Transcendence

by Transcendence [lit]

King Eltiraaz stared long and hard into Cazzira’s icy blue eyes, measuring her resolve.

  Juraviel and Brynn removed their hoods on Cazzira’s command, blink­ing their eyes against the brilliant late-summer sunlight. Despite Juraviel’s original decision against a long delay, they had spent several weeks in Tym­wyvenne, where the sun did not shine, and now the brilliant warmth felt good indeed!

  So good that it took Juraviel a long while to realize that he and Cazzira and Brynn were apparently alone, with no sign of the contingent of more than a dozen other Doc’alfar who had accompanied them out of the city. They were in the foothills of the giant mountains, so close that Juraviel derstood that this area just north of the divide would be bathed in shadow at this time of day in a few weeks, when the sun lowered in the sky Wither to the south.

  „Where are we?“ Brynn asked. „And where are your kinfolk?“

  We are where you said you wanted to be,“ Cazzira answered. „Close to - at least. And why would the Tylwyn Doc wish to accompany you to the J-L Starless Night, a place where we do not often choose to go?“ Then why are you here?“

  Juraviel was sharing a stare with Cazzira as Brynn asked the question reading her thoughts. „You intend to come with us,“ he reasoned, and when there came no immediate argument, he went on, „This is our road, one cho­sen by fate and by need. There is no reason -

  „My king believes that there is a reason,“ Cazzira interrupted. „You have wandered onto our lands, Belli’mar Juraviel. Do not pretend that your pres­ence in Tymwyvenne means nothing to Tylwyn Doc, or to Tylwyn Tou. Per­haps it means nothing immediately significant, but now the races know of each other once more, and that is a door that, once opened, cannot be closed, for good or for ill.“

  „Unless I die in the southland, or on my way to the southland.“

  „Yet we still know of you, of Caer’alfar and Andur’Blough Inninness And so King Eltiraaz would learn more. Slowly and in proper time. He would like to keep you in Tymwyvenne for many months, years perhaps, that he might truly learn your heart and your thoughts. But he cannot in good conscience, of course - and despite my counsel - because of your need to be away to the south.“

  „We are grateful for King Eltiraaz’s understanding of our situation.“

  „And he wishes your response to be the gratitude of a friend,“ Cazzira said. „He hopes that more will come of our chance meeting - much more. Thus, he must continue his exploration of Belli’mar Juraviel’s heart, through Cazzira, who serves as his eyes and ears.“

  „And what of me?“ Brynn asked, her tone showing that she felt a bit left out.

  „You are still alive, and on your way,“ Cazzira replied, never taking her stare from Juraviel. „Be pleased, Brynn Dharielle, for that is more than most humans who wander onto the land of Tylwyn Doc can ever say!“

  Brynn sighed and did not press the point.

  „And so you will serve as King Eltiraaz’s eyes and ears all the way to the entrance to the Path of Starless Night?“ Juraviel asked.

  Cazzira gave a little laugh and swept around, waving her arm out toward a dark shadow at the base of a nearby jag of stone. „We are at the en­trance,“ she explained, pulling off her pack as she spoke. She untied and opened the pack, producing three of the blue-white glowing torches, toss­ing one to each of her companions while keeping the third for herself. „The continuation of your road, the beginning of my own.“

  Cazzira started toward the shadowy opening, but Juraviel grabbed her arm to stop her. She turned about and the two locked stares again.

  „This is not your business,“ Juraviel said.

  „Is it yours?“

  „It is because Lady Dasslerond decided that it was.“

  „As it is mine because King Eltiraaz decided that it was,“ Cazzira an­swered. „Perhaps the Tylwyn Doc have no place in the affairs of the Tylwyn Tou, or in the affairs of the To-gai-ru or any humans at all. Or perhaps we not trust you enough to let you walk out freely. That is what we discover. Consider my company the price of your freedom, if you -• a return favor from Belli’mar Juraviel and Brynn Dharielle.“ raviel continued to stare at Cazzira for a long, long while, and then he d and gave a helpless, defeated laugh. How could he refuse her com-chip after the amazing trust the Doc’alfar had placed in him and in At other part of Belli’mar Juraviel wondered why he would want to e her as well. Would it not be more pleasant for him to have another along who understood his perspective of the world, the elven viewpoint? He was a fine companion, but she was a human, and would soon be among her own kind, heavily involved in their politics and ways, and during that transition, Juraviel knew that he would be little more than a distant observer. Perhaps those days would be brighter indeed with the companionship of one more akin to him.

