Star of Gypsies
- Автор: Силверберг Роберт
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Star of Gypsies». Краткое содержание книги:
Chorian came running out to greet me. He was agitated: an implosion bomb had gone off next door to the palace half an hour ago. He pointed to the palace walls: great ugly cracks ran from floor to ceiling. These lunatics would not be satisfied, I thought, until they had destroyed their entire absurd Capital. Well, so be it. So be it. The cities of mankind are temporary things. Let it all come down, I thought. Let the Gaje ruin all the worlds. And then we will lift ourselves from their midst and return to Romany Star to live in peace. As soon as we receive the call. As soon as we receive the call.
Chorian tried to tell me that I should leave the Capital at once, while starships were still running; that I should take myself back to Galgala and await the resolution of the imperial civil war in relative safety.
"There is no safety anywhere," I told him. "I will stay here." They all surrounded me, bubbling with conflicting advice. I sent them all away and went to my private suite, to my only refuge in this hubbub. I needed to rest, to think, to weigh alternatives.
But even there I could not be alone.
Hardly had I settled down but the familiar figure of Valerian's ghost came drifting through the walls. He was wearing magnificent robes of red fur trimmed with ermine, and he was buzzing and crackling with enough electrical intensity to light up half a planet. In the true Valerian manner he hovered erratically in mid-air, skittering this way and that.
I felt no joy in seeing him. "You? Here?" was the best I could manage by way of greeting.
"I had to come. Even if you didn't want me. You need to get out of here right away, Yakoub. This planet isn't safe."
"You're telling me that?"
"For God's sake, a war is about to break out here, Yakoub. Do you want to be killed? The crazy Gaje bastards are going to bomb each oth or into oblivion."
"You're out of phase, Valerian. The war has already begun. Look, can't you see the cracks in the wall, here? An implosion bomb across the street, half an hour ago."
"It'll get much worse. I'm trying to warn you." "All right. What's going to happen?"
"Everyone's going to die, Yakoub. Get out while you can. Get everyone out with you. Listen, I'm only two weeks ahead of you in the time-line. That's all it is, two weeks, and in those two weeks all hell breaks loose at the Capital. I'm not even sure what happens. I came right away, as soon as I heard what was going on here. You've got to go. Now. "
"You aren't the first to tell me that today."
"Well, I may be the last, if you don't get moving.,,
Wearily I said, "You get moving, Valerian. Go ghost Megalo Kastro, all right? Iriarte. Atlantis. I need to be by myself for a while. I need to think things through."
"Yakoub-" "Go. Go. In the name of God, Valerian, let me be."
He gave me a long reproachful look, shaking his head sadly. And then he was gone. Leaving behind his buzz, leaving behind his crackle. Not in the room, just in my brain. I began to realize that I was starting to come close to the overload level.
A hot bath, I thought-a nap-a little flask or two of brandy-some quiet time to myselfSo much to decide. Leave the Capital as Chorian and Valerian urged, and let the Gaje lords do as they wished with each other? Or stay, and continue to try to shape the pattern of events? Snare Sunteil, and give him to Naria? Or send out word to the Rom star-pilots everywhere that ships must not go forth so long as Naria holds the throne, as Sunteil had urged? Ah, Mulano, Mulano! Peace! Quiet! Solitudel
There was a colossal blast just outside the palace. The entire building trembled and I thought it would collapse; but somehow it held firm. "Yakoub? Oh, you Yakoub!"'
What now? I closed my eyes, and suddenly I felt the presence of all the Gypsy kings once again burgeoning within me, the whole horde of them, pushing and shoving for my attention. Red-bearded Ilika, and little Chavula, and Cesaro o Nano, and all the rest of them, kings of lost Rom realms and kings of dominions still unborn, some whispering to me and some shouting. They were telling me tales of past and future, filling me with visions of glories gone and glories yet to come, but they were all speaking at once, and it was impossible for me to understand a thing. Their eyes were wild, their foreheads glistened with sweat. I begged them to give me peace. But no: they grew more impassioned, they circled round and round me, plucking at my sleeves like beggars, telling me this and that and this and that incomprehensible thing until I was ready to bellow and roar with mad anguish.
"Yakoub?" said a familiar voice, through all the hubbub. "Yakoub, listen to me!"
My voice. My own ghost, striding into the room.
I stared into my own face. It seemed strangely transformed, oddly different from the face I had looked upon all my life. Something about the eyes, the cheeks, even the mustache. An older Yakoub, an ancient Yakoub, Yakoub with all his years finally showing: still strong, still vigorous, not at all a walking cadaver such as Sunteil had made of himself, but nevertheless clearly a Yakoub who had come to me across a great distance in time. Which told me one thing that gave me comfort in that hour of madness, which was that my skein was still a long way from being fully spun.
He reached out toward me, that other Yakoub, and his ghostly hand rested on my wrist as if to hold me in place. His face was close to mine; his eyes searched me deeply.
"Has Valerian been here yet? To tell you to clear out of here?" I nodded. "Five minutes ago. Ten, maybe."
"Good. Good. I was afraid I might be too early. Listen to me, Yakoub. Valerian doesn't understand a thing. He comes from just a couple of weeks down the line, did he tell you that? Too soon to know the full story. He"s wrong to want you to leave the Capital. You have to stay. Do you hear me, Yakoub? Stay right here, no matter what happens. It is absolutely essential that you remain at the Capital. Do you understand me?"
My head was throbbing. I felt six thousand years old. A hot bath, a flask of brandy-sleep -sleep -
"Do you hear me, Yakoub?"
"Yes. Yes. Stay-at-the-Capital-"
"That's right. Say it again. Stay at the Capital, no matter what happens."
"Stay at the Capital. No matter what happens."' "Right. Good."
He disappeared. A tremendous explosion rocked the building. An other. Another. I ran to the window. The sky was aflame. And against the soaring tongues of fire the sky-banners of the three rival emperors rippled and blazed.
I felt myself caught in a whirlwind. Again and again came the terrifying sound of the war outside. The world was breaking apart, and so was I. I tried to hold myself together but it was impossible. I was whirling out of control. Some force beyond all resistance was pulling me free from myself. Sending me hurling like a handful of scattered atoms into the turbulent tempests of space and time. Whirling-whirling It was like the first time I had ever ghosted. I felt my soul splitting in half.
8. The Grand Compania
What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.
I FELT A LITTLE GIDDING THIS PLACE WAS NABOMBA ZOM, THIS MAN WAS LOIZA LA Vakako. Or so it seemed. I had little doubt that I was on Nabomba Zom, for how many other planets do we know where the sea is red as blood and the sand is pale lavender? But was this really Loiza la Vakako? He seemed so young. The man whom I had known once could have been any age at all except young. But this one, strolling by himself along the shore of that boiling sea, seemed no older than I had been myself in that far-off time when I had lived the life of a young prince at the palace of Loiza la Vakako.