Empress of Eternity

by L. E. Modesitt

  He dropped the smile. “They weren’t so bad as they could have been, but they weren’t good. Ashauer met me at the tube-train station and warned me to be careful. He’s never done that. Tauzn…the Minister of Protective Services—”

  “I know who he is.”

  “He wants to succeed D’Onfrio as EA, and I’m guessing that he wants to make a political issue out of my research.”

  “He can’t do that very effectively, can he? Your project is very low-budget. There must be hundreds larger and more wasteful. Besides, you’re good at defending…” Her words dropped off.

  For a moment, there was silence.

  Finally, Maarlyna asked, “You couldn’t defend matters…or me…could you, if you were dead? How many…?”

  “Three…four times…” he admitted.

  “That many? How did you…did you kill anyone?”

  “I managed not to kill anyone. One Gaerda operative who tried to force me off the road in an ice storm died when he lost control following me and crashed into an oak tree.”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “I…drove the runabout through the Laarnian Martyrs’ Memorial.”

  “Oh…Maertyn…” Her voice was soft, yet warm. “Is it because you’re a lord?”

  “Because I’m a lord?” He laughed gently.

  “Tauzn is courting the rabble. His type always does. If he can prove something involving D’Onfrio’s appointees, especially implicating a lord, then that will strengthen his support, especially among them.”

  “Yes, lords must be above reproach, yet be able to get away with anything unscathed.” Maertyn regretted the cynicism as soon as he had spoken.

  “And their ladies…”

  “You are above reproach,” he said.

  “Many might not think so.”

  He frowned. “How can you say that?”

  “Maertyn…I’d like you to answer a question.”

  “If I can.” He offered a smile, although the seriousness of her tone worried him more than he could have said.

  “I’m not me, am I?”

  “Of course you’re you. Who else would you be?”

  “I’ve never been that precise with words.” A sad smile crossed her face. “Of course I am who I am. My name is Maarlyna, but I am not the Maarlyna who once was. I read the journal, the one in script, in your armoire. The writing could easily be mine, but it’s not quite the same, and I remember the events written there, but my memories are as though I’d been told of them, and the way the words fall on the page is not quite the way I would write them.”

  He laughed softly. “I wouldn’t write what I wrote five years ago in the same way I would now. None of us would. Why would you be any different?”

  “Maertyn…” Her deep amber eyes focused on him, warm and intent.

  He stood, then moved over to her chair, where he lifted her into an embrace, wrapping his arms around her for a long time. Then he stepped back, still holding her hands. “What is it? What has upset you so much?”

  “You’ve had some disturbing things befall you…dangers…” She paused, then continued. “So have I. It’s different…but I worry. I’ve worried more than I’ve told you.”

  “I’ve sensed it, but I never wanted to press you.”

  “I know that, and I appreciate it.” After the slightest pause, she went on. “I never said much when you suggested you heard or sensed things about the ice calving or tsunamis striking the canal walls. At first, I just thought I was imagining things, or that it was because of all the medical procedures…but they didn’t fade away. Instead, they got stronger as I did.”

  “You sensed them as well? I wondered.”

  “Not exactly. I saw shadowy figures…not shadowy, really, because they were more than shadows. They weren’t at all white and ghost-like…”

  “Was one of them a woman in red who was neither young or old?”

  Maarlyna’s mouth opened. “You saw her and didn’t say anything?”

  “I saw her just a few hours ago…when I got off the tube-train in Daelmar. She warned me about the Gaerda assassin waiting for me. Then she vanished.” Maertyn saw no point in mentioning the earlier brief glimpse of the woman in red.

  “The assassin…?”

  “I stunned him in a way that everyone thought he’d fainted or had a seizure. The Reserve guards found a nerver in his hand. No one said anything, except that they didn’t see any reason to detain me.”

  “People here respect you…unlike in Caelaarn.”

  Maertyn didn’t want to explore that. There wasn’t any point in it. “What about the woman in red…or the others?”

