Steven Brust - Issola

Morrolan and Aliera told her about the river of amorphia we had found, Teldra and I making the occasional murmur of agreement. When they had finished, Sethra said, “I didn’t think they could do that. I still don’t understand how they can do that,” which was followed by an unpleasant silence, during which we all, I suspect, contemplated the powers of the Jenoine.

“Are they gods?” said Morrolan suddenly.

Sethra shook her head. “I do not believe so. Teldra?”

“Not in any meaningful way, at least as far as how they see themselves.”

“Well, that’s something,” said Morrolan, which was much like what I was thinking. “So, then, how do we approach them? How do we defend ourselves against them, beyond that we’ve en doing for thousands of years?”

“Don’t forget the weapons,” I pointed out.

“Weapons?” said Sethra.

“They had whole racks of weapons. Mundane weapons, the sort of thing I think of as weapons. Things that cut, and stab, make nasty gouges. If those bastards are so bloody magical, what do they need with weapons?”

“Good question,” said Morrolan. “He’s right, they had quite a collection of them. What are they for?”

“That,” said Sethra, “I think I can answer. I believe that, after establishing themselves here, they intend to subvert a portion of our citizens and use them as a mundane army.”

“How can they subvert them?” said Aliera.

“If they can, indeed, attack the Orb, then they can, at least potentially, gain access to the minds of those who are linked to it.”

That thought made me shudder. For one thing, I was linked to the Orb myself.

“Well, let’s see,” said Aliera. “Consider what we know about them. They are after my mother, and perhaps others of the gods as well. It is the gods who are protecting our world—I think I now understand a little how they are doing it. But what the Jenoine want is full access to our world. What prevents them from having it are the Lords of Judgment, the Orb, the power of Dzur Mountain. They attacked Dzur Mountain once before, and failed to take it.”

“Barely,” said Sethra under her breath.

“Therefore, our defense of these things—”

“Defense,” said Morrolan like it was something foul. “Why not attack them instead? I’ve always preferred attacking to defending.”

“I know,” said Sethra. “But you are still young, and may yet learn.”

He glared at her. She ignored it and said, “Go on, Aliera.”

Aliera continued, “Our defense of these things has to happen on several levels at once. We require the assistance of the Lords of Judgment, in the first place, and I should think we really ought to consult the Necromancer after all.”

“Yes,” said Sethra; “But whatever we’re going to do, we ­ought to do it quickly. We don’t know how much time they’re going to give us. And worse, we don’t know where they’re going to attack.”

“Yes, we do,” said Morrolan suddenly, sitting upright, and staring off into space.

We all looked at him.

“Trellanstone,” he said. “It all revolves around the trellanstone, or kyrancteur, in the language of the Serioli. They managed to find some, and they are using it. They wanted Aliera and me out of the way to—”

Sethra figured it out first. “Oh,” she said. “Yes. I should have seen it at once.”

Then Aliera got it, and nodded slowly. “Foolish of me. One of them was able to stop a simultaneous attack from two Great Weapons. It should never have been capable of stopping even one of them. I was so annoyed, I didn’t stop to wonder how it managed it. Yes. There is only one way it could have done that. How annoying.”

Of course, I could have sat there for the rest of my life and never figured it out, but Sethra realized I was confused and took pity on me.

“Trellanstone,” she said. “It is useful for manipulating amorphia—raw chaos. So far as I know, there are two places in the universe where one can find amorphia, and both of them are on this world. The Great Sea of Amorphia is protected by the Orb, which is protected by the Empress, who is protected by the Lords of Judgment, by Dzur Mountain, and by the Orb.”

“Ah,” I said. “And so now we know, I’m sure, where they got the amorphia from in the first place.”

“Yes,” said Sethra. “We used the power of the Greater Sea to protect the Orb, and used the Orb to protect the Greater Sea. It never occurred to me that they might tap into the Lesser Sea, because it isn’t connected to the Orb. But they have some­how tapped into it. They have been draining it, and learning to control it with the trellanstone, and that could give them what they need to attack the Orb.”

“The Lesser Sea,” I said. “Well. Can’t we just cut it off from them?”

Sethra nodded. “Yes. And we will. I can do so myself. But then what?”

“Then,” said Morrolan, “they will use their trellanstone to attempt a permanent link with it, much as the Orb is linked to the Great Sea. If they achieve that, they will, in effect, have the seeds of their own Empire on our world.”

I nodded. “Yes. And after that things could get all kinds of difficult, couldn’t they?”

“They could indeed,” said Sethra. “We must act at once. Every moment that passes, they draw more energy, and become stronger, and it will make it harder to resist them. We must cut off their flow, and then be prepared to make certain they cannot re-establish it. That means facing them down right there, at the Lesser Sea of Chaos.”

“Adron’s Disaster,” said Morrolan.

Aliera nodded. “I was afraid Daddy would cause trouble sooner or later.” 14. Conversations with the Undead

I was glad Teldra and Loiosh were there, because I didn’t want to be alone.

Morrolan, Sethra, and Aliera had left us, continuing their discussions as to who should speak with whom about what—Morrolan to speak with the Empress, Aliera to talk to the Necromancer, and so on, and what they should tell them. Dzur Mountain is a big and lonely place, and some of that feeling rests in each chamber, no matter how small and warm; with little effort I could imagine the nightmares from my childhood creeping out of the corners—especially since this was a place where some of the nightmares were real. And it didn’t help that it required very little imagination to see Jenoine appearing out of nowhere; from all evidence, that was a very real possibility. Teldra and I spoke for a while about the meal, and the furnishings of Dzur Mountain, and other things. I wanted to ask her about Cawti, but I refrained. Instead I said, “Do you think I was out of line, Teldra?”

“My lord?”

“My, uh, blowup at Morrolan and Aliera. Was I out of line?”

“I don’t believe it is my place to say, my lord.”

“Heh. In other words, yes.”

She shook her head. “No, I simply mean it is not my place to say.”

“All right.”

She hesitated, then said, “I think you, being wounded, had the right to request respect for your injury.”

“Mmmmm. But you wish I hadn’t said it?”

“I’m not certain, Vlad. Certainly, everything you said is true. Not exhaustive, but true.”

“Not exhaustive?”

“I mean your insight was well taken. But, there is still much you don’t understand about my Lord Morrolan. For all of his skills and strengths of character, Morrolan is still a young Dragon. He knows this. It is why he wanted me as his seneschal. To know and take steps to counter one’s weaknesses is praiseworthy, in my opinion. Also, rare.”

“I see. Other than having the desire from time to time to slaughter a few hundred helpless peasants, what does it mean to be a young Dragon?”

“It means seeing the world with one’s self as the center.”