"Seeker's Journey"
Part Three
by Corvus
The warm rays of the slowly climbing sun set the blue waters to sparkling. Under the ever-changing surface, Atrus could see a school of multi-colored brekka fish dancing to unknown rhythms, moving this way and that, scattering when a larger saw-toothed ystra surged among them. The sleek predator snapped its jaws shut and caught a brekka behind its fins, then turned and swam away with its meal. The school regathered and continued on as if nothing had happened, like a living pond temporarily disturbed by a splash.
Life goes on, he mused. But if they failed to recover the Orb, life might not go on. Better to play the fool for silly superstition than to remain a skeptic and be wrong.
Once, off to port, a dolphin broke the surface of the water with a graceful leap. It and three more approached the boat to swim alongside for a few miles. Atrus leaned over the rail and called a friendly hello. The dolphins squeaked and clicked in response. For a moment there was a bond of camaraderie between sailor and swimmer, a touching of the worlds above and below the waves.
Raven had no such interest in fish or dolphins. He sat with his back to the deckhouse in the stern. Try though he might the Amberite couldn't think about anything but Sila. Never had he felt such an intense attaction before. Did she truly favor him, as Domu had said? They barely knew each other, and had only spoken for those few brief moments. It didn't make sense to him that she would want anything to do with him. Perhaps, instead, it was her way of getting even for the insult he had unintentionally given her. But according to Domu, the Dance wasn't something you just did. That couldn't be it either.
The thin, high cirrus clouds overhead held no answers. Ittiration flared in Raven's mind; if he couldn't concentrate he would be nothing but a burden to Atrus. "Hey, Atrus!" he called to the other man.
The D'ni straightened and turned. "Yes?"
"Do you have any idea what we're going to find inside the tower?"
"Unfortunately, no. We're going to be travelling blind." Atrus stroked his beard briefly as he pondered. "I don't want to assume too much, but I think it's reasonable for us to expect puzzles and traps. If the entity that took the Orb didn't want it to be found, the Orb wouldn't be in the tower, it would be long gone."
"Assuming the Orb is, indeed, there," Raven muttered. More loudly he said, "Any idea on who might have taken the thing in the first place?"
Atrus shook his head in the negative. "No more than you might have."
Several ideas manifested in Raven's mind, none of them pleasant. He had to remind himself that Misara was inconsequential to Amber and the Courts of Chaos. There was no reason that any of them would get involved. There was, however, the matter of the tower. The Misarans didn't seem to have the power or inclination to raise such a structure. Perhaps it was another offworlder. "This reminds me of the Labyrinth. No idea what we're going to see around the next corner or through the next door."
Atrus made a small noise of agreement. He turned back to the ocean and found that the dolphins had swum off. While he had time he decided to make a sketch in his journal.
The sun climbed higher into the sky as the boat sailed on, propelled -- or drawn -- by the unseen force. At noon, the seaside mountain range appeared on the horizon. As the vista grew they were able to make out the distinct form of the tower high above the waves.
"That cliff has to be at least four hundred feet high," Raven observed. "But if a half-dead lunatic can get up it, I think we'll manage fairly well."
His companion laughed softly. "It's been a while since I've gone climbing. Perhaps I should start warming up now."
The dark, jagged face of the cliff looked for all the world like some cosmic giant had cleaved the earth and torn it asunder. It rose straight up from the broad, flat beach at its base and vaulted directly into the tower itself. From here the men could see that the image the Linking Book had shown them was true -- there were no windows or other openings.
Atrus sketched the cliff and tower on the page opposite his drawing of the dolphin. Quick, sharp strokes outlined the featureless wall of the structure and defined the ragged rock beneath. As Raven watched his friend work he entertained the notion that Atrus had all the skill necessary to learn the creation of Trumps. Perhaps he could convince Merlin to teach the D'ni.
The boat began to slow. The tower soared overhead as if seeking to defy earth, sea and sky all at once. Raven continued to study the cliff face, trying to pick out the optimum route for climbing. He could always carry Atrus on his back if worse came to worst. A hundred yards from shore the boat turned its prow to the east and came to a halt.
"Looks like this is our stop," said Atrus as he picked up his pack.
Raven moved over to the rail and threw the rope ladder over the side. "I don't see a raft here. Looks like we're gonna have to get wet." Atrus frowned as he considered all the items in his pack that would be ruined by the sea water. "Tell you what," Raven offered, "Let me go over first and see how deep it is. If it's shallow enough you can just carry your pack over your head. If not, you can always leave it here."
"Hmm, yes." Atrus nodded, and Raven climbed over the side to make his way down to the water.
Surprisingly, when the Amberite touched bottom the water was only up to his chest. He held Atrus' pack while the other man dropped from the ladder into the sea, then handed it back. Together the two men waded their way to the beach.
Raven solved the problem of their soaked clothing by stepping through Shadow again. He encountered more resistance than he was used to, as if nearing Amber itself, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind as an anomaly to be investigated later. He dressed and returned to Atrus with fresh clothing for the other man.
While Atrus changed, Raven walked up to the cliff. Shading his icy eyes from the bright midday sun, he weighed several possible routes of ascent. None of them looked particularly promising. The rocks were unnaturally sharp on their edges and there were few if any cracks. It was like the stone had been protected from the elements somehow. Curious, Raven summoned the image of the Pattern to his mind. Again he encountered resistance, and the surprise disrupted his concentration. "This is bizarre," he said to himself.
"I think I know what you mean," Atrus said from beside him. "No evidence of erosion on the rocks. No stratification in the stone, either, now that I get a good look at it."
