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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
do not. Beware your own self. I've seen this sort of phenomenon run in
families before, when a Soul Rider was involved, although not nearly as
dramatically as your line."
That interested him. "You mean there are others like us?"
"No, not like you. As I said, your family seems to be unique in the extent of
its doings and its tremendous reach, not to mention how complex the spells.
But, yes there are many other families in which a Soul Rider is involved, all
of whom have great power. Some don't know it, because they never leave Anchor.
Some wind up heads of Fluxlands. But they are all there.
Rather dull, though, when compared with our lot."
"Thanks a lot. I think we could all stand a little more dullness."
"But it is not to be. I thought you were going to stay with the train up there
for a while and see some of the adventurous north."
"Too chilly. Besides, it was different with just me and Sondra. Now I find out
she's my aunt, for heaven's sake, and she's taken my mother in tow; I'd just
get in the way."
"Uh huh. Poor boy crushed by romantic fantasy. I thought so. So now what will
you do?"
"Oh. I kind of hoped I'd be of some use around here for a while. The way
you've been talking, things are going to start popping around here any
second."
"And so they will, my boy," Mervyn told him gravely. "So they will. You have
the power, and some formal training, but very little self-control, I fear.
Still, only your heritage makes me hesitant to accept your services. You
folks, as I said, always seem to make your own trouble and inflict it on
everybody else."
"Well, if you think it's a curse, it's going to come anyway, so I can't lose
any sleep over it. At least that Soul Rider's over a thousand kilometers from
here."
"I know, I know. Don't worry so much, son. Have a seat and relax." He paused a
moment, trying to find a bit of strength for person-to-person intensity. He
never was very good at this sort of thing. "I have news of your grandmother."
"You do!" He frowned suddenly. "Bad news, I take it."
"In a way. I was correct in all things. Zelligman Ivan was clearing away the
one distinct threat to him the woman who routed Haldayne from this cluster and
helped destroy his predecessor here as well as currying favor with New Eden.
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He delivered her to them. A young Fluxlord named Richards was witness to the
result. She allowed herself, in Flux, to be transformed into one of their kind
of women and then married Adam Tilghman, the strongest mind and will of
New Eden."
"
What! I
don't believe you! She would never "
"Yes she would, and did," Mervyn responded calmly. "You know only the loving
grandmother and the warrior legends. We forget sometimes that those are human
beings under all that guff.
You think nothing of stalking a comely young lady and taking her to bed, but
none of us can really imagine our parents doing such a thing or acting in such
a manner. Family and authority figures are rarely taken as they are real
people with real hurts and wants and needs. Your grandmother considers herself
a total failure, a killer of thousands. For over forty years there's been
nobody except possibly me whom she could relate to, human-to-human, and not as
a legend, an institution, or a parent and she blames me for part of her
problems."
Jeff was absolutely crushed. He simply couldn't believe it. "They brainwashed
her, that's all."
"Undoubtedly, but it didn't take. She has more automatic protection than I do,
and while I admit my body may be killed I consider my mind invulnerable to
external pressure. If she took that binding spell it's because she wanted to."
"But she always hated them and everything they stood for!"
"Ah. yes, but we're not dealing with a machine here. This is a person. She is
paying off her guilt in a way that is physically painless. She's had a life
like no other, one of greatness, but it is for others to see and understand
that. For every great thing she accomplished, she died inside, and benefited
not a whit. No, if suicide runs in families, then you're immune. What your
grandmother and mother endured would have destroyed lesser people quickly. It
just finally caught up to
Cass."
Jeff sat there quietly for a moment, trying to understand what Mervyn was
saying. On an intellectual level he followed it, but on a personal one he
would never understand it. "So what
you're saying is that the pressures of her life finally caught up to her, and
she had a breakdown, and now she's found a way out without shooting herself in
the head."
"That's about it. It does, however, cause a severe headache for me. Don't
underestimate
Tilghman. He'll use her as a symbol. Her conversion has already spread terror
among the local
Fluxlords, who can't jump fast enough to get on the New Eden bandwagon. Just
tonight your grandmother is hostess to a dinner gathering of the uppermost
echelons of New Eden. I don't need to be there to know what they're talking
about. New Eden, with the intervening Fluxlords in line, is about to move on
Anchor Nantzee, the most highly industrialized Anchor in the cluster and one
of the top four on World. Bakha gives him the raw materials, and Logh is the
breadbasket. Mareh, with its hordes of sheep and textile mills, is least
important to him, but if Nantzee goes it'll fall into his hands almost for the
asking. His cult will control an entire cluster, and the vast bulk of
Flux in between. It's the start of a new Empire, and this time a very ugly one
that might engulf us all."
"Then this is where I guess I'd better be. Uh sir?"
"Yes?"
"How do you know there's this dinner party going on tonight? I thought you
said New Eden was air-tight."
"No, it's not air-tight. What I told you was that what you were proposing was
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impossible. It is far easier to get information than to act on it. I, my boy,
am off to Anchor Nantzee in a matter of hours, with a few stops at some
nervous Fluxlands."
"Surely the Nine could take them out!"
"Possibly. Certainly, so long as they have to move forces through Flux. But
the Nine will not take them out. The Nine does not interfere as a group unless
it is to directly thwart a dangerous act by the Seven. Had Coydt lived and
been in control, we would have stopped it, but he's long dead. New Eden hates
the Seven as much or more than we do. I tried to get that distinction across
to Sondra, but failed. If they take the cluster they will do as good or better
a job of defending our
Gate as we would. Old Zelligman is running around trying to break in, but he's
frustrated. On a personal level, I spent a good deal of time trying to talk
them into some action, and failed miserably. I'm on my own in this, for
humanitarian reasons and because I don't like messes like this in my
neighborhood. And to quiet you once and for all I should tell you that a
majority of the
Nine, like a majority of the Seven, are female."
Jeff shook his head in wonder. "Then how could they . . . ?"
"Because they are committed to a higher duty. And, in a pinch, so am I. But
I'm not pinched.
Unless I've missed something very, very important, the Gates are not at risk
here. The terrible thing about New Eden is that it is the legacy we have
reaped from the past two thousand years. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
