The Myst Reader

by Rand; Robyn Miller; David Wingrove

  “Forgive me,” said the taller of the two, “but you are Aitrus, no? I am Veovis. I am pleased to meet you again after all these years.”

  Veovis was a head taller than Aitrus remembered him and broad at the shoulder. His face was handsome but in a rather stark and monumental manner—in that he was very much his father’s son. As Aitrus shook the young Lord’s hand, he was surprised by the smile on Veovis’s lips, the unguarded look in his eyes. This seemed a very different person from the one he’d known at school all those years ago.

  “Lord Veovis,” he said, stowing his notebook away. “It seems I have much to thank you for.”

  “And D’ni has much to thank you for.” Veovis smiled. “You and your fellow guildsmen, of course.” He turned slightly, introducing his companion, who had now thrown back his hood. “This is my friend and chief adviser, Lianis. It was Lianis who first brought your papers on pyroclastic deposits to my attention.”

  Aitrus looked to Lianis and nodded, surprised to find so ancient a fellow as Veovis’s assistant.

  “Lianis was my father’s adviser, and his father’s before him. When my father fell ill, it was decided that I should keep him on as my adviser, so that I might benefit from his experience and wisdom.” Veovis smiled. “And fortunately so, for he has kept me from many an error that my youth might otherwise have led me into.”

  Aitrus nodded, then looked to Lianis. “My paper was but one of many submitted from the expedition, Master Lianis, and hardly original in its ideas. I am surprised it attracted your attention.”

  Lianis, it seemed, had a face that did not ever smile. He stared back at Aitrus with a seriousness that seemed etched deep into the stone of his features. “Good work shines forth like a beacon, Guildsman. It is not necessarily the originality of a young man’s work but the clarity of mind it reveals that is important. I merely marked a seriousness of intent in your writings and commented upon it to the young Lord’s father. That is my task. I claim no credit for it.”

  Aitrus smiled. “Even so, I thank you, Master Lianis, and you Lord Veovis. I have found good use of the equipment you were so kind in giving me.”

  “And I am glad it has found good use…though I never doubted that for an instant.”

  The two men met each other’s eyes and smiled.

  “And now I am afraid I must go. My father’s guildsmen await me. But I am glad I had a chance to speak with you, Aitrus. I fear there will be little time tomorrow. However, when you are back in D’ni you must come and visit me.”

  Aitrus bowed his head. “My Lord.”

  Veovis gave the faintest nod, then, with a glance at Lianis, the two walked on, their cloaked figures diminishing as they crossed the great floor.

  Aitrus stared a moment, then, with a strange sense of something having begun, took his notebook from his pocket and, turning to that day’s entries, wrote simply:

  Met Veovis again. He has changed. The man is not the child he was. He asked me to visit him in D’ni. He paused, then added, We shall see.

  Closing the book, he slipped it back into his pocket, then, turning on his heel, hurried across, heading for the bright circle of the exit tunnel.

  §

  The great feast to celebrate the cutting of the great shaft was almost over. Young guildsmen from the Guild of Artists looked on from the edge of events, hurriedly sketching the scene as the great men said their farewells to each other.

  It had been an extraordinary occasion, with speeches and poems in honor of this latest venture of the D’ni people. A year from now a whole series of new canvases and tapestries would hang in the corridors of the Guild House back in D’ni, capturing the occasion for posterity, but just now the Grand masters talked of more mundane affairs. Matters of State stopped for no man and no occastion—even one so great as this—and there was ever much to be discussed.

  It was not often that one saw all eighteen major Guilds represented in a single place, and the colorful sight of their distinctive ceremonial cloaks—each Guild’s color different, each cloak decorated with the symbols that specified the rank and status of the guildsman who wore it—gave Aitrus an almost childish delight. Such things he had only glimpsed in books before now.

  Aitrus’s own cloak, like those of all young guildsmen without rank, had eight such symbols, four to each side, beneath the lapels, whereas those of the great Lords had but a single one.

