by Hogan, James
words?" Thirg shrugged and took a short draught from another cord to be
sociable. "But we would never permit such a form of argument in our more mundane
world of everyday affairs. For example, if I decided to invent an Unknowable
Windowmaker, I could hardly claim that because windows exist the Windowmaker
must have made them, could I? It is known that windows grow from cultures that
are engineered by builders. Like the first, the argument is circular: It begins
by assuming that which it sets out to prove."
Groork, who had raised his hands in an attempt to block his ears, lowered them
again with an anguished moan. "Blasphemy!" he exclaimed. "What false creed of
faith is this?"
"It's not a creed of faith at all, but a process by which truths can be shown to
follow necessarily from simple observations," Thirg told him. "My task has been
the reduction of this process to a series of rules which can be written down in
a form of language and used by anyone. Truly the results astonish me. Shall I
demonstrate some examples?"
Groork looked aghast. "Do you presume to impose rules upon the Lifemaker
Himself? You would dare constrain how He might choose to manifest His design?
You would confine His works to the understanding of mere mortals? What arrogance
has taken possession of thee? What manner of—"
"Oh, shut up," Thirg said wearily. "I impose no rules of my own invention on
anyone. I merely observe the world as it is, and attempt to understand the rules
that are written into it already. It seems to me that if the Lifemaker saw fit
to endow us with intelligence at all, He would have meant us to use it. Well,
what use would be better fitting than discovering reliable methods of acquiring
knowledge?"
"Know ye of the things that the wise shall not seek after, and the mysteries
that the holy shall not question," Groork recited shrilly. "There are some
things that we were not meant to know, Thirg."
"Oh, and how do you know?"
"It is written in the Scribings."
"Who wrote them, and how did they know?"
"Those who were inspired to know. Truth cannot be found by following false
paths. All of the true knowledge that was meant to be divulged is divulged in
the Scribings."
"And who says that?" Thirg challenged. "The Scribings. Again we see an argument
that leads itself into a circle."
Groork looked away despairingly and his eyes came to rest on an orb covered with
unfamiliar markings and notations, standing at one end of Thirg's worktable.
"Thou art bewitched by circles," he said. "The same madness that has damned
Lofbayel is afflicting thee. I have heard of the insanity that deranges his mind
with belief the world is round."
"I have studied his evidence closely, and it is persuasive," Thirg replied.
"Since his trial before the Council, he has entrusted his charts and his records
to me for safekeeping." He gestured toward a large map hanging on the wall above
the worktable—a map unlike any that Groork had seen before. "Behold, the world
upon which you walk. Much remains to be filled in, as you can see, but Lofbayel
has convinced me that in its main features it is reasonably accurate. See how
tiny the whole of Kroaxia is upon it."
"It has straight edges," Groork objected after staring in mute protest for a
while. "It is taught that the world is as a platter, bounded by the unscalable
Peripheral Barrier of mountains that support the sky. You talk of rules of
reason, but no fool in his wildest ravings would conceive of reason such as
this."
"The edges of the sheet upon which the map is drawn can no more influence what
the map represents than the edge of a portrait can cause its subject to be
beheaded," Thirg pointed out.
"And so the world is beheaded on all four sides," Groork replied. "The Barrier
does not appear anywhere. Thus this map cannot represent the entire world. Your
words are belied."
"In all his searchings Lofbayel was unable to find a single authenticated
account of anyone ever finding the Barrier," Thirg said. "High mountains, yes;
immense chains whose very passes are higher than the highest peaks in all
Kroaxia, yes; mountains whose summits are sometimes lost from sight in vapors no
more substantial than the mists that rise from the stream outside at early
bright, yes. But mountains upon which there rests a solid roof of sky? Never.
Always there is another side beyond the mountains, and always another shore
beyond the ocean."
"Now you would presume to dictate limits to the Lifemaker again," Groork
accused. "This time you tell him how large He is permitted to make His world.
The distance to the Barrier is not written. It is unknown and therefore
unknowable."
"Another reason for its being unwritten and unknown might be that it doesn't
exist," Thirg commented.
"It is written that it exists!"
"How could it be written about if no one's ever seen it?"
"How could it not exist? The world must be bounded."
"Because your imagination is bounded and unable to conceive of any alternative?"
Thirg asked. "Now who is imposing his limits upon the Lifemaker? But this map
covers the whole world, and no Barrier appears on it. Where, then, is the
Barrier if it exists?"
"The map cannot cover the whole world," Groork answered.
