The Dying Earth

by Jack Vance

  He settled himself on the floor. It was a soft elastic substance, warm to the touch ... A strange city, thought Ulan Dhor, a strange people, reacting to unguessed compulsions. Or were they ghosts, in truth?

  He fell into a series of spasmodic dozes, and awoke at last to find the wan pink of the latter-day dawn seeping through the arched portico.

  He rose to his feet, rubbed his face, and, after a moment's hesitation, descended from the mezzanine to the floor of the tower and walked out into the street. A child in a gray smock saw his red coat, flicked his eyes away from the green trousers, screamed in terror, and ran across the square.

  Ulan Dhor retreated into the shadows with a curse. He had expected desolation. Hostility he could have countered or fled, but this bewildered fright left him helpless.

  A shape appeared at the entrance—the girl. She peered through the shadows; her face was drawn, anxious. Ulan Dhor appeared. She smiled suddenly and her face changed.

  "I brought your breakfast," she said, "also a decent garment."

  She lay bread and smoked fish before him, and poured warm herb tea from an earthenware jar.

  As he ate he watched her, and she watched him. There was a tension in their relations; she felt incompletely secure, and he could sense the pressures on her mind.

  "What is your name?" she asked.

  "I am Ulan Dhor. And you?"

  "Elai."

  "Elai... Is that all?"

  "Do I need more? It is sufficient, is it not?"

  "Oh, indeed."

  She seated herself cross-legged before him.

  "Tell me about the land from which you come."

  Ulan Dhor said, "Ascolais now is mostly a great forest, where few care to venture. I live in Kaiin, a very old city, perhaps as old as Ampridatvir, but we have no such towers and floating roads. We live in the old-time palaces of marble and wood, even the poorest and most menial. Indeed, some beautiful manses fall to ruins for lack of tenants."

  "And what is your color?" she asked in a tentative voice.

  Ulan Dhor said impatiently, "Such nonsense. We wear all colors; no one thinks one way or the other about it ... Why do you worry about color so? For instance, why do you wear gray and not green?"

  Her gaze wavered and broke from his; she clenched her hands restlessly. "Green? That is the color of the demon Pansiu. No one in Ampridatvir wears green."

  "Certainly people wear green," said Ulan Dhor. "I met two fishermen yesterday at sea wearing green, and they guided me into the city."

  She shook her head, smiling sadly. "You are mistaken."

  Ulan Dhor sat back. He said presently. "A child saw me this morning and ran off screaming."

  "Because of your red cloak," said Elai. "When a man wishes to win honor for himself, he dons a red coat and sets forth across the city to the ancient deserted temple of Pansiu, to seek the lost half of Rogol Domedonfors' tablet. Legend says that when the Grays recover the lost tablet, then will their power be strong once more."

  "If the temple is deserted," asked Ulan Dhor dryly, "why has not some man taken the tablet?"

  She shrugged and looked vaguely into space. "We believe that it is guarded by ghosts ... At any rate, sometimes a man in red is found raiding Cazdal's temple also, whereupon he is killed. A man in red is therefore everybody's enemy, and every hand is turned against him."

  Ulan Dhor rose to his feet and wrapped himself in the gray robe the girl had brought.

  "What are your plans?" she asked, rising quickly.

  "I wish to look upon the tablets of Rogol Domedonfors, both in Cazdal's Temple and in Pansiu's."

  She shook her head. "Impossible. Cazdal's Temple is forbidden to all but the venerable priests, and Pansiu's Temple is guarded by ghosts."

  Ulan Dhor grinned. "If you'll show me where the temples are situated…"

  She said, "I'll go with you ... But you must remain wrapped in the cloak, or it will go badly for both of us."

  They stepped out into the sunlight. The square was dotted with slow-moving groups of men and women. Some wore green, others wore gray, and Ulan Dhor saw that there was no intercourse between the two. Greens paused by little green-painted booths selling fish, leather, fruit, meal, pottery, baskets. Grays bought from identical shops which were painted gray. He saw two groups of children, one in green rags, the other in gray, playing ten feet apart, acknowledging each other by not so much as a glance. A ball of tied rags rolled from the Gray children into the scuffling group of Greens. A Gray child ran over, picked up the ball from under the feet of a Green child, and neither took the slightest notice of the other.

