Free Memoranda by Jeffrey Ford Page B

closed my eyes and rested back in the chair, putting my feet up.
    â€œYou will feel my hand upon your head,” said Misrix, “and then you will feel the dreaming wind you spoke of. If all goes well, you will go where I direct you.”
    I pictured him laying one of his enormous hands upon Below’s bald scalp. Then I felt him drape one gently over my own head.
    â€œThink of it this way, Cley. To decipher the symbols, you need only read the Physiognomy of Father’s memory,” he said. “Hold on tight. While you were eating the fruit, I indulged in the beauty.” His laughter became a strong breeze behind my eyes, which grew into a twister of dreams that lifted upward, taking me with it.
    I found myself draped across the demon’s arms, flying through a starlit sky. It was freezing cold but everything was perfectly clear.
    â€œLook, Cley,” he said, “we are passing over the Beyond.”
    â€œAm I in your memory now?” I asked, looking down. We passed low over the top of the forest, and it seemed to stretch forever in all directions. An occasional scream vaulted up from beneath the trees, barely audible above the constant beating of his wings.
    â€œYes,” he said.
    We flew on through the night for quite some time, and I was just becoming accustomed to the strange experience when I heard Misrix groan. His face was quite close to mine, and I could hear that his breathing had become labored.
    â€œCley,” he said.
    â€œAre you all right?” I asked, feeling his grip on my legs loosen slightly.
    â€œI’m having a bad reaction to the beauty.”
    With this, he began to shiver and suddenly moved the arm behind my back to clutch at his chest. I reached up and grabbed on to his right horn like a stirrup.
    â€œLet go of me,” he yelled. “I can’t see.”
    â€œDo you have me?” I asked.
    â€œYes,” he said, and although his grip was again firm, I could tell that we were losing altitude.
    â€œI’ve got to land,” he said.
    â€œIn the forest?” I asked.
    â€œWe’ll head for the Palishize.”
    By the time the dripping mounds of the ancient city came into view, the demon’s hooves were clipping branches from the tops of trees. I caught only a glimpse of the ocean beneath a newly risen moon, before he dived through a clearing and landed at the entrance to a place I had visited in my dreams.
    Misrix had his arms wrapped around himself, fangs chattering like icicles. “It was foolish to have taken the beauty before attempting this,” he said.
    â€œI have practiced such foolishness,” I said, distracted by the height of the crude mud walls that surrounded the city.
    â€œCley, you’ve got to wait in there for me,” he said.
    â€œWhere are you going?” I asked.
    â€œI’m going to leave you in my memory here for a short time, while I return and have a cup of shudder to offset the beauty.”
    â€œOut of the question,” I said.
    â€œYou’ll be safer in there,” he said, pointing through the entrance. “I’ll hurry.”
    â€œIt’s dark out,” I said.
    â€œGo, quickly,” he said, still pointing, “there are demons about.”
    I stared down the shell-cobbled path that led inside and split around the melting sand castles. The moon revealed peaks riddled with crude openings. When I turned back, Misrix was gone.
    The Palishize was deathly quiet, even the wind made no sound there. I ran as lightly as I could, for each footfall echoed like a gunshot. I did not want to get lost in the winding maze of the structures, but I wanted less for the demons to find me.
    When I had to stop running, I chose one of the holes punched as if by a giant finger into the base of the closest mound. Inside the shadows of the tunnel, I felt somewhat safer. As soon as my breathing returned to normal, I began listening.
    I don’t think I moved for a full five