The Histories of Earth, Books 1-4: In the Window Room, A Prince of Earth, All the Worlds of Men, and Worlds Unending

by Steven J. Carroll

  That evening, Delany awoke to an odd, slippery sort of sound, and saw that it was that clever marmot, dragging a newly cut block of ice across the kitchen floor. His little furry face grunting and sweating, and his hooded parka zipped up to the top.

  ���Would you like a hand with that?��� she asked.

  He was now pushing at it with all his might, and slipping a bit as the ice melted. ���If you don’t mind,��� he strained. ���Ice seems to have gotten heavier now-a-days������

  As it turned out, the weighty block was even a struggle for Del to lift up into the ice box on her own. So that, in the end, the two managed to hoist it up into the compartment, but only after the count of three, and with very chilled, wet hands.

  When they had finished, Meris wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and collapsed, his back against the metal ice box.

  Delany’s school uniform was now entirely soaked through with water, and was remarkably unpleasant, but it was for this reason that she realized something peculiar, something she probably should have noticed minutes ago.

  It hadn’t yet snowed at Mayfield. It hadn’t even been cold enough for it. ���How in the world could he have brought such a large piece of ice into the house all by himself?��� she wondered.

  ���Where did you get that?��� she asked, pointing her finger to the compartment above his head.

  Meris seemed befuddled by her question.

  ���The icebox?…��� he replied.

  ���No, of course not,��� she said, looking somewhat perturbed. ���I mean the ice. Where did you get it from?���

  Meris, who until then was playing as if he’d been feverishly exhausted, suddenly perked his ears. A clear glint shone in his eyes.

  ���Would you like to see?��� he asked.

  But before he’d given her a chance to answer this he was up, and calling out from the hall for her to follow him and to keep up, and that she was the one that was so curious about it, and that he didn’t know why she was being so slow.

  Delany ran as fast as she could to keep up, slipping across the wood in her laced shoes. Her new friend was a pudgy creature, but fast as a jack-rabbit if the opportunity presented itself. Bounding up the stairs, and through the mazing halls, Delany just managed to catch a glimpse of him at every turn. Fortunately, for her, she had a good notion of where they were headed; and, as it turned out, she was right.

  When she landed at the attic’s threshold, she could just make out the slightest flap in the tiniest window curtain in the room. Many would have thought it to be the most insignificant draft, or would have missed it altogether. But Delany had it in mind where they were headed, and so she knew what to look for.

  Chapter Eight

  Into the Window Room

  It is one thing to have mysterious adventures thrust upon you, by happenstance, and it is quite another to go looking for them. Delany knew that if she entered into the window room she would certainly be confronting adventure in the face, and there was no turning back from that. She breathed, a deep readying breath, and scrambled into the passage.

  It was well into evening by then, and the thin, slated windows near the roof let in almost no light at all, still the room was not blackened. An immensity of light burst from the painting. The stars obviously glowed, like they had before, but because of the darkness around her, Del could notice that light, like daylight, was pouring from many of the scenes painted near the edges. Vignettes of regal walled cities and titanish battles gleamed rays of light into the room. Scenes that had been painted in night, when she last saw them, were now images of morning sunrises, and what had been a depiction of a well-lit mountain glade was now sprinkled with night. Her mouth opened wide, but said nothing.

  Meris hardly noticed her standing there, as he fiddled and poked around an antique looking globe, which was oddly positioned in precisely the exact center of the room. He was searching for something that must have been undeniably lost, by the way he squiggled and squirmed looking through every hidden drawer.

  ���Ah ha! There it is,��� he said with excitement. Then, turning to Del, ���The Mrs. would always say to me, ‘You’d lose your tail if you wasn’t sitting on it���’��� Meris laughed a slight laugh at this, although Del was still unsure whether or not he hadn’t made himself sadder for laughing. Albeit, she did not have time to think about that, considering what happened next was almost too magnificent to be believed.

  The globe was an odd, rugged and sturdy piece of furniture, much too wide to reach round the entirety of it on your own, but not so big that Meris wouldn’t be able to touch the top if he stood tiptoed on the thick equatorial rim that spanned its center. Along the rim were a variety of knobs and dials. They appeared to be functional, like the switches and dials on a radio, but were much more ornately complicated than anything Del had seen before.

  Somewhat out of place however, near the right side of the globe, was a rather ordinary looking brass crank. This was that same item Meris had so excitedly found just a few moments before, and had fit precisely into the side of the globe with a clever smile. Still, the crank was so plain that Del hadn’t even noticed it, until she had first looked over every other more interesting feature she could find.

  In the meantime, Meris had busied himself around a very cluttered desk to the right of the painting. He was mumbling to himself as he peered over a large leather-bound book filled with charts, and degree markings, and coordinates. Every now and then he would stop abruptly to check a desk clock, or to slide weights and measurements across an elaborate abacus.

  ���There, that’ll do well enough,��� he said, stepping down from his chair.

