The Dream Archipelago

by Christopher Priest

  I realized at last that I had to leave before I became trapped by the spreading fire. I went quickly across the sub-floor area, struggled with the old iron-handled doors, fell out into the darkness. I walked stiffly up the cobbled alley that ran behind the building, turned a corner, then another, walked into one of Muriseay’s market streets where the hot night was filled with people, lights, music and the raucous, thrilling sound of traffic.

  For the rest of the night I stumbled through the back streets and alleys of the town, trailing my fingertips along the rough texture of the stuccoed walls, obsessed with thoughts of the paintings that were being lost while the building burned. My agonies were being consumed but I was released from my past.

  I went through the port area again in the hour before dawn. The paintings must have smouldered for a time before properly igniting the shabby wooden walls of the warren, but now the whole of my building was consumed with flames. The doorways and windows I had sealed up for privacy had become apertures once more, square portals into the inferno within, white and yellow fire roaring in the gales of sucked air. Black smoke belched out through vents and gaps in the roof. Fire crews were ineffectually jetting cascades of water against the crumbling brick walls. I watched their efforts as I stood on the quay, a small bag with my belongings by my side. In the east the sky was lightening. Vapour trails lay widely dispersed across the dawn sky, reflecting the light from the sun that still hid beneath the horizon, glowing pink.

  By the time the fire crews had brought the flames under control I was aboard the first ferry of the day, heading for other islands.

  Their names chimed in my mind, urging me on.

  ORIGINAL APPEARANCES

  The Dream Archipelago was first published in French: L’archipel du rêve – Lattès, Paris, 1981.

  The Dream Archipelago was first published in English by Earthlight, London, 1999. ‘The Equatorial Moment’ was added to that edition. ‘The Trace of Him’ and ‘The Discharge’ have been added to the present edition.

  Individual stories:

  ‘The Equatorial Moment’ was first published in The Dream Archipelago – Earthlight, London, 1999.

  ‘The Negation’ was first published in Anticipations (edited by Christopher Priest) – Faber, London, 1978.

  ‘Whores’ was first published in New Dimensions (edited by Robert Silverberg) – Harper & Row, New York, 1978.

  ‘The Trace of Him’ was first published in Interzone, 2008.

  ‘The Miraculous Cairn’ was first published in New Terrors (edited by Ramsey Campbell) – Pan, London, 1980.

  ‘The Cremation’ was first published in Andromeda (edited by Peter R. Weston) – Futura, London, 1978.

  ‘The Watched’ was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1978.

  ‘The Discharge’ was first published in French as ‘Retour au foyer’ in Destination 3001 (edited by Robert Silverberg and Jacques Chambon) – Flammarion, Paris, 2000.

  Copyright

  A Gollancz eBook

  Copyright © Christopher Priest 1999, 2009

  All rights reserved.

  The Equatorial Moment © Christopher Priest 1999, 2009

  The Negation © Christopher Priest 1978, 1979, 1999, 2009

  Whores © Christopher Priest 1978, 1979, 1999, 2009

  The Trace of Him © Christopher Priest 2009

  The Miraculous Cairn © Christopher Priest 1980, 1983, 1999, 2009

  The Cremation © Christopher Priest 1978, 1999, 2009

  The Watched © Christopher Priest 1978, 1979, 1999, 2009

  The Discharge © Christopher Priest 2000, 2009

  The right of Christopher Priest to be identified as the author

  of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

  Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This edition first published in Great Britain in 2009 by

  Gollancz

  The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

  Orion House

  5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane

  London, WC2H 9EA

  An Hachette UK Company

  This eBook first published in 2010 by Gollancz.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book

  is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978 0 575 08682 1

  All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or

  dead, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by

  any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any

  form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this

  condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  www.christopher-priest.co.uk

  www.orionbooks.co.uk