War in Heaven

Lord Nikolos drew in a slow breath, then said, ‘What you’ve told us is beyond bad. This is the worst thing I’ve ever heard.’

‘Ah, well, it is too, too terribly bad, which is why we must decide—’

‘That is true,’ Lord Nikolos interrupted. He looked at the lords and masters of the New Order all around him, and said, ‘We must decide what is to be done.’

At this implied rebuke of Bardo’s abandonment of the Order, Bardo ground the toe of his nall-skin boot against the floor. As nall is almost the hardest thing there is, it left scratches in the smooth black diamond. But Lord Nikolos was devoid of neither compassion nor good sense, and so he said, ‘You know that it’s our way to decide such questions among ourselves. But since you were once a master pilot and are clearly involved in this nightmare which has befallen us, I’d like to ask you to remain.’

So saying, Lord Nikolos indicated that Bardo should take a seat at the master pilots’ table.

‘Thank you, Lord Nikolos,’ Bardo said. He stepped out of the circle and strode across the room. He found an empty chair across from Danlo and, with much huffing and sighing, sat down.

‘This has been a strange day,’ Lord Nikolos said. ‘First Danlo wi Soli Ringess falls out of the stars to tell us that Tannahill has been found and a madman is loose among the galaxy with a star-killing machine. And two hours later, his father’s best friend arrives to tell us that the whole city of Neverness has fallen mad. What are we to make of such strangenesses?’

This was the first anyone had remarked upon the incredible coincidence of Bardo and Danlo meeting each other on a faraway planet in the Vild after so many years apart. But fate itself is strange, and as Danlo looked at Bardo looking at him in astonishment across a few feet of swirling air, he felt something wild and irresistible pulling Bardo and himself (and all the other pilots in the hall) towards a singular point in time not very far in the future.

‘And now we must decide which course of action to pursue,’ Lord Nikolos said. ‘I would like to ask the lords for their wisdom.’

Sul Estarei, the clear-thinking and cautious Lord Holist sitting at the end of Lord Nikolos’ table, suddenly found his voice and said, ‘The Bardo has called us to a gathering on Sheydveg in only ninety-five more days. And what will be the result of this gathering? War – a civil war on a vast scale, for I think it’s clear that many of the Civilized Worlds have already been overwhelmed with this Ringism madness and will support the Old Order. And many more will remain loyal out of habit. We must ask ourselves if we’re prepared to be part of such an inconceivable war?’

‘Are we prepared not to be?’ the Sonderval asked.

‘That’s surely the correct question,’ Lord Morena Sung said. For all the softness of her face and soul, she was a fearless woman driven by a desire to view the truth of any situation no matter how terrible. ‘If we don’t send our pilots to Sheydveg, what will happen?’

‘But our mission is to the Vild,’ said an old lord named Demothi Bede from a table at the rear of the hall. ‘What will come of what Danlo wi Soli Ringess has gained on Tannahill if we send all our pilots to Sheydveg?’

‘Are we just to abandon the Civilized Worlds?’ Morena Sung asked. ‘Neverness, herself, where I was born?’

‘Are we to abandon the Vild and let the supernovas consume the entire galaxy?’ Demothi Bede countered. ‘I’d rather see every one of the Civilized Worlds converted to Ringism than even one of worlds in the Vild destroyed because its star had exploded.’

At this Morena Sung pursed her plump lips and asked, ‘Do you mean, as the star of the Narain people whom Danlo told us about was exploded?’

‘The Lord Sung reminds us,’ the Sonderval said, ‘of what we shouldn’t have forgotten. What of Bertram Jaspari and his Iviomils with their star-killer? How can we let these fanatics loose among the Civilized Worlds?’

For a while, as the sun fell towards the ocean outside and sent rays of light streaming through the hall’s dome in a brilliant display of colour, the Lords of the New Order debated war. During a moment of silence after Lord Fatima Paz recited the names of all the men and women killed during the Pilots’ War, Danlo closed his eyes and whispered a prayer for the spirits of each of these pilots. And then he slowly stood away from his table, squeezed his flute tightly in his hand, and said, ‘Lord Nikolos, there is something I would like to say.’

Lord Nikolos bowed to him and said, ‘Then please speak, if you will.’

Danlo, whose Fravashi teacher had once bestowed upon him the title of ‘Peacewise’ for his devotion to ahimsa, politely returned the bow. Then he looked out over the tables of men and women in all their brightly hued robes, and said, ‘You lords … have spoken of war in abstractions such as “abandonment” of political entities or “support” of causes or of our Order’s “mission” to the Vild. But war is as real as a child screaming in the night. I know. On Tannahill, in my arms, I held a young girl whose face had been burned away by a plastic bomb. On Tannahill I saw … many things. Tannahill is far from here, thousands of light years, and so is Neverness. But war is not something that happens only to people far away. When a man goes over bleeding his life away, for him it is always here. There is always such a terrible hereness about dying, yes? And for each of us, we are always here, too, wherever we are. Who can say that this war of which you have spoken so abstractly will not come here to Thiells? Who here today, at this moment, is prepared to face the fire of a hydrogen bomb and die? Who is prepared to watch us pilots die, as pilots do die, falling into the hearts of suns and cooking like meat or falling mad and lost in the manifold or exploding from the inside out and freezing into blood crystals in the vacuum of space? Why … has no one asked if there must be war at all? What of peace, then? Is there no hope of constraining the Ringists without killing? Or even the Iviomils? I must believe … that peace is always a possibility.’

