Elysia (7 page)

Oontawa was helping Armandra down the dais steps. The Woman of the Winds was not so much tired as dizzy from her efforts. Tracy, too, had gone to help support her; both girls were anxious for her, until the Warlord reached up and lifted her easily down the last two steps into his arms. She hugged him, then turned to de Marigny.

'I'm sorry, Henri, but that's as much as I can do. It seems that this Elysia is a very special, very secret place.'

He took her hand, kissed it, said: 'Armandra, you've probably done more for me in half an hour than I've
been
able to do for myself in three long years! At least I've something to go on now. But the effort has wearied you, and I had no right to ask you to do it anyway. So how can I ever find words to thank you for--'

He paused as there came a sudden buzz of excitement from the elders close to the chamber's entrance. An Eskimo runner stood there, gasping his message. Kota'na recognized him not so much as a messenger but one of the keepers he'd left in charge of the bears that guarded the time-clock in de Marigny's chambers, and went to him at once. He returned in a moment.

`Henri,' he said, his Indian's eyes wide and very bright. 'It is the time-clock!'

`What?' de Marigny's jaw dropped as he grasped Kota'na's brawny arms. 'The clock? What of it?' His anxiety was very real, for he remembered that time from three years earlier, when Ithaqua's wolf-warriors had stolen his vehicle. 'Don't tell me something's happened to — ?'

`Happened to it?' Kota'na cut him off, shaking his head in denial. 'Oh, no, my friend and yet, yes. The clock is where you left it under guard but its door has opened, and a purplish light spills out!'

Time-clock: a totally inadequate misnomer, thought de Marigny, as he hurried with Hank and Moreen through the plateau's labyrinth to the dwelling-caves near the perimeter where the clock was temporarily housed. It did look like a clock at first glance, like a fine old grandfather in the somewhat macabre shape of a coffin, and it did have a dial and hands; but there any resemblance to a dock in the mundane sense of the word ended.

Its weird ticking was quite irregular, its four hinds moved about the hieroglyphed dial in spastic patterns patently divorced from any chronological system known or even guessed at by man; it was certainly
not
an instrument for measuring the orderly passage of time at all but rather ignored and even transgressed temporal laws. And because time is part and parcel with space — the other side of the same coin, as it were — so the time-clock transgressed against spatial laws, too.

In short, it was a vehicle for space-time travel, a gateway on all possible worlds and levels of existence, a not entirely mechanical magical carpet. Einstein would not have believed in the time-clock, and what he would have made of a gaseous intelligence riding the solar winds through space at half the speed of light ... who can say? But then again, a sea-urchin would probably experience the greatest difficulty believing in Einstein.

De Marigny, on the other hand, did believe in the clock; each time he used it his life, Moreen's too, hung by the thread of that belief. He believed in it, and he trusted it, even though many of its complexities remained way beyond his grasp. This was hardly surprising; it had been that way for Titus Crow too, in his time. But the more de Marigny used the clock, the more he learned; a slow process, true, but a sure one. It was like being a learner-driver in the latest model of some high-technology motor-car; there was always a new button or switch one had never tried before, which might well be a device for steaming rain off the windows ... but might just as easily jettison the driver through the roof !

Finally the three arrived at de Marigny's and Moreen's quarters, passed the Eskimo guard and keeper where he stood with a pair of massive, rumbling bears, and so into the chamber where the time-clock waited. Here small circular 'windows' looked out over the white waste, and on a bleak horizon Ithaqua crouched atop the derelict ice-breaker, watching the plateau just as Armandra had seen him in her trance. Time for only a cursory glance at the Wind-Walker, however, for here was an even greater wonder, and perhaps one just as fearful, in its way.

For indeed the time-clock's panel stood open, its eerie purple light pouring out in rhythmic pulses from within. Just what this might signify was hard to say, but de Marigny could soon find out. 'Wait,' he said to Moreen and Hank as he stepped forward and made to enter the clock. Except

Even as his hand gripped the frame of that narrow portal,
so a figure materialized there and stepped out!

Taken
by
surprise, de Marigny gasped, jumped back and almost collided with Hank and Moreen. Then
he
grasped and restrained the Warlord's hand where already
^,
his knuckles were white, clenched on the haft of a bright pick-like weapon snatched from his broad belt.

