War in Heaven (71 page)

Just south of Danladi Square, the Cathedral of the Way of Ringess rose up in all its glory. Its beauty overshadowed the nearby buildings, many of which, in their glittering sweeps of organic stone, were beautiful indeed. As Danlo skated closer, his gaze fell upon the long stained-glass windows depicting the famous scenes of his father's life. In the intense sunlight, the reds, golds and blues of the windows sprayed out into the air and seemed to drench the entire cathedral with colour. Above the crossing, where the arms of the cathedral joined the building's main body, the central tower looked down upon the granite flying buttresses and all the graceful stonework below. And it looked up as well, for Bardo had ordered the tower surmounted with a great golden dome. Here, Danlo knew, inside the tower's rooms, Hanuman li Tosh spent his nights looking up into the sky at the Universal Computer and the Golden Ring. Here, too, he would have been waiting when some godling knocked upon his door and brought word of the coming of Mallory Ringess.

I am Mallory Ringess: I am Mallory Ringess: I am Mallory wi Soli Ringess ...

The streets nearest the cathedral were lined with golden-robed godlings chanting: "Mallory Ringess! Mallory Ringess! Mallory wi Soli Ringess!" Their desire to leap forwards to greet their god was great, but their discipline was great, too, and they had been instructed to clear a way for Danlo and his vanguard. And so they kept to the sides of the wide glidderies as Danlo passed by them, and all the while they cheered and chanted his father's name. When Danlo drew close to the cathedral's western portal, he saw that the three great wooden doors had been thrown open. Other godlings — Hanuman's cathedral police — stood beneath the huge stone archway of the central door waiting for him. There, he noticed that the original carvings of the Kristian saints and prophets in the archway had been replaced with organic stone sculptures of Katharine the Scryer, Shanidar, Balusilustalu, and Kalinda of the Flowers, all of whom had helped Mallory Ringess become a god. After ejecting his skate blades, Danlo climbed the shallow steps leading up to the portal. The shouts of half a million people drowned out the sound of his boots pounding against stone; the ringing in his ears almost silenced the pounding of his heart. And then he passed through the doorway, and the godlings there fairly fell on their faces in their eagerness to bow to him. They allowed the godlings of Danlo's vanguard to pass inside as well, but then they closed ranks to bar anyone not dressed in a godling's golden robes. But their numbers were too few, and the fervour of the manswarm following Danlo had grown too great. In only a few frantic moments, men and women dressed in the Order's many colours — and harijan, hibakusha, and astriers, too — swept the cathedral police out of their way and surged inside.

"Mallory Ringess! Mallory Ringess! Mallory wi Soli Ringess!"

Thousands of godlings packed the great nave of the cathedral; they stood along the walls and between the pillars of the aisles calling out his father's name. The sound of their voices reverberated from the stonework and the windows, and rose up to fill the cathedral's magnificent vault high above. To mark the return of Mallory Ringess, thousands of candles in their golden stands had been set afire. But there was little need for their flickering, yellow flames, for the noonday sun rained down upon the cathedral and light streamed through the windows in lovely parallel lines of crimson and emerald and a deep, cobalt blue. As Danlo walked deeper into the nave, he felt this light like starfire upon his face. He felt many, many pairs of eyes burning into him, too. He made his way past the rows of adoring godlings straight towards the chancel. There, to the right of the red-carpeted altar, stood Surya Surata Lai, Thomas Rane, Nirvelli and Mariam Erendina Vasquez, who had once been the Order's Lord Eschatologist. They all waited in silence.

