Close to the Edge 1 страница

It had been a long time in the making. Now it was almost completed, and the slaves hacked away at the last clay remnants of the mantle.

Where other slaves were industriously rubbing its metal flanks with silver sand it was already beginning to gleam in the sun with the silken organic sheen of young bronze. It was still warm even after a week of cooling in the casting pit. The Arch-astronomer of Krull motioned lightly with his hand and his bearers set the throne down in the shadow of the hull.

Like a fish, he thought. A great flying fish. And of what seas?

" It is indeed magnificent, " he whispered. " A work of true art. "

" Craft, " said the thickset man by his side. The Arch-astronomer turned slowly and looked up at the man's impassive face. It isn't particularly hard for a face to look impassive-when there are two golden spheres where the eyes should be. They glowed disconcertingly.

" Craft, indeed, " said the astronomer, and smiled

" I would imagine that there is no greater craftsman on the entire disc than you, Goldeneyes. Would I be right? "

The craftsman paused, his naked body - naked at least, were it not for a toolbelt, a wrist abacus and a deep tan - tensing as he considered the implications of this last remark. The golden eyes appeared to be looking into some other world.

" The answer is both yes and no, " he said at last Some of the lesser astronomers behind the throne gasped at this lack of etiquette, but the Arch astronomer appeared not to have noticed it.

" Continue, " he said.

" There are some essential skills that I lack. Yet I am Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos, " said the craftsman. " I made the Metal Warriors that guard the Tomb of Pitchiu, I designed the Light Dams of the Great Nef, I built the Palace of the Seven Deserts. And yet-" he reached up and tapped one of his eyes, which rang faintly, " when I built the golem army for Pitchiu he loaded me down with gold and then, so that I would create no other work to rival my work for him, he had my eyes put out. "

" Wise but cruel, " said the Arch-astronomer sympathetically.

" Yah. So I learned to hear the temper of metals and to see with my fingers. I learned how to distinguish ores by taste and smell. I made these eyes, but I cannot make them see.

" Next I was summoned to build the Palace of the Seven Deserts, as a result of which the Emir showered me with silver and then, not entirely to my surprise, had my right hand cut off. "

" A grave hindrance in your line of business, " nodded the Arch-astronomer.

" I used some of the silver to make myself this new hand, putting to use my unrivalled knowledge of levers and fulcrums. It suffices. After I created the first great Light Dam, which had a capacity of 50, 000 daylight hours, the tribal councils of the Nef loaded me down with fine silks and then hamstrung me so that I could not escape. As a result I was put to some inconvenience to use the silk and some bamboo to build a flying machine from which I could launch myself from the top-most turret of my prison. "

" Bringing you, by various diversions, to Krull, " said the Arch-astronomer. " And one cannot help feeling that some alternative occupation - lettuce farming, say - would offer somewhat less of a risk of being put to death by instalments. Why do you continue in it? Goldeneyes Dactylos shrugged.

" I'm good at it, " he said.

The Arch-astronomer looked up again bronze fish, shining now like a gong in the noontime sun.

" Such beauty, " he murmured. " And unique. Come, Dactylos. Recall to me what it was that I promised should be your reward? "

" You asked me to design a fish that would swim through the seas of space that lie between the worlds, " intoned the master craftsman. " In return for which - in return-"

" Yes? My memory is not what it used to be, " purred the Arch-astronomer, stroking the warm bronze.

" In return, " continued Dactylos, without much apparent hope, " you would set me free, and refrain from chopping off any appendages. I require no treasure. "

" Ah, yes. I recall now. " The old man raised a blueveined hand, and added, " I lied. "

There was the merest whisper of sound, and the goldeneyed man rocked on his feet. Then he looked down at the arrowhead protruding from his chest, and nodded wearily. A speck of blood bloomed on his lips.

There was no sound in the entire square (save for the buzzing of a few expectant flies) as his silver hand came up, very slowly, and fingered the arrowhead.

