THE SHERIFF OF HNUT / CH. 5: MYSTERIES

Extracts from report of first contact group

As there is only a single nation and no external threat, there is no real need for a standing army. There are bandit groups, but these are almost always hunted down by ad-hoc possies of respectable citizens in the local vicinity, though the city guard can be called on for more organised squads if needed. Our contacts look at us with incredulity when we speak about different cities with different sets of laws, although local by-laws are certainly part of their community system.

Almost all production occurs in the villages, and local representation is normally from messages sent from the village priest direct to central government. The law comes from the city, the food from the countryside. The only thing that the city provides, beyond a market and distribution centre, is the training of teachers, doctors, sheriffs and pastors. Mostly, people going to the city for training return to their homes afterwards, although those who have sought refuge in the city will not return home.

Some trades only exist in the city. These include beauty-products, cosmetic surgery (repair of crests after duelling-wounds is a highly developed sub-branch), production of newspapers, and the vices: prostitution, gambling, and commercial distillation of spirits. Thus the city is seen by distant villagers as a moral cess-pit.

Apart from some Zerker outcasts, in villages people are strictly monogamous and a son or daughter who brings shame on their parents by two-timing a girl or boyfriend can expect public humiliation, banishment, disinheritance or even death as a result of a joint blood-feud, depending on the exact circumstances and consequences of their actions.

The time between the public declaration of a courtship contract, betrothal, and marriage varies between a few days and a month or more. No discernable pattern could be determined. Some seem to skip the formal courtship process and leap straight into betrothal, in other couples the courtship contract proceeds straight to a marriage ceremony, without a period or betrothal.

Female fertility varies with the availability of food, and is reportedly higher during full moons. A double full-moon in spring is regarded as particularly auspicious. When (bearing in mind the data in the pre-contact report) our most elderly female respondent was asked if there was a link between how long the courtship dance and how many eggs were laid, her response was 'shh, don't tell anyone, or some people might start dancing in daylight.'”

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GORP, JUST BEFORE SUNSET, BROTHERDAY 40TH AUTUMN

Lenepoli's second experience with flying went better than her first, and she wasn't even tempted to scream as the earth disappeared beneath her feet this time, let alone empty her stomach. Maybe Dirak's better control helped. She agreed, the view you got from holding on to a walking stick and standing on invisible stuff that wasn't air was fantastic. As long as you weren't in a panic.

After flying to just outside the village, they walked to one of the first houses, where the owners — Shashana's parents — directed them to her new marital home. Ethepoli's description of her as not so blue as she had been was very true. The colour was now more of a blue-green colour.

“Shashana! What's happened to your plumage?” Lenepoli asked.

“I'm married, I've got a lovely husband — he's called Yaluf — and I'm not pretending to be what I'm not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yaluf asked me to stop dying my plumage.”

“You dyed your plumage blue?” Lenepoli asked, shocked.

“Yes, didn't you know?”

“Not at all.”

“It started as a ... sort of a social experiment at college. Didn't we know each other in the first week?”

“I think I first met you when you started coming to the discussion group.”

“Oh, of course! But I saw you, and decided I'd see what life was like as a blue. Naturally I'm a yellow.”

“And a very lovely yellow she was too,” a male said, coming and and standing next to Shashana. “Will you introduce me to your friends?”

“Beloved Yaluf, this is Lenepoli, who I met in the city. But... do I recognise you, sir?”

“I'm Zerker Dirak,” he replied, “Happy to be Zerkess Lenepoli's suitor as of this afternoon. And yes, Shashana, we have met, sort of, three years ago. You probably had your eyes shut though, and it wasn't the time for introductions.”

“Zerkess Lenepoli?” Shashana asked, too surprised at that to process the rest.

“I asked Dirak what the Zerk was like. I never knew, when I was growing up, but I recognised it from his description. You know how I said that my memory of the attack didn't make sense? It does if I was in zerk with fear for you. And Dirak was equally confused, it never occurred to him that someone else in the room might have been in zerk and determined to comfort you. I'm just sorry I didn't recognise the experience at the time or maybe I could have done something to stop them.”

“You were my rescuer?” Shashana asked Dirak.

“Yes,” Dirak said simply.

“They didn't let me thank you.”

“They had a lot of wounded attackers to arrest, and some non-intervening wizards had to decide what to do with a recently-zerking apprentice wizard who was convinced not intervening would have been sin.”

“I thank you for protecting Shashana, Zerker Dirak, I owe you so much,” Yaluf said.

“You owe me nothing, Yaluf,” Dirak corrected him, “God gave me my genetics and I have sworn to help as I could. And as for the change in my life's role: God has so ordained that I'm now sheriff in Hnut, where Lenepoli recognised me as soon as I arrived.”

“And I was the only single girl in the whole of his district, so he eventually realised he just had to try to get on the good side of me.”

“If you remember, we started today agreeing we both needed to get to know each other better before making any decisions.”

