Excerpt from The Stone - A Scientific Act

An Excerpt from The Chronicles of Quat: The Stone

By Bryen O’Riley

A Scientific Act

“Why don’t you eat?” Chet asked, as he polished off his second plate.

Tad opened his mouth to reply but was saved by the signature clap, clap of Councilman Netwhin as he stood to get everyone’s attention. The entire village quieted, and Netwhin couldn’t suppress the smile of satisfaction that lit his face as the crowd obeyed his signal.

“Good evening, masters and mistresses. Of course, we are here today to celebrate the homecoming of an honored citizen of Idynn, Etan den Lyra.”

Everyone clapped.

“I would now like for you to give your attention to Scientist den Lyra, who wishes to address you and prove his skill with a scientific act for your amazement.”

The crowd roared. There was no mistaking they were here to see Etan perform an act of science.

Etan stepped forward. For the first time since coming to Idynn, he was wearing the royal blue mantle that marked him as a scientist. He raised his hands. “Good people of Idynn. It is very nice to be home. It has been five long years since I have seen you, and I am pleased to find you healthy and prosperous.” He looked around the crowd. “Among you are family members”—he smiled at Rynn and Tad—“friends”—he glanced a little sadly at the group across the Green who kept their far seats but were now quiet as they waited to see the act that would effectively end their friendship with the new scientist—“schoolmates”—this was to Lynna—“and fellow citizens of Idynn”—his gazed swept across the crowd. 


Etan had acquired an ability to make every person in the crowd believe he was speaking directly to them.

Tad watched the townspeople more than his brother. He watched as some squirmed and some beamed under the gaze of a scientist. He saw his brother’s natural charm combined with the authority of a scientist sway the crowd to him.

“I left you as one of your boys, no different from the other young men of the village, and returned to you a scientist. As a new blacksmith might be asked to demonstrate to you his trade, I have been asked to demonstrate to you my skill: a scientific act.”

Etan flourished his hands theatrically, and the crowd’s eyes widened in anticipation. He smiled his most winning smile, and Tad heard a girl sigh. Please. He stifled a groan.

Etan reached down to a pedestal set up beside him, which Tad hadn’t previously noticed, covered in a deep blue cloth, the color of Quat. The cloth reached completely to the floor and looked to be of the very best cashmere. Etan pinched the blue between his fingers, flung his arm back, and pulled the cloth from the pedestal.

The regular Council podium stood there, but instead of the enormous Book of Laws, a golden bowl swirled intricately with yellow and red stood in its place.

“The bowl is filled with regular water from the well that stands right over there.” Etan turned to his right and addressed a former schoolmate. “Jendar, can you verify that you filled the bowl with water from that very well?”

Jendar nodded. “I sure did. With my own two hands.”

“Unless the scientist switched it to magic water when we weren’t looking?” a faithless voice in the back of the crowd shouted.

Etan’s eyes searched the back of the crowd until he could discern the lowered eyes of Ban Melton. “You are more than welcome to taste it yourself, Ban.”

Ban shook his head. “You trying to kill me off? I’d never drink that.”

“My drinking it would prove nothing, I suppose?” Etan asked, slightly irritated. “You’d just think scientists were immune to magic water, wouldn’t you?”

Ban nodded uncomfortably with so many eyes on him, but he regained a little confidence when murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd.

“What about my mother, then? You know I would never hurt her and you trust her. Would that satisfy you?”

The crowd nodded and cheered agreement.

Etan found Rynn’s eyes. “Would you come forward and drink the water, Ma? It truly is only water from the well.”

Tad studied Rynn’s face as she came forward. She looked as tense as she had at the house, but regardless of her staunch disapproval of everything that came from Quat, Tad wasn’t surprised to see a fierce look of protection on her face. Etan was her son and she would support his act of science no matter what.

Rynn reached the front of the crowd and held upside down the mug she had brought with her. “I trust you completely, Etan. I know you would never hurt me.”

She spoke without guile, and Etan didn’t react to her pointed statement, but Tad flinched. It was too close a reminder of their family secret and spoken too openly for his comfort, but a quick look around the crowd showed that none of the townspeople thought anything amiss.

Rynn dipped her mug into the water in the golden bowl and, with a hint of a dramatic pause and a twinkle in her eye, chugged the water down.

The crowd gasped to see Rynn act in a manner so opposed to her usual elegant femininity but then roared with approval. Tad shook his head, grinning. Maybe she was finding a way to fit in after all.

