01 Taxilas Children

TAXILA'S CHILDREN
"Shaita likes to amuse himself - the use of a female body would have been a novelty he
couldn't resist."
The thought response snarled into his mind.
"If you great gods have to do battle, why involve us mere mortals? Why don't you leave us
alone, we have the right to live our lives without being invaded and turned into a battlefield!"
"I suppose Steve Holt has the same sentiments. To answer you bluntly. You have no rights
when it comes to the plans of the Race Masters. They are those who must be obeyed."
"Who are you now? Taxila or Steve Holt?"
"Both - and I will remain both."
"What will happen to Laoni?"
"Shaita has left her - she has served his purpose. He has fought and lost and he is already
far away. He will regroup for the next battle."
"Do you mean to tell me that this obscene sequence of events is going to be repeated?"
Steve nodded wearily.
"Over and over again."
Danyk looked down at his sister, her eyes were closed. Lyot, Hepha, Krin and Maia stood
around her.
"I ask you again - What will happen to Laoni."
"Look into her mind, you will find the answer."
Steve pointed to the twitching forms of the eight who had supported Shaita in the battle.
Some of the spectators were turning over the smouldering bodies. Seven were the Adepts
who had supported Rho Arpor - it was no surprise to identify the High Thane as the eighth.
Zayez the All Wise stood ramrod straight at the foot of the flight of steps. Steve met his
steady gaze.
"Well, Father Zayez, tonight, Taxila has not only destroyed the High Thane and exposed
many of your nobles as savages, he has also destroyed your society! It can never return to
what it has been for the past ten thousand years. You once hoped that by leaving the cities,
you would be able to control the primitive urges which lay under your veneer of high culture.
You thought, that by returning to a simple life and controlling the Scarn to work your lands,
you would be able to develop the Gift to such a degree that you would eliminate the last
traces of the behaviour which Shaita was able to provoke through Laoni.
I tell you, that your people will always possess their wild cat heritage, to eliminate it would
be to eliminate an essential portion of your psyche. Already, you are experiencing the
consequences of what you have attempted to do. Your race is becoming infertile. The seed of
your men is losing its potency. Racially, you are not ready to progress to the condition where
you have no need for the physical. It is only when you are ready to surrender the physical
form and become beings of energy, that you can also surrender the base nature and replace it
with that of purity and tranquillity. You have striven for too much too soon!
Once, Taxila gave you laws and instructions which you did not follow explicitly. Instead,
you adapted his commandments and you have become what you are. It is your task, Zayez, to
search in the closed city for those laws and apply them. It is your task to rebuild this society,
together with your Adepts. There will be no more Thanes and the Clans will become one!
When you are a united people, go to the Scarn and they will lead you down from this high
place which was the hiding place of the ten maidens, back to the low places, where you will
find many cousins."
Zayez sounded a little breathless in thought.
"Lord Taxila, I am an old man. I do not have the strength for this task."
"You will find the strength and you have many years in which to heal the wounded minds
of your people. Slowly, they will recover their potency, both as a people and in their ability to
procreate. You will return the Children of Taxila to prosperity!"
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