Shades of Gray (109 page)

The suits activated, they all vanished from sight.

“I’m going to use the Zsadhi legend at the funeral,” said Kusac. “I’ll need to call on you for energy, Carrie, as well as you, Kushool. Carrie, you gather from them and send it to me.”

“You’re going to trigger the gestalt to create the illusion of fire and lightning?”

“Hopefully the fire at least,” he said. “For their bodies to be burned is the worst fate that can happen to a M’zullian or a Prime, so that will certainly have some effect. Just how localized it will be, we won’t know till I try. What we need to do now is make our way to the graveyard and set up somewhere safe there so I can see the actual burial site. Remember to leave as few traces of our passage as possible.”

 

They moved off, following Rezac and Kusac, who were picking their way carefully through the undergrowth.

We’ve managed to pick up one of the transmissions from the Palace newsroom,
sent Kaid.
Cheelar was right—the young widow looks almost exactly like Zhalmo now.

What’s happening?
he asked.

Very dramatic,
was Kaid’s dry reply.
Scenes of a black-draped female sobbing over the coffin and the Emperor looking magnanimous with his wife by his side; then she took the grieving widow away, and the coffin was placed on a gun carriage before the procession headed off to the Emperor’s chapel in the main square.

How are you picking this up? On the portable comm?
sent Kusac.

Yes. Glad T’Chebbi packed it
.

Aye,
he sent, and then passed on the news to Carrie to disseminate to the others.

They took their time, moving slowly and carefully, with Kaid updating them at regular intervals. Finally, with about thirty minutes to spare, they came out on a low ridge overlooking the outbuildings not far from the main house. Lying flat in the long grass and crawling to the edge, they could see a crowd gathering some distance away by a fenced area that enclosed half a dozen elaborate small low buildings. Here and there were dotted dark shapes that looked to be gravestones.

Pulling his binoculars from one of his leg pockets, he studied the area through them.

“That’s the graveyard,” said Kusac, handing the binoculars to Rezac.

Are there many mourners?
he asked Kaid.

“Is it the custom for them to have a meal at the house after the funeral?” Kusac asked Cheelar.

“I don’t know, Captain,” he said. “We haven’t exactly had any experience of funerals on our world, let alone here.”

“Rezac,” he began.

“Seeing to it now,” muttered Rezac. “Ah! Yes, there will be some kind of food for the mourners. Even the workers will be given something to eat to remember their old lord.”

“In which case, we’ll need to lie low until they’re all gone,” said Kusac.

“It’ll make getting into the house easier if we don’t,” said Rezac. “With so many of them coming and going, the doors will be left open, even if they have guards all over.”

“Too much risk of running into someone,” said Kusac. “We’ll wait for nightfall.”

They settled down to wait, pulling nutrition bars from their pockets to snack on.

“It’s beginning to cloud over,” said Carrie. “You might be able to call real lightning if this keeps up.”

Kusac rolled over to look up at the sky. It was indeed clouding over in an ominous way. He rolled back and returned his attention to some movement off to one side of the estate.

They’re on their way to you now,
sent Kaid.
You should see them in a few minutes.

“While I’m trying to create these illusions,” Kusac said, “I don’t want any of you watching them. Watch the funeral party for any sign they’ve spotted us or think the illusion is coming from this area. Warn me in plenty of time. Get those weapons ready just in case. Carrie knows the energy transfer drill, so, Kushool, just concentrate on what she tells you to do. The rest of you, remember, we telepaths will be dead on our feet when we finish, particularly me. Rezac, choose your vantage point. You too, J’korrash.”

“Aye, Captain,” they replied, moving stealthily up to the ridge.

Draw from the earth,
came the quiet thought from right beside him.

Startled, he lifted his head and looked around. There was nothing to see, only the very faint mottling of the air, if you knew where to look, where his team members were lying in the grass.

He looked back down at the graveyard, seeing the funeral procession now as it wound its way along a tree-lined roadway to the graveyard entrance. He saw only one red-robed Inquisitor. A gentle breeze fanned his face, penetrating the mesh of his mask, bringing with it the scent of blossoms not of that world.

“The earth it is,” he muttered.

“What?” asked Carrie from beside him.

“Nothing,” he said, pulling off his gloves and handing them to her. “Thinking aloud.”

He concentrated on the scene below him, wishing for the huntersight of his own body, surprised when it suddenly flicked on, giving him a much closer, though narrower view of the proceedings.

“Crap,” he muttered. “You’re unnerving me, stop it!”

“Me?” asked Carrie, hurt.

“No, Ghyakulla. Hush!”

“Abort assassination,” said Kaid suddenly in his comm link. “K’hedduk’s not there. He’s sent some General instead!”

“Dammit!” muttered Kusac, sending the update to Rezac and J’korrash, who slithered hurriedly back down beside them. “We continue with the rest of the plan.”

J’korrash swore volubly. “Bastard has more lives than is natural!”

“Silence!” hissed Rezac.

Kusac spread his fingers, digging them into the soil beside him, feeling his way into the earth, sensing the living creatures moving about in it, then the slumbering strength of the rock beneath. Taking a deep breath, he began to draw on the energy within it, to pull it into himself while at the same time Linking in to Carrie. Through her he felt the new surge of feminine energy as she brought in Kushool. Rezac joined their small circle, and he felt the gestalt spring to life, magnifying the power. It was like holding a live electric cable that spat and writhed around, trying to escape. Carefully, he began to weave the power and pull it within himself.