“What happened?” Shashana asked.

“I was doing OK at resisting Lenepoli's charms until she got me to promise that I'd teach her all I could about wizardry, and I realised that as a wizardess and Zerkess she was certainly going to be able to intimidate any rivals I could dig up from under some stone somewhere. Plus of course I wasn't going to be able to resist the way her plumage was waving 'come here' to my crest for long, either.”

Lenepoli blushed furiously at that and said “Anyway, you are formally invited to the meal my parents are throwing tonight.”

“To celebrate the future peace that will reign in their home, once I take Lenepoli away,” Dirak added, bowing to her a formal bow.

“Are you suggesting that I'm a troublemaker?” Lenepoli asked, dangerously.

“I'm suggesting that you're a perfect match for me,” Dirak replied.

“Hmm. I can't really be angry with him for that, can I?” Lenepoli asked her friend.

“Probably not. Did you come by thlunk, or by cart?”

“Actually.. we came by holding on to Dirak's staff and standing on something invisible.”

“That sounds scary,” Shashana said.

“It was, and very bouncy while Dirak got used flying for the first time in years. Fortunately sick washes off invisible really well.”

“It didn't need to wash off.”

“You mean you got my feet wet for nothing?”

“That was an accident too, sorry,” Dirak said.

“I'd recommend you come by thlunk or cart if you can borrow one,”

Lenepoli said.

“No need to borrow, we've got a thlunk,” Yaluf said. “Thank you for the invitation,” Shashana said, “I don't deserve it, really. I misled you.”

“About your plumage?”

“I wanted to see if it was true, what they say about blues not getting bothered by unintelligent males. But I didn't really want to end up disappointing a real Zerker. When I said we should stick together... Sorry. I was really asking you to be my insurance policy, if that makes sense, if someone was after me I'd have said 'My colour's from a jar, but Lenepoli's the genuine article, if that matters.'”

“But you were right. It was safer to a pair, and if I'd been alone I would have really stuck out. So thank you for your experiments, Shashana, you might have had extra motives, but your ideas were good. Did it work?”

“I'm not actually sure. No baseline for comparison.”

“Did I tell you about Girt?”

“Big on muscles, small on tact and brains? Plenty of times.”

“Dirak got him married, I think it was all a cunning plan to drive me into his arms, really. Dirak was publicly ignoring me, and Girt was out of the way, so suddenly I was everyone's favourite target. Intelligence didn't seem to be a factor as much as hope.”

“That's probably because you were the only one around.” Dirak pointed out.

“But I wasn't, there had been Yagah the deep-red, before Dirak locked her and Girt up next to each other. No one chased her, as far as I know.”

“Sorry to ruin your theory, Lenepoli,” Dirak said, “I was told 'you've met Lenepoli and there's also Yagah the picky, she won't consider anyone who's not as strong as Girt or from outside village or preferably both.' I guess they'd all tried beforehand.”

“Oh. I should have told people that I was praying that I would know if I was just curious about Dirak or interested in him.”

“What made up your mind? Dirak asking you?”

“No... It was the way that he told me I was Zerkess, and kept on surprising me. Freely sharing things I didn't know, that I thought were deep secrets. Changing my perspective on all sorts of things. And still not asking. And he pointed out that I'd been missing him but doing nothing about it out of pure stubbornness the previous week, he and he was right. But he didn't press me. Not at all. He let me choose. Of course I asked him what he'd offer me as a suitor, rather than the fools who know less than me about farming, let alone the rest of knowledge.”

“You're probably exaggerating about the farming, Lenepoli.” Shashana chided.

“When I started teaching, some of them came and asked me what I was teaching the kids about crop-rotation; they'd never heard about it. One man asked if he was supposed to dig up his grain and turn it round.”

“He was joking. Surely he was joking,” Shashana said, “Please tell me he was joking!”

“If he was, then it's the first joke he's been known to make. They do practice it, sort of. They say, 'What did we plant here last year? Tubers, wasn't it? Let's not plant them there this year to confuse the fluffies.' I don't know what happens. The kids are bright, but the grown ups... especially the ones who farm on the upper slopes, it's like they lose their brains in their first summer.”

“And they tell me there are no mysteries.... Lenepoli, tell me these things, please!”

“Dirak?”

“Yes?”

“I'll tell you them as soon as I remember them, OK? I'm not used to having an expert on all things mysterious to discuss every stray thought I've ever had with. You want to go and look at the upper fields now, don't you? Be very careful, I like your brain.”

“Don't children help their parents?”

“Of course. And their neighbours.”

“So maybe we should talk to people first. Get some real data.”

“See, Shashana? Scientific method. I'm in love!”

