Spinspace: The Space of Spins (The Metaspace Chronicles Book 2) (20 page)

Chapter 49

Kaleb
: meeting the master

“The Master leads by emptying people's mind and filling their cores,

by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve.”

– Tao Te Ching, the Book of the Way, by Lao Tse

Xander looked exactly like one of the wizards in the old storybooks he had seen in the Queen's library.  Gray beard and gray eyes and a gray robe, walking with a staff that was taller than he was.  Trying to overcome his shame at having already angered the wizard, he followed him and the silent guard through a door that opened into a stairwell.   As they began to climb the ancient steps, the wizard began questioning him.

“Where in Californ did you come from?'

“Angeles,” he said.

“Really?  From what I've heard of her, I'm surprised the Queen let you out of her power.”

“It wasn't easy,” he agreed.  But even as he said those words, he found himself wanting to say others:
she sent me to destroy your school! 
But if he admitted that, and was cast out, what would happen to his family, when the Queen learned he had failed her?

He gave Xander a brief description of his journey East with Trent's caravan.  The wizard seemed particularly interested in his description of Deseret.

They stopped to catch their breath on a landing.  “What did you do, back in Angeles?”

“I was the Queen's Librarian...or one of them.”  After I spent years mopping up bloody bits from her angry times.

“Oh?  Does she have a lot of books?”

“She does.”  He managed not to say 'Master'  but it was not easy.  “She's been collecting them for years and years.”

“Confiscating them, no doubt.  Knowledge is power.  Or is her Library open to the public?”

“No,” he admitted.  “It's not.”

They resumed climbing.  “How did you end up being a Librarian for her?”

“When I was eight, her guards caught me reading a book my father found in one of the collapsed buildings,” he said.  “When they saw I could read, that was when my life changed.”

“Changed how?”

“They took me back to my family and discovered my father was a book hoarder.  He'd built up a collection of over a hundred books scavenged from the ruins.”

“Wait a second.  What ruins?”

“There's been a couple of major earthquakes in Angeles since the Tourists left and civilization fell,” he said.  “Some of the Ancient buildings were supposed to be protected against quake damage, but their systems must have failed after a while.  A lot of Angeles looks like a giant came into the city and had a temper tantrum.”

“There's some of that here, too,” said Xander.  “but I've read that Angeles is more active tectonically than Rado.  So what happened when she discovered your old man was hoarding books?”

“It was a serious crime,” he said.  “I thought she was going to execute him.  But instead she took me from him.  The price for his survival was my servitude.  At first I fetched and cleaned in the palace, and later was apprenticed to her old Librarian.”

“What's going to happen to your father now that she knows you're gone from her service?”

“Nothing,” he said.  “She killed him four years ago when her men caught him collecting books from the ruins again.”

“Sorry to hear that.  But what about the rest of your family?”

“I don't know.  But I had to come.”  He didn't mention that he'd only made the trip because he was ordered to.  Luckily, Xander seemed more interested in the Queen and the state of her region than he was in Kaleb's motivations.

“Are there any public libraries in Angeles?  Our didn't survive the fires, after things went crazy in the Fall of civilization.  I've even heard some people burned books to stay warm.”

“None that I know of.  No one has tried to start a new library in Angeles since the Queen's anti-hoarding laws made book collecting a crime.”

Xander shook his head.  “Very shortsighted of her.  Does she expect her subjects to learn English from her proclamations alone?  She'll end up with a population of illiterates.”

“You mean, like most places have?  Can everybody in Rado read and write?”

“No,” the wizard admitted.  “I wish they could, but no.”

“To be fair,” Kaleb said, “literacy isn't necessary for farming, or many other trades.”

“No, but it's handy, if you find a book about farming, to be able to read it.  Civilization began with agriculture and writing.  Plenty of food gave our ancestors free time, and writing let them preserve what they learned in their free time.”

“Do you have any books on farming?” he asked.

“Only one:
Five Acres and Independence,
by Kains and Oldfield.  I bet the Queen wouldn't like that title.'

