A/N: I always thought of the nine Bright Shiners as something of a zodiac, so I hope that explains the title of this chapter.
DISCLAIMER: "Abhorsen", all names, places, and related indicia are the sole property of Garth Nix, whose work I hold in great admiration.
CHAPTER NINE: Zodiac Vision
I'll sing you a song of long ago...
Mihir had finished packing up his things and was about to join the rest of the crew disembarking the Lechuza Cruzada. He was sitting on his bed, completing the last tie on his bag, when a snatch of song reached his ears. Someone was humming, someone in his room. Frowning, Mihir got to his feet and walked towards the door.
"How did this get here?"
Gwidhe's little green figurine was sitting upright on the floor. Mihir hadn't recalled Gwidhe bringing it into his room. Squatting down, Mihir reached out to pick it up—
—and found himself stooping with one hand against the warm, furry back of a large black mongrel.
Mihir took a few steps back, composing himself. He got a good look at the dog. It was the same one from that night behind the Roost of the Ghostbird in Qyrre. It was black and tan with a long snout and pointed ears. A short tail wagged in a friendly manner. And it spoke.
"Greetings, Seer."
Its voice was a woman's voice, casual, deep, rich and friendly. She cocked her head. "You wonder why I'm here?"
Mihir's brow furrowed with perplexity. "Yes, but more importantly, I'd like to know who you are."
The Dog chuckled. "Oho, you're a sharp one."
"You're one of the First Kindred."
The Dog grinned. "You could say that, but it would be incorrect. I am not one I am but a fraction. Still, do boost my declining morale and call me Kibeth."
"Kibeth...Walker."
"You know now, do you? Now as to why I am here, why, I am your vision, so watch and listen well. I am one here on behalf of my Kindred; the Balagannoye; the Family that is Not. What is now often called by the Old Kingdom name, the Great Charters. I Walk before and am among the forerunners, as Kibeth has always been.
"We are among you. Ranna the Sleeper, Mosrael the Waker, Dyrim the Speaker, Belgaer the Thinker, Saraneth the Binder, Astarael the Weeper, Yrael the Singer, and even Orannis the Destroyer, although he lies asunder. Our reason should be quite clear."
Mihir's eyes narrowed, half in disbelief, half in antagonism. "You and your Kindred... Then you have the power to stop us, all of us. What are you waiting for?"
"There is no need to," replied the Dog, "not yet. If you can all learn for yourselves, then it is better than any comprehension we Charters may force upon you."
Who placed this creature among us? Mihir thought agitatedly. Gwidhe could not have known—his friend the zealot would never have allowed it. Mihir wondered what he should do now. Was Kibeth about to take him captive, or perhaps control his limbs and make him—
"You are not cooperating," the Dog said sharply, a reprimanding tone reminiscent of the one his mother used when he was an unruly child. "I am going to tell you a story in another time, so it shan't take your time here."
"What then must I do?" Mihir asked suspiciously
"Nothing out of the ordinary. You are going to get off the Lechuza Cruzada and catch up with Gwidhe, as you were planning to. Then you will See."
Saying so, the large black dog became the green statuette. Tentatively, Mihir stepped forward to pick it up. It vanished as soon as the tip of his middle finger came into contact with the smooth, cool stone.
Shaking his head, Mihir walked back to the bed and picked up his bag. He gave the room a quick once-over before going out into the hall and shutting the door.
He was among the last to leave the ship. The cold air struck his face and made him shut his eyes briefly before opening them in a slit. He was standing on the stone platform that formed the 'ground' of the Citadel. It was a dark green-black stone quarried far, far up north in the mountains that formed the border between Orkaire and the barbaric country of Orovslaya. The platform of the airborne bastion was slightly larger than an Ancelstierren football field, extending thirty-some feet to either side of the actual structure.
Mihir hastened to the entrance of the Citadel, overtaking two crewmembers who were joking with each other, obviously not feeling the cold quite so badly in their uniform jackets. Mihir stepped into the warmth of the main chamber with evident relief. There was a company of Citadel soldiers in the far end of the chamber arrayed around before Captain Sidhegureth and Gwidhe. Kagael, looking rather small and frightened, stood by the entrance to a hall.
