Late 1888. On the Hadramaut-Oman border, outside Al Ghaitan.
At the grand victory feast, the Party learned that Qidan, too, had made it through the battle alive.
At the end of the following day, the men were called before the sultan. He stated that he was not concerned about the missing Yemeni camel troops, militarily, as each site with water on this side of the Rub'al Khali was fortified and in Omani hands. Therefore, he, believing it safe on the far side of the Dhofar, chose to grant the Party's request to travel into the Empty Quarter. Mr. Blake requested permission to talk with the Omani viziers experienced in the desert. The sultan assured the radiologist that his viziers wanted to spend more time with our Party, as his gaze drifted over to Mr. Steele. The sultan went on to say that he was expecting a message in three days from Muscat at which time he would allow us to attend a showing of some of his objects d'art. Mr. Blake replied in flowery language and the Party retired, understanding that the 8th statue was enroute.
Meanwhile the ladies of the Party continued to spend time with the sultana who had a collection of SG&FS reports. She was particularly interested in Prof. Challenger and somewhat disappointed that the doctor and gypsy's descriptions of the famous explorer's physical appearance did not meet her expectations. Dr. Davis managed to learn what she could about the star configurations that were due to presage the reappearance of the City of Brass. Miss Costorari promised to be a pen-pal (using the boarding house address) to the sultana, once back in Anglia.
Penrington took the opportunity to introduce Mr. Forester to the fleshpots of Al Ghaitan. The younger man found the experiences, uh, very educational. He discovered that the native dancing girls moved very differently in their distinctive costume than had Dr. Davis. He took photographs.
Conversations about crossing the Rub'al Khali
Vizier: "It is too late in the year to cross the Rub'al Khali. There are no oases within it and great dunes; one follows the camel trail from the last source of water on this side to the oasis on the other side. If you miss it, you die."
Blake: "Could we hire a native guide?"
Vizier: "All are with the caravan which should be starting to head back about now."
Penrington: "Is there a chance we will meet up with one in the desert?"
Vizier: "They will shoot you. No one is just 'found' in the Rub'al Khali."
Steele: "Would there be some way to tell them that we are friends?"
Vizier, shrugged: "When men of different tribes encounter each other, they shoot."
Qidan: "I am being sent as the Sultan's representative to properly identify the foreigners to the people of the forts and oases, as the Sultan's guests. But I have never crossed the Empty Quarter. I have only traveled up to Qatar and once around to India. There I caught an airship."
Blake to Qidan: "Are you confident that you can follow a camel track?"
Qidan. "Not at all."
Costorari: "I hope that on the other side of the mountains.... There are caves. Perhaps we can contact the giants?"
Forester: "Do you expect to bargain with some one four times your size!?!"
Costorari: "I'll bargain with anyone!"
Penrington: "Do we speak their language?"
Forester: "No. They speak the whistle language."
Ava: "Of course, Qidan knows some few words...."
Penrington: "We still need to know how to find the city."
Po: "I might be able to do as I did before - find a concentration of djinni minds - if necessary." He added wryly, "We can always go out and wait for the Prince of Yemen's dust cloud and follow him to the city."
Three days later.
The art arrived and was arranged so that all members of the Party could view it. The sultan was not present although Qidan was. Much of the art was elegant and elaborate tapestries and rugs. The Party almost missed the statue at first perusal; it was not the four-armed humanoid we expected. It was a piece of very weathered stone less than 12-inches tall, only vaguely humanoid in overall shape. All detail was gone. Steele examined it and determined it was as light-weight as the other statuettes had been but had more reddishness in the sand of which it was composed.
Voronika touched the statue and felt a wind arise and blow the tent away as the statue dissolved in the blasts. The wind blew down the surrounding palms and then died down into a pleasant breeze. The gypsy found herself in a fruit orchard, the nearby trees of which were laden with ripe produce. The rows beyond seemed almost ripe and, beyond that, less ripe; a progression as far as she could see. She stood near a pool of water fed by a stream. An old Arab sitting at the pool looked at her and sighed. "You are not here to become a priestess, are you? The pretty ones never are."
Voronika shook her head, the Arab continued, "You would make a very lovely priestess, you know." Voronika stammered her thanks and the Arab continued, "You have come a long way to be here. Please ask your question."
The gypsy said, "You know what we have come for?"
