Quest (29 page)

In many areas the Emergency Scattering is now complete, and the opportunity has been seized for spreading the Gifted Lines more widely, and for moving all the children into families, including our two special charges (Herra IX: 18). These we shall retrieve when better times are won. Then we shall help them to make claim to their holdings so that they may assist us in driving out Those of the Serpent.

Diona IV, Keeper of the Archives

'You see, they're able to accept outsiders and aliens and welcome them into their culture, just as they accepted me and fitted me in. And Soo, I did prophesy that Katia and I would have a daughter, before we even lay together. And have been proved right, as you know.' He held out a final manuscript.

TENEBRAK:YEAR 22,543, SPRING,DAY 90

This day was Katia, beloved wife of the Lord Davred, delivered of a daughter, who is to be named Siri-Soo, a name partly of her father's people, and therefore new for a daughter of our Sisterhood. Her two names signify her double ancestry and the promise it holds.

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As always, extra care was taken with the birth preparations, for the melding of two species is not an easy task.

Herra herself was in attendance, with Lara, but no problems were encountered, and Katia was safely delivered amid great rejoicing. We welcome Siri-Soo to our world - first of the line of Davred.

* * *

This day had its dark side, also. There arrived in Tenebrak our Sister Fiana, whose act of bravery saved the lives of many of our Sisters in Setheron. (Verified by Sherin, Elder Sister in Temple Setheron, as a necessary sacrifice, loathsome as it was.)

When her temple went under Stasis, Fiana was one of those who chose to stay outside and continue the fight against Discord. The God put it into her mind to travel, and she made her way across the land.(See Memoirs of Fiana.)

She arrived here in time to share our rejoicing. But, to our great sadness, she is marked by the sacrifice she made.

Since that day she has been unable to
gather
fully with her Sisters, for she carries vengeance in her heart and will not abjure it. She has not only vowed to kill Sen-Sether, but insists that this task is her destiny, set upon her by our Brother.

Even our Elder Sister has not been able to move her from this vile intention. Herra has decreed, however, that she shall not be less our Sister for that, and so we wait for our Brother to unfold Fiana's destiny.

Diona IV:Keeper of the Archives

'I still feel very honoured that you named your daughter for me, Davred.' Robler had just roared with laughter when he heard about it.

'For you, and for a long-dead Elder Sister of Herra's line, who looks a bit like you. She came from Mer-Halani, where the people could be relatives of yours. Pictures are drawn at each temple of all the Elder Sisters, you know -

well, it's not drawing exactly, because they do it with brushes - and they don't treat their subjects pictorially, but somehow they seem to catch the essence. You feel that those women could step off the paper and talk to you. You should see the one of Herra!' His face became suddenly sad.

'What's the matter?'

'Elder Sisters only have their portraits recorded when they feel they're nearing the end of their lives. I can't imagine this temple, or even this world, without Herra. She is its very pivot.'

'Has she chosen a successor?'

'She has
chosen
an Elder Sister Elect,' Davred corrected.

'Who is . . . ?'

'Lara, the chief Healer. Healers become Elder Sisters more often than others. Healing is one of the highest-level Gifts. Herra has also prophesied, by the way, that Katia will one day become Elder Sister at Tenebrak, which means,'

he said steadily, 'that my Katia will outlive me, for which I thank our Brother. She couldn't stay married to me if she were Elder Sister, and I know that the God wouldn't ask her to leave me were I still alive.'

Soo shivered. 'Don't talk like that, Davred! It's - unnatural - morbid!'

His eyes were luminous and his smile was unshadowed. 'I meant it joyfully, Soo. Death is the twin of life, and one cannot hide from it. Those of the Confederation are wrong in that. We shun the very thought of death. We even force our tortured bodies to live on in cages of machinery to escape it. My hope now is to climb the Ladder of Life -

if I can grow wiser and earn that privilege. I no longer believe that death is a final ending and it's a wonderful comfort in such times.'

Soo opened her mouth to speak, then make a quick gesture of farewell and broke the contact.

