Everard was beginning to realize what had happened to Rome, but reserved his conclusions for the time being.
The cars drew up before an ornamental gate set in a long stone wall. The drivers talked with two armed guards wearing the livery of a private estate and the thin steel collars of slaves. The gate was opened and the cars went along a graveled driveway between lawns and trees. At the far end, almost on the beach, stood a house. Everard and Van Sarawak were gestured out and led toward it.
It was a rambling wooden structure. Gas lamps on the porch showed it painted in gaudy stripes; the gables and beam-ends were carved into dragon heads. Close by he heard the sea, and there was enough light from a sinking crescent moon for Everard to make out a ship standing in close: presumably a freighter, with a tall smokestack and a figurehead.
The windows glowed yellow. A slave butler admitted the party. The interior was paneled in dark wood, also carved, the floors thickly carpeted. At the end of the hall was a living room with over-stuffed furniture, several paintings in a stiff conventionalized style, and a merry blaze in an enormous stone fireplace.
Saorann ap Ceorn sat in one chair, Deirdre in another. She laid aside a book as they entered and rose, smiling. The officer puffed a cigar and glowered. Some words were swapped, and the guards disappeared. The butler fetched in wine on a tray, and Deirdre invited the Patrolmen to sit down.
Everard sipped from his glass—the wine was an excellent Burgundy—and asked bluntly, “Why are we here?”
Deirdre dazzled him with a smile. “Surely you find it more pleasant than the jail.”
“Of course. As well as more ornamental. But I still want to know. Are we being released?”
“You are…” She hunted for a diplomatic answer, but there seemed to be too much frankness in her. “You are welcome here, but may not leave the estate. We hope you can be persuaded to help us. You would be richly rewarded.”
“Help? How?”
“By showing our artisans and Druids how to make more weapons and magical carts like your own.”
Everard sighed. It was no use trying to explain. They didn’t have the tools to make the tools to make what was needed, but how could he get that across to a folk who believed in witchcraft?
“Is this your uncle’s home?” he asked.
“No, my own,” said Deirdre. “I am the only child of my parents, who were wealthy nobles. They died last year.”
Ap Ceorn clipped out several words. Deirdre translated with a worried frown: “The tale of your advent is known to all Catuvellaunan by now; and that includes the foreign spies. We hope you can remain hidden from them here.”
Everard, remembering the pranks Axis and Allies had played in little neutral nations like Portugal, shivered. Men made desperate by approaching war would not likely be as courteous as the Afallonians.
“What is this conflict going to be about?” he inquired.
“The control of the Icenian Ocean, of course. In particular, certain rich islands we call Ynys yr Lyonnach.” Deirdre got up in a single flowing movement and pointed out Hawaii on a globe. “You see,” she went on earnestly, “as I told you, Littorn and the western alliance—including us—wore each other out fighting. The great powers today, expanding, quarreling, are Huy Braseal and Hinduraj. Their conflict sucks in the lesser nations, for the clash is not only between ambitions, but between systems: the monarchy of Hinduraj against the sun-worshipping theocracy of Huy Braseal.”
“What is your religion, if I may ask?”
Deirdre blinked. The question seemed almost meaningless to her. “The more educated people think that there is a Great Baal who made all the lesser gods,” she answered at last, slowly. “But naturally, we maintain the ancient cults, and pay respect to the more powerful foreign gods too, such as Littorn’s Perkunas and Czernebog, Wotan Ammon of Cumberland, Brahma, the Sun… Best not to chance their anger.”
“I see.”
Ap Ceorn offered cigars and matches. Van Sarawak inhaled and said querulously, “Damn it, this would have to be a time line where they don’t speak any language I know.” He brightened. “But I’m pretty quick to learn, even without hypno. I’ll get Deirdre to teach me.”
“You and me both,” said Everard in haste. “But listen, Van.” He reported what he had learned.
“Hm.” The younger man rubbed his chin. “Not so good, eh? Of course, if they’d just let us aboard our scooter, we could make an easy getaway. Why not play along with them?”
“They’re not such fools,” answered Everard. “They may believe in magic, but not in undiluted altruism.”
“Funny they should be so backward intellectu-ally, and still have combustion engines.”
“No. It’s quite understandable. That’s why I asked about their religion. It’s always been purely pagan; even Judaism seems to have disappeared, and Buddhism hasn’t been very influential. As Whitehead pointed out, the medieval idea of one almighty God was important to the growth of science, by inculcating the notion of lawfulness in nature. And Lewis Mumford added that the early monasteries were probably responsible for the mechanical clock—a very basic invention—because of having regular hours for prayer. Clocks seem to have come late in this world.” Everard smiled wryly, a shield against the sadness within. “Odd to talk like this. Whitehead and Mumford never lived.”
“Nevertheless—”
“Just a minute,” Everard turned to Deirdre. “When was Afallon discovered?”
“By white men? In the year 4827.”
“Um… when does your reckoning start from?”
Deirdre seemed immune to further startlement. “The creation of the world. At least, the date some philosophers have given. That is 5964 years ago.”
Which agreed with Bishop Ussher’s famous 4004 B.C., perhaps by sheer coincidence—but still, there was definitely a Semitic element in this culture. The creation story in Genesis was of Babylonian origin too.
“And when was steam (pneuma) first used to drive engines?” he asked.
“About a thousand years ago. The great Druid Boroihme O’Fiona—”
“Never mind.” Everard smoked his cigar and mulled his thoughts for a while before looking back at Van Sarawak.
“I’m beginning to get the picture,” he said. “The Gauls were anything but the barbarians most people think. They’d learned a lot from Phoenician traders and Greek colonists, as well as from the Etruscans in cisalpine Gaul. A very energetic and enterprising race. The Romans, on the other hand, were a stolid lot, with few intellectual interests. There was little technological progress in our world till the Dark Ages, when the Empire had been swept out of the way.
“In this history, the Romans vanished early. So, I’m pretty sure, did the Jews. My guess is, without the balance-of-power effect of Rome, the Syrians did suppress the Maccabees; it was a near thing even in our history. Judaism disappeared and therefore Christianity never came into existence. But anyhow, with Rome removed, the Gauls got the supremacy. They started exploring, building better ships, discovering America in the ninth century. But they weren’t so far ahead of the Indians that those couldn’t catch up… could even be stimulated to build empires of their own, like Huy Braseal today. In the eleventh century, the Celts began tinkering with steam engines. They seem to have gotten gunpowder too, maybe from China, and to have made several other inventions. But its all been cut-and-try, with no basis of real science.”
Van Sarawak nodded. “I suppose you’re right. But what did happen to Rome?”