The White City by Simon Morden

Author:Simon Morden [Morden, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2016-10-27T06:00:00+00:00

18

The coast became a line in the distance, and still Simeon fixed all his attention on it. Dalip couldn’t bear it any longer, and worked his way along the deck until he stood at the prow.

‘I’m sorry, but how? I know you told me, but I just don’t believe you.’

Simeon unplugged his eye from the telescope. ‘Can’t you just trust your captain?’

‘You said there was no magic on board.’

‘Nor is there. Filthy stuff.’ He held out the telescope to Dalip. ‘See for yourself.’

Dalip took the instrument and examined it. It seemed a perfectly normal ship’s telescope, not that he’d ever handled one before. ‘Where did this come from?’

‘That’s lost in the mists of time. It was handed to me by the last captain. I’ll pass it on when the time comes. Along with the hat.’ Simeon went to take it back, but Dalip needed one last favour.

‘Do you mind if I look through it?’

‘Will you keep quiet about what you see?’ Simeon asked, whispering.

Dalip nodded, and Simeon opened his hands to indicate the wide sea and sky were his.

At first, he could see nothing, but that was because he couldn’t make his sight lines work. Then, when he’d got flashes of waves and wood, he couldn’t hold it still long enough to focus on anything.

He braced himself against the side of the ship, and trained the telescope on the coast. The black line moved out of sight upwards, then downwards. He compensated for the movement of the boat, and finally got it under some sort of control.

He could make out some of the taller headlands, which presumably Simeon knew and could use to navigate the inshore waters. It still didn’t explain how he steered a straight course when there was no land in sight. It was just a regular telescope, a lens at either end of a collapsible tube.

He lowered it and inspected it again. He didn’t want to give it back, either, because he knew he was missing something. But he had no excuse not to, and he reluctantly gave it up.

‘What did you see?’

‘Down.’

‘Nothing else?’

Dalip pursed his lips and shook his head.

‘It’s all in the eye of the beholder, Singh.’ He gave the end of the telescope a little twist. ‘Why don’t you try again?’

He was suspicious now. What had Simeon done? He braced himself again, and raised the telescope up. A wash of colour startled him, and when he looked again, he could see that the colours, brighter than any rainbow, were arranged in broad stripes across the sky. He turned, and he moved from red through to blue. He turned back, and the colours cycled the other way.

‘Polarising filters. You’ve got polarising filters on this.’

Simeon took the telescope away and leaned in. ‘I don’t know how it works. All I know is that I can lay a course even on the cloudiest day, at twilight, and sometimes at night when the moon is full. Midday is difficult, but not impossible.’

‘Whoever made that …’

‘Knew what they were doing? Yes, by Jove.

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