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HNUT, SISTERDAY, MID-MORNING

The head elder of the village congregation spoke in front of the assembled group, in the village church. “We've talked, wizardess Thuna. We are a god-fearing village. Not all of us are true believers, but those of us who are not still respect, still help, still expect to give in to God one day. We have talked and slept on it and talked some more. We do not want to be inhospitable, nor do we want hoards of immoral students used to city life, nor any immoral staff, nor bad neighbours who do not help return a straying thlunk. But we understand that there are firm believers among you, as Dirak has proven himself, and asserts you to be. Dirak was nervous when he arrived, uncertain how the changes in law would be received, we welcome most of them. We are nervous of these changes, but some things we would welcome. We would welcome extra voices for the church choir, we would welcome extra hands at harvest time. We would welcome learning more of this creation that God has made, we would welcome more eyes looking for growlers, and any kind of protection that those extra eyes feel able to offer. We will not look kindly on those who look the other way when they could help. That would be gross sin in our eyes, and indeed a crime, And so I ask our mayoress to read the bylaw that was enacted over three hundred years ago.”

An elderly female stood, “This bylaw says 'It is hereby enacted that no-one in Hoo on Utt or its surrounding villages shall fail to protect their neighbour, on pain of banishment. Let the stranger, the Zerker and the Zerkess walk safely amongst us without fear of purge; let the swift be swift to defend and protect as they are able. Let their stronger neighbours treat them with respect and be respected. Let dyes be stored against time of purge, and let it be recognised that God's law triumphs over any mortal law, and that the betrayer will face God's wrath as well as that of their neighbours in joint feud.' This is written in the by-laws of this village. If wizards wish to come here, live here, and teach here, let them know this law. The stranger, which means one not born here or married here, is welcome, and may walk in safety, but they must protect and defend their neighbour.”

“I thank you, lady mayoress, honourable elder, for this welcome. I will pass it on to the council of wizards, of which I am a member, along with the other news you have entrusted to me. And I will not delay in delivering this message or the reply. How long the deliberations between my delivering it and the reply is not something I can predict. Unless there is any more to say, I will bid you farewell, as I have students waiting even now.”

“Travel safely, lady wizard. We have had more of your time than we expected.” Ruath said, “but do not feel you need to stay away if the deliberations will take weeks.”

Thuna bowed respectfully, stepped out of the building and was replaced by a cloud of dust. Once again, she used her favourite travel method; an artificial gravity field contained in a forcefield cone that enabled her to 'fall' high into the sky. Getting the field strength and timings right had been a complete pain, usually in the physical sense, as an over long or over-short pulse on arrival meant she was going up or down and that meant a hard landing. But she really enjoyed the stomach-lurching feeling as she fell away from the planet, and the look on people's faces as she landed from a few hundred metres above their heads in under a second.

But now it was a time for fun of another kind. A hundred metres above ground, she made a call to a colleague. “Steev, I've got some journeymen to teach now, but I'm calling for an emergency council meeting for right after lunchtime.”

“Where have you been? They're hanging around outside your office looking lost.”

“A little seat of rebellion called Hnut, What's the weather like there?”

“Sunny. What do you mean, a seat of rebellion?”

“Stick your head out the door and tell them to meet me on the roof can you?” Thuna asked.

Once he'd complied she said “Thanks! There's a pre-contact anti-purge bylaw that says the stranger and zerker or zerkess can walk freely; threatens any that people who don't help and protect their neighbour with expulsion and warns that anyone who betrays another will face God's justice as well as 'that of their neighbours in a joint feud'.”

“OK, that's rebellion. What were you doing there?”

“Educating, being educated, listening to the village meeting, and meeting old friends. Yanek never married, Dirak has a deep blue girlfriend, and the village has a growler problem, in that it seems all the growler packs in the area get funnelled into the near-by woods by geography and geology.”

“And Dirak called you to ask if he could blast growlers?”

“No, to ask if I had any tagged ones in the area. Anyway, I've got to make a dramatic entrance. They expect it.”

“You're going to break your ankles one of these days.”

“Naah, I did that years ago. The trick is to measure carefully and make sure your knees are bent.”

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COUNCIL CHAMBER, SISTERDAY 2PM

“Fellow council members. What I'm about to tell you will probably cause some 'I told you so' recriminations, but I don't want to dwell on the past. I had a call from over-educated ex-apprentice Dirak yesterday. He is now a sheriff in the village of Hnut, and he asked if my research on growler migration had taken me up there and how to stop growlers eating people who collect hynf nuts and hynberries in a wood that seemingly every growler pack in the vicinity use as a transit point.

Dirak's girlfriend is the pastor's daughter and school teacher there, and interested in learning about wizardry, and Dirak plans on taking his vow to pass on what he can seriously. He also takes seriously the recent law about preparing suitable kids to take assessment classes. Since some of our copper wire comes from Hnut, you can assume that candidates from Hnut will have made their first radio by the time anyone anyone gets out that far.

