Truth - Hidden Truth Part 25

Though obviously unconvinced, Strell sat, perched on the edge of the bench. Talo-Toecan resettled himself as well, poking at the fire with a short stick, his fingers almost amongst the coals. Lodesh eyed the two cups with their cold tea, and mumbling of thimbles, made a cup of his own. "Would you like some tea?" he inquired lightly.Talo-Toecan sighed in exasperation, and Strell jumped to his feet. "Tea?" the plainsman shouted in frustration. "Do I want some tea? I want to know what's going on!"

"Piper," Talo-Toecan grumbled, "sit down."

"No! I have sat. I have listened. I have watched as things progressed until-" With a tormented cry, Strell sank down. "It's all my fault," he whispered. "I fell asleep."

"You fell asleep!" Talo-Toecan pulled away from the bright embers, his eyes glinting dangerously.

"Right in the middle of Bailic's lesson, and now she's dying," finished Strell, his expression haunted and empty.

Lodesh's gaze s.h.i.+fted from the incensed Talo-Toecan to the piper. "No one said she was dying," he interjected.

"She's not?"

"Here." Lodesh shot a warning glance at the raku, who was muttering voiceless threats under his breath. "Let me explain. Talo-Toecan uses such big words, it makes my ears hurt. There's nothing you can do right now," Lodesh a.s.serted gently as Strell gazed at Alissa. The emotion-filled look of the piper wasn't wasted upon him as it was on Talo-Toecan, and Lodesh felt a stab of shared sorrow. "As you guessed," he said as Strell met his eyes, "Bailic finally made the correct a.s.sumption."

"I fell asleep," Strell said with a moan.

"Yes, you fell asleep," Lodesh said sharply. "It's done. Let it go. It was a miracle the deception lasted this long." Faintly, he added, "Be glad it wasn't fear or cowardice that betrayed you." For a moment there was silence, broken by the trill of a bird convincing his ladylove of his charms. "Anyway," Lodesh continued as the serenade ceased, "Bailic gave her the First Truth, and push gave way to pull."

"I still don't understand," Strell whispered.

The plainsman looked so confused that Lodesh couldn't help but smile. Turning to Talo-Toecan, Lodesh set his cup down, placed his hands quietly in his lap, and formally asked, "May I give him the knowledge of what has pa.s.sed?"

The Master grimaced. "Might as well. I don't expect we'll survive to speak of it again."

Strell paled. "I didn't know the book was that dangerous."

"It isn't," Lodesh said dryly. "He's being histrionic." Talo-Toecan's eyes narrowed, and Lodesh leaned toward Strell. "Can you keep a secret?" he whispered, and Strell stiffened in surprise.

"Lodesh ..." Talo-Toecan said in annoyance.

"Well," he exclaimed, his eyes wide and wondering in mock concern. "I had to take a blood oath.

Shouldn't he be under some kind of obligation?"

Talo-Toecan regarded Strell tiredly. "We don't have trappings for a blood oath. And I think our good piper will know to keep his mouth shut."

"Really?" Lodesh said with a false innocence.

"I will hunt him down if he breathes a word to anyone not already wise to it-providing we survive, of course."

Strell gulped. "I promise. Just tell me."

Giving Strell a sidelong glance, Talo-Toecan threw his twig into the flames. He looked at Alissa, then back to Strell, clearly waiting until he was sure the man was listening. "Not all rakus are sired as such," hesaid, his golden eyes locked upon the piper's. "A rare few, usually the most inventive, the most headstrong, are born to man; only later do they find their wings."

Strell's face went slack, and he began to blink slowly.

"There you go again," Lodesh complained, slapping his knee in disgust. "Always starting at the end, never the beginning."

"Alissa isn't a Keeper of the Hold?" Strell whispered.

"No, not anymore," Talo-Toecan admitted. "She never really was, actually."

Strell gulped, seeming unable to say the words. "She's a... a-"

Lodesh jumped to his feet, unable to contain himself. "Yes, my good man!" he shouted. "She's a Master of the Hold. A dreamer of the skies!" Taking a grand pose, he made an elegant flourish towards Alissa's small, mud-smeared shape. "A golden menace," he continued, "that sends terror through the hearts of the bravest men." He paused. "She will be-a raku."

"She always has been," Talo-Toecan interrupted, shaking his head at Lodesh. "Being a Master isn't a state of being but a state of mind, quite literally. Alissa was born human with a neural pattern commensurate with that of a raku's. She just needs a push to become one fully."

"Uh ... How?"

Lodesh grinned at the disconcerted piper. "It was Talo-Toecan's book." Then he turned solemn.

"Are you sure, Talo-Toecan? You really want him to know the entirety, not that drivel you usually feed your students?"

Talo-Toecan gestured absently, his gaze lost in the fire.

