“Did she put you in touch with Xoraya Hsiss?” Lank asked.
“’Fraid not,” Kati responded. “But she knew about the women’s arrival on the Margolis Estate. She was in a state about the island having been turned into a running sore, as she claimed, and it was hard to get a word in edgewise. Apparently something’s there that she doesn’t like; sounded like a chemical lab to me, if that makes any sense. Worked by some off-worlders who would rather be home instead of here. I think Xoraya must have been awfully busy trying to tend to her and Canna’s bodies, since she had, so far, made no attempt to reach out to the Ocean Sister. The Ocean Sister promised to look in on her, and to help her with energy flow. She’ll also help us to pinpoint Xoraya and Canna’s location, once we’re on the island.”
She took a deep swallow of the fruity drink, after all those words. As her body regained its flexibility, she found herself growing anxious to get moving again, to find out what exactly was going on at the Margolis Estate.
“Someone lend me a light; I’ll handle Mother Nature’s call as Joaley suggested, and then we can get going.”
“I’ll light your way,” Joaley said. “Lank or Rakil, take her drink for now—she’ll want to finish it aboard the flyer.”
*****
“This could get pretty dangerous,” Jock muttered, once they were airborne, and Kati had relayed as much detail about the goings-on on the Margolis Island as she had received from the Ocean Sister.
“We have four stunners for five people,” Rakil mused. “Does this flyer have anything in it that could be used as a defensive weapon, Jock?”
Jock shook his head.
“I went through the lockers while Kati was communicating with the Ocean Entity,” he said. “While the rest of you were checking out the rock we were on. There’s a first-aid kit but no weapons. Which is not surprising, since Uncle Kelt is not a hunter, and he’s pretty much a pacifist. Even if there had been weapons in the flyer when he got it, he would have discarded them. But I doubt that he had to; the government does not hand guns to dissidents. All flyers have to be bought through government-approved suppliers; the Exalted keep a stranglehold on the vehicle trade.”
“Well, the first aid kit might come in handy,” said Lank, keeping his tone light, “even though we have Kati, the living first-aid kit, with us, lucky sods that we are.”
“Let’s not conjure up trouble before we’re faced with it,” Kati suggested.
“Good idea,” Joaley commented, with a slight edge of sarcasm in her voice. “It’ll find us soon enough.”
*****
“Is there a place to land our vehicle within a human walking distance of where they’re keeping the off-world women?” Kati asked as soon as she felt the Ocean Sister around, in the air space above the Margolis Estate. “Preferably a spot where we’re hidden from the so-called owners of this island?”
“If you and your inner old man can take over the controls of the machine, I can direct you down to a suitable spot. And I’ll give your weirdo an image of how you can enter the cave dwelling, and a plan of the rooms within.”
The Ocean Sister was suddenly all business. Kati could sense Xoraya’s mental touch somewhere within it, and wondered if the Xeonsaur woman had taken the Vultairian water consciousness into her capable (if non-physical) hands, and was directing its approach to the situation.
She opened her eyes, and explained the situation as best she could, to Jock, who ceded the pilot’s chair without argument. He claimed the seat next to her, however, and kept a careful eye on her as she and the Granda took the controls.
Aha! There was an open space, not too far from the stone building which was their destination, but shielded from it by a straggle of misshapen trees. The space may have been a part of a garden at one time, the trees an orchard, gone wild. Through The Monk, she could sense that the Ocean Sister agreed with her assessment, and regretted sorely the loss of the fruit trees and the garden growth. A much broader open space around the buildings represented more grounds gone to ruin; a smallish flyer was parked there, beside the building entrance.
“Are there any security cameras or such, spy eyes maybe, around the building?” Kati asked the Ocean Sister.
The Spirit seemed puzzled by the question; then an answer came in Xoraya’s mind-touch:
“There’s nothing like that, Kati. Don’t forget that this is the Margolises’ home turf; they think themselves totally safe here. Who would dare breach their Estate?”
