Chapter 4

The park superintendent, a rather fierce-looking cougar Changeling, was not happy. “This is not a normal request, Director. I realize that you have Presidential authority for this, but the mountain is not off-limits because the Park Service wants to flex its muscles. It's been less than forty years since the biggest eruption in North America in recorded history, and we're still not even sure that it's safe, even ignoring the fact that we're trying to let things develop naturally. I have absolutely no idea why you feel you need to conduct a... a... a meeting of a group of military, security, and intelligence officials, and a group of private citizens, on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens! And while it's still winter, as well?”

Lowe smiled apologetically. “It's neutral ground, Mr. Anderson. We will do our absolute best not to disturb anything we don't have to.”

“Neutral ground? Neutral ground for what?”

“For some of the participants. If you insist on more details, you will have to sign a security agreement.”

“I...” The cougar stared at the wolf. “Who are you meeting up there that needs...” He snorted and shook his head. “Right. You can't answer that unless I'm sworn in, can you?”

“Well, the cliché is that if I tell you, I'll have to kill you. Do you really want to know that badly?”

Anderson glanced at the much bigger wolf who was standing quietly off to one side. “Now that you mention it, no. You'll need four helicopter flights to ferry everyone out, and we've only got two pilots who are rated for approaching the crater. There's some oddities, and it's dangerous for anyone without the training to even attempt a landing up there. And if anything goes wrong while you're up there, we will -not- be able to pull you all out at once. We'll send out radios with everyone, just in case; the weather in the Cascades can change rather suddenly...” He paused at the smirk on the wolf's muzzle. “What?”

“I think I can assure you that the weather will not do anything unexpected, nor will the volcano do anything dangerous while we are up there.”

“I wouldn't be too sure of that. We've been getting some very odd seismograph readings recently, the kind of tremors that indicate magma flows going on under the mountain.”

Lowe continued to smile at him. “Trust me...”

“I guess I'll have to. But you are -still- taking the radios.”

“If it will make you happy, certainly.”

“I'll settle for less unhappy, Director. If I can't talk you out of this, at least let me take what precautions I can.”

* * * *

The helicopters dropped off the first group at the base of the lava plug that had risen in the gaping crater that the 1980 eruption had opened in the mountain. The pilots had been quite surprised when a trio of dragons had joined them on the first flight up the chasm that had once been the north face of the volcano, but they landed the first load of passengers and returned for the rest without protest.

Lowe watched the helicopters depart, while the first wave started asking questions. She shook her head at most of them. “I am going to wait until everyone is here. No point in going through this twice. I will say this... the location is for privacy, and also for convenience for two of the participants. Not just to inconvenience the National Park Service.”

The round trip took about a half-hour, and Lowe greeted the second wave, bowing to the tall blond man who got out last. She waited until the helicopters had departed again before speaking. “Thank you all for coming. If you don't mind – or for that matter, even if you do – I'm going to ask everyone to leave the Park Service radios here. Just in case they're transmitting when they're not supposed to be.”

'They are not, Senorita Director.” The man speaking had a noticeable Mexican-Spanish accent. “But I do not know if they might be recording, so I agree with you. They do not need to be part of this meeting.”

Lowe smiled. “Thank you, Luz.” A few minutes later they had left the radios behind, along with cell phones and similar gadgets, and hiked a few hundred yards along the edge of the lava plug. In spite of the season, the heat from underground kept the snow clear next to the dome. “Pelé? Are you and Fuego ready to join us?”

A piece of the rock face fell away, revealing a glowing interior, and two figures emerged from inside the volcano. One was a female human; the other was a male coyote-morph. Both appeared to be formed from cooling lava rather than flesh and blood. “We are.”

Whitford nodded once. “And -this- is why you weren't worried about any volcanic shenanigans.”

Pelé smiled. “Lawetlat'la will behave herself now that I am fully awake. I should apologize; this one, Shasta, and Millulaha should have been quiet until the Convergence. But it is not always easy to predict how much pressure to bleed off before a Change. Too much, and a frozen chimney can make it impossible to allow small eruptions later. Too little, and...” She gestured at the chasm. “It can build up and explode before I can get back to it.”