Dactylos grunted.

" Sloppy workmanship, " he said, and toppled backwards.

The Arch-astronomer prodded the body with his toe, and sighed.

" There will be a short period of mourning, as befits a master craftsman, " he said. He watched a bluebottle alight on one golden eye and fly away puzzled... " That would seem to be long enough, " said the Arch-astronomer, and beckoned a couple of slaves to carry the corpse away.

" Are the chelonauts ready? " he asked.

The master launchcontroller hustled forward.

" Indeed, your prominence, " he said.

" The correct prayers are being intoned?

" Quite so, your prominence. "

" How long to the doorway? "

" The launch window, " corrected the master launchcontroller carefully. " Three days, your prominence. Great A'Tuin's tail will be in an unmatched position. "

" Then all that remains, " concluded the Arch-astronomer, " is to find the appropriate sacrifice. "

The master launchcontroller bowed.

" The ocean shall provide, " he said.

The old man smiled. it always does, " he said.

" If only you could navigate"

" If only you could steer-"

A wave washed over the deck. Rincewind and Twoflower looked at each other. " Keep bailing! " they screamed in unison, and reached for the buckets.

After a while Twoflower's peevish voice filtered up from the waterlogged cabin.

" I don't see how it's my fault, " he said. He handed up another bucket, which the wizard tipped over the side.

" You were supposed to be on watch, " snapped Rincewind.

" I saved us from the slavers, remember, " said Twoflower.

" I'd rather be a slave than a corpse, " replied the wizard. He straightened up and looked out to sea. He appeared puzzled.

He was a somewhat different Rincewind from the one that escaped the fire of Ankh-Morpork six months before. More scarred, for one thing. And much more travelled. He had visited the Hublands, discovered the curious folkways of many colourful peoples - invariably obtaining more scars in the process - and had even, for a never-to-be-forgotten few days, sailed on the legendary Dehydrated Ocean at the heart of the incredibly dry desert known as the Great Nef. On a colder and wetter sea he had seen floating mountains of ice. He had ridden on an imaginary dragon. He had very nearly said the most powerful spell on the disc. He had-

-there was definitely less horizon than there ought to be.

" Hmm" Said Rincewind.

" I said nothing's worse than slavery, " said Twoflower. His mouth opened as the wizard flung his bucket far out to sea and sat down heavily on the waterlogged deck, his face a grey mask.

" Look, I'm sorry I steered us into the reef, but this boat doesn't seem to want to sink and we're bound to strike land sooner or later, " said Twoflower comfortingly. " This current must go somewhere. "

" Look at the horizon, " Said Rincewind, in a monotone.

Twoflower squinted.

" It looks all right, " he said after a while.

" Admittedly, there seems to be less than there usually is, but-"

" That's because of the Rimfall, " said Rincewind.

" We're being carried over the edge of the world. "

There was a long silence, broken only by the lapping of the waves as the foundering ship spun slowly in the current. It was already quite strong.

" That's probably why we hit that reef, " Rincewind added. " we got pulled off course during the night. "

" Would you like something to eat? " asked Twoflower. He began to rummage through the bundle that he had tied to the rail, out of the damp.

" Don't you understand? " snarled Rincewind. " We are going over the Edge, godsdammit! "

" Can't we do anything about it? "

" No! "

" Then I can't see the sense in panicking, " said Twoflower calmly.

" I knew we shouldn't have come this far Edgewise, " complained Rincewind to the skye " I wish-"

" I wish I had my picture-box, " said Twoflower, " but it's back on that slaver ship with the rest of the Luggage and-"

" You won't need luggage where we're going, " said Rincewind. He sagged, and stared moodily at a distant whale that had carelessly strayed into the rimward current and was now struggling against it.

There was a line of white on the foreshortened horizon, and the wizard fancied he could hear a distant roaring.

" What happens after a ship goes over the Rimfall? " said Twoflower.

