Free Great Kings' War by Roland Green, John F. Carr Page B

end of the wire with pliers and swung back and forth, so that his weight and movement dragged the bar through the hole and forced it into wire.
    Like so many of the here-and-now metalworking techniques, it was fine for high-quality, small-scale production—the beautiful steel springs of the gunlocks, for example. It was hopeless for really large-scale production work. For that they'd need horse- or water-powered wire-drawing equipment, something else he'd needed a month ago at the latest but would be lucky to see before their unborn child was old enough to walk.
    Kalvan wondered if the primitive state of large-scale metallurgy was the result of economics, military tactics, deliberate interference by Styphon's House or a combination of the three. Certainly the good small arms and poor artillery made for a lot of small political units instead of a few large ones. The large ones could have generated enough revenue to make their rulers independent of Styphon's House, particularly if the economic surplus also supported an educated class—something like the medieval monastic orders. Of course, such a class would be an intolerable threat to the fireseed secret.
    If that series of guesses was anywhere near the truth, Kalvan now understood why Styphon's House was rumored to be preaching the next thing to a war of extermination against the temple of Dralm. The priests of Dralm would be more than ready to be such an educated class—with a little help from Kalvan I of Hos-Hostigos.
    Kalvan decided he really didn't want to ride home tonight and poured himself some more wine. "Mytron, I meant what I said about rewarding Ermut. I'm going to charter a Royal Guild of Papermakers as soon as there's any paper to make, and he'll be one of the first masters."
    "He deserves the honor, Your Majesty. He's done the same as he did with the animal fats on other work here."
    "Then he has the makings of a Scientist."
    "A what?"
    "A kind of priest in my own land, one who was sworn to seek new knowledge. Ermut has stumbled upon one of their methods. It was called 'Experimenting.'"
    " Experimenting ." Mytron rolled the word around on his tongue several times. "And these Scientists —priests—what gods did they worship?"
    "Seldom the gods of my own land. They were not good gods, and did not help a man to know much. Although some of the Scientists served in the temples of Atombomb the Destroyer. They were free to choose to worship any god or none at all. Their oaths concerned how they were to do their work and not hide it from others or tell lies about what they had learned.
    "Most of them did work in temples called Universities . Some of these were as large as Hostigos Town before the war with Styphon's House." Now Hostigos Town was the thriving capital of a new Great Kingdom and fast on its way to becoming a city.
    "The Scientists must have been very rich. Or did your Great King pay them?"
    "All were rich by Hostigos standards. Some were in the pay of Great King LBJ, but most worked for the Universities . If Dralm and Galzar give us victory in the coming War of the Great Kings, I mean to found such a University in Hos-Hostigos. There men such as Ermut will teach Experimentation , Deduction, Invention and the other arts of the Scientific Method . Had there been such a place anywhere in the Great Kingdoms long ago, when the lying priests of Styphon proclaimed their Fireseed Mystery, its Scientists could have flung that lie in their teeth.
    "Mytron, your work in the paper mill will end when you have taught all you know and chosen someone fit to replace you. When do you think that will be?"
    Mytron frowned. ""No less than five moons, Your Majesty. But not much more than that either. Why?"
    Kalvan smiled. "Good, Mytron. The time has come to found a University of Hostigos. I want you to be head of the new University — Rector would be your title."
    Mytron frowned even more deeply. "My first duty is to Allfather Dralm. I cannot forsake him."
    With equal care,