Клайв Баркер – Imajica (страница 41)
‘Good to see you,’ Gentle said.
‘You too.’
It started to untie the belt that bound them, while Gentle turned his gaze on the Dominion. They were standing close to the summit of a hill, a quarter of a mile from the perimeters of a sprawling shanty-town, from which a din of activity rose. It spread beyond the foot of the hill, and halfway across a flat and treeless plain of ochre earth, crossed by a thronged highway that led his eye to the domes and spires of glittering city.
‘Patashoqua?’ he said.
‘Where else?’
‘You were accurate then.’
‘More than I dared hope. The hill we’re standing on is supposed to be the place where Hapexamendios first rested when He came through from the Fifth. It’s called the Mount of Lipper Bayak. Don’t ask me why.’
‘Is the city under siege?’ Gentle said.
‘I don’t think so. The gates look open to me.’
Gentle scanned the distant walls, and indeed the gates were open wide. ‘So who are all these people? Refugees?’
‘We’ll ask in a while,’ Pie said.
The knot had come undone. Gentle rubbed his wrist, which was indented by the belt, staring down the hill as he did so. Moving between the makeshift dwellings below he glimpsed forms of being that didn’t much resemble humanity. And mingling freely with them, many who did. It wouldn’t be difficult to pass as a local, at least.
‘You’re going to have to teach me. Pie,’ he said. ‘I need to know who’s who and what’s what. Do they speak English here?’
‘It used to be quite a popular language,’ Pie replied. ‘I can’t believe it’s fallen out of fashion. But before we go any further, I think you should know what you’re travelling with. The way people respond to me may confound you otherwise.’
Tell me as we go,’ Gentle said, eager to see the strangers below up close.
‘As you wish.’ They began to descend. ‘I’m a mystif; my name’s Pie’oh’pah. That much you know. My gender you don’t.’
‘I’ve made a guess,’ Gentle said.
‘Oh?’ said Pie, smiling. ‘And what’s your guess?’
‘You’re an androgyne. Am I right?’
That’s part of it, certainly.’
‘But you’ve got a talent for illusion. I saw that in New York.’
‘I don’t like the word
‘What then?’
‘In New York, you wanted Judith, and that’s what you saw. It was
‘But you played along.’
‘Because I wanted to be with you.’
‘And are you playing along now?’
‘I’m not deceiving you, if that’s what you mean. What you see is what I am, to you.’
‘But to other people?’
‘I may be something different. A man sometimes. A woman others.’
‘Could you be white?’
‘I might manage it for a moment or two. But if I’d tried to come to your bed in daylight, you’d have known I wasn’t Judith. Or if you’d been in love with an eight-year-old, or a dog. I couldn’t have accommodated that, except …’ the creature glanced round at him, ‘… under very particular circumstances.’
Gentle wrestled with this notion, questions biological, philosophical and libidinous filling his head. He stopped walking for a moment, and turned to Pie.
‘Let me tell you what I see,’ he said. ‘Just so you know.’
Good.’
‘If I passed you on the street I believe I’d think you were a woman …’ he cocked his head, ‘… though maybe not. I suppose it’d depend on the light, and how fast you were walking.’ He laughed. ‘Oh shit,’ he said. The more I look at you the more I see, and the more I see-’
‘- the less you know.’
‘That’s right. You’re not a man. That’s plain enough. But then …’ He shook his head. ‘Am I seeing you the way you really are? I mean, is this the final version?’
‘Of course not. There’s stranger sights inside us both. You know that.’
‘Not until now.’
‘We can’t go too naked in the world. We’d burn out each other’s eyes.’
‘But this
‘For the time being.’
‘For what it’s worth, I like it,’ Gentle said. ‘I don’t know what I’d call you if I saw you in the street, but I’d turn my head. How’s that?’
‘What more could I ask for?’
‘Will I meet others like you?’
‘A few maybe,’ Pie said, ‘but mystifs aren’t common. When one is born, it’s an occasion for great celebration amongst my people.’
‘Who are your people?’
‘The Eurhetemec.’
‘Will they be here?’ Gentle said, nodding towards the throng below.
‘I doubt it. But in Yzordderrex, certainly. They have a Kesparate there.’
‘What’s a Kesparate?’
‘A district. My people have a city within the city. Or at least they had one. It’s two hundred and twenty-one years since I was there.’
‘My God. How old are you?’
‘Half that again. I know that sounds like an extraordinary span, but time works slowly on flesh touched by feits.’
‘Feits?’
‘Magical workings. Feits, wantons, sways. They work their miracles even on a whore like me.’
‘Whoa!’ said Gentle.
‘Oh yes. That’s something else you should know about me. I was told - a long time ago - that I should spend my life as a whore or an assassin, and that’s what I’ve done.’
‘Until now, maybe. But that’s over.’
‘What will I be from now on?’
‘My friend,’ Gentle said, without hesitation.
The mystif smiled. ‘Thank you for that.’
The round of questions ended there, and side by side they wandered on down the slope.
‘Don’t make your interest too apparent,’ Pie advised as they approached the edge of this makeshift conurbation. ‘Pretend you see this sort of sight daily.’