The look on his father’s face said it all. “I said, we have no records of the replayed images that we call dreams, experienced by the mountain folk, nor of the stories of the cataclysm that they pass down from generation to generation.”
Konis let out a low growl and started walking again. The lab was only a few buildings ahead of them now. “Those mountain folk are a law unto themselves,” he said. “Apart from the odd person, they flatly refuse not only to be tested by the Guild, but to have anything to do with us in any way. They’re almost a clan in their own right! In their own way, they’re as bad as the desert Tribes.”
“I think you’ve closed your teeth on the problem,” said Kusac thoughtfully. “Carrie said it was a shame there were no clan records for the Brotherhood, but there are, after a kind: the mountain folk themselves and their communities. A high proportion of the Brothers come from the Dzahai region. It should be possible to ask the village elders if they keep any family records.”
“This fits in with what I want to tell you about the meeting yesterday,” said Konis. “My news can wait, though. Tell me more.”
“Carrie was over at Noni’s again a few days ago. She was told that apparently we guild folk—meaning all the guilds—know nothing about the Cataclysm. They have tales passed down from mother to daughter. Detailed tales.”
“We need those stories, Kusac,” said Konis, stopping again. “Raiban, with Chuz’s support, has brought down dozens of Human archaeologists to study the ancient cities in order to discover as much as possible about our past. They’re also setting up a committee to collate all the guild histories. The input from people like Noni could prove vital!”
“I agree, but how do you propose to get her and others like her to cooperate?” asked Kusac, reaching out to draw his father onward toward the lab.
“Vartra knows, Kusac, Vartra knows. I don’t suppose you have any ideas?”
Kusac led the way up the path to the lab doors. The medical and research center had been one of the first buildings completed on the estate. Already it looked like it had been there for decades because of the layers of dust from the construction work that coated the outside.
“You could try a straightforward approach and just ask her,” he said. “Father, you know we’ve been digging up at the old ruined shrine, don’t you? Well, Carrie is convinced that there’s something beneath the surface of the ruin. When she was at Noni’s, the Healer confirmed that the same crystals that are found on our land, particularly in that hillside, are also prevalent around Stronghold. They both believe that the crystals store memories in a similar fashion to the way our comm crystals store data, which is why the Leskas at our Guild, and the Brothers at Stronghold, have very vivid dreams. As I said, according to Noni, they aren’t dreams, they’re actual scenes from the lives of our ancestors that we can pick up when asleep or in a deep trance.”
His father remained silent as they made their way into the building and down a corridor till they came to the lab door. Giving a brief knock, Kusac opened the door.
Jack looked up from his bench on the other side of the room. “Hello there! To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit? Getting away from the dirt and noise again?” he grinned.
Garras flicked his ears in greeting.
“I thought you’d be with Vanna,” said Kusac.
“Not likely!” grinned Garras. “Vanna’s recruited her brother and Sashti to help her reorganize the furniture in our house for the third time this week! I’m staying out of the way. Her nesting instinct is too damned strong now. I’ve seen it all before with my sisters. She’ll be like this now till she goes into labor.”
Konis sat down on a stool opposite him. “I know what you mean,” he commiserated. “Kusac’s got all those joys ahead of him.”
“Oh, he’ll enjoy every moment of it. It’s the first time for them, after all.”
Kusac made a skeptical noise as he headed over to the dispenser. “Can I get anyone a drink?” he asked.
The chorus of affirmatives was such that Garras came over to help him. Once they were all settled, Konis turned to his son.
“Have you discussed the replays, as you call them, with Garras?”
“Yes, he has,” Garras answered for him. “I’m more skeptical than Kusac is. Not being a highlander like Kaid, I don’t have his belief in what Noni says. She’s a bit too manipulative for my likes. Nothing’s ever simple with her, there’s always got to be an underlying psychological reason for every ill or injury you take to her. Having said that, when I looked at Kaid’s book with Carrie, there are an incredible number of dreams repeated word for word over the years. Too many to be a coincidence. There could well be something in what Kusac says.”
