The Vistor

by Sheri S. Tepper

  Camwar's uncle was generous, thoughtful, and remarkably understanding for an old bachelor. He raised the child Camwar on stories of wonder, on jobs of work, and on music—the coopers hobby was creating stringed instruments. Tales, tasks, and songs were suited to Camwar's age and became more complex with passing years.

  Occasionally a ship would come by; even less frequently a traveler would come down from the mountains. These infrequent visitors always confirmed Everday's decision to keep to itself. There were still monsters and wars out there, along with a people who called themselves The Spared who were actually slavers. Still, not all that came from outside was rejected merely on that account. A Mungrian ship, for example, brought with it some remarkable maps, new and shiny, with tiny letters and immaculate labeling of places in the style of pre-Happening things.

  "They come to us from the Guardian Council," said the bearded Mungrian. "Take them. There's no cost. We are paid to distribute them for the benefit of the people."

  "The Guardian Council? That's an old legend, isn't it. Are they real? Where are they?"

  The Mungrian stroked his beard and pontificated upon the subject: "It is thought The Council may dwell far to the north, for in that land great mountains have risen to hide the pole from the low sun that creeps impotent upon the horizon, and in that darkness something huge has lived since the Happening and now moves southward like a great flow of ebon shadow, into the peopled lands."

  The people of Everday knew that the world no longer tilted so far on its axis as in ancient times, that the year was now 400 days long, and that summer never came to the far north, but this account of flowing shadow was new to them, as was the idea that the Guardian Council, long a favorite tale of Camwar's, was a reality. Everday was to hear of The Council yet again. This time the informant came from the northern mountains.

  "You will be visited," said the Messenger, "by people who will bring you a device. When the device is brought to you, put it somewhere safe, for you will need it when the sign comes."

  "What sign?" asked the King, who was always sent for when there was something ceremonial to be done, such as opening the horse fair, or awarding the annual prize for preserves, or welcoming visitors.

  "The sign of the Guardian Council. The sign may come anywhere, wherever Appointed Ones are to be found. The sign will appear suddenly, and you will bring that person to the device. That's all."

  "Where did you learn all this?" asked the King.

  "Difficult to say," said the Messenger, rubbing his brow. "The message got passed on to me from someone else, though it originated with the Guardian Council."

  "What do you know of this Council?" the Everdayans asked.

  "Ah, well, little enough, though it is said that Tamlar of the Flames will know the time it is to be convened. Among the first to be called will be Bertral of the Book, for it is he who calls the role of the Appointed Ones."

  "Have you seen any of these Guardians?"

  "No." The Messenger shook his head. "I have seen one of the devices, however, and it is quite real."

  The Mungrian visit wasn't repeated, nor was there another Messenger, though as promised, the device was subsequently delivered, and when Camwar's uncle told the story, he always told how the device had arrived.

  "Later on, another ship came to Everday, the first and only ship of its kind that had ever been seen. It was a black ship, flecked with gold, and on its deck was a device, wavy and glassy and strangely shaped, like a frozen flame of space, with stars in it, accompanied by some silent and dark-robed persons.

  "The King directed his people to go out in a boat and get the device off the ship, and put it upon a wagon and haul it into the city, to the Temple, and there it is, in the apse behind the altar, and there it has been kept safe for generations, but no one has come bearing the sign."

  Camwar learned this story along with a hundred others. By the time he graduated from the limited schooling all Everdaylings were given whether they wanted it or not, he was much sought after as a teller of tales, a singer of songs accompanied by a lute or guitar he had fashioned himself. Story tellers and song singers were much valued in Everday, where even the antics of the royal family tended to be repetitive, generation to generation. Indeed, Camwar had recited the "strange device" story so often that whenever he went about his business, buying wood or strap iron, charring vats or making a stringed instrument for a special client, he always searched for the sign, thinking to see it almost anywhere except in his own mirror.