This morning I learned that before first contact, the village of Hnut passed a bylaw protecting Zerkers. About half the women of the village are blue, so I believe that the village of Hnut could theoretically supply half our annual intake of students. But that would be bad for harvest, and the villagers are a God-fearing bunch who don't want to send their beloved offspring into this moral cesspit. I expect the same is true for other villages too. And Dirak has suggested that we educate the kids there. The village meeting where I heard of the bylaw felt it did not allow them to refuse admission, and though they will not be happy if we send them hedonists or heathen, they will welcome us, will welcome new voices in their church choir, new faces in their village, new trade opportunities. They therefore encourage the establishment of another school there, and Dirak will teach as his time as sheriff allows, come what may, because that's what the vow he took says he should do. The village has made its decision, Sheriff Dirak and his future wife have made their decision. If we value non-intervention, then we will in no way act to stop the formation of this second school of wizarding. If we're true to our own vows, we'll not refuse to educate. But there's a but, as you might expect.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Their bylaw, the Zerker prayer that the zerkers and zerkesses among them know and pray, do not allow them to stand by while others suffer. The sermons of the pastor do not fail to point out all the injunctions against the self-centred non-involvement that we've wrapped on top of non-intervention. Dirak tells me they knew the jokes before he got there, but they don't know us. They expect us to ignore a straying thlunk, and ignore the command of God. And they say that such God-dishonouring behaviour will not be welcome. Despite this they welcome us, as long as we are prepared to be good neighbours. Dirak has named his staff intervention, he and the whole village are convinced that he was right to intervene to protect. Of course they are, that is their law! But Dirak did not use wizardry to prevent the crime. All he did was put a shield around the victim, in case one of the thugs decided to try to kill her while his back was turned. He understands this council's decision, he has spoken in defence of it, within the context of our policy of how we understand non-intervention. But that policy will not sit well with the new apprentices we will be getting from villages, inculcated with the principles of good neighbourliness.

“It has not sat very well with me either, of course. So I ask this council, will we change policy? Or are we happy with a future where there are two schools or wizardry, one here trying to justify an ethic of non-involvement against people's consciences, and another that leaves people's consciences unbruised while prohibiting intervention in politics or using wizarding skills to deliberately injure?”

“Your own preferences seem clear, Thuna,” the philosophy lecturer said.

“As are yours, Ranth. But I feel our choices are stark. Either we choose to end non-intervention, involve ourselves in village politics and try to shut down a school eagerly desired by the village, we end non-involvement but preserve non-intervention, or future generations of wizards will be divided in two groups.”

“Who will teach all these future wizards? Just young Dirak?”

“Will you prevent him from teaching his children? Will you call Zerker Dirak to a duel? You'd lose. Will you use wizardry to stop him?”

“Of course not. But one or two offspring does not make a school.”

“There are others in the village! and the grandmother of Dirak's beloved had quadruplets, and passed down the knowledge how to achieve this to her. I know no reason why Dirak and Lenepoli should not raise four or five clutches, and they are both in civil service, their children will not lack.”

“You exaggerate, Thuna.” Steev chided her.

“Slightly. As part of their courtship contract she offered him twins for their first clutch and building up to quads for the last few.”

“What have offspring to do with a courtship contract?” Ranth asked.

“Intent, Ranth. Intent, and desire and hopes and dreams. She tells him that although she was not certain she wanted marriage for the sake of it, she wishes their genes to survive in future generations. And she studied herbology, so expect a glut of intervention-minded wizardesses in a decade or two, all with deep blue plumage and the potential to experience the Zerk.”

“My two sons are going to be happy, then, if they share my good taste,” Brm, a wizard with a blue-plumed wife a little older than Dirak said. His sons were newly hatched. “I don't suppose this secret of large clutches can be shared?”

“I am sure that Zerkess Lenepoli would share it with your wife, Brm. Along with other advice. But this isn't the time.”

“Dirak's intended is full acknowledged Zerkess?” Ranth asked

“It seems so. Their courtship contract also included the Zerker prayer, if you know that. It dedicates their speed to defence of themselves and others.”

“You are proud of your mentee.” Ranth said.

“Of course I am. We put him in an impossible situation, and he has done excellently.”

“We put him in the situation?” Brm asked surprised.

“Of course we did. Well, the teaching staff. We knew he had been raised as the grandson of a Zerker. We saw his philosophy papers, where he coherently argued from scripture that a non-wizarding based involvement to protect the innocent could not legitimately be covered by any rule of non-intervention. And every time he was failed on a technicality, and although we don't live by his ethic no one tried, as far as I know, to convince him there was a flaw in his reasoning. I not sure there is one.

We just hoped he'd never get into a situation where he would be forced to choose between obeying God and obeying our comfortable rule. So if he wants to set up a school of ethical wizardry, and let's face it, the vow he took says he has to pass on what he knows; and if this council decides to split the wizarding community in two, you ought to know that I've already promised that I'm going to be teaching Lenepoli and her kids.”

“You can't pre-judge the council's decision!” someone exclaimed.

