Roberson, Jennifer - Cheysuli 07 (40 page)

 
          
Tye
shook his head as he settled down against his rolled blanket. "Have you
met none of us before?"

 
          
Aidan
nearly smiled. "No Ihlini has come into Mujhara—or Clankeep—for many, many
years."

 
          
Ashra
was clearly startled. "And you have been nowhere else?"

 
          
Her
unfeigned astonishment at first puzzled him, until he realized she had most
likely spent her life on the road, and could not comprehend a man who lived
only in two places.

 
          
And
then he considered how that sounded, even to him: he had been nowhere in the
world save Mujhara and Clankeep. Even though one day he would rule a realm it
took weeks to ride across.

 
          
Tye
grinned. "All unknowing, she strikes true." He squirted wine into his
throat, swallowed, then plugged the opening. "You did not know us because
there was nothing to know."

 
          
"You
are Ihlini—"

 
          
"—and
kin." Tye's green eyes were odd in the light. "Without your gold and
your
lir
, would another Cheysuli know
you as Cheysuli?"

 
          
Aidan
gestured. "I may lack the color, but—"

 
          
Siglyn
cut him off. "Answer the question."

 
          
Aidan
waited a moment, marshaling his courtesy, then did as Siglyn ordered.
"Without my gold and my
lir
, it
is possible he would not… but if you knew how to look for other things—"

 
          
Tye
sighed in disgust. "He will not cooperate."

 
          
"Aidan."
Ashra's voice was soft. "You did not know we are Ihlini because we are
kin. It is true all Cheysuli bear certain similarities in color and shape of
bones, but past that there is only what resides in here." She touched one
breast. "We are less obvious than Cheysuli, lacking a uniform color and
the
lir
, but our hearts are the same,
and our blood."

 
          
Aidan
avoided her eyes, looking instead at his healed hand. There was no scar, but he
remembered all too well the pain, the shock, the acknowledgment of Lochiel's
intent.

 
          
Siglyn's
voice was harsh. "It's an easy enough answer, boy: we did not drink of the
cup. We are uncommitted Ihlini—save to our land—and therefore Asar-Suti is not
in us. Our blood is ours, not his… have you or any of your kin ever known a
hostile Ihlini who was not one of the Seker's?"

 
          
Aidan,
who had known none at all, could only think on the stories he had heard. His
uncles had known Ihlini, but all had served Asar-Suti. Keely's contact had been
with Strahan and his minions, all sworn to the Seker. There was Rhiannon, but
she, too, belonged to the Seker. Every Ihlini, save for one, had meant his kin
harm.

 
          
Then
he stirred, recalling. "There was Taliesin."

 
          
Tye
shook his head. "Taliesin repudiated the Seker. It was why Tynstar made
him drink of the blood, so he would live forever knowing what had been done in
the name of his race… and it was why Strahan destroyed his hands."

 
          
Aidan
stared into flames. "Then I have never known—or known
of—
a hostile Ihlini who did not serve the Seker."

 
          
"To
drink of the blood is to bind yourself to Asar-Suti," Siglyn said.
"The bond, once forged, cannot be broken, save by death. Taliesin
eventually was cast out—but an uncommitted Ihlini always knows one of the
Seker's, just as a Cheysuli does."

 
          
Tye's
lips peeled back. "There is a stench," he said clearly, "that
clings to everything they touch."

 
          
Aidan
drew in a breath. "And so you are saying they are different from
you?"

 
          
Ashra
smiled. "They have always been different."

 
          
He
found breathing difficult. He wanted to laugh, but there was nothing to laugh
at
, save the memories of lessons taught
so carefully in Clankeep. Lessons all Cheysuli learned, believing implicitly,
because the
shar tahls
said so. If it
was said by a
shar tahl
, it was so:
everyone knew that. The
shar tahls
were the guardians of the prophecy, of the old ways, making certain tradition
remained untainted and the service continued unbroken.

 
          
"Untainted,"
Aidan murmured, "by such things as the altering of a custom called
kin-wrecking
, even though the need is
gone."

 
          
"What?"
Siglyn snapped; the old man, regardless of revelation, was unchanged.

 
          
Aidan
swallowed painfully. "What if they are wrong? What if, after too many
years, it has become
habit
to hate
Ihlini—
habit
to name them enemy,
suitable only for killing? Do you see? We are taught it very young: to hate,
and fear, and kill…" He shut his eyes and rubbed wearily at his face.
"The prophecy says we must unite two magic races, and yet the
shar tahls
tell us time and time again
we should have no congress with Ihlini, because Ihlini want to destroy
us."