To the left of the altar, the Lords of the Order had been gathered as Danlo had instructed. There were a hundred and twelve of them that day: Jonath Parsons, Rodrigo Diaz, Mahavira Netis and Nicobar Yutu, who wore a new golden robe, and others. Since Danlo's visit to the College of Lords, many lords had traded in their coloured robes for those woven from a godling's gold. Kolenya Mor, the present Lord Eschatologist, had been the first of them to convert so openly to Ringism, and many others had followed her example. Now Eva Zarifa, the Lord Fabulist, sported a gold robe with purple armbands to denote her profession rather than the reverse. Burgos Harsha, the Lord Historian, however, still wore his old brown robe and declared that he always would. And Lord Pall still wore his cetic's orange robe. As Lord of the Order, he wished to distance himself from Hanuman li Tosh and the Way of Ringess, pretending to an autonomy in which few now believed; almost everyone at the academy suspected that Hanuman subtly controlled Lord Pall, even as a master programmer's virus might invade and run a robot's operating systems. Lord Pall, of course, still acted as if all the power of the Order was his alone. This terrible old man, with his bone-white skin and blackened teeth, had positioned the lords and masters of the Order near the altar according to their rank. Farthest away, almost to the aisle where many godlings shifted about to get a better look at Danlo's entrance as Mallory Ringess, he had commanded the master academicians to gather as a group some three hundred strong. Closer in stood more minor lords. Although Demothi Bede was no longer of the Order, Lord Pall had invited him to wait by his side a few feet from the altar, along with Kolenya Mor, Morasha the Bright and Burgos Harsha. Demothi Bede, who had floated for many days with Danlo in the pit of his ship on their journey to Neverness, seemed not to recognize Danlo for he who truly was. Lord Pall, too, obviously accepted Danlo as Mallory Ringess, for he stood staring at Danlo with his pink, albino's eyes as if bitterly regretting that here walked one who had a better claim than he to the Lordship of the Order.

"Mallory Ringess! Mallory Ringess! Lord Mallory wi Soli Ringess!"

One other man awaited Danlo's approach through the nave with loathing and dread. This was Bertram Jaspari. As the false Holy Ivi of the Cybernetic Universal Church and commander of fleets of ships that would destroy the Star of Neverness, he stood with chains binding his arms against his blood-red kimono. He might have bowed his head in shame at all the atrocities he had committed and plotted, but instead he pressed his thin, blue lips defiantly together and glared hatred at this man whom he believed to be Mallory Ringess. "
Hakra!
" he spat out as he watched Danlo make his way among the thousands of godlings. According to his interpretation of his Church's teachings, it was the worst of crimes for a man to become a god. In all his sanctimoniousness, he acted as if Mallory Ringess' crime of hubris had somehow cancelled out his own. "
Hakra!
Abomination!"

But as Danlo came closer to the altar the whole of his attention was fixed upon Hanuman li Tosh, who stood alone on this elevated platform, waiting. He had positioned himself across from the table holding the golden urn and the blue bowl used in countless kalla ceremonies, resplendent in his long, golden robe. The diamond clearface moulded to his shaved head glittered with a billion bits of violet light, a sign that he was in almost continual interface with some cetic computer, possibly even the Universal Computer itself. Had any of the godlings chanced to look towards the altar, they would have seen Hanuman beaming out a dazzling smile as if he had been awaiting the return of Mallory Ringess with gladness and love. But this was a sham. Not for nothing had Hanuman trained as a cetic to master every nuance of expression and emotion. His eyes — his infinitely cold, pale,
shaida
eyes — had not fallen inward with visions of other-worldly beauties or prophecies finally fulfilled. Instead, they fell upon Danlo with a cold fury terrible to behold. Almost no one in the cathedral was aware of Hanuman's true passions except Danlo. And even Danlo was able to pierce the icy glaze of Hanuman's face only because he had known him as well as anyone ever could.

He is afraid
, Danlo thought.
He is afraid, for I bring the one thing that he truly fears.

As Danlo's heart boomed in his chest like the Vild stars exploding into fire, his eyes drank in Hanuman's eyes. And Hanuman's unwavering gaze drew him onwards, deeper into the nave of the cathedral. Hanuman seemed to have aged terribly since their last meeting; his eyes were bloodshot and sunken in their hollow sockets as if he hadn't slept in many days and had hardly deigned to eat. At last Danlo approached the steps to the altar. There, Jaroslav Bulba and three other ronin warrior-poets stood blocking the godlings of Danlo's vanguard from getting too near to Hanuman. But they allowed Danlo to pass. And so as he had done once six years before on the evening of Year's End, he climbed the shallow steps one by one to stand on the altar with his deadliest enemy and his deepest friend.

