War in Heaven (98 page)

Much later, as they lay holding each other and looking out at the lights in the sky, they made plans to be married. Tamara might have waited until false winter when the fireflowers would be in their fullest glory, but Danlo argued for a more immediate ceremony. He startled her, then, in announcing that he would leave the city before Year's End. He would make a journey to the west of Neverness, and he did not know if he would be able to return by the time their child was born. At last, after fifteen years, he would return to the Ten Thousand Islands and visit the Patwin tribe and Olorun and Narwe tribes and all the other tribes of the Alaloi.

"It is time," he told her. "Truly, it is long past time. The Civilized Worlds are healing from the wounds of this war. Now the Alaloi must be healed, too."

He explained, then, that much as he had rid his body of the warrior-poet's paralytic poison, the Alaloi people — each man, woman and child — could be taught to suppress the engineered viral DNA that infected them.

"The Entity," he said, smiling, "once told me that I knew the cure for the slow evil. That I had always known it and some day I would know it again. At the time, I thought She was only tormenting me with one of Her mysterious riddles. But now I see that She spoke truly."

"I know that you have to go back to your people," Tamara said as she lay looking at him in the light of the fire. "But now that I've found you again, it's hard to say goodbye so soon."

"I know," he said, placing his hand on her naked belly. "But I shall return as soon as I can. To raise our children together."

She smiled and rested her hand on top of his. She sighed, "I suppose you were born to make journeys. We all were, weren't we? But please promise me that you'll be careful."

"I promise," he said.

She kissed him and said, "I'll miss you, Danlo."

"I shall miss you, too," he said.

Then he kissed her and pulled closer to her again, and they moved together like spinning sparks of wild joy into the night.

All that is not shaida is halla.
Halla is the right hand of life;
Shaida is the left hand of life.
Like a thallow hatching from an egg
Halla emerges out of shaida,
And shaida gives birth to halla.
In the darkness of a deep winter night,
Beneath the eyes of the Old Ones who have lived and died,
In the glory of a new winter morning,
Beneath the light of the rising sun,
Shaida joins hands with halla, left to right,
To form the great circle of the world.

— from the Devaki
Song of Life

The next day, Danlo summoned some of the Kalla Fellowship to his rooms at the top of the Morning Tower. He invited Bardo, Thomas Rane, Kiyoshi Telek, Kolenya Mor, the Nirvelli, Jonathan and Benjamin Hur, Poppy Panshin and Malaclypse of Qallar to sit with him and drink a few cups of tea together. And to say goodbye. Of these, only Bardo, Malaclypse and the Brothers Hur knew his true identity. The others, he thought, would wonder why Lord Mallory wi Soli Ringess would want to leave Neverness again so soon after his world-shaking return. But then Mallory Ringess had always mystified the people around him, even his closest friends. After all, everyone said that he was a god, and the gods always acted in the most mysterious ways.

"But, Lord Mallory, will you return again?" Kiyoshi Telek asked. This pleasant-faced young man sat next to Thomas Rane, the great master remembrancer proud and dignified in his silver remembrancer's robes. "Everyone will want to know if you're abandoning Neverness for ever."

"Yes, I shall return," Danlo said, smiling ironically. "That is the way of Mallory Ringess, always to return, isn't it?"

After hinting that he had a long journey to make, perhaps even to the Solid State Entity, he went on to say that neither the Order nor the Way of Ringess (and certainly not the Civilized Worlds) would suffer from the loss of leadership in his absence. He turned to Jonathan Hur, who sat next to him on his left. He told this man of the gentle soul and golden character that he would be the new Lord of the Way of Ringess. It would be Jonathan Hur, he said — with the aid of his brother Benjamin and rest of the Kalla Fellowship — who must guide the peoples of the Civilized Worlds towards remembrance of the Elder Eddas.

"You know the way, now," Danlo said. "Each of you must look inside to find this way, and help others to do this, too."

While his guests were digesting this unsettling piece of news, Danlo stared off towards the window at the devotionary computer, which remained silent and dead. He looked over at Hanuman's old chess set nearby; where before thirty-one pieces had been set out in readiness for a game, now there were thirty-two. After Tamara had given Danlo back his things, he had taken the white god that Hanuman had broken and glued the two halves together again. As keen as were his eyes, he couldn't make out the hairline crack that ran through this little ivory figurine that he had once carved for Hanuman.

