The Last Guardian of Everness (War of the Dreaming 1) by John C. Wright Page A
Authors: John C. Wright
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sentence.”
“Well. So he, the Founder, told me he had soaked the cloak in the blood for the proper amount of time, and if I wore it. . .”
“Gross. You put a bloodstained cloak all over your body.”
“It was for a good cause! Sort of. I thought I was saving the Three Queens of Vindyamar!”
“He told you to put this bloodstained thing on your body, and jump off the end of the world. And you believed him.”
“Grampa is a magician, too! We’re all magicians.”
“Uh huh. And if Grampa told you to wrap your face in a bloody sheet and jump off the edge of the world, would you listen to him, too?”
“I listen to everything Grampa says! Well, usually. I mean, it was an emergency, and all, and I had to show him I knew what I was doing, and . . .”
“And did you?” asked Wendy brightly.
“Did I what?”
“Know what you were doing?”
“Well, no. But the Founder was helping me.”
Wendy let that comment pass by in silence, but her red little mouth was pursed in a look of girlish skepticism, nodding her chin forward so she could regard her ghostly visitor at an upward angle through the tangle of her black bangs, and she hoisted one eyebrow aloft.
Galen fidgeted with his shining spear under her inspection, and then he shrugged and said, “Well, whether it was a good idea or not, sometimes, you just have to act on faith, and jump.”
“You jumped?”
“I jumped.”
II
Galen fell through alien skies and systems, zones and zodiacs flying past him as he fell, and the cliffs of earth dwindled to a dim high expanse behind him. Hour after hour as he plummeted, he saw the scattered constellations to either side and underfoot becoming clearer and cleaner in outline, filled in with depth and shading by stars whose light could not be seen on Earth, but only close at hand: Cancer now could be seen as a crab, with legs and claws and whiplike antennae; the beard and stern eyes of Orion the hunter were distinct, glistening with starlight; Canis Major was a wolfhound; lean and snarling; Canis Minor was a collie.
But soon even the winter constellations were left behind, and Galen found himself in zodiacs unknown to men, with strange shapes rising up like the indecipherable glyphs of antique Aztec pyramids. Here were hooded brooding shapes, or images of slime-clotted ziggurats and ruins occupying these stars; or sea-beasts multitentacled, or spidery shapes with sucking mouths, insectoid queens consuming their lovers, or Scylla-legged matriarchs with womb and bloody entrails gnawed by their own monstrous young.
Galen closed the clasps of the seal-coat and immediately found himself possessed, not of legs, but of strong flippers, paws shaped cunningly like hands; and when he twitched his nose, he saw long whiskers wiggling before his eyes.
Delighted, he began to romp and splash within the ocean of night around him, which, somehow, had become dark and salty, crisscrossed by surging waves. He found now he could leap and dive and surge through the foaming water with sleek speed.
For a time, he practiced this, attempting to perfect his disguise, and took an animal joy and childish delight in his newfound mastery of swimming.
How he could be in ocean, yet still be falling as if through air, was never clear to him; but he accepted it with the logic of a dreamer.
And the seas became thin about him as he fell further; and he saw only one or two constellations still below him; beyond that, darkness, in which dim, vast shapes floated or monstrous hulks moved with slow, huge motions.
To his left he saw again the gray steep faces of the cliffs of Earth, and, at their feet, on a small shelf of land before they dropped into the starless darkness of the nameless oceans of the under-sky, a beach near which tall ships were anchored.
Galen swam furiously toward that shore, plunging at a downward angle, hoping to reach it; for if he fell beyond it, there was nothing underfoot but the leviathans of the abyss and the dark,
“Well. So he, the Founder, told me he had soaked the cloak in the blood for the proper amount of time, and if I wore it. . .”
“Gross. You put a bloodstained cloak all over your body.”
“It was for a good cause! Sort of. I thought I was saving the Three Queens of Vindyamar!”
“He told you to put this bloodstained thing on your body, and jump off the end of the world. And you believed him.”
“Grampa is a magician, too! We’re all magicians.”
“Uh huh. And if Grampa told you to wrap your face in a bloody sheet and jump off the edge of the world, would you listen to him, too?”
“I listen to everything Grampa says! Well, usually. I mean, it was an emergency, and all, and I had to show him I knew what I was doing, and . . .”
“And did you?” asked Wendy brightly.
“Did I what?”
“Know what you were doing?”
“Well, no. But the Founder was helping me.”
Wendy let that comment pass by in silence, but her red little mouth was pursed in a look of girlish skepticism, nodding her chin forward so she could regard her ghostly visitor at an upward angle through the tangle of her black bangs, and she hoisted one eyebrow aloft.
Galen fidgeted with his shining spear under her inspection, and then he shrugged and said, “Well, whether it was a good idea or not, sometimes, you just have to act on faith, and jump.”
“You jumped?”
“I jumped.”
II
Galen fell through alien skies and systems, zones and zodiacs flying past him as he fell, and the cliffs of earth dwindled to a dim high expanse behind him. Hour after hour as he plummeted, he saw the scattered constellations to either side and underfoot becoming clearer and cleaner in outline, filled in with depth and shading by stars whose light could not be seen on Earth, but only close at hand: Cancer now could be seen as a crab, with legs and claws and whiplike antennae; the beard and stern eyes of Orion the hunter were distinct, glistening with starlight; Canis Major was a wolfhound; lean and snarling; Canis Minor was a collie.
But soon even the winter constellations were left behind, and Galen found himself in zodiacs unknown to men, with strange shapes rising up like the indecipherable glyphs of antique Aztec pyramids. Here were hooded brooding shapes, or images of slime-clotted ziggurats and ruins occupying these stars; or sea-beasts multitentacled, or spidery shapes with sucking mouths, insectoid queens consuming their lovers, or Scylla-legged matriarchs with womb and bloody entrails gnawed by their own monstrous young.
Galen closed the clasps of the seal-coat and immediately found himself possessed, not of legs, but of strong flippers, paws shaped cunningly like hands; and when he twitched his nose, he saw long whiskers wiggling before his eyes.
Delighted, he began to romp and splash within the ocean of night around him, which, somehow, had become dark and salty, crisscrossed by surging waves. He found now he could leap and dive and surge through the foaming water with sleek speed.
For a time, he practiced this, attempting to perfect his disguise, and took an animal joy and childish delight in his newfound mastery of swimming.
How he could be in ocean, yet still be falling as if through air, was never clear to him; but he accepted it with the logic of a dreamer.
And the seas became thin about him as he fell further; and he saw only one or two constellations still below him; beyond that, darkness, in which dim, vast shapes floated or monstrous hulks moved with slow, huge motions.
To his left he saw again the gray steep faces of the cliffs of Earth, and, at their feet, on a small shelf of land before they dropped into the starless darkness of the nameless oceans of the under-sky, a beach near which tall ships were anchored.
Galen swam furiously toward that shore, plunging at a downward angle, hoping to reach it; for if he fell beyond it, there was nothing underfoot but the leviathans of the abyss and the dark,
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