Fire Margins Read online

  Dzaka was the last to arrive, the cut on the side of his nose and the swelling around one eye causing raised eye ridges from some of the others.

  “We’re all here, Kusac,” said Vanna at last, sitting back in her chair and cradling her mug of coffee in both hands.

  Kusac returned to his seat and perched on the edge of it. He looked round the small group. There was Vanna and Garras, Kaid, Rulla, T’Chebbi, Meral, and Dzaka.

  “Brynne should be here,” he said abruptly. “He’s as involved as the rest of us.”

  Vanna stirred slightly. “He’ll pick it up through me,” she said.

  He nodded. “Very well. I’ll have to speak for Carrie as she’s not well enough to be with us. There are several issues to discuss. The first directly involves Carrie and myself. We intend to leave not only the Telepath Guild, but the guild system completely.”

  As he’d anticipated, a stunned silence greeted his remark. To be guildless was to live on the margins of society, to belong nowhere.

  “I won’t have us treated like laboratory specimens any longer. The God willing, we’ll have more cubs,” he continued quietly, looking down at his hands, “but they’ll never be subjected to the scrutiny of any guild. We’ve had enough. Neither Esken nor the Brotherhood will use us. So we’ve decided we’re going to walk the Fire Margins.”

  He let the silence lengthen till he could stand it no more. Looking up at the people in the room, he shrugged. “That’s it. You’re free to do what you want, you’re none of you bound to us any longer unless you want to be. Vanna,” he looked over at her and Garras. “You’ll have to do what you think best.”

  “I’m not staying either,” she said, putting down her mug. “But to walk the Fire Margins! I don’t know much about it, but even I’ve heard enough to know how dangerous it is.”

  “It’s tantamount to committing suicide,” said Dzaka quietly. “No one in the last ten generations has walked that path and returned. Even the Brothers won’t try it.”

  Kusac looked over at him. “I know. But I’ve been researching all the En’Shalla rituals, and it’s our only option.”

  “There’s no point in asking you if you’re prepared to risk your lives on something as insubstantial as this, because I know you are,” said Vanna grimly, her ears flicking back in anger. “You never do things by halves, do you, Kusac? It’s all or nothing! Why? Why risk everything when you both have so much to live for?” she demanded.

  “If they succeed, they’ll have won their liberty,” said Kaid. “They’ll be beyond all guild and civil laws, subject only to Vartra Himself. But above all, they’ll not be outcasts. At the end of the day, it’s their only logical choice.”

  “You’re in favor of this?” Vanna rounded on him. “You’re advising him to do it?”

  “Yes. They’ll do it no matter what we say or do. I’ve seen it.”

  “Ah,” said Rulla, his voice a low purr of contentment as he settled back in his seat. “I was right! You were working toward a goal Vartra had shown you!”

  “It will happen,” said Kaid calmly.

  “And has Vartra shown you whether or not they survive?” demanded Vanna, her voice reaching a hysterical note as her hands tightened on the arms of her chair. “Has He done that? No! I thought not! Damn the Gods! Damn the guilds! Damn all of you who’re encouraging them to kill themselves!”

  Garras reached out to put a restraining hand on her arm, but she pulled away, leaping to her feet and beginning to pace the room.

  “Why? Why do you have to do this?” she demanded, stopping in front of Kusac, her tail lashing angrily from side to side, ears turned sideways and flicking repeatedly. “For once take an easier option, Kusac! Carrie damned near died a few days ago, and your unborn daughter did!”

  She squatted down in front of him, putting her hands on his knees and looking him squarely in the face. “Let’s leave the Telepath Guild, yes, but the rest? Dammit, Lijou’s offer holds more hope than this!”

  Kusac had flinched at her comment about their lost cub; now he reached out to cup her cheek in his hand, his eyes looking into hers. “You’ve got your own life, Vanna. You have Garras, and your own Leska, Brynne, as well as a child on the way. It’s time for you to choose your own way and leave us to ours. You heard Kaid. It will happen.”

  “Don’t wrong-spoor me, Kusac!” she said, batting his hand away. “You believe in the Gods as much as I do! If you’ve had enough of life and want to commit ritual suicide, why not say so and be done with it! Why this charade?”

