by Michael Ende
“Don’t bother!” he heard the gnome’s deep voice in his ear. “You won’t solve it. It’s the same with everyone. I’ve observed it all my life and I haven’t found the answer.
Now for the other one.”
He turned one of the screws. The image passed the opening of the arch, through which one saw only the empty plain. Then the right-hand pillar came into Atreyu’s view.
And there, in the same posture, sat a second sphinx. The enormous body shimmered like liquid silver in the moonlight. She seemed to be staring fixedly at the first, just as the first was gazing fixedly at her.
“Are they statues?” asked Atreyu, unable to avert his eyes.
“Oh no!” said Engywook with a giggle. “They are real live sphinxes—very much alive! You’ve seen enough for now. Come, we’ll go down. I’ll explain everything.”
And he held his hand in front of the telescope, so that Atreyu could see no more.
Neither spoke on the way back.
alkor was still sound asleep when Engywook brought Atreyu back to the gnomes’ cave. In the meantime Urgl had moved the little table into the open and put on all sorts of sweets and fruit and herb jellies.
There were also little drinking cups and a pitcher of fragrant herb tea. The table was lit by two tiny oil lamps.
“Sit down!” Urgl commanded. “Atreyu must eat and drink something to give him strength. Medicine alone is not enough.”
“Thank you,” said Atreyu. “I’m feeling fine already.”
“No back talk!” Urgl snapped. “As long as you’re here, you’ll do as you’re told. The poison in your body has been neutralized. So there’s no reason to hurry, my boy. You’ve all the time you need. Just take it easy.”
“It’s not on my account,” said Atreyu. “But the Childlike Empress is dying. Even now, every hour may count.”
“Rubbish!” the old woman grumbled. “Haste makes waste. Sit down! Eat! Drink!”
“Better give in,” Engywook whispered. “I know the woman from A to Z. When she wants something, she gets it. Besides, you and I have a lot to talk about.”
Atreyu squatted cross-legged at the tiny table and fell to. Every bite and every swallow made him feel as if warm, golden life were flowing into his veins. Only then did he notice how weak he had been.
Bastion’s mouth watered. It seemed to him that he could smell the aroma of the gnomes’ meal. He sniffed the air, but of course it was only imagination.
His stomach growled audibly. In the end he couldn’t stand it any longer. He took his apple and the rest of his sandwich out of his satchel and ate them both. After that, though far from full, he felt a little better.
Then he realized that this was his last meal. The word “last” terrified him. He tried not to think of it.
“Where do you get all these good things?” Atreyu asked Urgl.
“Ah, sonny,” she said. “It takes lots of running around to find the right plants. But he—this knuckleheaded Engywook of mine—insists on living here because of his all-important studies. Where the food is to come from is the least of his worries.”
“Woman,” said Engywook with dignity, “how would you know what’s important and what isn’t? Be off with you now, and let us talk.”
Mumbling and grumbling, Urgl withdrew into the little cave and a moment later Atreyu heard a great clatter of pots and pans.
“Don’t mind her,” said Engywook under his breath. “She’s a good old soul, she just needs something to grumble about now and then. Listen to me, Atreyu. I’m going to let you in on a few things you need to know about the Southern Oracle. It’s not easy to get to Uyulala. In fact, it’s rather difficult. But I don’t want to give you a scientific lecture. Maybe it will be better if you ask questions. I tend to lose myself in details. Just fire away.”
“All right,” said Atreyu. “Who or what is Uyulala?”
Engywook gave him an angry look. “Botheration!” he spluttered. “You’re so blunt, so direct. Just like my old woman. Couldn’t you start with something else?”
Atreyu thought a while. Then he asked:. “That big stone gate with the sphinxes. Is that the entrance?”
“That’s better,” said Engywook. “Now we’ll get somewhere. Yes, that gate is the entrance, but then come two more gates. And Uyulala’s home is behind the third—if one can speak of her having a home.”
“Have you yourself ever been with her?”
“Don’t be absurd!” replied Engywook, again somewhat nettled. “I am a scientist. I have collected and collated the statements of all the individuals who have been there. The ones who have come back, that is. Very important work. I can’t afford to take personal risks. It could interfere with my work.”
“I see,” said Atreyu. “Now what about these three gates?”
Engywook stood up, folded his hands behind his back, and paced.
“The first,” he lectured, “is known as the Great Riddle Gate; the second is the Magic Mirror Gate; and the third is the No-Key Gate . . .”
“Strange,” Atreyu broke in. “As far as I could see, there was nothing behind that stone gate but an empty plain. Where are the other gates?”
“Be still!” Engywook scolded. “How can I make myself clear if you keep interrupting? It’s very complicated: The second gate isn’t there until a person has gone through the first. And the third isn’t there until the person has the second behind him. And Uyulala isn’t there until he has passed through the third. Simply not there. Do you understand?”
Atreyu nodded, but preferred to say nothing for fear of irritating the gnome.
