The Best of Jack Vance (1976) SSC

by Jack Vance

  Still, the potentialities are too entrancing to be ignored. With painstaking precautions and a dozen protective devices, I will attempt to find my way to new worlds, and for the first time interstellar travel will bea reality.

  • • •

  Alan Robertson and Duray sat in the bright morning sunlight beside the flinty-blue lake. They had brought their breakfast out to the table and now sat drinking coffee. Alan Robertson made cheerful conversation for the two of them. “These last few years have been easier on me; I’ve relegated a great deal of responsibility. Ernest and Henry know my policies as well as I do, if not better; and they’re never frivolous or inconsistent.” Alan Robertson chuckled. “I’ve worked two miracles: first, my machine, and second, keeping the business as simple as it is. I refuse to keep regular hours; I won’t make appointments; I don’t keep records; I pay no taxes; I exert great political and social influence, but only informally; I simply refuse to be bothered with administrative detail, and consequently I find myself able to enjoy life.”

  “It’s a wonder some religious fanatic hasn’t assassinated you,” said Duray sourly.

  “No mystery there! I’ve given them all their private worlds, with my best regards, and they have no energy left for violence! And as you know, I walk with a very low silhouette. My friends hardly recognize me on the street.” Alan Robertson waved his hand. “No doubt you’re more concerned with your immediate quandary. Have you come to a decision regarding the Rumfuddle?”

  “I don’t have any choice,” Duray muttered. “I’d prefer to wring Bob’s neck. If I could account for Elizabeth’s conduct, I’d feel more comfortable.

  She’s not even remotely interested in black magic. Why did Bob bring her books on satanism?”

  “Well - the subject is inherently fascinating,” Alan Robertson suggested, without conviction. “The name Satan derives from the Hebrew word for ‘adversary’; it never applied to a real individual. ‘Zeus,’ of course, was an Aryan chieftain of about 3500 B.C., while ‘Woden’ lived somewhat later. He was actually ‘Othinn,’ a shaman of enormous personal force who did things with his mind that I can’t do with the machine… But again I’m rambling.”

  Duray gave a silent shrug.

  “Well, then, you’ll be going to the Rumfuddle,” said Alan Robertson,

  “by and large the best course, whatever the consequences.”

  “I believe that you know more than you’re telling me.” Alan Robertson smiled and shook his head. “I’ve lived with too much uncertainty among my cognate and near-cognate worlds. Nothing is sure; surprises are everywhere. I think the best plan is to fulfill Bob’s requirements. Then if Elizabeth is indeed on hand, you can discuss the event with her.”

  “What of you? Will you be coming?”

  “I am of two minds. Would you prefer that I came?”

  “Yes,” said Duray. “You have more control over Bob than I do.”

  “Don’t exaggerate my influence! He is a strong man, for all his idleness. Confidentially, I’m delighted that he occupies himself with games rather than…” Alan Robertson hesitated.

  “Rather than what?”

  “Than that his imagination should prompt him to less innocent games.

  Perhaps I have been overingenuous in this connection. We can only wait and see.”

  • • •

  XII

  From Memoirs and Reflections:

  If the past is a house of many chambers, then the present is the most recent coat of paint.

  • • •

  At four o’clock Duray and Alan Robertson left the lodge and passed through Utilis to the San Francisco depot. Duray had changed into a somber dark suit; Alan Robertson wore a more informal costume: blue jacket and pale-gray trousers. They went to Bob Robertson’s locker, to find a panel with the sign “NOT HOME! FOR THE RUMFUDDLE GO TO

  ROGER WAILLE’S LOCKER, RC 3-96, AND PASS THROUGH TO

  EKSHAYAN!”

  The two went on to Locker RC 3-96, where a sign read: “RUMFUDDLERS: PASS! ALL OTHERS: AWAY!”