  Nonetheless, nine years after Camwar's uncle had died and left him the business, on the morning of the Festival of Lights, Camwar woke, bathed, went to his shaving mirror and stared at himself in bewilderment, for above his eyebrows, inexplicably, unexpectedly, astonishingly, there burned a twisted loop of fire that glowed like an iron white-hot from the forge.

  Because it was festival, he had planned to walk among merry makers, drink a few glasses of beer, eat some hot sausages, listen to the marching bands—which cost nothing—and then come home again in the early evening to his narrow bed and the quiet of his room. The man in the mirror, however, was not the man who had planned such a day. The man in the mirror blazed with purpose, and the blazon could not be ignored, for it glowed; nor could it be covered with a cap, for it sang like the reverberation of a great peal of bells, a mighty and harmonic throbbing that spanned the range of audibility.

  Trembling, he dressed himself in the best he had, garments that were clean and neatly repaired though by no means festive. He drank a glass of water to calm the queasiness he felt, an unsettling quake somewhere in his gut that was not pain but was nonetheless disturbing. He went out into the street and, keeping to the back ways as much as possible, made his way toward the palace. Unobtrusive as he tried to be, several people came trailing after him, nudging one another and whispering among themselves when he arrived at the palace gate. Though the sign had never been seen before, everyone had heard the story, and the Sign could only be what had been foretold to come, so when Camwar presented himself to the guard, that man took one look at the glowing sign and asked him to wait—courteously, as it happened, which was sensible of him.

  The Regent was being shaved. When the messenger arrived, in some haste, the barber dropped the razor, cutting the Regent very slightly on the chin, a fact that the Regent did not even notice. He leapt from the chair, struggled into his coat without waiting for his valet, and went bloody, belathered, and disheveled down the stairs, where he found Camwar waiting in a small reception room. He peered at him first, then he went near to him and touched the sign, drawing his hand away with an exclamation. The sign burned. The sensation was not exactly one of heat, but one could feel a force of fire when one touched it. One could, as a matter of fact, hear and taste and smell something fiery and forceful as well.

  "Does it hurt?" the Regent asked in wonder.

  "No, sire," Camwar replied. He had felt something when the Regent touched him, but it was not a sensation he could describe easily. It was rather as though he had answered a question without knowing what it had been.

  "When?" the Regent asked.

  "I've had a little itchiness there, in the forehead, for ... oh, some years now But this morning the itchiness was gone and it was there."

  "Well," said the Regent, sitting down and staring at the floor. "Well. I suppose ... I suppose we must get in touch with ... who is it?"

  "We're to go to the Temple, perhaps?"

  The Regent stared for a moment more, chewing his lip, then asked Camwar to be seated, sent one footman off to bring breakfast on a tray and another one off to summon the Royal Historian and several of the younger historians as well since the Royal Historian had become somewhat forgetful and vague with advanced age. These worthies assembled quickly, in various stages of bewildered disarray, and the Regent—who had completed his shave and been properly dressed in the interim—told them in a hushed voice that the Sign had come.

  "You must go to the Temple," said the Royal Historian, f
irmly and without a moment's pause. "That is, if you're sure it's the Sign."

  The Regent suggested the Historian check for himself, which that man did, returning to say yes, it was the sign. "We must go to the High Priest," he repeated, with no wavering or doubt whatsoever in his voice.

  "We have not thought about the device in hundreds of years," said one of the younger historians. "Is it even still here?"

  "The device is in the Temple," said the Royal Historian. "You are correct that it has been there for a very long time."

  "Is it really? Well, but ... if no one has ... oiled it or greased it or powered it up or whatever one does in all that time..." the Regent muttered unhappily.

  The Royal Historian forgot himself so far as to pat the Regent comfortingly on the shoulder. "We need not be concerned. We were told, as everyone, everywhere was told, that when the sign came, the device would be in operating condition. We have only to bring the sign to the device. The device will function."

