"Greetings! You're back so soon! Was there some problem with my directions?"
"No, but some force I do not understand prevented me from departing this continent."
"Strange."
The human flew across the room to crash against the far wall.
"Do you know what I think it is?"
"No. What?" I said.
"I believe you are under a spell that you do not even know about--bound in a particular way to some very special duty."
"I have no idea what it could be."
"Give me a hand with the entrails, will you? They should be strung about."
"Sure."
"Well, I think that you ought to find out what the thing is and discharge it. Maybe the accursed master who laid it on you is dead now or demented. In either case, you're very lucky. Once you've done whatever there is to be done, you'll be free."
"How do I find out what it is?"
"I guess that I am going to have to instruct you further in these matters. Since I am prepared to count you as a friend, I am going to tell you something in strictest confidence--my name. It is Galleran."
"That's a nice name," I said.
"It is more than just a word. It summarizes me when it is fully understood."
We finished the stringing and Galleran dismembered the body, passing me a leg and an arm.
"Do something artistic with these."
I hung one over a rafter and placed the other in a large kettle.
"Because I know my name I know all that there is to know about me," Galleran said. "You will, too, as you begin to understand it. Now, what you must do is discover your own name. When you learn that, it will also bring you knowledge of the task with which you have been charged."
"Really?"
"Certainly. It must follow."
Galleran placed the head upon the mantlepiece.
"How am I to find it out?" I asked.
"You must search your earliest memories--many times, perhaps. It is there, somewhere. When you find it you will know it. When you know it, you will know yourself. Then you can act."
"I will--try," I said.
Galleran proceeded to strew embers from the fireplace about the room.
"Help me to fen these to flame now, will you? It is always best to leave the place burning after your work is done."
"Surely."
As we strove to set the room to fire, I asked, "Why is it that your accursed master wanted this man destroyed?"
"One of them owed the other money, I believe, and did not wish to pay it. I forget which."
"Oh."
We waited about until we saw that we had a good blaze going. Then we rose into the night with the smoke and headed back toward Belken.
"Thank you for all that you have taught me this day," I said as we parted later, "Galleran."
"I am glad to be of help. I must admit that you have roused my curiosity--mightily. Let me know when you have learned your story, will you?"
"Yes," I said. "I will do that."
Galleran returned to the accursed master's quarters to report the completion of the assigned task. I rose into the air, heading toward a place high upon the western face of Belken. Earlier, on our ice-gathering expedition, I had noticed an opening there heading into the heart of the mountain, strange lights and vibrations all about it. I had grown very curious as to where it led and was determined to explore there. One never knows where one's name might lie.
V
...Pol drifted again through the great Gate and into the land beyond. Moving more rapidly than in the past, he viewed another hunt, transformation and pursuit with growing amusement. On the second capture, however, the victim was cannibalized and another had to be sought. Pol experienced a psychic tugging which drew him away from the scene and on out across the wasteland. For what seemed to be days he traveled, in a dim, indeterminate form, over the unchanging deadlands, coming at last to a worn but high range of black mountains which extended from horizon to horizon. Three times he assailed its heights and three times he fell back; on the fourth occasion, the dry, howling winds forced him toward a gap through which he fled. He emerged on the other side above a terraced city which covered this entire face of the range. This slope, however, continued to a far lower level than that on the opposite side, dropping at last to the shore of an ancient, waveless, tideless sea and continuing on below its surface. Circling, he saw the outlines of buildings beneath the waters and the dark, moving forms of the beings who dwelled there. Through the always-evening haze, he saw the creatures of the upper terraces, gray, long-limbed, ogre-like, slightly smaller versions of the things he had seen in the wastes. Human-appearing beings also were there, moving freely among them.
He descended very slowly, coming to rest atop a high spire, where he perched and regarded the figures below. A great number of these congregated quickly at the base of the structure. After a time, they built a fire, brought forth a number of bound people, dismembered them and burned them. The smoke rose up, he breathed it, and it was pleasing to him.
Finally, he spread his wings and spiralled downward to where they waited upon the lowest terrace. They made obeisance to Him and played him music upon instruments which wailed, thrummed and rattled. He strutted among them, occasionally choosing one to rend with his great beak and talons. Whenever he did this, the others watched with awe and obvious pleasure. Later, one who wore a brass collar studded with pale, smouldering stones approached, holding a three-pronged iron staff surmounted by a sooty white flame.
He followed the light and the one who bore it into the shadowy interior of one of the buildings--a lopsided metal structure of tilted floors and slanted walls. It was windowless and damp; it smelled of stale perfumes. Deep within the place, cold and still upon a high marble slab, lay the woman, candles burning at her head and her feet, her only garments garland and girdle of red flower petals already touched with brown. Her hair was a soft yellow verging upon white. Her lips, nipples and nails were painted blue. He uttered a soft trilling note and mounted the stair, the slab and the woman. Raking her once with claw and slashing her twice with his beak, he began to sing. He enfolded her then with his wings and began a slow movement. The one who bore the iron staff struck it in slow, regular rhythm upon the cold stone floor, its flame making dancing shadows upon the weeping walls.
After a long while, the woman opened her pate eyes, but they did not focus and she did not move until many minutes had passed. Then she began to smile.
When the three of them came forth, others had assembled and more were rising from the depths and moving downward from the higher levels. The thrumming, wailing, dry rattling of the music had grown to massive proportions, and a steady clicking sound which came from the chests of the assembled creatures themselves rose in counterpoint to it. Then began a slow procession, led by the light-bearer, which moved over many levels of the world-circling, sea-dipped city. They stayed in red chambers during their journey, and the sea changed color six times as they moved both above and beneath it. Massive russet worms swam to accompany their passage--eyeless, humming, streaked and rotating--and space was folded, that prospects came and went with great rapidity. The notes of a mightly gong preceded them and signed their departures.
The sky grew even darker on the day of his daughter's birth. Nascae tossed, moaned and cried out, afterwards lying as still and cold as she had that day upon her slab. The mountains shouted thunder and a red rain fell, flowing like waterfalls of blood down the terraces to the sea. The child was named Nyalith, to the sounds of tabor and bone flute. When she spread her wings and soared above the world there was a sound like thunder, and horns of yellow light preceded her. She would rule them for ten thousand years.