" Who knows? "

" Well, in that case perhaps we'll just sail on through space and land on another world. " A faraway look came into the little man's eyes. " I'd like that, " he said.

Rincewind snorted.

The sun rose in the sky, looking noticeably bigger this close to the Edge. They stood with their backs against the mast, busy with their own thoughts. Every so often one or other would pick up a bucket and do a bit of desultory bailing, for no very intelligent reason.

The sea around them seemed to be getting crowded. Rincewind noticed several tree trunks keeping station with them, and just below the surface the water was alive with fish of all sorts. The current must be teeming with food washed from the continents near the Hub. He wondered what kind of life it would be, having to keep swimming all the time to stay exactly in the same place. Pretty similar to his own, he decided. He spotted a small green frog which was paddling desperately in the grip of the inexorable current. To Twoflower's amazement he found a paddle and carefully extended it towards the little amphibian, which scrambled onto it gratefully. A moment later a pair of jaws broke the water and snapped impotently at the spot where it had been swimming.

The frog looked up at Rincewind from the cradle of his hands, and then bit him thoughtfully on the thumb. Twoflower giggled. Rincewind tucked the frog away in a pocket, and pretended he hadn't heard.

" All very humanitarian, but why? " said Twoflower. " It'll all be the same in an hour. "

" Because, " said Rincewind vaguely, and did a bit of bailing. Spray was being thrown up now and the current was so strong that waves were forming and breaking all around them. It all seemed unnaturally warm. There was a hot golden haze on the sea.

The roaring was louder now. A squid bigger than anything Rincewind had seen before broke the surface a few hundred yards away and thrashed madly with its tentacles before sinking away. Something else that was large and fortunately unidentifiable howled in the mist. A whole squadron of flying fish tumbled up in a cloud of rainbow-edged droplets and managed to gain a few yards before dropping back and being swept in an eddy.

They were running out of world. Rincewind dropped his bucket and snatched at the mast as the roaring, final end of everything raced towards them.

" I must see this" said Twoflower, half falling and half diving towards the prow.

Something hard and unyielding smacked into the hull, which spun ninety degrees and came side on to the invisible obstacle. Then it stopped suddenly and a wash of cold sea foam cascaded over the deck, so that for a few seconds Rincewind was under several feet of boiling green water. He began to scream and then the underwater world became the deep clanging purple colour of fading consciousness, because it was at about this point that Rincewind started to drown.

He awoke with his mouth full of burning liquid and, when he swallowed, the searing pain in his throat jerked him into full consciousness. The boards of a boat pressed into his back and Twoflower was looking down at him with an expression of deep concern. Rincewind groaned and sat up.

This turned out to be a mistake. The edge of the world was a few feet away.

Beyond it, at a level just below that of the lip of the endless Rimfall, was something altogether magical.

Some seventy miles away, and well beyond the tug of the rim current, a scow with the red sails typical of a freelance slaver drifted aimlessly through the velvety twilight. The crew - such as remained were clustered on the foredeck, surrounding the men working feverishly on the raft.

The captain, a thickset man who wore the elbowturbans typical of a Great Nef tribesman, was much travelled and had seen many strange peoples and curious things, many of which he had subsequently enslaved or stolen. He had begun his career as a sailor on the Dehydrated Ocean in the heart of the disc's driest desert. (Water on the disc has an uncommon fourth state, caused by intense magic combined with the strange desiccating effects of octarine light) it dehydrates, leaving a silvery mildue like free-flowing sand through which a well-designed hull can glide with ease. The Dehydrated Ocean is a strange place, but not so strange as its fish. ) The captain had never before been really frightened. Now he was terrified.

" I can't hear anything, " he muttered to the first mate. The mate peered into the gloom.

" Perhaps it fell overboard? " he suggested hopefully. As if in answer there came a furious pounding from the oar deck below their feet, and the sound of splintering wood. The crewmen drew together fearfully, brandishing axes and torches.

