Imajica

"It"s all that I remember."

Monday squatted down beside the stones. "I bet you"d like to love them all over again," he said.

Gentle thought about this for a little time and finally said, "No. I don"t think so. I"ve done my best work. It"s time to leave it to the younger men."

He tossed the stone he had in hand out into the middle of the teeming lake.

"Before you ask," he said. "That was Jude."

There were no diversions after that, nor any need to pursue rumors of women hither and thither. They knew where Jude and Hoi-Polloi had gone. Having left the lake, they were on the Lenten Way within a matter of hours. Unlike so much else, the Way hadn"t changed. It was as busy and as wide as ever: an arrow, driving its straight way into the hot heart of Yzordderrex.

62

In the Fifth, winter came; not suddenly, but certainly. Hallowe"en was the last time people chanced the night air without coats, hats, and gloves, and it saw the first substantial visitation of Londoners to Gamut Street-revelers who"d taken the spirit of All Hallows" Eve to heart and come to see if there was any truth in the bizarre rumors they"d heard about the neighborhood. Some retreated after a very short time, but the braver among them stayed to explore, a few lingering outside number 28, where they puzzled over the designs on the door and peered up at the carbonized tree that shaded the house from the stars.

After that evening the cold"s nip became a bite, and the bite a gnaw, until by late November the temperatures were low enough to keep even the most ardent tomcat at the fire. But the flow of visitors-in both directions-didn"t cease. Night after night ordinary citizens appeared in Gamut Street to brush shoulders with the excursionists who were corning in the opposite direction. Some of the former became such regular visitors that Clem began to recognize them and was able to watch their investigations grow less tentative as they realized that the sensations they felt were not the first signs of lunacy. There were wonders to be found here, and one by one these men and women must have discovered the source, because they invariably disappeared. Others, perhaps too afraid to venture into the pa.s.sing places alone, came with trusted friends, showing them the street as though it were a secret vice, talking in whispers, then laughing out loud when they found their loved ones could see the apparitions too.

Word was spreading. But that fact was the only pleasure those bitter days and nights provided. Though Tick Raw spent more and more time in the house and was lively company, Clem missed Gentle badly. He hadn"t been altogether surprised at his abrupt departure (he"d known, even if Gentle hadn"t, that sooner or later the Maestro would leave the Dominion), but now his truest company was the man with whom he shared his skull, and as the first anniversary of Tay"s death approached the mood of both grew steadily darker. The presence of so many living souls on the street only served to make the revenants who"d occupied it through the summer months feel further disenfranchised, and their distress was contagious. Though Tay had been happy to stay with Clem through the preparations for the Great Work, their time as angels was over, and Tay felt the same need as those ghosts who roamed outside the house: to be gone.

As December came, Clem began to wonder how many more weeks he could keep his post, when it seemed every hour the despair of the ghost in him grew. After much debate with himself he decided that Christmas would mark the last day of his service in Gamut Street. After that he"d leave number 28 to be tramped around by Tick"s excursionists and go back to the house where a year before he and Tay had celebrated the Return of the Unvanquished Sun.

Jude and Hoi-Polloi had taken their time crossing the Dominions, but with so many roads to choose between, and so many incidental joys along the way, going quickly seemed almost criminal. They had no reason to hurry. There was nothing behind them to drive them on, and nothing in front summoning them. At least, so Jude pretended. Time and time again, when the issue of their ultimate destination cropped up in conversation, she avoided talking about the place she knew in her heart of hearts they would eventually reach. But if the name of that city wasn"t on her her lips, it was on the lips of almost every other woman they met, and when Hoi-Polloi mentioned that it was her birthplace questions from fellow travelers would invariably flow thick and fast. Was it true that the harbor was now filled at every tide with fish that had swum up from the depths of the ocean, ancient creatures that knew the secret of the origins of women and swam up the rivered streets at night to worship the G.o.ddesses on the hill? Was it true that the women there could have children without any need of men whatsoever, and that some could even lips, it was on the lips of almost every other woman they met, and when Hoi-Polloi mentioned that it was her birthplace questions from fellow travelers would invariably flow thick and fast. Was it true that the harbor was now filled at every tide with fish that had swum up from the depths of the ocean, ancient creatures that knew the secret of the origins of women and swam up the rivered streets at night to worship the G.o.ddesses on the hill? Was it true that the women there could have children without any need of men whatsoever, and that some could even dream dream babies into being? And were there fountains in that city that made the old young, and trees on which every fruit was new to the world? And so on, and so forth. babies into being? And were there fountains in that city that made the old young, and trees on which every fruit was new to the world? And so on, and so forth.

