'No.' Dumarest reached the phone, spoke, put it down. As the flickering halted he said, 'All I want from you is one thing. I want to talk to a previous custodian of the Archives. The oldest one you have.'
Down in the deepest levels the air was chill, echoes muffled by absorbent padding, the light a dull, bluish glow. Resting in low-roofed compartments separated by thick walls the caskets of the Terridae stood like massive sarcophagi. The boxes were carved and ornamented with a host of figures and mystic symbols-abstract designs which held esoteric meaning, among them the signs of the zodiac.
This was the clue which had brought him to Zabul and now Dumarest waited as a technician worked at one of the caskets.
'We must give him time,' said Althea Hesford, as if guessing at his impatience. 'Shiro Gourvich is a very old man.'
Gourvich even now was lost in a world of entrancing dreams as he lay in the snug confines of his casket, experiencing illusions created by mental stimulation as his drugged body lay in the surrogate womb. For him time had been extended, his metabolism slowed, bodily functions served by sophisticated machinery. The box itself formed a miniature world, airtight, strong, containing its own power source and essential supplies. A fortress against the ravages of time.
'How much longer?' Dumarest looked at the technician. The box could only be opened from within either by intent or by time-lapse mechanisms unless special techniques were applied.
'He's old,' said the man, echoing Althea. 'And frail. If you want him alive you've got to give him time. I've triggered the operation and I guess he's coming out of it about now. A few more minutes and-' He grunted as the lid of the casket began to rise. 'I was wrong. He's awake now. You want me around?'
He left as Dumarest shook his head. The lid of the casket, now opened, revealed a padded interior and the frame and face of an old man within.
An
Old!
The sparse white hair was like gossamer, the face a canvas for endless lines, the mouth a bloodless slit, the eyes twin balls of flawed glass set deep within sunken sockets. The body itself, beneath a simple robe, was a thing of twigs and sticks and stringy muscle. The voice was like the rustle of leaves in early winter.
'Has it happened? The Event. Has it come?'
'Not yet.' Althea was gentle. 'How do you feel? Can you sit upright?'
'Of course.' Gourvich reared to clutch at the lowered side of the casket with bird-claw hands. 'I'm a little vague, that's all. I was young, you see, and Lynne was with me. There was a rolling meadow over which we ran and a lake and then beds of flowers in which we made endless love. Why did you wake me? I have the right to rest undisturbed until the coming of the Event. But you say it has not arrived.'
Dumarest said, 'I need your help.'
'Help? What help can I give you, young man? The strength of my arm?' The chuckle was as dry as the voice. 'A fly could break it. My skills? They are forgotten. My influence with the Council? It ended when they deemed me too old to face the routine wakenings. What can you want from me?'
'Your memories.'
'Of what? Lynne? Hilda? Others I have known?'
'Your memory and your skill,' said Dumarest patiently. He knew the shock of resurrection-the old man was bearing it well. 'Zabul needs your help.'
'Zabul? Are we in danger?'
'No,' said Althea quickly. 'It is a problem which needs to be solved and you are the best fitted to do it. Can you rise? Do you need a stimulant?'
'A little help.' The old man sagged in her supporting arms. 'It has been a long time, I think. Who now heads the Council?'
'Urich Volodya.'
'Volodya? Do I remember him?' The brow moved to change the pattern of creases, the eyes narrowing with the frown. 'Sergi?'
'Urich. Sergi was his father.'
'I knew him when he was a boy. And you, my dear?'
Gourvich looked at Althea. 'No. No, I don't remember you at all.'
She had probably been born after he had entered the casket as had Urich Volodya and how many others. Dumarest looked at the old man as he stood sipping the cordial Althea had brought with her, a heavy syrup containing strength-giving drugs to sharpen the mind and speed the slowed processes of the body. The chemicals would rob Gourvich of extended years but enable him to stiffen a little, to look more alert, to shake off some of the vagueness which had clothed him in the shredded webs of time.
Years, decades, centuries, millennia-how old could he be?
The young were needed to maintain Zabul and denied use of the caskets until they had reached thirty. Then they were permitted only intermittent use, woken at frequent intervals to maintain physical prowess and contact with reality. These periods lessened as they grew older, ceasing when, like Gourvich, they had nothing to offer the community.
A thousand years?
More?
It was possible-quick time reduced hours to seconds and the drugs used were more sophisticated, compounds which voyaging. Even allowing for a reduced efficiency and frequent wakings, Gourvich could be well over a thousand years old. Time enough for tissues to shrink and unused muscle to avoided the inherent dangers of those used during normal wither. Time, too, for memories to fade.
Dumarest considered this as he followed Althea and her charge to the elevator and up to the Archives where Vera Jamil was waiting. He caught her expression and recognized her resentment and jealousy and smiled as he guided the old man into a chair.
'We need your help, Vera, and I'm sure you won't refuse it. This is Shiro Gourvich. An early custodian. Shiro, this is Vera Jamil, your successor. If you ask her nicely she will make you some of her special tisane.'
'With althenus?'
'I prefer fredich,' she said. 'It has more flavor, but I'll make it with althenus if you want.'
'He wants,' said Dumarest. 'And I'd like to taste it too.' He saw her warm beneath his smile, as, turning to Althea, he said, 'You've done well. Perhaps you'd like to tell Urich of our progress? He's probably waiting for your report.'
He wanted her out of the way and she knew why. Knew too that if she objected he would insist and so add to the other woman's pleasure. But why did he have to pander to her? To order, surely, was enough.
An error Dumarest did not make. He had noted the extra perfume Vera was wearing, her eyes when she had seen him with Althea. Did she resent the rival or imagine herself to be slighted? It would take so little to negate his search for what he needed.
Now he said to Gourvich, 'Vera has performed a miracle in condensing the appropriate data in the Archives but something is missing and we need your help to find it. But first the tisane.' He waited until it had been served and tasted. 'Good?'
'Very good.' Gourvich inhaled the vapor rising from the cup and took another sip. 'Lynne used to make it like this. Did I tell you about Lynne? She and I burned in a mutual passion and-well, you know what it is to be young.'
And were learning what it was to be old and approaching senility. Life could be extended but even with the mental stimulus provided the glands grew out of synchronization with the rest of the body, thoughts jumped wider gaps, made new neuron paths in the cortex. The line between fact and fantasy grew blurred and time became impacted so the memory of childhood became stronger than that of yesterday.
Gourvich seemed to be aware of this. He said quietly, 'I am not what I was. If this were the Event I should bathe in magic pools and become young again, but you woke me too early. I do not thank you for that. The price of this tisane could be my immortality.'
'We didn't mean-'
'No!' Dumarest cut the woman short. 'No apologies. We offer you the Event and soon. The next time you wake could be on Earth.'
