Rian would never have thought the hot damp air of Duvalpore would feel good, but now it was as welcome as a cool breeze.
They were at a traders’ post on the very outskirts of the great city, outside the outer wall and across one of the barrier canals. Rian was sitting on a fallen log near the cold firepit while Rastim lay on one of the grass mats nearby. The post was mostly empty, with all the traders inside the city for the festival. They had a good view of the wall across the water, with the heavy vines creeping up stone stained red and gold by the sunset, and the high domes of the temples floating above it in the evening mist. The Ariaden’s wagons were drawn up under a cluster of tall palms, and the actors were all mostly still asleep, recovering from their ordeal and the precipitate exit from the city.
No one seemed to be aware of any of what had happened except for those who had been in the Marai. As soon as Maskelle had spoken to the few guards and servants still present in the Celestial Home, it was obvious that those two days spent in that strange place had gone by in a heartbeat for everyone left behind in the city. Fortunately, there was no one in the palace of a high-enough rank to demand an explanation from the Voice of the Adversary as to what she was doing in Chancellor Mirak’s private quarters.
Maskelle had commandeered a boat from the Palace docks so they could return to the Marai. Once there she had gone inside and sent out the other Ariaden, and Rastim had hurried them back to the guesthouse to collect their wagons and the rest of the group, and then they had worked their way out of the crowded city. That was earlier today and Rian hadn’t seen Maskelle since.
The Ariaden were still confused, and Rian and Rastim hadn’t had much time for explanations for them; Rian still wasn’t sure he understood what had happened himself. It was a little hard to comprehend that a few hours ago they had been trapped in a limbo with the whole world at stake, and now they were sitting in a traders’ post in the warm twilight waiting for Maskelle to return.
Rastim, who must have been thinking along much the same lines, commented, “Hard to believe it wasn’t all a dream.”
“Well, we do have some evidence,” Rian said wryly. They both looked at the girl. We need a name for her, he thought. She had been wandering along the edge of the tree line, investigating the flowers and ferns and admiring the insects and birds. As the twilight lengthened, she had come back to where he and Rastim were sitting. Rian thought she was watching the waterbirds in the canal, but now she edged closer to him and seemed a little nervous.
He asked, “What’s wrong?”
She gestured at the colors streaking the darkening sky. “Is this supposed to happen?”
He looked up at Rastim, who shrugged his bewilderment. Rian said, “Is what supposed to happen?”
She pointed up again. “That. The light going away.”
Rian realized what she meant and smiled, shaking his head a little in amazement. “It’s night. That’s supposed to happen.” The Adversary had given her much of the knowledge it thought she needed to survive, but it seemed to have left out a few key facts.
“Oh. That’s all right, then.” Reassured, she leaned against Rian’s knee.
Rastim stood up suddenly. “There she is.”
Rian looked up to see the Celestial One’s boat coming toward them from across the canal, the white fabric of the awning drifting gently in the breeze.
“Who’s that?” the girl said excitedly.
“That’s the Celestial One,” Rian told her as he got to his feet. He could see Maskelle now, sitting next to the old man. Relief washed over him. He hadn’t thought she would leave them and remain in the city, but it had been a hard couple of days.
“Trouble?” Rastim asked worriedly.
“I don’t think so.” There was no one else in the boat but the boys who poled it. The Celestial One hadn’t even brought his usual attendant priest. “Wait here.”
Rian went down the gentle slope of the bank to the post’s dock as the boat drew up. He saw the “wait here” had worked on Rastim, but the girl had followed him, bouncing along happily at his side. He looked down at her, lifting his brows, and she said, “My father said if Maskelle wasn’t here I was supposed to stay with you.”
“Oh, he did, did he?” Rian let out his breath. The Adversary had apparently planned for every contingency.
A boy jumped out of the boat to tie it off, and Rian helped Maskelle lift the Celestial One out.
“Ah,” the old man said, looking around and sniffing the fresh air. “It is good to be alive again.”
The last time Rian had seen the Celestial One he had been a corpse. It was still hard to believe they had all survived.
“This is she?” the Celestial One asked, eyeing the girl.
“No other,” Maskelle told him.
