JULIEN

II

Chapter 7

Si vis pacem...

Lord Aldegard, Lord Tahlil and Master Subadar arrived just after Julien and his friends had finished settling into the servants' accommodation that Aïn's family had loaned to them, and a council meeting was held almost immediately. This was also attended by Niil, Aïn, Tannder and of course Julien himself, who asked Aldegard to take the chair.

“My Lord,” Aldegard began, “we're facing a situation that has never before occurred in all the time since the R'hinz was founded. We don't know anything about our adversary, other than assumptions and a few facts. I'll start with those: we can be reasonably sure that it was this adversary who was responsible for the attack on you at Bakhtar Tower. Considering the nature of the weapon used, it seems highly likely that this adversary does not come from any of the R'hinz worlds, or from Earth. This adversary was able to manipulate the mind of a member of my own domestic staff without leaving any trace of his tampering. He also knows a great deal about the way our society functions and would seem to know exactly who you are, as well as recognising the essential role you play in keeping the Empire together and your irreplaceable role as the transmitter of the Major Arts.

“Indeed, in the light of what has just happened we have to ask ourselves if this same enemy was not also responsible for both your recent disappearance and the one thirteen years ago which deprived us of you for so long. It seems likely that the attack on your flybubble and the attempt against you in the Ocean Rotunda are also the work of the same enemy. And that's about all we have as far as facts are concerned.

“As for conjecture, we can't be sure of any of this, but we should consider it nonetheless: first, it seems likely that the enemy can master the Art of the Guides – or, alternatively, that he has some Guides working for him, which I have to say is highly unlikely. Second, the fact that so far he has attacked you and you alone would tend to suggest that he doesn't have the resources for a full-scale invasion of the R'hinz, or that he doesn't intend to launch one at this stage. His goal appears to be to weaken us by lopping off our head. Of course we have no means of knowing what he might do if he achieves that goal, but what he has done so far doesn't look good. And that's about all I can say at this point.”

“Thank you, Aldegard,” said Julien. “Unfortunately I have something to add to your statement. I'd rather this wasn't made public, but you need to know that the Sleeping Bodies in the Palace are all dead. We don't know exactly when they were killed, but Xarax is certain that they are definitely dead.”

Aldegard opened his mouth to speak, but Julien interrupted him.

“I know what you're going to say,” he said, “and it's exactly why I didn't tell you about this sooner. You're going to suggest that I should be hidden away somewhere, because if anything happens to me I won't be able to regenerate any longer, aren't you? Well, I don't think that's a good idea at all. In fact, I think that's what our enemy hopes I'll do, because that would make it possible for him to spread the rumour that the Emperor is either dead or too scared to show his face, or any other rumour which he thinks will damage everyone's morale. Plus, that would leave me stuck in one place, and sooner or later he'd find me. I'd much sooner find him and then confront him at a time and place of our choosing.”

“If I may, My Lord,” said Tannder, “I'd like to draw attention to the use of ghorrs in the first attack. That suggests either that the enemy has links to a circle of dark sorcerers, or that there's a second enemy following his own agenda. Either way it's extremely disturbing.”

“Indeed,” agreed Julien, “and I don't think we can just leave the situation to resolve itself, because it won't. I think we need to do the exact opposite of what a sensible councillor would advise, because if nothing else it ought to confuse the enemy. So I'm not going to go and hide in a deep hole somewhere. I also think that sensible councillors would advise us to keep all this secret in order to prevent panic, and so instead I think we ought to make sure everyone gets to hear about it. Yes, it might frighten people, but it'll make it much harder for anyone trying to spread gossip about the Emperor being absent or in hiding. And if we're careful about how we tell the general public what is going on it should be possible for us to get them in sympathy with us, and then if things get really nasty later on and we have to deal with an actual invasion, it will be easier to persuade people to fight. What do you think, Aldegard?”

“I really hope we don't end up having to fight on a large scale, My Lord. But maybe you're right, and it would be better to keep the population informed as to what is going on. Better to do it now that to suddenly spring it on them when things have got completely out of control.”

