holder to be found. Fifty Seasons of New Life ago, that male child finally came to light. Thirty years later he reached his sexual peak, then he and the woman were forced to mate under the watchful eyes of thePon Q’tar until she conceived. The result was Vespasian Augustus I. He was taken from his parents and suckled by numerous veiled wet nurses so that no maternal or parental attachments would form in his psyche. From the day of his birth, his only ‘parents’ and mentors have been thePon Q’tar. ”
Tristan shook his head. “It’s monstrous,” he breathed. “Are you saying that he has no knowledge of his true past?”
“Precisely,” Jomei answered. “But there is more to this twisted tale. Immediately after Vespasian was born, his mother and father were again locked away in separate prisons. We surmise that they remain alive. Vespasian is unaware of their existence. He and Persephone believe that Vespasian was an orphan, raised and trained by thePon Q’tar out of the ‘goodness’ of their hearts.”
“I can understand why thePon Q’tar wants Vespasian to believe that his parents are dead,” Tyranny mused. “It helps to ensure his loyalty. But why does thePon Q’tar keep Vespasian’s parents alive? Surely their continued existence represents a threat to thePon Q’tar ’s credibility should Vespasian somehow learn the truth. His rage over how they have been treated might be incalculable.”
“Can’t you guess?” Wigg asked the privateer.
“They want to be able to bring another child of Vespasian’s blood into the world, should their first creation fail them,” Tristan breathed. He shot a questioning look at Mashiro.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” he asked. “That’s also what you meant when you said that to save both sides of the craft, Rustannica and thePon Q’tar must first be totally defeated. If Vespasian is killed and thePon Q’tar live, they can do the same monstrous thing again.”
“Yes,” Midori said. “The thirty or so years needed to bring another such abomination to manhood or womanhood is but a blink of an eye in the maze that is the craft. All that thePon Q’tar wants from Vespasian is for him to use his potent blood to help take our gold and then summon the banned forestallments that will reduce Shashida to ashes. To them he is simply a tool of war-a means to an end and nothing more. Persephone was betrothed to him in an arranged marriage in hopes of keeping him from pursuing and impregnating other women. They even went so far as to cast spells over the empress, making it impossible for her to conceive. They add credibility to their supposed compassion for her plight by giving her useless potions said to enhance her fertility. She is told that the worthless concoctions might help, but in truth thePon Q’tar doesn’t want Vespasian to father children. Being a father would create a needless distraction from his ceaseless training in the craft and might produced an unwanted reluctance in him to risk his life for their cause. When he has served their purposes, they might well kill him. Some sort of terrible accident, no doubt, that can be explained away to a grieving populace. He remains too great a threat to their power for him to live into old age.”
“Who are Vespasian’s parents?” Tyranny asked. “Where did they come from?”
“The girl was found in a peasant village in the Rustannican highlands,” Midori answered. “The boy came from a well-placed krithian family in Ellistium. To maintain secrecy the children’s families were killed by elite legionary assassins, and the murders were blamed on thieves and cutthroats who were never ‘caught.’”
“How can you know all this?” Tristan asked Mashiro. “Julia is too young to have told you these things.”
“Do you remember my saying that one of the League members rose to the rank of Heretic but that he was killed in battle?” Mashiro answered.
Tristan nodded.
“That man found the boy child who would later become Vespasian’s father,” Mashiro answered. “He was also one of the few Heretics who were granted full knowledge and participation in thePon Q’tar ’s plan. Part of his duties included guarding the imprisoned woman who became Vespasian’s mother. As a reward he was granted the time enchantment, and he lived for centuries. Being forced to participate in that travesty for so long nearly drove him to madness, but he persisted and was able to commune with us often. By then Julia had risen to the station of Priory Sister, and she and the League ‘Heretic’ knew each other. It was she who told us of his death, a terrible blow to our cause. Vespasian’s parents still lived at the time of our rebel Heretic’s death. But we have no way of knowing whether that is still the case, for even Julia has not been made privy to that information. Even so, keeping them alive would seem to be in thePon Q’tar ’s best interests, would it not?”
