The Makers of Light (10 page)

Then the fear was gone. "Then I won't eat anything at all." Her eyes only held despair now. "I could never eat, after today. At least I'll become thin now."

"If you don't eat at all, you won't just become thin. You will die, you fool!"

It was all Linden could do to not grab the woman and shake her.

"Don't you know at least that! Read the book! Read the wretched
Science
book! The book explains that a person needs food to convert to vitality for both the body and the quintessence! A living creature needs to periodically consume another living creature's vitality in order to exist—this is the wretched truth, and the book tells it to you! It does not, like the
Introduction to Mierenthia
book, only say that you must eat, without telling you why! The
Science
book tells you why Butchers and Millers and Cleansers and Cooks are so important, too—that they prepare those vitalities so that we can absorb them in our bodies without dying or going mad with Mierenthia's taint. Again, the
Mierenthia
book only says that these people exist and should exist. Read the
Science
book! Open your eyes! Stop being ignorant! Take the book now, take it and come with me to the elevator, read it while I work."

Linden had never shouted at Jenne before, and now, for a few moments, Jenne watched her with her lips and hands trembling, her face pale, sweat glistening on her forehead.

Then she took the book.

* * *

Jenne read while Linden worked, Linden's own hands trembling now. She was so wretched angry! If something died so that you could live, you should at least respect it, not close your eyes to the truth because life would be easier for you in this way! Ignorance. Always, ignorance. It was Mierenthia's greatest bane—but how did you make people relinquish something that was most of the time forced onto them, and
convenient
in the rare times it was not?

Linden had no answer to that, and her hands were trembling so much that, had what she worked on been the Clerk's pulley, she would have sent tremors along the ropes and wires down the very shaft.

But the ropes she was working with now did not feel her disquiet at all. They were thicker than anything she had ever worked with. She was lucky that she had found them and that Rianor had let her take them for her own.

She was building an elevator for
people,
with
Science.
After the Qynnsent Council last quarter, just before she had fallen sick, she had asked her new master if he had any metal ropes and other materials like those she had seen attached to the tower elevator's cabin. The Council Room elevator was supposed to be Magic—they all were—and yet Linden though she saw a semblance of a Scientific principle. If she was allowed to examine the cabin more thoroughly, perhaps she would discern it better. She was allowed, and he even showed her a small side room right by the Council Room, where indeed there were materials.

"They have been here since before I was born," Rianor said. "Indeed, I think they have been here for centuries. I haven't used them; I haven't gotten to them in my own research."

The ropes were thinner than those of the Magic elevator, and there were no materials for a cabin at all. The most Linden could scrape was a metal platform with holes where the ropes could be attached. But it would all do. It was still better than anything else she had ever seen. It was almost as if centuries ago someone else had entertained the thought of building an elevator. People could, after all, be hauled without a cabin, standing or sitting on the platform and holding on to a rope that would not be used for the actual hauling.

Linden was also making the elevator in such a way that would allow the actual people on the platform to pull a lever and control the hauling ropes, thus hauling themselves up or down. No one else would be needed to stand aside and do it for them.

Of course, the project would have been difficult and almost impossible if the hauling had to happen on the outer side of a wall, as was the case with the Clerks' pulley. It would have been too dangerous for the people on the elevator. However, there was an empty shaft in the servants' wing, in addition to the servants' own elevator and stairs.

Rianor had let her use that shaft and had even helped her place some ropes there. It had been one of those shared moments when they felt very close to each other. One of them had been pulling ropes on the fourth floor while the other one was attaching them on the first, both shouting at each other through the shaft, the passing servants glancing at them with apprehension.

But mostly, she was building the elevator by herself. Rianor seemed slightly amused by it, preferring to focus on Magic and the symbols. At some moments she thought that, like Mister Podd, he did not believe that it would work, but that, unlike Mister Podd, he was not afraid of it working.

Well, she would show him! She was almost ready—but the work was going slowly today. Perhaps hours passed with Linden working and Jenne reading beside her, the occasional servant passing them by respectfully.

At some point Jenne, her eyes red and puffy, came to stand beside her. Linden said nothing.

"Why are you tying the rope in this way?" Jenne asked moments later. "If you tie it like this, rather"—she pointed at what exactly she meant—"would it not be easier?" Her voice was shy, quiet now. "The book says, in the
Natural Mechanics
section, that—"

"You are reading that section? Really?" Only now did Linden realize that she had given Jenne not the
Introduction to Science
book, but the fat, compound book that contained all three
Science
books.
Natural Mechanics
was the subject of the second and third books, where indeed the more interesting concepts such as rules of motion were listed. Linden would have expected Jenne to read the first book only, which was basically the
Introduction to Mierenthia
book with explanations—if she read even that. But Jenne had gone on, on her own.

Jenne blushed and would have started defending herself, but Linden grabbed her hands and, were Jenne a little girl, Linden would have grabbed her and raised her in the air, dancing, kissing her.

"Jenne, this is so wonderful! Do you realize that you just gave me advice about Science? And not only that, but it has merit, even though you are reading the book for the very first time. Oh Jenne, let me teach you! You have the potential to be a very good Scientist!"

"I don't believe you!" Jenne herself was laughing now, tears glistening in her eyes. "Oh Linde, I have never been a very good anything."

"Well, now you are. Come here."

They worked together for a while, and Jenne made mistakes but was a good helper when she was told what to do—especially when she
read
what to do. Jenne had difficulty remembering spoken information, Linden suddenly knew, but she remembered everything she read. Besides, Jenne doubted her own worth and desperately needed someone to tell her that she was capable of something—but once she had heard this and believed it, she
acted
capable. Linden felt very powerful, helping Jenne find her own power.