  Looking on from where he sat on the far side of the feasting circle, Aitrus saw Veovis rise from his seat to greet one of the Great Lords, his friendly deference making the old man smile. Four of the Five were here today, the fifth—Veovis’s father—being too ill to come. All eighteen of the Grand Masters were also here, to represent their guilds, along with several hundred of their most senior Masters, every one of them resplendent in their full Guild colors.

  To a young guildsman, they seemed an impressive host. Lord Tulla, it was said, was 287 years old, and his three companions—the Lords R’hira, Nehir, and Eneah—were all well into their third century. Veovis, by comparison, was a babe—a glint of sunlight against dark shadow. Lord Tulla, in particular, looked like something carved, as if, in the extremity of age, he had become the rock in which he had lived all his life.

  One day, perhaps, Aitrus too might become a Grand Master, or perhaps even one of the Five, yet the road that led to such heights was long and hard, and some days he wondered if he had the temperament.

  If this expedition had proved one single thing to him it was that he was of essence a loner. He had thought, perhaps, that such close proximity to his fellows, day in, day out, might have brought him out of his shell—rounding off the hard edges of his nature—but it had not proved so. It was not that he did not get on with his fellow cadets—he liked them well enough and they seemed to like him—it was simply that he did not share their pursuits, their constant need for small distractions.

  You were born old, Aitrus, his mother had so often said. Too old and too serious. And it had worried him. But now he knew he could not change what he was. And others, Master Telanis among them, seemed to value that seriousness. They saw it not as a weakness but a strength.

  Even so, he wondered how well he would settle back into the life of the Guild House. It was not the work—the studying and practicals—that concerned him but the personal element. Watching the great men at the feast had reminded him of that, of the small, personal sacrifices one made to be a senior Guildsman.

  Given the choice, Aitrus would have spent his whole life exploring; drilling through the rock and surveying. But that, he understood, was a young man’s job, and he would not be a young man all his life. In time he would be asked to take charge; of small projects at first, but then steadily larger and larger tasks, and in so doing he would have to deal not with the dynamics of rock—the certainties of weight and form and pressure—but with the vagaries and inconsistencies of personality.

  He looked across, catching Telanis’s eye. The Guild Master smiled and raised the silver goblet he was holding in a toast. Aitrus raised his own uncertainly but did not sip. Many of his companions were drunk, but he had not touched even a drain of the strong wine he had been served.

  Indeed, if the choice had been given him, he would have left an hour back, after the last speech, but it was not deemed polite for any of them to leave before their Masters. And so they sat, amid the ruins of the feast, looking on as the old men went from table to table.

  “Look!” someone whispered to Aitrus’s right. “The young Lord is coming over here!”

  Aitrus looked up to see Veovis making his way across. Seeing Aitrus, Veovis smiled, then turned to address Telanis. “Master Telanis, might I have a word in private with Guildsman Aitrus?”

  “Of course,” Telanis answered, giving the slightest bow of respect.

  Aitrus, embarrassed by the sudden attention, rose and made his way around the table to where Veovis stood.

  “Forgive me, Aitrus,” Veovis began, keeping his voice low. “Once more I must rush off. But
Lord Tulla has given me permission to stay on an extra day. I thought we might talk. Tomorrow, after the breaching.”

  The “breaching” was a small ceremony to mark the commencement of the breakthrough tunnel.

  Aitrus nodded. “I’d welcome that.”

  “Good.” Briefly Veovis held his arm, then, as if he understood Aitrus’s embarrassment, let his hand fall away. “Tomorrow, then.”

  §

  That evening they winched the excavator up onto the platform at the very top of the great shaft. Aitrus, standing beside Master Telanis, watched as it was lowered onto the metal grid, feeling an immense pride at the sight of the craft. Its usefulness as a cutter was marginal now—other machines, much larger and more efficient were already in place, ready to cut the final tunnel from the rock—yet it would serve as their quarers in this final leg of their journey.

