“Have you read all these books, Hasan?” she
whispers.
“I’m amazed by the thought myself, princess,”
Hasan confesses.
In the quiet of the library every sound seems
too loud. Trying to walk as lightly as she can, the princess
follows Hasan, maneuvering between the giant bookcases into the
dusty, darkened depths of the room.
“Is anyone here besides us?” the princess
asks.
“That door over there leads to the library
keeper’s room. The keeper is always here; it is his job to open the
doors in the morning and to lock them at night. Besides him, there
is usually a boy who climbs up the bookcases to get books from the
top shelves for patrons. I am also sure that there are at least
several people sitting here right now reading books. One of the
beauties of this particular library, princess, is that however many
people may come here at one time, they may not even be aware of one
another’s presence.”
He abruptly stops in a dark corner free of
bookcases, and the princess nearly stumbles over him.
“What happened, Hasan?” she asks.
“This is the place, princess.”
“But…there is nothing here!”
“That’s what the mages and wizards thought
when they came here in search of the labyrinth. They examined every
crack in this wall and found absolutely nothing.”
“Are you telling me that right now, in this
very corner, there is a door leading into the labyrinth?”
“Let me show you, princess.”
Hasan slowly moves his hand over her eyes and
the princess feels as if she has suddenly acquired sight after
being blind. In the dark corner of the library she can now see a
faint glow emanating from the stones of the wall that softly
outline a rectangular, delicately carved door. The surface of the
door is covered with ornaments. As the princess tries to look at
them more closely, the fine lines start to diffuse and spread out,
forming a single, extremely complicated ball of intertwined shining
threads.
“Is something written here, Hasan?” the
princess asks.
“ ’He who seeks wisdom must open this door
and enter the unknown',” Hasan reads out loud.
“Does it mean there is wisdom beyond this
door, Hasan?”
“Of course not, princess. It is just that
those who created this door wanted the mages who found it to feel
rewarded for their labors—as when people leave a
significant-sounding inscription on carefully hidden treasure.”
“It is hard to believe that we can just open
this door and walk in,” the princess says, shivering with her
closeness to the sacred mystery.
“It is the same feeling any mage has when he
finally finds this door, princess,” Hasan says, and she hears in
his voice a reflection of her own excitement.
At his touch the door noiselessly swings
inward, leaving behind the shining rectangle of its glowing frame.
Following Hasan, the princess carefully steps inside, sinking into
the soft glow. The door behind her slams shut, leaving no trace on
the blind stone wall.
They are standing in a round marble hall,
with identical doorways leading out of it on all sides.
“What do we do now, Hasan? Which doorway
shall we choose? And where is the door we walked through?”
“I forgot to tell you, princess. This is the
second trial for mages who succeed in entering the labyrinth. They
have to find their way out.”
“But how, Hasan?”
“You have to be even more powerful than when
you found the entrance. Many wizards, seeing the door, never gather
enough courage to walk through it. Others enter the labyrinth but
can’t find their way out and wander here forever, gradually turning
into ghosts. Some, taking time to reconsider all the knowledge they
have, manage to find new meaning to some things they already know,
and finally walk out of the labyrinth—only to refuse to follow the
path of knowledge further. The labyrinth is the true test of magic
powers.”
“But you—you know how to find the way out,
right, Hasan?”
“Of course I do, princess. See for
yourself.”
For a second time Hasan moves his hand over
her eyes, and the round marble hall changes slightly. The princess
can once again see a faint glow on the walls, but now the glow
fuses and focuses to form a fiery arrow hanging in the air pointing
straight at one of the doorways.
“How did you do that, Hasan?” the princess
demands.
“The arrow was always here, princess, just
like the door before that. I merely helped you to see something
that is usually visible only to the initiated.”
“Do we need to go where the arrow
points?”
“Yes, princess.”
