Part 10 (1/2)
Denby told the machine, ”Pick up the stuff on the floor and put it on the desk over there.” Then he folded his gnarled hands and bowed his head. ”Thanks be to the Source of Eternal Light for this good food.” Seizing the loaf, he gleefully sawed it into slices with the bread-knife. It was still hot enough to steam slightly. He slathered b.u.t.ter on both their portions and filled the mugs from the pitcher. ”It's nice cold volumnial milk. You still drink it down there, don't you?”
”Yes...” She picked up her piece of bread, stared at it for a moment, then lifted her eyes to her host. ”You are he. The Archimage of the Firmament.”
His mouth stuffed full, the old man gave a blissful nod.
”Was it you, then, who abducted my sister the Queen and the other human rulers?”
Denby shook his head, still chewing. ”Jus' you. Necess'ry.” The old man downed a gulp of milk, then wiped his greasy fingers on his napkin. ”Temp'rarily changed Oro's programming of the viaduct to bring you for a visit. O' course I'm able to countermand anybody else's transportation directives.”
”Then... Anigel and the others are not here?”
”No. But you most indubitably are! And to stay-at least for a while.” He began to laugh uproariously, wheezing and rocking back and forth, flinging crumbs in all directions. The small domestic machine patiently began cleaning up the mess.
Haramis was striving to keep control of her emotions. ”What do you mean-'to stay'?”
”Oh, dear child! We'll have such wonderful talks, you and I. You must tell me all about your life-and the lives of your sisters as well. I've been so disgusted with the world below, sunk in melancholic despair. What to do, what to do! I arranged for Orogastus to be born before Binah came up with the new scheme, and from the start I thought that hers was silly and futile. But sentimental Iriane loved it, and between the two of them they bullied me into giving it a try. I couldn't believe three young girls would be able to set things right when we'd tried and failed, but you triplets did find the pieces of the Sceptre. It seemed that there might be something magical about you after all-something to do with the way you focused and influenced the threads of worldly destiny. Petals of the Living Trillium combined with the resurgence of the Star! Magical science versus scientific magic! I never did divine the straights of it myself, and now it doesn't matter. You ultimately failed, just as I knew you would. But I'll see that it all comes right in the end. Wait and see.”
”I don't know what you're talking about,” Haramis said in great bewilderment.
He gave a crafty wink. ”It's genuine magic in that trillium-amber of yours-quite beyond the magical science of the Star and the Archimagical College. Most intriguing-and dangerous as well! I was half-afraid the amber might prevent my bringing you here and winding it all up, but everything worked splendidly.”
She decided that he was certainly mad, just as Orogastus had said, but she gave calm reply. ”I am sorry that I cannot accept your kind invitation to stay, Archimage of the Firmament. In plain fact, I intend to leave you at this very instant. Other impor-tant business demands my attention.” She grasped the Three-Winged Circle, visualized her Tower on Mount Brom, and awaited the crystalline vision that always preceded her magical transport.
Nothing happened.
The zany good humor left Denby's face as swiftly as a footprint in sand is obliterated by an ocean wave, leaving his countenance grimly triumphant. He stood up, leaning his knuckles on the table, and his voice, formerly cracked and enfeebled, now had a metallic resonance. ”The magic you learned from Iriane won't work here, Haramis. It draws its potency from the land which is your personal archimagical domain. Neither will the talisman obey you, because its power derives from planetary well-springs, and you are beyond their sphere of influence as well. The only way out of here is through the viaducts that I control - or that way.” He chortled, nodding at the round door beside the drapes. It was made of a metallic black material, with a single enormous hinge. ”But that door leads to a release that is eternal, and only I myself will ever pa.s.s through it.”
Haramis's face was alight with anger. ”Denby, I warn you-”
”Resign yourself, Archimage.” The condescending smile reappeared. ”I intend that you shall stay with me until the time is appropriate for you to leave.”
”And I say you are wrong! For I can still call upon a third source of magical power that has been mine since my birth.” Haramis touched the silvery wings s.h.i.+elding her trillium-amber and they spread open, revealing a tiny bright light like a golden star. Denby gave a squawk of dismay as she got up and went to the round door. ”You were quite right about the magic of my annulet,” Haramis continued. ”It is independent of the talisman and capable of aiding me in many ways. I regret that I shall be unable to discuss them with you. Suffice to say that the amber will open every lock in this dwelling of yours-including this one.”
Denby leapt to his feet, genuine alarm on his brown, withered features. ”Haramis -wait!” he cried. ”You don't understand! You can't open that! It would be the death of you!” He stumbled to the enshrouded window beside the round black door and pulled the blue velvet draperies back.
Haramis uttered a cry of consternation. Leaning heavily against a chair, she stared at the scene outside. It was a night sky, strewn with multicolored stars beyond counting. Three side-lit heavenly bodies hung amidst the profusion of twinkling points- one seeming to be of modest size, colored blue and white, the other two much larger and silvery, without recognizable features.
”Sacred Flower!” Haramis whispered. ”You've taken me to your Moon!”
