World’s End by Joan D. Vinge Read Free Book Online

and degenerates fleeing from Hegemonic law, who
preyed on fortune-seekers who struck it lucky.
    Hahn nodded
again. “I’ve seen it, through her eyes, in—in Transfer.” There was a peculiar
hesitation, as if she were leaving something unsaid. “All they say about
World’s End is true: To stay there too long is to lose yourself forever.” She glanced down.
    I’d heard
that radiation, or perhaps just the strangeness, caused physical and mental
deterioration in people who spent too long out there. “Gone to
Fire
Lake
”
means “gone crazy” on Number Four. I shook my head. “I don’t know how I can
help you. I’ve come to search for my brothers, and I don’t even know how I’m
going to do that. It will take all the time I have, and more, just to pick up
their trail in that wasteland. I’m sorry, sibyl.”
    I was
ashamed to look up at her, ashamed to refuse a sibyl anything, even though
logically I had no reason for guilt. Sibyls are the speakers of the Old
Empire’s preserved wisdom, the selfless bearers of an artificial intelligence
that moves them in strange ways. They say that it is “death to kill a sibyl,
death to love a sibyl, death to be a sibyl ....”
    The memory
of another time still lay like cobweb across my mind’s eye: the memory of another
face, gazing up at me with eyes the color of moss-agate. The
trefoil sign like a star on her ivory skin. The strength and wisdom that
changed everyone she touched—
    When I
first met her I saw only an ignorant barbarian girl. But she was the child of a
queen, about to become a queen in her own right ... a sibyl, already fated for
a destiny far greater than my own. I was the one who had been unworthy.
    I forced my
mind back into the present and watched Hahn try to control her disappointment.
After a moment she asked, “Do you have a picture of your brothers? Perhaps I
might have seen them somewhere around the town.”
    I pulled
out the holo I carry with me and gave it to her.
“They look younger there. It’s an old picture.” Once it had been a picture of
the three of us. I’d had my own image removed.
    She studied
it, and nodded. “Yes ... yes. I did see them. I spoke to them about my
daughter. They were—” She glanced away, embarrassed.
    I felt my
face flush, as I imagined what SB’s response must have been. “I apologize to
you for their behavior, sibyl. They’ve brought enough shame on my family
already to make the shades of our ancestors weep blood.” I looked down, holding
my scarred wrists against my sides.
    “There’s
something more about them.” She held the holo up, turning
it in the light. “Yes ... I’ve seen them since, somewhere else.” She closed her
eyes, frowning in concentration. “In Transfer ... in
Sanctuary.”
    Through her daughter’s eyes, in the sibyl Transfer. That was what she meant. A lead , I thought, a real lead, at last! I exhaled, realized then that I had been
holding my breath. A part of my mind resisted, telling me that this was too
easy, that she could be lying out of self-interest—that even sibyls were human
beings, not machines. I’d seen plenty of faces as open as hers hide every kind
of lie ....
    But it was
the only clue I had, genuine or not. It was something, a place to start—the
focus I so desperately needed for my search. Gratitude and hope shouted down my
doubts; I felt my mouth relax into a smile for the first time in days. “Thank
you,” I said. “I’ll go to
Fire
Lake
, I’ll find the city.
I’ll look for your daughter, and I’ll bring her back to you if I can ....” I
glanced away self-consciously. “Another sibyl—helped me, once. Maybe it’s time
I repaid my debt.”
    “Does Ang know that you’re searching for something besides
treasure?” Hahn asked.
    I shook my
head. “Not yet. He’s a difficult man to talk to.” It had seemed too awkward to
try to explain the truth. I’d decided to wait for a better time.
    “How will
you get them to search for what you want to