  Besides, there was something about Cazzira that Juraviel found quite ap­pealing, despite her stern face - or possibly, because of it. Her often fiery and volatile remarks reminded him of another he had once known, a Touel’alfar named Tuntun who had been his dearest friend. Cazzira even looked a bit like Tuntun.

  „Lead on,“ he said, and so she did, and so Cazzira and Juraviel and Brynn entered a narrow tunnel that widened into a large and airy cave. Tw exits ran off the back of the cave, deeper into the mountains, and Cazzira considered each for a few moments, then nodded and went into the one to the left.

  Soon all daylight was left behind, the trio entering a darkness so pro­found that, without the strange torches, they would not have been able to see a hand flapping an inch from their faces.

  C H A P T E R * 8 *

  Trial of Faith

  The child will be of full consciousness,“ Yakim Douan said to his newest gathering of Yatols, most of them from the region -UL just interior to Jacintha. The Chezru Chieftain had chosen the invitation lists to his meetings very carefully, pulling together disparate, often feuding, priests. He didn’t want any secret alliances building, to fester dur­ing the time when he would be most vulnerable. Thus, in the small gather­ings during which he would give the traditional Transcendence speech, Yakim drew together opposing Yatols, such as Peridan and De Hamman, who would never trust each other enough to form any destructive alliances.

  „What does that truly mean, God-Voice?“ asked Yatol Bohl, who led a flock at the great Dahdah Oasis, nine days’ journey west of Jacintha. „Will the child be able to speak? Words or sentences?“

  Yakim studied Bohl carefully. At thirty, he was among the youngest of the Yatol priests, and he was certainly among the most fit. He ruled Dahdah with an iron hand, Yakim knew, collecting outrageous fees for shelter and supplies from any caravan coming in from the west toward Jacintha, or heading out to the west from the main city. No doubt, Yatol Grysh had been forced to reach deep into his pockets for a needed stop at Dahdah on his way back to Dharyan.

  „Full consciousness,“ Yakim replied. „The child, of no more than a year, will be able to speak as fluently as you or I. The child will know of our ways, will know of me, his predecessor, and will know of his destiny.“

  „Surely a peasant mother seeking to elevate her family could teach -

  „The child will know more of Yatol and the Chezru religion than any peasant could possibly guess,“ Yakim interrupted the ever-petulant Bohl. „You will see, you will understand, and you will believe.“

  „God-Voice, please do not believe that I am a doubter,“ Yatol Bohl said, holding his hands out wide, assuming a posture of perfect innocence.

  Yakim Douan just smiled at the pose. He knew exactly that, of course,

  All the others, except for those most pious, like the poor fool Ma held grave doubts about the Transcendence, the mystical Menvan went to the next Chezru Chieftain. Of course they did - wouId they not? For someone to believe that a baby, an infant, would caking fluently and knowing all the secrets of their culture’s wisest was a stretch, certainly, a test of faith against logic, of belief against well Yakim Douan could sympathize with those doubts! He rebered that time, so many hundreds of years be
fore, when he had first learned of the Transcendence. Things were done very differently back ien for it was not the Chezru Chieftain delivering a speech such as this. No, the Chezru Chieftain would die, often unexpectedly, and then the leaders of the Chezru religion would initiate the search.

  Yakim Douan, a young Yatol, had been just a bit older than Bohl was now when he had participated in that search those centuries ago. He re­membered how full of eagerness, full of great joy he had been at the thought that he was about to witness a miracle, a confirmation of his faith that every man so desires, whether he admits it or not. They had discovered the blessed infant soon after, and full of anticipation and the expectation of extreme joy, Yakim Douan had gone in to witness the miracle child.

  And he had found a baby. Not a blessed baby, not a miracle child spe ing the words of Yatol, but a normal baby.

