The Spark

by David Drake

  I opened my mouth to say that Easton had taken me apart, then shut my mouth. A month practicing with Guntram’s training machine had made a difference. I thought back to that first fight and saw how I could’ve handled Easton even with the hardware I’d had then. Maybe not put him down, but keep him from hammering me. He was soft and plump. I could’ve outlasted him if I’d used my weapon without my shield.

  “Sir,” I said. “I’m not going to shake Philip till he blurts something. I’m sorry, I’m not. If that’s what being a Champion’s about, then I was never meant for the job. And besides, on Frances’s own telling—”

  I nodded to her.

  “—Philip didn’t make away with her sister anyway. And I’m sure not going to start choking a woman because she might know something.”

  From the look on Frances’s face, she sure wouldn’t have any problem choking Lady Hellea—or me, if it came to that. She was still pretty angry. She didn’t say anything, though.

  “I didn’t suppose you would,” said Guntram. “What you could do, however, is enter the log of Lord Camm’s boat and learn the route it took on the way back to Marielles.”

  “Well, if I could find that boat, sure,” I said, but I wasn’t arguing anymore. Guntram wouldn’t have said that if he didn’t have an idea. “Do you know where it is?”

  “Baga’s boat linked with Camm’s boat on Holheim when it came for Lady Eloise,” Guntram said, “and again on Marielles when Lady Frances went there. I expect you will find Camm’s boat still on Marielles.”

  “Philip lied to me!” Frances said. “He claimed the boat hadn’t returned!”

  “He lied, or someone lied to him,” Guntram said calmly. “You and your escort will probably be able to determine that on Marielles, though that is secondary to finding and if possible rescuing your sister.”

  He looked at me again.

  “I didn’t think of checking the log,” I said. “Sorry, sir.”

  “You had no reason to do so until you needed to help Lady Frances,” Guntram said. “Well, Pal?”

  I was afraid. Not of being beaten or thrown in prison or anything like that: I was afraid of making a complete fool of myself, like I had in Dun Add.

  I grinned. That didn’t kill me, did it?

  “What are you laughing about?” Frances said. I guess she sounded shrill even when she was in her best mood, but that wasn’t today. “Do you think this is funny?”

  I looked at her and grinned wider. “Ma’am,” I said, “I’m thinking that the experience I got in Dun Add has prepared me for what I’m likely to find in Marielles.”

  I moved my chair back carefully so I didn’t knock it over and stood. I was so nervous I didn’t trust my control.

  “If you think it’s the best choice, Guntram,” I said. “I’ll try. And if you agree, ma’am?”

  “It sounds as though I don’t have much choice,” said Frances. I couldn’t see any expression in her face or her voice. “Yes, I accept your help, Master Pal.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Leaving Home

  I hadn’t really thought of Beune as home while I was growing up here. When I took the Road to Dun Add, I was going to my future, not leaving my past. The last month had made a difference that I didn’t realize until I stood here by the boat and saw, well, hundreds of people.

  Dozens of folks had come to see me off when I started for Dun Add. Nearly a hundred had come to see the boat when Lady Frances arrived. This was several times that many, lots of them people I barely knew by sight. They’d been shaking my hand and wishing me well. At least a dozen men had offered me jugs or even casks of their ale to take along, and women had cakes and pickles and sausages, whatever they thought their speciality was.

  It was easier to take the food than refuse: the boat had plenty of room. Besides, even if it spoiled it’d do as well as the usual organic garbage that went into the ship’s hoppers and then through the converter.

  I wouldn’t tell anybody that I’d converted their gifts when I came back to Beune, of course. People were really being nice.

  Marcus, a farmer from the North flanked by his four grown sons, was telling me about the trip he’d made to Teufelstoss with his Da, when he was but a youngling. I’d thought there might be a point to the story when he’d started but after five minutes I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be, so I was twice as glad when I saw Baga coming with the widow Herisa.

  “Sirs, I see our boatman and there’s things I need to discuss with him,” I said, clasping right arms with Marcus and patting him on the back with my free hand.

