The Nemesis Blade (14 page)

“Can you
help?”

“Not right
off, but I’ll put my ears to the ground.”

“The fewer who
hear of this the better.”

“I’ll only be
listening. You should speak to Reel on Xen also.” Adri gave a huge
grin on seeing Chaim’s surprise. “I know Reel, yes. We met on
Merrix and imagine our surprise on realising we had a friend in
common.” He laughed aloud. “Like to like, Chaim, you know that.
Speak to him; he’s closer to the action on Xen. And I’ll do what I
can here. Do you want me to pass on through an agent?”

“No. Ask one
to contact me and I will come.”

Adri watched
the older man and then, “Chaim, an army prepares for two things.
One, to invade with force and the element of surprise, and, two, to
counter a perceived threat and equal force. Has Elixir an
army?”

“No,” Chaim
sighed.

“But?”

“The rumour is
an army exists.”

“Ah, and fear
is a great motivator. A good general could gather a fair number to
his cause.”

“Exactly.”

Adri rose.
“You’ll hear from me soon, I promise.”

“Thank
you.”

Adri nodded
and left the safe house a thoughtful man.

Chaim rose,
stretched. Xen III next.

Titania

Shenendo stood
in line for an hour. When he reached the lady behind the desk and
put his query to her, she looked at him quizzically.

“Something
wrong?” he asked, his heartbeat upping tempo.

“Luvan history
is rarely asked after and yet you are the third in as many weeks.
It’s strange, that’s all.”

Shenendo
forced calm. “Really? Who else asked?”

The lady
smiled. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m not at liberty to say.” She bent
over her keyboard and pressed keys. “Ah, here it is. Section 80,
Aisle 34. You will require transport, sir.”

Shenendo
thought quickly and then, “Tell me, miss, are visitors to Titania
monitored?”

She looked at
him, losing her smile. “Sir, you need not concern …”

“Miss, I
suggest you check on your screen there who I am,” Shenendo
said.

She stared at
him a beat, two, and then did something on her keyboard. A moment
later she straightened. “Sir, it says here you are Shenendo of the
Kaval.” Titania agreed to aid the Kaval, an agreement made twenty
years ago. “How may I help you, sir?”

“I need to
know who asked after Luvan history.”

She typed
more. “Three weeks ago a man called Sabian did work here. He is
known to us, a historian specialising in ancient cultures, and he
once walked these halls for five years.” She bent closer to the
screen. “It says he was here for two days.”

“Where can I
find this Sabian?”

“It doesn’t
say, sir.”

Shenendo
nodded. “And the other?”

“Two weeks ago
Lowen Dalrish …”

“I know her.
Thank you. Oh, how long was she here?”

“Half a day,
and she left around the time the guard changed.”

The library
was guarded. And monitored. “Thank you, miss. Section 80, you
say?”

She gave her
professional smile. “Aisle 34. Glad to be of service to the
Kaval.”

Shenendo
inclined his head and moved away.

“Next!” the
lady called, eyes flicking his way.

Shenendo
approached the double doors. On the other side a car pulled up in
expectation, a man standing beside it.

“Sir, you
speak the desired destination in here,” and he pointed at a small
grid on the dash, “and the vehicle will take you there. It requires
no steering, but please be seated before you speak or it will whiz
away empty.”

Shenendo gave
a breathless laugh, clambered into the seat of the little yellow
car, spoke his destination, and was off. “Thank you!” he called
out.

It took an
hour to reach the desired place - an hour that would take around
ten to walk - and in that hour Shenendo worked through his store of
faces and names to find one in particular, but of Sabian he had not
heard.

Xen III

Xen was a
pleasure to visit and there was little threat in wandering through
Kora, the garden city of Xen III.

There was
little crime, too, and that was good for Xen as a whole. When the
domes came down, so had much of the criminal ways, but it was not
eradicated completely. Always, there were those who survived by
delving the underworld.

Chaim went
direct to Reel’s office, without the need for subterfuge.

