They declared peace on each other the next day, and life returned to normal. She fed him a near-banquet that evening. He understood that it was a peace-making gesture, so he complimented her after about every other bite.
Then, after theyd gone to bed, she washed his face for quite some time. Did you really mean what you said yesterday? she purred.
Which particular thing I said were you thinking of? he asked.
Her ears went back immediately. You said you loved me. Did you mean it?
Oh, he said, that. Of course I meant it. You shouldnt even have to ask.
Dont you lie to me.
Would I do that?
Of course you would. Youre the greatest liar in the whole world.
Why, thank you, dear.
Dont make me cross, Althalus, she warned. Ive got all four paws wrapped around your head right now, so be very nice to me unless youd like to have your face on the back of your head instead of the front.
Ill be good, he promised.
Say it again, then.
Say what, dear?
You know what!
All right, little kitten, I love you. Does that make you feel better?
She rubbed her face against his and started to purr.
The seasons turned, as seasons always do, although the summers were short and the winters long up here on the roof of the world, and after theyd gone around several times, the past seemed to recede until it was only a dim memory. In time, the days plodded by unnoticed as Althalus struggled with the Book. He began to spend more and more of his time staring up at the glowing dome overhead as he pondered the strange things the Book had revealed.
What is your problem? Emerald demanded irritably once when Althalus sat at the table with the Book lying almost unnoticed on the polished surface in front of him. Youre not even pretending to be reading.
Althalus laid his hand on the Book. It just said something I dont understand, he replied. Im trying to work it out.
She sighed. Tell me what it is, she said in a resigned tone. Ill explain it to you. You still wont understand, but Ill explain anyway
You can be very offensive, did you know that?
Of course. Im doing it on purpose but you still love me, dont you?
Oh I guess so.
You guess so?
He laughed. Woke you up, didnt I?
She laid back her ears and hissed at him.
Be nice, he said, putting out his hand and scratching her ears. Then he looked back at the troublesome line. If Im reading this right, it says that all the things Deiwos has made are of the same value in his eyes. Does that mean that a man isnt any more important than a bug or a grain of sand?
Not exactly, she replied. What it really means is that Deiwos doesnt think of the separate parts of what hes made. Its the whole thing thats important. A mans only a small part of the whole thing, and hes not really here for very long. A mans born, lives out his life, and dies in so short a time that the mountains and stars dont even notice him as he goes by.
Thats a gloomy thought. We dont really mean anything, do we? Deiwos wont even miss us after the last one of us dies, will he?
Oh, he probably will. There were things that used to be alive, but they arent any more, and Deiwos still remembers them.
Why did he let them die out, then?
Because theyd done everything they were supposed to do. Theyd completed what theyd been put here to attend to, so Deiwos let them go. Then too, if everything that had ever lived were still here, there wouldnt be any room for new things.
Sooner or later, thatll happen to men as well, wont it?
Thats not entirely certain, Althalus. Other creatures take the world as they find it, but man changes things.
And Deiwos guides us in those changes?
Why would he do that? Deiwos doesnt tinker, pet. He sets things in motion and then moves on. All the mistakes you make are entirely yours. Dont blame Deiwos for them.
Althalus reached out and ruffled her fur.
I wish you wouldnt do that, she said. It takes forever to get it all straight again.
It gives you something to do between naps, Emmy, he told her, and then he went back to the Book.
CHAPTER SIX
The past receded even more in his memory as the Book claimed Althalus. By now he could read it through from end to end, and hed done that so often that he could recite long passages from memory. The more it sank into his memory, the more it altered his perception of the world. Things that had seemed very important before hed come here to the House at the End of the World were no longer relevant.
Was I really that small, Em? he asked his companion one evening in the early autumn of another of those interminable years.
What exactly are we talking about here, pet? she asked, absently washing her ears.
I was convinced that I was the greatest thief in the world, but along toward the end there, I wasnt really much more than a common highwayman hitting people on the head so that I could steal their clothes.
That comes fairly close, yes. Whats your point?
I could have done more with my life, couldnt I?
Thats why were here, pet, she told him. Whether you like it or not, you are going to do more with it. Im going to see to that. She looked directly at him, her green eyes a mystery. I think its time for you to learn how to use the power of the Book.
What do you mean, use?
You can make things happen with the Book. Where did you think your supper comes from every night?
Thats your job, Em. It wouldnt be polite for me to stick my nose into that area, would it?
Polite or not, you are going to learn, Althalus. Certain words from the Book carry the sense of doing things words like chop or dig or cut. You can do those things with the Book instead of with your back if you know how to use it. Right at first, youll need to be touching the Book when you do those things. After some practice, though, that wont be necessary. The idea of the Book will serve the same purpose.
The Books always going to be here, isnt it?
Thats the whole point, dear. The Book has to stay here. It wouldnt be safe to take it out into the world, and you have things you have to do out there.
Oh? What kind of things?
Little things saving the world, keeping the stars up in the sky where they belong, making sure that time keeps moving things like that.
Are you trying to be funny, Em?
No, not really. Well get to those things later, though. Lets try the easy ones first. Take off your shoe and throw it over by the bed. Then tell it to come back.
I dont think itll listen to me, Emmy.
It will if you use the right word. All you have to do is put your hand on the Book, look at the shoe, and say gwem. Its like calling a puppy
I dont think itll listen to me, Emmy.
It will if you use the right word. All you have to do is put your hand on the Book, look at the shoe, and say gwem. Its like calling a puppy
Thats an awfully old-fashioned word, Emmy.
