Imajica

"I won"t."

They were at the end of the pa.s.sage, and the air was busier than ever; colder, too. The lamp"s light illuminated a room shaped like a colander, maybe twenty feet across, its curved walls as polished as those of the pa.s.sage. In the floor was a grille, like a gutter beneath a butcher"s table, through which the detritus of prayers, ripped from the hearts of those in grief or washed up in tears of joy, ran off into the mountain upon which Yzordderrex was built. It was difficult for Jude to grasp the notion of prayer as a solid thing-a kind of matter to be gathered, a.n.a.lyzed, and sluiced away-but she knew her incomprehension was a consequence of living in a world out of love with transformation. There was nothing so solid that it couldn"t be abstracted, nothing so ethereal that it couldn"t find a place in the material world. Prayer might be substance after a time, and thought (which she"d believed skull-bound until the dream of the blue stone) fly like a bright-eyed bird, seeing the world remote from its sender; a flea might unravel flesh if wise to its code; and flesh in its turn move between worlds as a picture drawn in the mind of pa.s.sage. All these mysteries were, she knew, part of a single system if she could only grasp it: one form becoming another, and another, and another, in a glorious tapestry of transformations, the sum of which was Being itself.

It was no accident that she embraced that possibility here. Though the sounds that filled the room were incomprehensible as yet, their purpose was known to her, and it raised the ambition of her thoughts. She let go of Quaisoir"s arm and walked into the middle of the room, setting the lamp down beside the grille in the floor. They"d come here for a specific reason, and she knew she had to hold fast to that; otherwise her thoughts would be carried away on the swell of sound.

"How do we make sense of it?" she said to Quaisoir.

"It takes time," her sister replied. "Even for me. But I marked the compa.s.s points on the walls. Do you see?"

She did. Crude marks, scratched in the surface sheen.

"The Erasure is north-northwest of here. We can narrow the possibilities a little by turning in that direction." She extended her arms, like a haunting spirit. "Will you lead me to the middle?" she said.

Jude obliged, and they both turned in the direction of the Erasure. As far as Jude was concerned, doing so did little good. The din continued in all its complexity. But Quaisoir dropped her hands and listened intently, moving her head slightly from side to side as she did so. Several minutes pa.s.sed, Jude keeping her silence for fear an inquiry would break her sister"s concentration, and was rewarded for her diligence, finally, with some murmured words.

"They"re praying to the Madonna," Quaisoir said.

"Who are?"

"Dearthers. Out at the Erasure. They"re giving thanks for their deliverance and asking for the souls of the dead to be received into paradise."

She fell silent again for a time, and now, with some clue as to what she had to listen for, Jude attempted to sort through the intimations that filled her head. But although she was refining her focus, and could now s.n.a.t.c.h words and phrases out of the confusion, she couldn"t hold that focus long enough to make any sense of what she heard. After a time Quaisoir"s body relaxed, and she shrugged.

"There"s just glimpses now," she said. "I think they"re finding bodies. I hear little sobs of prayers and little oaths."

"Do you know what happened?"

"This was some time ago," Quaisoir said. "The Pivot"s had these prayers for several hours. But it was something calamitous, that"s certain," she said. "I think there are a lot of casualties."

"It"s as if what happened in, Yzordderrex is spreading," Jude said.

"Maybe it is," Quaisoir said. "Do you want to sit down and eat?"

"In here?"

"Why not? I find it very soothing." Reaching for Jude to help her, Quaisoir squatted down. "You get used to it after a time. Maybe a little addicted. Speaking of which... where"s the food?" Jude put the bundle into Quaisoir"s outstretched hands. "I hope the child packed kreauchee."

Her fingers were strong and, having scoured the surface of the bundle, dug deep, pa.s.sing the contents over to Jude one by one. There was fruit, there were three loaves of black bread, there was some meat, and-the finding enough to bring a gleeful yelp from Quaisoir-a small parcel which she did not pa.s.s over to Jude but put to her nose.

"Bright thing," Quaisoir said. "She knows what I need."

"Is it some kind of drug?" Jude said, laying down the food. "I don"t want you taking it. I need you here, not drifting off."

