Free War in Heaven by David Zindell Page A

And then he slowly stood away from his table, squeezed his flute tightly in his hand, and said, "Lord Nikolos, there is something I would like to say."
    Lord Nikolos bowed to him and said, "Then please speak, if you will."
    Danlo, whose Fravashi teacher had once bestowed upon him the title of 'Peacewise' for his devotion to ahimsa, politely returned the bow. Then he looked out over the tables of men and women in all their brightly hued robes, and said, "You lords ... have spoken of war in abstractions such as 'abandonment' of political entities or 'support' of causes or of our Order's 'mission' to the Vild. But war is as real as a child screaming in the night. I know. On Tannahill, in my arms, I held a young girl whose face had been burned away by a plastic bomb. On Tannahill I saw ... many things. Tannahill is far from here, thousands of light years, and so is Neverness. But war is not something that happens only to people far away. When a man goes over bleeding his life away, for him it is always here. There is always such a terrible hereness about dying, yes? And for each of us, we are always here, too, wherever we are. Who can say that this war of which you have spoken so abstractly will not come here to Thiells? Who here today, at this moment, is prepared to face the fire of a hydrogen bomb and die? Who is prepared to watch us pilots die, as pilots do die, falling into the hearts of suns and cooking like meat or falling mad and lost in the manifold or exploding from the inside out and freezing into blood crystals in the vacuum of space? Why ... has no one asked if there must be War at all? What of peace, then? Is there no hope of constraining the Ringists without killing? Or even the Iviomils? I must believe ... that peace is always a possibility."
    After Danlo had finished speaking, he met eyes with the Sonderval and Demothi Bede and many other lords. Then he sat down and looked at Bardo. Bardo, he knew, had immense powers of visualization (and a keen memory), and obviously had no difficulty imagining how terrible a full war would be, for his huge face fell soft and compassionate, and he muttered, "The poor pilots, the poor children, all the poor people, too bad. Ah, what have I started? Poor Bardo — too, too bad."
    Lord Nikolos, sitting across the room, couldn't have made out Bardo's words, but he seemed disquieted even so. And then, to Danlo, he said, "Thank you for reminding us that peace is always a possibility. At this moment, unfortunately, it seems a very far possibility. Nevertheless, we must consider every chance. War is real, as you say, and in making our plan, we must consider limiting this war or forestalling it altogether. If you've no more to add — or anyone else — here is what I believe our course should be."
    Lord Nikolos' plan was clear and straightforward. In a reversal of what he had originally proposed, he would send a few pilots to escort ambassadors to Tannahill. But most of the New Order's pilots would journey in their lightships to the gathering on Sheydveg, either to forestall war if possible or wage it with all their power.
    "I'll also send ambassadors to Neverness," Lord Nikolos said. "It's possible that we still might reason with Lord Pall and Hanuman li Tosh. Since this will be a very dangerous journey, I'll ask only those of you who really wish to make such a mission to offer your services. I, of course, will lead this embassy and — "
    Here Lord Morena Sung shook her head and asked to speak. She smoothed over the folds of her blue eschatologist's robe, then said, "Lord Nikolos, you must not go to Neverness. Your place, as you surely must know, is here on Thiells. But I would like to make this mission, if I could."
    All at once, ten other lords, including Sul Estarei and Demothi Bede, called out that they, too, were willing to journey to Neverness. Then Morena Sung said, "There is one present today who knows Hanuman li Tosh's mind more deeply than any other. Although he's only a