War in Heaven (70 page)

"No, it can't be — you're mad, too," the merchant said. But then, a few moments later, he admitted to another merchant that he had seen a hologram of the famous Mallory Ringess only once years before. "It
can't
be him, can it? Are we all mad?"

During the next few hundred beats of Danlo's heart, most of the people skating about the ice ring converged upon the stage. Word of the miracle occurring in the Great Circle seemed to be almost instantly communicated to the manswarms on the nearby streets such as the Run and the Way, for hundreds of curious men and women began to stream into the Great Circle and crowd on to the ice. In very little time they stood shoulder to shoulder, packed as densely as a flock of
kitikeesha
birds. Astriers and wormrunners and ambassadors, neurosingers and hibakusha and professionals of the Order wearing their new golden robes — they all pressed nearer to the stage to get a better look at this man who claimed to be Mallory Ringess. Far out, at the edge of the ring, he descried three of the alien Friends of Man and two white-furred Fravashi. The taller of the two Fravashi, he thought, might even be Old Father. It seemed that this splendid, golden-eyed being was watching him as if wondering what he would say next; it seemed that all the different peoples of the city stood before him in their thousands and were waiting for him to continue speaking.

"I am Mallory Ringess," Danlo said in a voice that was at once strange to him and hauntingly familiar. "I am Mallory Ringess, and I have returned to the people of the city I love."

Near the stage, a small women looked up at him with awe. She fairly swooned in her long blue furs as if she had recently drunk many goblets of wine. But then she recovered her strength (and her wits), and called out, "Mallory Ringess — it is good to see you again after all these years."

Danlo turned to smile upon her as if the sun itself were pouring out of his eyes. He knew this woman from his days at the academy; her name was Maria Paloma Sakti, a master eschatologist who was an authority on the origins of the Silicon God. What her relationship had been to his father, Danlo couldn't guess. But he remembered that many of her fellow masters at the academy had called her Maria of the Gods, and he supposed that his father might have addressed her thus as well.

"Maria Paloma Sakti," he said, bowing his head slightly. "Maria of the Gods — it is good to see you again, too."

A murmur of approval arose from the two academicians nearest to Maria and spread out among the other Ordermen around them like waves upon the sea.

"And Alesar Kwamsu," he said, bowing to an historian dressed in a godling's golden robes, "it is good to see you so well."

Now Danlo looked further out at the people circling him like hundreds of many-coloured rings. He saw Eva li Sagar and Ravi Armadan and Vishnu Suso, the Lord Horologe who still wore a horologe's blood-red robes. And one by one, he called out to each of these men and women whom he knew: "Lord Suso, it is good to see you again. Master Kim, Viviana Chu, Willow of Urradeth, Rihana Dur li Kadir — it is good to stand among you once more."

Twenty names he called out, and then twenty more, choosing only the oldest of masters who would certainly have been at the academy at the time of Mallory Ringess. To each of them he bowed, and then he looked out over the thousands of other faces turned towards him.

"It is good to return to you, even in such terrible times. It is good to return, so that the city and all the Civilized Worlds may return to order."

Near the stage, a young man dressed in the ochre robes of a neologician stood tapping his skate blade against the ice. He was still a journeyman, perhaps only eighteen years old, and, as it happened, he had come to Neverness from Gehenna while Danlo was out exploring the Vild; Danlo knew that he had never seen him before. This intelligent journeyman, in all his scepticism and pride, had shunned wearing a godling's golden garments as he might a poisoned robe. The other journeymen at the college of Lara Sig (and his masters, too) knew him as a fierce critic of Ringism and the twisted words of Hanuman li Tosh. And so it surprised none of his friends standing near him when he cleared his throat, looked straight up towards the stage and called out, "Are you really a god? What does it
mean
to be a god?"

Now fifty thousand other faces looked towards Danlo, waiting to hear how he would respond.

Nadero devam acayer
, Danlo thought.
By none but a god shall a god be worshipped.

And then, to the journeyman neologician and thousands of others, he said, "It means seeing more than the eyes can see; it means knowing more than the mind can know."

