strongholdrising (42 page)

"What have you found?" the head priest demanded, coming over.
"An ancient computer and six data crystals," he said, getting up.
"This room, Father," said Taeo. "All the furniture, it's ancient. Could it have been His?"
"Perhaps it was," said L'Seuli, taking her by the elbow and gently steering her out of the room. "You and Maikoi should go freshen up. We'll take over here. Say nothing of this to anyone, you understand?"
"Yes, Commander," she said reluctantly, waiting for Maikoi.
Lijou took the box from him, opening it up to inspect the crystals for himself.
"This must be one of their first crystal data recorders," he said as the Father knelt beside him. Despite himself, he was curious. "What are you looking for, Father? Evidence of Vartra in Stronghold?"
"You should go, too, Kusac," said L'Seuli. "You've done well."
"He stays," said Lijou abruptly, placing the box back in the chest and closing the lid. He ran his fingers over the double sunburst. "He's Vartra's kin. He has a right to know what we intend."
He began to think this through. The furniture, the chest, and the secrecy could only add up to one thing. "You're looking for His tomb," he said quietly. "They buried the important people back then, like the Warriors in the tomb at Vartra's Retreat."
"Yes," said Lijou, getting up. He looked over to Yaszho. "Clear this room," he ordered. "Watch for anything of value, but clear it quickly."
Pushing himself upright again, Kusac touched the Father's arm to get his attention. "We should wait outside," he said. "A lot of the furniture turns to dust when touched."
Lijou nodded, following him into the corridor.
"His remains will have to stay here, you realize that, don't you?" said the priest, running a hand through his white-streaked hair, a worried look on his face. "I know you have kin-rights, but He's more than just kin to you, He's our God."
"My mother will have to know, as will Zashou. Her sister life-bonded to Vartra. She has the greatest claim on His remains."
"If we find Him, it can't be made public knowledge, even here at Stronghold."
He nodded, understanding why. From the room came the sounds of heavy objects being dragged across the stone floor, and from the doorway, faint clouds of dust drifted out.
Lijou's mouth opened in a faint smile. "You were right about the dust."
L'Seuli suddenly appeared. "We found a section of hollow brickwork," he said, barely able to conceal his excitement.

