Spinspace: The Space of Spins (The Metaspace Chronicles Book 2)

by Matthew Kennedy

  “Maybe, but it would take a lot longer to rebuild our lost infrastructure without magic. So this time, we're going to use technology and magic, to speed up things.” He paused. “Other schools will be starting up, to teach the old sciences like metallurgy, chemistry, mechanical and electrical engineering. But for them to succeed, there will have to be jobs waiting for their graduates, or no one will spend years learning the old skills.”

  “But how can there be jobs waiting for them?” Kaleb objected. “The business that need people with those skills don't exist any more.”

  “You're right. It's going to be hard to get things started. It's always a lot easier to just keep doing what you're doing. For businesses to start up, they'll need customers. That means we need more people. The population has to grow.”

  The others must have looked as puzzled as Kareef felt, because the teacher went on explaining. “When civilization fell, a lot of people died. There were billions of people living on the Earth back then. Billions! But people have to eat. The farms that fed them all depended on machinery. When the machines failed, no one could grow as much food anymore. People starved. For a couple of hundred years now, our population has been more or less constant.”

  Esteban spoke up again. “How can we change that?”

  “Good question. The first thing we'll have to do is help the farmers grow more food and raise more livestock. That means making more swizzles for irrigation, and something called everwheels to pull the plows and mill the grain. They'll need metal tools, so we'll need more everflames to smelt ore and to recycle all the scrap metal lying around from wrecked buildings and abandoned cars.

  “And that's where we come in. Everyone, including me, will be making swizzles as soon as they learn how. We'll be making them every day, for practice and to give away.”

  Kareef wasn't sure he heard that right. “To give away?”

  “That's right. We'll be giving them away to Rado citizens first, and then also trading them to other countries. When we can make everwheels, everflames, and coldboxes, we'll be doing the same with them. As the old saying goes, we'll be killing two birds with one stone. All this making will help us grow more experienced wizards, and the things we make will help grow more farms, more blacksmiths, more millers, and so on. More food will enable larger families, giving us more people. It's kind of a snowball effect.”

  Seeing puzzlement on some of their faces, Lester explained. “So you see,” he concluded, “we have to start the little snowball rolling. That's us. If we succeed, the school will grow, the farms will spread, the population will grow, people will start businesses to sell them tools and transport food and such, and the other schools will be able to start up, once there are jobs for their graduates.”

  Kareef tried to remain skeptical, but the enthusiasm in Lester's voice pulled at him. Here was a way indeed to make a difference! With the swizzles he could teach is countrymen to make (once he got the blasted weave to work), the farms in the Emirates would be more productive than ever. He smiled, as he imagined the look on his father's face when he returned home to help their farms crowded with crops.

  “For those of you who can make a swizzle, I'll be teaching what I call the telescope weave and the xray weave. Once you master all of those, you'll be ready to put on the gray robe again, and join me in learning spinspace, the next step.”

  For the next few hours Kareef tried to make his piece of pipe a swizzle, but he just couldn't seem to get the pattern to work. He also tried to ignore the pile of swizzles growing next to Carolyn. When at last they broke for lunch, he excused himself to say prayers and then sped down the stairs to Qusay's floor.

  Qusay had just finished saying hos own prayers when Kareef knocked on his door. “Come in.”

  Kareef entered, feeling he would burst from all the news he carried. But before he could begin. Qusay surprised him with news of his own. “I'm afraid you won't have as much privacy from now on. Starting tomorrow, you'll have a roommate. The school is getting another student.”

  “What?” Kareef did not know what to say to that. “Who?”

  “Nathan Silverman, the son of the ambassador from New Israel. He'll be moving into your room at the School tonight.”

  Kareef's eyes narrowed. “You want me to share a room with one of them?” Out of respect, he tried not to growl it.

  Qusay shrugged. “It was not my decision. “I know you've had a room to yourself up to now, but times change. For all I know, a month or a year from now they might be packing students in three or four to a room. Try to look at this as an opportunity.”

  Kareef couldn't stop himself from frowning. “An opportunity?” he echoed. “For what?”

  “This Union of theirs, of Rado and Texas, it just might grow, Kareef. If New Israel joins it and we don't, they'll be a more threatening enemy. If both New Israel and the Emirates join, then we'll be allies. Either way, it would be a good idea to know someone who might become a wizard in the North.”

  “I suppose so,” he said. Or maybe I can get Kaleb or Esteban to swap rooms with me. Even a Catholic would be better than a damned New Israelite.

  “Well, that's my news. What's yours? I can tell you needed to tell me something.”

  Chapter 68

  Nathan: get understanding

  ראשית חכם הוא זה:קבל חוכמה.למרות שזה יעלה את כל שיש לך,לקבל הבנה.

  “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

  – Proverbs 4:7

  For the first half hour his father watched him pack in silence, but after he re-folded the same shirt three times in a row it got to be too much even for Isaac. “I see what you're doing. It's only a few floors up, you know. Stop stalling.”