Though Jude was willing, if pressed, to supply descriptions of what she"d seen in Yzordderrex, her accounts of how the palace had been re-fashioned by water, and of streams that defied gravity, were not particularly remarkable in the face of what rumor was claiming about Yzordderrex. After a few conversations in which she was urged to describe marvels she had no knowledge of-as though the questioners were willing her to invent prodigies rather than disappoint them-she told Hoi-Polloi she"d not be drawn into any further debates on the subject. But her imagination refused to ignore the tales it heard, however preposterous, and with every mile they traveled along the Lenten Way, the idea idea of the city awaiting them at the end of their journey grew more intimidating. She fretted that perhaps the blessings bestowed on her there would be valueless after all the time she"d spent away from the place. Or that the G.o.ddesses knew that she"d told Sartori-in all truth-that she loved him, and that Jokalaylau"s condemnation of her would carry the day if she ever went back into their temple. of the city awaiting them at the end of their journey grew more intimidating. She fretted that perhaps the blessings bestowed on her there would be valueless after all the time she"d spent away from the place. Or that the G.o.ddesses knew that she"d told Sartori-in all truth-that she loved him, and that Jokalaylau"s condemnation of her would carry the day if she ever went back into their temple.

Once they were on the Lenten Way, however, such fears became academic. They were not going to turn back now, especially as both of them were becoming steadily more exhausted. The city called them out of the fogs that lay between Dominions, and they would go into it together and face whatever judgments, prodigies, and deep-sea fish were waiting there.

Oh, but it was changed. A warmer season was on the Second than when Jude had last been here, and with so much water running in the streets the air was tropical. But more breathtaking than the humidity was the growth it had engendered. Seeds and spores had been carried up from the seams and caverns beneath the city in vast numbers, and under the influence of the G.o.ddesses feits had matured with preternatural speed. Ancient forms of vegetation, most long believed extinct, had greened the rubble, turning the Kesparates into luxuriant jungle. In the s.p.a.ce of half a year Yzordderrex had come to resemble a lost city, sacred to women and children, its desolation salved by flora. The smell of ripeness was everywhere, its source the fruits that glistened on vine and bough and bush, the abundance of which had in turn attracted animals that would never have dared Yzordderrex under its previous regime. And running through this cornucopia, feeding the seeds it had raised from the underworld, the eternal waters, still flowing up the hillsides in their riotous way but no longer carrying their fleets of prayers. Either the requests of those who lived here had been answered, or else their baptisms had made them their own healers and restorers.

Jude and Hoi-Polloi didn"t go up to the palace the day they arrived. Nor the day after, nor the day after that. Instead, they searched for the Peccable house and there made themselves comfortable, though the tulips on the dining room table had been replaced by a throng of blossoms that had erupted through the floor, and the roof had become an aviary. After so long a journey, in which they"d not known from night to night where they were going to lay their heads, these were minor inconveniences, and they were grateful to be at rest, lulled to sleep by cooings and chatterings in beds that were more like bowers. When they woke, there was plenty to eat: fruit that could be picked off the trees, water that ran clear and cold in the street outside, and, in some of the larger streams, fish, which formed the staple diet of the clans that lived in the vicinity.

There were men as well as women among these extended families, some of whom must have been members of the mobs and armies that had run so brutally riot on the night the Autarch fell. But either grat.i.tude at having survived the revolution or the calming influence of the growth and plenitude around them had persuaded them to better purpose. Hands that had maimed and murdered were now employed re-building a few of the houses, raising their walls not in defiance of the jungle, or the waters that fed it, but in league with both. This time, the architects were women, who"d come down from their baptisms inspired to use the wreckage of the old city to create a new one, and everywhere Jude saw echoes of the serene and elegant aesthetic that marked the G.o.ddesses" handiwork.

