Riddle of the Seven Realms

by Lyndon Hardy

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Bubbles of Reality

  ASTRON blew out all the candles except for the one on the far end of the oaken table. The remaining light was feeble, but he had had more than enough time to get familiar with the placing of even the tiniest obstacles in the small circular room. Fifteen marks Kestrel had gouged into the doorframe, one for each arising from his sleep. For the entire duration, Astron had been confined to the one room.

  Despite the urgency, he had achieved no new progress toward his goal. The growing frustration made his stembrain continuously active. A feeling of constant uneasiness ached just below his consciousness. He could not still the rumbling, no matter how hard he tried. With each passing tick of time, the chances of the survival of his prince and hence his own shrunk all the more. Something had to be done soon, no matter how interesting the other distractions.

  They were not prisoners exactly, but Nimbia’s sentrymen made clear with the force of their thoughts that wandering around underhill was highly discouraged. After the queen had dismissed them, they had not seen her again. Apparently Astron and his companions were left to their own devices until she saw fit to call them back to her presence.

  Astron directed his concentration at what he had constructed. The idle time had not been a total waste, since there was much he had learned. The oaken table with the candle was straight on three sides, while the fourth was curved to meet the contour of the stone wall to which it was pressed. Square cells would have been much more efficient, Astron knew. Using stone instead of wood certainly must stress the mechanism that raised and lowered the hilltop, but he gathered that such practicalities were not the concern of the fey.

  Next to the candle, hung from a cantilevered scaffolding made of twigs and branches, was a watersack from one of the large vines that grew aboveground. Astron had carefully pierced and drained the bladder and then refilled it with lamp oil obtained from another resinous herb. With bits of copper wire hooked into the surrounding leaves, the spherical globe was elongated and flattened, distorting it into a thin vertical disk.

  At the other end of the table, the book of thaumaturgy that Astron had obtained from the archimage stood upright in a scaffolding similar to the first. The candle flame flickered through the orb of oil and cast a diffuse glow of light on the upright parchment, illustrating an image quite similar to the one Astron had constructed on the bench.

  Astron studied the illustration for a moment more and then the arcane symbols written beneath it. The abstractions had been difficult to grasp at first, but the examples had helped a great deal. He turned to the bag of oil and moved it to a mark he had calculated before, roughly midway between the candle and book.

  The diffuse halo of light on the parchment coalesced into a much sharper dot. Astron grunted in satisfaction. He cupped his hand in front of his lens so that only its very center received the candleglow and watched the focus on the book decrease to a single point of whiteness.

  Astron moved the position of the book toward the candle and then adjusted the lens to regain the proper focus. He measured the distances from page to oilbag and oilbag to candle and checked the results with the predictions of the formula. After a half-dozen trials, he blew out the remaining light and sat in the darkness, contemplating what he had learned.

  The ones who call themselves masters in the realm of men treated knowledge in strange ways, he thought. The basic principles of bending rays of light had no intrinsic connection to thaumaturgy or any other of the crafts known to mortals. But because these laws were used by practitioners of the magical arts, they were shrouded in secret like the rest. One went to a thaumaturge for telescopes or heating lenses, even though a glassblower could construct what was needed just as well without any recourse to the art, if he knew a few simple formulas. Unlike Prince Elezar’s riddles, which extracted a price but once, knowledge in the realm of men was hoarded and reused again and again, demanding a fee each and every time.

  Astron’s reverie was broken by a pounding on the door. “The hillsovereign commands your presence,” a voice on the other side said.

  Astron scrambled out of his repose, opened the door, and burst into the hall. Perhaps at last he could continue the search for the answer to Gaspar’s riddle.

  He was joined shortly in the narrow curving hallway by Kestrel and Phoebe. While Astron had pondered the mysteries of thaumaturgy, they had spent much time together learning the fundamentals of the language of the fey. And the demon could not help noticing how much stronger the attraction between the two of them had become.

  He had no chance to comment on the fact, however. In a short moment they were ushered into the presence of Nimbia in the central throne room. Nimbia wore a gown of iridescent pink that billowed and filled the high chair on which she sat. On either side, two pages stood at solemn attention, their copper spear points perfectly straight and aimed at the sculptured ceiling overhead. The openness that was present when Astron had first arrived had been replaced by substantial-looking panels that blocked everything behind from view. Footfalls echoed from the unadorned walls. Somewhere in the background, pipers still trilled melancholy airs.

  “I apologize for my lack of attention,” Nimbia said as they entered, “but the emotion had to run its course. Nothing has changed, of course, but at least now I can be a more proper hostess.”

  “How do you seek?” Astron ignored the courtesy. He quickly reviewed the questions that he had decided to ask at the first opportunity. “I deduce from what I have seen that you command the ring of djinns to bridge between realms that you have never seen before. How do you know they are there? Would not the action be one of discovery, rather than creation?”

  A weak smile appeared on Nimbia’s face. “I see our control of your kind is not something you ponder lightly,” she said.