I am afraid, too
, he thought. He looked up above the altar at the cathedral's eighty-two windows, focusing on the one showing Mallory Ringess' blessing of Bardo before his ascent to the heavens. The sunlight streamed through golden glass and lit up Mallory Ringess' strong, noble face. The last time that Danlo had stood here, the fierce deep winter wind had blown in this great window, showering the altar with bits of coloured glass, nearly killing Hanuman. On that night of broken gods and broken dreams, he had almost killed Hanuman himself. Out of hatred and fear, he had almost used the heavy urn to break open Hanuman's brains, but at the last moment he had saved him instead. And now, on this glorious day of his return as Mallory Ringess, he was afraid once again. More than anything else, he feared that he would let his hatred of Hanuman and all that Hanuman had done well up and overcome him. And thus betray him.
But I must not hate — I am Mallory Ringess, who is beyond hate or fear. I am Mallory Ringess; I am Mallory Ringess; I am Mallory wi Soli Ringess.

"Mallory Ringess! Mallory Ringess! Lord Mallory wi Soli Ringess!"

As the people in the cathedral swayed and chanted and shouted out the name of Mallory Ringess, Hanuman bowed low to welcome Danlo. And Danlo, who was much taller than Hanuman, bowed, too — not quite as low as Hanuman, but low enough not to break the electric connection of their eyes.

"Lord Mallory! Lord of the Order! Lord of Lords! — Lord of the Way of Ringess!"

If he were truly to act as his father, Danlo thought, then he must embody only the godly emotions. Fear and hatred were as far beneath him as the world's dirt was beneath the sun. But wrath — the pure and blindingly bright
deus irae
before which the very heavens must tremble — that was something much vaster. In wrath black and bright a god might return to Neverness to avenge wrongs and restore justice to a war-ravaged people. He might chastise the wicked and perhaps even slay those who had visited horrors upon the innocent, whether they be man, woman or child.

I cannot slay him, but I can remove him as Lord of the Way of Ringess, here and now. I am Mallory wi Soli Ringess, Lord of the Way of Ringess, and I —

"Lord Mallory wi Soli Ringess!" Hanuman suddenly called out. He held up his hand to quiet the godlings swaying ecstatically throughout the cathedral. If he suspected anyone of impersonating Mallory Ringess, he gave no sign. He stared at Danlo with a terrible intensity as if each cell of his body was burning from deep inside. Only a few feet of the altar's red carpet separated him from Danlo. But the distance between their desires and dreams (and perhaps their souls) had grown as great as the light years between the stars. "Lord Mallory, I have told the people that you would return, and on this glorious day, you have come before us to fulfil the truth of the first pillar of Ringism."

As Danlo took a step towards Hanuman, the people around him finally began to grow quiet. Immediately upon ascending the altar, he had shrugged off his furs, and he now stood in his formal pilot's robe, the only one in the cathedral dressed entirely in black. The elite of the Way of Ringess gathered impatiently below the altar, as did the lords and masters of the Order. Thousands of godlings spread out through the nave like a sea of rippling gold. Here and there, harijan dressed in colourful but ragged silks joined them, along with neurosingers, arhats, astriers and all the other peoples of Neverness. So great were their numbers that they spilled out of the cathedral's open doors and swarmed the surrounding streets. In truth, the whole of the Old City for many blocks in any direction had filled with men and women waiting for Danlo to speak so that they might know the glorious and terrible justice of a god.

This is the moment
, Danlo thought.
And my voice is the key that will unlock the door.

But he was afraid to speak. He was afraid that Hanuman, in all his cetic training and deep familiarity with Danlo, might detect some slight tell or pattern to his speech and expose him for who he truly was. He might openly challenge Danlo to prove that he was Mallory Ringess; thus Danlo had put on his father's pilot's ring in the event that he should be tried or tested.

One door, and one door only, opens on to the future. But will Hanuman let me open it?

Danlo looked down at the black diamond ring all sparkling and brilliant around the little finger of his right hand. He took a step closer to Hanuman, and he filled his lungs with a deep breath of air. He was afraid that Hanuman would try to keep him from speaking. Hanuman must have known that Mallory Ringess — the true Mallory Ringess in all his pride and wrath — would punish him for the terrors that he had unleashed in the Ringess name. Would Hanuman try to have him assassinated, here upon the altar with its scarred old carpet stained as red as blood? Would he allow Malaclypse of Qallar into the cathedral and stand by in feigned horror as Malaclypse broke through the cordon of cathedral police and fell upon Danlo with his killing knife? Or would he simply slay him himself, with a poisoned needle or a hidden laser, and announce that a stronger god had slain a lesser one, and that the Way of Ringess had now become the Way of Hanuman li Tosh?