There was no great sense of urgency attending these constructions, nor, she thought, any sign of a grand design being adhered to. The age of empire was over, and all dogmas, edicts, and conformities had gone with it. People solved the problems of putting a roof over their heads in their own way, knowing that the trees were both shady and bountiful in the meantime; the houses that resulted were as different as the faces of the women who supervised their construction. The Sartori she"d met in Gamut Street would have approved, Jude thought. Hadn"t he touched her cheek during their penultimate encounter and told her he"d dreamed of a city built in her image? If that image was woman woman then here was that city, rising from the ruins. then here was that city, rising from the ruins.

So by day they had the murmuring canopy, the bubbling rivers, the heat, the laughter. And by night, slumbers beneath a feathered roof and dreams that were kind and uninterrupted. Such was the case, at least, for a week. But on the eighth night, Jude was woken by Hoi-Polloi, who called her to the window.

"Look."

She looked. The stars were bright above the city and ran silver in the river below. But there were other forms in the water, she realized: more solid but no less silver. The talk they"d heard on the road was true. Climbing the river were creatures that no fishing boat, however deep it trawled, would ever have found in its nets. Some had a trace of dolphin in them, or squid, or manta-ray, but their common trait was a hint of humanity, buried as deep in their past (or future) as their homes were in ocean. There were limbs on some of them, and these few seemed to leap the slope rather than swim it. Others were as sinuous as eels but had heads that carried a mammalian cast, their eyes luminous, their mouths fine enough to make words.

The sight of their ascent was exhilarating, and Jude stayed at the window until the entire shoal had disappeared up the street. She had no doubt of their destination, nor indeed of her own, after this.

"We"re as rested as we"re ever going to be," she said to Hoi-Polloi.

"So it"s time to go up the hill?"

"Yes. I think it is."

They left the Peccable house at dawn in order to make much of the ascent before the comet climbed too high and the humidity sapped their strength. It had never been an easy journey, but even in the cool early morning it became a backbreaking trudge, especially for Jude, who felt as though she were carrying a lead weight in her womb rather than a living soul. She had to call a halt to the climb several times and sit in the shade to catch her breath, but on the fourth such occasion she rose to find her gasps becoming steadily shallower and a pain in her belly so acute she could barely hold on to consciousness. Her agitation-and Hoi-Polloi"s yelps-drew helping hands, and she was being lowered onto a knoll of flowering gra.s.ses when her waters broke.

A little less than an hour later, not more than half a mile from where the gate of the twin saints Creaze and Evendown had stood, in a grove busy with tiny turquoise birds, she gave birth to the Autarch Sartori"s first and only child.

Though Jude and Hoi-Polloi"s pursuers had left the lake maker in the Kwem with clear directions, they still reached Yzordderrex six weeks later than the women. This was in part because Monday"s s.e.xual appet.i.te was significantly depleted after his liaison in the Kwem Palace, and he set a far less hectic pace than he had hitherto, but more particularly because Gentle"s enthusiasm for cartography grew by leaps and bounds. Barely an hour would go by without his remembering some province he"d pa.s.sed through, or some signpost he"d seen, and whenever he did so the journey was interrupted while he brought out his handmade alb.u.m of charts and religiously set down the details, rattling off the names of uplands, lowlands, forests, plains, highways, and cities like a litany while he worked. He wouldn"t be hurried, even if the chance of a ride was missed, or a good drenching gained in the process. This was, he told Monday, the true great work of his life, and he only regretted that he"d come to it so late.

These interruptions notwithstanding, the city got closer day by day, mile by mile, until one morning, when they raised their heads from their pillows beneath a hawthorn bush, the mists cleared to show them a vast green mountain in the distance.

"What is that place?" Monday wondered.

Astonished, Gentle said, "Yzordderrex."

"Where"s the palace? Where"s the streets? All I can see is trees and rainbows."

Gentle was as confounded as the boy. "It used to be gray and black and b.l.o.o.d.y," he said.

"Well, it"s f.u.c.king green now."

It got greener the closer they came, the scent of its vegetation so sweetening the air that Monday soon lost his scowl of disappointment and remarked that perhaps this wouldn"t be so bad after all. If Yzordderrex had turned into a wild wood, then maybe all the women had become savages, dressed in berry juice and smiles. He could suffer that awhile.