  “She showed me…how to lock the doors and the windows. Just from the inside. They can’t be locked from outside. I can’t do that, anyway.”

  “How…?”

  “I can’t explain it. I can only do it.” She eased her hands out of his and walked to where the window was.

  That had to be from memory, thought Maertyn since it was well after dark, and he certainly couldn’t see the window from any light being passed through the stone.

  Maarlyna touched the stone and the “window” appeared and opened, with the cold air from the north sweeping into the chamber. After a moment, she touched the stone again, holding her hand there for several moments. “Now…you try to open it.”

  He stepped forward and stood beside her, reaching out to place his fingers against the stone that was neither hot nor cold to his touch.

  Nothing happened. The stone did not change.

  “You see.” Maarlyna reached out and pressed her hand against the wall, then quickly pulled it away. “Try it now.”

  Maertyn did. The stone flowed back on itself, and cold air rushed past them strongly enough to disarray Maarlyna’s hair. He touched the wall again, and the window closed.

  “Well…if anyone tried to attack us here, you could keep them out.”

  “That…that was what she said.”

  “She talked to you. What else did she say?”

  “Not really talked…it was more like I heard her words in my head.”

  Maertyn pursed his lips. Had he just thought he’d heard the woman in red speak to him? Had her words really been spoken? He’d thought her words so clear for being so soft…was that because he’d heard them in his mind?

  “Maertyn?”

  “I think I heard her in the same way…I just hadn’t realized it.” Should he tell Maarlyna what else the ice-sport or ghost or…whatever she was…had said? “She said that our fates were intertwined.” That was close enough without putting pressure on Maarlyna. “Did she say who or what she was?”

  Maarlyna frowned, tilted her head to the left, then finally said, “No…not exactly…but I had the feeling that she belongs here.”

  “Here?”

  “To the station…the canal. How else would she have known how to show me the locking and unlocking?”

  How indeed? “Can you show me?”

  Maarlyna shook her head…sadly, it seemed to Maertyn. “It’s not like that. It’s inside my head, my thoughts. It’s like she put a pattern there. When I think of that pattern and touch the stone, I can lock or unlock the doors and windows.”

  “Can you do anything else with the pattern?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  Maertyn embraced Maarlyna again, murmuring in her ear, “That’s all right. She must have given you that ability for a reason, and, from what she told me, it’s for both of us. I just wish we knew why.”

  Maarlyna hugged him back. “I’m so glad you understand.”

  “How could I not?” He lowered his head and kissed her neck. “How could I not?”

  Even so, later in the darkness, as he lay there beside her in the bed that had been his great-grandsire’s, he couldn’t help but wonder and worry.

  Why had the silvery woman in red sought out Maarlyna? Why?

  38

  33 Quad 2471 R.E.

  For a good quarter of an hour, the armored truck
s remained motionless while the Ruche surface-effect vessel moved in a tight circle in the middle of the canal.

  “Why are they waiting?” asked Rhyana.

  “They’re probably calibrating a weapon on the SEV,” replied Eltyn. “Or they’re waiting for another kind of attack.”

  Calibrating…[incompetence], pulsed Faelyna.

  “Not too bright. They didn’t even notice the RF wheeler,” added Rhyana.

  “It is covered in sand,” Eltyn pointed out.

  Seeing only what they want to…or can, suggested Faelyna.

  Several more minutes passed before a reddish gold point of light struck the north side of the station, barely caught by the monitors, then vanished. Another followed from the SEV in the middle of the canal. It was equally without effect.

  Lasers ineffective4. Idiots, pulsed Eltyn.

  Ignorant. No one left from TechOversight or MetCom who knows the MCC parameters.

  One of the armored trucks rolled up alongside the south wall of the station. The cab opened, and a woman in gray drab scrambled out and pressed her hands beside where the stone door was. The small miniturret atop the cab swiveled and a single-barreled weapon focused on the door. The door did not respond to the woman’s touch.

  Locks holding. Eltyn knew the comment was redundant. Faelyna was accessing the monitors as well. But he felt he had to acknowledge her success.

