Night of Light

“What is to prevent Algul from being killed by one of his Fathers?” asked Carmody.

Even in the violet light, he could see the men of the second group turn pale. They looked at each other. “Though he is a baby who must be fed and have his diapers changed, Algul is yet a god,” said Tand. “That is, being a god, he is the sum and essence of the spirit of those who created him. And, as most men wish for immortality, he, representing them, is immortal. That is, he would live forever if his creators did, too. But, being evil, he ca

“This is all very fine,” said Carmody. “Why, then, does Yess, the supposedly good god, also age and die?”

The men of Algul laughed, and their leader said, “Well spoken, Earthman.”

Patiently, as if talking to a child, Tand replied, “Yess, though a god, is also a man, a being of flesh and blood. As such he is limited, and he works within the bounds set for flesh and blood. Like all men, he must die. Furthermore, he is the sum and essence of the predominating spirit of the people who lived at the time he was born—or created, whichever term you prefer. Those who Sleep have as much to do with the formation and tempering of his body and spirit as we seven Wakers do. The Sleepers dream, and the collective force of their dreaming decides which god shall be born during the Night, and also what his spirit—or what you call his personality—shall be. If the inclination of the people who Sleep has been toward evil during the years preceding the Night, then it is likely that Algul will be born. If toward good, then it is likely that Yess will be born. We would-be Fathers are not actually the determining factors. We are the agents, and the Sleepers, the two billion people of our world, are the will.”

Tand paused, stared hard at Carmody as if trying to impress his sincerity upon him, and said, “I will be frank. You are so important partly because you are an Earthman; a man from another star. Only lately have we Kareenans become very much aware of alien religions, of what their existence implies. We have become aware that the Great Mother, or God, or the Prime Cause, or whatever you wish to term the Creator of the universe, is not restricted in Her interest to our little cloud of dust, that She has scattered Her creatures everywhere.

“Therefore, the Sleepers, knowing that man is not alone, that he has blood-brothers everywhere that life may be, outward to infinity and to eternity, wish to have as a Father one of these strangers from the stars. Yess, reborn, will not be the old Yess. He will be as different from the old man who died, his predecessor, as any baby is from his father. He will be, we hope, part alien, because of his alien heritage. And during his princehood over us, he will enable us to understand and become one with these strangers from the stars, and we will be better men because of him and his heritage. That is one reason, Carmody, why we desire you.”

Tand pointed at his Enemies.

“And these six want you also as seventh, but not for quite the same reason. If you are one of the Fathers of Algul, then perhaps Algul may extend his dominion past this planet and to the stars: And they, through Algul, will share in this cosmic loot.”

Carmody felt hope—and craving—surge within him, bringing him strength from somewhere in his exhausted flesh. To take for yourself the richest planets, as you would the biggest diamonds for a necklace! String them on a cord of space and wear them around your neck! With the vast powers he would undoubtedly have as Algul’s regent, he could do anything! Nothing barred!

It was then that the second group must have decided that the right moment had come, for they suddenly launched at him the collective force of their feelings. And he, being wide open, reeled beneath them.

Dark, dark, dark...

Ecstasy...

He, John Carmody, would be forever John Carmody as he now knew him, inviolate, strong, defiant, bending or destroying anything in the way of what he wanted. No danger here of his changing, of becoming something other than what he now was. Body, mind, and soul, he would in the flame of this dark ecstasy become hard as a diamond, resisting all change, permanent, forever John Carmody. The race of man might die around him, suns grow cold, planets slow and fall into their parent suns, but he, John Carmody, would travel outwards with the expanding universe, landing upon freshly born planets, living there until they grew old and died, then setting out again. And always and forever himself, today and tomorrow, unchanging, the same hard-and-bright-as-a-diamond John Carmody.

Then the first group opened themselves up. But instead of launching at him their concentrated essence, like a spear, they merely lowered the wall and allowed him to attack or do whatever he wished. There was not the slightest hint of assault or force, nor the feeling the fathers of Algul gave of withholding something deep within themselves in reserve. They were wide open and transparent to the depths of their beings.

John Carmody could no more resist attacking than a hungry tiger who sees a goat tethered to a tree.

Light, light, light...

Ecstasy...

But not the hardening, setting-for-ever ecstasy of the others. This was threatening, frightening, for it exploded him, dissolved, sent him flying in a thousand bits outward.

Screaming silently, in mental anguish, he tried to collect the hundred thousand fragments, to bring them back, fused again into the image of the old John Carmody. The pain of destroying himself was unendurable.

Pain? It was the same as the ecstasy. How could pain and ecstasy be the same thing?

He didn’t know. All he did know was that he had recoiled from the six of Yess. Their lack of walls was their defense. Not for anything would he again attack them. Destroy John Carmody?

“Yes,” said Tand, though Carmody had not spoken. “You must die first; you must dissolve that image of the old John Carmody, and build a new image, a better one, just as the newly born Yess will be better than the old god who died.”

Abruptly, Carmody turned from both groups and reaching in his pocket, drew out the switchknife. His thumb pressed the button in the handle and the blade shot out like a blue-gray tongue, like the tongue of the snake that had bitten him.

There was but one way to get loose from the bronze jaws.

He did it.

It hurt, but not so badly as he thought it would. Nor did he bleed as much as he had expected. He mentally ordered the blood vessels to close. And they, like flowers at the approach of night, obeyed.

But the work of sawing through flesh and bone left him panting as if he’d run several kilometers. His legs trembled, and the faces below him blurred, and ran into two broad white featureless faces. He couldn’t last long.

The leader of the men of Algul stepped forward and held out his arms. “Jump, Carmody,” he called joyfully. “Jump! I will catch you; my arms are strong. Then we will scatter this weak, sniveling brood, and go to the temple and there—“

“Wait!”

The woman’s voice, coming from behind them, loud and commanding, yet at the same time musical, froze them.

He looked up, over the heads of the men.

Mary.

Mary, alive and whole again, as he had seen her before he emptied his gun into her face. Unchanged, except for one thing. Her belly was swollen enormously; it had grown since he had last seen her and was now ripe to give birth to the life within her.

The leader of the men of Algul said to Carmody, “Who is this Earth woman?”

Carmody, standing on the edge of the base, ready to leap down, hesitated and opened his mouth to reply. But Tand spoke first.