Fire Margins

by Lisanne Norman

  “Did they disturb Carrie?”

  Kusac shook his head. “No, she’s still sleeping. That Healer Kaid took her to must be one of the best around. She’s really on the mend now.”

  “I’m glad. We’ve been very worried for both of you,” Konis said, reaching out to lay his hand on Kusac’s arm.

  I’d be careful, Father, warned Kusac. Tomorrow’s our Link day. Already the sensitivity’s increasing.

  Konis moved his hand, smiling faintly. “I know. Is she up to it? There are drugs Vanna can use if she isn’t. I know her system was too weak after the Challenge, but she’s stronger now.”

  Kusac shook his head. “No need. She’s fine,” he grinned, dipping his head to one side. We weren’t sleeping all afternoon.

  Konis gave a small purr of laughter. “The kitlings,” he reminded his son. “Among the people you requested, is there a teacher capable of educating not just the three young ones, but also Mara?”

  “There will be when Ghyan joins us,” said Kusac. “Dzaka has been teaching them meditation and self-control techniques. Until Ghyan leaves the temple, how about letting him start training them in combat? It would keep them busy and out from underfoot.”

  Reluctantly Konis nodded. I dislike the whole concept of any of you learning combat. I know it’s necessary, not only for your own personal safety, but because it’s what the High Command wants. You know they want you all trained as special field operatives, don’t you?

  Yes, we know, Kusac replied with a sigh. If Vanna and Brynne, as well as Zhyaf and Mara develop the same way we did, then they’ll have their elite telepath fighting force.

  I’m torn two ways, Konis admitted. In my official capacities, I know you’ll be an asset to the Forces and to Shola, but as a parent and a telepath, I don’t approve of it at all.

  Neither do we. We haven’t an option at the moment. All we can do is go along with them and see where it leads us.

  How’s the work on your estate going?

  It’s taking time for them to start, sent Kusac. Before they can begin they must assess the state of the buildings still standing and see what’s needed in the way of repairs. Once that’s done, then they’ll be free to start work on the new structures. At least all the people involved are camping out down there rather than staying up here.

  Believe me, Kusac, your mother and I are very grateful for that! sent Konis. “You’re still determined to become En’Shalla? There’s nothing we can do to dissuade you?” He looked anxiously at his son.

  Kusac met his gaze. “Nothing, Father.”

  “Have you any idea what it entails? You realize no one has survived the journey in over ten generations?”

  “So I keep getting told,” said Kusac, flicking his ears in faint irritation. “Carrie’s been using the authorization you gave us to get files from the Telepath Guild, the Warrior Guild, and everything she could find in the public sector on the Brotherhood. She’s trying to see how far back their records go. We’ve also seen how the number of telepaths is dropping with every generation despite the breeding program that’s been going on for over a thousand years. It’s worrying.”

  “That’s my problem, not yours,” said Konis.

  “Did it ever occur to you that perhaps the reason for the decline is that our bloodlines have become too inbred? Maybe what we need is some of the outside blood, like that from the Brotherhood.”

  “You mean because of their lesser Talents?” Konis frowned. “Surely they’re not worth taking into consideration?”

  “I’ve been told that some of their Talents are far from lesser ones. Look at the Healer, Noni. She’s got to rate as highly as one of the best in the Guild, if not better. Think it over at least. You’ll have Vanna’s research shortly. I’ve asked her to do DNA tests on everyone who’s been exposed to that virus Carrie and I had a few months ago. It’ll show up the changes in our genes and tell us who’s compatible with whom. I’m hoping that those who don’t find Leska partners will be essentially Sholan so that we don’t lose too many of our telepaths to the new genes.”

  “I’ll ask Vanna to give me copies of all her work, including weekly updates. We should know one way or the other fairly soon. Now,” Konis said, standing up, “I’m going to raid your mother’s kitchen for a mug of c’shar. Coming?”

  “Right beside you,” said Kusac.

  *

  “You agreed to what?” demanded Ghezu.

  “I agreed to an alliance with them in return for their support at the All Guilds Council meeting,” said Lijou patiently.

