‘You’re not indispensable,’ Caldason appended. ‘You’ve told me often enough that nobody is.’
Karr returned his attention to him. ‘I don’t have the stamina I used to. My brain’s all right, more or less, but once I had energy to spare, and now…well, it’s just not there when I need it. Getting old’s a bastard, Reeth.’
Caldason had never heard Karr utter an oath before, even a mild one. ‘I know a bit about growing older. In a way.’
Realisation dawned. ‘Of course. Sorry. I don’t think of you
that way.’ He gave a little laugh. ‘It’s hard to come to terms with the idea that you’re older than me.’
‘Imagine how I feel. But you’re right. Age takes people and twists them out of shape. They look in a mirror and start seeing a stranger. It’s life’s last great act of treachery. I’ve seen it happen to so many. By rights, it should have happened to me long since. You’ve no idea how hard it is, Karr, watching the people around you disfigured by the years, before they wither and die.’
‘I can see why you shun attachments.’
‘But it’s not always possible. Sometimes you can’t help being drawn in.’
‘That’s the thing about people, Reeth. The more you’re with them, the more you can’t help caring. Tell me…’
‘What?’
‘In my head I’m still a young man, still the idealistic youth who first got involved with the movement all those years ago. It’s my body that increasingly fails to respond, not my intellect. How…’
‘How’s my mind? Do I feel like an old man? No. I’m more or less the same inside as I was when I was young. A bit wiser, hopefully. And from what I can make out from other people, that’s the norm. It’s another trick Nature plays on us.’
They were silent for a while, watching the anonymous streets roll by.
‘Where
are
we going?’ Caldason said.
‘Just an ordinary private house. It’s not far now.’
‘Want to tell me what this is all about?’
‘Do you recall our first day here in Valdarr? When you and Kutch and I arrived together in Domex’s old wagon?’
‘What about it?’
‘Remember that storm, and how the lightning struck the energy line and fractured it?’
‘It’s not the sort of thing you’re likely to forget.’
‘No, it isn’t.’
‘What’s that got to do with where we’re going?’
‘You’re about to find out for yourself. We’re here.’
The carriage drew to a halt in an undistinguished side street, lined with unremarkable houses. It wasn’t a poor area, but nor was it particularly well-heeled. They got out. Karr nodded to the driver and the carriage left them.
‘Let’s not linger,’ he said.
He led Caldason to the front door, and delivered a rapid series of knocks. Shortly, a spy hatch slid open and they were scrutinised. Then the door was unbolted and they went in.
The man who admitted them nodded but didn’t speak. He was dressed like an ordinary worker, and was presumably a Resistance man. Caldason hadn’t seen him before, and Karr made no introductions.
‘Would you be good enough to let them know we’re here?’ Karr asked.
The man nodded again and pointed to an open door. They went through it and found themselves in a dusty, neglected room containing not much more than a worn table and a couple of chairs. The window was shuttered, and light came from a few candles.
‘It shouldn’t be long,’ Karr explained. ‘They have to be reasonably sure it isn’t dangerous.’
Caldason raised a quizzical eyebrow at that, but Karr didn’t elaborate.
A moment later the man came back and beckoned them. They were taken along a corridor to another door. This opened onto a staircase that snaked to the cellar, and they were left to make their own way down.
The cellar was quite large and brightly lit by a number of glamour lamps. There were two men and a woman there, all in their middle or late years, and all dressed in the blue
ceremonial robes favoured by Covenant. Karr exchanged greetings with them, but again no names were offered. In one corner a wooden rail had been set up around a sizeable hole. It looked deep.
‘May we approach?’ Karr asked one of the blue-robed figures.
The man nodded. ‘But with care. And be ready to draw back if we tell you.’
‘I understand. Come on, Reeth.’
They approached the hole.
‘I think you’ll find this familiar,’ Karr reckoned.
The pit was deeper than the height of a tall man, and its sides were smooth. At its bottom a small pond of a substance resembling quicksilver had formed. The liquid flowed in from a cavity on one side of the excavation and out again through a similar recess on the opposite side. The silvery pool was agitated. It swirled and bubbled, and kaleidoscopic, varicoloured patterns played across its glistening surface, not unlike oil on water. Waves of intense cold rolled off it, though the cellar itself somehow maintained a normal temperature.
‘Remember what the sorcerers call it?’ Karr said. ‘Magic’s chariot. This was exposed when the owners of the house were extending the cellar. Like the channel we saw exposed by lightning, this one’s unusually close to the surface. Anyway, fortunately for us, the people who lived here are sympathetic to our cause and got word to us. We moved them out and took over the place.’
‘Fortunate? How is this of any use to the Resistance?’
‘It could be of immense value, if a theory our friends in Covenant have proves correct. But I’ll let them explain it.’ He called over the man who had just spoken to them.
The Covenant member wasted no time on a preamble. ‘For years we’ve suspected that the energy lines have a number of functions. Well, more than suspected; we’ve grown sure
of it, based on the extensive research we’ve undertaken on the Founders. One possibility in particular has long intrigued us: we think the energy lines can be used as a communication network.’
Caldason had been staring into the pit, transfixed by the shifting patterns. Now he looked up.
‘I don’t pretend to understand all the esoteric details,’ Karr admitted, ‘but it makes sense. We know the grid is everywhere; it almost certainly covers the whole world. It’s not beyond the bounds of reason to imagine feeding in a message of some sort at one point and having it come out at another.’
‘Nor would it necessarily take too much time to transmit,’ the Covenant man went on. ‘There’s every reason to believe it could carry information almost instantly.’
‘You really believe that’s possible?’ Caldason remarked.
‘For the Founders, entirely possible. From what we’ve learnt, it could have been one of their minor miracles.’
‘Think of it,’ Karr enthused; ‘the ability to send and receive messages anywhere in the world, providing you’re near a line. Which, of course, everyone is.’
‘And
you
could use it that way?’ Caldason asked.
‘That’s probably a way off, to be honest,’ the sorcerer replied.
‘But Covenant’s made a discovery,’ Karr added. ‘It seems somebody’s already employing it for that purpose.’
‘Let’s get this straight,’ Caldason said. ‘These channels, the energy lines, are like…’ he groped for a parallel ‘…a network of rivers. And if you have a boat, you could go anywhere in it.’
The sorcerer smiled. ‘That’s rather well put. Except the boat would move faster than any wind could drive it.’
‘But you’re saying someone’s already using this network for sending messages?’
The Covenant man nodded.
‘It looks like it,’ Karr confirmed.
‘Who?’ Caldason wanted to know.
‘That’s the big question. But logically, it’s going to be an elite, isn’t it? Those who rule us. Whether that’s the leaders of Gath Tampoor or Rintarah, or the state on a lower level, like the government here in Bhealfa…well, it’s a moot point. But I think a resource like this, with all its potential, is probably going to be jealously guarded by the highest. It would give them such an edge.’