Chapter Fifty – Bloodline
On the ride to Penaerth Pazu told her about what he had found in the caverns. Sheeta was silent for a long time.
"I never knew. What does it mean?"
He shrugged.
"I think we know now why your stone has been growing in power. That thing under there must be another Laputan crystal. Yours knows it's close by."
"They were talking?"
"I'm sure of it."
"How can they? They're just rocks."
"Clearly they're not. They're somehow alive."
She shook her head in stunned amazement.
"Paetsu, if engineers and scientists find that – well, there'll be no stopping them."
"Or Gondoans who want to regain the knowledge of flight."
She looked at him sharply.
"You?"
"Sheeta, I just don't know. That thing, is just so huge and so powerful we can't touch it right now. I felt as though it somehow wasn't happy, it was angry somehow. I don't think anyone has the right knowledge or machinery to do anything with it now. In years to come scientists might invent a way to dig it out and harness its power but right now – even in our lifetimes..."
He looked away, over the fields and farms. He held his right arm about her but his left he let hang loosely, the pain-deadening effect of the timsu had worn off and it was throbbing badly.
"Right now, men should just avoid it," he concluded.
After another pause, she went on, as though talking to herself.
"What were they talking about?"
"Do you think your stone can understand you? Us? Or at least your emotions?"
"I suppose it must in a way, the magic is made by speaking, and by having a strong intention in your heart."
As if by instinct they both looked down into her thick riding coat, to where, hidden under her clothes the blue stone lay against her skin. Like something sleeping. Or perhaps like a child that pretends to sleep late at night, but is really awake and listening to its parents talking of things of which it is not supposed to know.
A thought came to him.
"Gondoa is divided into provinces is it? Or counties?"
"Hm, six counties."
"Where are the borders of this one?"
"The Parlement buildings have a map in the main office. I'll show you."
"You know, if what we think happened hundreds of years ago is the case, then there will be other huge crystals like that around. People are simply going to find them. There's no stopping them."
"Urh, this is hurting my head. As bad as my stomach."
--I--
---o-o-oOo-o-o---
I I
The map on the wall of one of the public rooms of the Parlement annex showed the county of which Bruaendell was a part. It was a large place containing upwards of twenty villages and three towns, thousands of square miles of land. Too big, Pazu thought, to be an island. Although he had no way to measure what 'too big' was, it just didn't feel likely. But within the county, within all Gondoan counties were the parishes. These might contain one main village and two or three others. The parish in which Bruanedell lay was called Suethelmae and it contained the mountain, the lake and the three villages with the solstice hill between them, and upriver a small town after which the parish was named. Pazu looked at the dotted boundary, it was almost egg shaped. Something about that shape worried him.
--I--
---o-o-oOo-o-o---
I I
They sat in wooden seats, facing each other across the debating chamber. Befitting her royal status, Sheeta sat on a large throne that itself sat atop a raised dais. Shuna, designated as her servant, stood behind her chair. Pazu, thirty feet from her, occupied a smaller chair. He was unclear why this seating arrangement had been chosen, for him it represented division, a way to show they were not the same, separate. Or to keep them from talking about anything. Whatever the reason, it bothered him. He looked at her, again in her formal clothes she looked magnificent and today with the blood dot bright on her forehead mirroring her bright ueshonai there could be no finer looking woman in the land. She did however seem pensive, and her face seemed sad.
The Chamberlain spoke:
"Pazsu o-Numenaor, please stand."
He did so. Sheeta saw a perfect man. Tall, his hair now over-long and shaggy and down over his eyes and shoulders. Still he had not yet had it cut, and still his chin remained smooth. Was he the sort of man who never grew a beard? That was very unusual but by no means displeasing to her, she liked his smooth jaw, loved to trace her fingers along it, and her lips. Today he wore plain raw silk hakkaemi and puorthtemi, the flat grey-straw colour contrasting with his deep brown-red hair and the beautiful dark grey-silver of the haemshi. His ueshonai waist cloth was a deep russet orange, matching his soft low boots. He presented quite a different presence to the Gathering than he had a few weeks ago. Even the bandages on his hands and knuckles seemed to make him more masculine. And just looking at him made her feel quite, well, unnecessary, was the word that came into her head. He affected her, she decided, in a powerful but pleasant way. The way he looked made her want to squirm in her seat.
"Due consideration has been given to all the evidence, spoken testimony from all witnesses, topographical features of distances and places, and the written evidence from the log of the air-liner Menandaer.
