Thief of Time Read Online Free PDF Page B

chalked on the blackboard, knowing full well that he could not, he did so. Instantly. And correctly.”
    “Well? You did say he was a smart boy.”
    The Master of Novices looked embarrassed. “Except…it was not the right problem. I had been instructing the Fifth Djim field agents earlier and had left part of the test on the board. An extremely complex phase space problem involving residual harmonics in n histories. None of them got it right. To be honest, even I had to look up the answer.”
    “So, I take it, you punished him for not answering the right question?”
    “Obviously. But that sort of behavior is disruptive. Most of the time I think he’s not all there. He never pays attention, he always knows the answers, and he can never tell you how he knows. We can’t keep thrashing him. He is a bad example to the other pupils. There’s no educating a smart boy.”
    The acolyte thoughtfully watched a flight of white dovescircle the monastery roofs. “We cannot send him away now,” he said at last. “Soto said he saw him perform the Stance of the Coyote! That’s how he was found! Can you imagine that? He’d had no training at all! Can you imagine what would happen if someone with that kind of skill ran around loose? Thank goodness Soto was alert.”
    “But he has turned him into my problem. The boy disrupts tranquillity.”
    Rinpo sighed. The Master of Novices was a good and conscientious man, he knew, but it had been a long time since he’d been out in the world. People like Soto spent every day in the world of time. They learned flexibility, because if you were stiff out there, you were dead. People like Soto…now, there was an idea…
    He looked toward the other end of the terrace, where a couple of servants were sweeping up the fallen cherry blossom.
    “I see a harmonious solution,” he said.
    “Oh, yes?”
    “An unusually talented boy like Ludd needs a master, not the discipline of the schoolroom.”
    “Possibly, but—”
    The Master of Novices followed Rinpo’s gaze.
    “Oh,” he said, and he smiled in a way that was not entirely nice. This smile contained a certain anticipatory element, a hint that trouble might be in store for someone who, in his opinion, richly deserved it.
    “A name occurs,” said Rinpo.
    “To me also,” said the Master of Novices.
    “A name I’ve heard too often,” Rinpo went on.
    “I suppose that either he will break the boy, or the boy will break him, or it is always possible that they will break each other…” the master mused.
    “So, in the patois of the world,” said Rinpo, “there is no actual downside .”
    “Would the abbot approve, though?” said the Master, testing a welcome idea for any weak points. “He has always had a certain rather tiresome regard for…the sweeper.”
    “The abbot is a dear kind man but at the moment his teeth are giving him trouble and he is not walking at all well,” said Rinpo. “And these are difficult times. I’m sure he will be pleased to accept our joint recommendation. Why, it’s practically a minor matter of day-to-day affairs.”
    And thus the future was decided.
    They were not bad men. They had worked hard on behalf of the valley for hundreds of years. But it is possible, after a while, to develop certain dangerous habits of thought. One is that, while all important enterprises need careful organization, it is the organization that needs organizing, rather than the enterprise. And another is that tranquillity is always a good thing.
    Tick
    There was a row of alarm clocks on the table by Jeremy’s bed. He did not need them, because he woke up when he wanted to. They were there for testing. He set them for seven, and woke up at 6:59 to check that they went off on time.
    Tonight he went to bed early, with a drink of water and the Grim Fairy Tales.
    He had never been interested in stories, at any age, and had never quite understood the basic concept. He’d never read a work of fiction all the way through. He did