The journeyman stuck out his chin and sniffed in a bit of cold air. And then he called out again, "And what is it
you
know that we do not?"

At this, a cadre of golden-robed Ringists moved closer to him, perhaps to pick a fight with him or chastise him for his unbelievable effrontery. But then Danlo held up his hand and smiled as he shook his head to stay them from any possible violence. He gazed at the journeyman's intelligent face wondering what he might say. And then suddenly, even as he had remembered the words to an unknown poem years before and had seen the battle of Mara's Star as it unfolded across many light years of space, the journeyman's name burst into brilliance in his mind.

"Thaddeus Dudan," he said to the journeyman. "That is your name, isn't it?"

In truth, it
was
his name, and Thaddeus Dudan, the young journeyman neologician from Lara Sig, suddenly pulled back his head as if Danlo had slapped his face. While the Ordermen crowding close around him began to talk of the miracle that Danlo had just worked, Thaddeus looked up at Danlo in awe as if Danlo could read his mind.

"How?" he asked hesitantly. "How did you know?"

"I know many things," Danlo said. His voice swelled out like a great liquid wave across the Great Circle and was taken in and passed mouth to mouth by the thousands of people now swarming the nearby streets. "I know the mappings between any two stars, and I know that the number of stars in the universe is infinite and that they shine everywhere the same. I know the neverness and the darkness of light of the Detheshaloon; I know the hearts of men and the minds of gods. I know the white thallow alone in the sky; I know the snowworm dreaming in his icy burrow. I know the scream of a mother giving birth to her child; I know the great loneliness of the sea. And I know that all these things — men and gods, stars and thallows and snowworms and mothers and children — must continue even as life itself continues. I know that we are not robots blindly run by our passions; I know that we have the freedom to create ourselves and to choose which future we shall create. I know the Elder Eddas, for I have remembranced them as deeply as a whale diving down into the depths of the Great Northern Ocean. Everything is there, in the Elder Eddas: stillness and motion, darkness and light, and the memory of all that has been and possibilities of all that might ever be. How shall I speak to you of what I know? I know that there is a light inside light that shines through everything. It is like a dance of starlight, an endless photon stream, always moving, always beautiful, impossible to really see. And the colours, shimmering, dissolving into each other, the infinite points of silver and violet and living gold — all the colours, and no colours that man has ever seen before or imagined seeing. I know that the deep consciousness of all things is a single, shimmering substance more brilliant than any colour and quicker than any light. And all creation comes from this consciousness. This is the secret of life. I know that life must continue in consciousness of itself even as it creates itself, on and on into a golden future without limit or end.
We
must continue. We who hold all the many-coloured rays of starlight in our hands must finally grasp our infinite possibilities. But we will see nothing and create nothing if we blind ourselves with hydrogen bombs and explode the very stars. If we continue making war against ourselves, we will
not
continue to be. I know that billions of people have already died in this war. I know that gods have died and whole nebulae of stars have died, too. And I know the way to stop the killing and to end the war. This is why I have returned. I am Mallory wi Soli Ringess, Lord Pilot and Lord of the Order, and I have returned to Neverness to bring peace."

At this, a tremendous cheer rang out across the Great Circle. All at once, fifty thousand people gasped out their desire for peace, and in the cold air their many separate breaths gathered into a single, silvery cloud. Seeing that his moment had finally come, Danlo motioned towards Thaddeus Dudan and told him: "Go to the academy and find Lord Pall. And find as well Lord Kutikoff, Lord Mor, Lord Parsons, Lord Harsha and Lord Chu — all the Lords of the Order. Send for as many masters as are in residence at Borja, Resa, Upplyssa and Lara Sig. Tell them that I have returned. Tell them to go the Cathedral of the Way of Ringess and wait for me. Tell them to escort Bertram Jaspari and Demothi Bede there as well. There I shall speak to them all — and to Hanuman li Tosh who calls himself Lord of the Way of Ringess."

