Robert Silverberg - Nightwings

“You are of the Fliers. It is in the nature of your guild to feel that way.”

“One day we’ll fly side by side, Tomis.”

I laughed at that. “The old Surgeries are closed, Avluela. They work wonders here, but they can’t transform me into a Flier. One must be born with wings.”

“One doesn’t need wings to fly.”

“I know. The invaders lift themselves without the help of wings. I saw you, one day soon after Roum fell—you and Gormon in the sky together—” I shook my head. “But I am no invader either.”

“You will fly with me, Tomis. We’ll go aloft, and not only by night, even though my wings are merely night-wings. In bright sunlight we’ll soar together.”

Her fantasy pleased me. I gathered her into my arms, and she was cool and fragile against me, and my own body pulsed with new heat. For a while we talked no more of flying, though I drew back from taking what she offered at that moment, and was content merely to caress her. One does not awaken in a single lunge.

Later we walked through the corridors, passing others who were newly renewed, and we went into the great central room whose ceiling admitted the winter sunlight, and studied each other by that changing pale light, and walked, and talked again. I leaned a bit on her arm, for I did not have all my strength yet, and so in a sense it was as it had been for us in the past, the girl helping the old dodderer along. When she saw me back to my room, I said, “Before I was renewed, you told me of a new guild of Redeemers. I—”

“There is time for that later,” she said, displeased.

In my room we embraced, and abruptly I felt the full fire of the renewed leap up within me, so that I feared I might consume her cool, slim body. But it is a fire that does not consume—it only kindles its counterpart in others. In her ecstasy her wings unfolded until I was wrapped in their silken softness. And as I gave myself to the violence of joy, I knew I would not need again to lean on her arm.

We ceased to be strangers; we ceased to feel fear with one another. She came to me each day at my exercise time, and I walked with her, matching her stride for stride. And the fire burned even higher and more brightly for us.

Talmit was with me frequently too. He showed me the arts of using my renewed body, and helped me successfully grow youthful. I declined his invitation to view Olmayne once more. One day he told me that her retrogression had come to its end. I felt no sorrow over that, just a curious brief emptiness that soon passed.

“You will leave here soon,” the Renewer said. “Are you ready?”

“I think so.”

“Have you given much thought to your destination after this house?”

“I must seek a new guild, I know.”

“Many guilds would have you, Tomis. But which do you want?”

“The guild in which I would be most useful to mankind,” I said. “I owe the Will a life.”

Talmit said, “Has the Flier girl spoken to you of the possibilities before you?”

“She mentioned a newly founded guild.”

“Did she give it a name?”

“The guild of Redeemers.”

“What do you know of it?”

“Very little,” I said.

“Do you wish to know more?”

“If there is more to know.”

“I am of the guild of Redeemers,” Talmit said. “So is the Flier Avluela.”

“You both are already guilded! How can you belong to more than one guild? Only the Dominators were permitted such freedom; and they—”

“Tomis, the guild of Redeemers accepts members from all other guilds. It is the supreme guild, as the guild of Dominators once was. In its ranks are Rememberers and Scribes, Indexers, Servitors, Fliers, Landholders, Somnambulists, Surgeons, Clowns, Merchants, Vendors. There are Changelings as well, and—”

“Changelings?” I gasped. “They are outside all guilds, by law! How can a guild embrace Changelings?”

“This is the guild of Redeemers. Even Changelings may win redemption, Tomis.”

Chastened, I said, “Even Changelings, yes. But how strange it is to think of such a guild!”

“Would you despise a guild that embraces Changelings?”

“I find this guild difficult to comprehend.”

“Understanding will come at the proper time.”

“When is the proper time?”

“The day you leave this place,” said Talmit.

That day arrived shortly. Avluela came to fetch me. I stepped forth uncertainly into Jbrslem’s springtime to complete the ritual of renewal. Talmit had instructed her on how to guide me. She took me through the city to the holy places, so that I could worship at each of the shrines. I knelt at the wall of the Hebers and at the gilded dome of the Mislams; then I went down into the lower part of the city, through the marketplace, to the gray, dark, ill-fashioned building covering the place where the god of the Christers is said to have died; then I went to the spring of knowledge and the fountain of the Will, and from there to the guildhouse of the guild of Pilgrims to surrender my mask and robes and starstone, and thence to the wall of the Old City. At each of these places I offered myself to the Will with words I had waited long to speak. Pilgrims and ordinary citizens of Jorslem gathered at a respectful distance; they knew that I had been lately renewed and hoped that some emanation from my new youthful body would bring them good fortune. At last my obligations were fulfilled. I was a free man in full health, able now to choose the quality of the life I wished to lead.

Avluela said, “Will you come with me to the Redeemers now?”

“Where will we find them? In Jorslem?”

“In Jorslem, yes. A meeting will convene in an hour’s time for the purpose of welcoming you into membership.”

From her tunic she drew something small and gleaming, which I recognized in bewilderment as a starstone. “What are you doing with that?” I asked. “Only Pilgrims—”

“Put your hand over mine,” she said, extending a fist in which the starstone was clenched.

I obeyed. Her small pinched face grew rigid with concentration for a moment. Then she relaxed. She put the starstone away.

“Avluela, what—?”

“A signal to the guild,” she said gently. “A notice to them to gather now that you are on your way.”

“How did you get that stone?”

“Come with me,” she said. “Oh, Tomis, if only we could fly there! But it is not far. We meet almost in the shadow of the house of renewal. Come, Tomis. Corne!”

There was no light in the room. Avluela led me into the subterranean blackness, and told me that I had reached the guildhall of the Redeemers, and left me standing by myself. “Don’t move,” she cautioned.

I sensed the presence of others in the room about me. But I heard nothing and saw nothing.

Something was thrust toward me.

Avluela said, “Put out your hands. What do you feel?”

I touched a small square cabinet resting, perhaps, on a metal framework. Along its face were familiar dials and levers. My groping hands found handles rising from the cabinet’s upper surface. At once it was as though all my renewal had been undone, and the conquest of Earth canceled as well: I was a Watcher again, for surely this was a Watcher’s equipment!

I said, “It is not the same cabinet I once had. But it is not greatly different.”

“Have you forgotten your skills, Tomis?”

“I think they remain with me even now.”

“Use the machine, then,” said Avluela. “Do your Watching once more, and tell me what you see.”

Easily and happily I slipped into the old attitudes. I performed the preliminary rituals quickly, clearing my mind of doubts and frictions. It was surprisingly simple to bring myself into a spirit of Watchfulness; I had not attempted it since the night Earth fell, and yet it seemed to me that I was able to enter the state more rapidly than in the old days.