by Gene Wolfe
AUTARCH: May never the New Sun see what we do here . . . Ships! Sweep over us with flame till all is sere.
As the two DEMONS vanish, NOD sits up. The cities and hills fade, and the screens show the image of the AUTARCH multiplied many times. The stage goes dark.
When the lights go up again, the INQUISITOR sits at a high desk in the center of the stage. His FAMILIAR, dressed as a torturer and masked, stands beside the desk. To either side are various instruments of torment.
INQUISITOR: Bring in the woman said to be a witch, Brother.
FAMILIAR: The Contessa waits outside, and as she is of exalted blood, and a favorite of our sovereign's, I beg you see her first.
Enter the CONTESSA.
CONTESSA: I heard what was said, and as I could not think you would be deaf, Inquisitor, to such an appeal, I have made bold to come in at once. Do you think me bold for that?
INQUISITOR: You toy with words. But yes, I own I do.
CONTESSA: Then you think wrongly. Eight years since my girlhood have I abode in this House Absolute. When first the blood seeped from out my loins and my mother brought me here, she warned me never to come near these apartments of yours, where the blood has trickled from so many, caring nothing for the phases of the fickle moon. And never have I come till now, and now, trembling.
INQUISITOR: Here the good need have no fear. Yet even so, I think you grown bold by your own testimony.
CONTESSA: And am I good? Are you? Is he? My confessor would tell you I am not. What does yours tell you, or is he in fear? And is your familiar a better man than you?
FAMILIAR: I would not wish to be.
CONTESSA: No, I am not bold—nor safe here, as I know. It is fear that drives me to these grim chambers. They have told you of the naked man who struck me. Has he been taken?
INQUISITOR: He has not been brought before me.
CONTESSA: Scarcely a watch ago some soldiers found me moaning in the garden, where my maid sought to comfort me. Because I feared to be outside by dark, they carried me to my own suite by way of that gallery called the Road of Air. Do you know it?
INQUISITOR: Well.
CONTESSA: Then you know too that it is everywhere overhung with windows, so that all the chambers and corridors that abut on it may receive the benefit. As we passed by, I saw in one the figure of a man, tall and clean-limbed, wide of shoulder and slender of waist.
INQUISITOR: There are many such men.
CONTESSA: So I thought. But in a little time, the same figure appeared in another window—and another. Then I appealed to the soldiers who carried me to fire upon it. They thought me mad and would not, but the party they sent to take that man returned with empty hands. Still he looked at me through the windows, and appeared to sway.
INQUISITOR: And you believe this man you saw to be the man who struck you?
CONTESSA: Worse. I fear it was not he, though it resembled him. Besides, he would be kind to me, I am sure, if only I treated his madness with respect. No, on this strange night, when we, who are the winter-killed stalks of man's old sprouting, find ourselves so mixed with next year's seed, I fear that he is something more we do not know.
INQUISITOR: That may be so, but you will not find him here, nor the man who struck you. (To his FAMILIAR:) Bring in the witch-woman, Brother.
FAMILIAR: Such are they all—though some are worse than others.
He exits and returns leading MESCHIANE by a chain.
INQUISITOR: It is alleged against you that you so charmed seven of the soldiers of our sovereign the Autarch that they betrayed their oath and turned their weapons upon their comrades and their officers. (He rises, and lights a large candle at one side of his desk.) I now most solemnly adjure you to confess this sin, and if you have so sinned, what power aided you to accomplish it, and the names of those who taught you to call upon that power.
MESCHIANE: The soldiers only saw I meant no harm, and were afraid for me. I—
FAMILIAR: Silence!
INQUISITOR: No weight is given to the protestations of the accused unless they are made under duress. My familiar will prepare you.
FAMILIAR seizes MESCHIANE and straps her into one of the contrivances.
CONTESSA: With so little time left to the world, I shall not waste it in watching this. Are you a friend to the naked man of the garden? I am going to seek him, and I will tell him what has become of you.
MESCHIANE: Oh, do! I hope that he will come before it is too late.
CONTESSA: And I hope he will accept me, in your stead. No doubt both hopes are equally forlorn, and we shall soon be sisters in despair.
Exit the CONTESSA.
INQUISITOR: I go too, to speak to those that were her rescuers. Prepare the subject, for I shall return shortly.
FAMILIAR: There is another, Inquisitor. Of similar crimes, but less, perhaps, in potency.
INQUISITOR: Why did you not tell me? I might have instructed both together. Bring her in.