"That's not all. There's something strange here, somehow making it harder for me to use the power of the Pattern. Some kind of resistance."
"How do you feel physically?"
The Amberite thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I feel fine. I don't think there are any lingering effects of what Minos did to me. I don't know what's going on. When I first noticed the resistance, it was like trying to walk through Shadow when you're close to Amber. Takes a lot more effort. But that doesn't explain the difficulty I'm having in imaging the Pattern in my mind."
"You've never encountered anything like this before?" Atrus asked.
Again Raven shrugged. "No, not that I've noticed."
"Well, then, let us proceed with intellect, since the magical has failed us." Atrus reached out to touch the rock. It was slick to the touch, his fingers skittering across the surface. There would be no climbing here today. He would give a lot for the machines and talent of the D'ni of old, who easily could have fathomed the mysteries of this cliff. "One thing I've learned in my travels is to never give up. There's always a way around an obstacle, sometimes very different from what we expect. Let's look around."
As Atrus walked slowly eastward along the base of the cliff, he imagined himself as Geda, struggling to live just long enough to reach the summit. What would a fevered, starving, half-mad man do here? He knelt to touch the sand, scooped a handful of it and held it up close to his face. Nothing unusual there, just the ordinary silicates. He tossed the sand aside and dug with both hands. Again, nothing unusual. Atrus stood and brushed his hands off on his pants. The beach itself evidently wasn't the answer.
Raven tried once more to summon the Pattern. This time he was prepared for the resistance, but that didn't make it any easier. When finally the nigh-impossible symbol burned brightly in his mind's eye he looked at the cliff through the lens of its power. Yes, there was something protecting the rocks and the wall of the tower as well. That didn't solve the mystery of how to get in, though. He knew better than to try to batter a hole in the arcane field.
Perhaps the cliff wasn't part of the problem, reasoned Atrus. Maybe it was meant to lead them astray. In his delirious state, Geda would have seen things quite differently and may have grasped the answer that way. Atrus threw himself into the sand and did his best to convince himself that he was feverish, hungry and above all terrified.
The sudden motion drew Raven's attention from the cliff and the strange field. "Have you suddenly gone mad?" he demanded of Atrus.
"There's a method to my madness," the D'ni said, "and madness might just be the method we need." He shouted wordlessly at the sky, snatched up handfuls of sand and flung them at the cliff, and rolled around. What would he do in a situation like this? He was hungry. Sick. Scared.
Scared.
What would a frightened man do at a time like this? Especially one who thought he had seen a vision? He would pray.
"O thou of the Higher World," shouted Atrus, "we are the Seeker, come as fortold in the holy writings of the people! We come for the Orb of Geda!"
To Raven's complete astonishment, a section of the rock in the cliff swung outward to reveal a fifteen-foot carved archway in the stone leading into blackness. The arch was decorated with strange runes that ran all the way up one side and down the other. "How did you do that?"
Atrus plucked off a boot and shook out the sand that had gotten into it during his gyrations. "Like I said, madness was the method. I put myself in Geda's place and tried to imagine what he would have done. He would have appealed to his gods."
"It sure looks like somebody was listening," said Raven. The archway held no strange force field to bar him from passing through with hesitant steps. Once inside the portal he closed his eyes and covered them with his hands, then counted to one hundred to let his vision adjust to darkness. He took five steps and opened his eyes. The light coming through the arch revealed a patchwork floor of stone tiles. The sound of the wind and waves echoed around him, indicating a chamber of moderate size. He still couldn't see anything, though.
Atrus put his second boot back on his foot, picked up his pack and entered the archway. No sooner did he have both feet on the stone tiles than the rock concealing the portal swung back on its hinges and closed with a reverberating slam, locking them in pitch blackness. Raven instinctively reached for the Pattern and was completely blocked. Atrus heard his growl of irritation. "What's wrong?"
"Whatever it is sealing this place off, it's got me completely blocked from the Pattern. I can't even reach it."
"I have candles. Just a moment." The D'ni set his pack down and rummaged through it by feel. He produced two small pillar candles each an inch thick and four inches long, then found the flame-producing "Zippo lighter" Raven had given him as a gift. He lit one candle with the lighter and the second candle off the first, then looked around. The tiny flames revealed nothing of the walls or ceiling of this chamber, but they did cast enough of a pool of light to show that the tile in the stones was laid with an irregular pattern of blue, red and green. Each tile, however, was secure against its neighbors, so well-cut and laid that there were no visible seams. "Someone put a lot of effort into the floor," he mused.
"I don't think this is the time to be admiring the floor, Atrus," said Raven. "Hand me one of those candles, and let's admire a way out of here."
Raven took the candle Atrus handed him and immediately went looking for the opposite wall of the chamber. Atrus slung his pack over his shoulder once more and moved back to the wall next to the archway, then began following the wall around. On this side of things the stone felt like common granite and was much more regular, most likely carved. A place like this wouldn't have taken the D'ni long to carve out at all. For a moment he was reminded of his prison, where he sat and waited while a human stranger traveled the Ages to learn the secret of Sirrus and Achenar's terrible betrayal. There appeared to be no other exits along the western wall. He saw the light of Raven's candle disappear, then reappear. "I've found the way out," the Amberite's voice echoed.
Atrus made his way to where Raven stood at the bottom of a flight of carved and polished steps cut from black, white and red marble and inlaid with gold. Each step was six inches high and nine inches deep, and from what he could see they curved to the left as they ascended between smooth walls. "Shall I go first?"