  Duray shrugged contemptuously, and parting the curtain, looked through the passway into a rustic lobby of natural wood, painted in black, red, yellow, blue, and white floral designs. An open door revealed an expanse of open land and water glistening in the afternoon sunlight. Duray and Alan Robertson passed through, crossed the foyer, and looked out upon a vast, slow river flowing from north to south. A rolling plain spread eastward away and over the horizon. The western bank of the river was indistinct in the afternoon glitter. A path led north to a tall house of eccentric architecture. A dozen domes and cupolas stood against the sky; gables and ridges created a hundred unexpected angles. The walls showed a fish-scale texture of hand-hewn shingles; spiral columns supported the second-and third-story entablatures, where wolves and bears, carved in vigorous curves and masses, snarled, fought, howled, and danced. On the side overlooking the river a pergola clothed with vines cast a dappled shade; here sat the Rumfuddlers.

  Alan Robertson looked at the house, up and down the river, across the plain. “From the architecture, the vegetation, the height of the sun, the characteristic haze, I assume the river to be either the Don or the Volga, and yonder the steppes. From the absence of habitation, boats, and artifacts, I would guess the time to be early historic - perhaps 2,000 or 3,000 B.C., a colorful era. The inhabitants of the steppes are nomads; Scyths to the east, Celts to the west, and to the north the homeland of the Germanic and Scandinavian tribes; and yonder the mansion of Roger Waille, and very interesting, too, after the extravagant fashion of the Russian baroque. And, my word! I believe I see an ox on the spit! We may even enjoy our little visit!”

  “You do as you like,” muttered Duray. “I’d just as soon eat at home.” Alan Robertson pursed his lips. “I understand your point of view, of course, but perhaps we should relax a bit. The scene is majestic; the house is delightfully picturesque, the roast beef is undoubtedly delicious; perhaps we should meet the situation on its own terms.” Duray could find no adequate reply and kept his opinions to himself.

  “Well, then,” said Alan Robertson, “equability is the word. So now let’s see what Bob and Roger have up their sleeves.” He set off along the path to the house, with Duray sauntering morosely a step or two behind.

  Under the pergola a man jumped to his feet and flourished his hand; Duray recognized the tall, spare form of Bob Robertson. “Just in time,” Bob called jocosely. “Not to early, not too late. We’re glad you could make it.”

  “Yes, we found we could accept your invitation after all,” said Alan Robertson. “Let me see, do I know anyone here? Roger, hello!… And William… Ah! the lovely Dora Gorski!… Cypriano…” He looked around the circle of faces, waving to his acquaintances.

  Bob clapped Duray on the shoulder. “Really pleased you could come! What’ll you drink? The locals distill a liquor out of fermented mare’s milk, but I don’t recommend it.”

  “I’m not here to drink,” said Duray. “Where’s Elizabeth?” The corners of Bob’s wide mouth twitched. “Come now, old man; let’s not be grim. This is the Rumfuddle! A time for joy and self-renewal! Go dance about a bit! Cavort! Pour a bottle of champagne over your head!

  Sport with the girls!”

  Duray looked into the blue eyes for a long second. He strained to keep his voice even. “Where is Elizabeth?”

  “Somewhere about the place. A charming girl, your Elizabeth! We’re delighted to have you both!”

  Duray swung away. He walked to the dark and handsome Roger Waille. “Would you be good enough to take me to my wife?” Waille raised his eyebrows as if puzzled by Duray’s tone of voice.

  “She is primping and gossiping. If necessary I suppose I could pull her away for a moment or two.”

  Duray began to feel ridiculous, as if he had been locked away from his world, subjected to harassments and doubts, and made the butt of some obscure joke. “It’s necessary,” he said. “We’re leaving.”

  “But you’ve just
arrived!”

  “I know.”

