The Magic of Recluce - L. E. Modesitt [191]
“Could you explain the form of the chaos this…Antonin…used?” asked Ferrel.
“I don’t know that I could name it, but it feels white with an ugly red core.” I sipped the redberry again. “And it chills me right through.”
“You can feel it?” the priest demanded.
“Any order-master could. That’s how strong he is.”
The servant I barely saw began removing the empty salad plates. Mine was still mostly full. I took another bite.
“Why is this any more dangerous than any other weapon—or the fires that the white wizards throw against our troops?” The Guard Commander was persistent.
“Because it will destroy you from within,” I snapped, angry at her apparent denseness.
“Ser…” Her voice hardened.
“Ferrel.” The autarch’s voice was ice. Even I shut my mouth. She looked at me. “I suspect I know what you mean, order-master, but would you explain your last statement.”
I swallowed, wondering if I could really put what I felt in words. “All right. Please excuse me if I’m not clear. You have to understand that much of this is new to me, and that very few masters this side of Recluce have been permitted to learn it…”
“Permitted?”
I ignored the question from the Finance Minister, figuring that only the autarch counted. “The strength of chaos is that destruction can be focused. Order cannot be concentrated in the same way. Likewise, order is a passive defense, in that chaos cannot destroy absolute order. Absolute order precludes chaos, but only by restricting its presence from where there is already order.”
“…gobbledygook…”
I ignored that also, trying to find the words. “What Antonin is doing is creating a greater potential for chaos in both countries. By sending out Gallian troops to their deaths, he increases anger in Gallos, both at the prefect and at Kyphros. He increases anger and disorder in Kyphros. By increasing disorder, he makes more people susceptible to chaos and less willing to abide by the rules of order, more willing to become part of the killing. I don’t know the complete link, but as the disorder increases, so do his powers.” My stomach twisted as I began to realize what part I had unwittingly played in Antonin’s game.
“I see.” The autarch’s voice was cold. “If you are correct, we cannot win. If we defend ourselves, we increase the disorder, and if we do not, we perish, and our suffering and deaths will thus increase the disorder.”
I wished she had not put it that way.
“Why has not mighty Recluce opposed this great white wizard?” asked Liessa, her voice cutting.
Krystal looked at me. “Do you know?”
I thanked her with my eyes for the direct question. “I do not know for certain the answer to that question. I do know that Recluce seldom meddles with nations other than the coastal trading powers.” Even that evasion turned my guts again.
I was reprieved, momentarily, from more twisting by the arrival of the main course—skewered and highly-spiced lamb.
“You are saying that this wizard has no real military aims at all, then?”
“His aims are power for himself, and the white wizards who follow him. He would destroy both your countries, I think, to increase those powers.”
“All of this is very theoretical and philosophical,” interjected the Public Works Minister. “Could you tell us what, specifically, you have done against this danger? If you have done anything besides observe, that is.”
Instead of snapping at him, I chewed and swallowed the lamb cube in my mouth. If I were paying this highly for my meal, I deserved to eat some of it. The only problem was that no one else talked while I ate, and the silence was leaden. I ended up opening my mouth again after several more bites. “I have done what I could. I destroyed the chaos-fountain, and, although I did not mean to, also created the events that led to the death of a score or more of the prefect’s more chaos-ridden