JACK inhaled his first proper breath as they passed the security gate. It was a strange sensation to feel the plastic grip of the bracelet again on his wrist. And even stranger to use it without know that if the magnetic tape inside, had been wrongly coded, he could be arrested and jailed for trying to use it. Who knew… maybe even executed.
But perhaps Zarius had been right about Ibn Nahim and his code of honour. The bracelets they’d received in the sauna appeared to work, and the new identities which were crafted for them – along with a generous store of credit - appeared believable enough to the airship stewards who issued their tickets. But Jack knew they were in unchartered territory, there was no guarantee how long their new identities would hold.
It would be an hour before the ship that would take them to Milan departed. From there, they would change for Edinburgh. Jack made to press ahead through the maze of shops and glass corridors but his companion’s voice called him back. Zarius was resting on a bench untouched by the tide of travellers, porters and attendants which surged around him. Impatient to press on, Jack and Saira made to heave him up, earning bumps and scowls from the bustling crowd.
“We don’t have time for this.” He complained, figuring the larger man had still not recovered from his unknown exertions of the last day.
“Sit down.”
“We can relax once we’ve reached the departure gate,” Saira sounded more sympathetic.
“Please sit.”
They exchanged scowls, but did as instructed. Reaching into the depths of his djelabi, Zarius pressed a fold of paper into Jack’s hand and a phial containing the now familiar scarlet fluid.
“Wyvis, go to Ben Wyvis,” he jabbed at the sheet. “I’ve marked it on this map. It’s where your father is being looked after. Here’s the last of the shark. Remember, it’s high in protein.”
“Why are you talking like this?”
“I have other work that must be done but you are strong enough, dear boy, to carry on the rest of the journey. If you get into difficulty – ask for help. If you ask for it, I will come.”
Jack was silent and then said simply: “You’re not my cousin, are you?”
“No.”
“So who are you?”
“Don’t you have any ideas? Any at all?”
“No, I really don’t.”
“Not even far fetched ones?” Raphael stretched out his arms. “Ones you think might just be too fantastical.”
Tobias hesitated. An idea, distant like the echoes of a dream, was entering his head, like a memory suppressed under water floating to the surface. “Perhaps at first I thought... But it’s...”
“… silly, yes I know. That doesn’t mean it’s not right.”
“So you’re a...”
“Yes.”
“And the organisation you work for that’s… and your boss he’s…”
“Yes.”
Saira looked at the man and boy on the bench, disbelief spreading over her features.
“Wait a minute! Are you joking with us?”
But Zarius just smiled serenely. She could not be sure, but his unblinking eyes seemed unnaturally bright, almost luminous under the artificial lights of the departure hall.
Jack addressed her over his shoulder, speaking quickly: “Don’t you see, that’s why he can’t tell lies or anything like that? And how he always knew what was going to happen… and food! You never – I mean I never saw you, in all that time…”
“Yes. I seemed to eat and to drink with you: but I use an invisible meat and drink, which cannot be seen.”
Saira was recoiling in horror, staring at the two men. One of them mad, the younger seemingly lost in a spell. The poor boy, she thought, he’s obviously been leading him up the garden path for so long. She dragged him into the crowd, out of earshot of the strange new figure on the bench.
“Are you crazy? You’re acting like you believe him!”
“But just think about it, Saira! All the amazing things we’ve seen?
“That you’ve seen!” she was disturbed by the way his words tumbled into each other, he had seized on this unlikely idea without question. “I’ve not seen all this amazing stuff you’re talking about.”
“But he’s always known what to do, he never eats, he helped me beat your curse!”
The hysteria in his voice was too much.
“Jack,” her rising anger echoing across the wide corridor, “do you even believe in any of that stuff?”
“Well, not really. But now... now it makes sense.”
“Jack, how long have you been taking Nectar for? Too long and it fries your brain, you know that? All those artists and chess players, they don’t last that long because they can’t tell between hallucination and reality. I’ve seen people go that way and you’re at the border-line, I’m sure. And your friend has definitely passed it unless he was insane to begin with.”
But he had already brushed past her and was returning to the seated figure.
“Look, I’m not sure I believe you,” he began. “After all I don’t go in for all that sort of stuff. But let’s say you’re right…”
“You have questions,” Zarius smiled benignly. “And I’m ready to answer.”
“The man I fought in my dream – he was real. It wasn’t just a dream, it really was happening in some way.”
“Yes, we speak best with you in dreams. It is when the mind is most open to the possibilities outside the world.”
Something stirred in Jack’s mind. He wrestled with his memories. The women’s voice, the one he had heard in the swimming pool of his dreams… but also things more visceral, more recent. “When I was in Berlin – at the airstation – the man who was with me, the one who had lost his hand. I ran away because I remembered. I wasn’t sure it was something I had seen in a dream or because of the Nectar.”
“You may choose not to believe what you have seen. In some cases the experience will gain a foothold in your memory. Few are willing to believe – but it is those few that are very special. And your next question is…”
“So Saira has really been cursed all these years?”
“WHAT?!” his wife began, “You’re kidding right?”
But the older man solemnly nodded his round face so that the soft jowls tumbled slowly up and down.
“But I don’t believe.” Jack looked exhausted and scared.
“What don’t you believe?”
“In… heaven and all that stuff.”
