they buried or cast into the sea.
'In 2210 of that age,' Master Juwain said, 'a great conclave was held in Tria. Navsa Adami, foremost of the Brothers, favored arming any who would take up swords and using the blue gelstei to speak with others of like minds in other lands. He called for a rebellion that would cast off the Aryan yoke, almost in a night. But Janin Soli, and many of the Sisters, disagreed with him. She suggested opposing the Aryans by trying to grab hold of their minds and manipulating them from within.'
'That would be a horrible thing,' Maram said, shuddering again'But the witches never succeeded, did they, sir?'
'Don't you remember anything I've taught you?' Master Juwain said.
He told us then of how the Brothers and Sisters had argued violently as to how the blue gelstei should be used. In the end, Navsa Adami had fled from Alonia in great bitterness. He gathered up his followers and made his way to the Morning Mountains where he founded the first of the Brotherhood's schools.
'After that, King Vashrad began a great pogrom against what was left of the Order,'
Master Juwain told us. 'He began killing all the Sisters, not just the mindspeakers, who were always quite few. It's said that he beheaded Janin Soli with his own sword.'
'But Janin had a daughter, didn't she?' Maram asked.
'Oh, you do remember your history, then?' Master Juwain said. ‘Yes, Janin Soli did have a daughter. But a daughter of the spirit, not the blood. Her name was Kalinda Marshan.'
Upon the destruction of the Order, he said, Kalinda had taken upon herself the ancient title of Materix, and had gathered the most advanced Sisters around her.
They met in secret in the catacombs beneath the ruins of the Temple of Life in Tria.
There Kalinda had vowed to avenge her beloved Janin's murder. There she and her other Sisters plotted the overthrow of the Aryan rule and the restoration of all the Temples of Life and Gardens of the Earth and all that was best of the Age of the Mother. And so was founded the very secret Maitriche Teiu.
'So, the witches are still weaving their plots,' Kane said. 'Assassins, they are.
Poisoners of minds. Makers of spells that capture men's souls.'
'But it's not known,' Master Juwain said, 'if the Maitriche Teiu even still exists.'
'Ha, it exists!' Kane barked out. His black eyes flashed toward Liljana as he pointed at her gelstei. 'You should be very careful, Liljana. The Sisters must seek the blue gelstei since theirs have all likely been taken or lost. They'd give much gold for your little stone, eh?'
She nodded her head as if she agreed with him. Then she said, 'I suppose they would if there are any of these dread assassins and poisoners left. But that's not the kind of gold that I seek.'
'You shouldn't make jokes about the Maitriche Telu,' he growled at her. 'They'd kill you for that crystal, you know. If you're to keep it, you must keep it a secret, eh?'
Liljana smiled mysteriously and told us that she was good at keeping secrets; she promised that it would be safe with her. And then Master Juwain said, 'Yes, keep the belstei if you must, but please don't use it. Or else you'll risk falling mad like the ancient Sisters.'
Liljana opened her hand to show us her little blue crystal. Then she said, 'Do you think this came to me not to be used? What have I done that you think I would misuse it?'
'It's not you we doubt, Liljana,' Master Juwain said, 'but only the blue gelstei.'
'And what of the prophecy, then?'
We sat around the fire munching down roasted mussels as we spoke of Ayondela Kirriland's prophecy.
'The seven Brothers and Sisters of the earth,'' Liljana reminded us, ' 'with the seven stones will set forth into the darkness.' '
'Ah, well, if we are those seven,' Maram said, looking toward the south, 'at least we've already gone into the darkness. What could be darker than the Vardaloon?'
He brought out his red stone and gazed at it as if its fire might reassure him, while Kane turned his black gelstei around and around in his hard, thick fingers. Atara gripped her scyrer's sphere even as Master Juwain studied his varistei and Liljana played with her bit of blue driftglass. And then Liljana said, 'If we are those seven, then we have two more gelstei to gain before the Lightstone can be found.'
'And if those two are of the greater gelstei,' Master Juwain said, 'they must be the purple and the silver.'
'Everyone looked at me and Alphanderry then as if wondering which of us would gain which stone.
'The prophecy,' Alphanderry pointed out, 'said only that seven with the seven stones would set forth and that the Lightstone would be found. But we don't know that it will be found after the seven stones are gained.'
'If we find the Lightstone first,' Maram said, 'what would be the need of gaining the seven gelstei?'
'What would be the need of gaining them,' Liljana said, glancing at her figurine, 'if they are not to be used?'
I thought of how Morjin had used a varistei to make a monster named Meliadus and how the Grays had nearly stolen my soul with Kane's black stone. I said, 'All the gelstei are dangerous, aren't they? Why should we single out Liljana's stone as being especially so?'
'But, Val,' Master Juwain said, 'consider this stone's origins. The blue gelstei captured some of the essence of the kiriol. And kiriol is made from an infusion of kirque juice, as is its more deadly cousin, kirax.'
The mere mention of this word itensified the pain of the poi-son that would always taint my blood. My thoughts turned again toward Morjin, and I feared yet again that the very act of thinking about him connected us heart to heart and mind to mind. As did the kirax.
I looked at Kane and asked, 'You said before that the Lord of Lies must have a blue gelstei – why do you think this?'
For a moment Kane stared into his black stone as if caught by a mirror. Then he looked up and told me, 'The Lord of Illusions has great powers, eh? What could be greater than the power to make others see what is not? But even he can't cast these illusions and nightmares all over Ea. For that he would surely need a blue gelstei.'
'He has seen my mind, then,' I said. 'He has seen me.'
Kane got up and stepped past the fire so that he could grab my arm and shake some courage into me. 'So, he's seen your mind, and that's too bad. But he hasn't seen your soul, I think. That's beyond any of the blue gelstei to reveal, even the most powerful.'
The strength of his hand reassured me a little. But his words disturbed Maram, who said, 'But can he see Val, in his body? See where he is? If he can see him, then he can see us.'
'I don't think he can,' Liljana said. 'So long as Val keeps from speaking to his mind and revealing the details of what he sees about him, I would think that the Lord of Illusions would be able to do nothing more than sense his presence somewhere – but not know where.'
'This accords with what is known of the blue gelstei,' Master Juwain said. 'But we mustn't forget the poison that his man put into Val. I'm afraid that the kirax speaks for Val whether he wills it or not.'
'So, it speaks,' Kane said. 'But speaks how? Surely not to the mind. As we've seen by Val's most recent dream.'
'How so?' Master Juwain asked. 'Aren't dreams of the mind?'
'Ha, the mind!' Kane coughed out. 'I say that dreams are of the soul. But no matter.
Val has been free from Morjin's dreams and illusions since we killed the Grays. Why this sudden dream, then?'
Master Juwain thought for a moment and then said, 'Meliadus.'
'Just so,' Kane said. 'When Meliadus died, the pain of it opened Val up. Morjin felt his son's death – and much else as well. It's the valarda that truly joins Val to Morjin.
This is his greatest vulnerability, eh?'
As the fire sent up sparks into the darkening sky, we sat there speaking of the blue gelstei and the black, the purple and the silver and the gold -as well as the gifts of mindspeaking and the valarda. Finally, Kane held up his hand as if to ward off our most fearful speculations. And then he told us, 'No one knows everything about the Great Beast's powers. But this much we can take courage from: he can be fought.
So, he casts illusions, but not all are maddened by them. He sends terrible dreams, but those there are who refuse to make them their own. He turns men and women into ghuls – but never the strongest, eh? In the end, I have to believe that each of us has the will to turn away from him.'
