Geis of the Gargoyle (24 page)

"Then you must have seen these ruins back when they were a magnificent stone city."

"How do you know about that?" the merman demanded.

"I'm a gargoyle.
 
We admire stone.
 
I wish I could see this one as it was in its greatness.
 
Perhaps there were gargoyles here."

"There were, along with all manner of other creatures.
 
But it was doomed."

"I wonder whether they had the philter," Gary said musingly.

"The philter!" the merman exclaimed.
 
"You're after that?"

"Yes, it's my quest.
 
Do you know where it is?"

"Don't fetch it!" the merman cried, alarmed.
 
"It's dangerous.
 
Return to your own side of the veil."

"So it was here!" Gary exclaimed.
 
"And it must still be here, because it isn't mortal the way flesh folk are.
 
I must have it."

"Cease this disaster," the merman said.
 
"I'll not help you recover that thing." And he swam away with such force that his tail stirred up the entire field of mice, and the scene blurred into blah.

But Gary now knew that his quest was not in vain.
 
The philter was here among the ruins-if he could just find it.

8 ANIMATION

In the morning the others were ready to give up the quest, except for Surprise, who was busily searching for colored pebbles, but Gary would have none of it.

"I know the philter is here," he said.

"How do you know?" Iris asked disdainfully.

"The constellation told me."

"The what?"

"The merman constellation I saw in the sky last night.
 
He saw the city before it was in ruins, and he said the philter was there.
 
He told me not to fetch it."

"A talking constellation?" Hiatus asked.

"Remember, we are in madness," Mentia said.
 
"These things happen."

Iris sighed.
 
"So they do.
 
I seem to remember Bink saying something about talking constellations.
 
But they weren't trustworthy.""

"Except that this one was trying to prevent me from finding the philter.
 
So it must be where I can find it."

"Mad logic," Mentia said.
 
"It will do.
 
But how shall we find it, since we've already looked and failed?"

"The secret must be in the stone," Gary said.
 
"I can read stone.
 
I just need to find the right one."

"You mean an obelisk?" Iris asked.
 
"Something with writing on it?"

"Not exactly.
 
I merely need a stone that has seen things at the right time."

"What nonsense is this? Stones can't see anything!"

"Not the way we do," Gary said.
 
"But they do see, and they can be read by gargoyles.
 
But the process is slow, and meaningless if the stone hasn't seen what is needed."

"And what exactly is needed?" she demanded.

"The philter, of course.
 
But it may be as hard to find a stone that has seen it as it is to find the philter itself.
 
So I shall search for a stone that has seen the old city in its heyday.
 
Maybe there will be a hint there."

"Now look," Iris said impatiently.
 
"Hasn't every stone here been part of that city? So they all have seen it, haven't they?"

"But many faces of stone are turned inward; they see only what was inside the building, and perhaps only the back of whatever carpets were hung on those inner walls.
 
The walls facing outward may see only alley streets or things piled up before them.
 
I need a stone face that has seen the whole city, or enough of it to enable me to see it too."

"You to see it too?" she asked skeptically.
 
"Because of this mysterious writing on it?"

"Oh, there would be no writing on it, unless some human person did that.
 
I read the stone itself."

Iris threw up her hands.
 
"I give up! This is beyond madness."

"I am not certain of that," Mentia said sensibly.
 
"Gargoyles do know stone, as they know water, and Gary is speaking in the manner of one who knows whereof he speaks.
 
Gary, just how do you read stone?"

"I look closely at it, and refocus my eyes until I can see the images behind the surface.
 
Then I interpret them." He paused.
 
"Oh, I am not sure I can do it in this human body! I keep forgetting its limitations."

"And its potentials," Iris muttered from the edge.

"The thing to do is to make the attempt," Mentia said seriously.
 
"Then we shall know whether this is viable."

"But if I don't have a good stone, I won't learn anything useful," he protested.

"For testing your potential, useful information is not necessary.
 
If you find you can read stone in this form, then we shall search out the most knowledgeable stone on the plain."

"Why yes!" he agreed.
 
"You are remarkably sensible, Mentia."

She made a grimace that extended off the side of her face.
 
"It is not by choice, gargoyle.
 
Once we get this mission accomplished, we can leave this madness and I can revert to normal."

"You're a demoness," Hiatus said.
 
