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startled her. But oddly, venom didn't come in response to that surge of alarm.
"Your future lies," continued the old one, "if you're brave enough for it,
out among the stars, among all the varied species of mankinds. Let me tell you
a story."
His ancient eyes drifted to the fire, and she thought for a moment that he'd
fallen into a doze or perhaps even died.
"Years ago," he resumed, "when I was still Chief Priest here, a human came to
the inner court to sit for admission to the priesthood. He was hardly old
enough to have begun schooling, yet he was worthy in every way. Eight days and
nights he sat, determined to be chosen, though we passed him over every day.
His instinct was good. He would have become great among us, if his parents
hadn't come for him.
"For several previous lifetimes, he had been a Mautri priest and had
perfected all that he could among us so that this time he was born as a human
for a special purpose. When he was dying previously, as a white priest, he had
instructed us that if he should return, we were to pass him over, for his
destiny lay with the Arshel who would seek our training here."
Arshel didn't believe it. The Vlen did not believe that people could live
again, let alone as another species. And how could anyone know it beforehand?
"He told us we must train this Arshel who would come with a human male as her
bhirhir. Many such women have come none, however, named Arshel, and none from
the islands. Until now. And so we offer you our inner court and the best of
our training. Many times before, you have chosen not to essay this most
difficult path. But once again you stand upon the threshold to choose. This
time you do not stand alone."
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He's talking about Dennis. And he did know my name.
"Venerable," she said, "I don't wish to study for your priesthood."
"For the sake of our brother, we're offering you our training without the
vows and obligations of a priest."
Since childhood she'd looked with yearning and wonder upon the kyralizth,
certain somehow that to know its real secrets would solve all her problems.
She wanted to say yes quickly, before the old man died. She caught herself.
"I must discuss all this with my bhirhir."
"Of course. You will return."
Suddenly, she realized that she had come to the temple wanting nothing to do
with people who exalted balbhirhir, afraid of them as if it were contagious.
And this old man in a white robe had simply spoken a few words that couldn't
possibly be true, making her eager to take a place among the student priests!
She had ripped herself out of the bosom of her family, taken a human male
bhirhir, followed him halfway around the world to a mountain city made of icy
winds and square corners and now she was eager to abandon her ancestral
teachings and turn Mautri, as this white-robed priest must have done once.
What is happening to me?
Chapter 4
Zref and Sudeen approached their training as security guards with
trepidation. There was physical exercise as if they were training for an
athletic contest. There was per-sonal combat, acrobatics, and gymnastics,
competing against humans and other species. Every night, when they returned
home, they nursed aches and bruises and wondered how they would face the next
day.
There were classroom studies on everything from inter-species first aid to
securing a post against physical assault. They studied crowd control, criminal
psychology, and espi-onage. The class that most fascinated Zref focused on the
vast interstellar criminal organizations. Even he could see
that the graphs were definitely changing; a new element had entered the
information-theft business. It gave him nightmares.
But in the end they graduated with honors, and Zref felt that the two of them
could handle anything that might happen. They were immediately given full
responsibility for leakproofing the house from the inside.
Already, the Ortenaus had identified a message segment on the Vrashin tapes
that seemed to be recorded in eighteen different languages and five different
notation systems. But none of them bore any resemblance to a living language.
Daily, Zref and Sudeen checked the house for intruding spy equipment. At
first they took the job seriously, but after a while they began to feel
foolish and tried to do their checking when others weren't around. Yet they
always did the prescribed checks.
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They told the neighbors that their parents were offplanet and that they
themselves were staying here with a few stu-dents. The windows had all been
boxed in from the out-side so that the house appeared deserted, while from the
inside cameras showed every detail of passersby while com-puter tie-ins ran
identity crosschecks.
The locks had been changed on all the doors, even the one in the basement
that opened onto the public tunnel. They could not have been more secure. Life
settled into a routine.
Much to Sudeen's delight, Zref began to spend more time with Tessore. In
fact, Sudeen would often comment casual-ly on her last known whereabouts and
then disappear into the immersion pool in the room that Zref's parents had
vacated for them. Gradually, those stolen hours with Tess became the high
point of Zref's day.
At first, he kept up with his parents' progress through her. She would
display for him the segment of the tape they were working on, showing all the
cryptic notations, and try to explain it to him. But the sight of that alien
writing always gave him the same shuddering chill it had the first time he'd [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]