"First it is not conclusive by means of studying your character, Pazsu o-Numenaor, whether you are descended from Pazsu Phom o-Latormolo. We have records detailing his birth, his youth and many of his speeches are recorded. The first three generations of his descendents can be proven beyond doubt and from these persons we can build up a set of characteristics of the kind of children and grandchildren he had. Your character fits this pattern well, but unfortunately so does that of countless men, this alone is interesting but merely circumstantial.
"Your family history is however, interesting, especially your fathers trade of flight and his sighting and subsequent passion of Laputa. Your love of flying is not of especial interest, it merely comes from him. However Paetsu Phom was a skilful aviator, so this points in your favour,"
She paused, "It does, however, merely point. Again, circumstantial and not proof."
She then discussed the fact that Qu'elle Lucita Toelle Ur Laputa had been saved from certain death from falling by the royal stone and that, it was conclusively proven by the places and the log of the Menandaer, she did not, in fact float vertically down but had, it seems, drifted sideways over eighty miles to Slag's Ravine.
"This, so far, is the strongest factor supporting your claim…"
wait a moment… my claim? I'm not making any claim. you people asked me to come here so you could decide who I am. you're making this sound like my fault. my greed…
"…however, once again, alone it is not proof. It is possible that the sentient crystal might have selected you as the most able, the person with the most potential to be of succour to Her Highness."
Pazu wasn't accepting this, it was silly. The stone had come to him and he had later drawn two spells from it. Yes, each single thing alone might not be proof, but taken together the evidence built up and up.
"Moving on now to the Tepis Fortress incident, we find it interesting that Pazsu Romuska Palo Ur Laputa did not recognize you. However, nothing more can be drawn from that episode.
"And now, considering the events on Laputa itself, it is again of interest that you were able to pilot through the storm. We felt initially that this was a strong point in your favour. But further discussion made it a possibility that it was the presence of Her Highness in your craft that permitted this successful circumvention of this obstacle."
Pazu looked at Sheeta. Her hands were fists and they were clenched on the arms of her throne. She was clearly incensed by this… rubbish they were spouting. Sheeta – a passenger in a glider he piloted, when he had had the vision of his father leading him down a safe passage through the storm? He thought up a very rude word to describe the people who had thought up this nonsense but he kept his outward appearance calm. He began to have an inkling of how this would end. He kept his face calm however and tried to show Sheeta this, so she would draw strength from his response.
The Chamberlain pressed on.
"We come now to the incident in the forest in which Her Highness claims you drew a healing spell from the stone and later fed her a medicinal broth known only to Gondoans. After long deliberation we concluded that the spell of healing was drawn from the stone by you, Pazsu o-Numenaor, and the finding of the broth ingredients was, to say the least, an extraordinary achievement, a thing simply not credible had it happened by chance. The incidents in the forest are therefore your strongest witnesses. They do, however, have no independent corroboration."
She lifted her head very slightly and looked at Sheeta.
what are you suggesting? that Sheeta lied? that the Queen of Gondoa's testimony isn't trustworthy?
Pazu's blood began to boil.
"The Gathering did note, Pazsu, that you omitted to say anything of this episode during your testimony. That did seem strange to us and we were unable to check Her Highness' testimony against yours."
yes, they think she's a liar…
"However, we come now to the second spell drawn from the stone by you, in the tumurh of Shuna o-Bruaendell. We have here two independent witnesses, and although the various testimonies do not all match in all regards...
I bet they don't, do they Keya?
...it is clear to us that the four accounts are describing the same incident and that incident involved a spell of light drawn from the stone by you alone."
The large red faced lady gave Pazu a slight nod, like she was a schoolteacher being nice to him when he didn't deserve it. He responded with a stony stare.
"We discussed the episodes at the border inn and at the farmhouse in Bruaendell. The things that struck us about these events was your strong character – forthright, able, outspoken to the point of carelessness, brave to the point of foolhardiness, sound leadership; all traits that Pazsu Phom displayed, not all of them wisely.
"The evidence of history is not contradictory, the evidence of character is strong, the evidence from the Menandaer's log is compelling, the evidence of the poki-moyo broth is surprising, the evidence, however, of the spell drawing is, in our view, final. This Gathering therefore concludes, beyond all reasonable doubt that you are who you say you are. Paetsu o-Latormolo."
Pazu looked at her. Had he just heard right?
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3 April (mostly) & 16 – 17 April (some polishing) 2007
For author notes about Chapter Fifty, please see my forum (click on my pen name)