Ghosts by Gaslight - Jack Dann [72]
“In all honesty,” I said, reminded of my ordeal at the Institute, “I possess nothing other than thought experiments, but I am close to demonstrating a functional circuit—”
“A working execution-machine, you mean. It is guaranteed not to work.”
“But my theories—”
“Your eddies in a river are marvellously metaphoric, Doctor Gordon, but you have failed to pursue them to their logical conclusion. What would happen if you froze an eddy long enough to re-create it? On being released from the icebox the eddy would dissolve into ordinary water, and you would be left with nothing. Put yourself through this contraption of yours, and you too would dissolve. Die, if you prefer. Better that these devices remain harmless trinkets, as I originally thought them to be, or you dismantle them and direct your efforts to more accomplishable aims.” Abiha flicked the edge of one of my precious glass bells, making it chime a resonant, deep G. “I’m sorry, Doctor Gordon, but I beg you not to eradicate yourself in pursuit of a fundamentally flawed notion.”
I stared at her in shock and dawning horror. Could what she said really be true?
“How do you travel, then,” I asked her, “if not by machine?”
“By will,” she said, “and by art. That is all you need to swim the river of life.”
“Will you teach me?”
She didn’t answer immediately. On my desk lay a rare edition of the Picatrix, and she flicked through it as though seeking guidance. I sensed disappointment in her, along with disapproval, and waited anxiously for her response. I am a proud man, but I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong. A rigid mind is not a scientific mind. I would abandon all my research if it meant attaining the reality she had demonstrated to me that evening.
My mind flew with the possibilities. World upon world upon world, all full of human life! She must not be the only traveller of her kind. How many times had voyagers made the crossing during our planets’ intimate conjunctions? Magical texts are full of magical visitors who instructed the alchemists of old: you might already know about the giants of Genesis, but what about the companions of Horus who founded the original Egyptian dynasties, or the Fankuang Tzu of the Taoists, the Sons of Reflected Light who came from far across the sea, bringing wisdom and insight with them? Could Abiha’s people and these beneficent visitors be one and the same?
In some ancient Chinese traditions you will find reference to the Highest Clarity, a place beyond the sky, where live the Jade Women of the Luminous Star. Was I looking at such a woman right now, in my very own laboratory?
“I am sorry, Doctor Gordon,” she said again. “You are not ready.”
She closed the book and stepped back from the desk, and in her eyes I saw the certainty of her decision, the futility of all forms of protest I might offer, and a determination to leave.
That was when I made the greatest mistake of my life.
The prospect of losing her was intolerable. She possessed the secret I had pursued for so long; I would not let it slip through my grasp! I lunged for her and took her arm, but she had already begun the charm or spell she used to travel between worlds.
The moment my skin touched hers, I felt a foglike ether envelop me, and all the light and heat was sucked out of the world. She gasped and tried to pull away, but I resisted, gripping so tightly I fear I hurt her—but not out of anger, I swear, or fear of losing her. A terrible sense of emptiness in the ether, of dissociation, had me mortally afraid for my life. If I let her go, I thought, I would be lost between worlds and surely die.
We struggled back and forth, she beating at me with her fists, and me imploring her to return with me or take me with her. Whether she heard my cries or not, I do not know. The laboratory faded from sight, and the features of a new world appeared, one with metallic columns and bright lights. The air was dry and smelled of spark-gaps. Shapes