Divine Deception: The Will Traveller Chronicals (5 page)

“No real member of
this family ever needs help from such as they” The ancient old
man’s voice rose, both in volume and in pitch.

“You see! Oh Lord
of Lords” Edmond’s voice was venomous “If he really were Robert, he
could not think to jeopardize the Supreme Family, in order to save
their worthless lives” He added. Ursula and young Elton clearly
agreed he’d made a really good point. But Peter and Margaret just
sat expressionless, sometimes looking over at me curiously.

“I will devise a
test with which to establish your true identity” The old man
declared “Till then, you are to stay in the precincts of Red House
until you have reported the name and location of everyone you have
had dealings with in the past four years” He decreed. The Supreme
One rose as if the meeting was over, but Lady Ursula raised her
hand.

“Supreme One” Lady
Ursula’s voice was cream, but her words held pure poison “Is it not
so that letting one who may be an impostor, occupy the home that
may not be his, is much like saying he is in fact Lord Robert” She
asked the old man “Before he has even passed the test your
illustrious mind creates to establish the truth of that?” She added
ingratiatingly.

“As always you
speak wisely Ursula” The old man smiled at his eldest Daughter “But
where would you have us incarcerate him otherwise? After all, it
may be that this is indeed Robert. If that were so, would it not be
better to have less rather than more, who know of this problematic
situation” He asked her knowingly.

“You are, as ever
so, completely right Lord of Lords” Ursula replied, adding “An
impostor will not sleep well in the great Lord Robert’s bed”.

Lady Ursula
flashed a look of pure hatred at me, before rising, with the
others, for the departure of the Supreme One.

“As you’re under
sort of house arrest, I shall have to order an escort and patrol
for you, Robert” Peter said softly, clearly he was the operational
chief. There was an unmistakable note of apology in his voice as he
told me, after we’d returned to the central palace’s enormous
arrival and departure area. We left as we’d arrived. Except I now
had an escort. Zoran and two young men were on the steps to welcome
me on my return. The buggy simply stopped, I got out and was joined
by the four house guards, who were obviously very uncomfortable at
being posted to police me by their commander

It was unnecessary
to explain to Zoran the outcome of my meeting with the Supreme One.
He, of course, did not ask, but it was clear to me that he knew and
was very concerned.

“I thought it best
to have Miss Proust stay in your chambers Sire” The old man
reported, with a twinkle in his still lively old eyes. I went
upstairs and was greeted by Susan and her two new-found friends
from bath time. They had been having themselves a ball, while I
suffered through my ordeal, so, naturally, I let them help me to
recover. Sure there were problems ahead, still, I couldn’t see why
enjoying what I could, while I could, was such a bad idea at all,
nor could the three women.

I knew I’d only
won a reprieve, not a battle. For reasons I needed to find out, at
least three of my siblings and the Supreme One himself, did not
want me back, real or not. I’d felt Edmond’s guilt, earlier in the
day, but was he guilty of actually murdering Robert, or did he just
think he had? It was quite late in the day, when Zoran announced
the arrival of Lord Peter and Lady Margaret. I got dressed
appropriately and hurried down to meet my only two allies in the
looming battle. Neither had brought their entourage and they had
chosen to come over in one of the golf buggies, it would seem that
they wished to be discreet.

“Robert it is you
isn’t it?” Lady Margaret came very close and held my face in both
her hands, eyes earnestly searching mine.

“It is I dear
Margaret” I put my hands over hers as I assured her.

“But, as Zoran,
the Supreme One and possibly you, Peter have noticed” I went on “I
am a somewhat different Robert to the one you last knew four years
ago” I led them to a table in an alcove of the lobby. Zoran had
everything organised and when they’d served us, they all left.
Peter leaned forward and asked in a secretive tone

“Do you know what
happened Robert?” I shook my head

“All I know is
what I told the Supreme One” I replied truthfully.

“Well, Maggie and
I think Ursula started the rumours” Peter began quietly “But Edmond
and Elton actually believed the story. We think they either hired
some people or did something to you themselves” Peter confided. I
had no idea what he was talking about, beyond the fact that they
believed I’d met with foul play.