“Through my telescope you have seen the first, the Great Riddle Gate. And the two sphinxes. That gate is always open. Obviously. There’s nothing to close. But even so, no one can get through”—here Engywook raised a tiny forefinger—“unless the sphinxes close their eyes. And do you know why? The gaze of a sphinx is different from the gaze of any other creature. You and I and everyone else—our eyes take something in. We see the world. A sphinx sees nothing. In a sense she is blind. But her eyes send something out. And what do her eyes send out? All the riddles of the universe. That’s why these sphinxes are always looking at each other. Because only another sphinx can stand a sphinx’s gaze. So try to imagine what happens to one who ventures into the area where those two gazes meet. He freezes to the spot, unable to move until he has solved all the riddles of the world. If you go there, you’ll find the remains of those poor devils.”
“But,” said Atreyu, didn’t you say that their eyes sometimes close? Don’t they have to sleep now and then?”
“Sleep?” Engywook was shaken with giggles. “Goodness gracious! A sphinx sleep? I should say not. You really are an innocent. Still, there’s some point to your question. All my research, in fact, hinges on that particular point. The sphinxes shut their eyes for some travelers and let them through. The question that no one has answered up until now is this: Why one traveler and not another? Because you mustn’t suppose they let wise, brave, or good people through, and keep the stupid, cowardly, and wicked out. Not a bit of it! With my own eyes I’ve seen them admit stupid fools and treacherous knaves, while decent, sensible people have given up after being kept waiting for months. And it seems to make no difference whether a person has some serious reason for consulting the Oracle, or whether he’s just come for the fun of it.”
“Haven’t your investigations suggested some explanation?” Atreyu asked.
Angry flashes darted from Engywook’s eyes.
“Have you been listening or haven’t you? Didn’t I just say that so far no one has answered that question? Of course, I’ve worked up a few theories over the years. At first I thought the sphinxes’ judgment might be guided by certain physical characteristics—size, beauty, strength, and so on. But I soon had to drop that idea. Then I toyed with numerical patterns. The idea, for instance, that three out of five were regularly excluded, or that only prime-numbered candidates were admitted. That worked pretty well for the past, but
for forecasting it was no use at all. Since then I’ve come to the conclusion that the sphinxes’ decision is based on pure chance and that no principle whatever is involved.
But my wife calls my conclusion scandalous, un-Fantastican, and absolutely unscientific.”
“Are you starting your old nonsense again?” came Urgl’s angry voice from the cave. “Shame on you! Such skepticism only shows that the bit of brain you once had has dried up on you.”
“Hear that?” said Engywook with a sigh. “And the worst of it is that she’s right.”
“What about the Childlike Empress’s amulet?” Atreyu asked. “Do you think they’ll respect it? They too are natives of Fantastica, after all.”
“Yes, I suppose they are,” said Engywook, shaking his apple-sized head. “But to respect it they’d have to see it. And they don’t see anything. But their gaze would strike you. And I’m not so sure the sphinxes would obey the Childlike Empress. Maybe they are greater than she is. I don’t know, I don’t know. Anyway, it’s most worrisome.”
“Then what do you advise?” Atreyu asked.
“You will have to do what all the others have done. Wait and see what the sphinxes decide—without hoping to know why.”
Atreyu nodded thoughtfully.
Urgl came out of the cave. In one hand she held a bucket with some steaming liquid in it, and under her other arm she was carrying a bundle of dried plants. Muttering to herself, she went to the luckdragon, who was still lying motionless, fast asleep. She started climbing around on him and changing the dressings on his wounds. Her enormous patient heaved one contented sigh and stretched; otherwise he seemed unaware of her ministrations.
“Couldn’t you make yourself a little useful?” she said to Engywook as she was hurrying back to the kitchen, “instead of sitting around like this, talking rubbish?”
“I am making myself extremely useful,” her husband called after her. “Possibly more useful than you, but that’s more than a simple-minded woman like you will ever understand!”
Turning to Atreyu, he went on: “She can only think of practical matters. She has no feeling for the great overarching ideas.”
The clock in the belfry struck three.
By now Bastian’s father must have noticed—if he was ever going to—that Bastian hadn’t come home. Would he worry? Maybe he’d go looking for him. Maybe he had already notified the police. Maybe calls had gone out over the radio. Bastian felt a sick pain in the pit of his stomach.
But if the police had been notified, where would they look for him? Could they possibly come to this attic?
Had he locked the door when he came back from the toilet? He couldn’t remember. He got up and checked. Yes, the door was locked and bolted.
Outside, the November afternoon was drawing to a close. Ever so slowly the light was failing.
To steady his nerves, Bastian paced the floor for a while. Looking about him, he discovered quite a few things one wouldn’t have expected to find in a school. For instance, a battered old Victrola with a big horn attached—God only knew when and by whom it had been brought here. In one corner there were some paintings in ornate gilt frames. They were so faded that hardly anything could be made out—only here and there a pale, solemn-looking face that shimmered against a dark background. And then there was a rusty, seven-armed candelabrum, still holding the stumps of thick wax candles, bearded with drippings.
Bastian gave a sudden start, for looking into a dark corner he saw someone moving. But when he looked again, it dawned on him that he had only seen himself, reflected in a large mirror that had lost half its silvering. He went closer and looked at himself for a while. He was really nothing much to look at, with his pudgy build and his bowlegs and pasty face. He shook his head and said aloud: “No!”