  "Strange," muttered Ulan Dhor. "Strange."

  "What's strange?" inquired Elai. "I see nothing strange ..."

  "Look," said Ulan Dhor, "by that pillar. Do you see that man in the green cloak?"

  She glanced at him in puzzlement. "There is no man there."

  '"There is a man there," said Ulan Dhor. "Look again."

  She laughed. "You are joking ... or can you see ghosts?"

  Ulan Dhor shook his head in defeat. "You are the victims of some powerful magic."

  She led him to one of the flowing roadways; as they were carried through the city he noticed a boat-shaped hull built of bright metal with four wheels and a transparent-domed compartment.

  He pointed. "What is that?"

  "It is a magic car. When a certain lever is pressed the wizardry of the older times gives it great speed. Rash young men ride them along the streets ... See there," and she pointed to a somewhat similar hull toppled into the basin of a long, dry fountain. "That is another one of the ancient wonders—a craft with the power to fly through the air. There are many of them scattered through the city—on the towers, on high terraces, and sometimes, like this one, fallen into the streets."

  "And no one flies them?" asked Ulan Dhor curiously.

  "We are all afraid."

  Ulan Dhor thought, what a marvel to own one of these air-cars! He stepped off the flowing road.

  "Where are you going?" asked Elai anxiously, coming after him.

  "I wish to examine one of these air-cars."

  "Be careful, Ulan Dhor. They are said to be dangerous ..."

  Ulan Dhor peered through the transparent dome, saw a cushioned seat, a series of little levers inscribed with characters strange to him and a large knurled ball mounted on a metal rod.

  He said to the girl, "Those are evidently the guides to the mechanism ... How does one enter such a car?"

  She said doubtfully, "This button will perhaps release the dome." She pressed a knob; the dome snapped back, releasing a puff of stagnant air.

  "Now," said Ulan Dhor, "I will experiment." He reached within, turned down a switch. Nothing happened.

  "Be careful, Ulan Dhor!" breathed the girl. "Beware of magic!"

  Ulan Dhor twisted a knob. The car quivered. He touched another lever. The boat made a curious whining sound, jerked. The dome began to settle. Ulan Dhor snatched back his arm. The dome snapped into place over a fold of his gray cloak. The boat jerked again, made a sudden movement, and Ulan Dhor was dragged willy-nilly after.

  Elai cried out, seized his ankles. Cursing, Ulan Dhor dropped out of his cloak, watched while the air-boat took a wild uncontrolled curvet, crashed against the side of a tower. It fell with another clang of colliding metal and stone.

  "Next time," said Ulan Dhor, "I will.. ."

  He became aware of a strange pressure in the air. He turned. Elai was staring at him, hand against her mouth, eyes screwed up as if she were repressing a scream.

  Ulan Dhor glanced around the streets. The slowly moving people, Grays and Greens, had vanished. The streets were empty.

  "Elai," said Ulan Dhor, "why do you look at me like that?"

  "The red, in daylight—and the color of Pansiu on your legs—it is our death, our death!"

  "By no means," said Ulan Dhor cheerfully. "Not while I wear my sword and ..."

  A stone, coming from nowhere, crashed into the ground at his f
eet. He looked right and left for his assailant, nostrils flaring in anger.

  In vain. The doorways, the arcades, the porticos were bare and empty.

  Another stone, large as his fist, struck him between the shoulder-blades. He sprang around and saw only the crumble facade of ancient Ampridatvir, the empty street, the glistening gliding strip.

  A stone hissed six inches from Elai's head, and at the same instant another struck his thigh.

  Ulan Dhor recognized defeat. He could not fight stones with his sword. "We had better retreat ..." He ducked a great paving block that would have split his skull.

  "Back to the strip," the girl said in a dull and helpless voice. "We can take refuge across the square." A stone, looping idly down, struck her cheek; she cried in pain and fell to her knees.

  Ulan Dhor snarled like an animal and sought men to kill. But no living person, man, woman, or child, was visible, though the stones continued to hurtle at his head.

  He stooped, picked up Elai and ran to the swift central flow of the strip.

