“Let me therefore say it clearly, for the benefit of all, so that there is no mistaking what I am asking you to agree to today. I am as one with Lord Veovis. All matters of policy and funding must remain the prerogative of this chamber. I do not contest that for a moment. My proposal is designed to give, not take—to empower the common people of D’ni and give them a degree of control over their lives that at present they do not have.”
Aitrus smiled. “I see that some of you shake your heads at that, but it is true, and some of you have seen it with your own eyes. Our people—D’ni, like ourselves—are not poor, nor are they hard done by. They have food and shelter, sanitation and medicines if need be, but—and this is the vital point—their lot could be improved. Greatly improved.”
He looked about him once again, scrutinizing face after face.
“I know what some of you are thinking. Why? Why should we be concerned about improving their lot? Well, let me give you two good reasons. First, just think of whom we speak. We are not talking of idlers and spendthrifts and good-for-nothings, but of good, hardworking people, men and women both. All of us here know a good dozen or more such people. We meet them daily and depend on them for many things. And they depend on us.
“Second, it is often said, with justifiable pride, that D’ni rules then thousand Ages, yet a society ought to be judged not merely by the extent of its empire but by the quality of life of all its citizens. We are a rich people. We can afford to be generous. Indeed, I would argue that it is our moral duty to be generous, especially to our own. And that is why I ask you, fellow guildsmen, to say ‘aye’ to this proposal. For D’ni, and so that we might in future look ourselves squarely in the mirror and be proud of what we have done here today. Guildsmen, my Lords, thank you.”
As Aitrus sat, Lord R’hira signaled to the stewards at the back of the hall. Veovis and Aitrus had been the last two speakers; now it was all down to the vote.
R’hira waited as the eight stewards took their places. It was their job to count the hands raised both for and against the proposal. When they were ready, R’hira looked to his fellow Lords, then spoke again.
“All those in favor of the motion raise your hands.”
The stewards quickly counted.
“And those against.”
Again the stewards made their tally.
“Thank you, Guildsmen.”
The stewards turned, making their way down, forming an orderly queue before Lord R’hira. As each gave his ally, R’hira wrote it down in the great ledger before him. As the final steward turned away, Lord R’hira quickly added up the two columns of figures, then looked to either side of him. It was a protocol that the Five Lords did not vote unless a decision was so close—within three votes, usually—that their opinion could decide the matter.
“Guildsmen,” he said, looking back at the rank after rank of members seated around and above him. “It appears that you are divided on this issue. One hundred and eighty-two members for, one hundred and eighty against. In the circumstances, the Five speak for the proposal.”
Veovis was on his feet at once. “But you cannot, my Lord! For what good reason…”
He fell silent, then bowed his head.
R’hira stared at the young Lord a moment, then stood, signaling to all that the proceedings were over. “The Council has spoken, Master Veovis. The proposal is carried.”
§
Suahrnir closed the door quietly behind him, then turned, looking across the lamplit room to where his friend Veovis sat in the corner chair, lost in thought.
It was some time since he had seen Veovis quite so agitated, and even though he had calmed down considerably since the Council meeting, there was still a brooding intensity to him that did not bode well.
“Would you like a drink?” he asked, going over to the great stone cupboard beneath the window and picking up one of the three crystal decanters he kept there.
Veovis glanced up, then shook his head.
Suahrnir shrugged, then poured himself a large drink. He took a swig from the glass, then turned, facing Veovis again as the warmth of the liquor filled his throat.
“There must be something we can do,” Veovis said quietly, as if speaking to himself.
Suahrnir smiled. “Maybe there is.”
Veovis’s eyes widened with interest. “Go on.”
“There is a man I know,” Suahrnir said, taking the seat beside Veovis. “They call him the Philosopher. He writes pamphlets.”
“Pamphlets!” Veovis made a sound of disgust. “Really, Suahrnir, I thought you were being serious.”
“I am. This Philosopher is a very influential man in the lower city. People read his writings. Lots of people. And they listen to what he has to say. More so than Ti’ana and the reformers.”
“And just what does he say?”
Suahrnir sat back. “That would take too long. You ought to read one or two of them for yourself. You would like them, Veovis.”
Veovis stared at his friend skeptically, then reached out and took the glass from him, taking a sip from it before he handed it back.
“And what name does this Philosopher go by?”
“A’Gaeris.”
Veovis roared with laughter. “A’Gaeris! The fraudster?”
“It was never proved.”
But Veovis waved that away. “The guilds do not expel their members on the strength of rumor, Suahrnir. Besides, I was there when A’Gaeris was ripped of his Guild cloak. I heard the charges that were on the roll.”
“That was fifty years ago.”
“It does not matter if it was five hundred years ago. The man is untrustworthy.”
“I think you are wrong. I think he could help you.”
“Help me? How? By writing a pamphlet about it?”
Suahrnir looked down. He had never heard Veovis sound quite so bitter. The defeat today had clearly hit him hard; more so perhaps because of who it was had swung the vote against him.
“The Philosopher has no love of outsiders,” Suahrnir said, staring into his glass. “Indeed, he argues that the mixing of bloods is an abomination.”
