The Wizard from Earth (36 page)

"Exactly," said the Lowlander.  He grabbed the sheets and skimmed.  "For such insight she should sit with the Circle, as if she hasn't already bought her way in." 

"She goes on and on like that.  Some advice, I know, comes from her time in the Northern Leaf.  But much is well beyond her years and experience, and see how well it's aimed at the weaknesses of the Romans?  She has detailed knowledge of their weapons and tactics, as if she's served in their legions."

“Or spoken to one who has.”

“I suppose.  But I'm serious when I say she should be made queen.  Not to rule or lead in battle, of course, but surely as a symbol of the nation around which the people can rally."

"Well, we have done worse.  But – is she fetching?"

"Quite."

"Then she has my vote, and probably a few others.  Though as you say, she would only be a powerless figurehead, as it would take more than all the silver on Ne'arth for the village chieftains of Britan to allow a girl to rule over them with real power."  Bint frowned as he surveyed the floor of the shed.  "First things first.  How are we to slip this past the sentries at the town gate?"

"Funds for bribery are not in lack.  Indeed, we could almost bribe the Eighth to fight the Eleventh.  Why not get Hul and Meki, then we'll discuss how to disburse funds to the district heads."

"Yes, yes!  I'll be back in haste."

After Bint left, Ral turned to Gonda and offered another carrot.  As she nibbled, he said, "If I know your sister, she won't stay powerless for long!"

38.

The following afternoon, Matt was about to toss the candle stick across his room when a knock came from the wall and Carrot poked in her head. 

"Ice cream," she said.  "My treat."

On the way to the Square, she inquired, "What were you doing in there?"

"Exercising," he said.

She studied his eyes.  "Okay."

He had begun hypermode training out of fear of her, but now he continued it because he was in fear for her safety.  Either way, he still wasn't sure it was a good idea to let her know about it. 

They arrived at Victory Square.  Carrot bought cones and they sat on the perimeter of the plaza and watched the throng.  It was a warm and clear day, perfect for ice cream. 

"Odd to call it a square," she said.  "It's really a rectangle."

"It began as a square," he said.  "Then they expanded north.  You can see the original bricks in front of the Senate.  They're more weathered than the rest and they form the original square."

“I see, you are right.  You do know more of this city's history than I do.”

“You know more of its present than I do.  At least socially.”

“Servants will talk.  Do you have free time now?"

"I have all the time in the world.  Archimedes isn't asking me to do much these days."

"I have noticed that he keeps to himself as well.  Say, do you know the noise from his workshop yesterday morning?"

"What noise?"

In a nasal monotone, she said,  "
Ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh!
"

"Just some machine he's tinkering with."

"Loud, for nothing much."

He paused, wondering if he'd need to lie, saddened that Carrot had been so open with him while he was hiding so much from her. 

"Well, I don't wish to pry about Archimedes," she said.  "And as you are free . . . ."  She pointed northward to a third story ledge on an older, elaborately ornamented building.  "See how the facing can be climbed?  I would like to sit up there with you.  Think you can reach it?"

“You're throwing down the gauntlet?”

“The what?”

“I guess that's one phrase that didn't survive the trip from Earth.  Anyhow, you lead.”

They finished their cones.  She strolled over and lithely scaled the height.  He did his best, and with some humiliation accepted the pull of her hand.  Again he noticed how her flesh was soft to touch, but when he squeezed it was like iron within.

“What do you think?” she asked.  “I like it because of the privacy.”

It was a nice view of the Square, he admitted.  The building was recessed from the row, so that their spot was hidden from the sides and below.  One would have to look closely to notice the pair perched above.

“I like it,” he said.  “Do you come here often then?”

“When I want to get away from people.  I find I don't want to do that as much anymore.”

They sat on the ledge with their backs against the quasi-gargoyles, legs propped in front of each other and feet almost touching. 

“Matt.”

“Yes, Carrot.”

"I know about Earth and Seattle and interstellar travel and DNA and even about Ivan.  What I don't know about is you, Matt."

Matt took a second look at the physical circumstances and vaguely suspected he'd been methodically trapped. 

