Libyrinth

by Pearl North

  “Holy One! Holy One! Read us the book! Holy One!” Amid the joyous throng, Thela stood forgotten. She looked around her and Clauda saw resignation in her face. She flicked the reins of her chariot and inched her way forward. Her outriders, appearing concerned, stayed by her side. The crowd quieted as she approached the wing.

  Clauda tensed and looked at Haly, Selene, and Tadakis. “Now what?”

  Selene shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Queen Thela came close enough for them to speak in ordinary conversational tones. In the chariot, she stood just a bit lower than them, but nevertheless inclined her head as if she condescended to speak intimately with them. “Very well,” she said, and the sly, sad smile she gave was so winning, Clauda could not help but be a little affected by it. “It was worth a try.”

  She focused on Clauda. “You have bested me, my dear. If you were Ilysian I would throw Jolaz off a cliff and make you my heir. Alas.” She twitched the reins of her chariot and turned away. But as she reached the outer edges of the gathered throng, she turned once more. She raised her hands to the multitude, her voice again pitched to carry. “Remember this, all you Redeemed: Through circumstance or intent, Ilysies is the friend of the Libyrinth. Any Ilysian here who wishes to return to their beloved families may do so, as a soldier or as a civilian. And as for you, honored Libyrarians and Singers, Ilysies stands ready to assist you in any way she can.” She flicked the reins of her chariot, gave a sharp cluck of her tongue, and drove off, her outriders following behind her.

  Haly sat on top of the wing with The Book of the Night in her hands. She was tired and she knew there was no way she could read all of the book to those gathered around. Not all at once. What they wanted to hear most, of course, was how to make Eggs. So she focused on the book in her hands and she silently asked it to tell her.

  “I have failed. The secret of making Eggs remains a mystery. No matter what I do to Endymion, she will not tell me. I begin to think she cannot, even though she is the last Ancient. I loathe myself for all that I have done in pursuit of this knowledge. The futility of it all will surely destroy my soul.

  “Now I must tell Yammon that those treasures he fought so long and so hard for remain outside his grasp, and we will forever live as strangers in this world. I do not know how I will face him.”

  Haly finished. Stunned silence greeted her from all sides. “He failed?” said an Ayorite man in the rough-spun tunic and pants of a peasant. His face was streaked with soot.

  The crowd muttered uncertainly.

  “He failed,” said Peliac. Even from up on the wing, Haly could see the tears in her eyes.

  Beside her stood Selene, her face ashen. Her arms hung listlessly at her sides. “Then all of this was for nothing.”

  “No!” shouted the Ayorite peasant. “Not for nothing. We’ve been Redeemed! How can that be nothing?”

  “He’s right,” said an Ilysian soldier who was standing next to the Singer. Haly noticed she was holding his hand. “We have each other now. Plus all the knowledge in the Libyrinth and all the knowledge in your songs.”

  “That’s right,” Haly said, her voice pitched to carry. “Theselaides was only one person, but we are thousands, and we all have our own unique knowledge. If we pool all of those resources together, who knows what we may be able to discover?”

  “Theselaides, or Iscarion?” asked Selene.

  “Both,” said Haly. “It’s something I’ve suspected for some time. The Singers believe that Iscarion founded the community of Libyrarians. They’re right. It is also true that the Libyrinth was founded by Theselaides. They were the same person. And he founded this community,” said Haly. “I don’t think he did that just for the literate. I think he made it for all of us.”

  For a moment those nearest the wing all stood looking at one another. At last the Ayorite man spoke again. “So now what?”

  Haly looked around at all of them. She knew what she wanted to suggest, but could it work? Redemption or no, they were so different from one another. But then, many things had occurred that she would not have thought likely or even possible. “Stay here,” she said. “Build a city here, and stay. Study in the Libyrinth. Share what you know. Bend your minds and your hearts to the mysteries of the Ancients, to all the mysteries that surround us. If we can understand each other, then is anything really beyond our reach?”

  For a moment silence hung over the plain and then, as one, the crowd erupted in cheering. The sound of it buffeted Haly and uplifted her and terrified her. It was not going to be easy to make this work, but it was too late now. She was committed. She remembered how she’d felt in the Temple of Yammon when she’d been proclaimed Redeemer. This was something like that, only infinitely better. This was of her choosing.

  “For the Redeemed city of the Libyrinth!” shouted the Ayorite man, and the cry was taken up and spread until it seemed that the whole of the Plain of Ayor echoed with hope.

