The Silk Map (55 page)

“The scroll,” Bone said. “The scroll that holds our children. But is this my memory, or . . .”

“This is a recent Now,” Chodak said, “or a Now soon to come.”

A boy and a girl sat upon the edge of a cliff. Occasionally the boy would throw pebbles into the void. The girl was studying her bandaged left hand.

The boy looked like a pale Westerner of perhaps twelve years. He possessed dark red hair and a lanky frame. The girl, a daughter of Qiangguo, was of similar age. She was the very image of Snow Pine, though there was something in the set of her jaw that reminded him of Snow Pine's cocky husband, Flybait.

Bone said, “It's Innocence.” He had trouble continuing. “And A-Girl-Is-A-Joy.”

“I did not know their names,” Chodak said in a gentle voice. “But the pool can reveal what forces are acting upon you. These two are your sun and moon.”

“So much time has passed for them.”

“I sense you are correct.”

“Even if we succeed, we will have missed their childhoods.”

“That appears true. Though they are not adults yet.”

“Is it possible . . . to hear them?”

Chodak nodded and chanted low.

The girl was saying, “It grows stronger, Innocence.”

“Why talk about that?” the boy said. “Let's talk about cloud kingdoms. We could talk about Crazy Animal Country, or War-Cat Kingdom, or Horse Queendom. You can pick.”

“I don't feel like playing those games today.” A-Girl-Is-A-Joy frowned at her bandaged hand. “I don't think it's just a scrape. I think there's something strange about it.”

“I've been thinking of a brand-new cloud kingdom,” Innocence said. “One with humans in it. I call it Rendworld, because it's been broken into many peaks, each linked by bone bridges. It used to have a queen. But the insane king of that place returned after many years and took her with him. Now it's all lawless, with different warlords. There's a tree warlord, a boulder warlord, a moss warlord, a temple cauldron warlord, and lots of others. It will take champions fighting with sticks weeks to defeat them all. What do you think?”

“Walking Stick says he has no idea what it means, but I think he's worried. Like there's a power reaching out for me.”

“Like the one reaching out for me?”

“I don't know.”

“What about your dreams? I've been dreaming about lakes beside green mountains, and vast brown rivers, and an ocean surging beside a city with more people than I've ever seen awake.”

“I have dreams . . . I dream about a land of rocky islands, with cliffs as big as this but dropping to a gray stormy sea. Sometimes I see people . . . they look a lot like you, Innocence, except more crazy. Proud, with armor and weapons and colorful thick clothing, and complicated hair. The men have beards, the women wear their hair long. I want to know more about them, but then I see them fighting, the men mostly, but a few women too. They hack and hack, turning seas and forests red.” She rubbed her forehead with her hands. “I think I'm going crazy. Maybe I belong in Crazy Animal Country.”

Innocence looked confused, worried. He reached out to her, pulled his hand back.

“I don't know how,” he said, “but maybe the greater world's reaching out to you as it reaches out to me.”

“I'm glad there's at least someone who understands,” she said.

“I don't really understand. I don't even understand me.”

“Close enough.”

“It's starting to rain.”

“Again? Let's get back to the monastery.”

“We can try to ambush Leaftooth.”

“That sounds fun . . .”

The scene began to waver. Bone could still see the children, but superimposed upon them was Xembala's sky.

“Chodak!” he said, wondering if an old harm could be undone. “Can the pool send me through?”

“No, Persimmon Gaunt,” Chodak said. “To send you there is beyond the pool's power, and mine.”

Gaunt was still clutching the edge of the weathered pool with its statue of the Undetermined, weathered smooth as the surface of the pool with its perfect reflection of the Xembalan sky.

But she had seen what she'd seen.

“Where?” she said. “Where in the sea is the scroll? If you can tell me that much, Chodak, we can do the rest. We can mount an expedition, find magical gear to let us breathe water. Nothing will stop us if you can tell us where.”

“I lack that knowledge. The pool can search your karmic ties. It cannot seek a place in the ocean, for you have no such tie. Or at least no more than any other creature in this world. I regret that I have no greater boon.”

She lowered her head. “I have missed his childhood. He is well on his way to becoming a young man. And he is burdened, I can see it. Bone's decision deprived Innocence of a parent. He is essentially an orphan.”

“You are angry at your husband.”

“Would you not be? Have you ever been a mother?”

“I feel sure that I have, though it was not in this life. Just as I have been a father.”

“I do not even know what to say to that.”

“You do not need to accept the existence of my previous lives, Persimmon Gaunt. In a sense, they do not matter. For even were this my first time in the world, I would still be buffeted by the karmic influences that affected my family, and which prevailed in the time of my birth. Only the Undetermined, the Seekers, and the Thresholders have won free of such determining forces.”

