"Because I'm not pure enough," Noah said.
Joe found it in him to laugh, even under these grim circumstances. "And I am?" he said.
"You're Sapas Humana, Afrique. Pure Sapas Humana."
"And the 'shu like that?"
"I believe they will."
"And if they don't?" Joe said, coming close to Noah now. "What happens?"
"Death happens," he said.
"Simple as that?"
"Simple as that."
Joe looked at the door. Like the wall into which it was set it possessed a physical beauty that took his breath away. What it lacked was a handle or a keyhole.
"If I open the door and don't get killed, you follow. Is that the idea?"
"Always so swift, my friend," Noah said. "Yes, that's the idea."
Joe glanced back at the door, and a wave of curiosity rose up in him to know what lay on the other side. He had looked into the eyes of the
'shu twice now, once on the shore and once in the weed-bed, and each time had felt touched by a mystery that he desperately wanted to solve.
Perhaps he could do it here. Concealing his eagerness, he turned back to Noah.
"Before we go in," he said, "answer my question."
"Ask it.,'
"I want to know what it is the families have been arguing about all these years. I want to know what's made them kill each other." Noah said nothing. "You promised me," Joe prompted him.
"Yes," he said at last. "I did."
"So tell me."
Noah shrugged. "What does it matter now?" he said to himself. "I'll tell you He looked back towards the battlefield once, then, his voice lowered to a whisper he said: "The dynasty of Ezso Aetherium believe that the lad exists because Sapas Humana dreamed them into being. That the lad are the darkness in the collective soul of your species."
"And your family?"
"We believe the other way about," Noah said.
It took Joe a little time to realize what he was being told. "You think we're something the lad Uroboros dreamed up."
"Yes, Afrique. That's what we believe."
"Who invented this crap?" Noah shrugged. "Who knows where wisdom comes from?" "That's not wisdom," Joe said. "It's fucking stupidity." "Why do you say so?" "Because I'm not a dream." "If you were, why do you suppose you'd know it?" Noah said.
Joe didn't try to get his head around that notion. He simply threw up his hands and said, "Let's just get the hell on with this," and turning his back on Noah he pressed against the door. It didn't swing open, but nor did he remain on the outside of it. Instead he felt a sudden ache through his body, almost like an electric shock, and the next moment he was standing in a buzzing darkness on the inside of the temple. He waited for the ache to subside, and then looked round for Noah. There was a motion in the murk behind him, but he was by no means sure it was his fellow trespasser, and before he could look again he heard somebody call his name.
He looked ahead of him, and saw that the dark ground at the center of the chamber was glittering, the light coming down upon it from a round hole in the roof. Joe crossed the floor to study the phenomenon better, and as he did so realized that he was looking at a pool, perhaps twelve feet across.
It was filled with Quiddity's waters, he had no doubt of that. He could smell the piquancy of the dream-sea, and his skin tingled with the subtle energies it gave off. But as he came to the edge of the pool he had further proof that this was indeed an annex of Quiddity. There, a little way beneath the surface, lurked a 'shu so large it could barely be containe in the pool, but was wrapped around itse in a tangle of encrusted tentacles, from the nest of which one of its eyes-which was from rim to rim a yard across, or morestared up and out, gleaming gold. Its gaze was not upon Joe, at least not directly. The creature was looking up through the roof of the temple, into the roiling wall of the invader.
"It's holding the lad Joe breathed. "My God. My God. It's holding the lad." He had no sooner spoken than he heard Noah from somewhere in the dark. "Do you feel it?" he said. "Do you feel the power in this place?"
"Oh yeah," Joe said softly. It was so palpable it almost felt like an act of aggression. His flesh ran with sweat, and every bruise and wound his body had sustained-back to the beating he'd taken from Morton Cobb-ached with fresh vigor, as though it had just been sustained. But still he wanted to get closer to the pool; to see what the lad was seeing, when it gazed into the 'shu's majestic eye. He took another step towards the water, his body wracked with shudders.
"Speak to it," Noah said. "Tell it what you want."
"It doesn't matter what we want," Joe said. "We're nothing here. Do you understand? We're nothing at all."
"Damn you, Afrique," Noah said, his voice closer to Joe now. "I've done all the suffering I intend to do. I want to live in glory when the lad's passed by." He drew closer still. "Now put your hand in the ivater-"
"What happened to all that talk about being buried in your own country?"
"I'd forgotten how fine it was to be alive. Especially here. There is no finer place in your world or mine than this city. And I want to be the one who heals it, after the cataclysm. I want to be its protector."
"You want to own it," Joe said.
"Nobody could ever own b'Kether Sabbat." "I think you're ready to try," Joe said.
"Well that's between me and the city, isn't it?" Noah said, moving to press the blade against Joe's back. "Go on now," he said. "Touch the waters for me."
"And if I don't?"
"Your body will touch the waters, whether there's life in it or not."
,it's holding the lad-"
"Very possibly." "If we disturb it@,
"The lad finishes its business here and moves on. It's going to happen sooner or later. If you make it sooner then you've changed the course of history, and maybe got yourself power at the same time. That doesn't sound so terrible, does it?" He pushed the blade a little harder. "It's what you came here for, remember?"
Joe remembered. The pain in his balls was a perfect reminder of why he'd made this journey: to never be powerless again. But in the Process of coming here@f seeing all that he'd seen, and learning all that he'd learned-the pursuit of power had come to seem like a very petty thing. He'd had love, which was more than most people got in their lives. He'd had physical pleasures. He'd known a woman whose smile made him smile, and whose sighs made him sigh, and whose arms had been an utter comfort to him.
they would not come again, those smiles, those sighs, and it was a worse ache than the sum of his wounds to think of that, but life hadn't cheated him, had it? He could die, now, and not feel his time had been wasted.
"I don't... want power," he said to Noah.
11 Liar," said the face in the darkness.
"You can say what you want," Joe replied. "I know what's true and that's all that matters."
The words seemed to dismay Noah. He made a little moan, and without another word of warning drove his blade into Joe's gut. Oh God, but it hurt! Joe let out a sob of pain, which only inspired Noah to press the blade home. Then he twisted it, and pulled it out. Joe entertained no hope of doing his killer damage in return. He'd invited this, after his fashion. He put his hands to the wound, hot blood running through his fingers and slapping on the ground between his legs, then he started to turn his back on Noah. The darkness was becoming piebald; gray blotches appearing at the corners of his sight. But he wanted to look at the Ishu one last time before death took him. Just to meet its golden gaze...
He started to turn, pressing both hands against the wound now, to keep his body from emptying. There was still pain, but it was becoming more remote from him with every heartbeat. He had just a little time.
"Hold on... " he murmured to himself.
He had the gaze in the corner of his eye now, and it was vast. A ring of gold and a circle of darkness. Beautiful in its perfection and in its simplicity. Round and round, gleaming gold, uninterrupted, unspoiled, glorious, glorious...