The Evolutionary Void (87 page)

Edeard glanced shamefacedly at Inigo. “You know what I have done, what I
am fleeing from.”

“We all know your life. That is why we are here.”

“You can help me? Is that why you have come?”

“You don’t need our help,” Inigo said. “Your triumph was magnificent.
Whole planets marvel at your achievements here in Makkathran.”

“I don’t understand. I’ve screwed this up just as Owain and Buate and
their ilk always claimed I would. I became what they were, Honious take me.”

“No, you didn’t,” the woman said earnestly. “Edeard, listen to me. After
the unity attempt failed, your next effort to bring peace and fulfillment to
Querencia worked. You never reset the Void again; you never needed to. You and
Kristabel and your friends all accepted guidance to the Heart in old age. It
was beautiful to behold.”

“You speak as if this has already happened.” Edeard gave the woman a
curious look as some very uncomfortable thoughts began to gather in his mind.

“Edeard.” Inigo put a steadying hand on his shoulder. “We’ve only just
arrived in the Void. In here time flows much quicker than it does outside.
Which is why only a few hundred years have gone by out there compared to the
millennia here. You are our past. I brought you out of the Void’s memory.”

“Are you saying I have already lived my life? All of my life?”

“Yes.”

“But …” His farsight swept out again, desperate to find anyone else.
“Where is everybody? If I succeeded the way you claim, what happened to the
people I tried to help? Their grandchildren should still be here. Did they
desert the city?”

Inigo appeared embarrassed. “You created a society where it was possible
for everyone to achieve fulfillment. Eventually, all the humans here accepted
guidance. The last one left for the Heart several thousand years ago.”

“Gone?” He couldn’t believe it. “All of them gone? There were
millions
of us living on Querencia.”

“I know.”

“Why did you bring me back?” Edeard asked bitterly.

“We need your help.”

“Ha! Then Honious knows you picked the wrong man; Finitan is more worthy
than me, or even Dinlay. And even if you had no choice, you should have brought
back this future Edeard you spoke of, the one who is triumphant.”

“I chose you very carefully. You are exactly the Edeard I need.”

“Why?”

“Determination,” Inigo said simply. “This is the you who resolved never
to let anything beat him no matter what. You, the you of this day, are the best
Waterwalker there ever was. This is the moment your triumph was built upon.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Edeard said weakly.

“I’m truly sorry this was how we had to meet. But we really do need your
help.”

“How? How in the Lady’s name can I possibly help people who have the
power to travel between universes?” He was watching Inigo gathering himself to
reply, when the really strange one with the battered face and tormented
thoughts stepped forward.

“I am Aaron, and I have come here to ask you to take us to the Heart.”

Edeard almost laughed at him, but the man was in so much suffering and so
fired up with desperation, he was clearly speaking the truth. “Why?”

“Because that has to be what controls the Void. I must speak with it, or
Inigo must, or even you. Whichever of us it will listen to.”

“What would you say to it?”

“You’re killing us. Switch off.”

Inigo’s arm went around Edeard’s shoulder again. “This is going to take a
while to explain,” he said gently.

The bright sun was well on its way to the western horizon, coating the
edges of Eyrie’s towers in a familiar cerise haze.
And yet
not familiar
, Edeard thought sadly. This Makkathran he found himself in
was a sorrowful one indeed. The buildings were exactly as they should be—oh,
but the rest of the districts and canals. It didn’t suffer decay—the fabulous
city would never fall to that—but it had become
shabby
.
Without its citizens, it was a poor specter of itself in its glory days. And
there was so little left of the people who lived here, nothing more than
blemished trinkets and stubborn dust. That they should have vanished with so
little to show for their achievements was infinitely depressing. As was knowing
he was forever separate from them all now. Though he supposed he could reset
the Void once more, somehow he didn’t have the appetite to plunge back in to
what had been. Besides, according to Corrie-Lyn, he had already won his life’s
battle. And if he understood what his mind-brother Inigo was saying, he was
responsible for unleashing devastation upon the true universe outside.

“More ships are coming?” he asked.

“Yes,” Inigo admitted. “My fault. I was besotted with your life.”

