Roger Taylor - The Return of the Sword

As slowly as it had opened, the book closed itself. Andawyr removed his hand and looked at Antyr expectantly. ‘Did that help you understand?’ he asked.

‘Did what?’ Antyr asked in return.

‘That,’ Andawyr said, taking his hand again. ‘That feeling when the book was closing.’

‘I felt nothing,’ Antyr replied.

Andawyr tilted his head on one side as if he had not heard correctly.

‘Nothing?’

‘Nothing.’

Andawyr looked at his hand with the expression of a man looking at a faulty timepiece.

‘Nothing at all?’

‘No,’ Antyr confirmed, beginning to be alarmed that he had made another social blunder amongst his new friends.

‘How very odd,’ Andawyr said slowly, staring now at Antyr as though he might have been a faulty timepiece. Antyr shifted uncomfortably and Andawyr was suddenly alive with apology.

‘Forgive me,’ he said, words stumbling out in his haste. ‘You caught me unawares this time. I’ve never known anything like that. You should have felt something. That’s one of the most effective teaching aids to get past the difficulties we run into when words alone aren’t really sufficient.’ He waved his hands vaguely as if trying to still what were obviously many clamouring questions. ‘I can see we’re going to learn a great deal about one another over the coming days – with your permission, of course,’ he added quickly. ‘But for now, I’d like Usche to finish her discourse for you.’

He sat back, out of sight of Antyr again, and, playing alternately with his battered nose and his straggly beard, fell silent, except for an occasional soft and tuneless humming.

Usche’s face reflected Andawyr’s curiosity and excitement and it was a visible effort for her to gather the threads of her explanation before she could continue. She started with an apology of her own. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, mouthing the words rather than speaking them. ‘It was rude of me to react the way I did.’

‘Everyone’s apologized to everyone else now,’ Antyr said. ‘I think honour’s satisfied.’

Usche nearly smiled, then she cleared her throat and patted the book. ‘That’s what can be done with the Power, if you know how,’ she said. ‘That and many other things.’

‘How did you do it?’

Usche pulled a wry face. ‘I don’t know. That’s to say, I know how I did it, just like I know how to plant a seed to grow a flower. But the deeper reasons for such a thing being possible…’ She shrugged. ‘We search, though. Here we search endlessly.’

‘How do you think you did it?’

The humming behind Antyr stopped abruptly.

Usche smiled broadly. ‘I can’t begin to tell you about that,’ she said. ‘I’m not trying to avoid your question but it really is very complicated. As, I’m sure, are the details of your own profession, if I understood it correctly from Andawyr.’

Antyr acknowledged the point and the humming started again.

‘What I can tell you, though, is that while most people have some sensitivity to the Power,’ she gave him a brief, curious look, ‘not everyone can use it as I just did. A certain… inborn… quality has to be present. Without it, no amount of training and dedication will have any effect.’

‘It’s the same with my own trade – profession – call it what you will. Some can do it, most can’t. If the ability is there and if a suitable Earth Holder can be found…’ Unconsciously he reached down and stroked the two wolves now lying at either side of his chair. ‘Then it can be developed. But if it isn’t there, then… nothing.’

Usche could not resist. ‘Does this ability run in families – father to son, mother to daughter?’

‘Sometimes, but there’s no logic or pattern to it. For the most part it appears at random. My father was a Dream Finder, but there was no guarantee that I would be one.’

Usche leaned forward. ‘So it is with the ability to use the Power,’ she said, waving a finger for emphasis. ‘Quite arbitrary. As big a mystery as the Power itself, in many ways. It’s really very odd.’ She became earnest, drawing him into the discussion. ‘We know that this inborn quality is similar to those that make us left- or right-handed, tall or short, but to some extent they’re calculable traits, while this is extraordinarily elusive. It…’

Andawyr coughed significantly.

Usche gave Antyr a guilty grimace and sat back in her chair again. ‘But, whatever the reason for any of us having this ability, if it’s there, then using it, for the most part, is logical, consistent and orderly. Obviously some tasks are harder than others, but when I wished to open the book, for example, I did it, and when I wished to close it, I did that.’

There was another slight cough.

‘So, at one level – at the level of ordinary use – of practical applications, here, now – we know a great deal. Going deeper, the picture becomes far less clear. It’s always been known that the Power pervades everything. Until quite recently it used to be thought that it came from what we call the Great Searing – the beginning of everything. But we think now – in fact, we’re fairly certain, actually – that the Great Searing was something that happened only on this world and that it itself was just an unusual manifestation of the Power. It’s becoming apparent now that the Power truly underlies everything – me, you, this book, the table, these walls. We’re all simply different aspects of it.’ She was warming to her explanation. ‘And not just us, here, but quite literally everything. The sun, the stars, the great islands of stars far beyond our own.’ There was wonder in her face. ‘So many things come together to make this highly probable,’ she went on excitedly. ‘It’s…’

‘It’s enough for now,’ Andawyr interrupted. ‘Well done. That was a good effort under the circumstances. I’ll go through it with you tomorrow. Track me down if I look like forgetting. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I need to talk to Antyr for a while.’

Usche, a little flushed at this praise, quickly gathered up her book and papers.

‘Thank you,’ Antyr said, offering his hand. She took it. Then, with a slight bow, she left.

‘I don’t think it was her fault, but I’m not sure I’m much wiser,’ Antyr said when she had gone.

‘Don’t worry,’ Andawyr said. ‘It’s far from easy to understand but we’ve plenty of time to talk and I’m sure you’ll pick up enough to get a feeling for what it’s all about. Then, if you want to study it – where better could you be?’ He frowned. ‘Though I’m puzzled that you felt no response when I passed Usche’s sending through you. Very puzzled.’ Then he smiled broadly. ‘You see, we’re just as mystified by you as you are by us.’

Andawyr glanced towards the door that Usche had left through. ‘It was a little unkind, dropping that on her without warning, but she did very well.’ He burst out laughing again. ‘Though she really didn’t like being taken for a market trickster. I think if it had been anyone she knew, she’d have floored them.’ It took him some time to recover. ‘She’s a very capable woman,’ he went on eventually, wiping his eyes and then tapping his head. ‘Both intellectually and in her methodical use of the Power. But she’s reached a stage where she needs to…’ He made an expansive gesture. ‘To fly a little – to let go – to trust her intuition – to realize that it’s actually the fine invisible edge of her intellect, not something vague and separate and… faintly undesirable.’ He mimicked her voice and manner with these last words, with an accuracy that made Antyr laugh. ‘When she does that, she’ll be a tremendous asset to us here.’