They slowly move through the marble corridors
and rooms of the labyrinth. Now that the fiery arrows floating in
the air infallibly show the way, the princess feels safe enough to
look around. The walls of the labyrinth are decorated with
beautiful ornaments, carved from stone with a level of skill that
would seem impossible for any mortal. Most of the rooms and
corridors look exactly alike, making it impossible to find your way
without the guidance of the arrows. Some rooms they see on their
way are breathtakingly beautiful—filling the princess with
admiration. One of them has a fountain in the middle made of green
marble with inlays of gems. The princess, familiar with jewels,
realizes they are incredibly large and pure emeralds. Another room
resembles an illuminated cave, with numerous crystals hanging from
the walls and ceiling, sparkling and shining with unbearable
brightness in the light emitted by the walls. The last room,
painted in various tones of blue, has almost the entire surface of
the floor covered with a pool of what looks exactly like sea water,
with fountains flowing out of the walls with great force creating
currents and whirlpools that make the crystal-clear water boil like
a mountain stream. This room is much bigger than the others, so
that the princess can barely make out its far end quite a distance
away. A wide staircase in front of them leads straight into the
pool, leaving no other visible way to cross the flooded room.
“Where next, Hasan? Do we have to swim
through this room?”
“This is the third trial, princess. It is
impossible to swim in this water. This pool has no bottom, and the
fountains create such a strong undercurrent that anyone who gets
into the water is pulled straight down.”
“It’s such a pity, Hasan! I would love to
swim here!”
“I wouldn’t advise that, princess. You may
touch the water and then you’ll understand why.”
Walking down the marble steps to the edge of
the water where small splashes greedily lick the smooth marble
surface, the princess carefully dips her hand into the pool. For a
few moments the powerful current that entwines her hand feels soft
and soothing. But then she starts feeling some unknown power
pulling at her hand, dragging it downwards, deeper and deeper,
where the crystal-clear water reveals no sign of a marble floor
beneath—and where as far as the eye can see, there is only the
transparent blue, ever swirling in constant circular movement.
Frightened, the princess hastily pulls her
hand out of the water.
“Is there no bottom at all down there,
Hasan?” she asks.
“None, princess.”
“It can’t be that there is absolutely nothing
down there. This water is bound to end somewhere!”
“This is one of the miracles of the
labyrinth, princess—one of the few places in the world where you
can come close to eternity.”
“I don’t understand what eternity is, Hasan.
Everything has to end somewhere.”
“Look into the water, princess. This water
does not end anywhere.”
For a while the princess thoughtfully looks
into the depths of the clear water, trying to understand what Hasan
told her. Not managing to understand a thing, she finally steps
back from the pool, turning to the problem at hand.
“How do we cross to the other side, Hasan?”
she asks.
“Like everywhere else in the labyrinth, you
just have to see the right path,” he says, for the third time
moving his hand over the princess’s eyes.
The princess looks at the water again and
shuts her eyes for a moment, unable to believe the things suddenly
apparent to her improved vision. A winding path runs across the
water, a glowing path made of the same fire that made the guiding
arrows in the passageways.
“What happens to those who can’t see the
path, Hasan?” she asks, her voice trembling.
“The same thing that nearly happened to your
hand, princess. Those who come this far are often aware of the
existence of such a path, and sometimes attempt to walk across the
pool, knowing that the way is there and hoping to feel it with
their feet.”
“What a terrible trial, Hasan” the princess
says quietly.
“Don’t forget it is completely voluntary,
princess,” Hasan reminds her. “There is no way to learn of the
labyrinth by accident. Everyone who comes this far knows exactly
what the risks are.”
Throwing cautious glances at the turbulent
water by her feet, the princess walks upon the shining path and
steps with some relief onto the dry marble surface of the next
corridor. They wend their way through several more marble
passageways and finally step through a doorway to find themselves
outside.
The princess looks around, amazed. They are
standing in the most beautiful garden she has ever seen, the most
beautiful garden, she is certain, that could ever exist in the
world. Intertwined branches over their heads create a kind of roof,
where only glimpses of the blue sky can be seen through the dense
bower. On the sides, through the leaves of exotic plants, she can
see rows of giant strangely shaped flowers, retreating into the
green depths of the garden, filling the air with sweet aromas.