“What sort of
rumours Peter?” I queried “I mean, what does it take to make you
try to kill your own brother?” I asked of both of them.

“Oh we never
believed them for one second Robert” Lady Margaret said with
sincerity.

“So what were all
these rumours then?” I asked again.

“An old Seer,
someone they’d picked up in Centropolis I expect” Peter opinioned
“Any way, she was spouting all this nonsense about the house of Red
spilling the Supreme Family’s blood on the land, to fertilize the
seeds of freedom for the whole human race”. Peter quoted, watching
me. I kept my face blank.

“How did Ursula
sell that to the Council? I mean, the whole of food production is
full of people who have it in for one or another of us, right?”
They both laughed at my guess.

“Well, I don’t
know how she did it” Lady Margret picked up the story “But she had
the old woman appear, out of nowhere, all over the New World and
even here on three occasions” She told me.

“I actually saw
one of her appearances” Peter enjoined “It was very impressive I
must say” He admitted.

“Do you think
Ursula had the Supreme One’s blessing, or is he a believer?” I
asked my two siblings.

“Well Ursula has
the old man pretty much round her finger Robert, she always did
have” Peter began to explain.

“And I know why
now, Peter” Margaret interjected, adding “And I think it’s
disgusting”.

“Margaret!”
Peter’s urgent voice held a trace of fear. But his younger Sister
continued.

“I also heard that
he told people he had heard these rumours when he was young” Lady
Margaret added “So he was in on it too”.

“Do you know why
they want me out Peter?” I asked my green clad, peaceful
Brother.

“To be honest I
really don’t Robert” He seemed completely genuine “I think it’s got
something to do with consolidation of the power, and, maybe I’m
next, who knows around here” Peter seemed calmly resigned to his
fate, whatever that may be.

“I think they mean
to get rid of all of us and have power go to her four children, by
him” Lady Margaret flared again; it seems she wanted to put up a
fight.

“When you said you
were different, what did you mean?” Margaret asked me suddenly, to
catch me off guard.

“I see with the
same eyes, I hear with the same ears, but I feel with a very
different heart Margret” The voice was mine, I could hear it in my
head, but the words, they were not.“Listen to what we speak of, we
three” My words had them almost in a trance-like-state “Fratricide,
incest, the lust for ultimate power. Is this sordid family not the
finite evidence that power does corrupt and absolute power, such as
is held in this festering microdot on our planet, corrupts
absolutely. Even among our own, the lust for more has born such
evils. It can only be scourged by extinction” My auto voice
stated.

I really wished
this ‘automatic’ voice would stop, but it continued “How long can
such a blight on humanity continue to suck the juice of freedom
from the human soul?” I asked involuntarily “Yet such is the power
we have amassed, that no-one from without can bring asunder the
walls of our citadel. That task must be accomplished from within,
by our own” I told them both, and me!

“You?” Peter asked
simply, quite calm and unemotional.

“Well, according
to this rumour I am” I tried to laugh it off.

“So you are the
threat to all of us that they said” Lady Margaret stood up and took
two steps back, her face a mask of angry determination. She reached
into her kaftan and withdrew one of the small black shiny sticks
I’d already seen twice.

“Oh Margaret put
that thing away and come sit back down here dear girl” Peter spoke
caringly but without older brother authority “You know if you kill
him we have to kill you. That’s the law” He shrugged his shoulders
“You’re just making things easier for them” Peter added quietly,
his eyes fixed on his younger sister’s. Margaret stepped forward
but did not sit, still holding that thing.

“While you’re
being so truthful Robert” She looked down at me with a tight smile
“Are you ready to explain where you’ve really been these past
years?” Margret asked coldly. I’d obviously just lost an ally. I
stood up, only because I dislike looking up at people when I talk
to them. Unfortunately, Lady Margaret thought I was about to attack
her. Her hand shot out in front of her and a thin red beam emitted
from the black tube which she held.

