Stargate by Pauline Gedge Read Free Book Online Page A

concluded. “It is beyond our power now to find it, so we must hope that it rests on Fallan.”
    Ixelion was moving, distressed, swaying back and forth on his seat, his hands combing his long green hair. Danarion still watched him, anxiety dim within him.
    â€œIs there something left to say, Ixelion?” he asked gently, and Ixelion abruptly stopped his movements, willing his body to be still. Everything inside him quivered, poised for violent action, demanding that he rise, run from the hall, go anywhere, but escape from Danarion’s quizzical eyes and the presence of the others which had become suddenly an overwhelming unease containing him when he wanted to leap free. He put his hands one over the other, on top of the table, and lowered his gaze to them.
    â€œNo,” he replied sharply. “I did not dare to question Falia about the precious thing. At the mention of it a dread fell on me and I doubted my strength.” Only part of a lie this time, he thought to himself, and so much easier to push up my throat and over my tongue. You will live to thank me, all of you, for keeping the thing from your eyes and minds. Danarion looked at the lowered head for a moment longer, then sat back mystified.
    Suddenly Sholia spoke. “Could the treasure be … be him? The Unmaker himself? Could this be a way for him to enter the worlds?”
    Her question stunned them. They looked from one to the other, and all at once fear sat at the table with them, a black fog that curled silently from the shadows of the room and flowed between them, waiting for them to take it into their nostrils, their mouths. Even here we are no longer completely safe, Janthis thought. A word, a gesture can invite an attempt, no matter how subtle, on our invulnerability. Here in this hallowed place we know that we are safe, yet no longer feel so. He looked steadily into Sholia’s face. “No,” he said. “No matter how vast his deviousness, he can no longer himself pass through the Gate of any world in any form unless we knowingly or unwillingly invite him. He cannot face an unfallen world directly, for it would cause him too much pain. He cannot twist and murder us unless we will it, unless we allow his power to influence us. You spend too much time brooding on the meaning of fear,” he ended kindly. “Fill yourself with the ecstasy of the dawning of time, not the setting.” She accepted the discipline without smiling, her face white, knowing that if she had not voiced the doubt, it would be borne by all of them.
    â€œWhy can we not do battle against him?” Ghakazian demanded, his brown eyes fired, and Danarion slapped a hand on the table.
    â€œWhat weapons will you use?” he snapped loudly. “The power of your sun? It would take every ounce of your sun’s strength simply to drive the Unmaker from your Gate, Ghakazian, and your worlds would be left in darkness. You and your sun would die. Or would you somehow arm your people with spells and words of casting away? Your innocent people, who have never heard a lie, who do not know the meaning of the word murder? Can you not see their bewilderment? ‘Why must we try to harm our Maker?’ they will ask you, and will you explain it all to them? If you do, you will have already opened your Gate to him. Such knowledge given to the mortals of your systems”—here he swiftly scanned them all—“would mean an immediate and irrevocable fall. Their strength is in their ignorance. You do not help by entertaining thoughts of battle. We are the Worldmaker’s creatures, the products of a mind of unimaginable wisdom and ingenuity, and even the frail defenses we could use against him were made by him.”
    â€œWe are not his playthings!” Ghakazian roared back, his wings suddenly unfurling like a dark cloud above and around him. “The Lawmaker ordered him to make with wholeness, make with beauty! The Lawmaker commanded