The Last Guardian of Everness

by John C. Wright

  Galen opened his eyes.

  IV

  Wil shrank back, startled by the look in Galen’s immobile face. Galen said nothing but looked at him with a cold, majestic contempt that went beyond mere hatred.

  Wil, having quailed under that gaze, could not allow himself to simply back out without saying anything. Wil straightened and forced a friendly grimace onto his face. “Hey there, fellow! Feeling better, huh? I’ll bet we are.”

  Galen had not moved a muscle, but his cold eyes bored into Wil’s.

  “Look, sonny boy, you know I didn’t mean what I said out there at the dinner table, right? That was just all in fun. Just because your Dad can’t take a joke . . .”

  Silence.

  “Hey, ha ha, neat drawing. I didn’t know you could do something like that. Looks like a room in your grandpa’s house, you know? One of those funky, weird rooms.”

  “It is the chamber of middle dreaming, in the dominion of Hermes the Herald, under Capricorn, in the northern wing of the High House of Everness. You shall not speak ill of it before any image of it; all such images have power. The world shall see that I am oathbound to rebuke those who dishonor my house; I have done so.” And he lapsed into his calm, dark silence once more.

  “Hey, look, pal. I mean, I’m sorry.”

  “I accept your apology; I shall take what wergild shall suit me at the time of my own choosing. The world shall see that he has consented.”

  Wil had the strange feeling that Galen was talking to someone else. Wil realized that Galen had finally cracked, that the hospital stay had unhinged him. It gave Wil a feeling of pleasure and relief; now he could get Emily to finally agree to cart the kid off to an institution, where he belonged.

  So now he smiled a sharp, hard smile, self-possession restored, and put his hand on the doorknob. “Galen, I really didn’t mean to wake you up, boy. Sorry.”

  “I accept again. A second wergild shall I take when so I will, as the world sees.”

  “Yeah, uh. But I didn’t think you could really fall asleep so quick. I wish I could conk off that quick, you know? But you get some shut-eye . . .”

  “I grant you your wish!” And Galen, with a kick of his legs, vaulted upright, off the bed. He stepped forward and took Wil by the elbow in a surprisingly strong grip. Galen’s unblinking gaze never wavered from Wil’s own.

  “Hey, uh . . .”

  Wil was pulled forward into the square of moonlight falling through the window. Galen had drawn a five-pointed star on the glass with a white crayon; the pentagonal shadow fell across Wil’s chest and face as he was pulled forward.

  “Stare into the Moon,” said Galen in a low, commanding tone, pointing to where the full moon hung above shadowy trees, in the perfect center of the five lines of the pentagram. “Do you see it?”

  “Yes . . .,” muttered Wil, his eyes wide and blank.

  “Her secret name is Sulva, and she is the queen of all night-magic, dreams, delusions, and shadow creatures. Have you never wondered at her sterility, her barren, airless plains of ash, her seas of frozen lava slag? What sin was done by the Adam and the Eve of that pale world that has been so much more severely punished than our own? Even the light reflected from her cold face brings madness. How much worse to walk her lifeless steppes and granite peaks? Yet I have flown there on a storm wind to wrest the five secret names which govern all lesser dreaming from the Black Masters of Uhnuman the Blind Ones serve. Behold this pentagram! Here is the gate to lesser dreaming; here the five names!”

  Galen pointed in turn at each of the angles of the star, whose white lines seemed to glow and shiver with the moonlight Wil stared into. “Morpheus! Phantasmos! Somnus! Oneiros! Hypnos! Each crown governs an aspect of the dreaming. Here is Morpheus, who casts instantly into sleep those caught within his web, as you are now instantly asleep, as you have wished.

  “Here is Phantasmos, who robs the judgment and makes all strange images seem familiar. Thus, nothing I do or ask shall seem odd or unfamiliar to you. You are convinced all things are as normal.

  “Here is Somnus, who governs men’s motive humors that they may not walk abroad while sleeping, whose power I now suspend. You are a somnab- ulator; talk and walk and move as if you were awake.

