“Nor do I, really,” said Benayu. “But it’s in Fodaro’s equations, so I knew it had to be like that.”
“Right. Had to leave something behind to come back to—know about that too?”
“Jex had told Maja there had to be something,” said Saranja.
“Worked it out for myself. Made a couple of little dollies, put one in my egg, sent other off to the oyster-beds. All ready now. Lot of weird creatures had shown up other side of the barrier while I was at it. Knew something was up, I reckoned. Got inquisitive.”
“They were feeding on the energy seeping through the touching point from what you were doing,” said Jex.
“Right again. Wish I’d had you there to tell me what’s what. Saved a lot of trouble. Anyway, took over one of these creatures, way Maja did with Sponge here. Great lump of a thing. Lots of eyes.”
“A fufu. More intelligent than it appears.”
“Take your word for it. Got it to pick the egg up and ferry me around. Used the ring to work back through time, find out where it came from, first place. Tricky work, different rope from the one I knew.”
“There are two dimensions of time there, which have to fit with the other five dimensions, which are also different.”
“No idea about that. Still, found where the ring was made—when in time, where on the rope. Must’ve been blind luck, but I thought that meant I’d got it all sorted. Bad mistake. Nothing special about the place I could see, but the whatchamacallit, fufu, didn’t want to go near it.”
“You had reached a dimensional node, a point at which the seven dimensions lock themselves together to hold the structure of the universe firm. Considerable secondary forces are generated, which could have been used in the construction of the ring. Proximity to such points arouses sensations of extreme anxiety in the creatures of my universe.”
“Second mistake. Tried putting it to sleep. Shouldn’t’ve been a problem, but soon as I got one lot of eyes shut another lot opened.”
“That is how a fufu sleeps. Serially.”
“Know next time. Didn’t have anything to spare to hold the creature hanging around when it was crazy to be off. Had to let it go.
“Problem was, couldn’t have the ring unmake itself there—place it was made, time it was made. Do that, there’d be no ring, so no Tilja story. You wouldn’t be here. Had to set it up there to destroy itself—only place I could have done that—then forward into the future, beyond the time when I came in, time now. Leave it there, all set to send me back to time now, and then unmake itself when I give the word. Pick up another creature, give the word, out through the touching point into my own world, before anything happened.”
“Let me understand you. The ring cannot be destroyed in your universe, because it was made from outside the time of your universe. So you were planning to use it to travel to some time in the future of both universes…”
“Didn’t get it they were that different.”
“Yes, very different. And then you were going to arrange for the ring to destroy itself at the dimensional node where it was made in that universe, but not to do so until you had used it to return to the time you had come from in both universes, which you assumed would remain identical with each other, and escaped into your own universe?”
“That’s about it.”
“It is just as well you failed. The convulsion at a dimensional node would have caused a major change in the structure of that universe, with unpredictable results in other universes, including at the least a major irruption of demons into this one.”
“Bad as that?”
“Yes.”
“Doesn’t bear thinking about.”
They sat in silence and thought about it. To Maja the dismaying thing wasn’t the chance-averted disaster—that seemed so remote as to be unimaginable—but that the Ropemaker, who she had been vaguely assuming knew almost everything and could do almost anything, could have come so close to such a blunder. Even going backward and forward in time hadn’t warned him.
“Wonder I’m scared of the thing?” said the Ropemaker. “Too dangerous to have around. Got to get rid of it. Beyond me. No time, anyway. Think you could do it with these equations of yours, Benayu?”
Benayu shook his head.
“We’ve done the first part of what we came to do,” he said. “Now I’m going to destroy the Watchers and then I’m going back to shepherding. I’ll show you how Fodaro’s equations work, if that’d help.”
“And you’ve got to get Maja and Ribek back to the Valley,” said Saranja. “She can’t do it the way we came. It’d kill her.”
The Ropemaker stared at Maja, his face unreadable.
“Not enough time,” he muttered, as if he too had been in the same state as she was, just a tired old man.
Yes, thought Maja. I’m very close to the edge. She could sense the coming fall, her almost weightless body floating down into darkness. Won’t be long now. No time.
“Well, you’re going to have to make time,” snapped Saranja. “You can use that ring of yours, can’t you? Look, Ribek. You can take Rocky. He’ll be quicker than Levanter. I’ll leave the wings on him. It’ll only take…”
She didn’t finish the sentence. She knew too. Not enough time.
“Ribek,” Maja whispered. He looked enquiringly down at her. “He’s got time to tell us how the story ended. How did he get himself stuck?”
The Ropemaker’s whole mood changed when Ribek passed the message on. He laughed.
“Time for that,” he said. “First bit was the tricky bit, setting the ring up to unmake itself. Managed it in the end. Rest should have been easy. Relaxed a bit, maybe. Bad mistake. Came forward, reached time now, where I came in. Uh-uh, there I was, coming in again, going back again, setting the ring up to unmake itself. Then forward, time now, and same again. Still got ring, no memory of where I’d just been. Went forward again. And again. And again…
“Didn’t know it was happening. All fresh every time. Then somebody spoke my name. Farmyard long way off, horse, roc feathers, hair from my head. Forgot about it next time round. Same stupid business, over and over and over.
“Happened again. Still long way off. Mountain pasture, sheep, same hair, roc feathers. Big convulsion close by me, connected with other place. Couldn’t make it out.”
“My selves in both universes were adversely affected by the magical overload emanating from the utterance of your name.”
“Uh-huh. Remembered first time for a moment, then forgot ’em both starting next time round, remembered ’em halfway through. Got an idea what was up. Forgot and remembered that too.
“Happened again. Had to be a while later because it was someplace else again. Hilltop above the sea. Big magic, dragons, burning city, flying battle-wagons, monster storm, convulsion close by, same rum connection. Jex here, of course. Roc feathers, hair—got it this time. The Valley. Urlasdaughters and Ortahlsons, coming to look for me…
“Then the same stupid cycle again, remembering and forgetting. Tried to think about it in the remembering bits, pick up where I’d left off, get through to you somehow. Frustrating, forgetting and forgetting. Just one glimpse, once. Doorway, kid standing far side, watching me—you, Maja?”
“Yes, but there was a Watcher there on the hillside, looking for you. I shouted at him to stop him seeing the doorway.”
“Felt that. Got us both clear somehow. Didn’t want to risk it again. Big help, all the same. Remembered longer each time round. Same again when you found my dolly at the oyster-beds, again when Saranja called my name from inside the egg. Still that last little bit of forgetting each time I started again. Still couldn’t break right out, not till Maja barked my name right there, close outside my egg. That did it.