“Where are we, Hasan?” she asks.
“We are still in the labyrinth, princess. But
we are now approaching its center.”
“What’s in the center of the labyrinth?”
“You will see, princess.”
The fiery arrows point the way through a
network of paths between strange trees and bushes unlike any the
princess has ever seen. There are no look-alike places here, so the
princess, walking close beside Hasan, can devote all her attention
to admiring fully the beauty of the garden and the anticipation of
the next beautiful sight around each corner they pass. Everything
in the garden is planned to perfection—the shapes and colors, the
leaves and crowns of trees growing together, the openings between
branches making beautiful natural frames for the exotic flowers. It
seems as if the gardener who created this beauty, even as he was
putting each seed into the soil, knew exactly how these plants and
flowers would go together when they grew. Or did this garden, like
the rest of the labyrinth, appear out of nowhere, created by the
will of an all-powerful, immortal god?
Walking beneath a wide arched trellis covered
with bright-red butterfly-shaped flowers, the princess and Hasan
find themselves in a circular glade. The bushes around the glade
create a smooth wall. It looks as if the bushes are strictly
forbidden to extend even a single sprig into the open space of the
glade, with its thick carpet of low, evenly growing grass. The
princess stops to enjoy the feeling of unusual spaciousness after
the long walk in closed corridors and thickets.
A marble wellhead filled to the brim with
water stands on a platform in the middle of the glade with steps
leading up to it. The surface of the well is covered with the same
faintly glowing inscriptions that they saw on the door leading into
this enchanted place.
“This is the center of the labyrinth,
princess,” says Hasan.
“What sort of a well is this?”
“It is said that if you look into the water
you will see the most important event of your future reflected in
it.”
“Really?”
Hasan shrugs. “Like any prophecy, whatever
you see in the well may need interpretation.”
“Do these signs on the well explain the
prophecy in any way?”
“No, princess. This inscription, just like
the one on the entrance to the labyrinth, is designed to make he
who reads it feel satisfied with his achievements.”
“And what does it say, Hasan?”
“ ’There is no pain in the world worse than
the pain brought by knowledge.’”
“What sort of a reward is that?” the princess
exclaims. “Who would ever want to look into such a well?”
“Many mages only feel rewarded by something
like this, princess. Passing the deadly trials in the labyrinth,
they want to read something frightfully serious. Otherwise they
won’t feel it to be a serious challenge to look into the well.”
“Did you look in there, Hasan?”
“No, princess, I didn’t. When I walked
through the labyrinth for the first time I thought that knowing the
future could bring only harm.”
“What about now, Hasan?”
“Now I have stopped taking such things
seriously.”
“I would like to look in there. May I?”
“Certainly, princess.”
She takes several cautious steps toward the
well but stops in a moment of indecision.
“Are you afraid?” Hasan laughs.
“It’s not that…it’s just…I
thought…let’s look into it together, Hasan. I don’t want to go
through with it alone. And each of us will see something of his own
anyway, right?”
“As far as I know, yes.”
“You really
don’t
take it seriously,
do you, Hasan?”
“I don’t, princess.”
“Come along, then.”
They approach the well, walk up the marble
steps, and bend over the sparkling surface of the water. At first
the princess can see only gray mist, surprised that she doesn’t see
their own reflection as she expected. And then…
The mist slowly evaporates into the hot beams
of a setting crimson sun. She sees endless sands surrounding a
temple reigning over the desert. The domes of the temple run down
in cascades toward rows of columns, surrounded by the ghostly
outline of a beautiful garden like the one that surrounds them now,
here at the center of the Dimeshqian labyrinth. The princess
strains to see the faint outline of the garden…but she still cannot
see it clearly because there, in the desert, she is slowly walking
away from the ancient temple, and someone is walking beside her.
Someone, whose hand she holds in the same way as she is holding the
hand of Hasan…