Inverted World (14 page)

“But the oath continues.”

“Yes, and I think it still has a function. There are a large number of people in the city who may never know what goes on out here, and will never need to know. These are the people who are mainly concerned with the running of the city’s services. They come into contact with the people from outside the city—the transferred women, for example—and if they were to speak too freely, perhaps the true nature of the city would become common knowledge with the people outside. We already have trouble with the locals, the tooks as the militia calls them. You see, the city’s existence is a precarious one, and has to be guarded at all costs.”

“Are we in danger?”

“Not at the moment. But if there were any sabotage, the danger would be immediate and great. We’re unpopular as things stand…there’s no profit in allowing that unpopularity to be compounded with a local awareness of our vulnerability.”

“So I can be more open with Victoria?”

“Use your judgement. She’s Lerouex’s daughter, isn’t she? Sensible girl.

So long as she keeps to herself whatever you tell her, I can’t see any harm.

But don’t go talking to too many people.”

“I won’t,” said Helward.

“And don’t go talking about the optimum moving. It doesn’t.”

Helward looked at him in surprise. “I was told it moved.”

“You were misinformed. The optimum is stationary.”

“Then why does the city never reach it?”

“It does, from time to time,” said Collings. “But it can never stay there for long. The ground moves away southwards from it.”

The tracks extended about one mile to the north of the city. As Helward and Collings approached they saw one of the winch-cables being hauled out towards the stay-emplacements. Within a day or two the city would move forward again.

They led the horse over the tracks, and walked down towards the city.

Here on the north side was the entrance to the dark tunnel that ran beneath the city, and which gave the only official access to the interior.

Helward walked with Collings as far as the stables.

“Goodbye, Helward.”

Helward took the proffered hand, and they shook warmly.

“You make that sound very final,” said Helward.

Collings shrugged in an off-hand way. “I shan’t be seeing you for some time. Good luck, son.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m not going anywhere. But you are. Just take care, and make of it what you can.”

Before Helward could reply the man had turned away and hurried into the stables. For a moment Helward was tempted to go after him, but an instinct told him that it would serve no purpose. Perhaps Collings had already told him more than he should.

With mixed feelings, Helward continued down the tunnel to the elevator and waited for the car. When it arrived he went straight to the fourth level to look for Victoria. She was not in their room, so he went down to the synthetics plant to find her. She was now more than eighteen miles pregnant, but was planfling to continue working for as long as possible.

When she saw him she left her bench, and they returned to the room together. There were still two hours to spare before Helward was to see Future Clausewitz, and they passed the time with inconsequential conversation. Later, when the door was unlocked, they spent a few minutes together on the outside platform.

At the appointed time Helward went up to the seventh level, and gained access to the guild block. He was now no stranger to this part of the city, but he visited it infrequently enough to feel still slightly in awe of the senior guildsmen and Navigators.

Clausewitz was waiting in the Future guild room, and was alone. When Helward arrived he greeted him cordially, and offered him some wine.

From the Futures’ room it was possible to see through a small window towards the north of the city. Ahead, Helward could see the rising ground he had been working in during the last few days.

“You’ve settled in well, Apprentice Mann.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Do you feel ready to become a Future?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good … from the guild’s point of view there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. You’ve earned yourself some good reports.”

“Except from the Militia,” Helward said.

“You needn’t concern yourself with that. Military life doesn’t suit everyone.”

Helward felt a small relief; his bad showing in the Militia had made him wonder if word of it had got back to his guild.

“The purpose of this interview,” Clausewitz went on, “is to tell you what is to happen next. You still have a nominal three miles’ apprenticeship to serve with our guild, but as far as I am concerned that will be a mere technicality. Before that, though, you are to leave the city. It’s a part of your training. You will probably be away for some time.”

“May I enquire for how long?” said Helward.

“It’s difficult to say. Several miles, certainly. It might be as few as ten or fifteen, or it might be as long as a hundred miles of time.”

“But Victoria—”

“Yes, I understand she’s expecting a child. When is it due?”

“In about nine miles,” said Helward.

Clausewitz frowned. “I’m afraid you will have to be away at that time.

There’s really no alternative.”

“But couldn’t it be left until afterwards?”

“I’m sorry, no. There’s something you have to do. You know by now that from time to time the city is obliged to barter for the use of women from the outside. We keep these women for as short a time as possible, but even so they are rarely here for less than thirty miles. It is part of the bargain we strike that they are given safe conduct back to their settlements … and there are now three women who wish to leave. It is the custom of the city to use the apprentices to conduct them back, particularly as we now see this as an important part of the training process.”

Helward had been forced, by the very nature of his work, to become more sure of himself. “Sir, my wife is expecting her first baby. I must be with her.”

“It’s out of the question.”

“What if I refuse to go?”

“You will be shown a copy of the oath you swore, and you will accept the punishment it prescribes.”

Helward opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated. This was evidently not the time to debate the validity of the oath. Future Clausewitz was clearly restraining himself, for on Helward’s resistance to the instruction his face had turned a deep pink, and he had sat down, resting his hands palm down on the table-top. Instead of saying what was on his mind, Helward said: “Sir, can I appeal to your reason?”

“You can appeal, but I cannot be reasonable. You swore in your oath to place the security of the city above all other matters. Your guild training is a matter of city security, and that’s the end of it.”

“But surely it could be delayed? As soon as the child is born, I could leave.”

“No.” Clausewitz turned round, and pulled forward a large sheet of paper, covered in part with a map, and in part with several lists of figures.

“These women must be returned to their settlements. In the nine miles or so of time it will take for your wife to deliver her baby, the settlements will be dangerously distant. They are already more than forty miles to the south of us. The plain fact is that you are the next apprentice on this schedule, and it is you who must go.”

