Ventus by Karl Schroeder (fantasy books to read .txt) 📖

Yuri held up a hand, cocking his head, and said, “Not at all. But we have to face the prospect of a nation ruled only by the rabble, in the form of the Iapysian parliament. Regardless of Queen Galas’ crimes, no right-minded man or woman would want to see the state headless. We would all have to deal with the consequences and, I believe, the Winds would not look favorably upon Iapysia. And we, the Boros, are part of Iapysia.”

Calandria put her hand on Jordan’s sleeve. “Are you all right?” she asked in a whisper.

He wanted to tell her about the visions—but that would end the evening for sure. It wasn’t that Jordan was enjoying this assembly, but it was a very big thing to be here at all. He wanted to stay until the end.

He shook his head. “I’m fine.” But he was beginning to sweat.

Yuri continued: “The Queen earned the wrath of the parliament, and much of the nobility, by creating a number of `experimental villages’ in which the laws of the land were replaced by mock laws of her own devising. In one such, every citizen was entitled to both a husband and a wife—male and female.” Yuri nodded sagely at the shocked expressions of his audience. “In another she repealed law entirely, replacing it with crass public opinion. And in yet another, she inverted all the laws of the land, so that no one was punishable for any act—instead of being punished for acting unjustly, people were rewarded for acting justly. In short, she flung a challenge into the face of decency in all its forms. All in the name of some nebulous `reform’.” Yuri looked down his nose at Brendan Sheia. “We are all ashamed of the actions of this Queen, and no amount of condemnation would be sufficient.

“But she is Queen, and if she is to be dealt with, it should be by the land owners, not the rabble. So, my dear family, we find ourselves on the horns of a dilemma, for the army raised and ruled by parliament is winning the war against the Queen.”

Who cared? He had to get out of here. Jordan made to stand, only to feel Axel’s hand clamp onto his shoulder, forcing him down again. He turned to snap at the man, but a wave of dizziness overcame him.

Strange, how reassuring tears were. They were right for this body, a healing action. Armiger had never known that about tears before, had always taken them to be some reflex reaction of his men to pain. But they freed up sorrow, and this body of his, now his only one, thanked him for allowing them.

Now he stood, wiped his eyes, and gazed up and down the path. What else did this body need? It seemed he should take it into account now that his greater Self was gone. He required proper food, yes, and shelter, warmth and rest. Rest…

He had not known that his body was so weary. All the energy he had poured into it over the past day had poured right out again as he walked. He was healing despite his great expenditure of energy, not because of it. If he wasn’t careful, the body would give out again, this time permanently. He would have to find another, or exist only as the ghostly net of threads that had first come to this world. While he could survive that way, Armiger feared the loss of his human body—it was his anchor. Without it he would drift into the madness of his own sense of loss.

His body wanted the comfort of its own kind to heal it. He would see where this path led to.

Axel took his hand off Jordan’s shoulder. The kid had settled down. He now appeared to be concentrating on Yuri’s speech. Good; couldn’t have him running off to the latrine right now. Yuri was obviously about to announce which ship he was backing, the parliament or the Queen. It would not do to be conspicuous right now.

Jordan couldn’t move. His perceptions seemed doubled: he knew he was sitting at the table in the banquet hall, even felt Axel take his hand from his shoulder. But at the same time, he was far away, watching through another set of eyes. His other hand brushed leaves aside; he stumbled, and Jordan tried to put his right hand out to steady himself. It worked!—he grabbed a branch. But then the hand let go again, before he willed it. No, he was not controlling this body, only reacting in synchrony with it.

“So it is with reluctance and in full awareness that this decision will please no one, that I have to tell you the official position of the house of Boros.” Yuri frowned around at the assembled family members. “In the interest of eventually returning a true monarchy to Iapysia, we must support parliament at this time.”

The path wound down a hillside, and there on a shoulder of the hill, under tall trees, sat a cabin. Extensive gardens were carved out of the brambles at the bottom of the hill, where a small stream wound through this wooded ravine.

Armiger paused, breath heaving. He felt conflicting impulses—to avoid this place, since he was not strong and his body might not survive a hostile encounter—or to seek help for it now. He was desperately ill, tired and wounded.

He stood shifting from foot to foot, aware of jabs of pain every time he moved. Where else could he go? Would he walk to the edge of the world? Or until the Winds found him and wrapped him in their own unwanted embrace? That prospect was daunting.

A gasp from behind him caught Armiger by surprise, and he tried to turn, only to lose his footing. With a raw shout he tumbled down the slope, quite helpless. At the bottom he lay wondering at his weakness. Never, even in the tomb, had he felt this way. His energies were failing from the effort it took to restore his body to life. Coughing, he blinked at the pale leaves high above.

