I am underground once more. I think about what I've heard. The earth groans above me, the cracking of primordial stone bones. Why should Thiede have to keep us apart? Why?
"Because you are part of the same thing," a voice says from nowhere. "Light and dark. Malleable and unmalleable. Which is which?"
"And if we are part of the same thing, if we were united, would not our power be greater than Thiede's himself?"
"There would be no place for the Aghama in this world... would there." The last two words are sly. A covetous longing. Can I trust my own visions? Cal, known for his lies, could lie to himself.
Vaysh appears beside me again. "Why linger here? He has waited and waited for, oh, so long. He has waited for you." "He could have come to me any time." "No, it does not work that way."
Then how does it work? I must tear these curtains of obscurity. Around me, a haze of gray, floating veils. I can barely see Vaysh through them. Just his bright hair, a smudge of green below. Where are we going? Does Pell know what I'm doing? He's so powerful; he must do. In that case, so will Thiede. I grow cold. "Control your thoughts!" Tel-an-Kaa's voice. She must be near. Vaysh takes my hand and leads me into a temple of light. Tel-an-Kaa is with us, brandishing a drawn sword. Her eyes are wide. I realize that Thiede must have been closer than I thought. "Where are we?" "Within you, Cal." I see a glowing figure robed in star-rays. It is me. But a me beyond all that is possible. This me opens its mouth. A sound peals out that is the music of the world, holding within it all that lives, all that is. It takes time and yet no time at all for me to peel the music to its white-hot core. I find inside a moving nest of embryonic thoughts and hold each one up to the light of my being. It is so obvious. I laugh aloud and then I'm weeping and the radiance is raining down like tears. There are no answers because there are no questions. Only what is unseen. And now I see it. Simple because the great purpose is moved by something so small and earth-bound. Greed and jealousy. Wrapped up in clothes of righteousness, but now I see them naked. It is Thiede who should be seeking answersnot me. And I know them too. Tel-an-Kaa says, "It is time" and it is indeed. Beyond the purple, sunset sea and the red sails of an eyed vessel, Phaonica shines on the horizon. It too is waiting. I am ready to fly but the Kamagrian holds me back. "Not that way, Cal. Earthly matters must be dealt with on the Earth. Follow me back."
I opened my eyes to a darkened room rilled with the smoke of incense. Tel-an-Kaa raised her head, inhaled deeply. "It is done," she said. "Thank you." It was not enough, but all that I could think of. She shook her head. "No need for words, Calanthe. We are all traveling and must offer help to those we meet upon the Path who may need it." She stood up, smoothed down her robe, brushed back her hair. "Opalexian wishes to meet you," she said. "Later, at dinner." "You don't rush everything then!"
Tel-an-Kaa laughed. "Took your breath away did it? No, not everything. But what point was there in waiting to know the truth? Your companion will be relieved. I think he feared he'd never see you again." "A fear I shared. How long have we ... been away?" "Your friend Panthera has probably not yet dried off from his shower. Come along, I'll take you back."
She left me outside the door to our room. For a moment or two I lingered outside, almost too scared to go in. It was embarrassing appearing again so quickly. I need not have worried. When I opened the door, Panthera launched himself off the bed where he'd
been drying his hair, and hurled himself against me. His pure joy at seeing me was humbling. A Roselane who introduced himself as Exalan came to escort us to dinner. He explained that he was Opalexian's assistant. The spring evening had become quite chilly. I felt cold walking through the garden.
Like Thiede, Opalexian is very tall, but where his hair is brilliant scarlet,! hers is rich chestnut. I suppose they are quite similar in appearance though, except Opalexian is not as intimidating. This is quite deliberate on her part, ; as is the opposite on Thiede's. Dinner was served on low tables; we sat on the floor to eat. Panthera was quiet, almost dazed. I'd told him nothing of what I'd learned. Opalexian's apartments were no grander than any other ' rooms we had seen so far. Tel-an-Kaa had been waiting for us in the hall. I was grateful that she was there. I was afraid of meeting Opalexian. I was afraid of what she'd look like, but the power I feared merely allowed her to put us at our ease without effort. She greeted us warmly and inquired after my comfort. "You must not be afraid to tell us if there is a reaction to your experience," she said.
