Sharon Green - To Battle The Gods

“When the two we just dealt with first came here, they spent a good deal of time building wonders and studying the people of this planet. When they felt they were ready they disguised themselves as Sigurr and Mida, then began kidnapping people to be their slaves and followers. This kept them busy for an even longer time, but then one day one of their watching devices gave them warning of a pending disaster: the power crystals taken so long before from your ancestors’ comm were about to be found and brought together again.

“The twisted ones were absolutely furious,” said S’Heernoh with a shake of his head. “They had already begun spreading their evil with an eye toward enslaving everyone on the planet, and they didn’t want to be interrupted by the people from the Union. They watched in near helplessness as the Silla simply handed over their crystal, raged when the Hosta’s crystal was stolen—and then noticed something that calmed them a good deal. The war leader of the Hosta clan immediately mounted her warriors and rode after the ones who had stolen their clan’s crystal, and that gave the two watchers an idea. The Hosta followed their goddess Mida, so why couldn’t they use the Hosta to get the crystals away from those who would set them back in a comm? That was when the one calling herself Mida first began appearing to the war leader of the Hosta. ”

The male looked upon me with deep compassion, yet did I continue to feel very much the fool. In no manner could I have known of the deception—however, I believed I should have known.

“When the Hosta failed to retrieve the crystals, the twisted ones were furious all over again,” said S’Heernoh, clearly attempting to draw me from my thoughts by continuing his narrative. “They could have warned the clan about the men coming to capture and claim them, but they didn’t—and ended up paid back for their betrayal. The third crystal was found and placed with the others, and the people of the Union were contacted again after generations and generations of isolation.

“The twisted ones should have properly blamed themselves for the catastrophe, but it was easier to blame a war leader named Jalav. When she escaped over the wall of Ranistard, they made sure to subtly direct her with their long-distance speakers—right into the hands of her enemies, the Silla. As expected she was caught and badly wounded, but I made sure she didn’t die the way the twisted ones wanted her to. Again they raged, unable to understand why she survived, unable to detect the efforts of one who had had much more schooling in the use of the mind. They were badly confused, and the main reason for their confusion was what they had seen on the Snows.”

Again S’Heernoh shifted in place with a sigh, and looked about at Ceralt and Mehrayn as well as myself.

“I don’t know how well I’m going to do explaining this next part,” said he, looking some small bit vexed. “At this point you have to know just exactly what the Snows are, but I doubt if I can make it clear enough for you. When my people find a planet they want to keep track of, one of the first things they do is tap into a parallel sequence we discovered a very long time ago, and set up a computer watch there. This parallel sequence is a place of no doings of its own—much like the place we’re sitting in right now—so the computers aren’t distracted. Everything that happens is fed into the computers—computers are wonders that remember everything they’re told and can keep track of all that without confusing one bit with another—everything is fed into the computers by spying eyes and ears the computer sends out, and everything learned is displayed for anyone who wants to look at it. The computer uses a special code or language, and shows every possibility it can discover from the information it’s been given, as to what will happen next on that particular planet. My people are trained to read and interpret that special language, a language that was developed because of the needs of the computer, not because we didn’t want anyone else getting the information. As far as we knew, no one not of our people could reach the parallel sequence to get the information.”

“But—but that is simply untrue,” said Ceralt, his brow creased with the effort to follow the obscurity spoken by S’Heernoh. “The Snows—the ‘parallel sequence’ has been reached by many of our people, my brother Lialt included among them.”

“And the wench,” said Mehrayn, nodding toward me where I sat. “She, too, is able to reach the Snows, as you know yourself, S’Heernoh.”

“Yes, I do indeed know these things,” said S’Heernoh, amused. “That happens to be another reason why your planet is of special concern to us. That drug your Pathfinders use—all by itself it’s entirely innocuous—harmless—and can’t do a thing to breach the dimensions. Somehow, though, it encourages certain of your minds to do the breaching, something my people can’t accomplish until they’re taught. We would love to know what your Pathfinders could do if they had the proper training—but we can’t interfere to the extent of giving them that training. Your people from the Union, by the way, have never found the same ability, so if you were to mention it to them, they would have no idea what you were talking about.”

“That is truth,” said I, recalling the converse with Aram and Kira. “When Aysayn and I spoke of the Snows, the strangers took the word for snow, that which falls from the skies and mounds white upon the ground. I had meant to correct their misconception, yet found no opportunity to do so. ”

“It’s much better that you didn’t try,” said S’Heernoh, a sobriety upon him, his hands clasped together before him. “Telling people about something they can’t reach or see for themselves just makes trouble for everyone—or causes jealousy if they happen to believe you.

“But to continue with my story. What our twisted children had seen on the Snows was the same seen by all of your Pathfinders: if Jalav didn’t make the trip to Sigurr’s Peak, everyone on your world was lost. Your Pathfinders took that to be absolute, unbreakable prophecy, but the twisted children knew it for what it was: a prediction handed down by the computer based on available knowledge. It had given the prediction a high probability rating—it was guessing that what it predicted was most likely true—and that was something the children didn’t understand, because of their lack of greater learning. The computer had guessed that Jalav would be needed to unite all the warriors required to find victory over the intruders, and without her the intruders would probably win. The children, however, didn’t know if they would be lost right along with everyone else, and that was the only thing really concerning them. Since they had failed to kill Jalav through the Silla, they decided to wait and see what happened once she reached Sigurr’s Peak. Again the one calling herself Mida pretended to be the prime mover of the entire sequence, just to make sure Jalav stayed in line.

“Once Jalav reached them, the twisted children began thinking about ways to get what they wanted through her. They had joined forces only to make things easier for themselves, not because they liked each other, and began looking for ways to rid themselves of each other, while at the same time preparing for the arrival of the people from the Union. They made an emergency healer—a device developed for those of my people who often found themselves in dangerous and harmful situations, but who didn’t have the strength to heal themselves—and placed it on her. The twisted children had twisted even that useful device, and meant to render it inoperable—turn it off—as soon as they decided they wanted Jalav dead. They expected her to come to rely on it, you see, and start taking foolish chances in the belief that whatever happened to her, it would be healed almost immediately. The one calling herself Mida hated and feared Jalav, but had to use her to get what she wanted. The one called Sigurr had decided he wanted Jalav as his personal slave, so he didn’t press the point of killing her when he could have done so. Because of these two reasons, Jalav was allowed to leave Sigurr’s Peak alive and unharmed.”