Ganne


02 - At the Shennon Palace



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At that moment, a thousand miles to the south,in the Shennon Palace, an
abrupt awakening was about to happen.

Sehko, personal secretary to the Matriarch, paused outside the doors to
Guara's bed chamber to collect every last bit of courage available to her.

The "Thing" would be in the room somewhere.

There was no way of knowing how the Viper would react to an intrusion into
Guara's private apartments in the middle of the night.

She fervently wished she was back in her warm bed, cuddling up to her fat
old fool of a husband.  She really, really should not have to risk her
very valuable person like this.  After all, was she not First Attendant on
the Chair?  the second most powerful person in all the Ganne Lands.

Be that as it may, the business could not be put off any longer.  "Goddess
protect me," Sehko breathed, and pushed open the door to the Matriarch's
bedroom.  Clutching the blue wrap to her throat, she entered warily,
pausing just inside to peer around in the shadowy gloom, seeking the
Viper.

The only illumination in the room was a dim red glow from the banked fire
in the vast ornamental fireplace.  The massive confection in carved marble
took up most of the opposite wall, beyond the sumptuous bed.

There was no way Sehko was going to "feel" for the creature's Ganne Field.
The "Thing's" mind was a sucking maw of darkness.  Just the thought of
touching that crippled sentience, filled Sehko with nausea.

At last, she located Guara's deadly watch dog.  The slender, female form
was coiled on the rug before the fire.  Of course, it was not sleeping -
when did the thing ever sleep?

Fearfully, Sehko waited to be noticed.

The thing stirred and uncoiled.  With a flowing grace, the Viper came to a
kneeling position.  Her body showed as a dark shadow on the diaphanous
nightie.  Back-lit by the glow from the fire, the filmy material of the
night dress shimmered like a pink mist about the girlish form.

Sehko held her breath.  If the creature decided she was a threat to Guara,
then she was going to die rather unpleasantly.  She clutched the blue wrap
to her throat, shivering.  Her heart was thumping fit to burst.  A High
Ganne, a daughter of an old Bah Family really should not have to risk her
life like this?  By the Goddess!...  This was intolerable.  Her hands were
trembling so hard she almost dropped the scratch tablet.  She tried to
school herself to calm, as the Viper smelt her fear.  The creature
stiffened and leaned forward ever so slightly.

After what could only have been a second, but seemed like an eternity, the
young woman kneeling on the rug gave the slightest nod of assent.  Sehko
remembered to breath.

She moved quickly to the bed and stood a moment, considering the
indistinct hump under the blanket.  Guara, Chair of the High Council,
Matriarch of her people, Absolute Ruler of the Ganne Lands, protector of
the Gynarchy and the Ballan Tah, was snoring gently.  The soft light,
Sehko noticed, was kind to the old peasant face, smoothing away the
wrinkles of age, softening the lines.  Even in sleep, though, Guara's
features still had "The Look of Eagles" about it - the predatory set to
the features which marked out all who were truly Strong In The Ganne,
whether drawn from old high Bah families, or from the commons.

With a fearful glance at the Viper, Sehko reached out an arm to gently
shake the shoulder of the Matriarch.

"Guara?  Madam?"

The Viper materialised at Sehko's elbow.  Sehko's heart missed a beat.
She flinched away from the slim form.  With a slender hand, the girl
pushed back a great tumble of black hair from her face, revealing the
diamond scaling pattern along the jaw-line.  A tiny, tight smile curled
the creature's lips.  Sehko's skin crawled.

On the bed, Guara stirred, mumbled something incoherent, and sat up.  At
the sight of the tall woman standing over her, she came instantly alert.

"Sehko?  What is it woman?  Goddess!  It's the middle of the night!"

"I am sorry to disturb you, Madam.  But an important message has just come
in.  It has to be dealt with immediately."

"In the middle of the night?  Couldn't the Duty Office deal with it?"

"Not this message," Sehko explained carefully.  "It is from South Point.
You gave special instructions..."

Guara sat up straighter in the bed, gripped by a sudden eagerness.  The
expression of fierce hope that lit her face took ten years off her age at
a stroke.

"Quickly woman, tell me?"

The fierceness in her tone made Sehko step back.  The bare skin of her arm
brushed against the shoulder of the Viper.  Sehko cringed away, emitting a
little squeak of distaste.

"Out with it woman!  What is the message?" Guara demanded.  Then, as an
afterthought, she addressed the Viper.  "Angela?  Be a dear, and sort out
some warm clothes...  Travelling clothes, I think, and my best riding
cloak.  We may be going on a journey."

The creature glided away on silent feet to the tall mirrored doors of the
closets across from the end of the bed.  Sehko relaxed with a relieved
sigh.

"The message is from our spy at South Point...  The watch we keep on
Genella Bah Dishone...  Bellinda says: 'the machine Strong in the Ganne,
the one foretold, has come at last!" - does that make any sense?"

Guara threw back the bed clothes and slid to her feet.  "Sehko.  Roust out
the Inner Council.  I want them assembled in the Green Room in an hour."

"What?  All of them?  I don't even know how many are in residence..."

"Well send out a general summons, then.  So long as there are enough to
form a Committee." Guara pushed past Sehko and rummaged in the draw of a
writing bureau, and came up with a scrap of paper.  She thrust it at her
second in command.  "Get these assembled and ready to ride.  I want them
prepared and ready to go in three hours.  They should all be in residence.
You may have to send over to the West Lodge for Marleena, Lord Trannis is
staying there.  Marleena's bound to be there.  The girl's gone head over
heels for that oaf.  Send someone with a bit of weight, Deldra, I think?
Trannis might not take too kindly to having his new plaything dragged from
his bed.  Deldra won't stand for any of his nonsense."

That's unfair, Sehko thought.  That young Marleena was a very proper young
lady.  Sehko would have bet a sack of silver that none of the rumours
spreading through the Shennon Palace were true.  The girl was only
nineteen, surely not long enough for the Ganne to have corrupted her mind,
like those spiteful bitches who were taking such a malicious delight in
gossiping about the new Far Speaker.  Sehko made a note on her scratch
pad.

The Viper emerged from the closet, a great bundle of clothes over her
slender arms.  She moved in a fluid glide to the bed, and began laying out
Guara's clothes.  The two women watched the graceful motions for a long
moment, sehko with that terrified fascination of a bird watching a snake,
Guara in an abstraction, as she considered her next orders.  Then,
remembering her emanuenses, she turned and snapped.  "Well?  What are you
waiting for?  Get on with it!  There is a lot to get done before we leave;
and I want to be on the road to Shennon Freeport in four hours at the
most."

Sehko snapped out of her trance of horrified fascination.  She got a grip
on herself.  "At once, Madam!" She acknowledged, already turning and
hurrying to the door.  Every inch of the way she felt the cold stare of
the Viper on her back.  She was very, very relieved when the door closed
between her and it.  All the way back to her office in the north wing,
Sehko could see the pale blue snake eyes of the Viper inside her head,
watching her soul.


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