  “Here is Oneiros, governor of eidolons and images. By him, at times the sounds and sights of waking things descend into our dreams. I grant your eyes the sight of those things around you.

  “Here is Hypnos, president of memory. All your waking memories I grant to you. When you wake you will recall none of this.

  “The spell is sung, the deed is done. So mote it be. I take as the first wergild owed to me that you consent to this my woven spell and so become my slave. Say the words, ‘I consent.’ “

  Wil mumbled, “I consent.”

  “Spirits of the world, you have heard it!”

  Outside the window, an owl hooted three times, and Galen bowed.

  “Tell me your secret, inner name, that name you reveal to no one, which is the essence of your soul.”

  “Well,” said Wil, “when I was a kid, my Mom used to call me Winkie. When I was real small. Wee Willie Winkie. Gee, I hated that name. And the kids at school found out. . . and they said . . . they said . . .” Tears of embarrassment came to Wil’s eyes at the memory.

  “Quiet. Winkie, I must get a message to other men who live on this your earth, but I do not know the ways. Is there a post road or post house where a messenger might be had?”

  “Gee, kid, why not just use the telephone?”

  “Explain to me what this thing might be.”

  There were confusions surrounding this explanation, and around the explanations of the explanation. But eventually Galen said, “Now hear me. You have made the delightful discovery that your body is stronger than iron and will not be harmed. Moreover, you have on many occasions cast yourself off from high places, landed with a startling noise and cloud of dust, only to emerge entirely unhurt. It is a sport you enjoy in secret, for the long falls produce a type of giddiness like drunkenness, and you know many are jealous of your invulnerability and would stop you if they could, for no good reason, but simply for envy and spite. Now you are in poor humor, and you wish to find a tall steeple or cliffside to practice your art. Go now in all swiftness and do so, telling no one, lest they hinder your pleasure. As my second wergild I ask you to accomplish this thing. Go.”

  And Wil smiled and wished Galen a good night, and walked out of the room.

  Wilbur Randsom, was, in general, a happy man, happier than he deserved. Not only was he married to a beautiful woman, but he had discovered that his body was harder than iron, and that he could jump from clifftops without getting hurt. The only mar on his happiness was that she didn’t like it (and maybe she was jealous).

  And so when Wil walked out past Emily and Peter, he merely waved a cheerful hand at her questions, and strode off out the front door.

  12

  He Is Fey

  and

  Fated to Die

  I

  “Had a dopey look on his face,” grumbled Peter. “Dopier than usual, I mean. Something’s weird.”

  Emily was at the window. “He’s driving off in our car!” Her voice was angry.

  Emily turned in time to see Peter with that expression on his face she’d seen a thousand times before. It was an expression that said, this is too good an opportunity to miss. Peter loved backing out in the middle of an argument.

  Peter wheeled his way to the door and did not bother to answer when she shouted after him, “Where do you think you’re going? You always leave before finishing any discussion! Duty calls, is that it? And just what do you think you can do? You can’t run after him, can you?” And she said some other things as well.

  Then he was outside. It was pathetic to watch him through the window, to see how slowly and awkwardly he manipulated the special fork lift mechanism to maneuver his wheelchair into the back of the van. Peter had to stand, leaning with a cane in either hand, while
this was done. And by that time, Wil was so long gone that there was utterly no point for Peter to continue.

  And so, of course, he did. This time was no different than any other. Emily let the drape fall, blocking the view through the window. She didn’t want to see the same sad scene again, of Peter thinking he could overcome his handicap by stupid dogged persistence.

  The drape swung, and she caught a momentary glimpse of the van’s taillights, two red dots, vanishing in the distance down the driveway.

  Emily shivered, hugging herself, wondering why she felt so angry and afraid.

  A moment later, she heard a hoarse cry from down the hall. She went from a fast walk into a trot. Galen’s bedroom door was hanging open, and his bed was empty, but the noise had come from further down the hall, from the master bedroom.

  In that bedroom, a phone had spilled from the nightstand and lay in a tangle of cords on the carpet. Galen was kneeling across the room, fingers pointed toward the phone, face tense with fear. He held his hands in a strange gesture, middle fingers curled, pinkies and forefingers outthrust.