The Margolis Family members knew nothing about the existence of the Ocean Sister, of course. The notion that someone other than themselves might claim ownership of the island would have seemed preposterous to them. They were members of the Exalted Class of Vultaire; who could possibly challenge their dominion?
With the Granda’s help, and with Jock watching her every motion, Kati put the flyer down into the spot that the Ocean Sister and Xoraya had chosen for it. The landing was soft, and would have been, even had she been a klutz as a flier. The old garden was covered with a luxuriant growth of weeds which grew on top of many years’ dead debris of the same, making the ground spongy.
“You did that expertly,” Jock commended Kati, once the vehicle was down. “Especially considering that you had to do it in the dark.”
Kati grinned at him, and decided not to mention the fact that because the Ocean Sister was showing her the land, she had totally forgotten that she and the Granda were basically flying blind. Instead she reached for his left hand with hers.
“I’ve got information to pass around,” she said, swallowing her reluctance to make nodal contact. This was not the time to indulge queasy feelings. “I might as well start with you.”
“So,” Joaley said, after Kati had passed to the others the layout of the keep, and the grounds surrounding it. “Shall we pack our stunners and head inside to take advantage of the surprise factor which seems to be on our side?”
“Not quite so fast, Joaley,” Rakil objected. “Shouldn’t we wait for Mikal? He’s not going to thank us if we get ourselves entangled in some mess, and he has to extricate us from it.”
“But we don’t know when he’s coming,” Joaley objected. “And he has no idea of where to come. It seems to me that we ought to take advantage of the surprise, and get those two women out of there.”
“Rakil has a point,” Jock said slowly. “There is a very good chance that we’ll get embroiled in shit. This is the home Estate of the Margolis Family, aand the Family members who live on the island have a large house on the coast nearest the continent. They keep a cohort of Family retainers there, and in the surrounding village. The retainers include a herd of goons, their bodyguards, and I’m sure that the Exalted in this keep are wearing wrist buttons connecting them to the Head Goon in the village. There are how many—at least three of the Exalted who came here with the women? If even one of them manages to use his button, a goon squad will be here in minutes.”
“Is there no way we can communicate with Mikal?” Lank asked, staring directly at Kati. “Can’t the Ocean Sister help us with that?”
Kati thought for a moment.
“There’s Vorlund on the Cruiser,” she said tentatively. “If he has a way to communicate with Mikal and Malin, we have a link to them. He likely does; I would be very surprised if Mikal doesn’t have a gadget at his disposal allowing him to keep in touch with the ship. Shelonian technology is pretty remarkable, but I know almost nothing about it. The catch is that the Ocean Sister can be pretty erratic, so passing messages through her can be time-consuming. But, wait. Just now, when we landed, Xoraya was steadying her, I think. If Xoraya can do that—maybe between the two of us, and the Ocean Sister, we can get a message to Vorlund to pass on to Mikal and Malin.”
“I vote that you try it,” Jock said. “We ought to be okay here, behind the trees, until the morning, at least. The Oligarchs, including the Margolises, are not known for stirring themselves early in the morning, and the goons know better than to do anything without Exalt
ed instruction. I’d guess that you’ll have time enough to get word to Mikal. We can re-evaluate the situation once you’ve done that.”
“While you’re talking with the Ocean ghost, Kati,” Joaley muttered, “I’m kind of keen to know what that stuff about ‘a running sore’ on the island was about. How much you want to bet that the sore is busy bleeding in the very premises we’re planning to enter?”
“I wouldn’t take that bet under any circumstances.” Kati laughed as she made herself as comfortable in her seat as she could. “The odds stink, and to tell the truth I don’t want to just go in and get out immediately from that place. I want a look-see as to what’s going on down there. If there’s a lab, I want to know what it’s producing.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me....”