  The rain of stones presently halted. The girl opened her eyes, winced, and shut them again. "Everything whirls," she whispered. "I have gone mad. Almost I might think—"

  Ulan Dhor thought to recognize the tower where he had spent the night. He stepped off the strip and approached the portico. He was wrong; a crystal plane barred him the tower. As he hesitated, it melted at a spot directly in front of him and formed a doorway. Ulan Dhor stared wonderingly. Further magic of the ancient builders ...

  It was impersonal magic, and harmless. Ulan Dhor stepped through. The doorway dwindled, fused, and became clear crystal behind him.

  The hall was bare and cold, though the walls were rich with colored metals and gorgeous enamel. A mural decorated one wall—men and women in flowing clothes were depicted tending flowers in gardens curiously bright and sunny, playing airy games, dancing.

  Very beautiful, thought Ulan Dhor, but no place to defend himself against attack. Passageways to either side were echoing and empty; ahead was a small chamber with a floor of glimmering floss, which seemed to radiate light. He stepped within. His feet rose from the floor; he floated, lighter than thistle-down. Elai no longer weighed in his arms. He gave an involuntary hoarse call, struggled to return to his feet to ground, without success.

  He floated upward like a leaf wafted in the wind. Ulan Dhor prepared himself for the sickening plunge when the magic quieted. But the floors fell past, and the ground level became ever more distant. A marvellous spell, thought Ulan Dhor grimly, thus to rob a man of his footing; how soon would the force relax and dash them to their deaths?

  "Reach out," said Elai faintly. "Take hold of the bar."

  He leaned far over, seized the railing, drew them to a landing, and, disbelieving his own safety, stepped into an apartment of several rooms. Crumbled heaps of dust were all that remained of the furniture.

  He lay Elai on the soft floor; she raised her hand to her face and smiled wanly. "Ooh—it hurts."

  Ulan Dhor watched with a strange sense of weakness and lassitude.

  Elai said, "I don't know what we will do now. There is no longer a home for me; so shall we starve, for no one will give us food."

  Ulan Dhor laughed sourly. "We will never lack for food—not while the keeper of a Green booth can not see a man in a gray cloak ... But there are other things more important—the tablets of Rogol Domedonfors— and they seem completely inaccessible."

  She said earnestly, "You would be killed. The men in red must fight everyone—as you saw today. And even if you reached the Temple of Pansiu, there are pitfalls, traps, poison stakes, and the ghosts on guard."

  "Ghosts? Nonsense. They are men, exactly like the Grays, except that they wear green. Your brain refuses to see men in green ... I have heard of such things, such obstructions of the mind ..."

  She said in a injured tone, "No other Grays see them. Perhaps it is you who suffers the hallucinations."

  "Perhaps," agreed Ulan Dhor with a wry grin. They sat for a space in the dusty stillness of the old tower, then Ulan Dhor sat forward, clasped his knees, frowning. Lethargy was the precursor of defeat. "We must consider this Temple of Pansiu."

  "We shall be killed," she said simply.

  Ulan Dhor, already in better spirits, said, "You should practice optimism ... Where can I find another air-car?

  She stared at him. "Surely you are a madman!"

  Ulan Dhor rose to his feet. "Where may one be found?"

  She shook her head. "You are resolved on death, one way or another." She rose also. "We will ascend the Shaft of No-weight to the tower's highest level."

  Without hesitation she stepped into the void, and Ulan Dhor gingerly followed. To the dizziest height they floated, and the walls of the shaft converged to a point far below. At the topmost landing they pulled themselves to solidity, stepped out on a terrace high up in the clean winds. Higher than the central mountains they stood, and the streets of Ampridatvir were gray threads far below. The harbor was a basin, and the sea spread away into the haze at the horizon.

  Three air-cars rested on the terrace, and the metal was as bright, the glass as clear, the enamel as vivid as if the cars had just dropped from the sky.

  They went to the nearest; Ulan Dhor pressed the entry button, and the dome slid back with a thin dry hiss of friction.

  The interior was like that of the other car—a long cushioned seat, a globe mounted on a rod, a number of switches. The cloth of the seat crackled with age as Ulan Dhor prodded it with his hand, and the trapped air smelt very stale. He stepped inside, and Elai followed. "I will accompany you; death by falling is faster than starvation, and less painful than the rocks ..."

