Hans described his route. Chen told him to leave the same way, to circle the village through the forest and hide in the woods below town. He’d come to him as soon as he could get away.
“It’s too dangerous to be seen with you on the street. The investigator is one of the emperor’s wizards who can look into someone’s mind and see his thoughts and memories. He must know what Nils looks like, and have told the soldiers. And you—you are not as large, but still you are much taller than we are, and have the skin and other strangenesses.”
The smith remembered something then, and his face took on a worried look. “Tell me. Where were you this morning?”
“Half a day’s ride that way.” Hans gestured.
“Did—did anything happen? Anything strange and terrible?”
Hans nodded. “It felt as if the world was trying to shake itself apart. I was greatly afraid.”
The man’s face relaxed. “Ah! I was afraid it might be something God had visited just on our village here.
“Well.” He pursed his lips in thought. “People come in here from time to time. It’s time for you to leave.”
Before he left, Hans asked for a bow. Chen said he’d bring one when he went out to meet him.
FORTY-THREE
The emperor’s face was grim, his mouth a slit; his fingers drummed the table. The situation having become dangerous, he’d given his orders to Tenzin telepathically to save time. But the geshe had been so shaken by the morning’s disaster, it seemed best to receive his report face to face. The imperial presence might brace the man. Actually, it annoyed Songtsan Gampo to baby Tenzin, but the geshe was too valuable to see broken. And it wasn’t as if he asked for pampering.
The gong outside his door was tapped lightly; Maamo stepped inside and bowed. His baritone was furry, distinctly nonhuman. “Your Magnificence,” the ogre said, “Tenzin Geshe is here.”
“Send him in.”
The geshe entered and knelt, a sign, the emperor realized, of his mental state. Tenzin blamed himself for the demon’s presence in what they thought of as the fabric of the Tao. “Come, Tenzin,” the emperor said gruffly, and gestured at a chair. “Sit!” The geshe sat. “What were your results?”
Tenzin did not meet his gaze. “The demon withheld
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itself,” he answered. “It wasn’t interested in what I might ask. I did get an impression, though: that its action this morning was not to coerce us, but simply a test of its abilities. For its own enlightenment.”
“oh?”
“I also believe it was dissatisfied with the results. Despite subjective appearances, and regardless of the overwhelming emotions it generated, it was unable to influence the physical universe directly. And I believe it does not fully appreciate how devastating its psychic effects were: It seems to have reached and terrified almost every psyche over a large area.”
It’s well it doesn’t fully appreciate it, the emperor thought. The streets of Miyun had been the site of wild panic. People had died of terror; others had gone mad, some murderously so. Fires had been set. And among the Yeti Guards, all but Maamo had panicked.
Maamo! Starting with the concept and technique for creating elementals, Tenzin had created the transcendant yeti. Among its species, the creature was as superior mentally as physically, and had remarkable influence on the others.
“Did you learn how far afield his ravages extended?”
“We reached out to Lord Kang, who is in the desert, approaching the lands of the Buriat. He said he’d felt something and had wondered what it was. The others felt it as a depression too slight for most to be consciously aware of. At Beijing it was somewhat less than here, but even there it was severe.”
And we don’t know if it’s found the limits of its reach, the emperor told himself. But even if it has, suppose it puts us through the same thing daily. We couldn’t govern from here; we’d have to move. And it may well have the ability, or the potential, to move about within the fabric. If so, we can’t escape it!
“What success did you have at placing anchor points in its field?” he asked.