  The Regent looked uncertainly at the mouse-quiet younger historians who would normally have been spouting contradictions to everything the old man said.

  "Now?" he asked.

  "Now," assented the Royal Historian, amid the others' continued silence.

  They went in procession to the small audience chamber, where Camwar was enjoying a freshly baked muffin spread with something delicious he had never tasted before. Nonetheless, when the Regent appeared, he rose hurriedly and bowed.

  "Finish your breakfast," said the Regent. "It will take us a few moments to have the carriages brought round and the Temple staff notified."

  The Regent went off to expedite matters, but the Royal Historian stayed behind and helped himself to one of the muffins. "Tell me about yourself," he said gently, when Camwar had swallowed and wiped his lips.

  "There's very little to tell, sir. I was reared by my uncle, who was a cooper. I inherited his business nine years ago. I have remained a bachelor; my shop is in Vrain Street by the bridge. I'm thirty-four years old. I had intended to spend the day at the Festival, so I allowed myself a bit more sleep than usual this morning. When I got up..." he shrugged. "Well, you see it."

  "Yes," mused the Historian. "Yes, I certainly do. I'd wondered about that, you know. It came without warning, did it?"

  "Unless the itchiness was a warning, sir. I've had that for donkey's years. Not so bad it was annoying, just enough to make me scratch at it now and then."

  "Itchiness. Well. I also wondered whether the person who received the sign might not hide it..."

  His voice trailed away as he regarded the twisted loop of shining fire, and heard the harmonic singing that changed from time to time without ever approaching melody.

  Camwar said, "I don't think it would allow me to hide it away, sir."

  "No, now that I see and hear it, it's clear it wouldn't."

  "Do you know what the Sign means, sir?" Camwar asked.

  "Its shape is an ancient sign for infinity," the Historian answered. "The never ending but twisted loop of time, going out and returning. It is also the symbol for change of condition."

  "Change of condition, sir?"

  "The change from child to adult, from adult to age. From winter to spring. From living to dying. You go as far as you can go one way, then you go the other way, and finally, you return to the starting point."

  "Ah," said Camwar politely, to show he had heard. He had heard, but he had not apprehended. He felt as though he were suspended between the sky and the city, unable to make sense of what he saw from that height. "Ah," he said again, taking a very small bite of muffin.

  In mere moments he was escorted to a royal carriage that rolled silently on inflated tires behind felt-booted horses, for in Everday, people were attentive to noise as to any other form of pollution. The populace lined the streets, all the way from the palace to the Temple.

  "How did they know where we were going?" the Regent asked.

  "They saw him this morning, sire. As he came through the streets. I'm sure the people figured it out. They often do."

  Even the temple steps were lined with quiet people. For the first time since he had risen that morning, Camwar felt a touch of panic. He started to shake, only to feel the Historian's hand comfortingly on his own. "Don't worry, young man. It's nothing you need fear. Nothing evil is said of the device or those brought to it."

  "Quite right," the Regent murmured, as he alit, then offered Camwar his hand. "You need have no apprehension on that score."

  They went up the steps together, the Royal Historian panting a little for the stairs, though shallow, were long. The huge iron-bound doors were open, and they walked through, down the center aisle of the lengthy nave, up more steps past the huge altar, around the reredos behind it, and into the small hidden chapel in the apse where hundreds of scented candles bloomed like flowers before images of the kindly goddesses favored in Everday. The device stood on a low dais beneath a pillared baldachin, a shadowy flame of glass, or that particular stone that comes from volcanoes, glowing with golden sparks inside it, like the ebb and flow of lights of distant cities seen through shimmering air from a mountain top. It stood above the height of a tall man, and it looked unlike anything made by hands, human or any other. The High Priest, in full vestments, including his best diadem, stood beside it.

  He greeted the Regent with a low bow, murmuring as the Regent stepped near, "There's a kind of blurry place here, like a pair of handprints, and they're at the right level for a man to reach, so I suppose that's what he's to do."

