darknadir (26 page)

* * *

When he'd left, Noni called the Temple of Ghyakulla in Ghyasha.
"Rhuna, what can I do for you?" the Head Priestess asked.
"Looking tired, Tokui," Noni said, noticing the lowered eye ridges and darker green of the Sister's eyes.
"Setting up these colleges for our priesthood is hard work, Noni. No one is getting enough sleep these days. Almost overnight I'm expected to train up some twenty senior acolytes to the standard of priests and priestesses to cope with it. If they were Talented, it would be so much easier."
"Everyone's in the same den, Tokui. I sympathize with you, believe me."
Sister Tokui reached up to tuck a wayward lock of golden-flecked, brown hair behind her ear. "You didn't contact me to offer sympathy, Noni. I really am busy. Please make your point."
"We need to meet tonight," she said. "At the temple. You contact the other Guardians."
"Tonight?" Tokui's ears dropped in surprise before hurriedly righting themselves. "What's so important that we have to meet tonight?"
"That's what the meeting's about," said Noni.
"Noni, be reasonable! We all need more notice than this! I've got meetings scheduled..."
"Then cancel them or send a deputy," interrupted Noni. "Seventeenth hour, usual place."
"Noni! You can't do this!"
"Just have," she said with satisfaction and cut her comm connection.

* * *

Ghyasha was the town midway between the Kysubi and Lyarto Plains, the heartland of Shola's grainfields and almost the center of the Kaeshala continent. It was the perfect place for the Green Goddess cult's main temple, though that was disputed by the one in the Ferraki Hills, it being the older of the two. As with other Sholan towns and cities, Ghyasha existed to support the temple and the acolytes who lived and worked there. It was the place where mothers took their cubs to be blessed as newborns, where farmers went for help with their herds when all else had failed, and the center for the old folk remedies that the Guild of Medics frowned on. More, it was the core religious support for the majority of Sholan females of all ages. And it was where the Guardians met.
Teusi accompanied Noni into the antechamber of the meeting room before leaving her to join the other aides in the refectory. As she entered the chamber, she scanned the seats, spotting Lijou instantly. Hobbling over to his side of the semicircle of chairs, she glared pointedly at the male sitting next to him.
Rhio sighed and got to his feet. "Speak to you later, Lijou," he said, moving over to an empty seat at the other end.
Lijou stood, offering his arm to her. She accepted his help, even though she didn't need it, and sat down. Didn't do any harm for them to think she was more frail than she actually was. Gave her another edge over them.
"Noni, what the devil was so important you had to drag us all out on such short notice?" demanded Keaal, tapping her foot impatiently on the floor.
"Don't you try to rile me before the meeting's begun, Keaal, because you won't," she said. "Who're we waiting for?"
"Tulla," said Lijou. "Storm over the desert delayed her. She's coming in to land now."
Noni gave him an appraising glance. "You're pretty good, not many can send and receive that far. But then, you should be. If I remember right, weren't you the second choice for Clan Lord?"
He smiled gently. "You know I was, just as you knew where Tulla is," he replied equally quietly.
"How's that lifemate of yours doing?" she asked, changing the subject. "When's your cub due?"
"Less than seven weeks now," he said. "Kha'Qwa's going to ask you to be the birther. She's determined to have our cub at Stronghold rather than in the hospital."
"I intended to be there anyway," she said. "I'll come see her tomorrow to organize things well in advance. How's the nursery going? Finished it yet?"
Lijou's ears flicked back in embarrassment. "Not yet. Kha'Qwa keeps nagging me to take her to Shanagi to choose furniture and things, but I'm not so sure. I'm afraid it's tempting fate."
Noni looked sharply at him, a look he thankfully missed. "Don't you go taking her anywhere, Master Lijou," she said, poking him gently in the ribs with her index finger. "She's too far on to go traipsing out to Shanagi. You get those merchants to come out to you! They'll jump at the chance, believe me. Get to see inside the most secret place on Kaeshala, if not Shola itself? You'll have to fight 'em off!"
Lijou laughed. "A good reason to keep them away, Noni. Rhyaz would have my hide if he could hear you!"
"That's as may be. It isn't his mate that's having a cub. All you do is get the stores to use the comm link to show you round their place so Kha'Qwa can choose. Then you send someone out to fetch the crib and whatnot that she thinks she wants so she can see it in the comfort of the nursery. Only need a couple of the store's attendants, no more, and your own folk to bring 'em and take 'em back. No security breached, is there?"
"I suppose not," he admitted.
"You tell Rhyaz I said you were to do it. If he wants to argue, tell him to come and see me and we'll discuss old times."
The door opened and a breathless Tulla scurried over to the last vacant chair. "Sorry I'm late, everyone, but there was a storm over the pass and we had to fly round it."
"Get on with it, then, Noni," said Keaal. "We're all here, waiting breath-bated to find out why you dragged us out tonight."