Davred sat with head bowed for a moment, as he had been taught, fixing the scene in his memory so that he could recall it at will. He was never word and gesture-perfect, like Katia, but he could fix the essence now, without
QUEST Shannah Jay 107

any blurring of events. Herra said that because he had been dependent upon machines for so long, his memory was impaired and it would take many years to recover; yet if he were back with Confex, they would marvel at his present capacity for remembering things.

In the other Disciplines he did better. Soon he would move to the final class of novices. His speed of learning was, he knew, creating a legend of its own. To him, the process seemed slow. He had not been brought up with the habit of patience, though he was acquiring it.

He was the first man to be trained inside a temple for thousands of years, the first since the Second Age of Discord. The other Manifestations hadn’t needed training - they’d brought new Disciplines and Gifts with them - but he was different. He considered himself lacking in so many ways, but every now and then the God would
whisper
within him, and he would be reassured that he was here for a purpose, because the things he prophesied always came true. Always.

His presence caused many anomalies for the Sisters, though. How do you treat a Manifestation of the God when he is the most ignorant of the novices? How can you bow your head to him one minute and chide him for inattention the next? Only Cheral had no trouble chiding him. She didn’t hesitate to scold anyone, Herra included, and Herra was a far more awesome figure nowadays than the Lord Davred. Since her last Renewal she seemed to have distanced herself from her Sisters and had become an autocrat, working everyone in the temple, Davred included, to their utmost limits.

Remembering which, Davred stood up, rang a chord-chimer that was a masterpiece of the silversmith's art, and waited for the Sister on duty to resume her place. He was late for Meditation practice with Herra.

Herra waited patiently for Davred to arrive. She’d decided to help him to perfect his skills herself. It was of vital importance that he learn to
hear clearly
the words of the God who had sent him to join their Quest.

It was also of vital importance, though she did not explain this, that she watch for signs of what the Lord Davred's Gifts would be. He was an unknown quantity, this latest Manifestation of the God. A hard puzzle even for the formidable Elder Sister to unravel.

But then, the Path of Wisdom had never been an easy one to tread.

#####

It became more and more difficult for Soo to communicate privately with Davred, thanks to Robler's increased vigilance, and she could only watch in sorrow as Discord escalated and violence spread across the beautiful planet.

Some of the carefully-planted tracers stopped working, for no obvious reason; others worked only too well, and what they showed sickened her.

Robler ordered that the random sweeps made by the satellite's observation devices should focus on the shrines of the Serpent until they could plant permanent tracers in some of the major shrines. He frequently came to watch what was happening in the shrines, and although he expressed disgust at the barbaric practices, Soo couldn’t help feeling that he was excited by what he saw. Afterwards his eyes always gleamed and the way he looked at her, though he did nothing but look, made her shiver.

* * *

Tenebron, alone of the older claims, was not yet so totally dominated by Those of the Serpent that the temple was in danger of assault, but even there, Sisters wearing the distinctive blue robes had been attacked in the streets.

Little by little, people became afraid to seek the services of the Sister Healers openly; women not wearing the drab, all-enveloping garb which Those of the Serpent deemed appropriate for outdoor wear found it risky to walk the streets
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without male protectors; little girls were stopped by their parents from playing outside; and families found that they had to protect their older daughters most carefully from Those of the Serpent. Unless a woman was visibly of the Serpent, as shown by her dress, she was considered fair game. Bands of young men not only roamed the streets of the poorer quarters nowadays, but had started attacking the homes of those known to be sympathetic to the Sisterhood. Devout followers of the Serpent could obtain tokens from the Servants of the shrines, which would protect their persons and their homes; others were at risk every time they went out. Benner's guards just stood by and watched, making no attempt to help the victims. If anyone sought justice against their attackers, Benner's judges refused to convict Those of the Serpent, whatever their crimes.

A few months after Davred's conversation with Soo, Herra summoned her Sisters to a special Gathering in the Hall of the God. After the ceremony, which seemed to carry with it undertones of sorrow, she stood on the steps below the statue of the God.