'No, Hank!' The Searcher cried then. 'There's no danger here. Can't you see who it is? Don't you recognize him? It's Titus Crow!'

_;
On legs suddenly weak as jelly de Marigny went to embrace the.newcomer — fell against nothing and staggered
right through him. Crow was insubstantial as smoke, a mirage — a hologram!

'A ghost!' Moreen gasped. 'Is this your Titus Crow, Henri? A phantom whose grave is the time-clock? Is that why it's shaped like a coffin?' And for all that she was only half-serious, still de Marigny sensed something of fear in her voice.

Silberhutte, on the other hand, was quicker to grasp the true picture. '
Shh,
Moreen!' he whispered, putting a protective arm round her shoulder. 'This is no ghost. It's not magic but science. And Henri's perfectly correct: wherever this 3-D picture is coming from, it's certainly a picture of Titus Crow.'

De Marigny had meanwhile recovered himself and stepped back from the apparition; and as for Crow, he seemed just as bemused as the three whose eyes followed his every movement. For a moment utter confusion was written on his face; then, like a man suddenly blind, he groped his way backward until once more he stood inside the clock and was bathed in its -ethereal glow. Then came his voice, that deep, rich and oh so well remembered voice from the memories of
de
Marigny and Silberhutte both: -

`Henri? I saw you then, but just for a moment. If that was really you out there, please come inside the clock where we can talk. I'm riding a Great Thought sent by Kthanid. Outside the clock I'm largely immaterial, but in here I'm much less a spectre. Only be quick, Henri, for Kthanid can't keep (his up for very long.'

De Marigny needed no further urging. With a second `Wait!' to his friends, he stepped inside the clock and was engulfed in its pulsing light. Then for a moment two old, true friends peered anxiously at one another — and at last smiles broke out, and laughter — and finally they pounded each other's backs.

'It's you,' said de Marigny, in the flesh of a sort, anyway! But how?'

'You haven't changed, Henri,' said Crow then, holding him at arms' length. 'Not a jot. Still full of questions I never have the time to answer.'

`And you,' the other returned. 'Why, if anything you seem
even
younger!' And then, with less levity: 'But you're wrong, Titus, for I have changed. I've
been
changed. It's not simply my own skin I've to care for now. But ... I want to show you something. How long do we have?'

Crow's smile also fell. 'Minutes,' he answered. 'I'll get the very briefest warning, and then I'll be on my way back to Elysia.'

'Time enough,' said de Marigny; and over his shoulder he called, 'Moreen, will you come in here, please?'

She came at once, innocent and charming as
.
always. Face to face with the girl, Crow's eyes opened wide in wonder and appreciation. And: 'This is Moreen,' said de Marigny. 'Born in Borea's moons of Earth stock taken there by Ithaqua. Funnily enough, she was mine even before I found her, much like your Tiania. Now we travel together.'

Crow gave the girl a hug, said to his friend: 'You'd have been pushed to find her like on Earth, Henri — or even in Elysia, for that matter.'

'Room for another in there?' came the friendly, growled query of the plateau's Warlord. And a moment later Hank Silberhutte, too, stood bathed in the dock's weird illumination. For that was another anomaly of the time-clock: that the space within it was very nearly as great as that outside! . And now for the first time it was
Crow's
turn to display amazement. 'What?' he said, his eyes incredulous where they looked Silberhutte up and down. 'Hank? Is it really you? My God! And how long ago since we all went at the Burrowers together, eh? And how much passed between?'

'That was ... another world,' said the other. 'Hell, it really was! But from what I've heard, it hardly seems-we'll have the time now to fill in the gaps. So Moreen and me, we'll
,
simply stand here and listen, and try to keep patient
until you and Henri get done. You're not here for the fun of it, eh, Titus?'

Crow's face quickly became grave. 'Not for the fun of it, no. My reason for being here is probably the best any sane human being could have.' He turned more fully to de Marigny. might have come sooner, mind to mind, but you weren't receptive. You were preoccupied, Henri, your mind full of other things. But I know that wherever the old time-clock was, then that you'd be there too. Also, I might have simply come here — more fully "in the flesh" — in another time-clock or via this one. But with very few exceptions all the clocks are back in Elysia now, where for a little while at least they're destined to.stay. This clock of yours is one of those few exceptions. Also, to use this clock as a gateway and come here physically, that would mean returning the same way: transmitting myself
physically
into Elysia. And right now nothing physical is allowed into Elysia. Which is why I rode a Great Thought, between Kthanid and the clock. it was the only way.'

