The Realm of the Deathless, page 16
“What is it you want?” Errol said.
“What do I want? Well, let me see. I want to stop you from whatever you think you’re doing. From, you know, ‘fixing’ things. You, Errol, were you happy with the way things were? You were just thinking about it, weren’t you, how you will become dust, like your father, while your friends all find shiny new homes? Is that fair?”
“I’ll take that over whatever you have to offer,” Errol said.
“That’s because you’ve no idea what I have to offer,” the automaton said.
“This is deception,” Dusk said. “He’s only talking to us to keep us quiet while his beasts surround us.”
Errol had noticed that, too. But what could he do? Aster was right. He didn’t have a gun, or a sword. Or even a stick. He could punch him in his stupid wooden face, but he didn’t think he was going to get very far in that fight. But he might distract him for a second, give Aster a chance to blast him with some sort of spell. In a moment, it might be too late for even that.
Off to his left there was a sudden howl. The automaton snarled and looked that way.
Errol jumped.
It was like hitting an ice sculpture, except the ice ran up his arm and into his chest. He tried to scream but his lungs closed up. He wobbled back, a little surprised his legs were still holding him erect.
The automaton’s wooden lips parted in a smile and kept parting until his toothy grin went all the way back to his ears. Then he leapt toward Errol.
But he didn’t reach him. He fell back; Errol saw something sticking out from him, a long, slender pole. The automaton landed on all fours and then straightened back up. He reached up and pulled the pole from his chest, and Errol realized it was a spear with a stone point.
“I think you’re going now,” someone behind him said. “This is where we live, and you’re not welcome.”
It wasn’t English. It wasn’t any language Errol had ever heard before, full of weird clicks and pops and whistles. But he understood it. He looked to his right and saw a boy standing there. He might have been eleven or twelve years old. He was intensely brown, his skin as close to truly black as Errol had ever seen. His ebony hair fell in rings to his shoulders. He wore a loincloth supported by what was more of a thick string than a belt, leather shoes that looked something like moccasins, and nothing else.
“You can’t stop me,” the automaton said. “You might send me back now, but soon—”
“Soon is not now,” the boy said, and hurled a second spear. The monster tried to dodge, but the point hit him in the eye. The automaton’s head bent to the side, then began to slide off, and his whole body followed, collapsing into a pile of mud. In the distance the dark, wolf-like forms receded quickly and vanished.
The boy looked around at them. “That’s a bad fellow,” he said. “You ought not to be messing with him.”
“Yeah,” Errol said, as everything started to white out. The last thing he saw was another boy approaching, one who could be a double for the first one.
***
Errol never fully lost consciousness, but for a while he wished he could. The cold festering in his arm and chest now felt alive, like maggots, squirming toward his head, trying to get into his skull. He knew he was vomiting. He tried to concentrate on what everyone around him was saying, but he kept hearing the automaton, talking about how he would be dust.
Whether they succeed at this moment or not, there is no future for you. It is only my victory that holds any hope for you. You can be nothing or you can be everything ...
The maggots seemed to quiet down, then, he saw something, a face, dim, insubstantial.
You can have everything.
It was his father, he realized, as he had seen him, just before he came out of his coma. If death was forever, what had he seen? What was he seeing now, if his father had no soul?
You people in the Reign die so those in the High and Faraway can have eternal life, always reborn, always renewed. At your expense. But it doesn’t have to be like that. If you come with me ...
Then suddenly the voice cut off, and he was aware of heat, and hands on him, and someone singing.
He coughed. One of the boys was just in front of him. He handed Errol a bowl.
“Drink it,” he said.
It was just water, but it was good, like water straight from a spring. He remembered ages ago, his father scooping sand back from a rivulet bubbling out of the side of a hill, waiting for the water to go clear as crystal, how it was more delicious than iced tea or a Coke.
“Thanks,” he said.
Everyone else was there, too, and the other boy. They were all ranged around a small fire in a circle of stones, under the eaves of a rock shelter.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Well, we’re the Twins,” the boy said. “Children of the Sky, The Antelope-Boys, Brothers of the Dawn. You can call me First and my brother there Second. If you don’t like that, we have other names. Sweet Water and Hunter, for instance, Dog and Lion, Shelter and Open Sky.”
“And where are we?”
“Why, this place,” First said. “We camp here sometimes, in winter. It isn’t winter now but it’s dark, so we came here. And now here you come along.”
“They’re going to help us,” Aster said.
“Help us what?” Errol asked.
“Help start up the sky again,” Second said. “Get mom out of her hole.”
“Mom?”
“The Sun,” First said. “Our Mom is the Sun.”
Errol closed his eyes, but that just made him dizzier. “Right,” he said. “Of course. So what’s the plan?”
“Well, when you’re up to it,” First said, “we’ll do a bit of walking.”
***
Errol stayed awake for only a few hours before he fell back into a fitful sleep. One of the boys went to front of the cave and set watch, while the other one lay down. Aster decided to stay up. She kept feeling like she was going to explode, and she feared if she went to sleep, she might. Besides, there was too much to think about. And questions to answer.
