Slightly more self-consciously now, she allowed Oscar to introduce everyone else. Araminta-two-two!-was interesting, the Knights Guardian were about what she expected, Troblum she didn"t know what to make of, Corrie-Lyn she took an instant mild dislike to, and Aaron just plain scared her. She wasn"t alone in that, judging by the way everyone else reacted to him.
"All right," Corrie-Lyn said to Aaron. "We made it. We"re here. Now for the love of the Lady, will you tell us why we"re here?"
Justine was expecting Aaron to smile wisely at least, as any normal human would. Instead he turned his bruised eyes to Inigo. "We"re here so that you can bring Him forth," he said hoa.r.s.ely.
"What?" a startled Inigo asked. "Oh, sweet Lady! You are joking."
"No. He"s the only one who can help us now. And you"re the one who has his true memory; you are connected with him. Especially here. You can reach into the Void"s memory layer where he was. You don"t even have to reset the Void anymore, which was the original intention. We know that now; Justine showed us this with Kazimir."
Corrie-Lyn went to Inigo and took both of his hands in hers. "Do it," she whispered fiercely.
"The Waterwalker is gone," Inigo said with infinite sorrow. "He is a dream now. Nothing more."
"You can bring him back," Aaron said. "You have to."
-to land on the ground at the foot of the Eyrie tower. His ankles gave way, and he stumbled, falling forward. Strong third hands reached out to steady him. But there was no crowd as there always was, as there should have been. No family. No Kristabel.
"Honious! I am wrong," Edeard stammered miserably. In his haste to escape the horror of the hospital in Half Bracelet Lane, he had somehow misjudged the twisting pa.s.sage through the Void"s memory and finished up ... He looked at the small group of people staring at him; they were dressed so strangely-yet not. His farsight swept out. Finitan was not atop the tower. He scoured the buildings in Haxpen and Fiacre to find them empty. The city was silent, devoid of its eternal telepathic chatter. He couldn"t sense a single mind anywhere save the nine directly in front of him. "No!" He spun around to face the ziggurat, farsight frantically probing every room on the tenth floor. They were empty of people, furniture ...
"Where are they?" he bellowed. "Where is my family? Kristabel!" His third hand drew back, ready to strike instantly.
One of the peculiar group walked forward, his thoughts calm, welcoming, rea.s.suring. A tall man with a handsome face-a known face, though it was darker than it had been before, and the hair was brown instead of light ginger as it ought to be. Such trivia was irrelevant, for this was a face that could not possibly be here, not in the real world.
Edeard"s third hand withered away. "No," he whispered. "This cannot be. You are a dream."
The man smiled. There were tears in his eyes. "As are you."
"Inigo?"
"Edeard!"
"My brother." They embraced, Edeard hugging the man as if his life depended on it. Inigo was the only thing that made sense in the world right now; he was the anchor. "Hold me," Edeard begged. "Do not let me go. The world is falling apart."
"It"s not, I promise. I am here to get you through this."
Edeard"s thoughts were awhirl, panicked, dazed. "The life you lived," he choked out.
"Nothing compared to yours," Inigo a.s.sured him.
"But ... those worlds you showed me, the wonders that dwell there. It"s all real?"
"Yes. It"s all real. That is the universe outside the Void. The place where the ships that brought Rah and the Lady came from."
"Oh, dear Lady."
"I know this is a shock. I"m sorry for that. There is no way I could have warned you."
Edeard nodded slowly and moved back to gaze incredulously at the one person he"d believed was forever beyond reach. "I thought you were someone the Lady had sent to comfort me as I slept. You showed me what kind of life could be built if only we tried. And I have tried so hard hard-" His voice broke. He was close to weeping.
"You did more than that, Waterwalker, so much more," a young woman said. She had dark red hair and a pretty freckled face, and she looked at him so worshipfully, he was astounded. "You succeeded."
Edeard glanced shamefacedly at Inigo. "You know what I have done, what I am fleeing from."
"We all know your life. That is why we are here."
"You can help me? Is that why you have come?"
"You don"t need our help," Inigo said. "Your triumph was magnificent. Whole planets marvel at your achievements here in Makkathran."
"I don"t understand. I"ve screwed this up just as Owain and Buate and their ilk always claimed I would. I became what they were, Honious take me."
"No, you didn"t," the woman said earnestly. "Edeard, listen to me. After the unity attempt failed, your next effort to bring peace and fulfillment to Querencia worked. You never reset the Void again; you never needed to. You and Kristabel and your friends all accepted guidance to the Heart in old age. It was beautiful to behold."
"You speak as if this has already happened." Edeard gave the woman a curious look as some very uncomfortable thoughts began to gather in his mind.
