by Shannah Jay
JAY The Price of Wisdom213
And the black shadow fell across him, filled him so that he seemed to grow taller, till he began to move forward, magnified, possessed, the true Avatar of his Dread Lord.
Before him the edges of the brightness flickered and dimmed.
A gasp ran through the ranks of those nearest as they saw what was happening.
Herra let go of Petur's hand, dropped Taslyn's soft palm from hers and moved forward, smiling, joyous. 'Now is my time,' she cried. 'Now is my time.' She danced forward as if she were in a temple.
Indeed, she seemed to hear temple bells chiming around her. 'Come to me, Sen-Sether!' she called loudly, and her words echoed and re-echoed around Therak Bowl. 'Come to me, child of evil. Come and meet your doom.'
Sen-Sether was smiling confidently as he strode forward, as he reached out towards her, as he thrust his dagger into her heart.
But the fire of her freed spirit danced delicately along his blade, casting out silver sparks, setting his garments flaming, scorching his flesh, darkening it to match his spirit. And the Serpent within him howled in pain as it shrank from that glowing contact, from that radiant spirit that sent cleansing light washing through the evil, searing it from Sen-Sether's heart and body. From there the light of Herra’s spirit moved on into the Serpent itself, the loathsome being that Sen-Sether and his forebears had called up from their own evil.
Thunder boomed around the two figures, lightning slashed down from the sky, as Terraccalliss strove desperately to lend his power to Herra's last act in this life.
Her laughter still seemed to echo among the people behind her as she crumpled gracefully to the ground, to lie there smiling peacefully. No blood marred her breast, but she lay too still for life and her eyes stared sightlessly at the blue, blue sky. A soft breeze stirred her garments, then wafted away, the last touch of Herra's wind.
Beside her, Sen-Sether lay crumpled in black tortured anguish, moaning and writhing on the ground. He wasn’t dead yet, though the Serpent had fled from him, fled from the mere touch of Herra's spirit,
Then Fiana stepped forward and took hold of the dagger still gleaming in Sen-Sether's blackened hand, unmarked by Herra's blood. She turned it towards his breast and stabbed it deep into his heart to end his agony, to end his evil, to end the reign of terror he had brought to their world. For the Serpent's path led nowhere and it had always carried with it the seeds of its own destruction. And as the last dark threads of its fading evil crawled along the blade and would have seized her instead, she called out her Brother's name and the threads stilled and crumbled to dust.
'Now we shall turn back on to the Path of Wisdom!' she cried and her words were heard by all, so that they, too, cried out, 'The Path of Wisdom! The Path of Wisdom!'
From the sky a bolt of golden light struck downwards to where the weakening Serpent was struggling to stay alive. Terraccalliss's golden spear of light fell harmlessly upon Fiana and the rest of the Kindred, but it consumed that which was evil.
From a very great distance, Herra's voice echoed one last time on Sunrise as the last faint stirrings of her wind whirled away across Therak Bowl. 'Joy! Oh, joy unbounded! Brother, take me to you.'
One last stop she had to make and then she would be truly united with Terraccalliss and the other Manifestations of her Brother the God, those transcendent beings who had watched over her world during the long centuries when the Sisterhood had striven so hard to find the Path of Peace and Wisdom.
The towering figure of the Serpent began to dissolve and fragment, turning transparent then breaking into shards of greying shadow that scattered and were blown to nothing by Herra's soul-wind.
Howling, the evil fled back to the void from whence it had been summoned.
Only one small vortex of darkness escaped, spinning off unseen among so many twisting, crumbling threads, to hide in the shadow of a mountain peak and then seize its opportunity and whirl upwards inside a cloud to that last refuge of evil that still hung in the sky above the Twelve Claims.
But no one noticed it, for their attention was on their great loss, not their victory.
So passed Herra of Tenebrak, the greatest Elder Sister ever known to the Twelve Claims, the world she had loved so dearly.
