Everybody felt the room go cold, which was strange, because it was a warm day. Then the rock appeared. It appeared bit by bit, from the top down. As if it came slice by slice, each slice hanging in the air until it reached the ground. When it was fully and finally there, of the people in the hall, it was only those in the cage that recognised its shape. The shape of Greblara mountain. From its top there emerged a plume of smoke and dust, though the plume had none of the smell or taste that the real Greblara used to spout. It was like a moving, three dimensional picture of the mountain and its plume. But it was not entirely solid. You could see through it in places.
Was this, perhaps, another of Herago's Impossibles, people wondered. A spectacular climax to the display? Some people clearly thought so. Low murmurs of 'elbissopmi' could be heard coming from a few places in the hall.
But having appeared out of nowhere, the rock had another surprise to offer. No sooner had the shape of the mountain registered with Liana, Herago, Piacho and Selentaya, than it changed. Smoothly it transformed itself into a box, and the box resembled nothing more than the picture that had been displayed as Tyro spoke about his 'invention' a few moments before. But whereas the mountain had been partly transparent, this looked like a solid, material object. A box, tall enough to hold a shortish person, but with a square base only just big enough for one person to fit inside. A brown and grey mottled pattern on the outside, like the shadows of rocks.
'Wait a minute' said Tyro. 'I thought we didn't have one of those machines. Did you manage to make one, Sleech? How did it get here? Is somebody driving it?'
Sleech walked over to the box. 'No need to fear, Great Leader,' he said. 'This is merely another of the so-called Impossibles of the Grabbler children and the renegade inventor, Pritch. Like their other demonstrations, it is a pretence, an illusion. It has no substance. We will soon get rid of it.' He kicked the box hard. In doing so he demonstrated that the apparition was very solid, and he struggled to hide the pain he felt in his left big toe.
'Guardians, remove this object!' Sleech commanded, hobbling away from the box. Some, but not all of the Guardians around the stage moved hesitantly towards the box. Then stopped and froze as a door at the front of the box opened. From inside stepped a tall woman wearing an elaborately patterned cloak. She looked remarkably comfortable for somebody who had been confined in such a small space.
'Greetings, Friends,' the woman announced. Her voice was bold and confident, reaching to the very back of the hall. Her dark features and long, black, braided hair marked her out as definitely not a Bartyronian. The smile on her face was broader than any found on the stick-on smiles of those in the hall, and she radiated warmth and friendliness, in contrast to the fear and hostility that seemed to emanate from Tyro and Sleech. There were some cheers in the hall, which caused Sleech to cast sharp looks around, but he could not see where the cheers were coming from.
Tyro looked on with his mouth wide open. Then he let out a small whimper and ran down the steps of his throne, tripping as he did so, so that he found himself on the floor with his hat beside him and his straggly greasy hair showing. He quickly picked up his hat, stood up and ran behind the throne.
'Who are you? How did you get here?' Sleech demanded of the woman.
'Are you going to hurt us?' added Tyro, quietly, from behind the throne.
'I am Karema, Contor of the Wise Ones of the Shadowlands. We have been observing these proceedings from our craft, which we were surprised to discover was, apparently, invented by Tyro.'
Tyro shuddered. 'I didn't invent ... I don't even know anything about .... What are you going to do? Will you hurt us? Please don't,' he pleaded.
'We are not here to punish you, Tyro. Like Herago and Liana, we are here to take part in your festival, and to show the people of Bartyronis and the world our new invention.'
'Sleech, what made you decide to have a festival?' Tyro said, angrily. 'I knew it was a very bad idea. Now look what you've done!'
'Great Tyro, the Festival was not my idea,' Sleech said, 'it was, it was ...' he paused, trying to work out whose idea it could have been. 'It was that scientist.' Sleech pointed at the cage. 'That inventor, Pritch. And his partner, Pring. They have betrayed Bartyronis with this display. They brought the Grabbler children here and trained them to mock us with their so-called "Impossibles". But ... but we knew this would happen. Because ... we monitored Pritch's dreams long ago. Yes ...we could tell that he was having treacherous thoughts, unlike almost every other citizen of Bartyronis. He even had bad thoughts about me. So we decided to trap him. Yes. Our plan has worked. We have found him out, along with all his accomplices. A brilliant strategy, Great Tyro!'
