They heard the ambulance siren, but Lorraine’s body began to twitch.
“She’s dying,” Ra Mahleiné said.
The ambulance drove up, and the medics began resuscitation: oxygen, massaging the heart. It didn’t help. The physician pronounced death from internal bleeding, and the body was removed. On the sidewalk a pool of darkening blood remained.
“What was her Name?” asked Ra Mahleiné.
“Aeriella. It fits. Be carefuclass="underline" you have the same Name, and the explosion isn’t over.”
“You do too.”
“I? David Death?” He shook his head.
He helped his wife up, put an arm around her waist, and led her inside. Through her clothes he felt how thin she was, and hard, like a swollen belly. He said nothing, and had she asked him a question then, he would have been unable to speak. He understood that he held a treasure that was lost to him.
“You know, that blow, I remember it only generally. The details began only when you woke. Before that, also, I felt no pain… Please, read,” she said as he put a blanket around her.
In her nightshirt she looked even more pathetic.
“Your Little Manul will go to sleep like a good girl and wake up strong and healthy. Just start reading.”
This absurd idea she has got into her head, he thought. He also noticed what little impression Lorraine’s death had made on her. Sighing, obeying, he reached for the book.
106
To sum up. I have two formulas.
The number of Lands = (n + 2)2.
The number of Significant Names = 12(n + 1).
Plus: two sequences of numbers for which I have found no rule of progression, though I am certain that a rule exists.
Consider, Dave: since n is merely the number of the world chosen by me, it should be possible… But surely now you see it. If not, then, amigo, you have concrete inside your skull and no amount of nose picking will help. The solution lies under the folded card…
A good thing that his notes are so complete, thought Gavein. If he had jotted down only a few numbers, his ideas would all have perished with him.
Though thinking this was a capitulation.
The folded index card had been glued shut, for security, by some of the brain matter Zef alluded to. Gavein unstuck it. The card read:
The solution is simplicity itself. I get rid of a constant by changing the numbering. For example, if you take N = n + 1, then
The number of Lands = (N + 1)2.
The number of Significant Names = 12N.
Both formulas become prettier, for they are simpler.
So the world of Gary and Daphne will have the number N = 1 + 1 = 2, the world of Jaspers and company N = 3, the world of Ozza and Hobeth N = 4, and the world of Jack and Linda N = 5.
By changing the numbering, one of the constants drops out of my terrific formulas, but the question now arises: What world has the number N = 1?
Reading Zef’s notes was annoying: his facility in manipulating formulas, his substitution of variables, his quick conclusions. But possibly the kid had thought things through solidly and was recording only the best fruits of his labor…
It came to me in a flash! If you can’t guess which world, I’ll write it out for you. Here is what we know about that world from the formulas: it has 22, that is, 4 Lands, and in it there are 121, or 12, Significant Names. It’s our world! The four Lands: Lavath, Davabel, Ayrrah, and Llanaig. The Significant Names are: Aeriel, Udarvan, Flued, Flomir—the Names of Element; Vorior, Plosib, Murhred, Sulled—the Names of Conflict; and Yacrod, Aktid, Intral, Myzzt—the Names of Man.
Nest of Worlds has been nested in our world according to the same rules of nesting obeyed by the worlds that follow in the sequence. The two versions of Nest of Worlds aren’t two trees, as I thought. No, they are two branches that have grown from a common trunk, from the World!
Behold what a powerful instrument is the ability to juggle constants in a formula. It has revealed the hidden idea of the author of the book, the book I’m reading!
One final point, a nut that still requires gnawing.
If the World has number N = 1, then according to the author’s system the number of books in the successive nested worlds for N = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 will be: 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. Because there exist two versions of Nest of Worlds.
I am fascinated by this new sequence: it is powerful. I know—I feel intuitively—that it contains some relation. This began with numbers, but I still do not know where it is leading. Any ideas, Dave?
107
Gary went out for beer.
The district in which he lived was very quiet. The traffic basically stopped when the sun set. There weren’t many pedestrians during the day, and at night no one ventured out. The liquor store wasn’t far. He returned at a slow walk, hauling a plastic shopping bag filled with cans.
Three men came around the corner, in a hurry.
When they passed him, two of the men grabbed him by the arms, and the third punched him in the stomach.
Taken completely by surprise, Gary couldn’t defend himself. A yellow light flashed over and over before his eyes. They were beating him professionally. Each blow fell just as his head cleared from the one before and just before he was able to offer any resistance. The blows to the chin took away his consciousness, the blows to the liver took away his will to fight.
They didn’t kick him when he was down. One pulled his head up by his hair.
“If you want another helping, keep on about the red Amido,” the man said, his face covered with a nylon stocking.
The assailants took the bag full of beer. Gary made it home with difficulty. At first he could hardly walk—he staggered—but then it was better. His teeth were loose, but none of them fell out.
Daphne came in the afternoon, worried by his absence. He couldn’t swallow, his jaw hurt so much. At least his teeth stopped wiggling.
When Gary reported the beating to the police, Cukurca didn’t believe it. The story of the threat that had been made brought an ironic smile to his face. But at least this time the policeman wrote it down in the blotter.
Gary was furious. The lazy bastard, he thought, doesn’t want to complicate his life so close to retirement.
Later he realized that his assailants had beat him with great skill, leaving no marks—no black eyes, no split lips, no bloody nose. Cukurca could think, looking at Gary, that here was a nutcase who had made the whole thing up.
108
The salesgirl at Morley’s didn’t remember a red Amido or any buyers in green tunics. She gave Gary and Daphne a hard look. Why? There were no bruises on Gary’s face, and Daphne’s freckles were not that unusual.
They made the rounds of the commission shops methodically. A lot of furniture resembled what the Bolyas had had, but it resembled the furniture of many families, including Gary and Daphne’s. There was nothing clear, no evidence.