The Message (I)

Maia struggled to keep up with Sister Thalia and stumbled on the uneven slope, sliding on the brown grass alongside smoking bits of rubble that tumbled alongside her, still searching for their resting places. A bulwark hauled her up by the arm and kept her moving downhill. Apparently, they were in a hurry. Phrenos fared even worse. He fell on his face and slid twenty meters downhill before they helped him. Her muscles burned from the rushed descent. She wasn't normally so physical, but if the conquerers said run, she ran without question. She followed them without regard for her authority or their intent. Something important, like her sense of independent judgment, might have broken inside her, but those were matters to ponder later. If they left her behind now, there wouldn't be a chance to influence events later. (This was a rationalization, she knew, but it was a good enough one to keep her moving.)

They stepped onto a lesser-used road at the bottom of the hill, and there was her Enclave carriage! Twin appalons padded nervously in their harness while the driver soothed them with handsful of miniature squash. They liked to take the little gourds in their trunks, tuck them between their back teeth, and gnaw them apart. That activity kept them occupied even through the disaster uphill.

"Guardian Maia! President Phrenos! Am I glad to see you!" The driver's head spines stood up in excitement, and he forgot all his manners. "I wasn't sure this lot was being honest when they said they'd bring you back! What happened up there?"

"I need a moment with them in private, Mister Toma." Thalia's hand opened the carriage door. "Then you can have them back. After you," she said to the guardians and waited for them to climb in.

As she hauled her tired body into the cab, Maia realized something. This driver had taken her around the city many times over several years, and she had never asked his name. Why would she, when he was from a pool of drivers and not hers personally? Nexus disciples asked his name at the first meeting. Field disciples were infamous among the powerful and highborn for treating them almost like commoners. The other side of that coin was they treated humble people almost the same as they treated kings.

The disciple climbed in after them, shut the door, and put up a privacy barrier without speaking a word. She produced a Nexus fragment lantern and opened it partway, enough so Maia felt exposed and vulnerable. Phrenos had never seen one and shrank from the coruscating silver waves.

"It's all right, Phrenos," Maia assured him, "it won't hurt you, but it will reveal you if you lie. The fragments of light are instruments of grace and truth. Perhaps that's why Dean Katerina feared them so."

"State your business with us," said Phrenos.

"It's just a few items, and then you can go," promised Thalia. "But if you throw a childish fit, then I'll put you in a deep sleep. Who knows where Brother Montague will dump you? You could wake up anywhere."

The words you wouldn't dare formed on his lips and froze there. Maia could see the halted words, suspended in time, as the President of the Council of Guardians understood: Sister Thalia absolutely would dare. They just watched her kill the five most important people in Dace and put their bodies on display. Never mind how she managed it. Pranking President Phrenos was small beer.

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Phrenos wisely shut his mouth.

Maia was tired of not knowing what was going on or what was coming next. "May I ask a question?"

"My business comes first," insisted Thalia, "then I'll entertain questions if they're short. First item: our sources claim you were the one who suggested total war against Red Tower and the Calique. His Holiness wants to know if it's true, and why? You seemed so reasonable before. We were surprised when he told us."

"It was an error in judgment." Maia held up her hand to stop Thalia's obvious and well-deserved objection. "It wasn't meant to be a real solution. I thought they'd see how insane it was, and back away from it. I thought we could use the moment to think rationally. But the Vow has twisted all their minds. I'm sorry for the part I played in this war."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Maia." Phrenos's face was cast in shadow, and there it stayed for the next three seconds.

Maia laughed bitterly. "You don't believe that. And neither do I. The Vow doesn't affect me because I don't have spirit, but I failed to think about how it might affect the Firsts if they took it. They're insane. I couldn't talk them back to reason without them suspecting me, and I didn't want to die. I should have been smarter or braver, but I wasn't. It might not have mattered if I was. They wanted to do what they did, I gave them the excuse they needed, and they ran with it."

Knowing she couldn't lie was doing something strange to her. Or maybe it was the helplessness of being in the grip of forces she couldn't hope to control. She didn't care if the whole world knew how cowardly she'd been or what it cost. If Enclave was ever going to be better than it was, people like her would need to start telling the truth. Maybe the next Guardians would do better.

Thalia showed them a short stack of writing boards bound in purple ribbon as if it had come from Leadership. "This is a message from our Hierarch to yours. The way he sees it, Her Holiness should have a say in what comes next. This letter offers her choices. Several, in fact."

"How do you know what the letter says?" demanded Phrenos.

"Because I read it before it was sealed." The light remained steady inside the carriage while Thalia and Phrenos stared each other down.

"You can't have our Hierarch," he declared. "We won't let you hold her hostage, or put someone else in her place."

"It doesn't even occur to you, does it?" Thalia favored the President with a knowing smirk. "Her Holiness is supposed to be your superior. Maybe Enclave should follow her lead for a change instead of obeying the Firsts. If you had, maybe you wouldn't be in this mess. These are her options, and they're flexible. Can I trust one of you to deliver it?"

"I'll take it," said Maia.

"Maia, don't! They're the enemy."

"Then Her Holiness will decide what to do about them. This is where we part ways, Phrenos. In fact, I think you should get out and walk. If you make for the main road, someone might give you a ride. I would say you're perfectly safe, but that would be a lie. Nothing is certain, now. Maybe it never was."

Thalia grabbed the man by his Guardian robes and physically tossed him out the carriage door. Bulwarks pulled him away. Although it was hard to hear them through the privacy barrier, the bulwarks seemed very apologetic to the driver, Mister Toma, for the disturbance.

"You may ask your questions now."

"What's the state of the war?"

Thalia told her, and the longer she talked, the more drained Maia felt. The disaster was absolute. Phillip didn't send his minions here in some desperate attempt to sow chaos in the rear command. They were in the end game now. The winner was decided, and today's moves were about optimizing outcomes.

After Sister Thalia and her cadre left, vanishing into the browning fields with a reluctant Phrenos in tow, Maia took the seat next to the driver. "I hope you don't mind, Mister Toma, but I could use the fresh air. Take me to the Residence as quick as you can without being reckless. There are things Her Holiness must know."