  From the receiver came a mechanical voice: “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and dial again.” And then a persistent warbling tone sang out, and Galen stiffened with fear.

  Emily walked over, picked up the phone, hung it up. Slowly she turned, her thoughts not showing on her face.

  “Galen, are you feeling okay?” she asked gently. “Would you like to lie down?”

  The young man stood, visibly shaken. “The voice was made by nothing alive. Even vampires sound in my ear more human; they once were living! I could hear no soul! No soul! No soul!”

  “Galen. . .?”

  He seemed to regain his self-possession; his face grew calm. “Mother, I need to make a telephone messenger carry a message to a man.”

  “Galen. . . ? You forgot how to use the telephone?” Gingerly, she extended the phone toward him.

  “Mother, really, it was nothing.”

  She wiggled the phone toward him. “No, go ahead. What number did you want?”

  Galen blinked. “Number?” (Azrael thought he had discovered the secret of the mechanism. It was, after all, shaped like a magic square. He had carefully, letter by letter, spelled out the name.)

  “If you don’t know it, ask the operator.” There was an edge of fear in Emily’s voice, and she was looking warily at Galen. “What city is he in?”

  “It is the capital of this country. I have forgotten the name. There is an obelisk overlooking a pool, and, in another place, a pentagon of defense wards the nation from all assault.”

  Emily raised the receiver, dialed a number, asked for operator assistance in Washington, D.C. Then she handed the receiver slowly to Galen. “Tell the lady who you want to talk to.”

  Galen put the phone to his ear, then pulled it away again. He gave a slow, incredulous laugh. Putting his hand to his face, he stared at the receiver, first through his forefinger and thumb, then forefinger and index finger, index finger and ring finger, and so on, as if the gaps between his fingers were some sort of microscope. There was a strange look of joy and triumph in his eyes. “There is a lodestone hidden in this mechanism, is there not?”

  Emily backed up. “You’re not Galen, are you?”

  The young stranger who looked like her son raised his dark and gleaming eyes to hers, a sinister smile on his lips. “There is, within this, iron which points at the North Star, is there not, madam?”

  “All speakers have magnets in them. Who the hell are you? How the hell did you get to look like my son? Where is he?”

  “All? All? They are commonplace here, then?” When he pulled at the mouthpiece, it came off into his hand, and a metal disk fell out into his palm.

  He straightened, holding the tiny metal membrane on high, and he laughed. “The most powerful of magical adjuncts! Most wondrous and rare! And they are commonplace? The influence in the lodestone reaches from my hand to the North Star. Anything within that reach is in my reach! No more hunting for dropped bits of hair or waiting to stab a shadow in a mirror! I have now a sword which reaches the ambit of heaven!”

  Emily turned and fled, running down the hall. The young stranger’s mocking voice said lightly, “Madam, do you think to outrun Polaris’ reach as lightly as you outran your conscience and wedding vows? Somnus! Bind the limbs of Emily with vapor!”

  She reached the main room when numbness made her arms and legs grow heavy. She knelt, she fell. It was a nightmare sensation, strangely familiar, knowing she was awake but unable to move.

  The young man came into the room, carrying a broomstick he had gotten from the hall closet, stepping over her as if she were so much baggage. The broomstick wiggled in his hand and pointed to the kitchen phone.

  He came back, holding the phone on its extension cord, and he took up a handful of long matches from the tall box on the mantelpiece of the fireplace.

  He knelt down near her and lit a match, staring in fascination at its little flame. With his eyes on the flame, not on her, he spoke. “Somnus grant you power of speech. Phantasmos suspend your judgment. As in a dream shall all things seem, not strange, but familiar, and you shall answer my questions. You will assist me in the ritual. There are many men who have sworn fealty to me in dream, men of power and substance, kings and barons. Now we shall see if they will bend knee loyally to me, now that their dreams come true. We will summon their voices into the room, and the flame shall tell me if they speak the truth. Will you help me call their voices here?”

