The Marriage of the Living Dark

WAKING

As darkness fell, so he lifted the bowl and drank deeply, feeling the drug that was not a drug course down his throat the scentless, tasteless liquid changing him, doubling him, placing him both within and outside of himself, contiguous, each atom aligned and fused, a two-in-one.

Letting the bowl fall from his hands he sat back, resting his head against the top of the spire, and stared up into the star-filled void. He hadn’t long to wait There was a prickling sensation in his spine and at the base of his neck That prickling grew, until his whole body felt numbed and swollen, and then he felt a strange rushing sensation and the stars seemed to leap down at him and spear him - a thousand million points of light piercing him, so that where, a moment before, there had been nothing but the endless darkness of the void, suddenly there was nothing but light - piercing, shining light Burning him. Filling him. And as he encompassed it all within the fragile bowl of his skull, so his mouth opened and laughter spilled from his lips. The joyous laughter of understanding.

So there you are, Li Yuan.

The body lay on the bed where the servants had laid it, the skin so pale it seemed like wax. Looking across at it from the doorway, Levitch could not help wondering what his Master had been feeling in those last few moments before he’d died, for he had never seen a smiling corpse before - never seen such joy on the face of a dead man. And that erection!

Chalker’s men had come an hour back to confiscate the tape, but it had been too late to save Harding.

Six times he’d visited the shell. Six times! And each time more feverishly, as if he could not live unless he were back there, inside that awful, suffocating box.

It had killed him. Levitch was as sure of that as he could be. Harding had been a fit old bastard and had no history of heart trouble, so the seizure was totally unexpected.

Unless that too had been part of the programme. The idea hadn’t occurred to him immediately. He’d been too shocked to find his Master dead in the shell with that grin on his face. But the more he thought about it, the more it troubled him.

He had seen Harding use the shell before. The old boy had at least two dozen tapes, Shepherd’s The Familiar among them, but he had never acted the way he had last night Like someone driven. Someone who had totally lost control Levitch shook his head then turned away, heading back to his room. The surgeon’s report was on his desk, along with the death certificate. “Natural causes,” it read.

Natural causes, my arse.

Sitting down behind the desk, Levitch pushed the surgeon’s papers aside, then reached across to take the house journal from the tray. He knew already what he would write for this evening’s entry: “Master found dead.” There was no need for any further details. No, nor time to write them, really. The old man’s death had created an administrative headache that would eat up his every waking hour. Even so, he felt he ought to mention his suspicions to someone. Chalker, perhaps.

Opening the big, leather-bound book, Levitch reached across, took the pen from the inkstand and began to write, even as the dawn’s light began to filter through the blinds.

Tuan Ti Fo was waiting for Li Yuan when he came down, standing in the sunlight at the spire’s base, his white hair glistening. Greeting Li Yuan, he smiled and handed him a peach.

Li Yuan stared at the dew-beaded fruit a moment, astonished by how different it appeared, how differently he saw it, then looked back at the old man, realising at that moment that he was standing with one of the Immortals. The sage’s smile was filled with gentle amusement “You see now.”

“I see,” Li Yuan answered. And it was true Before now he had seen only the

shadow form of the old man, but now Tuan

WAKING

no longer lacked substance. He was there before Li Yuan, rooted to this reality like a tree.

And yet there was still a part of him that was elsewhere, “Why is that?” he asked.

“Soon,” the old man answered, his eyes letting Li Yuan know that he would have his answer. “The time is almost upon us.”

He understood. Something was happening. Something... so vast, so all-encompassing, that it would transform everything, just as he had been transformed.

“What do you want?”

“Nothing but what you yourself want You have experienced both the loss of self and the mirroring of the self within the cosmos. These two are integral and yet apart, both inside and outside of the great unthinking One.” Li Yuan was quiet a moment, then he nodded. “I think I understand. You want me to go back?”

Tuan Ti Fo nodded. “There will come a time when what you now know will be of use to you. Until that time, keep safe, Li Yuan. And remember what you learned here. We are dual creatures, possessed of two directions within ourselves. Those directions should not be at war with each other. That was never our Creator’s purpose. They are there to be expressed and enjoyed - yes, and celebrated!” Li Yuan stared at the old man a moment, then, smiling his thanks, he turned and began to walk away.

It was time to go back. Back to the human world.

There was a great flash, and buildings falling, and bodies burning like matches, gone in an instant in the great wind.

And the air like molten glass.

And behind it all the figure of a young man laughing. A young man with old and bitter eyes.

Li Yuan straightened, the vision still with him, then put up a hand to shield his eyes against the sun’s glare.

