Word of Honour by Michael Pryor

Author:Michael Pryor [Michael Pryor]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781864712346
Publisher: Random House Australia

THE NEXT DAY, AUBREY WAS LIKE AN ARROW. DESPITE HIS misgivings, his Parameters and Parallels lecture was stimulating, full of knotty stuff. Professor Maxwell covered the blackboard with dense equations, using strange Eastern characters, intermingled with more modern operator symbols. Then he wove a freeform lattice of connectors and explanations until the whole array was a tangled basketwork of fiendish complexity. The professor – a rotund, balding fellow – stood back and smiled at his handiwork before asking, without any guile at all, whether the group had any questions.

After that it was Introduction to Ancient Languages. Just as stimulating, but in a completely different way. Aubrey found he needed two notebooks – the first to jot down the course of the lecture, another to scribble down his thoughts about a universal language of magic, thoughts that were continually sparked by Professor Mansfield's points. At the end of the lecture, with some ambivalence, Aubrey realised the second notebook was much, much fuller than the first.

As Aubrey wandered out of Professor Mansfield's lecture he felt as if his head was bursting. Language was the key to magic, it was a well-established principle. The more he learned about early languages, the closer he came to the basic building blocks of enchantment.

It made his head buzz.

A blow came from behind and nearly knocked him off his feet.

'Sorry, old fellow,' the gowned undergraduate who had collided with him said, but he didn't wait to see if Aubrey had been hurt. He galloped off with a number of others, all heading along the cloisters in the same direction.

Aubrey shook his head to clear it and realised that dozens of others – students and dons – were all on the move. Portly, gangly, old, young, it was as if the entire campus had become lemmings and were stampeding towards a particularly juicy cliff.

Then Aubrey realised where they were going. His feet came to the same conclusion a few seconds early so that he was already moving when he confirmed that the Sheffield Lecture Theatre – one of the largest on campus – lay ahead.

He was quickly part of a throng. 'What is it?' he asked a frantic-looking don who was waddling as fast as his bulk would allow.

'Haven't you heard? Ravi is going to give his first lecture!'

Aubrey soon left the don behind, which was fortunate, because he just slipped into the lecture theatre before the doors were closed.

The seats were all taken. Aubrey contented himself with standing at the back.

Dwarfed by the massive lectern, Lanka Ravi was arranging his notes.

Lanka Ravi was a small man, extremely neat in everything apart from his hair, which was black and shiny. It had been pushed back behind his ears but threatened to escape at any minute. If it did, Aubrey feared for those in the front row of seats.

The excited chatter in the theatre ceased immediately Lanka Ravi looked up from his notes. Then he launched into his presentation.

For an hour, the small man detailed several new spells, applications of the Law of Action at a Distance.

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