“Chodak, I sense you mean well. I can feel it. But speaking with you and other followers of the Undetermined . . . it's like arriving late to a party of poets who have just read and discussed a half-dozen works and their authors. I know I have missed something valuable, but it is unfair for you to expect me to comprehend.”

“That is a fair point. What I wish to say is that even if I had been a mother in this life, I would not necessarily understand your feelings. For my circumstances are my own, regardless. After all, it is not everyone whose child has been lost in a pocket reality.”

Gaunt could only laugh. “No, it is not.”

“Likewise, my not having been a mother is not necessarily an impassible wall to understanding. For we all share certain traits. And I too experience anger.”

“Have you wanted to hurt someone you loved?”

“That sensation is not unknown to me.”

“Aren't you an enlightened person, beyond such feelings?”

“I think you know the answer. It is my office to embody, as well as I can, the attributes of one of the great Thresholders, she who is known in Qiangguo as the goddess of mercy. But if she is the wine, I am a cracked bottle. Through meditation and invocation, I attempt to caulk the worst of the cracks. It is a daily struggle. I, too, know rage. I must accept mine, as you must accept yours.”

“But it is a vile feeling. If I let it out, I hurt Bone. If I hold it in, it hurts me.”

“To challenge your own anger is to wage a heroic struggle.”

“As long as I'm committed to the quest, I can manage to not think about it . . . mostly. But I think we needed the quest so badly, we were too quick to trust Monkey. Swan's blood! We've been wandering the desert on the strength of a rock-creature's promises, some old legends, and a torn dress.”

“Dress?”

“If you cannot send me to Innocence,” Bone said, “can you find me someone who can?”

“The pool could find such a one, if their karmic connection with you were strong enough.”

“But such a person would likely be someone we already know.” Bone scratched his chin. “Well. I know many people. Try. Please.”

Chodak looked troubled, but she chanted and made a waving motion of her arm.

In the water Bone beheld the cavern within Five-Toe Peak.

The Great Sage herself was there, still trapped, whistling. She seemed to cock an ear, look this way and that, and crane her head to look directly at Bone and Chodak.

“Hey!” came the rumbling voice. “Couldn't you knock?”

“Ah,” said Bone. “Hello?”

“It's the Rat!” Monkey chortled. “Have you found what I asked?”

“We're working on it. The Silk Map has led us to Xembala.”

“Really, now! Good, good . . .”

“I have been wondering a thing. I have been asking myself if you can, or will, really honor your part of our bargain. Now I know this much: you can.”

“You don't trust me.” Monkey sounded sad. “Well, really, who would? Hello there, Thresholder! That is a Thresholder, isn't it?”

Chodak said, “I am the high lama of Xembala.”

“Right—you guys. You borrow a lot of practice from the Plateau of Geam. Instead of just meditating your way to the Absolute, you kind of mentally project your way there by visualizing higher powers.”

“We diverge from the Plateau in many respects.”

“It's hard for a simple monkey to get.”

“I would be glad to explain it to you, should you ever wish to journey west.”

“Oh, don't worry about it, lama. Your doctrine isn't my problem. My problem is a mountain on top of me. Until I deal with that, I'm not even making a journey to relieve myself.”

“I wish you luck.”

“Bone,” said Monkey, “I figure you'll want to be getting my delivery to me soon. I can only keep myself awake so long.”

“You said six months. It's been perhaps two.”

“It was an estimate, friend Rat.”

“Stay awake, Great Sage. Or I swear, I will find a way to wake you up.”

“Be careful. If you wake someone rudely, you should be prepared for the reaction.”

“You be careful yourself. How can you truly threaten a man on the verge of losing everything?”

Monkey frowned. “I think we're done here.”

She sneezed, and the scene disappeared. The pool was just a pool.

Chodak said, “I would be wary of that one's anger.”

“Demigods. Wizards. Monsters. Toothaches. Life is full of trouble. You can't flee from it all.”

“Indeed not. I merely question your means of confronting these sufferings. A good heart and an analytic mind can accomplish much that a dagger and a treasure map cannot. Come to think of it, you spoke of a Silk Map?”

“So that is the long and the short of it,” said Gaunt, “and the hem and the sleeve of it. The Silk Map, and some scraps of legends, got us here.”

“I may have heard something of these matters.”

“Can you help us, lama, in any way? Not to talk me out of my anger, nor deflect me from my quest, but to help me in my journey. My journey, not yours, not the path of the Undetermined.”

“I understand what you are saying. And yes, I can help you on your quest, and I will not talk you out of your anger. I will show you the way to your husband.”

“He is nearby?”

“He is very near. We are seeing to his well-being even now, for his arrival was close in time to your own. Let me show you.”

Chodak chanted and moved her arms in complex spirals. The pool showed a new scene.