"I'm sure there won't be," Tel-an-Kaa added quickly, worried by my expression of alarm.
"You must feel you know me pretty well," I said. Opalexian shook her head. "Not really. I have no desire to be that invasive."
"Yet you have monitored my every move."
"You make it sound so dramatic. It wasn't really. Perhaps the most manipulative thing we ever did was to influence the visions of Cobweb the Varr so that his son Swift took you with him to Imbrilim."
"Is that so! Why did Tel-an-Kaa bother coming to Galhea then if you could influence events from afar?"
Opalexian smiled. "True, I suppose. But at that time, we could only reach Cobweb. Swift was still grossly uneducated in caste progression. Do you really think Cobweb's visions would have been heeded if he'd ordered the pair of you south? Do you really think Cobweb would even have revealed them if we'd sent them? After all, it was he who wanted to keep you both in Galhea. No, it was too risky."
"And perhaps too slow," Tel-an-Kaa added. "The chances are Swift would have headed south eventually anyway, but we took the decision to speed things up a little."
"This was mainly because I had misjudged Thiede entirely," Opalexian admitted. She took a handful of spiced nuts and chewed them thoughtfully. "Warning signals were coming in thick and fast, so we had to get you to Imbrilim. I believed that once you actually made contact with the Gelam-ing, Thiede would realize that he should let events take their natural course. He didn't, wouldn't. By then our hands were tied; Thiede had you inextricably in his clutches. I truly didn't foresee all those years of incarceration he put you through. It would have caused too much of an upheaval for Kamagrian to have intervened overtly at that point; counterproductive. For that, I apologize. Thiede's proficient at keeping people in limbo. Mind you, without that talent, it's doubtful whether Pellaz would be alive now."
"Without Thiede's talents, he would never have faced death in the first place," I said. "At least not in the way he did."
Opalexian smiled. "Oh never doubt that Pellaz was meant to be Tigron of his people or that the method of making him so was correct," she said. "Thiede was right there. It was just you he was wrong about, and for selfish reasons."
I felt weightless. Suddenly everything was beginning to slide into perspective; everything.
"I can understand a little how Thiede feels," Tel-an-Kaa said. She turned to me. "In Galhea, you made me feel very uncomfortable, Cal. I could sense your ungoverned chaos. It frightened me. I kept thinking, 'By the Light, I hope I never have to cross swords
with him!' I thought you'd see through my disguise and know everything before it was time."
"No chance of that the way I was feeling during those years," I said. "Chaos was a good word to describe me; there was very little else."
Now the sting was being drawn from my flesh; slowly. It was incredible. I could ask, and Opalexian would tell me. No more mysteries. But where to start? Obvious really.
"One thing you must tell me," I said. "How much does Pell know of what I was shown today?"
Opalexian sighed. "You must understand that Pellaz trusts Thiede more than he should. Mind you, Thiede can be convincing, as I'm sure you'llagree. Pellaz will tell you himself what he believes and it will be up to you to convince him he might be wrong."
"Does Pell know of the Kamagrian? You seem to know a lot about him. Surely he'd be able to sense your existence."
Again Opalexian shook her head. "No, neither Thiede or the Tigron know we exist. Our abilities are greater than theirs. We can hide very well. On
ly certain high-ranking hara of the Maudrah know of us and even then, don't know what we are. I have eyes and ears in Phaonica though; that was pure chance. Pellaz has a friend, a human female named Kate. He's very fond of her and was concerned about her future. He sent her to a group of ascetics in Almagabra for occult training, hoping she would learn how to prolong the life of her body and mind. It was there that one of our number encountered her and subtly persuaded her to take inception to Kamagrian. It was too good an opportunity to miss. Nobody female was that close to Phaonica's heart. Kate is not a fool, although at first she was suspicious that we might have been working against Wraeththu. It took a while to convince her. Pellaz does not know what she is. He believes her to be an adeptly trained woman. Eventually, he would have doubted that, as she continued not to age, but it would appear that Kamagrian will soon be out in the open anyway, so that no longer matters. I'm glad. It would have hurt her to move from Immanion as would, of course, have been necessary."