“What differentiates a dream from a replay?”
“The very fact that it’s been experienced in the same form by more than one person,” said Kusac. “They also tell you something about how the world was then. You get a feel for which is which. There’s definitely a cohesive picture emerging about the days of the Cataclysm.”
Konis looked over to Garras, who nodded.
“There’s a distinct story there.”
Konis took a drink from his mug. “What makes you so sure it goes back as far as then? They could all belong to another, nearer time.”
“Vartra’s inextricably linked with the Cataclysm, we’re all agreed on that at least, aren’t we?” said Kusac, looking round the four of them.
“Yes,” said Garras.
“Kaid’s research shows that the replays depict a time of war, a time of drastic change for the people who lived then. After it, society as we now know it was set up, complete with guilds and clans, and Vartra was deeply involved in bringing those changes about. What do the stories told not only by the temple but outside by the storytellers tell us about Vartra?”
“Exactly the same,” said Konis.
“Which came first, though?” asked Garras. “The stories or the dreams? They could each have affected the other.”
“Carrie says that according to Ghyan, it’s in the records that the Leskas who had these dreams or replays, were ordered not to discuss them with anyone other than the temple priest or the head of the Order at Stronghold.”
“We could argue which came first till the end of time,” said Konis. “Do we have any input from the Telepath Guild?”
“Some,” said Kusac. “Ghyan said that in the past Telepath Guild Masters have requested more information on the replays or dreams than they’ve provided in return to the Order of Vartra. It’s as if they’ve been researching it themselves for as long as the Order but are less willing to share their data.”
“Why would the Guild be independently interested in religious matters?” said Konis thoughtfully, taking another sip of his drink. “Have they a secular reason for their interest, one they’re keeping to themselves?”
“Let’s assume the replays are from the Cataclysm,” said Kusac, finally remembering his own drink and taking a mouthful. “We have to have a starting point. Given that, several facts can then be assumed. The Cataclysm involved some kind of warfare, whether with other Sholans or not, we don’t know, but the presence of Valtegan remains dating back that far strongly suggests it was with them.”
“Wait a minute,” Garras objected. “Look at Keiss. There wasn’t out and out warfare with the Valtegans there. They might have been visitors, traders even, back then.”
Kusac gave a snort of derision. “You don’t believe that any more than I do. There was out and out warfare on Keiss once we arrived. Only the lack of weapons and numbers prevented the Keissians from rising before. Just assume I’m right for the moment. Now, the people in the replays are in hiding, that much is incontestable, as is the fact that a person, who may well be Vartra, is involved with a group of these people and that they’re telepaths. They have to be, because some of the replays involve people who have a newly formed Leska Link.” He looked across at Garras who nodded.
“We also have one replay which m
entions that these Leska pairs have suddenly become too sensitive to pain to be able to fight, indicating that the disability is a new one. In another replay, we find Vartra concerned for the happiness and welfare of new Leskas. He’s aware of the suffering the telepaths of those days have endured, saying that too many have died, and that they’ve all been discovered too soon. There is almost a sense of guilt in the Vartra of the visions, as if he feels personally responsible for causing the telepaths suffering. He feels the need to justify himself, saying *I was never looking for a solution.*”
“Why would a political figure such as Vartra feel responsible for their suffering?” asked Jack. “Could he have ordered them to do something for the good of Shola that resulted in large numbers of them dying?”
“Possibly, but there’s more of a sense of having had a plan in the making and that it, and they, had been discovered too soon,” said Kusac.
“This all hinges on whether or not Vartra was a real person, or the personification of an idea,” said Garras. “I still say you’re building on sand, Kusac. More than a few of us know Ghyan is biased toward the theory that Vartra was a living person, not a God.”
“We’ve nothing else to build on.” Kusac was beginning to get exasperated at Garras’ stubbornness.
