Speaker 1: Tedric by E. E. Smith. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: recording by Phil Schinevert Part one. The critical point in
Speaker 1: time of mankind's whole existence is there right there? Prime
Speaker 1: physicist Scandos slashed his red pencil across the black trace
Speaker 1: of the chronoviagram. Why must man be so stupid? Any
Speaker 1: One with three brain cells working should know that for
Speaker 1: the strength of an individual, he should be fed, not bled.
Speaker 1: That for the strength of a race, its versions should
Speaker 1: be bred, not sacrificed to propitiate figmental deities. And it
Speaker 1: would be so easy to straighten things out nowhere, in
Speaker 1: all reachable time, does any other one man occupy such
Speaker 1: a tremendously, such a uniquely keystone position. Easy? Yes, His
Speaker 1: assistant Freman agreed. It is a shame to let tetric
Speaker 1: die with not one of his tremendous potentialities realized. It
Speaker 1: would be easy and simple to have him discover carburization
Speaker 1: and the necessary techniques of heat treating. That freak meteorite
Speaker 1: need not lie there unsmelted for another seventy years. However,
Speaker 1: simple carbuization was not actually discovered until two generations later
Speaker 1: by another smith in another nation. And you know, Scandals,
Speaker 1: that there can be no such thing as a minor
Speaker 1: interference with the physical events of the past. Any such,
Speaker 1: however small seeming, is bound to be catastrophically major. I
Speaker 1: know that Scandos scowled blackly. We don't know enough about time.
Speaker 1: We don't know what would happen. We have known how
Speaker 1: to do it for a hundred years, but have been
Speaker 1: afraid to act because in all that time no progress
Speaker 1: whatever has been made on the theory. He paused, then
Speaker 1: went on savagely. But which is better to have our
Speaker 1: entire time track snapped painlessly out of existence if the
Speaker 1: extremists are right, or to sit helplessly on our fat rumps,
Speaker 1: wringing our hands while we watch civilization build up to
Speaker 1: its own total destruction by lithium tritide bombs. Look at
Speaker 1: the slope of that curve. Ultimate catastrophe is only one
Speaker 1: hundred eighty seven years away. But the council will not
Speaker 1: permit it, nor with the school. I know that too.
Speaker 1: That is why I am not going to ask them. Instead,
Speaker 1: I'm asking you. We two know more of time than
Speaker 1: any others over the years. I have found your judgment good.
Speaker 1: With your approval, I will act now. Without it, we
Speaker 1: will continue our futual testing. Number eight hundred eleven is
Speaker 1: running now. I believe and are aimless drifting. You are
Speaker 1: throwing the entire weight of such a decision on me.
Speaker 1: In one sense, yes, in another, only half. Since I
Speaker 1: have already decided, go ahead, so be it. Tedric awaken,
Speaker 1: the Lomarian iron Master woke up, not gradually and partially
Speaker 1: like one of our soft modern urbanites, but instantaneously and completely,
Speaker 1: as does the mountain wild cat. At one instant he
Speaker 1: lay completely, relaxed, sound asleep. At the next he had
Speaker 1: sprung out of bed, seized his sword, and leaped half
Speaker 1: way across the room, head thrown back, hard, blue eyes,
Speaker 1: keenly alert, sword arm rock steady. He stood there, poised
Speaker 1: and ready, beautifully poised upon the balls of both feet,
Speaker 1: supremely ready to throw into action every inch of his
Speaker 1: six feet four, every pound of his two hundred plus
Speaker 1: of hard meat, gristle and bone. So standing, the smith
Speaker 1: stared motionlessly at the shimmering, almost invisible thing hanging being
Speaker 1: motionless in the air of his room and at its
Speaker 1: equally tenuous occupant. I approve of you, Tetric. The thing apparition,
Speaker 1: whatever it was, did not speak, and the Lamarian did
Speaker 1: not hear the words formed themselves in the innermost depths
Speaker 1: of his brain. While you, perhaps sorry a little frightened,
Speaker 1: you are and have been completely in control. Any other
Speaker 1: man of your nation, yes, of your world, would have
Speaker 1: been scared out of what few wits he has. You
Speaker 1: are not one of ours. Lord Tetric went to one knee.
Speaker 1: He knew, of course, that gods and devils existed, and
Speaker 1: while this was the first time that a god had
Speaker 1: sought him out personally, he had heard of such happenings
Speaker 1: all his life. Since the god hadn't killed him instantly,
Speaker 1: he probably didn't intend to right away at least. Hence,
Speaker 1: no god of Lomar approves of me. Also, our gods
Speaker 1: are solid and heavy. What do you want of me,
Speaker 1: strange god? I am not a god. If you could
Speaker 1: get through this grill, you could cut off my head
Speaker 1: with your sword, and I would die, of course, so
Speaker 1: would sar Teedric broke off in the middle of the word.