FAMILIAR exits and returns leading JAHI. The INQUISITOR searches among the papers on his desk.
INQUISITOR: It is alleged against you that you so charmed seven of the soldiers of our sovereign the Autarch that they betrayed their oath and turned their weapons upon their comrades and their officers. I now most solemnly adjure you to confess this sin, and if you have so sinned, what power aided you to accomplish it, and the names of those who taught you to call upon that power.
JAHI: (Proudly.) I have done all you accuse me of and more than you know. The power I dare not name lest this upholstered rat-hole be blasted to bits. Who taught me? Who teaches a child to call upon her father?
FAMILIAR: Her mother?
INQUISITOR: I would not know. Prepare her. I shall return soon.
Exit the INQUISITOR.
MESCHIANE: They fought for you too? How sad that so many had to die!
FAMILIAR: (Locking JAHI in a contrivance on the other side of the desk.) He had your paper again. I'll point his error out to him diplomatically, you may be sure—when he comes back.
JAHI: You charmed the soldiers? Then charm this fool, and free us.
MESCHIANE: I have no chant of power, and I charmed but seven of fifty.
Enter NOD, bound, driven by FIRST SOLDIER with a pike.
FAMILIAR: What's this?
FIRST SOLDIER: Why, such a prisoner as you've never had before. He's killed a hundred men as we might puppies. Have you shackles big enough for him?
FAMILIAR: I'll have to link several pairs together, but I'll contrive something.
NOD: I am no man, but less and more—being born of the clay, of Mother Gea, whose pets are the beasts. If your dominion is over men, then you must let me go.
JAHI: We're not men either. Let us go too!
FIRST SOLDIER: (Laughing.) We can see you're not. I wasn't in doubt for a moment.
MESCHIANE: She's no woman. Don't let her trick you.
FAMILIAR: (Snapping the last fetter on NOD.) She won't. Believe me, the time of tricks is over.
FIRST SOLDIER: You'll have some fun, won't you, when I'm gone.
He reaches for JAHI, who spits like a cat.
FIRST SOLDIER: I don't suppose you'd be a good fellow and turn your back for a moment?
FAMILIAR: (Preparing to torture MESCHIANE.) If I were such a good fellow as that, I'd find myself broken on my own wheel soon enough. But if you wait here until my master the Inquisitor returns, you may find yourself lying beside her as you wish.
FIRST SOLDIER hesitates, then realizes what is meant, and hurries out.
NOD: That woman will be the mother of my son-in-law. Do not harm her. (He strains at his chains.)
JAHI: (Stifling a yawn.) I've been up all night, and though the spirit is as willing as ever, this flesh is ready for rest. Can't you hurry with her and get to me?
FAMILIAR: (Not looking.) There is no rest here.
JAHI: So? Well, it's not quite as homelike as I would expect.
JAHI yawns again, and when she moves a hand to cover her mouth, the shackle
falls away.
MESCHIANE: You have to hold her—don't you understand? The soil has no part in her, so iron has no power over her.
FAMILIAR: (Still looking at MESCHIANE, whom he is to flaring.) She is held, never fear.
MESCHIANE: Giant! Can you free yourself? The world depends on it!
NOD: strains at his bonds, but cannot break them.
JAHI: (Walking out of her shackles.) Yes! It is I who answer, because in the world of reality I am far larger than any of you. (She walks around the desk and leans over the FAMILIAR'S shoulder.) How interesting! Crude, but interesting.
The FAMILIAR turns and gapes at her, and she flees, laughing. He runs clumsily after her, and a moment later returns crestfallen.
FAMILIAR: (Panting.) She's gone.
NOD: Yes. Free.
MESCHIANE: Free to pursue Meschia and ruin everything, as she did before.
FAMILIAR: You don't realize what this means. My master will return soon, and I am a dead man.
NOD: The world is dead. So she has told you.
MESCHIANE: Torturer, you have one chance yet—listen to me. You must free the giant as well.
FAMILIAR: And he will kill me and release you. I will consider it. At least it will be a quick death.
MESCHIANE: He hates Jahi, and though he isn't clever he knows her ways, and he is very strong. What's more, I can tell you an oath that he will never break. Give him the key to his shackles, then stand by me with your sword at my neck. Make him swear to find Jahi, return her; and bind himself again.
The FAMILIAR hesitates.
MESCHIANE: You've nothing to lose. Your master doesn't even know he's supposed to be here. But if she's gone when he returns . . .