The Celestial One took the girl’s arm and let her lead him up the short distance to the camp.
Rian hung back with Maskelle, asking, “What did you tell them?”
She sighed. “That the Adversary was injured by the change, that It needs time to recover and until then there will be no Voice.”
“They believed that?”
She shrugged a little, smiling ruefully. “They don’t have a choice. Besides, it’s mostly true.” She said slowly, “When the Voices used the Wheel to close the Aspian Straits and made the Sakkaran cities vanish, they damaged the Adversary. The Ancestors are all spirits who were once people, but the Adversary was the world itself, the way the Wheel is the world. A part of Itself went with those cities. It had to wait until now to remake Itself, but It was growing weary, and a little mad. It didn’t always remember what It had to do. It gave me a false vision and told me to destroy Raith so I would be exiled. So all the events It foresaw would fall into place. It spoke to Marada when she came to this world and pretended to need her help.” She looked toward the domes of the city. “Marada told me The Book of the Adversary was the one Koshan text she didn’t need to read. She thought she knew all there was to know. But none of us knew.”
Rian looked at the girl again, now sitting at the Celestial One’s feet. “So she’s like one of the original Ancestors. When she dies…”
“Her spirit will join the Infinite and become the new Adversary.”
Maskelle drew her robes around her and they went up to the Ariaden’s camp. Rastim was a little nervous at being left alone with the Celestial One and looked relieved to see them. They took seats near the firepit and the girl moved immediately to settle at Maskelle’s side.
“You have a great responsibility,” the Celestial One said, looking at Maskelle, his tone solemn.
“I’ve always had a great responsibility,” Maskelle told him. “This is nothing new.” She looked down at the girl fondly. “Well, it’s a little new.”
The old man snorted in annoyance, but only said, “What will you do?”
Rian looked at Maskelle. They hadn’t exactly discussed this. She shrugged. “I don’t know.” She gave Rian a faint smile and he realized that she didn’t particularly care where they went.
The Adversary was dead, and though she had the guardianship of its successor, this was the first time in many years that she had been free. Rian smiled back.
“Stay with us for a time,” Rastim said suddenly, leaning forward. “We can tour the larger cities in the Empire. The roads are good and the audiences love us. When things calm down in Duvalpore we can come back.” He rubbed his chin and added speculatively, “If we’re still popular, I’m thinking of opening a theater, a permanent one. We’re all getting older and it would be nice to have a home.”
The Celestial One shook his head. “She should stay close to the temples. You should stay here.”
“She should have as wide an experience of the world as possible,” Maskelle countered firmly. She lifted her brows and added, “That’s what the Adversary wanted.”
“Hmph.” The Celestial One sat back with a disgruntled expression and looked inclined to argue.
Rian suspected this argument had been going on since Maskelle had returned to the Marai. Maskelle continued, “It wanted her to live as a person, to learn compassion and morality, the way the Ancestors did when They were human. And besides”—she gave him an arch look—“she’s half Sitanese, so it’s not your decision. The Adversary is a warrior and she needs to learn about that from Rian.”
Everyone looked at Rian, except for the girl, who, never still for long, had jumped up to wander back toward the patch of grass where the oxen were grazing. Rian tried to look enigmatic. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about all of this, but even after only a few hours’ acquaintance he liked the girl. He could see a great deal of Maskelle in her already, and the occasional glimpses he caught of himself were startling.
“You’ll take care of her?” the Celestial One asked him, his voice gruff.
“Taking care of people is what I do,” Rian told him.
The Celestial One sighed and folded his hands, looking away. “Well?” Maskelle prompted. “I was raised in the temples at a high rank and it didn’t do me any good. With her power it would be worse for her.”
“You have told me that it isn’t my decision,” the Celestial One said stiffly.
“I’m humoring you.” She smiled.
He shook his head at her, but he couldn’t keep the amusement from showing in his face. He asked, “What will you call her?” and it appeared the decision was made.
Maskelle looked at Rian, who shrugged. He had never had to name any children before. She said, “What about ‘Siri’? It’s the Sitanese word for a type of sword.”
The Celestial One eyed the girl, who was stroking the forehead of one of the oxen. He said wryly, “That will probably do very nicely.”