Out of China by Julie E. Czerneda

Author:Julie E. Czerneda [Czerneda, Julie E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780756402402
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2004-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

He wanted that even more.

London, England, 1497 AD

“They say the surface of a clear lake is an aperture into another world, another time, an other reality.”

“I think I’ll use that in my ‘Ode to Seasons,’ William. You don’t mind, do you?”

“It’s not my saying, Byron. I believe it is out of China—as is so much else these days.” William bent into the oars, easing them through the water so hardly a ripple spread to disturb the lilies. Or the eligible young ladies seated along the shore. They were supposedly preoccupied with ink and brush, but their display of bright silk gowns and parasols was likely more artistic than any sketch produced by a group so consumed by giggles. They weren’t unguarded. Sentinel cats dozed in the sunlight at their feet and servants waved pyrethrum fans to fend away insects.

“I’d love to study there. You could come.”

“What, China?” William shook his head. “Too far from home, my friend. I plan to attend the London College of Physicians, or mayhap the Collège Royal in Paris. Lenses. The mechanics of the body. Medicine is where to make a mark, Byron. And fortune.”

“I’ve sufficient fortune, William. Medicine doesn’t interest me. Public office, now. There’s a future.”

“Ambitious, aren’t you?” William stopped rowing, his round face troubled. Lily pads kissed the hull. “You’d have to pass the civil service exams. Not to mention you have to qualify to take the bloody things. Scant few who do come from England. By the time you make Lord Mayor of London, you’ll be gray, and they—” a nod to the shore lined with dewy-eyed maidens, “—won’t be waiting.”

Byron dipped his hand into the water, then brought his fingers to his lips and licked them. “The Thames, William, safe to drink within our parents’ lifetime. Their lifetimes, a third longer than our grandparents’. Trade routes to Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Songhai, protected from the threat of malaria, typhus, or sleeping sickness. Our world is changing for the better because it is served by those educated in the arts, philosophies, and sciences. I know I must study. Public office must be filled by those who understand the past and can build for the future.”

“I’m all for clean water,” William replied, “and I won’t deny the inventions of our time are marvels, Byron. But have you tried getting an audience with one of those old men? Before every city wanted nothing but esteemed scholars, you could at least bribe a permit from a bored young clerk with a pint.” He dug in the oars again, as if straining against fate. “You heard they refused John Cabot permission to cross the Atlantic?”

“What did you expect? The inspectors found a rat in his hold.”

“And I say it was probably put there—” William paused. “I know what you’ll say. There are no rats left in England and Cabot deserves time in the Tower for being so careless, no matter how it came on his ship. But there’s a difference between care and obsession, Byron. You have noticed, I’m sure, the wealth of our northern neighbors, the Danes.

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