They were sitting on the steps outside the Lady’s central church, each of
the visitors doing what he or she could to help him comprehend Inigo’s story of
what was happening in the galaxy outside and what the Void actually was. It had
taken hours.

“You showed people my life,” Edeard said, not quite accusing, but …

“I did. You never told anyone of mine.”

“They would have thought me mad, even Kristabel. Flying carriages. People
who live forever. Hundreds of inhabited worlds. Machine servants instead of
genistars. Cities where Makkathran would be naught but a small district. A
civilization where justice was available to all. Aliens. More stars in the sky
than it is possible to count. No, such marvels of my fevered imagination were
best kept inside my skull. Except it wasn’t my imagination; it was all you.”

“I hope I was of some help, some comfort.”

“You were.” Edeard finally gathered the courage he’d so far lacked and
asked the question: “This future I lived, the one where I finally achieved
guidance to the Heart … was Burlal part of it?”

“No. I’m sorry, Edeard. He was only ever here that one time.”

“I see. Thank you for your honesty.”

“Waterwalker,” Aaron said. “Can you take us to the Heart, please.”

The edge in his voice, the way his raging thoughts threatened to burst
out of his head—it made Edeard nervous. “I understand the need for the Void to
be contained. If I could do so, I would.”

“There is a way to speak with it,” Aaron said through clenched teeth.
“Once we get there, I know there is.”

“How?”

Aaron slammed his hands onto his face. Once, twice, three times. Blood
trickled out of his nose where he’d hit it. “She won’t tell me!” he yelled
furiously. “I can’t find it anymore.”

Edeard’s third hand gripped Aaron’s arms, forcing them down.

“This is my mission! I am the mission. I have an objective. I must be
strong. She likes that. She loves me.”

Tomansio stood next to the stricken agent. “Hey, it’s okay.” He reached
out. “We have two starships and the Waterwalker. We can take—”

Aaron’s muscles went slack, and Tomansio caught him as he pitched
forward, unconscious.

“How did you do that?” Edeard asked.

“Very basic tranquilizer. Lucky our biononics are degraded here. Would
have been quite a scrap otherwise.”

“I see.” Which he didn’t quite. But these warriors from the outside
universe were formidable. And they had honor. Somehow he was reminded of
Colonel Larose from the Makkathran militia.

“Now what?” Corrie-Lyn asked with a sigh. “Our pet psycho is going to go
quantumbusting when he wakes up.”

“I’d hate to try a neural infiltration in this environment,” Tomansio
said. “The first glitch and we’d probably rip his brain apart. Besides, I think
the way his mind was reconfigured implies it was resistant to that kind of
inquisition. The information is hidden in the subconscious.”

“We do have the two ships,” Oscar said. “And we know we have to fly to
the Heart. Our problem is always going to be guidance.” He grinned at Edeard.
“I guess that’s where you come in.”

“It comes down to fulfillment,” Inigo said. “If the Skylord believes
Edeard to be fulfilled, it will guide him.”

“His soul,” Corrie-Lyn said sharply.

“We don’t know that,” Inigo said. “Humans have never been able to fly
around inside the Void before. Maybe it’ll show a living body the way.”

“I’ll ask,” Araminta-two said.

His thoughts were gifted in a fashion Edeard was unaccustomed to; the
clarity he was given exceeded any he’d known before. It was hard to throw off
the sensation that he was actually in Araminta-two’s body, breathing together,
feeling together. And there was the shadow perception distracting him, standing
in a giant room of metal and glass, watching the nebulae outside. A flock of
Skylords guiding the incredible starships. That mind’s perception shimmered
underneath the connection Araminta had with the Skylord leading the fleet and
its awareness of the Void.

“Do I have to abandon my body to be guided to the Heart?” she asked.

“You have to be fulfilled,” the Skylord replied lovingly. “Then I will
guide you. Soon, I feel. Your mind is strong; you believe you know your way.
You understand yourself. You lack only surety.”

“If I have that, if I gain what I need for fulfillment, would you take
me, the living me, in this ship?”

“I would do that.”

Edeard shivered as the outlandish gifting ended. It was as if a gust of
winter air had squalled around the church. He gave Araminta-two a curious look.
“You can longtalk across the Void?” Such strength of mind was incredible.

