The APERTIA triptych Read online

  All works © M J Engh

  "Triptych" http://www.mjengh.com/works.htm

  “We Serve the Star of Freedom” (as Jane Beauclerk), The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1964.

  “Lord Moon” (as Jane Beauclerk), The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1965.

  “Aurin Tree,” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, February 1987.

  (Cover art by Carl Lundgren, interior by Daniel Home.)

  The APERTIA triptych

  Triptych

  Lord Moon

  We Serve the Star of Freedom

  Aurin Tree

  Triptych

  This is a book that didn't happen. The three stories listed below were scheduled to be reprinted, with an introduction and a couple of my poems, as a book titled Triptych in the "Author's Choice" series from Pulphouse Publishing . It was in page proofs when the series was canceled. (The Engh curse? Cf. "Ratropy.") These are the stories, and where they actually were published:

  “We Serve the Star of Freedom” (as Jane Beauclerk), The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1964.

  “Lord Moon” (as Jane Beauclerk), The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1965; reprinted in hardcover, with an “author’s memoir,” in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1965, Southern Illinois University Press, 1981.

  “Aurin Tree,” *Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, February 1987.

  The three stories constitute a little trilogy of what Baird Searles once called “Dunsanian, Baroque SF.” (In fact, he called the first two “true, lost masterpieces,” and who am I to argue with Baird Searles?) “Lord Moon” was written first, though published second. I was so fond of its fairytale-like world that I wrote “We Serve the Star of Freedom” to explore it from a different social viewpoint. Years later, I wrote “Aurin Tree” so that the heroes of those two stories could meet. Looked at another way, the three stories poke fun at the scientific mind ("Lord Moon"), the commercial mind ("We Serve the Star of Freedom"), and the military mind ("Aurin Tree") respectively. I acknowledge with gratitude the influence of Dunsany, as well as of James Branch Cabell and especially of E.R. Eddison’s masterpiece, The Worm Ouroboros.

  — Mary Jane Engh

  LORD MOON

  by Jane Beauclerk

  I have been treading water here for six or seven years," said the Swimmer, "waiting for him to come who will trample the sky and break the colors of earth beneath his feet."

  "And what will you do when he comes?" asked Lord Moon.

  "I will make him free of the wide seas, the depths and the powers of them, and send him up against your lords the little Stars, and against the twelve thousand Islands of Lorran that bar my way, and against the traders who taught me the prophecy these seven years ago, or it may be only six," said the Swimmer. "But I have a thought in my mind. Are you he?

  "No, not I," said Lord Moon. He sat on a swell of the sea, that rose and sank and rose again under him, and his hair streamed silver in the moonlight. As he spoke he rested one hand on a wave crest and leaned back strongly on the wind.

  The Swimmer struck out at him with a snarl and a clawing hand. "You come to mock me in my grief," said the Swimmer. "You join league with the Islands of Lorran." And he cursed him spitefully, crying, "What are you? I will send him against you also."

  "Send him to Lord Moon of the Purple River," he answered. "Let this help you to remember." And he took the curved knife from his belt and laid the flat of it on the Swimmer's head and brought it away again, leaving a curved bald spot in the Swimmer's tangled hair.

  Then Lord Moon walked swiftly over the sea, and the Swimmer followed him a little way, cursing and getting water in his mouth, but turned back soon.

  It was near dawn when Lord Moon came ashore on the first of the twelve thousand Islands of Lorran. He found his ship beached before a cave and his men inside with their swords drawn, for fear of the people of Lorran. They put to sea hastily, and sailing westward from the island past the high bluffs they were shot at, but no harm done, and toward evening of the sixteenth day they came safe to the Purple River. Then Lord Moon went up to his tall house; but the sailors of his ship stayed below in the harbor, and there talked with the sailors of the Star of Knowledge, who had come at that time visiting to the Purple River.

  "You serve a madman," said those who served the Star. "It is common knowledge that he wastes his learning and his power on these wild journeyings, and takes nothing from a book that he can take from his own sight. This is known as madness."

