Robert Sawyer - Foreigner

“I just don’t see that.”

“No, of course not. It takes training to interpret dreams. The low mind uses symbols and metaphor. Some are obvious. Any long, curved object represents a hunter’s tooth: a bent tree trunk, a broken wheel rim, a rib, a crescent moon, wave caps seen in profile, even, I daresay, the convex lenses of a far-seer. And any prone object, or object out of its normal orientation—a table lying on its side, say, rather than standing on its legs—or any object leaking liquid—a bucket with a hole in it, perhaps—represents felled prey.”

“It all strikes me as rather unlikely,” said Afsan.

Mokleb was unperturbed. “Tell me a dream you had prior to the onset of your current bad dreams. Anything.”

Afsan was quiet for a moment, thinking. “Well, there’s one I’ve had a few times. There’s a big, fat armorback waddling by, and—okay, this one is about the hunt, I see that now—and I leap on its back, but there’s no place to dig in tooth or claw; the whole animal is encased in a bony carapace. I struggle for a time, but end up exhausted and finally just lie down on the thing’s back, close my eyes, and go to sleep, as it ambles along, carrying me with it.”

Mokleb looked up. “I’m sorry—I didn’t get all that. Could you repeat it?”

Afsan sounded annoyed. “I said, there’s a large armorback. I jump on its back and try to dig into its carapace, but can’t find anything to tear into. I struggle and finally fall asleep on its back.”

“Thank you,” said Mokleb. “You’ll note that your description of the dream changed the second time you told it. This is very significant in dream interpretation. The first time, you referred to the animal as ‘a big, fat armorback.’ The armorback is often a symbol of the unassailable in dreams. Although they eat plants, such creatures are almost impossible to kill. And a big, fat armorback—those were your words—could refer to only one person: Emperor Dybo, whose girth is legendary, or at least was so the last time you actually saw him. The power of Dybo’s office makes him impervious to almost all attacks, just like an armorback. And again, you changed your words when you described the dream a second time: in the first description, you specifically said you closed your eyes at the end; the second time you left that detail out.” Mokleb paused. “The interpretation is simple: your dream is an expression of your anger with Dybo for allowing your blinding.”

Afsan’s tail moved in the air.

“Telling a dream twice is very instructive,” said Mokleb. “In the dream world, we explore thoughts that we’d rather not openly face. The mind censors these thoughts completely when we’re awake, but while we sleep the censorship mechanism relaxes along with the rest of the body. Oh, in a healthy mind, even in dreams it won’t allow direct expression of an unpleasant thought, so it couches such things in symbols and metaphors. When you first put the story of your dream into words, part of your mind suddenly realized what you were really talking about. That’s why by the time you came to relate the dream a second time, the most important clues to what you were actually dreaming about were removed—the reference to the armorback being fat, and the reference to your eyes. The censorship mechanism was hard at work, keeping you from facing unpleasant thoughts.

“I see you’re not attempting to interrupt. Of course not; you see the correctness of what I’m saying. Now, for our therapy to work, you must understand this well: everything is significant, every thought, every image, has at least one determining cause, and sometimes several. You must pledge to hold nothing back, to share every thought and picture that comes into your mind, no matter how embarrassing, unpleasant, or just plain irrelevant it may seem. The mind is just as complex, but also just as comprehensible, as the movements of the heavenly bodies you study. Together we will explore a new universe, the one that exists inside your head, and by so doing, we’ll rid you of the horrors that have been plaguing you.”

“And restore my sight?” asked Afsan.

“Perhaps. Perhaps. How successful the therapy will be is entirely up to you.”

“I want to succeed at this,” said Afsan.

“Good. Our time is up for today. I will see you in two days.” She paused. “Eventually, I hope, you’ll be able to say the same thing to me.”

Novato wanted to know how deeply into the rocks of the cliff the blueness went. The cliff was more than a hundred vertical paces tall. At its base was a narrow expanse of sandy beach. At the top of the cliff, several gnarled trees precariously clung to the edge. Leading to the cliff’s edge were wide plains covered with tall grasses. And sitting in the middle of the plain were buildings made of stone blocks. In successive turns, the buildings were occupied by Packs Derrilo, Horbo, and Quebelmo, all of whose ranges overlapped this area. Currently, Pack Derrilo was making use of them.

Novato enlisted some of the Pack members to help with an experiment. She had them dig down through the loose topsoil near the edge of the cliff. She wanted to see which they’d come up against, solid rock or the blue material. Down a fair bit, they came to the blue stuff.

Fascinated, Novato had them back off to five paces from the edge of the cliff. They dug again, and again their shovels struck blue.

They tried again ten paces back. Blue.

Twenty paces. Blue again.

Novato asked them to try again from another ten paces farther back, but at this point, Gatabor, one of the Pack members doing the work, held up a hand. “Humor me,” he said, and walked another hundred paces away from the edge of the cliff. Here he had to dig down a considerable distance before he reached the bottom of the soil, but finally his shovel rang in his hands. He crouched down and cleaned away the dirt.

Blue. Solid, unrelenting blue.

A total of a hundred and twenty paces back from the edge of the cliff. And the cliff face itself was now blue through almost its entire height of over a hundred paces.

Gatabor stood by the hole, hands on hips, shaking his head.

Novato walked to the other side of the hole, facing him, and, incidentally, facing the expanse behind him leading to the edge of the cliff. And so, she saw it happen…

Saw the blue mass poke out of the ground thirty paces closer to the cliff’s edge, grass and dirt erupting out of its way as if pushed aside by a shovelmouth’s prow.

Novato’s jaw dropped, and Gatabor’s claws slid out in response to the breach of protocol. But then she pointed and Gatabor swung around and he, too, saw it, whatever it was, rising out of the ground.

Jawn deposited a handful of copper disks on the table. Some of them had an engraving of an Other in profile; others had an engraved crest. He moved one of the disks to the center of the table. Pointing to it with palm closed, he said, “ Bal .” He then raised his hand with one finger extended. “ Bal .” Toroca repeated the word.

Next, Jawn picked up a second disk and placed it beside the first. Originally, the disk had been showing a crest; now, flipped over, it showed a profile. Toroca realized that all the disks were identical. “ Lod ,” said Jawn, indicating both of the disks. He held up two fingers. “ Lod .”

Toroca found this easy, and soon Jawn had taught him the names of the numerals from one to ten. It was time for the next step. “ Bal eb bal tar lod ,” said Jawn. One and one is two. Jawn demonstrated this by moving disks around.

Toroca nodded and repeated the sentence: “ Bal eb bal tar lod .”

Jawn then demonstrated two more constructions. “ Bal eb bal eb bal tar ker .” One and one and one is three. “ Bal eb lod tar ker .” One and two is three.