  He slammed the suitcase shut. “What if I don't want to go?”

  “That's not what you told Xander yesterday.”

  “That was yesterday. I've changed my mind. Tell them I'd rather stay with you.”

  “We talked about this, son.”

  “I don't care! Even if I attend their school, why do I have to move into another room? We're in the same building.”

  His father sat down on the bed next to him. “Look, he explained that. You're more likely to be accepted and make friends --”

  “Friends with an arab? Seriously?”

  Head shake. “Not an arab. Arabia is halfway around the Earth. You know that. Don't be ignorant. He's a Muslim.”

  “Whatever. Why can't I have a room to myself? It's not like they don't have empty rooms up there.”

  His father pressed one hand on the suitcase before Nathan could open it again. “I know that, but you know that they need to save room for more students.”

  Nathan stalked to the window and pretended to be interested in something outside. “Why are you trying to get rid of me?”

  “Now you're being ridiculous. This is a great opportunity. Don't you want to be a wizard?”

  “No!” he almost shouted. “I want to be a Tzaddik, like you. Why have strangers show me how to make a swizzle when you could – ”

  “Nathan,” his father approached and put a hand on his shoulder. “I don't know how to make a swizzle. You have it backwards. It's you who will have to teach me how to do it. After you learn, that is.”

  Nathan spun to face him, shaking the hand off. “If you can't, then it's not something I have to know in order to become a Tzaddik, is it?”

  “That's true. You don't have to know it in order to be an ordinary Tzaddik. But why settle for that, when you could become something even more important? You could have their training...and our training too.”

  That stopped what he had been about to say. “You mean, if I tell you what they know that you don't know, you'll teach me what they don't know?”

  His father hesitated. “I'm not supposed to,” he said. “But if that's what it takes, I'll do it. “I'll teach you everything I know.”

  “Can we start now?”

  �
��No!” His father glared at him. “You're late already. I told him you'd be there right after breakfast. Xander wants you to get more done the first day than just moving your things.”

  His father accompanied him as far as the stairwell. Before he opened the door and headed up Nathan turned to look him in the eye. “Just tell me one thing,” he said. “Was this part of the plan all along? Is this why you brought me to Denver?”

  Isaac surprised him with a grin. “I'm not going to lie to you, son. Make us proud.” And he turned away without another word.

  A stranger might have thought he had left the question unanswered, but not Nathan. He didn't say no.

  Chapter 69

  Kaleb: remorse

  “The Tao is like a bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable.

  The more you use it, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you understand.”

  – Tao Te Ching, the Book of the Way, by Lao Tse

  He managed to get through his report without breaking down, but only just. I did what you wanted, he sent. But I can't do that again.

  He sensed amusement from her. You won't have to. We'll never use the same tactic twice.

  He swallowed. Tactic? Is that what you call it?

  She made no comment. What happened today?

  No one said anything about it. As if it never happened. But I saw something in Lester's eyes. He knows it was no accident.

  Her reply surprised him. Excellent. I want him to know.

  What? Are you crazy? There are only a few of us! If he knows one of us did it, I'm dead! What use am I to you then?

  A mental laugh. Stop worrying. The next thing we do will keep them too busy to worry about you.

  We? There was no 'we'. She was a thousand miles away. There is no way they are going to let this go. A man is dead!

  Her mind sent a yawn. Soon he won't be the only one. Now listen carefully.

  He listened, but she began droning something about him being sleepy. Strangely enough, she was right: he was feeling tired. It had been a long day. Her voice became soothing and repetitive, and soon his eyelids began to close. Memories vanished under a tide of words.

  But her voice continued.

  Chapter 70

  Aria: alarums and excursions

  “My dearly beloved if I am to die today and never see the sweet face of you I want you to know that I am no great man and am lucky to have such a woman as you.”

  – Wild Bill Hickock

  She dipped the feather in the inkpot and tried again, but nothing flowed. When she reached down inside of herself for something to say, it was as if she were scraping a scoop around the bottom of an empty feed bin.

  Dear Jeffrey,

  Where to begin? So much has happened in the last couple of weeks. Two more ambassadors have arrived, and Xander's school is growing...

  But she couldn't finish the sentence because of the wave of resentment that surged out of her at the thought of the school. With all that she was expected to learn, to prepare for taking over as Governor some day, why couldn't she learn some magic, too? But Xander said it was a bad idea. Why? Because I have no talent for it?

  If only that were the reason. But no, he'd shaken his head. “You have the talent,” he'd told her. “But the people must see you as one of them. Until wizards are far more common than they are now, we'll always be seen as a breed apart. Non-wizards fear us, and you don't want to be a Governor who rules by fear...do you?”

  “It's not fair! You said the ambassadors from the Emirates and new Israel are both wizards. If they can, then --”

  “I wish you hadn't overheard that,” he said. “That was for your mother's ears only. As Governor, I felt she ought to know.”

  “And I shouldn't?”

  “If they wanted everyone to know, they would have said something about it. As long as they are being ambassadors, they need to be seen as only that. Anything else would --”

  “But you know!”

