"I realize why the coordinates of your home are perhaps the best-kept secret in the Roidhunate. I doubt if a thousand beings from offworld know; and in most of them, the numbers have been buried deep in their unconsciousness, to be called forth by a key stimulus which is also secret."
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT Chapter IX, p. 462.
Flandry to Bodin Miyatovich:
"'Bodin, I'm ready to work again. With you. You see, I've found your target.'" (Chapter XVIII, p. 578)
Flandry:
"...in those broken mutterings of my son's I found what I thought I might find, the coordinates of Chereion, Aycharaych's planet." (ibid.)
Because the coordinates of Chereion are going to be pivotal in Chapter XVIII, they have to be mentioned much earlier, in Chapter IX. For similar remarks about two earlier Flandry novels, see here.
Aycharaych to Flandry:
"'The consciousness that dreary death will in a few more decades fold this brightly checkered game board whereon you leap and capture - that keeps you ever in haste.'" (Chapter IX, p. 459)
Kossara to Flandry:
"'We mortals are always in a hurry.'
"He gave her a sharp look. 'Is something wrong?' she asked.
"'N-no. You echoed an idea I've heard before - coincidence, surely.'" (Chapter XIV, p. 525)
With the benefit of hindsight, we read this as another warning that Kossara will die soon.
A partial moment of realization between Flandry and Aycharaych:
"'You're the only Chereionite I've ever met -' Flandry stopped.
"After a moment he proceeded: 'Are you the only Chereionite anybody has ever met?'" (Chapter IX, p. 461)
Aycharaych points out that some Merseians have visited Chereion but then refuses to answer the question. The big revelation about his aloneness will come at the end of the novel when Dennitzans led by Flandry invade Chereion. The description of this ancient planet recalls Wells' description of the far future Earth in The Time Machine.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
At first, I thought you made a small mistake in quoting Aycharaych from Chapter IX of A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. I thought it should be "caper" not "capture." But then I checked the book and you were right. But Aycharaych was extending the metaphor from chess.
Sean
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