She left behind her a chaos of bewilderment, a muddle of small skirmishes as those too steeped in evil tried to resist the miracle Herra had created, the union of several species, the alliance between the levels of life itself.
But Davred stepped forward to set order upon the scene with the sureness of one who knew what to do.
He put Quedras and Querilla in charge of the final conflicts, for not all the evil had died with the Serpent's death. Some humans were still filled with their own darkness, angry that their excuse to vent their inborn hatred upon their fellow humans had been stripped away.
Using their swords when they had to, but accepting surrender from the majority, who stood bewildered as the fumes continued to clear from their heads, Quedras and Querilla methodically quartered the terraces, setting guards near those who’d dropped their weapons, but showing no mercy to those whose souls were lost. This was no time for weakness. It was a time to cleanse their world.
As the long day passed, Davred directed his people in the many tasks that lay before them. Sister Healers tended the worst of the wounded from both sides, forming Healing Circles. Those with cooking skills went back with relief to preparing food for the weary, heartsick people.
And with Fiana's help, Cheral carried the body of her beloved Sister away to prepare it for burial. It should lie there in Therak Bowl near the clear sparkling pool, near the place where Herra had saved her world.
No one dared pause as the long hours passed and some order was made from the chaos. For if they had stopped to think, they would have wept themselves into oblivion at the magnitude of their loss, at the price they had paid for their deliverance.
The price of wisdom.
CHAPTER 30 BATTLE IN THE SKY
When Katia regained consciousness she was lying in the battered transcap inside some sort of structure and someone was lifting the lid. Over her loomed the twisted angry face of a man. Her head
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was thumping and she felt so disoriented she had to concentrate first on bringing her body to order, trying to cast out the poison that had taken her unawares and readying all her senses for action.
For a moment Robler couldn’t speak or move, only stand there staring down in shock at the woman lying in the transcap. 'What happened to Soo?' he demanded, when he found his voice again.
Katia didn’t attempt to answer until he grabbed her shoulder and gave her a shake. Then she opened her eyes and stared straight back at him, beginning to realise what was happening. 'Let go of me, Robler.'
He took an involuntary step backwards. 'How do you know my name?'
She didn’t attempt to hide her scorn. 'Who else could you be? I'm obviously on the satellite. And you're the only person here who would abduct someone from the planet. You've tried it before, after all.'
Rage was gibbering at the edges of his brain, but he held it in check. Somehow. But only just. 'How in the name of all darkness did you get here?'
'I pushed Soo out of the circle of netwaves that your transcap was casting out, but I didn't have time to escape from them myself.' Katia decided to feign extreme weakness until she could see her path more clearly. She closed her eyes and gave a murmur as if her head were spinning, raising one hand languidly to touch her forehead, not even fighting back when Robler dragged her out of the transcap with no regard for how she was feeling or whether he bumped her body against the hard edges.
'It's not possible to resist those netwaves!' he shouted, shaking her to and fro. 'I used stronger ones than before. How did you manage it, you stupid - stupid - bitch?'
Katia forced herself to remain limp and not thrust his hands away from her body. This was no time to reveal the power of her Gifts. 'Your reality is not mine
. Things work differently down on Sunrise.'
'The laws of science are immutable - ' he began, then decided not to waste time arguing with a primitive. As he studied her, desire rose in him in a dark wave, for Davred's wife was more beautiful in the flesh than he’d expected and it was a long time since he’d had a real woman not a simulation.
'Nothing is immutable,' she stated firmly, looking him straight in the eyes, with no sign of awe or respect.
How dared a mere woman contradict him! How dared she look at him so scornfully! 'If you value your life, Katia Hollunby,' he said, his voice crackling with suppressed violence, 'then I would advise you to keep quiet unless I speak to you.'
'My life is my Brother's.' And she couldn’t serve her Brother properly here in this time of crisis.
'You must send me back down to the planet at once. I'm needed at Therak Bowl.'
'What for? To be present at the defeat of your Kindred?'