'Sleech, is she going to hurt me,' said Tyro, still behind the throne.
Sleech ignored this plea, which didn't quite fit with the story he had just worked out.
'Guardians,' Sleech ordered, 'seize this Grabbler and her machine. Put her in the cage with the others!'
Some of the Guardians rushed forwards towards Karema, who was standing by the box from which she had emerged. Quickly, she opened the door and shut herself inside.
'Very well,' said Sleech, 'we have her now. Carry the box away to the cellar!'
The box was surrounded by six big, strong Guardians. Two of them tried to tip the box up so the others could carry it. They pushed against the top of the box, but despite the fact that it only contained a single person, and looked like a fairly light container, they could not shift it. Other Guardians came and joined them, heaving and pushing until sweat was running down them.
'What's wrong with you people?' said Sleech. 'Never mind, just pull her out and chain her up!'
One of the Guardians went to the door, and clearly, thinking that it would be locked or bolted, pulled hard on it. It opened easily. The Guardian looked inside and seemed confused.
'Just pull her out!' shouted Sleech.
The man reached inside, but clearly could not reach the woman. He stepped into the small box. 'Pull her out!' Sleech repeated. Then, impatiently, he turned to another Guardian. 'Go and get them both,' he said, 'she must have somehow crammed him into a corner, and he can't move past her.'
The second Guardian went to the door and looked inside. He turned to Sleech. 'I can't ...'
Sleech interrupted him. 'Just grab hold of them and pull them out!'
The Guardian reached into the box, but then seemed to get pulled inside. There were now three people in a space that seemed hardly big enough for one. People in the audience laughed. One by one, Guardians were sent to the box to retrieve the previous one. The same thing happened each time. They opened the door, stepped inside the tiny space, and the door closed behind them. From the cage above, the sound of the Grabblers could be heard counting - 'que, fay, nay, ept, tag, sag, dak, gell, twil...'.
'Quiet, prisoners!' Sleech shouted. By now, all but half a dozen of the Guardians in the hall had entered the box. As each new one entered, and the Seren-ilian counting continued, people laughed. A few people started to join in with the counting, some in their own numbers, but some seemed to have picked up the pattern of the Seren-ilian numbers and followed those. The laughter got louder.
'What's happening?' Tyro said. 'Where are all my Guardians?
'Great Leader, I will investigate,' Sleech said. He moved cautiously towards the box. He opened the door. He stepped inside.
'Well?' Tyro demanded. There was no answer. But then another impossible thing happened.
The box disappeared.
Slice by slice, from the bottom upwards, it vanished. Then, for a moment, the transparent three dimensional mountain appeared. Then that vanished.
Tyro stepped out from behind his throne for the first time since the box appeared. He pulled out his little model of himself and looked at it. He looked at the people in the hall looking at him. He looked up at the people in the cage. He looked back at the people in the hall. There was quiet. Some people laughed.
'Sleech?' he called, feebly. 'Sleech, where are you?'
Some more people laughed.
'Quiet!' Tyro ordered. But people did not stay quiet. They continued to laugh.
'Stop it!' ordered Tyro. There were now only a handful of Guardians left on the stage. Tyro turned to the Guardian nearest to him, a woman holding a large weapon.
'Stop them!' Tyro said to the Guardian, pointing to the people in the cage. 'Eliminate those people!' He turned away, expecting the Guardian to point her weapon and use it on the Grabblers. He didn't like to watch such things, so he concentrated on looking at the little puppet Tyro that he held in his hand. There was absolute silence in the hall.
Tyro made a tutting sound, and turned back to the Guardian.
'I said, eliminate those people!' Tyro repeated.
'No,' said the woman.
'What do you mean, "no"? Are you disobeying my order?'
