The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [37]
“It couldn’t be a better perspective for a historian,” stated John. “To be able to document events not too distant to not have credible accounts, but with enough years past that there’s some objectivity.”
“Maybe,” Charles said, “but that’s not why I’m asking. Remember what Laura Glue said? She said that the ones coming for the children were Clockworks.”
“Impossible,” Artus said flatly. “After the disaster with the Parliament nine years ago, we outlawed the construction of Clockworks. The animals had the best of intentions, but they were too easily manipulated by Magwich.”
“The Clockworks? Or the animals?” asked John.
“Both,” said Artus. “It took eighteen months just to round up and destroy the false Parliament. The Queen of Spades was one of the harder ones to find. She managed to disguise herself as a cow. We might never have found her if she’d just kept out of the milking rotation.”
“Ouch,” said John.
“Oh, she was fine,” the king said. “But she beheaded three farmers before we caught her out.”
“So you did destroy them all?” asked Bert.
“For all intents and purposes,” said Artus. “The King of Hearts was the last—and we only found pieces of him.”
“My point,” said Charles, “is that Laura Glue did say she saw, and heard, the Clockwork Men coming. And I for one believe her.”
“What does that have to do with Roger Bacon?” said Jack.
“He’s the one who taught the secrets of building Clockworks to the animals,” said Bert. “Them, and Nemo, and no others. And he did it just about seven centuries ago.”
It took only a half hour for Solomon Kaw to locate the Histories of Roger Bacon, and there were many. Fortunately, they were also among the better-indexed books in the library, and so the companions were able to set aside all but a handful as unnecessary.
The remaining books were mostly thick vellum, lettered by hand in a crisp and pointed script. The books dating to the time in question included compilations of magic and mysteries from across the continents of the world: The Picatrix, from Arabia; the complete writings of Aristotle, from Greece; and many more.
Most interesting to the companions was a heavy book titled The Key of Solomon, which contained spells and formulas Bacon claimed had been created by the great Hebrew king himself. In the latter portion of the book were sketches and diagrams of machines, and annotations on how to build them. There were vehicles like Tummeler’s principle, the Curious Diversity; directions for building mechanical men and women, like the false kings and queens of the Parliament; and even rudimentary drawings of aircraft.
“These must be fakes,” said John. “Those are obviously sketches from Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks.”
Bert shook his head. “Leo swiped all of that from Bacon, who got much of it from King Solomon. The difference is, Bacon gave due credit to Solomon. Leo just preened about pretending to be a genius.”
“I’m astonished,” said Charles. “Leonardo Da Vinci?”
“He had a lot of potential,” said Bert, sighing. “Then Michaelangelo came along, and all bets were off. After that, it was all about trying to show up the newcomer.”
“Salieri and Mozart,” said John.
“Precisely,” agreed Bert. “Except Salieri didn’t have someone better to steal from. Leo had Roger Bacon.”
“At least we know the Mona Lisa was authentically his, anyway,” said Charles.
In response, Bert laid a finger along his nose and looked over the books they’d set aside. In a moment he’d found the one he wanted and opened it to a center-spread engraving, which he showed to Charles.
“My God,” Charles exclaimed. “Then who was she, really?”
“A kitchen maid from the court of King Edward,” said Bert. “I imagine she was smiling because Bacon was doing something profane while he sketched her.”
“Well, that’s one mystery solved,” said Charles.
“I think I’ve found something,” said Artus, who’d been reading as the others talked. “It’s in a Latin grammar, which he seems to have been developing as a primer for some of the languages in the Archipelago.”
Artus sat with the book, and the others crowded behind