  He then waddled over to the globe, and began turning knobs and flipping switches. Delany was still horribly confused, so she said nothing for a while. Till, at last, it occurred to her to ask a very reasonable sounding question.

  ���Shouldn’t I go fetch my coat������ she asked, then added, ������if we’ll be somewhere out in the snow?���

  ���Ha!��� the furry creature exclaimed. ���I’ve got more sense than that to send us traipsing across frozen wasteland on your first time out. Surely wouldn’t be worth much as a guide if I did that.���

  She watched as the last switch was flipped. All at once the luminous painting was completely transformed, like the turning of a page. Every star chart, and every geographical map was swept away to reveal a completely new world. Even the lighted pictures near the edges were replaced with new civilizations and new wonders.

  ���Then, where are we going?��� she asked nervously, glancing at her squirrel friend. ���Some place completely safe I hope������

  He didn’t respond immediately. Instead he stooped down, reached his paw into a tiny hidden drawer near the globe’s base, and pulled out an ornate dagger. It was child sized, but not a toy, with an intricately decorated woven sheath and band, which he flung around his shoulder, letting the dagger hang confidently at his side.

  ���No one is ever completely safe, Del,��� he said, with a reassuring tone in his voice. ���Yet, where we’re headed is safer than most.���

  Then, grasping onto the brass crank, he began to turn the handle as fast as he could. There was no turning back.

  Chapter Nine

  A New Journey

  The turning made a repetitive whirling noise, like the propellor of a plane when it’s been started. Del knew there must have been some fanciful mechanism at work within the globe, because she could hear gears ticking and high-pitched buzzes coming from inside. The room grew brighter. The globe was now glowing in a similar way to the painting, like a light bulb slowly brightening.

  Another thing she noticed, at this moment, was that bands of soft colored light began to spin out from the machine in circular waves. As they continued, the colors became more apparent, and they were acco
mpanied by sounds, tones that might be compared to the sound of concert bells being played by a sunrise. It was the most glorious music Del had yet heard in her lifetime.

  Meris let go of the crank, jumped up onto the wooden control board that spanned the center of the globe, and pointed to an exact place on the map.

  ���Put your hands right��� there,��� he said in his loudest voice, trying to be heard above the sounds of the light, and the whirling and ticking coming from inside the globe.

  ���Right here?��� Del asked, as she spread her hands out, trying to clarify the exact spot.

  ���That’s it!��� he yelled. ���Wouldn’t want to end up in an ocean, now would we?���

  This last comment may have ended their travels altogether. That is, if Del hadn’t already begun to place her hands upon the globe (and truth be told, it’s uncertain whether or not she was even able to hear him by this point). The sounds of the machine made a waterfalling roar inside the window room, and it only grew louder the instant her hands touched the globe.

  A single column of golden sunlight shot upwards toward the ceiling: beams breaking through the cracks of her fingers.

  The loud buzzing noises began to heighten in pitch. ���Hold on!��� he yelled, and put out his hand for comfort. Del grabbed ahold of his little furry paw.

  She began to float. They were both being pulled into the air, suspended within a glowing orb of light. They were a few meters above the floorboards by now. Del was as scared as she’d ever been, but not the sort that makes you cry. The queasiness came back into her stomach, and she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

  The ticking, and the sound of the light beams lessened. The painting ahead of them was alive with vibrant color. The room was awash in radiant light.

  All at once, the pair burst toward the painting, as if being exploded from a cannon. And almost so quickly that you might not have seen it happen at all, the room was gone, and there was blackness and faint dots of light.

  ���Ahhh!��� Delany screamed in the silence around them.

  She had meant to panic as soon as she had seen herself being rushed toward the painting. Howbeit, because of the sheer speed at which the two were now traveling it had taken her these several moments to get her body to do what she had wanted it to.

  What made matters worse for her, was that her furry companion did not at all seem bothered by the circumstances; and, in fact, looked wryly amused by her reaction. So that all the more unsteadily, Del began to scream, well more than she had initially intended. Until at last, when she had had her fill of panicking, she paused in silence, and became more alert, and in awe of the seemingly infinite magnitude around her.

  Meris chuckled to himself. ���Well you sure are making an awful fuss about it, aren’t you?��� She was speechless, taking in the black expanse of space. ���No need to worry, love. The worst of it is over,��� he said.

  Now she could finally see what was going on. Her eyes had adjusted to the light. And she was more at ease, after hearing that the worst was behind her. She was being rocketed through space, watching stars and clouds of stars, planets and close suns pass her by, much like you may do if you’ve gone out for a ride in a train through the countryside. Only Del knew enough of science by then to understand this: that she must have been traveling at an enormous speed, faster than you could ever imagine. A colossal red planet and clusters of ringed colored moons flew by her in an instant. The beauty of the universe was overwhelming.