“In Earth’s past, heroes easily became gods in the eyes of the people who came after them,” said Jack. “The outstanding abilities they showed immediately marked them out as the son or daughter of one or another of the gods—immediately with hindsight, of course,” he grinned.
“What does Kaid believe?” asked Konis.
“He believes Vartra is a God, as I do,” said Garras. “And that Vartra speaks to him, as He does to others.”
“I know Kaid believes Vartra was a God, so do I, but I also believe he was a person! How could Kaid experience these replays without being aware that Vartra, as a person, was in them?” demanded Kusac. “He recorded them!”
“Patience, Kusac,” said his father. “What about Lijou? Could he shed any light on this? Perhaps his records say something.”
“Lijou’s head of the Order. Of course he believes Vartra is a God,” said Garras.
“I wouldn’t be too sure if I were you,” said Kusac. “Lijou obviously knows how Ghyan feels yet he never removed him from office. Carrie’s reminding me that Kaid told her that Lijou and Ghyan were cooperating on this whole issue. If they were diametrically opposed, how could they cooperate?”
“I need to speak to Lijou personally about this,” said Konis. “What you’ve told me, Kusac, shows that there is definitely some link between these replays, as you call them, and the past. If they can be reliably tied to the time of the Cataclysm, then that’s all we need. Whether or not Vartra is a God isn’t relevant to whether or not we can rely on these replays as being historically accurate.”
He looked over to the Human. “I’ll keep in mind what you’ve said, Jack. It seems logical to me that a folk hero could well become regarded as a God with the passage of time. Now, changing the topic slightly, yesterday the council, backed by High Commander Chuz, ordered that all guilds were to make their records available to a committee led by General Raiban. There will be Terrans involved too. A Dr. Michaels will help guide the committee until someone more appropriate has been brought from Earth. He’s actually here to head a team of Terran archaeologists who are to excavate the ruins looking for more clues to our past, specifically what the Valtegans were doing here.”
“That’s going to please the guild leaders,” said Garras. “I can’t see them opening up their records willingly.”
“They don’t have the choice,” said Konis. “It has to be done. We have to find out why the Valtegans had a presence on Shola during the Cataclysm.”
“They’re going to investigate the ruins?” asked Kusac. “I can imagine how delighted Master Esken was.”
“They’re choosing the five most promising sites to excavate,” said Konis. “All ruins will be placed under military guard to prevent them being tampered with.”
“Looks like there’ll be new skills to learn,” said Garras. “It’s an exciting time for the young ones.”
“It is indeed,” said Konis, glancing at Kusac. “No one could have realized how far-reaching the impact of meeting the Humans would be on our culture. I hope we don’t change too fast.”
“I’m sure we won’t, Father. We can rely on people like Esken and Chekoi to stop that happening.” Kusac hesitated, wondering whether or not to bring the ruined shrine to his father’s attention again. “Father, what about the ruins on my estate?”
Konis finished his drink before replying. “I’m sure you can rest easy on that issue, Kusac. I don’t think the remains of one building will be of interest to the archaeologists.”
“I’m afraid they may be. As I began to tell you earlier, on our visit yesterday, we unearthed the bulk of what is definitely a statue of Vartra. Not just that, but Carrie is sensing more of the building underground. Caverns and metal structures, she says. Several of her dreams, or replays, have been centered there, so have Kaid’s. She’s convinced that a group of telepaths, possibly under Vartra’s command, were in hiding there.”
His father swung round on his stool to face him. “Let me get this straight. You think that you’ve found Vartra’s primary headquarters up in that old ruined shrine?”
Kusac nodded. “Yes. It has all the potential of a concealed base, if there’s anything underground as Carrie says. The feel of the ruins at one part is like the Warrior Guild, controlled aggression is how she put it. Not what you’d expect on holy ground.”
“The Brotherhood has that,” reminded Garras.
