I’m getting too old for this,
Paddelack
grumbled as he threw down his sword and seated himself by the
wall. Effrulyn stood leaning against the hard stone next to him, also
watching the activity in the center of the room with a skeptical face.
The Commander seems to be enjoying himself. Such
trivial pastimes. The mind rots.
And what do you do other than throw fixed
Angles?
I?
Effrulyn looked down his nose at the older
man sitting on the floor. I am a
mathematician. That is the reality.
The sound of metal against metal
echoed off the walls.
Always imagined mathematics went out with the
Polkraitz.
Indeed it did, for a time. More recently there
have been a few practitioners. I have improved upon them all.
Improved upon?
Paddelack repeated. Pike had
just made a good parry. He was getting better.
Yes, I’ve long since mastered geometry. Now I have
succeeded in finding the area under a curve with a new method of my own
devising.
You’ve invented calculus? This I have to see.
Paddelack groaned as he lumbered to his feet and followed Effrulyn out of
the room.
The giant Karrxlyn grunted as Pike stopped his blade, but he regained his
smile when Pike was caught off guard by a knife at his chin. Use two hands in all things. Remember that or you
won’t live long.
Pike nodded, understanding the message if not all the words.
Enough of this for now. I believe it is time for
your language lesson. Come with me, Commander.
The warrior set off in
meter-plus strides, his heavy cape flowing behind him. He spun around and
the metal of his sword flashed at Pike, but the new Commander parried it
with a quick sideward jerk of his spear.
Good!
Karrxlyn bellowed with laughter and put
his arm around Pike’s shoulder. But do not
flinch. Smoothly, always smoothly. Now to your lesson.
Pike smiled but kept his free hand on his knife.
So,
Paddelack said, you really have invented calculus, as far as I can
tell from this idiotic notation of yours. Have you done anything with your
mathematical endeavors?
Effrulyn stared at Paddelack in disbelief. Done
anything with it? Mathematics is for itself. But…
he paused, looking
downward, I am afraid my objectivity compels me to
confess to one impure act.
Paddelack’s eyes gleamed and he grinned his toothy grin. And what might that be? If, of course, you aren’t
afraid to talk about it.
It’s cold in here.
Effrulyn lit the fire in
the room and shut the door. You understand that no
one is aware of my involvement in this. If word gets around, I will end up
doing nothing but impure applications. So silence is requested.
Absolutely.
Paddelack nodded eagerly.
I was recently approached by one of the others,
and he complained to me of the difficulty in keeping time. The clocks were
so bad that the Checkers had just missed sunrise by more than a beclad. I
told him that I was not interested in things of such nature—
Of course.
Yes.
Effrulyn glanced down at the one or two
pieces of paper on his desk. Then he told me he
had noticed that a swinging weight seemed to swing with a constant
period. He wondered if that fact could be used to build a better clock
mechanism, but he had no way of knowing for sure. I am certain that he
never had another idea in his life. He does very little other than build
bad clocks. He asked me if I could demonstrate that the swing of a weight
was truly constant. After incessant whining on his part, he finally
persuaded me. I showed that it was approximately so. It was a fairly simple
matter; I didn’t even need my new mathematics. And you see the result: that
monster in the great hall. Always clacking away—click, clack, click,
clack—and disturbing my thoughts. A fitting reward for my labors. And what
good is it? It may keep good time, but as all the other clocks were off to
begin with, the fool had no way to set this one. After all, we had missed
sunset. But everyone is very taken with it, even though it may be
wrong. Not only that, the idiots don’t seem to realize that even if it is
the most accurate clock we have, there is no way of checking its
accuracy. And they tell me it is the greatest advance in timekeeping since
they decided to keep the teclad constant and vary the number of teclads in
the Patra, instead of keeping the Patra a constant number of teclads and
changing the length of the unit.
Effrulyn sat down at his desk and
waved Paddelack away. I ask you, what difference
can it possibly make when the idiots have no idea of what they are doing in
the first place? Toys, that’s all that clocks are, toys. Let them play with
their toys. Who cares what time it is when there is work to be done?
Paddelack quietly left the room and shut the door behind him. He heard the bolt slide firm on the other side and tried hard not to break out into gales of laughter. He then realized he was probably late for Pike’s language lesson, even though, of course, there was no way of telling.
The huge clock on the dais of the great hall did indeed clack away as its long pendulum swung slowly back and forth. Every so often the clock next to it would buzz loudly and the short timepiece would add its voice to the general cacophony. But the noise did not disturb Paddelack as it did Effrulyn, no more than it did the two guards who stood on either side of the timepieces. Paddelack sat down with the old Fara-Ny and Karrxlyn. They had already begun the lesson, and Pike seemed to be stuck on a point.
Good, I see you have arrived. Tell our respected hosts
that I would be interested in having the secret of the Fairtalian explained
to me.
After Paddelack had made the translation, Fara-Ny replied, Of course, Commander. Karrxlyn, show him how to open
the pendant.
Karrxlyn did so, and Pike studied the compass, maps, and list of cardinal
numbers inside. I am afraid you will have to explain
this to me.
Certainly,
replied Fara-Ny through
Paddelack. When you have learned to read better,
you will see that you have directions to the nearest stala. The stala is
the method we use to travel, which you were so curious about. I am afraid I
cannot explain how it works other than to say that it does. One enters the
stala and emerges—Elsewhere.
Elsewhere?
I have difficulty in describing even that. Where
the Elsewheres are located is a matter of speculation, although we have
identified a handful of them, notably Triesk, with the help of the old
map. But as to most, be they north, south—or elsewhere, who can say?
How long have you known about them?
Some for belbannks, some only recently. More and
more Elsewheres seem to become accessible to us as the Bannk’s heat trails
into memory. At most Elsewheres, however, the Fear is present, or an overly
hostile environment, so we have severely limited our travel. It is odd,
though, that most of the Elsewheres have been discovered since the visit of
the earlier Polkraitz, Hendig. Suddenly many Elsewheres were available to
us.
Hendig?
Paddelack exclaimed. How did you know him?
We heard of him from the Liddlefurans. I have been
told you were a companion of his.
Paddelack nodded. Yes, I came with him.
Interesting,
Pike said. I’d
like to see this so-called stala.
I am afraid that is impossible,
Fara-Ny
replied, with a wheezing sigh. The Patra is now too
deep and the walk is too long. You will have to wait for the Bannk.
It seems that I will.
Pike pulled his cloak around
him and stared at the flickering torches. Well,
he
said abruptly, let’s get on with the lesson!
He
slammed his fist on the table and looked around, smiling.