 
          
"
They
do," Ashra explained.
"Those of the Seker
do
—but not
the rest of us."

 
          
Tye's
tone was oddly gentle. "Teachings can become twisted. There may be no
intent, but it occurs… and eventually the twisting becomes unchanging
tradition."

 
          
Aidan
stared at them all. "Are we wrong? Are all the teachings twisted?"

 
          
A
glint showed in Tye's eyes. "Why ask us? We are Ihlini. The enemy. And
this is merely a clever game played to cause you grief, confusion—and
doubt." He smiled crookedly. "Ask your
lir
, Cheysuli. Ask your other self."

 
          
Aidan
did it through the
lir
-link, because
there was no interference. Because he could, in spite of Ihlini presence.
Because he was afraid not to, as if asking aloud cheapened the
lir
-bond his kind revered so much.

 
          
Tell me
, he said.
Are all the teachings wrong
?

 
          
Teel
did not answer.

 
          
Tell me
, Aidan repeated.
Are we blinded by the very thing that all
Cheysuli serve
?

 
          
The
lir
-link quivered briefly. Teel's
reluctance to answer was manifest.

 
          
Aidan
forsook the link. "Tell me!" he shouted. "I have conversed with
gods
… do I not deserve an answer from
the
lir
they gave me?"

 
          
Teel's
tone lacked his customary acerbity.
The
times demand harsh truths
, he said at last.
And sometimes harsher falsehoods
.

 
          
Falsehoods
. Aidan clamped his teeth
shut.
Are you saying all of it is a lie
?

 
          
They have taught what had to be taught.

 
          
Why did it
have
to be taught
?

 
          
Ignorant men do ignorant things.

 
          
Such as ignoring prophecies.

 
          
After
a moment:
Aye
.

 
          
And ignoring the prophecy results in no
Firstborn.

 
          
Feathers
were fluffed.
Aye
.

 
          
You have us
, Aidan said intently.
You have us, and the Ihlini. Are we not
enough? Why must there be the Firstborn
?

 
          
Because they
were
firstborn… and the gods want them back
.

 
          
Suspicion
roused itself.
Firstborn
—
bestborn? Is that what it is? The gods gave
us self-rule, and the bloodlines fragmented because of Ihlini ambition. So the
only way of restoring the balance
—
of
regaining the bestborn children
—is
to
make them out of the bits and pieces culled from all the lands
.

 
          
Not all
. Teel sounded himself again.
Not all—only four. Four realms and two races
.

 
          
Aidan
felt rage building. With effort, he damped it down.
If they want them so badly, why not simply
make
them? It was what they did in the first
place
!

 
          
Teel
sighed faintly.
They gave their children
self-rule. Self-rule perpetuates itself… none of you are what you once were,
and the gods can force nothing. They can only ask, and suggest, and guide
—

 
          
Gods are gods
! Aidan cried.
Gods can do anything
!

 
          
Even create a being greater than themselves.

 
          
Greater—?

 
          
There is nothing a god can do that you
cannot do.

 
          
But there is
—

 
          
All that a god can do can be done by the
children. Only the ways and means are different.

 
          
Teel—

 
          
The
raven sighed..
There is intellect, and
freedom, and skills beyond belief. They gave you everything. They made you what
you were
—you
made you what you are
.

 
          
I do not know what I am, anymore.

 
          
Amusement
touched the link.
Child of the gods. What
more is there to be
?

 
          
It
was too much to contemplate. Aidan withdrew from the link and sat motionless
near the fire, staring sightlessly into flames. Light burned first into his
eyes, then into his brain.

 
          
"Times
have changed," he murmured. "Everything has changed."

 
          
No
one said anything.

 
          
"It
was a means." Aidan stirred a little. "A means, nothing more. A way
of communicating. Too often one man will not listen to another, no matter how
wise he is… but if a
god
says it—"
Oh, gods
. "—if a god says it,
one or two may listen. Then one or two more. Until eventually a grouping
becomes a clan, and a clan becomes a people." He sighed heavily. "We
serve a collection of words. And the words have become twisted."

 
          
Ashra's
voice was soft. "Then set them straight," she said. "You have it
in you, Aidan."

 
          
His
laughter was bittersweet. "I have nothing inside me now save a profound
emptiness."

 
          
Green
eyes glinted. "Fill it," Tye suggested.

 
          
Aidan
sighed and slung aside the wineskin. "I need sleep. I need a true sleep,
not this pale mockery filled with too many dreams…"

 
          
"Everyone
dreams," Tye said.

 
          
"Not
like this. Not as I do." Aidan spread his skins. "Not so vividly, or
so unsettlingly."