  The leaders of Chezru, their names lost to him now, had told him and the other Yatols of the „miracles“ they had witnessed the child perform, of the words they had heard this goo-gooing infant speaking. Many of the other Yatols had taken those proclamations as proof enough that this was indeed the miracle child, the new God-Voice of Yatol.

  But Yakim Douan had known better. He had understood instinctively that this baby was nothing more than a pawn, through which the leaders of the Yatol priests could spend the rest of their days in control of the religion, and thus, of all Behren.

  He knew.

  And so he understood the doubts and the fears that Yatols such as Bohl must now be feeling in this time of approaching crisis. If Yakim could only hand them enough teasing to hold them in check until after the birth, until they saw proof positive that their faith was not misplaced, that the selected child was indeed the God-Voice, then men like Bohl could become very valuable allies to the next incarnation.

  When I was chosen, I knew as much about the truth of Yatol as I do ‘ he told them all. „I could recite the Verses of Propriety as well as I bow…“ He gave a little laugh. „No, better, for then my physical body not begun to fail me, my memory did not lapse as it sometimes does now.

  The gathering of ten Yatols all chuckled at the Chezru Chieftain’s un­characteristic comedy - all except for Yatol Bohl, who sat staring hard at Douan, obviously taking a careful measure of the man.

  Yakim resisted the temptation to call him on that look, and merely smiled disarmingly in response.

  „You are human, reasoning beings, and so you hold your doubts,“ he said, and there came a chorus of denials, to which Yakim merely looked away and held up his hands. „It is the expected response, my children, for you cannot make logical sense of faith. Who here has seen the paradise of the afterlife?“ He paused and let the gathered Yatols all look to each other questioningly. „Nay, you cannot see the spirit or hear the spirit. For you in your current state of existence, only the empty and lifeless corpse remains and logic would tell you, then, that death is the end of consciousness.

  „I know better, and I tell you that this Transcendence will show you, too, that there is more to this existence than what our physical senses can show us. When you look upon the reincarnated God-Voice, when you hear him speak the words of Truth, you will know and you will be content.

  „Fear not for those doubts you now harbor,“ Yakim went on, trying to hold that fierce edge of passion in his voice, trying not to lapse into the simple recitation of this, a speech he had spoken many times over the cen­turies. „Fear not that you will be disappointed, and fear not that your doubts somehow mark you as less than true to Yatol. You are supposed to question and supposed to doubt! Else, how will you be certain that you have selected the correct child? Question and doubt everything! When you find the new God-Voice, your questions will catch in your throats and your doubts will vanish so completely that you will be befuddled as to how you ever held them. And then you will know true peace, my children, for then you will understand the truth of your faith. To witness a miracle is to ease the fear of dying itself. Look upon those few living Yatols who remem­ber the last Transcendence! See the contentment in their old eyes, my chil­dren, and take heart that you, too, will know that supreme comfort.“

  It was true enough. Only three Yatols remained alive who remembered the last Transcendence, when Yakim Douan had been identified as the next God-Voice of Yatol, and those three were considered among the happiest of all the Yatol priests. Happy because they had seen a miracle and knew that heaven awaited them. Happy because they understood the value of their lives in service to Yatol.

  Happy because Yakim Douan had ultimately deceived them.

  When the gathering dispersed a short while later, most of the Yatols left the audience chamber grinning and speaking excitedly about the coming Transcendence. Two notable exceptions caught Yakim Douan’s eye and attention as he watched the departing flock. Merwan Ma sat at the side of the stage, in the shadows, staring at him with a long look upon his face. The man was deeply troubled by Yakim’s expected and hoped-for death, the

  Chieftain knew, and was deeply troubled by his own inability to ac-reality, to brush aside his logical fears of mortality and logical sad-

  at losing a man he considered as mentor and friend. nosture and his fears did not bother Yakim Douan, though, for he hat Merwan Ma would rejoice when the God-Voice was discovered.

  Chezru Chieftain decided then and there that when they found him, of his first spoken revelations would be to tell poor Merwan Ma that on Douan was still with him, looking over him and taking pride that his udent was performing his ultimately important duties so very well. The second exception to the common joy troubled Yakim Douan much ore though, for Yatol Bohl left the chamber neither smiling nor chatting itedly. His face was stern and locked into an expression of deepest reflection.

