Part 3 (1/2)

”Fusion?”

She nodded. ”Your dream is to see all Thiopans joined together in one unified culture and society before you die. But you know your life-current won't run for that much longer.”

”True. I want Fusion to be the gift I leave behind. The Thiopans” differences have kept them from uniting-it doesn't take a genius to see that.

When we get everybody speaking the same language, believing in the same things-that's when we will be strong 34 enough to take on the universe and win. You believe that, don't you?” ”Yes, my lord. I do. But not everyone does.”

”I know that. Where is the greatest danger to this mission of mine?” ”In the sand-the Endrayan Realm.”

”You mean the Sa'drit Void,” he growled.

”The d.a.m.n Sojourners. d.a.m.n them to h.e.l.l, every last one of them.”

”Some people would say the Void isn't much better than h.e.l.l.”

Stross suddenly rose from the table and began to pace the hardwood floor. ”They live like savages out there-no power plants, no water system, no heating or cooling, no food processing facilities-”

”But they have weapons, they have communications, they have the rail line we abandoned. They have the will and the capability to come out of that desert and hurt you, Ruer.”

”I know. What I don't know is why. When we got rid of Cutcheon and his band of idiots, Thiopa was barely living in the present. Whole realms were still living as I did when I was a child, without enough food, drinking water that made people sick. In forty years I took this world from the past to the future. Why do these crazy Sojourners want to destroy all that?” Ayli remained calm. ”Because they believe your rush toward the future may have destroyed that very future. They blame you for the drought and the crop failures. They blame you for the brown air and the poisoned water.”

”Progress always requires sacrifices.

Why can't people understand that? Do they really want to live in the 35 past again? In a world where people grow old and broken before their time, where babies die ...”

Stross shook his head. ”If they're going to blame me for the bad things, why won't they give me credit for the good?” ”That's the way people are, Ruer. They always want what they don't have. And they'll turn on their leaders the moment things go wrong.”

”Can't they see over the horizon, as we can?”

Stross asked, hands outstretched plaintively.

”Not when they're scared-as some of them are now. So scared that somebody like Lessandra can lead them around by the nose and turn them into a mob of monsters,” Ayli said.

”They haven't won yet, these Sojourner b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.”

”Maybe not, Ruer. But don't forget the darkest shadow: the Sojourners are committed to their mission-to take this planet back to the old waysjust as you are committed to your mission-to unite Thiopa under Fusion.” She paused. ”And, my lord, they believe in their leader as much as we believe in you.”

A third voice, cultured and sly, spoke from the doorway. ”And if we eliminate their leader?”

Policy Minister Hydrin 0otherai entered.

He was much younger than Stross, and taller and thinner, with a shaved head and a pointed beard. Ootherai wore a smartly tailored suit appointed with black braid and bra.s.s. Where Stross scorned the use of physical adornment for the sake of effect, his policy minister embraced the concept.

”If you kill Lessatdra,” Ayli replied, speaking directly to Stross, pointedly ignoring Ootherai, ”someone 36 else will take her place. The Sojourners have come this far-they're not about to bend.”

”Then perhaps they'll shatter,” Ootherai said.

”As they did when you hunted down Evain and arrested him? That was twenty years ago, and since then the Sojourners have only become stronger.”

”Evain was a philosopher, not a fighter,” said Ootherai. ”When Lessandra took his place, we were presented with a new foe, one who was tougher, more radical, more willing to employ strategies of violence.”

”And how do you know you won't get someone even more radical if you do away with Lessandra?”

”You have such a simple view of things, my dear.”

”You can't see anything that's not right in front of you, Ootherai. You discount Evain's contribution to what we're fighting today. He's the one who updated the old Sojourner Testaments. His writings provided the foundation for what Ussandra's doing now. She's just added the idea of a holy war to win the world back from us before it's too late.”

”You give far too much credit to some muddleheaded itinerant-was ”Enough!” Stross exploded, hammering his fist on the table. ”You're arguing about what has already happened. I need to know what will happen. As for getting rid of Ussandra, we don't need to create any more martyrs. I need specifics, Ayli.”

The shadowreader cleared her throat. ”You face perils in dealing with the Federation stars.h.i.+p that's coming here.

If you're to gain the most benefit from the relief supplies the Enterprise is bringing, without risking major losses, you must keep control of events.

You must not let the Sojourners reach the stars.h.i.+p crew with any of their propaganda and lies.”

”Control,” Ootherai said. ”That's what I always recommend.”

Ayli went on, ignoring the policy minister.

”I see the Sojourners striking where they can have the most impact-at the moment of your greatest triumph.” Stross frowned. ”The anniversary feast?”

”The shadow-light relations.h.i.+p tells me it is a certainty.”

Ootherai rolled his eyes. ”One does not need to be a shadowreader to predict that, my lord,” he said. ”For this event I have designed the most stringent security measures we've ever had. You will have an unblemished celebration tonight, I can a.s.sure you.”

”Just as you a.s.sured him there was no way Bareesh and this realm could be attacked by terrorists?” Ayli asked quietly.

”I never said we didn't make errors. We do, however, learn from our errors and strive to make our efforts more effective. I've never heard such standards of accountability applied to a shadowreader.

Our agents discovered a ma.s.sive propaganda campaign and nipped it in the bud, before these”-the policy minister reached into his coat pocket and removed a wrinkled sheet of paper-”could be spread around Bareesh City, not to mention the whole realm.

Under torture, the terrorists admitted to being Sojourner sympathizers.”

Stross blinked in disbelief when he saw the propaganda leaflet. ”Sympathizers ... our citizens helping the Sojourners?”

”Yes,” Ootherai replied quickly, ”but we don't believe there are very many of them. It's a small 38 movement, and we're expending a great deal of effort toward arresting them and convincing potential traitors that the rewards of treason are not pleasant. We'll have them eliminated in no time.”

”That's not what my readings say,” Ayli said.

”Your readings? You sound like a scientist who knows-was ”Shadowreading is something you can't understand.”

Stross cut the bickering short by s.n.a.t.c.hing the leaflet from Ootherai's hand and studied it closely.

It showed a photo of Stross, the sovereign protector, at a rally, dressed in his ceremonial tunic, waving his hands-but his face had been replaced by a death'shead. The caption ridiculed him as ”Uncle Death.”

”The children call me uncle because they know I love them,” Stross sputtered, so distressed he could barely speak. ”I've made their lives better .

. . and that's why they love me.”