"Have you been responsible for everything then, all that time I thought the Gelaming were following me?"
Opalexian sat up and poured me more wine. "There is a lot that has to be explained to you," she said. "I appreciate what an enormous relief this will be to you. As soon as we realized Thiede had brainwashed you and let you out of the tower, one of our Roselane initiates was sent to keep an eye on you. It was necessary to watch you for a while to assess damage, to let your troubled mind settle down a little. Strange as it sounds, Piristil was more than we could have hoped for. You began to relax, free from obvious supervision. You began to examine the past, even though Thiede wanted you to forget it entirely."
"Excuse me," Panthera butted in. "Am I to understand that my being there was previously organized as well?" He'd gone very pale. I almost dreaded the answer. Opalexian and Tel-an-Kaa both laughed out loud. "Oh my dear child!" the High Priestess said, "I can see why you'd think that, but no, it wasn't. Lucky for you that Cal came to the same house. Lucky for us too. We couldn't direct his feet, after all! We were wondering whether we'd have to let our Roselane make direct contact to push Cal into traveling to Jaddayoth. Thanks to you, that wasn't necessary. You saved us an awful lot of bother, Panthera. You took Cal to Hadassah (even provided him with a genuine reason to visit the huyana in Jasminia), you guided him to Elhmen and Sahale. In fact, you effectively did more than half of the Roselane's job for him. That disappointed him quite a lot. He had his own karmic debts to sort out; Cal was part of it."
"Zack?" I enquired.
She nodded. "Yes, Zackala is one of us. He joined Tel-an-Kaa in Megalithica, not long after she left Galhea. We considered him a prize when we learned of his connection with you. A bitter young har, but we managed to sort him out eventually."
"Is he here?" I asked squeamishly. Some how I didn't relish another meeting with Zack. More cowardice to be faced, no doubt.
"Oh, he's around somewhere, although I do need him out and about in the world most of the time. There's little chance of you running into him here, if that's what you are worried about! He's one of our best; indispens-ible." She leaned back in the cushions, smiling. "Yes, all the visions you were blaming the Gelaming for came from here. I hope you learned from them as you should. It was a sticky moment when that Mojag oaf had the knife at your throat though. You have Kate to thank for sending Arahal to you. It was difficult for her. She'd been supervizing your movements for us from Immanion; they have sophisticated thought amplification equipment, that allows for a much clearer picture of what we wanted to see. Kate was convinced you were going in the right direction. It seemed unlikely you'd run into your pursuers. When you did, she told us she panicked! Zack was too far away to be of any help at that time. Only Gelaming had the ability to get there quickly; to send Kamagrian would have blown everything. We still needed to remain unknown. Kate felt that only Pell himself would send you assistance. There was the chance that if Thiede knew about the situation he would simply rub his hands in glee at such a fortuitous way to get rid of you without dirtying himself. So Kate had to intimate to Pell that you were in danger without giving away how she knew. There was no guarantee Pell would even do anything about it. A sticky moment. She had to act fast. The Gelaming were your only defense. Using the oldest trick in the book she told him she'd had a vivid dream about you and dragged him to the thought transference unit to check if the details were real. Of course they were! He wouldn't look himself, but was concerned enough to send Arahal out. That really put the wolf into the sheep-pen! Arahal lost no time telling everyone you were around again once he got back to Immanion. Rumors were started, a dozen inferences reached. Thiede had wanted to keep your alliance with Pell a secret. Those who'd been in Imbrilim put a stop to that. Now, after everyone thought you must have died or sought a hermitic existence, you were abroad again, in Jaddayoth. Questions were asked. What had happened to you after Thiede had taken you into his custody? Why hadn't Thiede told anyone? Immanion became a hotbed of supposition; poor Caeru caught in the middle of it, no doubt. You have become something of a folk hero to Wraeththu, Cal. You can thank Swift and Cobweb for that. They love you passionately. Swift has never given up trying to find out what Thiede did with you. He is a respected har; people listened to him. And because of that, many hara were considering the possibility that you might be a convenient tool to use against Thiede's increasing autonomy with the Hegemony. They all knew Pell was incapable of acting independently. Oh, don't get me wrong; he wants to, but his power is no match for Thiede. He can't do it on his own."
