did two years ago.”
“Pluto.”
“The god of the underworld. Precisely. You see, there are more connections between mining and astronomy than you might think .Lowell was the key. He studied occult tradition, then went looking for Pluto. He came to Arizona to look for the furthest planet.”
“But he didn’t find it. He died fifteen years before.”
“They still found it at his observatory. His name was Percival—named after the knight who found the Grail. Do you know Wolfram van Eschenbach’s Parzival ? The Knights of the Grail live from a Stone of the purest kind. If you do not know it, I will name it for you. It is called ‘lapsis exilis.’ The insignificant stone. The exiled stone. Have you ever considered the number of aerolites that fall here on the western side of the mountains?”
“Well, there’s Meteor Crater.”
“And the Canyon Diablo meteor and a 980-pounder at Peach Springs and the Santa Ritas falls. There was even an explosive bolide here on February 24, 1887.”
“Seems a lot better than chance. I think I will take some beans. That what you’re mining for? Meteorites?”
“Not exactly. But you’re close to the idea. I knew you might understand when Mr. Macphedius told me about you. Mr. Macphedius and Mr. Baird—they aren’t men of the mind. They’re not prepared to house what we might find here.”
“So what are you mining for?”
“I do not seek the gold of the vulgar. Although I suspect an actual physical substance in this mine; I seek only the Medicine of Metals.”
“Alchemy? But I thought—”
“—that it had to do with retorts and alembics. No, any work may form the basis of the Quest. I have spent all my life looking for the place to begin. It’s here. I can see by the changes the Stone is working on Macphedius and Baird. The Stone is the Impossibly Other. That’s why I want you here.”
“I don’t follow.”
“You’re an astronomer, used to straining your mind to try to take in the whole universe. Yet you’ve lived on the bum for two years. You’re adaptable. I inscribed your name on a spade and you’ve come. I’ve got to have you. I may not be big enough to hold what we’ll unleash.”
It would be at least an hour before the drummer came back. I wanted to slow Brandon down—dim that horrible godlight in his eyes. Most of all I wanted to rid myself of some feeling that I was here because of some hocus-pocus he did on a seven-dollar shovel.
“How’d you pick this place?”
“Because it’s haunted. I’ve seen the ghosts! Think about it. Every mining community has ghost stories. Central City, Gold Hill, Black Hawk, I’ve been all over the state. Cripple Creek. They all have ghosts. It’s because something works on the miners as they dig. Some Hidden Power changes them, makes them immortal in a mindless way. But I will find out how to make connection with it. Here, I will perform the Great Work!”
“Where are Slim and the captain? What do they say about all this?”
“They’re sleeping in the mine. We prefer to work at night when we can feel the other miners working with us. You must stay. You must see.”
I rose from the table.
“Mister Brandon, I think you’ve been out here too long. You’re right about one thing—this is an alien section of the world. The rules are different here. You can look at any of the life forms and know it’s different. But I don’t think you can cross that gap, and if you could I don’t think what’s left would be human. Now I’m going to go and wake up Slim and the captain and try to get them to leave, and I hope for your sake you’ll think of doing the same.”
“They won’t go. They already belong to whatever’s in the mine.”
It was cold outside the cabin, but warmer in the mine. I flipped on the lights they’d installed, lights powered by the wind charger. The shaft ran sixty feet, turned to the left another thirty, turned to the left again for another twenty. Slim and the captain slept on
“Pluto.”
“The god of the underworld. Precisely. You see, there are more connections between mining and astronomy than you might think .Lowell was the key. He studied occult tradition, then went looking for Pluto. He came to Arizona to look for the furthest planet.”
“But he didn’t find it. He died fifteen years before.”
“They still found it at his observatory. His name was Percival—named after the knight who found the Grail. Do you know Wolfram van Eschenbach’s Parzival ? The Knights of the Grail live from a Stone of the purest kind. If you do not know it, I will name it for you. It is called ‘lapsis exilis.’ The insignificant stone. The exiled stone. Have you ever considered the number of aerolites that fall here on the western side of the mountains?”
“Well, there’s Meteor Crater.”
“And the Canyon Diablo meteor and a 980-pounder at Peach Springs and the Santa Ritas falls. There was even an explosive bolide here on February 24, 1887.”
“Seems a lot better than chance. I think I will take some beans. That what you’re mining for? Meteorites?”
“Not exactly. But you’re close to the idea. I knew you might understand when Mr. Macphedius told me about you. Mr. Macphedius and Mr. Baird—they aren’t men of the mind. They’re not prepared to house what we might find here.”
“So what are you mining for?”
“I do not seek the gold of the vulgar. Although I suspect an actual physical substance in this mine; I seek only the Medicine of Metals.”
“Alchemy? But I thought—”
“—that it had to do with retorts and alembics. No, any work may form the basis of the Quest. I have spent all my life looking for the place to begin. It’s here. I can see by the changes the Stone is working on Macphedius and Baird. The Stone is the Impossibly Other. That’s why I want you here.”
“I don’t follow.”
“You’re an astronomer, used to straining your mind to try to take in the whole universe. Yet you’ve lived on the bum for two years. You’re adaptable. I inscribed your name on a spade and you’ve come. I’ve got to have you. I may not be big enough to hold what we’ll unleash.”
It would be at least an hour before the drummer came back. I wanted to slow Brandon down—dim that horrible godlight in his eyes. Most of all I wanted to rid myself of some feeling that I was here because of some hocus-pocus he did on a seven-dollar shovel.
“How’d you pick this place?”
“Because it’s haunted. I’ve seen the ghosts! Think about it. Every mining community has ghost stories. Central City, Gold Hill, Black Hawk, I’ve been all over the state. Cripple Creek. They all have ghosts. It’s because something works on the miners as they dig. Some Hidden Power changes them, makes them immortal in a mindless way. But I will find out how to make connection with it. Here, I will perform the Great Work!”
“Where are Slim and the captain? What do they say about all this?”
“They’re sleeping in the mine. We prefer to work at night when we can feel the other miners working with us. You must stay. You must see.”
I rose from the table.
“Mister Brandon, I think you’ve been out here too long. You’re right about one thing—this is an alien section of the world. The rules are different here. You can look at any of the life forms and know it’s different. But I don’t think you can cross that gap, and if you could I don’t think what’s left would be human. Now I’m going to go and wake up Slim and the captain and try to get them to leave, and I hope for your sake you’ll think of doing the same.”
“They won’t go. They already belong to whatever’s in the mine.”
It was cold outside the cabin, but warmer in the mine. I flipped on the lights they’d installed, lights powered by the wind charger. The shaft ran sixty feet, turned to the left another thirty, turned to the left again for another twenty. Slim and the captain slept on
Similar Books