What they found on the lower slopes, of course, were scenes more extraordinary than Monday"s most heated imaginings. So much of what the inhabitants of the New Yzordderrex took for granted-the anarchic waters, the primeval trees-left both man and boy agog. They gave up voicing their awe after a time and simply climbed through the lavish thicket, steadily sloughing off the weight of baggage they"d accrued on their journey and leaving it scattered in the gra.s.s.

Gentle had intended to go to the Eurhetemec Kesparate in the hope of locating Athanasius, but with the city so transformed it was a slow and difficult trek, so it was more luck than wit that brought them, after an hour or more, to the gate. The streets beyond it were as overgrown as those they"d come through, the terraces resembling some orchard that had been left to riot, its fallen fruit the rubble that lay between the trees.

At Monday"s suggestion, they split up to search for the Maestro, Gentle telling the boy that if he saw Jesus somewhere in the trees then he"d discovered Athanasius. But they both came back to the gate having failed to find him, obliging Gentle to ask some children who"d come to play swinging games on the gate if any of them had seen the man who"d lived here. One of the number, a girl of six or so with her hair so plaited with vines she looked as though she was sprouting them, had an answer.

"He went away," she said.

"Do you know where?"

"Nope," she said again, speaking on behalf of her little tribe.

"Does anybody know?"

"Nope."

Which exchange brought the subject of Athanasius to a swift halt.

"Where now?" Monday asked, as the children returned to their games.

"We follow the water," Gentle replied.

They began to ascend again, while the comet, which had long since pa.s.sed its zenith, made the contrary motion. They were both weary now, and the temptation to lie down in some tranquil spot grew with every stride they took. But Gentle insisted they go on, reminding Monday that Hoi-Polloi"s bosom would be a far more comfortable place to lay his head than any hummock, and her kisses more invigorating than a dip in any pool. His talk was persuasive, and the boy found an energy Gentle envied, bounding on to clear the way for the Maestro, until they reached the mounds of dark rubble that marked the walls of the palace. Rising from them, the columns from which had once hung an enormous pair of gates were turned to playthings by the waters, which climbed the right pillar in rivulets and threw themselves across the gap in a drizzling arch that squarely struck the top of the left. It was a most beguiling spectacle, and one that claimed Gentle"s attention completely, leaving Monday to head between the columns alone.

After a short time his shout came back to fetch Gentle, and it was blissful.

"Boss? Boss! Come here!"

Gentle followed where Monday"s cries led, through the warm rain beneath the arch and into the palace itself. He found Monday wading across a courtyard, fragrant with the lilies that trembled on its flood, towards a figure standing beneath the colonnade on the other side. It was Hoi-Polloi. Her hair was plastered to her scalp, as though she"d just swum the pool, and the bosom upon which Monday was so eager to lay his head was bare.

"So you"re here at last," she said, looking past Monday towards Gentle.

Her eager beau lost his footing halfway across, and lilies flew as he hauled himself to his feet.

"You knew we were coming?" he said to the girl.

"Of course," she replied. "Not you. But the Maestro. We knew the Maestro was coming."

"But it"s me me you"re glad to see, right?" Monday spluttered. "I mean, you you"re glad to see, right?" Monday spluttered. "I mean, you are are glad?" glad?"

She opened her arms to him, "What do you think?" she said.

He whooped his whoop and splashed on towards her, peeling off his soaked shirt as he went. Gentle followed in his wake. By the time he reached the other side Monday was stripped down to his underwear.

"How did you know we were coming here?" Gentle asked the girl.

"There are prophetics everywhere," she said. "Come on. I"ll take you up."

"Can"t he go on his own?" Monday protested.

"We"ll have plenty of time later," Hoi-Polloi said, taking his hand. "But first I have to take him up to the chambers."

The trees within the ring of the demolished walls dwarfed those outside, inspired to unprecedented growth by the almost palpable sanct.i.ty of this place. There were women and children in their branches and among their gargantuan roots, but Gentle saw no men here and supposed that if Hoi-Polloi hadn"t been escorting them they"d have been asked to leave. How such a request would have been enforced he could only guess, but he didn"t doubt that the presences which charged the air and earth here had their ways. He knew what those presences were: the promised G.o.ddesses, whose existence he"d first heard mooted in Beatrix, while sitting in Mother Splendid"s kitchen.