She stared at him in horror as a faint shadow writhed briefly on his forehead. It was not possible, surely - but she couldn’t mistake that sign. This man was of the Serpent.
Fancying her to be quiescent and fearful, Robler looked her over with a proprietorial air. Even the most accurate holocube image didn’t show the velvet softness of her skin, the delicate shadings of rose on her cheeks, the glory of that cloud of dark hair, even dust-streaked and tied back in a tangled mass, as it was now. She would have looked stunning in one of those blue robe things, but at the moment she was wearing tight-fitting leathers. And very trim she looked in them, too. They were much more appealing than the garish ship suits everyone wore on the satellite.
He looked at her again and hungered. Before he sent her back down to Sen-Sether, he decided suddenly, he would have her himself. He could create an altar in the corner of his quarters and take her on it, as he’d seen Those of the Serpent take women in the shrines. Something throbbed within him at the mere thought of doing that, of doing everything properly, for once.
Then he became aware that someone was standing behind him and he turned round with a growl of annoyance.
'Sir!' Then the newcomer realised whom Robler was holding and gasped. 'Isn't that - '
Robler glared at Berin. 'What do you want?'
'Sir, I - I came to tell you that the hydroponics unit is still malfunctioning seriously. We thought we'd mended it last time, though we did tell you we shouldn’t - ' But Berin's attention was on Katia.
They’d all seen images of her, but in the holos she hadn’t seemed so vividly beautiful. How could she have got up to the satellite? His heart sank. What had the Exec done now? He and his companions wouldn’t be able to ignore this and wait for rescue.
Robler moved to stand in front of Katia. 'I'll attend to that presently. I'm busy now. Go away.'
Berin hesitated. 'But sir, shouldn't we - '
' Leave me! ' Robler's voice was a roar of fury that made his crew member flinch back and leave the hold.
But once Berin was out of his Exec's sight, he rushed off to rouse the rest of the crew.
'What's the matter?' Jarna asked as she entered the rec-room in response to an urgent summons. She was still filthy from her attempts to repair the hydroponics system and she was exhausted.
Berin told her, keeping his voice low and watching the doorway in case Robler came in.
She gasped at the news. 'He's abducted a primitive! Then he is mad! Demonstrably mad.'
Sim and Fran came in, followed by Lizan, and they too were told what had happened.
They all stared at one another in horror.
'We can't let him keep her,' Lizan said at last. 'He might – in his madness he really might ill-treat her.' She wouldn't want to leave any woman in Robler's power nowadays.
'If we try to stop him, it'll be mutiny,' Sim protested. 'And you know the penalty for that.'
'If we don't try to stop him, we'll be accessories to his crime and there's a heavy penalty for that, too.
Besides, we have more than enough evidence now to prove our case to Confex,' Lizan insisted, as she had been insisting for a while now. In vain. She’d never met such indecisive simpletons.
Fran cleared her throat. 'Well we certainly can't leave the poor creature in Robler's hands. What if he does more than ill-treat her? What if he kills her?'
There was blank silence at the horror of that thought. None of them had grown up on worlds where violence was tolerated.
'But what can we do?' Sim asked. 'I mean, what can we actually do?'
'We can confront him,' Lizan said. 'All together. And demand that he send her back. He'll have to do something if we stick together. He can't fight us all.'
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But when they went to the Exec's quarters, they found the door screen in place and there was no answer to their attempts to communicate with Robler through the ship systems. Even the emergency override didn't seem to be working.
***
Inside Katia was sitting slumped on the edge of a viva-chair protrusion, which Robler had brought into being with a sharp command. She didn’t like the way the chair had appeared from nowhere to nestle around her like a parody of a live thing. But she still felt drained and weary and the drug wasn’t entirely gone from her body, so she sat down when ordered to.
She examined the room covertly, unsure of the best way to deal with this situation, because even if she stilled Robler, she wouldn’t know how to free herself from this place and return to Davred. Fear shuddered through her. They would be facing a bleak night down there in Therak Bowl, and she should be there with them, helping, lending her life's energies to preparations for the final confrontation. She must persuade this man to return her to the High Alder. Immediately. The need was desperate.