"Be my guest," said Raven. Ordinarily he would have made a sarcastic bow, but his unease at being cut off from the Pattern drove thoughts of such flippancy from his mind. Atrus set foot on the stairs and began to climb.
The staircase curled around in a slowly tightening spiral. To focus his mind Raven tried counting steps, but he lost track somewhere after five hundred. It was a good thing neither of the men were claustrophobic. Still they climbed. Atrus' D'ni heritage served him well; he was able to maintain a sense of direction, could see the arc of the staircase and guessed that they were approximately halfway up the cliff.
Abruptly the stairwell opened into another chamber. Glowing globes of frosted glass were set on polished brass fixtures every ten feet around the twelve foot high wall of carved rock. The chamber itself was fifty feet in diameter and the ceiling curved up from the top of the wall toward an apex thirty feet above the center of the floor, from which hung a motionless three inch thick, foot long cylindrical brass pendulum on a steel cable. The pendulum hung three inches off the floor, which was decorated in concentric rings of black in the center, dark gray around it, light gray around that and white against the bottom of the wall. Their staircase ended in an archway similar to the one through which they had entered, and three more matching portals stood to the left, right and across from where the men stood.
"Someone left the lights on for us. Out of the pit and up to the pendulum," Raven muttered without thinking. He blew out his candle. When Atrus looked at him for explanation he merely shrugged and walked over to the center of the floor. "Wonder what this thing is for."
"Perhaps it is used to sense vibrations in the earth," offered Atrus as he put out his own candle. He pulled out his journal and made a quick sketch of the pendulum and cable, as well as the ceiling fixture at the apex of the rock dome. "It might just be decoration."
Raven shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. We have three choices. Left, right or center?"
"We're still inside the cliff, and we have no idea where any of these stairs lead. We'll have to try them all."
"All right then, Monty," said Raven in another allusion to Shadow Earth culture, "let's try Door Number One."
Again Atrus led the way. He got to the third step and Raven followed. Without warning the stairs rotated downward, forming a smooth slope. Atrus tumbled backward into Raven. The Amberite barely maintained his footing as he caught his friend. "That's definitely not it," said the D'ni as he adjusted his glasses.
"What was your first clue?" Raven quipped. He shared a wry grin with Atrus and looked at the archway across from where they had entered this chamber. "Door Number Two?" Atrus nodded, took a deep breath for courage and walked across. The first step was as solid as it was expected to be, as were the second and third. Raven followed. They ascended without incident up a straight flight of thirty of the marble steps and reached another chamber. It too was circular, though only twenty feet in diameter and the ceiling was flat ten feet above their heads. Light came from two of the glowing glass globes attached to the ceiling. Against the back of the chamber stood a control panel displaying two ivory-handled brass levers in the "down" position, two three-spoked hand wheels and five analog dials. To the right was a chair and desk of the dark Misaran wood, polished and free of dust. On the desk were three books with blank green govers.
"This appears to be a control room of some sort," said Atrus. "But controlling what?" He moved to the control panel and studied the numbered dials.
Raven walked to the desk and opened the thinnest of the books. "'The secret of life is... cheese sticks.' No, that's not it. 'Quoth the raven...' No." A pause. "Wait a second... Atrus, this looks... This looks like D'ni writing."
Atrus strode over to Raven and took the book from the Amberite's hands. Just as the other man had said, the pages were covered in neat, precise D'ni handwriting. Atrus flipped to the front of the book. The title stood out in bold, black letters: "Machine Operation Manual". He quickly scanned the pages, taking note of the hand-drawn illustrations. The machinery in this room controlled the flow of geothermally-generated steam from boilers deep within the earth to mechanisms in the staircases to the left and right in the chamber below them. "This is what we need," he said. "East Staircase -- that's the one we tried previously -- fifty-five, forty-three, twelve, twenty-nine, three." He pointed at the dials on the control panel. "We have to get those dials to match these numbers. Pushing both levers up releases the controls. The wheel on the left selects which dial to modify and the wheel on the right increases or decreases the number."
Now that they had deciphered the purpose and working of the machine, Raven felt no qualms about grabbing both levers and pushing them both up. He heard a click and a resounding thunk floated up the stairs from the chamber below. He moved to the first wheel and gave it an experimental turn to the right. A light appeared above the third dial, then turned off again and a light appeared above the fourth. He turned the wheel to the left until the light appeared above the first dial and set to altering the number shown by the needle. Soon he had all five dials set to the numbers Atrus had read off. Grasping both levers, he pushed them back down. "Let's go check it out." Atrus closed the book but kept it in his hand.
They made their way back down to the larger chamber below and tested the eastern staircase again. This time the steps remained as they were. The staircase led straight up thirty feet to a small chamber much like the control room. There was only a single lever here, in the "down" position. "What does that do?" Raven asked.
Atrus consulted the machinery manual. "Apparently that lever is connected to a mechanism that lifts the pendulum assembly up to another level above us. It doesn't say why."
"Let's find out," Raven said. He lifted the lever. Clanking noises reached them from the larger chamber. They hurried back down the stairs in time to see the brass pendulum disappear through a hole a foot wide in the ceiling. "Couldn't fit through it even if we could get up there. Okay, what about the western staircase?"
"The fifth number in the sequence is missing."
A scowl darkened the Amberite's features. "Oh, fantastic."
Atrus waved his hand absently. "Don't worry, I've run into things like this before. The fifth number will be somewhere."