  I broke eye contract with him and called, “Baga, get over here if you will! We were getting worried about you!”

  I’d sure been worried about him, anyway. I don’t know what Frances thought—she’d gone aboard the boat with the last of her stuff, so I hadn’t seen her for an hour.

  “Sorry,” the boatman said. “It got complicated this morning.”

  He looked haggard. Herisa wasn’t just clinging to his arm, she was bawling and seemed to be trying to drag Baga away.

  “Mistress Herisa!” I said sharply. I stepped close and took her wrists in my hands, squeezing hard enough that she let go of Baga’s arms.

  I had a bright idea. Gervaise had been standing close by all morning, sort of claiming the right as my nearest neighbor and I guess best friend. I swung Herisa into his arms and said, “Gervaise, can you and Phoebe help me? Herisa needs a chance to calm down with friends till she’s ready to go back home.”

  “Sure, Pal,” Gervaise said loudly. “You know I’m always happy to do a favor for a friend!”

  That was the truth—Gervaise was a good man and a good neighbor—but he was making sure now that all his—all our—neighbors knew how close he was to me and my important visitors. In trances I’ve been inside the structure of a lot of amazing tools of the Ancients. None of the structures was nearly as complicated or confused me more than people do, and I mean folks like Gervaise who I’ve known all my life.

  “Bless you, fellow,” Baga muttered to me. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  “I need to talk to Guntram before we leave,” I said. “You can go on into the boat, though. Buck and I’ll be along as soon as we can, and Lady Frances is already aboard.”

  “Wait a minute!” Baga said. “I thought you was going instead of the lady. I told you when we got here, boy, she’ll only take me and one other. I don’t even trust taking the dog. Look, you can get a dog in Marielles if you need one.”

  The only thing that stopped me from shouting at him was that I didn’t know if I was more surprised—well, angry—that the boatman hadn’t listened about the repairs we were doing or about what he’d said about dogs. Baga had been gone just about all the while Guntram and I were working, and when he came around he hadn’t been interested in what we were saying.

  And Baga was a boatman who needn’t ever to have owned a dog. What he’d said about Buck still peeved me, though.

  “Look, Baga,” I said with my hand on his shoulder and my lips close to his ear. “You go inside and get your end ready. The boat’ll be fine with six adults aboard, just like when it was brand new. And I swear if you make silly trouble, I’ll take the boat to Marielles myself and you can stay with Herisa until I come back!”

  “Look, I just don’t wanna die, that’s all,” Baga muttered, but he wasn’t really protesting. I pushed him gently toward the boat’s door and he went aboard.

  When I turned I saw that Guntram had stepped over to me. A man and a woman—separate, not a couple and neither of them anybody I knew—had moved in my direction, but when they saw me with the old Maker they stopped and eased back.

  “I’m not an ogre,” Guntram said in a quiet voice.

  “Maybe they’re just being polite,” I said, though I didn’t believe that. “Say, have warriors started using your healing bed?”

  “They have indeed,” Guntram said, cocking his head as he looked at me. “Did you arrange that, Master Pal? Jon has
even talked about moving the couch down into a room of the Hall of Champions to make it more accessible.”

  “It was just common sense,” I said, grinning. “Lady May said she’d talk to some people. I’m glad she did.”

  There was no reason I should have, but I’d been thinking of May off and on ever since I left Dun Add. There was a lot I liked about being back on Beune, but there weren’t any girls here like May. Though I hadn’t seen any to match her in Dun Add either.

  “I…” Guntram said. Then he smiled and said, “Thank you, Pal. It shouldn’t matter, but I like to see things appreciated.”

  He coughed into his hand and added, “If you’re really capable of guiding a boat, you’re an even more remarkable young man than I already realized.”

  “I could flap my arms and fly to Marielles easier than I could get the boat to take me,” I said. We were both keeping our voices low and I watched the door, though I was pretty sure that Baga wasn’t going to try to listen in. “Baga was just being silly. He’ll be fine as soon as we start off.”