Sidhegureth saluted and the soldiers responded, then parted to let him through. About twelve of the soldiers standing to one side and whose uniforms illustrated that they were Gwidhe's squad dropped to one knee and greeted their commander. To Mihir, it looked as though the younger Ulseil bit back a smile.
Mihir stumbled a little as someone half-bumped him from behind. Mihir stepped towards the wall. It was a sandy-haired young man, one of the Cruzada's crew. Daven. Mihir remembered that he used to be in Gwidhe's wing but had been expelled and demoted after a certain incident involving the Royal Advisor's granddaughter.
"Look at them fawn," Daven muttered, staring towards Gwidhe and his squadron.
"Watch it!" Mihir said heatedly.
Daven swept past to join the rest of the Cruzada crew disappearing past the chamber after their captain. Mihir glared at his back a minute, then walked over towards Gwidhe.
Gwidhe turned as Mihir approached. "Mihir!" he said, smiling, "Could you take the girl to the bridge room? Noegduch wants to see my brother and I in the command room."
Mihir was opening him mouth to answer when he felt his muscles seize to work. His eyes widened and unfocused, a light from within his head wiped out his sight—his bodily sight—while his Sight awakened. Is this it…? he thought with apprehension. Is this Kibeth's vision?
"Mihir?" Gwidhe stared at his friend a moment, then realized. "He's in a trance," he said, half to himself, half to his battle team behind him. Kagael was watching the young Seer with a mixture of concern and fascination.
"Noegduch can wait," Gwidhe said with a determined frown. "I want to be here for this vision."
Mihir felt himself thrown out of the world. Even that wasn't quite the way to describe it. Although no part of himself was aware of still being in that room, with Gwidhe and others, it also did not seem as if he'd traveled in any way. Altogether, it was a feeling not unlike astral projection, and he'd been projected into the Charter.
"Where…am I?" Mihir croaked. He hadn't realized he'd been afraid.
Hush. We are traveling. It was the Dog.
Mihir felt the sensation of floating up, and then breaking the surface. Now he found himself shaking off traces of watery gold. Next the metallic trace of Free Magic filled everything: vigor, and heat. Just when he felt…himself beginning to burn, all feeling, all perception desisted.
He walked a field of air, filled with some song he forgot. Imagined grass of silver and gold curled around his toes and everything he saw seemed not to be there. Old spirits of the field and forest, water, wood, and air… Ships sailing on a gray-green sea, their sails golden…
The sun was setting while the moon rose. They were suspended—two spheres of gold together at the sea's rim. The water was molten…
A white creature burst out of the sea foam. It was long and serpentine with glittering scales of a pearly hue. Its mane rippled in the wind, and the very wind was a living thing. The creature sailed. It sailed on the air and wove its long body in swimming, rippling motions.
Everything was so beautiful, so sweet, so bitter, and so perilous. Mihir scarcely dared to breathe. Kibeth appeared beside him, at first glance a large black dog, but at a closer look the black of her body was the infinite colorful darkness of the universe.
See my Sister? Astarael was happy once.
The white creature was a Dragoness. She bugled, a metallic, free, and gorgeous sound that filled him with happiness even as it urged him away.
Out of the sea burst a second creature, as white as the first but not so bright. Its hooves were of crystal and blinding to behold. Its horn was a miniature star, a silver band at its base. It gamboled across the shore. It ran like the wind.
Saraneth was the freest of creatures. She could not be bound. What she must do to others…that is what makes her so stern now.
The unicorn tossed her head in defiance—and accordance—with both everything and nothing in the world. Mihir watched from above on the grassy plateau, and wanted to fall to his knees.
"What am I here for?" he asked in a voice that was not a voice; like everything else around him it wasn't the sense of 'real' that he was used to.
I told you, Seer. You are here to See.
So Mihir watched. After a while, he began seeing poetry in the random clouds and hearing voices in the sighing waves. The grasses danced and the breezes laughed. "I'm going crazy," he decided. "My mind is being consumed by chaos."
Yes, murmured the voice of Kibeth. That is what this world was. It was chaos—or Free Magic, if you still wish me to use the politically correct term. She chuckled, her sarcasm plainly incorrigible.
"And Free Magic is what the world will be again," Mihir said stubbornly.