  “It’s not a charade, Vanna,” he said patiently. “I believe we’ll succeed. I don’t intend for us to die.”

  “You infuriate me, you … you … Ah!” She sprang to her feet and spun away from him to the other side of the room, pelt bushed out round her head and tail. “Someone talk some sense into him, he won’t listen to me!”

  “Your decision affects all of us, Kusac,” said Kaid, leaning forward. “I have no intention of leaving you. Apart from Garras, the others belong to the Brotherhood and they are subject to Ghezu’s orders. If they remain with us against Stronghold’s orders, they face death. Ghezu will have them hunted down and killed.”

  “Let him try,” said Rulla, his voice a deep rumble of menace. “I’ve told you that I intend to leave and follow you.”

  Kaid cast an exasperated glance in his direction. “Enough, Rulla,” he said.

  “What’s to talk about?” said T’Chebbi, looking hard at Dzaka. “I follow you. When Stronghold stoops to placing undercover operatives among us, we’re all at risk. Even on the streets of Ranz they trusted me.” She turned her head away from Dzaka to look at Kaid. “You knew. You chose me for your Liege and Liegena. I stay.”

  Kusac glanced from T’Chebbi to Kaid, suddenly curious about her past. Ranz, one of the towns nearest to Stronghold in the Dzahai Mountains, was still infamous for its street gangs. As he looked, Kaid’s right ear gave the barest of flicks in acknowledgment to her.

  Rulla gave a bark of laughter which Kaid ignored.

  “There’s the matter of accepting Lijou’s offer first,” said Kaid. “If we’re to curb the power of the Telepath Guild, it has to be done through the Brotherhood. Agreed you need to break from your guild soon, but until you’re ready to walk the Margins, you’ll need the protection that belonging to the Brotherhood will give you.”

  “When Lijou claims that the only guild that can realistically accommodate us is the Brotherhood, he’s not being altruistic, he wants to use us as much as the Telepath Guild does,” said Kusac.

  “Brynne asks what’s the difference between being used by Ghezu and Lijou and being used by Esken?” said Vanna to Kaid. “They’re each as bad as the other.” She glanced at Dzaka. “They both resorted to kidnapping and drugging us. How would it benefit us to change guilds?”

  “The type of change Kaid is suggesting is unheard of,” said Kusac. “Telepaths with medical talents also become members of the Guild of Medics, but their main guild remains the Telepaths. What he’s suggesting is breaking completely from one guild to join another. There’s no law that says we can’t do that, but it’s rarely done. There’ll be opposition to us, and possibly legal action taken against us by Esken.”

  “Of course Lijou and Ghezu are using you,” said Kaid. “The Brotherhood wants full guild status but they can’t petition for that unless they can prove they possess a specialized skill belonging to no other guild. You, as fighting telepaths, represent that skill. If the move is made publicly, during the next All Guilds Council meeting, then there is little Esken can do but accept gracefully as you apply to be released from the Telepath Guild to join Stronghold. Then the Brotherhood can be awarded its full guild status. As I said, membership in the Brotherhood will protect you from Esken and the Telepath Guild.”

  “Lijou is offering us an alternative to being guildless,” said Garras. “We must avoid that if at all possible.”

  “If you leave your guild and remain guildless, first you lose your pr
ofession,” said Kaid. “Never again could you be legally employed as telepaths. Your guild companions will turn their backs on you; you would cease to exist as far as they were concerned. At one stroke you’d have severed contact with everyone you’d grown up and worked with. Second, your clans could choose to support you on their estates, but pressure would be put on them to turn their backs on you as well. You’d be total outcasts. I know. I’ve been there.”

  He stopped, looking round them. “Should you join the Brotherhood, even if only temporarily, you’d have their protection for as long as you remained members, and Esken could do nothing about it. If you survive the Margins, all that changes. You can stay in your guild yet be answerable only to the Order of Vartra, through the Head Priest, Father Lijou—not Ghezu. In the Brotherhood, the two disciplines are separate. The last option is to stay with the Brotherhood.”