  Earlier, Master Telanis had given a moving speech as he said farewell to those cadets who would be returning to D’ni in the morning. Only Master Geran, Aitrus, and five others remained; their sole task now to represent their Guild when finally they broke through to the surface.

  “How long will it take?” he asked, looking to Telanis.

  The Guild Master’s attention was on the excavator, as strange hands removed the winch chains and began to lift the craft so they could extricate the great cradle from beneath it. His eyes never leaving that delicate task, Telanis answered Aitrus quietly.

  “A week. Maybe less. Why? Are you impatient, Aitrus?”

  “No, Master.”

  ‘Good. Because I would hate you to be disappointed.”

  “I do not understand, Master.”

  Telanis glanced at him. “The tunnel will be cut. But whether we shall ever step out onto the surface is another matter. There will be one final meeting of the Council to decide that.”

  Aitrus felt a strange disturbance—a feeling almost of giddiness—at the thought of coming so close and never actually stepping out onto the surface of the world.

  “I thought it had been decided.”

  Telanis nodded vaguely. “So did I. Yet it is an important matter—perhaps the most important they have had to debate for many centuries. If they are wrong, then D’ni itself might suffer. And so the Council deliberate until the last. Why, even today, at the feast, they were still discussing it even as they congratulated one another!”

  “And if they decide not to?”

  Telanis turned and met his eyes. “Then we go home, Aitrus.”

  “And the tunnel?”

  “Will be sealed. At least, this top part of it. It is unlikely that the surface-dwellers have the technology to drill down into the shaft, even if they were to locate it.

  “I see.”

  “No, Aitrus. Neither you nor I see, not as the Great Lords see. Yet when their final word comes, whatever it may be, we shall do as they instruct.”

  “And what do you think, master? Do you think they will let us contact the surface-dwellers?”

  Telanis laughed quietly. “If I knew that, Aitrus, I would be a Great Lord myself.”

  §

  That night Aitrus woke to find the platform trembling, as if a giant gong had been struck in the depths. All about him people slept on drunkenly, unaware of the faint tremor. After a while it subsided and the platform was still again. For a moment Aitrus wondered if he had imagined it, but then it came again, stronger this time, almost audible.

  Aitrus shrugged off his blanket and stood, then walked across until he stood close to the edge of the great drop. The whole shaft was vibrating, and now there was the faintest hum—a deep bass note—underlying everything.

  For close on three months, the earth had been silent. Now, even as they prepared to leave it, it had awoken once again.

  Aitrus turned, looking back to where the guildsmen were encampted beside the excavator, but they slept on, in a dead sleep after the feast. He alone was awake.

  Hurrying across, he bent down beside Master Geran and gently shook him. At first the old man did not wake, but then his blind eyes flicked open.

  “Aitrus?”

  Aitrus did not know how the old man did it, but his senses were infallible.

  “There’s movement,” he said quietly. “The shaft was vibrating like a great hollow pipe.”

  Master Geran sat up, then turned to face the center of the tunnel. For a moment he was perfectly still, then he looked up at Aitrus again. “Help me up, boy.”

  Aitrus leaned down, helping him up.

  “How many times?” Geran asked as he shuffled over to the edge of the shaft.

  “Three so far. That is, if the one that woke me was the first.”

  Geran nodded, then dropped into a crouch, the fingertips of his right hand brushing gently against the surface of the platform.

  For two, maybe three minutes they waited, Aitrus standing there at his side, and then it came again, stronger—much stronger—this time and more prolonged. When it had subsided, Geran stood and shook his head.

  “It’s hard to tell the direction of it. The shaft channels its energy. But it was powerful, Aitrus. I wonder why I was not woken by it.”

  Aitrus looked down, a faint smile on his lips, but said nothing. He had seen how much of the strong D’ni wine Master Geran had drunk. The only real surprise was that he had woken when Aitrus had shaken him.

  “Should we wake the others, Master?” he asked. But Geran shook his head.

  “No. We shall leave it for now. The final survey will show whether there is any risk. Personally I doubt it. We have come far to the north of the isopaches we identified earlier. If there is any volcanic activity, it is far from here. What we are hearing are merely echoes in the rock, Aitrus. Impressive, yes, but not harmful.”

