The Nemisin Star (41 page)

“Because I
am.”

“Gods,
Tris.”

“Trebac is
…”

“I really
prefer not to know.”

Tristamil
lifted a shoulder. “That is why my father stays out of sight now.
He understands. He might not agree, but he definitely gets it.”

“Maybe you
prefer contrariness, after all.”

“Not for long.
I do need serenity. In all this I have lost the Light. I cannot see
it, feel it or touch it. I feel empty, lost, and yet it changes
nothing. My path is set.”

“The fateful
attitude of Vallas.”

“Terrible,
isn’t it?”

“You have the
power to …”

“Change it?
Why would I want to?”

Saska stamped
her foot. “Stop it! I know you are better than this! You don’t have
the duality that makes this possible! If you set your mind to it,
you can change it!”

He leaned
forward to stare intently into her eyes. “If I change it now, I
will regret it forever. If marrying Mitrill proves unnecessary, so
be it. I can live with her, and I do love her enough to make it
work. Please stop it, Saska.”

Slowly she
nodded and a moment later linked her arm to his and drew him on
down the path. “You should take her away from the Keep for a while.
Celebrate your marriage where there is no judgement.”

“Including
yours?”

“I won’t do
more judging, I promise.”

He smiled.
“Thank you. And you may be right, but time is too scarce. We cannot
afford to go away now. Perhaps after.”

“I am
wondering what this mighty event is that has an ‘after’.”

“I told you he
didn’t tell you everything.”

She did not
respond.

“Saska, I saw
you talk with Cat last night …”

“Oh?”

He laughed out
loud. “My god, that is a loaded ‘oh’!”

She laughed as
well. “I do like her.”

“She is a lot
like you, yes.”

Saska stilled
and stopped walking. “What did you say?”

He licked his
lips and answered because he could not now lie to her. “Cat
reminded us of you when she first arrived; her personality, her
fire, if not her looks.”

“And Torrullin
saw it.”

Tristamil
shrugged. “I guess.”

A long silence
ensued as Saska pondered that. “Poor Catalina Dalrish. She walked
into a minefield because she had the kind of fire to lure him.”

Tristamil
gazed elsewhere.

“It’s all
right. At least I finally understand.”

He did not
respond to that either.

She changed
the subject. “How did you know the omens were good last night?”

He allowed
himself to be drawn. It was safer. “I asked Caballa.”

“Dear god,
don’t tell your father that. He will skin her alive.”

Tristamil
started to laugh. “Do we all dance around my father’s moods?”

“Sometimes
it’s safer,” she laughed as well. “He barks pretty loud!”

In amusement
and companionship, they walked on.

The Keep

Vannis studied
their tiny forms from the battlements.

Vannis was
peeved. He hated being in the dark.

From a level
under him, Mitrill watched her new husband with Saska. She
understood the relationship between Tristamil and his stepmother, a
need both of them had after years of Tymall and his evil, but she
wondered if Tristamil knew Saska would always put Torrullin first.
He had to watch what he said. It did not matter, did it? Even her
father-in-law could not now undo this destiny.

She turned
from the window. She needed to speak to him soon.

He had to
recognise this boy inside her before it was too late.

The Temple of
Stars

After
returning Saska to the Keep, instead of heading up to Mitrill,
Tristamil went to Caballa.

He found her
inside Linir and considered it an omen. She was waiting for him,
and that caused him to shiver.

Caballa spoke
as she stared up at the aperture in the ceiling where Nemisin’s
star shone one night a year. “Much was set in motion when the two
worlds were connected. One could say this is this is the era of
Nemisin’s Star.” She smiled to herself, as if ending an internal
dialogue. “You have come to ask why Mitrill followed your lead
without a murmur of protest.”

“She will not
divulge much, other than you shared a vision with her.”

“Why do you
need to know? Truth, Tris.”

He moved
slowly about the temple. Not once did he look up at the aperture.
“I hope it will aid me in something.”

