http://www.cheaplineage2adena.net

? 108 312 168 3
we will take in all the women, children, invalids,warhammer online gold, and aged, without question. But as for men capable of bearing
arms, we’ll consider each ease individually, and we may turn some of them away.”
“Why?” the mayor demanded.
“What should be obvious, even to you!” Dom Paulo said sharply. “We may come under attack ourselves, but
unless we’re directly attacked, we’re going to stay out of it. I’ll not let this place be used by anybody as a garrison
from which to launch a counterattack if the only attack is on the village itself. So in case of males able to bear
arms, we’ll have to insist on a pledge?ato defend the abbey under our orders. And we’ll decide in individual cases
whether a pledge is trustworthy or not.”
“It’s unfair!” howled a committeeman. “You’ll discriminate?a”
“Only against those who can’t be trusted. What’s the matter? Were you hoping to hide a reserve force here?
Well, it won’t be allowed. You’re not going to plant any part of a town militia out here. That’s final.”
Under the circumstances, the committee could not refuse any help offered. There was no further argument.
Dom Paulo meant to take in anyone, when the time came, but for the present he meant to forestall plans by the
village to involve the abbey in military planning. Later there would be officers from Denver with similar
requests; they would be less interested in saving life than in saving their political regime. He intended to give
them a similar answer. The abbey had been built as a fortress of faith and knowledge, and he meant to preserve it
as such.
The desert began to crawl with wanderers out of the east. Traders,2moons power leveling, trappers, and herdsmen, in moving west,
brought news from the Plains. The cattle plague was sweeping like wildfire among the herds of the nomads;
famine seemed imminent. Laredo’s forces had suffered a mutinous cleavage since the fall of the Laredan dynasty.
Part of them were returning to their homeland as ordered, while the others set out under a grim vow to march on
Texarkana and not stop until they took the head of Hannegan II or died in trying. Weakened by the split, the
Laredans were being wiped out gradually by the hit-and-run assaults from Mad Bear’s warriors who were thirsty
for vengeance against those who had brought the plague. It was rumored that Hannegan had generously offered
to make Mad Bear’s people his protected dependents,uo gold, if they would swear fealty to “civilized” law, accept his
officers into their councils,cheap warhammer online gold, and embrace the Christian Faith. “Submit or starve” was the choice which fate and
Hannegan offered the herdsman peoples. Many would choose to starve before giving allegiance to an agrarian-
merchant state. Hongan Os was said to be roaring his defiance southward, eastward, and heavenward; he
accomplished the latter by burning one shaman a day to punish the tribal gods for betraying him. He threatened
to become a Christian if Christian gods would help slaughter his enemies.
It was during the brief visit of a party of shepherds that the Poet vanished from the abbey. Thon Taddeo was
the first to notice the Poet’s absence from the guesthouse and to inquire about the versifying vagrant.
Dom Paulo’s face wrinkled in surprise. “Are you certain he’s moved out?” he asked. “He often spends a few
days in the village, or goes over to the mesa for an argument with Benjamin.”
“His belongings are missing,” said the thon “Everything’s gone from his room.”

the ruling dynasty of Laredo had demanded that Texarkanan troops be evacuated forthwith from the realm. The
King died of poison that night,cheap world of warcraft gold, and a state of war was proclaimed between the states of Laredo and Texarkana.
The war would be short-lived. It could with assurance be assumed that the war had ended the day alter it had
begun,wow gold, and that Hannegan now controlled all lands and peoples from the Red River to the Rio Grande.
That much had been expected, but not the accompanying news.
Hannegan II, by Grace of God Mayor, Viceroy of Texarkana, Defender of the Faith,warhammer power leveling, and Vaquero Supreme
of the Plains, had, after finding Monsignor Marcus Apollo to be guilty of “treason” and espionage, caused the
papal nuncio to he hanged, and then, while still alive to be cut down, drawn, quartered, and flayed, as an example
to anyone else who might try to undermine the Mayor’s state. In pieces, the priest’s carcass had been thrown to
the dogs.