FAMILIAR: I'll do it! (He detaches a key from the ring at his belt.)
NOD: I swear as I hope to be linked by marriage to the family of Man, so that we giants may be called the Sons of the Father, that I will capture the succubus for you, and return her here, and hold her so that she shall not escape again, and bind myself as I am bound now.
FAMILIAR: Is that the oath?
MESCHIANE: Yes!
The FAMILIAR throws the key to NOD, then draws his sword and holds it ready to strike MESCHIANE.
FAMILIAR: Can he find her?
MESCHIANE: He must find her!
NOD: (Unlocking himself.) I will catch her. That body weakens as she said. She may whip it far, but she will never learn that whipping will not do everything.
(Exits.)
FAMILIAR: I must continue with you. I hope you understand . . .
The FAMILIAR tortures MESCHIANE, who screams.
FAMILIAR: (Sotto voce.) How fair she is! I wish that we were met when better things might be.
The stage darkens; JAHI'S running feet are heard. After a time, a faint light shows NOD loping through the corridors of the House Absolute. Moving images of urns, pictures, and furniture behind him show his progress. JAHI appears among them, and he exits stage right in pursuit. JAHI enters stage left, with SECOND DEMON walking in lockstep behind her.
JAHI: Where can he have gone? The gardens are burned black. You have no flesh beyond a seeming—cannot you make yourself an owl and seek him out for me?
SECOND DEMON: (Mocking.) Who-o-o?
JAHI: Meschia! Wait until the Father hears how you have treated me, and betrayed all our efforts.
SECOND DEMON: From you? It was you who left Meschia, lured away by the woman. What will you say? "The woman tempted me?" We have done with that so long ago that no one remembers it save you and I, and now you have spoiled the lie by making it come true.
JAHI: (Turning on him.) You little foul sniveler! You scrabbler at windows!
SECOND DEMON: (Jumping back.) And now you are exiled to the land of Nod, east of Paradise.
NOD'S footfalls are heard offstage. JAHI hides behind a clepsydra, and SECOND DEMON produces a pike and stands with it in the attitude of a soldier as NOD enters.
NOD: How long have you been standing there?
SECOND DEMON: (Saluting.) As long as you want, sieur.
NOD: What news is there?
SECOND DEMON: All you want, sieur. A giant as high as a steeple has killed the throne-guards, and the Autarch's missing. We've searched the gardens so often that if only we'd been carrying dung instead of spears, the daisies'd be as big as umbrellas. Ducks' clothes is down and hopes is up—so's the turnips. Tomorrow should be fair, warm, and bright . . . (looks significantly toward the clepsydra) and a woman with no clothes on has been running through the halls.
NOD: What is that thing?
SECOND DEMON: A water clock, sieur. See, you, knowing what time it is, can tell by that how much water's flowed.
NOD: (Examining the clepsydra.) There is nothing like this in my land. Do these puppets move by water?
SECOND DEMON: Not the big one, sieur.
JAHI bolts offstage, pursued by NOD, but before he is fully out of sight of the audience, she dives between his legs, reentering. He continues off, giving her time to hide in a chest. Meanwhile, SECOND DEMON has disappeared.
NOD: (Reentering.) Ho! Stop! (Runs to opposite side of stage and returns.) My fault! My fault! In the garden there—she passed close by me once. I could have reached out and crushed her like a cat—a worm—a mouse—a snake. (Turns on audience.) Don't laugh at me! I could kill you all! The whole poisoned race of you! Oh, to strew the valleys with your white bones! But I am done—I am done! And Meschiane, who trusted in me, is undone!
NOD strikes the clepsydra, sending brass pans and water flying across the stage.
NOD: What good is this gift of speech, except that I can curse myself. Good mother of all the beasts, take it from me. I would be as I was, and shout wordless among the hills. Reason shows reason can only bring pain—how wise to forget and be happy again!
NOD seats himself on the chest in which JAHI hides, and buries his face in his hands. As the lights dim, the chest begins to splinter beneath his weight.
When the lights come up again, the scene is once more the INQUISITOR'S chamber. MESCHIANE is on the rack. The FAMILIAR is turning the wheel. She screams.
FAMILIAR: That made you feel better, didn't it? I told you it would. Besides, it lets the neighbors know we're awake in here. You wouldn't believe it, but this whole wing is full of empty rooms and sinecures. Here the master and I do our business still. We do it still, and that's why the Commonwealth stands. And we want them to know it.
