The Marriage of the Living Dark

“Ah ...” Karr looked aside

There was a moment’s silence, then Sampsa spoke again. “And the voices?”

Jelka met her son’s eyes. “He was arguing with himself.”

“Arguing?”

She nodded. “His face would change. It was quite striking. And frightening, too. Gweder. .. well, Gweder’s how I imagine Kim would have turned out, had he remained in the Clay.”

“If he’d survived.”

“Yes ...” Jelka looked thoughtful a moment, then. “If s strange. Kim - the waking Kim, that is - is so determined, yet Lagasek, supposedly his rational self, is so passive. Whereas Gweder. Well, Gweder’s a bully. He pushes.” “And what did Gweder push for?” Ebert asked, staring at her blindly.

“He wanted Kim to step through.”

“Through?” Both Sampsa and Karr said it as one.

“Yes. Into the other universe.”

“And Lagasek?”

“Lagasek’s unwilling. I think he’s frightened.”

“Frightened?” Sampsa asked. “Frightened of what?”

“I don’t know.”

Again, a silence fell. Then Karr let out a sigh. “So what are we going to do?

Without Kim... well, the equations are just so much mumbo-jumbo to me.” Ebert laughed. “For once I agree with you, Gregor. I thought my maths was good, but those calculations are quite beyond me.”

“And me,” Sampsa said.

“Well,” Jelka said, looking about her. “It seems, then, that we have but one course, and thaf s to do as Surgeon Ji says, and wait” “And if he doesn’t wake?” Kao Chen asked.

“He’ll wake,” Karr said, putting a hand on his old friend’s shoulder reassuringly. “Jelka’s seen it, remember?”

The wind was up and waves were crashing against the rocks below his bedroom window. Kim lay there, listening, the sound of the wind rushing through the trees lulling him. In his mind’s eye he could see the great branches stretching in the wind, their leaves streaming out like bright green banners in the sunlight He turned lazily and smiled, for a moment not remembering. Then, with a jolt, he woke.

Silence.

Nowhere. He was nowhere.

Kim opened his eyes. It was dark; a shadowed darkness that quickly resolved itself.

My room. I am in my room at Kalevala.

But how had he got here? He could not remember. The last thing he could remember was standing in the Circle at Fermi, waiting to speak. And after that?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He stretched, then sat, conscious for the first time how rested - how totally rested - he felt. As if he’d slept for days on end. He laughed at the thought, knowing that he was a creature who needed little sleep.

“Jelka?”

When there was no answer, he stood and walked over to the door, throwing it open.

“Jelka?”

Nothing. The house was silent

Throwing on a robe, he went down to the kitchen. It too was empty, no sign of Jelka anywhere.

Strange.

He went to the larder and opened the door, looking in to see what he could eat Starving. He was absolutely starving.

Taking a hunk of bread, he buttered it and crammed it into his mouth, chewing it voraciously. Then, taking another bite, he went over to the window and looked out The lawn was empty, and the garden.

He turned, making his way back to the larder, taking down meat and apples and cheese. Then, sitting down at the great wooden table, he gorged himself, his mind empty of anything but the hunger he felt Finally he sat back, replete.

He reached across and picked up a cloth, wiping his mouth. It was strange how vivid his waking dream had been. So vivid that, for a moment, he had been back there on the island, the waves battering the shoreline, the wind streaming through the trees.

Strange indeed.

Kim made to stand, then stopped, his mouth falling open.

“Old Tuan ...”

It flooded back.

He sat again, shaking his head. So that was what had happened. For a while he simply sat there, letting his breathing normalise, his mind grow accustomed to the strangeness of his new situation. They put us here, to keep DeVorefrom seeing us.

The thought of it awed him. To have such power. It was unthinkable.

Or almost so.

For a moment longer he sat there, his mind flicking over the possibilities, then he stood and hurried from the room.

It was time he did some work.