The messenger hardly needed to add that Texarkana was under absolute interdict by a papal decree which
contained certain vague but ominous allusions to Regnans in Excelsis, a sixteenth century bull ordering a
monarch deposed. There was no news of Hannegan’s countermeasures, as yet.
On the Plains, the Laredan forces would now have to fight their way back home through the nomad tribes,
only to lay down their arms at their own borders, for their nation and their kin were hostage.
“A tragic affair!” said Thon Taddeo, with an apparent degree of sincerity. “Because of my nationality, I
offer to leave at once.”
“Why?” Dom Paulo asked. “You don’t approve of Hannegan’s actions, do you?”
The scholar hesitated, then shook his head. He looked around to make certain no one overheard them.
“Personally, I condemn them. But in public?a” He shrugged. “There is the collegium to think of. If it were only a
question of my own neck, well?a”
“I understand.”
“May I venture an opinion in confidence?”
“Of course.”
“Then someone ought to warn New Rome against making idle threats. Hannegan’s not above crucifying
several dozen Marcus Apollos.”
“Then some new martyrs will attain Heaven; New Rome doesn’t make idle threats.”
The thon sighed. “I supposed that you’d look at it that way, but I renew my offer to leave.”
“Nonsense. Whatever your nationality, your common humanity makes you welcome.”
But a rift had appeared. The scholar kept his own company afterward,world of warcraft gold, seldom conversing with the monks.
His relationship with Brother Kornhoer became noticeably formal, although the inventor spent an hour or two
each day in servicing and inspecting the dynamo and the lamp, and keeping himself informed concerning the
progress of the thon’s work, which was now proceeding with unusual haste. The officers seldom ventured outside
the guesthouse.
There were hints of an exodus from the region. Disturbing rumors kept coming from the Plains. In the
village of Sanly Bowitts, people began discovering reasons to depart suddenly on pilgrimages or to visit in other
lands. Even the beggars and vagrants were getting out of town. As always, the merchants and artisans were faced
with the unpleasant choice of abandoning their property to burglars and looters or staying with it to see it looted.
A citizens’ committee headed by the mayor of the village visited the abbey to request sanctuary for the
townspeople in the event of invasion. “My final offer,” said the abbot, after several hours of argument, “is this:

the means by which the world itself might be destroyed ….
He also suffered them to know how it might be saved, and,buy 2moons dil, as always, let them choose for themselves. And
perhaps they had chosen as Thon Taddeo chooses. To wash their hands before the multitude. Look you to it. Lest
they themselves be crucified.
And they had been crucified anyhow. Without dignity. Always for anybody anyhow is to get nailed on it
and hang on it and if you drop off they beat…
There was sudden silence. The scholar had stopped talking.
The abbot blinked around the hall. Half the community was staring toward the entrance. At first his eyes
could make out nothing.
“What is it?” he whispered to Gault.
“An old man with a beard and shawl,” hissed Gault. “It looks like?aNo, he wouldn’t?a”
Dom Paulo arose and moved to the front of the dais to stare at the faintly defined shape in the shadows.
Then he called out to it softly.
“Benjamin?”
The figure stirred. It drew its shawl tighter about spindly shoulders and hobbled slowly into the light. It
stopped again, muttering to itself as it looked around the room; then its eyes found the scholar at the lectern.
Leaning on a crooked staff, the old apparition hobbled slowly toward the lectern, never taking its eyes from
the man who stood behind it. Thon Taddeo looked humorously perplexed at first,warhammer online gold, but when no one stirred or
spoke, he seemed to lose color as the decrepit vision came near him The face of the bearded antiquity blazed
with hopeful ferocity of some compelling passion that burned more furiously in him than the life principle long
since due to depart.
He came close to the lectern,cheap wow gold, paused. His eyes twitched over the startled speaker. His mouth quivered. He
smiled. He reached out one trembling hand toward the scholar. The thon drew back with a snort of revulsion.
The hermit was agile. He vaulted to the dais, dodged the lectern, and seized the scholar’s arm.
