The Telastrian Song: Society of the Sword Volume 3 by Duncan M. Hamilton

Author:Duncan M. Hamilton [Hamilton, Duncan M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub

When the Professor returned, he was alone. Giura had expected he would bring his colleague along with him.

‘Your colleague?’

‘Ah, yes. He was too busy to come along, but we discussed the notebooks.’

Too busy? Giura smiled. Too frightened by the prospect of sitting in a small office with an Intelligencier more likely. ‘And?’

‘And, he feels that my thoughts are correct.’

‘Without seeing them?’

‘I was able to describe the important features. There are one or two tell-tale aspects. Neither of us have ever seen one before, but as best we can tell, they are grimoires. Mages’ notebooks. They were often written in code that was unintelligible to anyone other than a mage. The script is no language that I know of, which makes me think it’s code. From the style of the hand I would also hazard a guess that this one comes from the east.’ He patted the completed notebook. ‘The other, probably not.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ Giura had heard magic was still practised in the east, but also of a royal family there who were immune to its effects and kept its practice strictly regulated.

‘We write from right to left, one line at a time. In the east they write from right to left also, but in vertical lines. Although the symbols aren’t eastern, or at least no eastern script that I have ever seen, they are certainly written in that vertical fashion, and the east is the only place that I am aware of where that is done. The partially filled grimoire is a copy of the first, but with a number of mistakes that would be characteristic of a literate person from here learning to write in the eastern fashion. They are mistakes that I see students of eastern languages here at the University make all the time.’

It was interesting, but not of much use. A couple of trade caravans went east each year, so the grimoire could have been brought back with one of them. Were they written in a script that could be read, Giura would have thought that the most likely explanation. However, if a professor of languages could not even identify it, let alone read it, how would an ordinary man living in a small apartment have any use for it, or any reason to copy it? Unless he could read it, and for that, someone must have taught him.

‘Is there anyone you are aware of who can read this code?’

‘Well, the person that wrote it obviously. Other than that I really don’t know. I have heard magic is still practised in a limited way in the east, perhaps it’s the language the mages there use to keep their secrets from ordinary people.’

The Professor continued to talk, but Giura had stopped listening, retreating instead into his thoughts. If it was a language used by mages, the only way for someone in Ostenheim to learn it was if he was shown how. Giura cursed himself for killing Nerli, but there hadn’t been any other option.

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