War in Heaven (91 page)

Thus shamed, with a muttered curse, the godling near the altar lowered his laser. Then, as Danlo looked at him across a few feet of open air, the pain of all that he had suffered since the death of his tribe filled his eyes with a terrible bright light. The godling's eyes filled, too, with tears for his brother and all those that he had seen killed in the war or had killed himself. And so without further thought or prompting, he bent down and set his laser on the floor.

"The war is over," one of Benjamin's ringkeepers suddenly called out. He stepped over and placed his laser next to that of the godling. "If the war is really over, it would be stupid to kill anyone any more."

And with that, another ringkeeper came over and abandoned her laser, and then ten others. A few of the godlings, too, followed them in disarming themselves, and then suddenly, almost as one, every man and woman in the cathedral pressed forwards to add their lasers, batons, dreammakers, heat-tlolts or bullet-guns to the growing mound of weapons in front of the altar. Everyone except Malaclypse Redring of Qallar, that is. The warrior-poet could not suffer his sacred knife to leave his possession or be touched by any other, and so he returned it to the sheath he wore strapped to his side beneath his robes. With his eyes, he promised Danlo that he wouldn't draw it within the bounds of the city — unless, of course, war broke out again and he had to protect him.

But the war is over
, Danlo told himself.
At last the war is truly over.

While the godlings and ringkeepers gave up their weapons, they mingled together as they had once done in the years before the war. And they talked among themselves, in low voices and whispers, recounting the events that had led up to this astonishing moment. The story of how Mallory Ringess, with his naked hands, had slain three armed warrior-poets quickly spread through the nave. Other stories were told, too. Given what Danlo had said about the death of his son, everyone supposed that Mallory Ringess had been speaking about Danlo himself. As no one had seen Danlo for many days, the rumour of his death passed from one ringkeeper's lips to another's in hushed, mournful tones. Then one of the godlings, still bitter over the friends whom he had recently lost, blamed Benjamin Hur for the killing that had wracked the city, and accused him as well of setting one of his ringkeepers to assassinate Hanuman li Tosh — and almost murdering Mallory Ringess instead. In response to this accusation, at a quick glance from Danlo, Ivar Zayit stepped forwards to tell of how Hanuman li Tosh had plotted this false assassination attempt and had ordered Mallory Ringess to be imprisoned in the tower. With an awed and puzzled look at Danlo, he told of how Hanuman's warrior-poets had injected Mallory Ringess with a paralytic drug to silence him. Ivar Zayit did not quite understand how Mallory Ringess had overcome the effects of this drug, but others did. One woman, wearing a golden robe on her body and a look of reverence on her face, pointed up at Danlo on the altar and said, simply, "He is Mallory Ringess, and he is a god."

These stories had a calming effect upon all those gathered there. The godlings began to see at last the deceptions and criminal acts of Hanuman li Tosh, while the ringkeepers took pity upon them for being so deceived. And then Danlo, standing in the sun's rays streaking through the glorious eastern window, told them of Hanuman's true purpose. He explained how all Ringists and godlings everywhere were to be seduced into furthering the growth of the Universal Computer — and then, eventually, discarded like broken bits of machinery that had no further use. It was Hanuman's dream, he said, that the Universal Computer would one day grow to encompass the entire universe.

"And this," he told the men and women staring up at him in horror and disbelief, "is the deepest reason why I had to slay him. It is why the Fellowship of Free Worlds has fought and defeated the Ringist fleet."

Thus did the news of the Fellowship's great victory first come to the people of Neverness. But even as Danlo stood there on the altar and spoke of the ending of the Battle of Ten Thousand Suns, high above the city the dark blue sky sparkled with many bright flashes of light. This was the vanguard of Bardo's fleet, he said, the first wave of lightships falling out of the manifold as they returned home.

"The Hollow Fields must be opened," Danlo said. He looked at Ivar Zayit, whom he knew would be obeyed by the Ringists who controlled the city's single light-field. "Go there and find the Master of Ships. Tell him what has happened here. Tell him to prepare the Lightship Caverns for the return of many ships. And tell him that when Bardo and Lord Salmalin arrive, Mallory Ringess requests their presence in the cathedral."

