Afsan dipped his head, accepting the compliment, although not yet quite understanding. “There’s more, though, master,” he said. “Do you know of the rings around some of the planets?”
“Rings?” Saleed’s head moved slightly on the sleeping pallet. “So that’s what they are. My old eyes weren’t good enough, I’m afraid, or maybe my old mind was incapable of realizing what it was seeing. Rings. That makes sense, yes.” Although still as attenuated as a pre-dawn wind, Saleed’s voice had taken on a wondering tone. “Not solid, I’d warrant. Particulate?” Afsan nodded. “Particulate rings.” The air escaped from him in a sigh. “Of course.”
“They form when moons around other planets move too close to them.”
“That makes sense.”
“But, master, our world is too close to our planet to be stable.”
Saleed tried to lift his head from the pallet, failed, and grunted weakly. After a moment, he said, “So the student has exceeded the master. Hmph. That’s what every teacher wants. Congratulations, Afsan.”
“Congratulations? Master, the world is coming to an end!”
“Whether it does or not, I won’t be here to see it. It appears I’ve given you an even tougher job than I’d thought and for that, my boy, I do apologize.”
Afsan felt his fingertips itching, a response to surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Well, Afsan” — and then, maddeningly, the old astrologer fell into a fit of coughs again. When it was done, he continued, “Well, Afsan, if the world is coming to an end, then we must…” and here Afsan saw in his master’s wizened face some of the spark, the excitement he was used to seeing there, saw the brilliance of the mind that had written the definitive works on the stars and planets and the moons, saw his genius “ — we must get off this world.” He found the strength to lift his head slightly. “And you must convince the people to do just that.”
Afsan fell back on his tail, stunned by Saleed’s words. “Get off the world? Master…”
But Saleed was coughing again. When he finished, he said, “I had to wait until you came back, Afsan. I had to know that you would be the one.” And then his black eyes closed and Afsan saw his torso collapse beneath the leather sheet as the breath went out of him.
“Master?”
There was no reply. Afsan fished in his sash’s pouch for the object he had stopped by his quarters to get, the traveler’s crystal, hexagonal and ruby red, that Saleed had given to him before he had left on the Dasheter. He placed it on the sleeping pallet next to the senior astrologer’s head. “Have a safe journey, Saleed.”
*28*
Afsan was heading from Saleed’s home to the palace grounds, where he intended to inform the authorities of his master’s demise. Clouds were gathering, and the sun appeared as nothing more than a mauve discoloration behind them. Afsan wasn’t really paying attention to where he was going. He was lost in thought about what Saleed had said.
“Aren’t you Afsan?”
The voice caught him off guard. He turned to face his inquisitor, a female just shy of middle age, perhaps twice his own weight.
“Yes, I’m Afsan.” He peered up into her face. She made no move to bow concession. Afsan didn’t recognize her. “And you are — ?”
“Gerth-Palsab,” she said. Gerth, derived from the miracle worker, Gerthalk, was a praenomen syllable often chosen by deeply religious females, just as Det, from Detoon the Righteous, was a frequent choice among males, especially those who had entered the priesthood.
“Hello, Palsab,” said Afsan. “How do you come to know me?”
She placed hands on broad hips. “I’ve seen you around.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. You work at the palace.” She said it as though it were an accusation.
“I’m an apprentice astrologer, that’s right.”
“I hear they go through those the way I go through teeth.” A rude thing to say, thought Afsan, but he made no reply. Palsab continued in a harsh tone. “You’ve recently returned from a pilgrimage.”
Afsan felt wary. His tail swished through a partial arc before he quelled the gesture. “Yes, my first.”
“I’ve heard stories about you.”
Afsan clicked his teeth, feigning good humor. “At day or at night?”
She ignored his remark. “You blaspheme God!”
Two others were passing in the opposite direction. Afsan saw them stop short at Palsab’s outburst, and one half turned to listen.
Afsan thought about simply walking away, but he’d been brought up to respect his elders. “I’ve said nothing that isn’t true,” he replied softly.
“You looked upon the Face of God, and called it a fraud.”
The two passersby were making no effort to hide their eavesdropping now, and another couple who had been heading in the opposite direction had stopped, as well, startled by what Palsab had said.
