Gene Wolfe - The Land Across

Nothing doing, as far as I could tell. She did not appear, and the hand did not move at all. The rest of the time I sat around telling myself that I had been crazy to come back to Puraustays and by this time I ought to be in New York writing this.

Only sometimes I told myself I really should have gone to Germany with Russ and Rosalee. But it was bullshit, all of it. This was something I had to try.

The shadows got long and I heard a wolf howl, or maybe it was a dog, and off I went. I remembered Volitain’s house pretty well and his cherry trees really well, so I found his place without much trouble. I rang his bell and pounded his front door with the knocker, only nobody came. After that I went around the house looking for an unlocked door or an open window. Nothing. So I was just starting to sit down on his stoop when I heard somebody on the path. I stood up and it was him, only he knew me about half a second before I knew him.

We shook hands and he asked if I had been back to America. I said no, just in the capital and out on the lake. I was going to tell him my face was beat up, but I figured he had seen that already. We went into the house, and I told him I did not have a lot of money but I would pay him what I could afford if he would doctor my face a little.

He said he would, and the price would depend on how bad I was hurt. When he had gotten me under a light and looked me over, he said there was nothing there that would not heal of itself in a few days so there would be no charge. I got some ointment and a couple of bandages. My idea was to wait until he was through to talk about the Willows, but he asked about it while he was putting on the second bandage.

“You say you have but little money. Thus you did not find the treasure after all.”

I said, “No, but I’m going to try again tonight, if you’ll help me.”

“Ahhhh!”

“You didn’t know what happened to me?”

“To the contrary,” he said, “I did know. You were taken away by the Legion of the Light.”

“You’re right, I was. How did you know?”

“I listen to my radio now and then.”

“Sure. You heard me and recognized my voice, and that was all there was to it. Got it.”

He laughed. “Not quite as you say.”

“Want to tell me the rest?”

“No. I wish that you tell me how you propose to find our treasure.”

I said, “Do you laugh at magic?”

“When to laugh is appropriate, yes.”

I took out the hand. “Would you laugh at this?”

He shook his head.

“Good. Can you read Greek?”

“So many questions. Why do you wish to know what you ask me?”

I bent the fingers straight and pointed to the palm. “This blur is a spell for finding treasure. If you’ll translate it for me, I mean to use it tonight.”

He bent over to look, then pulled out a drawer I remembered and got out his big magnifying glass. After moving the hand into a better light, and lighting up the spell with a little flashlight, he said, “Yes. There is Greek, and Latin, too. There must be candles for the ends of the fingers. Did you know that?”

I shook my head.

“Five small candles. I will provide them. Also I will go with you. The spell must be pronounced correctly and by one having authority. That is always true. I am such a one, so I shall recite it. Afterward we search for the treasure together.” He gave me back the hand.

I said, “You’re afraid I’ll cheat you. I wouldn’t do that.”

“I know you would not. More also. I know you will not find it by this method without me.”

“I’ll be glad to have your help.”

He stared at me. Volitain had a stare that went right through you. You not only felt like he was trying to read your mind, you felt like he was doing it and it was pretty easy. With Magos X, you felt like he already knew.

Finally Volitain said, “This means you must give me my share. I will be there when the treasure is found. Do you realize this?”

“Sure,” I said. “You get a third and Martya gets a third. That was the deal.”

“Shall we have Martya with us?”

I had not thought of that and I said so, adding that it seemed like a good idea if we could get her.

“Her husband has beaten you. Will not he beat you again if we attempt this?”

I shook my head. “He didn’t beat me, I beat him. I’ll fight him again if he wants to fight, only he won’t.”

Volitain said, “Then let us try.” He went out for a minute and came back with a dark lantern, and off we went.

While we were walking back to Kleon’s, I got to thinking about the wolves and how they killed people at night.

Also the man in black. I do not like being scared and generally am not, but I wished I had not left my gun behind in the Willows.

Martya answered the door, saying Kleon was asleep. “He have drink much. He know you have won me.”

I shook my head. “I beat him, that’s all. You belong to him, not to me.”

She kind of studied me before she said, “In time your thoughts will change. Tell me when this happens.”

I wanted to say I would write her a letter, but I did not.

Volitain told her, “We go to find the treasure of Eion Demarates. You need not come with us if you are afraid. We will divide it honestly and present your share to you.”

“You know where this is?”

I said, “No, but we think we know how to find it.”

“I come. Wait here. I must get his key from Kleon’s pocket.”

It should not have been cold, and I guess really it was not. But the wind was off the lake, and the sun had been down for quite a while. I was glad I had on my wool sports jacket, and maybe I should have let Martya have it. But the hand was in the pocket, and I could see all kinds of trouble if she found it. She wanted to link arms. I did not. If she was cold she never showed it.

I could see she was listening for something as soon as we got into the Willows, so after a minute or two I asked her, “Hear anything?”

She shook her head. “No…” She swallowed. “No footsteps upstairs.”

“Sure. He’s right here with us.”

She blinked. Her mouth opened and closed, but she did not say anything.

Volitain said, “You heard me, eh?”

I nodded. “We both did. Okay, it could have been a spook, but I didn’t think so and if it was just some guy, which was what it sounded like, it had to be you. Nobody else knew that Martya and I had come here to look for the treasure. You slammed a door once, too.”

“Did I? Yes, I suppose I did. I was disgusted, not with you but with myself. I had been spying on my friends, a thing I would have supposed beneath me.”

Martya said, “It is not haunted, this house? That is what we must believe?”

I got out the hand. “It probably is. If it wasn’t before we got here it is now, come to think of it.”

Volitain nodded and chuckled.

“You wish to terrify me! Volitain, too! You make a pact before you come!”

“Not us.” I pointed. “That looks like a table under the dust cloth. How about if you pull it off?”

“Serve yourself!” Martya wanted to spit.

I put the hand back in my pocket and pulled off the cloth. Under it was a little egg-shaped table, just right for one man eating alone. I laid the hand on it, on its back, and watched the fingers straighten themselves out. They moved slowly but they moved, all five at the same time.

Volitain got out his candles and a box of matches, sticking a candle on each fingertip with hot wax. The candles were about twice as big as the ones you might put on a birthday cake, but there was nothing fancy about them. They were black or maybe dark brown.

I wanted to know if they were corpse fat.

“The fat of a human corpse? No. If an animal’s corpse will do, yes.” He was bending over the hand with his magnifying glass, reading the fading tattoo by the candlelight. Pretty soon he started reading the Greek spell, or prayer or whatever it was, doing it loud and slow.