The Orb And The Spectre (Book 2)

by Martin Ash

  "You are so sure?" queried Leth, his nerves stretched. "What is your evidence?"

  "The signs. Everything accords with the prophecies of the founding fathers of the True Sept. Everything."

  "Give me examples"

  "No. Not yet. First, Leth, I will hear you."

  Leth hesitated. "I have little to offer you, Venger. As I told you in Overlip, we found the Child - one whom we are informed must be the Child - but we’ve lost him."

  "The Child in whom you do not believe," taunted Venger. "But you spoke of his background."

  "I hope I have not implied a greater knowledge than I actually possess. The truth is that the matter is shrouded in mystery." Leth paused, aware that he was about to venture into territory only suggested to him during his meeting with Orbelon earlier. He was keen to observe the minutest response in Venger. "I’ve learned that the Child is almost certainly born of a human mother--"

  It hit him then like a cudgel blow. Ressa! Was that what Mawnie had been talking about?

  Ressa had been raped by a monster unknown!

  His mind spun. This explained Issul's certainty. She had known! Issul had known! The child had survived, she had suspected something, had hidden it away with the peasant family.

  He considered this for a moment, then tried to reject the idea. How could it be so? Ressa had died of her injuries weeks after that event. She had never been pregnant.

  He thought back, desperately trying to recall the details surrounding that tragic day. He had not seen Ressa after the attack. She was confined to her chambers in Saroon. She had few visitors other than immediate family. Leth could have visited her, of course, but formal duties had occupied him and he had not made the journey. He had preferred to await her recovery, for at the time she had been expected to recover. It was a month after the rape that her health had quite suddenly deteriorated, and soon afterwards she had died.

  But there had been no pregnancy.

  Or had Issul kept something from him all this time?

  Where else could the newborn babe that Issul had placed in the care of the peasant woman, Ohirbe, have come from? Logically, he reasoned, almost anywhere - but why? What other cause would have possessed Issul to act so secretively?

  No, no. It was too far-fetched. He was over-imaginative. There had been no time for gestation before Ressa died.

  But would godspawn gestate in the normal human span?

  Leth shook his head, stunned and prevented from thinking clearly.

  "You were saying?"

  Grey Venger's voice jolted him back to awareness of himself. He thought again, rapidly, again committing himself to uncertain ground. "And. . . we may have a description of the god who is its father."

  Venger tried to show indifference, but Leth detected a new degree of tension in his posture. "The god appeared?"

  Leth nodded. "It may be worth little, of course, for who knows how many forms a god may adopt?"

  Leth recalled the description of Ressa's assailant. Both Mawnie and Issul had described it. For a moment he wondered about the wisdom of revealing the description to Grey Venger, then did so anyway. "It was man-like but far more powerful than a man. Its skin was bluish-silver-grey, its eyes crimson. It had a tail, and knobbled spines extending the length of its spine."

  "That is little to go on," said Grey Venger, but his attitude had undergone another subtle change and he was plainly more intrigued than he wished to convey.

  Leth gave a nod. "As I say, much is mystery and I rely upon you to fill in the gaps."

  His thoughts were racing insanely, trying to piece together a picture that did not want to fall into place. It could not have been a god. According to Orbelon the gods cannot survive outside Enchantment.

  That is, not for long. . . .

  What other explanation was there? And not for the first time the thought hit him: I have always taken Orbelon at his word. But how do I know he is to be believed?

  "Did it speak?"

  "It told of destruction, that it had come out of Enchantment, that the world would soon know why."

  Venger absorbed this, leaning back in his seat, seeming to weigh him up. Leth said, "You spoke of signs."

  Venger was silent for a while longer, then, "I will tell you this: When your messenger sent word into Overlip that the Child had been found, we were not surprised. I had been waiting for this moment, seeing that everything was in place."

