L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

Only when Maarlyna had seated herself and taken several sips from the monogrammed crystal goblet did Maertyn finally ask, "Can you tell me what it is that you?re doing? What you were doing with those people I could barely make out. I could only sense and understand a little, and it didn?t make much sense to me."

She frowned, then pursed her thin lips for a moment, setting the goblet on the side table.

"I didn?t really understand until it happened. It?s something that…no one else can do. The ancients, the ones who built the Bridge, they thought there would always be some people who could see…the universe…as it is, or maybe they thought that there were ways to train people…"

"Maybe they didn?t even think about the future."

"They did fight to make sure that there was one…" Maarlyna picked up the goblet and took a small swallow, rather than a sip. "They set up the Bridge to seek keepers."

"You say that there?s no time, or that time doesn?t exist, and that would mean that across all time there?s no one but you who can do this…whatever it is? That seems…strange…"

Maarlyna shook her head. "They have to live in a time-one of the event-points-contiguous to the Bridge…and no one else ever has…or will, not so far as the last keeper and the Bridge systems could determine."

"How close-physically-do they have to be?"

She did not speak, and her now-silver eyes darkened for several moments, before she finally answered. "The Bridge systems can detect anyone with such abilities on the same continent, farther under some conditions."

"You?re saying that in thousands of years…" Maertyn broke off.

"Hundreds of thousands…it could be millions of years." Her eyes brightened, again almost to tears. "How could I say no? How many people would not come to be…to know love and joy?"

"…and fear and disappointment," Maertyn added dryly.

"Maertyn…" Her voice was soft.

"I know that sounds cynical, but I?m feeling a little that way with all of this." More than a little, but he wasn?t about to voice that. "I?d like to concentrate on a few things more immediate. We?re still trapped in here. What about us? And the Gaerda?"

"Oh…they?ve just left a group of soldiers in a portable hut of some sort. There?s more snow falling, and I almost feel sorry for them…" She shook her head. "I forgot. All this seems so natural, and it?s not. It?s like I know things that I didn?t know I knew until I do them. It?s very strange."

"You can see or sense beyond the walls?"

"Farther than that. I don?t know how far. I haven?t tried, except a ways out into the ocean to find the warship. Not inside buildings or things, except inside the Bridge."

"What warship?"

"The one threatening the Vanir. That?s not now."

Maertyn took a solid swallow of the Zaendan. His wife was talking about warships he couldn?t see that existed in other times. "But you can?t use weapons…did I understand that correctly? So how will we deal with the Gaerda? What about things like power and food? You do need to eat, don?t you? You must, after all you just went through."

"If I?m…awake."

"Why wouldn?t you…The canal has some sort of life-suspension?"

"It?s more just being out of time…"

"I thought time didn?t exist," he teased, trying not to sound forced.

"The keeper would say that it?s being separated from event-points so that continuity is stopped."

"The keeper would say?" he asked with a grin he didn?t totally feel.

"I?m still two people…"

"In one body."

"I was going to say that…" She shook her head again. "It?s not so much two people as me and another person?s skills and memories."

"Who told you to run off before you knew what had happened to deal with some problem? You just dragged me…as if you weren?t quite you…"

"It wasn?t like that. I was the one who decided. I was afraid that I wouldn?t remember. I still didn?t understand time. That was because I needed to integrate…a lot of things…and I was worried I?d lose hold of…aspects of things, especially with the Vanir."

"You?re simplifying for me, aren?t you?"

"Yes. We don?t have words for some of it. I have to think in the old keeper?s language…"

"You learned another language…like that?"

"I didn?t have much choice, dearest. It just happened. Does it bother you?"

"What about the…Vanir? Did you learn their language?"

"No. The Bridge structures do that."

"Are they ancient, too? The Vanir?"

She shook her head. "We?re ancient to them. I haven?t told them. I think their leader-she?s something like a soldier-scientist-knows that."

"Did you say something about not having weapons to help them?"

"I did."

"So you don?t have any way to deal with the Gaerda?"

"Not without causing a disaster. The Bridge is a weapon. Even the keeper?s memories were not clear. What is clear is that to use it again as a weapon will destroy Earth."

"Of course." Maertyn nodded. He did have a feel for that, from all his studies. "It?s somehow outside of time. That means that its mass and energy are as well. To have an effect on matter, it would have to become real, and if it destroyed the ancient moon the first time…"

"There?s great horror around those memories." Maarlyna?s face and eyes stiffened, almost as if she were retreating into some past distance. "Almost no one and nothing survived, except for the few in the Bridge."

"That was a long time ago," ventured Maertyn.

"It was." A trace of a smile appeared. "Now I know I won?t forget."

"Forget what?"

"The others. The ones I haven?t dealt with yet. They?re in their own event-point, and I don?t have to hurry. Right here is the only place where I can?t wait if something has to be done."

"Does something have to be done here?" Maertyn frowned.

"In a little while, after we talk some more." She lifted the goblet again.

For several moments, the chamber was silent.

"I still don?t understand. Why you? How?"

"The keeper sensed me. There?s a field…something…around…me…or there was after the operations…the procedures. You were drawn to the Bridge…to the canal…there are images of what was, is, and will be…they reverberate through time and through minds…"

Maertyn thought back. He really hadn?t even considered the canal research project before…not until Maarlyna was recovering and it had been clear that she would recover. It had been one of a number of proposals stacked up in his console. But he still couldn?t say why he?d picked it. "How can the Bridge…the keeper…do that?"

"It can?t make anyone do anything, but it can amplify images…feelings…and sometimes people respond. Most times they don?t."

"And I responded, all because of you?" Maertyn asked.

"Yes." She stood, took several steps, until she stood before his chair, and held out her hands.

He took them and rose, as her arms went around him, and her lips touched his.

34 Quad 2471 R.E.

The light and darkness split…or shivered…and flaked away, leaving Eltyn, Faelyna, and Rhyana standing in the same chamber. This time the equipment consoles had diminished in size and were sheathed in silvered-gold light. Before them stood a tall woman in a scarlet singlesuit. Her hair was silver-gold. Behind her stood an even taller figure so shadowed in silver that Eltyn could not make out his face-if he were indeed even a man.

Who are you? Eltyn had spoken the words aloud, but they came out as if pulsed on the private net.

She said something, but the words made no sense…not at first, but after a moment, he could hear them, as if they had been pulsed to him. I am the keeper of the Bridge…what you callthe canal.

Why couldn't we communicate before? asked Faelyna.