The Elder Gods (45 page)

“How far have we
really
come from the inlet?” Longbow asked.

“Oh,” Veltan replied, squinting thoughtfully, “about half as far as it is from Lattash to the head of the ravine. It won’t take us too much longer to reach Zelana’s grotto.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I think that maybe the best way for us to do this would be to speak with Eleria first. She knows Zelana even better than I do, and she can manipulate my sister in ways I couldn’t even imagine. Balacenia’s always been the most devious of the younger ones.”

“Who’s Balacenia?” Red-Beard asked curiously.

“That’s Eleria’s real name.” Veltan paused. “I wouldn’t spread that around if I were you,” he told them. “Our big brother Dahlaine came up with the idea when we realized that the Vlagh had decided to annex our Domains. The Dreamers
look
like children, but they really aren’t children. They’re our alternates, and they’ll take over when our cycle reaches its end. That’s something else you don’t need to mention to the outlanders. They don’t really need to know about the cycles. Actually, the less they know about what’s
really
happening, the better. If they find out who and what we’re facing here, they’ll probably turn and run.”

“I’ve heard a few of the old stories,” Red-Beard said, “but they’ve never really made very much sense to me. Every now and then somebody mentions something called the overmind. Just exactly what
is
that?”

“Red-Beard’s the chief of his tribe now,” Longbow reminded Veltan. “It might not be a bad thing for him to know a bit more about the thing out in the Wasteland.”

“You could be right, Longbow,” Veltan agreed. Then he looked at Red-Beard. “How much do you know about bugs?” he asked.

“They have more legs than we have, and some of them can fly. That’s about all I’ve managed to pick up. I’ve always concentrated on things that I can eat, and I don’t think I’d really care to eat a bug.”

“This may take a while,” Veltan mused. “All right, then. Some bugs are solitary. They have very little contact with others of their species, except at mating time. Spiders are about the best example of those particular bugs. There are other kinds, though—various bees and ants, for the most part. As individuals, they’re almost totally mindless. They’re too stupid to even be afraid. You probably noticed that up in the ravine.”

“They didn’t really seem very clever,” Red-Beard agreed.

“They don’t
need
to be clever, Red-Beard. It’s that overmind you’ve heard about that does the thinking.”

“The Vlagh, you mean? I’ve always sort of wondered how anybody ever managed to find out what that thing’s name was. Bugs don’t usually have names, do they?”

“Vlagh isn’t exactly a name, Red-beard,” Veltan explained. “It’s more in the nature of a title. The creatures of the Wasteland refer to it as ‘
the
Vlagh,’ sort of in the same way that the people of your tribe call you ‘the chief.’ The Vlagh has certain advantages, though. The creatures that serve it know exactly what it’s thinking all the time, because they all share the awareness of what’s called the overmind. Every one of them is aware of what any of the others has seen or heard, and all of that information lies in the mind of the Vlagh.”

“That
would
be sort of useful, I suppose,” Red-Beard conceded. “That Vlagh thing doesn’t
have
to give orders, because everybody in the tribe knows exactly what he’s thinking every minute of the day.”

“The Vlagh isn’t a ‘he,’ Red-Beard,” Veltan corrected. “Actually, it’s a ‘she.’ It lays eggs, and anything called a ‘he’ doesn’t do that.”

“We’re at war with a
woman?
” Red-Beard exclaimed.

“I wouldn’t really think of the Vlagh as a woman, Red-Beard. Laying eggs is only part of what the Vlagh does. What it’s doing right now is attempting to expand its territory. It wants more food for its servants. The more food that’s available, the more eggs it can produce, and the more servants it has, the more complex the overmind becomes. For now, it wants the entire Land of Dhrall, but that’s only a start. The ultimate goal of the Vlagh is the entire world. If it has the world, there won’t be any limits on the overmind.”

“Are you saying that it wants to rule people as well as bugs?” Red-Beard demanded incredulously.

“Probably not,” Veltan replied. “Most likely, people will just be something to eat. More food; more eggs. That’s the way the overmind works.”

“We
have
to kill that thing!” Red-Beard exploded.

“I rather thought you might see it that way,” Veltan agreed. “The outlanders think that they’re working for gold, but what they’re really working for is survival. If we don’t win, the servants of the Vlagh will have us all for lunch.”