“I haven't. I've promised to teach a very intelligent young female what she wants to learn, and what her husband can teach her anyway. You set the course books, you wrote a lot of them, and you told students they could buy copies if they wanted. Well, Dirak loves reading, He has quite a complete library up there in Hnut. We do NOT interfere in such matters as personal possessions. Nor do we control the distribution of knowledge by others. We teach, we decide who we teach lethal knowledge to based on moral criteria. No one has ever told me that Dirak saving that girl from gang-rape was immoral. If there was immorality it is in this council, who punished someone for obeying scripture as he understood it.”

“You defy the council, then Thuna?” Ranth challenged.

“I do not defy this council, but I think this council has started to defy scripture. So I do rebuke any who find abandoning a basically amoral position so abhorrent that they think it is better to split our community, and to have wizards outside the authority of this council, which is basically the result of our decision when we expelled Dirak.”

The chair of the council put down his pen and stood. He was an old man, twice Thuna's age, and rarely spoke. “Thank you Thuna, for reminding us of what we hold dear. Of what we have vowed to uphold. To split wizardry is horrendous, to oppose Scripture is unthinkable. I find, as I reach the end of my life, that things further back become clearer, and things more recent become vague.

"I remember a debate long ago, before most here were born, on the nature of intervention. From my memory of that debate, which must be recorded somewhere, the consensus of wizards was that: if young Dirak used no wizardry and no persuasive words, he was not there as a wizard.

"Someone who is not there as a wizard cannot use his status of wizard to intervene. If he used wizardry to protect the innocent in a way that caused no additional risk to the evildoers, he interfered in the work of evil, and should be praised. If he injured others using wizardry, he should be tried by the courts, for brawling under unfair conditions. If he damaged animals or property or natural features, that counted as intervention, we don't do that. That was the decision then. And of course intervention also meant exerting power or influence over people because you can. We need to tread softly.around politics and laws and the like. But why was the boy ever tried for intervention? Sounds like he did the right thing, and setting up a new school in a village? Excellent! Thuna, be a good lass and bully him onto the council as you take over as chairwoman. Course we can't split wizardry. This council needs a good shake up. Defy scripture? Shame! And on my watch too.

"Bah, can't have that. Let's pray for forgiveness and educate ourselves from God's word. And when we're finished, let's look for those archives. It was just before I graduated, I remember. Not that I remember when that was.”

“Mr Chairman,” Thuna said, “I don't think it's decided that I will take over as chairwoman.”

“Course it is. Very honourable way to do it. Rebuke the committee, call for repentance, take over with the blessing of the old chair who realises that he's been in the job far too long. God bless you as you lead this rabble, Thuna.” he handed her the paper he'd been writing. “Watch them better than I did recently, they're a slippery bunch, these wizards. Let's pray.”

“Mr Chairman, you can't do this,” Ranth said.

“Can, too!” he said in a childish manner. Then he commanded in his old voice, that spoke with solid assurance that no one would dare challenge, “Look it up under the authority of chairman. I am ceding my place to Thuna. Now, we pray. God, look after these wizards with their dangerous toys. Don't let them break this lovely world. Don't let Thuna let them wander from your paths as she takes over. Forgive me Lord, and let me come home to you soon. Thank you father for setting things right. Oh thank you, Lord.” And then with his last breath, “Oh! Lenepoli, not Dirak. That's so lovely, Lord. Thank you, father, so be it.” Then slowly, he toppled over.

“So be it, Lord,” echoed all voices but one. Ranth, lecturer in philosophy, was not happy with any prayer, let alone that one.

After death had been confirmed, and the ex-chariman's body removed, Brm approached Thuna. “Congratulations on your new role, madam chairwoman. Do you understand that the late chairman meant it should be Lenepoli who sits on the council?”

“It feels right to my heart. Dirak has been expelled, and has a job which in some ways makes him political. There would could be complications. We don't intervene in politics, and nor do we want to cause trouble for new council members. We'll therefore hold council meetings in Hnut for the foreseeable future. “You're not seriously raising someone who's not even an apprentice to the council?” Ranth objected.

“There is precedent,” Steev said.

“Ranth, the last words of my predecessor were quite clear, that it should not be Dirak who fills the missing place. The council has twelve members, it is not right for us to leave a seat vacant.

"I will of course put it to the vote, but I will certainly veto any decision to split wizardry, and of course we cannot intervene in the village's decision to have that school. Therefore, to my mind, the school should be constructed with the blessing of this council. Having a council member in the village makes it clear, I think, that we are involved and are in favour. Also, Dirak and Lenepoli will be starting to build their new home as a school soon, I expect, if they do not hear from us. But I think it would be wise for the school to be separate from their family home. We don't really want the corridors to be overrun with hatchlings, after all. In case some journeyman's experiment goes wrong, if for no other reason.”

“Tripping over ones own hatchlings is bad enough,” Brm agreed.

