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Stories from the Verse
In Verse Proportion
Chapter 10: Kondor 175
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 198
“I thought I should tell you,” Zeke said at dinner, “I got a job.”
“A job?” Kondor responded in surprise. “Doing what?”
“Nothing much, really. I’m one of the palace guards. They’ve got me on the after dinner shift, so I report for duty as soon as I’m done here, and they’ll assign me to a watch post, probably on the walls, maybe on the tower. They say the gate is the honored assignment, but I’d just as soon not man the gate. Also, if the alert gong sounds I’m expected to report immediately.”
“So I guess we’re staying,” Kondor replied.
“Well, I didn’t think you were itching to leave, but if you decide we should go somewhere else I can resign. It’s not like I enlisted in the army and signed for six years or something. It gives me something to do, and puts a few coins in my pocket--I know these chains are worth real money, but I’d rather not have to sell them.”
“Good thinking. Of course, now I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to do.”
“Oh, I don’t think they mind you just being here. They know that if there’s an emergency you’ll help.”
“Yes, but in the meantime, I’m just freeloading. And I don’t see any looming emergencies. Their son is old enough to succeed his father, their daughter has gotten married and left and is unlikely to be kidnapped, and the most likely enemy has just been soundly repelled in a very costly battle. It could be a generation before there’s anything to do here.”
“True. But you never know. There could be some kind of emergency tomorrow.”
Kondor sort of grunted and nodded, but he somehow doubted it. But then, there were things he could do besides fight. In another medieval world he had taught medicine to peasants, and while in this world that was probably not an audience he could easily reach, he did have access to their scholars and doctors, and with a bit of effort he might be able to do something like that here. Of course, he hated to repeat himself, but then, he was a medical doctor and a teacher of medicine, and if he found himself in a world in which such knowledge was valued, why should he not share his knowledge and improve the world? The Amirate of the Southern River Bend could become the home of a great medical college--a fitting tribute to Derek and Vashti who gave their lives here and brought him here originally.
He’d have to sleep on it.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #432: Whole New Worlds. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
