The Dreamtrails (32 page)

I could not resist constructing and implanting a question as to why the Faction would invade the Land if it was full of savages and bestial mutants. The boy’s mind immediately seized on the question but could come up with no answer. This troubled him, and he decided he would ask his father. Then he began to think about the training exercises the warrior priests had practiced on the decks. He wondered if those techniques would aid them against the mutant hordes. Seeing the exercises in his memory, I noticed they truly were very like coercer training exercises. Gevan had devised these with the help of Beforetime books unearthed by the Teknoguild, so perhaps the warrior priests were also using Oldtime books, despite their being forbidden by the Faction.

The boy’s mind registered the shipmaster’s summons, and he hurried to meet him, love for his father filling his mind. The shipmaster’s cabin was not the best chamber aboard, as was traditional, for that had been taken by the Herders. Through Lark’s mind, I saw his father close the cabin door firmly after them and turn up the wick on a lantern. The boy sat on the edge of the bed, anxiously waiting to see what his father would tell him. I prompted him to ask the question I had placed in his mind, interested to discover that it had already formed strong connecting threads to other doubts and questions. If I had not encouraged the boy to ask why the Herders were invading a land inhabited by monsters, it was clear that Lark would soon enough have come up with it for himself.

The boy watched several expressions chase one another across his father’s face: astonishment, anger, concern, and, finally, wariness. But last of all, he smiled, and Lark knew this meant that his father would tell him something true, something dangerous.

“Perhaps the Landfolk are not the bloodthirsty monsters the priests preach about but are only folk who do not wish to be ruled by the Faction,” the shipmaster said quietly. “But you must never speak of that possibility with anyone but me or your mother.”

Lark nodded seriously, pride swelling in his mind at the trust his father placed in him. Then, prompted by me but not yet controlled, he asked, “Why do you wear a demon band if you think the people of this Land are not mutants with dreadful nullish powers?”

His father frowned. “Because it is what the priests command.”

“Can I look at it?” I made the boy ask, holding out his hand.

His father hesitated, then sighed, and the boy watched him unfasten it. “Just for a moment, then.” As the lock opened, I abandoned the boy for his father’s mind.

His name was Helvar, and his mind showed that he was, incredibly, all that his son believed him to be: noble, strong-minded, compassionate, and generous. He was also troubled by Lark’s sudden interest in the demon band and his questions about the Land’s inhabitants, and he was aware that his answers, repeated, would see them both burned. He had answered Lark truthfully, because he knew the boy would appreciate his trust. He believed the questions his son had asked were a manifestation of the lad’s fear of the Nine. Helvar knew very well that Lark was afraid the Herders would punish
him for protecting his son, and he feared that, too. But his fear was not that he would vanish into the Herder Compound, for his skills as a shipmaster and shipwright were too valuable to be wasted. Besides, the priests’ punishments were always cruel and subtle. They would be far more likely to do what both Helvar and his wife feared, which was to claim the boy as a novice.

Ever since Lark had been born, this possibility had haunted Helvar, for most Norse boys were taken from their families to become Herder novices. Helvar had done what he could to protect his son; he had taught the boy all he knew, hoping that, by the time he was old enough to be considered as a novice, he would have too many valuable ship skills to waste. And it might have been so, save that by stowing away, the boy had drawn himself dangerously to their masters’ attention.

I threw up a thin coercive shield, realizing I was becoming dangerously absorbed in the compelling thoughts of a man I could not help but like and admire. My control loosened, and Helvar immediately reached out to pick up the demon band, remembering that it was death to be caught without it and wondering at his carelessness in failing to put it back on immediately.

I coerced him to set it aside again and cast about to find a thought I could use before making him ask Lark to fetch their nightmeals on a tray from the galley. As the boy closed the door behind him, his father reached again for the band, and again I had to turn his mind away. Helvar knew that the bands were dangerous, and he had told his son the truth when he had said he wore it only because he must. I made him button his shirt to the neck so the demon band’s absence would not be noticed if someone entered the cabin.

Leaving his conscious thoughts, I delved deeper into the shipmaster’s mind, searching out his knowledge of Herder plans for the Land. Unfortunately, he knew no more than the boy’s mind had already yielded, the Norselanders being little more than a source of bonded labor and novices for the Faction. Helvar’s memories showed me that he and the other shipmaster had been informed only two days before the journey that the
Stormdancer
and the
Orizon
, led by the
Black Ship
, were to carry a Hedra invasion force that would reclaim the Land from the mutants who had driven out the Faction and enslaved the Landfolk.

The shipmaster of the
Orizon
had asked where the force would land and had been told there was no need for him to know. He need only follow the slavemaster Salamander and obey the Herders’ commands.

Helvar had been as amazed as the rest when Salamander had led them up the narrow inlet, with its towering stone walls, and through the impossibly tight space between the stone teeth that lined the vast sea cavern. He loathed the slavemaster but acknowledged that he guided a ship as if touched by the goddesses. For all his skill and experience, Helvar would not like to have led two ships into such a rough and narrow passage, and he had wondered if they were all sailing to their doom, for the way was too narrow and rough to turn a ship.

Half the Hedra on the three ships had disembarked immediately and vanished through an opening in the cavern. The ships had remained anchored through several tides, until Salamander had fetched the two inner-cadre priests, whereupon he had bade them sail back down the inlet.