“Does anyone have any other ideas?” asked Julien. “Subadar?”

“Yes, My Lord. I'm going to call a meeting of the Circle of Major Arts and ask everyone to watch out for any suspicious activity, particularly in the forbidden domains. That's supposed to happen anyway, but for far too long now we've let our guard down. And if we're going to be open about what's happening we'll be able to make some serious enquiries without having to dream up cover stories for them. I also think it would be a good idea to talk to every Neh-Kyong we know about. We'll probably need you to do that for us.”

“Obviously I'm entirely at your disposal to do anything you can't do yourselves,” Julien assured him. “Just try to bear in mind that I'm likely to have plenty of other things that need my attention.”

“Of course, My Lord.”

“Tannder, did you want to say something?”

“Yes, My Lord. I would like this council to authorise my Order to train and arm small combat units and deploy them throughout the R'hinz. I'd also like permission to train a few elite units in the use of explosive weapons, both heavy and light.”

“That decision can only be made by the Council of Mirrors,” Aldegard told him.

“Or by the Emperor himself if he deems it expedient,” said Tahlil. “I spend quite a while reading the Rules, Traditions and Customs of the Nine Worlds before I became Mirror for Dvârinn.”

“All the same, I think I'd prefer to call a meeting of the Council of Mirrors,” said Julien. “Where I come from we tend to look at people who assume sole authority for stuff with some suspicion. I'm sure Aldegard can arrange a meeting for sometime in the near future, and once the Council has made its decision I'll back it all the way, whichever way they decide to go. I'd also like Niil to be able to act on my behalf for the day-to-day running of things, because I don't want the whole system to seize up if I have to disappear for a few days to deal with some emergency.

“Tahlil, can I ask you to start to put together whatever we need in order to start telling the people what's going on?”

“Yes, My Lord.”

“If anyone needs money, Niil will have access to the Imperial Treasury until alternative funding can be arranged. I'd be glad if you could all help him to recruit sufficient administrative staff to deal with that.”

“Who is going to be in charge of your security?” asked Aldegard.

“Xarax will be with me at all times, and I'm sure Tannder can organise a team of specialists to help secure the places I'll be staying for more than a day or so – can't you, Tannder?”

“Indeed, My Lord. I'll deal with that.”

“Otherwise I suppose we'll just carry on the way we'd originally planned,” Julien went on. “I'll keep on the move and I won't tell anyone where I'm going. Aïn can organise liaison teams among the Guides, and that should mean that we can all stay in touch with each other.”

“What about those who are travelling with you now?”

“Well, Karik shel Tannder is, as his name makes clear, the responsibility of his master, so Tannder will decides what happens to him. And everyone knows that Ambar of the Ksantiris and Dillik son of Dendjor are my friends, and that makes them ideal targets for anyone wanting to hurt me. So they'll be staying with me unless I'm actively engaged on some operation where they would get in the way.”

“What about your parents?”

“Once I've explained the situation to them they can decide for themselves what they want to do. Right, so unless anyone has any other urgent business I suggest we close the meeting here.”

Subadar gave a discreet cough.

“One more thing, My Lord,” he said. “I'd like you to talk to a team of Masters of Life Sciences about creating some new Sleeping Bodies.”

“All right. I don't really like the idea, but I can see why it might be an issue for you, so I suppose I could do that. Now I think it has to be time to eat and – provided we're not presuming too much on your hospitality, Aïn – I'd like you all to stay and share the meal with me.”

oo0oo

Aldegard and Subadar declined the invitation, but Tahlil said that he'd be happy to stay. The service house that was looking after Aïn's guests wasn't on a par with what Bakhtar Tower had offered, but it was certainly more than adequate and catered perfectly for the needs of humans. Unlike the Guides' own homes this one was built above ground and, from an Earth-dweller's perspective, looked much like an Alpine mountain refuge, but without the problems of being at altitude. The human staff attached to Aïn's residence were aware of the importance of his guests and so had done the very best that they could, and this meal was of a very high quality indeed. Sadly the prevailing mood was not exactly celebratory, and fairly soon the conversation had turned to serious topics.