They probably wouldn't dare to use them, even if the Monster came rushing towards them. Before its terrible nature had been truly understood several men had attacked it with axes, whereupon it had turned aside from its single-minded searching of the ship and had either chased them overboard or had - eaten them? The captain was not quite certain. The Thing looked like an ordinary wooden sea chest. A bit larger than usual, maybe, but not suspiciously so. But while it sometimes seemed to contain things like old socks and miscellaneous luggage, at other times - and he shuddered - it seemed to be, seemed to have... He tried not to think about it. It was just that the men who had been drowned overboard had probably been more fortunate than those it had caught. He tried not to think about it. There had been teeth, teeth like white wooden gravestones, and a tongue red as mahogany...

He tried not to think about it. It didn't work. But he thought bitterly about one thing. This was going to be the last time he rescued ungrateful drowning men in mysterious circumstances. Slavery was better than sharks, wasn't it? And then they had escaped and when his sailors had investigated their big chest - how had they appeared in the middle of an untroubled ocean sitting on a big chest, anyway? - and it had bitt... He tried not to think about it again, but he found himself wondering what would happen when the damned thing realized that its owner wasn't on board any longer...

" Raft's ready, lord, " said the first mate.

" Into the water with it, " shouted the captain, and " Get aboard! " and " Fire the ship! "

After all, another ship wouldn't be too hard to come by, he philosophised, but a man might have to wait a long time in that Paradise the mullahs advertised before he was granted another life. Let the magical box eat lobsters.

Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.

" What the hell is that? " demanded Rincewind.

" It's beautiful, " said Twoflower beatifically.

" I'll decide about that when I know what it is, said the wizard.

" It is the Rimbow, " said a voice immediately behind his left ear, " And you are fortunate indeed to be looking at it. From above, at any rate. " and the voice was accompanied by a gust of cold and fishy breath, Rincewind sat quite still.

" Twoflower? " he said.

" Yes? "

" If I turn around, what will I see? "

" His name is Tethis. He says he's a sea troll. This is his boat. He rescued us, " explained Twoflower

" Will you look around now? "

" Not just at the moment, thank you. So why aren't we going over the Edge, then? " asked Rincewind with glassy calmness.

" Because your boat hit the Circumfence, " said the voice behind him (in tones that made Rincewind imagine submarine chasms and lurking Things in coral reefs).

" The Circumfence? " he repeated.

" Yes. It runs along the edge of the world, " said the unseen troll. Above the roar of the waterfall Rincewind thought he could make out the splash of oars. He hoped they were oars.

" Ah. You mean the circumference, " said Rincewind. " The circumference makes the edge of things. "

" So does the Circumfence, " said the troll.

" He means this, " said Twoflower, pointing down Rincewind's eyes followed the finger, dreading what they might see...

Hubwards of the boat was a rope suspended a few feet above the surface of the white water. The boat was attached to it, moored yet mobile, by a complicated arrangement of pulleys and little wooden wheels. They ran along the rope as the unseen rower propelled the craft along the very lip of the Rimfall. That explained one mystery - but what supported the rope?

Rincewind peered along its length and saw a stout wooden post sticking up out of the water a few yards ahead. As he watched the boat neared it and then passed it, the little wheels clacking neatly around it in a groove obviously cut for the purpose. Rincewind also noticed that smaller ropes hung down from the main rope at intervals of a yard or so.

He turned back to Twoflower.

" I can see what it is, " he said, " But what is it? "

Twoflower shrugged. Behind Rincewind the sea troll said, " Up ahead is my house. We will talk more when we are there. Now I must row. "

Rincewind found that looking ahead meant that he would have to turn and find out what a sea troll actually looked like, and he wasn't sure he wanted to do that yet. He looked at the Rimbow instead. It hung in the mists a few lengths beyond the edge of the world, appearing only at morning and evening when the light of the Disc's little orbiting sun shone past the massive bulk of Great A'tuin the World Turtle and struck the Disc's magical field at exactly the right angle.