Both men began scanning the walls and floor for a clue. When the larger chamber revealed nothing they returned to the control room and studied both books, then the room itself. The pendulum lever room likewise held no secrets. In a fit of pique, Raven stalked over to the western staircase and walked up ten steps before a segment of the staircase five steps wide, centered on him, dropped open. He barely caught the lower-end lip of the pit with one hand. Spitting a curse into the blackness below he began hauling himself out.
Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. A glyph had been carved into the stone several inches down the side wall of the pit. It was the D'ni glyph for the number five. "Found it," he said.
"Are you all right?" asked Atrus as Raven stepped off the staircase.
"Been worse. The number was carved into the wall of the pit I almost fell into. Idiotic place to put it, if you ask me."
"Not if you were testing someone," said Atrus.
Raven inhaled deeply and blew a curly black lock out from in front of his eyes. "Come on, let's fix that staircase and get out of here."
After setting the dials to the proper numbers the two men walked up the western staircase. It curved around in a spiral to the right and made two full revolutions around the circumference of the pendulum chamber before ending abruptly in a solid wooden door with a simple knob. Atrus turned the knob and found the door was unlocked. He pushed it open and stepped through.
The chamber was again circular. It was larger than the others by far, easily three hundred feet in diameter. There was another doorway on the opposite side. Light poured down from eight massive crystal chandeliers suspended from the ceiling halfway between the wall and the center, where another foot-wide hole spoke of the passage of the pendulum from below. It was matched by a hole in the center of the floor.
That floor was decorated in colorful tile mosaics. They told the story of Geda and the Orb as it had been related to them by old Odei, circling around from the doorway and back again. They stood atop the depiction of wise Geda settling his people's disputes. "This must have taken forever," Raven said with a whistle.
"Not so long," replied Atrus. "At least, if the D'ni built this place. Which it would seem they did. Or they at least had a hand in its construction."
Raven wondered, "What interest could they possibly have had in this place?"
"This Age was created by the D'ni. I found the Book hidden on the island of K'veer. There was no record of who had written it, and it's entirely possible that it was written illegally. Still, when I found it the Book was in almost perfect condition. I took a chance and made a Linking Book. I found the village very quickly, and was able to make friends with them. I spent time learning their culture and history. They never mentioned anything about other visitors, though."
The Amberite thought for a moment. "Could the one who wrote this have written in a backstory for the people so that they thought all those events had come to pass, when in actuality they hadn't?"
"No, the book wasn't written that way," Atrus replied. "Whether or not the Orb really cured the sickness, something happened to create the legend of Geda a thousand of this Age's years ago. And sometime between then and now, the Orb disappeared and the tower was built."
"Wouldn't they have noticed if the Orb disappeared?" That very question had been nagging at Raven since the previous evening.
"Not if they were told not to gaze upon it."
"Like in the story Odei told us," Raven agreed. "So Geda put the Orb somewhere and the people, trusting in his wisdom, never thought to doublecheck on it. Then someone comes along, filches the Orb and brings it here to this tower."
That was the most plausible sequence of events Atrus could construst as well. He too had wondered how the Misarans could have just recently discovered the disappearance of the Orb and had come to that exact conclusion. The revelation of D'ni involvement opened up many new questions, but speculation was pointless.
A pang of hunger nudged Atrus from his thoughts. They had been going all day without stopping for a meal. "Perhaps we should stop here for a bit."
"I won't argue with that." They sat on the mosaic floor and ate a meal of trail rations, and their conversation turned to their very first meeting.
Atrus had been in the library on Myst Island when he heard a splash and a string of shouted curses coming from near the Stoneship dock. When he went out to investigate he was accosted by a soaking-wet young man who demanded to know where he was. Atrus informed the man that he was on Myst Island and asked the newcomer's name. Rather than speak the remarkable fellow had simply taken three steps and vanished, then returned a moment later with a handful of dry clothing. Atrus had been quite taken aback by the display, which gave the newcomer time enough to stalk into the Planetarium to change.
Once both men had reclaimed their wits, they introduced themselves to each other. At first Raven had concealed his heritage as a member of the royal family of Amber, just as Atrus concealed his own as a descendent of the ancient D'ni. One long afternoon on Myst Island spent exchanging stories turned into repeated contact between the two, usually on that same island. As they grew to trust each other the sarcastic Amberite and dependable D'ni both revealed more of their secrets. Atrus has shown Raven the ruins of the great D'ni underground city and the Amberite had taken his new friend walking through Shadow to the Earth that had become a focal point of the war for the throne years ago.
Their first shared adventure had taken them to the desert Age of Al-Shada in search of a legendary Book rumored to detail a world of limitless wealth. The quest had ultimately proven fruitless, but their time spent with the desert tribes had strengthened their friendship. That bond continued to grow throughout successive forays across Shadow and into Ages written into Atrus' Books. It was put to the test when Raven had encountered a desperate artificer named Daedalus, who pleaded with the Amberite to destroy his greatest creation, the Labyrinth, and defeat the insane Logrus-controlled sorceror Minos who intended to use the Labyrinth for conquest.
Lunch was well over when they agreed they had rested enough. Feeling refreshed, they crossed the mosaic floor to the doorway they hoped would take them further up. The door was unlocked, as the last had been, and the red, white and black marble steps on the other side curved up and to the right, circling around one full circumference.
On the other side of the door at the top of the stairs was a sight which took Atrus' breath away. The entire hall, similar in size to the one below it, was filled with glowing crystal outcroppings. Raven passed through the door to stand beside his friend. "Now this," he remarked, is going to be interesting."
