“The feeling is completely mutual, I assure you, Phillias,” the warlock said, smiling. “I feel that we need to talk with regard to our recently rescued castaways. They will soon be helping us with the sinking problem, and it would be good if we could coordinate our programs, so as to cause as little confusion as possible among our respective subordinates and the people at large.”
“I agree, Thomas, and as much as we both would enjoy an extended chat, I suppose that it’s best to get on to the business at hand immediately. The church of course would welcome your help in alerting the people, and more importantly the duke, to the dangers that these outsiders represent.”
“Well, your priests have their pulpits, Phillias. When it comes to influencing the masses, you are far stronger than I. As to the duke, well, he seeks the counsel of many, of course, but makes his mind up for himself. And while I don’t want to be a spreader of false hope, you know as well as I that our guests have access to the new technology that has recently been developed out there. They seem willing and able to assist us in solving many of our problems, major as well as minor.”
“The major problems that I am concerned with are the bringing of the diseases of the outside world to the bodies of the people of our islands, and the bringing of its many unholy ideas to their minds. We do not need the outsiders’ help to alleviate these problems. They themselves are the problems.”
“That seems unduly harsh, Phillias. They seem to be decent enough sorts. Isn’t one of them taking religious instruction from your people already?”
“Well, we could hardly decline such a request. Yet still it remains that the best help they could possibly give us would be for them to cease to exist. Then I could get on with my proper work of saving people’s souls.”
“We have survived diseases a hundred times before, Phillias, and since our faith is strong, you need not fear that any other belief will supplant it. But you cannot save souls unless the bodies they inhabit are alive! I have told you again and again that the featherrock the island is made out of is slowly getting waterlogged! In the past, we were able to compensate for our loss in buoyancy by enlarging and extending the tunnels we have inside, especially those below the waterline, but it is getting to the point that further digging will begin to destroy the island’s structural integrity, weaken it until a major storm could crack us in half.”
” `We are in the hands of God, as we always have been and always will be. Have faith, my son, and fear no ocean’s storm.’ ” The archbishop was quoting from a favorite sermon he had written sixty years before.
Changing tactics, the warlock said, “Has it occurred to you that this is the only place on earth where our particular variety of Christianity is practiced, Archbishop? That if the Western Islands are lost, your religion will be lost along with everything else that we have here?”
“You are such an alarmist, Warlock. If the tunneling that your men are doing is weakening the island, then by all means bid them to stop doing it! Surely that’s simple enough for even you to understand! The islands have been afloat for a thousand years, and all previous warlocks were competent enough to keep them thus. The end of our world will not happen this afternoon.”
“Perhaps not this afternoon, Your Excellency, but it could well happen this decade, or even this year. As to stopping the digging, the waves now lap to within three yards of the main entrances of the island. If sea water ever started to flow in with any large volume, it would flood the lower galleries, and the island would promptly sink. Call me an alarmist if you wish, Your Excellency, but I definitely prefer being a living alarmist to being a dead nitwit!”
“Warlock, you are as single-minded as always. And as close-minded as well!”
“And you are as bone-headed, as self-seeking, and as stupid as you’ve always been, Archbishop! You’d be a laughable clown, if you didn’t have the power to get us all killed!” The warlock was standing, glowering at his adversary.
“All conversation with you is a waste of God’s good time,” the archbishop pontificated, standing and leaving by the nearest exit.
* * *
* * *
The warlock arrived with his entourage, some two dozen people.
Our workers stopped what they were doing and bowed to him, so I thought it would be a good idea to do the same. Adam did the best he could from his sedan chair.
“Thanks, mates,” the warlock said in English. “That sort of thing isn’t necessary when we’re alone, but it helps keep up appearances when in public. My, this is a fine-looking craft you have here. I understand that you built it yourselves.”
“Not exactly, my lord,” Adam said. “I directed our workers in the construction of The Brick Royal.”
“That’s about what I meant,” the warlock said, switching back to Westronese for the benefit of his entourage. “I’ve brought six apprentices with me who are particularly good swimmers. I’d like to have them start cleaning off the coral and waterlogged featherrock as soon as possible, so if you would be so kind as to show us these SCUBA rigs you mentioned, we can get on with it.”
“Of course, my lord,” I said. “But you must understand that they can be dangerous if they’re not used properly. Adam here has taken a formal course in their use. He’s taught me how to do it, but I think it would be best if he gave the course to them before work actually starts.”
“That would be excellent.”
In a few minutes, the tanks, weights, masks, flippers, depth gauges, and other paraphernalia were gathered up and put in front of the sedan chair, and Adam was talking to a rapt audience. After a half an hour or so, the warlock was starting to look a bit bored, so I took him aside to talk with him about the master plan Adam and I had started working on the night before.
“My lord, we’ve started to develop a plan that would let us help you and your people out of your current difficulties. Talking with you yesterday, you mentioned the problem of the Island’s sinking, and the problem of the way your people don’t have immune systems ready to fight off modern diseases.
“Well, we’re starting work on the first problem this very minute, with the SCUBA rigs. Also, we have aboard a dozen or so snorkle outfits, which are simpler. They consist of nothing but a pair of flippers, a face mask, and a short breathing tube, and they’re normally used for fishing and sightseeing near the surface. We’ve got the compressor and a few hundred feet of hose around, and between them, we think we can cobble up some system that will let another dozen men work under water, but not very deep. Still, any weight removed from the island is to the good, so it won’t hurt at all to get to the easiest stuff first. We plan on making a number of trips back to the outside world, and one of the first things we plan to bring back will be a larger compressor, one that could support perhaps a hundred workers, down to about one hundred feet. Some time later, perhaps we can come up with some sort of machine to give the bottom of the island a proper scraping, since our preliminary estimates make it look as though putting in some sort of additional flotation would not be cost effective. Nonetheless, the work we do now will gain us time.”
“Excellent. Go on.”
“As to the medical problem, well, as I said, neither of us is a doctor. But we can get one. When we get to the mainland, we can find a good immunologist, or whatever what we need is called, and hire him, or her. These islands are such a wonder that I don’t think we’ll have any problems keeping him once he’s here. Also, thinking about it, we don’t think that the problem here is either as bad or as unique as you have made it out to be. After all, isolated jungle tribes turn up every now and then in the Amazon or New Guinea, and they don’t all die the first time a missionary shows up. To be sure, in the long run, the population of these tribes does go down, but for the most part those natives don’t get proper medical attention, and we will see to it that your people do.”
“I see. Well, you realize that I don’t have the final say about all of this, but so far, I’m impressed. Go on, please,” he said.