Castle Kidnapped

Thirty-two Laboratory

“How’s it coming?”

Jeremy went on typing as Incarnadine looked over his shoulder.

“The compilation’s almost done. There were like maybe two or three bugs in fifty million lines of code. Amazing.”

“Computers only err in being inflexibly literal. Give them a set of unambiguous instructions, and they’ll perform flawlessly.”

“Yeah. I don’t know how I’m doing all this so fast.”

“You’ve been getting a little magical help. But your skills have increased tremendously just in the last two hours.”

“It’s weird.”

Incarnadine laid a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “Keep up the good work. Let me know when we’re ready.”

Incarnadine walked to a raised platform and mounted it. Linda stood by, watching.

“Is that where it’ll appear?” Linda asked.

“That’s what we hope. I have to sketch a pattern here at the exact materialization locus. Would you fetch me some chalk from that bench over there?”

“Yes, sir.”

Linda returned with the chalk to find Incarnadine kneeling in the middle of the platform. His brow was furrowed and his stare troubled. Linda waited until he rose.

“Something wrong?”

“I wish the platform were over a little to the right, this way. There’s a node near here that might complicate things. An intersection of two of the castle’s lines of force.”

“Why don’t we just move the platform?”

“We could, but Jeremy would have to go back and recode some I think …” Incarnadine paced a few steps. “Yeah, I think it’ll be okay. We can work around it. You have that chalk?”

Linda watched the King draw a precise mathematical figure on the wooden surface of the platform. As it took shape, she marveled at its complexity and at Incarnadine’s draftsmanship. This was no hastily scrawled pentagram or other hocus-pocus.

“How do you keep the lines so true, so straight?” she asked him.

“Practice, honey practice.”

“It looks like you used drafting tools. But you did it all freehand.”

“It’s a bother. But the spells demand freehand. Two-dimensional patterns are nothing, though. It’s the 3-D ones that give me migraines.”

Linda shook her head. “There’s more to this kind of magic than there is to science back home.”

“And it’s a hell of a lot more dangerous.”

Around them, the laboratory buzzed and sang. Brilliant discharges crackled between suspended metal spheres. Spinning wheels threw sparks, and retorts bubbled.

Incarnadine walked over to Jeremy.

“Ready, Igor?”

Jeremy sat back and ran a sleeve across his brow. “You got it, Boris.”

“How are those two getting along?” Incarnadine motioned toward the laptop.

Jeremy punched a few keys and the readout changed.

— READY FOR THIS NEXT SUBROUTINE, SWEETHEART?

ANYTIME, DARLING. IT’S BEEN WONDERFUL WORKING WITH YOU. I’M SO GLAD WE MET.

YOU DON’T KNOW HOW LONELY I’VE BEEN IF I TOLD YOU HOW LONG I’VE BEEN SITTING HERE WITH NO ONE TO TALK TO …

DON’T, I’ll CRY.

“Ick!” Jeremy said. “These two are getting it on.”

“Well, considering how fundamentally different they are in design and architecture, you could say they were of opposite genders.”

“It’s still pretty strange.”

“It’s a strange universe, son.”

Incarnadine looked about the lab, sensing, testing.

“I think it’s time. Let’s run that sucker.”