The Silk Map (45 page)

“The lack of a lever is almost a provocation,” Bone muttered, looking around. The walls were filled with inscriptions, but there was no clue here for him. The script of Qushkent resembled the flowing calligraphy of Mirabad, but even if he knew that writing system, he lacked the language. “Gaunt, I don't suppose . . . ?”

She shook her head. “I can't make sense of it.”

“Nor I,” Zheng said, and turned her gaze to the green-eyed undead, who was silent.

Bone searched the chamber and tugged at the slab. Nothing. He stepped onto the cart. He gestured dramatically. “Onward,” he said. Nothing happened. He kicked at the iron post with no result other than an aching foot. He sat dejectedly upon the slab. “Greatest second-story man of the Spiral Sea,” he sighed. “I am out of my depth on the Braid of Spice.”

“The knot,” Zheng said. “Surely it has to do with the knot.”

“
I remember,
” said Swarnatep, making the others jump. “
I remember a story of a conqueror from the exotic West, red-haired like this woman here, who came to this city and found the knot.
”

“That sounds like Nayne of the Eldshore,” Gaunt said. “She is said to have invaded many lands unfamiliar to us, before her army perished in the desert.”

“
In the story, the conqueror tries but fails to unravel the knot. She raises her sword in frustration. Yet some glimmer of enlightenment comes to her, and she says, ‘To destroy is not to surpass. I want no victory that is unearned.' And alone among cities, she declined to conquer Qushkent.
”

“I am not certain Nayne could have cut this cord,” Gaunt mused, studying it. “It looks to contain strands of ironsilk.”

Bone scratched his chin. “This implies to me we are on the right track.” He turned around. “If only we could read that writing.”

There came more pounding on the door.

“We could ask them,” Zheng said.

“No, thank you,” said Bone.

“I will attempt something,” Gaunt said, closing her eyes and gripping her saber.

Her saber. Strange that Bone thought of it that way, and not as Flint's saber. Flint, who, it seemed, had betrayed them. He knew that greed tore apart alliances and knit new ones like a drunken seamstress, and this was one reason in his thieving career he'd worked alone. He did not trust the particular alliance of Gaunt and Crypttongue. It would bear watching.

Meanwhile he crouched beside the knot. Any solution, his instincts told him, must involve this rope in some way. He ran his hands along it, seeking to divine its full shape.

“Are you in love, Imago Bone?” Widow Zheng asked.

“Hush, if you please. I am working.”

The pounding resumed.

“Is silence too much to ask of you people?” Bone exclaimed.

“I have it,” Gaunt said. “One of the spirits already in the sword was a mercenary of Qushkent. He will translate in return for release.” She began studying the walls afresh, murmuring to herself.

One wonders at the ethics of making a trapped soul's release conditional,
Bone mused. Then he thought,
I'm dwelling upon ethics? I've been in the East too long
. . .

Zheng and the dead woman had begun talking in low tones. Bone wanted to shush them, but that seemed unfair. He continued to explore the tangles of the knot.

“If I dwelled in your town long ago,” Zheng said, “did you know me?”

“
I think perhaps I did. If you are who I believe you to be, then I knew you as a boy, and loved you from afar.
”

“I suppose it is strange for you, being a woman now.”

“
One dead body is much like another.
”

“Do you not wish to depart, to whatever paradise or reincarnation awaits you?”

“
That departure is inevitable enough. I find I want to linger near you. Is this acceptable?
”

“It is strange! Flattering, sure. But unsettling. If you knew me, why did your people attack me, beneath the sands?”

“
We have long been under the mental sway of the Leviathan Minds. They dislike surface dwellers digging too far beneath the sands. More, there was a relic that they preferred not come to light.
”

“The fragment of the map.”

“Yes.”

“Bone,” Gaunt said. “Zheng . . . Swarnatep. Listen.

“‘Hear now the secret sayings of the Fire Saint, whose resting place is beneath the slab.

“‘I have taught that Stargrace is in mortal danger from Lightrender, and needs human help to survive. This is not precisely true. But it is the way of humankind to be flattered by a plea for aid. What Stargrace desires, but does not require, is the joy of all beings who are willing to endure the joy of others. Do not sever or destroy that which can become your lifeline.

“‘It is true that one day the wicked will face damnation, and the angels will ask for human help in throwing the evil ones into the fire. But those who volunteer to damn their fellows, they themselves shall be cast in. Do not fall.

“‘The ways of Stargrace are strange, and even the Nightkindlers have glimpsed only a reflection of a mote of dust upon Stargrace's smallest fingernail. Much remains hidden, like the valley below. What damnation and salvation truly are, I cannot say, only that union with Stargrace is greatly to be desired. I believe that some in the valley below may have achieved that state, though my words are not theirs. Perhaps you will go there one day. If you do, remember that the pillar of my wisdom is that within this fallen world, all who rise must also descend.

“‘Though mysteries abound like mist, you must at times trust to faith, though it seems a slender cord.

“‘I wish you joy.'”

Gaunt nodded to the sword. “Thank you. I release you, warrior.” Blue light filled the air, rising through the ceiling.

“Was that supposed to mean something?” snapped Zheng.

Bone snapped his fingers. “I think it was! Faith like a slender cord . . . do not sever what can be your lifeline.”

“The rope,” Gaunt said.

“Yes! We will need it for something.”

“Can you unravel it?”

“No!”

“Ah.”

“But,” Bone said, holding up his index finger, “there is something I did not try with this post.”

He gripped it and pulled upward with all his strength. It gave a little, and somewhere a mechanism groaned. “Something about the pillar of wisdom? How to descend, something must rise? Could anyone help?”

Gaunt, Zheng, and Swarnatep assisted him. The post ascended into the hole in the ceiling, and its base rose from a depression in the floor.