Calthat’ch
— fraud — was a word rarely heard, since the very idea of a blatant deception lasting into the daylight was so difficult to believe.
’’I suggested no deceit, good Palsab,” said Afsan.
“But you said that the Face of God was not, well, the face of God.”
Afsan looked at the ground, black sand strewn with pebbles. When he looked up again he saw that a fifth pedestrian had tarried to see what the commotion was about. “What I said,” Afsan replied, “was simply that the Face of God is a planet. Like Carpel, Patpel, and the rest.”
There was a buzz of conversation between two of the onlookers. “And you don’t call that blasphemy?” demanded Palsab.
“I call it observation,” said Afsan. “I call it truth.”
A trio of young females joined the gathering, and, a moment later, a giant old male. Afsan heard one onlooker remark to the fellow standing next to him, “It sounds like blasphemy to me.”
“The truth?” barked Palsab. “What does an eggling know of the truth?”
“I know what I see with my eyes.” Afsan scanned the faces around him, then turned back to Palsab. “Look, this isn’t the place to discuss it. I plan to do a paper on what I’ve seen; perhaps I can arrange for you to be loaned a copy.”
One of the males stepped forward. “Do you mock her, boy?”
Afsan looked up. “Pardon?”
“She can’t read.” He turned to her. “Can you, Palsab?”
“Of course not. I’m a blacksmith; what use do I have for writing?”
Afsan had been with the palace for so long, he’d all but forgotten that most people were illiterate. He’d swished his tail right into a pile of dung. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean a slight. It’s just…”
The male who had spoken up a moment ago said, “What gives you the right to say such things about God?”
“I claim no right,” said Afsan quietly. “I’m just relaying what I’ve seen.”
“What you believe you have seen,” countered Palsab. “A pilgrimage is a time of visions and raptures. Many think they see things during them — especially during their first.”
“I’m sure of what I saw.”
“Keep your blasphemy to yourself!” said Palsab, tail slapping sand.
“No,” called a new voice. Several more people had stopped to listen. “I want to hear. Tell us what you’ve seen.”
Afsan didn’t recognize anyone in the group, but coming down the street was someone wearing the red and black robe of a junior priest. He, too, came over to see what was going on.
“I saw,” said Afsan, “that the Face of God goes through phases, just as the moons do.”
Someone in the crowd nodded. “That’s right; I’ve seen that.”
Afsan sought out the speaker, looking for a friendly face. “Well, don’t you see, then,” said Afsan, “that this must mean that the Face of God is illuminated by the sun, just as the moons are.”
“The moons are illuminated by the sun?” said the same fellow. This was clearly a new concept to him.
“Of course they are! Where do you think they get their light — from oil lamps?” Afsan realized in an instant that he’d spoken too harshly. “I’m sorry, I mean, yes — that’s right. The sun is the only true source of light.”
But it was too late. The fellow adopted a hostile posture. “Seems to me we could use a little more light around here,” he grumbled.
Palsab spoke overtop of him. “See, you’ve already contradicted yourself. First you say the Face of God is a planet; now you’re babbling about the moons.”
At the edge of the crowd, the junior priest looked agitated. Afsan saw him take off for the Hall of Worship. He turned to look back at Palsab. “But some planets go through phases, just as the moons do.”
“What nonsense!” said Palsab. “The planets are just points of light.”
“No, they’re not. They’re balls, spheres. And they go through phases. I’ve seen it.”
“How?” called a voice from the crowd. “How could you see something like that?”
“With a device called a far-seer,” said Afsan. “It magnifies images.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” said Palsab.
“It uses lenses. You know: like the way a drop of water can magnify what’s beneath it.”
Palsab sneered. “So this blasphemy was revealed to you in a drop of water?”
“What? No, no, no. The far-seer works on the same principle, that’s all. Look, what I’m saying is the truth. I’ve seen it. Emperor Dybo has seen it. Many others have seen it, too.”
“And where’s this magic device that lets you see such things?” said Palsab.
“Well, I’ve got a far-seer of my own now, but I don’t have the one through which I saw these things for the first time anymore. It didn’t belong to me; it was Var-Keenir’s, captain of the
Dasheter
.”