  “Dammit, Lijou! You had no right to agree to that! An alliance is no good to us! We need them as Brothers or we have no claim!” He got to his feet and began pacing between the desk and the window, tail lashing angrily from side to side.

  “Ghezu, you’re not listening to me,” said Lijou. “I’ve just told you that publicly they will be seen to join us. Only we will know the reality.”

  “You haven’t the right to make decisions like that on your own,” snarled Ghezu, stalking over to the less formal seating where the Head Priest sat.

  “I’m the only one clearheaded enough to see that we weren’t going to get anything more from him!” Lijou’s temper broke. He’d had enough of making allowances for Ghezu’s increasingly unbalanced behavior. “Stop letting your prejudices rule your thoughts and actions! For Vartra’s sake, Ghezu,” he continued more quietly, “we’re on the brink of a new era for the Brotherhood. Let’s make the best deal we can with them and ensure we get our full Guild status. That’s surely more important than any other consideration.”

  Ghezu flung himself down on the settee opposite Lijou, glaring at him. “He only wants twenty-five of my best operatives, Lijou! It’s all right for you! He doesn’t want your best lay priests!”

  “On the contrary. I’m losing Ghyan and four of my religious Brothers—five people I can ill afford to lose, considering there are fewer of them than your warriors in the Brotherhood. Don’t be so blind, Ghezu. Think of what we’re gaining.”

  Ghezu growled deep in his throat. “I know who’s behind this, it’s Kaid! And he’s not having Dzaka, that’s final!”

  Lijou sighed inwardly and closed his eyes for a moment, silently offering up a prayer to Vartra, asking Him to make his colleague see some sense.

  “Let Dzaka go, Ghezu,” he said. “You’ve had your fun from all accounts. Kaid has come near to killing him because of you. Surely that’s enough to satisfy any revenge.”

  “You know nothing about it, Lijou, so don’t presume to make my mind up for me,” Ghezu snapped. “It’s not Dzaka I want.”

  “By the sword of Vartra, Ghezu! What the hell did Kaid do to you all those years ago to make you hate him so much?” demanded Lijou, sitting forward in his chair. Then he sensed what it had been. “A female? All this over a female? Gods, Ghezu, don’t you think you’re getting this completely out of proportion?”

  “Stop reading my mind, Lijou, it’s none of your damned business!” he growled, getting up and heading back to his desk to pick up the offending document.

  Lijou turned in his seat, following him with his eyes. “Whatever it was, it was long ago, Ghezu. It’s time to let it go.”

  “Like hell it is! They can have everyone except Dzaka,” he said, taking up a stylus and scoring through one of the names before signing the document with a flourish. Tossing the stylus back on the desk, he picked up the agreement and stalked across to Lijou, thrusting it into his hand.

  “Here, take it! It’s not time to let go my revenge, Lijou. I can’t wipe out thirty-five years of waiting and hoping to find her again just like that, even if you could. It’s time to have my reckoning with him for two reasons. Now she’s finally been located, I find out she’s dying. I can never have her now, but I’ll be damned if he does! Somehow he’ll find out where she is and go to her. I can’t live with that again.”

  Lijou took the document from him. “You should be caring more for her approaching death than plotting reven
ge because she preferred him to you. Where’s your compassion gone, Ghezu? You never used to be like this. What’s it all got to do with Dzaka anyway? Why involve him in your schemes? Only a couple of months ago you said Kaid was once a friend. What’s suddenly changed to make you want to destroy him now?”

  Ghezu turned away. “He’s thwarted me at every turn since this business began, Lijou. The Brothers that knew him before—and some of the newer ones, damn him—want to follow him! It’s beginning all over again, as if he’d never been away!” Angrily he turned back to his colleague.

  “I’ve led the Brotherhood well. You know it’s prospered under me. The day I was appointed Loed’s successor, they all gave me their loyalty. Then he turns up again. A flick of his ears and it’s all forgotten. I won’t have my Leadership challenged by him, Lijou!” he said, his tail beginning to lash angrily from side to side again.

  “He’s not challenging you, Ghezu, you’re imaging it,” Lijou said in what he hoped was a placatory tone.

