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the queen was mad, that she had succumbed to the stresses of the journey, that
as often happened then her powers had broken her mind.
"So she gathered together her own followers, and formed the Council of Eleu.
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While other Sidhe tried to control humans, the Council spread knowledge among
them. While the mage, Tonn, spent centuries portraying your gods Yahweh and
Baal, and others, the queen opposed him, and tried to encourage humans to
develop their own finest qualities. Tonn was stronger.
"And, finally, the queen declared she had fallen in love with a human. She
rejected the cold and heartless union with her own males." Biri's face
betrayed no irony, or even awareness of self-criticism.
"Sometimes, even now, her followers believe she truly was mad at that time,
but she did indeed love the man, and when he died, as mortals will, she placed
his body here. Then, for a thousand years, the Council of Eleu worked with the
queen to raise humanity to a level where other Sidhe might be able to accept
them as equals. But her enthusiasm had died with her husband; in time, the
queen herself died, and was placed beside the one she loved, instead of in a
tomb of honor or in a tree where she might pass on her wisdom.
"Tonn founded the Black Order to oppose her wishes, and put Tarax in command.
The Black order, the
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Maln, fought every action of the council of Eleu. To this day they oppose each
other, and the Council of
Eleu must work in secret."
"This is Elme and Aske," Michael said. Biri nodded.
"Adonna is a corrupt god," he continued, "growing more and more senile with
time. I cannot serve him. I
must serve those who oppose him, and oppose the Maln."
"You want to help humans?"
"It seems I must, doesn't it?" Bin smiled grimly.
"The Crane Women are Elme's daughters?"
"Elme and Aske had forty children, the first Breeds. Twenty of their offspring
married humans, and had children by them___"
"How long ago?"
"As far back as nine thousand years on Earth, and as recently as eighty years.
Those with less than an eighth Sidhe heritage revert to mortals again, but can
still work some magic. Their children spread around the Earth, and many of
them lived for thousands of years, surviving many generations of descendants.
"Long, long ago, Elme held court in a beautiful garden, surrounded by high
stone walls. She sought the advice of the Serpent Mage, the last of the
original humans."
Michael's eyes narrowed.
"Do you know of it?" Biri asked, regarding him curiously.
Michael stared at the skeleton in the radiant gown and didn't know how to
react. Finally, his eyes welled up, as if all his life he had heard just parts
of a wonderful and sad story, and now it had been completed for him.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Contents - Prev / Next
They returned the way they had come. Michael hardly noticed the pyrotechnics;
he held on to Bin and the horse and turned his thoughts inward.
He had learned things no history class on Earth could ever have taught him. He
suspected there were far more things of which he had heard only partial
truths, or no truth at all.
The horse stopped on the ledgetop overlooking the camp and pawed the ground
with its hoof. Its fangs were no longer apparent and its eye was gentle.
Michael swung down from the horse and looked up at
Bin.
"I don't trust you," Michael said. Bin returned his gaze with expression
unchanged. "Oh, I think you've told me the truth about Aske and Elme, and what
you know of Sidhe history. You'd have no reason to lie to me about that.
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Perhaps you know I've heard a lot of the story from others. But I don't
necessarily believe you've abandoned Adonna."
Bin smiled ironically. "You'll entertain the thought, however?"
"I'll consider it as a possibility," Michael offered. "But everything is going
too smoothly. Everybody wants me to go to the Isomage. Only the Ban of Hours
told me I was a pawn, caught between two forces
the Council of Eleu, and the Maln. I trust her, I think."
"She is a worthy female," Bin said, nodding his respect.
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"I think it's time I acted on my own," Michael said. "I want to return to the
Pact Lands."
"They no longer exist," Bin said. "Your people and the Breeds have been moved,
put in new communities."
"Camps, you mean," Michael said. "Take me to one of the camps."
"They are closely guarded. Tarax wants no more like you to come to the notice
of the Council of Eleu."
"You and I together, we can "
"I have forsaken Adonna," Biri said, shaking his head firmly, "but I will not
fight my own kind."
"Yet you want to serve the Council. You can do that by helping humans."
Biri said nothing.
"I'm not sure that going to the Isomage isn't what the Maln would have me do.
They released me from the
Irall, and that makes me suspicious."
"What would the Council have you do?"
"I don't know."
"Who has opposed you most?"
"Human-hating Sidhe."
"The Maln."
"I just don't know& " Michael said, confused again.
"It seems obvious," Biri said.
"Then why didn't Tarax kill me when he had the chance? I'm not very strong.
Any Sidhe could have killed me. You could, right now, just by raising a
finger."
"Perhaps you are not as weak as you think."
"Oh, no?" Michael laughed. "You just hollowed out a boulder and lit a fire in
it. It's all I can do to keep myself warm."
Biri dismounted and squatted on the ledge to peer into the canyon. His
red-shouldered robe made him look disembodied in the starlight, as if his bust
floated on a gray platform over the canyon. "You call yourself a poet," Biri
said. "The Sidhe have long regarded poets with respect."
"I am sixteen, maybe seventeen years old by now," Michael said. "In my
lifetime, I've written maybe five halfway decent poems, probably less. In the
Realm I've hardly had time to write any. And when I've tried, I've heard
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