The Unreasoning Mask
Page 32
"Maija Nuoli, whatever happens, may you have your own light."
"Well spoken," Shiyai said in his mother's voice. "But you should not die as you have lived, always suspicious. However, that does not matter now. As a parting gift, you will be allowed to see what happens to the three women."
"What do you mean?"
"That you need not fear that something bad will happen to them because they are in our house. Now, Ramstan. You have turned down the glyfa's last offer. It is probably a waste of time to ask you if you will change your mind about coming with us. Despite what we told your crew, we do have room for one more. You can join us now if you wish. It is not good to live alone, and it is worse to die alone."
"I thought so."
The glyfa said, "We are in the house, Ramstan. Wait for five minutes."
Shiyai said, "See. Hear."
The images before him were pale and wavering and so transparent he could see through the people and monsters to the objects in the bridge. The Vwoordha were in a room he had not seen before, a round room with a round pool in its center, and they were in the liquid up to their waists. They were holding hands. By them, helping to form a circle, were Toyce, Nuoli, and Davis. All three looked scared. Nuoli held the glyfa to her chest. By her side was the great salmonlike creature, its head against her left leg. On the fish's other side, one hand on the top of the fish, the other touching the shimmering thing, was "the laugher who hops." The shimmering thing, "the cold-blood who drinks hot blood," was touching Wopolsa.
"We've formed a circle, and I am going to put into my mouth the first of the sigils," Shiyai said. "I will do that as soon as I can determine whether or not you have destroyed the heart of the bolg.
"Wopolsa has been calculating the probabilities of destruction of the bolg. She's done more than that. She sees . . . a little beyond what Grrindah and I can see. Anyway, she says that you have a 75 percent chance of success. Those are good odds, Ramstan.
"Also, we three will die some day. Rather, Grrindah and I will. Wopolsa will die, too, though not as we do. She will go . . . somewhere else. In the meantime, we three will be teaching these three as much as they can learn. And, some day, they will become the Vwoordha. If they wish to, of course. I think that they will.
"So, good-bye, Ramstan. We won't be seeing you again, but we may see your like."
Ramstan laughed, and he said, "Are you even now thinking of the time when you may need another like me?"
"There may be other bolgs."
He looked at the flashing figures on a screen.
The five minutes had passed while he was looking into the house of the Vwoordha, though he would have sworn that he had done so for no more than thirty seconds.
He opened his mouth. The code word that would tell al-Buraq to launch the missiles and shoot the lasers hung glowing in his mind, glowing as brightly as the numbers that told the time on the screen.
Why had he chosen his mother's name, Kadijah, as the code word?
No more questions.
He shouted.
Philip Jose Farmer, the three-time Hugo award winning author of the
best-selling Riverworld series, has long been considered one of the
few real masters of science fiction. All the skills and the soaring
imagination which have won Farmer millions of dedicated fans are abundant
in this highly charged, far-future, space adventure story.
The Unreasoning Mask is the story of Ramstan, captain of al-Buraq,
a rare model starship. It is capable of alaraf drive: instantaneous
travel between two points of space. Three of these special ships were
built to explore and make contact with the many sentient races inhabiting
the universe. Suddenly, one of the ships mysteriously disappears. And
then it is discovered that an unidentifiable "creature" is marauding
through the universe, totally annihilating intelligent life on planet
after planet. Ramstan, a thoughtful and moral man, becomes a fascinated
yet reluctant pawn in the hands of the strange forces which arise to
fight the deadly destroyer. Ultimately, he is the one man who, in a
fearful race against time, can stop the destruction. But what price must
he pay for becoming the savior of intelligent-kind? The Unreasoning
Mask is Farmer at his best -- fast-paced, complex, slightly mystical,
high-action adventure.
"Farmer at his most intriguing . . . The Unreasoning Mask is a
metaphysical space opera on the grandest scale."
-- David Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels
"His imagination is certainly of the first rate . . . his velocity is
breathtaking."
-- Time Magazine
PHILIP JOSE FARMER, a science fiction author for thirty years, is
considered one of the most daring, innovative and far-thinking writers in
the genre. He reached his deserved level of success with the Riverworld
series. Mr. Farmer and his wife live in Peoria, Illinois.
Cover design by Plainclothes Ltd.
Cover type design by Gene Mydlowski
THE OVERLOOK PRESS
Woodstock & New York
ISBN-13: 978-1-58567-715-3
ISBN-10: 1-58567-715-9
9000
9 781585 677153
Science Fiction $13.95/CAN $17.50