And then he looked back across the circle of men and women who regarded him as a god, straight at Malaclypse Redring. And he told him, "It is time that you returned to Qallar."

And Malaclypse, in silent acceptance of the task that lay before him, bowed his head.

And to Thomas Rane, Danlo said, "I must thank you for sharing the remembrancers' attitudes with me, and with all of us. Even a god, if he is to make the journey into true remembrance, may be helped by such techniques. As he may help others wherever he goes."

And Thomas Rane, also in silence, bowed his silver-haired head to the man he knew as Mallory Ringess.

"But, Lord Mallory, you can't just leave the city as you did before!" Kolenya Mor broke in. Once, as the Lord Eschatologist, she had suffered from the chaos of Mallory Ringess' mysterious disappearance — along with all the lords, masters, adepts and novices of the Order. "Now, more than ever, we need a Lord of the Order — and a strong one, at that."

Here Danlo smiled and looked at her kindly in acknowledgement of her concerns. And he told her, "There will be a new Lord of the Order. A strong lord, the strongest of lords."

"Who, then?" Kolenya asked.

And Danlo turned to Bardo, who sat by him on his right and said, "Bardo will be the new Lord of the Order."

"I?" Bardo called out. He seemed genuinely astonished, for Danlo had not consulted him as to either his leaving the city or concerning Bardo's sudden elevation. "You would really make Bardo Lord of the Order?"

"Yes — why not?"

"Because Bardo once abjured his vows," Bardo said. He sat on a thick cushion fingering the folds of his black pilot's robe. Although he had taken off his black nall battle armour many days before, he still wore his brilliant shesheen cape. "Because Bardo once almost ruined the Order by starting a religion in your goddamned name."

"If you'd like, then," Danlo said, smiling at him, "you may consider your elevation as a punishment rather than a promotion. Ruling as Lord of the Order will not be as agreeable as you might hope."

"Ah, but did Bardo ever really hope for such an honour?" Bardo asked, for a moment lost in himself. He pulled at his thick black beard and licked a drop of tea from his lips. Then he looked at Danlo and said, "I think I always wanted to be Lord Pilot, yes — I must admit that I was born to lead lightships across the stars. But leading a hundred old squabbling men and women in the College of Lords is a different matter."

"Yes, truly it is," Danlo said as he looked at Bardo, watching and waiting. Over the past year, he thought, Bardo had changed. Where once this great, chest-thumping pilot had desired to stand at the very forefront of the noblest men and women of the Civilized Worlds, power over others seemed no longer to interest him. Now, with his descent into the Elder Eddas, he had finally found the way to power over himself, and this was a truly marvellous thing.

"It's just that I'm not sure if I
want
to be Lord of the Order," Bardo admitted.

"Such uncertainty is itself a recommendation that you should be the Order's ruling lord."

"And what if I refuse this elevation?"

"But you may not refuse," Danlo told him. "As yet, I remain Lord of the Order, and you have taken a vow of obedience."

"Ah, but I wouldn't want to break my vows again," Bardo said. "I have no choice, do I?"

"No."

"Well, then, I accept," Bardo said, and he clapped Danlo on his arm. "By God, Little Fellow, I'll be the Lord of the Order if that's really what you want me to be!"

After that, Danlo led Bardo and the others in a final remembrance together. Later, with the evening bells ringing out through the academy's buildings and across the snow-covered grounds, he stood up to embrace each of them and tell them goodbye. They bowed to him one by one and made their exits until only Bardo remained. When Danlo saw that they were finally alone, he brewed another pot of tea and invited Bardo to sit with him for a while. As one Lord of the Order meeting in conclave with the next, they had many plans to make and much to discuss concerning the fate of humanity across the stars.