"But it leaves no direction open for any more of the world to exist in." Thirg
picked up the sphere and showed it. "There is the world, Groork! For just one
minute forget your dusty texts, written long ago by clerks in their dungeons,
who never saw an ocean, let alone crossed one, and who never looked beyond any
mountain. This form, and only this form, is consistent with all the facts that
have been recorded; no form of platter can be contrived of which the same can be
said. Which form, therefore, should we accept as representing more closely the
reality that exists?"
Groork unplugged himself from the transformer unit and shook his head in
protest. "Your facts are in error, for did you not claim they were amassed from
travelers who have seen the farthest limits of north, south, east, and west? But
it is obvious that no traveler could venture beyond a small region at the top of
that. . ." He pointed at the globe. "Otherwise they would fall off, as indeed
would the methanes of the oceans. But the oceans persist. There is a fact,
Brother Thirg, which you would appear to have chosen conveniently to ignore."
"That was a source of vexation to me too for a while," Thirg admitted. "But a
possible answer suggested itself to me one bright when I was strolling in the
forest. I stopped to rest for a while by a glade where spectrometers are
assembled, and picked a magnet from one of the storage bins to savor its scent.
The iron grains that it attracted from the debris around where I was sitting
prompted me to wonder if perhaps the world-sphere might draw all things to
itself in the same way that a magnet draws iron grains to itself—from any
direction. Just as every line toward the magnet is uniformly 'down' for the
grain, so 'down' at every place on the world-sphere would be toward the grou
nd.
The methanes of the oceans would thus seek a level nearest to the center and
remain in the lowest regions, which is as we know to be true. Hence, you see,
the fact is explained."
Thirg paused, but Groork made no response. Thirg held up the sphere to study it
for a moment or two, and then continued in a more distant voice, "The fact that
nobody has ever found a Barrier holding up a solid sky leads me to wonder if the
sky is really solid at all. Could it be nothing more than vapors? And if so, how
far do they extend? Forever? If not, what lies beyond them? Could there be other
worlds? The question intrigues me. Ever since it occurred to me after I began
familiarizing myself with Lofbayel's work, I have been studying the cycles of
full-brights and half-brights as they follow one another across the world. On
the basis that the world is indeed a sphere and the sky nothing more than
vapors, the bright and half-bright periods could be accounted for by two
brilliant objects moving beyond the sky in a complicated but repeating motion.
Where would you look in your Scribings for the knowledge to answer questions
like these, Groork?"
Groork stood up suddenly and dismissed the whole matter with a gesture. "I did
not come here to listen to you compounding your folly by adding more heresies to
those you are guilty of already," he said. "The High Council will not look
leniently upon you one more time. Their patience is exhausted. May the Lifemaker
forgive me for my weakness, but I cannot abandon my brother though the madness
boils within him. Collect together the possessions you would carry with you,
Thirg, and for this bright we can travel together. But on the far side of the
mountains I must lead a lone path to the destiny that has been written but which
is yet to be revealed. Hurry. There may be little time."
Thirg stared back sadly. "I doubt if you could ever understand, Groork, even if
I had all the rest of time to try and explain it. Your beliefs are taught
without a question's being tolerated, while mine are learned only after posing
every question. What does it say for the worth of beliefs if they cannot survive
critical scrutiny and dare not permit a word of dissent to be voiced? Would
truth or untruth be the first to tremble in the presence of the other? It
seems—"
At that moment the sound of Rex's agitation again came from outside. Groork
rushed to the doorway. "Too late!" he moaned, turning a fearful face as Thirg
strode across the living area after him. "They're here. The King's soldiers have
arrived." Thirg reached the door and looked out past Groork. Mounted figures in
single file were approaching on the trail leading to the clearing.
12
THIRG STARED FOR SOME SECONDS, AND THEN THE LOUVER VANES covering his
ventilation inlets bristled into a puzzled frown. "Those are not soldiers," he
said to Groork as the new arrivals emerged from the trail and came fully into
view. He went out and stood before the door; Groork followed warily.
Although the riders carried weapons, they were clad in rough mountain garb, with
heavy cloaks of flexible laminate mail, body armor of acid-resistant and
heat-absorbing organics, and knee-length boots of heavy polymer. The one who
appeared to be the leader, a large, broad-shouldered robeing with rugged,
weather-worn features and a heavy black beard of accumulated carbon-impregnated
plating about his lower face, crossed the clearing and brought his
exhaust-snorting steellion to a halt before Thirg and Groork. The others fanned
out into a semicircle behind.
"Outlaws, unless I am much mistaken," Thirg muttered to Groork. He raised his
head to look up at the leader and asked in a louder voice, "Am I honored with
guests, or merely treated to the rare pleasure of welcoming passersby?"
"Oh, you are indeed honored," the leader replied. His voice was deep and firm,
but his tone more jovial than harsh. "I take it you are Thirg, who asks
forbidden questions. And do you find many answers?"