He imagined scarlet and yellow flames licking at the coffin, and then growing taller and taller, forming a pillar. Peripherally aware of the sound of distant cries of fear and terror, he opened his eyes as a peal of thunder rang out overhead. A pillar of twisting flames appeared to reach from the ground to the base of the low-lying clouds. Moments later, a flash of lightning rent the sky above it, arching down to the earth to hit the coffin. With a crack like the splitting of a great tree, the coffin exploded in a shower of sparks and shards of wood; then the heavens opened.

One minute the energy was being sucked out of him, leaving him empty and almost unable to move with exhaustion, the next, when the lightning struck the coffin and the ground, it surged back into him, leaving him gasping for breath as the rain sluiced over them all.

“Gloves first,” said Carrie, grabbing hold of his hands and forcing them into the gloves. Then he was dragged down from the ridge top and under the cover of the nearby bushes.

“Cheelar, get up there with the binoculars and find out what’s happening,” ordered Carrie.

Moments later, the youth came sliding back down the soaking grass. “The party’s broken up,” he said. “There’s a ’copter overhead for the General, and most of the rest are heading back to the house at a run. Wasn’t safe to stay up there.”

“Where’s the drink for him?” demanded Carrie, pulling his mask aside and rubbing his face. “Kusac, you all right? Talk to me!”

He reached up to take hold of her wrist. “I’ll survive,” he said, hearing the exhaustion in his voice. “That wasn’t all me, you know. Ghyakulla did the storm.”

“I thought I smelled nung flowers,” Carrie said, taking the offered can of protein drink and breaking the heating seal. “Here, drink this.” she said, passing it to him. “Give Kushool and Rezac one too.”

“Everyone else all right?” he asked, waiting a moment or two before raising the can to his lips.

“Feel like I’ve been hit with a sledgehammer,” said Rezac, taking the can J’korrash held out to him and gulping it down.

“We’re all fine,” said Carrie, taking her can gratefully from J’korrash. “Seems to have taken more from you two than us.”

“That was some light show,” said Cheelar, carefully securing his binoculars back in his pocket. “The rain was a good touch. It drove them all away with no chance of them coming looking for anyone up here, even if they suspected someone had caused it.”

“Did the rain put out the illusory flames?” he asked, downing the drink now it had cooled enough for him.

“What illusion? They were real,” said Cheelar. “And no, it didn’t. The coffin was still burning.”

The rain was lessening now, as if it had just been a sudden summer storm.

“Check again, please,” he said.

Cheelar was back within a couple of minutes. “The rain’s stopped now, and the flames too. The coffin is burned to a pile of ashes, and there’s no sign of anyone there.”

“That certainly sent a message to everyone, loud and clear,” said J’korrash. “I’d say that the locals will spread the rumor about the Zsadhi no matter what spin K’hedduk puts on it.”

“Let’s get out of here,” said Kusac, stumbling to his feet and closing the mask over his face. He crushed the can and shoved it in his thigh pouch. “Try to leave no traces behind. K’hedduk is going to know that it wasn’t completely a divine intervention and will have the area searched as soon as he regains his wits and courage.”

“What do you mean not completely a divine intervention?” asked J’korrash.

“He didn’t cause the storm or the rain,” said Carrie, giving Kusac a hand. “It was one of the Entities, Ghyakulla, the Earth Goddess.”

“Oh,” said J’korrash in a quiet voice.

“The Zsadhi, the original one,” said M’yikku, “was helped by La’shol, our Earth Goddess.”

I take it everyone is all right, and it went well,
sent Kaid.

You could say that,
replied Carrie.
One trashed and burned coffin, a fifty-foot pillar of flames, and a storm, with lightning, then a torrential and short rainfall to finally drive them all away or indoors. Yeah, it went well.

Ghyakulla made sure our people know their legend was responsible and that I’m it,
sent Kusac unhappily as they made their way carefully along a narrow animal track back down the ridge.

Isn’t that what we want?
asked Kaid compassionately.

I wasn’t expecting Her help,
Kusac muttered.

A wind was blowing, a warm one, laden with the scents of summer—damp grass and blossoms—and the heat was rising. It wouldn’t be long until the ground underfoot was dry again.

Are you and Rezac recovered enough to go on?
Kaid asked.

Aye,
sent Rezac.

Yes,
Kusac said.

Stay safe yourselves,
he sent.

They cut across the grounds, still sticking to the margins where there was cover from trees and bushes, heading toward the main building.

“How high was the pillar of flame?” demanded K’hedduk.

“We only have ground observers’ word for it, but they say about two thousand feet,” said Zerdish.

K’hedduk slowly lowered himself into the chair behind his desk. “How many were killed?”

“None, Majesty. Only the coffin of the late Lord Nayash was burned. The local people are saying the pillar was not natural.”

“Of course it wasn’t natural,” snapped K’hedduk, recovering his composure.

“I meant they are attributing it to divine action,” said Zerdish carefully.

The TeLaxaudin sitting on the cushions near the desk stirred and began to hum. “I told you wiser not to go,” Lassimiss said through his translator.

K’hedduk ignored the small alien. “And just who do they attribute it to?”

“To the Zsadhi,” said his aide reluctantly.

“Superstitious peasants,” muttered K’hedduk. “Get the propaganda department to come up with a rational reason for it, and get it broadcast on all the news stations as soon as possible!”