Enter the AUTARCH. His robes are torn and stained with blood.
AUTARCH: What place is this? (He sits on the floor, his head in his hands in an attitude reminiscent of NOD'S.)
FAMILIAR: What place? Why, the Chambers of Mercy, you jackass. Can you come here without knowing where you are?
AUTARCH: I have been so hunted through my house this night that I might be anywhere. Bring me some wine—or water, if you've no wine here—and bar the door.
FAMILIAR: We have claret, but no wine. And I can hardly bar the door, since I expect my master back.
AUTARCH: (More forcefully.) Do as I tell you.
FAMILIAR: (Very softly.) You are drunk, friend. Go out.
AUTARCH: I am— What does it matter? The end is here. I am a man neither worse nor better than you.
NOD'S heavy tread is heard in the distance.
FAMILIAR: He has failed—I know it!
MESCHIANE: He has succeeded! He would not come back so soon with empty hands. The world may yet be saved!
AUTARCH: What do you mean?
Enter NOD. The madness he prayed for is upon him, but he drags JAHI behind him. The FAMILIAR runs forward with shackles.
MESCHIANE: Someone must hold her, or she will escape as she did before.
The FAMILIAR drapes chains on NOD and snaps closed the locks, then chains one of NOD'S arms across his body in such a way that he holds JAHI.
NOD tightens the grip.
FAMILIAR: He's killing her! Let go, you great booby!
The FAMILIAR snatches up the bar with which he
has been tightening the rack and belabors NOD with it. NOD roars, tries to grasp him, and lets the unconscious JAHI slip down. The FAMILIAR seizes her by the foot and pulls her to where the AUTARCH sits.
FAMILIAR: Here, you, you'll do.
He jerks the AUTARCH erect and swiftly imprisons him in such a way that one hand is clamped about JAHI'S wrist, then returns to torture MESCHIANE. Unseen behind him, NOD is freeing himself of his chains.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - THE ATTACK ON THE HIERODULES
Though we were outdoors, where sounds are so easily lost against the immensity of the sky, I could hear the clatter Baldanders made as he feigned to struggle with his bonds. There were conversations in the audience, and I could hear those as well—one about the play, which discovered in it significances I had never guessed and which Dr. Talos, I would say, had never intended; and another about some legal case that a speaker with the drawling intonation of an exultant seemed certain the Autarch was about to judge wrongly. As I turned the windlass of the rack, letting the pawl drop with a satisfying clack, I risked a sidelong look at those who watched us.
No more than ten chairs were in use, but lofty figures stood at the sides of the seating area, and behind it. There were a few women in court dresses much like the ones I had once seen in the House Azure, dresses with very low décolletages and full skirts that were often slit, or relieved with panels of lace. Their hair was simply dressed, but it was set off with flowers, jewels, or brilliantly luminous larvae. Most of those in our audience seemed men, and more arrived momentarily. Many were as tall as or taller than Vodalus. They stood wrapped in their cloaks as though they were chilled by the soft spring air. Their faces were shadowed beneath broad-brimmed, low-crowned petasoses.
Baldanders's chains fell with a crash, and Dorcas shrieked to let me know he was free. I turned toward him, then cowered away, wrenching the nearest flambeau from its socket to fend him off. It guttered as the oil in its bowl nearly drowned the flame, sputtering to renewed life when the brimstone and mineral salts Dr. Talos had gummed around the rim took fire.
The giant was feigning madness, as his role required. His coarse hair hung about his eyes; and they, behind its screen, blazed so wildly I could see them despite it. His mouth hung slack, drooling spittle and showing his yellowed teeth. Arms twice the length of my own groped toward me. What frightened me—and I was frightened, I admit, and wished heartily I had Terminus Est in my hands instead of the iron flambeau—was what I can only call the expression beneath the lack of expression on his face. It was there like the black water we sometimes glimpse moving beneath the ice when the river freezes. Baldanders had found a terrible joy now in being as he was; and when I faced him I realized for the first time that he was not so much feigning madness on the stage as feigning sanity and his dim humility off it. I wondered then how much he had influenced the writing of the play, though it may be only that Dr. Talos had (as he surely had) understood his patient better than I. We were not, of course, to terrify the Autarch's courtiers as we had the country people. Baldanders would wrest the flambeau from me, pretend to break my back, and end the scene. He did not. Whether he was as mad as he pretended or was genuinely enraged at our growing audience, I cannot say. Perhaps both those explanations are correct.