  “I appreciate the extent of your power,” Astron answered. “The youngest hatchlings are taught to avoid the lure of the fey.” He wrinkled his nose. “But even the mightiest djinn cannot respond to an order poorly formed. He cannot pass through the barrier to another realm unless you explicitly direct him there. If he knows it not and neither do you, there is no way an opening can be formed.”

  “But we do know the realms where the ring is commanded,” Nimbia said. “We know them because they are formed by our thought. We do not discover other realms, demon; they are created by the fey exactly as you have heard us say.”

  Astron opened his mouth to speak again, then slammed it shut as the significance of what Nimbia had said began to sink into his stembrain. She spoke casually, as if what she said was of no great matter, but the words brought forth images as staggering as those in Palodad’s lair.

  “You create realms,” he said slowly, trying to fight off the stunned numbness that began to tingle through his limbs. “You are the ones responsible for the realm of daemon, the realm of men, and all the others.”

  “No, no, not the demons,” Nimbia said. “As you well know, your realm spans the space between all the others. It must have existed far before the oldest memories of our own. Somehow it is different from the rest.

  “And as for the realm of men, none of my brethren would admit to such an act—conceiving something so misformed. Perhaps ages ago, before our art reached its present level of perfection, it was accomplished—or maybe it was the other way around, we are all the product of the fancies of men. Otherwise still, both could be the discarded first attempts to achieve perfection by yet some other beings. If that is so, it explains why so many of the realms are similar.”

  “What do you mean?” Astron persisted. “What realms—”

  “Of the ones you saw on the slopes of the glen,” Nimbia said, “I was the author of the last. I conceived the waves of black and the forces that gave them motive power. It was my thoughts that strained against the compressive forces that push against all the realms, trying to crush them to nothingness.”

  “I am sorry,” Astron said. “You speak too quickly. I do not understand.�
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  Nimbia’s smile broadened slightly beneath her sad eyes. She gestured to one of the sentrymen standing in a doorway at the rear of the hall. “Pipes and cooling gels,” she commanded. “I must explain what to the fey is common knowledge and second nature.”

  Astron watched as three pages shortly appeared, each one carrying a bowl of a steaming and viscous liquid. Behind them came three more, these bearing tripods and long metal pipes under their arms. The bowls were set erect in the stands and each of the trio handed a horn.

  “You saw the pipers display this art when we returned from the judging,” Nimbia said. “It is a festive symbolism of what we accomplish with our thought.” She pointed in Phoebe’s direction. “Let the female start. The brew before her is the most fluid.”

  Phoebe handled the horn tentatively but Nimbia waved her on. “Insert the pipe and blow,” she said. “Show the power of creativity.”

  Phoebe thrust the flared end of the horn into the clear broth and took a deep breath. She exhaled forcefully and Astron saw a riot of tiny bubbles cascade to the surface and burst.

  “Secondly the man,” Nimbia said.

  Kestrel frowned but positioned the long pipe into the liquid. He tentatively puffed into the horn and then strengthened his efforts. Astron saw agitation in the broth but little else. Kestrel’s frown tightened. He inhaled deeply and pressed his lips about the mouthpiece of the horn. With bulging cheeks and eyes, he forced his breath through the long passageway into the brew.

  Astron saw the surface ripple and then a single tiny bubble float gently upward. Kestrel lowered the pipe from his mouth, breathing deeply from the effort.

  “And now the demon,” Nimbia said. “Show who is the mightier of breath.”

  Astron stepped forward reluctantly and placed his hands on the pipe. He had no great need for moving large quantities of air in and out of his body and doubted that his strength matched that of a man. Nevertheless, he blew as hard as he could into the resistance.

  For a long moment he strained and nothing happened. He concentrated on constricting his chest as far as he could. He clamped his elbows to his sides and strained with the muscles in his back. Then, just as he was preparing to abandon the effort, he felt a sudden lessening of resistance. He looked into the broth to see the beginning of a bubble emerge from the bell of the horn. With a hatchlinglike delight, he pointed at what he had done but halted in mid-gesture as the fluid collapsed the emerging bulge back into the pipe.

  Nimbia nodded. “Imagine each realm as a bubble in a great sea,” she said, “resisting the surrounding pressure by outward forces of its own. If the powers of expansion are insufficient, the bubble collapses into nothingness; but so long as they are strong enough, the realm survives.

  “And what is the nature of this outward-directed power? Nothing less than the belief that the realm does indeed exist. If I can formulate a consistent system that has enough clarity in my mind, a rift occurs in the great sea; a tiny bubble forms that pushes back the oppressive forces and exists where there was nothing before.

  “The effort required is a staggering one, far far greater than what you experienced with the gels. It is not everyone that can do it. But to the extent that I give my creation a compelling richness, others will also become enamored of its beauty. They, too, will think of it often, adding to the forces that keep it alive. So long as we ponder its being, the crush of destruction can be withstood.”

  Astron wrinkled his nose. For a long moment he pondered what he had heard. “It sounds like the balloons in the realm of men,” he said at last. He propped the mouthpiece end of the horn carefully on the floor while he watched the bell end rise slowly from the clinging viscosity in the bowl. “Are you the only ones with such a power?”