They were coming. He could hear the drone of their engines across the sands.He turned, looking back. Nineveh was far behind him now, yet he could still make out the dark outline of its caldera against the desert sky. Nineveh. Where he had lost and found himself again. He closed his eyes, remembering. He had been a broken bowl, a half-man in a world of half-men, but now he was complete.

What I should always have been.

He turned back, squinting into the sunlight as the ships came on towards him.

Three cruisers, flying in low formation.

Smiling, he raised his arms in greeting.

“What the ...?”

“Slow down!” Zelic barked, leaning over the pilot “Thaf s him!” The cruiser shuddered as it decelerated, the flanking cruisers out-running them a moment, then beginning to decelerate themselves. “Gods,” Lanier said, coming alongside. “It is. What the fuck is he doing out here?”

Zelic shrugged, then, remembering their guest, looked at Lanier. “You want to tell him, or shall P” Lanier shrugged. “You know these Chinks better than me.” Zelic raised an eyebrow, then turned away, making his way back through the cabin to where Li Han Ch’in was sleeping.

Or had been, for even as he went to knock, the door swung open and Han Ch’in stepped out.

“Are we landing?” he asked.

“Yes,” Zelic said, smiling, liking Li Yuan’s son immensely. “We’ve found your father.”

“Found...?” Han Ch’in whooped, then gripped Zelic’s arm. “Is he all right’” “I... don’t know. We’ve only just spotted him. But he was on his feet” Han Ch’in grinned, then. “Well, come on, Captain! Let us go and greet my father!”

Li Yuan stood with his arms at his sides, waiting as the ships landed all around him, sand whipping up into the air in great swirls from their engines. One by one, the drone of the engines faded.

In that sudden silence, the thunk of the hatch locks being sprung was like the sound of an arrow hitting a target He smiled, looking back down the years to a moment when his elder brother Han Ch’in, had squinted down the arrow and let fly. It had been a spring day full of sunlight, down by the stream at Tongjiang, and he had sat beside the beautiful Fei Yen looking on as she wagered with his brother. And now his son, his brother’s namesake and that woman’s progeny, stepped out from the hatch to greet him.

“Han Ch’in,” he said, stepping towards him, his arms out “Father!”

Han Ch’in ran to him and almost picked him up, he was squeezing him so hard.

“Father! We thought you were lost!”

“I was,” he said, “but now I’m found.”

Han Ch’in stood back a little, holding his upper arms. “Where have you been?”

Li Yuan laughed. “If I could but tell you.”

“Father?”

“Never mind. I’m here now. Is Zelic ...?”

“In the cruiser,” Han Ch’in said, smiling again, pleased -dearly pleased - to see him. Again he hugged him, and again Li Yuan found himself thinking of his brother and how like him this Han Ch’in was.

Lost, but found ...

He smiled, acknowledging what Tuan Ti Fo had said. And my mother, too, he said silently. She is here, within me.

Yes, Li Yuan. She has always been there. You had only to wake to her presence.

“Han Ch’in,” he said, returning to the moment, “how fares my other son?”

“Kuei Jen is well, father, or was when I left him. But young Egan is not well. The truth is, our armies were crushed in the Californian campaign, and then there was a shell...”

‘Then we are needed, neh?”

Han Ch’in blinked, then bowed his head, responding to something in his father’s tone; something that had not been there a moment before. Suddenly it was not simply his father who stood before him, but a Tang, a Son of Heaven. “Come, Prince Han,” he said, smiling and laying his hand upon his son’s shoulder. “To Boston. Before night falls.”

They flew direct to Baltimore, then changed cruisers, flying in one of Egan’s own, north across Chesapeake Bay and along the Delaware valley, heading for Boston.

It was there, seated at the window, looking down across the burned-out wastelands between Baltimore and Philadelphia, that Li Yuan had the vision again.

Han Ch’in leaned across. “Father? Are you all right?”

“Boston ...” Li Yuan said, recognising it this time.

“What? What about Boston?”

Li Yuan looked to his son, concerned. “Contact Kuei Jen and Egan. Tell them to get out of there at once.”

“But they can’t They’re meeting Old Man Egan in two hours.”

“Old Man Egan? You meanjosiah? But...”

“They gave him a new body.”

“Yes...” He nodded. “I see that now. The young man with the ancient eyes. I wondered why.”

“Father?”

“Do as I say, Han. Tell Kuei Jen that ifs a double-cross. Old Man Egan won’t be there. The only reason he’s arranged the meeting is to make sure his grandson is.”

