Juxtaposition

"It would be reduced to about half its present potency. The Oracle has calculated this carefully. The power of the Adepts, who are the main users, would diminish accordingly. They would not be able to dominate Phaze as they do now."

"That might not be a bad thing," Stile said. "And the Proton Citizens-"

"Their mining would have to be severely curtailed, per haps cease entirely. They would have no renewal of their present resources. The galaxy would have to discover new sources of energy."

"But the galaxy depends on Protonite! Nothing matches it! There would be phenomenal repercussions!"

"Yes, that is why taking action is difficult. Civilization as we know it will have to change, and that will not occur easily. Yet the alternative, the Oracle says, may be the complete destruction of this planet-which would also cut off the galaxy"s supply of Protonite."

"I begin to comprehend the forces operating," Stile said. The end of Phaze and Proton is approaching, and we have to do something. But both Citizens and Adepts would oppose the cutoff of Protonite mining and the transfer of Phazite, because without free use of this mineral their status suffers greatly. That"s why the Adepts are after me now, and think that my elimination will alleviate their problem; they fear I can do something that will deplete them all-"

"You can."

"And that"s why the self-willed machines knew I would have to become the wealthiest of Citizens. Wealth is power in Proton, and I need to be able to withstand the formidable opposition of the Citizens when this thing breaks."

"Exactly. You need enough of a voting bloc to tip the balance in your favor."

So many things were falling into place! "But why, then, did the computer try to destroy me? I don"t want to see either Proton or Phaze come to harm and I should certainly work to achieve the best compromise. Why did the Oracle sic the Red Adept on me?"

"Because only you-and I-can do the job that must be done. A .man who can cross the curtain freely, who is powerful in each frame, and who has the ability and conscience to carry through. A man who is essentially incorruptible without being stupid. The Blue Adept, your other self, was too limited; he could not cross the curtain, so he had no base in Proton, no experience with that society. He had lived all his life with magic; he depended on it. He would have been largely helpless in Proton during the crisis."

"So the Orade killed him?" Stile demanded incredulously. "Just because he wasn"t perfect? Why didn"t the Oracle select someone else for the job?"

"The Oracle selected you. Stile. You had his excellent qualities, and you had lived a more challenging life; you were better equipped. But you could not enter Phaze. So the Blue Adept had to be eliminated-I do not speak of this with approval-in order to free you to cross the curtain. Had the decision gone the other way, you would have been the one killed, to free him to cross into Proton."

"But the attempt was made on me tool" Stile protested, shaken by this cold calculation.

"It was blocked in Proton," Clef said. "I knew nothing of this when I encountered you in the Tourney; believe me, I was appalled. But you were protected. The Oracle sent a second message-"

"The message!" Stile exclaimed. "I was trying to trace it! The Oracle-" But this, too, was coming clear now. One message to start the murder process, the other to intercept and nullify part of it. Diabolically efficient!

"Now you have been prepared," Clef continued. "The computer expects you to organize the juxtaposition and transfer."

"I"m not at all sure I want to cooperate with this emotionless machine. It has entirely disrupted my life, not stopping even at murder. What it put the Lady Blue through, and my friend Hulk-" Stile shook his head. "This is not the sort of thing I care to tolerate."

"I agree. But it seems the alternative is to let both frames crash."

"Or so the cynical Oracle says," Stile said. "That machine has shown itself to be completely unscrupulous in the manipulation of people and events. Why should I believe it now?"

"The Little Folk believe it," Clef said. "They despise it and want to be rid of it, but they believe it. It is a machine, programmed for truth, not for conscience. So its methods are ruthless, but never has it lied. Its sole purpose is to negotiate the crisis with minimum havoc, and it seems that the grief inflicted on you was merely part of the most rational strategy. It has no human will to power and, once it returns to Proton, it will serve its master absolutely."

"And who will its master be?"

"You, I think. I am called the Foreordained, but I believe the term is most applicable to you. Perhaps it was applied to me as a decoy, to prevent your premature destruction." He smiled, appreciating the irony. "The Oracle prophesies that Blue will govern Proton in the difficult period following separation of the frames. As you may have gathered, there is no limit on information when it deals with me. The computer will help you govern Proton, and the book of magic will a.s.sist the one who takes power from the Adepts in Phaze."

"And who is that?"

