The Year of Rice and Salt

Bahram faced Shamiana Ridge and dropped open the box lantern's door, then waved it back and forth. In a moment they saw the yellow gleam of Iwang's lantern, perfectly visible just below the black line of the ridge. 'Good,' Khalid said. 'Now cover.' Bahram pulled up his door, and Iwang's lantern went dark as well.

Bahram stood on Khalid's left. The clock and lantern were set on a folding table, and fixed together in an armature that would open the door of the lantern and start the finger of the clock in one motion. Khalid's forefinger was on the tab that would stop the clock short. Khalid muttered 'Now,' and Bahram, his heart pounding absurdly, flicked the armature tab down, and the light on Iwang's lantern appeared on the Shamiana Ridge in that very same moment. Surprised, Khalid swore and stopped the clock. 'Allah preserve us!' he exclaimed. 'I was not ready. Let's do it again.'

They had arranged to make twenty trials, so Bahram merely nodded while Khalid checked the clock by a shielded second lantern, and had Paxtakor mark down the time, which was two beats and a third.

They tried it again, and again the light appeared from Iwang the same moment Bahram opened their lantern. Once Khalid became used to the speed of the exchange, the trials all took less than a beat. For Bahram it was as if he was opening the door on the lantern across the valley; it was shocking how fast Iwang was, not to mention the light. Once he even pretended to open the door, pushing lightly then stopping, to see if the Tibetan was perhaps reading his mind.

'All right,' Khalid said after the twentieth trial. 'It's a good thing we're only doing twenty. We would get so good we would begin to see theirs before we opened ours.'

Everyone laughed. Khalid had become snappish during the trials themselves, but now he seemed content, and they were relieved. They made their way down the hill to town talking loudly and drinking from the wine bag, even Khalid, who very seldom drank any more, though it had once been one of his chief pleasures. They had tested their reflexes back in the compound, and so knew that most of their trials had been timed at that very same speed, or faster. 'If we throw out the first trial, and average the rest, it's going to be about the same speed as our procedure itself.'

Bahram said, 'Light must be instantaneous.'

'Instantaneous motion? Infinite speed? I don't think Iwang will ever agree to that notion, certainly not as a result of this demonstration alone.'

'What do you think?'

'Me? I think we need to be farther apart. But we have demonstrated that light is fast, no doubt of that.'

They traversed the empty ruins of Afrasiab by taking the ancient city's main north-south road to the bridge. The servants began to hurry ahead, leaving Khalid and Bahram behind.

Khalid was humming urimusically, and hearing it, remembering the full pages of the old man's notebooks, Bahram said, 'How is it you are so happy these days, Father?'

Khalid looked at him, surprised. 'Me? I'm not happy.'

'But you are!'

Khalid laughed. 'My Bahram, you are a simple soul.'

Suddenly he waved his right wrist with its stump under Bahram's nose. 'Look at this, boy. Look at this! How could I be happy with this? Of course I couldn't. It's dishonour, it's all my stupidity and greed, right there for everyone to see and remember, every day. Allah is wise, even in his punishments. I am dishonoured for ever in this life, and will never be able to recover from it. Never eat cleanly, never clean myself cleanly, never stroke Fedwa's hair at night. That life is over. And all because of fear, and pride. Of course I'm ashamed, of course I'm angry – at Nadir, the Khan, at myself, at Allah, yes Him too! At all of you! I'll never stop being angry, never!'

'Ah,' Bahram said, shocked.

They walked along a while in silence, through the starlit ruins.