”Yes,” Denby said, now almost apologetic. ”You really can't go until I let you. It's necessary that you stay, I tell you... just as it's necessary for Iriane to remain out of the picture for the time being.”
”What? You know of her monstrous captivity and will do nothing to help her?” Eyes ablaze, Haramis strode to the Dark Man and took hold of his skinny shoulders. ”You doddering lunatic! What kind of silly game do you think you're playing?”
”No game! No game!” he wailed. ”Ow! That hurts. Forbear, young Archimage! I'm twelve thousand years old and my bones are brittle and my poor heart is weak. I may just drop dead on you if you treat me too roughly. Then you'll never get back home.”
She turned him loose and spoke in tones of icy contempt. ”Explain yourself, then. Where is my sister Anigel if she is not here-and why have you dared to interfere with me in the execution of my solemn duties?”
He lifted his hands in a placating gesture. ”The Queen is safe enough, along with the other rulers. Orogastus has them locked up in his castle in Sobrania. It's all part of my plan.”
The drop of trillium-amber atop the Three-Winged Circle now began to s.h.i.+ne like a tiny sun as the face of Haramis became awesome in its wrathful resolution. ”Denby Varcour,” she intoned, ”I command you, as your fellow Archimage and peer, to send me back to the world at once-or face dreadful consequences.”
His shaken nerves seemed to be mending. He tilted his head, pursing his lips in a teasing grimace. ”What consequences? Do you plan to shake the teeth out of my crumbling skull if I disobey? Or deny your sacred oath and slay me-a feeble old eccentric who only has the best interests of the world at heart? You could easily do so with just your bare hands, you know. But I beg you to hold off, lovely young Haramis. I brought you here for a very good reason.” His expression turned mock-reproachful. ”And I was so sure you'd enjoy the new bread.”
”What do you want?” she cried in desperation.
Abruptly, he seemed both serious and sane. ”Archimage, you know that the World of the Three Moons that you love so much is out of balance, threatened with catastrophe.”
”I-I do know that. My sisters and I have tried to restore this balance, as it was prophesied of us. Once we thought all would be well when Orogastus was conquered, but that did not prove to be the case. Now I suspect that only the rea.s.sembly of the broken Sceptre of Power will alleviate the peril that threatens.”
”Yes!” the Archimage of the Firmament affirmed. ”It holds the secret, all right. The Sceptre, that d.a.m.nable instrument capable of both restoring the world and annihilating it. You have one piece, and the other two are...” The old man trailed off, shaking his head. ”But there is much more to the matter than that.”
”Then explain,” she demanded.
He essayed a tentative little smile. ”It would help your understanding, I think, if you first allowed me to show you something. Will you accompany me to that Moon over there? There's a viaduct in the alcove next to the middle bookcase.”
She frowned. ”Orogastus spoke of a Garden Moon and a Death Moon.”
”It is to the latter we must go.” As Denby gestured, opening the viaduct, the familiar bell-tone sounded and a dark disk sprang into existence. ”I'm not trying to trick you, la.s.s. I'll go first, if you like.”
He disappeared. Haramis hesitated for a moment. ”The Death Moon! I must be as mad as Denby.” She took hold of her talisman, murmured a brief prayer, and followed.
They emerged and stood side by side on a round piece of transparent scaffolding, suspended in murky crimson twilight. Above them, below them, and on all sides extending as far as they could see into the distance floated a myriad of golden spheres some two ells in diameter, each one tethered to others nearby with barely visible gossamer threads, as though they were caught in an enormous, elegantly woven lingit web spangled with huge drops of dew. When her eyes became better accustomed to the dim light, Haramis realized that the spheres were transparent, filled with some kind of luminous mist. Inside each one was a human form, motionless, attired in garments of a strange cut.
”Dear Lords of the Air,” Haramis exclaimed, stricken. ”There must be thousands upon thousands of them! Who are they?”
”Those who were unable to Vanish,” said Denby Varcour.
Chapter Twelve.
”ARE they truly dead?” Haramis asked, overwhelmed with pity and horror at the sight of the countless glowing bubbles and the bodies within them-men, women, and children.
”No,” said Denby. ”They sleep, as they must continue to do, forgotten by everyone except me and the surviving sindona.”
”But why can't you free them?” she cried. ”The poor souls- neither dead nor truly alive! It's dreadful!”
”I've waited twelve thousand years, hoping that the appropriate time would come. But it never did. If these people were revived now-” He broke off, shaking his head.
”What would happen?” Haramis demanded.
”I'll tell it all to you, la.s.s,” said Denby, taking her arm and pulling her back toward the black disk of the viaduct, ”the real story-not the half truths you got from Iriane during your time of study. But we can't talk here. Not in this accursed Death Moon. Come with me.”
In spite of herself she was drawn away again into ringing darkness. When the pa.s.sage was complete they were in another place that at first sight seemed ordinary enough, a paved hexagonal eminence a dozen ells in diameter, bordered by a parapet of pierced stone. The sun shone brightly overhead, and for a moment she felt a great surge of joy and relief, thinking that they had returned to the world of her birth.
”Come and take a look,” Denby said, going to the platform's edge and flinging out one arm in an inviting gesture.