'Dear Sisters, we must now begin preparations to enter stasis,' she said quietly. 'All the other temples lie in its protection, and we cannot expose Temple Tenebrak to any more danger.'

A wave of shock ran around the hal , and with it, murmurs and exclamations. Women clutched one another or sobbed openly.

Herra waited quietly for the murmuring to die down before continuing. 'As most of you know, the God has brought down a stasis cube to protect us, but although the device locks our enemies outside, it also locks inside those it shelters until it can be switched off. I therefore intend to give you free choice whether you stay here, or leave. But if you go out into the community, you must leave your Sisters' robes behind.'

She bowed her head for a moment, then looked up with tears in her eyes. 'Let it be written in the Archives, my Sisters! This time shall be known as the Great Diaspora. Never, in all the long years of our recorded history, have our enemies so beset us. Never has Evil gained such a hold on our world. But we
shal
prevail, as we always have. You must never doubt that.

In every time of trouble our Brother, the God of our Quest, has sent us help, and he has not failed us this time.

Discord shall be brought to an end with the help of Lord Davred, beloved Manifestation of the God. This I
know
, for the God has
spoken
within me. But it wil be a long and hard struggle and many of us won’t live to see its end.'

She looked at the sparse ranks of sobbing novices with the greatest sorrow, for in them lay the Sisterhood's hopes for the future. Few girls had been offered for Choosing in recent years, and those mainly at secret ceremonies. As a result, over three-quarters of the novices' rows were empty. The Sisters in the front rows bowed their heads or tried to dissipate their grief and anger by running through a Discipline, but their sorrow was still a tangible thing.

The following weeks were fil ed with unrest. The Sisters stayed mainly inside the temple, going out only in disguise, some of them never to return as they dispersed to places of refuge. One group of Sisters and some of the more devoted families from the city went out to found a new settlement south of Tenebron. They would brave the wildwoods in a region which no one had ever managed to tame.

'Why has no one been able to settle that part of our land, Elder Sister?' asked one of the men.

'No one knows. It's one of the great mysteries. People setting off in that direction find themselves walking round in circles and returning to their starting point.'

'If that happens, then we'll make our way westwards,' said the Sister to whom he was married. 'We'll not return to the rule of the Serpent.'

'May our Brother go with you,' murmured Herra. 'And may your path be straight.'

'Straight or crooked, it can’t be worse than staying here,' one of the other Sisters said. 'Better to perish free than to give up all we believe in.'

As the biennial Festival of the Great Serpent approached, crowds began to gather in the city, and it was hoped that those who were to remain in the temple could enter stasis before the festival orgies began. This was not to be. Al through the previous week, refugees from the city had come stumbling into the temple by side gates or had been smuggled in through hidden entrances, guided by Sisters who still lived outside. These people had to be taken to safety
QUEST Shannah Jay 109

and that further delayed the plans to enter stasis.

On the day of the festival itself, before the sky was fully light, crowds gathered in the streets around the temple, and it became clear that mischief of some sort was planned.

At first the rioters amused themselves by smashing the windows of the houses of known supporters of the Sisterhood. Slogans were daubed on wal s decrying 'perverted old hags' and 'sick whores who prey upon decent young women'. Crude pictures accompanied them showing what would happen to any Sister caught that day. The pictures were spattered with the real blood of the day's first victims.

Anyone found on the streets was either drawn into the mob to join the depredations, or severely beaten or even torn to pieces, according to the whim of the leaders who claimed to 'know Sister-loving-ghouls' by their auras. There was no middle ground, no staying aloof. People were either of the Serpent or of the enemy.

The mob leaders were, of course, Initiates of the Inner shrine. Benner had orchestrated the violence as carefully as any campaign in an outright war. Incense burned thickly at every street corner and loyal followers of the Serpent carried sticks of it. Black robes and serpent staffs were everywhere. Servants of the shrine had been brought into the city from all over the claim to help stir up the turmoil.