"Which makes it all the harder for us to understand," signed the Overlord.
Lady Angelica rose from her seat and came where her father sat. She sank on the bearskin at his feet and took the little hand of the dwarf in hers.
"Tell me, my dear Homunculus, what wise man twas who thus showed you this word and its meaning on the illuminated parchment?"
"He was a very wise ancient who lives alone in a large cave, by a babbling brook. Yearly those living near him take bread, meat, and wine, leaving them at the mouth of the cave, but none dares enter it and thus for years he has never been seen. Perhaps he is still alive and takes the food, but if he lies sightless and thoughtless on his stone bed then the birds and little beasts eat the food, thinking it should not be wasted."
"I have heard of this hermit;" exclaimed Cecil, "and when I was a boy went to the woods where the cave is but dared not enter. We will find out whether he is alive or dead. Gustro, order horses so we four can visit him. Three horses for us and an ambling pad for our little friend so naught of harm will befall him."
The four came to the cave and entered it. A light burned at the far end and there was the wise man, very old, with naught but his eyes telling of the intelligence that never ages. On the table before him in a tangled confusion were glasses, earthenware, crucibles, one each of astrolabe and alembic, and an hourglass through which ran silver sands. This was arranged with cunning machinery so that every day it tilted around and once more allowed the sands to tell of the passing of the twenty and four hours. There were books covered with mildewed leather, locked with iron padlocks and spider webs. Hung from the celling was a representation of the sun with all the planets revolving eternally around that fair orb, but the pitted moon alternated with light and shadow.
The wise man read from a book written in a long dead language, and, now and then, he ate a crust of bread or sipped wine from a ram's horn, but never did he stop reading. When Cecil touched him on the shoulder to attract his attention he simply murmured, "By the Seven Sacred Caterpillars! Let me finish this page, for what a pity were I to die without knowing what this man wrote some thousands of years ago in Angkor."
At last he finished the page and sat blinking at them with his wise eyes sunk deep into a mummy face while his body shook with the decrepitude of age.
"What is the meaning of the word, synthesis’?" Lord Cecil asked him.
"Tis a dream of mine which only now I find the waking meaning of."
"Tell the dream," the Overlord commanded.
"Tis but a dream. Suppose there were thirty wise men, learned in all wisdom obtained from reading of ancient books on alchemy, magic, histories, and philosophy. These men know of animals and of jewels such as margarites and chrysoberyl; of all plants such as dittany, which cures wounds, and madragora, which compelleth sleep. Why should anyone want to sleep when there is so much to read and profit by the reading? But these men are old and some day will die. I would take these thirty old men and one young man and have them drink a wine I learned to distill years ago. Then by synthesis there would be only one body — that of the young man — but in his brain would be all the subtle and ancient wisdom of the thirty savants. Thus we could do, century after century, so no wisdom would be lost to the world."
Lady Angelica leaned over his shoulder. "Have you kept this wine you made?” she asked.
"Yes, and now I am working on its opposite, for why place thirty bodies into one unless you know the art of then separating that body back into the original thirty? But it is hard. For any fool can pour the wine from thirty bottles into one jar, but only a wise man can separate the wines and restore them to their original bottles."
"Have you tried this wine of synthetic magic?" asked Cecil.
"Yes, I took a crow and a canary bird and had them drink of it and now in yonder wicker cage a yellow crow sits and nightly fills cave with song as though it came from the lutes and citherns of faerie-land."
"Now that is my thought," cried the Lady Angelica. "We will take the best and bravest of our warriors and the Singer of Songs pupil and the Juggler of Golden Balls and the Sleep-maker, thirty men in all, and they and I will drink of this synthetic wine and thus the thirty will pass into my body. Then I will go and visit the Giant in his castle and there in the banquet hall I will drink of the other wine and there will be thirty to fight against the enemy of our people. They will overcome and slay him. Then I will drink again of the synthetic wine and in my body carry the thirty conquerors back to Walling. Once there, I will again drink of the second potion and the thirty men will leave my body, liberated by the magical wine. Some may be dead and others wounded but I will be sale and the Giant killed. Have you enough of it? Enough of both kinds?"
The old man looked troubled. "I have a flagon of the synthetic wine. Divided it would make sixty-two doses. Of the other, which changes the synthesized back into their original bodies, only enough for one large dose and a very few drops more"
"Try those drops on the yellow bird," Cecil commanded.
The old man poured from a golden bottle, graven with a worm that eternally renewed his youth by swallowing his tail, a few drops of a colorless liquid and offered it to the bird in the wicker cage. The bird drank greedily and of a sudden there were two birds, a black crow and a yellow canary and, ere the canary could pipe a song, the crow pounced on it-and killed it.
"It worked!" croaked the old man. "It worked!"
"Can you make more of the second elixir?" asked Prince Gustro. "What I do once I can do twice," proudly declared the ancient.
"Then start at once and make more. While you are doing it we will take the golden bottle and the flagon and see what can be done to save the Hubelaires, though this is an adventure that I think little of, for tis fraught with much danger for my daughter." Thus spake the Overlord.
With the elixirs in a safe place they rode away from the old man's cave. But Prince Gustro took the Overlord aside and said, "I ask a favor. Allow me to be one of those thirty men."
Cecil shook his head. "No. And once again and forever, no! In the doing of this I stand to lose the apple of my eye. If she comes not back to me I may die of grief, and then you, and you alone, will be left to care for the House of the Hubelaires. If a man has but two arrows and shoots one into the air, then he were wise to keep the other in his quiver against the day of need. "
The Lady Angelica laughed as she suspected the reason of their whispering. "I will come back," she said gaily, "for the old man is very wise and did you not see the yellow bird divide into two and the crow kill the canary?"
But the Homunculus, held in Lord Cecil's arms, started to cry.
"What wouldst thou?" asked the kindly Overlord.
"I would be back in my bottle again," sobbed the little one; and he cried until he went to sleep, soothed by the rocking canter of the war horse.
Two evenings later a concourse of brave men met in the banquet hall. There were great silent men, skilled in the use of mace, byrnies and baldricks, who could slay with the sword, spear, and double-bitted battle axe. The Juggler was there, the Singer of Songs, and the young Reader of Books, who was very wise. And with these was a man with sparkling eyes who could, by his glance, put men to sleep and then waken them with a snap of thumb and finger. And to this company was added the Overlord, Prince Gustro and the trembling Homunculus. On her throne sat the Lady Angelica, beautiful and very happy because of the great adventure she had a part in. In her hand was a golden goblet and each of the thirty men held a crystal glass. These thirty and one drinking vessels were filled with the wine of synthesis. Then the flagon, half empty, and the small golden bottle containing the colorless wine were hid by the Lady Angelica beneath her shimmering robe. Outside a ladie's horse, decked with diamond-studded harness, neighed uneasy in the moonlight.