Him and his bright ideas. It didn't bother him any to walk but Sledge hadn't stopped whinging for two days. "We're almost to the station, " Darm cooed in his most soothing voice. "We can have a nice meal, freshen up, then it's less than a day's hike to get there." If the policers didn't pick them up, or snake-dick didn't try to take him out - or if the WC couldn't contain the panic and World War Four started. Which, unfortunately, was a real possibility.

Taking so long to get his book before he could even start searching for a solution - he was getting ahead of himself. If the Brethren would give it back. If the gods and goddesses ... Kings? Queens? What the blazes were the Apkallu anyway? He didn't want to ask Sledge - he was already too cranky. But he needed to know. "The kings and queens are really that mad at the Masters?"

"The Kings - they're all Kings, even if they look like Queens - or you could call them all Queen - oh, never mind that now! They don't have all the information, but they don't know that. That's why we have to get to them. It's the way it all went down. There are prophecies. Recent events match up a little too well. If they knew what we did, it'd be different, I'm pretty sure. It doesn't help that the Sages don't have a lot of experience outside of their own little circle. And they don't want any. But I'm betting that they'll at least listen."

Kings, then. And they weren't well informed? "Since you aren't one of the Masters -"

"Yes, yes - that's why Visherel sent me. And because you're bound to me and you interest them. If they'll hear me, I'll try to explain things better to them - but I'd rather boil myself in oil." Sledge slowed, looking around the large field they were crossing. "It's a bit early, but I think we should stop for the night. Those trees over there." He pointed, then led the way. "It's no wonder people don't live in the mountains. Takes forever to get around."

"Sledge? The flying saucers are really freaking people out. These prophesies you talk about -"

"That's why I want to stop. There are things I can't talk about on the zip-things and you need to know before we see the Apkallu -"

"We?" Uh, uh - that had to be wrong! "You never said anything about me talking to them!"

Sledge's hand went up as he took the last few steps to a huge maple tree at the edge of the forest. "I hope it doesn't rain," he said, looking at the clouds. Then he took off his pack and sat down. "You said that the apocalypse hasn't come yet."

Darm dropped down beside him with a thump. "What does that have to do with me talking to the Apkallu?"

"They think the arrival of these ships signals the beginning of the end times. That the Masters triggered it by sending the ghouls to who-knows-where. You know, yesterday's solutions are today's problems. You say this isn't it but you have no proof. I want to hear your theory - before I get my backside launched into the primordia for bothering the Sages with nonsense."

"You don't believe -"

"Belief isn't good enough!"

"What the Apkallu believe -"

"That way will get you worse than dead."

Darm sighed and pulled left-overs out of his pack. He'd been looking forward to something better on the zip ..."You're a little jumpy. I was going to say that the Apkallu believe certain things - but I don't know what they are, so I'm flying blind -"

"Sorry. When the ice started to melt, the Others showed up. In a big spaceship. They said that the temperature rise wouldn't stay gradual - the entire planet was about to flood. The daemons had to move to warrens on the mountain tops. Anything lower would fill up with the melt-water. And even this would be risky. The sudden release and shifting of all that weight would trigger earthquakes and volcanoes - it was a very unstable time.

"The Others were busy helping the land-bound spirits. The ones who could fly were warned then left to fend for themselves. This didn't thrill the Apkallu - they went militant during the resettlement and drove the daemons so hard that some of them took off. Eventually, most of them came back, but not all.

"The Sages work on the principle of balance and the ones who refused to come back were viewed as a threat to that. They've always insisted that if the wanderers didn't return to the fold, it would eventually set off the final cataclysm. The Others would return, but things would be too far gone to save. They're convinced that this is it and they've resigned themselves to what they're sure is inevitable."

"What does this have to do with the ghouls?"

"The Apkallu think that getting rid of them accelerated the imbalance, that the apocalypse could have been held off if they'd been left as they were. Indefinitely, as far as the Sages are concerned - so that's why they're so upset with the Masters."