“Oh, Var-Keenir! Of course!” Palsab sounded quite pleased with herself. “Well, you know what they say about him.”
“That he’s a master sailor?” said Afsan.
“That he’s an apostate, eggling. That he practices the ancient rites.”
Afsan had never heard that said, but, in any event, he couldn’t see how it was relevant. He was about to point this out when a voice from the crowd said, “What’s this got to do with the Face of God, anyway?”
Afsan turned to look at the speaker, a female much younger than the belligerent Palsab. He bowed politely, determined not to alienate yet another member of the crowd. “A very good question, indeed. The Face of God — the thing we see hanging there in the sky — is a planet, just seen from very close up. It’s the planet that our world revolves around.”
In the distance, Afsan saw the junior priest returning with Det-Yenalb, the Master of the Faith, in tow.
“I’ve never seen the Face of God,” she said, and Afsan realized that she was indeed much too young to have taken the pilgrimage. “But I’ve seen paintings of it. My class went to see the Tapestries of the Prophet once. It doesn’t look anything like a planet.”
Afsan bent low, his tail lifting into the air as he did so. He scooped up a handful of black sand.
“See this sand?” he said, letting it sift between his fingers, falling back to the ground.
“Of course.”
“It’s basalt; ground volcanic rock.” He pointed over his shoulder. “See the Ch’mar peaks there, off in the distance?”
“Yes.”
“They’re covered with the same sand. Can you see it?”
“Don’t be silly,” said the girl. “The peaks are too far away.”
“Exactly. And the other planets are too far away to be seen in detail. But when seen close up, they would appear as great spheres, just as the Face of God does. And our world revolves around the Face of God.”
Palsab made a hissing sound. The girl looked intrigued though. “But I thought the world sails down the great River.”
“No, it doesn’t. That’s just a story. I’ve sailed clear around the world…”
Palsab made another hissing sound. “You’ve seen this! You’ve done that!
Pah!”
“The entire crew of the
Dasheter
sailed around the world,” said Afsan, trying not to become angry. “And all its passengers, too.”
The crowd had continued to grow. Each member was standing a polite distance from the next, so Afsan could easily see to the outmost circle of watchers, where Yenalb now stood. “Did you really sail around the world?” asked the young female.
“Yes. Absolutely.”
She shook her head. “Someday, I’d like to sail around the world, too.”
“Don’t talk nonsense!” Palsab spat in the youngster’s direction. “The world is flat.”
The youngster looked at the ground, but muttered, “He says there are many witnesses.”
Afsan was pleased to have found an ally. “That’s right. Many witnesses.” He looked at the crowd. Some, like Palsab, were openly hostile, claws exposed, mouth open to show teeth. Others seemed merely curious. He thought of Saleed, of what Saleed had asked him to do. Perhaps now was the time to begin; perhaps this was the place to start. Perhaps…
“But there’s more,” he said, the words tumbling out, his decision made for him. “So much more. That we’re on a moon revolving around a planet…” He heard a sharp intake of breath from several people and realized he’d just laid another explosive egg. “Yes, that’s right, our world is itself a moon, just like Swift Runner or Slowpoke or Sprinter. But that we’re on a moon, and that this moon revolves around a planet, is perhaps only of academic interest. It excites me, and I hope that knowledge for knowledge’s sake excites most of you. But I grant that the reality of the way the universe works is mostly of no consequence.” He nodded at faces in turn, trying to connect individually with each member of the crowd. “You still have to sleep, you have to toil at your tasks, you must hunt, you must eat. None of what I’ve said affects any of that.” He saw a few heads return his nods and felt encouraged to continue. “But I have discovered one fact that is of dire urgency, that will change everything.”
A roll of thunder sounded from above. Afsan looked up at the leaden sky.
Palsab grunted. “I take it you’re about to blaspheme again,” but even she recognized that the sound from the sky was coincidence. Teeth clicked around the circle.
But Afsan swallowed hard. This was important, vital. Those who hadn’t believed what he’d told them so far certainly wouldn’t accept what he was about to say. The weight upon him was almost palpable. At last, he forced out the words. “The world is coming to an end.”