“In a strange way I’m almost sorry for Vespasian,” Tristan said.
Mashiro sternly shook his head. “I understand how you feel,” he said. “But you cannot afford to sympathize with his plight, Jin’Sai. If you meet him on the battlefield you must strike quickly and with everything you have. He is the ultimate product of the Vagaries, and he would as soon kill us as draw his next breath-you above all.”
“And what about me and Shailiha?” Tristan asked. “You said that our blood signatures occurred naturally. What did you mean?”
Mashiro smiled. “Unlike Vespasian’s parents, yours found one another on their own. Wigg and the other Directorate Wizards chose Nicholas I to be king, and Nicholas later took Morganna as his queen. Your parents’ union was natural, as were your and your sister’s twin births. Unknown to your father, mother, and the late Directorate, Nicholas and Morganna carried the supreme male and female blood signature halves needed to produce theJin’Sai and theJin’Saiou. Your parents were each of highly endowed blood, to be sure. But only when these two magnificently powerful and opposing gender blood signature halves join to form a new one does the resulting child’s blood take on such transcendent strength. You and Shailiha became those two children. In the entire history of your world, only three other such random pairings occurred. This also means that your blood signature and Shailiha’s are identical with that of everyJin’Sai andJin’Saiou who preceded you.”
“And the previousJin’Sai s andJin’Saiou s that the Scroll Master spoke of,” Tristan said, “were they our forebears?”
“In a way, they were,” Kaemon answered. “But as you can imagine, for the vast majority of recorded time these two supremely gifted blood signature halves drifted apart from one another as they resided in various people’s blood and were handed down from generation to generation. You and your sister are the first and onlyJin’Sai andJin’Saiou born to royalty. Nicholas and Morganna were more than just your parents-they were also the human vessels that carried the transcendent blood signature halves for a short time. They made you and Shailiha who you are, and you are right to keep on loving them and holding your memories of them dear.”
Tristan sat in respectful silence for a moment, remembering. Then another question occurred to him. “Save for its lean, is my blood signature identical to Vespasian’s?” he asked.
Mashiro shook his head. “We do not know. Our rebel Heretic had no opportunity to see Vespasian’s blood signature before he was killed, nor has Julia. Our scholars believe that they are probably different in appearance but equally powerful.”
“But what is it that gives these two-or should I say four-uniquely powerful signature halves such amazing qualities?” Wigg asked. “Why does their joining create people of such transcendent blood?”
“Our scholars have long believed that it has something to do with the two orbs,” Renjiro answered. “That the orbs perhaps somehow influenced their evolution-one pair for the Vigors, another for the Vagaries. Each pair produces vastly different tendencies, to be sure, but they are probably equally powerful. In truth even we do not know. If we survive to defeat Rustannica, perhaps that will be one of the mysteries we will solve together. Aside from that, who is to say why these unique blood signatures produce such talented and extraordinary mystics? Why do some of us become geniuses of science and mathematics, or great prodigies in music and art? Nature still has her ways, and I daresay we humble humans have yet to fully understand them.”
Tristan again looked through the gaps in the colonnade to the gardens lying beyond. The sun had set in earnest, and the various night creatures had started singing. A cool wayward breeze flowed through the magnificently appointed gardens, its invisible tentacles sometimes reaching into the room to gently caress his face. They brought with them unfamiliar scents, sounds, and seemingly even greater mysteries.
Because of the many things he had learned this day, Tristan had at last found a sense of quiet peace in Shashida that he had known nowhere else. At last he knew who he really was, and how he and Shailiha had come to be, and why. Questions remained, but he understood enough to put his heart at rest-at least for now.
Then his eyes caught the lovely Hoshi’s once more. He was about to speak to her when Mashiro garnered his attention. Leaning over the table slightly, theInkai elder gave the three newcomers a serious look.
“It is late,” he said. “I fully understand that you have more questions, but the three of you should retire. But before you leave us, there is something more that you need to know. You will probably find the news disturbing.”