  The orb of golden light by which they were traveling made positively no sound at all. There was neither wind nor the sound of motion, nothing echoed, even her breath seemed louder. Very rarely is one faced with that level of silence, the kind which has the tendency to make even our quietest thoughts more apparent. In a similar way, as well, this unnoised place began to take its effect. Gazing intently now at a distant nebulas, Del wondered more openly, much about secret thoughts she had tried very dearly to keep hidden these past few months (partially for reason of her deep set need to feel strong enough to handle things on her own, and also because of what her mother had told her, that ���…we mustn’t pity ourselves, believing in fairy tales���). Still, quite a number of unbelievable things had recently been presented to Del, and when combined with the immeasurable presence of complex beauty she was now seeing, it gave her, all the more, courage to hope in those ���fairy tales���, as her mother called them.

  ���Can we get to heaven from here?��� she asked, turning to Meris.

  However, he did not answer her question right away, and seemed to be thinking very diligently about it for some moments, rubbing his cheek with his palm.

  ���Yes, we can, Del,��� he said. ���But not in the same way I think you mean it.���

  Chapter Ten

  A Morning in the Glade

  The two came to rest, safely in a wide green glade, on a planet not much unlike our own. Though, scientifically speaking, it was approximately seven-eighths the size of ours, but that was, reasonably, the least of her concerns as their orb bolted through the cloud cover. Delany was nervous, and her face would have certainly given her away, if not for the fact that she was trying very hard to disguise it; and the reason for this being that, as she could tell, that little gopher was being so annoyingly confident about the whole process.

  Still, the orb, which had been slowing for some time now, reduced its pace to a gentle glide, and the two landed on their feet in a pleasant late spring meadow. It was morning, the air was still wet with dew. Overhead and around the glade could be heard the high chattering of nearby birds. Delany thought it good to hear those sounds, after being trapped in silence for what seemed like ages.

  The morning sunrise shone robust above the tree line, and they quickly set out, exploring the open field. As they went along, the two let their hands fall among a patch of wild flowers, and felt the tickle of the petals on their fingertips.

  ���Are all worlds like this?��� she asked.

  ���No, though I’ve often wished they could be.���

  Much to their surprise (although in a place like this it should have been nearly expected), at the far end of the glade, they found a cool, calm stream. Having found such a place the two morning wanderers didn’t think it necessary to walk any further; and, without a moment’s hesitation, the chubby gopher plopped down into a thick spot of tall grasses, helping himself to a breakfast of tender sweet violets, while Del unlaced her shoes to dip in her toes at the water’s bank.

  ���I wish we’d never have to go back. I’d much rather be-���

  Her words stopped cold. How she had meant to finish her sentence was like this: ���I’d much rather be here than at Mayfield.��� But at the moment she turned her head towards the little ground squirrel, she noticed him staring straight at her, and how troubled he looked. He put a finger over his snout.

  ���Shhh! I think I heard something������

  Carefully and quietly he motioned to her to keep her head down, and to crawl through the tall grass to join him. She managed this, but rather unpleasantly. Regretting the whole time for having taken off her shoes, and in such an unfamiliar place.

  Motionless and breathless, she watched as he stood up on his hind legs, his ears twitching and eyes straining to scan above the overgrowth.

  ���Do you hear anything?��� she asked in faint whisper.

  Again, he signaled for her to stay quiet. There was a long pause, a firm silence broken only by the passing songbird. Del deeply wished to ask her question again, but thought it better, and rightly so, to remain still.

  When, at last, the noises had distilled, Meris crept up alongside her.

  ���I should never have brought you here. Not for this long at least.���

  ���Is it gone?���

  ���Yes, I believe they are��� I heard voices, acros
s the meadow. Seem to have quieted down, and gone back the way they came.���

  ���Voices?���

  ���AHH!!���

  Suddenly there was a flash of red cloth, and the glittering of metal. There was rolling around, and kicking. Meris bit and clawed at whatever he could find; Being too caught off guard to get out his knife, so that, in the end, it was useless. The two hooded figures in chain mail wrestled them to the ground without much of a fight. They were scouts from the royal army, the golden eagle crest embroidered on their robes, and both of them hardened soldiers.

  ���There’s a feisty one here,��� said the first soldier, holding the gopher up against his chest, held tightly with both arms.

  Meris had just a few moments ago realized how incapable he was of prying himself free. So he hung there, kicking out his feet every so often, just to prove he was still trying.

  ���Let him go!��� Delany squirmed, and gave another kick at the soldier who had her shoulders pinned.

  ���Ha! Not a chance, lil’ misses. A good ole’ trained rat like that’ll fetch a nice price, when we get to court.���

  She wiggled as she spoke, ���Yah, shows what you know. He’s just a helpless little animal.��� This was a lie of course, but, at the time, it may have seemed more like a half-truth. After all, Meris did look rather worn out at the moment.

  ���Course he is, mum,��� said the soldier who was gripping the gopher firmly with both arms. ���But I ain’t never seen a helpless rat with a knife strapped to his back, that’s for sure.���

  These two military men were rough, and coarse, not bearded, but by no means well shaven. And it occurred to Del that she may as well give in, thinking that these were not the sort of men you’d like to be running from.