  Waille gave a shrug of amused perplexity and turned away toward the house. Duray followed. They went through a tall, narrow doorway into an entry-hall paneled with a beautiful brown-gold wood that Duray automatically identified as chestnut. Four high panes of tawny glass turned to the west filled the room with a smoky half-melancholy light. Oak settees, upholstered in leather, faced each other across a black, brown, and grav rug. Taborets stood at each side of the settees, and each supported an ornate golden candelabra in the form of conventionalized stag’s heads. Waille indicated these last. “Striking, aren’t they? The Scythians made them for me. I paid them in iron knives. They think I’m a great magician; and for a fact, I am.” He reached into the air and plucked forth an orange, which he tossed upon a settee. “Here’s Elizabeth now, and the other maenads as well.” Into the chamber came Elizabeth, with three other young women whom Duray vaguely recalled having met before. At the sight of Duray, Elizabeth stopped short. She essayed a smile and said in a light, strained voice, “Hello, Gil. You’re here after all.” She laughed nervously and, Duray felt, unnaturally. “Yes, of course you’re here. I didn’t think you’d come.” Duray glanced toward the other women, who stood with Waille, watching half expectantly. Duray said, “I’d like to speak to you alone.”

  “Excuse us,” said Waille. “We’ll go on outside.” They departed. Elizabeth looked longingly after them and fidgeted with the buttons of her jacket.

  “Where are the children?” Duray demanded curtly.

  “Upstairs, getting dressed.” She looked down at her own costume, the festival raiment of a Transylvanian peasant girl: a green skirt embroidered with red and blue flowers, a white blouse, a black velvet vest, glossy black boots.

  Duray felt his temper slipping; his voice was strained and fretful. “I don’t understand anything of this. Why did you close the passways?” Elizabeth attempted a flippant smile. “I was bored with routine.”

  “Oh? Why didn’t you mention it to me yesterday morning? You didn’t need to close the passways.”

  “Gilbert, please. Let’s not discuss it.”

  Duray stood back, tongue-tied with astonishment. “Very well,” he said at last. “We won’t discuss it. You go up and get the girls. We’re going home.”

  Elizabeth shook her head. In a neutral voice she said, “It’s impossible. There’s only one passway open. I don’t have it.”

  “‘Who does? Bob?”

  “I guess so; I’m not really sure.”

  “How did he get it? There were only four, and all four were closed.”

  “It’s simple enough. He moved the downtown passway from our locker to another and left a blank in its place.”

  “And who closed off the other three?”

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Bob told me to. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m sick to death of the whole business.” And she half whispered: “I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.”

  “I know what I’m going to do,” said Duray. He turned toward the door.

  Elizabeth held up her hands and clenched her fists against her breast.

  “Don’t make trouble - please! He’ll close our last passway!”

  “Is that why you’re afraid of him? If so - don’t be. Alan wouldn’t allow it.”

  Elizabeth’s face began to crumple. She pushed past Duray and walked quickly out upon the terrace. Duray followed, baffled and furious. He looked back and forth across the terrace. Bob was not to be seen.

  Elizabeth had gone to Alan Robertson; she spoke in a hushed, urgent voice. Duray went to join them. Elizabeth became silent and turned away, avoiding Duray’s gaze.

  Alan Robertson spoke in a voice of easy geniality. “Isn’t this a lovely spot? Look how the setting sun shines on the river!” Roger Waille came by rolling a cart with ice, goblets, and a dozen bottles. He said: “Of all the places on all the Earths, this is my favorite. I call it Ekshayan, which is the Scythian name for this district.” A woman asked. “Isn’t it cold and bleak in the winter?”

  “Frightful!” said Waille. “The blizzards howl down from the north; then they stop, and the land is absolutely still. The days are short, and the sun comes up red as a poppy. The wolves slink out of the forests, and at dusk they circle the house. When a full moon shines, they howl like banshees, or maybe the banshees are howling! I sit beside the fireplace, entranced.”

  “It occurs to me,” said Manfred Funk, “that each person, selecting a site for his home, reveals a great deal about himself. Even on old Earth, a man’s home was ordinarily a symbolic simulacrum of the man himself; now, with every option available, a person’s house is himself.”

  “This is very true,” said Alan Robertson, “and certainly Roger need not fear that he has revealed any discreditable aspects of himself by showing us his rather grotesque home so the lonely steppes of prehistoric Russia.”