  "You’ve still not said what things"

  Venger suddenly rose, threw his head back and his arms wide, and began to intone, almost as though gripped in a trance. "The time will be drawn by the sins of the godless. It will be known by the Righteous Powers which will range themselves against the Unbelievers. All will be aligned to fight the Great Battle so that the King Without A Soul may be ousted. He will struggle in his terror and his oppression of the Righteous will be great and cruel. There will be times when it will seem that he has succeeded, but it will not be so. The Righteous will achieve ultimate victory over the Godless.

  "So watch. A Child will come, the Child of Legend, born when the King without a Soul rises. Born of Righteousness, the vengeant spawn of the Highest of the High Ones. The Child of Legend will restore the True Faith, through blood and turmoil, through destruction never known before. The gods themselves will war outside their domain, for such is the insult of the King without a Soul, whose soul has been cast away. They will join with those of the outlands and all will march against him. The Unbelievers will be wiped from the world so that Righteous peace may be restored. And the Legendary Child, the Child of the True Faith, will be supreme over all. All will know his name, and the land will become the domain of the One True God once again." Venger stopped, his face sheened with perspiration, and glared at Leth with a venom that was almost palpable. "There is more, much more, but you will not hear it."

  "From where do these words come?" asked Leth, apprehensively.

  "From the Screed of the One and True Sept, Ancient and Revered."

  "I have many questions."

  "I know. I will hear them, and judge."

  "Do you have power over the Child, if it is found?"

  "Ha! The Child empowers the True Sept. It will know its own followers."

  "Who, by your account, is the One True God?"

  "You will all know soon enough."

  "Had you succeeded in assassinating me, would the Child still have come?"

  "There is no question of that. My failure to kill you was a prerequisite."

  "A pre--" Leth was astonished. "Do you mean my death was never intended?"

  "It is written that when the Child is already in the world, the King without a Soul will be seen to escape death at the hands of a Servant of the Truth. That act, combined with the other signs, will tell the faithful that the final days of the godless are close."

  "You-- I cannot take this in-- you deliberately faked the attempt upon my life, and then allowed your sons to die!"

  Venger's lip curled. "I told you before, Leth, you can know nothing of the weight that is upon me. The Grey Venger puts himself aside in order to do what must be done for the Greater Truth."

  Leth stared in mute disbelief, deep into that tortured, terrible face. This was fanaticism more extreme than he could fathom, and within himself he reeled, repelled by it.

  "Do you understand my hatred for you, Leth? Your existence has been the force that has shaped mine. Your godlessness infests the world, bringing misery and decay, killing the Faithful whose only crime has been to be born into the wrong time."

  "And if I died, now? What then would be achieved?"

  "No. You cannot die now, not by my hand or the hand of any other mortal. You are without a soul, it has been cast away. Thus the world can only be purged of your presence and your taint by one qualified to perform that act. But first you must live to see the destruction you have wrought, to witness the extirpation of your people and your kind. All of them will be punished. And when they have gone, to the last man and woman, only then c
an the True Faith be restored, the Faithful dwell again and the Highest Ones rule once more."

  Leth struggled to make connections that just eluded his grasp. Something was ringing clamourously in his mind. The King without a Soul, whose soul has been cast away. Venger applied it to him, Leth, but Venger knew nothing of Orbelon, a god whose soul had been taken from him.

  Somewhere in the True Sept's credo, amongst the babble, the hyperbole, the dogma, the rhetoric, were there genuine references to what was happening now?

  Not for the first time in recent days Leth felt that the world had spun askew. Unseen forces moved to shape events, and he had been pushed into the position of a mere witness, a victim, even an unwitting instrument. Could he, now, change anything?

  V

  Leth felt half mad when he left his chamber and made for Pader Luminis's apartment high in the White Eaglet's Tower. Grey Venger had been escorted to his guest apartment, expressing tiredness. Leth wished to speak with him again very soon, but first he needed to talk to a sane man, someone he trusted.