It was about midmorning when Veltan’s sloop rounded the southern tip of the Isle of Thurn. Red-Beard had been keeping a close eye on the coast of the Isle, and it didn’t seem that the sloop was moving all that fast.

“Don’t think about it, Red-Beard,” Veltan told him. “I’m tampering just a bit. If you happened to see what’s really happening, it might disturb you. Time and distance aren’t quite as rigid as they might seem to be.”

“I think I’d be more comfortable if you didn’t tell me what you’re really doing, Veltan,” Red-Beard agreed.

“We’ll do it that way, then. Zelana’s grotto’s just ahead. Excuse me for a moment, gentlemen. I want to let Eleria know that we’re here.” He frowned slightly, and then he smiled. “She’s coming out,” he advised.

“Out of where?” Red-Beard asked, looking around.

“The grotto.” Veltan pointed at the surface of the water. “The entrance is down there.”

“
Under
the water?” Red-Beard demanded incredulously.

“Actually, it’s a cave, but it’s not much like those caves we came across up in the ravine to the east of Lattash.” Veltan laughed. “Dahlaine went wild when Zelana told him that Eleria was swimming up out of the grotto to play with the pink dolphins when she was only about five years old.”

Just then the beautiful child Eleria rose to the surface and swam to Veltan’s sloop. “Is there something wrong?” she asked.

“Well, sort of,” Veltan replied. “Is my sister all right?”

“Not really,” Eleria replied. “The Beloved’s having a lot of trouble with some of the things that happened up there in the ravine. I don’t think she realized exactly what the word
war
really means. Killing things and people by the thousands seems to be something she didn’t completely understand.”

“It was sort of necessary, little one,” Longbow reminded her.

“Well, maybe, but the Beloved didn’t really expect it to go quite so far. She absolutely
had
to get away and come back home.”

“Is she settling down at all?”

“Well, a little bit, maybe. Just being back home in the grotto helps her.”

“She shouldn’t have left quite so fast,” Veltan said. “She forgot something that was fairly important.”

“Oh?”

“She didn’t give Sorgan the gold she’d promised him, and he’s
very
unhappy about that. She can stay here in her grotto if she really thinks it’s necessary, but she’s going to have to come back to Lattash for a little while and pay the pirates what she owes them. The delay’s making Narasan very suspicious, and he won’t move until he knows that my sister kept her promise. If Sorgan doesn’t get paid, Narasan won’t come south to my Domain, and I think I’m going to need him there before too much longer.”

“I’ll go back down to the grotto and tell the Beloved that you’re here, uncle Veltan. I
might
be able to persuade her to come out, but I’m not making any promises.” Then the little girl arched gracefully over and plunged on back down through the water.

It seemed almost like forever as the three of them sat in Veltan’s gently bobbing sloop, but it was probably only about a quarter of an hour before Eleria and Zelana came to the surface no more than a few yards from the sloop.

“What’s this all about, Veltan?” Zelana demanded, smoothly treading water.

“You seem to have neglected something, dear sister,” Veltan suggested. “I know that you’ve got a lot on your mind right now, but you seem to have overlooked certain obligations.”

“Get to the point, Veltan,” she said irritably.

“You neglected to pay the Maags for their services during the recent unpleasantness,” Veltan reminded her.

“I’ll get around to it one of these days.”

“‘One of these days’ is just a little vague, wouldn’t you say, dear sister?”

“Sorgan doesn’t need the gold right now. There’s no place here in the Land of Dhrall where he could spend it.”

“He may not
need
it, Zelana, but he
wants
it.”

“That’s just too bad.”

“And it’s getting worse every day. Sorgan’s discontent’s starting to spread. Narasan’s starting to have some doubts about the honesty of our family. I hired him with promises, just like you hired Sorgan. If you don’t pay Sorgan, Narasan won’t believe that I’ll pay
him.
He’s sitting on board his ship in the bay of Lattash waiting for a demonstration of good faith. You gave Sorgan your word, sister of mine, and if you don’t make good on your word, the outlanders will probably steal everything they can lay their hands on and then set sail for home. Without Narasan’s assistance, there’s no way that I can defend my Domain, and if I lose, we’ll all lose, and the Vlagh will win dominion over the entire Land of Dhrall. Was there any part of that you didn’t understand?”

“You’re hateful, Veltan.”

“I do my best, dear sister. Are you going to keep your word or not?”