"I can"t get a clear answer there. It seems to be you-but of course you can"t be in both frames after they separate. I suspect the computer suffered a prophetic short circuit here. I can only conjecture that whichever frame you choose to remain in will be yours to govern."

"I want only to remain in Phaze with the Lady Blue and Neysa and Kurrelgyre and my other friends. Yet I have already been treated to the prophecy that Phaze will not be safe until Blue departs it."

Clef shook his head. "I wish I could give you a dear answer on this. Stile, but I can not. Your future is indistinct, perhaps undecided. It may be because you are the key figure, the one who will decide it. The uncertainty principle-" He shrugged.

Unwillingly, Stile had to concede the probable truth of this complex of difficult notions. Machines acted the way they were designed and programmed to act-and why would the experts of three hundred years ago have de signed a machine to lie during a crisis? Surely they would not have. The very ruthlessness that Stile hated was an argument in favor of the Oracle"s legitimacy. "Where is this book of magic?" Stile asked at last. It was his grudging, oblique concession that he would have to go along with the Oracle and perform his part in this adjustment of frames.

"In Proton, under the control of the Game Computer."

"What"s it doing in Proton? No one can use it there."

"That is why it is in Proton. To protect the two tools of power from premature exploitation and dissipation, the powers-that-were placed them in the wrong frames. The book of magic is impotent in the science frame, and the computer is greatly reduced in power in the fantasy frame. In order to resolve the crisis, both must be restored to their proper frames."

"So my job is to fetch the book and pa.s.s the computer back through?"

"These tasks are not simple ones," Clef cautioned him. Stile, of course, had already gathered that. "The book should be no problem in the acquisition, for the Game Computer will turn it over to anyone possessing the code request. But the Citizens will do their utmost to stop it from being transported across the curtain. The computer -that relates to my job. It will cross only as the moving curtain intersects this location."

"Your job? Exactly what will you do as the Fore ordained?"

"I will juxtapose the frames. That is the precondition for re-establishing parallelism."

Stile shook his head. "Just when I thought I had it straight, I am confused again. It is my limited present understanding that the frames are about to separate, but can"t because of the imbalance of Protonite. I suppose their separation would tear that a.s.sociated Phazite free and rupture our whole reality, like a knot pulled through a needlehole. But we have only to form a ball of Phazite and roll it across the curtain, where it will become the necessary Protonite. What"s this business about juxtaposition?"

"Nice notion, that ball. But you don"t just roll Phazite across the curtain. Phazite is magic; the curtain is really an effect of that magic, like a magnetic field a.s.sociated with electric current or the splay of colors made by a prism in sunlight. Such a ball might rend the curtain, causing explosive mergence of the frames-"

"Ah. The dam bursting again."

"Precisely. But you could roll it into the region of juxtaposition, and then on into the other frame. Two steps, letting one aspect of the curtain recover before straining the other. Like an air lock, perhaps." He smiled. "What a fortune a mult.i.ton ball of Protonite would be worth!"

"So you juxtapose the frames. You are foreordained to perform this task so that I can perform mine. How do you do this?"

"I play the Flute."

"Music does it?" Stile asked skeptically.

"The Platinum Flute is more than a musical instrument, as you know. It produces fundamental harmonics that affect the impingement of the frames. Properly played, it causes the frames to overlap. The Little Folk have been teaching me to play the ultimate music, which ranges within a single note on the audible level, and across the universe on a level we can not perceive. I have had to learn more about music than I learned in all my prior life, for this single performance. Now I have mastered the note. The effect will be small at first. Toward the culmination it will become dramatic. There will be perhaps two hours of full juxtaposition in the central zone, during which period the exchange of power-earth must be effected. If it is not-"

"Probably disaster," Stile finished. "Yet if that is the case, why should the Citizens and Adepts oppose it? Of course they will lose power, but when the alternative is to lose the entire planet-"

"They choose to believe that the threat is exaggerated. To return to the dam a.n.a.logy: some, when the dam is about to burst, will dislike the inconvenience of lowering the water level, so will claim there is no danger; perhaps the sluices will pa.s.s water across their properties, damaging them only slightly as the level is lowered. So they indulge in denial, refusing to perceive the larger threat, and oppose corrective action with all their power. To us this may seem short-sighted, but few people view with equanimity the prospect of imposed sacrifice."

