More Than Fire

"But Zazel is dead. He will never come back."

"True. That makes no difference, however. He did not inform me as to what I should do with prisoners if he died."

"You will not reconsider in light of the changed situation?"

"I am unable to do so."

Kickaha listened closely to the dialogue. The next day, while ru

The following day, when he saw his captor walking stiffly into the circle of cages, he called to it.

"Dingsteth! I have great news! Something marvelous has happened!"

The creature went to Kickaha's cage and stood close, though not close enough to be grabbed. "What is it?"

"Last night while I was dreaming, Zazel's ghost came to me. He said that he had been trying to get through to you from the land of the dead. But he can only do that in dreams. You don't dream."

Kickaha was guessing about that. But it seemed probable that its brain would lack an unconscious mind.

"Since you don't dream, but I am a blue-ribbon dreamer, Zazel, his ghost, that is, used me as his medium to communicate to you!"

Dingsteth's features were incapable of expressing puzzlement. Nevertheless, they managed to hint at it.

"What does `blue ribbon' mean in the context of your statement?"

"It's a phrase for `excellent.' "

"Indeed. But what is a ghost?"

"You don't know about ghosts?"

"I have great knowledge, but it is impossible for my brain to hold all knowledge. When I need to know something, I ask the world-brain about it."

"Ask it about ghosts and spirits and psychic phenomena. Now, here's what happened last night. Zazel ... "

After Kickaha had finished his story, Dingsteth said, "I will go to the world and ask it."

It hurried away. As soon as it had vanished through the gate between the tree and the stone, Red Orc said, "Kickaha! What are you-?"

Kickaha held a finger to his lips while shaking his head slightly. "Shh! Bear with me!"

He paced around the cage. His thoughts were like a swarm of asteroids orbiting a planet. The center of the planet was the idea that had suddenly come to him yesterday. It was a bright comet born in the darkness of his unconscious mind and zooming into his conscious mind, the bright planet-colliding with it, turning it into fire for a moment.

I should have been a poet, he thought. Thank God I have sense enough, though, not to tell others the images, the similes and metaphors, springing up in my brain. They would laugh at me.

Having veered away from the subject of importance to his own self, a failing common to everyone, his mind returned to it. What would he say when Dingsteth came back to tell him he was full of crap?

The ruler of the Caverned World did return within five minutes. When it stood before the cage, it said, "The world informs me that there are in reality no such entities as ghosts or spirits. Thus, you are lying."

"No, I'm not!" Kickaha shouted. "Tell me, when was the data about spiritual things put into the world-brain?"

Dingsteth was silent for a few seconds. Then it said, "It was approximately twelve thousand years ago as time was measured in Zazel's native world. I can get the exact date for you."

"See!" Kickaha said. "The data has long been obsolete! Since then, it's been discovered that what was thought to be a superstition is fact! There are indeed such entities as ghosts and other kinds of spirits! About two thousand years ago, a Thoan named Houdini proved that there are ghosts. He also proved that they can communicate with us, but it's seldom that we can communicate with them. The ghosts appear to be highly sensitive and gifted individuals, such as myself, and make their wishes known. Their method of communication is like a one-way gate. They can speak to us. We can't speak to them!"

He glanced around. By now, all except Kumas were gripping the bars and looking intently at him.

"If you don't believe me, ask them! They'll tell you that what I said is true! Isn't that right, men?"

None of them may have guessed rightly what he was heading for. But they were intelligent enough to play along with him. Kumas might not, but when Dingsteth asked him if Kickaha was telling the truth, the Thoan lay silent on his blankets and stared up through the bars. The others swore that what Kickaha claimed had indeed been public knowledge for a very long time.

"In fact," Red Orc said, "this same Houdini confirmed the existence of ghosts through scientific-psychic experiments. He was able several times to see them, though faintly. But the dead sometimes come through more or less clearly in dreams."

He looked at Kickaha as if to say, "Who the hell is Houdini?"

Kickaha held up a hand and formed an O with the fingers while Dingsteth's back was turned to him. He was delighted that the Thoan had caught on so quickly.

Khruuz spoke loudly. "My people lived before the Thoan! We knew that there were spirits long before the Thoan became aware that we existed!"

Kickaha hoped that the clones did not get so enthusiastic that they made up "facts" that could be exposed as untruths. This game had to be played coolly and close to the chest. When Dingsteth wheeled around to see Khruuz, Kickaha gestured at Ashatelon and Wemathol to say little. Then he stopped. It had occurred to him that Dingsteth's monitor cameras would photograph him.

If the creature did view the films and it had questions about the gestures, it would get some kind of hokey explanation from him.

Wemathol and Ashatelon told the creature that everybody had known for mille

If Dingsteth was affected by them, it did not show it. After turning its back to face Kickaha, it said, "Describe Zazel."

Ca

To put off the answer until he could think of an acceptable one, Kickaha said, "What do you mean? Describe his physical features? His face? His height? The relative proportions of his limbs to his trunk? The color of his hair and eyes? Whether his ears were small or large? How big a nose he had and what its shape was?"

"Yes."

Kickaha breathed in deeply before speaking, hoping to suck in inspiration of mind as well as breath. He spoke loudly so the others could hear him clearly.

"Ah, well, he was shrouded in a mist so I couldn't make out his face clearly. The dead appearing in mists or not clearly to the dreamer is, as I've said before, a common phenomenon. Isn't that right, men?"

"Yes, indeed!"

"No doubt of it! It's been proven!"

"If Houdini were here, he'd tell you himself that it's true!"

"We Khringdiz had the same experiences!"

Kumas rose from his blankets, went across his cage, and screamed, "You're all crazy!" after which he lay down again.

Dingsteth said, "He invalidates your statements."

"Not at all," Red Orc called. "His mind is sliding down into insanity. You will have noticed that he said `all,' meaning everybody here, you included. You know you're not insane. The rest of us know we're sane.

Therefore, his statement is that of a mentally unhinged man and so does not coincide with reality."

"That seems reasonable," Dingsteth said. "I know that I am quite rational."

He spoke to Kickaha, "What did Zazel say?"

"First, he greeted me. He said, 'Niss Zatzel.' "

Wemathol groaned. He thought that the leblabbiy Earthman had really goofed up.

" `Niss Zatzel.' I didn't know what he meant. Then I realized that he was speaking the Thoan of his time. He was saying `I am Zazel' in the form of his tongue when he lived. Fortunately, the language has not changed that much. I could understand almost everything he said. When I couldn't, I could figure it out from the context. Also, his words did not come through the mists without some distortion, some muffling, too. Both the appearance of ghosts and their voices come through as if a slightly malfunctioning gate were transmitting them."