"As to the first, I am. And this is my brother Groork—a hearer. As to the
second, each new answer comes inseparably joined to a new question of whether or
not the answer is true. Thus the number of questions to be answered can never
diminish, however many answers may be found." Thirg cast an eye over the
company. "But who is it that honors us with his visit, and what would bring such
as you to the dwelling of a thinker and a seeker-of-truth? If you have come in
search of plunder or of a body that would command a high ransom, I fear you will
be disappointed. If, on the other hand, your desire is to rest awhile and
conjecture upon the riddles of Nature while engaging in philosophical discourse,
then I have more to offer. But I would not advise it; the King's soldiers have
departed hither from Pergassos, I am told, and have been riding since early
bright."
"We know all about them," the leader said. "The King's generals would better
spend the royal funds buying intelligence from us than paying their own
officers. But the soldiers will have found the bridge over the cable-spinning
ravine blocked, which will slow them down awhile." He paused and looked from one
to the other of the two figures standing in front of him. "I am Dornvald, called
by many Freer-of-Bondslaves, by others, Subverter-of-Rebels, depending on
whether you pay the King's living or he pays yours. We present ourselves here as
trusty escorts for your journey through the mountains and across the Wilderness
to the city of Menassim in the country of the Carthogians."
"What makes you think that I wish to travel to Carthogia?" Thirg asked.
"I didn't say you did," Dornvald told him. "I just said you were going."
"To preserve the likes of one such as I from priests?"
"If you choose not to preserve yourself."
"Why should that be a matter of concern to outlaws?"
"It isn't. But we enjoy freedom of passage through the borders of Carthogia and
other immunities, in return for which we render certain services to Kleippur,
the ruler of Carthogia. It appears that Kleippur values your casing more highly
than you do yourself. I do not make it my business to question his reasons, but
word is that other sorcerers who have fled to his realm have spoken well of your
magic, Thirg. Thus it is that we have been entrusted for many six-brights now to
watch over you for danger of the kind that now threatens."
Thirg rubbed his power inlet housing thoughtfully while he considered the
situation. Carthogia had once been a part of neighboring Serethgin, a larger
country than Kroaxia. It was now ruled by a former general called Kleippur, who
had led a successful uprising against the incumbent Serethginian prince, ousted
the traditional nobility and clergy, and established an oppressive military
tyranny. Various alliances between the remainder of Serethgin, Kroaxia, and a
number of other kingdoms had waged a series of wars to free the hapless people
of Carthogia from their yoke, but so far they had been unable to prevail against
the Carthogian army, which though small in numbers fought fanatically because of
the ruthless discipline imposed upon its soldie
rs, and with the advantage of
innovative weaponry created by enslaved craftsmen who lived chained to their
workbenches.
At least, that was the official story told by the priests and teachers of
Kroaxia. But Thirg had heard rumors of a different kind—rumors of a Carthogian
society that tolerated inquirers such as himself and permitted them to ask their
questions openly; of a slaveless society in which even the serfs were free to
own property and keep the major portion of the wealth earned by their labors;
and of an army of free robeings who fought to defend themselves against what
they saw as a return to the very form of slavery that Kroaxians were conditioned
to believe was normal and natural—all of which the priests and teachers insisted
were lies spread by Carthogian agents to undermine the faith and trust of the
people.
Thirg had never known what to believe. But he did know that many of his friends
had departed for Carthogia, and though from time to time he heard scraps of news
of them, none had returned; on the other hand, he had never met nor heard tell
of a Carthogian who had fled the other way. Did that mean they had found freedom
and tolerance as Thirg sometimes suspected? Or had they been kidnapped and
forced to remain in captivity as the Kroaxian teachers maintained?
For some reason, running away from the priests of his own volition would have
been, in his own mind, a betrayal of all that he felt he stood for. But, if
forced to leave by a band of armed brigands . . . well, that wasn't the same
thing at all, was it? He looked up again at Dornvald and asked, so as to be able
to justify everything to himself later, "Have I a choice,
Kidnapper-of-Thinkers?"
"Most certainly, for have I not presented myself as an agent of the
Land-That-Gives-Freedom?" Dornvald answered heartily. "You can mount a steed and
ride with us freely, or you can be placed on a steed and ride with us bound—a
perfectly free choice to decide how you get there."
"In that case I'll come with you," Thirg said.
"Wisest, without a doubt," Dornvald agreed solemnly.
Thirg glanced at Groork for a moment, then looked back at Dornvald. "My brother
is passing by on his way to the Wilderness, where he goes in search of his
voices," he said. "Our roads will run together for a while. Besides, we could