  Haly woke from the first full night’s rest she’d had since they’d arrived at the Libyrinth. As she came to consciousness she felt inside herself the Song that was now as much a part of her as her flowing blood. The voices of the books of the Libyrinth combined to form a chorus so ubiquitous that for the most part, no single voice stood out, but still in moments of distraction individual voices broke through and she could always pick out books to listen to at will. She opened her eyes and saw Gyneth at Selene’s desk, writing. “There were three Redemptions. The first was disrupted by rifles, the second by war, but the third Redemption was the true Redemption of the Word, and it came in the midst of death and hatred, and it turned them to hope and love. Those who heard the Song that day were truly Redeemed, and those who listened learned the Word, and knew Word and Song together. At last it was understood that what appear to be opposites are only different aspects of one whole, and that when we unite, not even the power of the Ancients can stop us from making of this life a blessing for all.”

  She smiled. She should get up, she thought. She had to meet with Burke and Rossiter about setting up an infirmary, and with Galatea and Ock about the drainage ditch in the eastern quarter of their new city. And then there was a meeting with Peliac and Siblea about their research on suitable crops for the region. She would get up in a moment, but just then she stretched instead, and listened as Gyneth’s soft, strong voice wound through all the other voices of those she loved.

  WHERE TO FIND WHAT THE BOOKS SAID

  A Guide to the Quotations

  CHAPTER 1

  “Wilbur liked Charlotte better and better each day.”

  E. B. White. Charlotte’s Web. New York: Harper and Row, 1980.

  “Two houses, both alike in dignity.”

  William Shakespeare. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. New York: Avon Books, 1975.

  “He was just a country boy.”

  Isaac Asimov. The Foundation Trilogy. New York: Doubleday, 1951.

  “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

  J. R. R. Tolkien. The Hobbit. New York: Ballantine Books, 1966.

  “The heart of the young Gasçon throbbed violently, not with fear, but with eagerness.”

  Alexandre Dumas. The Three Musketeers. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1991.

  CHAPTER 3

  “Heat to the boiling point in a double boiler over, not in, boiling water, one-half cup dark molasses.”

  Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker. The Joy of Cooking. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975.

  “ ‘How is he?’ ‘Weak. They are quite pitiless.’ ”

  Patrick O’Brian. H.M.S. Surprise. New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1973.

  “I was awakened by the waves dragging at my feet.”

  Scott O’Dell. Island of the Blue Dolphins. New York: Dell Publishing, 1960.

  “All that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out of the Seeonee Wolf Pack.”

  Rudyard Kipling. The Jungle Book. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1963.<
br />
  “Route the wiring from the front light along the frame members to the area of the generator-mounting bracket.”

  Clarence W. Coles and Harold T. Glenn. Glenn’s Complete Bicycle Manual. New York: Crown Publishers, 1973.

  “When tweetle beetles fight it’s called a tweetle beetle battle.” Dr. Seuss. Fox in Socks. New York: Random House, 1965.

  CHAPTER 6

  “It is far better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.”

  Niccolò Machiavelli. The Prince. New York: Penguin Books, 1981.

  “Little boys squash ants in fun, but the ants die in earnest.”

  Lars Eighner. Travels with Lizbeth. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1993.

  “Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony.”

  Dashiell Hammett. The Maltese Falcon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930.

  “Simon was inside the mouth.”

  William Golding. The Lord of the Flies. New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1954.

  “I saw death rising from the earth.”

  Philip K. Dick. A Scanner Darkly. New York: Doubleday, 1977.

  “Never live in the village again.”

  Scott O’Dell. Island of the Blue Dolphins. New York: Dell Publishing, 1960.

  CHAPTER 12

  “I hope I shall be able to confide in you completely, as I have never been able to do in anyone before.”

  Anne Frank. The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Doubleday, 1952.

  “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

  Ibid.

  “Sunday, 14 June, 1942. On Friday, June 12, I woke up at six o’clock and no wonder; it was my birthday.”

  Ibid.

  “There is a saying that paper is more patient than Man.”

  Ibid.

  “Anti-Jewish decrees followed each other in quick succession.”

  Ibid.

  “And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

  Ibid.

  “Who besides me will ever read these letters?”

  Ibid.

  CHAPTER 18

  “The first hour of the war between Kalgan and Foundation.”

  Isaac Asimov. The Foundation Trilogy. New York: Doubleday, 1951.

  “The calm of the night was broken by a roar of thunder, and something smote the water.”

  Rafael Sabatini. The Seahawk. New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1915.

  “The courtship display of the male Common Goldeneye looks much like an avian slapstick routine.”

  Ted Black and Gregory Kennedy. Birds of Michigan. Auburn and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Lone Pine Publishing, 2003.

  “The sudden appearance of a tiger is arresting in any environment.”

  Yann Martel. Life of Pi. New York: Harcourt, 2001.

  “Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands.”

  Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row, 1937.

  “What is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker?”

  Yann Martel. Life of Pi. New York: Harcourt, 2001.

  CHAPTER 19

  “Fortune repays an ungrateful tyrant’s oppressive ways with the just punishment he duly deserves.”

  Richard F. Burton, trans. Adapted by Jack Zipes. Arabian Nights. New York: Penguin Group, 1991.

