The Quest - Smith Wilbur (читаем книги онлайн бесплатно TXT) 📗

'You dare not say no, for in doing so you deny your very self,' said his reflection. 'What I will show you has never before been looked upon by mortal man. Gaze into the pool, you who are myself.'

Taita stared down into the dark water. 'There is nothing there,' he said.

'Everything is there,' said the other Taita. 'Everything we have ever truly wanted, you and I. Open our Inner Eye and let us gaze upon it together.' Taita did so, and a shadowy vista appeared before him. It was as though he looked across a wide desert of barren dunes.

'That desert is our existence without knowledge of the Truth,' said the other Taita. 'Without the Truth all is sterile and monotonous. But look beyond the desert, my hungry soul.'

Taita obeyed. On the horizon he saw a mighty beacon, a divine light, a mountain cut from a single pure diamond.

'That is the mountain that all the seers and magi strive towards. They do so in vain. No mortal man can attain the divine light. It is the mountain of all knowledge and wisdom.'

'It is beautiful,' whispered Taita.

'We look upon it at a great distance. Mortal mind cannot imagine the beauty when you stand upon the summit.' Taita saw that the old man was weeping with joy and reverence. 'We can stand upon that pinnacle together, my other self. We can have what no man has ever had before.

There is no greater prize.'

Taita stood up and walked slowly to the edge of the pool. He gazed down upon the vision and felt a longing that surpassed any he had ever known. It was no shameful craving, no base physical desire. It was something as clean, noble and pure as the diamond mountain.

'I know your feelings,' said his double, 'for they are mine exactly.'

He stood up. 'Look upon the frail and ancient body that encases and imprisons us. Compare it to the perfect form that was once ours, and can be ours again. Look down into the water and behold what none has seen before us, nor will see again. All this is being offered to us. Is it not sacrilege to refuse such gifts?' He pointed at the vision of the diamond mountain. 'See how it fades. Will we ever look upon it again? The choice is ours, yours and mine.' The vision of the shining mountain dissolved into the dark water, leaving Taita bereft and empty.

His mirror image stood up and came round the pool towards him. He opened his arms to embrace Taita, who felt a shiver of revulsion. Despite himself he lifted his arms to return the fraternal gesture. Before they touched a blue spark crackled between them, and Taita felt a shock, like a discharge of static electricity, as his other self vanished into him, and they became one.

The glory of the diamond mountain he had looked upon remained with him long after he had left the magical pool and gone down through the gardens.

Meren was waiting for him at the lower gates. 'I have been searching for you these last few hours,' he rushed to meet Taita, 'but there is aught very strange about this place. There are a thousand paths but they all lead back to this spot.'

'Why did you come to look for me?' It was fruitless to try to explain to Meren the complexities of the witch's garden.

'Colonel That Ankut arrived at the clinic a short while ago. No sign of Captain Onka, I am pleased to say. I had no chance to talk to the good colonel, not that I would have achieved a great deal by doing so.

He never has much to say.'

'Did he come alone?'

'No, there were others, an escort of six troopers and about ten women.'

'What kind of women?'

'I only saw them from afar - I was on this side of the lake. There was nothing unusual about them. They seemed young, but they did not sit comfortably on their mounts. I thought I should warn you of his arrival.'

'You did right, of course, but I can always rely on you for that.'

'What ails you? You wear a strange expression - that dazed half-smile and those dreaming eyes. What mischief have you been at, Magus?'

'These gardens are very beautiful,' Taita said.

'I suppose they are pretty in a repellent way.' Meren grinned with embarrassment. 'I cannot explain it, but I do not like it here.'

'Then let us be gone,' said Taita.f When they reached their quarters in the sanatorium an attendant was waiting for them. 'I have an invitation for you from Dr Hannah. As it will soon be time for you to leave the Cloud Gardens, she would like you to dine with her this evening.'

'Kindly tell her that we are pleased to accept.'

“I will come to fetch you a little before sunset.'

The sun had just sunk below the clifftops when the attendant returned. He led them through a series of courtyards and covered galleries. They met others hurrying along the galleries, but they passed without exchanging greetings. Taita recognized some as attendants who had been with them during Meren's treatment.

Why have I not noticed how extensive these buildings are until now?

Why have I not felt any inclination to explore them before? he wondered.

Hannah had told them that the gardens and clinic had been built over many centuries, so it was no wonder that they were so large, but why had they not excited his curiosity? Then he remembered how he had tried to follow the three girls into one of the blocks, but had lacked the will to continue.

They have no need for gates or guards, he realized. They can prevent strangers entering where they are not welcome by placing mental barriers to exclude them - as they did to me, and as they did to Meren when he came to find me.

They passed a small group of young women sitting quietly beside a fountain in one of the courtyards. One was playing a lute and two others were waving sistrums. The rest were singing in sweet sad harmony.

'Those are some of the women I saw this afternoon,' Meren whispered.

Although the sun had already gone behind the cliffs, the air was still warm and balmy and the women were lightly dressed.

'They are all with child,' Taita murmured.

'Like those we met on our first day in the crater,' Meren agreed. For a moment it seemed to Taita that there should be something significant in that, but before he could grasp the idea they had crossed the courtyard and reached a portico on the far side.

'I will leave you here,' said their guide, 'but 1 shall return to fetch you after you have dined. The doctor is waiting for you with her other guests.

Please enter. She is expecting you.'

They entered a large and artistically furnished room, lit by tiny glass lamps floating in toy ships on an ornamental pool in the centre. Splendid

floral displays hung in baskets from the walls or grew in ceramic and earthenware pots arranged on the mosaic floor.

Hannah came across the room to them. She took them each by a hand and led them to the other guests, who lounged on low couches or sat cross-legged on piles of cushions. Gibba was there, with three other doctors, two men and another woman. They looked very young to hold such eminent positions and to be privy to such extraordinary medical wonders as existed in the Cloud Gardens. The other guest was Colonel That. He rose as Taita approached his couch and saluted him with grave respect. He did not smile, but Taita had not expected it.

'You and Colonel Cambyses are to go down the mountain in a few days' time,' Hannah explained to Taita. 'Colonel That has come to be your escort and guide.'

'It will be my pleasure and honour,' That assured Taita.

The other surgeons clustered round Meren to examine his new eye and marvel at it. 'I know of your other achievements, Dr Hannah,' said the woman, 'but surely this is the first eye that you have successfully replaced.'

'There were others, but they were before your time,' Hannah corrected her. 'I feel confident now that we can look forward to succeeding with any part of the human body. The gallant colonels who are our guests here this evening will vouch for that.' The three surgeons turned towards That.