Speaker 1: I see it is dangerous to talk very even though
Speaker 1: a man is alone. The gods and hence the priests
Speaker 1: who serve them, have power to hear. Then the man
Speaker 1: lies on the green rock and loses his brain, liver,
Speaker 1: and heart. You will not be overheard. I have power
Speaker 1: enough to see to that Chetric remained silent. I understand
Speaker 1: your doubt. Think then that will do just as well.
Speaker 1: What is it that you are trying to do? I
Speaker 1: wonder how I can hear when there is no sound,
Speaker 1: But men cannot understand the powers of gods. I am
Speaker 1: trying to find or make a metal that is very
Speaker 1: hard but not brittle. Copper is no good. I cannot
Speaker 1: harden it enough. My soft irons are too soft, My
Speaker 1: hard irons are too brittle. My in betweens, and the
Speaker 1: melts to which I have added various flavorings have all
Speaker 1: been either too soft or too brittle, or both. I
Speaker 1: gathered that such was your problem. Your wrought iron is
Speaker 1: beautiful stuff, so is your white cast iron, and you
Speaker 1: would not ordinarily in your lifetime come to know anything
Speaker 1: of either carburization or high alloy steel, to say nothing
Speaker 1: of both. I know exactly what you want, and I
Speaker 1: can show you exactly how to make it you can, Lord.
Speaker 1: The Smith's sigh flamed, and you will. That is why
Speaker 1: I have come to you. But whether or not I
Speaker 1: will teach you depends on certain matters which I have
Speaker 1: not been able entirely to clarify. What do you want
Speaker 1: it for? That is what basically is your aim. Our
Speaker 1: greatest god, Sarpedion is wrong, and I intend to kill him.
Speaker 1: Tetric's eyes flamed more savagely, his terrifically muscled body tensed
Speaker 1: wrong in what way? In every way? In the intensity
Speaker 1: of his emotion, the Smith spoke aloud, What good is
Speaker 1: a god who only kills and injures? What a nation needs, Lord,
Speaker 1: is people, people working together and not afraid. How can
Speaker 1: we of Lomar ever retain comfort and happiness if more
Speaker 1: die each year than are born. We are too few.
Speaker 1: All of us except the priests, of course, must work
Speaker 1: unendingly to obtain only the necessities of life. This bears
Speaker 1: out my findings. If you make high ally steel, exactly
Speaker 1: what will you do with it? If you give me
Speaker 1: the god metal, Lord, I will make of it a
Speaker 1: sword and armor. A sword sharp enough and strong enough
Speaker 1: to cut through copper or iron without damage, armor strong
Speaker 1: enough so that swords of copper or iron cannot cut
Speaker 1: through it. They must be so, because I will have
Speaker 1: to cut my way alone through a throng of armed
Speaker 1: and armored mercenaries and priests alone. Why because I cannot
Speaker 1: call in help, cannot let any one know my goal.
Speaker 1: Any such would lie on the greenstone. Very soon they
Speaker 1: suspect me. Perhaps they know I am, however, the best
Speaker 1: smith in all Lomar. Hence they have slain me, not,
Speaker 1: nor will they until I have found what I seek.
Speaker 1: Nor then, if by the favor of the gods or
Speaker 1: by your favorite Lord, the metal be good enough, it
Speaker 1: will be. But there's a lot more to fighting a
Speaker 1: platoon of soldiers than armor and a sword. My optimistic
Speaker 1: young savage, that the metal be of proof is all
Speaker 1: I ask, Lord, the smith insisted stubbornly. The rest of
Speaker 1: it lies in my care. So be it. And then
Speaker 1: Sarpadian's image, as you must already know, is made of stone, wood, copper,
Speaker 1: and gold. Besides the jewels. Of course, I take his brain, liver,
Speaker 1: and heart, flood them with oil, and sacrifice them. Just
Speaker 1: a minute, Sir, Pataion is not alive, and never has been,
Speaker 1: does not as a matter of fact exist. You just
Speaker 1: said yourself that his image was made of stone and copper,
Speaker 1: and don't be silly, Lord or art testing me. Gods
Speaker 1: are spirits, bound to their images and in a weaker way,
Speaker 1: to their priests by linkages of spirit force, life force,
Speaker 1: it could be called. When those links are broken by
Speaker 1: fire and sacrifice, the gods may not exactly die, but
Speaker 1: he can do no more of harm until his priests
Speaker 1: have made a new image and spent much time and
Speaker 1: effort in building up new linkages. One point now settled,
Speaker 1: was bothering me what God to sacrifice him to. I'll
Speaker 1: make an image for you to inhabit, Lord, and sacrifice
Speaker 1: him to you, my strange new God. You will be
Speaker 1: my only god as long as I live. What is
Speaker 1: your name? Lord? I can't keep calling you strange God? Forever.