A double rainbow corruscated into being. Close into the lip of the Rimfall were the seven lesser colours, sparkling and dancing in the spray of the dying seas.

But they were pale in comparison to the wider band that floated beyond them, not deigning to share the same spectrum. It was the King Colour, of which all the lesser colours are merely partial and wishy-washy reflections. It was octarine, the colour of magic. It was alive and glowing and vibrant and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination, because wherever it appeared it was a sign that mere matter was a servant of the powers of the magical mind. It was enchantment itself. But Rincewind always thought it looked a sort of greenish-purple.

After a while a small speck on the rim of the world resolved itself into a eyot or crag, so perilously perched that the waters of the fall swirled around it at the start of their long drop. A driftwood shanty had been built on it, and Rincewind saw that the top rope of the Circumfence climbed over the rocky island on a number of iron stakes and actually passed through the shack by a small round window. He learned later that this was so that the troll could be alerted to the arrival of any salvage on his stretch of the Circumfence by means of a series of small bronze bells, balanced delicately on on the rope.

A floating stockade had been built out of rough timber on the hubward side of the island. It contained one or two hulks and quite a large amount of floating wood in the form of planks, baulks and even whole natural tree trunks, some still sporting green leaves. This close to the Edge the disc's magical field was so intense that a hazy corona flickered across everything as raw illusion spontaneously discharged itself.

With a last few squeaky jerks the boat slid up against a small driftwood jetty. As it grounded itself and formed a circuit Rincewind felt all the familiar sensations of a huge occult aura - oily, bluish-tasting, and smelling of tin. All around them pure, unfocused magic was sleeting soundlessly into the world.

The wizard and Twoflower scrambled onto the planking and for the first time Rincewind saw the troll.

It wasn't half so dreadful as he had imagined. Umm, said his imagination after a while.

It wasn't that the troll was horrifying. Instead of the rotting, betentacled monstrosity he had been expecting Rincewind found himself looking at a rather squat but not particularly ugly old man who would quite easily have passed for normal on any city street, always provided that other people on the street were used to seeing old men who were apparently composed of water and very little else. It was as if the ocean had decided to create life without going through all that tedious business of evolution, and had simply formed a part of itself into a biped and sent it walking squishily up the beach. The troll was a pleasant translucent blue colour. As Rincewind stared a small shoal of silver fish flashed across its chest.

" It's rude to stare, " said the troll. Its mouth opened with a little crest of foam, and shut again in exactly the same way that water closes over a stone. "

" Is it? Why? " asked Rincewind. How does he hold himself together, his mind screamed at him. Why doesn't he spill?

" If you will follow me to my house I will find you food and a change of clothing, " said the troll solemnly. He set off over the rocks without turning to see if they would follow him. After all, where else could they go? It was getting dark, and a chilly damp breeze was blowing over the edge of the world. Already the transient Rimbow had faded and the mists above the waterfall were beginning to thin.

" Come on, " said Rincewind, grabbing Twoflower's elbow. But the tourist didn't appear to want to move.

" Come on, " the wizard repeated.

" When it gets really dark, do you think we'll be able to look down and see Great A'tuin the World Turtle? " asked Twoflower, staring at the rolling clouds.

" I hope not, " said Rincewind, " I really do. Now let's go, shall we? "

Twoflower followed him reluctantly into the shack. The troll had lit a couple of lamps and was sitting comfortably in a rocking chair. He got to his feet as they entered and poured two cups of a green liquid from a tall pitcher. In the dim light he appeared to phosphoresce, in the manner of warm seas on velvety summer nights. Just to add a baroque gloss to Rincewind's dull terror he seemed to be several inches taller, too.

Most of the furniture in the room appeared to be boxes.

" Uh. Really great place you've got here, " said Rincewind. " Ethnic. "

He reached for a cup and looked at the green pool shimmering inside it. It'd better be drinkable, he thought. Because I'm going to drink it. He swallowed.

