the thermal patterns radiating from his metal facial surfaces. An acolyte
standing behind the chair held the organic-grown rod of yellow and red spiral
stripes, topped by an ornamented ball, that was Frennelech’s emblem of office,
while to the left and right, the lesser priests sat in solemn dignity, holding
their own, lesser emblems in their steel fingers.
Heavy chains rattled as the accused, Lofbayel, Maker-of-Maps, rose nervously to
his feet in the center of the Council Chamber. The guards standing on either
side of him remained impassive while for a few seconds he stared, cowed and
bewildered. Then Horazzorgio, the sadistic-looking captain of the Royal Guard
who had been in command at the time of Lofbayel’s arrest, jabbed him roughly in
the back with the handle of a carbide-tipped lance. “Speak when the Illustrious
One commands!” he ordered.
Lofbayel staggered, and caught the bar before him to steady himself. “My words
were not spoken with any intent to contradict the Holy Scribings,” he stammered
hastily. “Indeed, they were not spoken with thought of the Scribings at all.
For—”
“Aha!” Rekashoba, Prosecuter for the High Council, wheeled round abruptly and
pointed an accusing finger. “Already he confesses. Is it not written: ‘In all
thy words and deeds, be thou mindful of the Holy Scribings’? He stands condemned
by his own words.”
“The impiety has been noted,” Frennelech said coldly from the bench. And to
Lofbayel, “Continue.”
The mapmaker’s imaging matrixes flickered despondently. “It has long been my
practice to collect writings and drawings of travelers, navigators, explorers,
soldiers, and scholars from both this and other lands,” he explained, and added,
“. . . for the purpose of further improving the quality of the services that I
render to His Supreme Majesty, the King.”
“May the Lifemaker protect the King!” Horazzorgio shouted from behind.
“Let it be so,” the bench of priests chanted in response, with the exception of
Frennelech, whose rank excused him from the obligation.
Lofbayel continued, “In amassing many such records originated over a time of
many twelves of twelve-brights, I found impressing itself upon me a strange but
persistent recurrence: that beyond any place that lies as far to the east as one
may choose to name, there are always reported more places that lie yet farther
to the east . . . until they become places that other travelers have encountered
to the west. And the same is found to be true of north and south, for either
becomes the other. I have evidence which suggests the same is true for all
directions, and for a journey commenced at any place.” Lofbayel looked along the
line of stony-faced priests. “Consideration of these facts—if they are facts, of
course—led me to the supposition that any journey, if protracted long enough
without hindrance or deviation, must eventually close a path back to its
beginning.”
“And therefore you conclude the entire world to be round in form?” Frennelech
sounded incredulous and at the same time appalled. “Through idle daydreaming,
you believe that you can acquire knowledge . . . spurning the Scribings, which
are the sole source of all true knowledge? What arrogance is this?”
“I … It was intended merely as a conundrum concocted for the amusement of
students who seek my instruction in the methods of calculation and the graphic
arts,” Lofbayel replied. “We asked: ‘What form has no center, yet has centers
everywhere, and is limited in size but unlimited in extent?’ Further
contemplation and experiment revealed that the sphere alone possesses properties
consistent with the conditions which the riddle specified, and this prompted the
further question: ‘Given that the world shares properties in common with the
sphere, must it not follow that it shares the sphere’s form also?'”
Rekashoba, the Prosecutor, snorted and turned away contemptuously, indicating
that he had heard as much as his patience would withstand. He straightened and
raised his head to address the bench. “First, to dispose of the possibility of
there being any factual basis to this allegation, I will present three
independent proofs that the world cannot be round. And second, I will show that
this is no mere innocent exercise in riddles as has been claimed, but a
pernicious attempt to challenge the authority of the Lifemaker’s worldly