The Marriage of the Living Dark

“He really did see it, after all”

But Chalker was not listening. Chalker was staring at his hands and rubbing them one against the other, as if to wipe the blood away.

Li Yuan was waiting for them in Providence, on the roof of the Imperial Barracks. As Kuei Jen’s cruiser landed alongside the row of other craft, he walked across to meet them, standing there beneath the glare of the arc lamps as the hatch opened.

“Well?” he asked sombrely, embracing his son. “Did I not tell you?” Kuei Jen stood back “Are all the golden-eyed like you? Do they all have ... visions” He shrugged. “I cannot say. Yet I sense it must be so.” ‘If s strange,” Kuei Jen said, looking at him with something akin to wonder. “I can’t help wondering what it means.”

“And I. But we shall know. Soon.”

“You had another vision?”

Li Yuan smiled. “No. A friend told me.”

“A friend?”

“Never mind, Kuei Jen. How is your husband?”

Her face told him the answer. “Not well,” he said finally. “The tape is eating away at him like a disease. There’s such a need in him. The gods know what was in it” “Can I see him?”

“He has changed, Li Yuan. He will not even recognise you.”

“Maybe so, but can I see him?”

Kuei Jen shrugged, then, “Come, he’s in the second cruiser.”

Egan lay there on the narrow bed, sweat covering his face and neck and chest He was held down by four thick, broad leather straps, but he struggled constantly against them, while his eyes looked this way and that, as if searching for something that was not in the cabin.

Li Yuan studied him a while, then shook his head. Now that he had seen it, he understood. Someone had closed Egan’s eyes.

No. Not someone. Shepherd. My old friend Shepherd. Li Yuan turned, looking at his son. Kuei Jen had changed his sex to be with this man. He looked closer and saw the loving concern there in Kuei Jen’s eyes and, for the first time, understood - and sympathised. And shivered, a feeling of pure indignation coursing through him.

What evil was it that cut a man from his senses and made him believe in ghosts? It was the evil of inwardness. Not the inwardness of self-knowledge but of illusion. Of displacement Shepherd was snipping the threads that held humanity together. He was isolating them. Giving each his own padded, silken cell, in which was kept the image of what that person wanted. A mate. Someone to lock oneself away with. Someone to kill for.

There were no flames, no devils with implements of torture, yet all the same it was hell. Ti Yu, the earth prison. And Shepherd was casting them all, one by one, into the fire.

Li Yuan stepped forward, placing his palm on young Egan’s forehead. It burned, as if some inner fever were raging. But the contact seemed to calm the younger man. His movements slowed, then stilled, and his eyes, which had been unfocused, now looked straight up at Li Yuan.

“It is not real, Mark. She does not exist She is but light and air. You know this. Deep down you know it” Egan groaned. “No ...”

“Open your eyes, Mark. Open your eyes and look. This is reality ... this out here.”

“Go away ...”

Li Yuan turned, signalling to the guards. “Remove the restraints.”

“But, father ...”

“Be quiet, please, Kuei Jen. I shall do only what is best for your husband.”

Kuei Jen bowed his head, obeying his father.

Li Yuan turned back, watching as the guards removed the straps.

Egan lay there, still and silent

“Can you hear me, Mark?”

“I hear you.”

“Good. Then you know I am right You must give up these ghosts. You must find the strength in yourself to give them up.”

“But I want...”

“Perfection? ... I understand. But perfection is a dream.”

“She exists.”

“No.”

“She...”

“... is light and air. A signal on a tape A fantasy. But you, Mark Egan, are real.”

Again Egan groaned, yet it was a groan of despair - of realisation - not of pain.

Li Yuan leaned forward, placing his hands either side of Egan’s head, pushing down forcefully. “Return to yourself now. Return, and be the man you were.” Egan shuddered, a great spasm rippled through him like a shock through the earth. He grimaced, his eyes closing, his lips parting, and then... “What.. .?”

Egan looked about him, clearly surprised to find himself there in the cabin of the cruiser. “Where in the gods’ names are we?” “Providence,” Kuei Jen said, smiling now, looking to his father in gratitude.

Then, knowing Mark knew nothing of the bomb, his face changed.

“I am afraid we are at war.”

“War?” he sat up, instantly alert. “Has Coover attacked again?” “No,” Kuei Jen said, taking both his hands. “We are at war with your grandfather.”

“With Josiah? Then why in heaven’s name aren’t we in Boston?”

“Because Boston’s gone, my love. The Old Man nuked it half an hour back.”

CHAPTER-13