"Are you trying to forbid me my pleasure, after the way you dreamed on my pillows?" Quaisoir said. "Oh, yes, I heard your gasping and your groaning. Who were you imagining?"

"That"s my business."

"And this is mine," Quaisoir replied, discarding the tissue in which Concupiscentia had fastidiously wrapped the kreauchee. It looked appetizing, like a cube of fudge.

"When you"ve got no addiction of your own, sister, then you can moralize," Quaisoir said. "I won"t listen, but you can moralize."

With that, she put the whole of the kreauchee into her mouth, chewing on it contentedly. Jude, meanwhile, sought more conventional sustenance, choosing among the various fruits one that resembled a diminutive pineapple and peeling it to discover it was just that, its juice tart but its meat tasty. That eaten, she went on to the bread and slivers of meat, her hunger so stimulated by the first few bites that she steadily devoured the lot, washing it down with bitter water from the bottle. The fall of prayers that had seemed so insistent when she"d first entered the chamber could not compete with the more immediate sensations of fruit, bread, meat, and water; the din became a background burble which she scarcely thought about until she"d finished her meal. By that time, the kreauchee was clearly working in Quaisoir"s system. She was swaying back and forth as though in the arms of some invisible tide.

"Can you hear me?" Jude asked her.

She took awhile to reply. "Why don"t you join me?" she said. "Kiss me, and we can share the kreauchee. Mouth to mouth. Mind to mind."

"I don"t want to kiss you."

"Why not? Do you hate yourself too much to make love?" She smiled to herself, amused by the perverse logic of this. "Have you ever made love to a woman?"

"Not that I remember."

"I have. At the Bastion. It was better than being with a man."

She reached out towards Jude and found her hand with the accuracy of one sighted.

"You"re cold," she said.

"No, you"re hot," Jude replied, moving to break the contact.

"You know what air makes this place so cold, sister?" Quaisoir said. "It"s the pit beneath the city, where the fake Redeemer went."

Jude looked down at the grille and shuddered. The dead were down there somewhere.

"You"re cold like the dead are cold," Quaisoir went on. "Icy heart." All this she said in a singsong voice, to the rhythm of her rocking. "Poor sister. To be dead already."

"I don"t want to hear any more of this," Jude said. She"d preserved her equanimity so far, but Quaisoir"s fugue talk was beginning to irritate her. "If you don"t stop," she said quietly, "I"m going to leave you here."

"Don"t do that," Quaisoir replied. "I want you to stay and make love to me."

"I"ve told you-"

"Mouth to mouth. Mind to mind."

"You"re talking in circles."

"That"s the way the world was made," she said. "Joined together, round and round." She put her hand to her mouth, as if to cover it, then smiled, with almost fiendish glee. "There"s no way in and there"s no way out. That"s what the G.o.ddess says. When we make love, we go round and round-"

She searched for Jude a second time, with the same unerring ease, and a second time Jude withdrew her hand, realizing as she did so that this repet.i.tion was part of her sister"s egocentric game. A sealed system of mirrored flesh, moving round and round. Was that truly how the world was made? If so, it sounded like a trap, and she wanted her mind out of it, there and then.

"I can"t stay in here," she said to Quaisoir.

"You"ll come back?" her sister replied.

"Yes, in a while."

The answer was more repet.i.tion. "You"ll come back."

This time Jude didn"t bother replying, but crossed to the pa.s.sageway and climbed back up to the door. Concupiscentia was still waiting on the other side, asleep now, her form delineated by the first signs of dawn through the window on the sill of which she rested. The fact that day was breaking surprised Jude; she"d a.s.sumed that there were several hours yet before the comet reared its burning head. She was obviously more disoriented than she"d thought, the time she"d spent in the room with Quaisoir-listening to the prayers, eating, and arguing-not minutes but hours. She went to the window and looked down at the dim courtyards. Birds stirred on a ledge somewhere below her and rose suddenly, heading into the brightening sky, taking her eye with them, up towards the tower. Quaisoir had been unequivocal about the dangers of venturing there. But for all her talk of love between women, wasn"t she still in thrall to the mythologies of the man who"d made her Queen of Yzordderrex, and therefore bound to believe that the places he kept her from would do her harm? There was no better time to challenge that mythology than now, Jude thought, with a new day beginning, and the power that had uprooted the Pivot and raised such walls around it gone.