“What madness?a”
Benjamin kneaded the arm while he stared hopefully into the scholar’s eyes.
His face clouded. The glow died. He dropped the arm. A great keening sigh came from the dry old lungs as
hope vanished. The eternally knowing smirk of the Old Jew of the Mountain returned to his face. He turned to
the community,world of warcraft gold, spread his hands, shrugged eloquently.
“It’s still not Him,” he told them sourly, then hobbled away.
Afterwards, there was little formality.
? 107 312 168 3
21
It was during the tenth week of Thon Taddeo’s visit that the messenger brought the black news. The head of

The librarian bowed again and stole quietly out of the hall, his carriage humble, but his eyes triumphant. The
abbot murmured apologetically to the scholar, but the thon’s glance was suddenly chilly.
“In conclusion,” he said, “a brief outline of what the world can expect, in my opinion, from the intellectual
revolution that’s just beginning.” Eyes burning, he looked around at them, and his voice changed from casual to
fervent rhythms.
“Ignorance has been our king. Since the death of empire, he sits unchallenged on the throne of Man. His
dynasty is age-old. His right to rule is now considered legitimate. Past sages have affirmed it. They did nothing
to unseat him.
“Tomorrow, a new prince shall rule. Men of understanding, men of science shall stand behind his throne,
and the universe will come to know his might. His name is Truth. His empire shall encompass the Earth. And the
mastery of Man ever the Earth shall be renewed. A century from now,buy ultima online gold, men will fly through the air in mechanical
birds. Metal carriages will race along roads of man-made stone. There will be buildings of thirty stories, ships
that go under the see, machines to perform all works.
“And how will this come to pass?” He paused and lowered his voice. “In the same way all change comes to
pass, I fear. And I am sorry it is so. It will come to pass by violence and upheaval, by flame and by fury, for no
change comes calmly over the world.”
He glanced around, for a soft murmur arose from the community.
“It will be so. We do not will it so.
“But why?
“Ignorance is king. Many would not profit by his abdication. Many enrich themselves by means of his dark
monarchy. They are his Court, and in his name they defraud and govern, enrich themselves and perpetuate their
power. Even literacy they fear, for the written word is another channel of communication that might cause their
? 106 312 168 3
enemies to become united. Their weapons are keen-honed,warhammer gold, and they use them with skill. They will press the
battle upon the world when their interests are threatened, and the violence which follows will last until the
structure of society as it now exists is leveled to rubble, and a new society emerges. I am sorry: But that is how I
see it.”
The words brought a new pall over the room. Dom Paulo’s hopes sank, for the prophecy gave form to the
scholar’s probable outlook. Thon Taddeo knew the military ambitions of his monarch. He had a choice: to
approve of them, to disapprove of them,warhammer online gold, or to regard them as impersonal phenomena beyond his control like a
flood, famine, or whirlwind.
Evidently, then, he accepted them as inevitable?ato avoid having to make a moral judgment. Let there be
blood, iron and weeping…
How could such a man thus evade his own conscience and disavow his responsibility?aand so easily! the
abbot stormed to himself.
But then the words came back to him. For in those days,wow gold, the Lord God had suffered the wise men to know

finding out that some of his discoveries are only rediscoveries, and it leaves a bitter taste. But surely he must
know that never during his lifetime can he be more than a recoverer of lost works; however brilliant, he can only
do what others before him had done. And so it would be, inevitably, until the world became as highly developed
as it had been before the Flame Deluge.
Nevertheless, it was apparent that Thon Taddeo was impressed.
“My time here is limited.” he went on, “From what I have seen,tcos gold, I suspect that it will take twenty specialists
several decades to finish milking the Memorabilia for understandable information. Physical science normally
proceeds by inductive reasoning tested by experiment; but here the task is deductive. From a few broken bits of
general principles, we must attempt to grasp particulars. In some cases,cheap tibia gold, it may prove impossible. For example?a”
He paused for a moment to produce a packet of notes and thumbed through them briefly. “Here is a quotation
which I found buried downstairs. It’s from a four-page fragment of a book which may have been an advanced
physics text. A few of you may have seen it.”