The journey was circuitous. There were several places where the rivers ran too hard and deep to be forded, and Hoi-Polloi had to lead them to bridges or stepping stones, then double back along the opposite bank to pick up the track again. But the farther they went, the more sentient the air became, and though Gentle had countless questions to ask he kept them to himself rather than display his navete.

There were tidbits from Hoi-Polloi once in a while, so casually dropped they were enigmas in themselves. "... the fires are so comical..." she said at one point, as they pa.s.sed a pile of twisted metalwork that had been one of the Autarch"s war machines. And at another place, where a deep blue pool housed fish the size of men, said: "... apparently they have their own city... but it"s so deep in the ocean I don"t suppose I"ll ever see it. The children will, though. That"s what"s wonderful..."

Finally, she brought them to a door that was curtained with running water and, turning to Gentle, said, "They"re waiting for you."

Monday went to step through the curtain at Gentle"s side, but Hoi-Polloi restrained him with a kiss on his neck.

"This is just for the Maestro," she said. "Come along. We"ll go swimming."

"Boss?"

"Go ahead," Gentle told him. "No harm"s going to come to me here."

"I"ll see you later then," Monday said, content to have Hoi-Polloi tug him away.

Before they"d disappeared into the thicket, Gentle turned to the door, dividing the cool curtain with his fingers and stepping into the chamber beyond. After the riot of life outside, both its scale and its austerity came as a shock. It was the first structure he"d seen in the city that preserved something of his brother"s lunatic ambition. Its vastness was uninvaded by all but a few shoots and tendrils, and the only waters that ran here were at the door behind him and those falling from an arch at the other end. The G.o.ddesses had not left the chamber entirely unmarked, however. The walls of what had been built as a windowless hall were now pierced on all sides, so that for all its immensity the place was a honeycomb, penetrated by the soft light of evening. There was only one item of furniture: a chair, close to the distant arch, and seated upon it, with a baby on her lap, was Judith.

As Gentle entered, she looked up from the child"s face and smiled at him. "I was beginning to think you"d lost your way," she said.

Her voice was light: almost literally, he thought. When she spoke, the beams that came through the walls flickered.

"I didn"t know you were waiting," he said.

"It"s been no great hardship," she said. "Won"t you come closer?" As he crossed the chamber towards her, she said, "I didn"t expect you to follow us at first, but then I thought, He will, he will, because he"ll want to see the child."

"To be honest... I didn"t think about the child."

"Well, she thought about you," Jude said, without rebuke.

The baby in her lap could not be more than a few weeks old but, like the trees and flowers here, was burgeoning. She sat on Jude"s lap rather than lay, one small strong hand clutching her mother"s long hair. Though Jude"s b.r.e.a.s.t.s were bare and comfortable, the child had no interest in nourishment or sleep. Her gray eyes were fixed on Gentle, studying him with an intense and quizzical stare.

"How"s Clem?" Jude asked when Gentle stood before her.

"He was fine when I last saw him. But I left rather suddenly, as you know. I feel rather guilty about that. But once I"d started..."

"I know. There was no turning back. It was the same for me."

Gentle went down on his haunches in front of Jude and offered his hand, palm up, to the child. She grasped it instantly.

"What"s her name?" he said.

"I hope you won"t mind..."

"What?"

"I called her Huzzah."

Gentle smiled up at Jude. "You did?" Then back to the baby, called by her scrutiny: "Huzzah?" he said, leaning his face towards hers. "Huzzah. I"m Gentle."

"She knows who you are," Jude said, without a trace of doubt. "She knew about this room before it even existed. And she knew you"d come here, sooner or later."

Gentle didn"t inquire as to how the child had shared her knowledge. It was just one more mystery to add to the catalogue in this extraordinary place.

"And the G.o.ddesses?" he said.

"What about them?"

"They don"t mind that she"s Sartori"s child?"

"Not at all," Jude said, her voice daintier at the mention of Sartori. "The whole city... the whole city"s here to prove how good can come from bad."

"She"s better than good, Jude," Gentle said.

She smiled, and so did the child. "Yes, she is."

Huzzah was reaching for Gentle"s face, ready to topple from Jude"s lap in pursuit of her object.