"Very well." Lodesh refilled his cup. Glancing at Alissa, he decided she was too unaware to notice a resonance, and he chanced a warming ward. He took a long pull at the steaming tea smelling of cloves.

Setting it down with exaggerated care, he cleared his throat. "The First Truth," he began, "explains how to change matter to energy and back again."

"Like-when you use your source and tracings to make a cup?" Strell guessed.

"Um, yes." Lodesh looked cautiously at Strell, genuinely surprised at the piper's matter-of-fact att.i.tude while discussing matters that, to him, were considered privileged information known only to Keepers and those who taught them.

"I told you," came Talo-Toecan's tired voice. "He knows too much already. He may as well know it all." Plucking a twig from a nearby bush, he began rearranging the coals. "Alissa has no sense of circ.u.mspection, none at all."

Shrugging, Lodesh continued. "Making a cup is the basic concept. It's a relatively simple task to draw from your source and bend it to your will to form matter. Any Keeper worth his source knows at least one something to make."

Strell gestured to Alissa. "So this happens often?"

Busy with the fire, Talo-Toecan harrumphed, and Lodesh chuckled. "No," he said. "A set of tracings such as hers is begot from mankind only once every raku generation. Alissa has the ability to go beyond the simple s.h.i.+ftings of matter and energy. She can do it to herself." Expecting Strell to be impressed, Lodesh settled back on the bench and regarded him with raised eyebrows. "It sets her above Keeper status," he added.

"Herself?" Strell mumbled, his eyes vacant. "Why would that be any more difficult?"

"Well," Lodesh hesitated, "there's a problem. Transforming one's own substance to energy and backto ma.s.s again is an all-or-nothing affair. Once begun, there's nothing left to hold one's essence, one's soul if you will. It's only when possessing a highly intricate set of tracings that it's possible. Even then, I understand it's difficult." He glanced at Talo-Toecan with a knowing look. "You must have a very strong will to maintain your existence for even the breath of time it takes to fas.h.i.+on ma.s.s about yourself again, giving your spirit a place to reside."

"She will go mad," Talo-Toecan said to no one in particular.

Strell s.h.i.+fted, running an uneasy hand through his hair. "You do this, Talo-Toecan," he said, "and you don't go mad."

Lodesh snickered. "I know many who would argue with you over that, Strell."

The Master acknowledged Lodesh's comment with a long, slow look. "I was sired a raku," he explained. "My first s.h.i.+ft was to a human form."

"I see." Strell sighed.

Realizing the bedraggled man hadn't a clue, Lodesh added, "It's only the first time that there's any danger. The slate is wiped clean and must be reconstructed. Talo-Toecan learned as a stripling. His first s.h.i.+ft was from a young raku into a small child, and as you may know, there isn't much difference between a small child and a beast."

Talo-Toecan looked up in irritation, paused, then thoughtfully nodded his agreement. Taking a deep breath, he added, "She will be as a true beast, Strell, with only the barest recollections of her past. We must remind her of her humanity and force her to destroy what she has awoken, thereby ensuring it never gains control again. The sooner the better, for the longer she remains such, the less likely she will remember at all."

"How long?" Strell breathed, his face lined in torment.

"If she flies under starlight, the lure will be too strong. They never come back from that," Talo-Toecan said stoically. In the silence, the songbird trilled and was, in turn, answered.

Lodesh watched Strell stiffen, gaining control over his fear with a slight tremor, burying it deep as Lodesh had done himself so many times in the past.

"May I sit with her?" the plainsman asked in a whisper.

Talo-Toecan stirred. "Yes. But as soon as she begins to s.h.i.+ft, I want you over there."

Strell's eyes followed Talo-Toecan's pointing finger. "There?" he questioned. "What can I do way over there?"

"She will be a great deal bigger, Piper," Talo-Toecan grumbled. "You want to be closer? Fine. Just be sure you don't back up any farther than that when she tries to eat you."

Strell swallowed. He went to kneel beside Alissa, brus.h.i.+ng a wisp of hair from her cheek with a tenderness so obvious, it was painful. Lodesh steeled his features into impa.s.sivity. Rising, he beckoned Talo-Toecan out of earshot with a subtle gesture.

"It was nice of you to give him hope," Talo-Toecan muttered as soon as there was enough distance between them and the piper, "but it might have been kinder to have told him the truth."

Lodesh went straight to the crux of the matter. "How many successful first transitions have you heard of without using the holden?"

"From young raku to human? Uncountable. We use the holden more from tradition than need. A wild, human six-year-old is no match for even one Master. Fear alone keeps it from running, and sentience is quickly returned. But a first s.h.i.+ft from adult human to adult raku? None.""But," Lodesh continued brightly, "in theory it can be done. You only need to keep the beast grounded until you can return them to memory."