Speaker 1: My name is scandos skisk. That word rides ill on
Speaker 1: my tongue. With your permission, Lord, I will call you loser.
Speaker 1: Call me anything you like, except to God. I am
Speaker 1: not a god. You are being ridiculous, Lord Loser. Tetric
Speaker 1: chided what a man sees with his eyes hears with
Speaker 1: his ears, especially what a man hears without ears. As
Speaker 1: I hear now he knows with certain knowledge to be
Speaker 1: the truth. No mere man could possibly do what you
Speaker 1: have done, to say, nought of what you are about
Speaker 1: to do. Perhaps, not an ordinary man of your scandos
Speaker 1: almost said time, but caught himself of your culture. But
Speaker 1: I am ordinary enough and mortal enough in my own well.
Speaker 1: That could be said of all gods everywhere. The Smith's
Speaker 1: mean was quiet and unperturbed. His thought was loaded to
Speaker 1: saturation with unshakable conviction. Scandals gave up. He could argue
Speaker 1: for a week. He knew, without making any impression whatever
Speaker 1: upon what the stubborn, hard headed Tetrick knew so unalterably
Speaker 1: to be the truth. But just one thing, Lord Tetrick
Speaker 1: went on, with scarcely a break. Have I made it
Speaker 1: clear that I intend to stop human sacrifice, that there
Speaker 1: is to be no more of it, even to you.
Speaker 1: We will offer you anything else, anything else, but not
Speaker 1: even your refusal to give me the God medal will
Speaker 1: change my stand on that good. See to it that
Speaker 1: nothing ever does change it. As to offerings or sacrifices,
Speaker 1: there are to be none of any kind. I do
Speaker 1: not need, I do not want, I will not have
Speaker 1: any such that is final act accordingly, Yes, Lord Sarpadion
Speaker 1: is a great and powerful god, but Art sure that
Speaker 1: his sacrifice alone will establish linkage is strong enough to
Speaker 1: last for all time. Scandals almost started to argue again,
Speaker 1: but checked himself. After all, the proposed sacrifice was necessary
Speaker 1: for Tedric and his race and it would do no harm.
Speaker 1: Sarpadeon will be enough. And as for the image, that
Speaker 1: isn't necessary either, Art wrong. Lord. Without image and temple,
Speaker 1: everyone would think you a small, weak god, which thought
Speaker 1: can never be. Besides, the image might make it easier
Speaker 1: for us to call on you in time of need.
Speaker 1: You can't call me. Even if I could receive your car,
Speaker 1: which is very doubtful, I wouldn't answer it. If you
Speaker 1: ever see me or hear from me again, it will
Speaker 1: be because I wish it, not you. Scandals intended this
Speaker 1: for a clincher, but it didn't turn out that way.
Speaker 1: Wonderful Tetrick exclaimed, all gods act that way in spite
Speaker 1: of what they, through their priest say. I am overwhelmingly
Speaker 1: glad that you are being honest with me. Hast found
Speaker 1: me worthy of the god Lord Locier. Yes, so let's
Speaker 1: get at it. Take that biggest chunk of metal which
Speaker 1: fell from the sky. You'll find it's about twice your weight.
Speaker 1: But I have never been able to work that particular
Speaker 1: piece of metal. Lord, I'm not surprised. Ordinary meteorites are
Speaker 1: nickel iron, but this one carries two additional and highly
Speaker 1: unusual elements, tungsten and vanadium, which are necessary for our purpose.
Speaker 1: To melt it, you'll have to run your fires a
Speaker 1: lot hotter. You'll also have to make a carburizing pot,
Speaker 1: and willow charcoal and metallurgical coke, and several other things.
Speaker 1: We'll go into details later. That green stone from which
Speaker 1: altars are made, you can secure some of it, any
Speaker 1: amount of it. Of it take your full weight, and
Speaker 1: of the black ore, of which you have occasionally used
Speaker 1: a little one fourth of your weight. The instructions went
Speaker 1: on from or to finished product in complete detail, and
Speaker 1: at its end. If you follow these directions carefully, you
Speaker 1: will have a high alloy steel chrome, nickel, vanadium, molybdenum,
Speaker 1: tungsten steel to be exact case hardened and heat treated
Speaker 1: exactly what you need. Can you remember them all? I can, Lord,
Speaker 1: Never have I dared write anything down, so my memory
Speaker 1: is good. Every quantity you have given me every temperature
Speaker 1: and step in process and item, they are all completely
Speaker 1: in mind. I go then goodbye. I thank you, Lord Losir, goodbye.