“Are we still in session?” Magz, who was a little younger than Thuna, asked, “because I've got to report that I've totally failed to find any suitable replacement for Angar wood except crystal.”

There were cries of dismay around the room.

“Surely the entire species weren't all above Reqiq!” Steev said.

“We've found crooked angar,” Brm said, “but no straight at all.”

“It's just too useful, that's the problem.” Thuna said, “It's tough, it doesn't rot, it doesn't split. Did anyone ever see a mature tree of straight angar? Up in Tnut the church spire is from an enormous log of angar. It's amazing, It must have been a massive work to hollow it our and raise it. But nowadays none grow near there, and in Hnut they harvest the saplings for bean poles, can you believe it?”

“But it still grows?” Steev asked, excitedly.

“It does. Dirak has suggested that nine of every ten straight angar trees found be preserved under a local bylaw. A total ban on harvesting for a decade or three would be better. The problem is that people still want bean poles.”

“Give them crystal!” Magz said. “We can't allow the species to vanish.”

“That's intervening,” Ranth growled.

“Isn't it equally intervening to let people pay the current rate?” Magz shot back.

“I've heard of people planning on harvesting expeditions, determined to find every last angar sapling on the planet so they can to sell them to us. What's that if not us interfering in the natural world?”

“I hope you told them no way, Magz,” Steev said.

“I did. I said 'don't, we're going to find a substitute, and then you'll have wasted a year or two and destroyed a species for nothing.'”

“Intervening!” Ranth growled again.

“No, Ranth, that's not intervening. That's correcting a misunderstanding that we'd be a party to someone destroying God's creation, no matter how valuable angar wood is to us, we won't wipe out a species.”

“So what do we do?” Brm asked.

“Let's crush the practice of burning a dead wizard's staff, to start with. It's a terrible waste.” Magz suggested.

“Anyone object?”

“Carving your staff is good practice for circuit building,” someone said.

“People can carve pine or other wood, it's what people should practice on anyway.” Magz countered.

Keef suggested “We can put crystal inserts in the end.”

“That's no good for apprentices,” another voice protested. Thuna, busy reading the document in front of her, didn't bother working out if it was Steev or Durrun. “Yes for apprentices. Exactly for apprentices. It's journeymen who need the strength.” Brm said, “and they can learn to make crystal.”

“So, who gets a dead wizard's staff?” Ranth asked.

“The dying wizard can choose who to pass it on to, of course. I think our late chairman would be happy for his to go to Zerkess Lenepoli.” Thuna said,

“He didn't leave a will?” Magz asked.

“He did. It's here, the paper he was writing and gave to me.” Thuna said.

“Well, read it!”

“I, Lepnew of Uttown, chairman of the council of wizardry, see clearly now that my end is near. My mind has been fogged recently, fogged with pain and with regrets. But bless the Lord who saves, I am rebuked, and I acknowledge my failings. To Thuna I leave my position on this council. To Journeyman council member Ranth, who probably should not be on this council, I leave my regrets that I raised him here despite his lack of faith. I hoped he would learn faith, but instead he has confused us; be gentle to him, Thuna, he tries hard. I leave him in your care, and I leave him also my copy of the alien scriptures, given me by my predecessor, and him by the small alien called Bob.

"I expect he will enjoy the challenge of reading their script, if nothing else. I beg you, God, will you speak to him though your word? The rest of my possessions I leave to Dirak and Lenepoli as wedding present and for their school. We could have saved so many lives, if only we'd checked, but we did nothing. What regrets I have, forgive me!

"Written during the council meeting, this forty-first day of autumn, 253 years after we learned of the Saviour of the Universe. Ps. I think you should build the school out of crystal. The aliens wanted to build this one out of it, but the stone-masons' guild said that wasn't fair on their members.”

“Wow! A school out of crystal!”

“That'll cut down on the repair bills.”

“And make it pretty hard to nail things to the walls too.”

“I am no more an architect than I share your faith.” Ranth said, subdued by hearing that his mentor had written that he shouldn't be on the council. “But I do have a few ideas how the layout of this building could be better. Let whoever plans, plan well. And... I would be overjoyed to work on such a project. It will be a real challenge.”

“There are no architects familiar with crystal on this planet at the moment, unless someone knows something I don't.”

“Well, no one's said 'Hello, we're visiting' in the last decade. So either the receiver's broken or they've forgotten how to be polite, or there's no one visiting.”

“When was the news beacon last updated?” Thuna asked.

“Oof, long time ago now,” Steev said, “You were going to get Dirak to do it weren't you?”

“And there's been no one with promise since?” Thuna asked. “Ouch! Right, well, someone will need to update that with news of our brother's departure from life, and the coordinates of Hnut, too. I think it's worth saying that duels have basically the same legal status as brawls now, and blood feuds are very heavily regulated. You never know, they might decide we're not too dangerous to visit now.”