She went to the stairs and started to climb. After a few steps their curve took her into utter darkness, and she was obliged to ascend as blind as the sister she"d left below, her palm flat against the cold wall. But after maybe thirty stairs her outstretched arm encountered a door, so heavy she first a.s.sumed it to be locked. It required all her strength to open, but her effort was well rewarded. On the other side was a pa.s.sageway lighter than the staircase she"d climbed, though still gloomy enough to limit her sight to less than ten yards. Hugging the wall, she advanced with great caution, her route bringing her to the corner of a corridor, the door that had once sealed it off from the chamber at its end blown from its hinges and lying, fractured and twisted, on the tiled floor beyond. She paused here, in order to listen for any sign of the wrecker"s presence. There was none, so she moved on past the place, her gaze drawn to a flight of stairs that led up to her left. Forsaking the pa.s.sageway, she began a second ascent, this one also leading into darkness, until she rounded a corner and a sliver of light descended to meet her. Its source was the door at the summit of the stairs, which stood slightly ajar.

Again, she halted a moment. Though there was no overt indication of power here-the atmosphere was almost tranquil-she knew that the force she"d come to confront was undoubtedly waiting in its silo at the top of the stairs, and more than likely sentient. She didn"t discount the possibility that this hush was contrived to soothe her, and the light sent to coax. But if it wanted her up there, it must have a reason. And if it didn"t-if it was as lifeless as the stone underfoot-she had nothing to lose.

"Let"s see what you"re made of," she said aloud, the challenge delivered at least as much to herself as the Unbeheld"s Pivot. And so saying, she went to the door.

Though there were undoubtedly more direct routes to the Pivot Tower than the one he"d taken with Nikaetomaas, Gentle decided to go the way he half-remembered rather than attempt a shortcut and find himself lost in the labyrinth. He parted company with Floccus Dado, Sighshy, and litter at the Gate of Saints and began his climb through the palace, checking on his position relative to the Pivot Tower from every window.

Dawn was in the offing. Birds rose singing from their nests beneath the colonnades and swooped over the courtyards, indifferent to the bitter smoke that pa.s.sed for mist this morning. Another day was imminent, and his system was badly in need of sleep. He"d dozed a little on the journey from the Erasure, but the effect had been cosmetic. There was a fatigue in his marrow which would bring him to his knees very soon now, and the knowledge of that made him eager to complete the day"s business as quickly as possible. He"d come back here for two reasons. First, to finish the task Pie"s appearance and wounding had diverted him from: the pursuit and execution of Sartori. Second, whether he found his doppelganger here or not, to make his way back to the Fifth, where Sartori had talked of founding his New Yzordderrex. It wouldn"t be difficult to get home, he knew, now that he was alive to his capacities as a Maestro. Even without the mystif to point the way, he"d be able to dig from memory the means to pa.s.s between Dominions.

But first, Sartori. Though two days had pa.s.sed since he"d let the Autarch slip, he nursed the hope that his other would still be haunting his palace. After all, removal from this self-made womb, where his smallest word had been law and his tiniest deed worshipful, would be painful. He"d linger awhile, surely. And if he was going to linger anywhere, it would be close to the object of power that had made him the undisputed master of the Reconciled Dominions: the Pivot.

He was just beginning to curse himself for losing his way when he came upon the spot where Pie had fallen. He recognized it instantly, as he did the distant door that led into the tower. He allowed himself a moment of meditation at the spot where he"d cradled Pie, but it wasn"t their fond exchanges here that filled his head, it was the mystif s last words, uttered in anguish as the force behind the Erasure claimed it.

Sartori, Pie had said. Find him... he knows... Find him... he knows...

Whatever knowledge Sartori possessed-and Gentle guessed it would concern plots laid against the Reconciliation-he, Gentle, was ready to do whatever was required in order to squeeze this information from his other before he delivered the coup de grace. There were no moral niceties here. If he had to break every bone in Sartori"s body, it would be a little hurt set beside the crimes he"d committed as Autarch, and Gentle would perform such duties gladly.

