The Wordsmiths and the Warguild (7 page)

       
"So you're the
hero," said Brother Troop, rubbing his hands together.

       
"I suppose I
am," said Togura, with some surprise.

       
He had been given a
change of clothes and the chance to cleanse himself of monster muck, but he was
still a little disorientated.

       
"Ahaha!" said
Brother Troop, not quite laughing and not quite not. "You suppose you are.
Of course you are! The vigour of the very young. Amazing, isn't it?" And
he touched his nose. "Youth is a wonderful thing."

       
"You're not so old
yourself," said Togura.

       
"Perhaps not, but I
was never as wild as you. I was born sensible. And more's the pity. A great
handicap, I think. All power to the brave and reckless, eh? Hey? Ahaha! Come,
I'll show you around."

       
"Well, really, I'd
- "

       
"Later," said
Brother Troop, giving him to chance to say that he'd really like a little to
eat, a little to drink and a lot to sleep. Instead, the good Brother swept him
away on a whirlwind tour which took him through the kitchens - too quickly,
alas - sleeping quarters, lecture rooms, study rooms, dungeons and cloisters,
and then to the main courtyard of the Wordsmiths' stronghold.

       
"Here's where it all
happens," said Brother Troop. "And that, my son, is the odex."

       
"That?"

       
"Believe me. You
stand in the Presence."

       
The odex was a thin grey
disk; Togura could just have spanned its diameter with his outstretched arms.
Seen side-on, it appeared to disappear entirely. Seen from an angle, it acted
as a mirror, reflecting the surroundings.

       
"Stand in front of
it," said Brother Troop.

       
Togura moved round in
front of the odex, which hung in the air, standing knee-high off the ground
without any apparent means of support. As he came directly in front of it, the
mirror surface broke into discordant cascades of colour and light. These
shimmered, swirled, stretched, contracted and pulsed.

       
"Is it angry?"
said Togura warily.

       
At his words, a puff of
red mist broke loose from the surface of the odex. It twirled lazily in the
air.

       
"Who knows?"
said Brother Troop.

       
At his question, the red
mist broke apart with a sound like a breaking harp string; a dozen bubbles of
bright light frolicked out of the odex and began chasing each other through the
air. Similar manifestations and dispersions continued as the two spoke
together.

       
"Where do these
things come from?" said Togura.

       
"From the odex, of
course. You can see that for yourself."

       
"Is it
dreaming?" asked Togura.

       
"No," said
Brother Troop, uncertainly; it had never occurred to him that the odex might
dream. "We don't think it dreams. We don't really think it's alive. After
years of study, we've come to think that it's like a knife. It means neither
good nor ill. If it cuts, that's due to our clumsiness. We don't think it
dreams - or gets angry."

       
"But it sent you
the monster," said Togura. "Why did it do that?"

 
      
"It
does nothing on its own," said Brother Troop. "Left to its own
devices, it just sits there meditating. We speak. We summon. We call things
from its infinite resources."

       
"Then how did you
summon the monster?" said Togura.

       
"By accident."

       
"Could you summon
another?"

       
"Only be another
accident. You see - "

       
A tangle of spiderweb
came floating out of the odex. Brother Troop knocked it aside with a casual
sweep of his hand. It grabbed hold of him, battened onto his flesh and began to
feed. It hurt. His senses demolished by pain, Brother Troop fell to the ground,
flailing at the invader. Togura helped him destroy it. They succeeded, but
there was a violent red rash on the wordmaster's hand where the web had been
feeding.

       
"Look!" said
Brother Troop.

       
Overhead floated an
ilps. It was a large one, mostly teeth, horns and trailing tentacles. It had
just escaped from the odex.

       
"Who are you?"
shouted Brother Troop.

       
But the ilps was nimble.
It floated fast and high, soaring up and over the roof and out of sight.

       
"Let's go
inside," said Brother Troop. "We've endured the Presence quite enough
for one day."

       
At his words, there was
a roar. Both of them jumped. But, fortunately, the odex had not generated
another monster. Just the roar of a monster.

       
Inside, Togura asked a
question:

       
"Why does
questioning destroy an ilps?"

       
"Because every ilps
is anomalous," said Brother Troop. "They don't belong in our world.
We don't think they belong anywhere. They're birthed at random by the odex
every time we excite it. Make the anomalous question its own nature, and it
destroys itself."

       
"How do we excite
the odex?"

       
"By the use of
words, young man. You should have guessed that much from what you've seen
today."

       
"Then what words do
what?"

       
"Different words do
different things. That's for certain. But our real problem is that the same
words also do different things every time they're used."

       
"Hmmm."

       
"Very much hummm!
Marry a woman who doesn't speak your language, and you'll be chatting away
merrily in less than a year. Our conversation with the odex began in my father's
day. We still don't know how to say hello."

 
      
"At
this rate you never will," said Togura. "So why bother?"

       
"Because of the
treasure, my boy. The treasure!"