  I took a deep breath. “Sir,” I said, “thank you for all you’ve done. I mean since you came to Beune, but in Dun Add too. I can’t repay you, but anything you ask I’ll do. And I’ll try to do you proud in Marielles. Sir.”

  Guntram smiled. “First,” he said, “I’m taking the image projector which you offered me. I’ve got a quantity of your small fragments also—”

  He glanced down at his pack. It was almost as full as it had been when he arrived on Beune, despite all the wonders he’d given to me and my neighbors.

  “—but they’re of no real value to you. The image projector is another matter, though, and I’m sure you would be able to repair it yourself with a little more time.”

  That was nonsense. I didn’t say that, but Guntram knew it was nonsense.

  He took an Artifact from the pocket on the right breast of his robe. The hedgehog stuck its head out of the left pocket and wriggled its nose.

  “I’m giving you this in exchange for the projector,” he said, handing it to me: a slender handgrip with a thumb lever on the upper curve. “It’s a shield, designed for that purpose. It’s not the best one I’ve ever seen, but it’s quite good. I think you’ll find it handier than what you’re using now.”

  “Sir!” I said. “Sir.”

  “Would you mind giving me the shield you’ve been using, Pal?” Guntram said. “What you did is really quite ingenious. I’d like to keep it to refer to, not so much for your solutions but for the way you looked for solutions.”

  “Of course!” I said, slipping the shield into my pocket where it balanced the weapon on the other side. I didn’t need the harness anymore, so I took it and the converted umbrella off and handed them together to Guntram.

  “Thank you,” he said solemnly. I figured he’d feed the leather to his converter. That was the best use I could see for it, now that I didn’t need anything so heavy to carry my equipment. “And now I’m going to tell you what you can do to repay me.”

  I stiffened. “Sir,” I said. I didn’t have a son to give him, but I’d have kept my word if I had. “Whatever you ask.”

  “Then after you’ve corrected matters in Marielles, as I hope you will,” Guntram said, “I want you to come to Dun Add instead of returning to Beune.”

  “Sir, I’ll do what you say, I promised I would!” I said. “But I wasn’t raised to butt in where I’m not wanted. Dun Add made it real clear that it didn’t want me!”

  Guntram shrugged. “The universe doesn’t seem to want human beings,” he said. “If we’re going to continue to exist, we’ll have to fight for our place, which is what you came to Dun Add the first time to do. Not everyone can fight, friend Pal; but you can. I want you to join my foster son in fighting for Mankind.”

  I swallowed. “Yes sir,” I said. I clasped right arms with him. “I promised. I’ll hope to do that.”

  Then I said, “Come on, Buck.” I boarded the boat with my dog, and Baga closed the door after us.

  CHAPTER 11

  On the Way

  Buck wasn’t best pleased when the boat’s door closed behind him. He pressed close to my leg and whined, turning his head like he hoped for a way out. There wasn’t one.

  The boat reminded him of the stables at Dun Add, I guess. Dun Add hadn’t been a good experience for either of us.

  Baga sat down on the padded chair fixed to the far bow. He looked back over his shoulder at me and said, “Look, I’m going to try but if the boat’s as stiff as I figure it’ll be, I’m going to land right away and either you or the lady gets out. I mean it!”

  “All right,” I said. There was only the one chair, but I could sit cross-legged in the aisle if I got tired of standing. I didn’t feel like going into a compartment.

  One of the six was closed up already. “Do you suppose Lady Frances wants to watch as we start off?” I said.

  “You can ask her if you want,” Baga said. He’d placed his hands flat, the fingers spread on the counter in front of him. “And if you can figure out how to ask her. She went straight into the room when I boarded and said she was going to lock herself in.”

  “I guess not, then,” I said. “I’m ready when you are.”

  I dug my fingers into the long fur on Buck’s neck and started kneading the skin. I didn’t know how he was going to react to the boat moving. I didn’t know how I was going to feel about it either, which was an even better reason to keep close to my dog.