For the count of three heartbeats, Thaddeus Dudan hesitated. Then he bowed deeply and said, "Yes, Lord Mallory." He turned towards the eastern part of the ice ring and began to push his way through the many men and women craning their necks to get a better look at the man (or god) who stood on the stage before them. It took a long time for Thaddeus to reach the edge of the ring, where the Academy Sliddery gave into the broad band of streets girdling the Great Circle. And then he was gone, just another dot of reddish colour lost into all the brilliant colours of the manswarm.

One door, and one door only, opens on to this brilliant future that I have seen. But which door do I choose? And where do I find the key to unlock it?

Danlo stood on the stage, gathering in his breath and looking out over the people of the city. In the vast swarms around him he saw Gamaliel of Darkmoon and Mahamira, the great diva, and hundreds of others whom he knew. In the south quadrant of the ring nearest the Farsider's Quarter, he caught a glimpse of a face that might have been Tamara's. But when he looked more closely, looked for the sad brown eyes of this fiercest and loveliest of women, she seemed to have vanished into the awestruck throng. Likewise, at the outermost part of the Circle, a glint of colour as of red rings flashing in the sun drew his gaze. His heart beat once, then twice, and he thought that he saw Malaclypse Redring skulking behind one of the abandoned food kiosks. The warrior-poet — if it were really he — wore a plain brown fur over his deadly form, and he slipped from kiosk to kiosk, working his way around Danlo's back. No one seemed to notice him. And on this brilliant day when ten thousand doors opened on to the future, few of the manswarm would have cared that a warrior-poet walked among them, for all their cares had been given over to a man whom they worshipped as a god.

"Who will come with me?" Danlo cried out. "Who will stand by my side and come with me to the cathedral?"

As he had expected, fifty godlings in their golden furs surged towards him to be closer to him. And fifty thousand others slid their skates against the ice and shouted as one, "We will come! We will come!"

Slowly, Danlo made his way down from the stage. Many godlings awaited his descent on to the ice of the ring; they swarmed around him, vying with each other to lay their hands upon his white furs or even daring to touch his face. For a few moments Danlo allowed himself to suffer such intensely personal adoration. Then he held up his hand to ward off further familiarities. His black diamond pilot's ring shimmered in the sunlight, and he told them: "Come with me, then!"

He instructed twelve of the godlings nearest him to let no one else close to him. And then, with these godlings acting as a golden-clad vanguard, he made his way towards the eastern quadrant of the Great Circle. Slowly, the sea of people around him parted and allowed him to pass. And almost immediately, they fell in behind him and his escort, following as closely as they could. After a long time, Danlo reached the Academy Sliddery and skated past the Hyacinth Gardens. Here, with the scent of fireflowers burning through the air, the crowds of people grew even thicker. Word of the return of Mallory Ringess had electrified the citizens of Neverness, spreading from street to street before Danlo. Along the stretch of ice fronting the museum, a great many people blocked his way. But they too made a path for him and then joined him, reinforcing the army of his followers. They streamed off the Gallivare Green and the Street of Embassies in their thousands. By the time that Danlo reached the Courtesans' Conservatory, where Tamara had once trained in the arts of ecstasy, he led a host of men and women at least half a million strong. At the intersection of the Serpentine, he turned south for five long blocks as he led his godling vanguard through the heart of the Old City. And the cheering thousands behind him buoyed him onwards like a great, swelling wave of humanity. So loud was the roar of the voices through the streets that the very stones of the towers all around Danlo seemed to shake. Soon, in only a few more blocks, his host of godlings and others would break upon the cathedral. And then Danlo would pound on the great doors with the diamond ring that had once belonged to his father, and Hanuman li Tosh would be forced to open them and let him inside.

They will be waiting for me there. Hanuman and Surya Lai and Bertram Jaspari. And Lord Pall and Lord Harsha, who knew my father well. And Malaclypse of Qallar, of the two red rings — he, too, will try to find his way inside.

Somewhere, he thought, inside the cathedral or on some darkened street, the warrior-poet would try to trap him and determine whether or not he was truly a god. Perhaps he would ask him to complete a poem that only a man who has refused to become a god could answer. Or perhaps he would assume that Danlo as Mallory Ringess had already transcended his humanity and would try to slay him for the sin of moving godward.

By none but a god shall a god be slain.