"They built one. They built May 16.
"The next question they faced was how to get their whole population, that could have very well numbered in the billions, to their new home. The most convenient way would be to move the ground they were standing on to the new orbit. Then they could transfer all the people to the new world using short-range shuttles, or whatever their equivalent of short-range shuttles would have been.
"But not everyone wanted to leave the Evolution Point. The genetically engineered segment of the population, your ancestors and mine, didn't want to move to this new home for some reason. Maybe they were already tired of being slaves and this just pushed them over the edge. They went into rebellion. If they fought, they won and kicked the entire population off the world to become the Rhudolant Vitae. Or maybe they never fought. Maybe the Rhudolant Vitae were the ones who were on space stations or in ships at the time.
"Because what they definitely did, your ancestors and mine, was steal the world. They moved it to a location that was so preposterous they hoped no one would ever think of looking for them. Their calculations went wrong somewhere and that's why most of the place is dead. That was why the Servant, whoever he was, said 'there is no place for you but here,' because this is the only habitable part of the planet.
"Stone in the Wall dena Aria Born of the Black Wall, am I right?"
"The general pattern matches available information but specific details are not here." Aria jerked like she'd been startled. The stone fell out of her hand and thudded onto the ground.
Her hand drifted to her forehead and pressed against her brow.
"Aria?" A fine layer of perspiration had formed on her skin. Eric reached out, ready to use his power gift if she needed it.
"I'm all right," she waved him back. "I…That was the first time…I…" she rubbed her temple. "The stone just told me it thinks so, but it doesn't…we don't know." She blinked at the shining sphere. "It's never felt like that before."
"You never asked it about its own history before." Eric retrieved the stone and held it out. Aria wrapped her hand inside the hem of her poncho before she took it from him. "You said once that you wished you had your ancestress's knowledge. Well, from what Zur-Iyal said of what's inside those stones, I thought you might, at least some of it."
Aria opened her mouth, and closed it again, obviously still a little dazed. She returned the stone to her pouch and drew the laces tight. "So why didn't the Vitae just head for May 16 when the Realm vanished?"
"I don't know. Maybe they got lost." Aria snorted, but Eric kept on going. "It's not impossible. They'd just lost their world, their slaves, and who knows what else. We are talking about a whole galaxy's worth of room. You've seen it over the World's Wall." He swept his hand out. "There might have only been a few of them, or there might have been something here that they still needed." He lowered his hand slowly. "Maybe there was something still here they couldn't live without so they spent three thousand years trying to find it."
Aria laid her hand on her pouch and swallowed hard.
"What I really want to know is this," she said. "If who you consider to be Aunorante Sangh depends on which side of the World's Wall you were born on, who were the Nameless Powers?"
"I don't know," Eric said. "That's what I think you and Jay are going to find out." He paused. "Or you could ask." He gestured at the pouch.
Aria stared at him. A fat drop of rain splashed against her cheek.
"Let's get inside." Without another word, she turned away and strode toward the huts.
There was nothing left for Eric to do but follow her.
Silver on the Clouds stood in the street outside her tavern base and watched the Skyman's star. It rose majestically on its silver cord until the clouds folded around it and blotted out the light.
"We've done it!" she shouted jubilantly. "They're retreating!"
Holding the Keys stared at the clouds. They had not even rippled when the star passed through them. "Are they truly?"
King Silver swung herself onto her ox's broad back. "Even if it is only a strategic withdrawal, it matters little right now. It gives us a chance to take the High House again, before the First City troops get themselves organized. Boy!" she shouted to a child in a green-and-scarlet uniform. "Sound the muster! We move out now!"
The boy sprinted down the street. "Muster!" he cried out at the top of his lungs. "Muster!"
"Holding, find General Glass and bring him here." King Silver pulled her riding gloves out of her belt and pulled them onto her hands. They were dust-colored leather with her hand marks reproduced on their backs.
"Majesty." Holding the Keys raised his hands briefly and hurried off after the boy.
Alone for at least a few seconds, Silver smiled a slow, hard smile toward the clouds.
"Be careful not to give me too much time, Skymen," she said. "I'll make you regret it."
17—The Lif Marshes, The Realm of The Nameless Powers, Morning
"Do not cling too tightly to the products of your cleverness. What you create, however precious, you may some day be forced to destroy."
—Fragment from "The Beginning of the Flight," from the Rhudolant Vitae private history Archives
Eric crouched on Iron Shaper's floor, lashing the roll he'd made from a Narroways soldier's blanket and sleeping mat with a braid of reed fibers. Once the rain had passed, he spent a good part of the previous afternoon helping Jay and Heart load the major share of the booty onto the clan's rafts. In theory, the gesture would help the clan's good will remain good in case something unpredicted happened.
While the Teachers had loaded the rafts, the clan had stripped their village with impressive speed and thoroughness. Even Shaper's hearthstone was gone, because the Lif marshes were the one place in the Realm where stones were a rarity.
Eric slung his roll over his shoulder, picked up his pack of clothes and gear, and stepped through the empty doorway.
Aria and Heart were harnessing mismatched teams of oxen to equally mismatched sledges. Thanks to the soldiers, the clan now owned a herd of oxen big enough to slow their exodus down, so it hadn't taken much to convince them to give over four animals to make the two teams. The sledges had been more of a problem. The Narroways soldiers had carried their supplies on their backs or on their saddles and had only had one sledge to be plundered. The clan owned one more. It had taken both Aria and Eyes Above a half hour's arguing to wrangle it out of their hands so Aria would be able to drive Jay where they needed to go.
Jay stood near Heart, a respectful distance from the oxen, Eric noticed. His mouth was moving and Heart was nodding. The Skyman was probably giving the Teacher last-minute advice or instructions.
I hope I remember how to drive, Eric thought resignedly. I'd rather not spend two days as baggage.
The shadows around the huts had shortened a full inch since sunshowing. Except for Storm Water and Eyes Above, they were the last in the village. The whole clan had departed, either on rafts or on foot, to catch up with the oldest and the youngest, who had left the day before. The noise of Aria scolding the oxen and Heart clucking at the state of the harness felt too faint next to the sound of the reeds and bamboo leaves rattling in the wind.
Eric picked his way through the reeds and grass to where Aria was checking the set of the yoke on the right-hand oxen's shoulder. The beast snorted and slapped her face with its tail.
"Leave off, you." Aria smacked its rump. She saw Eric coming and grinned. "I think I liked the U-Kenai better." She gestured at the ramshackle sledge. It didn't have a rain cover. Its one box-seat was chipped and splintered and the driver's bracing listed dangerously to the right. Heart and Eric had drawn the good gear, since they had farther to go. "But since my Lord Skyman over there"—she jerked her chin toward Jay—"doesn't ride, I've got no choice."