The old man replied, "The city that appears every so often."
Voronika: "We need to know where it is, what to name it. And how."
Arab: "I chose wrong. I should have chosen a more dependable tribe. But my chosen were only interested in what they could amass. They have been destroyed, shattered." He paused then continued, "One will come by the Lower Route. The last one, a long time from now, comes by the Middle Route, guided by an Eye in the Sky. You command great power. You will come by the High Route because you are one who deals with Old Ones. You will be escorted by djinn and the Old Ones will show you the secret of unlocking the chain."
Voronika: "How can I control djinn!?!"
Arab: "With your power you will withstand and bind them."
Voronika: "My power? What power is that!?!"
Arab: "The memories you make will last a long time. She won't recognize that she's following a memory until...."
The vision faded.
The Party members were divided in opinion as to whether the old man had actually been talking to Miss Costorari or whether she had been looking through the eyes of an earlier visitor. The earlier statuette visions had seemed to be a third person view, rather than first person. A discussion ensued about the three Routes mentioned by the vision.
Davis: "We know the City has three aspects: the city of the Void, the ruins in the desert, and the fantastical city of legend that appears and disappears. That last is the city of the visions."
Steele: "Was Solomon's visit by the first route? But he came by flying carpet - might that have been the eye in the sky?"
Penrington: "It could be the Prince's mechanical bird." Chortling, "That would certainly be an Eye in the Sky."
Penrington: "What did the vision mean, that we deal with Old Ones? Have we ever dealt with Old Ones?"
Costorari: "Remember the stele pieces of Timbuktu? That was an Old One?"
Penrington: "But did we ever talk to it?"
Davis, quietly: "Only through the druids." Then she lapsed into silence, recalling her encounter with the Tortoise, but knowing that that added nothing to the group's present dilemma.
Penrington: "What's a druid in Arabia?"
Blake, wryly: "A vizier? Every other magic user is a vizier."
Qidan: "The orchard of the vision sounds like a description of Paradise, a land of milk and honey where one is served by beautiful virginal houri." Dr. Davis turned her head away and drew her abaaya more closely about her.
Penrington: "But is the orchard of consecutive ripeness Paradise - or a time gradient?"
Before reaching the Dhofar Mountains, the Party was overtaken by a fast rider who conferred with Qidan and then handed over a package. Qidan turned to the group, "Word has come that the Prince of Yemen's camel troops went north of the Valley Hadramaut, very close along the route that we took in our escape. They halted at a great rock that they opened up. Therefrom came a number of giants, which the Prince and his people slew. The last one they killed was but a young girl giant, only twice the size of a man. She had with her a strange pet, a horse. This came from that animal." Qidan displayed the package contents: a slender spiraled horn of white.
Miss Costorari touched the horn and experienced the animal's violent death, its head snapped by a djinn. Already prepared, Smith caught her body as it flew from the horn in reaction. Dazed the gypsy murmured, "There are legends of unicorns. One can only be tamed by a virgin. Their horns purify and cure. It is more intelligent and faster than a normal horse, and uses its horn as a weapon." Dr. Davis replied, in her scientific voice, "I have heard that these lands have antelopes with spiral horns. It is possible that this is just one of two." Miss Costorari demurred, "I think the prince is killing the allies of Hud. He would want vengeance against them." Someone else said, "Then we know, at least, what route the prince is taking." By working from when the sultan's informants gathered this information, the Party calculated that they still had a head start on the duplicitous Prince of Yemen. The messenger was allowed to take the horn back to the sultan, with a report of the gypsy's vision.
The Dhofar Mountains were relatively low slopes with scattered trees. Cloud or fog clung to the hills. At a village on the near side, Qidan decided to make camp, informing the villagers that the visitors were guests of the Sultan and not to be murdered in the night. Miss Costorari asked some villagers about the Inscription. One villager did not recognize the specific Inscription but led the group to a place where there were 3 flat rocks in a familiar pile. He dusted off a nearby rock to reveal some of the now-familiar symbols, but he did not know their meaning. Then he led the group to another area where there were three sets of stacks within an ellipse of rocks. The line the three stacks formed were not in line with the previous stack, which seemed to put an end to Dr. Davis' theory that they were road markers as well as smokeless cook stoves. He added, "Most of such writing is in the Wadi Daikur, on the north side of the Dhofar. It is called the 'Vale of Remembrance.' A place of burial." Davis looked at Miss Costorari, "A spirit of an Iremi citizen may be able to point the way to the city for us." The gypsy nodded.
