A Question Of Time Fred Saberhagen (reading the story of the .TXT) 📖

anomaly in the planet’s life, a malformation, an artifact, perhaps, of the deep rock. Whatever it should be called, it had begun, ages before Tyrrell’s arrival on the scene, to achieve sentience.

      “His curiosity about the thing he had discovered caused him to nurture it, to feed it with new life—at first, no doubt, only with the lives of plants and animals. Service became devotion, and devotion eventually worship—I think that is not too strong a word. But it all began gradually, you must understand, in a spirit of intellectual inquiry. For years, for decades perhaps, he could still convince himself that he was only an investigator. An artist, with all that the word means, seeking to capture the essence of what he had discovered.

      “When we began our own investigation I was not sure whether Tyrrell might not have come here as a breather, and been converted to vampirism by the entity he had discovered. But now we know enough to be sure that he had already passed beyond the breathing mode of life before he arrived at the Canyon.”

      Most of the audience seemed too timid to ask questions. But not Joe. “You don’t think it was the thing itself that originally brought him to the Canyon.”

      “Almost certainly not. Rather he had somehow heard of the scientific possibilities—the first geological studies were made before 1860. The potential of such an incision into the secrets of the earth drew and fascinated him. What the fascinated seeker encountered in the deep rock was, by human standards, an alien kind of consciousness, though undeniably belonging to the earth as much as any human being does.

      “A few days ago, in Tyrrell’s native land, I spoke to one who gave me wise counsel—and even more than that. To destroy or slay this entity might well have been beyond my powers, and even beyond those of my borrowed magic. But by invoking the power of even deeper time, it became possible to release it—to undo the knot.”

* * *

      The phone rang in Joe’s suite, and was duly answered, whereupon it became necessary to send a runner to fetch Cathy over from the phoneless Tyrrell House, and also someone to stay with Mrs. Tyrrell while Cathy came to talk. Her legally adoptive father was on the line, wishing everyone a happy New Year, cheerfully communicating the information that he was already somewhere in Nevada, that his luck had turned for the better. Brainard now seemed to think that his chances of surviving his current troubles were quite good.

* * *

      When Cathy had finished her phone conversation, and had gone home to her mother again, Drakulya continued his exposition.

      “Our friend—my compatriot, if you will, Tyrrell—had been, consciously or not, in a sense creating, defining, or giving substance to his own god—making it in the image of the god he wanted.

      “But it was not in the nature of this creation to be benevolent toward its creator, or obedient to its self-proclaimed master.”

      “What’ll happen to Cathy now?”

      “I believe her to be what is now called a good survivor. Eventually she will be able to put all of these bizarre events behind her.”

      “And the rest of us,” said Bill Burdon, “are going to have quite a story to tell.” He looked hastily at Drakulya. “Someday,” the young man amended. “Someday, when we can expect to be believed.”

THE END

About The Author

Fred Saberhagen is widely published in many areas of speculative fiction. He is best known for his Berserker, Swords, and Dracula series. Less known are the myth based fantasies: Books of the Gods. Fred also authored a number of non-series fantasy and science fiction novels and a great number of short stories. For more information on Fred visit his website: www.fredsaberhagen.com