  “All persons are doomed to be in love once in their lives.”

  Henry Fielding. Tom Jones. London: Everyman’s Library, 1909.

  “Isolation of patients who are suffering from a contagious disease.”

  Sir Thomas More. Peter K. Marshall, trans. Utopia. New York: Washington Square Press, 1965.

  “Winter comes to water as well as land, though there are no leaves to fall.”

  Gene Wolfe. “The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories,” from The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories. New York: Pocket Books, 1980.

  “The weight of the odors was heavy on his soul, like chains, like old burdens reassumed.”

  John Crowley. Little, Big. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.

  “Maybe only a god could bear it.”

  Sean Stewart. Galveston. New York: Ace Books, 2000.

  “The question of fragmentation and wholeness is a subtle and difficult one.”

  David Bohm. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. London and New York: Routledge, 1980.

  “He had the most astounding collection of teeth.”

  Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. New York: Harmony Books, 1979.

  “To oppose something is to maintain it.”

  Ursula K. Le Guin. The Left Hand of Darkness. New York: Ace Books, 1969.

  “The essence of strategy on these occasions is to be as near the door as possible.”

  P. G. Wodehouse. Right Ho, Jeeves. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1934.

  “Knowledge, too, is a process.”

  David Bohm. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. London and New York: Routledge, 1980.

  “The middle of the Atlantic Ocean.”

  Lincoln Barnett and the Editorial Staff, Life. The World We Live In, New York: Golden Press, 1956.

  “Balance is necessary.”

  Starhawk. The Spiral Dance. New York, Hagerstown, San Francisco, and London: Harper & Row, 1979.

  “Challenge the rule.”

  Abbie Hoffman. Steal This Book. New York: Pirate Editions, 1971.

  “Her thoughts strangely torn.”

  Arnette Lamb. Border Lord. New York: Pocket Books, 1993.

  “A cataclysm of love.”

  Gabriel García Márquez. Love in the Time of Cholera. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.

  “Friend.”

  Ramsay Wood. Kalila and Dimna. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1980.

  “The beginning is hearing.”

  Mary Daly. Gyn/Ecology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978.

  “Active immunization describes the administration of all or part of a biologic agent in an effort to evoke a defensive response in the host.”

  Sybil P. Parker, ed. Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984.

  “He inspired uneasiness.”

  Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1899.

  “Don’t trust that dingblasted old Cat neither.”

  Robert Lawson. Rabbit Hill. New York: Dell Publishing, 1944.

  “The true parasites of Pern were Threads.”

  Anne McCaffrey. Dragonflight. New York: Del Rey, 1977.

  CHAPTER 20

  “It hushed the eloquent, struck down the powerful, abolished the beautiful and good.”

  Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities. New York: New American Library, 2007.

  “The most frightening thing was probably the tenacity of his continued existence against all the physical odds.”

  Douglas Adams. The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. New York: Harmony Books, 1979.

  “All life is a form of cooperation, an expression of feedback arising out of the flux of chaos.”

  John Briggs and David F. Peat. Turbulent Mirror. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.

  “Well, we fell on those books with even more appetite than on the food, and in the end we moved into the house and stayed all winter.”

  Robert C. O’Brien. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1971.

  “Everybody wants programmable animals.”

  Kevin Kelly. Out of Control. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1994.

  “One meaning of the term labyrinth is ‘the internal ear.’ ”

  Mary Daly. Gyn/Ecology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978.

  “Who is she, staring down like the dawn’s eye, bright as the white moon, pure as the hot sun, frightening as visions!”

  Marcia Falk, trans. The Song of Songs: A New Translation. New York: HarperCollins, 1973.

  “The Library is unlimited and cyclical.”

  Jorge Luis Borges. Labyrin
ths, The Library of Babel. New York: Modern Library, 1962.

  “My mother is a fish.”

  William Faulkner. As I Lay Dying. New York: Random House, 1930.

  “The sight once seen can never be forgotten, but we turn from it and pursue our way.”

  Sir James George Frazer. The Golden Bough. New York: Macmillan, 1922.

  “He had felt nothing but fear, sheer naked fear, when he thought about the parachute jump.”

  Alexander McCall Smith. The Full Cupboard of Life. New York: Random House, 2003.

  “The present moment is the only moment when life is available to us.”

  Thich Nhat Hahn. Be Free Where You Are. Berkley: Parallax Press, 2002.

  “And the wind blows right through us.”

  Jean Canan and Marge Piercy. “She Rises Like the Sun,” in I Saw Her Dancing. Ithaca, NY: Crossing Press, 1989.

  CHAPTER 21

  “The horrible words, mocking looks, and accusations which are levelled at me repeatedly every day, and find their mark, like shafts from a tightly strung bow.”

  Anne Frank. The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Doubleday, 1952.

  “I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.”