“Well, come if you’re coming,” Certain Doubt growled.
Daniel shook himself. He had to stay awake. Stay focused. He had to figure out this new situation he was in. He had to find the answer.
“You must be understanding of him and allow some exception if you are able. There is much in these events that press on him,” Argument said as he tugged Daniel along by his arm.
“I’ll just bet there is,” said Daniel.
They carried on, northward, Daniel was told, but he had no bearings. Ni?ergeard was more or less behind him, that’s all he knew. The yfelgopes-the leafleas-were apparently orienting themselves by the alignment and distance between certain lights they could make out, but Daniel was not familiar enough with the city to know which side of it they were viewing. He didn’t know where they were taking him.
He found the leafleas strange. He had never accredited the yfelgopes with much intelligence-he had almost always known them to be half-crazed, animalistic savages. But here, he was surprised to find they actually had a human-like intelligence. They loved to argue and debate over any little thing that could be found. Where they were, which direction they were walking, how much more in weight one was carrying than the other and for how long, and-more than anything-how far they had walked.
“I’ve got two thousand and five hundred,” one of them-Daniel had picked up that he was called Judicious Speculation-announced. “How about the rest of you?”
There came a cascading report of numbers from the others: two thousand three hundred and seventy-one, two thousand four hundred and eight, two thousand two hundred and ten, one thousand nine hundred and eighty-three. .
“Your knee’s deformed, Informed Dissent; that’s why your steps are so close.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my knees, you insipid old fool. It’s your gangly bowlegs that are irregular.”
“Is there an accord for an average?”
There was an accord, and then a silence as arithmetic was applied to the situation.
“I make it two thousand three hundred and seventeen.”
“I concur.”
“I also agree.”
“Very well. Replace your original estimate with the agreed total and add that to the number of steps that have been taken since the estimate was last called into question.”
There were grunts of assent and another moment’s silence as this was done, and then they continued as before.
Daniel suddenly felt a lurching forward, like he was falling. His eyes snapped open and his legs locked. He had actually started to fall asleep while walking. He pinched the side of his thigh to wake himself up. He had to keep it together. “So where do you guys come from?”
“Where?” asked one of the yfelgopes walking next to him.
“Yeah, there are so many of you. What’s. . uh, what’s the story?”
“Our kind enjoys debate and disagreement, but some of us came to realise that our courses of dispute ran in unique channels. Approaches were made-at great cost-and then names were shared. More were-”
“No, I mean, where were you born? Where did you grow up? Why are there so stretching many of you?”
“We are born as you are-we live our lives in the blinding light, and thus it is that we cannot see until we come underground.”
“How does that make sense?” Daniel asked.
“The world-the universe is so big, no man can keep it all in his mind. Blinded by the light, blinded by fact. We seek a life in the dark under our own terms.”
“Better to stand up in the dark than lie down in the light,” said an yfelgop on the other side of Daniel.
“One day we will emerge, once we have quantified the very foundation of the world, of knowledge.”
“But. . really?” Daniel asked. “You want to know everything? Aren’t there some things you just can’t know?”
“Yes. Yes. Life is a mystery.”
“A mystery unknown, but not unknowable. Undefined, but not undefinable.”
“That is how the leafleas are different from our brothers. It is their contention that all that can be known is known-all the edges of life have been found and measured. Whereas we are doubtful.”
There were exclamations of pride and support following this declaration. “The Doubtful! The leafleas!”
“We doubt that the world is all that is seen. We doubt that all experience has been quantified. We doubt that all distances have been measured.”
“And we doubt even those doubts. But what is undoubted is that there is more.”
“More! Yes, more. And that is what defines us-the others, the hopeless, the slaves to Gad, they believe that the walls of the world have been found, and they are angry. They have built a prison for their own senses and are angry at it.”
“They have killed their own spirits and are mortally jealous of anyone who still possess joy and wonder.”
The exposition continued, but Daniel’s attention was already drifting. He was having trouble following the words and found that his feet were starting to drag.
II
After much debate about distance and steps taken, they all negotiated a halt in order to rest and take stock. They hadn’t yet crossed the ni?erplane yet, but the ceiling was getting closer to their heads. They couldn’t see it, exactly, but they could hear the difference in the echoes and feel it in the air.
“Oh dear. We must make our decision about which direction, exactly, to strike for,” a leafleas named Consistent Uncertainty said. “We must decide which direction is the most probable that Godmund and his forces lie in. I fear this will be most difficult.”
He brought out a map from his pack and Daniel joined the huddle around the rolled sheet of parchment. The lamps were placed around it and the shutters lifted. It was a map of the whole of the land beneath England. He noticed many similarities to the ones that Alex and Ecgbryt had shown him, but there were also differences. Either routes that the others didn’t know about, or else errors, Daniel didn’t know. The locations of knights’ chambers, or their suspected locations, were marked with a reddishbrown fingerprint. It might be worth keeping if he could get his hands on it.
“What makes you think that Godmund is still underground?” Daniel asked. “Why not go above?”
“It is possible that he is not underground.”
“But not probable. Probabilities suggest that he would stay beneath. It is what he knows. It is where his resources are. He would be lost aboveground.”
“Further, he has not made contact with you, an overworlder with knowledge of the lower realms.”
That made sense, Daniel thought. Also, he knew that Godmund hadn’t contacted Ecgbryt or Alex. So he really must be down here, somewhere. But did the yfelgopes really not know where he was, or was it all part of the ruse?
“So where do you think he’ll be?” Daniel asked.
“We were hoping you might be able to direct us. All yfelgop searches for him have turned up nothing.”
“As far as we know.”
“Yes. As far as we know. Those that have returned have returned empty-handed.”
“But there are some that did not return.”
“Yes. Those are still unknown factors. Those may be worth investigating.”
“That is predicated on the assumption that he stays only in one place.”
“To leave not one member of a hunting party alive to report back would indicate an ambush site. Which would indicate a fixed location.”
“Or more than one.”
“That is possible as well.”
“So, one location or several,” Daniel said, jumping into the flow of conversation once again. “Where is the, uh, area of greatest unknown. . the area of the most unknown factors? Because that’s where he’d be, right?”
“Yes, that logic follows,” said Certain Doubt. “And that area would be here.” He pointed to the top of the map.
“Right, then. Let’s head for that. . see? That junction right there? It’s not far from there to these two chambers, and then this one as well. We can check to see what the deal is there, at a stretch.”