In the morning, the Party watched a group of old men and children chanting as they approached a grove of trees. In time to the chant, the men drew their knives and sliced gashes in the trees. A villager explained that this was the ritual by which frankincense was formed: the sap would ooze out and be allowed to crystallize. He repeated something that Dr. Davis had heard before, "There used to be an elaborate means of processing the sap to produce the highest grades - the silver frankincense - but those skills have been long lost. Frankincense is the favourite food of gods and Old Ones." Penrington grinned, "Why, just the other day I was asking how to talk to Old Ones." The villager said, "The year's processed frankincense is on the caravan to Palestine. There is almost none to be had here." Miss Costorari's ears perked up, "Almost!?!" The gypsy settled in to a trading session, bargaining the small amount of available incense down from its volume in gold to almost its weight in gold. Flabbergasted at being unable to reach a smaller price, Miss Costorari turned to the doctor, "Do we really need this?" Dr. Davis nodded soberly. Po spoke up encouragingly, "After all, this is the last place to spend our gold before we die in the desert." The gypsy glared at him.
Meanwhile, Mr. Forester had surreptitiously taken a cutting of the frankincense tree, knowing that Kew Gardens would think it a marvelous acquisition. Then he spent some time trying to work out the type of soil and amount of water needed to keep the cutting alive. In addition, he decided to take a picture of the cuts the men were making in the trees. Unfortunately, his display of the resulting photograph caused consternation amongst the natives and Qidan had to shout them down as they were drawing their weapons on the bemused scientist. Qidan had Forester publicly destroy the photo, advising, "Make no images of people. It is a strong belief here. That is why the statue no longer had a human shape." The Party paid appropriate compensation to the villagers.
The Party was not surprised to learn that no villager would admit to knowing the whistle language. However, the helpful guide of the previous evening was willing to be hired to guide through the Wadi Daikur. It took most of the day to reach the crest of the hills. The following day, the group descended through the Wadi Daikur, a valley cutting through the northern face of the mountains and opening onto a flat plain. Far on the horizon was a glint of red. Qidan said, "The red dunes of the Rub'al Khali. It is 60 miles from the base of the mountains to where the dunes begin."
The valley was humid, misty, and surprisingly warm. Voronika noticed that it was teeming with life, small encampments scattered all along the path, natives going about their daily tasks. Some women wore the open-faced abaaya, others the more concealing burka. Up the cliff faces of the valley, were numerous caves, some with bricked over entrances.
Costorari: "What are the caves?"
Guide: "Tombs. Keep your voice down."
Po: "Are you seeing apparitions yet, Miss Costorari?"
Costorari: "No. No one that's come over to talk. All these people..."
Most of her companions: "People!?!" To everyone else, the vale had been desolate.
Costorari: "Where are the oldest tombs?"
Guide: "Oldest? Well, I remember when we buried old man Barim. Then they sealed up his tomb because it was full. That's the oldest I know."
Po: "Are there writings?"
The guide led a climb up some hard scrabble. Peering over the crumbling seal of a cave-tomb, the group could make out some writing but nothing legible. No one could think of how to determine where amongst all the tombs, one could find a spirit out of ancient Irem. The trek continued down into the valley's pan. The guide wanted to camp far out - some 40 minutes travel -- from the burial valley. "Thumrait, the first major base, is 10 miles away. We will not make it tonight. The other oases - Abad, Shisur, Dumrit," he gestured the directions, "are even further."
Dr. Davis felt troubled all through dinner preparations. She turned to Miss Costorari, "If the spirits were out during the day, perhaps they will be in their tombs at night. We should go back and find a tomb with the ancient style of writing, to try to talk to such a spirit." The gypsy was game. The guide was flabbergasted, "Djinn haunt places where evil people are buried. Don't go back to the Valley of Death." Both he and Qidan stayed in the camp, but the Party menfolk would not let the two women make their visit unaccompanied.
