Eventually, Kai remembered to breathe; his eyes remained transfixed by her blazing gaze. All other eyes in the room stayed on him.
Then, after an eternity of silence, solitary smacks of applause trickled into the void — Jhor slowly clapped her long, white palms together with a derogatory, “Impressive!” then turned to the other warriors and sneered, “My queens, we have no need of meek ‘kings’ like this!”
Quiet laughter rippled through the chamber, but Sann quickly silenced them: “Jhor!”
Jhor glared back at her, then bowed her head and returned to the ranks.
“I tell you,” blurted out Shen suddenly with a flurry of hue, “He held my light, and shaped it, and...and...and he used it to see and hear...Déhath! He saw His plan!”
Again, all eyes flicked towards Kai. Nira moved in closer, eyes flaring.
“Whoever you are, kid,” she said, “you’d better start talking soon!”
Shen put his arm tenderly around Kai’s shoulders.
“It’s all right, Salvator. We’re safe now. You can tell them what you saw.”
In the forum above, the SYS-soldier floundered in his lack of visibility below the Truth Warrior, despite his best intimidatory intentions.
“I asked you a question, outsider!” he said, “What...is going...on?!”
The warrior effortlessly disregarded him, her eyes fixed straight over his head. The SYS-soldier looked nervously back at his troops, who had also almost forgotten his existence, then turned back again.
“I’m warning you...young lady...if you don’t...”
His moment of near-courage was rudely interrupted by a rasp in his ear. He stiffened immediately as he recognised the dark presence summoning him; he reluctantly turned away to listen, then muttered anxiously in response, “Yes...yes, of course, sir!...Uh...sir?! All...all of them?!”
The hiss cut through his skull, and the soldier flinched, then spat out nervously, “Yes...yes I understand, sir! Of course, sir! Right away!”
He looked over at his troops and lifted his flare-repeater. They gradually noticed, readied themselves one by one, and lifted their weapons, pointing them towards the wall of warriors.
The SYS-soldier turned back to the I’sta, gulped hard at dry air and forced out, “Well...you are...all...under arrest...for, um, for conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism!”
Farther down the line of I’sta, another warrior lifted her hand to her mouth and whispered into her communicator.
“Really, Salvator, it’s all right,” continued Shen warmly, “You can trust me. And you can trust them. Now...help us to trust you. Tell us! You’re safe. It’s fine, it’s really...”
Enough!
“Oh...come...ON!!” exploded Shen in sudden scarlet, “Just speak, you duthnul!”
Kai’s trembling mouth hung open desperately, as though he was trying to remember how to make the sounds.
But still nothing came.
“Yet another speech abstainer,” said Jhor from within the ranks, “How original.”
“And how convenient,” muttered Nira.
“Simply shaping yourself to a prophecy,” continued Jhor, “does not give you the right to...”
Jhor stopped speaking immediately as Onnd stepped up even closer to the captives. For a moment, as she studied Kai, no one in the room as much as breathed. Finally, Onnd aimed her intense gaze at Shen.
“What did you see, old man?” came her fluid, forceful voice, and Shen began at once to quiver in green.
“I...I...I saw two...two of the Dark Three. And they summoned what seemed, what appeared to be a...a shade of Déhath Himself!”
“We suspected the High Priest was Lúez,” said Sann, “But the other — Sílb?! This is...”
“How can we be certain,” said Jhor suddenly and lurched toward Shen, unable to restrain herself in the ranks, “that you are not Sílb in disguise, old man?”
“Me?” whimpered Shen, “No...no, I...”
“No,” spat Jhor, “No, you are right. I doubt one of the Three would take such a ridiculously menial form!”
“JHOR!” Onnd’s awful roar resounded through the stone chamber; the room turned to ice. “My lower, lesser disciple — you have already been warned once too many times this day. Now take your rightful place within the ranks, and obey my word without fail!”
The head of every warrior bowed down in fear — but for that of Jhor; she defiantly met Onnd’s gaze.
Onnd did not falter, did not react, did not even move, but simply gripped and crushed Jhor’s grey eyes with her own, moved one slender hand almost imperceptibly towards her staff, and whispered slowly, “I warn you this one time, Jhor Hal — and there will be no second — know your place, or, I swear by Ephaïl Himself, you will be Eased from the I’sta.”
Jhor’s breath quickened; her dark eyes quivered slightly, and she began to blink uncontrollably. She bowed her head, and shuffled ashamedly back into line.
Onnd turned again to Shen, who was trembling in pink.
“Now, old man,” said Onnd with terrible stillness, “What did you see?”
Words spewed from Shen’s quivering lips: “Well, I couldn’t really understand, but...but — oh, please don’t hurt me! — but I saw lines and patterns and stars, yes stars, or one star, and planets all around...planets...one-two-three-four...seven...seven planets. All together, all as one. Aligned. And a misty cloud of...of.... And a dark, a black.... And a word, I heard a word...from Him, from Déhath — oh, Ephaïl save me! — he said...he said...‘N’van’!”
The word seemed to echo for an age through the chamber.
Eventually, Onnd nodded slowly, and looked to Nira.
“N’van?” said Nira quietly.
Shen nodded wildly, as though his head would topple off at any second.
“Yes, yes, yes...N’van! That’s what He said!”
“N’van?” said Nira, with more than a hint of derision in her tone, “The ancient system of the Eluciaë...with the nebula...and the planets...aligning to reveal the location of the Tree of Light, Shield of Ephaïl, so on, so on?!”
“Yes, yes, yes! It must be!”
Nira smiled wryly.
“Right. You know...even if the star in that system was not just about to go nova...”
a fiery close
“...and be swallowed up by its own black twin, those planets wouldn’t align properly for another two millennia. But still, you’re telling me now, that after endless study by the I’sta, and after aeons of Déhath scouring the system and finding nothing, He now says this is the place after all. I’m sorry, crazy old man, but I don’t think so! And...”
The chirp of Nira’s hand-communicator interrupted her, and she turned to the side to answer.
“But...but,” stuttered Shen to the warriors around him, and pointed at Kai, “He knows! He saw!”
Onnd’s voice cascaded over them in beauty and power, “You, old man, are just a fool, no doubt. But you, silent one — who are you? What is your place in our story?”
Nira suddenly spun back round to them.
“Right, we don’t have time for this!” she blurted out, “Things are heating up up there; we have to wind them down down here! So, let’s keep this simple!”
She pointed at Kai.
“You! Who are you?”
Nothing.
“Where are you from?”
Silence.
“And what are you doing here?”
Nira waited long enough for the answer she knew would not come to not come, then simply said, “Well, I’m glad we could have this talk.”
She nodded to Sann: “Get rid of them — we have work to do!”
“But where shall we put them, Nira?” said Sann, “We don’t...”
“Put them? Oh Sann, you really are the sweet one, aren’t you! Our time is now. We have to go. Get rid of them!”
Kai and Shen stumbled back in terror as the line of warriors closed in.
Next chapter — Emergence
Sunday 12 June 2011
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