She set the cup down with a clunk of satisfaction and smiled broadly, “It tastes exactly like the water from our village well. I verify it is normal water.”

The crowd cheered wildly, and Etan looked very pleased. With one stroke Rynn had broken down all of the villagers’ reluctance to accepting Etan as a true scientist. Now they were all just filled with excitement to see an act.

Etan reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object. “Now I put this scientific contraption into the water and it will point north.”

“That is impossible! You cannot make a compass with water, some coils, and a metal rod,” Len Suward, the village blacksmith, hollered in amazement.

Etan covered his smile quickly but his brother could tell he was pleased at the indignation of an astute and well-respected man. He would also be glad, Tad knew, that everyone in town knew the materials of the contraption; of course he couldn’t make a compass out of such simple materials. Compasses cost more money than Len would accrue in his lifetime.

“A scientist can, Len.”

Etan placed the contraption into the water. Councilman Netwhin was standing close to his shoulder during the entire act to verify authenticity, a requirement Quat had placed on all scientific acts, and gasped as the contraption swiveled to point directly north.

“It is a compass, Len! It has been authenticated.”

The crowd gasped. Tad was shocked. His brother commanded such knowledge at his fingertips?

The crowd cheered, but Etan raised his hand for silence. “My act has yet one more part.”

There was rustling through the crowd as everyone settled back down and Netwhin repositioned himself at Etan’s side.

“I can change north.”

Silence.

Etan moved his hand grandly and Netwhin’s eyes grew as big as bowls.

“The compass moved! It points south now!”

Etan started from his southern position at the bowl and walked slowly around the pedestal as Netwhin’s eyes stayed glued to the bowl. “The compass follows Etan around the bowl as a puppy follows its master. The scientist is north!”

The crowd gasped and Tad was stunned as he beheld awe and reverence in their faces. He didn’t know what to make of his friends’ and neighbors’ reactions; he certainly didn’t feel that way.

Of course, Tad could not imagine how such an act was possible any more than they could. But that is what science was. It was the impossible captured and tamed and held in the fingertips of the Isle of Quat.

Thankfully, two faces were blissfully absent of any such sign: his mother, who had removed herself to her previous spot at the back of the crowd. She looked proud and concerned at the same time. The other was Chet, who rolled his eyes exaggeratedly when Tad’s eyes passed over him. Tad grinned; he could always count on Chet.

When Tad looked back at Etan, his brother was surrounded by people who had known him his entire life but who were now looking at him with rapt faces. He looked well pleased.

Chet approached. “Let’s get out of here, Tad; something smells foul.”

Tad’s eye caught his mother’s, and her look all but shouted for him to come to her immediately. He spoke distractedly, “Thanks Chet, but not right now. I need to ask my Ma a question.”

Tad glanced at Chet as he hurried off, so he knew that Chet’s curiosity had been aroused. Tad was conscious of Chet watching he and Rynn closely, even as the majority of the villagers hung on Etan’s every word, but Tad didn’t have any idea what to do to ensure that Chet’s active imagination wouldn’t investigate further.

“What is it, Ma?” Tad asked quietly as soon as he was in whisper range of his mother.

“I’m afraid you leave tonight, my dear son.” Her eyes misted. “We must go home to prepare before your brother returns.”

Tad sneaked a quick look at his brother and his crowd of admirers. He wouldn’t be coming home any time soon. Tad grinned when he saw Lynna in the crowd, but his face quickly turned to a grimace when he saw Katya was next to her. He didn’t know why that should bother him, but it did.

Tad followed his mother without any further look into the crowd.

“Why do I have to leave tonight? Is it something Etan did?” Tad had to walk quickly to match the pace set by his spooked mother.

“No. Not something he did. His scientific act was just what I would have expected.”

Tad couldn’t imagine that. She had expected something that amazing?

“The problem,” Rynn went on, “was the reaction of everyone else. Their natural skepticism was wiped away by the forcefulness of his act and by his natural charm. If anyone else comes to this town from the Isle of Quat, no one here will show any loyalty to us, son.”

“They’re our friends! They wouldn’t betray us.”

*****

Rynn smiled at her son’s naïveté. Before long that last shred of childhood would be gone too. She would have time to mourn that later. How she wished she could give her boys a quiet, happy life. But it wasn’t meant to be. Not for any of them.