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through the axle of the hands, you called out an angle as though it was a time of day as shown by the fat
hand. A three o'clock angle was a right angle, and all angles were measured clockwise rather than
counterclockwise, as is the modem way of doing it.
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I also designed a calendar, with four thirteen-week quarters and no months at all. New Year's Day
happened on the winter solstice, and wasn't a day of the week. That is to say, it went Saturday, New Year's
Day, Sunday. On leap years, there were two New Year's Days. This meant that the calendar for every year
was the same, and should reduce confusion considerably. But I tabled it because I decided that I couldn't
get away with it.
I could get away with designing a system of weights and measures because there were so many of them that
one more didn't make much difference. I could design a new clock because nobody had ever seen a clock
before, not in Poland, anyway. But the Church had spent centuries fumbling with the calendar and it would
take someone with a lot more weight than I had to push a new system through. Maybe once I beat the
Mongols.
Toward the end of January, I made my monthly visit to Okoitz. It was part of my contract with Count
Lambert.
I got there early in the morning, since my mount, Anna, can travel farther in half an hour than a peasant
family can walk in two days.
There was a commotion in the bailey when I got there, and Count Lambert waved me over to one of the
peasant's rooms on the outer wall. "Some trouble here, Sir Conrad. Perhaps you should look at it."
An entire family was lying in the bailey on the usual straw mattresses. They were all dead, with not a mark
on them. A man, his wife, and four children lay peacefully as if asleep, their bodies cold and stiff. A fire
had burned itself out, but these huts had straw roofs and the walls weren't all that well-sealed. I didn't see
how it would be possible to asphyxiate in there. It hadn't been particularly cold, so I doubt they had all
frozen to death.
Food poisoning? I'd seen a woman get ptomaine once, and there had been nothing peaceful about it. There
had been vomit all over the place!
Some disease? That had to be it, but I'd never heard of a disease where the person didn't even know he was
dying. I came out and said, "I'm mystified, my lord. All I can imagine is some disease. Once these people
are taken care of, have sulfur burned in there. Bum all their food stores, on the off chance that they
somehow poisoned themselves. In fact, I'd suggest that you have all their belongings burned."
"And fire up your sauna. After they're buried, and get that done today, everyone who has touched the
bodies should clean themselves thoroughly. But all that is simply a precaution. I really don't know what
killed them." Since I had touched the corpses, I stooped and washed my hands with snow.
"It shall be as you say, Sir Conrad." Count Lambert nodded to one of his men, who went off to make
arrangements. "There has been a lot of talk about witchcraft lately. Do you think ... ?"
"No, my lord, I don't. Any so-called 'witches' around are just a bunch of crazy old ladies. If they would eat
properly, most of them wouldn't be senile."
"But everyone knows about witches!"
"Tell me, my lord, why is it that every witch you hear about is a poor miserable old hag? If they really had
magical powers, wouldn't they make themselves into beautiful wealthy young women?"
"You have a point there. I'll keep an eye out for beautiful young grandmothers who are rich."
"Do that, my lord. Who were these people?"
"You don't recognize them? That's Janina's family."
Janina was one of the girls that I took with me to Three Walls from Okoitz. She was running the store there
and was a close friend.
"My God. It'll be rough telling her. Her whole family."
"Not quite. Her little sister-Kotcha, I think she's called-had supper and spent the night with one of the other
families. The poor child is in a very bad state."
I remembered the kid now. Last winter she had become a good friend of Anna's, and together they had
hauled logs in the snow. "Perhaps she should come back with me to Three Walls, my lord. She could live
with Janina."
"A good thought. We will ask the child about it after the funeral."
I never did find out what killed those people.
Interlude One
I hit the STOP button.
"So what killed them, Tom?"
"I don't know. I can check it out if you wish."
He turned on a keyboard and began typing.
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