Neverness by David Zindell Read Free Book Online Page B

behavior last night? No? Well, I'll apologize for him because he's much too proud to apologize, and only I know how sorry he really is."
       "Pride kills," Soli said.
       "'Pride kills,'" Bardo repeated as he smoothed his black mustache with the side of his thumb. "Of course it does! But where does Mallory get his pride from? I've been his roommate for twelve years, and
I
know. 'Soli is mapping the core stars,' he used to say. 'Soli almost proved the Great Theorem.' Soli this, and Soli that - do you know what he says when I tell him he's insane for wasting time practicing his speed strokes? He says, 'When Soli became a pilot, he won the pilot's race, and so shall I'."
       He was referring, of course, to the race between the new pilots and the older ones held every year just after the convocation. For many, it is the high point of the Tycho's Festival.
       I was sure that my face was red. I could hardly bear to look at my uncle as he said, "Then tomorrow's race should be challenging. No one has beaten me for ..." His eyes suddenly clouded, and his voice trembled, slightly, and he continued, "for a long time."
       We spent a short while debating the aerodynamics of racing. I held that a low tuck was more efficient, but Soli pointed out that in a long race - as tomorrow's race would be - a low tuck quickly burned-out the muscles of the thigh, and that one must practice restraint.
       Our conversation was cut short when ten red-robed horologes marched out onto the dais and took their places by the Timekeeper, five to either side. In unison they sang out, "Silence, it is time! Silence, it is time!" and there was a sudden silence in the Hall. Then the Timekeeper stepped forward, and he announced his summons and called the quest for the Elder Eddas. "The secret of Man's immortality," he told us, "lies in our past and in our future." I felt Katharine's shoulder brush my own, and I was shocked (and excited) to feel her long fingers quickly and secretly squeeze my hand. I listened to the Timekeeper repeat the message that Soli had brought back from the core; I listened and for a moment I was enraptured with dreams of discovering great things. Then I happened to look at Soli's brooding eyes, and I did not care if I did great things. In my single-minded way I cared about only a single thing: that I should beat Soli in the pilot's race. "We must search for the mystery," the Timekeeper continued. "If we search, we will discover the secret of life and save ourselves." At that moment I did not care about secrets or salvation. What I wanted, simply, was to defeat a proud, arrogant man.
    I had resolved to return to my room and to sleep until the sun was high above the slopes of Urkel, but I had not counted on the excitement that the Timekeeper's summons would arouse. The halls of our dormitory - and indeed, all of Resa - rang from the happy cries and shouts of pilots and journeymen and masters. Against my wishes, our rooms became a nexus for the nights celebrations. Chantal Astoreth and Delora wi Towt arrived with three of their neologician friends from Lara Sig. Bardo distributed pipefuls of toalache, and the revelry began. It was a wild, magic night; it was a night of tremulously announced plans to reach Old Earth or to map the Tycho's nebula, to fulfill our vow to seek wisdom as befitted our individual talents and dreams. Soon our two adjoining rooms were thick with blue smoke and carpeted from wall to wall with excited pilots and various other professionals who had heard about the party. Li Tosh, who was a gentle man with bright, quick almond eyes, announced his plan to reach the homeworld of the trickster aliens, the Dharghinni. "It's said that they've studied the history of the nebular brains," he told us. "Perhaps when I return, I'll have enough courage to penetrate the Entity, too." Hideki Smith would sculpt his body into the weird, cruel shape of the Fayoli; he would journey to one of their planets and try to pose as