  “Whatever else you decide, Vanna, I’d advise you to leave the Telepath Guild,” said Kusac, looking over to where she still stood at the far end of the room. “You know what Esken did to you and Brynne on your first Link day. I don’t yet know what he did to the kitlings my father had brought here, but obviously it was enough to convince him they were safer with us than with the Guild. Our family is headed for trouble with Esken irrespective of what I do. If you’re still a member of his Guild, he may try to be revenged on us through you.”

  “Lijou said they have the facilities to help us train in both disciplines at Stronghold,” said Vanna, moving back to the group. “What exactly did he mean?”

  Kusac looked across at Kaid, catching his eye. “Tell us about the forgotten talents, Kaid.”

  Kaid nodded slowly, ignoring Dzaka’s startled movement. “What you’re talking about touches the heart of the Brotherhood,” he said. “For as far back as our records go, we’ve recruited from three main sources. One is the Warrior Guild, the second is from wherever the Brothers find a Talent. The mountains breed a lot of the type of people we’re looking for. We want people who first and foremost can fight, then we look for their Talents, their psychic talents. The third I’ll tell you about later.”

  Kusac heard Vanna’s sharp gasp of surprise. “Go on,” she said.

  “We have as wide a range of talents as the Humans do, only until now the Telepath Guild had forgotten they existed. They were so intent on their breeding programs to produce more and stronger telepaths they ignored any other gift. Every Brother can fight and is Talented in some way. The others have said I can speak for them,” said Kaid, glancing round his people. “T’Chebbi has an extremely well-developed sense of impending danger. She can even pinpoint its direction. Rulla senses moods and whether people are speaking the truth.” He indicated Meral. “We’re in the process of assessing Meral’s gifts but a sensitivity to people and his surroundings is what drew our attention to him.” He stopped, looking pointedly at Dzaka.

  “I’m an empath,” Dzaka said with obvious reluctance.

  Kaid raised an eye ridge.

  Dzaka gave a low rumble of annoyance. “I’m also one of the special operatives hired by the Telepath Guild to assess rogue talents,” he snapped. “As were Kaid and Garras.”

  Shocked, Kusac looked toward Garras.

  “Truth time, Kusac,” the once-Captain of the Sirroki said quietly. “Yes, Kaid and I worked together assessing telepaths with Talents that were uncontrollable, or who were themselves mentally unstable. Often they had to be terminated on the orders of the Telepath Guild. When we could, we recruited them for the Brotherhood where they were taught how to control their gifts. Termination was the last resort. We saved as many as we could, though Esken knew nothing about it.”

  Kusac could feel the blood draining from his face. His ears insisted on lying flat against his head as he looked from Garras to Kaid.

  Vanna was as stunned as he was. He could see the look of disbelief on her face, feel the denial in her mind as she sank slowly into the nearest empty seat.

  “‘Observe, assess, recruit, or destroy,’” quoted Kaid softly. “People like us are needed. There’s no one else who can work outside the law to protect Shola, and believe me, in some cases, termination was the only solution. This is the third source of members for the Brotherhood. A young male telepath, one of your father’s generation, a Contender for heirship to the Sixteen Clans, was involved in an accident in which he received severe head injuries. It was thought that he had made a full recovery, but several months later, he relapsed. He began to broadcast telepathically. It was totally involuntary, the ravings of one who was obviously mad, but like the insane, he had the strength of ten. No one could get near him. Two medics were lost before it was realized he was capable of killing with his mind. Warriors couldn’t get near him. He had to die, there was no other option. That left only us. The Brotherhood took him, but not without mental and physical scars to the operatives.”

  “In our time, we managed to save almost as many as we had to kill,” said Garras. “When we recruited, that person was dead as far as the rest of Shola was concerned. Granted they could never leave Stronghold, but they were alive and sane, and they were a working part of our Brotherhood, helping in some cases to train others.”

  Kaid sighed. “Truth time, as Garras said. When he called me, asking me to come out to the Khalossa to protect you, he knew it was a double-edged mission that I undertook. He knew we might have to face the reality that your Link to Carrie would make you both unstable. It was very unlikely, but it was a possibility. Then the Brotherhood contacted me, forcing me to accept the same mission by calling in a debt of honor. Your mother wanted an operative to protect you both and see you delivered safely to Shola, and at the same time Ghezu ordered me to assess you and take appropriate action.”