It indeed felt strange, Linden being the teacher and not the student, the master and not the apprentice. It felt good. And it
was
good, she realized. It was good for her, for Jenne, for the world itself. Jenne was not depressed and forlorn any longer, so learning Science had helped her. Besides, Jenne was less ignorant than she had been earlier today, which meant that there was a little less ignorance in Mierenthia now than there had been—which was a step towards making Mierenthia a better place.

Linden should not only learn and make Science. She should make others learn and make Science, too—for everyone's good.

* * *

So Linden taught a little Science to Clare, Felice, and Brendan, too, the three of whom joined her and Jenne soon. They had finished their duties for the day, except for Clare's and Felice's duties of attending to Linden herself, and they all preferred to stay with the ladies by the elevator instead of going up to their own rooms.

Clare and Felice did so many things for Linden. They cleaned her rooms, served her food, they would have even helped her dress if she had not drawn a line at that and said that surely they could find something more useful to do. Perhaps that thing was Science.

Linden was happy to teach and help them, but it tired her, too. Later in the evening, after a lot of enthusiastic but sometimes inane help, and a lot of work for Linden herself, the elevator was finally ready for testing, but she could barely stand on her legs.

Almost, she was too weak to argue with Jenne and the servants when their faces suddenly became apprehensive and they tried to not let her climb on the platform and to, for the first time ever, show that a person could self-elevate with Science.

She was too tired. She could almost cry. So they would build with her, for it was in a way a game—but they did not truly believe in the power of Science. They would not risk themselves or let her risk her own self. She ignored them. She was a lady, after all. She would never risk others for her own sake, but no one but the High Lord could forbid her anything she did to herself. So she tested her elevator, going from the ground floor to the fourth and back successfully, and she should have been happy—but the success was bitter and got stuck in her throat.

"Well, my lady, now that we know that a person can self-elevate without Magic, let us see if two people can do it together."

This voice startled her, and it startled the others, too. The High Lord was standing a few meters away from them, in the shadows. He was breathing somewhat faster, as if he had just come and come in a hurry, and he was paler than normal. He stepped on the platform beside her without awaiting a reply. He gripped the lever, not letting her touch it this time, and raised them both.

"I thought you might be here when I did not find you in your suite." His voice was quiet so that only she would hear, but the words were stiff and angry. "But I did not think that you would do such a thing, that you would ride the elevator alone. You could have broken your neck, damn it!"

She swallowed, barely controlling herself so that she would not cry. "Do
you,
too, not believe in Science, then?" she whispered just as he snapped, "Look at you, you look sick again. What if you had not had enough strength to operate the lever but realized it only when you were
halfway up the shaft?
"

After that, having heard her words, he stared at her, and she suddenly laughed, realizing the ludicrousness of her question. He
was
on the elevator with her, and it was more dangerous and more potentially aberrant for two people to do it together than it was for just one. He did believe in Science—and right now he was watching both her and the elevator with something that suddenly made her feel the elevator's motion much more acutely than before.

Then he laughed, too. They laughed together and rose to the fourth floor and came back down several times before they would step away from the platform.

"Come, let us test it with more people," Rianor told Jenne and the servants, and they all came.

When the others went to sleep, Linden and Rianor stayed alone to make some slight modifications to the ropes, and then went to her suite to draw a few new, more complex elevator designs. Linden realized that she finally
was
happy.

Until the moment when Rianor commented on Jenne having been on the elevator with them.

"I understand that Clare and Felice imitate everything you do, and that Brendan might as well, but Jenne? She must value your friendship quite high to expose herself to Science. It is a very boring activity to many noble ladies, and an aberrant one to others."

"Jenne—" Linden swallowed. "Jenne has her reasons. She has started learning about Science because—Because—" Here he was, the only person who truly understood her, despite how much her servants would try, and now he was
nice.
She was a weakling. She could not take it—she could not hold it inside herself any more. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

He embraced her while she told him about her trip to the slaughterhouse. "Humans. Oh, Rianor, I hate humans sometimes. Humans take life, always—but I want to live, myself, and yet
give
life."

"Do you, now? And what makes you think that you can't?" Rianor caressed her cheek. He was very close to her now. Oh, wretch it, what had she just said? To a young man? While she was in his arms? Katrina had taught her that young men always considered such words to be an invitation for sex, even when said from a safe distance and in the context of becoming or being a healer. A woman supposedly gave life when she gave birth—but somehow, right now, that was not it.

"Do not misunderstand—" Linden tried to pull away, but Rianor's arms were tight around her.

"I am not misunderstanding." He was watching her as if right now he might accept any invitation she gave, and as if he had some invitations of his own. And yet ... "You are too special to be misunderstood—or misused—like that." He exhaled slowly, still holding her but not making any other motion. "My Science Crafter. Or, should I say, my Science Artificer, for perhaps this you proved yourself to be today. What do you think life
is?
"

"I ..." It was hard to concentrate. "I don't know. Something with a quintessence, the Bers say. And vitality, of course. And a mind, often but not always, for it is certain that only living things have minds, but not all of them do. A living thing is something that is not without
consequence
to the Master's world, something that has the potential to uphold this world or harm it. This is why Master Cleansers exist, right? And Master Millers." She laughed bitterly. "To turn murdered animals and plants into food, so that the food doesn't harm us. And yet, fire and water can both uphold and harm, and they are not considered living ..."