” ‘?aand if the space terms predominate in the expression for the interval between event-points, the interval
is said to be space-like, since it is then possible to select a co-ordinate system?abelonging to an observer with an
admissible velocity?ain which the events appear simultaneous, and therefore separated only spatially. If,
however, the interval is timelike the events cannot be simultaneous in any co-ordinate system, but there exists a
co-ordinate system in which the space terms will vanish entirely, so that the separation between events will be
purely temporal, id est, occurring at the same place, but at different times. Now upon examining the extremals of
the real interval?a” ”
He looked up with a whimsical smile. “Has anyone here looked at that reference lately?”
The sea of faces remained blank.
“Anyone ever remember seeing it?”
Kornhoer and two others cautiously lifted their hands.
“Anyone know what it means?”
The hands quickly went down.
The thon chuckled. “It’s followed by a page and a half of mathematics which I won’t try to read, but it treats
some of our fundamental concepts as if they weren’t basic at all,tibia gold, but evanescent appearances that change
according to one’s point of view. It ends with the word ‘therefore’ but the rest of the page is burned, and the
conclusion with it. The reasoning is impeccable, however, and the mathematics quite elegant, so that I can write
the conclusion myself. It seems the conclusion of a madman. It began with assumptions, however, which
appeared equally mad. Is it a hoax? If it isn’t, what is its place in the whole scheme of the science of the ancients?
What precedes it as prerequisite to understanding? What follows,twelve sky gold, and how can it be tested? Questions I can’t
answer. This is only one example of the many enigmas posed by these papers you’ve kept so long. Reasoning
which touches experiential reality nowhere is the business of angelologists and theologians, not of physical
scientists. And yet such papers as these describe systems which touch our experience nowhere. Were they within
the experimental reach of the ancients? Certain references tend to indicate it. One paper refers to elemental
transmutation?awhich we just recently established as theoretically impossible?aand then it says ‘experiment
proves.’ But how?
“It may take generations to evaluate and understand some of these things. It is unfortunate that they must
remain here in this inaccessible place, for it will take a concentrated effort by numerous scholars to make

meaning of them. I am sure you realize that your present facilities are inadequate?anot to mention ‘inaccessible’
to the rest of the world.”
Seated on the platform behind the speaker, the abbot began to glower, waiting for the worst. Thon Taddeo
chose, however, to offer no proposals. But his remarks continued to make clear his feeling that such relics
? 104 312 168 3
belonged in more competent hands than those of the monks of the Albertian Order of Saint Leibowitz, and that
the situation as it prevailed was absurd. Perhaps sensing the growing uneasiness in the room, he soon turned to
the subject of his immediate studies,twelve sky gold, which involved a more thorough investigation into the nature of light than
had been made previously. Several of the abbey’s treasures were proving to be of much help, and he hoped to
devise soon an experimental means for testing his theories. After some discussion of the phenomenon of
refraction,twelve sky 2 gold, he paused, then said apologetically: “I hope none of this offends anybody’s religious beliefs,tibia gold,” and
looked around quizzically. Seeing that their faces remained curious and bland, he continued for a time, then
invited questions from the congregation.
“Do you mind a question from the platform?” asked the abbot.
“Not at all,” said the scholar, looking a bit doubtful, as if thinking et tu, Brute.
“I was wondering what there is about the refrangible property of light that you thought might be offensive to
religion?”
“Well?a” The then paused uncomfortably. “Monsignor Apollo, whom you know, grew quite heated on the
subject. He said that light could not possibly have been refrangible before the Flood, because the rainbow was
supposedly?a”
The room burst into roaring laughter, drowning the rest of the remark. By the time the abbot had waved
them to silence, Thon Taddeo was beet red, and Dom Paulo had some difficulty in maintaining his own solemn
visage.
“Monsignor Apollo is a good man, a good priest,tcos gold, but all men are apt to be incredible asses at times,
especially outside their domains. I’m sorry I asked the question.”
