Axis wondered about a son who, knowing he did not have the skills to succeed in combat, might save his life by pretending madness.
“Weapon?” Axis said.
“A madman sees things, hears things, that no other can,” said Ba’al’uz, and this time Axis thought he could recognise genuine insanity in the man’s eyes.
“He dares things,” Ba’al’uz continued, “that no other can. And he knows things, that no other can comprehend. Madness is a gift of the gods, Axis, and I serve my brother well. Madness is power, yes? Not like that which once you wielded, but power nonetheless. I have my life, and I am grateful, and I do whatever I can to smooth Isaiah’s path through tyranny. I slide through my brother’s court like an evil wind, and in the doing I confound his enemies, and scry out their secrets.”
Axis gave an uncomfortable laugh. “What have you scried out from me, then?”
“That you are a burnt-out hero, Axis, and that Isaiah has nothing to fear from you.” He grinned as he said it, and with such malevolence that Axis actually leaned back a little.
Stars, how did Isaiah stand the man?
He couldn’t, Axis realised. Isaiah may have sent Ba’al’uz to answer any questions Axis had, but the underlying purpose of Isaiah’s request was that Axis see once and for all Ba’al’uz’ true nature.
Ba’al’uz was a frighteningly dangerous man, and Axis wondered what his secret ambition was, how he meant to achieve it and what it would mean to all about him. Maybe Isaiah hoped Axis could tell him.
“Well, then,” said Axis, “why not tell this ‘burnt-out hero’ —” he wished he had the control not to grind the words out “— the purpose of that pyramid across the river. It is most intriguing.”
“Ah,” said Ba’al’uz, “DarkGlass Mountain. It is intriguing, is it not?”
“Who built it? For what purpose?”
“Be patient, Axis, and I shall tell you what I know.” He leaned on the balcony railing again, looking at the glass pyramid. “From what anyone can gather — and my forebears spent their lives checking records — DarkGlass Mountain was built about two thousand years ago.”
“By whom?” asked Axis. The momentary antagonism between them had vanished, and Axis leaned on the railing as well, looking curiously at the massive pyramid.
“A group of men known as the Magi caused its construction. The Magi worshipped numbers, particularly the One. The Magi were mathematical geniuses. They used the power of the One in order to build a device by which they could touch more intimately the power of the One, and, by so doing, reach out to touch Infinity. Creation. Call it what you will.”
Casual words for what made Axis’ soul turn cold. Touching the power of Creation. Was there anything more powerful, or more dangerous?
“Then, the pyramid was not known as DarkGlass Mountain,” continued Ba’al’uz. “It was called Threshold.”
Threshold, thought Axis. A doorway. “Did the Magi manage it?” he said. “Did they touch Infinity?”
Ba’al’uz’ lip curled. “Yes, they did. But when DarkGlass Mountain was first opened up to the power of Infinity, something went wrong.”
Axis went even colder. Something went “wrong”.
A catastrophe, more like.
“There was … a small rebellion, I believe,” said Ba’al’uz, “initiated by those jealous of the Magi and the power they commanded. The Magi lost, and were all but slaughtered. DarkGlass Mountain was stripped of its glass, and left to be buried in sand drifts.”
“But here it stands in all its glory.”
“Yes,” Ba’al’uz said, very slowly. “Strange, is it not?”
Axis waited, refusing to ask the question, and Ba’al’uz pouted and continued. “Perhaps several hundred years ago, DarkGlass Mountain regrew itself.”
“What?”
“After the rebellion, when the Magi were slaughtered and their knowledge condemned,” said Ba’al’uz, “DarkGlass Mountain’s glass was stripped away, its chambers blocked, and its capstone buried. The glass was supposed to have been broken, but it was buried instead. For a thousand years and more, DarkGlass Mountain sat covered in hessian and sand, a mound only. Then, one day, some of the sand slid away, and a little more the next day, until over the space of two or three years the entire structure was revealed. Stone only, for DarkGlass Mountain had yet to reclad itself in glass and capstone.”
“Someone must have been —”
“No,” Ba’al’uz said softly, his gaze fixed on DarkGlass Mountain, “the tyrant at that time set men to watching. No one came near the pyramid. It simply … regrew. Once its stone structure was uncovered, the blue glass began to appear, growing up from the ground, gradually covering the pyramid’s sides. It flowed up from the depths of burial. Very, very slowly, but the glass flowed.
“That process took five years to accomplish. Then the rest. The capstone, and all of DarkGlass Mountain’s internal chambers.”
“Internal chambers?”
“There are tunnels and shafts,” said Ba’al’uz, “all of which lead to a central chamber of the most exquisite glass. The Infinity Chamber. You must ask Isaiah to show it to you some day. He sits there, on occasion.”
Axis shuddered. “What is it, Ba’al’uz? What is its purpose?”
“No one knows. Isn’t that amusing? Here it sits, a great beautiful glass pyramid, positively humming with power on some days, and no one knows.” Ba’al’uz tapped his nose, and assumed a conspiratorial look. “I can tell you this, Axis, because only I and Isaiah know. The tyrants, long ago when DarkGlass Mountain regrew itself, built their palace of Aqhat here so that it would appear they used the pyramid to bolster their power. Look at me, Great Tyrant of Isembaard, who controls the mysterious power of DarkGlass Mountain. But between you and me and Isaiah, Axis, none of the tyrants have known anything about the pyramid, let alone how to use it. They use it as … oh, as a piece of stage. Every so often Isaiah embarks on a great ceremonial procession across the river, strides — alone — into the Infinity Chamber, sits there for an hour twiddling his thumbs, and then walks out again, proclaiming that he has had converse with the gods and they have shown him the way forward. Of course nothing of the sort has happened, but who is to know that? The tyrants have closely associated their throne and power with DarkGlass Mountain, and yet none of them has the faintest idea what it is!”
Ba’al’uz burst into a peal of laughter.
“How is it Lister also controls the power of the pyramids?” Axis said.
Now Axis had caught Ba’al’uz off balance. “What?”
“The glass pyramids that Lister gave Isaiah and yourself. They are powerful treasures, are they not? Perhaps Lister knows some of the secrets of the DarkGlass Mountain. Secrets that you have not yet learned.”
Ba’al’uz