Darm blood was rising to a full boil. "The ghouls have been wrecking things for people since the end of the last ice age? Really, the last war was all about the miserable things! Them concentrating the power to a few puppets and using them to make slaves of everyone else -" Balance? Keeping those monsters in control was balance? ... This couldn't be right. He was misunderstanding - the stone was warm, but it wasn't burning him. Couldn't be off by much -

"The ghouls didn't do that. The renegades - some of them - used the ghouls to do it."

"So it's these renegades -"

"Hang on! The Apkallu educate. Once we're educated, then we follow the dictates of that education. If we do that properly, then equilibrium comes naturally. It can't help but be this way - the math is right. If we don't add it up correctly, then things get out of wack. The solution is to get with the program and adhere to what's already been taught. If we don't, then too bad. The consequences are the consequences and everyone suffers because of a few who refuse to follow the rules."

"Why don't the Sages do something about the renegades?"

"Free will. The wanderers know the drill. It's their own decision to respect it or not."

"All that's standing in the way of putting things straight are a few daemons who thumb their noses at common sense, and the Apkallu won't haul them into line?" How would he ever keep himself from losing it? He couldn't meet with these - Sages? They didn't deserve the name. They -

"You're missing the point."

Darm wasn't sure - could the vein throbbing at his temple burst? "I am? How so?" The words hissed from between his clenched teeth.

"Lazy."

"Overwhelmed." With rage -

The corners of Sledge's mouth curled up into that nasty, evil smile of his. "Nice try. I'm going to sleep." He put his pack down, turned his back and laid his head on it.

Darm stretched out behind him and forced himself to relax. The stone was cold and his mind became one with the universe - full of string, all tangled up and knotted beyond redemption.

***

The shovel blade came down not quite an inch from his nose, cutting into the dirt with a heart-stopping crunch. Darm didn't move a muscle.

"Hey, Tommy! Come see what I found! Aren't they cute? All cuddled up like dolls. You little daisies, you!"

Sledge had rolled over onto his back and Darm tried to watch him out of the corner of his eye - that shovel needed close attention -

"Good morning, my dear acolyte," Sledge said, in a voice that could've rivaled any god's -

Darm's teeth sunk into his lip. Double nuts. He was going to try to preach their way out of it.

"Acolyte." The man at the business end of the shovel snorted. "Hey, Tom. This one's a Follower. You wanna hear the good -"

Sledge was on his feet so fast that the man lost his grip and Darm had the shovel away. He rolled with it tight to him then plowed the haft-end of it into the dirt to stand himself up.

"Excelsior Sledge Vigoratus, is my name. What's yours?"

The man paled and his lips pressed into a little 'o' "Your Eminence! I'm honored. I'm Leonard Caldwell and my friend -" Caldwell turned just in time to see his companion running full tilt across the field away from them. "Oh, forgive him, he must have left something on the stove -"

Sledge waved his hand. "No matter. It's a blessing that we've met, Leonard." Sleg reached into the neck of his robe and pulled up a gold chain with a small pendant hanging from it. "I can't be everywhere at once." He took the necklace off and put it over Lenny's head.

"This will protect you and anyone near you from any unclean meddling. You've no doubt heard of the invading spaceships if you haven't yet seen them with your own eyes. I'm here to tell everyone the truth. They aren't really invaders - they're holograms. You understand that there are only a few of us to spread the word beyond the traveled paths.

"I'm entrusting you with passing this information along to everyone you meet. We have to be going. The truth must reign. Peace be with you." He leaned down, grabbed his pack, and strode to the fence line, robe flapping.

Darm handed the man his shovel, smiling. "Peace be with you," he said, in what he hoped was his most angelic tone, then took off after Sledge, leaving the bewildered farm tech with his jaw still hanging. "What the blazes are you doing?" he hissed as he caught up.

"Shifting the pivot," he said, with that grin on him again.

Darm tried all the rest of the way down the mountain to get him to explain. But he wouldn't.