"Edeard." Inigo put a steadying hand on his shoulder. "We"ve only just arrived in the Void. In here time flows much quicker than it does outside. Which is why only a few hundred years have gone by out there compared to the millennia here. You are our past. I brought you out of the Void"s memory."
"Are you saying I have already lived my life? All of my life?"
"Yes."
"But ..." His farsight swept out again, desperate to find anyone else. "Where is everybody? If I succeeded the way you claim, what happened to the people I tried to help? Their grandchildren should still be here. Did they desert the city?"
Inigo appeared embarra.s.sed. "You created a society where it was possible for everyone to achieve fulfillment. Eventually, all the humans here accepted guidance. The last one left for the Heart several thousand years ago."
"Gone?" He couldn"t believe it. "All of them gone? There were millions millions of us living on Querencia." of us living on Querencia."
"I know."
"Why did you bring me back?" Edeard asked bitterly.
"We need your help."
"Ha! Then Honious knows you picked the wrong man; Finitan is more worthy than me, or even Dinlay. And even if you had no choice, you should have brought back this future Edeard you spoke of, the one who is triumphant."
"I chose you very carefully. You are exactly the Edeard I need."
"Why?"
"Determination," Inigo said simply. "This is the you who resolved never to let anything beat him no matter what. You, the you of this day, are the best Waterwalker there ever was. This is the moment your triumph was built upon."
"I find that hard to believe," Edeard said weakly.
"I"m truly sorry this was how we had to meet. But we really do need your help."
"How? How in the Lady"s name can I possibly help people who have the power to travel between universes?" He was watching Inigo gathering himself to reply, when the really strange one with the battered face and tormented thoughts stepped forward.
"I am Aaron, and I have come here to ask you to take us to the Heart."
Edeard almost laughed at him, but the man was in so much suffering and so fired up with desperation, he was clearly speaking the truth. "Why?"
"Because that has to be what controls the Void. I must speak with it, or Inigo must, or even you. Whichever of us it will listen to."
"What would you say to it?"
"You"re killing us. Switch off."
Inigo"s arm went around Edeard"s shoulder again. "This is going to take a while to explain," he said gently.
The bright sun was well on its way to the western horizon, coating the edges of Eyrie"s towers in a familiar cerise haze. And yet not familiar And yet not familiar, Edeard thought sadly. This Makkathran he found himself in was a sorrowful one indeed. The buildings were exactly as they should be-oh, but the rest of the districts and ca.n.a.ls. It didn"t suffer decay-the fabulous city would never fall to that-but it had become shabby shabby. Without its citizens, it was a poor specter of itself in its glory days. And there was so little left of the people who lived here, nothing more than blemished trinkets and stubborn dust. That they should have vanished with so little to show for their achievements was infinitely depressing. As was knowing he was forever separate from them all now. Though he supposed he could reset the Void once more, somehow he didn"t have the appet.i.te to plunge back in to what had been. Besides, according to Corrie-Lyn, he had already won his life"s battle. And if he understood what his mind-brother Inigo was saying, he was responsible for unleashing devastation upon the true universe outside.
"More ships are coming?" he asked.
"Yes," Inigo admitted. "My fault. I was besotted with your life."
They were sitting on the steps outside the Lady"s central church, each of the visitors doing what he or she could to help him comprehend Inigo"s story of what was happening in the galaxy outside and what the Void actually was. It had taken hours.
"You showed people my life," Edeard said, not quite accusing, but ...
"I did. You never told anyone of mine."
"They would have thought me mad, even Kristabel. Flying carriages. People who live forever. Hundreds of inhabited worlds. Machine servants instead of genistars. Cities where Makkathran would be naught but a small district. A civilization where justice was available to all. Aliens. More stars in the sky than it is possible to count. No, such marvels of my fevered imagination were best kept inside my skull. Except it wasn"t my imagination; it was all you."
"I hope I was of some help, some comfort."
"You were." Edeard finally gathered the courage he"d so far lacked and asked the question: "This future I lived, the one where I finally achieved guidance to the Heart ... was Burlal part of it?"
"No. I"m sorry, Edeard. He was only ever here that one time."
"I see. Thank you for your honesty."
"Waterwalker," Aaron said. "Can you take us to the Heart, please."
The edge in his voice, the way his raging thoughts threatened to burst out of his head-it made Edeard nervous. "I understand the need for the Void to be contained. If I could do so, I would."
"There is a way to speak with it," Aaron said through clenched teeth. "Once we get there, I know there is."
"How?"
Aaron slammed his hands onto his face. Once, twice, three times. Blood trickled out of his nose where he"d hit it. "She won"t tell me!" he yelled furiously. "I can"t find it anymore."
Edeard"s third hand gripped Aaron"s arms, forcing them down.