Suahrnir looked up. Veovis was watching him now. “He says that?”
“That and much more. You should meet him.”
Veovis laughed sourly. “Impossible.”
“Then you will just sit here and brood, will you?”
“No,” Veovis said, standing, then reaching across for his cloak. “I will go home to K’veer and brood, as you clearly do not want my company.”
Suahrnir put his hand out, trying to stop his friend. “Veovis…”
“Tomorrow,” Veovis said, brushing his hand off. “I will be in a better mood tomorrow.”
Suahrnir watched him go, then sighed. Veovis was in a bad mood right now and closed to all suggestions, but maybe in a day or two…
He smiled, then, going over to his desk, began to pen a note.
§
Anna sat up in bed, a huge pile of pillows at her back, cradling the newborn; a serene smile, forged out of tiredness and exultation after a difficult twenty-hour labor, on her unusually pale face.
On a chair to one side, Tasera sat forward, her fingers laced together on one knee, her features set in a permanent grin of delight as she studied her grandson. He was small—much smaller than Aitrus had been at birth—but sturdy, and the midwife said he was a healthy child.
They were on Ko’ah, and it was spring on the island. The scent of blossoms was on the air and birdsong filled the morning’s sunlit silence.
“Where is Aitrus?”
“He will be here soon,” Anna said, smiling soothingly at Tasera. “He cannot simply walk away. It was his proposal.”
“Even so…”
Tasera stopped, a grin breaching her face. “Aitrus! So there you are! What took you?”
Aitrus greeted his mother, then stepped past her, looking across the room to where Anna lay, his face, at that moment, filled with wonder.
“A boy,” A
nna said, smiling back at him.
Aitrus went across, then knelt beside the bed, his face on a level with the sleeping child, his eyes wide at the sight of this, his son.
“Why he’s…”
“…like you.” Anna laughed softly. “He’s beautiful, no?”
Aitrus nodded, then looked up at her. “Thank you,” he said quietly, then, leaning carefully across the child, he gently kissed her.
Again he stared, drinking in the sight of his child the same way he had once studied the sleeping form of Anna, that night before he had asked her to be his wife, the two moments joined like links in a chain.
“Well, little Gehn,” he said, the first hint of a tender smile on his lips. “How is the world?”
§
They had been expecting Master Oren for some hours. He had said he would be late, but as the time went on it began to look more and more as if he would not make the celebration. And then he arrived, his face dark, his manner withdrawn.
Aitrus, about to greet him, saw how he looked and took him aside.
“What is it, old friend?”
“We are summoned, Aitrus,” Oren answered, embarrassed slightly. “All guildsmen must report back to D’ni at once. Two young guildsmen from the Guild of Maintainers have gone missing. We are to search the Ages for them.”
Aitrus blinked. “But that’s…”
“…a mammoth task, yes, Aitrus, which is why the Maintainers have asked for the help of all the other guilds. The circumstances are…suspicious, let us say. They were investigating something important. What it was, we do not know, but Grand Master Jadiris is concerned enough to think that they may have been kidnapped, even killed.”
The news stunned Aitrus. “All right,” he said. “Come in and greet my family a moment, Oren. I, meanwhile, will gather up our friends and tell them the news. Then we shall go.”
Oren nodded. For a moment he gently held Aitrus’s arm. “I am sorry to be the bearer of such ill news on so joyous an occasion. I hear you have a son.”
A brief smile appeared on Aitrus’s features once more. “Come see him, Oren. His name is Gehn and he shall be a great guildsman one day.”
§
An hour later, Aitrus stood before Master Jadaris himself.
“Ah, Master Aitrus. I hear congratulations are in order. A son, eh? That is good news. Very good news indeed!”
“Thank you, Grand Master,” Aitrus said, bowing low.
“You have been told what is happening?” Jadaris asked.
“We are to search the Ages.”
“Indeed. But not all the Ages. Only those which the two guildsmen were known to have personally investigated in the last five years.”
Aitrus frowned. “Master?”
“This must not be known to all, Aitrus,” Jadaris said, lowering his voice slightly and sitting forward, “but a number of blank linking books have gone missing from our Halls. We suspect that the guildsmen took them to carry out their investigations.”
That news was grave. Aitrus saw at once how difficult things were.
“Do we know what they were investigating, Master Jadaris?”
“We do not. But we think they may have found something on one of the Ages they were sent to look at routinely. Something very important. And they may have gone back to try to get conclusive proof, using the missing linking books.”
“How many Ages are involved, Master?”
“More than sixty.”
“And you suspect that a senior guildsman might be involved?”
Jadaris nodded. “That is why we are sending in teams, rather than individual guildsmen. We do not want to take the risk of losing any more of our men. I have assigned you to a team of our own Maintainers.”
“I see. And where would you like me to go, Grand Master?”
“To K’veer.”
“K’veer!”
Jadaris raised a hand. “Before you object, Lord Rakeri himself asked for you, Aitrus. He considers you above reproach and felt that if you were to lead the team investigating his family’s Books, no possible taint would fall upon his family. As you might understand this is a most sensitive matter.”