Saira butted in, trying to break the spell. “Why are you even listening to this, it’s obvious he’s been leading you along all this time. I knew he was up to something. Don’t you realize that’s what they do these cultists – they tell you all these great things are going to happen, and when some of them finally come about, they claim its all hocus-pocus.”
“Just because you don’t believe doesn’t mean you aren’t still loved,” came the reply.
“Shut up! If you’re some sort of messenger for someone who’s all powerful why can’t you just make things happen? Surely you could just take him to his father.”
Zarius sighed and looked around him as he spoke.
“It’s really all very complicated.” He waved into space as if illustrating his point. “There’s a sort of framework of do’s and don’ts. I could do as you suggest but then that would be what is known as a ‘delict action’ interfering with the principal of human agency. But if I directed the boy to an air station it would be a “negotiatable action”, meaning that you did all the footwork and I just showed you the way.”
It was the vague answer she was expecting. But she couldn’t shake off the idea of a circle of light around the reclining figure in front of her. She shook her head. It was ridiculous. But Jack was still caught up in the fantasy, trying to make sense of the extraordinary claim.
“You say you can’t interfere, but I would still be in Berlin if I wasn’t for you.”
“Don’t be so sure. I just gave you some pointers
when you looked like you were going astray. In the cabaret club, for example, I was the woman you spoke with!”
“Yes I know.” Jack sighed. “The disguise wasn’t that good.”
“And the jolly fat man, do you remember him? The one who gave you his jacket”
“That was you?”
“That’s unfortunate that I had to strike you when you tried to buy something you shouldn’t have in Rostock. I had to ensure that you stayed away from negative influences. But I think I made it up to you in the end.”
“You! You were Kristoph? You beat me!” Memories came flooding back of flailing on the floor of the distant barroom as fists and kicks rained won on him. “Why? Why did you do it?”
For the first time he could remember, the jolly man looked serious and regretful.
“It was for your own good, my boy. I could have warned you about all the things that were to befall you, but there was only one way that you were going to learn.”
“That doesn’t make sense – you were both on the ship at the same time. I saw you both.”
“Did you? Both of us at the same time? Are you sure?”
And Jack wasn’t sure. He remembered the late night conversations on the deck with the Pole with the port wine stain on his face. He remembered how Zarius had spent much of the journey sequestered in his quarters, never coming out…
But before he could say more, Saira could contain herself no longer.
“This is utter nonsense. Jack, don’t you get how dangerous this guy is. He’s actually claiming that he’s different people. And that I was actually cursed?”
Zarius bowed his head apologetically. “So what do you think it was, my dear? Your husbands, I mean.”
“Coincidence. All of these things are.”
“I make no comment, my dear.”
“Rubbish! You’re saying you did some sort of spell to cure me.”
“Well Jack did the hard part to be fair. But, yes, when he fought and triumphed against the unwelcome spirit, it took on a weakened form. I chased him from your wedding room, out of the building and into the desert. I grabbed him in my arms, he transformed himself first into a serpent, then an eagle, then a lion. But each time I only increased by grip further. Eventually he submitted and I bound his arms, taking him to the place that I had been prepared. When your friends arrived, they filled in the hole themselves with liquid stone under my direction.”
In the time it took for Zarius to speak, hundreds of different faces had walked past the bench. Some were intent on travelling, others recently returned. It felt like the whole of humanity was passing them by – each set on their own trajectories, mindful only of their own business.
The porter by the entrance was ringing a hand bell. Saira looked anxiously at the clock on the wall. “We’ve got to go, Jack. Leave him, come with me. He’s either a lunatic or a charlatan; either way he’s revealed himself now.”
But there was something else he needed to ask, something which stirred in his memory.
“The book you had, Zarius. I thought it was your diary… but when I picked it up, it was written like a dictionary. I’m mentioned in it. So is my dad. It tells you things, doesn’t it? Like what’s going to happen in the future.”
“Well, yes… it’s not exactly the future. More like a very strong suggestion about what might happen. I was angry with you, my boy, because there are things in there that would be harmful for you to know. People who read about their own prospects eventually go mad.”
Saira snorted ironically, as she pulled Jack by the sleeve. But here was something he needed to ask. A question trapped in his head, buzzing like a fly trapped in a room.
Zarius continued. “Of course, I don’t really need the book. I already know what is going to happen to you and everyone else for that matter.”
“What?”
“Yes, I’ve always known. Right from the beginning of time I have known what I would be doing throughout the ages. I have spent the aeons rehearsing these events, this very conversation, in my head.”
“Then why do you need the book.”
“Sometimes I… get a little hazy about what I should be doing. It’s there to remind me. Kind of an aide memoir that’s given out to stop us going off track.”
“How can you forget what you’re doing when you’ve had since the beginning of the universe to memorise it all?
“There’s a lot to remember. It’s not just you I’ll help. Millions of people will see me before the end of time. It’s not all harp playing and glorious choir… but your wife is right, of course.” Zarius bounced to his feet, the roll of flesh around his stomach jiggling slightly under his robe. “You pair had best head off right now. It won’t be much of a honeymoon if you miss your flight.”
Saira and Jack backed away, still unsure of what to believe or expect. Fleshy hands gently directed them towards to gate ahead. As they approached the entrance, Jack remembered his final question. But Zarius had gone.
BOOK THREE
WATER