  "I hope we will neither fall nor starve," replied Ulan Dhor. Cautiously he touched the switches, ready to throw them back at any dangerous manifestation.

  The dome snapped over their heads; relays thousands of years old meshed, cams twisted, shafts plunged home. The air-car jerked, lofted up into the red and dark blue sky. Ulan Dhor grasped the globe, found how to turn the boat, how to twist the nose up or down. This was pure joy, intoxication—wonderful mastery of the air! It was easier than he had imagined. It was easier than walking. He tried all the handles and switches, found how to hover, drop, brake. He found the speed handle and pushed it far over, and the wind sang past the air-boat. Far over the sea they flew, until the island was blue loom at the rim of the world. Low and high—skimming the wave-crests, plunging through the magenta wisps of the upper clouds.

  Elai sat relaxed, calm, exalted. She had changed; she seemed closer to Ulan Dhor than to Ampridatvir; some subtle tie had been cut. "Let's go on," she said. "On and on and on—across the world, past the forests ..."

  Ulan Dhor glanced at her sideways. She was very beautiful now—cleaner, finer, stronger than the women he had known in Kaiin. He said regretfully, "Then we would starve indeed—for neither of us has the craft to survive in the wilderness. And I am bound to seek the tablets . .."

  She sighed. "Very well. We will be killed. What does it matter? All Earth dies ..."

  Evening came, and they returned to Ampridatvir. "There," said Elai, "there is the Temple of Cazdal and there the Temple of Pansiu."

  Ulan Dhor dropped the boat low over the Temple of Pansiu. "Where is the entrance?"

  "Through the arch—and every place holds a different danger."

  "But we fly," Ulan Dhor reminded her.

  He lowered the boat ten feet above the ground and slid it through the arch.

  Guided by a dim light ahead, Ulan Dhor manoeuvered the boat down the dark passage, through another arch; and they were in the nave.

  The podium where the tablet sat was like the citadel of a walled city. The first obstacle was a wide pit, backed by a glassy wall. Then there was a moat of sulfur-colored liquid, and beyond, in an open space, five men kept a torpid watch. Undetected, Ulan Dhor moved the boat through the upper shadows and halted directly over the podium.

  "Ready now," he mutter
ed, and grounded the boat. The glistening tablet was almost within reach. He raised the dome; Elai leaned out, seized the tablet. The five guards gave an anguished roar, rushed forward.

  "Back!" cried Ulan Dhor. He warded off a flying spear with his sword. She drew back with the tablet, Ulan Dhor slammed the dome. The guards leapt on the ship, clawing at the smooth metal, beating at it with their fists. The ship rose high; one by one they lost their grip, fell screaming to the floor.

  Back through the arch, down the back passageway, through the entrance and out into the dark sky. Behind them a great horn set up a crazy clangor.

  Ulan Dhor examined his prize—an oval sheet of transparent substance bearing a dozen lines of meaningless marks.

  "We have won!" said Elai raptly. "You are the Lord of Ampridatvir!"

  "Half yet remains," said Ulan Dhor. "There is still the tablet in the Temple of Cazdal."

  "But—it is madness! Already you have—"

  "One is useless without the other."

  Her wild arguments subsided only as they hovered over the arch into Cazdal's Temple.

  As the boat glided through the dark gap it struck a thread which dropped a great load of stones from a chute. The first of these, striking the sloping side of the air-car, buffeted it away. Ulan Dhor cursed. The guards would be alert and watchful.

  He drifted along at the very top of the passage, hidden in the murk. Presently two guards, bearing torches and careful of their steps, came to investigate the sound.

  They passed directly below the boat, and Ulan Dhor hastened forward, through the arch into the nave. As in the Temple of Pansiu, the tablet gleamed in the middle of a fortress.

  The guards were wide awake, nervously watching the opening.

  "Boldness, now!" said Ulan Dhor. He sent the boat darting across the walls and pits and seething moat, settled beside the podium, snapped the dome back, sprang out. He seized the tablet as the guards came roaring forward, spears extended. The foremost flung his spear; Ulan Dhor struck it down and tossed the tablet into the boat.