proved useless in a confrontation with the therapist Schoptomov, and no wizard had recognized its virtue. Yet, now his attention was drawn to the thing, the obvious conclusion was that it was the mazadath which had preserved his life when he ventured into the Cave of the Warp.
For all he knew, it might well be preserving his life right now.
'I know the thing by its name,' said Guest slowly, 'but I know no reason why I should be called a murderer on account of being in its possession.'
'You know where it came from!' said the Lobos.
In the face of this accusation, Guest bravely acknowledged the truth.
'Why, yes, I do,' said Guest. 'The mazadath is a thing taken from the body of a dorgi. But a dorgi is nothing but an iron dog.
It is a machine, a technic, a device. That's all.'
'A dorgi!' said the Lobos, with invincible scorn. 'Is that where you think that thing came from? Do you really expect me to believe that for so much as half a heartbeat?'
'Why, yes, I do,' said Guest, with some heat, 'for it is the truth.'
'The truth!' said the Lobos. 'Is that really what you believe? Well, bless my toes! I think you do!'
'It is the truth as I have been told it,' said Guest stubbornly. 'This – this trifle is a piece of a dorgi. I got it as a present. A wedding present. A present from my wife.'
'A wedding present!' said the Lobos in fury. 'You chop up bodies then make presents of their pieces!'
'I chopped up nothing!' protested Guest. 'There was a dorgi, an old one, it fell to pieces, and this was what was left.'
The Lobos chewed over that claim in silence, then said:
'So. You really don't know.'
'I am but a poor barbarian from the north of Tameran,' said Guest bitterly. 'I know scalping and killing and fighting and torturing. Oh, and sex customs, any ethnologist could tell you that, us barbarians have got plenty of sex customs. But as for what you're on about, why, I couldn't begin to understand it. This is a bit of a dorgi, that's all I know, and I don't know why you should be so upset about it.'
'I was upset,' said the Lobos, now sounding sad rather than angry, 'because the thing which you have about your neck is a thing stolen from one of the Zelamith. Know you the Zelamith?'
'I have never heard of them,' said Guest.
'The Zelamith,' said the Lobos, 'were a race of whispering dragons which lived in the places which do not exist, the places which lie between cosmos and cosmos. For each of the Zelamith there was a mazadath. And a mazadath, dear child of man, a mazadath is a token of identity. In vulgar parlance, a mazadath is a soul. It is like a harp: as the harp is nothing on its own, yet comes to life when in concord with the harpist, so the mazadath is nothing on its own, yet comes to life when in a synergetic relationship with one of the Zelamith. The Zelamith were slaughtered by the Shining Ones, the Vangelis, who butchered them, then sold their souls to humankind for trifles.'
'For what purpose?' said Guest. 'I mean, why would people buy these things?'
'To allow people and machines to survive in zones of instability,' said the Lobos. 'Were you not in possession of the mazadath, then the Mahendo Mahunduk would have taken you in the Cave of the Warp. Were you not in possession of the mazadath, then you would have smoked away to nothing right in front of me.'
'Is that – is that what usually happens to the people who come here?' said Guest.
'Usually,' said the Lobos.
'And, uh, the unusual people?' said Guest.
'There is a way out of here,' said the Lobos. 'I take it you do have some idea where you are?'
'Why, yes,' said Guest. 'I'm at the back of a cave in the Shackle Mountains.'
'No!' said the Lobos, obviously distressed. 'Don't you know anything?'
'It seems not,' said Guest. 'If I'm not in the Shackle Mountains, then where am I?'
'You,' said the Lobos, with heavy emphasis, 'are very much in the World Beyond.'Guest tried to absorb this. Did it mean he was dead? He certainly didn't feel dead.
'You don't understand,' said the Lobos.
'What makes you say that?' said Guest.
'Your silence says it all,' said the Lobos. 'Listen. The world in which you live is but a bubble of invention afloat in the great seas of Probability. Now you are outside that bubble. You have entered a much greater realm of existence where, technically speaking, you are not equipped to exist.'
'Then, uh, how do I leave?' said Guest.
'Look around you,' said the Lobos. 'Some of the things of your world have a partial existence of sorts even here in the World Beyond. You see that violet light over there? No, no, to your left, look to your left!'Guest looked, and did make out a dull violet light place half a league or so in the distance, and said as much.
'That,' said the Lobos, 'is the local star which lights your home planet. I would, by the way, strongly advise you against interfering with it. Now. Watch.'
'Watch what?' said Guest.
In response, several dozen dull red hoops began to glow in the dark. They were scattered in all directions, none close enough to touch, but none further than a slingshot's distance from where he stood.
'How did you do that?' said Guest.
'Ah,' said the Lobos, sounding very pleased with itself. 'A slight rearrangement of the nature of time and space, that's all.'
'Then,' said Guest, 'are you a god, that you should be playing tricks with time and space?'
'I'm not a god,' said the Lobos. 'I'm a Lobos. The Lobos.
I've told you that all ready. A Lobos is not a man, god, devil or demon. It's a category in its own right.'
'But – '
'Is a cow a cuttlefish?' said the Lobos. 'Well?'
'No,' said Guest.
'So,' said the Lobos, 'when you go to the seashore, will you start calling the cuttlefish a cow simply because you haven't any other word for it?'
'What do you know of the sea?' said Guest.
'I know most things about most things,' said Lobos, 'though you are something new in my experience, because in all my life I've never met anyone as ignorant as you before.'
Very much stung by this, Guest started to lose his temper. He struggled to control himself, suspecting that this was no time to be playing the beserker.
'All right,' said Guest. 'So you're a Lobos, I'll concede that much gladly. Not a cow nor a cuttlefish, but a Lobos. So. So what are those hoop-things?'
'Those,' said the Lobos, 'are the Doors of the Circles of your world.'
'Doors?' said Guest. 'You mean, like the Doors of the Partnership Banks?'
'Ah!' said the Lobos. 'So it does know something! It's not as ignorant as it acts! Yes, those are the Doors.'
'But,' protested Guest, 'there's, there's uh, maybe a hundred, maybe more.'
'Yes,' said the Lobos. 'And you can exit through any of them.'
'But, uh, how will I know which one to choose?' said Guest.
'You can look through them,' said the Lobos. 'Or, if you have a special one in mind, I can pick it out for you.'Guest thought about it.
Thinking made him feel more than a little bit dizzy.
'If I leave,' said Guest, 'can I come back again?'
'Only by again venturing through the Veils of Fire in the Cave of the Warp,' said the Lobos.
'So,' said Guest. 'So I've got to choose. Uh. Well. There's Dalar ken Halvar. Uh. I've got a wife there. Or I did have, but where she's got to I've no idea. Then. Safrak. Alozay, I mean.
There's a Door there. I suppose my father's still in charge. But, really, it's the star-globe, that's what I really want.'
'Star-globe?' said the Lobos. Guest explained.
'The device which controls the Doors of the Circle of the Partnership Banks is currently in Chi'ash-lan,' said the Lobos.