  "It does not undermine the Deist Edict, if that’s what you fear," said Pader when he had heard all. "At the heart of the Edict is the self-evident truth that we do not know the gods or their wishes. I have heard nothing so far to convince me that the True Sept knows otherwise."

  "But their prophecies are coming true."

  "Prophecies? They have always claimed oracular knowledge, secrets ancient and profound, but apart from the rumour of the Child they have revealed nothing until now, when the facts are assembled for all to see."

  "But they know of the coming of the Child, and that the Child is born of a god. That is prophetic."

  "But we need not necessarily infer contact with or knowledge of the gods," said Pader. "Let us say that, a millennium ago, a man or woman attempting to study the mysteries of Enchantment, dreamed a dream. That person might have been entranced, drugged, soused, half-mad, or simply foolish. He dreamed that a god spoke directly to him and imparted a message for humanity. Transported, the dreamer woke, did not know he had slumbered, believed the dream was real and rushed to tell his fellows the wondrous news. Most disbelieved him, laughed in his face, called him mad. But a few wondered otherwise. The few told their friends. Before he knew it the dreamer, perhaps now outcast from his own society, had followers in some number. One or two among these wrote down the dreamer’s words and broadcast them as far afield as they might. Years passed, the dreamer became famous, and eventually died. But his words remained, as did his followers and the children of his followers. More words were added to the dreamer's original words; perhaps a few unscrupulous men inserted phrases of their own, seeking in them a way to personal fame, influence and wealth. Perhaps phrases were added in a genuine attempt to clarify or better understand the original, or to include knowledge or beliefs drawn from other sources. It matters little in essence. The words were powerful, the descendants of the dreamer determined to spread them and gather more followers. The generations succeeded one another. . . a religion had been born, taken seed and spread its roots and branches. But at no time had contact been made with a god."

  "All on the dream of a drunkard," mused Leth sombrely.

  "Or the sincere and genuine effort of an individual seeking to make sense of Mystery. We do not automatically infer malice at the outset, rather that in our desperation to explain Mystery any one of us may be drawn to unreliable conclusions. Like you, Leth, my goal is Knowledge and Truth. But Mystery confronts us at every pass and is perhaps the natural state. Some answers may never be found, others only create greater and more profound questions. For many, many people the concept of Mystery without answers is too terrifying to bear. They seek reasons for their being, as do we, and sometimes it may be far easier and more comforting to put absolute faith in answers that do not bear serious questioning, than to follow the path of Knowledge. The dream of a madman can be seductive. So can that of a genuine visionary, even though his dream may have been re-shaped by generations of other men seeing a way to power."

  "Still," added Leth after a moment's contemplation, "that doesn’t explain the Sept's knowledge of the coming of the Child."

  "You are wrong. A dreamer dreamed a dream. Others embellished it. It became the core of a politico-religious faith. Then, as certain factors appeared to coincide with the belief, other factors were manipulated. The stage-management of your 'assassination' attempt, for example. Who knows what else the Sept has stage-managed? Even the declaration that outlanders will join with the gods to oppose us, if seen in a clear light, is a generalization open to many interpretations. It doesn’t necessarily refer to the Karai. And the Sept is so secretive; how do we know that the sacred words Grey Venger revealed to you were not written last week?"

  Pader Luminis chuckled loudly at this, and the thought brought a smile to Leth's lips too. Then Pader added, "Even if the Sept's founders were genuinely gifted crystal-gazers, that is not proof of godly favouritism. These are momentous revelations, but they are not evidence of divine communion."

  Leth nodded to himself, thinking, Yes, for the gods are not gods. And I am the only one who knows it.

  How he longed to confide to Pader now. Did he dare? Into his mind sprang the memory of almost his last conversation with his dear mother, Queen Fallorn. He saw the stricken look upon her face, the tears in her eyes: 'Many times I wanted to tell you, and you will wish the same in future days. But I could not, and I knew I could not, and you will do the same. Even in your darkest hours, when your very soul cries to confide in someone, you must not do it. Not until the day comes - if it comes - when you will pass the casket on to your heir.'