Han Ch’in looked troubled. “How do you know this?” “I saw it In a vision. With these.” He pointed to his golden eyes. “Has no one ever told you, Han? We see things, all the time. Small things mainly. Things that witt come to pass. That’s what the plague did to us. What it gave us.” Han Ch’in looked shocked. Even so, he bowed his head and, turning, hurried through to the cockpit Two minutes later he was back. “Kuei Jen wants to speak to you, father. He says... well, he asks if you are all right?”

“In the head, you mean?”

Han Ch’in made an apologetic shrug. Li Yuan got up and went through to the cockpit Kuei Jen’s face was on the tiny screen.

“Father? Oh, how good it is to see you. How are you?”

“Clearly not well in the head, according to you.”

“I didn’t mean ...”

“No, but I did. You have to get out of there, Kuei Jen. And everyone who’s dear to you. Josiah means to bomb Boston out of existence. I’ve seen it It witt happen.”

“Then we must stop him.”

“No. You can’t. But you can save yourselves. So get out of there. Now!” Kuei Jen hesitated, staring at Li Yuan, then gave a nod. “All right. We’ll evacuate the court. But what if you’re wrong?”

“Meet me in Providence two hours from now and we’ll see who was wrong.”

They carried Egan from his bed to the waiting cruiser, his hands and ankles bound, a gag about his mouth, as if they were kidnapping him. Chalker arrived late, a look of real distress on his face But there was no time for that. Getting him aboard the last of the five cruisers, Kuei Jen gave the signal to go.

The cabin was packed. Baby Yuan slept in his nurse’s lap. Beside him, young May Ji stared wide-eyed into space. She had been woken from her bed to be brought here. Squeezed in beside her was her elder brother, Samuel, his sullen face showing his displeasure at events.

All those he loved and cared for were here in the cruiser. All, that was, but his father and half-brother.

As the engines roared into life and the cruiser lifted from the pad, Kuei Jen turned, looking out through the cabin window, watching as the great fortress diminished below him, its distinctive towers merging into the massive high-rise sprawl of City Boston. The sun was low. Soon it would be night And if her father was right...

“Impossible,” he said softly, speaking to himself.

“What?” Chalker said.

Kuei Jen looked to him, noting the strangeness in his eyes.

“I said, ‘impossible’.”

“Yes, but what’s impossible?”

“My father reckons Old Man Egan’s about to nuke Boston.” Chalker laughed. But then his face grew long again. “Oh, god,” he said, letting his head drop, his left hand coming up to grip his brow. “Colonel? Are you all right?”

Chalker looked across, then shook his head. He looked as if he was suffering from a very bad migraine. “I experienced it” “The bomb?”

“No. The shell. Shepherd’s thing. I... I got hold of a copy and experienced it I wish to god now I hadn’t.”

Kuei Jen stared at him. Oh shit, she thought, it’s infected Chalker, too. I can see it now.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I... I destroyed it afterwards. That was the hardest part It was ... well, like murdering the woman you love. It was ... horrible. But a part of me knew it was only a tape. A tiny part Heaven help someone of a more ... passionate nature.”

“Like my husband?”

Chalker met his eyes and nodded.

Kuei Jen looked down at the timer in his wrist, then looked up again, concerned. “How far out are we?” she yelled, looking past the crowded cabin towards the open cockpit door.

“Four and a half k and accelerating.”

“Shit!”

“What is it’” Chalker said quietly.

‘The meeting with Old Man Egan was set for sunset That” s four minutes from now.

If there is a bomb ...”

“We’ll be okay. We’ll be ten k out by the time it blows up. Tell the pilot to climb. If we can get above the concussion zone.” He stared at Chalker, then, with a nod, stood up and went out to talk to the pilot A moment later he was back.

“I’m afraid,” he said. ‘Tve never been afraid before, but I am now. If my father’s right...”

Even as he spoke, the whole cabin lit up as if someone had shone a dazzling light through every window.

“Aiya...”

Kuei Jen made to turn and look, but Chalker stopped her. “No!” he yelled, taking charge. “Close your eyes everyone and don’t look! If 11 burn your eyes out! Just sit still and strap yourselves in.”

Kuei Jen looked to her frightened children, seeing that both May and Samuel had their eyes squeezed tightly shut, then sat, letting Chalker strap her in. The light had faded, but he could still see its after-image. And then the wind hit them, lifting the craft, juddering it roughly for a long, long while.

Boston’s gone, she thought, picturing in her mind the smouldering waste the bomb would have left The mad old fucker’s nuked it!

Kuei Jen shook his head, unable to believe it And then it hit him. His father had seen it He’d had a vision. Not only that, but he’d told them it was going to happen. Now what in the gods’ names did that mean? “He saw it,” he said, shaking his head slowly as the craft returned to normal.