“What do you think of Dreamweavers, Danjin Spear?”
Danjin looked up in surprise. He was sitting opposite Auraya at the large table in her reception room, helping her examine the terms of the proposed alliance with Somrey.
Auraya met his eyes steadily. He thought back to the day news of her mother’s death had arrived. At her bidding he had sought the location of the man who had delivered the message to the Temple. To his surprise, the man was a Dreamweaver.
Later he had been even more surprised to learn that Auraya had visited the man in disguise. He wasn’t sure if he was more disturbed by the idea of a White paying a social visit to a Dreamweaver, or that Auraya had tried to do so secretly - which indicated she knew she was doing something that might be considered ill-advised or inappropriate.
Of course, she was reading all this from his mind right now. She must also know that he had looked into her past and learned of her childhood friendship with Dreamweaver Leiard and that she had been known in the priesthood for her sympathetic view of the heathens. She would have seen that her second meeting with the Dreamweaver had been noted, and that he had heard people, inside and outside the Temple, gossiping about it. She also had to know that he didn’t respect or like Dreamweavers.
In the weeks since he had found Leiard she had not discussed Dreamweavers with him at all. Now that she was working on the Somreyan problem they could not avoid the subject any longer. He had to be honest. There was no point pretending he agreed with her.
“I don’t think much of them, I’m afraid,” he admitted. “They are at best pitiful, and at worst untrustworthy.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Why pitiful?”
“I guess because they are so few and so despised. And misguided. They do not serve the gods, so their souls die when their body does.”
“Why untrustworthy?”
“Their Gifts - some of them - enable them to mess about with people’s minds.” He hesitated as he realized he was repeating what his father had always said. Were these truly his own opinions? “They can torment their enemies with nightmares, for example.”
She smiled faintly. “Have you ever heard of a Dreamweaver doing so?”
He hesitated again. “No,” he admitted. “But then there are so few now. I don’t think they’d dare.”
Auraya’s smile widened. “Have you ever heard of a Dreamweaver doing something to earn them the label ‘untrustworthy’?”
He nodded. “Some years ago a Dreamweaver poisoned a patient.”
The smile vanished and she looked away. “Yes, I studied that case.”
He looked at her in surprise. “As part of your training?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve always taken an interest in crimes that involve Dreamweavers.”
“What... what did you make of it?”
She grimaced. “That the Dreamweaver was guilty. She confessed to it, but I wanted to be sure she wasn’t blackmailed or beaten into doing so. I looked to the reaction of other Dreamweavers for clues. They turned from her. I found that to be the most convincing evidence of her guilt.”
Danjin was intrigued. “They might have turned from her to protect themselves.”
“No. I think Dreamweavers know when another is guilty of a crime. When one is falsely accused - and some of the trials have been disgustingly transparent - they defend them in their own way. The accused is calm, even when they know they are to be executed. But when the accused is guilty, not a word is spoken in their defense. This woman was frantic,” Auraya shook her head slowly, “and angry. She raged against her own people.”
“I heard that she asked for garpa so she could avoid sleeping.” Danjin shuddered. “If they are willing to torment one of their own, what might they do to an enemy?”
“Why do you assume they were tormenting her? She might have wanted to avoid her own dreams.”
“She was a Dreamweaver. Surely she had control of her own dreams.”
“Again, you can only assume so.” Auraya smiled. “You judge them untrustworthy because they have the ability to harm others. Just because they can, doesn’t mean they will. I could snuff out your life with a thought, but you trust me not to.”
He stared at her, disturbed at her casual mention of her gods-given powers. She held his gaze. He looked down at the table. “I know you wouldn’t.”
“So perhaps you should reserve your judgment of each Dreamweaver until you know him or her personally.”
He nodded. “You’re right, of course. But I cannot trust them any more than I would trust a stranger.”
She chuckled. “Nor I. Or even those I think I know, as sometimes people I thought I knew well have demonstrated a meanness or callousness that I hadn’t realized they were capable of.” She looked down at the scroll spread before her. “I value your views even if I don’t agree with them, Danjin. I am finding myself alone in my perspective on this matter. I am no Dreamweaver. My understanding of them is proving to be limited. Neither am I a typical Circlian, who distrusts Dreamweavers at best and actively persecutes them at worst. I need to understand all perspectives if I am to suggest ways for Mairae to persuade the Somreyans into forming an alliance with us.”
Danjin noted the crease that had formed between her brows as she spoke. When he had been offered this position, Dyara had assured him that Auraya would not be given any difficult tasks during her first few years as a White. It seemed this task had found her.
Her knowledge of Dreamweavers made her the best White for it, however. Maybe this was why the White were allowing it to become common knowledge that the newest White was tolerant of, if not supportive of, heathens. What effect would that have in the long term? While the law dictated that seeking a Dreamweaver’s services was a crime, so many people ignored it that few were ever punished. Would Auraya’s tolerance of Dreamweavers encourage more people to defy the law?
Auraya said nothing. Her attention had returned to the alliance.
“Which terms did the Somreyans initially protest against?”
Danjin had anticipated this question. Bringing a wax tablet closer, he recited a long list of changes to the terms of the alliance. The last third were entirely to do with Dreamweaver matters.
“These aren’t new terms, are they? They’ve always been in the alliance.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t the Somreyans protest about them in the beginning?”
Danjin shrugged. “As larger matters are settled, smaller ones become more noticeable. Or so they say.”
“And they have been noticing them one at a time?” Her voice was heavy with skepticism.
He chuckled. “Every time one matter is resolved, they protest against another.”
“Are they delaying, then? Is there any reason you can see for the Council of Elders to put off signing? Or is it only the Dreamweavers who want to delay or stop the alliance?”
“I don’t know. Mairae feels certain that most of the council want the alliance.”
Auraya drummed her fingers on the table. “So either they are unhappy with the small matters and are presenting them one by one in order to avoid any being tackled with less seriousness in the shadow of others, or they are simply messing us about. Patience will overcome the first possibility. To overcome the other...”
“Nothing will overcome the other. Nothing but direct interference in Somreyan politics.”
“I don’t think we have to go that far. We simply have to reduce the power of the Dreamweaver elder.”
Danjin stared at her in surprise. This was not something he’d expect from a Dreamweaver sympathizer.
“How?”
“By giving some of that power to another Dreamweaver.”
“The council can only contain one representative of each religion. How can you change that without influencing Somreyan politics?”
