“I’ve been thinking. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone fishing, and I’ve got a craving for salmon. I think that first I’ll go fishing in Forrest’s Creek. Then I’m going to travel for a bit, see the world.”
“And when you’re done?”
“Well, I don’t know. Tihrglas is sort of a quiet place. I could grow old there, sit in a rocker …” He looked up into her eyes. “But I don’t think I could be happy for more than a day or two, lazing about like that. Besides, there’s this woman I know, and life would be … dreary without her.”
Maggie smiled, lay down beside him, felt the warmth of his chest against her breasts. He took her face in his hand, kissed her long and deeply. When he finished, he whispered, “You’ve got no family left back in Clere, but I’ve got my mother to take care of. I need to go home, say good-bye, hire someone to watch after her at the very least. And I’ll need to make trips home from time to time, to be sure she’s okay.”
“Of course, you couldn’t leave her there forever alone,” Maggie said. “You can just tell her that you’re working, guarding ships for some merchant. Then you can stop back and see her once in awhile.”
Gallen nodded, closed his eyes. Maggie lay with him for a long time, and he fell asleep. Part of her was angry with him for sleeping, but the more sensible part said, “Ah, poor boy, he needs his sleep. It’s been a long week, and he’s exhausted.”
Yet Maggie could not rest. She checked on Orick and Everynne. Both were resting peacefully, and she washed them off a bit, then sat on the grass, looked at the silver mantle. It had thousands of tiny silver disks woven together in the chain mail. They were smaller than the disks she had seen on any other mantle, and she realized that they were made using a higher technology.
At long last, she could stand the temptation no more, and she put on the mantle, felt the cool weight of the chains running down the length of her back, over her shoulders, and between her breasts.
For an endless moment, she waited, expecting the mantle to take her, ravage her with light as the Guide had. Yet at the same time, she waited in stark terror.
She tried to clear her mind, wipe away that fear, but the knowledge never came. Nothing happened.
At last, when she was ready to throw the mantle away in disgust, a woman came to her in a vision. She had long dark hair and skin as smooth as cream. Every line of her form was perfect. Maggie did not have to beg her name.
“Your brain waves do not match mine,” Semarritte said. “I can bond with you, and you will gain some use of the omni-mind, but like the dronon before you, your ability to control the device will be impaired. Still, I am loath to take you, if you fear me so. What do you want of me?”
“I want a home,” Maggie said. “You know everything about ten thousand worlds. I thought, perhaps I could learn of them.”
Semarritte reached out a finger, touched Maggie between the eyes. She felt a strange dizziness, and Semarritte pulled her finger away. Her demeanor changed. She looked at Maggie with a new understanding. “You would not be satisfied if I taught you all that I know about every world. You will only be happy if you go to each world and learn about it for yourself.”
“That’s right,” Maggie said.
“So you are not searching for a world for yourself. You are searching for a world where you can be happy with your love, Gallen. I am not sure that such a world exists.”
“But where should I start?”
“Tremonthin.” Semarritte laughed softly. “There you can learn much, and Gallen will find his abilities sorely tested.”
“Thank you,” Maggie said, and she removed the mantle. Almost immediately, the vision seemed odd to her, like a dream that is forgotten upon waking, and she wondered if she had imagined it. She went to sleep beside Gallen, and he threw his arm over her protectively.
Chapter 22
For ten days, Gallen and Maggie nursed Orick and Everynne, watching them recover. In that time, many people began to arrive from distant worlds, ambassadors and powerful lords who celebrated the end of dronon rule. The first to come were Tharrin, delegates from distant parts of three galaxies who simply appeared the next morning on the road in front of the palace. They had come through their own gates. There were dozens of them-men and women with an eerie presence, a sense of light and peace that filled the air around them.
Gallen asked several of them to help clean up Everynne and Orick and move them to beds in the palace. Several Tharrin gingerly carried the two inside, and the physicians ministered to their wounds behind closed doors, then said that both would be up and about soon.
Afterward, the Tharrin came before Gallen and Maggie, requesting audience. They retired to a quiet chamber of the palace, and a powerful man named Lord Meron spoke with Maggie soberly. He was a tall man, with a barrel for a chest, long, flowing brown hair, and penetrating green eyes. He took Maggie’s hand, looked into her face.
“You know,” he reasoned, “it is not in the best interests of your people for you to try to claim the omni-mind.”
“I know,” Maggie answered. “I never wanted the thing in the first place. Gallen and I only won it by accident.”
Meron patted her hand. “Still, you won it, and the dronon will hold you accountable.”
“Can’t I just give it away?” Maggie asked. “Give it back to Everynne?”
“The ornni-mind you can give to Everynne,” Meron said, “but the burden of ruling the dronon now belongs to you. They perceive you as their Great Queen, and they will seek counsel from you. If they do not receive guidance, their swarm will be overwhelmed by others.”
Meron did not say it, so Maggie said it for him. “Still, they’ll try to kill me, won’t they?”
Meron nodded slightly in assent. “We can set barriers between them and you, protect you. We’ve already begun moving the omni-mind from orbit, and we’ll hide it so they can’t easily regain control of it. But you, you will need to hide yourself, keep moving from world to world, as Semarritte did.”
“How am I supposed to hide from the dronon and lead them at the same time?” Maggie asked.
“You can appoint a regent, someone to rule in your stead.”
“Everynne?” Maggie asked.
Meron nodded. “She’ll do. In a way, you will be doing her a great favor. The dronon will not perceive her as a target, and she will be free to reign without fear.”
Maggie nodded thoughtfully, and Gallen saw that they had won a mixed bag of goods. Gallen patted Maggie’s shoulder, whispered, “It will be all right. We can make the best of it.”
“Och, sure,” she said. “I wanted to visit other worlds anyway. This will just keep a fire under my toes, give me a little more incentive.”
By that evening, Everynne and Orick were both able to sit up and take a bit of food, and Everynne began directing the withdrawal of dronon hives from the occupied worlds.
Over the next few days, delegates from many worlds continued to gather. The omni-mind soon began to fill with joyous people, and it became as crowded as any inn during the Autumn Fair at Baille Sean.
And in that time, Everynne grieved for Veriasse, and put on Semarritte’s mantle for the first time.
It was on the fourth evening, just after sunset. The dronon had all left, and a few hundred dignitaries had arrived on the omni-mind. But Everynne did not invite them to her investiture. She planned a public ceremony for later, but for the moment she met with Orick, Gallen, and Maggie in private. “You three battled for me across the worlds. You helped me win this moment, and I owe you my life. I want you to come with me now, to witness the death of Everynne and the rebirth of Semarritte.”
They were in the throne room in the palace. The room had no ceiling, just a vast chair covered in red cloth, where one could sit and gaze out at the stars through the clear dome. Maggie, Orick, and Gallen sat around her feet in a semicircle.