The moon was almost gone; it had widened from the thin sliver when they arrived to a fuller crescent, but now it was a sliver again, and still shrinking.
She saw Delia sitting beyond the edge of the firelight and, after a moment, went over to join her.
“I think we need to talk,” she said.
Delia nodded. “That’s probably true.”
“Do you remember any of it?” Aster asked. “Lying with the giant in the cave, and then with Tuulgun in the palace?”
“I don’t remember a giant in a cave,” she said. “And I don’t know that name. But I remember the man on the couch.”
“Did you know him?”
“No,” Delia said. “But he was... there was something familiar about him.”
“Familiar like my father?” Aster said.
“Something like that,” Delia replied.
“And the way you know things,” Aster said. “Like where to find the astrarium or how to get us down to this place. You called me Streya, once. Only my father ever called me that, but first you and then Tuulgun—the man you were lying with—he called me that too. I think he is connected with my father somehow. Remember when Veronica was talking about a prism?”
“Yes, “Delia said. “You believe your father was a ... version of him.”
“Yes,” Aster said. “But what I don’t understand is Tuulgun’s connection with you. Do you remember if he did any sort of ritual, cast any sort of spell, had you repeat any words he spoke?”
“No,” Delia said.
“Did he ever write on you? Or—“
“Aster,” Delia said, “I’m pregnant.”
Aster just stared at her, wondering if she’d heard right, and at the same time wondering why Delia was changing the subject.
But then she understood.
“Oh, zhedye,” she said. “Pregnant by ... “
“Kostye,” she said. “There was no one else.” She smiled thinly. “Anyway,” she said. “There’s your connection.”
Aster started to reply, but realized she had nothing to say. Emotion welled up in her so quickly, she didn’t know what it was until the tears started in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Ms. Fincher said. “I should have told you sooner. I only found out when we were on the ship. I’m just starting to really show, and in these clothes, and with so much happening, I’m not surprised none of you noticed.” She paused. “But he knew. The man up there.”
“He said you made him better,” Aster said. “Closer to whole. Because—because he is connected to my father. And you are carrying something of my father inside of you. Is that how you know things? How you know what we should do?”
Ms. Fincher nodded. “She’s started speaking to me,” she said. “Or ... maybe it’s more like something is speaking through her, like a telephone ...” she shrugged. “Or I’m crazy.”
“She?” Aster said.
“I think so,” Delia said. “It feels that way.”
“You’re not crazy,” Aster said. “You’ve been right each time. Things like this happen here. And this might mean, in some way, part of my father remains alive, able to guide us.”
“Aster ... “
“Yes?”
“What if she’s a monster?”
Aster thought about that for minute. “You’re asking because my father was a monster? No, don’t deny it. Sometimes he was. There are entire epics about the terrible things he did.”
“He did monstrous things,” Delia agreed. “But from what I understand, after you were born, he changed.”
“He made the curse after I was born,” Aster said.
“To save you,” Delia pointed out.
“Then why do you think your child might be a monster?” Aster asked. “She’s going to be a person, like you, like my father. Like me. She may have abilities others do not. But what she does with those, what sort of person she becomes—that’s probably the same as anyone. I’ve done some awful things for what I thought were the right reasons. You know that. But I like to think I’m not a monster. I’m my father’s daughter. And so will she be. She’ll be my sister.”
Aster noticed Errol had come up behind them and was waiting out of earshot for them to finish.
“What is it, Errol?” she asked.
“The Twins say we need to move out,” he said. “We’ve got someplace to be.”
“Okay,” she said. “We’ll be right there.”
Above, what was left of the moon vanished entirely, leaving only the stars to light the world.
FIVE
MOON
They came down from the rock shelter and walked under moonlight through the river valley. The ground was hard on Errol’s bare feet; it had been a long time since he had gone without shoes. When he was a boy, he’d seldom worn them, and as a result his feet had become as tough as leather. He wished they were that way now. But at least there didn’t seem to be any thorns or stickers on their path.
The moon had come back and broadened back to a crescent; it seemed there was a day and night here of sorts. Right now the moon was as orange as a pumpkin, painting the landscape in dull sunset colors. That might be nice if it had been proceeded by a blue sky and a yellow sun. He’d almost forgotten what real daylight looked like.
Antelopes sprang ahead of them. Herds of wild cattle moved along the river, and Errol saw what he thought were elephants in the distance. It made him nervous; from experience he knew that big predators tended to shadow herds like that, and if they saw easier prey—say, a human with no weapons or armor—they might choose that over a ton or three of muscle with horns or tusks. The Twins seemed wary, too, but they also seemed confident. If anything was stalking them, it never made itself known.
Later that day, they ran across more elephants, although they were a little weird looking—bigger than Errol remembered elephants being, with longer legs, and their tusks were straighter, only curving up a little. His first thought was that they were woolly mammoths, but they weren’t furry at all, and he remembered mammoths had very curvy tusks. They also saw giraffes and zebras that looked pretty much exactly like they were supposed to.