“What will aid
you? Truth?”

“Understanding.”

“Ah.
Understanding is always relative, young lord.”

“I know
that.”

“How will
understanding aid you?”

“Clarify my
decision.”

“Subjective.”

He almost
swore, but he did want her to be forthcoming. “Maybe.”

Caballa
lowered her head. “I cannot see the aperture and the star is now
absent, and yet the connection remains and I can feel it. The
connections aid me, did you know that? I have many visions and I
have been given them most of my adult life, and yet sometimes
factors are unclear. The day your father consecrated this temple is
the day I discovered a means to greater clarity.”

She moved away
from the centre of the great star on the floor and turned to face
him.

For a few
minutes he forgot his task. “Visions must be stressful.”

“Initially
they were, but I would find it hard to cope now without them. They
are part of who I am.”

“What do you
see, Caballa?”

“Largely it is
daily detail. Those are frequently at the behest of others. Someone
comes to me and asks if her child will be healthy, or another wants
to know about the grain in wood for a sculpture, or it can be about
pests in a crop of soy. Simple things, simple to see. It requires
little effort. These are vision I do not search out. They are given
me without my influence.”

“Akin to
prophecy.”

“Much like it,
yes.”

“Do your
visions alter the course?”

“If I allow
it.”

“Do you?”

“Not if I can
help it. I believe one should not interfere.” She smiled slightly.
“Intention is always fact, however.”

“You have
interfered.”

“Deliberately?
Once. I told your father Saska was in the Forbidden Zone.”

Tristamil
barked a laugh. “And thus he ensured a swift mission.”

“That is all I
tweaked. The speed of preparation.”

“Why?”

“It had to do
with Cat. He was falling for the Xenian, and it could not happen
without severe consequences. He is still enamoured of her, but he
remains outside of it. He had to find the Lady of Life. He needed
to be ready for her.”

“I don’t think
he was. He still isn’t.”

“I am aware
there is trouble, but it would have been far worse had he not
expected to find her in the Zone. They would not be talking now at
all, and Valaris needs her help. The Emperor of Grinwallin would
not now be ruling in a renewed city and the Valleur from our world
would not find the haven he prepares for them. You see, had
Torrullin not been forewarned, he would not have known to summon
the Lady of Life to aid the fallen Emperor.”

Tristamil
gaped. “What did you see about Saska?”

“That I cannot
tell you.”

“But did you
actually see Teighlar from here?”

“Indeed.”

“Gods, I hate
these nuances. It is hard to figure a way forward with so much
beneath it.”

“You are
Valla; this should not be new.”

He wanted to
shake her for information.

She retreated
to lean against the wall directly opposite the exit. A slight
lightness from outside highlighted her beauty. Caballa was, quite
simply, the most beautiful Valleur woman alive.

Thinking that,
he realised something. “Caballa, you would have been a perfect wife
for my father.”

Her eyes
seemed to spear him. “It would be a disaster.”

“Tell me
why.”

She pondered.
Whether she pondered how to answer or whether to answer at all, he
could not know, but she did answer eventually.

“By now you
have realised your father is a farseer, as I am. That alone is the
most significant reason not to have a relationship, never mind a
marriage. We would be too close and our visions would overlap and
it would lead to terrible strife.” She paused and gave a small
laugh. “Your father, I think, would thrive on the strife, but I
could not. I need tranquillity.”

“Serenity,”
Tristamil whispered.

“A better
word, indeed.”

The word
echoed what Saska said, and thus led him into a different
direction. “Do you use the Light, Caballa?”

She stared at
him sightlessly. “I do.” She frowned then and stepped forward. For
an instant she seemed disorientated before she found him and stood
before him unerringly. “You know the Light.” There was a trace of
surprise in her tone.

“Common
knowledge,” he shrugged, wary of her intensity.

“Not common
knowledge at all. Oh, we have heard of your exploits on Luvanor and
we know you earned your name, the Warrior Priest, there, but no one
ever mentioned the power of the Light. It is obvious, maybe, but
the words were never spoken and thus the questions have not been
asked.”

