JULIEN

II

Chapter 64

Hidden element

The two castaways didn't get a lot of sleep. By now they were feeling quite hungry and very thirsty, and they found themselves thinking more and more about dew-covered mugs of raal. The fact that they had no way of measuring time, combined with the constant and unchanging light, made it worse for them: they felt as if they were imprisoned out of time and with no way of knowing when they might be released.

They needed to find some means of getting back to the Known Universe, and Ambar knew that they had to do it quickly, while they were still capable of thinking coherently and before the lack of food and water started affecting their ability to reason. So, after he and Yülien had both tried in vain to dissolve the box, or even just to leave it, he started doing what he was best at: thinking.

By this stage he was fairly sure that what had happened to them was as a result of his thinking about complex mathematical models. He knew enough about the Guides and the Outside, and indeed about the nature of space itself, to work out that being in touch with his mental processes had triggered something in Yülien, something not unlike a normal jump but in a direction which had not previously existed, or rather, which had not previously been detected. Although he supposed it possible that previous such jumps had taken place, but that the jumpers had never returned...

I'm going to try to reproduce what I was thinking when we jumped, he said. Don't do anything: just pay attention to what's going on inside my head.

But what if it makes us jump again?

That's what I'm hoping for. If it works, maybe I can try to find a way to change the direction of the whole system.

I'm scared, Ambar.

So am I, but if we don't do something we're going to die here. So...

All right.

Ambar took a deep breath and, as he had learned from the Guides who had taught him, put himself into the computing trance which was the state which the Guides – lacking an opposable thumb and so unable to write – had used for thousands of years to manipulate the symbols they used in their computations.

As he juggled the vectors and tensors in his mind, trying to get them into exactly the correct configuration, he saw clearly among the familiar elements that comprised the tools of his Art the spontaneous appearance of something new, a factor which he had never noticed before. In the same way that a chemist might notice the formation of a new substance that he hadn't expected, Ambar noticed the presence of a tensor of a hitherto unknown nature, but one which was nonetheless the product of the well-organised structure that he himself had created.

He hesitated. Previously – at least until the most recent unfortunate adventure – nothing he had thought up had had any adverse consequences. He had been free to follow his computations to the nth degree without fearing any negative repercussions except the possible demolition of whatever theory he was pursuing. But here he felt sure that he was looking at the element that had caused the catastrophe, and he was afraid that manipulating it could make things infinitely worse than they already were.

On the other hand, it was quite possibly the key to their escape from wherever it was that they were currently trapped...

He decided to continue to build his mental construct, but much more slowly and carefully than he had in the Palace, adding just one element at a time.

As he had been instructed, Yülien simply immersed himself in his friend's mind without doing or reacting to anything.

And then it happened again: they more or less jumped once more, even though it had very little in common with a standard Guide's jump.

oo0oo

This time Ambar was prepared, and although it took a huge effort he was able to maintain the configuration in his mind. The horrible sensation of being everywhere and nowhere and the sickening feeling of falling combined to make him nauseous, but he desperately needed to be able to scan in greater detail that key element whose presence had previously eluded him. And in order to do that he had to remain calm and do nothing. Space, time and various other nameless attributes and dimensions swirled around them, scattering his self-awareness in the way that a reflection in the water of a pond is scattered and reformed by a light breeze.

Time wasn't actually passing: instead it had shattered into an infinite number of simultaneous events, utterly at variants with the way it flowed when seen in Real Space, and even Yülien, who had some experience of the atemporal chaos of the Outside, was completely lost and was soon just clinging to the only thing that was familiar and comforting: the presence of his friend.

And then, for an instant, he saw things as Ambar did. He saw clearly what Ambar was concentrating on: that alien element which was interfering so mysteriously with the delicate and well-constructed architecture of his mathematical construction. And although Yülien was unable to follow, or even begin to decipher, the complexities of Ambar's construction; he recognised immediately the familiar object that his companion was concentrating on: indeed, any Guide would have recognised it as the equivalent of an inner compass which, even when there was no physical reference point available, would show the direction and sense of the 'push' he was giving.

When Yülien had that flash of recognition Ambar felt it immediately, and the strange element revealed itself as a complex but logical system of hyperspatial coordinates that fit perfectly into the much larger system he had imagined. It offered a way for them to gain some control over their current uncontrolled drift, but although he saw clearly what they had to do Ambar didn't feel equipped to handle it.

You'll have to help me, he said.

Just show me what you want me to do.

In fact it turned out to be less difficult than Ambar had feared. In their current state of semi-osmosis he just had to want to accomplish an action for Yülien to feel the need to do it, completely intuitively. It only took them ten minutes of objective time to put a stop to a lot of the effects that were preventing them from concentrating. If Julien had been there he would have compared what they were doing to trying to tune in an old TV, on which an image would appear little by little from a muddle of confused lines and electric snow.

