The Myst Reader (68 page)

THEY SPENT HOURS, IT SEEMED. JUST GOING
from room to room in the great mansion that was built into the rock of K’veer, Veovis delighting in showing Anna every nook and cranny.

At first Anna had been wary, but as time went on she seemed to succumb to the young Lord’s natural charm, and Aitrus, looking on, found himself relaxing.

As they climbed the final flight of steps that led onto the veranda at the top of the island, Aitrus found himself wondering how he could ever have worried about these two not getting along.

“The stone seemed fused,” Anna was saying, as they came out through the low arch and into the open again. “It is almost as if it has been melted and then molded.”

“That is
precisely
what has happened,” Veovis answered her with an unfeigned enthusiasm. “It is a special D’ni process, the secret of which is known only to the guilds concerned.”

They stepped out, into the center of the veranda. There was a tiled roof overhead, but the view was open now on all four sides. All about them the lake stretched away, while in the distance they could see the great twisted rock of Ae’Gura and, to its right, the city.

They were high up here, but the great walls of the cavern stretched up far above them, while overhead there were faint clouds, like feathered cirrus. Anna laughed.

“What is it?” Veovis asked.

“It’s just that I keep thinking I am outside. Oh, the light is very different, but … well, it’s just so big.”

Veovis looked to Aitrus and smiled, then gestured toward a group of lounging chairs that rested at one end of the veranda.

“Shall we sit here for a while? I can have the servants bring us something.”

“That would be nice,” Anna said, looking to Aitrus and smiling.

As Veovis went to arrange refreshments, Anna and Aitrus sat.

“He’s very pleasant,” she said quietly. “I can understand why he is your friend.”

“So you’ve forgiven him?”

“Forgiven him?”

“For scowling at you.”

“Ah …” Anna laughed. “Long ago.”

Aitrus smiled. “I’m glad, you know.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I wanted you to be friends. It would have been hard otherwise.”

Anna frowned. “I didn’t know.”

“I …”

He fell silent. Veovis had returned. The young Lord came across and, taking the chair between them, looked from one to another.

His eyes settled on Anna. “Can I be honest with you, Ah-na?”

Anna looked up. “Honest? In what way?”

Veovis grinned. “We are alike, you and I. We are both straightforward people.” He looked pointedly at Aitrus. “
Blunt
, some call it. But let me say this. I was not disposed to like you. Indeed, I was prepared to actively
dislike
you. But I must speak as I find, and I find that I like you very much.”

She gave the smallest little nod. “Why, thank you, Lord Veovis.”

“Oh, do not thank me, Ah-na. I did not
choose
to like you. But like you I do. And so we can be friends. But I must make one or two things clear. I am D’ni. And I am jealous of all things D’ni. We are a great and proud people. Remember that, Ah-na. Remember that at all times.”

Anna stared at him a moment, surprised by that strange and sudden coldness in him, then answered him.

“And I, my Lord, am human, and proud of being so. Remember
that
,” she smiled pointedly, “at all times.”

Veovis sat back, his eyes studying Anna thoughtfully. Then, more cheerfully than before, he smiled and slapped his knees. “Well … let us forget such somber stuff. Aitrus … how go the plans for the new cavern?”

ON THE JOURNEY HOME ANNA WAS SILENT
, locked in private thoughts. Aitrus, sitting across from her, felt more than ever how alien their worlds were. What, after all, did they really know about each other?

“Ah-na?”

She looked up, a deep melancholy in her eyes. “Yes?”

“What would you like to do?”

Anna turned her head, staring out across the lake. “I’d like to understand it all, that’s what. To know where all the food comes from. It mystifies me. It’s like something’s missing and I can’t see what it is.”

“And you want me to tell you what it is?”

She looked to him. “Yes, I do. I want to know what the secret is.”

He smiled. “This evening,” he said mysteriously, sitting back and folding his arms. “I’ll take you there this evening.”

AITRUS UNLOCKED THE DOOR, THEN STOOD BACK.

“You want me to go inside?”

He nodded.

Anna shrugged. She had noticed the door before now. It had always been locked, and she had assumed it was a store cupboard of some kind. But inside it was a normal room, except that in the middle of the floor was a marble plinth, and on the plinth was an open book—a huge, leatherbound book.

Anna looked to Aitrus. “What is this room?”

Aitrus locked the door then turned to her again. “This is the Book Room.”