Speaker 1: The Lomarian bowed his head, and when he straightened up,
Speaker 1: his incomprehensible visitor was gone. Jeddric went back to bed,
Speaker 1: and strangely enough, was almost instantly asleep. And in the morning,
Speaker 1: after his customary huge breakfast of meat and bread and milk,
Speaker 1: he went to his sprawling establishment, which had no counterpart
Speaker 1: in modern industry, and called his foreman and his men
Speaker 1: together before they began the day's work. A strange god
Speaker 1: named Loser came to me in the night and showed
Speaker 1: me how to make better iron. He told him, in
Speaker 1: perfectly matter of fact fashion, So stop whatever you're doing
Speaker 1: and tear the hole top off the big furnace. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you exactly how to rebuild it. The program, as
Speaker 1: outlined by Scandos, went along without a hitch until the
Speaker 1: heat from the rebuilt furnace began to come blisteringly through
Speaker 1: the crude shields. Then even the foreman, faithful as he was,
Speaker 1: protests against such unheard of temperatures and techniques. It must
Speaker 1: be that way, Tedrick insisted run more rods across from
Speaker 1: there to there to hold more hides and blankets. You
Speaker 1: four men fetch water, throw it over the hides and blankets,
Speaker 1: and him who turns the blower take shorter tricks in
Speaker 1: the hot places. Here. I'll man the blower myself until
Speaker 1: the heat wanes somewhat. He bent his mighty back to
Speaker 1: the crank. But even in that raging and fair nooe
Speaker 1: of heat, he kept on talking. Knowest my iron sword,
Speaker 1: the one I wear with rubies in the hilt, He
Speaker 1: asked the foreman that worthy did, with longing to buy
Speaker 1: it would take six months of a foreman's pay. This
Speaker 1: furnace must stay this hot all day and all of tonight.
Speaker 1: And there are the things as bad, but twill not
Speaker 1: take long. Ten days should see the end of it.
Speaker 1: Actually seven days was the schedule, but Tedric did not
Speaker 1: want the priests to know that. But for those ten
Speaker 1: days matters must go exactly as I say. Work with
Speaker 1: me until this iron is made, and I give you
Speaker 1: that sword, and all of the others who shirk not
Speaker 1: each will be given an iron sword. This in addition
Speaker 1: to your regular pay. Dost like the bargain. They liked
Speaker 1: it then, during the hours of lull, in which there
Speaker 1: was nothing much to do except keep the furious fires fed,
Speaker 1: Patrick worked upon the image of his god. While the
Speaker 1: Lomarian was neither a phidious nor a praxateles, he was
Speaker 1: one of the finest craftsmen of his age. He had, not, however,
Speaker 1: had a really good look at Scandos's face. Thus, the
Speaker 1: head of the image, although it was a remarkably good
Speaker 1: piece of sculpture, looked more like that of Teedric's foreman
Speaker 1: than that of the real Scandos, and with the head
Speaker 1: any resemblance at all to Scandos ceased. The rest of
Speaker 1: the real Scandos was altogether too small and too pitifully
Speaker 1: weak to be acceptable as representative of any Lomarian's god. Hence,
Speaker 1: the torso and limbs of the gleaming copper statue were wider, thicker, longer, bigger,
Speaker 1: and even more fantastically muscled than were Tedric's own. Also,
Speaker 1: the figure was hollow, filled with sand throughout except for
Speaker 1: an intricately carved gray sandstone brandsan and red painted hardwood
Speaker 1: liver and heart. They come master to the number of eleven.
Speaker 1: His lookout boy came running with news at mid afternoon
Speaker 1: of the seventh day, one priest in copper, ten trarchians
Speaker 1: in iron in each of five bowmen and spearmen. Tedric
Speaker 1: did not have to tell the boy where to go
Speaker 1: or what to do, or to hurry about it, as
Speaker 1: both ran for the iron master's armor. The youngster was
Speaker 1: two steps in the lead. It was evident too that
Speaker 1: he had served a squire before, and frequently for in seconds.
Speaker 1: The erstwhile half naked blacksmith, was fully clothed in iron.
