Prophecy (58 page)

“No, you’reperfectly correct,” Ardanis agreed with a chuckle for the way some of us gasped—especially Naran. “We are indeed just like her, and are overjoyed that we can finally admit it. We’ve waited centuries for the opportunity, knowing it
would
come, but not precisely when.”

“Then you must be the ones responsible for the Prophecies!” I blurted, visited by sudden inspiration. “No one ever said where they came from, but it stands to reason… What I
don’t
understand is why there’s so much secrecy involved here. If your people went so far as to make Prophecies, why didn’t they come completely forward into the world?”

“They did, right after the Prophecies were made,” Ardanis said, and this time it was heavy sadness which replaced his amusement. “Too many of our brothers and sisters of that time were sure we would be fully accepted, and in a manner of speaking we were. The new ruling Five greeted us warmly and offered us their protection until people … grew
used
to those with Sight magic, was the way they put it. And at first they were perfectly serious in their intentions, otherwise our people would never have been taken in. But then they began to think about the benefits in knowing about what was to happen, and realized how truly beneficial it would be if they were the
only
ones who knew.”

“Oh, dear,” Jovvi said, an understatement if ever I’d heard one. “They must have had in mind any plots against them, just as they’d plotted against the Four. So what did they do to your people?”

“They enslaved them, and hid them away from the knowledge of the rest of the world,” Ardanis replied with a shrug that seemed full of horror rather than indifference. “Happily, the strongest of our people hadn’t joined the others in coming forward, and by the time a search was made for them they were long gone. The Five tried to use some of their enslaved Sight magic users to find them, but those who had escaped had a stronger talent and were able to avoid being found.”

“But if the first Five knew about you, why didn’t the next, or their nobility?” Lorand asked. “I’m assuming that they didn’t, of course, but it makes sense that way. If the nobility had known, the present generation of them would never have been surprised the way they were.”

“The first Five held the secret very close, intending to make their reign a good deal longer than twenty-five years,” Ardanis said with a sigh. “They were
very
ambitious people, and knowing what the future holds tends to …
change
even those who aren’t that ambitious to begin with. They intended to rule for the rest of their lives, and would have made the Four’s despotic rule look like a pleasant family picnic. They thought it was their destiny to accomplish that, not realizing that those of us who had escaped were
really
High talents.”

“So they … clouded the future for those who were enslaved,” Naran said suddenly, surprising me. “I’ve wondered for some time if that was possible, and now I know it has to be. It made the Five rely on a false picture of what was coming to be, so they must have failed. What happened to them?”

“They were maneuvered to a place where they were exposed to Fire Fever,” Ardanis replied, the look in his eyes grim. “As I’m sure most of you know, Fire Fever killed hundreds and thousands of people before High practitioners in Earth magic finally found a cure for it. Once the Five came down with it nothing could be done for them, and their secret died with them. Our people were rescued, and then they went about hiding their presence in a much more thorough way. They’d learned a hard lesson about how people would view their talent, and had no intentions of repeating the episode.”

“So they hid out in homes for the ‘talentless,’ those who were called nulls,” Vallant said from next to me, his expression as disturbed as mine probably was. “No one likes talkin’ about that subject, and undoubtedly likes bein’ near the homes even less. Instead of havin’ to search out those who were born with your talent, your people just sat back and waited until those poor, talentless children were brought to
them
. Does that mean no one
is
born talentless?”

“I wish it did,” Ardanis said with another sigh. “I grew up in one of those homes, just as all of us here did, and being talentless doesn’t also make someone other than human. I felt delighted when I was told I had a talent after all, but it was rather painful when it became clear that not all of my friends were in the same position. Our people helped those ‘useless’ children to grow up with the least amount of bitterness possible, and many of them were able to rejoin the society which had rejected them—without anyone being the wiser. After all, some people’s talent is so weak they might as well not have it. Those who didn’t care about the outside world stayed at the homes, helping out with the constant new arrivals.”

“And some of them married, and had children of their own,” Warla put in, her smile gentle and her expression calm. “Only a few of those children shared their parents’ affliction, the rest being perfectly normal in their respective aspects. It was possible for a High talent to tell which of those children would never want to join our secret community, so those children were given up for adoption in the outside world. The rest were raised with love and a full awareness of what the community was all about, and some even established themselves in the outside world in order to keep the home community fully informed. Or to do special jobs that needed doing.”

“Like being a companion to someone like me?” I asked with all the confusion I felt. “And not just an ordinary companion, but one who was frightened of her own shadow? What possible good did any of that do for anyone at all?”

“Before Warla answers that question, you need to hear a few more facts first,” Ardanis interrupted apologetically. “Those first Prophecies which were made so long ago weren’t real, legitimate prophecies, but were a collection of common sense warnings which our people had learned to notice. History has shown us that when a new social system is established, it thrives for about a hundred and fifty years and then begins to slide downhill. After two hundred years many people are dissatisfied with the system, but it continues on because no one is dissatisfied
enough
to try changing it. At the end of two hundred and fifty years things are really in a mess, and somewhere around the three hundred year mark the old system falls apart by itself or is pulled down by those who no longer find it possible to live under it. The first Five ennobled their supporters and put all power and property into their hands, and that action alone immediately indicated disaster at some future time.”

“Is that what multiple shadows around a particular event means?” Naran interrupted to ask. “That the action will cause disaster at some time in the future?”

“Sometimes, but not always,” Ardanis replied with a warm, caring smile for Naran. “Don’t worry, my dear, you’ll learn everything you need to, and in just a little while. In the interim, I have to finish my explanations. Is that all right?”

Naran nodded with a sigh, obviously knowing there wasn’t much else she could do, and Ardanis smiled his thanks.

