The Gates of Creation

The waters rose swiftly, carrying the treading Lords up towards the ceiling. When there was only a foot of air between the sea and the ceiling, they put on their masks. Wolff dived as close towards the floor as he could get and began swimming. Suddenly, the air shut off. He held his breath and continued swimming. There was a glare of light that blinded him, and the water seemed to burn his exposed hands and back of neck. He bumped against the side of the arch and was borne out into the next room. Here he shoved his feet against the floor and propelled himself upward. He held his hands out to soften the impact against the ceiling, which he could not yet see.

His head bumping against stone, he removed his mask and breathed in. His lungs filled with air, then water slapped him in the mouth and he coughed. His vision returned; Theotormon and Luvah were beside him. Wolff lifted his hand and pointed downward. “Follow me!”

He dived, his eyes open, his hands sliding along the wall. There was a green jade statue, a foot high, once an idol of some people in some universe, squatting in a niche. Wolff rotated its head, and a section of the wall opened inwards. The three Lords were carried into the large room. They scrambled to their feet, and Wolff ran to a console and pulled on a red-handled lever. The door closed slowly against the pressure of the water, leaving a foot of water in the room. Identifying the console Urizen had told him about (there were at least thirty), Wolff pressed down a rectangular plate on which was an ideogram of the ancient writing once used by the Lords. He stepped back with the first smile he had had for a long tune.

“Vala not only won’t be able to use her controls any more,” he said, “she’s trapped in her control room as well. And all gates of escape in the room are deactivated. Only the permanent gates in the palace, like the gate to the waterworld, are still on.”

Wolff reached towards the button that would activate the view-screen in the other control room. He withdrew his hand and stood in thought for a moment.

“The less our sister knows of the true situation, the better for us,” he said. “Theotormon, come here and listen carefully.”

Wolff and Luvah hid behind a console and peered through a narrow opening between the console and its screen. Theotormon pushed the button with the end of his flipper. Vala was staring at him, her long hair dark-red with damp and her face twisted with fury.

“You!” she said.

“Greetings, sister,” Theotormon answered. “Are you surprised to see me still living? And how do you feel knowing that I have sealed off your escape and rendered you powerless?”

“Where are your brothers, your betters?” Vala said, trying to see past him into the room.

“They’re dead. Their airtanks gave out and so did mine. But this body that our father gave me enabled me to hold my breath until the water washed away your jelly.”

“So Jadawin is finally dead? I don’t believe it. You are trying to play a trick on me, you stupid slug!”

“You’re in no position to call names.”

“Let me see his body,” she said.

Theotormon shrugged. “That’s impossible. He’s floating somewhere in the palace. I barely made it to this room myself. I can’t go out to get him without flooding this room.”

Vala looked at the water on the floor and then she smiled. “So you’re trapped, too. You fish-stinking idiot, you don’t even have the brains of a fish! You just told me what your situation is!”

Theotormon gaped. He said, “But… but…”

“You may think you have me in your power,” Vala said. “And so you do, in a manner of speaking. But you are just as much in mine. I know where the spacecraft is. It can get us off this planet and to another, which has a gate through which we can leave this universe. Now, what do you propose to do about this impasse?”

Theotormon scratched the fur on his head with the tip of a flipper. “I don’t know.”

“Oh, yes, you do! You’re stupid, but not that stupid! You’ll make a trade with me. You let me out, and I’ll let you leave with me in the ship. There’s no other way out for either of us.”

Wolff could not see Theotormon’s expression, but he could deduce from his tone the cunningness and suspicion on his face.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“You don’t, any more than I can trust you. We’ll have to arrange this so neither of us can possibly trip the other up. Do you agree?”

“Well, I don’t know…”

“This control room won’t be harmed if the seas get a mile high and sit forever on the palace. I have food and water enough for a year. I can just sit here and let you die. And then I’ll figure some way to get out, believe me. I’ll discover a way.”

“In that case,” Theotormon said, “why don’t you do it?”

“Because I don’t want to stay in this room for a year. I have too many things to do.”

“All right. But what about Chryseis?”

“She comes with me. I have plans for her,” Vala said.

Her voice became even more suspicious. “Why should you care about her?”