  That one could prove to be dangerous, Yakim Douan knew. He was young and strong and eager and impatient. And he was ambitious - too much so, perhaps, to sublimate himself to a mere child. The one true concern that had followed Yakim Douan through his centuries of power was the weak­ness of true spirituality in the face of human emotions. A Yatol priest, for all of his piousness, even heroics, in the eyes of the church, could only ascend so far, could never be greater than the second rank of the hierarchy. Cer­tainly if Bohl witnessed the selected child, the God-Voice who could tell him of the Yatol tenets and codes as well as any scholar priest, then he would be convinced and would put aside his earthly ambitions-and human weaknesses.

  But would Yatol Bohl show enough patience? Would he wait the nearly two years it would take after Yakim Douan s death to even finer the new Chezru? Or was he plotting a more direct route to instalL-anew leader of Yatol?

  Yakim Douan smiled knowingly. The same magic that allowed the decep­tion of Transcendence would soon provide him with practical information.

  We are to wait years to be disappointed?“ Yatol Bohl asked his guest, Yatol Thei’a’hu, incredulously. „Surely you cannot believe this chatter of a speaking infant!“

  Lhezru Chieftain Douan has asked us to trust in our faith, and what is with without trust?“ replied the other Yatol, older than Bohl by more than ecade and seeming worn and thin, with sleepy eyes and a badly balding I and a jaw that constantly trembled from a disease he had contracted years before. „Are we to believe in the miracle of Paradise if we can in this relativlely minor miracle?“

  Imor?“ Bohl echoed with the same unyielding skepticism. „An infant recite the tenets of Yatol? An infant? Have you even known an in-3 speak in a complete sentence, Yatol, let alone in any manner that makes sense?“

  „Minor,“ Yatol Thei’a’hu insisted. „If Yatol can fashion Paradise, if Yatol can transcend death, then how can you doubt this?“

  Bohl settled back on his comfortable seat, a relatively shapeless stuffed bag, and took a deep draw on the hose extending from a watery tube beside him. „And yet, you doubt it, too, for all of your reasoning now. Else, friend why are you here?“

  Yatol Thei’a’hu similarly sat back on his shapeless chair, staring a
t his counterpart. Bohl’s words were true enough, he had to admit to himself His feelings toward this impending Transcendence were not positive at all and his expression and posture showed that clearly. In truth, Thei’a’hu had never been overly fond of Yakim Douan, and had often privately disagreed with the man. While he accepted the Chezru Chieftain’s unchallenged lead­ership and obeyed Douan’s commands to the letter, Douan had made sev­eral very damaging decisions concerning Yatol Thei’a’hu’s province of Eh’thu, located two weeks to the south and west of Jacintha. Ten years be­fore, Douan had clipped off the northernmost stretch of Thei’a’hu’s prov­ince and given it to Yatol Presh, who rode with the nomads of Tossionas Desert, in an effort to settle the often-troublesome nomadic warriors. That ploy had hardly worked, for the Tossionas nomads were causing as much grief as ever, and yet, that redrawing of province lines had cost Thei’a’hu an important oasis. For all of his faith, Yatol Thei’a’hu could hardly believe that Douan’s decision had been god-inspired - how could Yatol have made such an obvious mistake? That was the most grievous example, but there were others, always gnawing at the reasonable Thei’a’hu’s logic.

  „For centuries, we have followed the Transcendence of Yatol,“ Thei’a’hu said. „When the Chezru dies, the search begins for the next God-Voice, and that God-Voice will be identified through the miracle of premature knowledge and voice. That is our way, and so Chezru Douan prepares us now for the next Transcendence. What would you have us do, Yatol Bohl? Are we to seize the title for ourselves? Do you believe that the other two hundred Yatols of Behren will accept a religious coup?“

  „I have suggested no such thing!“ Bohl sputtered in reply.

  „Then what?“

  „We must be aware and alert,“ the fiery young Yatol insisted. „We must insinuate ourselves into the process of the search, to find a child who will be sympathetic to our needs.“

  „You believe that you can know such a thing about an infant? You be­lieve that you can find a child who will be acceptable to the other Yatols, if this child is not speaking as Chezru Douan has told us?“