* * *

Security was intense, even for Stronghold. Lijou had ordered that all the psi dampers Ghezu had installed be switched on, and all entrances to the lower levels were guarded by a handpicked team of senior Brothers and Sisters. Artificial lighting had been strung up from iron pegs hammered into the walls, illuminating both rooms and allowing them to see everything clearly. All they waited for now was the arrival of Kaid and Noni.
"Why Kaid?" Rhyaz had asked impatiently as he looked down on the stone sarcophagus that stood in the center of the small room that had been concealed beyond the brick wall. "What has he to do with opening this? Noni I can understand, but Kaid? Why can't we open it now?"
"Have a sandwich," offered Lijou from the other room, holding out the plate to him. "Some food'll calm you."
Rhyaz glared balefully at him as he left the tiny crypt. "It's the middle of the bloody night, Lijou! I don't want a damned sandwich, I want to see what's in this thing!"
Lijou put the plate back on the table they'd commandeered. "We need Kaid because Vartra ordered him to find a way to keep Him here. He'll expect Kaid, and may even talk to him."
"All right, I concede that," Rhyaz said, sitting down on the carved wooden chest. "How do you manage to keep so calm? Here you are, face to face with the physical reality of our God, and all you can do is eat!"
Lijou indicated the sarcophagus. "That isn't my God," he said mildly. "At most, that's His mortal remains. I've seen and spoken to the living Vartra."
Kusac smiled, helping himself to a sandwich as Rhyaz muttered darkly under his breath. It gave him some amusement to see the Father so calm and the Warrior Master so rattled.
L'Seuli came out, checking his vid unit and ejecting a full cartridge. "It feels sacrilegious taking images of it."
"We can't leave it here," said Lijou, picking up his mug of c'shar. "We need a record of where we found it for posterity. One day we may be able to let the world know, but not yet. It isn't as if Vartra didn't tell us to find a way to keep Him here, and I know of no better way than placing His remains in the temple."
Yaszho, looking weary, came in. "I've finished preparing the floor to the right of Vartra's statue," he said. "I don't think anyone's going to be fooled into believing that we found a new sculpture with all the activity that's been going on down here since third meal."
"They'll believe it," said Lijou confidently. "That's another reason why I need Noni and Kaid. We're going to plant false memories in the minds of everyone here, except ourselves."
"What?" Rhyaz was stunned. "You can't do that! Can you?" He looked from Lijou to Kusac.
"It can be done," he said uncomfortably. "It's like crowd control on a much more complex level. The sarcophagus itself has enough crystal set into it to store the false memories. If they do it right, it'll be self-perpetuating. No one will think to see more than a sculpture. You should have asked Carrie to come, too, Father Lijou. She knows more about the crystals than Kaid— or me. Not that I can do anything to help." He tried to keep the tinge of bitterness from his voice.
"Damn me, but I'm glad you're on our side," Rhyaz said, scrubbing his eyes with his hands. "It scares me to hear you telepaths have so much power over people."
"That much energy costs us dearly, young Rhyaz," said Noni's tart voice from the doorway.
He looked round to see Kaid standing there, Noni held in his arms.
"You can put me down now," she said, tapping Kaid on the chest with a bony finger. "Undignified is what it is, arriving like this!"
Kaid lowered the elderly Sholan carefully to her feet as Lijou and Rhyaz stood up to greet her. "You know it was too far for you to walk," he said. "Since you wouldn't use their chair, you left me no option but to carry you."
"Taking liberties with old Noni, you are," she grumbled, leaning on her stick as she made her way over to the two Guild Masters, but her tone was one of affection. "Keeping your own mind on one thought for long enough to do the work is difficult enough, Rhyaz. I got to not only do it myself, but link in to Kaid and Lijou and use their minds to create the falsehood. Thank the Gods it's at least night! With nearly all of them asleep upstairs, it'll make it easier!"
"I didn't mean to imply it was easy, Noni," Rhyaz said awkwardly.
"I know you didn't," she said, moving past him to Lijou. "Think of it like driving two riding beasts who want to go in opposite directions from each other and where you want to go, then you see why group work is rarely done." She held out her palm to Lijou in greeting. "You've done well, Lijou. Good work."
Lijou touched her fingers briefly with his own. "It wasn't me, Noni. It was Kusac."
Noni turned to look at him. "Makes sense. An Aldatan finding an Aldatan. Then you have my congratulations, Kusac."
"It was luck, nothing more," he said as she reached down to touch his cheek with her hand.
"I don't believe in luck," she said. "You found the chest and recognized the carving. Now where's this stone tomb?"
Lijou pointed. "Through the hole in the wall," he said. "We think these may have been Vartra's own rooms here at Stronghold. Kusac says you never saw His quarters," he said to Kaid.
"Apart from the temple and the rooms we stayed in, we only saw His lab," said Kaid.
"I'm not going in there!" said Noni, eyeing the ragged hole in the wall with horror. "What d'you think I am? A lizard to go climbing over rocks? You bring the damned thing out here for me!"
"I wasn't suggesting you go in there," said Lijou hastily. "While we waited for you, we had a grav cradle bolted round the sides. We didn't want to move it out of there without you seeing it first."
"I've seen it, now bring it out," she ordered, sitting down on the chest beside Kusac.