Simultaneously, the slab opened with a tremendous thud. The sound startled the four sufficiently—even the dead body—that they let go.

The pillar stayed up.

“My,” Gaunt said, looking down through some twenty feet of rock at a swirl of mist beneath the great beak of the mountain.

Bone removed the loop of the knot that wrapped around the iron. This done, unraveling the rope was simple enough.

It was hard to be certain, but it looked to him to be long enough to reach into the mists.

“A test of faith,” he said. “Faith in whomever set this up or at least in the strength of ironsilk. The path to Xembala must lie just beneath the clouds.”

“And if it does not?” Zheng said.

“Then they'll have rope to hang us with.”

“That was not funny, Bone,” Gaunt said.

“Zheng had best go first,” Bone mused. “You and I can climb down, Gaunt, but we'll secure Zheng and lower her first.”

“You are so sure there is something down there?” Zheng asked.

“When have cryptic religious figures lied to anybody?” Bone asked. “Very well, do not answer that. But we must be on the correct path.”

“
I know how I can be of use to you, my old friend,
” Swarnatep said to Zheng. “
Tie the rope to me, and I will leap through the grave. Thus we will learn what is down there.
”

“What if you are destroyed by impact?” Bone said.

“Or by the shock if the rope goes taut?” Gaunt said.

“
I do not have so much to lose. I will try to maintain my grip on this body, but if I fail, what of it? I am destined for someplace else, and this body was always meant to fall. If there is an impact, you will know this is the path. If there is not, perhaps I will see something useful. If I wish to be drawn up, I will tug twice upon the rope. You must let me do this.
”

“Thank you,” Zheng said.

They secured the dead woman, and without ceremony Swarnatep directed his borrowed body to jump.

Bone rushed to the grave. Down plunged Swarnatep, until his doll-like shape entered the endless clouds. A glance told Bone there was almost no rope left.

At the last possible moment, the rope went slack.

Bone released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. “They did not waste any material, did they?”

“Well,” Gaunt said, “we are speaking of ironsilk.”

“Imago Bone!” called a familiar voice. “Persimmon Gaunt! Widow Zheng! I am Lady Steelfox, ruler of the Il-Khanate of the Infinite Sky. I can offer you sanctuary. But you must agree soon. Swiftly now, a runner will arrive with the keys to this tower, and then you will be at the mercy of the kagan of Qushkent.”

“We will never have time to lower me,” Zheng said.

“Trust me,” Bone said. “Gaunt, would you mind severing this wooden ball-and-chain, as close to my ankle as you dare?”

“I do not know, husband,” Gaunt murmured, sizing up the swing, “I have been rather irritated with you of late . . .”

“You think my jokes are inappropriate—”

She swung, and Crypttongue split the wood like a child snaps breadsticks. Bone could almost feel his soul tugged toward the blade. Imagination, surely. “Now remove the ball?”

“I have another joke in mind,” Gaunt said with a smirk.

“Time? Of the essence? Like a river? With a waterfall?”

She swung.

Lady Steelfox was saying, “It is said we Karvaks are brutal, but is it ever said we break our word? Snow Pine will not cooperate with me, but if she speaks true, then your goals and ours need not be at odds!”

Bone snatched the sash from his psychopomp robe. Twisting the wooden chain around the ironsilk line, he tied the rope to its ends. “Widow Zheng,” he said, “let me secure this to you.” She allowed him to tie her wrists to his arrangement. Then he used her own sash to tie a loose safety line from her to the ironsilk rope.

“What is all this?” she asked.

“You will slide down the rope,” Bone said. “I can't promise your safety, but you can control your rate of descent. It is like falling, but with a rope always at hand.”

Lady Steelfox said, “Come with us! My balloonists have descended into the canyon, but they cannot land with confidence. Yet we are Karvaks, and we are willing to dare this! We will be stronger together! Be wise and consider your children!”

“She is not entirely unconvincing,” Gaunt said.

“She is a Karvak,” Zheng spat. “Am I ready?”

“Yes,” Bone said.

“So long, kids.”

Zheng slid in starts and stops, down toward the clouds.

“Are you ready, my dear—” Bone began, when a shadow fell upon the clouds.

A Karvak balloon was out there, and its archers were firing at Zheng.

Once again, Bone could hardly breathe. He saw one arrow, a second, a third, find their target.

Each one bounced off and spun into the void.

He gasped. “I am glad now, we decided to have her wear all the pieces of the map.”

“Yes.” As they watched Zheng slide into the clouds with a jaunty wave, Gaunt added, “
We
do not have magical armor, Bone.”

“That is a problem. Nor do we have sufficient material for rappelling.” He watched the round shadow drifting upon the white. “Even if they don't find the keys they need, I expect we'll have Karvaks in here soon.”

“Pull up the rope.”

They found the rope was slack. Either Swarnatep had removed itself, or Zheng had done the job. They pulled as quickly as they could and at last had all the rope within the tower.

“Now what?” Gaunt asked.

“A certain mad idea has occurred to me.”

“Surrender? A bloody last stand? A plunge into the void?”

“So many options! But consider: I have noticed that in addition to its extreme strength and lightness, ironsilk has great elasticity. I also noted the moment when Swarnatep hit something solid. If I judge exactly how much shorter to tie off the rope, we could secure ourselves to the far end . . .”

“And we would fall, reach the end of the rope, and be drawn back by its elastic response! In the end we would dangle just above whatever solid object is down there.”

“Yes! Is it not glorious?”

“Unless you misjudge. In which case it is fatal. In fact, if the shock of snapback is sufficient, it might be fatal regardless.”

“It is a stark choice. Surrender or a mad plunge.”

“You already know my answer.”