“Or you could visit them?” Ranth asked.

“Theoretically, yes. Theoretically it's no different than going to look at one of the moons. But when they travel, they have machines to stop them if there's a rock in the way. We don't normally go faster than light. You don't need to, the distances we're going. It'd an enormous risk without having that sort of flight computer.”

“For which we need multi-million transistor circuits,” Brm said, “Probably masked, not hand-drawn.”

“Better lenses, larger crystals of flawless semiconductors, vacuum pumps...” Durrun trailed off.

“A scientific populace wouldn't come amiss, so we wouldn't need to do all that ourselves.” Brm said.

“Yes.”

“The new school is a step in the right direction.”

“Once we've helped set up this one to the North, perhaps we should see if anyone wants to set up others in other directions.” Ranth said.

----------------------------------------

HNUT, SISTERDAY, 6PM

“Could sulphur do it? The upper fields aren't very far from the sulphur springs,” Lenepoli suggested.

“Lenepoli, we've blamed the sulphur springs for two dead sheriffs and Shashana's plumage. We now know that my immediate predecessor had lung problems. I'm not going to blame every mystery on the springs.”

“OK. It was just an idea.”

“I'll make a note of it. But surely people wouldn't plant and harvest if there was sulphur in the air!”

“You'd hope not. But we're a stubborn lot around here.”

“I'd never noticed,” Dirak said with a smile at his beloved. Then he noticed she'd started to cut the inedible bits off the tubers. “Hey, no helping. I said I was cooking for you today.”

“Are you sure you don't need help?”

“Do I need help? Maybe. Do I want help? Absolutely certain I don't, thank you.”

“So, what do I do?”

“Do you see that book on the table?”

“Yes, you want me to put it away?”

“No. I'd like you to argue with it,” Dirak said. “See how many mistakes you can find in it.”

“Is this a test?”

“If you like. See how far you get before you feel like screaming out loud.”

“I don't know what some of these words mean. 'ennaat veelicausity'”

“It's old, pronunciation has changed. Imagine it's written by someone trying to sound like they're a high lord from centuries ago.”

“Oh! So that's 'innate bellicosity'?”

“Exactly,” Dirak said.

“'While is clear that ultimately all conflicts can be traced to the innate bellicosity of the female of the species'? What is the author talking about?”

“Keep reading.”

“Dirak, what is this?”

“Didn't you read the cover?”

“'On the state of knowledge, a treatise.'”

“That's what it is. Sorry, I need to cook.”

“Was this a course book?”

“No, but it's an absolute classic.”

“'Absolute classic'. Hmm. When was it written?”

“I think it says, just inside the front cover.”

“'Published in celebration of the fifteenth year of our reign.' Whose reign?”

“You'll work it out if you keep reading, I'm sure,” Dirak said, and got back to pealing the tubers.

By the time he'd finished the first one, Lenepoli was engrossed.

“A full quarter of males die in duels and another quarter in revenge duels!” she exclaimed.

“Violent times.”

“But what's a 'revenge duel'? A blood-feud?”

“No, they get mentioned later on.” Dirak said.

“Oh yes. What? Another quarter of males die in blood-feuds? Three quarters die?”

“Keep reading,”

“Females duel too? Is this about growlers?”

“It talks the blessing of growlers later.”

“Growlers are a blessing?”

“They eat fluffies that eat people's food.”

“And people.”

“Yes, the author mentions that too.”

“As a negative I hope.”

“Guess.”

“This is from a noble perspective. He probably thought that killing a few commoners was OK.”

“Actually, no. Keep reading.”

“That's disgusting!”

“You've got to the bits about harems?”

“Yes.”

“It's a Zerker book, isn't it?”

“You're guessing.”

“The only people who kept harems were Zerkers, this is promoting that.”

“And when you read on...”

“Oh. We can't beat them, so join them?”

“Keep reading.”

Two pages later she said, “Do I have to read this, it's terrible!”

“Think of it as a conversation starter.”

“I hate this book. Why are you making me read it?”

“Argue with it, Lenepoli. In your head, or out loud.”

“I can't just burn it?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“You're going to be surprised,”

“Can I skip ahead?”

“Why spoil your surprise?” Dirak asked, starting to fry the tubers.

“It's going to recommend eating eggs next.”

“Did you know, that the aliens do eat eggs? Not their own of course, they keep certain types of birds for meat and eggs.”

“Are you trying to put me off your cooking?”

“No. You eat fluffies and if we lived by the coast we might eat fish. They eat birds, and their equivalent of fluffies too, and fish.”

“Catching fish is hard, I hear.”

“Easier where there are fish in the river. They do it from boats, with nets, or some of them swim and do it with a knife. Back to your book.”

“Why?”

“Getting to know you.”

“But it's horrible!”

“It is about knowledge, though. All apprentice wizards need to read it.”

“I thought you said it wasn't a course book.”

“It's not,” Dirak said.

