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.It was a machine.Of course, she thought.He is a clock maker, after all, and an Argivian.The Argivians were always poking around the old ruins, trying to find powerful devices for their own use.“I built this, using my mind,” said Urza, and the fat man made a harrumphing noise.“That and using the services of Goodsir Rusko, maker of fine clocks,” the youth added.Let what I have built with my mind move your statue.”The large humanoid machine lumbered forward, and for a moment Kayla expected it to pitch over onto the stonework.As it walked, the Argivian stayed next to it, speaking to it, guiding each of its motions.The pair reached the statue.Urza pointed to one side of the statue, and the machine placed a hand, metal with fingers of polished wood, on that location.He pointed to the other side, and the machine placed its other hand there.Urza patted the side of the creature, and it began to lift.After the bellowers, screamers, and grunters, the silence that surrounded the artifact was eerie.There was a slight humming, like the space between the notes of Kayla’s music box.The metal humanoid bent at the knees (which seemed, from the princess’s vantage point, to be constructed backward) and slowly lifted the figure from the ground.There was a collective gasp from the crowd as daylight appeared beneath the jade statue.The construct pulled the statue straight up, holding it about a foot off the ground.Slowly the great machine spun on its hips, its spine rotating all the way around, so that its knees were pointing forward.Then slowly, the machine started to walk toward the opposite side of the court.It was slow going.The machine could hold the statue, but the courtyard had difficulty supporting both the machine and the statue.Paving stones crushed beneath the giant’s feet, and at one point, the great metal creature pitched precipitously to the right as the stones turned to dust beneath the weight of its tread.There was a whining noise as wires spooled through pulleys, and Kayla was sure she was about to see the mechanical equivalent of a groin pull.Urza was at the machine’s side at once, examining the problem and shouting orders.The great metal thing responded, tipped the other way, and at last reached its final destination.Urza gave one last command, and the machine set down the jade megalith so that it faced the royal dais.The crowd applauded.Some fled the stands to tell their friends the king’s statue had been defeated by a metal creature made by an Argivian.Kayla found herself on her feet applauding as well, but one glance at her father stopped her.His face was a storm cloud, and veins throbbed at his temples.Wordlessly he rose and turned away from the dais, thundering back into the palace.Ever dutiful, Kayla rose as well, but allowed herself the opportunity to look once more at the talented Argivian.He stood there in the center of the court, his machine next to him, the clock maker on the other side.The common people were already spilling into the courtyard to congratulate him.On his face was a wide, beaming smile.She decided it was a pleasant smile, and smiled back at him.She did not stop to see if he saw her mark of favor, but instead turned and followed her father through the palace doors.She only hoped the warlord would reach a room with thick walls before he exploded.*It took fifteen minutes for the warlord to stop cursing, and another fifteen before he was using coherent sentences.Kayla, the seneschal, Kayla’s matron, and a brace of nervous courtiers waited for the storm to abate before even venturing an opinion.“The temerity!” he shouted at the rafters.“The insult! How dare that … that …” His mouth opened and closed for a moment until he found the proper word.“Weed! That weed thinks he deserves my daughter’s hand in exchange for some parlor trick!”“Well,” said the trembling seneschal, “you did say her hand would go to whoever could move the statue.” The warlord grunted harshly.“And you did allow him to try,” said the seneschal, gathering strength as he spoke.“He said he would move the statue with his mind.”“But he didn’t!” bellowed the warlord.“That wind-up machine did all the moving!”“Well,” said the seneschal, “your daughter could marry the machine.”Kayla stifled a giggle, but the joke prompted another cascade of war-camp obscenities from the warlord.The seneschal fled under the assault, and, Kayla thought at the time, out of the discussion entirely.“And you!” roared the warlord, turning to his daughter, “what have you to say of all this?”“Say?” cried Kayla.She was suddenly indignant at being the target of his yelling
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