captain. To be such, one must speak with all who soar. And I am counted with the quickest. My memory is almost perfect. I can learn in a few sleeps what takes a common mason hundreds. And there is more. You have traded thoughts with the outcast, Melizar. Many lithosoars fear that he will return. It is worth the effort to talk so that I might learn.'
Ponzar closed his eyes in thought. 'I no longer trust the others,' he said. 'I do not believe the silvered words they flash by mirror. The more I can speak of your lithon, the more Valdroz will pay me honor when we meet to trade. Also, it is to your worth to tell me all. You will last longer if others think you have value more than common marrow.'
'I seek knowledge as well,' Jemidon said. 'Tell me of Melizar. What are his powers? What has he done?'
'You are only the bounty of the skies,' Ponzar replied softly. 'You do not have the honor to question those who harvest what has been provided by the great right hand.' He twirled the shovel through several full circles. 'And I do not know if your words are true. If you are not another of Melizar's manipulants. Sent back to help his return. A manipulant of one people who resonates with the pilot of another.'
'But I may be of help,' Jemidon said. 'I have deduced two metalaws. Melizar hinted that there is a third. If I know them all, I might be able to thwart his plans.'
Ponzar threw back his head, and the small cavern echoed with his tinkly laugh. 'You against Melizar. You, who have not been excluded. Against the one who piloted a course with nine changes in the laws. Even old Utothaz, may the right hand make his bones tasty, could not keep the coupling tight. Keep it tight if Melixar chose to break it. Speak, by your own telling, you have faced his power. How well did you fare?'
Jemidon frowned and waved his arm in irritation. 'If Melizar is so powerful, how did he become an outcast?'
'He is the greatest of the pilots,' Ponzar said. 'The first among the first. No one in the 'hedron says it is not so. But he reached too far. He studied his craft above all else. Studied it instead of the greater needs of the Skyskirr, of our people.'
Ponzar looked toward the sky. 'Each lithon must have its turn. It is the way of the great right hand. Every sphere, no matter how small, has the right to unlock the laws. The right to change which of the minerals have the force of attraction and repulsion. The right to choose which are without power like common rock. Each must be allowed to avoid collision. Each to harvest from the larger, to explore where no other has gone.
'But Melizar had eyes only for the others. Eyes for the strange laws which have nothing to do with the walls of the 'hedron or the stones of power. He would decouple the binding when there was no need, demanding many strange rituals until he discovered what would move the laws to other vertices of the lattice.
'Each uncoupling made him stronger. More able to force a translation, if other pilots wished it or not. And every new vertex, each pebble of knowledge, increased his hunger for more. His thoughts became less and less about the soaring of the Skyskirr. For his own lithon, he planned fewer and fewer courses. To his own captain he would not answer. Except for his manipulants, he cared for none at all.
'Finally, his perturbations conflicted with another's. A conflict, even though there was no real need. Azaber's lithosoar was in trouble. They wished to close with a watery orb and break a long drought. But the lodestone, yellow orphiment, was with power at the time. And both the wet sphere and their own lithon carried the negative type. With strong force, they were being repulsed. Azaber's manipulants saw boulders of rusty cairngorm on the orb. The positive kind, opposite to their own. If their pilot could shift to give the brown stone its power while turning off that of the yellow, then they could converge in time.
'And so the manipulants signaled by mirrors to all the lithons. All others agreed not to work the craft until Azaber's pilot was done. A common enough request. When one is far away from other lithons and moving swiftly, it does not matter which of the laws are in effect.'
The Skyskirr twirled his shovel and pounded it on the ground. 'All agreed, that is, except Melizar. His sphere was one of the largest, a huge lithofloat, far grander than the one that soon we will see. And he had thoughts only for his own searchings. He held the lock tight against Azaber's pilot. The bond did not break. Slowly the lithon was pushed away with no chance to choose speed or direction. It drifted into a region of poisonous vapors. A region with no lodestone strong enough to alter its path for a return. Only the gentle force between the plates carried it along.'