  The Regent beckoned to Camwar, who approached the thing and laid his hands on the indicated places in the stone. A light shot from between his thumbs to touch the sign on his forehead. The lights in the device began to spin over and under or perhaps through one another, diverse sets of them converging beneath his hands in varying combinations and colors, as a deep, pulsing hum came from the device. Camwar felt nothing except an inner vacancy, as though his self had been removed and taken elsewhere, leaving his body poised where it was, half leaning on his hands.

  Those watching saw a transformation. The man leaning on the device grew taller, much taller, and larger. His face altered. His garments transformed strangely, so that he appeared alien in his dress as in his features. What stood there, only briefly, was a giant clad in skin-tight leather and fur, a bow saw across one shoulder, a great axe sheathed on his back, in one hand a drawknife and in the other an adze.

  A great voice shouted:

  "Behold Camwar of the Cask, in whose charge are all containments, holdings, bindings and restrainings, whether of torrents or plagues or winds. The soul of thunder is his to hold or loose...

  "His is the discipline of the craftsman, the habit of care and attention to detail, his the accomplishment of perfection when upon the head of thunder he shall stand to account for the workmanship of his people."

  In the depths of the stone, life moved and hummed. The lights glittered and faded. No one moved. The light that bathed the sign went out, the stone was still, and Camwar was only Camwar once more. Self returned, but only into the space not occupied by that larger self that had come from, or perhaps through, the machine.

  "Is that all we were supposed to do?" queried the Regent.

  "Yes, sire, that was all," Camwar said softly. "You are thanked for your commendable promptness."

  As they turned to leave, they were stopped by a flicker of light at the top of the device, a sparkling fire which was shooting bits of it off into nothingness, the sparkle gradually lowering, eating the device as it went, within moments reducing it to a pile of dust on the floor of the apse. There seemed to be nothing anyone could say about this, as it served only to verify what Camwar had said. Indeed that had been all they were supposed to do, and the device would not be needed again.

  All of them, including the High Priest, returned to the palace. Many men of importance were gathered there to be seen talking with other men of importance, resulting in an abundance of conspicuous but immateri
al discourse. Some persons had already sent minions to question the neighbors and customers of Camwar Vestavrees, in case the information might be valuable, or at the very least, interesting. Meantime they discussed What It All Meant, some considering the Sign a threat and others a blessing, each according to his nature.

  Since Camwar was secluded in the small audience chamber with the Royal Historian and the High Priest, the talkers had nothing but opinion to work on, and even that little gave out when it was announced that Camwar would be leaving very soon, on a ship.

  "What ship?" they clamored. "A fishing boat? That's all we have."

  "No," said the messenger. "He says a ship will come for him."

  Thus dismissed, the gathering removed itself from the palace to more comfortable surroundings where it continued to discuss What It All Meant for several days without changing in any respect the ratio of reality to opinion.

  In the small audience chamber, meantime, the High Priest had asked whether Camwar had any words of wisdom to share, and Camwar had fixed him with an innocently speculative eye.

  "Yes," he said at last. "A time of great danger is coming."

  "For us?"

  "For the world. Long ago, the people of the world cried out for help. In the reaches of heaven their cry was heard, and a Visitor came in answer to it. That Visitor began helping immediately, but secretly. Now the Visitor intends to be known to the people of the world and the people of the world must deal with that knowledge."

  "What did we cry out for?" asked the Regent.

  "For God to take notice of us. To correct our errors. To govern us. The first answer that came was the Happening. The second answer is about to come, and we do not yet know how terrible the governance may be."

  "Why should we fear a just god?" the High Priest asked, with a little smile.

  Camwar turned his full gaze upon the old man, saying in a puzzled voice, "I do not know that they prayed for a just God."

  The High Priest thought upon this, his face troubled.

  The Historian asked: "And what is the role of the Guardians in this?"