  “That's different,” he said. “It takes one to know one.”

  The memory of that conversation still made her want to growl.

  She crumpled the unfinished letter and hurled it at the far wall of her bedchamber. The hell with it! She needed a break. Throwing on her riding jacket, she hurried down the stairs.

  The smell of smoke alerted her before she reached the ground floor: burning hay! Bursting out of the stairwell into a bedlam of squeals and shouts she ran to help the grooms, but it appeared they had already doused the flames. She seized one of them by the shoulders. “What happened?”

  He tried to shake her hands off, then stopped as he recognized her. “Don't know. The fire seemed to come out of nowhere. One moment, we're sharing a cup of cider, and the next thing we knew there's flames leaping up and the mounts are going crazy.”

  She released him and dashed to Whisper's stall. The mare was rolling her eyes, tail switching in agitation, ears back. “Easy, girl,” Aria murmured to her. “You're safe.” But Whisper snorted, clearly not happy with the smell of smoke and the squeals of the other horses. There would be no ride this morning.

  An hour later she was reporting the fire to her mother. “Several stalls were damaged by fire and panicked horses. At first I thought it was a case of a careless smoker,” she concluded. “but then I found this where they said it started.” She held out her hand. In the center of her palm, a mote of red danced in the air above the coin.

  Kristana exhaled slowly. “Did anybody see anything?”

  “No. The boys down there are saying it must have been a wizard.” Aria knuckled an eye itching from a fleck of soot. “They say no one else could have put it there and left without a trace. Naturally, with all of the chaos, it's too late to try to identify footprints.”

  The Governor shook her head. “This is bad. No way to keep the rest of the troops from hearing about this one.”

  “But it doesn't make any sense! Neither Xander or Lester would do this.”

  Her mother's face tightened. “Exactly. Someone is being very clever.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don't you see?” Kristana rose from behind her desk and began to pace as she spoke. “It had to be a student.”

  “But none of them can make everflames. And Xander has been locking his up ever since that guard Kurt burned up.”

  Kristan made a dismissive wave. “Doesn't matter. Some of the guards have them now, for brewing coffee and starting campfires. If we bothered to check, we'd find one missing, probably right there in the stables.” She rubbed her eyes. “The point is, whoever did this wants to turn the troops against the students. Against the School.”

  “But who would want that?”

  “Someone who doesn't want more wizards. Could be the TCC, or it could be a wizard who doesn't want competitors. It might even be that Ludlow's come back. He never forgave Xander for dropping him as an apprentice.”

  “So what do we do about it?”

  “Well, what we don't do is lie to the troops. We'll just have to tell them we'll find who's responsible and deal with them.”

  Aria fell into a chair. “And how do we do that? We have to tell them it won't happen again, but how do we stop someone who can't be seen? Lester said all of the students can do the invisibility trick now except Nathan, the newest one.”

  Her mother shrugged. “We'll leave that to Xander. It's his School, after all. If he wants it to survive, he'll have to handle any problems that come up because of it.”

  She couldn't argue with that. But she had a sinking feeling that this wasn't over.

  Chapter 71

  Nathan: suspicion

  שם טוב הוא רצוי יותר מעושר גדול;להיות מוערך יותר טוב מכסף או זהב.

  “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.”

  – Proverbs 22:1

  He put down the book he was reading, (Introduction to Psychology by Finerter & Yukada 2057) when Kareef returned
to their room. “What did Xander want?”

  “He was asking if I left the school floors last night.” The older boy stared at him. “You mean he didn't ask you?”

  “No. Why would he ask you that?”

  “How should I know? Maybe someone snuck downstairs or went up to the roof and got seen. You sure he didn't ask you anything? He talked to Esteban and Kaleb before me.”

  “I already said no.” He picked up the book again.

  Kareef sat on the edge of his own bed and watched him. “I wonder why he didn't call you in.” He scowled as if something had occurred to him. “Maybe he didn't want to upset your ambassador daddy while they're negotiating a trade agreement.”

  He was about to reply to that when Lester stuck his head in the doorway. “Xander wants to talk to all the students in the main room.”

  Kareef jumped to his feet and strode out the door without a backward glance. Nathan marked his place in the book and ambled out to see the others sitting in a half-circle facing the wizard, out in the middle of the main room. He sat down tailor-fashion next to Kaleb.

  “Someone left our floors last night,” said Xander. “No one's admitted it yet, but I'm sure it was one of you.”

  “What's this all about?” Carolyn asked.

  “We'll talk about it later. For now, though, it means we'll have to make a couple of changes.

  “The first change is no one goes downstairs any more without permission or an escort. We'll be guarding the stairwell door from now on.”

  He couldn't believe this. “You mean we're prisoners?”

  Xander peered at him. “Someone went down and caused a problem early this morning. Let me explain something to you all. Our school has just started, and a lot of eyes are on us. Not everyone wants more wizards, especially in the Governor's building. One person misbehaving can make us all look bad to the mundanes.”