a certain threshold is met: The timeline that you had partially set came to an end. Another one will start from now.” What does this mean? I asked her. “I don’t know,” she answered back, and shrugged like a real human. There is just one codicil to the message: “It is no longer about weapons." Then the world came back.
*
When I opened my eyes, the morning greeted me with a strange hum: planes flying not far away. There are no planes here. I moved my head and everything hurt. The hum is inside, I observed.
“Deceneus!” Maug’s voice was worried.
I tried to stand, and fell back on the grass. “What happened?” I moaned.
“Marsius ran away.” Marsius? Later. What happened to me?
I pressed my hand on my back of the head. A lump, the size of an egg, was planted there. The hum increased. “Someone attacked me.” I observed my fingers. No blood. This is bad.
“Marsius, or one of the seven cadets that disappeared with him.”
“Airan? Xerix?”
“Xerix is still here, Airan too, but ... he is like a wolf in a cage.”
“Help me.” I clung to his arm and stood up. Many worried eyes measured me up and down, and I smiled for good morale. The smile did hurt. I glanced in the sky; the sun was not yet born in the east. That’s good. “I don’t remember anything.” The effort of recollecting some memories was painful. What the hell happened? A kid knocked me down. I, the warrior, the best sword in the Baragan... Shut up and think. It hurts. “Why am I still alive?” Maug’s eyes squinted after I spoke.
“Are you worried about this?” He almost smiled. Just a bit. “You can do it later. We have to hurry.” I made a few reluctant steps in the grass; the hum was still playing in my skull. I touched again the ‘egg’, – Bastards! – and nodded to Maug, who gave the marching orders. What stopped Marsius from killing me?
“Is there any other road going to that fort? A shortcut?”
“I don’t think so, at least not a road.” A path is more than enough. I searched on my inner map and mentally marked a sinuous path passing over a ridge between two small peaks. For a while, it matched our actual course. Even better, if they follow us...
“We stop here,” I told Maug, when the sun was low in the west. “Give the signal.”
“It’s too early; we can march for another two hours.”
“Three hours of rest, then we march again, all night. There,” I pointed to the ridge. “Don’t tell them yet.”
“We have visitors,” Cotiso was pleased to give us the news. “Two or three people.” The night was already on us, the light of the new moon was feeble and soft, like silk. Almost a mind-ranger, I remembered. Still in development? Not able to advance further? Why ask now?
“How many people until you are no longer able to di
stinguish individuals?”
“I don’t understand,” Cotiso reluctantly answered.
“You know there are two people there. Can you distinguish five? Or Ten?”
“Ten are too many, their minds mingle. I know only that there are many.”
“We have to leave. Maug, Airan, you take the youngest cadets and go for the mountains. I will...”
“I want to see who is there.” Airan sprang on his feet and left the group. “I don’t run like a coward from two shadows.” His voice was almost a whisper, yet he moved fast. ‘Airan is like a wolf in a cage.’ I remembered Maug. Why did you not leave with them? Something is fighting the conditioning. What is that something? Shame? Duty? Are you still Baragan?
“Airan! You take the lead of the first column. They are inexperienced, they need a strong leader.”
“After I come back.”
“Now! It’s an order,” I barked at him.
“The throne inheritor doesn’t take orders.”
“You are Captain Airan of the Baragan Army.” His eyes were hidden in the darkness, but his body stiffened. He did not step further, yet he did not turn back. “Your duty is to lead these young cadets and save them.”
“My duty...” His voice faded.
“Remember how many women and children they killed. In the mountains, or inside the fort, you will have the fight you are looking for.”
“Fight?” You don’t want to fight now, you want to join them. They are waiting for you with open arms and ... sharp swords. What if I let you die? Altamira would be a better ruler. And me the King. Shut up!
“The Erins will be here in a few hours. We cannot stand against them in the open field.” If Armin ever heard of this...
A metallic click woke me up. You are afraid; I smiled in the dark. I am too. “Shht!” Cotiso took seriously the duty of being my second in command. Fifteen frightened cadets stayed with me, and Xerix. I hope our minds are mingled enough. Cotiso is not a full mind-ranger. You should have looked into this matter before. Yes, I should. Would this help now?
Io Deceneus: Journal of a Time Traveler (The Living Universe) Page 40