The Monk soothed her nerves until she felt able to enter into the trance in which she could contact the Ocean Sister and Xoraya. The Xeonsaur woman greeted her with the delight of one who has been longing for company. Being bodiless was starting to wear on Xoraya, Kati realized; for a brief moment she wondered how Xoraya’s Life-Mate, who had been kept under the mind-tangler for months—no, it was getting to years—had managed to tolerate it. That was likely why he had insisted that Gorsh allow him to have Murra near him, and in mental contact, as Roxanna had reported; Murra’s presence on the ship was probably what was keeping him sane.
“Yes, between the two of us and the aid of the Ocean Sister and her sib, the Forest Spirit, we’ll be able to connect to Vorlund,” Xoraya said as soon as Kati broached the subject. “You’re right, the Ocean Sister has a very erratic personality, if one may call it that, but I find that I can steady her; I’m older and therefore mentally weightier than you are, my dear Kati; although I’m not even close to as old as the planet consciousnesses of Vultaire. I’ll be glad to be in touch with Vorlund; I do like the Master Healer.”
“If you understand what is going on in the keep, perhaps you can enlighten Vorlund and me about it. What the Ocean Sister communicated to me, was disturbing, but I had trouble making sense of it all; I don’t think she quite understood it herself.”
“I’m sure that she didn’t.” Xoraya seemed troubled. “I did a bit of poking around, after I had Canna and myself reasonably comfortable, physically. It looked to me like the Margolises have brought the laboratory in which Xanthus was creating his drugs, or one just like it, to this absurd location. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some of the workers that they’re keeping here aren’t the ones who worked with my Life-Mate. In fact, I heard them talk about ‘mind-tangler’. I’m afraid that this place manufactures that drug.”
Kati subvocalized with a mental sigh: “Why am I not surprised?”
“Let’s get busy creating the mental corridor which will allow us to speak with the Master Healer,” Xoraya suggested.
*****
Master Healer Vorlund had been doing a lot of meditating since Mikal and Malin had left, almost a day and a night ago. There was not much else for him to do, and he had discovered that the presence of a Planetary Consciousness capable of communicating with a sensitive person, was an unexpected boon. He could gain knowledge about the conditions on Vultaire without having to contact anyone at the Port.
Since the Port Authorities had blockaded the Cruiser’s communications, except for when they wanted to harangue its occupants, it had been impossible for Vorlund and Josh to study the planet through the usual channels. They had the information that had been deposited into the ship’s data banks from the Federation Information Storage Facilities, and what observations the ship had made, using the roving satellites that it could deploy around a planet. That had not been nearly enough to satisfy them—and. of course, the Exalted of Vultaire wanted it thus. Josh had cursed volubly when he had realized that he was being deliberately kept ignorant. The Master Healer had thought about the matter for a few minutes, and had then repaired into the room which he used for his meditations. He had sat down cross-legged on the mat on the floor, and had searched mentally for traces of the Forest Spirit which he had met during his communications with Xoraya and Kati.
“Can I do something for you, you who are a kind and generous human, though not of my world?” the Spirit had queried. “Did you want me to try to communicate with one of the two off-world women who are your friends, and also mine?”
“There is no need to disturb either one of them,” Vorlund had responded. “I have time on my hands, and I would find out about you, and your world if I may. Is that possible?”
“I could guide you on a tour of my lands,” the Spirit offered. “The images that I can give you are not quite as precisely detailed as the sights would be if you were physically travelling through the landscape, but you will see how the land is laid out, and where the people live. And you will find out how my people think, since my point of view can be interior as well as exterior.”
“What you are offering me is better than I had dared to hope for,” Vorlund subvocalized. “If you are ready for the trip, so am I.”