After Danlo had finished speaking, he met eyes with the Sonderval and Demothi Bede and many other lords. Then he sat down and looked at Bardo. Bardo, he knew, had immense powers of visualization (and a keen memory), and obviously had no difficulty imagining how terrible a full war would be, for his huge face fell soft and compassionate, and he muttered, ‘The poor pilots, the poor children, all the poor people, too bad. Ah, what have I started? Poor Bardo – too, too bad.’

Lord Nikolos, sitting across the room, couldn’t have made out Bardo’s words, but he seemed disquieted even so. And then, to Danlo, he said, ‘Thank you for reminding us that peace is always a possibility. At this moment, unfortunately, it seems a very far possibility. Nevertheless, we must consider every chance. War is real, as you say, and in making our plan, we must consider limiting this war or forestalling it altogether. If you’ve no more to add – or anyone else – here is what I believe our course should be.’

Lord Nikolos’ plan was clear and straightforward. In a reversal of what he had originally proposed, he would send a few pilots to escort ambassadors to Tannahill. But most of the New Order’s pilots would journey in their lightships to the gathering on Sheydveg, either to forestall war if possible or wage it with all their power.

‘I’ll also send ambassadors to Neverness,’ Lord Nikolos said. ‘It’s possible that we still might reason with Lord Pall and Hanuman li Tosh. Since this will be a very dangerous journey, I’ll ask only those of you who really wish to make such a mission to offer your services. I, of course, will lead this embassy and—’

Here Lord Morena Sung shook her head and asked to speak. She smoothed over the folds of her blue eschatologist’s robe, then said, ‘Lord Nikolos, you must not go to Neverness. Your place, as you surely must know, is here on Thiells. But I would like to make this mission, if I could.’

All at once, ten other lords, including Sul Estarei and Demothi Bede, called out that they, too, were willing to journey to Neverness. Then Morena Sung said, ‘There is one present today who knows Hanuman li Tosh’s mind more deeply than any other. Although he’s only a master—’

‘Are you speaking of Danlo wi Soli Ringess?’ the Sonderval demanded.

‘I am.’

The Sonderval, who would lead the pilots to Sheydveg and thence most likely to war, shook his head, then told her, ‘I’m loath to lose such a fine pilot to what will probably be a futile mission. Danlo and Hanuman were once deep friends, this is true, but they also parted enemies. What kind of ambassador do you think he’d really make?’

‘One who won’t be fooled by Hanuman’s deceits or lies,’ Lord Sung said.

‘But we don’t even know if Danlo would wish to make such a mission,’ the Sonderval said.

At this, almost every lord and master in the hall turned to look at Danlo, who gripped his flute and drew in a deep breath. Just as he was about to tell the lords that he would serve the New Order in any way he could, Lord Nikolos smiled at him and said, ‘I had thought to send Danlo back to Tannahill as ambassador. He’s already won Harrah Ivi en li Ede’s confidence – this Holy Ivi has already changed the doctrines of the Old Church because of him. Who better to send on such a mission?’

‘But Lord Nikolos,’ Morena Sung said, ‘surely that is the point? The greatest part of our mission to Tannahill is already accomplished. Thanks to Danlo. Wouldn’t his talents be better used elsewhere?’

‘And his greatest talent,’ the Sonderval said, ‘is as a pilot. I’ll need all my pilots if war comes and we fall against the Ringists.’

At this mention of war, Danlo continued to hold his breath, and he felt his heart beating like a drum at the centre of his chest.

‘To send Danlo to Sheydveg would be cruel,’ Lord Nikolos said to the Sonderval. ‘Have you forgotten his vow of ahimsa? How can one sworn to peace go to war?’

Never to kill, Danlo thought. Never to harm any living being.

‘If I thought about it at all,’ the Sonderval said, staring at Danlo, ‘I had supposed his duty to the Order would overcome his commitment to some private and unworkable ideal.’

Lord Nikolos slowly shook his head, then turned slightly so that his words carried more forcefully. ‘We mustn’t forget that Danlo’s vow preceded the vows he made when he entered the Order. At the time, no one foresaw that such a vow might ever pose a conflict. I don’t believe we should ask him to abjure this vow simply because the circumstances have changed.’

Danlo looked down at his hands which had once held the bloody head of a dying friend named Thomas Ivieehl, and he thought, But I would never abandon ahimsa.

‘Even to send Danlo to Neverness on a mission of peace might prove problematic,’ Lord Nikolos continued. ‘If this embassy fails and war falls upon the Civilized Worlds, bad chance might pose him terrible conflicts. The waves of war might overcome him and sweep him away.’

‘But killing always poses conflicts, and war might sweep any of us away,’ the Sonderval countered. ‘Who among us can escape his own fate?’

‘And who can make another’s journey towards his own fate?’ Lord Nikolos asked. ‘I won’t make Danlo journey to Sheydveg.’

At this news, Danlo sighed and looked at Lord Nikolos eye to eye.

‘I believe,’ Lord Nikolos said, ‘that it would best suit Danlo to be sent back to Tannahill. But it would best suit the Order for him to be one of our ambassadors to Neverness.’

Now Danlo held his flute tightly in his hands and held his breath in his lungs. Lord Nikolos’ gaze was cold but not unkind, and it seemed that he was searching Danlo’s face for some sign of what the future might unfold.

‘It’s unusual for the Lord of the Order to leave such a decision to a pilot,’ Lord Nikolos said. ‘But this is an unusual situation.’

All the lords in the hall looked at Danlo. Bardo smiled at him, and a part of his great strength seemed to flow out of his soft brown eyes and into Danlo.

‘I would ask you to choose between the ambassadorships to Tannahill or Neverness,’ Lord Nikolos said to Danlo. ‘If you need more time to—’

‘No,’ Danlo suddenly said, letting go his breath. ‘I will choose now.’