“Tannder,” said Julien, “I didn't want to make too much of this earlier, but where are you intending to take those weapons you spoke about? I mean, we are talking about forbidden weapons here, aren't we?”

“Yes. It's completely illegal to use or even own them. The only exception is that the headquarters of my Order on the three human worlds is authorised to own a few of each of these weapons, just to make sure we don't completely forget how to use them or what they can do. Of course we've always assumed that there are no other worlds within reach of our communications, and so what we're facing now is completely unprecedented, but it's always been considered a possibility – even if it was only a tiny one – and so it was felt that we should not deprive ourselves completely of something that we might need one day. On the other hand it was strongly felt that we should prevent the people of the Nine Worlds from having access to any means of killing each other more efficiently than is absolutely necessary in a society where aggressiveness is sometimes seen as a sign of vitality.”

“Right, but what do you intend to do with your weapons? I'm sure you haven't got enough of them to fight off a serious invasion. Are you intending to make more of them? I'd have thought that might not be easy, given that about the most advanced piece of kit I've seen anywhere in the R'hinz so far is a flybubble.”

“It won't be necessary to make more in the short term unless things go very badly indeed, because we still have some warehouses where we store weapons of that type.”

“I thought all the illegal stockpiles were destroyed as soon as they were found?”

“True, but there are others. And only one person in the whole Empire knows how to find them.”

“Let me guess: that's me, isn't it? And obviously they'll have to probe my mind again to dig out that particular memory, won't they?”

Tannder smiled. “Actually, this time you're wrong,” he said. “You're close, but it's not you.”

“Xarax, then?”

“Correct. And he'll have to take us to them once the Council has given its permission.”

“If the Council gives permission, you mean. I'm certainly not going to twist their arms or lean on them.”

“I don't understand.”

“I don't think it should be just down to me, or even down to me with a rubber stamp from a puppet Council. All right, yes, they call me 'Emperor', but I have no intention of becoming a dictator. That's someone who governs without consulting anyone else,” he added, when he saw the confused look on Tannder's face.

“What's more,” he went on, “this reminds me a bit about something I was reading a little while ago, a legend of one of the peoples of Earth – the Greeks, in this case. In that story a young girl called Pandora opens a box that she should have left closed, and all sorts of troubles and bad things escaped and spread all over the Earth. She did try to close it again, but she couldn't do it quickly enough. The only thing left in the box was Hope. Well, these arms depots of yours sound to me a bit like Pandora's box. My world is literally poisonous with weapons like that. They're everywhere. We've even got enough atomic weapons, like what we found in Tchiwa Ri Kor, to destroy the entire planet several times over. And that's why I don't want to be the one who decides to open Pandora's box, because if we once open it we might not be able to close it again until it's too late.”

oo0oo

Chapter 8

Elementary...

Julien went to meet his parents as soon as the meal was over. He was afraid it was going to be a difficult interview and just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. He found them at their new house just preparing to go into Aleth. As he had known would happen, his mother reacted very badly to the possibility of war.

“Is this never going to end?” she asked. “We had to endure the Boches during the war, and your grandparents were killed in an air-raid. And now this!”

“Mum, we're not at war yet, but we have to take some precautions. It would be stupid to...”

“It would be stupid to stay here! Let's go back home – you don't owe these people anything. You didn't ask them to whisk you away here, did you?”

“We've already discussed this, and you know it's not as simple as that. But if you want to go back to Earth I'm sure Aïn will find a way to get you there.”

“How can you think that we're going to run away and abandon you?”

“I honestly don't know what's best. You don't need to be here, and I'd certainly feel a bit more relaxed if I knew that you were out of danger.”

“If you came with us you'd be out of danger, too. What do you think you're doing, playing at being a general? The only thing you know about war is playing wide games with the Scouts!”

“Isabelle, stop it,” interrupted Mr Berthier. “He's not responsible for what's happening. He only wants to make sure we know what's going on. Don't make things harder for him than they already are. He's already told us why it wouldn't do any good if he went back to Earth. The people looking for him would still find him, and then they might start getting ideas about attacking Earth as well.”

