The End of All Songs

She looked up and met his eyes. She smiled briefly before speaking to his father: "And now, Lord Jagged — the alternative."

"It is within my power," said Jagged, responding to her briskness, "to send you into the future."

She became instantly guarded again. "Future? There is none."

"Not for this world — and there will be none at all, when this week has passed. But we are still capable of moving back and forth in the conventional time-cycle — just for the next seven days. When I say 'the future' I mean, of course, 'the past' — I can send you forward to the Palaeozoic, as I originally hoped. You would go forward and therefore not be at all subject to Morphail's Law. There is a slight danger, though I would not say much. Once in the Palaeozoic you would not be able to return to this world and, moreover, you would become mortal."

"As Olympians sent to Earth," she said.

"And denied your god-like powers," he added. "The rings will not work in the Palaeozoic, as you already know. You would have to build your own shelters, grow and hunt your own food. There are no material advantages at all, though you would have the advice and help of the Time Centre, doubtless, if it remains. That, I must remind you, is subject to the Morphail Effect. If you intended to bear children…"

"It would be unthinkable that I should not," she told him firmly.

"…you would not have the facilities you have known in 1896. There would be a risk, though probably slight, of disease."

"We should be able to take tools, medicines and so forth?"

"Of course. But you would have to learn to use them."

"Writing materials?"

"An excellent idea. There would be no problem, I think I have an Enquire Within and a How Things Work somewhere."

"Seeds?"

"You would be able to grow most things — and think how they would proliferate, with so little competition. In a few hundred years' time, before your death almost certainly, what a peculiar ecology would develop upon the Earth! Millions of years of evolution would be bypassed. There is time-travel for you, if you like!"

"Time to create a race almost entirely lacking in primitive instincts — and without need of them!"

"Hopefully."

She addressed Jherek, who was having difficulty coming to grips with the point of the conversation. "It would be our trust. Remember what we discussed, Jherek, dear? A combination of my sense of duty and your sense of freedom?"

"Oh, yes!" He spoke brightly, breathlessly, as he did his best to assimilate it all.

"What splendid children they could be!"

"Oh, indeed!"

"It will be a trial for you, too," said Jagged gently.

"Compared with the trials we have already experienced, Lord Jagged, the ones to come will be as nothing."

The familiar smile touched his lips. "You are optimistic."

"Given a grain of hope," she said. "And you offer much more." Her grey eyes fixed on him. "Was this always part of your plan?"

"Plan? Call it my own small exercise in optimism."

"Everything that has happened recently — it might have been designed to have led up to this."

"Yes, I suppose that's true." He looked at his son. "I could be envious of you, my boy."

"Of me? For what, Father?"

Jagged was contemplating Amelia again. His voice was distant, perhaps a touch sad. "Oh, for many things…"

The Iron Orchid put down an unfinished walnut. "They have no time-machine," she said tartly. "And they have not the training to travel without one."

"I have Bra

"I am not sure that life in the Palaeozoic is entirely to my taste," said Jherek. "I would leave so many friends behind, you see."

"And you would age, dear," added the Orchid. "You would grow infirm. I ca

"You said that we should have several hundred years, Lord Jagged?" Amelia began to rise.

"You would have a life-span about the same as Methusalah's, at a guess. Your genes are already affected, and then there would be the prevailing conditions. I think you would have time to grow old quite gracefully — and see several generations follow you."

"That is worthwhile immortality, Jherek," she said to him. "To become immortal through one's children."

"I suppose so…"

"And those children would become your friends," added his father. "As we are friends, Jherek."

"You would not come with us?" He had so recently gained this father, he could not lose him so soon.

"There is another alternative. I intend to take that."

"Could not we…?"

"It would be impossible. I am an inveterate time-traveller, my boy. I ca

"You gave us the impression there was nothing left to explore," said Amelia.

"But if one goes beyond the End of Time, one might experience the begi

"I was not aware…" began the Orchid.

"I shall have to go alone," he said.

"Ah, well. I was becoming bored with marriage. After today, anyway, it could scarcely be called a novelty!"

Amelia went to stand beside a rock, staring landwards.

Jherek said to Jagged: "It would mean that we should be parted forever, then — you and I, Jagged."

"As to that, it depends upon my fate and what I learn in my explorations. It is possible that we shall meet. But it is not probable, my boy."

"It would make Amelia happy," said Jherek.

"And I would be happy," Lord Jagged told him softly. "Knowing that, whatever befalls me, you and yours will go on."

Amelia wheeled round at this. "Your motives are clear at last, Lord Jagged."

"If you say so, Amelia." From a sleeve he produced pale yellow roses and offered them to her. "You prefer to see me as a man moved entirely by self-interest. Then see me so!" He bowed as he presented the bouquet.

"It is how you justify your decisions, I think," She accepted the flowers.

"Oh, you are probably right."

"You will say nothing, even now, of your past?"

"I have no past." His smile was self-mocking. "Only a future. Even that is not certain,"

"I believe," said Jherek suddenly, "that I weary of ambiguity. At least, at the Begi

"Very little," she said, coming to him. "Our love could flourish, Jherek dear."

"We would be truly husband and wife?"

"It would be our moral duty." Her smile held unusual merriment. "To perpetuate the race, my dear."

"We could have a ceremony?"

"Perhaps, Lord Jagged —"

"I should be glad to officiate. I seem to remember that I have civil authority, as a Registrar…"

"It would have to be a civil ceremony," she said.

"We shall be your Adam and Bede after all, Jagged!" Jherek put his arm around his Amelia's waist. "And if we keep the machine, perhaps we could visit the future, just to see how it progressed, eh?"

Lord Jagged shook his head. "If you go further forward, once you have stopped, you will immediately become subject to the Morphail Effect again. Therefore time travel will be impossible. You will be creating your future, but if you ever dare try to find out what the future will be like, then it will almost certainly cease to exist. You will have to reconcile yourself to making the most of one lifetime in one place. Amelia can teach you that." He stroked his chin. "There will be something in the genes, I suppose. And you already know much about the nature of Time. Ultimately a new race of time-travellers could exist, not subject to the Morphail Effect. It might mean the abolition of Time, as we have understood it up to now. And Space, too, would assume, therefore, an entirely different character. The experiment might mean —"