  "True enough," said the others. "These sixteen days ago we watched all night for his sake on the shores of Lorran, while he walked solitary on the waves for a sight of that famous Swimmer whom none can trust." But they spoke without shame.

  The next day Lord Moon crossed the river and talked with the Star of Love, a small sparkling withered man of great age. "And first," said the Star, "I hear it said that you have spoken with the Swimmer who wanders the oceans of the world. Let me look at you. No wounds? No water-stains? And your ship safe?"

  "I came to him on foot," said Lord Moon. "You have heard it said that the Swimmer has been seen, these last years, nowhere but a little east of the Islands of Lorran?"

  "That may be, that may be," answered the Star of Love. "I hear many things."

  "I sought him there and I found him there, and he has given up wandering," said Lord Moon. "He has learned a prophecy of one who is to come in power, and he waits at the place of his coming, in hope of help against his enemies. As for me, I seek help from a surer power."

  "But how on foot?" cried the Star of Love, and his jeweled fingers flashed. "Who can walk upon the sea and not be wet?"

  "I," said Lord Moon. "It is a thing I have learned. But there are things I have yet to learn."

  "Yet how did you come away unhurt?" asked the Star. "Did you find the Swimmer trustworthy? And what is this of a prophecy?"

  "I found him peevish," said Lord Moon, "and I trust him very surely, for I rank now as one of his enemies. The prophecy is an old one, and it may be a good one. As for me, I seek a happier prophecy."

  "An old one, is it?" said the Star of Love. "It may be I have heard it. Is such a one indeed to come?"

  "If he comes," answered Lord Moon, "I think he will come to me, and I hope first to me. Meanwhile, I seek the coming of another."

  "Ah, ah!" cried the Star of Love, nodding his gray head that was wreathed with jewels. "Sit down, my friend, and say how I can please you."

  "I seek a wife," said Lord Moon, but he did not sit down.

  "And that is better than to seek the Swimmer," said the Star. He sat behind his high table and poured out wine in a ruby cup. "Yes, and certainly you deserve a wife." He nodded, and his bright eyes flashed, like jewels among jewels. "She must be young, and merry, and a number of other things. She must—"

  "She is all that," said Lord Moon, who took his life in his hands to interrupt thus his lord the Star, "and light-footed to boot. She is one who runs free on mountain tops."

  "Ah!" cried the Star, much pleased. "Then your journeying has not been for nothing, after all. You have seen her?"

  "I have seen her from far away," he answered; "and last night I saw her in a mirror I have made. She is only daughter to my lord the Star of Freedom."

  "Right and fitting, right and fitting," nodded the Star of Love. He pulled to him a great globe of the world, and found out on it the dominion of the Star of Freedom. "There must be a ship sent," he said, "to inquire into the matter, and bring the woman if she is willing." And he looked foolishly at the globe.

  Then the curtains of the door-way parted, and the Star of Knowledge came into the room. He was a bigger man than his host, but even older, and his fac
e was like a parchment written all over with literary observations.

  "Ah!" cried the Star of Love. "My good friend, we have need of your counsel. What route is best to take to the Star of Freedom?"

  "That Star is more sought than found," answered the other wisely. "But there are many routes a man may take to his dominion." He leaned toward the globe and traced lines upon it with his crooked finger. "There is the southern route by the Straits of Anguish. There is the northern route across the Forbidden Sea. There is the route past Peaked Cape, and the route that follows the cliffs of Duanna. There is the route past the Hellebore Marshes, though that is not much taken now. But the best routes, and the safest, are that which crosses the dominion of the Star of Battle and that which passes the twelve thousand Islands of Lorran; and neither is good, and neither is safe."

  "Let it be by the Islands," said Lord Moon, who could have told all this long since and in fewer words. And in due time it was settled, and Lord Moon was given hopeful prophecies and promises of help (he asked no more) and the ship was sent.