“Then what is it?”

“Oh, lots of things. See what you make of it by the time you get to the end, you're almost there.”

“I'm not even half way through.”

“You'd better keep reading then,” Dirak prompted, with a smile.

Silently fuming, Lenepoli read on. “Slavery!” she exclaimed, “He's advocating slavery?”

“I told you you'd want to argue with it,”

“He's wrong.”

“What about?”

“'This is where what we know gets us,' What about God? What about love, what about compassion?”

“Guess what my advice is.” Dirak said.

“Keep reading,” Lenepoli said. “This is just horrible!”

“You've got to the conclusion section?” Dirak asked, drawing in his breath to suggest she read on.

“Yes. I know, I need to read it to the end for the big surprise. He's a she?”

“That's the little surprise,” Dirak said.

“She had a sad life. That doesn't excuse her writing the book. I never knew female nobles duelled. I guess it explains why they died out.”

“They didn't, read on.”

“This is where that rhyme comes from?”

“It is indeed, but there are differences to the one you hear today.”

“Yes. 'The noble reed is ready to breed,' The noble red?”

“There's a reason that reds are stronger, braver, and mature earlier. The reds and their offspring were the nobles, and they fought far more than the commoners. That selection by competition it talks about, that was what was happening, back then.”

“What about the pale reds and pinks? They're missed out,” Lenepoli asked.

“From what records show, they're relatively recent.”

“I never knew that!” She replied. “And yellow is from a Zerker-noble mix?” Lenepoli asked, a bit further down.

“Yes. Not a very common colour these days, is it?”

“Oh. Oh wow. She's praying for intervention! Praying that God will be better known, that the prophecies will come to pass before society collapses!”

“And in the rest of the book there are exam questions, to see if you were paying attention.”

“'The state of knowledge is that right and wrong are getting warped, the nobility are fighting so much they are a plague on themselves and cannot survive. So I must put a stop to these evils.' This is basis for the reforms of Queen Poli?”

“It is. People often say that reform started with the arrival of the aliens. No, Queen Poli started it. Before her reform, duels could be re-fought, it was normal practice in a blood feud for the females to seek to smash any eggs in the other family's home while the males were fighting. It was illegal for a noble female to marry a Zerker — think what it would do to a blood-feud — but some Zerker males were so immoral, some noble females so thirsty for revenge, that they would give themselves to a Zerker for a year to win him as an assassin.

"That's why she speaks of yellows being a shameful colour and sign of blood feud.”

“And that's where the expression 'selling your bed to get revenge' comes from?”

“Yes.”

“Queen Poli's reforms were amazing, she overthrew the entire system of nobility. Are you saying she convinced everyone her reforms were right by this book?”

“Tell me what you think.”

She didn't deign to reply to that. “And all apprentices have to take an exam on it?”

“Yes, Feel free to look at the questions to work out why.”

“They're trying to sort out who's sane, who wants to learn wizardry to gain power. What could happen if they made a mistake?”

“In what sense? As in someone used wizardry wrongly, or what could the council do?”

“The latter.”

“The debate has raged quite a long time. One solution used to be a duel. Not an option any more. Fortunately it's never been tested.”

“There's no law against misusing it?” Lenepoli was aghast.

“The law sees wizardry as no more than a knife. You can't stab someone with a knife, you go to prison.”

“There are no special laws at all?”

“No.”

“And no one has special powers to arrest or anything like that?”

“What could someone do to stop them?”

“I don't know. You tell me.”

“What they do is try to be preemptive. They keep secrets of the more dangerous aspects. It wont work long term, so the unbelieving philosophy master tries to instil an ethic of non-involvement. I was his biggest failure.”

“And as his failure, what solution would you offer?”

“Personal faith, great sense of responsibility, and persuade the council and parliament that there ought to be stand-by laws, that allow, probably compel wizards of good repute to hunt down a bad guy and kill them.”

“Just taking away someone's staff wouldn't be enough?”

“There's no reason to put things in a staff except for convenience. Without the right materials to start with, it'd take me maybe half a year to re-create all the things in my staff. If I was in a hurry, if I felt under threat, I could make it really dangerous to approach me in a couple of weeks. Someone who knows they're going to be hunted would prepare, I expect. It would be very difficult to stop them without killing them. Praise God that it's never been an issue.”

“But we're starting up a rebel school.”

“I hope not. I think Thuna was just encouraging us to think harder. I don't think I want the responsibility for testing people's ethics.”

“How do the aliens do it?”

“They have more ways of killing people than we do, And they have people who hear thoughts.”

“That's impossible!”

“That's what the people there thought too, for centuries. Apparently it's not, at least among them.”

“But we don't know about us?”

“There are some hints, that's second year stuff. But let's eat, shall we?”

“Why is it second year stuff?”

“You can't read it yet. It's in one of the alien scripts.”

“One?”

“They used quite a few, apparently.”