Issola (24 page)

"I have a few guesses about them," said Aliera, "based on what we've just been through, and what I've picked up from Sethra and my mother."

"All right," said Morrolan. "Keep talking."

Sethra leaned forward attentively; I pretended to be bored with the whole thing.

"My first guess is that, whatever their long-term plans are, their next objective is Verra. We know that she has been then enemy for her entire existence, and everything that has happened can be seen that way - even the nonsense about trying to convince Vlad to kill her might be second-level deception, or even a straightforward attempt to convince him to do so."

"Yes," said Sethra. "I agree with your reasoning. Go on."

"All right," said Aliera. "My second guess is a little more daring." Morrolan muttered something under his breath.

"I believe," said Aliera, "that their second target is the Orb." Sethra stirred. "The trellanstone?"

Aliera nodded. "The best way to attack the Orb would be with a device with similar properties."

"Then why," said Morrolan, "were we allowed to see it?"

"You think you were allowed to?" said Sethra. "I thought you had managed to penetrate their illusions, and see it in spite of them."

"That's what I had thought, too. But if the trellanstone is
important, then why, of all the places in the Universe, would they put us near it, illusions or no? In fact," he continued "there's been too much of that going around with these things. Too many coincidences. Too many times we have to ask ourselves, 'Why would they do that?' All the way from asking Vlad to kill Verra, to doing nothing while Vlad broke us out of the manacles, and doing nothing again while he broke himself and Teldra out, and then allowing us to see the trellanstone, and—"

"My Lord Morrolan," said Lady Teldra suddenly.

He stopped, and turned to her. He'd forgotten her, as had the rest of us. Her eyes were just a trifle wide.

"I
know that look, Boss. She just got something. You get the
same look when you finally figure out the obvious."

"How would you know what I look like? You're
on my shoulder."

"We have ways."

Meanwhile, Teldra was holding up a finger, asking us to wait, making little nods to herself as pieces fell into place. Then she said, "If I may be permitted to express an opinion."

Morrolan nodded impatiently.

"I think, perhaps, you do not understand the Jenoine."

He chuckled. "That, my dear Teldra, is hardly news."

Her smile came and went like a straight shot of plum brandy, and
she said, "I learned something of the Jenoine years ago, most especially their language. I'm sure you are all aware that language holds the key to the thinking of a culture. And, of course, one cannot spend time in such illustrious company as my Lord Morrolan, Sethra Lavode, and such gods as they come in contact with
from time to time, without learning more. And then, I spoke with them." She paused. I wondered if she got her sense of drama from Morrolan, or if he hired her because of it. "When you speak of place, you are speaking in terms that would not make sense to them.
They have a concept of 'place,' but it is used in their mathematics, not in their daily lives."

"All right," said Aliera. "You have our attention."

"I have heard some - including you, Aliera - speak as if the Jenoine had come to our world from another place. This is not entirely true. I - please bear with me, this isn't easy to describe." She hesitated. "The clearest way to say it is that they do not move as we do, nor do they remain stationary as we do. That room in which we were held captive is, in an important sense, the only 'place' they have. At least, as we would use the term 'place.' The world that Vlad and I explored was, to them, the same place as the room. When we shattered the enchantment that kept us from seeing some of what was in the room, what we did was the equivalent of breaking out of that room and exploring other places in the structure. When we physically left the room to explore the world outside that room, we were, in their view, spirit-walking. Well, that isn't exactly right - it isn't such a perfect reversal, but it is something like that."

"Well," said Aliera. "That makes everything clear."

Teldra frowned. "Let me try again."

"Take your time," said Morrolan, giving his cousin a dirtv look.

"Think of them this way: They are to us as amorphia is to normal matter. To them, our world and the place where we were held captive are the same place, differing only as states of being. I..." Her voice trailed off.

"I'm sorry to say," said Morrolan, "that I don't understand." I was glad I wasn't the only one.

"The Necromancer," said Sethra suddenly.

"Ah," said Teldra. "Yes."

Morrolan said, "Shall I summon her?"