"Wait your turn, Keaal," Noni snapped. "Tokui's in charge tonight."
Sister Tokui waved her hand tiredly in Noni's direction. "Carry on, Noni. You called the meeting."
"I want some information first," she said, fixing her glare on Dhaika. "I want to know why Dhaika's been ignoring the decision of this Council and not passing on information concerning visions and dreams."
Startled, Dhaika looked over at her. "What're you talking about, Noni? I pass on anything relevant. I always have."
"Ah, but who decides what's relevant?"
"I do, of course."
"Well, you've messed up this time, you old fool! Where'd you get the brains to dismiss the visions that Human Brynne's been having? From one of your students?"
"Brynne? He's come to you with his dreams and you think they're visions?" He shook his head. "It's you that's got no brains if you believe his ramblings, Noni."
Beside her, Noni felt Lijou stiffen slightly. So he knew more about this than he was letting on, did he?
"What's this all about?" demanded Keaal, looking from one to the other. "What dreams? What visions?"
"It's nothing," said Dhaika defensively. "Noni's gotten it all out of proportion. If she'd bothered to contact me first, I could have explained it to her and we could have avoided this meeting."
"Explain it now!"
"Someone better had," said Tokui impatiently. "This is also my concern."
"There's nothing to explain. He's having vivid dreams, that's all. The kind that every new student gets at some time or another. And he's Human, which means what he's learning makes even less sense to him. It's his subconscious adjusting to our ways, that's all. Until recently, he'd had hardly any formal training as a telepath. He'd shut off his Sholan side, the part of him that he's inherited from his Leska. Now he's having vivid dreams."
"You said that already," said Miosh. "I disagree with you about Brynne. I know him a little, I've seen him around our estate, talked to him a few times. He's not one given to flights of fancy. The opposite, in fact. He's the kind that'd turn his back on anything that seemed mystical. Remember that it was Ghyan, our priest, who advised him to go to Stronghold because of the nature of what he was seeing. He believed it to be more than him finally coming to terms with his altered state of awareness."
"More to the point, what are his dreams about?" asked Tokui.
"Nothing worth hauling us across Kaeshala at this time of night for!" said Dhaika.
"Oh, I'd say that visions of someone running through the forest and avoiding a hunt were worth passing on to the rest of us," said Noni lazily, mouth open in a slight smile. "Wouldn't you? Especially considering
who
we have loose on Shola. Namely that Valtegan general and the Derwent male." Now she felt a very positive reaction from Lijou.
She turned her head to look at him. "You didn't think we knew nothing about Kezule, did you?" She arched an eye ridge at him before looking back to Dhaika. "There's more, isn't there, Dhaika? Dreams of a creeping danger threatening Shola, of a darkness waiting out beyond our world. I'd say they were good enough to pass on, wouldn't you?"
"I want to know why you ignored Stronghold's directive as well as the Council one," said Lijou grimly. "You know why we sent him to you. He's been with you for over a week and you haven't seen fit to inform me of any of this? Dammit, we're supposed to be working together for the same ends here, the safety of our world! You forget in the isolation of the Retreat that out there in space are the beings who murdered millions of Sholans without a second thought! Anything that touches on them must be reported to me!"
"I don't think they are visions! I see them as the product of a fertile imagination and an alien mind trying to adapt to our ways! Why would the Entity speak to him, a Human, when we have so many more Talented people of our own?"
"Gods, you disgust me!" said Keaal. "I'm not fully at ease with a Human learning our religions and becoming a priest, but even I don't see why Ghyakulla shouldn't choose him to send Her messages through. They're part of our world now, Dhaika, their nature changed by our people as much as they've changed ours. There's no excuse for that kind of prejudice!"
"I'm not prejudiced, just skeptical!" exclaimed the beleaguered guardian. "How do you know they're true visions and not what I say they are? How many of you would have decided differently in my place?"
"How come you know all this, Noni?" asked Lijou. "What brought it to your attention?"
"Don't you go blaming Brynne for not coming to you, Lijou. Dhaika told him not to bother you with his `hallucinations,' " said Noni. "Jurrel had the good sense to bring him to me. If he hadn't, we'd still be in the dark about it. Sensible lad, that Jurrel."
"Thank Vartra he did," said Lijou, turning back to Dhaika. "Had you not kept this information to yourself, I could have told you that we've had confirmation of his visions," said Lijou. "I lacked the information I now have to tell the Council more. Dammit, Dhaika, I cannot make sense of what our visionaries see if I only have half the picture!"
"What information do you have for us?" asked Sister Tokui.
Lijou looked over at Miosh, then Noni. "This must go no further for now," he said quietly. "I'm sorry to have to break the news to you like this. The ship carrying the Aldatans and Tallinu has been reported missing. A scheduled transmission they should have made before entering jump is now ten days overdue. A search was mounted as soon as we heard, but so far, we've found no trace of them."