Reel was a
respected lawyer and an upstanding member of the community. The
reason he was a dealer in information also was personal. Most of
his cases dealt with the criminals of Xen and he hated that the
element existed, thus he defended where defence was required and
sued where necessary and brought criminals to trial and in all of
that, he heard much.

Where he was
helpless, he passed on pertinent information to Elixir through
Chaim. In this he had the Peacekeeper’s silent support.

It was just
after lunch and Reel was in and busy with a client. Chaim was shown
in as soon as the client left.

Reel looked up
from a thick file before him, frowning. “I’m sorry, do we have an
appointment … Chaim!” He rose, hand outstretched. “This is a
surprise.”

Chaim shook
and smiled. “Our mutual friend Adri suggested I speak with
you.”

Reel coloured.
“Sorry, I let that one slip.”

“Relax. Adri
is trustworthy.”

Reel was
relieved. He was a fat man who wore his emotions for the entire
world to see … except those he annihilated in the courtroom. “Sit,
sit … would you like something to drink?”

Chaim sat. “I
could kill for a cup of tea.”

Reel hit a
button on his desk. “Angela, two teas, please.” He sat and closed
the file on his desk. “How can I help?”

Chaim
explained.

Reel was about
to speak when Angela entered bearing a tray. She set it down with a
smile, was thanked, and left. Reel leaned forward and poured.

Chaim claimed
his cup, added milk and sugar and took an appreciative sip. “This
is good.”

The lawyer
grinned, drank and said, “I cannot help you with the source of this
army, but I can tell you I have heard of weapons smuggled into
Lax.”

“Lax?”

“Ever a hotbed
of rebellion. The weapons leave from Xen, unfortunately. Old
weapons, hidden when the domes came down and kept in good repair by
all accounts, waiting for a buyer. I have a case at the moment, a
fishy export deal. They found crates of weapons. Guns, grenades,
launchers, bombs and the like.”

“Why did you
not inform me?”

“I wanted to
know destination before I did so.” Reel pointed at the door. “The
guy who was here is one of my informants; he told me it was Lax and
also says tons of the shit has been moved. I was preparing to see
the Commissioner about a raid when you came in.”

Chaim
pondered. Lax made sense, for a rebellion could hide a resistance
army with ease. Lax was notoriously difficult to infiltrate. “Whom
are the weapons destined for?”

“No idea,”
Reel murmured. “The export papers are generic.”

“Can you snoop
more?”

Reel grinned.
“I intend to snoop a lot, my friend!”

Chaim laughed
and rose. “Thanks for the tea. You will let me know?”

“Anything I
hear. Go well.”

“And you.”
Chaim thoughtfully left the office. He needed Jimini to help him
now.

Only a
shapeshifter could pass unnoticed on Lax.

Titania

As Shenendo
rounded the bend in a broad aisle, his vehicle purring
comfortingly, he discovered Galarth beside a similar craft, book in
one hand, scroll in the other.

There was an
expression of fright on his face. Galarth was the clean-cut,
athletic type, and to look at him the judgement would be cute,
sexy, with little between the ears. One would be wrong.

Galarth was
the universe’s number one reasoner - his term - for all information
that came to him had to be pulled apart and put back together until
reason emerged from chaos. To see such an expression on his face
was entirely unusual; Galarth thrived on challenge and difficulty
and nothing frightened him.

“Hey, Gal?”
Shenendo called out. His car came to a stop beside Galarth’s.

“Shedo? What
are you doing here?”

“Luvan
history. Why did your vehicle stop here?”

“Inundations.”
Galarth gave a smile, a measure of confusion in his eyes. “Seems
the two are linked. Look. Luvan, Senlu and around and between both
much on inundation … including Old Earth, Sanctuary, Xen and bloody
Lax. And those are the ones that jump out at one - there’s a host
of other inundations. Gods, I don’t know where to start.”

That was the
reason for fright. One week was not enough time to find reason in
chaos.

Shenendo
smiled. “Well, if we are betwixt and between books and scrolls
here, we tackle this as a team, what say you?”

Galarth stared
up at the mighty wall of information. “I say let’s do it.”

