‘If I did not appear within five days they would know that I was dead and our hopes had gone. They would leave, setting it on fire. The entire building. The whole Story, every last roll and document, would burn.
‘You cannot possibly find them or intercept them in time. If I am not in Ossenfud within the next three days, they will carry out my orders. Everything Anterwold is, all its memories and knowledge, will be destroyed. So Anterwold will be destroyed, as the spirit promised. If you wish I can summon my closest companion, and he will confirm everything I say.’
Gontal studied Pamarchon as he spoke. Could he be serious? Was he, was anyone, that ruthless and depraved? He could not read him, could not tell. Catherine, standing slightly apart from them, tried to guess which one would break first. She had nothing to say here; this was not her contest.
‘Well, Gontal? I know you are wondering if this is a trick, whether I am lying. But I also know something of you. You are a man of learning. I know that the spirit gave you advice, even though I did not hear it. What did he say? Take Willdon for yourself? Brush aside all opposition whatever the consequences? Is that what he recommended?’
Catherine knew Pamarchon had won, even before Gontal did himself. She saw the hesitation, the way his body softened and folded as he realised that he did not dare take the risk. The Story was everything. He would die for it, if need be.
He nodded to his men. ‘Let them go,’ he said.
Pamarchon took Catherine by the arm. ‘Before he changes his mind...?’ he said quietly into her ear.
He led the way past Gontal, past the soldiers and into the assembly, where their entrance was greeted with an enormous cheer that could be heard far away, even by the occupants of the Shrine of Esilio.
61
‘Now, Mr Chang. I think we have a little time. The sun is getting lower in the sky, but there is a way to go until we get to dusk. Why don’t you explain a bit more? You see I fulfilled my side of the bargain. Perhaps you might start by telling me who Angela is, and how she did all this?’
‘She is a mathematician. She comes from what you would term the future. As do I.’
‘Oh, of course she is. If you say so.’
‘She developed a technology which is supposed to hop from universe to universe. In fact it seems to hop from time to time. There was a dispute over its use, and Angela went into hiding here, taking the data with her. I was sent to find her.’
‘Then what is this place?’
‘An experiment of hers. Just to see if it could be done, as far as I can tell.’
‘What is it? I mean, I know what it is, but... what is it?’
‘It is a very crude alternative version of the future. It’s only a prototype, and it’s not working very well. As I say, it is becoming dangerously unstable. It was meant to be isolated in time, simply a snapshot, if you like. Unchanging and fixed.’
‘It doesn’t seem to be that.’
‘No. As long as it was insulated, then the normal conditions of cause and effect were suspended. Nothing could happen, because there was no cause of anything happening. Similarly, without effects, there could be no causes. That was to ensure it could have no past or future.’
‘She got it wrong?’
‘No. That girl messed it up, and you don’t seem to have helped just now either.’
‘Rosie? How?’
‘She walked into it. You say hello, they say hello back, which they otherwise would not have done. Cause and effect, you see. Anyone who says hello must be real. They must have parents, grandparents, all the way back. That girl started this frozen experiment moving and developing, and that is causing it to join up to the past and future. When I arrived, the effects had already spread back that far. It is now clear the shock waves have spread very much further.
‘This Anterwold of yours was built to be an artificial, disconnected creation existing in a bubble, but it might not stay like that for much longer. If it continues to exist, the accumulation of causes will connect it back to the earliest moment in the universe, and the effects will also link it to the last moment of the universe. Then there will be two different futures, and according to Angela there can be only one. Others exist only as potential. So either this world exists, or mine does. If this one exists, ours cannot. It will be the worst catastrophe in the history of humanity.’
‘Really?’ Lytten said, looking around him. ‘Surely not? I designed it to be peaceful and quiet. It’s not as if they can do much harm with swords and arrows, you know.’
‘Swords and arrows, precisely. My world staggers through, cruel and mean though it is. This Arcadian idyll of yours requires the wholesale destruction of nearly all of humanity and hundreds of years of misery and despair. It is built on corpses.’
‘What nonsense! I didn’t put in anything like that.’
‘You did. When Angela created it as an actual place, it had to bear some relationship to your present. Past or future. You made it the future.’
‘How?’
‘They eat potatoes and tomatoes, which only came to this island after about 1600. You gave them their mythology of the giants. They know about bacteria, even if they have forgotten the details. Many other things. I mean, look at this place. In comparison to your time it is technologically primitive. It has lost much of the art of engineering, knows little about chemistry. No concrete, no large-scale use of steel. By logical extrapolation, which is how it develops, there is only one way that could happen.’
‘Which is?’
‘A massive dislocation which pushes technological development into reverse. A war, Professor. A nuclear one. That’s the fundamental proof that this is in your future. There are parts of the country still dangerous from radiation. I spent two years travelling the country, and I checked my findings many times over.’
‘So when are we now?’
‘That’s difficult to say. What they call the Exile, when most of the world was dying, seems to have lasted about two hundred years. That was enough for the worst of the radiation to fade, for the plagues to burn out and the forests to regrow. As far as I can tell from examining ruins the Return was a good four centuries back. So at least six hundred years from you, but that’s not anything more than a rough guess. I could do better with some proper equipment.’
‘When is this war?’
‘Also difficult, but after the moment Angela created this place, and before nuclear weapons were brought under unified control. My best guess would be the second half of the twentieth century. All I know is that if Angela is going to stop this, we need to get out of here.’
‘What happens then?’
‘She pulls the plug. No one here will know. It’s not like killing people, you know. Anterwold will not exist, will never have existed, except in your mind. As it should be; then history will have no alternative but to head to my future, which avoids a catastrophe.’
‘What about Rosie?’
‘She must leave Anterwold. She must. Otherwise Angela won’t be able to close it.’
‘She may not want to.’
‘Then you have to make her.’
Lytten did not like that. If what this man told him was true — and he had heard and seen so many absurdities that he could no longer tell what was reasonable or not — then he might well be correct.