Part Three
by Corvus
The warm rays of the slowly climbing sun set the blue waters to sparkling. Under the ever-changing surface, Atrus could see a school of multi-colored brekka fish dancing to unknown rhythms, moving this way and that, scattering when a larger saw-toothed ystra surged among them. The sleek predator snapped its jaws shut and caught a brekka behind its fins, then turned and swam away with its meal. The school regathered and continued on as if nothing had happened, like a living pond temporarily disturbed by a splash.
Life goes on, he mused. But if they failed to recover the Orb, life might not go on. Better to play the fool for silly superstition than to remain a skeptic and be wrong.
Once, off to port, a dolphin broke the surface of the water with a graceful leap. It and three more approached the boat to swim alongside for a few miles. Atrus leaned over the rail and called a friendly hello. The dolphins squeaked and clicked in response. For a moment there was a bond of camaraderie between sailor and swimmer, a touching of the worlds above and below the waves.
Raven had no such interest in fish or dolphins. He sat with his back to the deckhouse in the stern. Try though he might the Amberite couldn't think about anything but Sila. Never had he felt such an intense attaction before. Did she truly favor him, as Domu had said? They barely knew each other, and had only spoken for those few brief moments. It didn't make sense to him that she would want anything to do with him. Perhaps, instead, it was her way of getting even for the insult he had unintentionally given her. But according to Domu, the Dance wasn't something you just did. That couldn't be it either.
The thin, high cirrus clouds overhead held no answers. Ittiration flared in Raven's mind; if he couldn't concentrate he would be nothing but a burden to Atrus. "Hey, Atrus!" he called to the other man.
The D'ni straightened and turned. "Yes?"
"Do you have any idea what we're going to find inside the tower?"
"Unfortunately, no. We're going to be travelling blind." Atrus stroked his beard briefly as he pondered. "I don't want to assume too much, but I think it's reasonable for us to expect puzzles and traps. If the entity that took the Orb didn't want it to be found, the Orb wouldn't be in the tower, it would be long gone."
"Assuming the Orb is, indeed, there," Raven muttered. More loudly he said, "Any idea on who might have taken the thing in the first place?"
Atrus shook his head in the negative. "No more than you might have."
Several ideas manifested in Raven's mind, none of them pleasant. He had to remind himself that Misara was inconsequential to Amber and the Courts of Chaos. There was no reason that any of them would get involved. There was, however, the matter of the tower. The Misarans didn't seem to have the power or inclination to raise such a structure. Perhaps it was another offworlder. "This reminds me of the Labyrinth. No idea what we're going to see around the next corner or through the next door."
Atrus made a small noise of agreement. He turned back to the ocean and found that the dolphins had swum off. While he had time he decided to make a sketch in his journal.
The sun climbed higher into the sky as the boat sailed on, propelled -- or drawn -- by the unseen force. At noon, the seaside mountain range appeared on the horizon. As the vista grew they were able to make out the distinct form of the tower high above the waves.
"That cliff has to be at least four hundred feet high," Raven observed. "But if a half-dead lunatic can get up it, I think we'll manage fairly well."
His companion laughed softly. "It's been a while since I've gone climbing. Perhaps I should start warming up now."
The dark, jagged face of the cliff looked for all the world like some cosmic giant had cleaved the earth and torn it asunder. It rose straight up from the broad, flat beach at its base and vaulted directly into the tower itself. From here the men could see that the image the Linking Book had shown them was true -- there were no windows or other openings.
Atrus sketched the cliff and tower on the page opposite his drawing of the dolphin. Quick, sharp strokes outlined the featureless wall of the structure and defined the ragged rock beneath. As Raven watched his friend work he entertained the notion that Atrus had all the skill necessary to learn the creation of Trumps. Perhaps he could convince Merlin to teach the D'ni.
The boat began to slow. The tower soared overhead as if seeking to defy earth, sea and sky all at once. Raven continued to study the cliff face, trying to pick out the optimum route for climbing. He could always carry Atrus on his back if worse came to worst. A hundred yards from shore the boat turned its prow to the east and came to a halt.
"Looks like this is our stop," said Atrus as he picked up his pack.
Raven moved over to the rail and threw the rope ladder over the side. "I don't see a raft here. Looks like we're gonna have to get wet." Atrus frowned as he considered all the items in his pack that would be ruined by the sea water. "Tell you what," Raven offered, "Let me go over first and see how deep it is. If it's shallow enough you can just carry your pack over your head. If not, you can always leave it here."
"Hmm, yes." Atrus nodded, and Raven climbed over the side to make his way down to the water.
Surprisingly, when the Amberite touched bottom the water was only up to his chest. He held Atrus' pack while the other man dropped from the ladder into the sea, then handed it back. Together the two men waded their way to the beach.
Raven solved the problem of their soaked clothing by stepping through Shadow again. He encountered more resistance than he was used to, as if nearing Amber itself, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind as an anomaly to be investigated later. He dressed and returned to Atrus with fresh clothing for the other man.
While Atrus changed, Raven walked up to the cliff. Shading his icy eyes from the bright midday sun, he weighed several possible routes of ascent. None of them looked particularly promising. The rocks were unnaturally sharp on their edges and there were few if any cracks. It was like the stone had been protected from the elements somehow. Curious, Raven summoned the image of the Pattern to his mind. Again he encountered resistance, and the surprise disrupted his concentration. "This is bizarre," he said to himself.
"I think I know what you mean," Atrus said from beside him. "No evidence of erosion on the rocks. No stratification in the stone, either, now that I get a good look at it."