       
Brother Troop took him
to the treasury so he could see. A day's conversation with the odex would
usually produce at least one real, solid, genuine piece of treasure.

       
By the time they reached
the treasury, Togura was eagerly expecting to see miracles. He was bitterly
disappointed by the motley assortment of oddments which was actually on view.

       
"This is it?"
he said.

       
"Won with great
pain, my boy," said Brother Troop. "Won with great pain."

       
There were two
lightweight diamond-shaped objects with holes in them - possibly buttons, and
possibly not. There was a disk of think metal stamped with concentric circles;
it had jagged edges, and was rusting. There was a pale, slightly translucent
object, very thin and sharp, about the length of a finger, which Togura was
almost certain was a fishbone.

       
Next there was a curious
square box, blue in colour, which was riddled with holes. Togura was about to
explore the holes with his fingers when Brother Troop slapped his hand down.

       
"No, my boy, don't
do that. Brother Dorban lost a finger to that little box."

       
Togura stared into the
holes and saw a wavering ever-changing light inside. The box was humming.

       
"I'll tell yo9u one
thing for certain," he said. "You'll never find out what this is
for."

       
"Ah, my boy,"
beamed Brother Troop. "We know already. It's an insect trap. It lures them
and kills them - or, at least, they go inside and they're never seen again.
Fleas, flies, cockroaches - it doesn't discriminate. Leave your clothes by the
box overnight, and they'll be free of lice by daybreak."

       
There were more things.
A pile of old rags. A curious stone globe which appeared to be filled with
stars. Some objects made of lead which might have been said to imitate the
shape of knucklebones. A length of strong, translucent green cord which
appeared to be made all of one seamless piece; it was slippery, and difficult
to knot. A stone adze, bearing cryptic markings in paint. A friable, lumpy grey
object which Togura was far too polite to identify as a rather old and shabby
dog turd.

       
"All this comes
from the odex?"

 
      
"Yes," said Brother Troop, nodding. "And other things,
too dangerous to keep. Today's monster was a case in point. Come, I'll show you
the reading room."

       
They went to the reading
room where there was a single very old and ancient book. Its cover, and its
individual pages, were coated with a hard, transparent substance; thus
protected, they did not seem to suffer decay.

       
"This is the Book
of the Odex," said Brother Troop. "It was discovered together with
the odex itself in the Old City in the Valley of Forgotten Dreams, in
Penvash."

       
"There's no such
place as the Old City," said Togura. "That's just a tale to frighten
children with."

       
The Brother shook his
head.

       
"No. There really
is a city. Men went there seeking wealth. Many died. Even before they got to
the city, one was turned into a monster after a flower swallowed him; they
killed him after he killed five."

       
Togura nodded politely,
though he scarcely believed a word of it, and the Brother continued.

       
"Of those who went,
three returned alive. One was my father. They gained three things in the Old
City: the Book, the odex, and their nightmares. Open the Book."

       
Togura did so. The
patterns within, splattered across the pages as if at random, made a
bewildering maze of angles, corners and stunted lines.

       
"Can you read,
boy?"

       
"A little. But not
this."

       
"That's scarcely
surprising. It's written in two languages. Part is written in the Voice of Jade
and Gold, which the scholars of former times used both before and after the
Days of Wrath. A travelling wizard was able to translate it for my father. Thus
he learnt that the odex was used in former times to store both knowledge and
objects. There is vast wealth inside the odex, boy."

       
"But you can't get
it out."

       
"Not unless we gain
the index."

       
"The index?"

       
"We summon things
forth from the odex by talking to it. The ancients of former times used the
index instead. The Book tells us that the index speaks in the Universal
Language, whatever that might be. For want of an index, we've been trying to
make our own Universal Language. That's why we've been gathering together all
the world's languages, trying to make them one."

       
"And does that
promise you success?" said Togura, unalbe to conceal his doubts.

       
"Nothing gives us
any guarantee of success," said Brother Troop. "But! Knowledge!
Wealth! Power! It's worth striving for, boy, it's worth striving for."

       
"You said that the
Book was written in two languages."

       
"That's right, my
son. One's the Voice of Jade and Gold, which I've spoken of already. The
other's the Cold Tongue, which even the wizards can't read. Back before the Devaluation,
we paid the wizard of Drum to make the attempt, to see if he could succeed
where others had failed. He couldn't. But he told us where we could find an
index."

       
"He did?"

       
"He did. After
consulting his Catalogues, he told us where we could find a number of them.
After the wizards became a power in the world, they discovered many things left
over from the Days of Wrath; they didn't understand most of them, but kept them
nevertheless, for thousands and thousands of years."

       
"So where - "

       
"I'm coming to that,
boy. Give me time, give me time. Over the years, the wizards acquired a number
of small, flat boxes, each marked with the sign of a hand and a heart. They
could never find out how to ope nthem, or what was inside. Now, thanks to the
Book of the Odex, we know. Each contains an index. Each will open with a Word.
That Word is Sholabarakosh."