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name meant Little Sister, but her attentions were far from being sisterly, Mei-mei s eyes were big and her
voice encouraging whenever she was near Gwalchmai. He found considerable difficulty hi keeping his
mind strictly upon his other problems.
Remembering well the nixie hi Elveron, he sometimes wondered if Corenice was again teasing him, or
once more testing his fidelity. In the effort to give her no excuse for later chiding, he succeeded so well hi
assuming an attitude of refined no-encouragement to Mei-mei that the dancing girl transferred her ignored
charms to the foundry-man. Wu accepted them with enthusiasm and no complaints.
Had Gwalchmai studied Flann s holy books, or even the
Analects of K ung Fu-tse, he might have been forewarned that a woman scorned would bear watching.
Possibly, he might have caught her, late one night, in the act of adding an entirely superfluous quantity of
sublimated essence of nitre to the completed store of the mixture.
This might not have mattered a great deal, had not both Wu and Shan Cho, anxious that all should go
supremely well, mixed in, unbeknownst to each other, increased amounts of whatever ingredients they
separately considered the most potent.
With this original and untried, not to say unusual, compound, the empty bombs were charged. Following
this delicate work, the expulsive charges were measured out into bags for the loading of the
thunder-tubes.
Gwalchmai had been so pleased with the final trials of the powder that he forbore reciting the spell over it
until the actual time of the demonstration, feeling that the Khan should be among the first to witness the
new weapon in its mightiest aspect.
At this period in time there was, between the Purple Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, a large
open parade ground. Here troops were reviewed, public festivals were observed, kite competitions were
held, and crowds could be addressed with facility.
Having obtained permission for a demonstration of the improved missile throwers, the three partners l
issued a challenge to the manufacturers of the old. It was accepted with scorn and a date agreed upon
without much difficulty.
Immediately following, stands were erected for the nobility, graded downward in size and comfort from
the Peacock Throne of the Great Khan to vermilion-lacquered chairs of Mandarins, upholstered stools
for Confucian scholars, teachers, and civil servants, and simple wooden benches for bonzes and other
priests.
Artisans, engineers, and workmen hovered around the implements of war, where the standard army-issue
catapults and stone mortars were set up at one end of the field.
Ranged alongside these bomb-hurlers, Gwalchmai, Wu, and Shan Cho had already directed the foundry
crew in the mounting of the battery of thunder-tubes. They were loaded and ready to fire. Near them
were stacked the iron bombs that would be used in the next salvos, now filled with the improved
powder, and little carts which held the measured charges for the tubes, in various sizes for the different
cali-bers.
In front of this array of artillery was a clear field of fire, stretching the entire length of the parade ground.
Behind the machjnes there milled a tremendous crowd, munching melon and sunflower seeds, drinking
sweet liquids and hot tea. They were courting, squabbling, hunting for lost children or lost parents.
All were having a grand time and most of them were giving free advice to the distracted workmen who
were nervously adjusting tube elevations for the fortieth time, driving in more stakes to prevent recoil
from the thunder-tubes or cranking down the long catapult arms in readiness to place and light the fused
bombs that would be thrown first, before the partners could compete with the new weapons.
When the Khan arrived and took his seat, surrounded by a group of high officials, each with attendant
wives, concubines, and slaves, everyone else had been waiting for at least six hours and many since
before dawn. They were hot, sweaty, dusty, and tired; they were ill-humored, anxious, and out of
patience; there was a buzz of voices.
Kublai clapped his hands and those who were able to sat down and fanned themselves. The noise of the
crowd hushed.
The Exalted Chief of Catapult-Engineers, The Elevated Controller of Invincible Mortar-Men, and Wu, of
the House of Feng, came forward together and kowtowed with the three kneelings and the nine
knockings of the head.
Gwalchmai, standing in a pentagram he had drawn in the dust, now pronounced the celestial heat spell
over the thunder-tubes and the wagonloads of munitions, turning the ring on his finger as he followed the
interlaced words around the hoop.
» He was horrified to find that one letter in one word of the final phrase was almost worn away. He
looked closely, but could not make it out Was it a C or a Q? He could not be sure. /
He raised it closer to his eyes and squinted. It seemed to be the four parallel, transverse lines of an
Ogham C, instead of the five of a Q. He so pronounced it and finished the phrase. . As he did so, two
things happened. A soft, crepitant rustling or whispering came from the battery of tubes and the stacked
bombs near them. One pyramidal pile shook itself apart and the globes rolled and scattered in as many
directions, but were speedily restacked. /
The other event concerned Shan-Cho. He had been apprehensively performing scapulomancy upon a
tortoise shell by piercing it with a red-hot needle and now came up with it in his hand. He surreptitiously
nudged Gwalchmai and showed him the cracks the heat had made in the shell. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]