“Oh, all right!” She almost spat her response at him. “I’ll go back to Lattash and pay that greedy pirate, but that’s as far as I’ll go. I will
not
get involved in any more of this savagery!”

The face of the child Eleria hardened. “That’s all right, Beloved,” she said in a sugary sweet tone. “You can stay here and play with your pink dolphins, strum your harp, and compose bad poetry, if that’s what it takes to make you happy. I’ll go in your place. I may not be as skilled as you are, and I might make a lot of mistakes, but at least I’ll be there when my people need me.”

Zelana’s eyes went very wide. “You can’t do that, Eleria,” she exclaimed. “I won’t permit it.”

“Then I’ll just have to go without your permission, won’t I, Beloved? Either you go or I go, and that’s all there is to say. The choice is yours, Beloved. It’s either you or me. Make up your mind, Zelana. We don’t have all day, you know.”

Red-Beard was stunned. The sweet child suddenly wasn’t sweet anymore. Red-Beard glanced at Longbow to see if his friend was as shocked as he was.

Longbow’s expression, however, showed no signs of shock. He placidly returned Red-Beard’s gaze.

And then he slyly winked.

5

T
hey moved smoothly down the west coast of the Isle of Thurn, and Red-Beard carefully watched Zelana and Eleria, trying his best not to be too obvious about it.

Now that she’d jerked Zelana back to normalcy, however, Eleria had reverted back to her previous sweetness, and Zelana seemed to be her old self again. She spoke at some length with Veltan back at the stern of the sloop, and then she joined Red-Beard and Longbow near the bow. “My brother tells me that Chief White-Braid’s having some problems,” she said. “What seems to be the trouble?”

“The fire mountains at the head of the ravine seem to have blocked off the river,” Longbow replied, “and without that river, Lattash isn’t a good place for Chief White-Braid’s tribe to live anymore. The notion of leaving Lattash disturbs White-Braid so much that he can’t seem to make decisions anymore. Our shaman, One-Who-Heals, tells us that things like that aren’t uncommon in older men. Red-Beard here has been taking care of things, and he hasn’t made
too
many mistakes yet.”

“Thanks, Longbow,” Red-Beard said in a flat, unfriendly tone.

“Don’t mention it,” Longbow replied blandly. “Anyway,” he continued, “Red-Beard and I found a suitable place for the tribe to live on down the north side of the bay, and Sorgan’s fleet’s been moving the members of the tribe there.”

“That was nice of him,” Zelana observed, “and ‘nice’ is something I wouldn’t really have expected from somebody like Sorgan.”

“He’s not really all that bad, Zelana,” Red-Beard disagreed. “It seems that sometimes wars bring out the best in people. We helped him quite a bit up there in the ravine, so now he’s helping us. He’ll be going south with Narasan to help out during the war in your brother’s Domain, too.”

“Isn’t that sweet, Beloved?” Eleria said.

“Maybe I underestimated him,” Zelana confessed. “He hides it very well, but there might just be a certain amount of decency lurking behind that rough exterior. Are those fire mountains still belching smoke?”

“They were when we left,” Red-Beard replied. “We were hoping that they’d just roll over and go back to sleep, but they’re still grumbling up there.”

“It was probably a wise decision to move your tribe, Red-Beard,” she said gravely. “Once a mountain starts spitting fire, it can go on for years and years, and you don’t really want to be downhill from one of them while that’s happening.” She turned. “I think we’d better hurry, little brother. Let’s get all of our friends away from that ravine. That might be a very dangerous place for the next several years.”

“I sort of thought so myself, dear sister,” Veltan agreed.

Red-Beard braced himself. “There’s something you should probably know about, Zelana,” he said. “My uncle’s always been very attached to the village at the bottom of the ravine, but the fire mountains stopped our river, and if they don’t go back to sleep, there’s a good chance that Lattash will be buried in melted rock. Longbow and I found a place to set up a new village, but I didn’t want to just jam the notion down uncle White-Braid’s throat.”

“Get to the point, Red-Beard,” Zelana told him.

“This isn’t too easy,” he replied. “When Longbow and I went back to Lattash, my uncle seemed to have realized that he couldn’t really make decisions for the tribe anymore, so he told the elders that he wanted to step aside, and he suggested that I might be the best one to replace him. It wasn’t my idea, and I don’t really like it very much, but I guess I’m the chief of the tribe now.”