'I am,' she said. She was standing very straight, looking Tyro directly in the eye. He turned to another Guardian, a man.
'Eliminate the Grabblers. And the scientist. And then eliminate this one,' he said, indicating the Guardian woman.
'No, Tyro,' the man said. And one by one, all the Guardians who remained in the hall refused to obey Tyro's order. He sat down on the stage. He looked again at the little Tyro model.
'Sleeeeeeech!' he called.
A voice from high up called to him.
'Tyro, would you like to see another impossible?' It was Liana, calling from the cage.
'I've seen enough of those!' Tyro said. 'Enough to last a lifetime.
'I haven't,' said the woman Guardian who had first refused to 'eliminate' the prisoners. 'I'd like to see another Impossible.'
'So would I,' said another Guardian.
'Me too,' came voices from the hall.
'Well, unlock the cage,' said Herago.
Two Guardians wearing wrist flyers flew up and opened the cage. Liana and Herago, since they were still wearing their single pair of wrist-flyers, held on to one another and made their way down to the stage.
As she appeared on the stage, Liana shivered. She turned to Herago. 'Are you also feeling cold?'
And then the box appeared once again. Just like last time, it appeared first in the shape of the Greblara mountain, but then resolved itself into the shape of the cupboard that the Shadowlanders had shown the Seren-ilians in their cave. There was a hush, and everyone seemed to be holding their breath. Was Sleech about to return?
It was not Sleech who stepped out of the box, nor even Karema. It was Trentaya. Followed by a man with a beard that Liana seemed to recognise, but couldn't be sure. Ralkino.
Liana ran to Trentaya and they hugged. Ralkino watched them, smiling. Eventually he said, 'You don't remember me, Liana?'
Liana knew that voice. They were together.
From the box Silmoa then appeared. And Jerento. Herago ran to his sister and father.
All through this Tyro had been sitting disconsolately on the stage, looking at his puppet. He watched this scene with distaste. Eventually he cried, pitifully, 'Where is Sleeeeech? And where are my Guardians?'
Karema emerged from the box. She looked at Tyro sympathetically.
'Tyro, our tunneling craft made a short trip through space and time to one of our caves. Sleech is there now, talking to the Wise Ones of the Shadowlands. They have much to discuss. You are welcome to join him. We must all agree how we are now to live in peace and friendship between our three lots of people, and the other peoples of the world that Bartyronis has conquered. But there will be time for that. Here are the ones that you call Guardians.'
The door opened, and the Guardians who had entered before emerged. None carried a weapon. They were smiling real smiles, and talking to one another animatedly. Following on from them came the other members of the party that had climbed Greblara. As all lined up on the stage, people in the hall stood and clapped. They removed their stick-on smiles and masks and cheered loudly.
Ralkino stepped forward and spoke.
'People of Bartyronis, and others watching this in the rest of the world, I bring you greetings from the people who live in and beyond the mountains. We will have much to learn from one another in the coming years.
'Many years ago, in the land of Seren-ila, I started to tell a story from ancient times. A story about a girl with a special talent. A girl called Linda. Her talent was that she could make people laugh, and when they laughed, they thought. And when they thought, they understood. In this way, she made the powerful less comfortable, and the weak, more powerful. But her talent was not enough to save the ancient world from the dangers that overcame it. How could one person, whatever their talent, do that? It would be impossible.
But I have learned, since I began telling that story, that the impossible can sometimes happen. It did, on that day in Seren-ila. According to people who watched me, I disappeared, bit by bit. For my friends in Seren-ila, this was a disaster. And so it was for me, snatched from those I loved.
But I have learned, since then, that sometimes the best way to avoid disaster, is to believe that the impossible can happen. To turn impossibility upside down. This is what Liana and Herago have done today. There will come a time when I will finish telling the story of Linda. But now, now that we are faced with the possibility of making a new world, let us draw courage in this task by witnessing more of the impossible. Liana and Herago have turned impossibility on its head. May they continue to do that for many years. Now, please join in with me: "ir, deg, mek,' from the crowd, all together, came the word 'Elbissopmi!'