“Probably not,” Kaleb agreed.  “But there's a copy in her Library.  I'm probably the only one who's read it.  It's about managing a small farm – and the farms outside Angeles aren't small ones.”

They stopped on another landing.  “She has large farms?  How does she keep them watered?  It was my understanding that all the irrigation systems broke down after the Fall.”

“They did.  But she got the swizzles working again.”

“Did she now?  Sounds like she's learned some of the same things as me.  Does she have apprentices to pass her learning on to?”

“No,” said Kaleb. “She's not interested in training potential competitors.  Knowledge is power, and Queen Rochelle doesn't believe in sharing power.  But I only know about Angeles.  There might be people learning magic in Francisco and the Northern Forests.”

“Knowledge should be shared,” said Xander.  “If we don't pass it down to the next generation, they have to learn the same things over and over.  Progress comes from accumulation.”

By the time they reached the floors of the School he was exhausted and drenched in his own sweat.  Xander was tired too, but seemed nowhere near as drained.  They paused in the stairwell doorway and the wizard conjured up a breeze to dry him.  When Kaleb asked, Xander explained it as a simple “swizzle weave” of something called
pathspace
.

“I thought you had to have a pipe for the swizzle effect.”

“Only if you want it to last a long time.  It's a matter of the pathspace geometry.  You can make a swizzle in water or air with an imaginary circle, but it fades quickly.  When you anchor it in a metal ring or pipe, however, you can make it last for decades.”

That explained how the Queen had been able to get and keep so many of the Ancient irrigation swizzles working.  He found himself wondering who knew more magic, Rochelle or Xander.

Dry but still exhausted, he stepped onto the fifty-first floor and looked around.  There seemed to be no one around but them.  When he moved forward, however, he bumped something soft.

A young woman suddenly appeared next to him.  “Sorry,” she said.  “I was practicing my invisibility weave and couldn't see you.”

“This is Kaleb, a new student,” said Xander.  “Kaleb, meet  Carolyn  She joined only a little while ago herself.”

“And you've already learned how to be invisible?” 

“Yes, but that's all I know, so far,” she said.  “It's the first thing we learn to do with
pathspace
, in case we run into people who hate wizards.”

Xander turned to her.  “Would you introduce him to the others and get him settled?  I need to go ask Kristana something before I forget.  Oh, I'm sorry, this is Kurt.  He's going to be helping us out.”

When Xander went back down the stairwell, Kaleb watched him go, shaking his head.   “I don't know how he does it,” he said.  “I feel like I could fall asleep just by lying down.”

“It was the same with me my first day,” Carolyn told him, explaining about Denver's altitude.  When she finished he felt less like a weakling and more like an ignoramus.  Being here was like climbing up one of Californ's mountains!  But apparently his body would adjust.  “I might need a nap before dinner.”

She introduced him to Esteban, who was trying to make an apple invisible, and Lester, who was doing something with pieces of metal.  “You'll be sharing a room with Esteban,” she said.  “We have enough rooms for everyone to have their own room, but Xander said we should get used to doubling up now so we don't have to adjust when we have more students.”

The room was neither large nor small.  It had a window opposite the doorway and beds against the other two walls.  Kaleb   collapsed on the bed and stretched out, glad to be off his legs at last.

Before he could let himself fall asleep, however, there was something he had to do.  As Carolyn and Esteban went back to their practice, he pulled the ring of blue metal out of his pocket and slipped it on his finger.

At first, nothing happened.  He thought about the Queen. 
I'm here at last,
he thought. 
But why did you want me to wear this ring?

Then he heard something in his head that nearly made him fall off the bed:

So that I can communicate with you,
the Queen said. 
Now take the ring off until tomorrow night.

Chapter 50

Kareef”
“for those who have insight”

“Truly, in these things is indeed a lesson for those who have insight.”
 

– Quran 24:44

It had to happen eventually and it did.  Midway through Okla they stopped outside one of the old cities called Tulsa.  The days had been growing warmer and instead of snow a icy rain had turned the accumulated snow to slush.  By the time they had the horses watered and fed and were ready to continue, the temperature had dropped, freezing the lead wagon's wheels to the road.

