cord to keep out of the way.
Eventually, in desperation, she crawled back to a
section of floor that every last mallet had failed to pass
over. She glanced in all directions, poised to spring, until
the mallets gradually lost momentum and dangled limply
from the tangled elastics.
In the far comer, Standback applauded. “A perfect
test.” He wrote furiously on his stomach. “Absolutely
perfect, with the exception of a few trajectory defects.”
Mara looked down. She was crouched over the X.
“You tried to kill me.”
Standback shook his head violently. “Never. The
Spybanger is designed only for self-protection; killing is
purely accidental. Can you help me rig these back up?”
From a comer cabinet, Standback produced a large
wooden crank. He inserted the crank into a spring and
ratchet arrangement in the first trap and turned it until the
mechanism was tight enough to leave room for the
hammer in front of it. He lifted the mallet laboriously,
then stood back, panting.
“And so amazingly easy to reload,” he said, struggling
to shut the trap before the hammer flew out.
Mara helped crank and lift the other five. “What else
have you been working on?”
In answer, he led her through a second door – which
led through a short tunnel to another room.
“This isn’t for spies, and it’s not an offensive weapon.
It’s a shock-lessening device, a preventive measure for
high-impact disasters. A pneumatically seismosensitive
counter-measure for offsetting combat-related upheavals.”
“What does it do?”
“I just told you,” Standback snapped. “When we get
there, would you stand in the center of the room, right on
the X?”
Mara started to agree readily, then stopped. “Is it
supposed to be the safest place?”
Standback nodded.
“In that case,” Mara said politely, “why don’t YOU
stand on it, and I’ll observe?”
The gnome’s shaggy eyebrows shot up. “That’s kind of
you.” He stepped onto the X. “You don’t mind taking the
extra risk?”
“Never.” Mara folded her arms. “Danger and I are
well acquainted.”
“All right. Watch, then. The Thudbagger is designed
to protect against impact.” He paused. “You’ve seen the
gnomeflingers in use, above?”
Mara shuddered. She. had flitted down from level to
level in the shadows, watching as gnomes sailed from
level to level (and, usually, down again) from the bulky
catapults that were equipped with everything except
accuracy and control.
“Well,” Standback continued, “this may surprise you,
but several visiting knights thought that the gnomeflingers
might also be dangerous.”
“No!”
“Truly. They thought – now, to my mind, it takes a
twisted mind to think this in the first place – that someone
could use the gnomeflingers to throw dead weight
projectiles instead of passengers. Well, we performed
some experiments, but we never got reliable enough
results to suggest that this would work.”
“Why not?” Mara asked.
Standback sighed. “Mostly because the note-takers
kept getting crushed by thrown rocks. At any rate, the
knights asked us to come up with a defense to protect
getting hurt by flying rocks. They talked about shields,
and barriers, but our Hazard Analysis Committee
interviewed the gnomeflinger Impact Test Survivors and
concluded that the problem went beyond shields and
walls. I brought their results down here with me.” He led
her into the next room.
The furniture, Mara noted with relief, did not look
banged up at all. How dangerous could this room be?
A closer look revealed the furniture to be brand new.
The comers of the room contained large piles of splinters.
“Are you sure you want ME to stand on the X?”
Stand-back asked. “After all, I guarantee it to be the safest
place in the room.”
Mara bowed to him. “All the more reason to give it to
you.”
He was flattered. “How kind you are, and how
brave.”
“I am also called Mara the Courageous,” she said.
Standback was not surprised.
He stepped onto the X and folded his arms
confidently. “This room has a broad-band sensor.” He
pointed to a small round bump in the floor. “Stamp
anywhere. You don’t need to do it very hard.”
The floor looked to be some kind of parquet, broken
at regular intervals with circular lids each the size of a