Then he went back to his mats. By then it was so dark that he had to hold the book up to his eyes.
“Where were we?” Engywook asked.
“At the Great Riddle Gate,” Atreyu reminded him.
“Right. Now suppose you’ve managed to get through. Then—and only then—the second gate will be there for you. The Magic Mirror Gate. As I’ve said, I myself have not been able to observe it, what I tell you has been gleaned from travelers’ accounts. This second gate is both open and closed. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It might be better to say: neither closed nor open. Though that doesn’t make it any less crazy. The point is that this gate seems to be a big mirror or something of the kind, though it’s made neither of glass nor of metal. What it is made of, no one has ever been able to tell me. Anyway, when you stand before it, you see yourself. But not as you would in an ordinary mirror. You don’t see your outward appearance; what you see is your real innermost nature. If you want to go through, you have to—in a manner of speaking—go into yourself.”
“Well,” said Atreyu. “It seems to me that this Magic Mirror Gate is easier to get through than the first.”
“Wrong!” cried Engywook. Once again he began to trot back and forth in agitation. “Dead wrong, my friend! I’ve known travelers who considered themselves absolutely blameless to yelp with horror and run away at the sight of the monster grinning out of the mirror at them. We had to care for some of them for weeks before they were even able to start home.”
“We!” growled Urgl, who was passing with another bucket. “I keep hearing ‘we’.
When did you ever take care of anybody?”
Engywook waved her away.
“Others,” he went on lecturing, “appear to have seen something even more horrible, but had the courage to go through. What some saw was not so frightening, but it still cost every one of them an inner struggle. Nothing I can say would apply to all. It’s a different experience each time.”
“Good,” said Atreyu. “Then at least it’s possible to go through this Magic Mirror Gate?”
“Oh yes, of course it’s possible, or it wouldn’t be a gate. Where’s your logic, my boy?”
“But it’s also possible to go around it,” said Atreyu. “Or isn’t it?”
“Yes indeed,” said Engywook. “Of course it is. But if you do that, there’s nothing more behind it. The third gate isn’t there until you’ve gone through the second. How often do I have to tell you that?”
“I understand. But what about this third gate?”
“That’s where things get really difficult! Because, you see, the No-Key Gate is closed. Simply closed. And that’s that! There’s no handle and no doorknob and no keyhole. Nothing. My theory is that this single, hermetically closed door is made of Fantastican selenium. You may know that there’s no way of destroying, bending or dissolving Fantastican selenium. It’s absolutely indestructible.”
“Then there’s no way of getting through?”
“Not so fast. Not so fast, my boy. Certain individuals have got through and spoken with Uyulala. So the door can be opened.”
“But
how?”
“Just listen. Fantastican selenium reacts to our will. It’s our will that makes it unyielding. But if someone succeeds in forgetting all purpose, in wanting nothing at all—to him the gate will open of its own accord.”
Atreyu looked down and said in an undertone: “If that’s the case—how can I possibly get through? How can I manage not to want to get through?”
Engywook sighed and nodded, nodded and sighed.
“Just what I’ve been saying. The No-Key Gate is the hardest.”
“But if I succeed after all,” Atreyu asked, “will I then be in the Southern Oracle?”
“Yes,” said the gnome.
“But who or what is Uyulala?”
“No idea,” said the gnome, and his eyes sparkled with fury. “None of those who have reached her has been willing to tell me. How can I be expected to complete my scientific work if everyone cloaks himself in mysterious silence? I could tear my hair out—if I had any left. If you reach her, Atreyu, will you tell me? Will you? One of these days my thirst for knowledge will be the death of me, and no one, n
o one is willing to help. I beg you, promise you’ll tell me.”
Atreyu stood up and looked at the Great Riddle Gate, which lay bathed in moonlight.
“I can’t promise that, Engywook,” he said softly, “though I’d be glad to show my gratitude. But if no one has told you who or what Uyulala is, there must be a reason. And before I know what that reason is, I can’t decide whether someone who hasn’t seen her with his own eyes has a right to know.”
“In that case, get away from me!” screamed the gnome, his eyes literally spewing sparks. “All I get is ingratitude! All my life I wear myself out trying to reveal a secret of universal interest. And no one helps me. I should never have bothered with you.”
With that he ran into the little cave, and a door could be heard slamming within.
Urgl passed Atreyu and said with a titter: “The old fool means no harm. But he’s always running into such disappointments with this ridiculous investigation of his. He wants to go down in history as the one who has solved the great riddle. The world-famous gnome Engywook. You mustn’t mind him.”
“Of course not,” said Atreyu. “Just tell him I thank him with all my heart for what he has done for me. And I thank you too. If it’s allowed, I will tell him the secret—if I come back.”
“Then you’re leaving us?” Urgl asked.
“I have to,” said Atreyu. “There’s no time to be lost. Now I shall go to the Oracle. Farewell! And in the meantime take good care of Falkor, the luckdragon.”
With that he turned away and strode toward the Great Riddle Gate.