  “Where is my son?” She thought her voice was too weak to be heard, as if she had only imagined, not spoken, the words. But he answered.

  “He is on the dark side of the moon, within the Hermitage of Anguish, where the Blind Ones offer up the pain of others as offering to hideous outer gods, Phaleg, Bethor, and Aratron. Do not despair, for I soon intend to be cased within my own flesh again; and I know the fairy-queen sends dreams (secretly, she deems, though I have discovered them) to summon your son’s rescuer. Ah! But do you not believe me?” And he smiled, and lit another long match, and began to bring the flame down closer to her eyes. “See?”

  II

  The road was narrow and wound up through thickly wooded hills. Naked branches, jagged with crowds of twigs, stood up in webbed silhouettes against the winter stars. Every now and again, the blackness of the scenery was broken by the faint porch light of a distant neighbor, or the glitter of moonlight off the rushing river-water below.

  Peter was hunched over the wheel of the van, watching the circles of light fleeing before him down the road, pushing heavy darkness ahead. He had seen Wil turn left out of the driveway; Wil had not headed toward the main road. No, in this direction, there were no turn offs before the reservoir.

  Rounding a turn where the road for a moment looked out across the river canyon, Peter caught a glimpse of headlights above him in the distance. Someone had parked on the dam near the pump house.

  Peter floored the accelerator, and the van wobbled around the narrow curve and hopped, groaning, across sudden rises and drops in the road. The trees here were thick, untended, and twigs scraped the roof and sides.

  Then the trees fell back to either side, and Peter’s view opened. Before him was the road that crossed the dam. To his right, the reservoir extended, cool and black beneath the stars. To his left, a sluice gate let a stream of rushing water plunge down the dam’s steep side into the river far below, making a noise like continuous thunder.

  Where the dam met the cliffside was a small copse of trees and brush. The ground here was at an alarming angle, before it plunged down in a sheer drop. Wil was leaning out over the drop, one hand flung up behind him, holding the bending branch end of a tree, gazing down raptly.

  Peter knew there was nothing underfoot here but a long fall into rock and shallow water.

  Peter drove closer, slowing, not wanting to startle Wil. The road let him get within several yards of Wil, no closer.

  A nursery rhyme
his father had taught him kept going through Peter’s mind, over and over:

  He dreams, despite that it is day;

  He seems awake: it is a lie;

  The wizard took his wits away,

  For he is fey and fated to die.

  The van crushed some smaller shrubs out of the way, but then there were trees, and Peter could get no closer. He opened the door and called out:

  “Hey, Wil, what you up to?” Peter fished under the passenger’s seat for his knee braces.

  Wil turned and waved with his free hand, a glassy stare and vacant grin on his face. “I was going to take a jump off a cliff side or tall steeple. You know, to clear my head. I’ve discovered my body is stronger than iron. It won’t hurt me. I’ve done it lots of times.” Then his witless smile turned into a frown of exaggerated worry: “Hey—you won’t tell Emily, will you?”

  Peter was clawing under the passenger seat for his second knee brace but could not find it. He called back: “ ‘Course not. But one thing first. Can you do me a favor?”

  “What’s that?” One of Wil’s feet was on the ground, the other was in midair, and the branch was swaying gently under Wil’s weight.

  Peter leaned out, put both canes on the ground, fell forward, catching himself with the strength of his powerful shoulders. He grunted. “Hey— you can see my license plate from there, can’t you?”

  Wil looked reluctantly back up from the drop. “Huh? Sure, I can see it plain as day.”

  Peter’s shoulder’s surged, and he took a step forward, dragging his useless legs through the dirt and brush behind him. “Read it!”

  “What?”

  Another step. The slope was beginning to angle downward dangerously. “Read the God damn letters on my license plate.”

  “Uh. . .”

  Another step. There was a thicket of branches before him, a short drop, then Wil. Then a long drop. Peter was on precarious ground already.

  “Isn’t that funny, you forgot how to read?” Peter shouted at him. “Why is that, do you suppose? Think about it, man!”