The Gates of Creation

Luvah jerked a thumb. Wolff looked around to see them straggling around the curve of this minute world. He called to them, his voice sounding eerie in the strangely propertied atmosphere. Luvah started to go forward but stopped at Wolff’s order.

Ariston, Tharmas, Rintrah, and Theotormon spread out. Under Wolff’s directions, they formed a pentagon with the gates at the ends of two legs of the figure. Then all began to close in on their quarry. They kept the same distance between them and advanced at the same pace. The gates oscillated back and forth but made no break.

With two minutes of slow and patient closing in, the Lords were able to seize half of the frames. This time, Wolff did not bother to ask Vala which exit they should take. He went through the left.

The others came through on his heels and their look of dismay reflected his. They were on another cylinder, and down at the end was another pair of hexagons.

Again, they went through the tiring chase and the boxing in. Again, they stepped through a frame, the one to the right this time. Again, they were on another cylinder.

This occurred five tunes. The Lords looked at each other with fatigue-reddened and exhaustion-circled eyes. Their legs trembled, and their chests ached. They were covered with sweat and were as dry within as a Saharan wind. They could hardly keep their grips on the hexagons.

“We can’t go on much longer,” Rintrah said.

“Don’t be so obvious,” Vala said. “Try to say something original once in a while.”

“Very well. I’m thirsty enough to drink your blood. And I may if I don’t get a drink of water soon.”

Vala laughed. “If you come close enough, I’ll broach you with this sword. Your blood may be thin and ill-smelling, but at least it should be wet enough.”

Wolff said, “Somehow, we always seem to take the gate that leads us everywhere but to Urizen. Perhaps we should split up this time. At least some might get to our father.”

The others argued about this, Vala and Luvah only abstaining. Finally, Wolff said, “I’m going through one gate with Vala and Luvah. The rest of you will go through the other. That’s that.”

“Why Vala and Luvah?” Theotormon said. He was squinting suspiciously, and his voice had a faint whine. “Why them? Do you three know something we don’t? Are you planning on deserting us?”

“I’m taking Luvah because he’s the only one I can trust-I think,” Wolff said. “And Vala is, as she’s pointed out more than enough times, the best man among you.”

He left them squabbling and, with his sister and Luvah, went through the left gate. A few minutes later, the others came through. They looked bewildered on seeing Wolff, Luvah, and Vala.

“But we went through the right-hand gate,” Rintrah said.

Vala laughed and said, “Our father has played us another grim jest. Both gates of a pair lead to the same cylinder. I suspect that they all will.”

“He’s not playing fair!” Ariston said. At this, Wolff and Luvah laughed, and presently the others, Ariston excepted, had joined him in his mirth.

When the howling-which had a note of despair in it-had died, Wolff said, “I may be wrong. But I think that every one of these thousands of cylinders in this-this birling world-has a set of gates. And if we continue the same behavior, we’ll go through every one of them. Only we’ll die before we get a fraction of the way. We must think of something new.”

There was a silence. They sat or lay on the hard gray shiny metal while they whirled around, the cylinders above them rotated about each other in a soundless and intricate saraband, and the twin hexagons at the end hovered and seemed to mock.

Finally, Vala said, “I do not think that we have been left without a way out. It would not be like our father to stop the game while we still have an atom of breath and of fight in us. He would want to drag out the agony until we broke. And I’m sure that he plans on allowing us eventually to find the gate that will conduct us into his stronghold. He must be planning some choice receptions for us, and he would be disappointed if he could not use them.

“So, I think that we have not been using our wits. Obviously, these gates lead only to other sets on other cylinders. That is, they do if we go through the regular way, through the side which is set with jewels. But what if the gates are bipolar? What if the other side would take us where we want to go?”

Wolff said, “I tested the other side when we first came through.” “Yes, you tested the initial gate. But have you tested any of the double gates?”

Wolff shook his head and said, “Exhaustion and thirst are robbing me of my wits. I should have thought of that. After all, it’s the only thing left to try.”

“Then, let’s up and at them,” Vala said. “Summon your strength; this may be our exit from this cursed birling world.”