  “Beings in other realms can perform these creations as well,” Nimbia said. “Why, even humans with their fancies and tales for the sagas have probably created universes, even though they know not what they have done. Their passions can sometimes be as great as our own. The recording of these ideas on parchment is an analogue to what we do with our song tellers—spreading knowledge of the creation, so that others can experience the wonder and aid in its existence.”

  Nimbia’s eyes took on a faraway look. “As for the ability of the fey, it is the nature of our very own realm—the dictums of magic that are part of it, the storm of our emotion; these are the things that make us perhaps the most proficient.”

  “When the tales are put away and men read them no longer?” Phoebe looked up from where she was stirring the thinnest of the three fluids with the end of her horn. She spoke in a halting voice, the unfamiliar words of a new language setting heavy on her lips.

  “If the creation has by that time not achieved a sufficient vitality of its own, if it has flaws and inconsistencies like a poorly constructed watch, it will eventually run down and be compressed back into the nothingness of the sea—just as you saw with the attempt of the demon.” Nimbia paused and her eyes widened. “But if the construction has been a sufficiently skilled one, with sentient beings of its own that believe in themselves, in their own existence, then the realm remains. Those inside provide the outward pressure that keeps the crushing forces of the all-enveloping sea at bay—a true creation of great art.

  “That is what we strive for. It is the ultimate goal to which any fey can aspire—to create a new realm equal to our own, one that exists in and of itself, with all the thought being provided from inside, rather than the continued attention of those who first brought it into life.

  “You saw the vitality of my creation when viewed through the circle of djinns. It lived, lived of its own volition! There should have been no way for Finvarwin to judge it inferior to empty motions of Prydwin’s—despite the fact that what I did was accomplished without a mate.”

  “If you think the outcome of your efforts not to be fairly determined,” Astron said, “then why do you try? Surely, with all that you command, there are other amusements that would serve as well.”

  Nimbia shook her head slowly. “There is nothing to compare to the joy of creation,” she said. “The sense of accomplishment of bringing into being an existence out of the void. To be denied that pleasure is the greatest penalty that the high king can exact.”

  She waved her arm about the throne room. “The melancholy is not only my own. Even though only a king or queen is able to force a realm to spring from the void, everyone who serves contributes their thoughts to make it grow. They all savor the feeling of accomplishment, the thrill and wonder when the realm takes on a sense of being of its own, the pride when other underhills view what they have wrought.”

  Nimbia shook her head a second time. Fresh tears glistened in the corners of her eyes. “It is the duty of a hillsovereign to provide the basis, so that all can share. Her own sadness is all the greater because she must bear the responsibility of so many in addition to her own.”

  “Duty,” Astron said. “Is not that from the subject to the prince? You seem to state that it is the other—”

  “The other realms have witnessed this melancholy, although they do not understand.” Nimbia ran on, apparently not hearing the interruption. “In times past, other underhills unable or forbidden to create on their own have been reduced to merely watching. But just to observe realms who owe none of their existence to your craft makes the restrictions all the more heartpiercing. Usually we remain underground, so as to block out even the hint of pipes from others who are more fortunate.”

  “Then you do look into the realm of men,” Kestrel said. “It could be that our tales are not by mere luck the same after all.”

  “My own underhill has not viewed the affairs of humans,” Nimbia said, “but that does not preclude the actions of many others. And as you probably have surmised, the ring of djinns can be seen through from either side. No doubt if you have legends of strange beings, piping music, and forced gaiety appearing out of the mists and then vanishing again, it is because of the fey.”

  Nimbia
stopped speaking. She dabbed at one tear on her cheek and stared off into the distance, apparently consumed by her own innermost thoughts.

  “We asked before about the ultimate precept,” Astron said after a moment. “Could it be that it too plays a part in the construction of these creations?”

  Nimbia looked back down at Astron. She slowly shook her head. “Of such I have not heard,” she said. “Our realm is governed by seven dictums of magic, like all the rest. The last two are those of dichotomy and ubiquity as you well know. They are the basis for the communication with the mighty djinns of your kind.”

  “Then perhaps one of the others,” Astron said.

  Nimbia rubbed her cheek dry and flicked back a golden curl over her shoulder. She shrugged again and began reciting, as if she were a broodmother instructing her latest clutch. “Of the first I have already spoken—reality follows from passion. Our temperaments are not placid, like those of the skyskirr. Instead, they are the fuel that fires our imaginations when we attempt to wrest a new universe from the void.

  “The second as simply stated—strength comes from the lattice—guides our thoughts as we try to create. It is easier to conceive of a realm with dictums of magic close to our own, rather than more exotic ones about whose existence we can only guess.

  “The third is a warning—weakness comes from contradiction. As I have already explained, a realm will eventually wind down and stop, because the postulates that we use in its beginning do not mesh into a harmonious whole.

  “Of the fourth, even you have probably heard enough—two is greater than one and one. Somehow, when we are paired as loving mates, the creations are more fertile, more exotic, more likely to live.

  “The fifth is stated—reap what you sow. It is the pollens we toss into the rings that somehow unlock the thoughts deepest within us, that give rise to our most exciting thoughts. Each type has its own—”