'You seem physical enough to me,' said de Marigny, and the Warlord nodded his agreement.

'I felt your arms around me,' said Moreen.

'That's the clock, reinforcing my presence here. But you saw what happened to me outside — I was thin as a spook!'

'Wait a minute,' said de Marigny, frowning. 'Are you saying that something's happened in Elysia? Nothing physical is to be allowed in? And does that include me?'

'Elysia is under siege, Henri,' said Crow, 'or as good as. It's just a matter of time, that's all.'

'Under siege?' This was plainly beyond The Searcher. 'But how could a place like Elysia possibly be under siege? From whom? I mean, I —' He stopped dead and his eyes suddenly opened wide. Then: 'This has to be some sort of perverse joke, Titus, surely?'

Crow shook his head. 'No, my friend, no joke. They're rising — and soon!'

'Who?' the Warlord could keep silent no longer. 'What is this threat? Who or what is rising?'

'They
are rising,' Crow repeated. 'The primal threat, the Great Old Ones themselves! The stars are very nearly right, and the Cthulhu Cycle. Deities are on the move again. But that doesn't mean you're excluded, Henri, on the contrary. Indeed, both you and Moreen will be welcome in Elysia. It was Kthanid himself promised you that, remember?'

'Oh, I remember all right,' the other answered, a little sourly. 'But how does one
attain
Elysia? Titus, I've searched so hard. Believe me, I've tried. Man, I've found out what you meant when you warned me that there was no royal road into Elysia. In fact, I had almost given up hope.'

Crow bit his lip, and for the first time de Marigny knew that something gnawed at him, something other than the trouble brewing in Elysia. Crow covered it quickly, said: You can't give up hope now, Henri, not now. No, for now you're really needed in Elysia' (and again that tortured look). Then: 'Listen, you're right about there being no royal road. I can't take you by the hand and lead you there, especially not now. But there is still a way. It's a pointer, that's all, a couple of clues, and they're the best I can do for you.'

`I'm listening,' said de Marigny eagerly. 'Whatever it is, it has to be better than groping in the dark. Just keep talking, and believe me I won't miss a word.'

`Very well,' said Crow. 'First, there are places you can try looking in Earth's dreamlands. Now we both know a little about the dreamlands but we're not expert dreamers, so don't go jumping to any wrong conclusions. It's just a place to start. Then there's — ' He paused, looked startled, grasped de Marigny's hand and held it tightly. For a moment his outline wavered, and at the same time his grip on de Marigny's hand seemed gentle as a girl's, but then he firmed up strong again.

`Titus, I — de Marigny was alarmed.

The warning I told you about,' Crow cut him off. We only have a minute now. So listen: back in Theem'hdra at the dawn of all Earthly civilization, there was a wizard called Exior K'mool. He, too, might know something — if you can find him. And finally —'

The light in the clock was pulsing faster now, and its colour was changing through all the shades of purple to a strange foxfire blue. Crow wavered again, grew wispy as smoke; tried to grab de Marigny and hang onto him. His hands went right through; de Marigny's and Silberhutte's, too, where they tried to hold fast to their old friend. And now, at the last, Crow's voice was thin as a reed:

` — Finally there's a cloud of luminous gas out beyond the Red Medusa Nebula,' he said, as from a million miles away; but on the last word his voice grew fainter still and petered out altogether.

`I know it!' de Marigny cried. `It has intelligence. It's fleeing from the Hounds of Tindalos

Crow was still mouthing something but the words were lost. Suddenly he seemed snatched up, whirled away. Pin-wheeling down a whirlpool of throbbing blue light, he grew small in a moment. But before he vanished completely, his voice came back one last time:

`But if you know that much, maybe you'd have discovered the rest, too. That's good! I don't feel so bad ... about . it ... now ...'

`About what?' de Marigny frantically called after him, but only echoes came back. Titus Crow had gone, drawn back on Kthanid's Great Thought to Elysia.

Gone too the whirlpool of blue foxfire, and the interior of the time-clock pulsed purple as before ...