“Not really. That was my other body. And as for the Skylord, we are
joined as you and Inigo once were.”

“I see,” he lied.
My other body!
He’d said it
so casually. How he wished for Macsen at this time—Macsen, who would make light
of such confusion with a quip and a laugh, and the world would be right again.

“So now we find out if this Edeard is fulfilled,” Oscar said. “And if he
is, you fly him to the Heart.”

“It would seem that way,” Inigo agreed.

“Not yet,” Justine said. She stood up. “This is too important for maybes.
We need a very clear understanding of what we’re supposed to achieve here.
Follow me.” And she walked up the steps toward the church’s open entrance.

Edeard observed everyone producing puzzled looks behind the blonde girl.
A few shrugs were exchanged, but they all trooped dutifully after her. Justine’s
tone had been commanding.

When they’d been introduced, Edeard had been dismissive of the sultry
girl, weary, even. Because of her crude clothing and wild hair, she reminded
him of the real bandits who lived in the wilds beyond Rulan province. But as
the afternoon wore on, he’d revised his opinion. For a start, she was one of
the Commonwealth eternals. She might look as if she was barely out of her
teens, but he knew she was older than anyone who’d ever lived in Makkathran.
And despite her lack of clothing, she had a dignity and poise that would’ve
intimidated Mistress Florrel. He also strongly suspected she was tough enough
to rip Ranalee to shreds in any kind of fight, fair or otherwise.

The air inside the church was cooler than outside. Seeing the interior
bare apart from the big statue of the Lady was odd, emphasizing how cut off and
alone he was now. A mere day ago in his own time he’d been Mayor, and the city
bent to his will. These people meant well, he knew, but he couldn’t help the
resentment at the way they’d summoned him out of his true life. If it had been
anyone but Inigo—but then, only Inigo could do such a thing.

Stranger than the naked church was the golden man standing in the middle,
waiting for them. He was visible only because of some strangely pervasive
gifting from Justine that he couldn’t quite shield himself from, yet his
farsight found nothing where the man stood, not at first. “A soul,” Edeard
exclaimed when he intensified his perception.

“A dream, actually. I’m Gore. Pleased to finally meet you, Waterwalker.
You’re a very impressive man.”

“Gore is the one who guided us all here,” Inigo explained lightly. “By
various methods. Not all of them pleasant.”

“Just making sure you don’t run out on your responsibilities, sonny.”

“My father,” Justine said proudly.

“You need to keep Aaron under,” Gore told Tomansio. “His neural
reconditioning was never going to be strong enough to withstand an encounter
with the Cat. I wasn’t expecting that. Goddamn Ilanthe.”

“Lennox,” Tomansio said coldly. “His name is Lennox. One of our founders.
As such, very important to all Knights Guardian. What have you done to him?”

“Exactly what he asked,” Gore said. “Christ knows what kind of number the
Cat worked on him, but he was a nearly total basket case when my people
recovered him. We erased what we could of that old personality, but the damage
had seeped down into his subconscious. That can normally be suppressed,
providing it doesn’t receive too many associative triggers. But as for an
out-and-out cure, forget it. I did what I could. I patched him back up and sent
him out doing what he loved, what he was born to do. He runs every dirty covert
mission the Conservative Faction needs to keep the good old Greater
Commonwealth on the straight and narrow. I’m not his boss; I’m his partner, for
Christ’s sake.”

“Dad, the Heart?”

“Yeah, right.” Gore glanced around at all of them. “It’s a simple enough
plan. Like Aaron said, you go in and engage the damn thing, reason with it. It
has to be made to understand it’s committing galactic genocide.”

“That’s it?” Oscar asked.

“You got anything better?”

“Well … no.”

“Then that’s it. One minor upgrade. I’m coming with you. I might have
found something to persuade it.”

“What?”

“A new beginning. But we’re going to have to be quick. Fuck knows what
Ilanthe’s up to in there.”

“All right, Dad. The Skylord will guide Edeard’s body, assuming he’s
fulfilled.”

“That was the original idea.” Gore shot a meaningful glance at Inigo. “We
do need someone we know is fulfilled.”