We all digested these words in silence. I could feel Panthera's agony. Even the sound of Pell's name caused him pain. I found myself wishing he wasn't there, because there were things I had to know, had to talk about, that I knew would cause him further grief.
"There's one thing I must know," I said, and it was not easy for me to say it. "If you were responsible for the visions, the pushing around, does that mean Pell himself has had no real interest in me?"
Opalexian answered me briskly. "One thing you must understand, Cal. Pellaz was under the impression you would seek him out as soon as you made contact with his people in Imbrilim. You didn't. Up until then, Thiede had told him you needed 'purification'— whatever he meant by that. That was to keep Pell away from you; it had worked for years. Pell knew you'd suffered penance in the forest of Gebaddon on the journey south. He knew you'd talked with Thiede after that. There was no longer any reason why you could not come back to him. The blood-binding with Caeru was just another of Thiede's smokescreens. It had nothing to do with love. The Gelaming were interested in you, they wanted you with them; you knew nothing of this, but there was no question of you being some underling skulking in the shadows to be summoned to the Tigron's bed when he felt like it. So, after you didn't turn up, it was easy for Thiede to convince Pell you had no further interest in him. The incident of you leaving the tower was his
evidence for this. Pell is too honorable. Assured you wanted to lead your life without him, he let it be. Can you see how Thiede's been manipulating both of you now?"
"I can see it," I said quietly. "What I can't understand is why Thiede didn't just kill me. There'd have been no problem then."
Opalexian laughed. "Don't think that harshly of him, Cal! He is Agh-ama, and has considerable good sense. He's not a Terzian or a Ponclast who can kill willy-nilly to get rid of nuisances. No, that's not the way Thiede operates. Superficially, it's all above board. He is under the impression that what he's done is right. He believes it is for Wraeththu's sake he's keeping you away from Immanion, not his own. He's blinded himself too much. That's his mistake. It is your task to make him see the light."
"Your faith in me is frightening!" I said. No way could I imagine being able to convince Thiede of anything he didn't want to believe in, whether it was good for him or not. "Was it you that came to me in the pool near Jael too?" That was one thing I didn't want to be true.
The High Priestess sighed. "It was Pell's feelings, certainly, but he wasn't aw
are of projecting them." A tactful answer.
Panthera stirred uncomfortably beside me. "And how did all the rumors that are supposed to be flying around Jaddayoth about Cal get out? Do you know?"
Opalexian shrugged. "How do any rumors start?! One would presume they originated in Immanion and spread east via traders and travelers. Remember what I said, unbeknown to Cal, he has achieved quite a reputation in the west. No-one can answer your question properly, Panthera. Perhaps if we look upon it as a necessary thing that was bound to happen, we are touching on the truth." I could sense Panthera thought such a reply was far too glib.
"And have these rumors reached the ears of the Tigron himself yet, by any chance?" he asked.
"If they haven't, they certainly will once Caeru gets home," she answered. "Surprise would have been better, Cal. The incident in Sykernesse was rather unfortunate in that respect." She smiled placatingly. "Ah, never mind, what will be will be. Rest here for a few days. Such a short delay can't hurt the outcome; it's been waiting for years!"
We talked a great deal more, but now it was all talk of Jaddayoth. What did I think of different tribes? Had I enjoyed Gimrah, Hadassah, Ferike? And what had I learned? Opalexian was not above making one or two salacious remarks concerning Nanine and the Lyris. "I must admit it was quite exciting to impart these mysterious messages all over the place!" she said. "We followed your travels with great interest."