Changes

look of things, she had started talking when she sat down, and had not paused since.

“Will you stop whining!” Bear snapped. “For Cernos’ sake, Lena! You’re not a little girl anymore! If you don’t like what your precious father is doing, tell him, tell Lita, tell both of them to their faces! Tell that little rat Farris how he’s being used! If you don’t like how you’re being treated, say something. Get up on your hind legs and have it out with them, for once in your life!

Lena stared at him, tears starting up in her eyes.

“And stop crying!” Bear spat. “That was cute when you were a little girl and passable when you first got here, but hiding in your room and sulking and weeping until you’re sick are just... .juvenile! Grow up!”

The tears dried up as if a desert wind had sprung up. Lena glared at Bear with her fists clenched at her sides. “Grow up? Say what I feel? Have a confrontation? GROW UP AND FACE MY FATHER JUST LIKE YOU DID?”

Bear froze, lenses slipping down on his nose, mouth half open.

“Just like you? Just like you stood up to your father? Because you make such a shining example to follow!”

Mags winced frantically away from that fight as well. What was wrong with them all? Why were they ripping into each other?

The stone stirred at his unhappiness. It sensed his question.

It had an answer.

Stagnation equals death.

Well, that “answer” had come right out of nowhere and made just about as much sense. What was that supposed to mean, anyway?

They are not dying.

Mags felt a stab of irritation. Of course they weren’t dying. That was pretty obvious. What exactly was the stone trying to get at?

Change is painful. Birth is painful. Creatures in pain lash out without knowing why, and often without caring what they strike.

What are you, anyway? he thought at it, resentfully. The storage room for every cliche and worn-out motto that was ever spoken in this Kingdom?

Yes.

Uh... what?

Among many other things.

Right. Now it was having a philosophical dialogue with him. He was talking philosophy with a rock. Had this just gotten very, very strange?

It already was. You just hadn’t noticed.

How could he have not—

You are looking outward so steadfastly you are not looking inward anymore.

Now you sound like some sort of mystic.

Yes. You are all out of balance.

How would you know?

I am balance.

Well that made him pause.

How can I... how can we . . .

I am past and present. I am not future. There is no knowledge stored in me of what you will do. Only what you can do and what you have done in the past, all of you.

So... you’re a library?

Among other things. Many other things.

At this point he wasn’t quite sure if he was hallucinating, dreaming, or the stone actually was communicating with him. He wasn’t using his mind-voice, that much he was certain of, because it would have hurt if he had been. This was deeper than that, at a level where he thought very clearly, but very slowly—where he was articulate, but it wasn’t exactly in words.

Why are you talking to me?

You are a Herald. You are part of the Web. I am the heart of the Web.

The Web... he thought he remembered that concept, that all Heralds and all Companions were connected in a vast network like a spiderweb—and like a spiderweb, something touching the Web was felt by everything in it.

Can you help me?

You must ask the right questions.

Well, wasn’t that always the case... He sighed in his sleep, if it was sleep. That