“The answer relieves me,” said the scholar. “I seek no quarrels.”
There were no further questions and the then proceeded to his second topic: the growth and the present
activities of his collegium. The picture as he painted it seemed encouraging. The collegium was flooded with
applicants who wanted to study at the institute. The collegium was assuming an educational function as well as
an investigative one. Interest in natural philosophy and science was on the increase among the literate laity. The
institute was being liberally endowed. Symptoms of revival and renaissance.
“I might mention a few of the current researches and investigations being conducted by our people,” he went
“Following Bret’s work on the behavior of gases, Thon Viche Mortoin is investigating the possibilities for
the artificial production of ice. Thon Friider Halb is seeking a practical means for transmitting messages by
electrical variations along a wire?a” The list was long, and the monks appeared Impressed. Studios in many

fields?amedicine, astronomy, geology, mathematics, mechanics?awere being undertaken. A few seemed
impractical and ill-considered, but most seemed to promise rich rewards in knowledge and practical application.
From Jejene’s search for the Universal Nostrum to Bodalk’s reckless assault on orthodox geometries, the
collegium’s activities exhibited a healthy hankering to pry open Nature’s private files, locked since mankind had
burned its institutional memories and condemned itself to cultural amnesia more than a millennium ago.
“In addition to these studies, Thon Maho Mahh is heading a project which seeks further information about
the origin of the human species. Since this is primarily an archeological task, he asked me to search your library
for any suggestive material on the subject,, after I complete my own study here. However, perhaps I’d better not
dwell on this at any length,twelve sky 2 gold, since it’s tending to cause controversy with the theologicans. But if there are any
questions?a”
A young monk who was studying for the priesthood stood up and was recognized by the thon.
“Sir, I was wondering if you were acquainted with the suggestions of Saint Augustine on the subject?”
“I am not.”
? 105 312 168 3
“A fourth century bishop and philosopher. He suggested that in the beginning,tcos gold, God created all things in their
germinal causes, including the physiology of man, and that the germinal causes inseminate, as it were, the
formless matter?awhich then gradually evolved into the more complex shapes, and eventually Man. Has this
hypothesis been considered?”
The thon’s smile was condescending, although be did not openly brand the proposal childish. “I’m afraid it
has not, but I shall look it up,” he said, in a tone that indicated he would not.
“Thank you,” said the monk, and sat down meekly.
“Perhaps the most daring research of all,buy tibia gold, however,” continued the sage, “is being conducted by my friend
Thon Esser Shon. It is an attempt to synthesize living matter. Then Esser hopes to create living protoplasm, using
only six basic ingredients. This work could lead to?ayes? You have a question?”
A monk in the third row had risen and was bowing toward the speaker. The abbot leaned forward to peer at
him and recognized,cheap tibia gold, with horror, that it was Brother Armbruster, the librarian.
“If you would do an old man the kindness,” croaked the monk, dragging out his words in a plodding
monotone. “This Thon Esser Shon?awho limits himself to only six basic ingredients?ais very interesting. I was
wondering?aare they permitting him to use both hands?”
“Why, I?a” The then paused and frowned.
“And may I also inquire,” Armbruster’s dry voice dragged on, “whether this remarkable feat is to be
performed from the sitting, standing, or prone position? Or perhaps on horseback while playing two trumpets?”
The novices snickered audibly. The abbot came quickly to his feet.
“Brother Armbruster, you have been warned. You are excommunicated from the common table until you
make satisfaction. You may wait in the Lady Chapel.”

finding out that some of his discoveries are only rediscoveries, and it leaves a bitter taste. But surely he must
know that never during his lifetime can he be more than a recoverer of lost works; however brilliant, he can only
do what others before him had done. And so it would be, inevitably, until the world became as highly developed
as it had been before the Flame Deluge.
Nevertheless, it was apparent that Thon Taddeo was impressed.
