“Got it,” he muttered, pulling. “Here you are, Jay. Return it to the one from whom it was stolen.”
Jay accepted the item Ambry extended to him. It was a circuit board about the size of a large belt buckle, its workings protected by a clear covering that showed a few scratches.
Then Ambry stepped back and patted the tubes again. The purring sound grew louder until all who stood within the vast room could feel their bones vibrating. As they watched, the enormous machine diminished into something about the size of a cello. Its character changed as well, color fading until it was a mass of crystal and platinum, roughly square.
“Alice?” Ambry’s voice sounded strange. “Give Lydia my love.”
“Aren’t you coming with us?” she said. “We came all this way!”
“I’d like to,” Ambry said, and now his voice was clearly not the same, become instead lighter, the rhythms pedantic, “but I have my own role to play in the events to come.”
Before their eyes, he underwent a metamorphosis, his shoulders becoming slightly stooped, his hair touched with grey, the lines on his face speaking of wisdom earned at the price of pain. A scar ran from the top of his grizzled head across his face, down his throat, and vanished into the neckline of Ambry’s shirt (which fit somewhat more loosely now). No one doubted that it continued to the sole of his left foot.
When he bent to pick up the crystal and platinum device, they saw that he limped.
“Goodbye, for now. I’m going to stand in the way of Creation,” the Master/the One Who Waits said. “I look forward to seeing you all there.”
THIRTEEN
“Reese Jordan?”
“Yes?”
“How do you feel today?”
“As well as a man of my years can expect to feel. I hurt everywhere— even my aches have aches. Are you a new doctor? I’m afraid I don’t recognize you.”
“I am not precisely a doctor, but I believe I have a cure for what ails you.”
“There is no cure for old age, lady. Sid and his pals keep trying, but there’s just no way around it. Eventually, the body quits.”
“For some people that doesn’t need to be the end.”
“Some people? What?”
“Some people have more than one existence—you are one of these. In the creed of Virtu you are known as the Guide. I can make it possible for your awareness to be translated into that of your mythology.”
“I can see how that would work—in theory. Who are you?”
“You might say that I’m an old myth myself, come calling on a failing colleague.”
“You might. It’s a tidy way of not answering my question.”
“Suffice to say that I have the power to do what I say. When your body fails, your memories, knowledge, and abilities can be translated to merge with the myth that your actions engendered in Virtu.”
“Sounds pretty nice—though I didn’t know that I had generated a myth.”
“Three Veriteans did so at the time of the Genesis Scramble: you, Warren Bansa, and John D’Arcy Donnerjack.”
“John’s dead. Didn’t anyone think to make him this offer?”
“We might well have. The Engineer would have been invaluable to us, but he walled himself away from Virtu and his old rival, the Lord of Deep Fields, slew him.”
“Didn’t know his jurisdiction extended to the Verite.”
“It does not, in the usual sense, but he can manipulate electronic forces and Donnerjack made the mistake of surrounding himself with such… but why am I telling you this?”
“Because you want something from me.”
“I thought I was offering you something—extended life and a chance to be embodied with your myth.”
“You want something. Why else come now? I’ve been following the news. All through Virtu there are rumblings of change. Genü loci have been slain. Armies are being formed and powerful forces move.”
“For one who rarely leaves Caltrice’s site, you have gathered much.”
“I’m like Merlin trapped in Nimue’s spell—but I still hear what is going on. Poetic imagery aside, what do you want, Lady with the Long Green Hair? What is the price of my immortality?”
“I want the head of Jay Donnerjack. He wronged me—stole something from my keeping.”
Reese chuckled. “You want the head of my pupil, the son of my old friend? Why not take it yourself? You are powerful, Myth Come Visiting.”
“I am, but there are certain protocols I must observe.”
“Yes, I suppose that the Great Earthmother would have trouble slaying a young man who is Death’s protege. The Lord of the Lost would not help in such a matter. And your strength is creation—not destruction.”
“Have you been toying with me, Reese Jordan?”
“No, but a certain small knowing came upon me as we spoke. John’s strength was always the making of things; mine has been the theory. I have heard many strange tales over the years and Sid has always had a wondering respect for me.”
“You have been toying with me!”
“As you wish, Lady Mother. As tempting as I find your offer, I will not betray Jay to you. He is my student, but more than that, he is my friend.”
“I warn you, Reese Jordan, I have taken steps to extend my influence over life into death. You could make no worse enemy than me.”
“Perhaps not, but death—whether heralded by the moire or in the more usual style—is something I have become resigned to. I cannot say that I will welcome it, but I accept its inevitability.”
“You are an arrogant bastard, Reese Jordan.”
“Arrogant? Proudly so, but I knew my parents. Can you say the same?”
A flash of too-brilliant green light, a scream of rage, the sound of an old man chuckling.
In a shower of strange attractors, the Brass Babboon came for them. With very little discussion, it had been agreed that Alice, Drum, and Virginia would continue to assist Jay. Now, as soon as the improbable train thrust its leering face through the interface that guarded the highest levels from profane intrusions, they hurried aboard the club car.
“Where to, Jay?” the Brass Babboon called. Already the train was gathering speed, whipping out of the plains of Meru into a neighboring site. “Deep Fields?”
“No,” Jay said, surprising everyone. “Castle Donnerjack. Can you get us to the Great Stage?”
“Sure.”
There was a loud noise, rather like a large paper bag exploding. Outside the windows, a pebbly hail in shades of red and pink began to fall. Scissor blades snapped.
“Do you need help, B.B.?”
“There’s some interference, but I can handle it so far. I’ll holler if I need someone.”
Sticky fog began to spread around the train, obscuring the hail.
“Are you certain?”
“Oh, yeah, this is fun! Get something to eat, set your plans, and sleep if you can. I’ll give a wake-up call.”
“I guess we should do what he says,” Alice said. “Jay, do you mind explaining why we’re going to Castle Donnerjack? From what Virginia said, the Lord of Deep Fields is under attack. Don’t you plan to help him?”
“I do,” Jay said. “Put your order into the kitchen while I explain.
“Ever since Virginia told us about Earthma’s peculiar child and what she intended for it, I’ve been considering how we could help. My concern was taking us into a battle between what are essentially forces of entropy, breakdown, decay, whatever you want to call it. Whichever way I looked at it, we were all pretty vulnerable.”
“You and Dubhe most of all,” Drum said thoughtfully, “since you’re both wearing all the existence you have.”