Lowe nodded, and dipped her muzzle respectfully to the volcano goddess. “Considering the number of volcanoes that have -not- caused serious damage, I do not think we have much to complain about. Although I will not be pointing this out to anyone outside this circle.”

A lynx-femme cleared her throat at that. “So, what IS this all about, Janet?”

The wolf glanced at the human she had bowed to earlier. He gestured back, leaving the initiative to her. “It is your meeting, Diviner.”

The wolf nodded. “Then I will start with introductions. And since true names can be dangerous to give out in the new reality, I will stay with the designations that the Eldest has suggested.” She went around the group. The Mexican was first. “Luz, of Oaxaca.” The lynx-femme was “Storm, of Pennsylvania.” A human woman with a greenish skin tone and leaf-green hair was “Aspen, of Wyoming.” The Healer, of Washington, was an apparently ordinary human woman. The dragons were introduced as Forge of Vermont, Gold of North Carolina, and Trader of New York. Winter was a young but white-haired man from Manitoba. Dreamweaver was a black-furred mouse-femme from Louisiana. “Shadow, of Virginia. Stardancer, of California. Guardian, of Kentucky. And of course, myself, the Diviner, originally of Maryland. Fuego, of Coahuila. Gentlemen, ladies... I have invited you here to inform you that we are the newest Immortals in North America. You can all expect to stay young and in good health until the next time that magic fades out. Which will probably not be for at least fifteen hundred years.”

She waited for the initial shock and hubbub to die down. “This does not grant you any special invulnerability. What we have is longevity. We will all need to learn to protect ourselves. I have already discovered that there are some rich and powerful people out there who are going to be very jealous of something they cannot buy for themselves.”

“What happens when the magic fades?” Aspen sounded more curious than concerned, but everyone quieted down to hear the answer.

“Let me finish the introductions. The mistress of volcanoes, Pelé of Hawai'i. And the Eldest, who has lived through nineteen complete cycles and is over eighty thousand years old. Eldest, I think this is your question to answer. What -does- happen at the end of a Cycle?”

“Up until now? Most of the Immortals lose their immortality. They will start aging and dying of natural causes. A very few of us do not, and up until now we have not been able to predict who will be the lucky survivors. Our new Healer, along with Forge and Stardancer, have already started studying this with the techniques of science that are new to this cycle. By the time it ends, we may be able to figure out how to save everyone.”

Lowe nodded. “And there it is. The research is looking into two things. How to increase longevity for everyone, and how to preserve the long-lived past the end of a cycle. We know the first is theoretically possible, but the only known technique so far is too difficult to spread widely. The second happens naturally for some, and we need to find out how it happens to see if we can duplicate it artificially. But we have lots of time, and with a little bit of luck and a lot of study, we may be able to do both.”

She cleared her throat. “Second item. There are currently six senior Immortals known to be in North America. The Eldest and Pelé, of course. Coyote of the American Aboriginal legends. Thor of the Aesir, by invitation. Bast of the Egyptian pantheon, currently the ambassador from Sahara. And the Alpha of the wolves. In addition, Loki of the Aesir and Morganna of the Tuatha Dé Danann may or may not be here. Both are shapeshifters, and both are very dangerous. Loki in particular is insane and wants to kill Thor. If anyone should approach you with suggestions of that nature, be extremely cautious about agreeing to anything.”

Winter interrupted. “The Alpha Wolf? Is this a werewolf?”

Lowe shook her head. “No, he's the wolf version of the Eldest. I've met him. Dire wolf, quite intelligent, and...” She pointed at Guardian. “...one of our ancestors. Magic isn't an exclusively human thing.” She nodded to Dreamweaver. “Yes, you have nonhumans in your ancestry as well. All of us who became Changelings have at least one of them in our family trees. And to answer the next question, no, most of them did not survive the end of the Cycle in which they were born.”

Aspen nodded. “All very interesting, I'm sure, but why did you call us all here? Hardly the most convenient or comfortable place for a meeting. For that matter, why put us all in one place?”

Lowe grinned. “Two reasons. First, I wanted everyone to meet in person, and this is one of the few places where I can guarantee Fuego's safety. Second, because we are going to have a quick seminar in magical communications. It is very handy to be able to contact each other, and Pelé and the Eldest are going to be teaching us all just that.”

