(Search & Sitemap)
> Writing >
Longer Fiction >
The Steel Orb
Skip Back
Previous
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Next
Skip Forward
Printer-Friendly Version
I looked at the board. Something was ticking in the back of my mind--fire on the spring, was it? But why? I set to work on the board, trying to reconcile something burning with a spring and gear box. Something was knocking in the back of my mind, but I couldn't listen to it. In the end I told myself I'd make a spring driven wagon with a lamp on top: a large one, that would burn brightly.
The next day, I set about smithing the lamp. I enjoyed it, and it was a thing of beauty. Almost at the end of the day my eye fell on something, and I saw that Fortress had left the best spring for me.
The next day we raced, and I lit my lamp. It burned brightly. It finished two laps, while Fortress's cart made fully twenty laps round the cloister, but he liked the lamp; its flame was a point of beauty. "Keep trying," he said, "although I'm not going to ask why you put a lamp on. I'll be in the workshop sorting gears; could you care for customers?"
(Search & Sitemap)
> Writing >
Longer Fiction >
The Steel Orb
Skip Back
Previous
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Next
Skip Forward
Printer-Friendly Version