“I’ll try to be as brief as possible,” he said after taking a deep breath. “After our experience with the first Five we kept our existence a secret, but we also kept a close watch on the world about us. After all, we had to live in the same world as everyone else, and the better the world, the better off
we
were. Quite a lot of time passed with things growing worse and worse, but when we reached a particular time our High talents told us that we could no longer just stand by and watch what happened. We had to become actively involved, otherwise our communities would go down right along with the rest of the empire. That time was a little more than twenty years ago.”

He paused at that point to look around at us, and I doubt whether any of us missed the significance of what he’d said. They’d decided to take a more active role in the world just about the time that the members of our group were being born.

“Yes, it was your births which triggered the need for our activity,” he agreed, showing a smile again. “Even then our people were able to tell that a devastating crisis was in the making, but not like the crises spoken of in the original Prophecies. Those crises were described in the most general terms, so that they would match whatever general crisis arose during the reign of each of the Seated Fives. And of course more than one crisis arose in each twenty-five year period, something that was only natural and to be expected. It was hoped by the people who circulated the original Prophecies that those in power would hesitate a long while before trying to control the selection process for the Five, and for quite some time the ploy worked. But it had stopped working approximately seventy-five years earlier, and now a real crisis loomed in our future which only the strongest of the strong would be able to face and best.”

“Which the chosen noble Blendings weren’t,” Lorand said with a nod. “Are you telling us that your people knew we would enter the competitions and lose, then manage to come back and win? How could they have known so far in advance, and what exactly did they do for us?”

“My people
didn’t
know any of that,” Ardanis denied with a short movement of his head. “They were only able to tell that certain people would be involved in the crisis, and that you were some of those people. And as for what was done for you, not all of you were given help. You, Dom Coll, along with Dama Domon and Dom Ro weren’t given immediate assistance because you didn’t require it. Dom Mardimil and Dama Hafford did, so it was supplied. There was a servant in your mother’s house for a time, Dom Mardimil, who took more than a slight interest in you. Do you remember him?”

“Of course I do,” Rion answered with a frown. “Are you saying that
he
was one of you?”

“You needed someone to teach you certain things and to be a friend of sorts,” Ardanis confirmed. “Just as Dama Hafford needed a warm, loving family to be a part of. They grew to consider you one of their own, Dama Hafford, and I’m delighted to tell you that they’revery proud of the woman you’ve become. If you like, I’ll carry a message back to them for you. They’reno longer living where they were, you know.”

Jovvi nodded to show that she did know, and the surprise on her face said that she probably
would
send a message. I, however, still hadn’t had my question answered.

“What you’ve said doesn’t explain why
I
got a scared-to-death Warla,” I pointed out. “That was your idea of help?”

“Of course,” Ardanis responded with a grin. “Didn’t you use Warla’s presence as an awful reminder of what could happen to
you
if you faltered in your resolve? That was what we were told you needed the most, so that was what Warla gave you. Are you saying it didn’t work?”

I couldn’t say anything of the sort, and both Ardanis and Warla seemed to know it. Warla’s gentle laugh was a sharing rather than ridicule, and realizing that finally let me give her a return smile.

“And last but not least we have Naran, who should have been brought to our community but wasn’t,” Ardanis continued, gazing at Naran fondly. “We knew her mother would refuse to bring her, of course, and when something like that happened we usually used one of our people in an official position to force the parent to part with the child. This time, however, all indications showed disaster if we interfered, so we merely followed and watched and helped when it became necessary. Naran was the one all our hopes hung on, for once she joined you it wasn’t possible for her to use her talent and yet keep it a secret. With the example of the first Five hung vividly before our eyes, we had to know how
your
Five would react when you learned about the sixth aspect.”

“So how did we do?” Vallant asked, an edge to his voice despite the very neutral tone he used. “Since you’rehere and talkin’ to us, are we to assume that we passed the test with flyin’ colors—or that we have to be put out of the way as the first fivefold Blendin’ was? I take it you
are
strong enough to keep Naran from knowin’ about any danger ahead of us?”

“Actually, no single one of us
is
quite strong enough for that,” Ardanis replied, pretending he noticed nothing of the way we all tensed. “Your lovely Naran Whist is truly the strongest among us, especially now that she’s opened herself so fully to the power. Just as the rest of you are the strongest and best in your various aspects, not to mention much more honorable than the average. If you weren’t, you would already have engineered your own downfall.”

“Would you care to explain that?” Jovvi asked, the only exception to the general air of tension. “It’s not difficult to tell that you’restill speaking what you consider the truth, but I don’t understand what you mean.”

“It’s perfectly simple,” Ardanis said with his usual smile. “The time during that last confrontation was the true crisis point for you, and because Naran was so tired we
were
able to hide sight of the possibility from her. When your other two Blendings mistakenly attacked the Blending from Astinda, your own Blending had the choice of protecting only yourselves, or protecting people who were supposed to be your enemies as well. If you had chosen to protect only yourselves despite the warning that the Astindans had to survive, two of the other Astindan Blendings would have destroyed you on the spot. They had just enough strength to do it, and seeing their leader struck down completely after already being bested would have triggered that final attack. There was a very strong possibility that that was what would happen, and if it did then
we
would have had to wait for our next opportunity to rejoin the world.”

“And it didn’t matter that
we
would be dead?” Lorand asked, clearly as upset as I felt. “All that mattered was that
your
people would be all right?”

“You miss the point,” Ardanis said, his face and voice a study of calm. “If you were the sort to think only of yourselves, it was made very clear to us that you would be just as bad as the first fivefold Blending. But if you went so far as to put your own lives in danger to protect people who were still your enemy, then we could safely trust the secret of our existence to you. And it all links in with the fact that you haven’t moved yourselves to the palace yet, which you have every right to do. If you were likely to betray us the way the first Five did, you’d already be there.”