To Storm Heaven - Esther Friesner [76]
“Then you must send me! I heard the last part of his report.” She pointed at Data. “There is something important that I know, something that will turn the villagers from blindly following the word of the shepherd Avren. He is no shepherd. He is not even one of our own. I should have realized it long ago. He never took part in the sh’vala, the shepherds’ rite, with our village herders. He claimed that in his native village the shepherds performed sh’vala privately, so no one ever saw him do it. For all we knew, he never—” “He never did what?” Picard broke in, puzzled.
“Why is this sh’vala so significant?” “Because it is a religious rite all shepherds perform to consecrate the safety of their flocks to the Mothers,” Ma’adrys said. “They gather together and drink a special herbal brew, a sacred drink that makes them—Well, there are certain jokes we have always made about shepherds, how slow of wit they are, how thick headed, but they never mind. They have chosen their state—it comes from drinking the sacred brew—as an act of faith in the Mothers. By making themselves like children, they give over the welfare of their flocks to the Mothers’ own keeping, a sacred trust. That was why I was even more awestruck when it was he who told me I had been chosen to ascend to Evramur. Simple Avren, no longer speaking like a halfwit, but like a holy messenger! Oh, no wonder I went meekly with him,” she finished bitterly.
“I think I follow you,” Picard said. “So because this Avren was never seen to share the sacred drink with the other shepherds of your village—” “—my fellow villagers will more readily believe it when I tell them he is not what he says, but a deceiver of the worst sort. They will couple what I tell them to what they themselves know of him and—” “Sir, permission to accompany Mr. Data and Ma’adrys,” Geordi said.
“Mr. La Forge, I have not yet given permission to Ma’adrys to accompany Mr. Data, let alone the pair of you,” Picard pointed out.
“With all due respect, sir, Ma’adrys’s presence on this mission is vital. It’s the one way left to recover Counsellor Troi and Ambassador Lelys without our resorting to a showdown. Imagine the effect it will have on the Ashkaarians when they see Ma’adrys again. You heard Mr. Data: She’s a legend among them, one who’s ascended to paradise alive! They wouldn’t dare not listen to her.” “A compelling argument for her presence. But as for yours—” “Sir, I’m willing to bet that they’ve never seen one of these.” Geordi grinned and tapped his visor. “Plus, I can scare up a few hightech tricks that’ll convince them to cooperate. You know, like the old Earth adventure stories where the explorer flashes a cigarette lighter and the locals think it’s magic? Smoke and mirrors, sir, good old smoke and mirrors.” Captain Picard was both impressed and a little bemused by Geordi’s idea. “There are times, Mr. La Forge, when I wonder whether you’ve missed your calling. With your flair for the dramatic, perhaps you should have been an actor rather than an engineer.” “There’s only one thing wrong with that arrangement, sir,” Geordi replied. “There’s not much call for actors on the Enterprise.”
Chapter Thirteen
THE CAVE WHERE TROI AND LELYS were kept prisoner was dry, which was about all that could be said for it.
Otherwise it was chilly and reeked of sheep-tallow candles. When their guards kindled a fire nearer to the entrance to keep off the night cold, more than half the smoke seemed to flood the cave and almost none of the heat.
Even the daylight hours were cold this far up the mountain. Troi wrapped a thin blanket more snugly around Lelys’s shoulders, then sighed when it slipped off because the Orakisan ambassador made no move to hold onto it. Lelys sat leaning against the cave wall, just as the false shepherd