City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, #1)

by Tad Williams

Renie waited a moment, clenching and unclenching her fists, then stalked over and pulled the bedroom door closed, trying to make herself some room, some free space. She looked over at Stephen, still rocking and jiggling in the net. He might as well be catatonic. She slumped into a chair and lit another cigarette. It was important to remember her father as he had been, she reminded herself—as he still occasionally was—a proud man, a kind man. There were some people in whom weakness, once it had appeared, grew like a cancer. Mama’s death in the department store fire had found and revealed that weakness. Joseph Sulaweyo no longer seemed to have the strength to fight back against life. He was letting it all go, slowly but surely disconnecting from the world, its pains and disappointments. A man needs his sleep, Renie thought, and for the second time that day, she shuddered.

Sometimes people need reasons for things, even when there are no reasons. That’s what makes people believe in conspiracies or religions—if there’s any difference. The world is just too complicated, so they need simple explanations.”

“Go down.” It seemed obvious. “You have to go down before you can come out—that’s how these things always work.” “Ah.” !Xabbu turned toward her, a sudden smile stretching his simulated face. “Such wisdom is not easily come by, Renie. I am impressed.” She stared at him for a moment. She had been talking about the endless dungeon games she had played as a netgirl, but she wasn’t quite sure what he meant. “Come on, then.”

Osiris sighed. The old, old man inside the god was weary. The interview with his underling hadn’t gone too badly, but now it was time to talk to the dark one, the Other—the one creature in all the world that he feared. Work, work, work, and none of it pleasant any more. Only the Grail could be worth such heartache, such suffering.

“Temilún, good woman,” he had said, lowering his chunky sunglasses to examine her more closely, perhaps thinking that someone might ask him later to describe the escaped madwoman. “The city of the God-King—praise to his name—the Lord of Life and Death, He Who Is Favored Above All Others. Where else would it go?” He gestured to the single straight road leading out of the sawmill town. “Where else could it go?”