“Of course. Even so…”
“It is decided,” Jadaris said with a finality that made Aitrus look up at him, then bow.
“As you wish, Master Jadaris.”
§
Lord Rakeri greeted Aitrus on the steps above the jetty. Behind the old man, the great spiral rock of K’veer blotted out all else. It was early, and the light in the great cavern was dim, but across the lakeD’ni glowed like the embers of a fire.
“Aitrus, I am glad you came. And well done. I hear you have a son.”
Aitrus took the old man’s hands in his own and smiled. “Thank you, Lord Rakeri. The boy’s name is Gehn.”
Rakeri returned his smile, squeezing his hands before he relinquished them. “It is a good name. He whom he is named after, his father’s father’s father, was a great man. Or would have been, if time had been kind to him. But come, let us go through. This is a difficult business yet it must be done, so let us do it with some dignity.”
Aitrus nodded, walking beside the old man as they went inside, the other guildsmen—six young Maintainers and one Master of the Guild—following behind.
The great mansion was still and silent. After the laughter of the party on Ko’ah, this seemed a somber, joyless place.
The huge doors to the Book Room were locked. Rakeri took a key from the huge bunch at his belt and unlocked the right-hand door, then pushed it open.
“Will you not come in with us, my Lord?” Aitrus asked, hesitating before stepping inside the room.
“I would rather not, Master Aitrus,” Rakeri said, with a tiny sigh. “This whole matter is difficult. Routine inspections one can live with. They are…traditional. But this…this casts a bad light on all, don’t you think?”
“I am sure there is an explanation, my Lord.” Aitrus smiled consolingly. “We shall work as quickly and as efficiently as we can, and I shall make sure that a copy of my report is placed before you before we leave here.”
Rakeri smiled. “That is kind of you, young Aitrus. Very Kind.”
§
The Book Room of K’veer was an impressive chamber, and though Aitrus had seen it often before, stepping into it once more he felt again the weight of years that lay upon its shelves.
Shelves filled three of the walls from floor to ceiling—endless books of commentary, numbered and dated on their spines in golden D’ni letters. In one place only, to Aitrus’s left as he stood, looking in, were the shelves breached. There, two great windows, paned with translucent stone of varying colors, went from floor to ceiling. Through them could be seen the lake and the far wall of the great cavern.
The whole Book Room was like a giant spur, jutting from the main twist of the rock. There was a drop of ten spans between it and the surface of the lake below.
It was a daunting place for a young guildsman to enter. Rakeri and his family owned six Books in all-six ancient Ages. These massive, ancient books were to be found at the far end of the long, high-walled chamber, resting on tilted marble pedestals, the colors of which matched the leather covers of the Books themselves. Each was secured to the pedestal by a strong linked chain that looked like gold but was in fact made of nara, the hardest of the D’ni stones.
Aitrus walked across, studying each of the Books in turn. Five of them were closed, the sixth—the Book of Nidur Gemat—was open, the descriptive panel glowing in the half light of the early morning.
He had been to Nidur Gemat often, in earlier days, when he and Veovis had been friends. Standing there now, Aitrus felt a great sadness that they had been estranged, and wished he might somehow bridge the chasm that had developed between them these past fifteen years.
Aitrus turned, calling to the Guild Master. “Master Kura. Post two men on the door. We shall start with Nidur Gemat.”
The Guild Master nodded and was about to talk to his g
uildsmen when the door burst open and Veovis stormed into the room.
“I thought as much!” he cried, pointing directly at Aitrus. “I might have known you would have yourself appointed to this task!”
Kura went to intercede, but Veovis glared at him. “Hold your tongue, man! I’m speaking to Guild Master Aitrus here!”
Aitrus waited as Veovis crossed the chamber, keeping all expression from his face, yet a tense combative urge made him clench his right fist where it rested beside his leg.
“Well?” Veovis said, stopping an arm’s length from Aitrus. “Have you nothing to say?”
Aitrus shook his head. He had learned long ago that when someone falsely accused you, the best defense you had was silence.
“You couldn’t keep yourself from meddling, could you? As soon as you heard…”
“Veovis!”
Veovis straightened up, then turned. His father, Rakeri, stood in the doorway. “Father?”
“Leave us now,” Rakeri said, the tone of command in his voice one that Aitrus had never heard him use to Veovis before this hour.
Veovis bowed, then turned glaring at Aitrus, an unspoken comment in his eyes. When he was gone, Rakeri came across.
“Forgive my son, Aitrus. He does not understand how things are. I shall speak with him at once. In the meantime, I apologize for him. And I am sure, in time, he will come and apologize in person.”
Aitrus gave the tiniest nod of his head. “Thank you, Lord Rakeri, but that will not be necessary. Things are bad enough between us. Your apology is quite enough.”
Rakeri smiled and gently nodded. “You are wise as well as kind, Aitrus. Yes, and I regret that my son has lost so good a friend. And no blame to you for that. My son is stubborn, just as his grandfather was.”
There was a moment’s awkward silence, then the old man nodded once again. “Well, Aitrus, I shall leave you once again. Do what you must. We have nothing here to hide.”
The Myst Reader Page 49
