Linda Nagata - Memory

“Once, I tried to go there. I was already old, so there wasn’t so much to lose. I was determined to discover what was there, even if I never escaped alive with the knowledge—but the goddess has no patience for hubris. I barely penetrated the rim of the basin, for the silver became a wall that would not let me advance. In that land you can feel the forces that made the world, still at work, endlessly building up the land all around. You came across the Kalang Crescent. Did you know that it grows higher every year?”

“We had guessed,” I said, quietly astounded at this confirmation. “And we saw the southern desert, when we were on the Crescent.I have no curiosity to go there!”

“Wise youth! For myself, I decided that life was precious to me after all, and I turned for home, but it took me a hundred days to return a mere two hundred miles to these friendly lands of the north.”

Emil sighed. “If we could but understand the factor of the southern desert, we would be so much closer to understanding the tide of silver now rising in the world… or so I believe.”

The scholars had collected notes for centuries, but they could only predict the rise and fall of silver in a radius of some hundred miles around the Temple of the Sisters. Farther than that, their studies failed. This one night they could guide me. Then I would be dependent on luck once again.

Leaving my savant on the pinnacle, I retreated down the stairs to eat some dinner. When I returned half an hour later I found the stars out in all their glory, and a message from Jolly recorded on my savant. I cursed my timing. But when I sent a link Jolly answered immediately, his youthful face gazing from the screen of my savant with worried eyes. “They said you were sick.”

“I’m over it now. Where are you?”

“It’s an old station. I don’t know if it has a name, but we’re only staying here this night. We’ll leave again in the morning. Ficer says to tell you we’ll be at Azure Mesa by tomorrow afternoon.”

I consulted the map Maya had given me. “That’s only a hundred twenty miles from here!”

A gruff voice spoke from offscreen. “Ask her if that’s not too far… now that we’ve crossed almost all the North Iraliad to meet her.”

Jolly grinned. It was infectious. “I’ll be there,” I promised. “In fact, I’ll be waiting when you arrive.”

“If the silver allows it,” the gruff voice amended.

“Yes,” I agreed. “If.”

Only 120 miles—a few hours by bike, if all went well… though things had not gone well for some long time. After Jolly had gone to have his dinner, I cradled the savant in my lap and considered.

Liam and Udondi still had not called. Did that mean they could not? If they had found trouble, it might mean trouble would find me if I stayed at the Sisters.

I could leave tonight.

Liam had been planning to set out tonight anyway. The silver wasn’t expected to rise until late. I could set out, get as far as the first wild well on the map, and camp. That way I’d have a start on anyone who might come looking for me… and if Liam and Udondi showed up at the Sisters tomorrow… well, I’d leave a message with Emil telling them where I’d gone.

I took my savant downstairs. Emil nodded when I told him my plans, as if he’d expected as much. He summoned Maya. “She has decided to leave us this night.”

“There are no safe choices now,” Maya said. “You should have until midnight to reach shelter, but in the darkness you’ll need to go slowly. You weren’t planning to use a light?”

I shook my head.

“By starlight,” Emil said. “By the light of Heaven.” He clasped my hand. “If I were younger I’d go with you. As it is, I can only watch… but I’ll watch well. The traveler will have no news of you from this old man.”

“No, Emil. If he comes, you must tell him whatever he wants to know. He’ll learn it anyway, and I would not have you or anyone else hurt.”

His eyes were moist. “That task may be too hard for me.”

I kissed his cheek. “Still I ask it of you.” Then I whispered the name of the mesa where I was to meet Jolly, and I left him and went downstairs.

My bike was ready. I put on my field jacket while Maya made sure I understood how to find the first wild well. I thanked her, then I called Moki and put him in his bin. Maya opened the door for me. The Bow of Heaven glimmered overhead, giving me a little light. There was no sign of silver. I wondered if Kaphiri lay hidden somewhere among the boulder-strewn slopes. I desperately hoped it wasn’t so; I didn’t want him to know I lived. But even if he was watching, at least he would have no way to follow me except on foot. He would have no way of knowing where I went.

Maya set her hand on my shoulder. “Go slowly,” she whispered, “and with great care. The Iraliad will not forgive any mistake tonight.”

I nodded. Then I set out alone on the path she had shown me.

Coyotes were about that night, and for two or three hours they followed me, appearing as silhouettes on the ridge tops, or as dark shadows against the pale sand of a desert wash. When I first saw them I was frightened. But they did not attack, and when they vanished an hour before midnight I felt terribly alone.

It was only fifty miles to the well that would be my refuge, but the Bow of Heaven was stingy with its light and I worried I would lose my way so I went slowly, making sure of every landmark Maya had told to me. In this way I came to a wide plain.

In much of the Iraliad the land is a hard mineral soil, but the silver had made that plain a fertile place, and despite the rarity of rain, tough sedges grew knee-high, with waxy white flowers looking out among them, their petals agleam in the starlight. Far away I could see the dark shapes of mesas rising against the star-spangled sky, and closer, an ethereal gathering of white standing stones half-melted by the passing tides of silver, so that some stood on stems, looking like elongated white mushrooms.

I hurried forward, for this was the last landmark Maya had described. The well was supposed to be a mile beyond the standing stones—“No farther,” she had warned. “You must be very careful. It would be easy to pass it in the dark.”

It would be easy to pass it in the daytime too, I thought ruefully as I looked out on that plain. Maya had carefully described the well, but she had not mentioned the dense sedges. I was supposed to search a little north of east for the mound of the kobold well, but if her description was accurate, the mound did not stand as high as the sedges. I could see no hint of where it might be.

I headed out anyway. There was still no sign of silver, but I knew it could not be far away. The hour was late, and Moki—who had been excited at the scent of coyotes earlier in the evening—now huddled fearfully in his bin. I spoke soft reassurances to him as I watched my odometer measure the distance.

A mile passed, but I discovered no sign of the well.

I stopped and looked about. The sedges were so dense that even in daylight I might pass within ten feet of the mound and not see it. How could I expect to find it in the dark?

I had to find it.

Moki whined his fear. Faintly now, I could smell the crisp, clean scent of silver, and as I breathed that scent I felt something waken within me, just as it had last night when I stood by my window, looking out on the silver-covered plain. I could feel the silver, unseen and lying close against the ground, but rising into life… and into my awareness. Stay back, I thought. Stay away. Suddenly, sparkling motes were dancing around my hands.

Moki whined again—and then the silver emerged all around us, rising in a silent flood among the sedges, everywhere, except at our feet, and around the tires of the bike.