Thought of torture, and the pleasure he"d take in it, had tempted him from his meditation entirely, and he gave up on his pursuit of equilibrium. Venom swilling in his belly, he headed down the corridor, through the door, and into the tower. Though the comet was climbing towards midmorning, very little of its light gained access to the tower, but those few beams that did creep in showed him empty pa.s.sageways in all directions. He still advanced with caution; this was a maze of chambers, any one of which might conceal his enemy. Fatigue left him less light-footed than he"d have liked, but he reached the stairs that curled up towards the silo itself without his stumblings attracting any attention, and began to climb. The door at the top had been opened, he remembered, with the key of Sartori"s thumb, and he"d have to repeat the feit himself in order to enter.

That was no great challenge. They had the same thumbs, to the tiniest whorl.

As it was, he needed no feit. The door was open wide, and somebody was moving about inside. Gentle halted ten steps from the threshold and drew breath. He"d need to incapacitate his other quickly if he was to prevent retaliation: a pneuma to take off his right hand, another for his left. Breath readied, he climbed swiftly to the top of the stairs and stepped into the tower.

His enemy was standing beneath the Pivot, arms raised, reaching for the stone. He was all in shadow, but Gentle caught the motion of his head as he turned towards the door, and before the other could lower his arms in defense, Gentle had his fist to his mouth, the breath rising in his throat. As it filled his palm his enemy spoke, but the voice when it came was not his own, as he"d expected, but that of a woman. Realizing his error, he clamped his fist around the pneuma to quench it, but the power he"d unleashed wasn"t about to be cheated of its quarry. It broke from between his fingers, its force fragmented but no less eager for that. The pieces flew off around the silo, some darting up the sides of the Pivot, others entering its shadow and extinguished there. The woman cried out in alarm and retreated from her attacker, backing against the opposite wall. There the light found her perfection. It was Judith; or at least it seemed to be. He"d seen this face in Yzordderrex once already and been mistaken.

"Gentle?" she said. "Is that you?"

It sounded like her too. But then hadn"t that been his promise to Roxborough, that he"d fashion a copy indistinguishable from the original?

"It"s me," she said. "It"s Jude."

Now he began to believe it was, for there was more proof in that last syllable than sight could ever supply. n.o.body in her circle of admirers, besides Gentle, had ever called her Jude. Judy, sometimes; Juju, even; but never Jude. That was his diminution, and to his certain knowledge she"d never suffered another to use it.

He repeated it now, his hand dropping from his mouth as he spoke, and seeing the smile spread across his face she ventured back towards him, returning into the shadow of the Pivot as he came to meet her. The move saved her life, Seconds after she left the wall a slab of rock, blasted from the heights of the silo by the pneuma, fell on the spot where she"d stood. It initiated a hard, lethal rain, shards of stone falling on all sides. There was safety in the shelter of the Pivot, however, and there they met and kissed and embraced as though they"d been parted a lifetime, not weeks, which in a sense was true. The din of falling rock was muted in the shadow, though its thunder was only yards from where they stood. When she cupped his face in her hands and spoke, her whispers were quite audible; as were his.

"I"ve missed you," she said. There was a welcome warmth in her voice, after the days of anguish and accusation he"d heard. "I even dreamed about you..."

"Tell me," he murmured, his lips close to hers.

"Later, maybe," she said, kissing him again. "I"ve so much to tell you."

"Likewise," Gentle said.

"We should find ourselves somewhere safer than this," she said.

"We"re out of harm"s way here," Gentle said.

"Yes, but for how long?"

The scale of the demolition was increasing, its violence out of all proportion to the force Gentle had unleashed, as though the Pivot had taken the pneuma"s power and magnified it. Perhaps it knew-how could it not?-that the man it had been in thrall to had gone and was now about the business of shrugging off the prison Sartori had raised around it. Judging by the size of the slabs falling all around, the process would not take long. They were monumental, their impact sufficient to open cracks in the floor of the tower, the sight of which brought a cry of alarm from Jude.

"Oh, G.o.d, Quaisoir!" she said.

"What about her?"

"She"s down there!" Jude said, staring at the gaping ground. "There"s a chamber below this! She"s in it!"

"She"ll be out of there by now."

"No, she"s high on kreauchee! We have to get down there!"

