Travellers in Magic
Page 26
Over the years his followers begin to lose hope. Sarah dies in 1674. Two years later he himself dies. Several groups of Sabbatarians continue to meet in secret; one group even survives to the mid-twentieth century.
He turns back to the first path. Once again he is drawn to the vision of annihilation. An end to breeding and living and dying, an end to the mad ceaseless activity that covers the earth. Perhaps this is what God requires of him.
He remembers Sarah, her desire to lie with him. She thought him powerless; very well, he will show her something of power. Flame will consume her descendants, all the children he had been unable to give her.
The moon spins before him, fragments into a thousand pieces. He understands that his vision is not an allegory but real, that people will become so strong they can destroy the moon.
His head pounds. He is not powerless at all. He is the most powerful man in the world. All the people he has seen in his travels, the bakers and learned men and farmers and housewives and bandits, all of them depend for their lives on his next word.
He thinks of Sarah again, her tangled hair, her breath warm on his cheek. If he lets the world live all her children will be his, although she will not know it. Every person in the world will be his child. He can choose life, for himself and for everyone; he can do what he was chosen to do and heal the world.
The light blazes and dies. He looks up at the sultan and his men and says, calmly, “I will choose Islam.”
AFTERWORD
The story of Shabbetai Zevi has fascinated me ever since I first came across it. If he hadn’t converted to Islam, of course, we would have another world religion.
I showed this story to the Sycamore Hill Writers’ Workshop and to my own writers’ workshop in the Bay Area. Both groups seemed to like it, but after I made some of the changes they had suggested I realized that I could not imagine it in any of the existing science fiction markets. This complete inability to write for a market has been a recurring problem throughout my career. I would not recommend blithe disregard for the marketplace as a way to go to any beginning writer; in my own case, however, I don’t seem to be able to help it. Therefore, this story appears here for the first time.
Acknowledgments
“Alfred”—Asimov’s Science Fiction, December, 1992.
“Cassandra’s Photographs”—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, August, 1987.
“Ever After”—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, December, 1984.
“Tourists”—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, February, 1985.
“Rites of Spring”—Asimov’s Science Fiction, March, 1994.
“Midnight News”—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, March, 1990.
“Preliminary Notes on the Jang”—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, May, 1985.
“A Traveller at Passover”—Pulphouse, Winter, 1991.
“Infinite Riches”—Asimov’s Science Fiction, April, 1993.
“Death Is Different”—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, September, 1988.
“Breadcrumbs and Stones”—Snow White, Blood Red, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, AvoNova/Morrow, 1993.
“The Woman in the Painting”—Fantasy & Science Fiction, July, 1993.
“Daily Voices”—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, April, 1986.
“A Game of Cards”—Sisters in Fantasy, edited by Susan Shwartz, forthcoming.
“Split Light” is original to this collection.
About the Author
Lisa Goldstein has published ten novels and dozens of short stories under her own name and two fantasy novels under the pseudonym Isabel Glass. Her most recent novel is The Uncertain Places, which won the Mythopoeic Award. Goldstein received the National Book Award for The Red Magician and the Sidewise Award for her short story “Paradise Is a Walled Garden.” Her work has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. Some of her stories appear in the collection Travellers in Magic.
Goldstein has worked as a proofreader, library aide, bookseller, and reviewer. She lives with her husband and their overexuberant Labrador retriever, Bonnie, in Oakland, California. Her website is www.brazenhussies.net/goldstein.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1994 by Lisa Goldstein
Cover design by Mauricio Diaz
ISBN: 978-1-4976-7364-9
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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