“Well, what do you think we should do, then? Stay here and wait for the bombs to start falling?”

“If you want to go back I'll certainly come with you. I expect we could arrange it easily enough.”

“You know I won't go back to Earth without Julien!”

“Mum,” interrupted Julien, “you know I can't leave. But you're going to have a baby, and I can understand why you don't want him caught up in a war.”

“Well, let's be realistic,” said Mr Berthier. “It's not as if war isn't likely to happen on Earth. There are already wars going on all over the place – Vietnam, for example. And there's always a chance that someone in Russia or America will press the wrong button by mistake and kill all of us. I can't imagine that it would be any more dangerous to stay here. And if we do stay I'm not just going to sit on my hands, either: after all, I do have combat experience, even if I'd prefer not to have been through that. Algeria wasn't a bundle of laughs... and I'm still a reserve officer on Earth. I'm starting to like the people here, and if it comes down to it I'll volunteer to fight to defend them. I'd just like them to give me something a bit better than a bow or a crossbow.”

“If that's really what you want I'll mention it to Tannder,” promised Julien. “I'm sure he'll be happy to have the use of someone who knows about modern weapons. But it's quite possible that there won't actually be a war – all we're doing at the moment is taking some basic preparations, and trying to find out who's attacking us, of course. Anyway, there's no rush – think about it carefully, and I certainly won't argue if you decide you want to leave. There'll be a security detail with you tonight or tomorrow. Tannder will bring them with him himself, and he swears they won't be a nuisance.

“Anyway, I have to go, but Wakhann can find me at any time if necessary. Aïn is explaining to him how to do that right now. And Wakhann also has orders to evacuate you to somewhere safe in a emergency.”

oo0oo

Possibly it was true that there was no emergency just yet, but Aïn still thought it would be a good idea to push Julien's education forward a bit.

I don't think you'll have any real problems using the klirks now, Aïn told him. You've already shown me that you can use the common klirks, which lead to the Orientation Table. There are also specific one-way klirks like the one that brought you to Nüngen that first time: they lead only to a particular destination whose symbol they bear. You could say they're a sort of short-cut that bypasses the Table. These two categories of klirks can be used by any Guide, and in fact the vast majority of us never use any other type. They're all we need for almost all communication within the R'hinz.

Then there are target-klirks. Those are personal to each Master Guide. You'll remember that I placed one on your boat on Dvârinn. They can only be used by the Guide who owns them and they act a bit like a specific klirk, insofar as you don't have to go via the Table when using them, but unlike the specific klirks they are only marker-buoys on the way to a destination. In order to use them you have to be able to jump into the Outside, and only a Master Guide can do that.

Finally, there are the beacon-klirks. Their use has to be authorised by the Council of Guides, and they are used to aid navigation to a completely new destination. In theory, when I visited your world I could have left a beacon-klirk there and used it to open up a whole new navigation route to Earth. Obviously I didn't, because we have no intention of opening up a connection with Earth.

And now you have to free yourself from the limitations imposed by the use of the common klirks and move on – like a small number of Master Guides – to being able to travel without using klirks at all.

The last time I saw the Outside, Julien responded, it almost killed me. If Xarax hadn't been with me I'd still be stuck there, and by now I'd probably be completely round the bend.

When you saw the Outside, Aïn pointed out, you were unprepared for it, and you had also just received a shock which almost killed you. The Outside is scary, but only to those who are unaware of its true nature or those who cannot impose even a small measure of control on their own mind. But now you have learned to control your mind. Your meeting with the Neh-Kyong Tchiwa Ri Kor proves it.

Now I'm going to tell you what you need to know about the Outside. Fort a long time nobody had the faintest idea about its nature and the Guides tackled it armed only with their courage, rather like the way in which early sailors took on the oceans and its storms without any knowledge of what causes the wind, the waves or the tide, or even why the sun rises in the morning. But eventually our species started to understand certain things, and a theory about it has been developed, first from the boldest speculation and later it was more or less confirmed by experience.