"That's not all. There's something strange here, somehow making it harder for me to use the power of the Pattern. Some kind of resistance."
"How do you feel physically?"
The Amberite thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I feel fine. I don't think there are any lingering effects of what Minos did to me. I don't know what's going on. When I first noticed the resistance, it was like trying to walk through Shadow when you're close to Amber. Takes a lot more effort. But that doesn't explain the difficulty I'm having in imaging the Pattern in my mind."
"You've never encountered anything like this before?" Atrus asked.
Again Raven shrugged. "No, not that I've noticed."
"Well, then, let us proceed with intellect, since the magical has failed us." Atrus reached out to touch the rock. It was slick to the touch, his fingers skittering across the surface. There would be no climbing here today. He would give a lot for the machines and talent of the D'ni of old, who easily could have fathomed the mysteries of this cliff. "One thing I've learned in my travels is to never give up. There's always a way around an obstacle, sometimes very different from what we expect. Let's look around."
As Atrus walked slowly eastward along the base of the cliff, he imagined himself as Geda, struggling to live just long enough to reach the summit. What would a fevered, starving, half-mad man do here? He knelt to touch the sand, scooped a handful of it and held it up close to his face. Nothing unusual there, just the ordinary silicates. He tossed the sand aside and dug with both hands. Again, nothing unusual. Atrus stood and brushed his hands off on his pants. The beach itself evidently wasn't the answer.
Raven tried once more to summon the Pattern. This time he was prepared for the resistance, but that didn't make it any easier. When finally the nigh-impossible symbol burned brightly in his mind's eye he looked at the cliff through the lens of its power. Yes, there was something protecting the rocks and the wall of the tower as well. That didn't solve the mystery of how to get in, though. He knew better than to try to batter a hole in the arcane field.
Perhaps the cliff wasn't part of the problem, reasoned Atrus. Maybe it was meant to lead them astray. In his delirious state, Geda would have seen things quite differently and may have grasped the answer that way. Atrus threw himself into the sand and did his best to convince himself that he was feverish, hungry and above all terrified.
The sudden motion drew Raven's attention from the cliff and the strange field. "Have you suddenly gone mad?" he demanded of Atrus.
"There's a method to my madness," the D'ni said, "and madness might just be the method we need." He shouted wordlessly at the sky, snatched up handfuls of sand and flung them at the cliff, and rolled around. What would he do in a situation like this? He was hungry. Sick. Scared.
Scared.
What would a frightened man do at a time like this? Especially one who thought he had seen a vision? He would pray.
"O thou of the Higher World," shouted Atrus, "we are the Seeker, come as fortold in the holy writings of the people! We come for the Orb of Geda!"
To Raven's complete astonishment, a section of the rock in the cliff swung outward to reveal a fifteen-foot carved archway in the stone leading into blackness. The arch was decorated with strange runes that ran all the way up one side and down the other. "How did you do that?"
Atrus plucked off a boot and shook out the sand that had gotten into it during his gyrations. "Like I said, madness was the method. I put myself in Geda's place and tried to imagine what he would have done. He would have appealed to his gods."
"It sure looks like somebody was listening," said Raven. The archway held no strange force field to bar him from passing through with hesitant steps. Once inside the portal he closed his eyes and covered them with his hands, then counted to one hundred to let his vision adjust to darkness. He took five steps and opened his eyes. The light coming through the arch revealed a patchwork floor of stone tiles. The sound of the wind and waves echoed around him, indicating a chamber of moderate size. He still couldn't see anything, though.
Atrus put his second boot back on his foot, picked up his pack and entered the archway. No sooner did he have both feet on the stone tiles than the rock concealing the portal swung back on its hinges and closed with a reverberating slam, locking them in pitch blackness. Raven instinctively reached for the Pattern and was completely blocked. Atrus heard his growl of irritation. "What's wrong?"
"Whatever it is sealing this place off, it's got me completely blocked from the Pattern. I can't even reach it."
"I have candles. Just a moment." The D'ni set his pack down and rummaged through it by feel. He produced two small pillar candles each an inch thick and four inches long, then found the flame-producing "Zippo lighter" Raven had given him as a gift. He lit one candle with the lighter and the second candle off the first, then looked around. The tiny flames revealed nothing of the walls or ceiling of this chamber, but they did cast enough of a pool of light to show that the tile in the stones was laid with an irregular pattern of blue, red and green. Each tile, however, was secure against its neighbors, so well-cut and laid that there were no visible seams. "Someone put a lot of effort into the floor," he mused.
"I don't think this is the time to be admiring the floor, Atrus," said Raven. "Hand me one of those candles, and let's admire a way out of here."
Raven took the candle Atrus handed him and immediately went looking for the opposite wall of the chamber. Atrus slung his pack over his shoulder once more and moved back to the wall next to the archway, then began following the wall around. On this side of things the stone felt like common granite and was much more regular, most likely carved. A place like this wouldn't have taken the D'ni long to carve out at all. For a moment he was reminded of his prison, where he sat and waited while a human stranger traveled the Ages to learn the secret of Sirrus and Achenar's terrible betrayal. There appeared to be no other exits along the western wall. He saw the light of Raven's candle disappear, then reappear. "I've found the way out," the Amberite's voice echoed.
Atrus made his way to where Raven stood at the bottom of a flight of carved and polished steps cut from black, white and red marble and inlaid with gold. Each step was six inches high and nine inches deep, and from what he could see they curved to the left as they ascended between smooth walls. "Shall I go first?"
