The Unreasoning Mask (12 page)

Hu turned away from the screen and started when she saw Ramstan.

 

 

"You must have run."

 

 

Ramstan did not reply. He walked to the container in which Wassruss
floated. She rolled her huge head toward him and fixed her great seal's
eyes upon him. They were bright enough, but he thought he could see
something like frosted glass deep within them.

 

 

She spoke for a long time. Branwen Davis finally said something, and
the Webnite stopped.

 

 

"She's going too fast for me," Branwen said. "I asked her to start over
again."

 

 

Wassruss opened her mouth and took in a great amount of air. Then, slowly,
she repeated herself, pausing now and then to allow Davis to interpret.

 

 

"I, Wassruss of the Violet Isle, will soon be dead. I had hoped to live
long enough to see my native sea, the deep blue waters around the rocky,
pine-grown Violet Isle, before I died. But my life is draining away faster
than I had thought. The Tssokh'azgd did that to me; it tore my soul to
shreds. You do not see the creature that devours all life and remain
the same being. You know then how insignificant and meaningless you are,
what a cipher, what a tiny piece of meat. The you, that is, the I that
thinks itself the center of the universe, the goal of the cosmos, the
being from which all things spread out and return to, becomes suddenly
and irrecoverably dwindled, cut off, alone. It is no longer the source
and resource of the world. It is alone, unconnected, a nothing. Without
a history, with no love from anyone and no love for itself.

 

 

"It suddenly realizes, not intellectually but in the deepest part of
its cells, that it is without hope and always has been. That it doesn't
deserve hope and should never have wished for it. That in the beginning
was nothing, that there has always been, behind the appearance of
something, nothing, that there will always be nothing.

 

 

"That we are masks with no faces behind them,
unless the void has a face
."

 

 

Wassruss stopped talking. The only sound was her heavy breathing. Branwen
still held the Webnite's hand; her expression had become even more sad.
Hu shook her head. The technician slipped out of the room. Ramstan saw that
the frosted glass in Wassruss's eyes had floated up from the depths.

 

 

Presently, Wassruss withdrew her hand from Branwen's hands and reached
with it into the belly pouch. It came out holding the three objects that
Ramstan had seen on his first visit.

 

 

These were the gifts of which she had spoken.

 

 

Wassruss held all three in the palm of her hand, which was extended to
Ramstan. But when he put his hand out to take them, she closed her fingers.

 

 

"I must tell you something about the gifts of the Vwoordha," she said.
"The Vwoordha made these a long time ago. The Vwoordha were once a great
people, very powerful. Now there are only three left, according to what
I have been told. They have lost many of their powers, but not all,
and the little they have left is more than that of many who boast of
their greatness and riches.

 

 

"There are some who say that the Vwoordha are so ancient that they have
survived the Death of All and Many Worlds."

 

 

Here Ramstan interrupted to ask Branwen if she was translating correctly.
Wasn't the phrase "All and Many" a contradiction?

 

 

Branwen spoke to the Webnite, who gave a short answer. Branwen said,
"No, that is what she said. It is an ancient phrase, the exact meaning
of which she doesn't know."

 

 

Wassruss began talking again.

 

 

"These gifts, these sigils, were once my grandmother's. She did not tell me
the details of how they came into her hands. But she did say that she had
once done a great favor for a queen of our nation, and the queen had given
her these three objects. The queen herself had received them from her
great-grandfather, who had gotten them from the captain of an Urzint
spaceship. Neither she nor her great-grandfather ever used them. When
she was about to die, she gave them to me. She told me what she knew
about them, which was actually not much.

 

 

"But all you need to know is that each has a distinctive power. You must
use one when you are in such a situation that there seems no other way out.

 

 

"Then you will place one in your mouth. Why there and not just in your
hand, I do not know. That is all that is needed. The gift of the Vwoordha
does the rest.

 

 

"But you must use, first, the
shengorth
, the triangle. After it has
been used, it is of no more use to you. It can only be used once by one
owner. If you use it, you should give it to someone you think worthy to
have it, though that is not absolutely necessary. But not until after
you have used the other two. Or, if you never use the other two, then,
before you die, you must give all three to someone.

 

 

"Do not spilt up the three. Keep all three for yourself until the day
comes when you give them away, and then give all three to one person."

 

 

Ramstan tried to keep his face expressionless. Did this creature really
believe in magic, in this tale of three thaumaturgical objects?

 

 

As if Wassruss had read his mind, she said, "What I say of the gifts of
the Vwoordha is no lie. Perhaps you are wondering why, if the gifts can
take their owner from danger, I did not use one to save myself?"

 

 

Ramstan said, "Tell her I was wondering that."

 

 

Branwen spoke.

 

 

Wassruss coughed, and she said, "I did not wish to use the sigils unless
I absolutely had to. I had no warning of the meteorite or missile or
whatever it was. When it pierced my body, I went into shock. I didn't
have enough of my wits left to place the
shengorth
in my mouth before
I became unconscious."

 

 

She was dying, and if it made her feel better to give him the objects,
then she should be able to do so. He'd be doing a kind deed. Allah saw
every good deed and gave you credit for it.