He tried to shrug nonchalantly.  "Not much to tell."

"What about your family?  I know you had one, but what were your mother and father like?  Or do you have something else?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, with all the technology of your place and time . . . . “

“I had a mother and a father.  They were flesh and blood.”  He decided not to mention that his mother was an archival clone. 

"What were they like?  How did they treat you?"

"They were good.  I liked them.  They liked me."

"Liked, not loved?"

"Well, loved.  Both had been married before and had children before and then they had careers, so I wasn't exactly the center of their universe.”

“Yes . . . . “

“What do you mean, 'yes?'  Do you think that families couldn't care about each other back in the twenty-second century?”

“I sometimes wonder if everyone in your time having an implant like Ivan was good for them socially.  Why bother to relate to others when the perfect person is already sharing your head?”

“So, are you saying I seem standoffish to you?”

“Well, yes, as I understand the word to mean 'aloof.'”

Matt felt his cheeks grow hot. 
After all I've done to try to get you to like me!

“Aloof.  Why is that?”

“Well, you hardly share anything about your personal feelings.  For example, Matt, when you were so young you chose to leave your world for the stars.  I cannot imagine making such a decision.  Not even the yes or the no – just the making of it.  It's too momentous.  Yet you've never shared any reason for making such a decision.”

He thought a moment and said, “Well, maybe it has to do with the Explorer Gene.”

“I don't recall a video of that.”

“My parents talked about it a lot.  They said that they each had the Explorer Gene, and as their child I must have a double shot.”

“But what is the Explorer Gene?”

“Well, I suppose there really isn't a single gene for it.  But overall, it's a set of random mutations that says that you're happy when you're exploring, and unhappy when you're not.”

“It seems an improbable genetic heritage.”

“All mutations are improbable, that's why they need populations of millions in order to occur.”

“I understand that.  But it is improbable that such a genetic tendency survived.  As I understand the theory of evolution now, wouldn't people who leave the safety of home be more likely to die and not pass such a gene or genes on to offspring?”

“Yeah, but look at the big picture.  Once upon a time, many hundreds of thousands of years ago, there was a tribe of humans without the Explorer Gene.  They were happy to stay in their own little valley.  Meanwhile, there was a tribe of humans that did have the Explorer Gene, and they went out of the valley.  Because they were always facing unknown dangers, they tended to get killed more often than the stay-at-homes, but they were able to procreate more too and so they filled the Earth and now they're going to the stars.  Someday they may fill the galaxy.  The stay-at-homes, meanwhile, will forever live in that one little valley.”

“Unless their DNA is loaded into a box and shot to another star.”

“Eric Roth took care not to do that.”

“Matt, do you think genetics explains everything?  Why you came here, that is?”

He paused.  “No, not really.  The truth is, I wanted to leave because I really didn't fit in back there.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for starters, I'm not that intelligent.”

“You seem very intelligent to me.”

“Yes, because here I have an implant and no one else does.  Believe me, when everyone has an implant, they see me differently.”

They lapsed into silence.  Matt finally added,  “Of course, I don't fit in here either.”

Carrot smiled.  “I think you fit in fine.”

"I find that hard to believe.  Anyhow, I think it's time to be on my own.  Leave Archimedes, I mean.”

She sat up straight.  “I know there is an issue between you two.  I had no idea it was so serious.”

“Well, maybe he'd still let me live there.  But I get the message.  It's time to leave.” 

“Where will you go?”

“I don't know.  See the world, I guess.”

He waited for her to say, 
I will go with you
. 

Instead she replied,  “Perhaps we should return to the house.”

Like a skilled gymnast, Carrot propped herself on her hands and spun to face the ledge while her body hung over the side.  She released herself and fell to the next ledge, and from there hopped to the ground.  Matt was slower.

On the way back, she said, "What will you do to support yourself?"

"I've thought of becoming a professional healer.  I could stay in Rome for a while and set up a practice."

He waited for her to say,
Good, then I can visit!

"A healer, yes, of course."

They trudged without speaking and went their separate ways at the house. Matt, to his room, where he lay on his bed and thought about what to do next.  He realized that he was becoming like his friend Random, taking forever for each move.