“Questions?”

“How do you
access the Light? Does it strengthen or does it alter Valleur
power? Do you send it away or does it leave when a task is
complete? Are …?”

“Caballa.” He
touched her arms as he saw her intensity burgeon. She paused and
drew breath. “Surely these questions have been answered?”

She placed a
hand on his chest and pressed down with her fingertips as if to
feel his energy, and in the feeling, she could see him clearly.
“Why would they have been answered?”

“The Valleur
are in the Light.”

“The Valleur have been in the Light and they have strayed and
returned. But they do not
wield
the Light. It is a separate power, Tristamil, and
few have the wherewithal to summon it, and even fewer know how to
wield it. I do, but I do not speak of it - I avoid those
questions.”

He placed his
hand over hers. “You see so much. You did not see the Light in
me.”

“Then you do
not have it right now.”

“How right you
are.”

“What went
awry?”

He moved away
after squeezing her hand. “What happened? Tymall, here, in Linir.
Taranis died. And then we went to Cèlaver.”

“And what you
learned there changed your fate.”

“Huh! It
revealed my fate.”

“No. It
changed. And that is not good.”

He lost his
temper. “And yet Mitrill was waiting for me with fate written all
over her, because of what you told her, and now you claim I changed
mine, when I was falling into it exactly. Caballa, for gods’ sakes,
you had better be clearer!”

“It is time to
tell you indeed. Only you. This one time I shall step outside the
line. I need your oath you will never repeat anything I say.”

Ice flowed
into his veins. “I swear.”

She nodded,
hearing the sincerity in those words. He would keep his word, and
gods help him. “Not here. Meet me at the Pillars of Fire in an
hour.”

“
The Pillars of
Fire
?” She could not have surprised him
more. He swallowed around a dry throat. “In an hour, then. Why the
delay?”

“I shall
request a vision, Tristamil. I need greater clarity. I am, after
all, changing the rules.”

All gods.

“At the
Pillars,” Tristamil echoed, and transported out to the Fountain,
from where he could see the amber glows of the Pillars against the
heavens. He too needed clarity, if only to see to the preparation
of his mind.

Secrets could
undo one.

Near
Farinwood

The
Seven-sided Fountain

The sacred
site was cloaked against the Darak Or’s intrusion.

The
seven-sided stone bowl was empty and no glorious rainbows shot
heavenward to fall back in a million colours.

Vannis built
it as a tribute to his father when he settled with his four
thousand on Valaris, and it was also homage to beauty. It possessed
no purpose other than to inspire wonder.

When Tristamil
alighted between the fountain and the great yellowwood trees
surrounding it, he was saddened by its neglected state. Of course
it was cloaked, not genuinely neglected, but it gave every
appearance of being so. Margus, by his presence, removed simple
pleasures from everyday life; he sent sacred sites into hiding and
thus removed magic from the land, as well as the perception of
balance. He sent places of beauty into obscurity.

It was unfair.
It was manipulative.

If every
Valleur lost his and her life, this fountain, and every sacred
site, would be eternally lost. Valarians would eventually forget
the wonder. He toyed with the idea of uncloaking to view the
rainbows. Perhaps they would transport his thoughts away from the
present and the future. Perhaps, for a little while, he could
forget.

Tristamil
stared into the empty bowl, and discarded the idea. Beauty would
not aid insight. Beauty would deaden the senses. Gods, he had
really lost his way if he could think like that.

He turned his
back on the fountain and gazed through the ancient trees. Beyond
and above the amber glows from the Pillars of Fire dominated. When
the sun was bright in a blue sky the glow was not as marked, but
not this day. The overcast sky seemed afire.

That was the
place Caballa asked to meet, and that was the place Margus died
twenty-seven years ago. It was a dangerous setting, thus she had
something of import to say and it likely had to do with that
particular event.