Shenendo
sighed private relief. Galarth would make huge strides where he
would plod along; the man would ease this task. “Excellent. We need
a work area.”

Galarth
gestured to a break in the wall of books. “There are workstations
through there. I’ve claimed one.” He gave Shenendo a considering
look. “Do you know if these works are on computer?”

“No idea.
Why?”

“I’m thinking
it may be simpler to write a search engine that can pull what we
need from this, rather than page through it all.”

“You can do
that?”

“Sure, if it’s
on a drive. It’s a lot; have computers been around long enough to
get this on?” Galarth waved an encompassing hand to include the
entire complex.

“Is there a
console at the work station?”

“Many.”

“Ask it,”
Shenendo suggested.

Galarth
grinned at him. “Sharp, Shedo! Let’s do that first.” Challenged
anew, he led the way with book and scroll under one arm.

The vehicles,
Shenendo noted, remained stationery.

They would
work, eat and sleep there for the time remaining to them before the
meeting in the Dome on Sanctuary.

Ignatius knew
after one hour with the staff on Mariner Island Sanctuary would not
offer up secrets.

Defeated in
that endeavour, he headed for the only place he would likely
uncover pertinent information - Titania.

Shenendo and
Galarth made space at the overloaded workstation for him, for
Ignatius’ car stopped at the same place.

It seemed all
was linked, and Elixir’s theory was proved with every step they
took.

Valaris

Like Torrullin,
Quilla stayed away from Valaris, until the call could not be
ignored.

He still felt
the Lifesource was his true home. Perched over the abyss between
the Arrows and Assents, with the Eastern Ocean turbulent below and
connected to the land bridge between the two ranges by a flimsy
lightbridge, the Temple paid homage to the Waters of Life on
Valaris. The waters gushed from below the lip of the land bridge
with awesome power and spectacular beauty, and was regarded
sacred.

The Lifesource
Temple, besides the Valleur Throne, was regarded most sacred of all
sites and was built first.

Quilla stood
on the lightbridge listening to the angelic harmonies of welcome a
soul heard here, and smiled.

The Temple
endured much and yet was always new. It spent thousands of years
cloaked while Vannis was incarcerated, it saw Torrullin become the
One, it took Vannis’ immortality from him, it healed and soothed
and protected. It was the place where Tannil, Teroux’s father, was
conceived and it saw Tannil’s madness at the end of his life. It
knew destruction at the hand of Tymall, Tianoman’s father. It once
moved to the Western Isles and then returned to the mountains. It
was renewed and rebuilt by Torrullin and Vannis, it saw the
gathering of the Q’lin’la and it also witnessed their terrible
deaths. It was cloaked and uncloaked many times and, as always, it
sang welcome.

The
lightbridge only appeared flimsy and Quilla strode over with
purpose and without fear, the abyss below bothering him none.

He came here
to think on the singing stones, for he thought better in this space
and had heard the stones sing from this place in the past, many
times. What he had to do next was listen in deep meditation.

Quilla
wandered through the western arch with its message of peace and
then wandered for hours through the chambers within chambers
listening to the music, feeling the stroking of inherent healing,
and was himself renewed.

He was ready
to enter trance.

In his
personal chambers of tranquillity he sat on a soft cushion, tucking
his legs under him. His hands fell open on his knees and his eyes
lost focus.

He heard the
stones sing.

When it’s too
good to be true ...

~ Warning
(Earth)

Nemisin’s
World

P
rima did not bother with the niceties when deciding
to enter Nemisin’s ancient realm.

He had been to
Titania, but was stumped by the host of foretellings in the
database there and chose instead to speak to a seer, and the best
seer, without doubt, was Caballa of the Valleur.

Prima sought
out heat signatures as he arrived on the ledge outside the
mountainous realm and transported directly into the warm kitchen
where Declan ate stew as if there was no tomorrow.

His arrival
caused a brief stir and then, “Prima, what are you doing here?”

The tall man
bent an eye to the Siric. “To speak to Caballa, as you obviously
are.”