The Gardens of Delight by Ian Watson

Author:Ian Watson [Watson, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0671416049
Publisher: Timescape / Pocket Books
Published: 1982-01-31T21:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

There were no directions in Hell …

A combo of musicians plucked and blew and banged out discords on the hot desert shore beyond the ice. One player was crucified on the strings of an enormous harp. Another lay on top of an organistrum, turning its handle. A third banged the bass drum with his head …

“Oh no!” Denise rounded on Jeremy accusingly. But Jeremy only laughed.

“No directions in Hell: isn’t that what you said, Athlon?”

“We walked in a straight line!” protested Muthoni. “I was watching the stars. They can’t lie! This is a planet. It has a surface, and a north and south. We must be somewhere else! How can different places be the same place?”

Sean stepped forward from ice into fire, feeling a moment’s blessed relief then a new sort of pain.

“They aren’t the same people,” he said slowly. “This isn’t the same place.”

“Look at that guy crawling round with the score on his arse. Look at old toad-face, the conductor! Look at the horse’s bones! We’ve walked round in a bloody great circle.”

Sean shook his head. “It’s the same scene. But it isn’t the same place.”

As on the other side of the ice, the players achieved temporary integration. Now they were playing Richard Strauss. The bones of the horse rose and danced. Organs strung themselves together in the rib cage. Sinews sprouted. Veins and arteries spread like desert vines in a rainstorm.

“First Parsifal—now Strauss! Why don’t they play medieval music?” complained Denise. “Is that the whole point? They’re playing the wrong music, anyway?”

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