Speaker 1: Thus it was an armored knight leaning negligently upon a
Speaker 1: fifteen pound forging hammer, who waited outside the shop store
Speaker 1: and watched his eleven visitors approach. The banner was that
Speaker 1: of a priest of the third rank. Good They weren't
Speaker 1: worried about him enough yet to send a big one,
Speaker 1: and only ten mercenaries, small short bandy legged men of
Speaker 1: tark and good enough fighters for their weight. But they
Speaker 1: didn't wait much. This wouldn't be too bad. The group
Speaker 1: came up to within a few paces and stopped art
Speaker 1: in armor smith. The discomfited priest demanded, why why not
Speaker 1: tis my habit? To Greek guests in apparel of their
Speaker 1: own choosing. There was a brief silence. Then to what
Speaker 1: do I owe the honor of this visit? Priest, he asked,
Speaker 1: only half sarcastically. I paid as I have always paid
Speaker 1: the fraction due. True, it is not about a fraction.
Speaker 1: I come. It is noised that a strange God appeared
Speaker 1: to you, spoke to you, instructed you in your art.
Speaker 1: You are making an image of him. I made no
Speaker 1: secret of any of these things. I hide nothing from
Speaker 1: the Great God or his minions, nor ever have I
Speaker 1: have nothing to hide. Perhaps such conduct is very unseemly,
Speaker 1: decidedly ungodlike. He should not have appeared to you, but
Speaker 1: to one of us, and in the temple it is
Speaker 1: unsarpedian like. Certainly, all that Sarpadian has ever done for
Speaker 1: me is let me alone, and I have paid heavily
Speaker 1: for that. What bargain did you make with this losser? Oh?
Speaker 1: What was the price? No bargain was made. I thought
Speaker 1: it strange. But who am I an ordinary man to
Speaker 1: try to understand the actions are the reasonings of a god.
Speaker 1: There will be a price, I suppose, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: I will pay it gladly. You will pay. They rest
Speaker 1: assured not to this loser, but to Great Sarpadion, I
Speaker 1: command you to destroy that image forthwith you do Why
Speaker 1: since when has it been against the law to have
Speaker 1: a personal god. Most families of Lomar have them, not
Speaker 1: like yours. Sarpadian does not permit your loser to exist.
Speaker 1: Sarpadion has nothing to say about it. Losir already exists.
Speaker 1: Is the great God so weak, so afraid, so unable
Speaker 1: to defend himself against a one man stranger that he
Speaker 1: take care smith silence? That is rankest blasphemy perhaps, But
Speaker 1: I have blaspheme before, and Sarpaedion hasn't killed me yet,
Speaker 1: nor will he, methinks, at least until his priests have
Speaker 1: collected his fraction of the finest iron ever forge, and
Speaker 1: which I only can make. Oh, yes, the new orn.
Speaker 1: Tell me exactly how it is made. You know better
Speaker 1: than to ask that question, Priest. The secret will be
Speaker 1: known only to me and my God. We have equipment
Speaker 1: and tools designed specifically for getting information out of such
Speaker 1: as you seize him in and smash that image. Hold
Speaker 1: Tedric roared in such a voice that not a man moved.
Speaker 1: If anybody takes one forward step, priest or makes one
Speaker 1: move towards spear or arrow. Your brains will spatter the
Speaker 1: walls across the street. Can your copper helmet stop this hammer?
Speaker 1: Can your girl muscled, fat bellied Priest's body move fast
Speaker 1: enough to dodge my blow? And most of all those
Speaker 1: runty little slavelings behind you? Waving his left arm contemptuously
Speaker 1: at the group, will also die before they cut me down.
Speaker 1: And if I die now, of what worth is Sarpadion's
Speaker 1: fraction of a metal that will never be made? Think well, Priest.
Speaker 1: Sarpadion's agent studied the truculent, glaring iron master for a
Speaker 1: long two minutes. Then, the sighting that the proposed victim
Speaker 1: could not be taken alive, he led his crew back
Speaker 1: the way they had come, trailing fiery threats and tetric
Speaker 1: going back into his shop. Was thoroughly aware that those
Speaker 1: threats were not idle. So far, he hadn't taken too
Speaker 1: much risk, But the next visit would be different, very different.
Speaker 1: He was exceedingly glad that none of his men knew
Speaker 1: that the pots they were firing so fiercely were in
Speaker 1: fact filled only with coke and willow charcoal, that armor
Speaker 1: and sword and shield and axe, and Hammer were at
Speaker 1: that moment getting their final heat treatment in a bath
Speaker 1: of oil but little hotter than boiling water, in the
Speaker 1: sanctum to which he retired, always alone to perform the
Speaker 1: incantations which his men and hence the priests of Sarpadion,
Speaker 1: believed as necessary as any other part of the metallurgical process.
Speaker 1: End of Part one.