LITMIR.BIZ

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Domains now. I don’t know about you, dear sister, but I will not permit Aracia to run roughshod over the people of my Domain.’

      ‘You almost sound like you’re thinking about declaring war on our sister.’

      ‘I’d hardly call it a war, Zelana. Aracia’s people are supposed to spend every waking moment adoring her, so they wouldn’t pose much of a threat.’

      ‘You’re putting our sister in the same category as holy – but crazy – Azakan of the Atazak Nation of your own Domain, big brother,’ Zelana said. Then she frowned. ‘There are quite a few similarities, though, aren’t there?’

      ‘Except that Aracia actually has the power to make things happen. Poor Azakan spent most of his time ordering the earth and sky to obey him, but I don’t think they paid very much attention. Aracia, however, has a certain amount of power, so she can make things happen if she feels the need.’

      ‘Maybe so, but none of us are permitted to use that power if killing things is going to be involved. If Aracia steps over that line, she’ll probably vanish right then and there,’ Zelana suggested. ‘And if Aracia vanishes, will we still be here? There’s a linkage between the four of us, Dahlaine, and if one of us ceases to exist, isn’t it quite possible that we’ll all just vanish?’

      ‘You’re starting to give me a headache, Zelana.’

      ‘At least it’s still there to ache, mighty brother.’

      ‘I think we’ve had one stroke of good luck, Zelana. Your pirate chief has persuaded Commander Narasan not to just pack up and go home. We’re going to need forts in Long-Pass, and when someone says “forts,” he’s usually talking about Trogites. Did you have anything to do with Sorgan’s little scheme?’

      ‘No, big brother. As closely as I can determine, Hook-Beak came up with that all by himself. Of course, the likelihood that he’ll be able to swindle a lot of gold out of Aracia probably played a large part in his decision, but right up beside his greed is his friendship for Narasan. He’ll keep Aracia so flustered that she probably won’t even remember that Narasan exists. He’ll go on down to Aracia’s absurdly overdone temple and persuade our none too bright sister that he’ll be more than happy to defend her – if she’ll give him enough gold.’

      ‘What’s he going to defend her against?’ Dahlaine asked. ‘The servants of the Vlagh will be coming down Long-Pass, so they won’t be anywhere near Aracia’s temple.’

      Zelana smiled. ‘If I know Sorgan – and I do – he’ll come up with ways to keep Aracia – and her clergy – so terrified that they won’t even think about sending anybody up Long-Pass to pester Narasan while he’s building forts.’

      It wasn’t much later when the door to Dahlaine’s map room opened slightly, and Eleria looked in. ‘Ah, there you are, Beloved,’ she said to Zelana. ‘We should have guessed that you’d be in here conferring with dear old Grey-Beard.’

      ‘Mind your manners, Eleria,’ Zelana chided her Dreamer.

      ‘I’m sorry, Old Grey-Beard,’ Eleria said with one of her mischievous grins. ‘We’ve been looking for you and the Beloved for hours now.’

      ‘We?’ Dahlaine asked curiously.

      ‘Big-Me and I. Mother wants us to talk with you.’

      ‘Mother?’ Zelana asked, feeling suddenly baffled.

      ‘We all have a mother, you know, Beloved. Big-Me can explain it much better than I can, I’m sure.’ Then Eleria came on inside the large room, and immediately behind her was an extremely beautiful lady.

      Dahlaine gasped. ‘What are you doing, Balacenia?’ he demanded. ‘You’re not supposed to be awake yet.’

      ‘Grow up, Dahlaine,’ the lady replied. ‘Your little game almost tore the world apart. We’ve had a lot of trouble smoothing things over, and we’re not even supposed to be awake yet.’

      Zelana was staring at the lady. ‘Are you really—’ she almost choked at that point.

      ‘Yes, Beloved, I am your alternate. Our Domain is still under your control, however. I promise that I won’t tamper – unless Mother tells me – us – to.’ She put her hand on Eleria’s shoulder.

      ‘This can be terribly confusing sometimes. This is Little-Me. You know her as Eleria, which is sort of all right, I suppose. She makes me laugh quite often, and laughter’s good for the soul – or so I’ve been told. There is something I’ve been curious about, though. Where in the world did she come up with her hugs and kisses ploy? She has poor Vash so confused that he doesn’t know exactly what to do.’

      Zelana suddenly smiled. ‘The idea came to Eleria back in the pink grotto when she was very, very young. She can kiss a pink dolphin into submission in no time at all.’ Then she looked rather closely at Balacenia, her alternate. ‘The resemblances are definitely there, Balacenia. You are, in fact, a grown-up version of Eleria the Dreamer. How is it that the two of you can both be in the same place at the same time?’

      ‘It’s just a little complex, Beloved. Actually, we’re not here at the same time. Actually, I’m not even really here. I’m still sound asleep, and what we’re all seeing right now is my Dream.’

      ‘That’s not possible!’ Dahlaine protested.

      ‘Why – and how – am I here, then?’ Balacenia demanded. ‘Your little game was very clever, Dahlaine, but it got away from you almost right at the beginning. You thought that you could step around us with your “infant” hoax, but it started to come apart when Eleria had her first Dream. That was the one when she saw the very beginning of this world. Then, a little later in the Land of Maag she had a variety of Dream that you didn’t even anticipate. She had what we call a “warning dream,” and it was that Dream that saved Longbow and his friends from the intentions of the Maag called Kajak. You might not have been aware of what that Dream suggested to us. Dreams can be warnings as well as predictions.’

      ‘That did startle me just a bit,’ Dahlaine admitted. ‘I’d sort of believed that I might have some control over the Dreams, but the children keep slipping around me.’

      ‘Actually, it’s Mother who’s guiding the Dreamers. She picked up your little game, and she’s doing things with it that you couldn’t even imagine.’

      ‘Mother?’ Dahlaine sounded startled. ‘We don’t have a mother.’

      ‘Where did we come from, then?’ Balacenia demanded.

      ‘You’ll really like her, Dahlaine,’ Eleria said. ‘She can do all kinds of fun things. She was the one who took me down under the sea so that I could pick up my pink pearl. That’s what started all this, remember?’

      ‘She’s the mother of the whole universe, Dahlaine,’ Balacenia added, ‘and she’s more than a little peeved with you right now. The outlanders are all right, I suppose, but Mother was – and still is – dealing with it in her own way.’

      ‘That will do, Balacenia,’ a melodious voice came through the open doorway. ‘Why don’t you let me deal with this?’ Then a misty sort of form that seemed to be pure light came through the open doorway. ‘What were you thinking of when you hired all those outlanders to come here and fight this war for you, Dahlaine?’

      ‘You do know that we have limitations, don’t you?’ Dahlaine demanded. ‘Now that I think about it, if you’re who Balacenia says you are, you’re probably the one who came up with them. You may have forgotten, but we aren’t permitted to kill things – even when they’re attacking us. We needed armies, so we went out into the world to hire outlanders to do the killing for us.’

      ‘That particular limitation

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