"And there is the chance the Oracle is wrong," Stile said. "Or am I also indulging in foolish denial?"

"Wrong perhaps in timing; not in essence. No one can predict the moment the dam will burst, but the end is inevitable."

"You do make a convincing case," Stile said ruefully. "When will you begin playing to juxtapose the frames?"

"As soon as I return to Phaze, after garnering your agreement to manage the transfer of computer, book of magic, and Phazite."

"d.a.m.n it, this computer murdered my other self and caused untold mischief in the personal lives of people involved with me. Why should I cooperate with it now, or believe anything it says?"

Clef shrugged. "You are a realist. You are ready to undertake personal sacrifice for the greater good, as was your alternate self, the Blue Adept."

"He knew this?" Stile demanded, remembering how the man had apparently acquiesced to his own murder.

"Yes. He was too powerful and clever to be killed with out his consent. He gave up everything to make it possible for you to save the frames."

Stile hated the notion, yet he had to believe. And if the Blue Adept, with everything to live for, had made his sacrifice-how could Stile, who was the same person, do less? He would only be destroying what his other self had died to save.

"It seems I must do it," Stile said, dismayed. "I do not feel like any hero, though. How long before juxtaposition is actually achieved?"

"Allowing time for me to return to Phaze-perhaps twenty-four hours."

Time was getting short! "How much Phazite, precisely?"

"The Little Folk will have that information. In fact, they will have the Phazite ready for you. But the enemy forces will do all in their power to prevent you from moving it."

"So I"ll need to transfer the book of magic and the computer first," Stile decided. "Then I can use them to facilitate the mineral transfer. Since the computer will cross when the curtain pa.s.ses its location, I need only to guard it and establish a line to it. Which leaves the book-which I"d better pick up before juxtaposition so I have time to a.s.similate it. Maybe I can arrange to have some one else pick it up for me, since I will no doubt be watched."

"I believe so."

"Is there convenient and private transport from here to a dome?"

"Share mine. I am going to the curtain. From Phaze, you may travel freely."

"If the Adepts don"t catch me."

"It will help, I must admit, if you can distract their attention from me again. With the Flute I can protect myself, but I would prefer to be un.o.bserved."

"I suppose so. Somehow I had pictured you as a new super-Adept, able to crumble mountains and guide the dead to Heaven."

"I have only the powers of the Platinum Flute you brought me. I am myself no more than a fine musician. I suspect that any other musician of my caliber could have served this office of the Foreordained. I just happened to be the nearest available. After this is over, I hope to return to my profession in my home frame, profiting from the experience garnered here. The Mound Folk of the Platinum Demesnes are generously allowing me to keep the Flute. I was, like you, drafted for this duty; I am not temperamentally suited to the exercise of such power. I am not an Adept."

Stile found that obscurely rea.s.suring. Clef believed that this would come out all right. "Very well. Well step across the curtain, and I"ll spell you directly to the Oracle, where they can"t get at you, then spell myself elsewhere in a hurry." Stile paused, thinking of a minor aspect. "How did you get by the goblins who guard the computer?"

"One note of the Flute paralyzes them," Clef said, relaxing. "You summon your power through music; you should understand."

"I do." Stile hated to leave this comfortable chair, but felt he should get moving. "I suppose we"ve dawdled enough. Great events await us with gaping jaws."

"I believe we can afford to wait the night," Clef said. "There is a tube shuttle, renovated for transport to the curtain; it will whisk us there in the morning. Since no one knows you"re here, you can relax. That will give the Adepts time to gather confidence that you are dead, put ting them off guard."

The notion appealed tremendously. Stile had worn him self out by his trek through the caves and tunnels; he desperately needed time to recuperate. He trusted Clef. "Then give me a piece of floor to lie on, and I"ll pa.s.s out."

"Allow me to delay you slightly longer, since we may not meet again," Clef said. "We played a duet together, once. It was one of the high points of my life. Here there is no magic, so the instruments can safely be used." Stile liked this notion even better than sleep. It seemed to him that music was more restorative than rest. He brought out his treasured harmonica. Clef produced the Platinum Flute. He looked at it a moment, almost sadly. "Serrilryan," he murmured. "The wereb.i.t.c.h. With this I piped her soul to Heaven, and for that I am grateful. I knew her only briefly, but in that time I had no better friend in Phaze."

"This is the way it is with me and Neysa the unicorn," Stile agreed. "Animals are special in Phaze."