"Be my guest," said Raven. Ordinarily he would have made a sarcastic bow, but his unease at being cut off from the Pattern drove thoughts of such flippancy from his mind. Atrus set foot on the stairs and began to climb.
The staircase curled around in a slowly tightening spiral. To focus his mind Raven tried counting steps, but he lost track somewhere after five hundred. It was a good thing neither of the men were claustrophobic. Still they climbed. Atrus' D'ni heritage served him well; he was able to maintain a sense of direction, could see the arc of the staircase and guessed that they were approximately halfway up the cliff.
Abruptly the stairwell opened into another chamber. Glowing globes of frosted glass were set on polished brass fixtures every ten feet around the twelve foot high wall of carved rock. The chamber itself was fifty feet in diameter and the ceiling curved up from the top of the wall toward an apex thirty feet above the center of the floor, from which hung a motionless three inch thick, foot long cylindrical brass pendulum on a steel cable. The pendulum hung three inches off the floor, which was decorated in concentric rings of black in the center, dark gray around it, light gray around that and white against the bottom of the wall. Their staircase ended in an archway similar to the one through which they had entered, and three more matching portals stood to the left, right and across from where the men stood.
"Someone left the lights on for us. Out of the pit and up to the pendulum," Raven muttered without thinking. He blew out his candle. When Atrus looked at him for explanation he merely shrugged and walked over to the center of the floor. "Wonder what this thing is for."
"Perhaps it is used to sense vibrations in the earth," offered Atrus as he put out his own candle. He pulled out his journal and made a quick sketch of the pendulum and cable, as well as the ceiling fixture at the apex of the rock dome. "It might just be decoration."
Raven shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. We have three choices. Left, right or center?"
"We're still inside the cliff, and we have no idea where any of these stairs lead. We'll have to try them all."
"All right then, Monty," said Raven in another allusion to Shadow Earth culture, "let's try Door Number One."
Again Atrus led the way. He got to the third step and Raven followed. Without warning the stairs rotated downward, forming a smooth slope. Atrus tumbled backward into Raven. The Amberite barely maintained his footing as he caught his friend. "That's definitely not it," said the D'ni as he adjusted his glasses.
"What was your first clue?" Raven quipped. He shared a wry grin with Atrus and looked at the archway across from where they had entered this chamber. "Door Number Two?" Atrus nodded, took a deep breath for courage and walked across. The first step was as solid as it was expected to be, as were the second and third. Raven followed. They ascended without incident up a straight flight of thirty of the marble steps and reached another chamber. It too was circular, though only twenty feet in diameter and the ceiling was flat ten feet above their heads. Light came from two of the glowing glass globes attached to the ceiling. Against the back of the chamber stood a control panel displaying two ivory-handled brass levers in the "down" position, two three-spoked hand wheels and five analog dials. To the right was a chair and desk of the dark Misaran wood, polished and free of dust. On the desk were three books with blank green govers.
"This appears to be a control room of some sort," said Atrus. "But controlling what?" He moved to the control panel and studied the numbered dials.
Raven walked to the desk and opened the thinnest of the books. "'The secret of life is... cheese sticks.' No, that's not it. 'Quoth the raven...' No." A pause. "Wait a second... Atrus, this looks... This looks like D'ni writing."
Atrus strode over to Raven and took the book from the Amberite's hands. Just as the other man had said, the pages were covered in neat, precise D'ni handwriting. Atrus flipped to the front of the book. The title stood out in bold, black letters: "Machine Operation Manual". He quickly scanned the pages, taking note of the hand-drawn illustrations. The machinery in this room controlled the flow of geothermally-generated steam from boilers deep within the earth to mechanisms in the staircases to the left and right in the chamber below them. "This is what we need," he said. "East Staircase -- that's the one we tried previously -- fifty-five, forty-three, twelve, twenty-nine, three." He pointed at the dials on the control panel. "We have to get those dials to match these numbers. Pushing both levers up releases the controls. The wheel on the left selects which dial to modify and the wheel on the right increases or decreases the number."
Now that they had deciphered the purpose and working of the machine, Raven felt no qualms about grabbing both levers and pushing them both up. He heard a click and a resounding thunk floated up the stairs from the chamber below. He moved to the first wheel and gave it an experimental turn to the right. A light appeared above the third dial, then turned off again and a light appeared above the fourth. He turned the wheel to the left until the light appeared above the first dial and set to altering the number shown by the needle. Soon he had all five dials set to the numbers Atrus had read off. Grasping both levers, he pushed them back down. "Let's go check it out." Atrus closed the book but kept it in his hand.
They made their way back down to the larger chamber below and tested the eastern staircase again. This time the steps remained as they were. The staircase led straight up thirty feet to a small chamber much like the control room. There was only a single lever here, in the "down" position. "What does that do?" Raven asked.
Atrus consulted the machinery manual. "Apparently that lever is connected to a mechanism that lifts the pendulum assembly up to another level above us. It doesn't say why."
"Let's find out," Raven said. He lifted the lever. Clanking noises reached them from the larger chamber. They hurried back down the stairs in time to see the brass pendulum disappear through a hole a foot wide in the ceiling. "Couldn't fit through it even if we could get up there. Okay, what about the western staircase?"
"The fifth number in the sequence is missing."
A scowl darkened the Amberite's features. "Oh, fantastic."
Atrus waved his hand absently. "Don't worry, I've run into things like this before. The fifth number will be somewhere."