A wave of pain washed over Talo-Toecan. "Keeping a feral raku grounded is impossible. I tried to save Connen-Neute. I wasn't enough then, and I was younger."

"You were alone but for me and Redal-Stan. The sun was setting," Lodesh reminded him gently.

"There was no way to save him."

"That's what I'm saying!" Talo-Toecan said bitterly. "Don't you understand! I-am-alone. I have no idea what I am doing. Keribdis won the lottery to oversee such an event, with all the combined skills and strengths of the Hold at her disposal. I know I have made mistakes in Alissa's schooling, but, blood and ash, Lodesh, I can't even say what they were!" He looked to the sky. "I'm an architect," he whispered, "not a nursemaid."

Lodesh was unconcerned. "If you can ground her, I can help keep her there."

"How?" Talo-Toecan barked, looking at Strell crouched mournfully over Alissa.

"She won't get past me, old friend, if you can ground her."

Grimacing, the raku seemed to accept this on faith. "We need at least three to have even a chance,"

he said dismally.

"Don't discard the piper so quickly," Lodesh warned softly.

"Be reasonable," Talo-Toecan cajoled, his eyes never leaving Strell. The piper was whispering something, his shoulders hunched. "She will snap him in two," he predicted wearily.

"I think not."

The hint of warning in Lodesh's voice seemed to finally catch Talo-Toecan's attention. The Master looked sharply at Lodesh and then back at Strell. For the first time, Talo-Toecan appeared to see Strell's distress and what his presence might portend. "Is their bond already so deep then?" He frowned.

"I had hoped to prevent it from forming at all."

"I deem that it is. It may be strong enough to bring her back."

Talo-Toecan s.h.i.+fted uneasily. "I don't like this. If by some miracle her awareness returns, she will be a student and Master of the Hold. I mean no offense, but she cannot be allowed to chain herself to him. If he were a Keeper, perhaps, considering the lack of suitable suitors and her background, but there isn't a breath of cohesion to Strell's neural net. He is a commoner, Lodesh. A commoner from an erratic line half the Hold has been surrept.i.tiously trying to wipe out because it doesn't beget the traits their books and charts predict."

Lodesh's pulse leapt, and he struggled to keep his face neutral, but his heart nearly sang.

Talo-Toecan would allow a match between a Master and Keeper! And Strell was neither. Steadying his thoughts, he calmly asked, "Would you rather she turn feral?"

"No, of course not." Talo-Toecan's gaze was riveted upon the two young people. "But she will far outlive her chosen partner. Once given fully, a raku's fancy is unwavering."

"I don't think they will care," Lodesh said.

Talo-Toecan sighed heavily. "No. Not at first. But the years stretch intolerably when you're alone-with only your memories to sustain you."

Silently they watched Strell sit helplessly over Alissa. "So what do we do?" Lodesh asked quietly.

"We wait."

"How long?""Not long."

Lodesh arched his eyebrows. "How can you know? The last such as her was before even your time."

"I'm her teacher. She is a precocious little thing. It won't be long."

The songbirds filled the garden with the joy of their certain future. A chill breeze slipped through the bare branches, bringing with it the scent of damp earth and growing things. It would have been pleasant if not for the terrible ordeal to come.

"Ah," Talo-Toecan murmured as he slowly moved to sit. "I'm too old for this."

Chapter 31.

Slouched at the firepit, Lodesh lazily opened one eye. He had settled himself in the sun to doze, knowing Talo-Toecan would warn them when Alissa was close to waking. To his left was Strell, slumped helplessly over Alissa, apparently not noticing the dampness of his knees or the cold turning the rims of his ears a bright pink. The Master, Lodesh harrumphed, didn't look much better, having arranged and rearranged the fire until his fussing had nearly put it out.

There was a small sigh, and Strell rose. "Isn't there anything we can do?" the piper whispered as he settled himself beside Lodesh. Strell's eyes went to his mud-covered knees, and he covered them with his hands.

Talo-Toecan looked up from his fire. "No. It's too late. It was the moment she opened my cursed book, and matters were made tenfold worse when it gave her that bit of nail."

"Nail?" Strell's eyebrows rose. "What nail?"

Lodesh chuckled. "The one hidden in the book, of course." Ignoring Talo-Toecan's sharp look at having said even that little, Lodesh sat straighter. The piper deserved to know. Perhaps a distraction was in order. "What I don't understand," he asked, "is how your nail and that book managed to become so dangerously close together."

Talo-Toecan tugged his coat straight. "It wasn't my fault," he fumbled. "I gave it to her father, a token to him before I left on my last sabbatical. I didn't know he was going to put it in the book, and besides, Meson's line wasn't being groomed to produce such as her. It shouldn't have mattered they were together. Apparently there wasn't enough research into her mother's genetic history-or someone made a mistake. And after I realized Alissa's potential, I was under constraints and couldn't recover it.