"This is my mission! I am the mission. I have an objective. I must be strong. She likes that. She loves me."
Tomansio stood next to the stricken agent. "Hey, it"s okay." He reached out. "We have two starships and the Waterwalker. We can take-"
Aaron"s muscles went slack, and Tomansio caught him as he pitched forward, unconscious.
"How did you do that?" Edeard asked.
"Very basic tranquilizer. Lucky our biononics are degraded here. Would have been quite a sc.r.a.p otherwise."
"I see." Which he didn"t quite. But these warriors from the outside universe were formidable. And they had honor. Somehow he was reminded of Colonel Larose from the Makkathran militia.
"Now what?" Corrie-Lyn asked with a sigh. "Our pet psycho is going to go quantumbusting when he wakes up."
"I"d hate to try a neural infiltration in this environment," Tomansio said. "The first glitch and we"d probably rip his brain apart. Besides, I think the way his mind was reconfigured implies it was resistant to that kind of inquisition. The information is hidden in the subconscious."
"We do have the two ships," Oscar said. "And we know we have to fly to the Heart. Our problem is always going to be guidance." He grinned at Edeard. "I guess that"s where you come in."
"It comes down to fulfillment," Inigo said. "If the Skylord believes Edeard to be fulfilled, it will guide him."
"His soul," Corrie-Lyn said sharply.
"We don"t know that," Inigo said. "Humans have never been able to fly around inside the Void before. Maybe it"ll show a living body the way."
"I"ll ask," Araminta-two said.
His thoughts were gifted in a fashion Edeard was unaccustomed to; the clarity he was given exceeded any he"d known before. It was hard to throw off the sensation that he was actually in Araminta-two"s body, breathing together, feeling together. And there was the shadow perception distracting him, standing in a giant room of metal and gla.s.s, watching the nebulae outside. A flock of Skylords guiding the incredible starships. That mind"s perception shimmered underneath the connection Araminta had with the Skylord leading the fleet and its awareness of the Void.
"Do I have to abandon my body to be guided to the Heart?" she asked.
"You have to be fulfilled," the Skylord replied lovingly. "Then I will guide you. Soon, I feel. Your mind is strong; you believe you know your way. You understand yourself. You lack only surety."
"If I have that, if I gain what I need for fulfillment, would you take me, the living me, in this ship?"
"I would do that."
Edeard shivered as the outlandish gifting ended. It was as if a gust of winter air had squalled around the church. He gave Araminta-two a curious look. "You can longtalk across the Void?" Such strength of mind was incredible.
"Not really. That was my other body. And as for the Skylord, we are joined as you and Inigo once were."
"I see," he lied. My other body! My other body! He"d said it so casually. How he wished for Macsen at this time-Macsen, who would make light of such confusion with a quip and a laugh, and the world would be right again. He"d said it so casually. How he wished for Macsen at this time-Macsen, who would make light of such confusion with a quip and a laugh, and the world would be right again.
"So now we find out if this Edeard is fulfilled," Oscar said. "And if he is, you fly him to the Heart."
"It would seem that way," Inigo agreed.
"Not yet," Justine said. She stood up. "This is too important for maybes. We need a very clear understanding of what we"re supposed to achieve here. Follow me." And she walked up the steps toward the church"s open entrance.
Edeard observed everyone producing puzzled looks behind the blonde girl. A few shrugs were exchanged, but they all trooped dutifully after her. Justine"s tone had been commanding.
When they"d been introduced, Edeard had been dismissive of the sultry girl, weary, even. Because of her crude clothing and wild hair, she reminded him of the real bandits who lived in the wilds beyond Rulan province. But as the afternoon wore on, he"d revised his opinion. For a start, she was one of the Commonwealth eternals. She might look as if she was barely out of her teens, but he knew she was older than anyone who"d ever lived in Makkathran. And despite her lack of clothing, she had a dignity and poise that would"ve intimidated Mistress Florrel. He also strongly suspected she was tough enough to rip Ra.n.a.lee to shreds in any kind of fight, fair or otherwise.
The air inside the church was cooler than outside. Seeing the interior bare apart from the big statue of the Lady was odd, emphasizing how cut off and alone he was now. A mere day ago in his own time he"d been Mayor, and the city bent to his will. These people meant well, he knew, but he couldn"t help the resentment at the way they"d summoned him out of his true life. If it had been anyone but Inigo-but then, only Inigo could do such a thing.
Stranger than the naked church was the golden man standing in the middle, waiting for them. He was visible only because of some strangely pervasive gifting from Justine that he couldn"t quite shield himself from, yet his farsight found nothing where the man stood, not at first. "A soul," Edeard exclaimed when he intensified his perception.