The Gates of Creation

XVI

THE CAGE WAS TEN FEET BY TEN. IT WAS FURNISHED ONLY WITH A thin blanket on the floor, a pipe for drinking water, a hole for excre­tion, and an automatic food dispenser. The man within it was very tall and very thin. He had the face of a bearded and starved falcon. His hair fell down his back to his calves, and his beard hung below his knees. The black hairs were threaded with gray, by which Wolff knew that his father had been a long time in the cage. Even after the so-called immortality drugs were cut off, their effect lasted for years.

Urizen advanced towards the bars but he was careful not to touch them. Wolff warned the others back in a low voice. He walked up to the bars as if he meant to grip them. Urizen watched him with deep-sunken and feverish eyes but did not open his mouth. A few inches from the bars, Wolff stopped and said, "Do you still hate us so much, Father, that you would let us die?"

He raked the bars with the tip of an arrow; veins of light ran over the metal.

Urizen smiled grimly and spoke in a hollow, pain-shot voice, "Touching the bars is only painful, not fatal. Ah, Jadawin, you were always a fox! No one but you could have gotten this far. No one but you and your sister, Vala, and perhaps Red Orc."

"So she did evade all your traps and snared the snarer," Wolff said. "She is indeed a remarkable woman, my sister."

"Where is she?" Urizen asked. "Did she die this time? I know that she was with you because she told me what she intended to do."

"She is in the palace and still to be reckoned with," Wolff said. "All this time, she had us convinced that you were in the Seat of Power. She was playing with us, sharing our dangers, pretending to be our ally. I suspected her of working with you, but this ... I never dreamed of."

"I am doomed," Urizen said. "I ca

"I would be lying if I said I was sorry, and you know it," Wolff said. "You are getting what you deserve."

"Moral lectures from you, Jadawin!" Urizen said. His eyes blazed with the old fire, and Wolff felt something within him quail. The dread of his father had not died yet.

"I heard that you had changed much since your life on Earth, but I could not believe it. Now I know it is true."

"I did not come here to argue with you," Wolff said. "There is lit­tle time for talk left, anyway. Tell me, Father, how we can get to the control room safely. If you want vengeance, you must tell us. Vala is loose again and probably in the control room right now."

Urizen said, "Why should I tell you anything? I am going to die, but I will at least have the pleasure of knowing that you, Rintrah, Luvah, and Theotormon will die with me."

"Does it give you pleasure to know that Vala will triumph? That she will live on? That your body, too, will be stuffed and mounted in the trophy hall?"

Urizen smiled bitterly. "If I tell you what you want, then Vala might die, but you would live. It is a loathsome choice to make. Ei­ther way, I lose."

"You may hate us," Wolff said, "but we have never done anything to you. Yet Vala..."

Theotormon said, "The seas will soon be flooding this level. Then we all die. And Vala, safe in her control room, will laugh. And she will take whatever vengeance she has been pla

Wolff felt helpless. He could not threaten Urizen to make him talk. What more could he do to him than had been done?

He said, "Let's go. We can't waste any more time." To Urizen, he said, "Good-bye forever, Father. You must die and soon. You hold revenge against Vala in your heart, and if you would unlock your lips, you would get it. But hatred blinds you and makes you rob yourself."

Urizen called after them, "Wait!"

Eagerly, Wolff returned to the cage. Urizen licked his lips and said, "If I tell you, will you do me one favor?"

"I can't free you, Father," Wolff said. "You know we have no time to figure out how to do it. Moreover, even if I could, I wouldn't. I would kill you before I would loose you upon the world."

"The favor I trade is exactly that," Urizen said. "Death. I am suffering agonies, my son. My pride forbade me to say so until now. But one more minute of this life seems like a thousand years to me. If it were not for my pride, I would have gone down on my knees be­fore you long ago, would have begged you to put me out of my tor­ture. That I would never do. Urizen does not beg. But a trade, that is another thing."

"I agree," Wolff said. "An arrow between the bars will do it."

Urizen whispered and in a few words told them what they needed to know. He had just finished when there was laughter at the far end of the room. Wolff whirled to see Vala walking towards them. He fitted an arrow to a bow-string, knowing as he did so that Vala would not have shown herself unless she felt sufficiently protected.

Then he saw through Vala to the wall behind her and knew that it was a projection. He hoped that she had not also overheard Urizen. If she had, she would be able to do what she wished with them.

"I could not have done better if I had pla

"And I will be leaving this planet and this universe and may then trap the surviving brother, and my beloved sister, Anana. Only I will rest for a while and amuse myself with your Chryseis."

"You have failed so far, and you will continue to fail!" Wolff shouted. "Even if you kill us, you will not live long to enjoy your tri­umph! You know about the etsfagwo poison of the natives of the waterworld, don't you? How it can be served in food and leaves no taste? How it goes through the veins and stays there for a long time with no ill effect? And then it suddenly reacts and doubles the victim up in terrible pain that lasts for hours? And how there is no antidote?

"Well, Vala, I suspected you of treachery. So I had the etsfagwo put in your supper last night. It will soon take hold of you, Vala, and then you will not be able to laugh about us."

Wolff had not done this and until this moment had not even thought of doing so. But he was determined that if he died, Vala would pay for it with some hours of mental anguish.

The image screamed with fury and desperation. It said, "You are lying, Jadawin! You would not do this; you could not! You are just trying to scare me!"

"You will know whether I tell the truth or not in a very short time!" Wolff shouted. He turned to shoot the arrow through the bars of the cage to fulfill his promise to Urizen. As he shifted, he saw Vala's image flicker out of existence. Immediately thereafter, a green foam spurted out of hidden pipes in the ceiling. It shot down with great force, spread out, rose to the knees of the Lords, and set them to coughing with its acrid fumes. Wolff's eyes watered, and he bent over. He leaned down to pick up the bow and arrow which he had dropped. The fumes made him cough even more violently.

Suddenly, the foam was to his neck. He struggled to get through it and to the door at the far end, although there might be another trap waiting there. The foam rose above his head. He held his breath while he put his air-mask on. Then he lifted it a little from his face and blew out the foam it had collected. He hoped the others had enough presence of mind to think of their masks.

Within a few steps of the exit, he felt the foam begin to harden. He strove against it, pushing as hard as he could. It continued to resist him, to reduce his progress to a very slow motion. Abruptly, the foam became a jelly and the green opacity cleared away. He was caught like a fly in amber.