The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper Read Free Book Online Page A

itchiness was a warning, sir. I’ve had that for donkey’s years. Not so bad it was annoying, just enough to make me scratch at it now and then.”
    â€œItchiness. Well. I also wondered whether the person who received the sign might not hide it…”
    His voice trailed away as he regarded the twisted loop of shining fire, and heard the harmonic singing that changed from time to time without ever approaching melody.
    Camwar said, “I don’t think it would allow me to hide it away, sir.”
    â€œNo, now that I see and hear it, it’s clear it wouldn’t.”
    â€œDo you know what the sign means, sir?” Camwar asked.
    â€œIts shape is an ancient sign for infinity,” the Historian answered. “The never ending but twisted loop of time, going out and returning. It is also the symbol for change of condition.”
    â€œChange of condition, sir?”
    â€œThe change from child to adult, from adult to age. From winter to spring. From living to dying. You go as far as you can go one way, then you go the other way, and finally, you return to the starting point.”
    â€œAh,” said Camwar politely, to show he had heard. He had heard, but he had not apprehended. He felt as though he were suspended between the sky and the city, unable to make sense of what he saw from that height. “Ah,” he said again, taking a very small bite of muffin.
    In mere moments he was escorted to a royal carriage that rolled silently on inflated tires behind felt-booted horses, for in Everday, people were attentive to noise as to any other form of pollution. The populace lined the streets, all the way from the palace to the Temple.
    â€œHow did they know where we were going?” the Regent asked.
    â€œThey saw him this morning, sire. As he came through the streets. I’m sure the people figured it out. They often do.”
    Even the temple steps were lined with quiet people. For the first time since he had risen that morning, Camwar felt a touch of panic. He started to shake, only to feel the Historian’s hand comfortingly on his own. “Don’t worry, young man. It’s nothing you need fear. Nothing evil is said of the device or those brought to it.”
    â€œQuite right,” the Regent murmured, as he alit, then offered Camwar his hand. “You need have no apprehension on that score.”
    They went up the steps together, the Royal Historian panting a little for the stairs, though shallow, were long. The huge iron-bound doors were open, and they walked through, down the center aisle of the lengthy nave, up more steps past the huge altar, around the reredos behind it, and into the small hidden chapel in the apse where hundreds of scented candles bloomed like flowers before images of the kindly goddesses favored in Everday. The device stood on a low dais beneath a pillared baldachin, a shadowy flame of glass, or that particular stone that comes from volcanoes, glowing with golden sparks inside it, like the ebb and flow of lights of distant cities seen through shimmering air from a mountain top. It stood above the height of a tall man, and it looked unlike anything made by hands, human or any other. The High Priest, in full vestments, including his best diadem, stood beside it.
    He greeted the Regent with a low bow, murmuring as the Regent stepped near, “There’s a kind of blurry place here, like a pair of handprints, and they’re at the right level for a man to reach, so I suppose that’s what he’s to do.”
    The Regent beckoned to Camwar, who approached the thing and laid his hands on the indicated places in the stone. A light shot from between his thumbs to touch the sign on his forehead. The lights in the device began to spin over and under or perhaps through one another, diverse sets of them converging beneath his hands in varying combinations and colors, as a deep, pulsing hum came from the device. Camwar felt nothing except an