  I could’ve opened up the lady’s compartment easy, by going through the boat in a trance. There was a mechanical bolt on the inside and Frances might’ve thrown that, but I was pretty sure she didn’t know about it. It looks like a piece of whirly ornament. I wouldn’t have noticed it myself if I hadn’t seen it highlighted in the boat’s schematics.

  I wasn’t going to do that. Frances had gone from Holheim to Marielles already and then back to here. She wasn’t going to see anything new to her, and it was her business if she didn’t want to be sociable.

  I didn’t see Baga do anything. Nothing felt different to me, but Buck gave a curious whine. I seated myself beside Buck and dropped into a trance.

  The staggering web of connections didn’t overwhelm me as it had when I first observed them; working beside Guntram had shown me that it was all knowable, even if I didn’t know it yet and might not live long enough to understand it all.

  Nothing I saw around me now was any different from what it’d been on Beune, so I said, “Boat? Are we travelling?”

  “Yes, Master,” said the boat. “We are on our way to Marielles.”

  After a moment, the voice added, “Here is the control panel.”

  A schematic in red overlaid the linkages of the boat’s structure. A bright spot moved along a line; it was sort of like watching ants walking up the side of a building to get to the pie cooling on the window ledge. The spot didn’t move fast.

  “We will arrive at Marielles in three days and an hour,” the boat said, “plus whatever time the boatman rests on the way. Based on his performance in the past, I expect that will add twelve to sixteen hours to the total elapsed time. Is there anything else you wish me to tell you, Master?”

  If I’d been talking to the boat in my body, I would’ve smiled. “Baga is your master, boat. I can’t make you move. I just watch.”

  “Baga is the boatman, Master,” the boat said. Then it said, “Though you cannot direct me, you are capable of seeing the display which the boatman sees.”

  Before I had time to respond, I was surrounded by black and gray verticals through which I was racing. Though the original schematic had shown our track as a straight one, this image was like a stand of gray bamboo that I was zigzagging through. That was really weird, because you can’t run through a stand of bamboo unless you’re as thin as a cane yourself.

  I hadn’t asked for what I was seeing. I wouldn’t have known what to ask for. I wondered if the days I’d spent working on the boat and in the boat had taught it as
much about me as I’d learned about it. Anyway, it’d been volunteering information to me and Guntram since the second or third day.

  I was beginning to see specks of dull red in the gray background. “Boat?” I said. “What’s the red?”

  “The lights you see as red,” the boat said, “are nodes which are part of Here. If the boatman were to direct me toward one of them, as he directed me toward Beune when my systems were running down on my return from Marielles, we could land there.”

  I shivered. There wasn’t any reason; it just happened.

  “There are nodes which are of Not-Here in the Waste,” the boat said. “I cannot see them, but I sense them when I pass through. And you sense them also, Master.”

  My brain was full of what I’d learned and what I hadn’t really learned but was hanging there just beyond what I knew, shadows in the darkness I could almost see.

  “Thank you, boat,” I said. “I’m going to have something to eat now.”

  But the real truth was that I needed to digest those thoughts and not-quite-thoughts. I suppose I could’ve said that without hurting the boat’s feelings, but for politeness’ sake I didn’t.

  * * *

  After my first meal from the boat’s converter, I decided to work on the menu. I’d requested mutton stew. The result looked like thin mud, which was all right, but it also tasted more like mud than I liked. I didn’t doubt that it’d keep body and soul together, but it seemed to me that it could taste better and still be healthy.

  The trouble is, I didn’t know anything about food or cooking. Mom hadn’t been very good—chops broiled dry, over-boiled vegetables, and burnt pasties were most of what I remembered—and I hadn’t been interested in cooking myself.

  I wished Phoebe was here or at least that I’d got her to help me while we were in Beune, but Guntram and I had been busy with what we thought were more important jobs. Like I say, I don’t make a big thing about food, but “importance” didn’t mean quite the same then as it did now when I was facing three and more days of drinking mud.