The Worlds of the Sheaf

Gromm - Part 3

     The wizards left the building and made their way to the nearest open space, a market square that was currently empty except for a handful of pedestrians who stared at them curiously as they strolled past. They unpacked their flying carpets for the short flight to the horseshoe dike, but they were still unrolling them flat on the ground when a worried looking official arrived, accompanied by a troop of soldiers.

     "Are you leaving us so soon?" he asked, making no attempt to disguise his relief. "I trust your visit to our city was pleasant and productive."

     "Eminently so," agreed Saturn, deciding not to disillusion him. "Please convey my apologies to the Archchancellor and tell him I won't be able to join him for dinner after all."

     "He'll be most disappointed," said the official. "He was looking forward to your company, to finding out something of what's going on in Amafryka these days."

     "You can tell him that nothing of any consequence is going on in Amafryka," replied the wizard, taking his place on the carpet while the other four wizards sat crowded together on the other. He saw Galia emerging from the museum and hurrying across to the town hall where she would, no doubt, report their interest in the horseshoe dike. Would the city officials guess that their visitors would be heading there to examine the place for themselves? They would have to hurry if they weren't to be accompanied all the way by city troops. As it was, soldiers would no doubt be arriving within a few hours, to 'protect their honoured guests from the perils of the open countryside'.

     "Thank you for the assistance you've given us and your warm hospitality," said Saturn, therefore, and he gave the command for the carpet to rise.

     As they moved off towards the north, Thomas looked back and saw a functionary running from the town hall towards the official they'd just been speaking to, and then both men and the soldiers hurried to the stables.

    He saw Saturn scowling in annoyance and mutter something to himself. Thomas translated it by reading his lips. "We're leaving their city," the elderly wizard was saying. "What did they care what we do in an ancient archaeological site?"

     Thomas nodded with agreement. Perhaps they thought they'd come to steal away some long hidden treasure that the Archchancellor thought belonged to the city. He chuckled as he thought of the shards of pottery and lumps of rusty metal which was all they were likely to find. Would the Archchancellor demand they be carried away for safe keeping in the city's vaults? On the other carpet, Saturn urged the carpet to its maximum speed and Thomas did the same. With luck, they'd have finished what they came for and be gone by the time the soldiers arrived.

     The horseshoe dike wasn't hard to find. The low, broad dike ran in a long, gentle curve across the pastureland on which a small group of cattle grazed contentedly, looking up disinterestedly at the carpets as they passed overhead. The ground was wide and flat, except to the south there it fell away in a gentle slope to another plain twenty yards below. The ancient shoreline, thought Thomas. Once, water had lapped against that slope, which had no doubt been a sandy beach with clumps of seaweed stranded on the tideline. There were gulls circling overhead, signifying that, even today, the sea wasn't too far away, and looking to the south he thought he could just barely make out a thin strip of silver between the flat horizon and the light blue sky. Sixteen thousand years! he thought in wonder. He found it hard to even imagine such an immense stretch of time.

     Saturn flew his carpet back and forth across the site a couple of times before landing, looking for changes in grass height and colouration that would testify to changes in the underlying soil. Thomas, on the other carpet, saw rectangular patches of greener, taller grass in the centre of the circular area contained by the dike, but Thomas thought they were most likely to be the remains of previous digs. They also saw the remains of fairly recent buildings. Lines of stones. The remains of walls and enclosures, but they could be, at most, only a couple of hundred years old and all five wizards dismissed them without a thought.