“Is that your last word, sir?”

“Yes.”

Helward put down his untouched glass of wine, and walked towards the door.

“Helward, wait.”

He paused at the door. “If I am to leave, I would like to see my wife.”

“You have a few more days yet. You leave in half a mile’s time.”

Five days. It was almost no time.

“Well?” said Helward, no longer feeling the need to display customary courtesies.

“Sit down, please.” Reluctantly, Helward complied. “Don’t think I’m inhuman, but ironically this expedition will reveal to you why some of the city’s customs might seem to be inhuman. It is our way, and it is forced on us. I understand your concern for … Victoria, but you must go down past.

There is no better way for you to understand the situation of the city. What lies there to the south of us is the reason for the oath, for the apparent barbarisms of our ways. You are an educated man, Helward … do you know of any civilized culture in history which has bartered for women for the simple, uncomplicated reason of wanting one gestation from them? And then, when that gestation is completed, to return them?”

“No, sir.” Helward paused. “Except—”

“Except primitive tribes of savages who raped and pillaged. Well, maybe we’re a little better than that, but the principle’s no less savage. Our barter is one-sided, for all that the contrary may seem to be. We propose the bargain, call our own terms, pay the price, and move on our way. What I am telling you must be done; that you abandon your wife at a time when she needs you most is one small inhumanity that stems from a way of life that is itself inhuman.”

Helward said: “Neither one excuses the other.”

“No … I’ll grant you that. But you are bound by your oath. That oath stems from the causes of the major inhumanities, and when you make your personal sacrifice you will understand better.”

“Sir, the city should change its ways.”

“But you will see that’s impossible.”

“By travelling down past?”

“Much will become clear. Not all.” Clausewitz stood up. “Helward, you’ve been a good apprentice so far. I can see that in the miles to come you will continue to work hard and well for the city. You have a good and beautiful wife, a lot to live for. You aren’t under threat of death, I promise you that.

The penalty of the oath has never been invoked as far as I know, but I ask that this task that the city calls upon you to do is done, and done now. I have done it in my time, so has your father … and so have all other guildsmen. Even now there are seven of your colleagues—all apprentices—down past. They have had to face similar personal hardships, and not all have faced them willingly.”

Helward shook hands with Clausewitz, and went in search of Victoria.

Five days later, Helward was ready to leave. That he would go had never been in serious doubt, but it had not been easy to explain to Victoria.

Although at first she had been horrified by the news, her attitude had changed abruptly.

“You have to go, of course. Don’t use me as an excuse.”

“But what about the child?”

“I’ll be all right,” she said. “What could you do if you were here?

Stand around and make everyone nervous? The doctors will look after me. This isn’t the first pregnancy they’ve had to deal with.”

“But … don’t you want me to be there with you?” he said.

She had reached out and taken his hand in hers.

“Of course,” she said. “But remember what you said. The oath isn’t as rigid as you thought. I know you’re going, and when you get back there’ll be no mystery any more. I’ve got plenty to do here, and if what Barter Collings told you about the oath was true, you’ll be able to talk to me about what you see.”

Helward had not been sure what she meant by this. For some time he had been in the habit of confiding in her much of what he saw and did outside the city, and Victoria listened with great interest. He no longer saw the harm in talking to her, though it worried him that she should continue to be so interested, particularly when so much of what he said was confined to what he considered to be routine details.

The result was that on his own personal score he no longer had a motive to try to avoid the journey down past, and indeed the idea excited him. He had heard so much of it, mostly by implication and half-reference, and now the time had come for him to venture that way himself. Jase was down past; perhaps they would meet. He wanted to see Jase again. So much had happened since they last saw each other. Would they even recognize each other?

Victoria did not come to see him leave. She was in the room when he left her, still in bed. During the night they had made love tenderly and gently, making half-hearted jokes about making it “last.” She had clung to him when he kissed her goodbye, and as he closed the door and went into the corridor he thought he heard her sobbing. He paused, debating whether to go back to her, but after a moment’s hesitation he went on his way. He saw no benefit in prolonging the situation.

Clausewitz was waiting for him in the Futures’ room. In one corner a modest pile of equipment had been laid, and spread out on the table-top was a large plan. Clausewitz’s manner was different from that of the previous interview. As soon as Helward let himself into the room, Clausewitz led him to the desk and without preamble explained what he was to do.

“This is a composite plan of the land to the south of the city. It’s based on a linear scale. You know what that means?”

Helward nodded.

“Good. One inch on this is roughly equivalent to one mile … but linearly. For reasons you’ll discover, that won’t help you later. Now, the city is here at the moment, and the settlement you have to find is here.”

Clausewitz pointed to a cluster of black spots at the other end of the plan.

“As of today that’s exactly forty-two miles from here. Once you leave the city you will find that distances are confusing, and so are directions. In which case the best advice I can give you, as we give all our apprentices, is to follow the tracks of the city. When you go south they are the only contact you will have with the city, and the only way you will find your way back. The pits dug for the sleepers and the foundations should still show. Have you got that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You are making this journey for one main reason. You must see that the women we entrust to you arrive safely at their village. When that has been done, you return to the city without delay.”

Helward was occupied with mental calculations. He knew how long it took him to walk a mile … just a few minutes. On a full day’s march in hot weather he could hope to cover at least twelve miles; with the women to slow him up, half that. Six miles a day, and that took seven days for the outward trip, three or four days for the return. At best, he could be back at the city within ten days … or one mile, as the city measured elapsed time. Suddenly he wondered why he had been told that he could not be back in time for the birth of his child. What had Clausewitz said the other day? That he would be gone ten or fifteen miles … perhaps even as long as a hundred? It didn’t make sense.