The night was still, the three red moons casting their magenta glow over everything with their customary beauty. The night creatures that had stopped singing when he neared gradually took up their songs again as he stood motionless, his endowed senses searching for a sign of human life. When his surroundings finally returned to normal, Gracchus decided that he was at last alone. He raised his arms and called the craft.
Soon a temple appeared in the center of the riverbed, its structure gleaming serenely in the moonlight. Small and low, it was made of white alabaster with a peaked roof and seven steps leading to its columned portico. Heavy marble doors locked from the outside stood high and broad in the facing wall. Although the temple had but one purpose, it was vital to Gracchus’ plans. Despite being a huge encumbrance, the entire Suffragat had agreed that it should come on the campaign. But Gracchus had his own reasons for insisting that the temple be brought along, for there were secrets that only thePon Q’tar must know if the Vagaries were to rule this side of the world as well as the other.
The lead cleric hurried up the stone steps, then called the craft. At once the massive doors swung wide. He walked into the temple, and the doors silently closed behind him. Had anyone been watching, he would have seen the temple start to shimmer, then disappear from sight, leaving only the night creatures to attest that it ever existed.
Lowering his hood, Gracchus walked midway across the highly polished floor. Looking at the far wall he was relieved to see that thePon Q’tar ’s wondrous construct had survived the journey intact. The inside of the temple was simple and bare, with only a handful of enchanted wall torches providing light. The air was warm and odorless.
As he had hoped, the far wall glowed with a soft azure hue. Its depths seemed limitless. Curved shards of white light wheeled and streaked through the azure aura. The strange masterwork of the craft emitted a soft roaring, crackling sound like that of a blazing fire. Raising his hand, Gracchus again summoned the craft. At once the shimmering wall slid closer, causing the familiar glowing cube to take form. The cube came to a stop a few meters from his boots.
“Come to me,” he ordered.
As the Oraculum emerged, a strange look showed on her face, and her dark eyes searched the unfamiliar room. Her tattered gray gown flowing about her in the mist, she said nothing as she hung weightless in her endowed prison.
“Do you know where you are, Matsuko?” Gracchus asked almost politely.
“I know that this room is not the one in which I have been imprisoned for so many centuries,” she answered. “I could sense that this structure was moving and that until only moments ago it was surrounded by the workings of the craft-a spell of invisibility, perhaps. But I do not know where we have come or why.”
“We are on a great campaign against Shashida,” Gracchus answered. “You are now housed in temple built of solid alabaster and especially enchanted to keep you imprisoned. I caused a spell of forgetfulness to pass over you while you and your cube were moved from belowground. We call this place the Oraculum Tempitatum. But you need be told no more than that.”
“A great campaign,” Matsuko mused. At first the news stunned her, but soon a slight smile crossed her lips. “This is the first time that you have taken me from my underground prison. Your reasons for bringing me with you must be important, considering that you could simply have left me in Ellistium and touched my mind to hear my pronouncements. Why am I here, Gracchus?”
The cleric’s jaw hardened. Bringing the Oraculum along on the campaign was a great hardship, but a necessary one. With Vespasian’s blessing, this temple had been hastily constructed by thePon Q’tar to move the Oraculum without fear of her escaping imprisonment.
Moving her glowing cube from one locale to another without encasing it within another strongly walled object was unthinkable-she remained far too powerful for Gracchus to trust such pedestrian measures of confinement as mere chains or barred cages. Only solid, enchanted stone might keep her trapped should she somehow slip the bonds of her azure cube. That was why she had been imprisoned beneath the ground so long ago and why she and her glowing cube were being transported in this gleaming temple, its alabaster sides enchanted by the craft to strengthen them and to cloak the presence of her highly endowed blood.
Causing the temple to become invisible and to float through the air among the advancing legions had been a huge drain on several of the cleric’s gifts. The strain in the coming days would be no less severe. But it was needed because the legions would soon be linking up, then entering Shashidan territory, the Oraculum’s onetime home world. Moreover, the Oraculum was unknown to anyone other than the Suffragat, and so she had to be spirited from the capital in secret. If her pronouncements could be secretly used to their advantage in the war, the clerics’ and emperor’s victories would seem all the more inspired.
Despite her advanced age, Gracchus suspected that the Oraculum’s powers were still great. The Vigors worshippers would not only kill to get her back, but they would consider her return to their midst a huge moral victory. Her escape would be a no less stunning defeat for those who ruled the Rustannican Empire, so no chance could be taken that she might somehow vanish. Gracchus needed her visions if he was to wisely manage the ongoing struggle being carried out by the Viper Lord. But there was another, far more personal reason why he had insisted during the Suffragat voting session that the Oraculum accompany the legions on this mighty campaign. It was one that only he understood and could put into practice. He needed to look into her face as she offered up her pronouncements.
Gracchus had never dared to rely on the convenience of distantly touching her mind to learn what she had to say. Instead, he had for aeons visited her personally. He needed to look into her eyes, to see her face, to hear the quality of her voice to determine the veracity of her words. Indeed, by now his ability to judge her persona had become so keen that he immediately knew when she was lying, and because of it she had not dared do so for centuries. Even so, should he abandon visiting her in person and rely only on touching her mind, he had no doubt that her lying would recommence. Like the desperate campaign against Shashida, the struggle being carried out by the Viper Lord was of the utmost importance. The intelligence gleaned from the Oraculum must be genuine. And for that, only being in her presence would do.
Gracchus refused to answer. She knew why she was here, he realized. Besides, her inquiry was meant only to taunt him, and he would not honor her with a response.
“Tell me what you have seen,” he said.
Again the ghostly, knowing smile crossed the Oraculum’s lips. As it did, a tingle went down Gracchus’ spine.
This is why I come to see her, he thought. It is small gestures like this that tell me if her words are genuine. Her smile says that she has bad news and that she will enjoy telling it to me. That alone is enough to ensure that her information is genuine.
When Matsuko did not speak as soon as the anxious cleric wanted, he took a quick step forward, glaring into her weathered face.
“Tell me, you wizened crone!” he demanded. “What have you seen?”
Again her curious smile surfaced. “I have seen many things,” she answered, “not one of which you will like.”
Gracchus’ heart fell. “Go on,” he said cautiously.
“TheJin’Sai ’s mystics have miniaturized two of their Black Ships,” she answered. “He and two Minion phalanxes enter the caves in search of the Azure Sea. They bring the ships with them. I needn’t tell you why. The other two ships remain full size and were left behind for theJin’Saiou ’s use in hunting down the Viper Lord. They rest in newly constructed cradles that sit alongside the royal palace in Tammerland.”
Gracchus took an involuntary step backward, stunned. “How…” he breathed.
“They used some of the subtle matter to accomplish their ends,” the Oraculum answered. Then she went still again as she floated hauntingly in her majestic cube. Gracchus found her defiant silence infuriating.
Enraged by her teasing answer, he shook his fists at her. “Of course they used the subtle matter, you Vigors bitch!” he shouted. “But how did they come by the specialized knowledge to employ it?”
“From the Shashidans,” she answered. “They left behind both a message that Shashida lay across the Azure Sea, and a formula showing theJin’Sai ’s mystics how to transform the ships. Their plan was perfect. And now the most powerful of all theJin’Sai s ever to walk the earth has finally uncovered it. As we speak, he and his mystics search the Caves. If they are not intercepted and destroyed-”
“I know full well what will happen if they are not destroyed!” Gracchus screamed. He had become so