Forty minutes later, sand crunched under the Party's feet as the rising walls of the valley blocked out what light came from moon and stars. The women were the first to hear the faint moaning as the breezes picked up. Forester felt Something brush by his lower leg, but there was nothing there. The moaning wind increased and then the women felt a smaller clammy, chilly breeze. Lok said to Blake, in Mandarin, "Something touched me on the shoulder, I .. turned round .. No one." Also in Mandarin, Blake replied with assurance, "Don't worry. We'll be fine." KA-ping A rock bounced off Steele. Penrington grated, "That's awful corporeal for ghosts."
Voronika heard "Look out!" shouted from a cave as three djinn appeared around the Party. No.1 grabbed Lok; No.2 grabbed Dr. Davis; No.3 grabbed for and missed Penrington. The two djinn then carried their victims away from the Party, while No.3 gestured to create a whirlwind that tossed sand and rocks at Penrington, Smith, Po, Forester and Ava. Penrington dived to the ground but whirlwind did [7,21] damage to its targets, stunning several of them.
Po, still linked to the fleeing djinn, tried to ascertain its name but only came up with sobriquets and an image of molten tar. Then he tried flashing images of jewelry and discovered "round things are nice. Not a ring." But most of the mental emanations were of "Revenge!" as the creature headed in a direction sideways to any the Chinese boy knew.
Miss Costorari carefully wiped her sword on a clean handkerchief, having no other way to preserve a sample of the mystic djinn blood. Despite extreme fatigue, the doctor performed a heal on Mr. Forester [7] but gratefully turned the rest of the injured over to Mr. Blake's regenerative field, too tired to continue exerting herself.
Still trying to learn the secrets of the dead, Dr. Davis suggested that the Party still try to find a spirit in a cave. The nearest tomb was partially blocked, but Mr. Steele obliged by clearing enough away that Miss Costorari could enter the shallow cave. She saw only Arabic engravings and said, "Nobody home. We should probably go." Bowing to the weight of opinion, the doctor acknowledged her idea a failure. "I apologize for bringing you all into danger."
Back at camp, the rest of the night passed uneventfully. Penrington told the guide, "You were correct. Very dangerous." The guide elaborated, "Particularly on Tuesday and Thursday nights, one must be especially careful. Djinn, very bad." The next morning, the Party bid good-bye to the guide.
On the flat lands, the Party could make 20 miles a day, reaching Thumrait the first day. Shisur - the furthest oasis north - would be 2 more days away. Thumrait was a well-defended town with stone walls, 6 towers, and a strong central keep protecting the central well. The soldiers there were expecting reinforcements from Oman at any time, well aware that the Prince of Yemen was coming.
Following a trail hardened by generations of camel traffic, the Party made it to Shisur in the expected two days. A few more miles beyond could be seen the towering red dunes of the Rub'al Khali. Mr. Steele, recollecting that the Museum had had no such sand samples, arranged to take some sand back to Anglia. Qidan said, "Shisur means 'the cleft'. The well is down in the pit around which this town is built." Indeed, what buildings there were were on the edge of a steep pit, 20 meters deep and 50-60 meters across. Shisur did not look like much of a fort: there was but one tower and a single-building keep. Most of the area around, however, was hard-packed like the camel trail. The trail itself, some 100 feet wide, coalesced on the far side of town and headed straight NNE into the red dunes.
Still seeking more direction than simply heading into the dunes, the Party sought out the towns' iman, the most learned teacher in the area.
Miss Costorari: "What might be the Eye in the Sky"
Iman: "Angels looking down from heaven."
Mr. Blake: "Do you know the whistle language?"
Iman: "Only 1, 2, 3, yes, no, hello friend."
Miss Costorari: "Do you know if this Inscription," she showed the rubbing, "can be found near here?"
Iman: "There are only bits of script around here. A lot can be found, however, in the Dhofar Mountains."
Dr. Davis: "What is known here of Irem?"
Iman: "It is right under one of those dunes." He gestured widely. "Sometimes one finds its great stones. It was a city of fabulous wealth with a great iron camel. Its people dined off of gold platters and ate pearls."
Someone: "What of Hud?"
Iman: "It is said only an honest man can reach his tomb. It is also said that an honest man is one who always keeps his cool."
Lok: "While you were looking, I was sitting in a cool spot. In the Valley of Death."
The Party gazed at each other in consternation. Had they, in fact, left the true Tomb of Hud three days behind?
Dr. Davis, somewhat depressed at having been so close and yet looking in the wrong place, said, "What else have we missed? What clue to finding the City of Brass?"
