Incandescence Read Online Free Page B

simple enough to be inevitable, it was the basic ingredients that now struck her as puzzling. Why did being garm or sard of the Null Line add three times more to your weight than being shomal or junub? Why not four times, or five? And why did «garm-sard weight» push you away from the Null Line, while «shomal-junub weight» pulled you back to it? She couldn't even guess at the answers, but she could understand now why Zak was pursuing this strange, lonely task. These patterns demanded an explanation.
    «When you find what you're looking for,» she said, «I hope to hear of it.»
    The shadow of Zak's heart grew visibly faster, as if she'd hefted a large rock on to his carapace. He said, «Why not help me in my search?»
    Roi looked around again, but he was still alone. Did he honestly believe he could recruit her, unaided? She said, «I've told you the work I do.»
    «I don't expect you to leave your team,» he replied.
    «That's wise of you.» Roi felt a stab of pity for him, followed by a treacherous thrill of disloyalty. It wouldn't have been the worst fate in the world if Zak had had forty team-mates waiting to ambush her, a throng of eccentric questioners to lure her away from the worthy monotony of the crops.
    «What I'm asking won't interfere with your work. I only want you to take some measurements, as you travel around the edge.»
    «Measurements?»
    «To confirm the weights.» Zak began rolling up the map. «I have no idea who drew this. I can only guess about the scales they used to represent distances and weights. And what if it's not accurate? I can't just take it on faith! Even if it was correct when it was drawn, what if something has changed since then?»
    Roi was still trying to wrap her mind around the notion of a solo, partial recruitment, but this last comment electrified her. «Someone told me a story once,» she said, «about the weights growing stronger.»
    «So strong that they tore the world to pieces. Hence our name for what remains.»
    Roi said, «Do you believe that's true?»
    Zak hesitated. «Who can say? Maybe it's simply in our nature to imagine a larger, more glorious world in the past. To console ourselves, as we confront our limitations, with the idea that we were once part of something greater.»
    Roi joked, «I think I'd find more consolation by imagining a larger world
in the future
.»
    Zak took her words perfectly seriously. «Exactly, but how? Should we hope to catch up with our mythical cousins who went tumbling away into the Incandescence?»
    This was becoming too strange for Roi. «You said something about measurements.»
    «Yes.» Zak opened his carapace again, and removed a long tube wrought from susk cuticle. As he offered it to her, the shifting light revealed a coil of metal inside, with a small, smooth stone attached to the end of it.
    Roi took it, trying not to show her astonishment at how casually he was handing over this extraordinary device. «See the numbers carved along the side?» Zak asked her.
    «Yes.»
    «The greater the weight, the further the spring stretches.»
    «Of course.» That principle was clear, but how would she measure the exact direction? There were a number of slender rods lying against the side of the tube; Roi tugged gently on one of them, and it unfolded into a spindly leg. There were three legs, and a system of shorter rods as well.
    «You need to take sights of some reference points,» Zak explained. «And then record the angles between the legs and the weight tube.»
    «This is beginning to sound complicated.»
    In fact, it was beginning to sound like work. What she felt about Zak's plans, though, was nothing at all like the buzz of camaraderie. He wasn't competing with her team; he was offering her something entirely different.
    «You only have to record a few numbers,» Zak assured her. «I'm not asking you to do any of the calculations.»
    He set up the tripod and demonstrated. There were navigation signs painted on the walls of all the main