It was the same stuff Twoflower had given him in the rowing boat but, at the time, his mind had ignored it because there were more pressing matters. Now it had the leisure to savour the taste.

Rincewind's mouth twisted. He whimpered a little. One of his legs came up convulsively and caught him painfully in the chest.

Twoflower swirled his own drink thoughtfully while he considered the flavour.

" Ghlen Livid, " he said. " The fermented vul nut drink they freeze-distil in my home country. A certain smokey quality... Piquant. From the western plantations in, ah, Rehigreed Province, yes? Next year's harvest, I fancy, from the colour. May I ask how you came by it? "

(Plants on the disc, while including the categories known commonly as annuals, which were sown this year to come up later this year, rieanuals, sown this year to grow next year, and perennials, sown this year to grow until further notice, also included a few rare re-annuals which, because of an unusual four-dimensional twist in their genes, could be planted this year to come up last year. The Vul nut vine was particularly exceptional in that it could flourish as many as eight years prior to its seed actually being sown. Vul nut wine was reputed to give certain drinkers an insight into the future which was, from the nut's point of view, the past. Strange but true. )

" All things drift into the Circumfence in time, " said the troll, gnomically, gently rocking in his chair. " My job is to recover the flotsam. Timber, of course, and ships. Barrels of wine. Bales of cloth. You. "

Light dawned inside Rincewind's head.

" It's a net, isn't it? You've got a net right on the edge of the Sea! "

" The Circumfence, " nodded the troll. Ripples radiating across his chest.

Rincewind looked out into the phosphorescent darkness that surrounded the island, and grinned inanely.

" Of course, " he said. " Amazing! You could sink piles and attach it to reefs and - good grief! The net would have to be very strong. "

" It is, " said Tethis.

" It could be extended for a couple of miles, if you found enough rocks and things, " said the wizard.

" Ten thousands of miles. I just patrol this length. "

" That's a third of the way around the disc! "

Tethis sloshed a little as he nodded again. While the two men helped themselves to some more of the green wine, he told them about the Circumfence, the great effort that had been made to build it, and the ancient and wise Kingdom of Krull which had constructed it several centuries before, and the seven navies that patrolled it constantly to keep it in repair and bring its salvage back to Krull, and the manner in which Krull had become a land of leisure ruled by the most learned seekers after knowledge, and the way in which they sought constantly to understand in every possible particular the wondrous complexity of the universe, and the way in which sailors marooned on the Circumfence were turned into slaves, and usually had their tongues cut out. After some interjections at this point he spoke, in a friendly way, on the futility of force, the impossibility of escaping from the island except by boat to one of the other three hundred and eighty isles that lay between the island and Krull itself, or by leaping over the Edge and the high merit of muteness in comparison to for example, death.

There was a pause. The muted night-roar of the Rimfall only served to give the silence a heavier texture.

The rocking chair started to creak again. Tethis seemed to have grown alarmingly during the monologue.

" There is nothing personal in all this, " he added. " I, too, am a slave. If you try to overpower me I shall have to kill you, of course, but I won't take any particular pleasure in it. "

Rincewind looked at the shimmering fists that rested lightly in the troll's lap. He suspected they could strike with all the force of a tsunami.

" I don't think you understand, " explained Twoflower. " I am a citizen of the Golden Empire. I'm sure Krull would not wish to incur the displeasure of the Emperor. "

" How will the emperor know? " asked the troll.

" Do you think you're the first person from the Empire who has ended up on the Circumfence? "

" I won't be a slave, " shouted Rincewind. " I'd - I'd jump over the Edge first! " He was amazed at the sound in his own voice.

" Would you, though? " asked the troll. The rocking chair flicked back against the wall and one blue arm caught the wizard around the waist. A moment later the troll was striding out of the shack with Rincewind gripped carelessly in one fist.

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