  “If you can’t see it then you’re blind! Everyone else can. Look at what he’s demanding through that damned Aldatan cub! He’s got some of my best people completely under his own rule—his own Brotherhood, Lijou! He’s making his own territory, Challenging me on my ground! And I’ll never forgive him for what he did to Khemu!”

  “What did he do?” The question was asked before he could stop himself.

  “He didn’t care about her, he just used her. He paired with her once, then never again, leaving her so damaged by the experience that she wouldn’t look at another male outside her family. Nothing I said or did made any difference. I tried to find out what had happened, but the one time I saw her, she refused to tell me. So did Kaid.”

  “It was their business, not yours,” said Lijou. “You hadn’t the right to interfere.”

  “I had!” He spun round again, teeth bared in an angry growl. “I wanted her, too! And I wouldn’t have treated her like he did! She was from a good family, Lijou, not just one of the village females. She shut herself away, wouldn’t talk to anyone. Her betrothal was called off because she refused the mate chosen for her. They told the Clan Lord she’d died in a mountain accident, but he was the only one that believed that! Her family disowned her because of her behavior. After a year or two, she ran away and just disappeared.”

  “Then how did you find her?”

  “I had our people keep a lookout for her. She’s living at Rhijudu, with one of the desert tribes. She has one of those damned wasting diseases; she won’t last till the winter.”

  The emotions Lijou felt from Ghezu were strange, owing more to anger and revenge—against both of them—than to love. That had withered and died long ago, to be replaced only by jealousy and hurt pride. He also sensed Ghezu’s anger that she’d not responded to the glamour he’d tried to use on her. Lijou felt appalled that Ghezu had sunk so low as to use his Talent to make a young female want him.

  Ghezu turned and walked back to his desk. “I won’t tolerate him any longer, Lijou. Dzaka’s younger and faster than him—and has good reasons to hate him,” he said, sitting down. “I want him to kill Kaid. I’ll make sure he does.” His voice had dropped, becoming silky with the contemplation of his final revenge.

  “Ghezu, you’re mad,” said Lijou, getting up from his chair, sickened by the other’s attitude. Their talk had devolved into a hate session. There was no point in him remaining, nothing of any use could be accomplished now, and his continued presence was only fueling Ghezu’s desire for revenge. “Dzaka won’t kill Kaid.”

  “Do you want to bet on it?” asked Ghezu as he watched Lijou walking to the door.

  “No!” Lijou snapped. “I want you to give this foolish idea up! It’s beneath you—a scheme born of utter insanity! Leave Dzaka alone to make his peace with Kaid, and, for Vartra’s sake, leave Kaid alone, too! I was only appointed the year you expelled Kaid, but I’ve seen you do enough damage to both of them these past ten years or more. What you did before that, I don’t know, but I do know that if you pursue this course, you’re more likely to come out of it dead than Kaid is!”

  He shut the door firmly behind him, taking a deep breath of the clean air in the corridor. Not only was Ghezu heading rapidly toward insanity, but the feel of his darkening soul was like a miasma of evil. Something had to be done about him, and soon, before he destroyed Stronghold in his desire for revenge. A sudden conviction hit Lijou like a punch in the gut: Kaid had to survive to walk the Fire Margins. Why, he didn’t know, but the conviction that he must was already growing stronger.

  *

  It was the following day when Kaid got a call from Ghyan requesting him to go to the temple in Valsgarth. When he arrived, an acolyte led him out of the ancient building and into the gardens where Ghyan and some half a dozen younglings were picking redberries from the bushes.

  The priest looked up as soon as they stepped through the archway from the temple precinct. Handing his basket to one of the youths, he made his way back through the bushes toward Kaid.

  “Thank you, Sonjhi,” he said, nodding his thanks to the young female as she moved off to join the others. He turned back toward the temple.

  Kaid followed him in silence. Ghyan wasn’t happy—it took no talent on his part to know that.

  Once inside, the priest went to his desk, indicating that Kaid should sit on the chair opposite. He handed him the envelope that lay there.

  “That’s the agreement, as arranged, between Liegen Aldatan and the Brotherhood. It’s been signed by both Lijou and Ghezu. When your Liege has signed both copies, return one to me and I’ll see it reaches Stronghold,” he said.

  “They agreed to all the people we wanted?” asked Kaid, putting it away in his inner jacket pocket for safety.