“But there is only one book.”

He nodded, then, with a seriousness she had not expected, said, “You must tell no one that you came here. Not even my mother and father. Do you understand?”

“Are we doing something wrong?”

“No. Yet it may be forbidden.”

“Then perhaps …”

“No, Ah-na. If you are to live here, you must understand. You have too simple a view of who we are. It …
disfigures
your understanding of us.”

Disfigures.
It was a strange word to use. Anna stared at him, then shook her head. “You frighten me, Aitrus.”

Aitrus stepped up to the plinth and stared down at the book fondly.

Anna stepped alongside him, looking down at the open pages. The left-hand page was blank, but on the right …

Anna gasped. “It’s like a window.”

“Yes,” he said simply. “Now give me your hand.”

ANNA FELT THE SURFACE OF HER PALM TINGLE
, then, with a sudden, sickening lurch, she felt herself drawn into the page. It grew even as she shrank, sucking her into the softly glowing image.

For a moment it was as if she were melting, fusing with the ink and paper, and then, with a suddenness that was shocking, she was herself again, in her own body.

Only she was no longer in the room.

The air was fresh and heavy with pollen. A faint breeze blew from the shelf of rock just in front of her. And beyond it …

Beyond it was a vividly blue sky.

Her mouth fell open in astonishment, even as Aitrus shimmered into solidity beside her.

He put his hand out, holding her arm as a wave of giddiness swept over her. She would have fallen but for him. Then it passed and she looked at him again, her words an awed whisper.

“Where are we?”

“Ko’ah,” he said. “This is my family’s Age.”

ANNA STOOD ON THE TOP OF THE ESCARPMENT
, looking out over a rich, verdant landscape that took her breath away, it was so beautiful. Flat, rolling pasture was broken here and there by tiny coppices, while close by the foot of the hill on which she stood, a broad, slow-moving river wound its way out across the plain, small grassy moundlike islands embedded like soft green jewels in its sunlit surface.

To her right a line of mountains marched into the distance, birds circling in the clear blue sky above them.

Sunlight beat down on her neck and shoulders; not the fierce, destructive heat of the desert but a far softer, more pleasant warmth.

“Well?” Aitrus asked, from where he sat, just behind her, staring out through the strange, heavy glasses that he now wore. “What do you think of Ko’ah?”

Anna turned, looking back at him. “I think you have enchanted me. Either that or I am still in bed and dreaming.”

Aitrus reached out and plucked a nearby flower, then handed it to her. She took the pale blue bud and lifted it to her nose, inhaling its rich, perfumed scent.

“Are your dreams as
real
as this?”

She laughed. “No.” Then, more seriously, “You said you would explain.”

Reaching into his pocket, Aitrus took out a small, leather-bound book. He stared at it a moment, then handed it to her.

“Is this another of those books?” she asked, opening it and seeing that it contained D’ni writing.

“It is. But different from the one we used to come here. This book links back to D’ni. It is kept here, in the small cave we went to.

“The words in that book describe the place to which we link back—the study in my family’s mansion in D’ni. It was
written
there. Without it we would be trapped here.”

“I see,” she said, staring at the thin volume with new respect. “But where exactly are we? Are we in the pages of a book, or are we actually
somewhere?
”

His smile was for her quickness. “There is, perhaps, some way of calculating precisely where we are—by the night-time stars, maybe—but all that can be said for certain is that we are elsewhere. In all likelihood, we are on the other side of the universe from D’ni.”

“Impossible.”

“You could say that. But look about you, Anna. This world is the Age that is described in the book back in the room in D’ni. It conforms
precisely
to the details in that book. In an infinite universe, all things are possible—within physical limits, that is—and any book that
can
be written
does
physically exist. Somewhere. The book is the bridge between the words and the physical actuality. Word and world are linked by the special properties of the book.”

“It sounds to me like magic.”

Aitrus smiled. “Maybe. But we have long since stopped thinking of it as such. Writing such books is a difficult task. One cannot simply write whatever comes into one’s head. There are strict rules and guidelines, and the learning of those rules is a long and arduous business.”

“Ah,” she said. “I understand now.”

“Understand what?”

“What you said about Writers. I thought …” Anna laughed. “You know, Aitrus, I would never have guessed. Never in a thousand years. I thought you D’ni were a dour, inward-looking people. But this … well … you are true visionaries!”