Threshold by Sara Douglass
I thought of the dreams Nzame had used to touch Boaz and me, and perhaps many others. If he had this ability while tied to Threshold then I dreaded to think what he could have accomplished free.
“He was tied by the One, and he could be trapped by its power. What I did was use the One to seize him, bind him, merge with him, and then activate the Infinity Chamber so that I could drag him through into Infinity.”
Boaz paused. He had used few words for what must have been a hideous battle, but the pallor of his face and the faint tremor in his fingers betrayed the horror of the memory.
“Infinity.” He stopped, and his eyes were very far from us.
“What was it like, brother?”
Boaz roused himself. “It was nothingness, yet it was everything. We have developed language to suit the world and the reality in which we live. It cannot hope to explain what I found there.”
“You were there for weeks,” I said. “We thought you lost.”
“Weeks? I suppose I was.” He smiled at me. “Else you have used your skills at necromancy to grow that girl very quickly. Yes, well. Weeks. I did not realise it was that long. Time has no meaning, no dimension in Infinity. I explored, examined. I wish…”
He did not have to finish. If it had not been for me, Boaz would never have come back. But what he had discovered had changed him; I could see his new-found knowledge eddying about the shadows of his eyes.
“While in Infinity I realised that the Song of the Frogs – the formula that can transport a person into the Place Beyond – had subtle nuances that I might be able to manipulate so that I journeyed only as far as the borders of the Place Beyond, no further. The borderlands are dangerous, though, and I did not know if I would be forever trapped there, or if I could eventually escape. But I thought it worth the risk. I wanted to come home.”
My eyes filled with tears at that simple statement.
“And so I sang the Song, and as I transported – almost into the Place Beyond – I had to use all my strength and skill to halt at its borders. The Soulenai did not know what was wrong, they wanted me to come through…but I thought…I thought that I still had a chance to come home.”
He paused and took a deep breath. “But I could not move, not of my own volition. The Song had done its work and dissipated. I will never be able to use it again. I could not even move completely through into the Place Beyond had I wanted to. Trapped, trapped in the borderlands.”
Boaz lifted my hand. “Trapped, waiting for you to save me. The bond between us has been forged by pain and fear, and cemented by love, trust and power. It drew us together when we were separated by vast distances of space and dimension.” He paused. “But that bond also contains something else, something I cannot quite explain.”
“The frogs,” I said.
“Yes, the frogs. I don’t think any of us yet appreciate the power and the mystery of the frogs. Tirzah and I share a bond, not only with each other, but with the frogs.”
“And in the end it was the frogs that enabled me to reach you.” I explained to the others how the frogs had sung when I’d been lost and too exhausted to go on. “I was so close to Boaz, but could not get to him. The frogs completed my journey.”
We were silent for a very long time. Ysgrave slept warm and safe by my breast, and Boaz’s hand rested on my shoulder. Isphet and Zabrze sat as close as Boaz and I, and the dog was curled at Layla’s feet. Across the table Kiamet and Holdat were sharing a jug of wine, listening and watching.
The Juit birds had settled for the night, and the frogs choralled among the reeds.
“Zabrze,” Boaz said, “you do not need me in Setkoth. Tirzah and I will stay here for some time. Rest. Think. Study. Listen to what the frogs tell us. Explore the marsh.”
“Don’t get lost,” Zabrze said sharply. “I – none of us – want to lose either of you again.”
“No,” Boaz said, and his hand tightened a little on my shoulder, “I don’t think that we will.”
“And Infinity?” Zabrze asked. “Will you ever go back there?”
“No. Whatever else you do in Setkoth, Zabrze, you must discourage any resurrection of interest in the Infinity formula. Nzame is not destroyed, merely trapped in Infinity. Who knows what he will learn there over the ages.
I want no more bridges built into Infinity, because the moment one is completed, I fear Nzame will rush straight back across it. Darker than ever before.”
“Then I shall burn the libraries of the Magi,” Zabrze said. “Remove every trace of them.”
“Good.”
Zabrze leaned forward. “Boaz. Tell me what to do with Threshold.”
“Remove the plate glass from the outside. Melt it down and sell it as bead necklets – the En-Dorians will love them. Strip the Infinity Chamber of the golden glass, and melt it. Bury it. Do the same with the capstone. Then block up every shaft and entranceway so that no-one can ever find their way inside again.”
“You do not want to pull the entire structure down?”
“No. It has taken eight generations to build, and would take two or three to pull down. More would die in the process, and I do not think I could stand that. No. Fill the shafts and corridors with stone and block up all the entrances. Then leave the sand to drift over the stone and the memories. Leave Threshold for future millennia to puzzle over – but leave them no trace of its secret.”
Acknowledgements
Threshold is for Karen Brooks as part thanks for being such a dear friend during one of the very best and very worst years of my life.
Thanks and acknowledgements also go to Rodney Blackhirst for his enthusiastic exposition of the One (and for those fascinating bodily fractions), Terry Mills for his interesting association of infinity with a Big Mac, Cliff Carrington for his knowledge of the pyramids, and Roger Sworder for an illuminating (and refreshingly frank) discussion of the nuptial number. It was fun, guys, but I bet you wish now you’d never let me in the front door.
And with deepest apologies to Pythagorus, Plato, Euclid…
About the Author
Sara Douglass was born in Penola, South Australia and moved to Adelaide when she was seven. She spent her early working life as a nurse before completing three degrees at the University of Adelaide. After receiving a PhD in early modern English history, Sara worked as a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at La Trobe University, Bendigo, until 2000.
Sara’s first novel, BattleAxe, was published in 1995 and she has been writing and publishing ever since. Three of her novels are winners of the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy.
Sara now lives in Hobart, Tasmania.
Visit Sara’s website at: www.saradouglass.com
Visit the Voyager website: www.voyageronline.com.au
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Praise for Sara Douglass’ Axis Trilogy
‘BattleAxe is the best Australian fantasy novel I’ve experienced to date.’
MARTIN LIVINGS, Eidolon
‘Enchanter is utterly enthralling and unputdownable.’
KAREN BROOKS, OzLit
‘A wonderfully quirky and intelligent romp…
The Axis Trilogy is impressive. There are few absolutes in making judgements of commercial fantasy, but let’s just say that it’s a bit better than anything by Robert Jordan.’
PETER NICHOLLS, Australian Book Review
Books by Sara Douglass
The Axis Trilogy
BattleAxe (Book One)
Enchanter (Book Two)
StarMan (Book Three)
Threshold
The Wayfarer Redemption
Sinner (Book One)
Pilgrim (Book Two)
Crusader (Book Three)
Beyond the Hanging Wall
The Crucible
The Nameless Day (Book One)
Wounded Hawk (Book Two)
The Crippled Angel (Book Three)
The Troy Game
Hades?
God’s Concubine (Book Two)
Darkwitch Rising (Book Three)
Druid’s Sword (Book Four)
DarkGlass Mountain
The Serpent Bride (Book One)
The Twisted Citadel (Book One)
Copyright
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 1997
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Sara Douglass 1997
The right of Sara Douglass to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Douglass, Sara.
Threshold.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 5749 1. (pbk.)
ISBN: 978-0-730-49200-9 (epub)
I Title.
A823.3
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Sara Douglass, Threshold