Both men began scanning the walls and floor for a clue. When the larger chamber revealed nothing they returned to the control room and studied both books, then the room itself. The pendulum lever room likewise held no secrets. In a fit of pique, Raven stalked over to the western staircase and walked up ten steps before a segment of the staircase five steps wide, centered on him, dropped open. He barely caught the lower-end lip of the pit with one hand. Spitting a curse into the blackness below he began hauling himself out.
Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. A glyph had been carved into the stone several inches down the side wall of the pit. It was the D'ni glyph for the number five. "Found it," he said.
"Are you all right?" asked Atrus as Raven stepped off the staircase.
"Been worse. The number was carved into the wall of the pit I almost fell into. Idiotic place to put it, if you ask me."
"Not if you were testing someone," said Atrus.
Raven inhaled deeply and blew a curly black lock out from in front of his eyes. "Come on, let's fix that staircase and get out of here."
After setting the dials to the proper numbers the two men walked up the western staircase. It curved around in a spiral to the right and made two full revolutions around the circumference of the pendulum chamber before ending abruptly in a solid wooden door with a simple knob. Atrus turned the knob and found the door was unlocked. He pushed it open and stepped through.
The chamber was again circular. It was larger than the others by far, easily three hundred feet in diameter. There was another doorway on the opposite side. Light poured down from eight massive crystal chandeliers suspended from the ceiling halfway between the wall and the center, where another foot-wide hole spoke of the passage of the pendulum from below. It was matched by a hole in the center of the floor.
That floor was decorated in colorful tile mosaics. They told the story of Geda and the Orb as it had been related to them by old Odei, circling around from the doorway and back again. They stood atop the depiction of wise Geda settling his people's disputes. "This must have taken forever," Raven said with a whistle.
"Not so long," replied Atrus. "At least, if the D'ni built this place. Which it would seem they did. Or they at least had a hand in its construction."
Raven wondered, "What interest could they possibly have had in this place?"
"This Age was created by the D'ni. I found the Book hidden on the island of K'veer. There was no record of who had written it, and it's entirely possible that it was written illegally. Still, when I found it the Book was in almost perfect condition. I took a chance and made a Linking Book. I found the village very quickly, and was able to make friends with them. I spent time learning their culture and history. They never mentioned anything about other visitors, though."
The Amberite thought for a moment. "Could the one who wrote this have written in a backstory for the people so that they thought all those events had come to pass, when in actuality they hadn't?"
"No, the book wasn't written that way," Atrus replied. "Whether or not the Orb really cured the sickness, something happened to create the legend of Geda a thousand of this Age's years ago. And sometime between then and now, the Orb disappeared and the tower was built."
"Wouldn't they have noticed if the Orb disappeared?" That very question had been nagging at Raven since the previous evening.
"Not if they were told not to gaze upon it."
"Like in the story Odei told us," Raven agreed. "So Geda put the Orb somewhere and the people, trusting in his wisdom, never thought to doublecheck on it. Then someone comes along, filches the Orb and brings it here to this tower."
That was the most plausible sequence of events Atrus could construst as well. He too had wondered how the Misarans could have just recently discovered the disappearance of the Orb and had come to that exact conclusion. The revelation of D'ni involvement opened up many new questions, but speculation was pointless.
A pang of hunger nudged Atrus from his thoughts. They had been going all day without stopping for a meal. "Perhaps we should stop here for a bit."
"I won't argue with that." They sat on the mosaic floor and ate a meal of trail rations, and their conversation turned to their very first meeting.
Atrus had been in the library on Myst Island when he heard a splash and a string of shouted curses coming from near the Stoneship dock. When he went out to investigate he was accosted by a soaking-wet young man who demanded to know where he was. Atrus informed the man that he was on Myst Island and asked the newcomer's name. Rather than speak the remarkable fellow had simply taken three steps and vanished, then returned a moment later with a handful of dry clothing. Atrus had been quite taken aback by the display, which gave the newcomer time enough to stalk into the Planetarium to change.
Once both men had reclaimed their wits, they introduced themselves to each other. At first Raven had concealed his heritage as a member of the royal family of Amber, just as Atrus concealed his own as a descendent of the ancient D'ni. One long afternoon on Myst Island spent exchanging stories turned into repeated contact between the two, usually on that same island. As they grew to trust each other the sarcastic Amberite and dependable D'ni both revealed more of their secrets. Atrus has shown Raven the ruins of the great D'ni underground city and the Amberite had taken his new friend walking through Shadow to the Earth that had become a focal point of the war for the throne years ago.
Their first shared adventure had taken them to the desert Age of Al-Shada in search of a legendary Book rumored to detail a world of limitless wealth. The quest had ultimately proven fruitless, but their time spent with the desert tribes had strengthened their friendship. That bond continued to grow throughout successive forays across Shadow and into Ages written into Atrus' Books. It was put to the test when Raven had encountered a desperate artificer named Daedalus, who pleaded with the Amberite to destroy his greatest creation, the Labyrinth, and defeat the insane Logrus-controlled sorceror Minos who intended to use the Labyrinth for conquest.
Lunch was well over when they agreed they had rested enough. Feeling refreshed, they crossed the mosaic floor to the doorway they hoped would take them further up. The door was unlocked, as the last had been, and the red, white and black marble steps on the other side curved up and to the right, circling around one full circumference.
On the other side of the door at the top of the stairs was a sight which took Atrus' breath away. The entire hall, similar in size to the one below it, was filled with glowing crystal outcroppings. Raven passed through the door to stand beside his friend. "Now this," he remarked, is going to be interesting."