Part 166 (1/2)
”A Lion!” Anselm's rallying voice: ”A Lion!”
The heat of breath touched her. She did not turn her head.
In the corner of her vision, she sees a great needle-clawed paw set down upon the stone.
Under her hand, there is no detectable heartbeat; against her sweating skin, no whisper of a breath. But Florian's flesh is warm.
She closes her eyes against the majesty of the Heraldic Beast that G.o.d's grace - as reflected by the men and women of the Lion Azure - brings prowling out of the darkness.
”Now.”
She draws on them, drains them: the gold at the heart of the sun. She feels the unstoppable change beginning.
”I don't lose,” she says, holding Florian to her. ”Or if I do - you always save as many of your own as you can.”
It is the moment of change: She is conscious of Floria's weight. Not until then does she open her eyes again, looking at the snow trodden down black on the old abandoned altar, at snow-lined ruined walls, and see the familiarity.
But this is a younger wood, a different valley; there are no broken windows, no holly trees.
She has time to smile. Fortuna. Just chance.
As if her mind expands, she feels the immense ratiocinative power of the Wild Machines flow through her, envelop her, become a tool she can command. She can calculate, with the precision of the finest cut, what must become improbable - what must be reified, what made merely potential.
”Don't let me down now.” Her hands grip Floria's; her hands touch Burgundy. 'Come on, girl!” And, quietly, in the dark, ”To - a safe place.”
She wonders momentarily what every priest with G.o.d's grace has felt, and if what she feels is the same.
Love for the world, however bitter, grief-stricken or brutal it may be. Love for her own. The will and the desire to protect.
In the authoritative voice that people obey, she says, ”Do it!” She moves Burgundy.
OBSERVATION TAPE HHHHH.
Authority HHHHH No. HHHHH [tape hiss; noise of electrical switch]
WILLIAM DAVIES: [-inaudible-] a man with photosensitive epilepsy should not be watching the television.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: Indeed. A man unaware of the last sixty years, however, should. I confess myself amazed. I had thought the popular tastes of the nineteen-thirties degraded. This is nothing but the vilest kind of mob entertainment.
PIERCE RATCLIFF: If I could introduce myself, Professor Davies - [indistinguishable: background room noise]
VAUGHAN DAVIES: You are Ratcliff. Yes. If I may say so, it's taken you long enough to come and see me. I see from your previous publications that you have a mind with some degree of rigor in its reasoning. May I be so happy as to suppose you have treated my work with adequate intelligence?
PIERCE RATCLIFF: I hope so.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: All men live in hope, Doctor Ratcliff. I believe I could drink a little tea. My dear, do you think you could manage that?
ANNA LONGMAN: I'll ask the nurse if he can arrange it.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: William, perhaps you ...
WILLIAM DAVIES: Don't mind me. I'm quite comfortable here.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: I would prefer to speak with Doctor Ratcliff in private.
[Indistinguishable: room noise, voices outside]
ANNA LONGMAN: [-inaudible-] some coffee, in the cafe here. Do you need your stick?
WILLIAM DAVIES: Good lord, no. A matter of a few yards.
[Indistinguishable: door opens and closes?]
VAUGHAN DAVIES: Doctor Ratcliff, I have been talking to that girl. Perhaps you would be so kind as to tell me where you have been for what, I understand, is the better part of three weeks?
PIERCE RATCLIFF: Girl? Oh. Anna said that you appeared to be worried about me.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: Answer the question, please.
PIERCE RATCLIFF: I don't see the relevance of this, Professor Davies.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: d.a.m.n you, young man, will you answer a question when it is put to you!
PIERCE RATCLIFF: I'm afraid I can't say much.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: Have you at any time in the recent past been in danger of your life?
PIERCE RATCLIFF: What? Have I what?
VAUGHAN DAVIES: This is a perfectly serious question, Doctor Ratcliff, and I would be obliged if you would treat it as one. I will make the matter clear in due course.
PIERCE RATCLIFF: No. I mean. Well, no.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: You returned from your archaeological expedition- PIERCE RATCLIFF [interrupts]: Not mine. Isobel's. Doctor Napier-Grant, that is.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: So many women. We appear to have become very degenerate. However. You returned from North Africa; you were not at any time in danger of an accident of any kind?
PIERCE RATCLIFF: If I was, I was unaware of it. Professor Davies, I really don't understand you.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: The girl told me you have read the Sible Hedingham ma.n.u.script. That this somewhat idiosyncratic translation of it is your work.
PIERCE RATCLIFF: Yes.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: Then it is plain, to the meanest intelligence, what has been happening here! Do you wonder that I show some concern for a professional colleague?
PIERCE RATCLIFF: Frankly, Professor Davies, you don't seem like a man who shows much concern about his fellow man.
VAUGHAN DAVIES: No? No. Perhaps you are right.