  "It is an ill journey, grumbled the sailors.

  "But a sane journey, and time it was made," said the captain.

  "Yes, yes," said they, "and it is a good thing to see our Lord Moon settling down at last, and sending others on his errands, and planning to take a fine wife and live in comfort and leave his mad doings and searchings and all dangerous and unnecessary follies. But it is an ill journey all the same, and we shall be shot at." And they grumbled, being secretly afraid that Lord Moon would do these things they praised and take away their pride.

  But east of the Islands of Lorran the Swimmer waited, treading water steadily and cursing now and then, and sometimes he put his hand to the bald spot on his head.

  Now Lord Moon lived on beside the Purple River, and often he looked into the mirror he had made, and often he crossed the silver-colored bridge to talk with his lord the Star of Love. "I am troubled," he said.

  "To be sure," said the Star. "You are troubled because you have no dominion of your own, and live here only by my suffrance, and you fear the woman will look scornfully on such uncertain power. You need not fear."

  "No," answered Lord Moon. "I put only half as much trust in my power as in your kindness, but that is enough. It is another thing that troubles me."

  "Ah, ah!" cried the Star. "It is because you have dealt little with women, then, that you are uneasy. My friend, take this mirror and see the folly of your fears."

  "No," answered Lord Moon. "I have traveled much. it is not that which troubles me."

  "Ah, then I understand," said the Star of Love. "You fear—"

  "Not I," said Lord Moon, who took his life in his hands to contradict thus his lord the Star. "But it troubles me that I sent others on my errand. And I grow somewhat tired of mirrors."

  Meantime the ship has passed the twelve thousand Islands of Lorran unharmed, though somewhat shot at, and on a cloudy evening it passed within bowshot of the Swimmer, but did not sight him. And in due time it reached the dominion of the Star of Freedom, and inquiries were made there. All this Lord Moon watched in the mirror he had made, and when the ship set sail again he took horse southward in the dead of night, to the confusion of his lord the Star of Love. It was a month later and more that he came home, on a clear night not long past evening. He rode his gray horse eagerly, and his hair streamed silver in the moonlight. They met him at the door with news.

  "The man you set to watch your mirror reports it," they said; "so judge the truth of the news by the trust you put in your arts. The ship is taken, and the woman with it. They lie captive on the fifth of the twelve thousand Islands of Lorran."

  Lord Moon put his hand to his face as one who would wipe away a pain. "Then they were fools," he said. "What made them pass by the fifth island?"

  "The Swimmer, as we understand," they said. "It is a long story, and mostly unbelievable."

  "I will hear it another time," said Lord Moon, and he strode into his tall house and found his mirror and the man set to watch it. The man trembled a little, and only a little, because he knew his lord.

  "I will make a larger mirror," said Lord Moon, turning it this way and that to catch the light. "This comes of sending others on my errands, which I think I will not do again. How did they come to trust the Swimmer? Ah, here is she. But who are these who are not my sailors?"

  "They are those who serve the Star of Freedom," answered the man.

  "And indeed they serve him well in this dungeon," said Lord Moon. "Where are my sailors?"

  Then he heard the story, how the ship had put back to port in a storm and somewhat leaking, and how the Star of Freedom had outfitted another ship with his own crew to carry his daughter, and how these, not knowing the passage, had met the Swimmer and trusted his advice and so ended captive on the fifth of the twelve thousand Islands of Lorran. And Lord Moon said, "Take the beast from my saddlebag and put it in my study, and I shall deal with it another time." Then he looked once more into the mirror, and strode out of the house and across the bridge. But his people opened the saddlebag and found the beast in it, many days dead and embalmed in spices, no more than two spans long and furred all over with soft gray stuff like the ravelings of silk.

  "What is it?" said one.

  "It is the beast called tues," said another. Then they took it and laid it carefully in Lord Moon's study; for from this beast's heart a skillful man may make a perfume, such as few are lucky enough to meet with in a lifetime.

