The Giant's Almanac Andrew Zurcher (books to read fiction TXT) 📖

its location for money or for their freedom? The secret could only be protected if the location of the tomb was hidden even from those constructing it; and yet they must have a map to guide their return, whenever their business called them away. The boy was agile and quick, but – above all – he was both clever and good. Hear the ingenious solution that he devised. Working with a blacksmith at the camp forge, the boy created a marvellous instrument – a kind of map – made up of four circular bronze plates. These plates were not at all solid, but composed of a beautiful, delicate lattice of tracery; and yet they could be mounted one upon the other, by means of a central pin that bound them. When they were assembled, and each turned in exactly the right way, their configuration revealed a map that represented the site of the tomb in relation to the king’s city and to three other landmarks that lay at the edges of the desert. Using this instrument, craftsmen and labourers working on the tomb were able to travel freely to and from the site, and no man was ever lost.

‘“But there was a trick to configuring the instrument, and in this trick its cunning truly lay. When the king’s brother had first caused the boy to be shaven and shackled, he discovered about himself something he had never known before – that beneath his thick, black hair his scalp was disfigured by a cluster of irregular marks, like stars that had fallen from the sky and burned themselves into his skin. The shape made by these marks upon his head was not unlike the constellation known as ‘the Giant’, and so the men of the camp took to calling the boy by this name. When designing his ingenious instrument, the boy had the blacksmith cast the four bronze plates so that they could only be configured correctly by taking a sighting, through the instrument itself, of the marks on his own head. By aligning eight particular points with the eight stars of ‘the Giant’, the four plates could be brought into the correct configuration, and the map would be revealed; without this alignment, the plates would be useless. For this reason, the boy was required to accompany everyone who left the camp, for they could not find their way back without him. But because the marks by which the instrument was configured lay upon the top of his head, the boy could not take a sighting by himself.’”

‘Here my friend the merchant paused with his tale. He said he wanted to be satisfied that I had understood it, for much that happened after depended upon it. By this time night had fallen, and the stars had begun to appear above the sky of the desert where, down beneath the hills of the high city, it lay quiet with mystery. Looking out upon the desert’s hidden treasures, I pondered the ingenious contrivance of the boy, and the care he had taken to protect the dignity of the king’s tomb. Little did he know that, while he was toiling as a slave to serve his master with such secrecy, the king himself was scouring his kingdom to find him! I marvelled at this quirk of fate, and told my friend that I had understood his tale very well.

‘“Years passed, brother merchant,” he said, “in the building of the king’s tomb. The slaves of the camp grew ever more artful in their business. Many kings were apprenticed to crafts that, in days gone by, they would have scorned, and in those crafts they grew to be great masters. Beneath the sands they created a palace as gorgeous as any built above them: hall upon hall, and chamber upon chamber, they decked with gold, and silver, and bronze. Hall upon hall, and chamber upon chamber, they carved in stone, in wood, and in amber. Hall upon hall, and chamber upon chamber, they set with jewels and adorned with tiles and paintings. At last the work was complete: they laid the last of the tomb’s sunken ceilings, huge slabs of marble quarried far away, and allowed the sands to cover them. Then, one by one, collar chained to collar as they had arrived many long years before, they filed out of the desert, to inform the king that the palace of his eternal fame was now complete.

‘“The king who received them in the city was not the king who had first put them to work. Then, he was young and victorious; now he was old and – still unable to find his heir – broken by sorrow. He received them with dignity, and rewarded them with fair conditions; but he instructed his chief counsellor, his wazir, his brother, to send them back into the desert, there to bury in his tomb not his body, but all of his worldly wealth, the spoils of his years of conquest and the riches of his kingdom.

‘“The king’s brother, who had never ceased scheming to dispossess the king, became frantic. What worth would the kingdom be to him, if his brother were to bury its treasury in the desert? By every persuasion of his art, he sought to move his brother’s mind, and begged him to revoke his command. Even as the mules were harnessed, and guards posted to secure the loaded carts, the chief counsellor took to his knees before his brother’s throne, imploring him to forgo this last madness. But all in vain; the king’s heart was broken, and his broken heart would break his kingdom, too.

‘“By certain spies whose credit he trusted, the wazir enquired of the boy whom he had sent into slavery, and learned that he was now a formidable man, known as ‘the Giant’, whose wisdom and good conscience had elevated him to the position of leader of all the slaves; moreover, the king’s brother learned the secret of the Giant’s ingenious instrument, which