That first session the two mentalities spent a couple of hours during which the Forest Spirit showed the Master Healer the contours of its home continent. Vorlund understood that the extensive Dark Forest, the edge of which housed the Underground Base, was what the Spirit considered the heart of its land. No humans lived there other than the Rebel squatters, and they, too, would have already left, if they did not fear the Oligarchs who, the Forest Spirit whispered sadly, had turned the world topsy-turvy. In the Province next to the Forest the old ways had prevailed, since its Exalted had chosen to be respectful to the Ordinary Citizens who did most of the work that kept human society functioning. This was the happiest, the most productive part of the continent. The Forest Spirit brought Vorlund’s mind close enough to listen in on a few mental conversations; he heard laughter and love, and people taking simple joy in going about their daily tasks. Then the two consciousnesses slipped into the neighbouring province, to a small town which had an air of having seen better days. The mental conversations that Vorlund eavesdropped on had an edge of despair to them; the crops were not growing well, and there was worry about how the farmers and the townspeople would pay the taxes that the local Exalted Family demanded of them.
“Much of my world is more like this town than the one we were in earlier,” the Spirit told Vorlund. “Almost all of the Exalted seem to think that they can keep on taking from the planet without putting anything back. That cannot go on; you do understand that, don’t you?”
The Forest Spirit introduced the Master Healer to the Ocean Sister. He received the impression that she was the geographically nearest Planetary Essence to the Forest Spirit, but that there was another one associated with the plains beyond the Dark Forest, and beyond that, a Spirit belonging to a chain of mountains. That was on this continent alone; there were two other, smaller continents which had their own Land Spirits, or assortments of them. As for the islands surrounding and bridging them, some were within the Ocean Sister’s influence, but others seemed to have their very own Essences. Vorlund found it fascinating. Apparently Vultaire was so old a world that it had evolved conscious entities associated with its landmasses, as well as with the water that covered much of the globe.
“And I haven’t even considered the ice caps of the polar regions,” he muttered to himself after he came out of that first lesson-filled trance.
He called Josh on the ship intercom to find out if he had eaten lunch yet; when Josh said “No”, he went into the galley and put together a tray for them both, and took it up to the Bridge. There, as they ate, he told the pilot what he had been doing, and found that he had an attentive audience.
“Can your node pass this information—and any more you might get from these Planetary Spirits—into the ship’s data banks?” Josh asked. “Maybe we can combine the geographical info with the data that we got from the satellites, and that way make up for some of the knowledge that the Oligarchs are keeping from us. I wouldn’t mind thumbing my nose at them—and
we really need the data.”
“I don’t see why not,” the Master Healer said after a moment’s thought (and a quick nodal consultation). “You’re right; we need all the knowledge that we can get, and we’re getting precious little through the usual channels. Why the Exalted want to keep everyone else ignorant is beyond me.”
“They’re up to no good, the upper-class Vultairians,” Josh muttered. “They’ve had things their way for entirely too long. That’s not good for any world; there needs to be ferment and change. Otherwise things can get utterly twisted.”
He seemed to be speaking from knowledge that he had acquired at an earlier time. Master Healer Vorlund spent a moment wondering what the Federation Agents saw in the course of their work. There could be solid reasons why Josh, an accomplished pilot, and an active Agent, had ended up cooling his heels on the Federation Space Station; perhaps he had seen more than he could handle.
“It seems that the Forest Spirit of this continent agrees with you on that,” was all he said. “It keeps citing how things are out of balance.”
After he had finished eating, he connected to the Ship Data Banks and had his node download his experience with the Planetary Spirits into it.
“I’m afraid that I don’t have the expertise to correlate it with the satellite data,” he said when he was done.
“But I do,” replied the Pilot. “And that gives me something to do while the Port Authorities ignore us,” he added cheerfully. “So bring on any info you can gather.”
*****
Since Vorlund was regularly spending time with the Forest Spirit, contacting him was easy. However, the experience of hanging on to a Xeonsaur’s proverbial coattails while she was navigating her way in mental space, proved to be quite the experience for Kati.
“I’m going to use my Navigational talents to do this, because I want to make sure that we catch the Master Healer at the best possible time,” Xoraya told Kati as they prepared to launch themselves into the psychic ether. “It may get a little bit uncomfortable for you.”
On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted Page 67