  Geran smiled, then patted his arm. “So get some sleep, eh, lad? Tomorrow will be a long day.”

  §

  Reassured by Master Geran, Aitrus settled back beneath his blanket and was soon asleep once more. If the ground shook, he did not notice it. Indeed, he was the last to wake, Master Telanis’s hand on his shoulder, shaking him, returning him from the dark stupor into which he seemed to have descended.

  “Come, Aitrus. Wash now and get dressed. The ceremony is in half an hour!”

  They lined up before the cutter, alongside men from the Guild of Maintainers, whose task it would be to oversee this final stage of the journey to the surface.

  The Maintainers were one of the oldest guilds, and certainly one of the most important, their Grand Masters—alongside those of the Guild of Writers, the Miners, the Guild of Books and the Ink-Makers—becoming in time the Lords of D’ni, members of the Five. Yet this was a strange and perhaps unique task for them, for normally their job was to ensure that the D’ni Books were kept in order, the Ages correctly run, and that the long-established laws, laid down countless generations before, were carried out to the letter. They had little to do with excavations and the cutting of tunnels. Indeed, guildsmen from some of the more physical guilds—those who dealt constantly with earth and rock and stone—would, in the priacy of their own Guild Halls, speak quietly of them, in a derogatory fashion, as “cleanhanded fellows.” Yet these guildsmen had been specially trained for this purpose and had among their number guildsmen drafted in from the Guild of Miners, and from the Surveyors.

  They now would carry out the final excavation, and if any surface dwellers were found, it would be the Maintainers who would first establish contact, for this was a most delicate matter and it was held that only the Maintainers could be vouchsafed to undertake that task properly.

  Few of the Guild Masters who had been at the feast the day before had remained for this final little ceremony; yet in the small group who now stepped forward were no less than two of the Great Lords, Lord Tulla and Lord Eneah. Standing just behind them, among a group of five Grand Masters, was Veovis.

  Lord Tulla said a few words, then stepped forward, pulling down the lever that would set the great cutter in motion. As he did, Veovis looked a
cross at Aitrus and gave the tiniest nod.

  Were these, Aitrus wondered, the faction in the Council who were in favor of making contact with the surface-dwellers? Or was that a misreading of things? Had the rest, perhaps, simply been too busy to attend?

  As Lord Tulla stepped back, the engines of the cutter thundered into life and the circular blade began to spin, slowly at first, then, as it nudged the rock, with increasing speed.

  The simple ceremony was concluded. The great men turned away, ready to depart. At a signal from Master Telanis, the Surveyors fell out.

  Aitrus could see that Veovis was busy, talking to the Grand Master of the Guild of Messengers. Content to wait, he watched the machine, remembering the noises in the night.

  Master Geran had been up early, he had been told, making a new survey of the rock through which this final tunnel was to be dug. His soundings had shown nothing unusual, and the vibrations in the earth had ceased. Both Geran and Telanis were of the opinion that the quakes had not been serious, but were only the settlement of old faults. Aitrus himself had not been quite so sure, but had bowed to their experience.

  “Aitrus?”

  He turned, facing Veovis.

  The young Lord smiled apologetically. “You must forgive me, Aitrus. Once again I must be elsewhere. But I shall return, this evening, after I have seen Lord Tulla off. I did not think he would stay for the ceremony, but he wished to be here.”

  “I understand.”

  “Good.” And without further word, Veovis turned and hurried across to where Lord Tulla was waiting.

  Aitrus watched the party step into the special carriage that had been set up on a temporary rack down the wall of the shaft, then stepped up to the edge, following its progress down that great well until it was lost to sight.

  It was strange. The more Veovis delayed their talk, the more uncomfortable Aitrus found himself at the thought of it. Veovis wanted to be his friend, it seemed. But why? It made little sense to him. Surely Veovis had friends enough of his own? And even if that were not so, why him? Why not someone more suited to his social role?