“My time here is limited.” he went on, “From what I have seen, I suspect that it will take twenty specialists
several decades to finish milking the Memorabilia for understandable information. Physical science normally
proceeds by inductive reasoning tested by experiment; but here the task is deductive. From a few broken bits of
general principles,swg power leveling, we must attempt to grasp particulars. In some cases, it may prove impossible. For example?a”
He paused for a moment to produce a packet of notes and thumbed through them briefly. “Here is a quotation
which I found buried downstairs. It’s from a four-page fragment of a book which may have been an advanced
physics text. A few of you may have seen it.”
” ‘?aand if the space terms predominate in the expression for the interval between event-points, the interval
is said to be space-like, since it is then possible to select a co-ordinate system?abelonging to an observer with an
admissible velocity?ain which the events appear simultaneous, and therefore separated only spatially. If,
however, the interval is timelike the events cannot be simultaneous in any co-ordinate system, but there exists a
co-ordinate system in which the space terms will vanish entirely,star wars galaxies credits, so that the separation between events will be
purely temporal, id est, occurring at the same place, but at different times. Now upon examining the extremals of
the real interval?a” ”
He looked up with a whimsical smile. “Has anyone here looked at that reference lately?”
The sea of faces remained blank.
“Anyone ever remember seeing it?”
Kornhoer and two others cautiously lifted their hands.
“Anyone know what it means?”
The hands quickly went down.
The thon chuckled. “It’s followed by a page and a half of mathematics which I won’t try to read, but it treats
some of our fundamental concepts as if they weren’t basic at all,buy tales of pirates gold, but evanescent appearances that change
according to one’s point of view. It ends with the word ‘therefore’ but the rest of the page is burned, and the
conclusion with it. The reasoning is impeccable, however, and the mathematics quite elegant, so that I can write
the conclusion myself. It seems the conclusion of a madman. It began with assumptions,tcos gold, however, which
appeared equally mad. Is it a hoax? If it isn’t, what is its place in the whole scheme of the science of the ancients?
What precedes it as prerequisite to understanding? What follows, and how can it be tested? Questions I can’t
answer. This is only one example of the many enigmas posed by these papers you’ve kept so long. Reasoning
which touches experiential reality nowhere is the business of angelologists and theologians, not of physical
scientists. And yet such papers as these describe systems which touch our experience nowhere. Were they within
the experimental reach of the ancients? Certain references tend to indicate it. One paper refers to elemental
transmutation?awhich we just recently established as theoretically impossible?aand then it says ‘experiment
proves.’ But how?
“It may take generations to evaluate and understand some of these things. It is unfortunate that they must
remain here in this inaccessible place, for it will take a concentrated effort by numerous scholars to make

kicked the fellow’s ankle, but the fool persisted.
“I would assume all the blame for you, of course,” he said, noisily chewing white meat. “It’s a fine system,
one which I was prepared to make available to you too, Most Eminent Scholar. I’m sure you would have found it
convenient. I have been given to understand that systems of logic and methodology must be devised and
perfected before science advances. And my system of negotiable and transferable apologetics would have been
of particular value to you, Thon Taddeo.”
“Would have?”
“Yes. It’s a pity. Somebody stole my blue-headed goat.”
“Blue-headed goat?”
“He had a head as bald as Hannegan’s, Your Brilliance, and blue as the tip of Brother Armbruster’s nose. I
meant to make you a present of the animal but some dastard filched him before you came”
The abbot clenched his teeth and held his heel poised over the Poet’s toe. Thon Taddeo was frowning
slightly, but he seemed determined to untangle the Poet’s obscure skein of meaning.
“Do we need a blue-headed goat?” he asked his clerk.
“I can see no pressing urgency about it, sir,” said the clerk.
“But the need is obvious!” said the Poet. “They say you are writing equations that will one day remake the
world. They say a new light is dawning. If there’s to be light, then somebody will have to be blamed for the
darkness that’s past.”
? 101 312 168 3
“Ah, thence the goat.” Thon Taddeo glanced at the abbot.
“A sickly jest. Is it the best he can do?”