Ivar Zayit nodded, then turned and hurried towards the cathedral's open doors. As he disappeared into the street, Danlo began to issue other orders, singling out various godlings or ringkeepers to help restore the cathedral (and the city) to order. The wounded and dying must be taken to hospices, he said, and the dead carried out to the various plasma ovens around the city to be cremated. His heart beat quickly as he watched a cadre of godlings move off towards the stairwell to retrieve the bodies of the three warrior-poets and Hanuman li Tosh. It beat even more quickly when he asked another cadre of godlings to find the cell in the chapter house where Hanuman had imprisoned Old Father. He asked that Old Father be carried to a hospice if he were badly wounded or to his house in the Fravashi District if he were not. And then he turned to matters of lesser moment, such as the sweeping of glass from the floor and the covering of the broken windows with sheets of clary so that the cathedral wouldn't be quite so cold.

For a while all went well. But then, even as godlings from all over the Old City began pouring into the cathedral to behold once again the miracle of Mallory Ringess' return, a small woman wearing bright golden robes made her way through the nave. The godlings already present stepped aside to allow her to pass. She moved straight towards the altar as if this little square of red-carpeted stone belonged to her. She had a small, sour face and an angry look about her bloodshot eyes, and Danlo knew her well, for she was Surya Surata Lai. Once, she had been a princess on Summerworld; now, especially with Hanuman dead, she regarded herself as the queen of the church. She had spent the last day since Danlo's imprisonment in secret conclave with Lord Pall, and thus she hadn't been present when Benjamin Hur's ringkeepers attacked the cathedral. But for all her pride and vanity, she was still a brave woman who was unafraid to face down anyone, man or god.

"This
man,
" she said pointing up at Danlo as she addressed the godlings assembled before the altar, "murdered Lord Hanuman, and yet here you stand worshipping him as if he were a god!"

For a few moments no one spoke, and five hundred women and men looked at Surya Lai as if she had fallen mad like Hanuman. And then a prominent godling named Bodaway Eshte cleared his throat and said, "But Surya he
is
a god. He's Mallory Ringess."

"But how do we know he's
really
Mallory Ringess? How do we know he's not just a mime created by Benjamin Hur to impersonate him and assassinate Lord Hanuman?"

At this astonishing accusation, many ringkeepers cried out that Surya Lai should be silenced for slandering their leader. And many more godlings called for them to let Surya continue speaking, and so quickly did the emotions of those gathered in the cathedral flare towards open enmity that Malaclypse edged up higher on the altar's steps and dropped his hand down his robe to clasp his killing knife. And he never took his eyes from the many people shouting at each other:

"She's right," an old man said, "how do we know he's really Mallory Ringess?"

"Of course he's Mallory Ringess! Who else would he be?"

"Yes, but Mallory the god or Mallory the man?"

"What's a god, then? What's a man?"

"Of course he's a man. What else would he be?"

"A god, can't you see?"

"Look at his eyes! Did Mallory Ringess have such deep blue eyes?"

"Mallory Ringess had the body of a man, and then the body of an Alaloi. He's a god, and he can have whatever colour eyes he choses."

"Who else but a god could have killed three warrior-poets with his naked hands?"

"It's the Way of Ringess for men and women to become gods — why can't you believe that?"

"It's the Way of Ringess to drink kalla and remembrance the Elder Eddas — why did you have to ruin that and turn it into a religion?"

"Why can't you see what's before your eyes?"

"Why did you let Hanuman ruin everything and lead the city to war?"

"He's a man who became a god! And here he stands!"

"I see a man who looks like a man. Princess Surya is right — how do we know he really
is
Mallory Ringess?"

For what seemed a long time, Danlo stood upon the altar, watching and waiting. His bright eyes fell upon Surya Lai, and he smiled sadly for he realized that she had never truly felt the spirit of Ringism or understood what it meant to transcend herself. Unlike Hanuman, she had no higher dream, however evil or mad. Her involvement with the religion that Hanuman had perverted had been part sham, part zeal, and many parts pure self-deception and desire for glory. Clearly, she regarded Mallory Ringess as nothing more than a powerful man to be used to further her own last grasp for power. When he saw the smallness and delusion of her life and considered the vast harm that she had thus wreaked upon the world, he wanted to weep. But for all her desperation in challenging him, she was still a dangerous woman. Although he felt certain that Hanuman hadn't told her his true identity, her intuition was as keen as a razor. And so to take the edge off her suspicions and dispel all doubt as to who he really was, he looked through her to the people shouting in the nave, and he held up his hands for silence.

"I am who I am!" he called out to them. He made a fist, then, and held his black diamond pilot's ring sparkling in the sunlight. "Do you see this ring? With this ring, on the 95th day of false winter thirty years ago, Lord Leopold Soli made a new pilot. A pilot never takes off his ring; a pilot's ring is sacred and identifies the pilot even though he might age eighty years in the manifold and return to Neverness to find all his friends dead."

