David Zindell - The Lightstone

Alphanderry, it turned out, was skilled not only in music and singing but in the art of pantomime. He stood looking at his open hand and talking to Flick as if trying to persuade his invisible friend to entertain us. And all the while, his face took on different moods and expressions, and seemed as easily molded as a ball of Liljana's bread dough. The extreme mobility of his face, no less the sudden and comical deepening of his voice, made us laugh a little – all of us except Kane.

'Now, Flick,' Alphanderry said in a voice all arrogant and stern like King Kiritan's,

'you've eaten our food and now must obey us. At my command, you'll jump into my other han.'/

Alphanderry now held his left hand out and away from his body. He looked down toward Flick in his right hand, and said, 'Are you ready?

Just then his face underwent a sudden transfiguration and fell softer. His voice softened, too, becoming fully feminine, and when he spoke, its tone was unmistakably that of Queen Daryana. As if speaking to himself, this new voice called out, 'Is he a Timpimpiri or a slave? Why don't you set him free?'

Again, Alphanderry's face and voice took on the manner of King Kiritan. And he called out in response, 'Who rules here, you or I?'

Now he looked down at his hand and continued, 'When the King says jump, you jump.'

But before he, as King Kiritan, could get another word out, his face fell through yet another change. And speaking with Queen Daryana's voice, he said, 'The King has said you must jump, Flick. All right then, jump!'

All at once, Flick shot up off Alphanderry's hand and streaked up in a fiery arc to land on the other. And Alphanderry, who had yet again returned to his King Kiritan persona, pretended to watch this feat with outrage coloring his face. His eyes opened wide at his Queen's defiance and bounced like balls as they turned toward his other hand.

Now Kane's stony visage finally cracked. The faintest of smiles turned up his lips.

Alphanderry's antics amused him much less, I thought, than did his utter blindness to Flick.

Alphanderry, still speaking as Queen Daryana, said, 'Quick, Flick -jump! Jump again, jump now!'

Each time he said this, Flick streaked from Alphanderry's one hand to the other, back and forth like a blazing rainbow. And with each jump, Alphanderry's face returned to the stern lines of King Kiritan as his eyes bounced up and down.

Maram and I – everyone except Kane – were now laughing heartily. Alphanderry's failure to move Kane must have distressed him, for he stopped his pantomime, looked at Kane, and in his own voice, he said, 'Hoy, man, what will it take to make you laugh?'

Kane didn't blink as he said, 'Make him spin on your nose.'

Alphanderry again became King Kiritan as he replied, 'That would be beneath our dignity.'

And as Queen Daryana, he continued, 'Then perhaps I should make him spin on my nose. Flick, I want you to -'

'Enough!' Kane called out, holding up his hand. He stood up facing Alphanderry and pointed at Flick, who was spinning in the space just above Alphanderry's hand. 'The Timpimpiri are real They dwell in the woods of the Lokilani.'

'And who are the Lokilani?' Alphanderry asked.

'They're the people of the woods,' Kane said. He held out his hand just below his chest as if measuring a man's height. 'The little people.'

'Oh – and I suppose they have long ears like a rabbit's and green faces,' Alphanderry said. He turned to wink at Maram and told him 'You see, I have gotten him to joke.'

Kane pointed again at Flick and said. 'This is no joke. Although I can't understand it, the Timpimpiri seems to hear you and do as you bid.'

'Really? Then will he spin on my fmger?' Alphanderry held up his finger as I pointing at the stars. 'I suppose he's spinning there now?'

No sooner had he spoken these words, then Flick flew up and turned about above his finger like a jeweled top.

Alphanderry abruptly took away his band, and then bent to retrieve his personal kit from the foot of his furs, from it he removed a needle, which he held up to the light of the fire.

'And now,' he said, 'I suppose he's dancing upon this needle?'

And lo, in a flash, with perfect equipoise, Flick spun wildly about the point of the needle.

'Hoy, yes, and now, of course, he's spinning on my nose!'

To emphasize the foolishness of what he had said, his eyes suddenly crossed as if fixing on a fly on the tip of his nose. And there, unseen by him, Flick appeared doing his wild, incandescent dance.

This last proved too much for Kane. The crack in his obduracy suddenly widened into a bottomless chasm. His face broke into the widest smile I had ever seen as he let loose a great howl of laughter. He couldn't stop himself. He fell to his knees, laughing hard and deeply, tears in eyes, his belly heaving in and out as he sweated and gasped and his whole body shook. I thought the earth itself cracked open then, for the laughter that shook his soul was more like an earthquake than any human emotion. Out of him erupted blasts of smoke and fire, thunder and lightning – or so it seemed. He lay on the ground laughing for a long time as he held his belly, and we were all so awed by this sudden outburst that we didn't know what to do. In truth, there was nothing to do except laugh along with him, and this we did.

Finally, however, Kane grew quiet as he sat up breathing hard. Through his tears, his bright black eyes seemed to shine with great happiness. I saw in him, for a moment, a great being: joyful, open, radiant and wise. He smiled at Alphanderry and said,

'Foolish minstrel – perhaps you are good for something.'

And then he regained much of his composure. The harsh, vertical lines returned to his face; flesh gave way before stone. He stared at Flick who was now wavering in the air a few feet from Alphanderry.

Then came a time for explanations. While the fire burned down and the great constellations wheeled about the heavens, we took turns telling of our stay In the Lokilani's wood Alphanderry came to see that we were not having a joke with him after all. I spoke to him of my first glorious vision of the many Timpum lighting up the forest, and he believed me trust came easy to him. When Atara, with tears in her eyes, told of how she had almost died upon eating the timana, Alphanderry looked at me and said, 'You saved her life, then. With this gift that Kane calls the valarda. Is that why your Flick followed you out of the vild?'

Flick came over to me and hovered above my shoulder. I could almost feel the swirls of fire that made up his being. 'Who knows why he followed me?' I said.

'Perhaps for the same reason we all do,' Alphandeny said thought-fully, 'Well, perhaps someday I'll be able to see him with you.'

All this time, Liljana had remained silent when she hadn't been laughing. Now, as it became clear that a great mystery had been set before her, she said simply, 'I'd like a taste of this timana, too.'

The following morning we made our way through a forest wide and thick enough to hide ten of the Lokilani's vilds. But we found neither another tribe of them nor their sacred fruit, and I thought that Liljana would have to wait a long time to be granted her wish. As we moved away from Old Alonia deeper into Iviunn, the gentle hills gave out onto a great forested plain. We made good progress along the track through the trees. Although it sometimes turned and narrowed as such tracks do, it mostly led straight toward the west. If we continued as we did, I calculated that we would reach the Blue Mountains in only seven more days.

And then the following day, great gray clouds moved in from the sea, and it began to rain. By late afternoon, our track had turned into a slip of mud. Although the deluge didn't slow us very much, it made the going miserable, for it was a cold, driving rain that soaked our cloaks and found its way into our undergarments. It didn't stop that day, nor even on the next or the one following that. By the fourth day of this weather, we were all a little on edge. We had all lost sleep, twisting and turning and shivering on the sodden earth.