  Roger Waille laughed. “The grotesque house isn’t me; I merely felt that it fitted its setting… Here, Duray, you’re not drinking. That’s chilled vodka; you can mix it or drink it straight in the time-tested manner.”

  “Nothing for me, thanks.”

  “Just as you like. Excuse me; I’m wanted elsewhere.” Waille moved away, rolling the cart. Elizabeth leaned as if she wanted to follow him, then remained beside Alan Robertson, looking thoughtfully over the river.

  Duray spoke to Alan Robertson as if she were not there. “Elizabeth refuses to leave. Bob has hypnotized her.”

  “That’s not true,” said Elizabeth softly.

  “Somehow, one way or another, he’s forced her to stay. She won’t tell me why.”

  “I want the passway back,” said Elizabeth. But her voice was muffled and uncertain.

  Alan Robertson cleared his throat. “I hardly know what to say. It’s a very - awkward situation. None of us wants to create a disturbance - ”

  “There you’re wrong,” said Duray.

  Alan Robertson ignored the remark. “I’ll have a word with Bob after the party. In the meantime I don’t see why we shouldn’t enjoy the company of our friends, and that wonderful roast ox! Who is that turning the spit? I know him from somewhere.”

  Duray could hardly speak for outrage. “After what he’s done to us?”

  “He’s gone too far, much too far,” Alan Robertson agreed. “Still, he’s a flamboyant, feckless sort, and I doubt if he understands the full inconvenience he’s caused vou.”

  “He understands well enough. He just doesn’t care.”

  “Perhaps so,” said Alan Robertson sadly. “I had always hoped - but that’s neither here nor there. I still feel that we should act with restraint. It’s much easier not to do than to undo.”

  Elizabeth abruptly crossed the terrace and went to the front door of the tall house, where her three daughters had appeared - Dolly, twelve; Joan, ten; Ellen, eight - all wearing green, white, and black peasant frocks and glossy black boots. Duray thought they made a delightful picture. He followed Elizabeth across the terrace.

  “It’s Daddy,” screamed Ellen, and threw herself in his arms. The other two, not to be outdone, did likewise.

  “We thought you weren’t coming to the party,” cried Dolly. “I’m glad you did, though.”

  “So’m I.”

  “So’m I.”

  “I’m glad I came, too, if only to see you in these pretty costumes.

  Let’s go see Grandpa Alan.” He took them across the terrace, and after a moment’s hesitation, Elizabeth followed. Duray became aware that everyone had stopped talking to look at him and his family, with, so it seemed, an extraordinary, even avid, curiosity, as if in expectation of some entertaining extravagance of conduct. Duray began to burn with emotion.

  Once, long ago, while crossing a street in downtown San Francisco, he had been struck by an automobile, suffering a broken leg and a fractured clavicle. Almost as soon as he had been knocked down, pedestrians came pushing to stare down a
t him. and Duray, looking up in pain and shock, had seen only the ring of white faces and intent eyes, greedy as flies around a puddle of blood. In hysterical fury he had staggered to his feet, striking out into every face within reaching distance, men and women alike. He hated them more than the man who had run him down: the ghouls who had come to enjoy his pain. Had he the miraculous power, he would have crushed them into a screaming bale of detestable flesh and hurled the bundle twenty miles out into the Pacific Ocean…

  Some faint shadow of this emotion affected him now, but today he would provide them no unnatural pleasure. He turned a single glance of cool contempt around the group, then took his three eager-faced daughters to a bench at the back of the terrace. Elizabeth followed, moving like a mechanical object. She seated herself at the end of the bench and looked off across the river. Duray stared heavily back at the Rumfuddlcrs, compelling them to shift their gazes to where the ox roasted over a great bed of coals. A young man in a white jacket turned the spit; another basted the meat with a long-handled brush. A pair of Orientals carried out a carving table; another brought a carving set; a fourth wheeled out a cart laden with salads, round crusty loaves, trays of cheese and herrings. A fifth man, dressed as a Transylvanian gypsy, came from the house with a violin. He went to the corner of the terrace and began to play melancholy music of the steppes.