“One more point before we start that, however. You all are the -known- young Immortals in this region. There almost have to be others, and not all of them are going to be nice people. Keep your eyes open, especially over the next century. The sooner we can identify the rest, the sooner we can deal with any problems.” She nodded to the Eldest. “And with that, sir, I will turn the meeting over to you.”

He nodded his acknowledgement. “Very well.” He looked around at the group. “The basic communications spell uses a physical interface to connect your image to that of one or more others, rather similar to a video hookup. It is a very useful technique during the mana half of a Cycle, and I always conduct a meeting at the beginning of each Convergence, first northern summer solstice after the shift, for all the surviving Immortals. Fire, water, ice, mirrors, and trilithons can all be used as the basis for the spells, though there are certain variations in casting for each. We'll start with fire, since that's easiest for most people...”

* * * *

The first set of outbound flights had departed, leaving Pelé and Cerrunos behind with the five government employees. Fuego had already disappeared back into the depths of the volcano at his mistress' request. Whitford was the first to break the silence. “You had something you wanted us to stay behind for, Eldest?”

Cerrunos smiled. “I'd like an update, if you don't mind. The five of you conducted a Working the day of your last election. Diviner has very skillfully changed the subject every time I hinted at it anywhere else, but I would like an answer now. What did you do?”

Sterling snorted. “Told you someone would notice.”

Stardancer chuckled. “We weren't trying to hide it from the Eldest, Captain. Only from the mortals.”

Pelé frowned. “You did not impose your will on them, I hope? I should think you would know better than that after what happened with Quetzalcoatl. He too tried to impose his will on the mortals.”

Lowe shook her head, and dropped to one knee in front of them. “It was my idea, and if there is guilt I take it upon myself, Elders. I give you my solemn oath, we did not force our will on our countrymen. Quite the opposite. We ensured an election that returned the true votes of the American people, blocking all false votes and all lies by those entrusted to count and report the results. We hid our involvement to protect ourselves and to protect the system we have all sworn to serve. It would cause a witch hunt if the level of fraud in recent elections were known.”

Stardancer sniffed. “Or if they knew we had to step in to correct it. There are still too many people whose priests consider magic to be evil.”

Cerrunos held his hand out to the kneeling wolf and a soft glow enveloped the pair as he brought her back to her feet. “You speak the truth, daughter. I hope your trust in your people is not misplaced.”

Lowe sighed. “I hope so as well, Eldest. But... you named me truly. I am beginning to see shadows of what may be as the magic grows in strength. In some of those shadows, the five of us are the core of the new Pantheon of the West.” She nodded in response to the bat's shocked stare. “Not always because we wish it, Karen, and never in those shadows I have seen do you want it, but in some it happens by acclaim, and in some we are forced by circumstances to take on the mantle. Not all of them end well. I am not yet certain how to act to strengthen those I would prefer to see. But I do know that the ones where we try to command the path of the mortals rather than offer counsel – those do not end well at all.” She looked at the two Elders defiantly, her ears up and her tail high. “For now, we will let our country truly choose its leaders rather than have their choices subverted by others.”

Pelé smiled. “Then I wish you luck, girl. Hold to that. You already show more wisdom than most of us managed even at the end of our first millennium.” She stepped back, and her form melded into the rock.

The Eldest folded her into a hug. “I wish you luck as well, Diviner. Be careful who else you share this knowledge with. For many, the temptation to see the future would be too great.”

Lowe shook her head. “It's still weak. And the more it involves people whom I have not yet met, the vaguer the shadows get. But they first started when we cast our spell, and they strengthened when Reynard told us of his dealings with de Revol. It seems that the more I learn of the present, the better I can predict the future.”

Cerrunos nodded to her and then spoke to all of them. “You will do well, my children. They may call you gods, but you yourselves do not believe it. As long as you remember that, you will be fine.” He looked up at the distant pulsing of helicopter rotors. “And it looks as if our rides are returning. It was good meeting you all. Shadow – I expect to hear from you once in a while now that you know how to call.”

The bat raised one eyebrow. “Why me in particular?”

He laughed. “Because most of the time, even the sending magics can't find you. I named you Shadow for very good reasons, you know.”