‘Do you mean,’ Daj piped in, ‘how the Ieldra sang the universe into existence?’
He beamed with pride at his recently acquired knowledge as Abrasax smiled and nodded his head at him. And then Abrasax said, ‘The account in the Saganom Elu is poetic and magisterial, and certainly true. But not all has been told there. Exactly how, we might ask, did the Ieldra bring the One’s design into its full flowering?’
He looked at Kane and added, ‘You must surely know.’
‘So – I have forgotten, if ever I did know.’
Abrasax smiled sadly, and then he told us that many books in the Brotherhood’s library contained knowledge as to this arcane subject. He related an amazing story, part of which had been revealed to my companions and me the year before in the amphitheater of the Urudjin outside of Tria: ‘Seven colors there are, and they create all the beauty of the world and all that we see. And the seven notes that we summon out of trumpet or mandolet ring out the melodies of all music. So with the seven Openers and the creation of the world. The gelstei that crystallized out of the primeval fire were infinitely greater than these little stones that we of the Brotherhood are privileged to keep. And they opened up all the infinite possibilities of life. For as the Ieldra sang, the great crystals vibrated like the strings of a harp, and brought into being and form all things.’
Maram gazed at the gelstei shining in the Masters’ hands. He asked, ‘Are you saying that these stones partake of the power of the mythical gelstei?’
‘They are not mythical,’ Abrasax told him. ‘They exist somewhere, out in the stars, beyond Agathad.’
‘But do they still have the power to create?’
‘Yes – and to uncreate. Even as these stones do.’
He nodded at Master Matai, whose red crystal lit up like a glowing demon’s eye. Then Master Virang’s stone, the Second, flared with an orange fire, and so with the other Masters’ gelstei in a progression of hues. As Abrasax’s clear stone spat out a fierce white light, the crystals all began pouring forth sound as well. It might have been called music, but the harsh tones and shrills that vibrated from the crystals filled the chamber with a terrible stridor more like a wail of death than a song. It built louder and ever more jangling upon ear and nerve until I felt compelled to throw my hands over my ears. I watched in amazement as the ivory of the chess piece seemed to lose its substance and began wavering in the candles’ soft light. And then, suddenly, with a skreak like breaking metal, it vanished into thin air.
‘Sorcery!’ Maram cried out. He moved over to the Masters’ table, and rudely wedged his body between Master Yasul and Master Storr. He ran his hand around the table’s bare surface where the chess piece had sat.
‘It’s gone!’ Daj cried out. ‘The king is gone – but where?’
‘Ah, gone into nothing,’ Maram muttered. ‘Into hell. It would seem it has been annihilated, like a man’s soul when life’s candle blows out.’
The seven Masters seemed to meditate upon their gelstei. And Abrasax said to Daj, and to Maram, ‘Wait.’
A few moments later, with a chiming like that of struck bells, the chess piece winked back into plain view. I sat blinking my eyes. Maram reached out to snatch it up with his fat fingers before it disappeared again.
‘More sorcery!’ he cried out. He gripped the carved ivory hard in his hand as if to reassure himself that it was real.
And Abrasax said to him, ‘Don’t be so sure you know what existence is – or isn’t.’
Maram waved his hand at this. ‘I think you must have somehow hidden from our sight what was there all along. And then caused us to see it once again.’
Abrasax held out his hand to take the chess piece from Maram as he shook his head. He showed us all the gleaming white king.
‘No, that was not the way of things,’ he said. ‘This, for a moment, was truly unmade. But our gelstei, being small, possess only a small power. We of the Seven possess even less. It is not the province of man to unmake things.’
‘So,’ Kane growled out. His black eyes seemed to grow even blacker, like two bits of neverness that might swallow up not only a chunk of carved ivory but entire worlds.
‘And it is not,’ Abrasax said, looking from Kane to Maram, ‘the province of the Elijin, or even the Galadin. To the Ieldra, and only to the Ieldra, is given the power to create and uncreate.’
‘I wish the Ieldra would just uncreate Angra Mainyu,’ Maram said. ‘And Morjin – and every other evil creature in the world.’
‘That is not the way of things, either,’ Abrasax told him, giving him back the chess piece. ‘The Ieldra, according to the One’s design, sing the universe into creation. But once it is created, no single part may be unmade. All is necessary. Nothing may be subtracted just because it seems to be hateful or bad.’
I sat watching Maram twirl the chess piece between his fingers, and I said, ‘If Morjin got his hands on those gelstei of yours, he’d try to use them to subtract us from the world. And much else that he hates.’
Abrasax nodded his head at this. ‘And with Angra Mainyu, it would be much worse. Once freed from Damoom, he would try to use the Lightstone to seize the greatest of the Great Gelstei and unmake the Ieldra themselves. He would, I think, fail. But out of his failure would come cataclysm and fire, and he would cause the Ieldra to have to destroy all things.’
I turned to look out the chamber’s windows up at the faraway stars. And I said, ‘But why? I don’t understand.’
‘I’m not sure I do either,’ Abrasax said with a heavy sigh. ‘At least not completely. It seems to me, though, that the Ieldra abide the evil of the world because out of it, sometimes, comes great good. But once all is fallen into darkness, forever, what would be the purpose of making everything suffer without redemption or end?’
What, indeed? I wondered, as I thought of my mother hanging all broken and bloody from a plank of wood.
As Maram continued playing with the chess piece, Abrasax looked at me and said, ‘I think we have an answer to both Sar Maram’s question and yours. If this king can return from the realm of the unmade, then so can a prince vanquish his fear of death – and so in dying, will not die. But only, I believe, with the help of the Maitreya.’
‘If you do believe that,’ I said to him, ‘then for love of the world help us to find him!’
At this, Master Storr’s fingers closed around his gelstei, and he said, ‘It is for love of the world – and much, much else – that we must be sure of you. Wine poured into a cracked cup not only is wasted but helps destroy the cup.’
‘I will not fail!’ I half-shouted at Master Storr.
‘Bold words,’ he said to me. ‘But what if you do fail?’
The room fell quiet as he and the others of the Seven sat regarding me. And then Master Okuth said, ‘If the Maitreya is slain or falls into Morjin’s hands, then we see no hope of Angra Mainyu ever being healed. And so no hope for Ea and all the other worlds of Eluru.’
‘The risk is great beyond measure,’ Master Virang said to me. ‘And not just to the world, but to yourself. If you fall into Morjin’s hands, or fall as his master did, then –’
‘But we have to take the chance!’ I cried out. ‘Or else we might as well be dead already!’
For a while everyone sat quite still. The smell of various teas steeping in hot water filled the air. Then Abrasax looked at me with unnerving percipience, and said, ‘Your manner, Valashu, the fire of your eyes, all you have dared and done – this bespeaks the attainment of the highest Valari ideal. And yet I think you find your valor in being drawn