Of course it is. Its one of the first words. The language of the Book is the mother of your language. Your language grew out of it. Just try it, pet. We can talk about the changes of language some other time.
He dubiously pulled off his shoe and tossed it over by the bed. Then he laid his hand on the Book and said gwem rather half-heartedly.
Nothing happened.
So much for that as an idea, he muttered.
Command, Althie, Emerald said in a weary tone. Do you think a puppy would listen if you said it that way?
Gwem! he sharply commanded his shoe.
He didnt really expect it, so he wasnt ready to fend the shoe off, and it hit him squarely in the face.
Its a good thing we didnt start with your spear, Emmy noted. Its usually best to hold your hands out when you do that, Althalus. Let the shoe know where you want it to come to.
It actually works! he exclaimed in astonishment.
Of course it does. Didnt you believe me?
Well sort of, I guess. I didnt think itd happen quite that fast, though. I kind of expected the shoe to come slithering across the floor. I didnt know it was going to fly.
You said it just a little too firmly, pet. The tone of voice is very important when you do things this way. The louder and more sharply you say it, the faster it happens.
Ill remember that. Getting kicked in the face with my own shoe definitely got my attention. Why didnt you warn me about that?
Because you dont listen, Althie. Its just a waste of breath to warn you about things. Now try it again.
Althalus put miles on that shoe over the next several weeks, and he gradually grew more proficient at altering the tone of his voice. He also discovered that different words would make the shoe do other things. Dheu would make it rise up off the floor and simply stand in front of him on nothing but air. Dhreu would lower it to the floor again.
He was practising on that one day in late summer when an impish kind of notion came to him. He looked over at Emerald, who was sitting on the bed carefully washing her ears. He focused his attention on her, set his hand on the Book, and said Dheu.
Emerald immediately rose up in the air until she was sitting on nothing at all at about the same level as his head. She continued to scrub at her ears as if nothing had happened. Then she looked at him, and her green eyes seemed very cold and hard. Then she said Bhlag! quite sharply.
The blow took Althalus squarely on the point of the chin, and it sent him rolling across the floor. It seemed to have come out of nowhere at all, and it had rattled him all the way down to his toes.
We dont do that to each other, do we? Emerald said in an almost pleasant tone of voice. Now put me down.
His eyes wouldnt seem to focus. He covered one of them with his hand so that he could see her and said Dhreu in an apologetic sort of way.
Emerald settled slowly back to the bed. Thats much better, she said. Are you going to get up, or did you plan to lie there on the floor for a while? Then she went back to washing her ears.
He more or less gathered at that point that there were rules and that it wasnt wise to break them. He also realized that Emerald had just demonstrated the next step. She hadnt been anywhere near the Book when shed knocked him across the room.
He continued to practice with his shoe. He was more familiar with it than with his other possessions, and it didnt have any sharp edges, as some of the others had. Just to see if he could do it, hed put a pair of wings on it, and it went flapping around the room blundering into things. It occurred to him that a flying shoe would have been a sensation in Nabjors camp or Gosti Big Bellys hall. That had been a long time ago, though. He idly roamed back through his memory, trying to attach some number to the years hed spent here in the House, but the number kept evading him for some reason.
How long have I been here, Em? he asked his companion.
Quite some time. Why do you ask?
Just curious, I suppose. I can barely remember a time when I wasnt here.
Time doesnt really mean anything here in this House, pet. Youre here to learn, and some of the things in the Book are very difficult. It took your mind a very long time to fully grasp them. When we came to one of those, Id usually let your eyes sleep while your mind worked. It was a lot quieter that way. Your arguments were with the Book, not with me.
Let me see if I understand this. Are you saying that theres been times when I went to sleep and didnt wake up for a week or more?
She gave him one of those infuriatingly superior looks.
A month? he asked incredulously.
Keep going, she suggested.
Youve put me to sleep for years on end? he almost screamed at her.
Sleeps very good for you, dear. The nice thing about those particular naps is that you dont snore.
How long, Emmy? How long have I been penned up in here with you?
Long enough for us to get to know each other. Then she heaved one of those long-suffering sighs. You must learn to listen when I tell you something, Althalus. Youve been here in this House long enough to learn how to read the Book. That didnt really take too long, though. It was learning to understand the Book that took you so much time. You havent quite finished that yet, but youre coming along.
That means that Im very, very old, doesnt it? He reached up, took hold of a lock of his hair and pulled it down so that he could see it. I cant be that old, he scoffed. My hair hasnt even turned white yet
Why would it do that?
I dont know. It just does. When a man gets old, his hair turns white.
Thats the whole point, Althalus. You havent grown old. Nothing changes in this House. Youre still the same age as you were when you first came here.
What about you? Are you still the same age you were as well?
Didnt I just say that?
If I remember right, you told me once that you havent always been here.
Not always, no. I was somewhere else a long time ago, but then I came to wait for you. She glanced back over her shoulder at the mountain peaks looming out beyond the south window. Those werent there when I first came, she added.
I thought mountains lasted forever.
Nothing lasts forever, Althalus except me, of course.
The world must have been very different back in the days before those mountains, he mused. Where did people live back then?
They didnt. There werent any people then. There were other things here instead, but they died out. Theyd done what they were supposed to do, so Deiwos let them go. He still misses them, though.
You always talk about Deiwos as if you knew him personally.
Yes, as a matter of fact were very well acquainted.
Do you call him Deiwos when youre talking together?