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killed.
"Do we make an open announcement, then? We haven't much precedent for setting in motion a search for
a runaway slave. And I'm still reluctant to do that."
"Damn it, I never thought of her in those terms."
"Maybe she didn't want to be forced to move out, to be told that she now belonged to someone else."
"Maybe I won't want to get married, someday, when it comes to that. Matter of duty. Each of us has a
role to play, according to his or her position."
In any case, someone had to be chosen to take Carlotta's place as the Scholar's lab assistant and fellow
natural philosopher.
When Jeremy thought about it, he soon realized that Carlotta had been deluding herself that someday she
might really be granted a lady's rank and even would be considered suitable as a bride for Arnobius.
She'd managed to convince herself of that while she and the Scholar were carrying on a long-term affair,
casually accepted by his father and the rest of society.
The Intruder's memory, coupled with snatches of conversation overheard, made it possible for Jeremy to
see with some clarity the social and political implications. It wasn't really that the Scholar stood to inherit
his father's rank and power directly. Something in the way of lands and other wealth, no doubt.
Pretty much the same thing applied to his brother, John. Lord Victor's position as ruler of the Harbor
Lands was theoretically nonhereditary, but in practice one of his sons was very likely to succeed him,
given the approval of the Council in Pangur Ban.
Meanwhile, Lord Victor, while trying to keep his full plans secret, even from his older son (whose lack of
interest in them could be assumed), was mobilizing and keeping ready a still larger force, this one a real
army, eight or ten thousand strong. These reserves were prepared to march on short notice in the same
direction as the supposed scientific expedition.
Lord Victor intended to forestall the seizure of the Mountain, and the psychologically and magically
important Oracle that lay inside it, by any of his rival warlords.
SEVENTEEN
Three other Academics, two men and a woman at the level of advanced students, were chosen to
accompany Arnobius and serve as philosophical assistants. Several servants accompanied them. All were
practically strangers to Jeremy.
The total number of people in the train was now something more than four hundred. Such a group with
all its baggage was going to move relatively slowly, no matter how well mounted they might be and how
well led. The journey from the Academy to the Cave of the Oracle, whose entrance lay halfway up the
flank of the distant Mountain, might take as much as a month. Some cold-weather clothing was in order,
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Fred Saberhagen - The Book of the Gods 1 - The Face of Apollo
as the end of the journey would take them a mile or more above sea level. Still, it was decided not to use
baggage carts; everything necessary would be carried on animals' backs.
The question Arnobius had asked, as to how they were to feed themselves on the march, turned out to
have a rational answer and had been routinely managed by Lord Victor's military planners. There were
some allies along the way, and the chosen route afforded good grazing for the animals.
Consideration had also been given to the roads, which were known to be fairly good. Someone showed
Jeremy His Lordship's file of maps on the region, which was impressive.
Preparations for the first leg of the journey were at their height when Ferrante asked Jeremy, "Have you
ridden before? Or will you need lessons?"
They were standing in the yard in front of the Academy's extensive stables, where people were engaged
in picking out mounts for the Academic delegation.
As Jeremy approached, the nearest cameloid turned its head on its long hairy neck and regarded him
gravely from its wide-set eyes. The boy in turn put out a hand and stroked the animal's coarse, thick
grayish fur, the hairs in most places a couple of inches long. Dimly he could remember taking a few
turns, years ago, aboard his parents' mule, but outside of that he had no experience in riding any animal.
Still, he felt an immediate rapport with this one.
What happened to Jeremy now was very similar to what had occurred on his first day at the Academy,
when he had approached a pasture. And recalled his earlier clandestine adventures in numerous
farmyards.
He had foreseen some such difficulty and was as ready for it as he could be.
Looking round at the other animals in the stableyard, fifteen or twenty of them in all, he saw with an eerie
feeling that every one of them had turned its head and was looking steadily at him. The sight was
unnerving, all the more so because of the side-to-side jaw motion with which most of the beasts were
chewing their cud.
No. Look away from me! The urgent mental command was evidently received, for at once the animals'
heads all swung in different directions.
Carefully surveying the nearest of his fellow humans, Jeremy decided that none of them had noticed
anything out of the ordinary.
The common procedure for getting aboard the cameloid called for the rider, with a minimum of effort, to
climb onto the back of a conveniently kneeling animal. But Jeremy had noted that some of the more
youthful and agile folk had a trick of approaching a standing animal at a run, planting the left foot in the
appropriate stirrup, and vaulting up into the saddle in one continuous motion.
The saddles were light in weight, made of padded lengths of bamboo, glued and lashed together. Each
was in the shape of a shallow cone, with an opening at the apex into which the cameloid's single hump [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]