  The memory shook him, and on its tail came that of another voice, the warning voice of Orbelon: 'Reveal the source of your wisdom and you will be rendered powerless. Others would seek access to your source by any means. You would lose me, and it would be a loss greater than you can calculate.'

  He clamped shut his jaw. Orbelon's voice continued to sound in his mind: 'Should you be the one, the one who does eventually destroy the Orb, then for your sake and the sake of your people and all that you hold dear, be absolutely sure of one thing: that you know what it contains!'

  Leth grew aware that Pader Luminis was watching him. He swept back his hair, suddenly weary. "Ressa, Pader. Is it possible that she was the mother of the Legendary Child?"

  Pader Luminis bowed his near-bald head. "Oh, this is disturbing. This is distressing. The poor child, she suffered so. But until we have the lost Child, or until Queen Issul returns and informs us, we can really know nothing."

  Leth scratched himself. He wanted to speak of the King without a Soul. The True Sept appeared to have at least some distorted inkling of Orbelon's fall eons ago. But their credo seemed to have grown around the mistaken belief that it was he, Leth, King of Enchantment's Reach, whose soul was lost. But he could not pursue that issue with Pader, not without revealing Orbelon's existence.

  "Tomorrow I am interviewing Venger in the small counsel room on the first level of the custodial wing. There is a listening-chamber there. It might serve us well if you secrete yourself inside it and hear what Venger has to say."

  "Very good."

  Leth rose slowly, yawned and stretched. "I am more tired tonight than I have felt in a long time."

  "I put a potion in your tea."

  "You did what?"

  The little Murinean grinned. "You will sleep well tonight, Leth, and be better equipped to deal with the problems the morning brings. But if I have done wrong, if I have offended you, please execute me now."

  *

  Leth went briefly to his study. He opened the compartment in the wall and looked at the blue casket, the casket that was the Orb, that was Orbelon's world, that was also Orbelon. His eyelids were heavy, he was pleasantly drowsy, too tired to bring the casket forth. Tomorrow he would meet with Venger again, and then he would report the results of the two meetings to Orbelon. But for now he wanted only to sleep.

  SIX


  I

  Armed with the conclusions he had drawn with Pader Luminis, and refreshed and fortified by a night of deep and undisturbed sleep, Leth did feel better-equipped for another meeting with Grey Venger when he rose the following morning. The previous day he had approached his adversary feeling nervous, daunted, even - if he would admit it - afraid. Not of Venger himself, but of what their meeting might portend. And the revelations Venger had subsequently thrown at him, plus his own sudden cognition of Ressa's terrible role, had cast him into ever greater turmoil and shock.

  But today he was clearer. Venger was not the giant he had been. Leth could view his pronouncements in a more proper perspective. To some extent Venger was even discredited, and this gave Leth some heart. Venger was not himself aware of it, and his fanatical, blind belief in himself and the creed of the True Sept likely ensured that he never would be. But that was not necessarily an obstacle. Leth saw that he needed to draw him out, to discover whether he was genuinely in possession of information in regard to the Legendary Child which Leth could use, or whether in fact the True Sept's beliefs were founded partially or entirely on falsehoods, superstitions and amended scriptures - or, as Pader Luminis had put it, 'the dreams of a dreamer who may not have known that he dreamed'. If any of the latter were shown to be the case, then Venger's and the True Sept's role in this intricate business might be as good as over.

  Voluble in his rhetoric, Venger had yet withheld a great deal yesterday. More exactly, he had given the impression of withholding. Perhaps he had nothing more to give, but Leth had to be sure, one way or the other, before he could dismiss him. To this end Leth felt it desirable to let Venger bask in the semi-illusion that he still had control. Like any man, Venger was at his best when he believed himself respected, perhaps even feared, and most of all needed.