The mere mention of her name explained some of it - it meant we were dealing with the sorts of mind-bending things that are beyond the powers of normal people to understand.

"I'm not certain," said Aliera, "that I could survive that just now." I thought about making a comment about Aliera's delicate emotions, but good sense prevailed. A lot of my best wit is shared with no one except Loiosh and you, so I hope you appreciate it; he usually doesn't. Teldra took her comment seriously. "It requires an adjustment in thinking that doesn't come naturally. I began to get glimpses of it when I studied their language, but I didn't actually understand it until speaking with them. Yes, the Necromancer must necessarily understand these things, and I'm certain she could explain it better than I." Morrolan cleared his throat. "I don't suppose," he said, "that you
could explain the, uh, practical ramifications."

"I believe I can," said Sethra Lavode.

Teldra shot her a look full of gratitude. Meanwhile, I was thinking,
"Wait a minute; how is it Teldra knows this stuff and Sethra
doesn't?"

She answered the question before I could decide if I wanted to ask it aloud.

"What you are saying, my dear Teldra, makes sense of many things I
have almost understood. Yes. It explains why they were able
to achieve access to Dzur Mountain just when they did. It was not, as I thought at the time, a failure of my mundane defenses, nor of the magical ones. It was an attack from a direction that was unexpected, because, if you will, I didn't know the direction existed."

Teldra nodded. "To themselves, they would say they redefined
your defenses."

"Yes."

"Okay," I said. "Good. Now I understand everything."

"In practical terms," said Sethra, as if I
hadn't spoken, "it explains
at least some of the peculiar behavior you witnessed while
confined. In particular, the place they kept you is, as you said,
the only place they have. The world the only world, the building
the only building, the room the only room. They were, in that
sense, in there with you the entire time. You didn't see them
or hear them when their attention was focused elsewhere. They-"

"Rubbish," I said.

"Excuse me, Vlad?" said Sethra, who I imagine wasn't used to being addressed that way. I repeated my remark, then amplified. "I don't care if they consider
it a place, or a state of mind, or, well, or whatever they consider it.
They are real beings. They have bodies. They have places
those bodies are."

"What is your point, Vlad?" said Sethra, who seemed to be doing
me the courtesy of taking me seriously.

"You don't sit a bunch of prisoners down in front of a powerful object, even concealed, unless either you
want
them to find it, or ..."

I stopped, considering what I had been about to say.

"Yes, Vlad?" said Morrolan. "Or?"

"Or unless you have no choice."

Sethra said, "How could ... oh. I see. Yes, that makes sense."

Morrolan and Aliera were already there. Morrolan said, "It was the trellanstone that was holding us in place, that was keeping that gate shut. Yes, I can almost see that."

"Almost?"

"Well, it needs something to work with."

"You don't think there is enough amorphia on that world'" I said.

"Oh, right," said Morrolan.

Sethra looked at us. "Amorphia? How could there be amorphia there? It only occurs on our world. They cannot duplicate the conditions that gave rise to it without, in all probability, destroying their entire world." I said, "I don't suppose there is a quick explanation for that remark, is there Sethra?" Morrolan and Aliera looked impatient, but Sethra said, "The Catastrophe that created the Great Sea in the first place resulted from several fluke occurrences, as well as some nasty scheming and plotting on the part of Verra and others with her. But the fact that it failed to entirely consume the world is the biggest fluke of all. Amorphia is not something that is containable, by its very nature. To create it is to end everything."

"But Adron's Disaster—"

"Very nearly destroyed the world again," said Sethra, "but the one advantage the gods had in containing it was the existence of the Great Sea. Had the Great Sea not been there, the Lesser Sea might well have destroyed all life in the world." She shook her head. "I simply cannot conceive of the Jenoine finding a way to produce amorphia."

"Well, they did," I said. "Or else found another way to get it,
because they've got it." Morrolan and Aliera told her about the river of amorphia we had found, Teldra and I making the occasional murmur of agreement. When they had finished, Sethra said, "I didn't think they could do that. I still don't understand how they can do that," which was followed by an unpleasant silence, during which we all, I suspect, contemplated the powers of the Jenoine.

