Elephant Song

TWENTY-SEVEN

For all of the next day the trio walked southwest on the road to Arcadia. That night they halted next to a large lake and built their fire at a place where the stars reflected from the lake's still waters, placing the limits of the sky in that direction beneath their feet. As Tarzaka prepared the cobit, and Trouble attempted to regale her with nonsense tales of the swamp, No One stood on the lake's shore looking out across its surface. In the dark, the far shore was invisible between the stars of the sky and the stars of the water.

What must it be, he thought, to leave the hopelessness of this prison behind? What would it be to move among those many suns?

He studied the constellation called the Big Lot; four extremely bright stars forming a rectangle. It was said that the two stars forming the Forty-ninth Street side pointed to the place from which O'Hara's Greater Shows originated. But the sun being pointed at was not bright enough to appear in the sky. Other constellations contained or pointed at the suns of other stands the old show had played. It was said that the dim tip of the right tusk of the constellation of Ming was the sun around which orbited the planet Ahngar. Ahngar, one of the old show's wintering grounds. Ahngar, the home of Sergeant Spook Tieras, retired bullhand. "At least old Spook can see his homestar," No One said to the night air.

He turned and walked up the slight rise to where Trouble and Tarzaka were sitting before the fire. Tarzaka looked up at him as he came within the light from the fire. "The cobit is done."

After No One sat down and was finishing his cobit, Trouble held out his arms. "Such silence! Here we have a fire, a pleasant night, fortune tellers and a magician. We should have entertainment."

No One's face remained impassive. "After your endless jabbering upon the road today, I welcome the silence." The magician shrugged. "My talk might not be worth a storyteller's copper, but we do have a bargain. Show me how you ruined my trick. How do you move things with your thoughts?"

No One leaned upon his pack. "And for this, you show me how you cloak your mind?" "Yes."

"Very well. Take out your cards and perform your trick." Trouble reached into his robe and withdrew his worn deck of cards. He handed the deck to Tarzaka. "Go through the deck and choose a card, then show the card to No One." The magician spread a thick cloth upon the ground before him.

The fortune teller flipped through the deck, showed the Boss of Animals to No One, then looked at Trouble. "And now?" "Shuffle the cards and hand them to No One." Tarzaka did as she was instructed. Trouble nodded at No One. "Shuffle them again." No One shuffled the cards. When he was finished, he returned them to the magician. Trouble took the cards and spread the deck faces down upon the cloth. Once, twice his hand passed over the cards, and then he reached down, picked up a card, and held its face out toward Tarzaka and No One. The card was the Boss of Animals.

No One nodded. "Well done. Now perform the trick again." Trouble gathered up the cards, shuffled them, then handed the deck to Tarzaka. This time the fortune teller picked the Four of Shovels, showed it to No One, then shuffled the cards and handed the deck to No One who also shuffled them. No One handed the deck to Trouble. The magician spread the cards as before, pulled out a card, and faced it toward his two companions. It was the Nine of Wheels. Trouble raised his eyebrows. "And?"

Tarzaka smiled, "It is the wrong card, Trouble." She leaned to her right and flipped over cards until she came to the Four of Shovels. She tapped the card with her finger. "That was the one I selected."

The magician looked at No One. "Well? How do you do it?"

No One gestured with his hand toward the cards. "Do the trick again, but slowly."

Trouble gathered the cards, shuffled them, then handed the deck to the fortune teller. Tarzaka selected the Deuce of Flags and showed the card to No One.

No One sat up and looked at the fortune teller. "And now, Tarzaka, you shall see fortune telling at work. Do you see the deck in your hand?"

"Of course."

"Replace the card you picked." He turned toward Trouble. "It is the Deuce of Flags." He looked back at Tarzaka. "Do you see where you placed the card?"

"Yes."

"Our magician also sees. Shuffle them. As you shuffle them, Trouble will be watching. And he will watch as I shuffle them. When he spreads them out, something will tell him which card is the most likely to be the proper one. Not magic, but the same sight you call fortune telling in me."