“You’ll notice he’s unemployed. But let us talk of something sensib?a”
“No,swg power leveling, no, no, no!” objected the poet. “You mistake my meaning,cheap tales of pirates money, Your Brilliance. The goat is to be enshrined
and honored, not blamed! Crown him with the crown Saint Leibowitz sent you, and thank him for the light that’s
rising. Then blame Leibowitz, and drive him into the desert. That way you won’t have to wear the second crown.
The one with thorns. Responsibility, it’s called.”
The Poet’s hostility had broken out into the open,tcos gold, and he was no longer trying to seem humorous. The thon
gazed at him icily. The abbot’s heel wavered again over the Poet’s toe, and again had reluctant mercy on it.
“And when,” said the Poet, “your patron’s army comes to seize this abbey,chronicles of spellborn gold, the goat can be placed in the
courtyard and taught to bleat “There’s been nobody here but me, nobody here but me” whenever a stranger comes
by.”
One of the officers started up from his stool with an angry grunt, his hand reaching reflexively for his saber.
He broke the hilt dear of the scabbard, and six inches of steel glistened a warning at the Poet. The thon seized his
wrist and tried to force the blade back in the sheath, but it was like tugging at the arm of a marble statue.
“Ah! A swordsman as well as a draftsman!” taunted the Poet, apparently unafraid of dying. “Your sketches
of the abbey’s defenses show such promise of artistic?a”

“Perhaps we shall have his inspired Mock Pork with Maize a la Friar John, eh?”
“It sounds interesting,” said the scholar. “What is it?”
“Greasy armadillo with parched corn, boiled in donkey milk. A regular Sunday special.”
“Poet!” snapped the abbot; then to the thon: “I apologize for his presence. He wasn’t invited.”
The scholar surveyed the Poet with detached amusement.
“M’Lord Hannegan too, keeps several court fools,” he told Paulo. “I’m familiar with the species. You needn’t
apologize for him.”
The Poet sprang up from his stool and bowed deeply before the thon. “Allow me instead to apologize for the
abbot, Sire!” he cried with feeling.
? 100 312 168 3
He held the bow for a moment. They waited for him to finish his foolishness. Instead, he shrugged suddenly,cheap star wars credits,
sat down, and speared a smoking fowl from the platter deposited before them by a postulant. He tore off a leg
and bit into it with gusto. They watched him with puzzlement.
“I suppose you’re right in not accepting my apology for him,” he said to the thon at last.
The scholar reddened slightly.
“Before I throw you out, worm,” said Gault, “let’s probe the depths of this iniquity.”
The Poet waggled his head and munched thoughtfully.
“It’s pretty deep, all right,” he admitted.
Someday Gault is going to strangle himself on that foot of his, thought Dom Paulo.
But the younger priest was visibly annoyed,chronicles of spellborn gold, and sought to draw the incident out ad absurdum in order to
find grounds for quashing the fool. “Apologize at length for your host,cheap tales of pirates money, Poet,” he commanded. “And explain
yourself as you go.”
“Drop it, Father, drop it,” Paulo said hastily.
The Poet smiled graciously at the abbot. “That’s all right, m’Lord,” he said. “I don’t mind apologizing for you
in the least. You apologize for me, I apologize for you, and isn’t that a fitting maneuver in charity and good will?
Nobody need apologize for himself?awhich is always so humiliating. Using my system, however, everyone gets
apologized for, and nobody has to do his own apologizing.”
Only the officers seemed to find the Poet’s remarks amusing. Apparently the expectation of humor was
enough to produce the illusion of humor,cheap tales of pirates gold, and the comedian could elicit laughter with gesture and expression,
regardless of what he said. Thon Taddeo wore a dry smirk, but it was the kind of look a man might give a clumsy
performance by a trained animal.
“And so,” the Poet was continuing, “if you would but allow me to serve as your humble helper, m’Lord, you
would never have to eat your own crow. As your Apologetic Advocate, for example, I might be delegated by you
to offer contrition to important guests for the existence of bedbugs. And to bedbugs for the abrupt change of
fare.”
The abbot glowered and resisted an impulse to grind the Poet’s bare toe with the heel of his sandal. He