“This place is nowhere near as large as Stronghold. There isn’t the room above ground for a large number of people to have been trained as Warriors. Believe me, the last thing I want is a group of Humans on my estate,” said Kusac. “I don’t want Carrie exposed to them again, especially now that she’s pregnant and we’re just about to move into our own home, but…”
“What we need is a large ultrasound scanner,” said Jack thoughtfully. “Like the one down the corridor. Of course, it would need a few adjustments—a way of running it without a main power feed, for instance. And if we were lucky enough to find anything, well, I used to hunt for fossils on the east coast of England as a lad. I know a little bit about unearthing finds of archaeological interest. How are you at tinkering with electrical equipment, Garras?”
“I’ve had to do a few field repairs in my time,” he said. “Not that I think this has anything to do with Vartra, you realize.”
“Think of it as an opportunity to prove me wrong then,” said Kusac, relieved that Garras was prepared to help. “Or a legitimate reason to be excused moving furniture.”
Garras’ mouth opened in a deep grin. “That’ll do,” he said.
“No need to tell the authorities unless we’re sure of what we’ve found, is there, Konis?” said Jack. “You’re just indulging an old man’s whims, aren’t you? I mean, what possible interest could they have in a ruined monastery?”
Kusac watched his father look from Jack to Garras then back to him as a pained expression crossed his face. “I’ve never met anyone more devious than your mother, till today.” He shook his head, ears flicking in mock dismay. “Keep me posted on what you find. I can’t see it’s in Carrie’s interests to have strangers living on the estate, but if you do find anything important, we’ll have to tell Raiban.”
Kusac nodded. “Knowing that the ruins are being worked on will make it easier for Carrie to accept that she can’t do any more digging herself.”
“Until we get these two new global projects off the ground, none of us will have any idea of what is and what isn’t important,” said Konis, glancing at his wrist comm. “We’d better be heading back soon. When will the estate housing be finished?”
“Garras and Vanna are already living in their home, and several of the Brothers are in one of the finished dormitory houses, but that’s all
as yet. There will be some ten estate cottages ready by the end of the week when we plan to move in. Jack’s quarters here should be ready around the same time. The rest of the cottages are further into the estate and not of such a high priority. Obviously I wanted the main area totally finished first, and the nearest fields are having their crops planted now. We couldn’t have managed it without the help of Mother’s clansfolk. She’s even arranged for me to have an estate manager.”
Konis got to his feet. “It looks like you’ve got everything well in hand,” he said. “I’m going to head back up to the house. I’ll see you later.”
“You forgot to tell us what’s happening about Fyak,” Kusac reminded him.
“So I did. It’s been decided that we’re going to see he’s contained within the desert region for the time being. We’ll be monitoring his activities from a distance. The tribes are fiercely independent, as you know, and no good will come if we get involved at this stage. The last thing any of us wants is a civil war on our hands. Naturally, the sale of armaments to them has been stopped, but that’s all for the moment. It’s not what I feel we should be doing, but there’s enough going on with this social upheaval without making more trouble for ourselves. Have you had any news of Kaid or Dzaka yet?”
“None, beyond what you already know, that when he reached Raul he hired a hunting aircar for two weeks.”
“If he’s gone off to Rhijudu then the worst thing we can do is draw attention to that fact,” said Garras. “He’ll contact us when he’s ready. Until then, we wait.”
“When he’s back, I want to speak to him about that female, Khemu. Before I see Naeul Arrazo personally, I need to have all the facts,” said Konis, walking toward the door. “I’ll see you all at third meal.”
*
“Nearly there,” said Brynne, following the beacon into the parking area at the rear of the building. “That’s it. Vartra’s Retreat.” He took a moment to glance down at it himself.
Nestled in the rocky embrace of the Dzahai Mountains, the Retreat was an imposing building. Built of blocks of the native stone, its gray exterior lay sprawling beneath them. From the air, it was easy to see that the original building had been of quite modest proportions, and had been added to over the centuries.
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