That is what you think now that you truly want, said the Dog, and her voice held pity. Then let me tell you this—it was you, humans, the Third Kindred, who chose to end the chaos. And we the Charters helped you Chart the chaos. We bound it back with the Charter. We wove, and we gave you sanity.
Mihir was silent, calculating.
Yes, the Dog continued. Sanity, and reality, and memory. Dreams and waking, words and thought, love and death and song and destruction. All these we used, fibers of ourselves, to knit the Great Charter.
What a sacrifice we made to fashion this world. And did we keep it? No. We passed on, leaving our little brothers and sister, the Second and Third Kindred…it was to you we left the keys to mastery. Marks, words, names. They hold all the power over us now. You ought to be thankful to live in this safety that took more than time and strife to make. But no.
You are very ungrateful.
"I couldn't have known," Mihir said mutedly. He looked away from the sky and the sea, shutting his eyes tightly against the overwhelming spectrum.
I have already spoken enough to put the Speaker himself to shame, Kibeth chuckled dryly, But tell me this. What do you hope to achieve by unraveling the Charter?
"We are going to set…the world free." He choked out. He thought he caught the Dog muttering something in reply that resembled 'you're going to set the world on fire?' in laughing tones, but once again he could only hear the beautiful, sweet cacophony of the un-world around him.
Hmm, said the Dog at last. Then you go ahead and do just that. I will only tell you the price of your…desire and leave you to think on it:
Memory. The price of chaos is to forget.
Then the vision ended.
Mihir returned to reality with the simple action of blinking. He found himself facing Gwidhe, who had his hands on Mihir's shoulders supporting him.
Mihir wanted to say something, but he could not think at all, much less speak.
"How do you feel?" Gwidhe asked. His scarlet eyes were bright with curiosity and concern.
"Mm…fine," Mihir managed. Gwidhe's hands squeezed his shoulders once then let go. Kagael was still watching him, wide-eyed; he supposed she'd never seen someone in the spell of the Sight before.
"General Noegduch—" Everyone's head snapped up as the magnified voice boomed through the room. "—once again requests that Wing Commander Gwidhe Venyeiya Ulseil attend to him in the command room. This is an order."
Gwidhe shook his head and turned to Mihir apologetically. "I'll have to go. Noegduch's probably seriously pissed." He dismissed his battle unit.
"Good luck," Mihir said after him. The words were coming easier now. He felt Kagael come up to his side, which reminded him that he still had to take her over to the bridge room. Right now, what he wanted to do was collapse into bed and sleep, then wake up and do some serious thinking. But he made himself turn around and lead the way for Kagael.
Kagael couldn't help noticing that Mihir seemed extremely drawn and silent as he walked. She supposed that having the vision must have drained him terribly, but she couldn't help feeling as though he knew something that she should know as well.
"The Disreputable Dog," she said suddenly, and he stopped in his tracks.
"Have you…have you heard of her?" Kagael continued in a hurry. "She's an incarnation of Kibeth the Walker, which, I don't know if you've heard of it, the third Great Charter, and—"
"..takes the form of a large black and tan mutt." He faced her, his large, dark eyes grave and alarming in the shadow of his long lashes. "Yes, I know. She brought me the vision."
"O-oh," Kagael said. "I-I just wondered."
"Friend of yours?"
"No. She loved my mother, though," Kagael told him quietly.
"I see. Come on, this way." Mihir pushed open a set of iron double doors to a room with more windows than wall.
Kagael nodded and entered. As Mihir stepped back into the hall and the doors swung shut after him, she turned. "Tell me your vision sometime?"
"Sure," he said, and she thought he sounded tired now. Then the doors closed with a faint click.
O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O
Author's Note: The reason this chapter took so long was…well, there were several reasons. Firstly, school started and I got REALLY busy. Secondly, I thought, "this is bad writing" and "no more bad writing", so I kind of thought of quitting this fic for a while. Finally, my family is in the middle of a big move—we've just moved into our new house today! So, I hope you understand. I apologize for the monstrous delay, and I'll just say, don't expect frequent updates from this girl.
And for anyone who was hopelessly confused by my use of "Balagannoye", here's a quick key:
Balagannoye Bright Shiners
LOL. I'm not trying to make you sound like morons—just trying to be very considerate, is all.