  “You have no idea of the powers that have been ranged against you on the Khalossa and on Shola,” said Garras. “The Telepath Guild were terrified of the consequences of your Link on their carefully constructed power base here. You were a threat to them of potentially massive proportions. Because of your identity, you couldn’t be killed without a major investigation, and likewise you couldn’t just disappear. Neither, of course, could Carrie. Mito came to me within the first few days after we got back to the Khalossa telling me she’d been approached by someone asking far too many questions about Guynor’s accusations against you and Carrie. I knew then we were in for trouble and that you had to be protected from any more people like Guynor, and from any authorized evaluation which could neglect to take into full account what happened on Keiss. So I sent for Kaid. The kind of protection Kaid gave you can’t be bought, even from him.”

  “But you just said that you knew there was a chance Kaid would kill them,” said Vanna, a stunned look on her face.

  “We’d just spent a great number of days in the foulest, most cramped conditions ever experienced by Sholans. If that didn’t break Kusac or Carrie, then I reckoned nothing would,” said Garras, avoiding eye contact with her. “There was a much greater risk of them being killed by those dissidents.”

  Kusac finally found his voice. “This assessment, is it over now?”

  Kaid looked at Dzaka. “My mission for the Brotherhood was over by the time I was injured in the scouter crash,” he said quietly. “I gave Ghezu my assessment then.”

  Dzaka sat motionless, staring straight ahead. Kusac could feel the tension behind his facade of calm. He was being torn in too many different directions. What Kaid was telling them were matters for the Brothers only.

  “My assessments has also been given,” he said finally, his tone clipped as if the words were being forced from him. “My current orders are to continue observing you, continue assessing Physician Kyjishi and her Human Leska, and report on Kaid’s movements.”

  Reaction swept through the little group. Meral and T’Chebbi hissed their anger, Garras nodded his head, and Kaid … relaxed. A small moan of fear came from Vanna.

  “Aren’t we rather tempting fate if we join the Brotherhood?” Kusac asked. “Doesn’t it make it that bi
t easier to kill us? Apart from breaking Esken’s power on the Council, I see no reason for us to join.”

  It was Dzaka who answered. “No, Liegen. They need you all alive if they want to use you to achieve full guild status. They don’t dare kill you now. They need as many mixed Leska pairs as possible to prove it isn’t just a phenomenon.”

  “And Kaid? Why are they watching him?”

  “That’s personal between Ghezu and myself, Liege,” Kaid said smoothly before Dzaka could answer. “It doesn’t affect anyone else.”

  From the corner of his eye, Kusac caught Dzaka’s slight start of surprise as his shield dropped briefly. So Kaid was covering something for him. But what?

  “Physician Kyjishi … Vanna,” said Kaid, looking directly over to her. “Believe me, you have nothing to fear from either the Brotherhood or anyone in this room. You are far too valuable to everyone alive, and I intend to see you stay that way.”

  Vanna looked over at Garras. Kusac noticed that the skin visible on her face was gray with shock.

  “You’re nothing but killers, cold-blooded, highly trained killers who use their psychic talents to track down their prey,” she whispered.

  “That’s enough, Vanna,” snapped Kusac. Abruptly he got to his feet and went over to one of the cupboards opposite. Opening it, he grasped a bottle by the neck, and caught hold of several glasses. “Kaid, I need another couple of glasses please. Vanna,” he said, returning to the table and setting down the glasses, “It’s my turn to tell you to grow up. You knew damned well what Garras was when you found Kaid injured in the Khalossa’s sick bay. The fact that you’re back here at the estate rather than still drugged at Stronghold is due to him and Kaid and the others in this room.”

  Kaid got up and collected the extra glasses, bringing them back to the low table.

  “I had no idea that …” Vanna began angrily.

  “Be honest with yourself, Vanna,” Kusac said, interrupting her. “You made me face some harsh realities. Now it’s your turn.”