So saying, he reached up with his other hand, and to the astonishment of all present, pulled the ring from his finger. And then he motioned to a young man standing near the altar to come closer. As it happened, this was none other than Kiyoshi Telek, the golden-faced godling who had tended Danlo in his cell after his torture.

"Do you believe that I am Mallory Ringess?" Danlo asked.

The whole cathedral now fell silent.

Kiyoshi looked at Danlo with his soft, credulous eyes and without hesitation, said, "Yes, of course I do."

"Very well, then," Danlo said as he moved to the edge of the altar. He held out the shimmering ring and pressed it into Kiyoshi's hand. "Take this and go to the Pilots' College. Find the Master of Records and ask him to verify the identity of this ring."

He smiled at the look of awe on Kiyoshi's face and the way that Kiyoshi held the cold diamond crystal as if it were a ring of fire burning his hand. But the Master of Records would suffer from no such reverence. He would use an electron microscope to descry the unique signature of iron and iridium atoms written into the diamond of his father's ring.

"Go quickly, now," Danlo said, urging Kiyoshi onwards with the kindness of his eyes. Then he nodded at Malaclypse and said, "Please go with him, too. Make sure the ring reaches the Master of Records safely."

As Malaclypse bowed his head and reluctantly moved off through the nave with Kiyoshi Telek to carry out their appointed mission, Danlo turned towards Surya Surata Lai and caught her in the deep blue fire of his eyes. He looked at her for a long time, and they waited together along with the hundreds of others in the cathedral for Kiyoshi Telek to return.

And as Danlo's heart beat out the steady measure of the passing moments, many more men and women began to arrive at the cathedral and fill up the nave. News of the war's end and Hanuman li Tosh's death had spread like fire through the city. As on the preceeding day, the various peoples of Neverness began to fill the streets surrounding the cathedral. And as on that tragic day, the lords and masters of the Order made their way from the academy to the cathedral in response to Danlo's summons. They arrived in twos and twenties and tens: Eva Zarifa and Alesar Druze, Sancho Edo Ashtoreth and Burgos Harsha, the Lord Historian, still wearing his drab brown robes. Lord Pall, of course, came too, followed by Jonath Parsons, Rodrigo Diaz, Kolenya Mor and the rest of the Lords' College. This time, however, all the lords and masters pressed close to the altar and mingled with ringkeepers, godlings, autists and harijan according to no particular protocol. Then after more time had passed Jonathan Hur arrived, accompanied by Zenobia Alimeda and others of the Kalla Fellowship. When Jonathan saw that Benjamin remained alive, though wounded, he pushed through the people near the altar and threw his arms around his brother in unrestrained joy. And close behind him came Demothi Bede, and two alien Friends of Man, and ambassadors from Urradeth, Yarkona, Ninsun, Arcite, Veda Luz and other Ringist Worlds. The whole of the city, it seemed, was pouring into the nave in order to bear witness to this final test of whether one simple man would be proclaimed as Mallory wi Soli Ringess, Lord of the Order, Lord of the Way of Ringess — and Lord of Light to billions of women and men across the Civilized Worlds.

Yes.

Just when it seemed that Kiyoshi Telek had been gone for ever, the people standing outside the cathedral let loose a great shout. But they heralded not Kiyoshi's return, but that of group of women and men dressed all in black. A hundred or so of the pilots who had fought in the war made their way down the gliddery and then through the cathedral's doors. Many of them were Ringist pilots: Salmalin the Prudent, Ciro Dalibar, Salome wi Maya Hastari and Kadar the Wise. They seemed to have made peace with their old hallmates and recent enemies, Matteth Jons, Lara Jesusa and Rohana of Urradeth. And of course Bardo. Wearing his sweat-stained suit of black nall battle armour and glorious shesheen cape, he strode into the nave like a god of war. He was followed by the greatest of the Fellowship's pilot-captains: Helena Charbo, Aja, Sabri Dur li Kadir and the Richardess. And only a few paces further back came Alesar Estarei and Edreiya Chu and Cristobel the Bold, who, in the Battle of the Ten Thousand Suns, had finally justified his high opinion of himself and the promise of his name. As a single body bound together by the deaths of too many of their friends, they passed slowly beneath the cathedral's great coloured windows. Although the press of people in the nave had grown almost perilously dense, men and women hurried to make way for them. And Bardo himself hurried down the line of the arching vault high over his head, straight towards the altar where once he had stood to conduct the nightly remembrancing ceremonies and preside over his church. But now another stood in his place. When he saw the form of Mallory Ringess rising up and looking at him like an incarnation out of his memories and deepest dreams, he broke almost into a run as he abandoned what little restraint he had ever possessed.