Tarzaka studied the deck, then shuffled the cards, and handed them to No One. No One handed the deck to Trouble without shuffling them. "Go ahead; but once you see the card that you want, pick it up very slowly."

Trouble spread the deck upon the cloth. He studied the cards, then his eyes widened for a moment, then he reached out his hand. As his hand came close to the card he had selected, its edge disappeared beneath the card that covered it. "Hah!" Trouble brought up his hand as though it had been burned; then he brought his hand down and turned over the top card. It was the Seven of Flags. He turned over the card immediately beneath it and exposed the Deuce of Flags. He looked at No One. "How do you move the card?"

"I reach for it. As though I had another set of hands. I just reach for it, feel its touch, then I push. That is all."

Trouble snorted. "That is no answer!"

No One looked at the magician through half-closed eyes.

"Can you explain to Tarzaka how you know which card to choose?"

"Certainly. It... well, I just do. I have studied the cards many times, people's hands, and the way they shuffle cards."

"Still, Trouble, how do you know which is the right one?"

The magician's shoulders went up. "I just do. It's a feeling—as though the card announced itself to me. I can do the actual selection with my eyes shut, just using my touch."

No One shrugged. "That is no better than my explanation. I did have to train this power. My mother started me with little things, and when I could handle them with ease, bigger things. They were children's games and I soon lost interest. But the mechanism I use is no more understood by me than is the power to see the probable."

Tarzaka clasped her hands and rested her chin upon them. "Did she also train you to see the probable?"

"More games. She used to toss a wooden ball into the air, and I would have to guess where it would come to rest." His eyes became haunted. "She tried to teach these things to my sister; but May's gift was a set of crippled legs. May could not learn."

Tarzaka turned toward Trouble. "May I borrow your cards?"

Trouble gathered the cards and held them out. "In exchange for the cobit?"

She nodded and took the cards. She fanned them and studied the faces of the cards. "On its own the mind can see fast enough to make judgements as to order, place..." She nodded again.

Trouble threw her his cloth. "Here. It will keep the cards clean."

As Tarzaka spread the cloth and began spreading, arranging, and studying the cards, Trouble turned to No One. "Still, I want to know how to move things."

"I told you. Practice. Enough practice will tell you if you have the ability. But I cannot give you the ability."

"Mmm." Trouble shook his head, studied the ashes in the fire, then grunted. "Bah!" He grunted again, then let out a breath as he looked up at No One. "Can anything be lighter than ash?"

"Trouble, you must sort what you wish to move from everything else. I began with but a single piece of dust."

"Hunh! Dust, eh?" He scratched his chin and shook his head. "If I could but move things, my fortune as a magician..." He looked at the fire, then back at No One. "I could pay off Gluey, my victim, and buy back my place in Dirak town. By Momus! I could even become Master of the Dirak Magicians!" He nodded vigorously and rubbed his hands together.

No One looked at the fortune teller, saw her studying the cards, and looked back at the magician. "How do you cloak your mind, Trouble?"

Trouble pursed his lips, shrugged, and held out his hands. "It's much the same sort of thing, No One. I think it and it is done." He scratched his head. "I had to try thinking of many things before I could keep Tribulation from seeing my thoughts—he saw them as pictures before his eyes." He shook his head. "Many things. Then one day Tribulation was angry with me. He could not see my thoughts. Instead he saw a blackness that seemed to cover me in his pictures."

No One studied Trouble's face. "A blackness..." He sat up. "What were you thinking of?"

"Nothing." He raised his eyebrows. "I was trying to think of nothing so that there would be nothing for my brother to see." The magician shrugged. "But it is impossible to think about nothing. If you are thinking you have to think about something."