The following morning, Danlo shut himself away in his rooms. He instructed the novices who served him to leave his meals on a tray outside his door, and for ten days, he allowed no one to visit him, not even Bardo. The godlings who scrutinized Lord Mallory Ringess' every move speculated that he had somehow fallen into communion with the Solid State Entity and others of the galaxy's gods, but no one really knew. In truth, however, during this time of aloneness, he ate a great deal of food, slept as much as he could and turned within towards the great changes that were quickening his whole being. Often, deep in meditation, he gazed upon the face of the white god that he had carved many years before, the cold, ivory face that almost captured the likeness of his father, Mallory Ringess. Often, too, he looked inside himself to remember his old face and to envision his new one. In the silence of his soul, he repeated the words to a Fravashi koan that Old Father had once taught him:
If I am only I, who is the one who will remain standing when I die?

He might have remained in seclusion for yet another few days, but early in the morning of the 73rd of deep winter, a man named Luister Ottah arrived at his rooms to tell Lord Mallory Ringess that Old Father was finally dying. Luister, an intelligent man with a kind smile splitting the smoothness of his jet-black skin, was the oldest of Old Father's students. Danlo remembered him well from the time when they had all lived together in Old Father's house. But Luister, of course, did not remember him. That is, he did not remember him as Danlo wi Soli Ringess. Four times Danlo had visited Old Father wearing his leather facemask, and each time Luister had greeted him at the door as only a mysterious stranger somehow connected to Old Father. And now, here in the Morning Tower, he greeted this same stranger again only to discover that he was really Lord Mallory Ringess.

"I will come immediately," Danlo told him when he learned of Luister's mission. "Please give me a moment."

He stood by the window wearing his facemask. Luister Ottah must have been mystified as to why Mallory Ringess would wear this stifling mask in the privacy of his rooms; he could only have concluded that the great Lord of the Order, who was famed as a scryer, had foreseen this sad news and had prepared for yet another secret outing into the streets of Neverness.

"It's well that you will come," Luister said. "Old Father may not last another day."

He went on to say that he had been sent to the academy to find Lord Bardo, as well, and he admitted that he couldn't understand why Old Father would summon the two greatest Lords of Neverness to his deathbed. But Danlo did not enlighten him. He only asked Luister to wait outside his rooms while he put on a black sable outer fur and grabbed up a few things.

And so Danlo accompanied Luister Ottah across the frozen grounds of the academy to Bardo's rooms in the Danladi tower, where they found him doing his morning mathematics. Then Luister led both of them through the Old City to Old Father's house at the western edge of the Fravashi District. He escorted them through the curving stone hallways into Old Father's thinking chamber. Old Father lay in a low bed at the exact centre of the room, surrounded by a dozen of his students. As with many aliens, it was hard to tell that he was ill, much less dying. His long, white-furred body had not fallen substantially thinner since Danlo's last visit, and his furry face seemed almost serene. Only his eyes — his great, golden-orange eyes — showed that he suffered much pain.

"Oh, ho, we have guests!" he called out weakly when he saw Danlo and Bardo standing by the doorway to the circular room. "Please abide a few moments while we finish saying our goodbyes."

At this, all the students turned to look at Bardo, standing impatiently in his shesheen cape, and at Danlo, who bowed his head to Old Father but did not take off his mask. Everyone now understood, of course, that Old Father wished to speak with the man they knew as Mallory Ringess. But they couldn't guess why Mallory Ringess still kept his famous face covered; they must have thought that he had his own reasons for playing out this little subterfuge, and they respected his need for secrecy, even if they resented his presence during Old Father's final moments.

"Ah, ah, oh, oh," Old Father gasped out from his bed, "I forgot to thank the lords for waiting while I thank my students for listening so attentively for so long to what an old alien has to say."

And with that, he turned to Salim Brill, whom Danlo remembered as a past master of the Moksha competitions that Old Father held every night around their evening meal. He remembered as well Michael of Urradeth and Ei Eleni, but except for Luister Ottah, the other students were new to him. Old Father spent a short while with each of them, trading a few words of endearment or perhaps attempting to make one of his ironic jokes. The effort seemed to exhaust him. But he kept up his aura of playfulness, even as he gave each student a small gift — a gosharp, drum, shraddha nut, tea cup or some other personal thing — that they might remember him when he was gone. Upon completing this ritual, he asked his students to adjourn to the deeper parts of his large house. He also asked Luister Ottah to close the door behind them; as far as Danlo could remember, this was the first time the door to Old Father's thinking chamber had ever been closed.