'More or less'? commented Julien. That's not exactly encouraging. That's a bit like giving me a flybubble and telling me you think it will 'more or less' stay in the air.

It's not really the same, said Aïn. For a start, generations of Guides have crossed the Outside without any problem. However, I would have to admit that normal logic doesn't always work when we're dealing with this aspect of reality. We have been able to find out a lot about the Outside, but it doesn't always fit neatly into the usual straightforward idea that every proposition has to be either true or false.

Sorry, said Julien. I don't quite follow that.

Well, the usual rule is that something either exists, or it doesn't. It can't both exist and not exist at the same time. Two plus two always equals four, not three and a half. In fact our minds cannot really conceive of any other type of reality. Obviously we can SAY that something is both what it is and the opposite, but we can't actually imagine it to be like that. You see, what we call 'outside' actually belongs to what we call the domain of the limit. It's very difficult to perceive because it isn't actually located 'outside', as we usually say, but both 'beyond' and 'below' our usual view of reality. It is the fabric hidden behind what we call real, or true. We see the world the way we do because our minds and our senses somehow filter out what we call 'Outside' – or, to be more accurate, they filter out what the Outside is made of. And what the Outside is made of, the very foundation of our reality, exists in a way that cannot be described as either 'being' or 'not being'. Some mathematicians say that the whole universe is defined by a kind of limit that appears to divide being from non-being, but that, contrary to what we experience, the reality of the world has no limit at all. I know that this is extremely difficult to understand, but it does enable us to have a vague idea of how travel in the Outside actually works.

You mean, said Julien, that even if I don't understand what you're talking about, it will still help me not to panic?

Exactly! Nobody, not even our greatest mathematicians, can figure out the true nature of the Outside. Our minds are unable to grasp it. But that doesn't stop us from being able to work in that reality and get results in our ordinary world. In order to do that we use symbols. These symbols have a certain reality in our mind. They present themselves as images or sounds, sometimes simple and sometimes complex, but they are also connected to this 'domain of the limit' which is the key to our reality.

A good example of this is the whole set-up of the klirks and the Orientation Table. The advantage of those symbols is that they don't just exist in the Guide's mind: they really exist, and so we don't have to recreate them every time we want to use them. Some philosophers believe that the world doesn't in fact have a different nature and that the time and space we think we experience actually only exist within our own minds. Others believe that there is a genuine physical reality which exists independent of our experience. And some claim that the reality of this world is something beyond either of these explanations. Now, obviously nobody is ever going to be able to demonstrate categorically that one of these views is the absolute truth, but it is interesting to see that the theories developed from these three differing views actually lead to verifiable results which can be put to practical use. And one of these results is the klirk network.

In other words, said Julien, it works, and it doesn't really matter why it works.

If you like. Once you understand that, you only need to possess the Gift – which you know you do; to discipline your mind – and you've already started to do that; and to know a couple of tricks which I'm going to teach you. After that it's no harder than sailing: it's just a question of intuition, method and endurance. It's also helpful to be able to memorise as many klirks as possible, unless you want to have to invent a new route every time you want to go somewhere. But in your case, as I've already told you, you'll be able to cheat and use Xarax's infallible memory instead.

One more thing: it's important to recognise that you don't actually 'move' in the Outside. Your mind simply explores aspects of the limit I've been talking about. And when you were lost in the Outside you were actually nowhere – you were simply confronted with an aspect of the domain of the limit that you had never explored before.

Thank you, said Julien. That completely sets my mind at ease.

Aïn recognised the sarcasm straight away.

It should, he replied. It means that all the time you decide to stay in the Outside there's nothing to be frightened of provided that you remain calm. Nothing can actually reach you from 'outside'. The only enemies who can harm you there are the products of your own imagination. All the same, I'll gladly admit that a complete novice might easily conjure up such a level of terror that his sanity would collapse. That's why nobody – not even confirmed Guides – is given instruction on how to jump into the Outside.

But you're going to instruct me anyway, commented Julien. All right: when do you want to start?

There's no time like the present. So: first I want you to imagine a square circle...

oo0oo