"Trouble, you said, 'If you are thinking.' "

"Yes. That is what I was trying to do—to stop my mind altogether—" Trouble leaned forward, his face angry. "I tell you my brother was near to driving me madder than Arnheim's bedbugs! I was willing to try anything!" He sat back. "I couldn't stop thinking." He pointed a finger at No One. "But in trying to stop, I did something." He shook his head. "A dullness. I felt as though there were a pressure upon the tops of my eyeballs. My eyes are a bit out of focus, but I can still think when I do that. And no one can get into my mind to see what is there. Is that enough?"

No One studied the flames, then looked up at Trouble. "I think so. Yes. I think so." No One reached behind himself, picked up two sticks, and added them to the fire. "Trouble?"

"Yes?"

"What of the swamp woman you told us about?"

Trouble stretched out, placed the back of his head upon his pack, and looked up at the stars. "I have heard of her. She is supposed to live near this lake."

"What powers does she have?"

Trouble lifted his hands and let them fall upon his chest.

"To hear some of the exiles tell of them, she can crumble mountains with the mere snap of her fingers. Others say she is mad." He turned his head to look at No One. "Twice I have heard the rumor that she is the daughter of Great Waco himself." He looked back at the stars. "Who knows what is truth and what is legend?"

Tarzaka looked up from the cards. "The priests say that all legend is rooted in fact."

Trouble drew down the corners of his mouth. "The Noodlebrains of Momus." The magician continued looking at the stars. "The priests also tell us that the old show's route man, the Great Ratman, is up among those stars someplace trying to find us. And someday he will return and put us upon the star road once again." He closed his eyes and clasped his hands upon his chest. "It has been thirty-three years since the Crash. If he has not found us now, he never will. I see that much of the future."

No One looked up at the stars, then down at the magician. "How do we find the swamp woman?"

Trouble shrugged and settled himself more comfortably. "I imagine that we start searching the shores of the lake."

Tarzaka looked toward the star-spangled expanse of water. "It is a very large lake."

Trouble snickered and turned his back upon the fire. "Ah, Tarzaka, and you say that there is no fortune teller in your blood." He snickered again and then was still.

Tarzaka, her face flushed, returned to studying the cards, while No One pushed himself to his feet and returned to the lake's shore. He sat for a long time staring at the stars reflected in the water. The swamp was unusually quiet. He frowned as he noticed that the stars before his eyes were moving—ripples upon the water.

He stood as he heard the soft singing of a deep voice coming from a great distance. The words were strange, but somehow familiar. It was the tune and how the words fit the tune:

Dee bazin da gungal dee id lathered fo doo zup,

An ellyfunk, uh lizun, da munnies, zanna bup.

"Mizens," zed de lizun, "Wheezall gizzard dere da zee

"Hif zeecan mazzerfac da zound firozopee."

Little Will had sung the children's song to him many times.

She had learned it from her father. Little Will had said that the song was taught to her father by Waco Whacko the snake charmer.

Deep within the jungle there did gather for to sup,

An elephant, a lion, a monkey, and a pup.

"My friends," said the lion, "We are gathered here to see

"If we can manufacture a sound philosophy."

The singing stopped and No One strained his eyes trying to see the singer. He searched for a long time, but eventually even the ripples were gone. He turned and went back to the fire.

With his head upon his pack, his eyes staring at the flames, No One's mind put together the things that he had seen, heard, and learned. He knew the swamp woman to be Waco's daughter, and where they had to search to find her. He closed his eyes and frowned, because his mind had not disclosed the extent of the swamp woman's powers.

An image floated in front of his face. A woman, no. A girl. A woman. Her face glowed, her almond-shaped eyes gazed lovingly at him from a swirling mist of black hair. His breath caught as she turned and offered her bare body to him—

No One bolted upright and looked around. Trouble and Tarzaka were both asleep, the wind and lake water undisturbed. He rubbed his hand across his mouth and shook his head. He looked again toward the water. Who are you?

Nervously his tongue moistened his lips. He looked back at the fire, lowered his head to his pack, and waited for sleep to come.