Bearing an Hourglass Read Online Free Page A

three-dimensional; his eyes shifted focus as he peered into its background. He had heard of books like this, with holographic illustrations, but never handled one before.
    Experimentally he poked his forefinger at the picture, for his eyes had lost track of the surface of the page. His finger penetrated beyond that surface, finding no resistance. Startled, he drew back.
    “It’s a window to the park,” she explained. “You could climb through it, if you could fit.”
    Impressive magic! Intrigued, Norton turned the page. The next was of the nether transport center, with the escalator belts leading down to the matter transmitters. People were stepping off the belts, inserting their talismans in the MT slots, and moving through to their destinations. A big clock on the wall showed the present time and date; this was live! He wondered whether, if he should somehow squeeze into that picture, he would then be able to take a matter-mit window to another city or planet. No—he lacked the necessary token and lacked credit tobuy one. Too bad; he really loved to explore, and if he had ever been able to afford interplanetary travel—
    He turned another page. This picture-window showed another planet directly: the blazing sunside surface of Mercury, so bright that the heat seemed to radiate out from the sheet. He touched his finger to the nearest baked rock—and drew it back quickly. That
was
hot!
    “You say this one is merely a puzzle guide?” he asked, perplexed.
    Orlene rose gracefully and went to a cupboard. Her dress rustled, and for the first time he became aware of what she was wearing: a kind of golden-tan wraparound affair, obviously intended for convenience rather than for presentation, but it fitted her marvelously. He suspected she would look wonderful in anything, however.
    She brought down a box. “To the jigsaw puzzle,” she explained. “Of course, it’s been decades since they actually cut them out with saws, but the name sticks.” She cleared away the pot and cups and set the box down.
    Norton opened it. It was filled with bright, curly, flat fragments, indeed very much like the pieces of a jig-sawed puzzle. But these glittered with animation. Moving images here?
    He picked one up and squinted at it. Sure enough, it showed several leaves of a tree, and they did indeed flutter in whatever wind there was. It was a section of the first illustration in the book.
    “But there are a number of scenes in the book,” he said.
    Orlene touched a button on the side of the box. Abruptly the image on the piece Norton held changed. Now it appeared to be part of the wall of the subterranean transport station. He looked at the other pieces in the box and saw one that displayed part of the face of the station clock. Its minute hand showed exactly the minute that Norton’s own watch did. It was now only a fragment, but it kept accurate time.
    “All the scenes are available,” Orlene said. “You just set it for the one you want to do—or change it in themiddle. There’s another button to change the shapes of the pieces so they don’t get too familiar. I understand it’s a lot of fun, especially since the completed puzzle is large enough for a person to step through and enter the scene.”
    “Science and magic are merging faster than I knew!” Norton exclaimed, impressed.
    “Well, they always were pretty much the same thing,” she pointed out. “Once the Unified Field Theorem merged the five basic forces, including magic—”
    “I think I’ve been spending too much time in the wilderness!”
    “The wilderness is nice too,” she said. “We mustn’t sacrifice the old values for the new.”
    He glanced at her with fresh appreciation. “You like the wilderness?” He remembered Gawain’s remark about her affinity for animals.
    “Oh, yes! The estate has a section of the park; I go there often. Somehow it seems less lonely than the city.”
    What a delight she was! But still he wasn’t sure. He was not able to