“Now what?” Kareef asked the ambassador.  “Do we have to stay here until tomorrow?”

Qusay smiled.  “If Allah wills it,” he said.  “But let's see if we can do something.”

Kareef climbed out of the wagon with the older man and had a look at the wheels.  Two of the outriders were already dismounting to push at the back of the wagon while the horses snorted and strained. 

“I think if we add two more strong backs we'll be out of this,” said Qusay.  He braced his feet as best he could and leaned into the back of the wagon, and Kareef imitated him.

At first nothing happened.  Then there was a sharp CRACK! and the wheels were free.  Kareef could not swear to it, but he though he saw the rear wheels apparently turning by themselves for a moment, before they stopped.

“Well, there you are,” said Qusay.  “Not as hard as we thought.  The slush underneath must not have all frozen yet.”

They climbed back into the wagon and the caravan began to move forward again.  “How did that just happen?” he asked the ambassador.

Qusay shrugged.  “Maybe we were just lucky.”

“Or maybe you made the wheels turn hard enough to break the hold of the ice?”

Qusay grinned and quoted the Book: “Truly, in these things is indeed a lesson for those who have insight.”

Kareef just shook his head.  What lesson can I learn from this?  He thought back to the incident with the bandits.  Qusay had said he twisted arteries shut temporarily to knock people out.  This time he had made wagon wheels turn.

The only thing the two events had in common was a twisting motion.  So he could at least make that happen.  What else could he do?

Suddenly Kareef had another thought.  “We don't need horses, do we?  You can make the wagon roll all the way to Denver without them, can't you?”

The ambassador just smiled and lifted his eyebrows. “Don't you think that would attract a lot of attention?”

“So?”  But he saw Qusay's point.  Such flagrant use of the magic could lead to trouble.  For one thing, it would advertise the presence of a magic-wielder to all who saw it.  And for those who failed to make the connection, there would be temptation: who would not want to steal a magic wagon?

“What other kinds of magic do you know?”

Qusay settled himself in his seat and picked up the book he had been reading.  “There is no magic, Kareef.  There is only God.  Allah is all in all, as the Book says.  God can do anything, and if you open yourself to Him, you can see marvels accomplished.”

“And how exactly do I do that?”

“We've been over this already, Kareef.  If Xander and his people cannot teach you all you need to know, the Order will.  Either way you will learn, but we want to know
their
methods.”

Another thought occurred to him.  “What if...what if they know things that the Order doesn't?”

Qusay exchanged a smile with his wife.  “That,” he said, “is hardly likely.  But in that event, you will be glad you made this trip, for you will become even more important to the Order.  You will then be not merely a student, but a teacher.”

You mean, if I survive.  Kareef's mind drifted back to an earlier line of thought.  What makes some people able to do the magic, when most cannot?  The ambassador's remarks implied that some found it easier to open themselves to God than others.  But he couldn't see how that applied to him.  He, Kareef, was no holy man.  He tried to be a good Muslim, but in his heart he had the same doubts that he was sure plagued many in the Emirates.

And what of these people in Rado?  They were not even Muslim!  If even he had difficulty believing sometimes, how could the
infidels
be capable of the same wonders as men of Islam like Qusay?

When he asked Qusay about this, the older man rolled his eyes, as if amazed at his naiveté.  “If this ability does not come from studying the Quran,” he said, “then why are you so surprised that those who don't read it can still learn 'magic'?  Truly, Allah the Ever-Merciful does as He wishes.  If he chooses to answer those who call upon Him by a different name, can we complain?”

“We can be puzzled,” Kareef retorted, surprising himself.  “We can wonder why we are Muslims when the non-Muslims are as blessed as we are without following the Prophet.”

Qusay shook his head.  “Ah, to be so young again!  I suspect, Kareef, that you may be surprised at all the things you will learn in the months ahead.”

Kareef gritted his teeth, but held his tongue.  Only time would tell what he would learn among the infidels...and what he would not.