Everything slipped
into slow motion for me, so I comfortably had time to hold up my
hand and block the beam. It bounced off my palm and over into a
huge marble planter standing nearby. The thing disintegrated! I’m
not sure whether looking at the planter’s small pile of residue,
which could have been me, or the fact that it had actually
ricocheted off my hand, affected me more. As for Peter and
Margaret, they sat and stood respectively, their fearful and
confused eyes frozen on mine.

“Such is the
simplicity of life and death in this Divine House?” I questioned
her “I merely wish to stand and you would kill me for that?” I
accused her coldly.

“It was a mistake,
an accident” Margaret stammered “I did not mean to harm you Robert,
truly” Her voice took on a pleading tone “Your words, what you said
just before, they frightened me” She added, still holding the tube
weapon while she apologised.

“I should think
you’re quite right to be frightened Margaret dear” Peter said,
still sounding quite unconcerned about events, despite being
shocked at my deflection of the lethal beam “Especially as our
little disintegrators don’t work on this Robert” Peter faced
me.

“Do sit down
Robert” Peter urged “I’ve an idea that we should talk, and an odd
feeling that there is not much time left to do it” He said, his
voice was friendly, almost conversational.

“Tell me about the
so-called uninhabited waste lands” I asked them, when we were
sitting around a table in an alcove.

“Why would you
want to know about that?” Margaret quizzed suspiciously “It hasn’t
changed since you left” She added, clearly still not comfortable
with me, as we three sat sipping a hot drink.

“No, Margret my
dear” I replied evenly “But as I’ve already told both of you, I
have changed, a great deal” I added emphatically.

“That’s quite
obvious now Robert” Peter conceded “What exactly do you want to
know?” He asked me amiably.

“Beyond an
awareness that they exist, I remember nothing” I answered him
truthfully. Somehow sure that they were relevant.

“Not surprising, I
suppose” Peter responded looking at me closely “The old Robert only
used them as a handy resource, beyond that, he couldn’t give a damn
about them” Peter added disapprovingly.

“What kind of
resource” I asked Peter, genuinely curious.

My older Brother
looked at me for almost half a minute in silence “You don’t recall
a decade of tri annual hunts, or your monthly enoplant harvests,
nor the dozens of security skirmish responses you’ve led since your
thirties?” Peter asked bemused.

“So there are
people living out in the wastelands?” I confirmed, seeming to have
already known that.

“Well I wouldn’t
take the word waste lands too seriously Robert” Peter said smiling
broadly “From the footage I’ve seen, there are some really nice
places out there. But we can’t ever go there, because we’d be
attacked by the natives” Peter added.

“Why would they
attack us?” I surprised Peter with my question.

“In their place,
I’d probably do the same Robert” He confided, much to Margret’s
surprise. “New Worlders live off the energy, the building materials
and the nutritional resources of the wild lands” Peter explained,
adding “Just as you used to, along with both Edmond and Elton, who
still do it. The harvesting of those resources is neither paid for,
nor renewed” Peter continued “It’s just taken at will, from a
largely defenceless people. Those that are foolish enough to object
are killed. You once considered it an excellent sport” He tried to
remind me, but I remembered nothing. I think I was glad about
that.

“Why do the locals
allow this?” I asked the seemingly decent Peter “Surely they must
outnumber the New Worlders” I added.

“By twenty to one,
maybe a hundred to one” Peter answered “But they have no technology
and a lot of superstitions. Also, they are spread out in gypsy like
groups all over the continents, while New Worlders are in
impenetrable congregations” Peter explained .

“Did you say
congregations intentionally?” I queried Peter nodded.

“It is what they
are, from our point of view” Peter answered, serenely calm as he
went on “You see, while to you and me we are pretty human, well, we
are anyway” He indicated Margaret and himself “I’m not too sure
about you after that” Peter pointed to the shattered remains of the
planter “Well” He went on “We’ve always felt we were pretty much
human, but, because of the way things are set up, the New Worlders
and these waste land gypsies believe that we are actually living
Gods” He explained without any embarrassment.