Aster and Billy were walking a little to his left. Dusk was to his right, and Veronica was lagging back talking to Shandor.
“So, look,” he said to Aster. “I know this is no place on Earth. But ... being in the Kingdoms—I know it wasn’t like our past exactly, but it was like versions of our past. The Middle Ages, ancient Egypt—you know what I mean.”
“I do,” Aster said.
“And here—this place—this all seems like the stone age.”
“Closer to the beginning,” Aster said. “Closer to the top, I should say.”
“Then why are we seeing giraffes and zebras? Where are the saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths?”
“Well, it’s not cold here,” Aster said. “The stone age was everywhere, not just in Europe. Wherever we are, we’re the in tropics, so no mammoths. And I think saber-toothed tigers were only in the Americas, and this is maybe more like Africa or India. Or maybe we just haven’t seen one, who knows? You know how geography is in the High and Faraway. It doesn’t follow the same rules.”
“It’s odd,” Dusk said. “Sometimes I don’t understand the two of you when you speak of the Reign of the Departed. Having been there, I think I now understand more. But you have seen animals like these?”
“Well, in zoos,” Errol said. “And in books and on television.”
“That’s marvelous,” she said. “I’ve seen elephants of course, but those long-necked things ...”
“Giraffes,” Aster said.
“Very strange. Yet compelling. I’m glad to know there is some beauty in your world.”
“There’s plenty of beauty there,” Errol said. “Of course, we tend to wreck it. A lot of these animals are nearly extinct.”
“It’s hardly surprising,” Dusk said. “Your home is so close to the end of things. It is a world made for death.”
“Let’s not get too high and mighty,” Veronica said. She and Shandor had caught up. “Death is coming here, too. Real, permanent death. The kind you never get better from.”
“I know that,” Dusk said. “I can see it. Perhaps not so clearly as you, who have been dead yourself. Some part of you must be torn. I should think it would be in your nature to cooperate with the enemy rather than fight it.”
“You don’t know anything about my nature,” Veronica said. But to Errol, she didn’t sound as certain as she usually did. As if Dusk’s words actually bothered her.
“I’ve certainly been wrong about you in the past,” Dusk said. “I will try not to misjudge you again.”
Errol felt his face flush a little; that had not been an apology; it had been a promise. This was exactly what they didn’t need now; the old feud between Veronica and Dusk to heat up.
“I know that,” Veronica said. Then she smiled and pointed. “Is that a zebra?”
It was, and to his relief, that was also the end of that conversation.
***
They made camp by the dark of the moon, and the Twins built a small fire. Aster watched as the little tongues of flame spread from the kindling to the twigs and larger branches. Along with the pops and crackles of the burning wood, she also heard a voice, singing.
I am the little fire god. I live, I die, I am reborn. We are kin, you and me.
“Do any of you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what?” Errol asked.
“She mean’s the fire,” Second said. “Yes, they can be right garrulous, especially when they’re young.”
Everything is alive here, Aster realized. Everything has consciousness. The rocks, the trees. All of it.
“I don’t hear anything,” Dusk said.
“Give it time,” Second said. “But listen, it’s time we have a talk.”“Okay,” Aster said.
“This is what we’re after, to be plain,” First said. “The reason it’s all broken—the reason there’s no daylight, no seasons, or anything like that is because our Mom is hiding in her hole and our sister is dead.”
Aster nodded. “Your mother is the Sun, you said.”
“And our sister is the Dawn,” Second said. “It started way back. There was nothing, much. Something like Earth and something like Sky, but not really. They were stuck together. But after a while, jammed together like that, they had kids. And the kids pushed them apart. And then those kids had kids. But still, not a lot going on. No water, no trees, no grass, no animals. There were plenty of first people, but they didn’t have form, no bodies. So then our sister did it. She went to our three uncles and told them she was going to make a whole world, but she needed their help. She needed a sacrifice. Our uncles were First Man, Twin, and Thunder. Thunder offered himself, but Sister feared the world would be too turbulent, and that he would be needed later. First Man and Twin were twins, like us. Our mother was their sister. Twin stepped up and said he would be the sacrifice. So she killed him, and the true nature of the world was revealed. It just rolled out as he fell, as he went into it. Everything became real. Everyone became real. They became what they were already, inside. Our sister, she became the Dawn, and when she rose up from the sacrifice, she began traveling across the new world. And our mother, she woke up too, knowing she was the Sun, and she came right after our sister. And as they traveled, other things came to be. Trees. Grass. Our Uncle Thunder became the Thunder, and he released the waters beneath the world to make streams, rivers, oceans. He released the animals, too. Had to fight a big snake to do it, strike it dead with lightning. And all the while the world kept stretching out, getting bigger.”
“Now our sister is dead,” Second said. “And everything she and Twin created is coming apart. Evil entered the heart of our Uncle Twin, and without Dawn he can’t be consoled. Without Dawn, our mother won’t leave her hole.”