  The woman kept holding her hands against the wall. The truck turned and headed back to join the other four, leaving the woman alone. Finally, she lifted her hands from the station wall and ran back toward the five vehicles. Eltyn continued to watch her, the trucks, and the SEV. After several minutes beside the lead truck, the woman trudged back westward, this time in the narrower space between the raised seawall and the north wall of the station. When she reached the point where the canal-side door was located, she again pressed her hands against the stone, to no avail.

  Eltyn did his best to focus the monitor on her more closely. From what he could tell, her face was fixed in concentration, yet her eyes seemed…off. He projected the image.

  Brain-scrub and conditioning, suggested Faelyna.

  “They don’t care if she gets killed,” said Rhyana. “Poor thing.”

  “Just so long as she serves The Twenty.” Eltyn didn’t bother to mute the raw sarcasm.

  Yet…he certainly hadn’t questioned the The Fifty or any of the higher officials of the Ruche before the coup…or had he? He and Faelyna had embarked on a secret project for TechOversight, one that certainly wouldn’t have been considered favorably by The Fifty—and hadn’t been. But The Fifty hadn’t been brain-scrubbing anyone who disagreed. They just hadn’t approved their projects.

  Where was the line between ethical disagreement and being a traitor? Was it killing? If so, he was now a traitor. But…there was a difference between killing to avoid being killed and killing others because they didn’t agree…wasn’t there? Eltyn didn’t have time to ponder that point and what led to and from it. The emergency signal flashed.

  They want to communicate.

  You talk, pulsed Eltyn. Might say what I think. [wryness]

  I won’t?

  You always think before you speak.

  I’ll remind you of that later. Faelyna pressed the stud to acknowledge the emergency transmission, using the manual override, rather than admitting that the station still had full internal communication systems. “Yes?”

  “Regional Inspector Welkyr here. You have not opened this installation to inspection as required by The Twenty. Why have you not complied?”

  “When your inspectors arrived, they came bearing arms,” replied Faelyna. “They also followed reports that they had brain-scrubbed almost everyone at the Apialor station. The one inspector we captured threatened us with the same. Under those circumstances, would you have opened the station to anyone?”

  “The Twenty are fair and just.”

  Faelyna did not reply to Welkyr. How can I answer that without lying or infuriating him?

  “He’s lying,” muttered Rhyana.

  You can’t, pulsed Eltyn.

  For several minutes, the three in the station waited.

  Finally, Welkyr spoke again, his voice smooth coming from the comm speaker. “Despite your actions in failing to comply with the law of the Ruche, Ruche Research is prepared to offer you leniency if you leave MCC (W) with all equipment intact. There is no need to prolong this…inconvenience. Just be reasonable, and all will be well.”

  “Exactly what do you mean by leniency?” replied Faelyna.

  Ask about whether The Twenty will abide by whatever agreement Ruche Research reaches, pulsed Eltyn.

  Not yet, she pulsed back.

  “You will be treated as any other nonviolent member of the Ruche who has not yet seen the way of The Twenty.”

  “That doesn’t sound lenient after what we’ve seen so far.” Faelyna’s voice was totally matter-of-fact.

  “It is most lenient for those who have defied the very principles of the Ruche.”

  “It’s not lenient enough for us. We’d like to keep both our minds and bodies intact.”

  “The Ruche will not harm you. You will have long and productive lives.”

  As little more than barely sentient vegetables, suggested Eltyn.

  “We’re looking for long, productive, and thoughtful lives,” pointed out Faelyna.

  “We can offer no more,” stated Welkyr.

  “Then we must reluctantly decline your most kind offer,” replied Faelyna.

  “Then you must deal with the consequences that befall all who refuse the mercy of The Twenty.”

  Mercy? If that’s mercy, we don’t need to hear what they believe is justice or retribution, pulsed Eltyn.

  “No mercy there,” said Rhyana.

  The emergency comm went dead. Shortly, all five armored trucks turned, one after the other, and drove eastward from the canal, raising a faint haze of sand and dust.