Ponzar shook his head. 'Even in sleep, the ones who soared with it were without the means of guidance for too long. In the end, they all gave their marrow to one another. The last reflections said they were drifting out of mirror range toward the realgar wall.
'Azaber's pilot took a great risk when he ran their course so close to a void, it is true. It is one of the risks for the lithons that soar rather than float. But if Melizar had loosened his grip, as was his duty, then the lithon would have spun around its target. Spun around and returned to better air.'
'After all the Skyskirr learned of what had happened, the rest of the lithons sailed as one. United, they manipulated the laws to converge on Melizar's orb. Never since the great expansion have so many been in one small portion of the 'hedron. Ten times a hundred swords of precious copper were drawn. A thousand were ready to ride the smaller lodestones down upon the floater. To seek the vile one out, to break his bones and scatter his marrow to the twenty planes.'
Ponzar drew his wheezing breath. 'But Melizar and his manipuiants escaped. Through the laws of what you call wizardry, he conjured a lodestone that was not made of rock. A strange being that whisked him and his manipuiants away, out of the boundaries of our 'hedron entirely, to some other 'hedron whose nature we can only guess.
'All of the other pilots labored to move the laws away from the vertex that made your strange rules work in the Skyskirr 'hedron. Even Utothaz added his failing powers to the rest. But Melizar had translated the laws far into a strange portion of the lattice. The adjacent vertices were known to none. We could not manipulate what would make a smaller contradiction. The portal stays open. And as long as it does, he may return. That you are here from somewhere else is proof enough.'
'The laws that are strange to you,' Jemidon said, 'I know them well. They are the Law of Dichotomy,'dominance or submission,' and the Law of Ubiquity, 'flame permeates all.''
'So well that after thirty-seven sleeps, you are still here.' Ponzar laughed softly. 'If you can do this wizardry, why not return? Return by commanding the strange being which brought you here.'
'I-I was never able to conjure up the simplest imp.' Jemidon hesitated for a moment and then rushed on. 'Besides, a true djinn will not come in simple flame. He needs the burning of special powders, and you have none of it here on this rock.'
Ponzar did not immediately reply. He shut his eyes again and slumped forward in thought. 'Most interesting,' he said after a moment. 'I will add that to what I will tell.'
'You speak with some apprehension about this rendezvous,' Jemidon said. 'Why bother if it gives you any concern?'
'Utothaz calculated the course long ago.' Ponzar looked back at Jemidon. 'And once we spun past the sphere with the grazing beasts, the path was set. Only when we near the lithofloat will there be another chance to alter our track.' Ponzar twirled his shovel and tapped the ground. 'Our caverns are overflowing with harvest. The floaters are too big to move as swiftly through the sky as we. They gather instead what they can capture as it floats by. If there is trust, there will be good to both sides from the trade.'
'And if there is not?'
'Valdroz is a greedy captain. He is not at peace that his lithon is so big and slow. Were it not for the way of the great right hand, I fear he would plunder all that I have. Plunder air and give nothing in exchange. I also think of the strength of the lodestones. Valdroz's lithon has huge boulders of positive cairngorm. Our own are not small. As long as its law remains inert, it acts no differently from baser rock. But if we shift to a vertex where it has power, we could be hurled to only the great right hand knows where.
'But my heaviest thoughts are about the portion of the sky in which we meet. Behind the floater is a great sea of base stone lithons. Some are larger than the greatest floater, great enough for hot rock to flow and clouds of poisonous vapor to hurl in the air.'
'Why should that be your greatest concern?' Jemidon asked. 'If lava flows on the surface, you need not swoop close. And the fumes should dissipate on the currents of the air. It sounds not so very different from what I would call a volcano.'
'There are few enough winds in the 'hedron except for those made by our flight,' Ponzar said. 'Only in time is