'Why have you brought me here?' she asked, her voice as calm as if she were chatting to a friend.
'I thought I was bringing Soo,' he said, lying back in another chair protrusion opposite and contemplating her through narrowed eyes. 'But you interfered. So it's your own fault you're here and you'll have to take the consequences.'
His whole aura reeked of the Serpent. Was it possible that the taint had spread to all those on the satellite? she wondered. If so, there would be others to contend with before she could escape. Even more reason for doing nothing now, while she assessed the situation.
'You should return me to my husband,' she repeated, trying in vain to place a Compulsion upon him. But there was a mental barrier around him which resisted her attempts, a barrier which made her shudder even to touch it, it was so strongly tainted by evil.
He gave a snort of harsh laughter. 'No. That I shall not do.'
She looked at him in puzzlement. 'What do you intend to do with me, then?'
'I haven't decided yet.' But he was beginning to see his way more clearly. 'There are several interesting possibilities.'
'I thought it was against Confex regulations to abduct indigenes from a planet under observation.'
'You've learned our jargon well from your traitor of a husband. It's also against the regs to tell the indigenes about us. Did he mention that to you, as well? No, I'm sure he didn't.'
Katia let him rant on. She could feel his vacillations, the changes in spirit that made him one moment a man of the Confederation, the next a follower of the Serpent. She had never felt insanity so clearly in anyone. The Healer in her was fascinated by the chemical changes that trickled and surged through his body and brain with each change in attitude. 'He did tell us, actually. He explained it all very clearly,' she said, seeing Robler growing angry at her lack of response.
'I doubt it. He's as blind to reality as you perverted hags are.' He studied her and nodded as if in approval, 'But I can see why Davred wanted you. You're amazingly beautiful, for a primitive. Are you thirsty?'
She nodded. She was very thirsty. And perhaps getting her a drink would take his mind off his all too obvious lusts.
The idea of how he would take her was building up in Robler's mind, filling him w
ith surging excitement. He strode across to the com-server. 'Two glasses of euphorion,' he ordered. Within seconds two tall old-fashioned glasses stood there, with ice crackling in the pale golden liquid and heavy vapour hovering above it.
He left his own glass on the shelf and took the other across to Katia. 'Try this. It's one of my favourite drinks.'
She took it from him and sniffed the liquid, frowning. Dipping one fingertip into the fluid she raised it to her lips, testing it carefully. She wasn’t as skilled as Herra at this, but skilled enough to know that the liquid was some sort of drug. Immediately she set the glass down on the small ledge Robler had created beside her. 'No, thank you.'
He seized the glass and tried to force it up to her lips, but she used her mental forces to send it spinning away from her, scattering the liquid across the floor, so that it lay in puddles that gleamed under the harsh light reflecting off the hard shiny surfaces all around them.
She watched impassively, hiding her feelings, but the room made her feel uncomfortable. The ugliness of this place was in itself an abomination. There was no beauty anywhere. This place was exactly as Davred had described it - sterile, soulless.
Robler cursed and wiped down his shipsuit. 'You're a fool, Katia Hollunby! You're in my power here and you'd be wiser to work out how to please me, than angering me.'
A white mesh slid out from one corner of the floor and moved across to the nearest puddle, soaking it up before creeping forward to the next puddle.
Robler saw Katia watching this and laughed. 'You're watching one of the many wonders of my advanced civilisation. Automatic cleaning services.'
Wonders! Any person with a cloth could have cleared up the mess far more quickly. Katia was suddenly angry, so she snapped her fingers and dispersed the liquid in one of the larger puddles, sending it rising in a misty swirl of vapour that vanished almost immediately in the air-regulating system. 'And you, Robler, have just watched one of the wonders of my civilisation. Though people who were truly advanced would not, I think, be so scornful and discourteous to their guests.'