Mr. Steele, rummaging through his mechanical records, started reeling off comments made by the Great Zatan.
Zatan: "The city still exists in the Void. The path is closed off. The last to find it rode a carpet - 60 miles on a side - and flew across the desert. The door was guarded by two eagles, the eldest of which had lived 1300 years. They had been bequeathed the place after every one had left. The mage opened the door and descended a staircase down to the remains of Irem on this earth. There were many statues, some of which came to life; he put them down. From one he withdrew from its throat a silver plate on which was written:
'I, Shaddad ben 'Ad, ruled over a thousand thousand provinces, rode on a thousand horses, had a thousand thousand kings under me, and slew a thousand heroes, and when the Angel of Death approached me I was powerless.'
The city had suffered a great drought and its people had had no way to stay alive even though they ground their pearls into flour and ate them. Having discovered this, the Wizard Suleyman [or Solomon] climbed back up out of the city, got on his carpet and flew away."
Then he moved on to comments made by the Evil Sorcerer:
Wizard: "The statue rests in the Void, in the City of Brass."
Blake, somewhat confused: "I thought you had it."
Wizard: "I have the statue and I have the entrance to the Void."...
Wizard: "I will show you the door when you say you are ready to face it."
Smith commented, "We took that way already." "There is more," the Mechanical Man affirmed:
Wizard: "The Ad Irem are the people who lived at the Gates of Paradise. Irem Zhat al Imad is the city."
Blake: "A name or an aspect of the city?"
Wizard: "To name it is to look for the ghostly city of the mind. It is found by finding one's way through the memory."
Miss Costorari: "Whose memory?"
Wizard: "A traveler who saw it and saw it clearly."
Miss Costorari, persisting: "Who?"
Wizard: "A woman." The robe shrugged again. "Women have no names."
The doctor nodded excitedly, "That was Sirina. Miss Costorari has been following her memory. But we don't have the last two pieces. Wasn't there more?" Steele said "One might say he offered three ways into the city":
Blake: "What does 'Ubar' mean."
Dr. Davis exclaimed, "Dhofar! Dhofar was the god of Life. The Hills of Life are the Dhofar Mountains. We came down the Wadi Daikur, the Valley of Death. Here - here! - Shishur is where the camels come together! It is here!"
Wizard: "That is also an echo of the City of Brass. It is where camels come together. It is entered from the Valley of Death beneath the Hills of Life."
Penrington said, "Then let's get some shovels and start digging down in that pit."
"And," Ava commented, "speaking of names of gods, that solves one of your earlier mysteries, the one on the Sorcerer's mountain, Jabal an Nabi Shu'ayb, where you encountered the number 12."
Davis nodded, "Yes, the three stones. Two white, one blue. One, one, and ten."
Ava smiled, "There are seven pillars of wisdom; there were thought to be seven statues, each corresponding with a god and with a point of wisdom."
Davis, catching on, "And Gad is the god who 'comes before wisdom'; the sultana told us of that saying. So, Gad,
the god of luck, comes before the gods of the seven pillars of wisdom."
Ava nodded, "Thus the 12 at the first station on Nabi Shu'ayb meant Gad."
Mr. Steele added, "Gad was the old Arab in Miss Costorari's vision, wasn't he?"
Dr Davis smiled her agreement, "Yes, I'm sure of it. And the tribe he chose as 'his people' became the people of Ad. Ad Irem. Irem Zhat al Imad. It is possible that each of the other 7 gods has a chosen tribe as well, although I don't know what value that possibility has for us."
Dr. Davis paused for a moment, remembering. "Didn't Abdul tell us that Wabar or Ubar meant 'great well'?"
The machine man recited:
Miss Costorari returned to the Museum's Reading Room. She determined that there had been a Market Town having 7 tall towers: Wabar. Abdul translated this as "Ubar", meaning great well. It had been built by djinn for King Ad Kin'Ad who had 90 steeds, 90 eunuchs, and 90 concubines. Most of the stories of Wabar included being guided by magic means, such as djinn or a flying camel. It was reputed to be green, fertile, wonderful, fabulously wealthy, and behind certain mountain ranges.
"Mr. Penrington," the doctor nodded, "I think you have the right of it. There should be an entrance down in that pit somewhere."
Next Run: 0040212 Irem
(a) Cumulative (b) Cumulative since Volume II
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