Bisesa said, It is not a mind, but it is a conduit to minds. Theyre like shadows at the end of a darkened corridor. But they are there. There were no human words for such perceptions, for, she suspected, no human being had experienced such things before. You have to trust me, Josh.
He wrapped his arms tighter around her. I trust you and I believe you. Otherwise I wouldnt be here
You know, sometimes I think all these time slices we visit are justbits of a fantasy. Fragments of a dream.
Abdikadir frowned, his blue eyes bright in the light of the lamps. What do you mean by that?
She struggled to explain her impressions. I think in some sense were contained in the Eye. She retreated to the safety of physics. Think of it this way. The fundamental units of our reality
The tiny strings, Josh said.
Thats right. They arent really like strings on a violin. There are different ways they can be wrapped around their underlying stratum, their sounding board. Imagine loops of string floating free on the boards surface, and others wrapped right around the board. If you change the dimensions of the stratumif you make it thickerthe winding energy of the wrapped strings will increase, but the vibrational energy of the loops will decrease. And that will have an effect in the observable universe. If you keep that up long enough, the two dimensions, long and short, exchange places They have an inverse relationship
Josh shook his head. Youve lost me.
I think shes telling us, Abdikadir said, that in this model of physics, very large distances and very small are somehow equivalent .
Yes, she said. Thats it. The cosmos and the sub-atomone is just an inverse of the other, if you look at them the right way.
And the Eye
The Eye contains an image of me, she said, just as my retina has on it a projected image of you, Josh. But I think in the case of the Eye the reality of the image of me, and of the world, is more than a mere projection.
Abdikadir frowned. Then the distorted images in the Eye are not just a shadow of our reality. And by manipulating these images the Eye is somehow able to control what goes on in the outside world. Perhaps that is how it managed to induce the Discontinuity. Is that what you think?
Like voodoo dolls, Josh said, enraptured by the notion. The Eye contains a voodoo world But Abdikadir isnt quite rightis he, Bisesa? The Eye doesnt do anything. You have said that the Eye, marvelous as it is, is only a tool. And that you have sensedpresencesbeyond the Eye, which control it. So the Eye is not some demonic controlling entity. It is merely aa
A control panel, she whispered. I always knew you were smart, Josh.
Ah, said Abdikadir slowly. I start to understand. You believe that you have some access to this control panel. That you can influence the Eye. And that is what scares you.
She couldnt meet his bright eyes.
Josh said, bewildered, But if you can influence the Eyewhat have you asked it to do?
She hid her face. To let me go home, she whispered. And I think
What?
I think it might.
The others fell silent, shocked. But she had said it, at last, and she knew now that as soon as this jaunt was over she must confront the Eye once more, challenge it againor die trying.
Some days short of Alexandria, the fleet put to shore. This, Alexanders surveyors assured him, was the site of Paraetonium, a city he had once visited, although there was no trace of it now. Eumenes met them here. He said he wished to accompany his King as he retraced the most significant pilgrimage of his life.
Alexander sent out scouts to round up camels, which were laden with water for five days journey. A small party of no more than a dozen, including Alexander, Eumenes, Josh and Bisesa, with a few close bodyguards, quickly formed up. The Macedonians wrapped themselves up in long Bedouin-style winding cloths: they had been here before, and knew what to expect. The moderns followed their lead.
They set off south, inland from the sea. The journey would last several days. Tracing the border of Egypt and Libya, they followed a chain of eroded hills. As her stiffness wore off, and her muscles and lungs began to respond to the exercise, Bisesa found herself losing her thoughts in the simple physical repetition of the walk. More therapy, she thought dryly. Overnight they slept in tents and their Bedouin wraps. But on the second day they were hit by a sandstorm, a hot blizzard of coarse grit. After that they ventured through a ravine oddly carpeted by seashells, and through landscapes of wind-sculpted rock, and across a grueling gravel plateau.
At last they reached a small oasis. There were palm trees and even some birds, quail and falcon, preserved in a desolate landscape of salt flats. The place was dominated by a gaunt, ruined citadel, and small shrines stood coyly half-hidden by vegetation among the springs. There were no people here, no sign of habitation, nothing but picturesque ruin.
Alexander stepped forward, shadowed by his guards. He walked past the eroded foundations of vanished buildings, and reached a set of steps that led up to what had once been a temple. Alexander was visibly shaking as he climbed these worn steps. He reached a bare, dusty platform, and knelt down, his head bowed.
Eumenes murmured, When we were here this place was ancient, but not ruined. The god Ammon came riding out in his sacred boat, borne aloft by purified bearers, and virgins sang songs of divinity. The King went through to the holiest shrine of all, a tiny room roofed by palm trunks, where he consulted the oracle. He never revealed the questions he asked, not even to me, not even to Hephaistion. And it was here that Alexander realized his divinity.
Bisesa knew the story. During Alexanders first pilgrimage the Macedonians had identified the ram-headed Libyan god Ammon with the Greek Zeus, and Alexander had learned that Zeus-Ammon was his true father, not King Philip of Macedon. From this point he would take Ammon to his heart for the rest of his life.
The King seemed crushed. Perhaps he had hoped to find that the shrine had somehow survived the Discontinuity, that this place, most sacred of all to him, might have been spared. But it was not so, and he had found nothing here but the dead weight of time.
Bisesa murmured to Eumenes, Tell him it wasnt always like this. Tell him that nine centuries later, when this place was part of the Roman Empire, and Christianity was the Empires official religion, there would still be a group of adherents, here at this oasis, still worshipping Zeus-Ammon, and Alexander himself.
Eumenes nodded gravely, and in measured tones delivered this news from the future. The King replied, and Eumenes returned to Bisesa. He says that even a god cannot conquer time, but nine hundred years should be enough for anybody.
The party stayed a day at the oasis to recuperate and water the camels, and then returned to the shore.
42. Last Night
A week after their return to Babylon, Bisesa announced she believed the Eye of Marduk would send her home.
This was met with general incredulity, even from her closest companions. She sensed that Abdikadir thought this was no more than wishful thinking, that her impressions of the Eye and the entities beyond it might be fantasythat all of this was no more than what she wanted to believe.
Alexander, though, faced her with a simple question. Why you?
Because I asked it to, she said simply.
And he thought that over, nodded, and let her go.
Skeptical or not, her companions, modern, British and Macedonian, accepted her sincerity, and supported her preparations for her departure, such as they were. They even accepted the date she announced for going. She still had no proof of any of this, and couldnt even be sure if she was interpreting her inchoate impressions of the Eye correctly. But everyone took her seriously, and she was flattered by that, even if some of them gloated a little about how stupid she was going to look if the Eye let her down.