Storm Warning - Mercedes Lackey [160]
“So why were the areas of change so great in the original Cataclysm?” Firesong asked stubbornly. “They weren’t little circles of devastation, they were huge swaths, reaching from Lake Evendim to beyond where the eastern border of Hardorn is now!”
Master Levy smiled patiently. “The very first waves had a period—a ‘width,’ if you will—that was enormous; roughly the equivalent of several countries. In areas of the apex of the wave, disturbance was powerful enough that there was no need for waves to interfere with each other to distort the real world, the wave itself was what did the initial damage, and created what we call the Pelagir Hills and what you call the Uncleansed Lands—and yet, entire nations who happened to be in the trough of the wave remained relatively unscathed. I suspect that you would find that where the apexes of the first two great waves met, you would find areas of such damage that nothing lived through it.”
Firesong bit his lip, as if Master Levy had triggered a memory of something, but he remained silent.
“Now—this is another guess, but I believe that the first wave of shock, the one from the initial destruction of the two centers, was followed by waves of successively shorter period and lesser strength.” He cocked his head at Firesong, as if to ask if Firesong understood.
“Perhaps—” Firesong murmured reluctantly.
Master Levy flashed Karal a conspiratorial glance. “Now look; I am drawing the circles closer together, for a reason. The next waves had a period that was shorter, and the next, shorter still. The areas of overlap were correspondingly more frequent, and smaller, until the last of the waves of disturbance passed. As the waves grew weaker, and the period smaller, the disruptions were confined to the places where the wave-apexes intersected. That is why we are finding little circles of disturbance at regular intervals; the intervals represent a combination of the period of the two sets of waves. And the periods presumably lessen due to effects analogous to how the troughs of waves in deep water reduce when they ‘drag’ the floor of the body of water. Expenditure of energy.”
Firesong studied the rough diagram and nodded slowly, then began twisting a lock of his long silver hair in an un-characteristically nervous gesture.
Firesong? Nervous? The sun will surely rise in the west tomorrow!
“Now, if what I believe turns out to be the truth, these waves of disturbance are returning through time, in a mirror image of how they occurred in the first place.” Master Levy waited, like the teacher he was, for someone to volunteer the next piece of the puzzle.
“Do you mean that they are beginning small and weak, and will end enormous and enormously powerful?” Darkwind hazarded.
“I do,” Master Levy replied, nodding at Darkwind as if the mage was a particularly good student. “And I also mean that they are traveling in the opposite direction; instead of radiating out from the Plains and Lake Evendim, they are converging on the Plains and Lake Evendim. Which means that all their force, in the end, will be concentrated in those two spots.”
“Oh.” Elspeth held her knuckles to her mouth in stunned silence.
“And as the waves increase in strength, the areas of disturbance will no longer be confined to the points of intersection, but will be as wide as—” Master Levy paused for a moment, “—at a guess, I would say roughly a third of the wave’s period. Once again, that could be an area the size of a country, or larger.”
Firesong sat down slowly. “You have convinced me, mathematician,” he said, his face blank. “Your proofs are too good. And you have told me that my people are doomed, mine and the Shin’a’in. They lie directly in the area that will be affected the worst. No shields can ever withstand the force of the kind that is mounting against them.”
“Feh!” snorted Master Norten into the heavy pause that followed. He was a short, squat fellow who had remained silent during all of this. His exclamation