“Goddess!” The voice was a woman’s. “Are you all right?”

A shadow bent over him. He heard another intake of breath. “Goddess, you are not!”

Armiger tried to lift his hand. “Please,” he croaked. “Help me.” His black fingers closed in fine hair.

“No!” Jordan was barely aware that his plate was skittering across the table, and off to shatter on the floor. He had fallen forward, fighting to hold back Armiger’s distant body. “Run! Get away from him!”

No one was paying any attention to him. Brendan Sheia was on his feet, shaking his finger at Yuri. “This is a calumny!” he shouted. “We all know the real reason you’re supporting parliament, father. It’s to cut me out of my birthright!”

A gasp went around the room. Then everyone was shouting at once.

No one could hear Jordan—not those in the banquet hall, transfixed as they were by the drama unfolding here, nor the distant woman, too close to Armiger. Jordan felt her hands on him—or were they Calandria’s?

A torrent of outraged voices enveloped him—“Your anger does you no credit, Brendan!” “Quiet, Linden, you traitor.” Chairs toppled; ladies scurried for cover as the two Boros heirs confronted one another below the head table.

None of this mattered to Jordan. He tried with all his will to take control of Armiger’s body, but it was futile. That hand in her hair… He dimly knew that Axel had him in an armlock and together with Calandria, was marching him from the banquet hall.

He fought the wrong bodies, and even as they resisted, in that distant place the one who should resist, should flee, did not. Instead, her gentle arms gathered him up.

Calandria poured some wine and handed Jordan the cup. He accepted it gratefully, and hunched further under the blanket next to the fire Axel had lit in the fireplace. Axel now paced angrily at the doorway to their tower room. He had barred the door. Several times people had knocked, but he’d shouted that things were under control, Jordan was fine.

It seemed he’d disgraced them at the banquet. Jordan could still taste vomit faintly; he gulped at the wine to mask it. His hands shook, and he stared at them dumbly.

“What’s wrong with him?” Axel demanded.

“He seems to be becoming more attuned to the implant. He was only able to receive when he was asleep before. Jordan, can you hear me?”

He drew himself closer to the fire. Reluctantly, he said, “Yeah.”

Her fingers alighted on his shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” He drained the wine, facing into the fire.

“This is too much for him,” Axel said. “We should stop.”

“We don’t know where he is yet!” she retorted. “The avatar is a threat until we find him and neutralize him. You know how the gods are. We have no way of knowing whether 3340 hid a resurrection seed in Armiger. If it did, and the seed sprouts… then, everything we’ve done is threatened.”

“There are other ways to find him.”

“No!” They both turned their heads. Jordan glared at them. At that moment the two of them reminded him of his parents, ineffectually mouthing words instead of acting. “We have to do something now! He’s hurting people.”

Calandria came to sit next to him. “What do you mean?”

“We have to find out where he is right now,” Jordan insisted. “You promised you would take the visions away when I’d told you where Armiger is. Well, let’s do it. I thought after the manse that things would get easier, since you said you knew what was happening and I thought you could do something about it. But you didn’t expect what happened tonight, and it’s getting worse!” He hunkered himself down, trying to pin her with the reproach of his gaze.

Calandria and Axel exchanged looks. Axel shrugged, appearing almost amused. “There are three of us in on this venture now, Cal. He’s got a point.”

“Where’s the wisdom you were going to trade me for telling you where Armiger is?” Jordan pointed out. “I haven’t got anything out of this. You kidnapped me, and put visions in my head till I’m almost crazy!” He was mildly astonished at his own outburst. Of course, he’d had a few cups of wine tonight, but really enough was enough. An echo of the force that had driven him into the night after Emmy drove him to speak now.

“You seem like the Winds sometimes,” he said, “but you haven’t done anything for me. You said you would.”

Calandria stood. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I promise to make it up to you. And I realize I made a mistake in bringing you to the banquet. I didn’t think you would find it so stressful.”

“Wait a second,” said Axel. “So he was under extreme stress tonight. And started having visions. Is stress the trigger?”

She nodded, and sighed. “Sorry, Axel. I wasn’t sure of it before, so I didn’t mention it. But the banquet proves it. There’s a correlation between stress and his receptivity.”

“Maybe if he can control his stress reactions, he can control the visions,” said Axel. Jordan looked up again at this.

Calandria looked pained. “Yes, but we don’t want to eliminate them entirely. On the other hand, he won’t be able to learn to control himself fast enough to prevent us learning what we need to know.”

“We can at least teach him how to avoid the sort of thing that just happened.” Axel nodded, his arms crossed and his eyes on Jordan. “Teach him some of your tricks. Relaxation games. Mind control. We owe him that much, and you’d said we’d pay him in wisdom. So