  “Not all. Ghezu refuses to release Dzaka.”

  Kaid’s ear flicked briefly in annoyance. “I rather thought he might,” he sighed.

  “I’ve also got some information on the En’Shalla rituals,” Ghyan continued, handing him a data cube. “It includes the transcripts of the last two attempts made to reach Vartra through the Fire Margins some thirty years ago. Both were unsuccessful, but the words of the officiating priests were recorded.”

  “Thank you,” said Kaid, pocketing the cube and moving to get up.

  “Haven’t you got anything to ask?” Ghyan demanded, face creasing in a frown.

  “Excuse me?” Kaid looked at him in surprise.

  “Lijou says you’re to be the third—to make up the Triad necessary to follow the Fire Margins ritual. You do know there needs to be three, don’t you?”

  Kaid’s eyes widened in shock. “You’re wrong. He can’t have said that.”

  Ghyan nodded, obviously not pleased. “I hope both he and Vartra know what they’re doing,” he growled. “Have you any idea what it entails?”

  “Some, and I’m not doing it,” Kaid stated flatly.

  “I told you, you’ve no choice. Kusac’s agreed. By Vartra, Kaid,” he said angrily, “You’d better start living up to the job! You have to be part of their Link, in rapport with the Liegena so Kusac can sense you. As the Warrior, you have to guard them from any physical and spiritual danger! You need to keep a clear head and watch what’s going on around you as they’ll be too involved. You need to care what happens to them or none of you will return! Do you think you can learn to do that, Kaid?” he asked sarcastically. “Learn to care? You’ll have to if she’s going to accept you—if Kusac is.”

  “Stop it, Ghyan,” said Kaid, turning away from him and getting to his feet. “You’ve no call to preach at me. I know how to do my job, but I’ve told you, I’m not going.”

  Ghyan reached out across his desk and grasped his arm, holding him back.

  With a snarl, Kaid rounded on him just as the priest suddenly released him, his ears flicking back and staying there in shock.

  “Don’t touch me!” Kaid could feel the blood pounding in his head and knew that the priest had felt his anger. He had to be more
careful, his control was slipping too often these days. He took a deep breath.

  “You misjudge me, Ghyan,” he said, speaking more slowly. “If I’m to help them, I have to keep some objectivity. Only then can I see their best course of action. You know that like all the Brothers, I was a lay-priest in my time. I still follow our God. If He’s called me—truly called me—then I’ll go with them.”

  “You’ve been chosen,” stated Ghyan, rubbing his palm against the side of his robe. “You’ve obviously got a strong enough Talent to do the job. Read the data. You’ll need to get closer to her, on a personal level. She needs to trust you almost as much as she trusts Kusac because she’ll be the link between you and him. If she trusts you, so will he. It’s all on the cube. See that you read it, Kaid.”

  “I’ll read it,” he said, turning and walking to the door. “You’ve been chosen, too, Ghyan. You’re on the list of people we need at Valsgarth. Kusac’s opening up the old estate for the mixed Leskas to live on. We’ll need a real priest, not one of the Brothers, to teach the cubs.”

  “I know all about that so don’t think to divert me, Kaid. There’s more,” said Ghyan, coming out from behind his desk.

  Kaid stopped, his hand on the door lever. “Well?”

  “The bond you’ll share with her is the same as any telepathic link, only weaker. Weaker because you aren’t a telepath.”

  “Get on with it, Ghyan,” snapped Kaid, annoyed at the way the priest was still standing in judgment over him. None of this was his doing. Vartra knew he hadn’t looked for it.

  “The bond will grow until you’re drawn to pair, then it’s sealed, completed so you can work as a Triad. Sort your mind out, Kaid, or you’ll never get close enough to her. For the God’s sake and theirs, try to care about her!” he said earnestly. “If you hurt her in any way, Kusac will quite literally have your hide.”

  Kaid shut his eyes, leaning against the door, glad that his back was to Ghyan. There was no way he could do this. Pair with Carrie? It was impossible. He felt a rising tide of panic which he ruthlessly suppressed. Ghyan must not know how he felt—no one must know. He felt hounded. First the visions, then Noni. Now this.