“Maybe what I've got to do is set a departure date,” he subvocaled.  “How about next week?”

“Would you like to generate a do list?”

“It's been a long time since I've heard you ask that.  But yes, time to start planning my life again.  And it'll be nice to become a healer again and know that I'm really helping people.  I'm supposed to be from an ethically enlightened era, but somehow I got suckered into maintaining the infrastructure of an evil empire, and then I got tricked into helping to build a super-weapon.  So we are getting out of here.  Sooner the better.”

Archimedes was eating in his workshop these days, so dinner was with Carrot and the servants.  They barely spoke and finally Nilla blurted,  “Are you two having an argument?”  Gwinol scolded her and Carrot said no and Matt thought it felt like the fallout of one.

He went back to his room and waited, hoping for a visit.  A little later, Ivan detected rustling in the courtyard.  It was night and in infrared they watched Carrot, scaling the wall facing the street.  Matt waited until she was over, then rushed down.  He called Gwinol to barricade the street door and she admonished him,  “It's not safe after dark, Matt!  Thieves and brigands and whatnot!”

As the crossbeam clunked behind his back, Matt muttered, “
Whatnot
. . . .”

Ivan's olfactory sensory apparatus was adequate to follow Carrot's trail through the streets. 
Please don't climb the roofs
, Matt thought.  She didn't.  Soon they spotted her infrared signature a couple blocks ahead.  Matt slowed and kept to the doorways and corners. 

Carrot prowled the city for more than two hours, checking every alley, pausing to sniff walls.  Midnight for Ne'arth's Longer-Than-Earth's-Day passed.  Matt marveled at her tenacity and questioned his own sense in pursuing her.  What good would an unarmed ordinary person do in a fight between mutant creatures?  But he couldn't let her fight the thing alone.

Then, suddenly, she took off.  Matt ran but couldn't keep up.  Then around a corner, Ivan reported,  “Matt, Carrot climbed a wall here.  I am unable to track her scent any farther.”

Matt stared at the rooftops, the building sides, the empty streets.  He leaned against the wall, puffing hard.  “Ivan – Herman – “

“Herman's sky view will not be available for another five minutes.”

“Oh, great.  Well, what triggered her to run off like that?  Do you smell anything unusual?”

“Please define unusual.”

“Well, like an animal.  Animals other than humans, I mean.”

“I detect the recent presence of a horse, two dogs, a cat, three rats, a crow, a kimodo dragon – “

“Stop!  Are you sure?  About the dragon, I mean.”

“The match is only sixty-five percent, so I am not sure.”

“Still, it sounds like a chimera.”

“It is consistent with data on chimera scent generation.”

“She'll get herself killed!”

Matt pounded the wall, then stepped back and surveyed the upward view.  There was no way he was going to climb it.  He paced feverishly.

“I wish we had a way to track her when she's not in sight,” he said.

“That is possible,” Ivan said.  “I could make a partition.”

“No, it's too intrusive.”  But as he slid with his back on the wall to sit on the ground, his fears for her safety arose, and Matt said, “Let's talk about it later.”

Ivan announced Hermanrise.  Matt had the sky view IR processed, then scanned for rapidly moving high-metabolism figures amid the maze of Roman streets.  There were two such sources.  They were several blocks north, one in an alley and the other rapidly converging upon it. 

“Ivan, rig for hypermode.”

“Understood.”

It took minutes to prepare his body for the rigors of hypermode, and in the meantime Matt ran on his own.  He followed Ivan's directions to the alley.  At the corner, he heard something breathing – or snarling.  He heard a man and a woman cry out.  He ran inside. 

He caught the scene in a glimpse.  Carrot in homemade ninja suit was standing with her back to him, the blade of her dagger fully drawn.  A patrician couple and their bodyguard were cowering against the far wall.

In between was the creature.  It was no taller than a man, but it had scales like a lizard, horns like a bull, talons instead of fingers.  It was silhouetted by candlelight from an upper window. It whirled about at Matt's arrival and crouched, ready to pounce.