* * *

It took half an hour and all six males before the huge sarcophagus was finally sitting in the center of the room. Unbolting the padded grav cradle, they stood back, leaving room for Noni to come forward and examine it for herself.
Carved from one block of flawless pale gray stone, the painted carvings round the sides and on the lid glowed with vibrant colors. Leaving her cane lying on the floor, Noni hobbled over to it. Almost reverently, she placed her hands on the sides, running her fingers over the carvings and inset crystals.
Too small to see the top of the lid clearly, she was just the right height to examine the sides without bending down like the males.
"This one, He's Vartra," she said, fingers stopping on a tan-pelted figure in the center of a group of gray- and purple-clad warriors. "See the sword at His side? It has a crystal pommel. Those are the first Triads with the Brothers and Sisters around Him. And there," she said, her fingers moving on. "He's with the first Guild Masters." She moved round to the bottom panel. "Here, the Highlanders again," she said, looking up at Kaid. "See, behind them the Retreat with more Brothers. And this side is the Cataclysm. Look, He's at Stronghold with the Brothers and their families. They lived here with their cubs, Rhyaz," she said, looking at him. "I told you there had been berrans here in the past. They were a community then, not just Warrior Priests."
"I didn't disbelieve you, Noni," he said soberly.
"And this last panel," she said, now at the top end of the sarcophagus. "Have you looked at this?"
"We can't make sense of it," said Lijou. "It's just crystals set randomly into the black background."
She laughed, looking at Kaid as he slowly stretched out his hand to touch the dark panel. "He knows what it is, don't you, Tallinu?"
"Haven," he said softly. "It's Haven and the stars of the Alliance. The new Alliance."
"It can't be," said Rhyaz sharply, coming round to see. He frowned, moving one way then the other. "Well I'll be damned! You're right! The crystals are the stars! And that painted one is Haven. How did they know about that in those days? We hadn't even gotten beyond our own moons then."
"Some of our telepaths had. They'd been out to the Prime worlds," Kusac said. "We know Rezac could send as far as Shola before he became gene-altered. They must have sent images of the Valtegan Empire back home."
"There's more to it than that," said Noni, standing back. "I'll wager this panel is where His head is, isn't it?"
"Judging by the carving of Vartra on the lid, yes," said Lijou.
"You're going to have to send a part of Him to Haven," she said. "He can't retreat from Shola then! And in space, He can help us even more."
"Break up His body?" said Rhyaz, his voice almost inaudible.
"You can't do that!" exclaimed L'Seuli, horrified. "That's desecration!"
"We don't know for sure He's in there," said Lijou calmly. "It could be just what we're saying, a sculpture to honor Him."
"He's in there," said Kaid, reaching up to push the lid aside. "Help me, Kusac."
While Rhyaz and the others looked on in shocked silence, Kusac put his weight against the lid. Then Lijou joined them.
Held by a decorative metal spike at the bottom end, as the three of them pushed it, the lid began to pivot. The scent of nung blossoms filled the air as, with a grating sound, the lid slowly slid aside, exposing the interior.
"Don't just stand there, lad," Noni admonished Rhyaz. "Get me something firm to stand on!"
Kaid stopped, hands on the edges as he looked down onto the cloth-wrapped body lying on its bed of long dead nung flowers. This was the body of the Male who'd shaped not only his life, but that of his friends; the Male who'd spoken to him— appeared to him— from beyond the grave. A wave of light-headedness passed through him. Beside him, he heard Noni grumbling and the chair creaking as Rhyaz helped her up.
"It looks like any body ready for cremation," said Kusac, breaking the silence.
"Cut the wrappings," ordered Noni. "L'Seuli! Get your ass over here with that vid recorder of yours!"
"Cut it?" asked Lijou, looking across the coffin at her.
Kusac pulled his knife from his belt and handed it to Kaid.
"Cut it," she confirmed. "See that lump there on His chest? It's a crystal. We want it."
"How d'you know that?" asked Lijou, peering into the coffin.
"Found references to it in some of those records we been looking through," she said, looking up at him. "Back then, when their leaders were dying, they gave them a special crystal, one of the kind I use for mind workings. They did it so what they wanted folk to remember of them after they were gone could be recorded. Then when they died, they buried it with them. That's why to this day we still put a crystal in with the ashes up here in the Highlands."
Taking the knife, almost in a daze, Kaid leaned forward and carefully slit the thick shroud. It parted easily, revealing the desiccated remains of a male Sholan. Between both hands lay a large faceted crystal.
With a muffled cry of shock, Lijou stepped back.
Noni looked over at him, grinning evilly as Rhyaz averted his face. "What's the matter, Father? Not afraid of a dead body, are you?"
Lijou, ears invisible against his head, said nothing.
Hands shaking, Kaid stood up and returned the knife to Kusac. His sword-brother was right: it looked like any other corpse ready for cremation. Somehow, he'd expected something more. He looked over at Noni. "Don't ask me to pick it up."
She nodded, stepping down from the chair with Rhyaz' help and coming round to stand beside him.
He didn't want to do this. To actually touch Vartra's corpse, move those desiccated hands and take His crystal from Him was not at all what he wanted to do.
Kusac bent over the edge of the sarcophagus and, carefully unfastening the mummified fingers from the crystal, picked it up. As he overbalanced at the unexpected weight, Kaid had the presence of mind to grab him by the belt and haul him upright again.
Kusac turned and held it out to him. "Here."
He eyed it warily, not quite sure what it could do to him. Cautiously, he closed his hands round it, his fingers touching Kusac's as he did so.