"Extremely special." Clef put the instrument to his mouth, and from it came the loveliest note Stile could imagine.

Stile played the harmonica, making an impromptu harmony. He knew himself to be a fine player, especially with this instrument inherited from his other self-but Clef was the finest player, with the finest instrument ever made. The extemporaneous melody they formed was absolutely beautiful. Stile felt his fatigue ameliorating and his spirit strengthening. He knew of many types of gratification, such as of hunger, s.e.x, and acclaim, but this was surely the finest of them all-the sheer joy of music. They played for some time, both men transported by the rapture of the form. Stile doubted he would ever experience a higher pleasure than this and he knew Clef felt the same. Flute and harmonica might seem like an odd combination, but here it was perfection.

Then something strange occurred. Stile began to see the music. Not in the form of written notes, but as a force, a wash of awareness encompa.s.sing their immediate environment. It was the shape or essence of a spirit, a soul. Somehow this vibrant, joyous thing was familiar.

Stile glanced at Clef without interrupting his playing. The flutist had seen it too; he nodded marginally. Then Clef"s playing changed in nature, and Stile realized that this was the music that moved souls to their resting places. Somehow the magic of the Flute was acting in this frame, moving the spirit in the room.

Whose was it? Not the wereb.i.t.c.h"s. It hovered in place, becoming more perceptible. Then the music changed again, and the spirit disappeared.

Clef abruptly stopped playing, so Stile had to stop too.

"Did you recognize it?" the man asked, awed.

"No," Stile said. "It seemed familiar, but I never saw such a phenomenon in Proton."

"It was you. Stile. Your soul came out. When I realized that, I stopped. I don"t want to pipe you to Heaven yet."

"Not minel" Stile protested. "My soul was never more with me."

Clef frowned. "I beg to differ. The Little Folk have instructed me somewhat in this, as it is an important property of the Flute. There are certain keys to the recognition of souls that the music relates to. The more I attuned to you, the clearer that ghost became. It was you."

Stile shook his head. "It had to have been my double, not me."

There was a brief silence.

"You had a double," Clef said. "Your alternate self, who died to free you."

"The Blue Adept," Stile agreed, awed at the dawning notion.

"Who piped him to Heaven?"

"No one. He was murdered alone. All that remains of him is-this harmonica."

"The Flute evokes souls. But only free souls, which have not yet found their way to their destinations. Could your alternate"s soul-?"

"Be in this instrument?" Stile finished. "You know, he may have found a way to stay around, not dying completely. This harmonica came to me fortuitously. Is it possible-?"

"That he chose to occupy the instrument when he made room for you in Phaze?" Clef continued. Stile contemplated the harmonica. "Why? Why avoid Heaven and be trapped in a harmonica?"

Clef shrugged. "The music that issues from it is lovely. Is it better than your norm?"

"Yes. I play this better than other instruments, though I did not play this type until I got this one."

"Perhaps, then, your other self is helping you."

Again Stile considered. "To make sure his sacrifice is not wasted. Subtly guiding me. He conjured his own soul into his harmonica. Surely a feat of magic no lesser person could achieve. He has been with me all along." Stile sighed, half in amazement. "Now I must fulfill the destiny he could not. He is watching me."

"He must have been a worthy man."

"He must have been," Stile agreed. "The Lady Blue said he had not lived up to his potential. Now it seems there was more to him than she knew."

They let the matter drop. There was really not much else to say about it. Clef showed Stile to a cot, and he lay down and slept, rea.s.sured, literally, in spirit. In the morning, refreshed, they took the private shuttle east to the curtain. This was not in the region Stile had crossed it before, in the chasm. The curtain meandered all over the planet, as he and the Lady Blue had verified on their horrendous honeymoon. This was where it traveled almost due north-south, pa.s.sing a few miles east of the palace of the Oracle; Stile and the Lady had ridden rapidly north along this stretch on their way to their rendezvous with the snow-demons. That had been the key word "flame" in his poem. Now the key word was "civil"-for he was about to launch a civil war, as Adept fought unicorn and Citizen fought serf. Still to come were the key words "flute" and "earth." He could readily see how the first related, but the last remained obscure. "Those key terms!" Stile exclaimed. "I was given a dozen words to fashion into a poem in the finals of the Tourney. Where did those words originate?"