Linda Nagata - Memory

He had the room next to mine. I slipped past his unlocked door and shook him awake. Then in a whisper I told him all that had happened. “I’m going after him,” I concluded.

“Into the Iraliad?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not a land I ever thought to visit. It’s said the silver rises there almost every night, and for much of the year the land is pummeled by terrible storms that blow in from the ocean. The antennas there come down almost before they’re grown. The Iraliad’s the reason the channels are limited to Vesarevi.”

I nodded. “Terrible stories are told about it, but Jolly’s there.”

I heard something then: the crack of a stick, the rustle of a shrub. I went to the window to look, but saw only the night shapes of the garden. From my room next door I could hear Moki’s nails tapping on the tiled floor, but nothing else.

Liam joined me, moving so silently I didn’t know he’d stirred until he brushed against me. I flinched away, then laughed softly at my own reaction. “I’m feeling jumpy.”

“I’m thinking that’s good. This Kaphiri could be after us, if he learns you’ve found Jolly.” Then he added, “If we leave now, we might leave unobserved.”

“You’ll go then?”

“Of course I’ll go.”

I gave him a quick hug. “I knew you would.”

We retreated from the window. “We need supplies,” I said. “Should we return to Temple Huacho?” I didn’t want to. It would mean time lost, and time was crucial, for Kaphiri was looking for Jolly too. “It’d be foolhardy to set out with nothing, but—”

A faint knocking sounded from the hallway. Liam went to the door, listening as the knock repeated. “Your room,” he whispered. I came to look over his shoulder as he opened the door a crack.

Elek was just down the hallway, standing before my door with a flashlight glowing golden in her hand. She turned a startled gaze on Liam. Then she saw me and took a tentative step. “Jubilee,” she said in a soft whisper, “your mother has just called. She has asked me to outfit you for a journey. A long journey. You are not to worry about the debt.”

I breathed a silent thank you to my mother.

“Can you do this now?” Liam asked. “We’d like to be gone long before dawn.”

Elek nodded. “Come. My supply room is yours. It will take only a few minutes to gather what you need.”

Temple Nathé was a stop for almost every trucker making the run between Xahiclan and Halibury, and Elek’s supply room looked to be stocked with samples of nearly everything that had passed on that well-traveled road. There were field clothes and jackets, machine parts and electronics, agricultural seed, precious stone, kobolds, artifacts, and objects of art, and wines from all over the world, bows and rifles and skins… and food. Most of the food was in bulk: huge wheels of cheese and massive sausages and sacks of grain, but one shelf held travel rations, each portion neatly sealed against time and weather. Liam made most of his selections from these, taking enough to fill our saddle boxes. He had brought our rifles from home and there were sleeping bags already on the bikes. I found a field jacket to fit me. Then I hunted down two shirts, and one pair of long pants. I already had shorts. A length of rope and an extra water cell went into Liam’s sack, and already I thought it was more than we could fit on the bikes.

We wanted no light in the courtyard that might draw attention, so we worked by starlight as we loaded our saddle boxes. The courtyard gate stood open, for Elek had already gone down through the garden, to open the temple gate.

The night was clear, the stars bright and plentiful, but the Bow of Heaven had faded entirely from sight. Unlike the stars, the Bow does not rise and set but remains always at the zenith. Even when it seems to disappear, it’s not really gone. With a telescope it can still be seen as a thin, black ribbon eclipsing the stars. What it truly is, no one can say. The best telescope shows no detail. Even when its light is bright, all that can be seen is a glowing, rounded surface as of some fine flawless glass. By observing the way it eclipses stars, scholars have estimated that it is two hundred thousand miles above the world—an indomitable gulf that cannot be crossed by any physical means.

As I worked to pack the saddle boxes I found myself thinking about Fiaccomo, and his tryst with the goddess. If the silver was the manifestation of her dreams in the world, did the rest of her mind dwell in that inconstant arch of light? Then a new thought came to me: Had Jolly been to Heaven? He had to have been somewhere after all…

What was the Bow of Heaven? I thought of it as a placeless place, not truly of this world… and perhaps that’s why our telescopes never seemed to bring us any closer to it. Maybe the Bow was no physical thing at all, but only a boundary, bleeding the white light of some other realm. I couldn’t imagine what such an other-place might be like, but in that cool predawn morning, working hurriedly under the stars, it was easy to think that time might run very differently there.

The last saddle box was full. I leaned on the lid, pressing it down until the latch clicked. Several packets remained, with no place to put them. “Do you have any room?” I asked Liam.

“No, I’m full.”

I frowned at the leftover packets. I didn’t want to leave even one behind, for if the weather was against us it could take days, even weeks to cross the Iraliad. I wore my new field jacket to hold back the night chill. So I started filling the pockets. “I guess I’ll carry them then.”

Liam came over to look at my bike. “You’ve got room up front,” he said. He was pointing to the bin where Moki would ride.

I snorted. “I can’t hold Moki in my arms the whole way.”

Liam hesitated. Then he asked, “You’re not planning to take the dog?”

“Of course I’m taking him… did you think I was going to leave him here?”

“He’ll be fine here. Elek can put him on the next convoy bound for Huacho—”

“I can’t turn Moki over to strangers!”

“Then Rizal can come get him! Jubilee, bringing a dog on a trip like this is only asking for trouble. If he even survives—”

“He’ll survive, Liam! And he’s going with us. Moki is Jolly’s dog. He’s the only thing left of the life Jolly used to know—”

“Hush,”Liam whispered. He looked past me. I turned, but saw no one. The temple stairs glimmered white and empty in the starlight. Then Liam bolted past me, dashing up the stairs, taking them three at a time before disappearing into the hall. A moment later he came stumbling back out as Udondi emerged, her arm wrapped around the chest of Mica Indevar. The stoop-shouldered scholar sagged against her, his bald head nodding and his feet dragging like the feet of a baby who has not learned to walk. His eyes fluttered open as Udondi brought him to the top of the stairs, but then his knees gave way. She laid him down, none too gently.

“What have you done to him?” Liam asked in a low voice, full of horror.

“Only made him sleep,” Udondi said as she came down the stairs. “He was listening most intently just inside the door. Did he hear enough to earn the favor of his master?”

My cheeks grew hot. I had been speaking of Jolly. “He heard enough,” I admitted.

“It can’t be taken back,” Liam said gruffly. “And that’s all the more reason to leave now. Come on. Elek is waiting at the gate.”

I nodded and mounted my bike. Then I called softly to Moki, who had disappeared into the garden.

Udondi gripped my handlebar. “You’ve had news,” she said.

Liam and I traded a look. Then I whispered, “We were wrong and Kaphiri was right. My brotheris alive. I talked to him myself this night.”