“The Underside brings out one’s talents,” de Carabas says. “So, let us say, an expert in reading behaviour up Above may find himself able to read thoughts after slipping through the cracks. Purely as an example.” He smiles broadly. Derren experiences, simultaneously and possibly relatedly, the suspicion that this is what he himself must sometimes seem like to others and a surge of intense dislike.
“Memories can become embedded in structures like these,” de Carabas explains. “Usually, they’re anchored by a particularly powerful emotion. Walls aren’t terribly intelligent, so they can become confused about the order in which things occurred.”
“So what you’re telling me,” Derren says, “is that we may have just seen the future.”
“As you still appear to have all of your limbs, I’d say that’s fairly likely.”
“Ah,” Derren says. “And is there any way in which we could possibly avoid this future?”
“We are not unknown in our role as professionals,” Mr Croup says. “We are, in fact, rather famed amongst the wealthy, the influential and the imminently dead, to name but a few of the applicable categories. And, as the Lady Door has fallen into all three of these at various points in her to-be-truncated lifetime, one has to wonder why exactly it did not occur to her that one cannot dispose of men who can teleport simply by throwing them through a door.”
“Not for you such tedious pastimes as thinking through one’s actions before one performs them,” says Mr Croup. “A carefree existence, no doubt, but a short one.”
“One of you must best the gatekeeper in single combat,” he says. “One of you must prove his wits, and a third must face the Ordeal of the Key.”
“Erm,” Derren says, his mind still somewhere around ‘single combat’. “Right. I’m not sure there are enough of me, actually.”
“How many of you are there?” the Abbot asks.
“One.”
“Hmm,” the Abbot says, and he pauses to consider for a moment. “In that case, I suppose we can skip straight to the Ordeal.”
“Really?” Derren asks, surprised and grateful to be spared the combat, before realising that ‘the Ordeal’ doesn’t sound terribly promising either.
“Well,” the Abbot says, with a kindly smile, “it would be very unfair to ask you to go through all that on your own, wouldn’t it?”
no subject
“Memories can become embedded in structures like these,” de Carabas explains. “Usually, they’re anchored by a particularly powerful emotion. Walls aren’t terribly intelligent, so they can become confused about the order in which things occurred.”
“So what you’re telling me,” Derren says, “is that we may have just seen the future.”
“As you still appear to have all of your limbs, I’d say that’s fairly likely.”
“Ah,” Derren says. “And is there any way in which we could possibly avoid this future?”
“We are not unknown in our role as professionals,” Mr Croup says. “We are, in fact, rather famed amongst the wealthy, the influential and the imminently dead, to name but a few of the applicable categories. And, as the Lady Door has fallen into all three of these at various points in her to-be-truncated lifetime, one has to wonder why exactly it did not occur to her that one cannot dispose of men who can teleport simply by throwing them through a door.”
“Not for you such tedious pastimes as thinking through one’s actions before one performs them,” says Mr Croup. “A carefree existence, no doubt, but a short one.”
“One of you must best the gatekeeper in single combat,” he says. “One of you must prove his wits, and a third must face the Ordeal of the Key.”
“Erm,” Derren says, his mind still somewhere around ‘single combat’. “Right. I’m not sure there are enough of me, actually.”
“How many of you are there?” the Abbot asks.
“One.”
“Hmm,” the Abbot says, and he pauses to consider for a moment. “In that case, I suppose we can skip straight to the Ordeal.”
“Really?” Derren asks, surprised and grateful to be spared the combat, before realising that ‘the Ordeal’ doesn’t sound terribly promising either.
“Well,” the Abbot says, with a kindly smile, “it would be very unfair to ask you to go through all that on your own, wouldn’t it?”