“I am so weary I do not care,” Ariston said. “I would welcome death. To sleep forever, free of this agony of body and mind, that is all I desire.”
“If you really feel that way,” Vala said, “then you should be the first to test the gate.”
Wolff said nothing, but the others added their voices to Vala’s urgings. Ariston did not seem so eager to die now; he objected, saying that he was not fool enough to sacrifice himself for them.
“You are not only a weakling but a coward, brother,” Vala said. “Very well, I will be the first.”
Stung, Ariston started towards the spinning hexagon but stopped when a few feet from it. He stared at it and continued to stand motionless while Vala jeered him. She shoved him to one side so hard he staggered and fell on the gray surface. Then she crouched before the golden cycler and studied it intently for several minutes. Suddenly, she launched herself forward and went through the opening headfirst. The gate whirled on around.
Ariston arose without looking at the others or replying to their taunts. He walked up to the gate, bent his knees, and dived through. And he came out on the other side and fell on the gray surface. Wolff, the first to him, turned him over.
Ariston’s mouth hung open; his eyes were glazing; his skin was turning gray.
Wolff stood up and said, “He went through the wrong side. Now we know what kind of gate this is.”
“That bitch Vala has all the luck!” Tharmas said. “Did you notice which side she went through?”
Wolff shook his head. He studied the frame in the pink dusk. There were no markings of any kind on either side to distinguish one from the other. He spoke to Luvah, and they picked up Ariston’s body by the feet and shoulders. They swung it back and forth until, at Wolff’s shout, they released the corpse at the height of its forward swing. It shot through the frame and came out on the other side and fell on the surface.
Wolff and Luvah went to the other side and once more swung his body and then cast it through the frame. This time it did not reappear. Wolff said to Rintrah, “Are you counting?”
Rintrah nodded his head. Wolff said, “Lift your finger, and when the right side comes around, point it. Do it swiftly!”
Rintrah waited until two more turns had been made, then stabbed his finger. Wolff hurled himself through the frame, hoping that Rintrah had not made a mistake. He landed on Ariston’s body. There was the sound of sea and a red sky above. Vala was standing nearby and laughing softly as if she were actually enjoying their father’s joke.
They were back on an island of the waterworld.
XIV
The other lords came through the gate one by one, rintrah last. They did not look as downcast as might have been expected. At least, they were on familiar grounds, almost home, one might say. And, as Theotormon did say, they could eat all they wanted.
The gate through which they had entered was the right one of an enormous pair. Both stood on a low hill. The immediate terrain looked familiar. After the Lords had gone to the shore to quench their thirst, they cooked and ate the fish that Theotormon caught. They set up a guard-rotation system and slept. The next day, they explored.
There was no doubt that they were back on the great island the natives called the “Mother of Islands.”
“Those gates are the same ones that started us off on the not-so-merry-go-round,” Wolff said. “We went through the right-hand one. So, the left one may lead to Urizen’s world.”
Tharmas said, “Perhaps . . . well, this is not the most desirable of worlds. But it is better to enjoy life here than to die or live in pain in one of Urizen’s cells. Why not forget that gate? There is food and water here and native women. Let Urizen sit in his seat of power forever and rot waiting for us to come to him.”
“You forget that, without your drugs, you will get old and will die,” Wolff said. “Do you want that? Moreover, there is no guarantee that Urizen will not come to us if we don’t go to him. No, you may sit here in a lotus-eater’s dream if you want, but I intend to keep fighting.”