The first positive result of their 'frequency tuning' was that, just as images multiplied by optical effects can overlap and eventually become one, so the multiple and fluctuating localisations of their point of view merged into a single point of view which was that of what they considered to be 'I'.

They could see that they were in an environment which had no real meaning, but one at least in which their senses could cling to basic notions such as 'up', 'down', 'close' and 'far'. However they didn't 'see' in the conventional sense, using their eyes to receive and focus light: instead they saw the way Guides see in the Outside, using a sort of altered perception in which colours that are not really colours address senses other than sight. But they were only marginally interested in their kaleidoscopic 'landscape'. Now that they felt a bit calmer they were able to perceive something far more worrying: they were not alone!

oo0oo

Chapter 65

Good news and bad

This chunk of rock, pummelled by the sea and lashed by a squall of rain that threatened to turn into a full-blown storm, barely deserved to be called an islet. It took about ten minutes to walk from one end of its barren rock surface to the other, and the only people who had ever taken any interest in it were the fishermen who had previously come to harvest the rich shallows full of fish but who now avoided the accursed place along with the rest of the archipelago.

Each wearing a protective suit, Julien and Subadar had jumped onto the target-klirk left there for them by Wenn Hyaï. Julien had the various steps of the summons to a Neh-kyong clear in his mind and he accomplished them flawlessly while Subadar stood off to one side, ready to help him if necessary.

Immersed in the peculiar trance which gave him access to the disconcerting universe of the Neh-kyongs, Julien soon started to notice the presence of entities attracted by his call, and he was again conscious of being investigated by them rather in the way that a dog sniffs around something new, just as he had been in Tchiwa Ri Kor. And once again a Neh-kyong approached him.

“Human-Julien Berthier-Emperor of the R'hinz ka aun li Nügen-Lord of the Nine Worlds-Unique Guardian of the Powers and Gifts. Whom do you call?”

“I am calling a Neh-kyong, that he might take possession of a part of the World of Dvârinn, to be his for ever.”

“Of which place do you speak? The place where you stand is of little interest.”

“This place is only a small part of what I have to offer.”

“Indeed – I see that you are proposing a group of what you call 'islands'.”

“Yes – the Nyatchoung Lings, to be exact. I offer it as a gift, asking no return except that you should forbid access to it by any creature of this world, dead or alive. I offer this entire archipelago and the sea around it, to cover an area five times as wide as the length of the largest island.”

“I will accept that gift if you have the power to bestow it.”

“I do have that power.”

“Then I pledge to respect your conditions. But I see that you also expect something more of me.”

It was theoretically possible to build a mental wall strong enough to keep out the curiosity of a Neh-kyong, but Julien had nothing to hide.

“That's true,” he said, “but it isn't a condition of the deal. The Nyatchoung Lings are yours, whether you agree to help me or not.”

“The Neh-kyongs rarely grant favours.”

“I know. It is a personal favour, and I'm ready to repay it any way you wish.”

“That will not be necessary. The ones you are looking for are not in what you call our world.”

That came as a nasty surprise, and it shook Julien so badly that for a moment he almost lost the mental stability which kept him connected to the Reality of the Neh-kyong. He didn't doubt for one moment that if his friends had been in that plane of reality the Neh-kyong would have been aware of their presence. It looked as if the last door of enquiry had just slammed in his face.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Human-Julien Berthier-Emperor of the R'hinz ka aun li Nügen-Lord of the Nine Worlds-Unique Guardian of the Powers and Gifts, you should not consider that those you are seeking are definitively lost. There are other places, other... universes. Other systems of reality. They may be in a place where even a Neh-kyong cannot perceive their presence.”

“I hope you're right.”

“I am stating a fact.”

“Good. Now I think it is time for us to seal our agreement.”

“Then I declare that this place, called Nyatchoung Ling, is henceforth my exclusive domain, and that when you and your companion have left it nobody shall come within its limits or, should they enter by force or by stealth, leave it again, either dead or alive. Chaos is our witness, and I trade a Drop of your blood for an Instant of my life.”

And, as had happened with Tchiwa Ri Kor, Julien was permitted for an instant to see the world as the Neh-kyong saw it and to experience a joy more devastating than an ocean of fire, a happiness which was as unfit to be tasted by a human mind as strong liquor is unfit for a newborn infant.

oo0oo

Once they got back to the Palace Julien reported the results of his transaction to his friends, and while they were delighted to learn that the Nyatchoung Lings were no longer a threat, the announcement of Ambar and Yülien's complete disappearance came as a nasty shock. Until now nobody had wanted to face up to such a terminal possibility.

Julien, said Xarax, Xarax does not believe that they are dead. Xarax does not feel them, but he does not think that they are dead.

That Xarax had slipped back into his old habit of referring to himself in the third person indicated clearly how troubled he was. And although Julien trusted the haptir, he felt that such a tenuous hope was hardly comforting.

oo0oo