Stunned silence greeted the news.
"Missing?" echoed Rhio. "What happened? Has there been an accident?"
"We don't know," said Lijou. "They were on a U'Churian vessel because it had the cryogenic facilities our trading ship lacked. The U'Churians' technology lags behind ours, but not significantly enough to have put their lives at risk by traveling on the vessel."
"They could have forgotten, had a transmitter failure even," said Miosh, her voice hushed. "Maybe they're in jump already."
"That's what we're hoping, but frankly, we couldn't take the risk of waiting to see if they arrived at their rendezvous. With the treaty just having been signed between the Alliance and the Free Traders, we needed to show our new allies that we take our responsibilities to all our member species seriously."
"Why did they need cryogenic facilities, Lijou?" asked Noni quietly.
"Carrie Aldatan was seriously wounded. They had to rush her to the medical facilities on the rendezvous ship. We don't plan to tell the family until every effort has been made to trace them."
Noni was still trying to absorb this first piece of news but something made her catch Lijou's eye. "We'll have the rest, if you please, Master Lijou," she said, surprised at how gruff her voice sounded. She grasped the head of her walking stick more tightly. It was something solid and familiar in this nightmare she'd suddenly been thrown into.
"I've been warned by Vartra Himself that there is a threat to Shola from space. It's quite possible that our missing ship is the beginning of something far more sinister. The Brotherhood is preparing now. Rhyaz is speaking to the Governor tomorrow."
"It seems I was very wrong about Brynne's visions," said Dhaika, his voice barely audible.
"Dzaka came to me nine days ago with a tale of the cub Kashini crying inconsolably one night, and transmitting to him and Kitra a deep fear for her parents. I thought it impossible in a cub so young."
"I remember the night," said Miosh, voice trembling. "I was with Rhyasha. Kashini was beyond comforting for hours. Then suddenly, she stopped and just fell asleep."
"Dzaka told me that they felt that whatever was happening was over," said Lijou. "I should have paid more attention to him. He wanted us to start searching for them then. We all need to be less judgmental about what we hear, less afraid of seeming gullible to each other," he said, looking round the semicircle of Guardians.
"You should have told us earlier about the missing Aldatans," said Keaal, tail moving jerkily to show her displeasure.
"Why? It wasn't concerned with visions as far as the Brotherhood was aware," said Lijou. "If I'd had news of these latest visions of Brynne's sooner, I would have told you. In him we have another visionary on a level with Kaid Tallinu. I want him trained and taught to dream-walk as soon as possible. That way, the Entities can speak directly to him. He obviously has a role to play in our future. He's part of our world, called by our Green Goddess Herself."
"No," said Noni, anger rising in her. She fought to keep it from her voice and thoughts. "His Triad is not the one that will link us all, not the one we need to have in this Council so we can learn about the Humans. And Tallinu was never taught to dream-walk. It never held him back. What need has Brynne of it?"
Dhaika shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "He wasn't taught, but Vartra took him to His realm during a meditation session at the Retreat several months ago."
"Why was I not told of this?" she demanded, knuckles whitening on her stick in an effort to hold back the explosion of rage. "You know my concerns for him! I should have been informed."
"It was a matter personal to him and the Entity," said Dhaika stiffly. "You know I don't breach confidentiality unless there is a sound reason to do so."
"How do you know there isn't a greater purpose behind Brynne's Triad?" countered Lijou, leaning closer to her. "You're so sure it's Tallinu's that you're blinding yourself to the choice of the Goddess!"
"They were not the first. Tallinu's is. The first Triad, and the Aldatans were the first mixed Leska pair," she said in a tone that Challenged any argument.
"Lijou still has a valid point," said Rhio.
"He has no point at all. Brynne is the only one of his Triad to have visions. In Tallinu's, all three of them have seen. We need to wait and see how Brynne and his partners develop before we agree on taking the drastic step of training him further."
"With respect to your family, Miosh," said Tulla gently, "we may have no choice if the Aldatans remain lost. All we may have is Brynne's Triad."
"We don't need to decide now," said Noni firmly. "More mixed pairs are forming almost daily, aren't they, Miosh?"
Miosh inclined her head affirmatively as she put a hand up to her eyes to rub at the tears forming in them.
"We wait," said Noni. "Actions taken in haste are worse than no action. I say we do nothing for now."
"Teaching someone to dream-walk is not a decision to make lightly," said Sister Tokui, letting her tail rise and fall lazily on the seat beside her. "There's the danger to the person themselves. To visit the realms of the Entities isn't easy or safe, even for the most experienced of us. To get lost there is to die. To cause harm to a person or animal that lives there is to die. We don't yet know enough about these Humans, whether altered by a Leska Link to one of us or not. I would have to agree with Noni. We should wait."