  Eltyn increased the size of the image, so that Rhyana could see it clearly as well. Retract and shield. Report status.

  Retracted and shielded.

  The projected image vanished.

  “What happened?” asked Rhyana.

  “As soon as they’re out of range, the SEV will start firing, either lasers or projectiles, or both,” suggested Eltyn. “The lasers won’t do anything, unless they hit an antenna or a scanner, and from where they’re situated, they can only take out the scanner and the antenna on the north. Missiles or projectiles could take out the other scanners and even the power cables—although those would take lucky shots. There’s no point in leaving anything unnecessarily exposed.”

  “The tidal generator is underwater,” added Faelyna. “It’s not the primary power source anyway. The solar grid is spread over kays to the south, and most of the cabling is buried deeply.”

  “Some of the sensors are shielded anyway, and we can get an idea of what they’re doing.”

  A spike in temperature on the north side of the station confirmed that the SEV had focused at least one laser on the station. Several other beam strikes registered. Then, for several minutes, nothing happened.

  “Projectiles are likely on the way,” Eltyn said dryly.

  Seismic sensors began to register impacts, more than a few.

  Shelling us in earnest, Eltyn pulsed to Faelyna.

  Nothing like a believer scorned.

  Eltyn tried to get an image through the local antenna on the south side of the station, but all it revealed was sand and dust swirling around the station, with an occasional gout of dirt and sand, mostly sand, geysering into the sky south of the canal stone.

  Then one warning indicator came up, and another.

  The main antenna is out again…we’ve lost seventeen percent of the solar grid.

  Eltyn waited as the impacts continued, but the system did not indicate any more warnings.

  A good hour passed before the shelling stopped.

  The emergency comm flashed ag
ain.

  Faelyna looked at Eltyn.

  He shrugged.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you ready to reconsider and accept the mercy of The Twenty?”

  “Not unless you guarantee long, prosperous, and intelligent life,” replied Faelyna.

  “We have promised that.”

  “Then you’re lying, and that’s even more despicable.”

  “We only want you to embrace the Ruche so that you will not be lost to the Meld.”

  “We’ll remain lost, thank you.”

  In less than five minutes, the shelling resumed, and continued for another half hour. Then the SEV began to move eastward, slowly at first, before gaining full speed, from what Eltyn could determine from the east-facing local antenna/scanner.

  “How bad we hurting?” asked Rhyana.

  “We’ve lost twenty-three percent of the solar grid and the main scanning antenna. We don’t have another spare. Even if we did, being outside any time soon wouldn’t be good.”

  Not at all, pulsed Faelyna.

  “Now what?”

  Eltyn shrugged again. “Their pride is hurt. They’ll try something even more powerful.”

  “They wouldn’t be stupid enough to use a nuclear device, would they?”

  “Unless they’ve got more scientific expertise than we know, they couldn’t have built one since they took over, but they’ll come up with something.”

  Eltyn was afraid he knew exactly what that was…but they’d have to evacuate the area on the north side of the canal before they did, not that there were all that many people there.

  You really think they would? Faelyna looked to him.

  You think they wouldn’t?

  She shook her head.

  “Is there any of that casserole left?” asked Eltyn, offering a smile he didn’t feel.

  39

  20 Siebmonat 3123, Vaniran Hegemony

  Duhyle had only made the first of the changes to the synchronizer before the arrival of the Aesyr’s monster vessel, its hull and superstructure of a brown so dark that it was almost black. The warship turned sharply a kay off the west coast of Vanira and came to an immediate stop, sending a miniature tsunami shoreward. That cascade of water shot upward at the ocean wall of the canal and sent spray across the stone of the station. The warship was indeed nearly a kay in sleek length, yet lay low in the water, with the top of the single Hammer mast rising less than fifty yards above the surface of the Jainoran Ocean. Immediately forward of the bridge was a single turret with two stubby guns or launchers. A similar massive turret dominated the area forward of the fantail. Duhyle projected an image, hoping to gain a better view.