Anger flowed briefly though the shipmaster’s mind at the memory of the arrogant Hedra captain who insisted on judging
the timing and angle of their departure from the sea cavern. His error of judgment had resulted in substantial damage to the ship, and I felt Helvar’s anger turn to apprehension at the thought of the roughly patched hull. He was aware, as Lark had not been, that the damage would make crossing the strait a perilous enterprise. But Helvar told himself that once the Land was taken, the Nine would surely agree to the ship being properly repaired. Priests might preach about the meaninglessness of flesh compared to spirit, but they were as devoted to protecting their own skins as any man. Not the fanatical Hedra, of course, who believed that their spirits were so pure that Lud guided and blessed their every action.

Anxiety about the ship gave way to renewed anxiety about Lark and the realization that Kaga often eyed the boy with grim purpose. Helvar regretted that the captain had not gone ashore with the rest of the force because then at least the brute might have been slain. Though who would be brave or foolish enough to attack Kaga, whose bulk and strength alone would intimidate anyone, without their even seeing his deadly ability with a knife and pole?

There was a tap at the door, and Helvar rose to open it for his laden son. I waited impatiently while they ate, constantly fending off Helvar’s desire to put on the demon band in case one of the priests entered. Love for his son now slightly distorted the older man’s mind. He told himself that he ought to prepare the boy for the possibility of being taken as a novice, yet he could not bear the thought himself, so how should he comfort his son? And what if he was chosen to be turned into a null? He had shown no nullish abilities, but they sometimes came on when a lad’s voice changed. It would kill Gutred if the boy was taken by that demon-spawn Ariel. She must already be frantic at her son’s disappearance. Lark
swore he had left a note with his friend Alek, explaining his intention to stow away on the
Stormdancer
. The note would say nothing of an invasion, because Lark had not known of it. But Gutred knew because Helvar had whispered the truth to her in the night. She would be mad with fear for them both.

At last the meal was done, and I immediately coerced Helvar to have Lark return the tray to the galley. Then I moved deeper into the shipmaster’s mind, seeking to learn more about nulls. His conjectures had given me the horrible suspicion that nullish powers were Misfit powers.

I had to proceed more carefully, because the information I sought was contained within the area of Helvar’s mind made sensitive by fear for his son. I learned that the boys who would become nulls were chosen from among the new intake of Herder novices. Ariel inspected them as soon as they entered the Herder Compound, and he tested them with a machine. Helvar had never seen the machine, but he had heard the Herders speak of it as something that fitted over a boy’s skull and caused intense pain, which somehow caused them to reveal any nullish powers they possessed, even those unbeknownst to the lad being tested. Salamander then transported those whose nullish powers had been revealed to Ariel’s residence on Norseland, to be purified to receive messages from Lud.

Helvar did not know what
purification
meant, save that those who survived it, and many did not, returned to Herder Isle many sevendays later, transformed into shambling idiots whose babble and wild nightmares were interpreted by Ariel as visions sent by Lud. Helvar wanted to dismiss their transformation as a cruel and insane charade, save that the nulls were known to predict the truth.

I gritted my teeth, sure that the visions seen by the nulls
were coerced into their minds by Ariel to conceal the fact that they arose from his own Misfit powers.

When I had climbed into the ship boat, I had intended to take over the mind of the shipmaster so he would summon and unband his crew. But having entered into his mind and learned the sort of man he was and that the Norselanders were being forced to serve the Faction, I found myself deeply reluctant to use him as a puppet. Helvar was a good, courageous man with no evil in him, and in other circumstances, I had no doubt that I would be glad to regard him as an ally and even a friend.

I made my decision.

“Do you wish to save your son?” I farsent, using coercion to reach his untalented mind.

I
FELT ASTONISHMENT
shudder through the shipmaster’s mind. But Helvar was a strong man with a cool head, and he mastered himself to ask aloud, “Who speaks?”

“For your own safety, Shipmaster, do not speak aloud. Think what words you wish to say, and I will hear them, for I am one of those your masters name
monster
and
mutant
. They name me so not because I am deformed physically, but because I can speak to your mind. When I was no more than Lark’s age, the Herders occupied the Land, as they did yours, generations ago. They dragged my mother and father to the fire and burned them in front of me. My parents were guilty of nothing more than opposing the Council’s oppressive rule.”

There was pity in Helvar’s mind, but he thought a hesitant question. “You are able to reach my mind because I removed the demon band?”

“It was I who made your son ask you to remove it. I was able to reach his mind because he does not wear a band.”

“Then it is true that you have the ability to control minds?”

“I could have simply made you help me. Indeed, it was what I meant to do, until I saw from your mind that you and your people are not in league with the Herders, nor do you serve them willingly. So instead I ask your help. Indeed, I think we can help one another. Your son is in danger, and I
have seen what you fear for him. Knowing the Herders, I think your fear is reasonable. You believe that you have no alternative other than to accept the situation, but I will show you a way to save Lark and yourself and maybe even to bring about the peace and freedom that your wife desires.”

“I cannot stop the invasion,” Helvar said.

I could only admire the firm calmness of his response, for I could feel that his senses were reeling at how effortlessly I had plucked from his mind knowledge of him and his family. “I do not ask you to stop the invasion,” I said. “The people of the Land, who are people like me as well as ordinary folk like you, know of the Herders’ plan to invade, and they have made their own preparations.”

“I hope they have many warriors, for the Hedra have made themselves the weapons of Lud, and their sole purpose is to kill anyone who opposes the Faction,” Helvar said.

His words chilled me, but I did not let doubt enter my mindvoice as I replied, “I believe that the Hedra will be defeated and driven back to their ships. But it is my hope that their ships will not receive them.”