"Why haven't you popped away already?"

The grimace floated entirely away from her face, leaving it without a mouth.
 
Nevertheless, she spoke without difficulty.
 
"Because the madness also reverses my natural irresponsibility.
 
It would not be proper to desert you folk in your hour of need, so I am not doing it.
 
I assure you that this attitude distresses me almost as much as my better half's acquisition of a conscience.
 
I might as well have stayed with her."

"Conscience is madness to a demon," Gary agreed.
 
"But I must say that I like you better this way, and am glad for your present company."

"But she's not even being seductive!" Iris said, annoyed.

"Exactly," he agreed.

"What a nuisance," Iris muttered.

"Nuisance!" Surprise said, her eyes crossing.
 
She had found a handful of pretty colored pebbles.
 
Now these floated up to form a pattern in the air.

"But that's not a nuisance," Iris said.
 
"Those are nice stones."

"That is the nature of the nuisance," Mentia said.
 
"Surprise suffers as I do, becoming more responsible.
 
Borrow one of those little stones to test your ability, Gary."

"This one," Surprise said.
 
A fragment of granite in the shape of a smiley face left the formation and jumped to his hand.
 
"I like it."

So Gary held the stone and focused on it, seeking the message within it.
 
His human eyes lost their focus, then recovered it in a different style.
 
He read the patterns on the surface of the stone, evoking the rock pictures.

"Maybe if you cross your eyes," Surprise suggested.

"Nothing here but recent events," he said.
 
"Because this is a chip from a larger piece, and before it chipped away all it saw was the other stone around it.
 
Once it landed on the ground, it saw plants growing and bugs foraging, and the silhouette of the column from which it had fragmented.
 
Nothing of interest to us."

"But you can read it!" Mentia said.
 
"That's of interest to us."

"Why so I can," Gary agreed, startled.
 
"So it is."

"So now we must find some stone that has seen something significant.
 
That can pierce the veil of time."

"Yes.
 
But there's a great deal of time and space to check.
 
This may be slow and tedious."

"I've had enough of slow and tedious!" Iris snapped.
 
"This whole adventure has been unconscionably dull.
 
Can't we find a way to speed it up?"

Mentia looked thoughtful.
 
"It occurs to me that we have a bottleneck.
 
Gary is the only one of us who can read the rock pictures.
 
If we could find a way to help him do it faster-"

"How?" Iris asked eagerly.

"I'm not sure.
 
But I wonder whether it might be possible to animate the pictures Gary describes, so that we could all see them.
 
Then we could all join in the search."

"Animate?" Hiatus asked.
 
"But which of us has such magic?"

"Iris does," Mentia said.
 
"Her enormous power of illusion can make anything appear."

"But my illusions don't make things actually exist," Iris said.
 
"They are just as I see them, rightly or wrongly."

"But if Gary can give you a detailed enough description of what he sees, so that you can translate it to illusion, that should do the job.
 
We know it isn't real-at least, not real today.
 
But if we can in this manner see what has happened in the past, and where someone may have left the philter-"

"You are making sense," Iris said.
 
"Very well.
 
You find the perfect stone, and I'll try to relate closely enough to Gary so that I can readily translate his images to illusion.
 
But remember: here in the madness my illusion tends to reverse, so I'll make some mistakes before I get the full hang of countering it."

Gary wasn't sure he liked this, but the notion did seem sensible, so he couldn't object.

"Let's practice on that pebble," Iris said.
 
"You saw plants growing? What kind?"

Gary peered into the stone again and described the plants.
 
At first completely different plants appeared, as Iris got caught by the madness, but she muttered a nasty word and tried again.
 
In a moment similar plants were growing around them, in large size, because that was the way the small pebble had seen them.
 
Then the bugs came by, assuming ever more precise detail as Gary corrected Iris' impressions.

"This is working," she said.
 
"But I think not well enough.
 
Let's see if we can get closer." She put a hand on his hand.

"But-"

"I'm not trying to vamp you, at the moment.
 
I just think that I may be able to pick up some of your impressions from the reactions of your body, and that may help me get them right without as much verbal correction.
 
I want to try to bypass my instincts, because they keep revising the images; maybe if I can attune more closely to yours, it will come out right.
 
Illusion is my business; I'm good at it, when I can do it straight."