  Now Lord Moon came to the Star of Love where he sat nodding over a ruby cup, while his longtime guest the Star of Knowledge talked of this and that. "I have only one ship," said Lord Moon, "and it lies far east of the Islands of Lorran. I ask for another to fetch the daughter of my lord the Star of Freedom."

  "Right and fitting, right and fitting," cried the Star of Love joyously. "You shall have a ship, but take care not to rush too rashly into this worthy danger. Rush more cautiously."

  "Rush however you please," said the Star of Knowledge, "if you seek sure death."

  "I seek a wife," said Lord Moon.

  "To be sure," said the Star of Love hastily. "But if it means your death, you shall have no ship."

  "Why should it mean my death?" asked Lord Moon.

  "For many evident reasons," answered the Star of Knowledge. "As, for instance, that the people of Lorran hold the woman captive only to tempt you into their hands; as that doubtless they have laid traps for you; as that no man has set foot on any one of the twelve thousand Islands of Lorran and returned alive—"

  "All these are shallow reasons," said Lord Moon, who took his life in his hands thus without long consideration; "and the third is a reason of ignorance, My Lord, since I have set foot on the first island."

  "They are deep reasons," said the Star of Knowledge, "and I have never spoken from ignorance."

  "They are deep reasons," said the Star of Love, "and you shall have no ship."

  So Lord Moon crossed the silver-colored bridge over the Purple River, and went into the tall house where he lived by suffrance of the Star of Love. He went into his study, but the sight of the beast tues turned him away. He lay down to sleep, but the blood ran sore in his veins and the hair ached on his head. At last he went to his library to seek a useful book, and there they brought him news.

  "There are strange men come," they said, "bursting the night to tatters, and asking for you in a foreign speech."

  "Bring them," he answered, and they were brought.

  They spoke to him awkwardly in the language of Apertia, and Lord Moon turned away and brought down a book from the shelves. "Learn a better speech," he said, and gave it to the leader of the strangers, a tall stiff man with hiding eyes. The man took it in much confusion, but in due time he opened it and read, for that was a book so artistically written that any man could read it, whether or no he knew the language. Then Lord Moon left him reading, and followed those others down the river bank to the place where they had come from the sky, and the
y showed him the vessel they had come in. Much of the night he spent there, seeing and touching, but a man can learn little of such a thing in the language of Apertia, and before morning he came back to the library. The leader of the strangers was no more than half through the book, so Lord Moon gave him and the others lodging and went cheerfully to sleep.

  The next day, and for some days after that, they read and talked together, while the man learned a better speech than that of Apertia. Then they began to talk of other things.

  "Who are you?" asked the man.

  "I am Lord Moon," answered Lord Moon patiently.

  "I know that," said the man, "for whatever it is worth."

  "It is worth much to me," said Lord Moon. And he told him this and that, which seemed to interest him.

  "A very singular feudal system," said the man, taking notes. "Considerable individualism, intricate cooperation, a reasonable lack of anarchy, and not the slightest vestige of legal freedom."

  "There are some free in this world," said Lord Moon. "I myself am free in a way, who pass everywhere and have dominion nowhere. Lord Sun is free above all others, who passes everywhere and has dominion where he passes. The twelve thousand Islands of Lorran are free, as they will tell all who come in arrow-range. And there are others free, and over them my lord the Star of Freedom has dominion."

  "But how can you call these people free," said the man, "if they are under the dominion of one of your Stars?"

  "How else should they be under his dominion?" answered Lord Moon. "As I myself am somewhat under his dominion, and somewhat under that of the Star of Knowledge, and now greatly under the dominion of my lord the Star of Love. Dominion is of the heart. But there are others who call themselves free, as the Swimmer."

  "The Swimmer?" said the man. "Who or what is that?"

  "A great wrecker of ships and pursuer of sea turtles," said Lord Moon. "I had hopes you might know him. You do not speak the tongue of Apertia like an Apertian."