She left Gentle"s side and crossed to the edge of their shelter, but before she could make a dash for the open door a new fall of rubble and dust obliterated the way ahead. It wasn"t simply blocks of the tower that were falling now, Gentle saw. There were vast shards of the Pivot itself in this hail. What was it doing? Destroying itself, or shedding skins to uncover its core? Whichever, their place in the shadow was more precarious by the second. The cracks underfoot were already a foot wide and widening, the hovering monolith above them shuddering as if it was about to give up the effort of suspension and drop. They had no choice but to brave the rockfall.

He went to join Jude, searching his wits for a means to survival and picturing Chicka Jackeen at the Erasure, his hands high to ward off the detritus dropped by the storm. Could he do the same? Not giving himself pause to doubt, he lifted his hands above his head as he"d seen the monk do, palms up, and stepped out of the Pivot"s shadow. One heavenward glance confirmed both the Pivot"s shedding and the scale of his jeopardy. Though the dust was thick, he could see that the monolith was sloughing off scales of stone, the pieces large enough to smash them both to pulp. But his defense held. The slabs shattered two or three feet above his naked head, their smithereens dropping like a fleeting vault around him. He felt the impact nevertheless, as a succession of jolts through his wrists, arms, and shoulders, and knew he lacked the strength to preserve the feit for more than a few seconds. Jude had already grasped the method in his madness, however, and stepped from the shadow to join him beneath this flimsy shield. There were perhaps ten paces between where they stood and the safety of the door.

"Guide me," he told her, unwilling to take his eyes off the rain for fear his concentration slip and the feit lose its potency.

Jude slipped her arm around his waist and navigated for them both, telling him where to step to find clear ground and warning him when the path was so heavily strewn they were obliged to stumble over stone. It was a tortuous business, and Gentle"s upturned hands were steadily beaten down until they were barely above his head, but the feit held to the door, and they slid through it together, with the Pivot and its prison throwing down such a hail of debris that neither was now visible.

Then Jude was off at speed, down the murky stairs. The walls were shaking, and laced with cracks as the demolition above took its toll below, but they negotiated both the trembling pa.s.sageway and the second flight of stairs down to the lower level unharmed. Gentle was startled at the sight and sound of Concupiscentia, who was screeching in the pa.s.sageway like a terrified ape, unwilling to go in search of her mistress, Jude had no such qualms. She"d already thrown open the door and was heading down an incline into a lamp-lit chamber beyond, calling Quaisoir"s name to stir her from her stupor. Gentle followed, but was slowed by the cacophony that greeted him, a mingling of manic whispers and the din of capitulation from above. By the time he reached the room itself, Jude had bullied her sister to her feet. There were substantial cracks in the ceiling and a constant drizzle of dust, but Quaisoir seemed indifferent to the hazard.

"I said you"d come back," she said. "Didn"t I? Didn"t I say you"d come back? Do you want to kiss me? Please kiss me, sister."

"What"s she talking about?" Gentle asked.

The sound of his voice brought a cry from the woman. She flung herself out of Jude"s arms.

"What have you done?" she yelled. "Why did you bring him him here?" here?"

"He"s come to help us," Jude replied.

Quaisoir spat in Gentle"s direction. "Leave me alone!" she screeched. "Haven"t you done enough? Now you want to take my sister from me! You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! I won"t let you! We"ll die before you touch her!" She reached for Jude, sobbing in panic. "Sister! Sister.""

"Don"t be frightened," Jude said. "He"s a friend." She looked at Gentle. "Rea.s.sure her," she begged him. "Tell her who you are, so we can get out of here."

"I"m afraid she already knows," Gentle replied.

Jude was mouthing the word what what? when Quaisoir"s panic boiled up again.

"Sartori!" she screeched, her denunciation echoing around the room. "He"s Sartori, sister! Sartori!" she screeched, her denunciation echoing around the room. "He"s Sartori, sister! Sartori!"

Gentle raised his hands in mock surrender, backing away from the woman. "I"m not going to touch you," he said. "Tell her, Jude. I don"t want to hurt her!"

But Quaisoir was in the throes of another outburst. "Stay with me, sister," she said, grabbing hold of Jude. "He can"t kill us both!"

"You can"t stay in here," Jude said.