 

 

That last was a stray thought that had no business in his mind. But,
as Toyce had once said, "You can only wash off the dirt. The skin is
still there."

 

 

Wassruss was saying, ". . . and so you must not forget to use the
shengorth
first. Next, the square, the
pengrathon
. Third, the disk, the
ph'rimon
.
I do not know why, but to use one out of proper sequence nullifies
the power."

 

 

She repeated, "And if you use all three, then you must pass them on as
soon as possible to someone else. If, by the time you are ready to die,
you have not used them, you must give them to someone who deserves them."

 

 

Ramstan could not help saying, "And what if I should die unexpectedly and
have no chance to give them away?"

 

 

He was talking as if he believed that the things had power.

 

 

"Then someone will take them."

 

 

Ramstan was going to ask her how the taker would know how to use the
objects. If he had no instructions and perhaps did not even know what
they were supposed to be, how could the taker get any benefit from them?
Or pass the knowledge along to someone else? And since this was likely
to happen many times in a long period of time, and the three gifts were
supposed to be very ancient, how had they escaped being lost or knowledge
of their use lost? Why hadn't the chain been broken?

 

 

He had other questions, but why bother with them?

 

 

"Of course," Wassruss said, "like all gifts, they are not necessarily
beneficial. If not used properly, they can harm or even kill their owner.
And there may be situations where death will be preferable to using them.
What these are I don't know."

 

 

"Perhaps it would be better if you gave them to someone else," Ramstan said.

 

 

Davis said, "She is honoring you in the highest way known to her people.
You must not refuse! Uh, sir, that is, you
shouldn't
."

 

 

He shrugged. "Very well. But . . . why is she giving
me
the gifts?"

 

 

After listening to Wassruss, Branwen said, "The moment she saw you,
she
knew
that you must be the one for whom the sigils have been
waiting. Just as you will
know
the person to whom you are to give the
three
ssuzz'akon
."

 

 

Wassruss spoke again.

 

 

"She said that there is a tradition that eventually the makers of the
sigils will get them back."

 

 

"Sounds like a lot of ancient nonsense to me," Ramstan said.

 

 

Wassruss spoke weakly to Branwen.

 

 

"She says that she hasn't even told you what's most important. And she
doesn't have much time left."

 

 

Doctor Hu said, "We can give her more time."

 

 

Branwen told Wassruss this.

 

 

The seal-centaur said, "Tssisskooss."

 

 

"She says, 'No.'"

 

 

Wassruss went into a long speech. When Branwen had heard her out,
she frowned.

 

 

"She says the bearer of the gifts is also taught a mystery chant when she
receives the gifts. She doesn't know what it means, but she thinks she
could find out the meaning if her destiny depended upon it.
Destiny?
That may not be the correct translation. I just don't know her language
well enough. Anyway, you must remember that the gifts may get you out
of one danger but at the same time put you in another. She says that
good has its evils and evils their good. The universe is tricky, the
ultimate and the biggest trickster.

 

 

"Now she's going to recite the chant, the mystery. She thinks that you'll
have to figure it out. The time for it is ready, and you are the one who
has arrived at the time when it must be . . . uh . . . unspooled? . . .
unraveled? . . . threaded through the Great Eye? What she said, literally,
is that the spooling and the unspooling go through the eye of the same
needle. You yourself are needle and eye and threader and unspooler and
spooler. This is very strange, since the Webnites know very little about
spinning or needles."

 

 

Wassruss said something.

 

 

Branwen said, "She says that the chant will be your property, yours, Captain,
and yours only."

 

 

Ramstan said, "Property?"

 

 

"She doesn't use that word exactly as we do. Anyway, take the sigils now."

 

 

Ramstan held out his left hand. Wassruss said something weakly. Davis said,
"No. Your right hand."

 

 

Ramstan obeyed. Wassruss extended her huge, brown-webbed hand and dropped
the three objects into his palm. His fingers closed over them.
They felt slimy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

... 12 ...

 

 

Wassruss began chanting. It was obvious from the alternate deepening
and raising of her voice, combined with significant pauses, that she
was representing two speakers. Branwen translated after each phrase.

 

 

"'What is the number of the worlds?'

 

 

"'More than many.'

 

 

"'What is the number of paths?'

 

 

"'More than many. Yet they are one.'

 

 

"'What is at the ends of the paths that are one?'

 

 

"'Death or wisdom or both. And one more thing.'

 

 

"'What is the way to the three?'

 

 

"'There are many places to start. Webn is one.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Ring the bell at the first entrance past Webn.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Enter.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Ring the bell at the third entrance.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Enter.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Ring the bell at the fifth entrance.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Enter.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Ring the bell at the seventh entrance.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Enter.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Ring the bell at the ninth entrance.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Go to the only place to go.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'To the tree which does not stand alone.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'To the well.'

 

 

"'What is in the well?'

 

 

"'The wise one who swims,

 

 

"'The laugher who hops,

 

 

"'The cold-blood who drinks hot blood.'

 

 

"'Is this the end?'

 

 

"'Near the well is an old house. It is older than many stars.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Knock at the entrance.'

 

 

"'Who shall open the door?'

 

 

"'Three who should be dead.'

 

 

"'And then?'

 

 

"'Ask, but be willing to pay the price.'"