IGMS Issue 42 by IGMS

Author:IGMS [IGMS]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Hatrack River Enterprises
Published: 2014-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

In hindsight I am sure Professor al-Wahab could have left with me the next day. There was nothing more for him in the desert, nothing but discomfort and delay from his work. Instead, he accepted the hospitality of the tribe -- partaking in the feasting, listening to the tales of the elders, sharing prayer times. When he wasn't involved with these duties, he would spend time with me asking about my family, tracing shapes in the sand, talking about the night sky and the secrets of the heavens.

I understand now that as well as beginning to prepare me for what lay ahead, he was giving me the chance to find peace with the fact it might be long years before I returned. I am grateful for that. During those last few days I experienced long hours of wonderment, punctuated by moments of sadness. The hidden beauty of the cosmos was being revealed to me, but I would soon be leaving everyone and everything I knew.

Whenever I asked him where I would be going, or why he had come for me, all he would say was "All in good time, Ismail. All in good time." He said that it would be an adventure, that I would see amazing things, and that I would be contributing to a noble endeavor. The mystery scared me as much as it thrilled me.

When I wasn't with him I helped my mother and father with their work -- mending pots and making saddles -- all the while turning the puzzle about the emperor and his poisoned wine over and over in my mind.

I understood that if each of the thousand bottles was drunk by a different set of men, then the pattern of deaths would reveal which bottle was the poisoned one. Exactly how many men were needed to create the required sets stayed out of reach, however.

It wasn't until the morning of our departure, three days after the professor had arrived, that the answer came to me. I'd led a couple of the tribe's goats over to a near-dry watering hole and was watching them drink, when I realized there were four combinations of drinking patterns for two goats: both abstain; one abstains, one drinks; the other abstains, the other drinks; and both drink. Therefore two men would be needed if there were four bottles of wine, three for eight bottles, four for sixteen, and so on.

I slapped the hindquarters of the goats, herded them back to the camp, and tethered them to their wooden stake.

"Ten men," I shouted as I ran between the tents, giddy with excitement. "Ten men are needed!"

Coming round the corner of the sheikh's tent I almost ran square into the back of Professor al-Wahab. He stood in conference with my mother and father and the sheikh.

"The emperor needs ten men," I blurted.

The professor nodded, smiled as if he'd always known that I'd get the answer. "We must leave now, Ismail." Off to one side I noticed that two camels had been prepared, the same guide who'd arrived with the professor tightening their saddles.

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