"Are they gods?" said Morrolan suddenly.

Sethra shook her head. "I do not believe so. Teldra?"

"Not in any meaningful way, at least as far as how they see themselves."

"Well, that's something," said Morrolan, which was much like what I was thinking. "So, then, how do we approach them? How do we defend ourselves against them, beyond that we've en doing for thousands of years?"

"Don't forget the weapons," I pointed out.

"Weapons?" said Sethra.

"They had whole racks of weapons. Mundane weapons, the sort of thing I think of as weapons. Things that cut, and stab, make nasty gouges. If those bastards are so bloody magical, what do they need with weapons?"

"Good question," said Morrolan. "He's right, they had quite a collection of them. What are they for?"

"That," said Sethra, "I think I can answer. I believe that, after establishing themselves here, they intend to subvert a portion of our citizens and use them as a mundane army."

"How can they subvert them?" said Aliera.

"If they can, indeed, attack the Orb, then they can, at least potentially, gain access to the minds of those who are linked to it."

That thought made me shudder. For one thing, I was linked to the Orb myself.

"Well, let's see," said Aliera. "Consider what we know about them. They are after my mother, and perhaps others of the gods as well. It is the gods who are protecting our world - I think I now understand a little how they are doing it. But what the Jenoine want is full access to our world. What prevents them from having it are the Lords of Judgment, the Orb, the power of Dzur Mountain. They attacked Dzur Mountain once before, and failed to take it."

"Barely," said Sethra under her breath.

"Therefore, our defense of these things—"

"Defense," said Morrolan like it was something foul. "Why not attack them instead? I've always preferred attacking to defending."

"I know," said Sethra. "But you are still young, and may yet learn." He glared at her. She ignored it and said, "Go on, Aliera."

Aliera continued, "Our defense of these things has to happen on several levels at once. We require the assistance of the Lords of Judgment, in the first place, and I should think we really ought to consult the Necromancer after all."

"Yes," said Sethra; "But whatever we're going to do, we ought to do it quickly. We don't know how much time they're going to give us. And worse, we don't know where they're going to attack."

"Yes, we do," said Morrolan suddenly, sitting upright, and staring off into space. We all looked at him.

"Trellanstone," he said. "It all revolves around the trellanstone, or kyrancteur, in the language of the Serioli. They managed to find some, and they are using it. They wanted Aliera and me out of the way to—" Sethra figured it out first. "Oh," she said. "Yes. I should have seen it at once." Then Aliera got it, and nodded slowly. "Foolish of me. One of them was able to stop a simultaneous attack from two Great Weapons. It should never have been capable of stopping even one of them. I was so annoyed, I didn't stop to wonder how it managed it. Yes. There is only one way it could have done that. How annoying." Of course, I could have sat there for the rest of my life and never figured it out, but Sethra realized I was confused and took pity on me.

"Trellanstone," she said. "It is useful for manipulating amorphia - raw chaos. So far as I know, there are two places in the universe where one can find amorphia, and both of them are on this world. The Great Sea of Amorphia is protected by the Orb, which is protected by the Empress, who is protected by the Lords of Judgment, by Dzur Mountain, and by the Orb."

"Ah," I said. "And so now we know, I'm sure, where they got the amorphia from in the first place."

"Yes," said Sethra. "We used the power of the Greater Sea to protect the Orb, and used the Orb to protect the Greater Sea. It never occurred to me that they might tap into the Lesser Sea, because it isn't connected to the Orb. But they have somehow tapped into it. They have been draining it, and learning to control it with the trellanstone, and that could give them what they need to attack the Orb."

"The Lesser Sea," I said. "Well. Can't we just cut it off from them?" Sethra nodded. "Yes. And we will. I can do so myself. But then what?"

"Then," said Morrolan, "they will use their trellanstone to attempt a permanent link with it, much as the Orb is linked to the Great Sea. If they achieve that, they will, in effect, have the seeds of their own Empire on our world." I nodded. "Yes. And after that things could get all kinds of difficult, couldn't they?"