charge that – well, stuff’s been happening. You hear about it all over, only folks are too scared to talk about it out loud. For fear of people saying they’re crazy, you know?”
Theo nodded slowly. “Since the new guy’s been in charge.”
“Exactly. All kinds of screwy stuff. I’m not saying,” the baker added quickly, “that he’s not better than the old duke in a lot of ways, a whole lot of ways. Like, the emancipation of the serfs, ending the civil war, doing away with the whole droyt-de-seynyewer thing, all really good stuff, nobody’s gonna argue with that, he’s done a lot for the ordinary folks. Poor relief. Free visits to the doctor when you’re sick, all that. Real enlightened. But.”
“But?”
“That doesn’t make up for the screwy stuff, that’s what I say.” The baker was sweating. “No way. Me, I’d rather have the old ways back and no crazy stuff. At least you knew where you stood, you know? Like, you take the bakery business, and these new laws.”
“I’m not from around here,” Theo said.
“Ah. Figures,” the baker added, squinting at Theo’s clothes. “Well, one of the laws the new duke passed, every baker in the duchy’s got to have doughnuts available, any hour of the day or night, every day of the year, and there’s got to be a bakery stall every half-mile along all the turnpike roads, we got a duty roster nailed up in the Guild house, it’s murder. Plays hell with business, I’m telling you. But it’s the law, so what can you do?”
Theo nodded sympathetically. “That’s a very strange law,” he said.
“You’re telling me. I mean, take me, when it’s my turn I’ve gotta set up my stall out in the sticks somewhere, no passing trade, complete waste of my time, I’ve got a perfectly good shop back in town, on which I got to pay rent, but instead I got to come out here, waste a whole day, maybe sell a couple of muffins and a slice of shortbread, if I’m lucky. And if I’m unlucky, that fat bastard comes along and vanishes at me. It’s not right, I’m telling you. That’s no way to run a duchy. Well, is it?”
“Barbaric, if you ask me,” Theo said.
“You bet it’s barbaric. And if you say no, I’m not doing it, next thing you know there’s soldiers banging on your door in the middle of the night and you’re never heard of again. That’s tyranny, is what it is, and folks aren’t going to stand for it, I’m telling you.”
“That’s right,” Theo said, his hand creeping slowly towards the tray of doughnuts. “Someone ought to do something.”
“That’s what I keep saying,” the baker hissed back. “Someone damn well ought to—”
With a degree of speed and agility he wouldn’t have thought himself capable of, Theo lunged for the nearest doughnut. If the baker saw him do it, he wasn’t quick enough to react. A split second later, the doughnut was in Theo’s hand, moving through the air, drawing level with his eye. Through the hole he caught of fleeting glimpse of the baker’s agonised face, then –
He sat up sharply, dislodging the bottle, which rolled off the bed and landed, with a thump but unbroken, on the floor. A faint crackle told him he was sitting on the manila envelope. His watch showed eighteen minutes past ten.
The envelope was noticeably thicker than it had been. He peered inside and found a glossy brochure. It was full of beautiful photos of exotic-looking places – beaches, mountains, forests, castles – and the accompanying text was in Russian. Oh well.
Not that it mattered, because nothing on earth would ever induce him to go through all that again. He wasn’t at all sure what had just happened to him, but one thing he was certain about was that it shouldn’t have, whatever it was; it had been weird and impossible, and as a scientist he refused to believe –
Blessed are those who have seen, and yet have believed. Some kind of really advanced computer simulation – no, he couldn’t quite accept that, it had been too real, the smell of the warm earth, the slight stickiness of the doughnut… He rubbed his forefinger and thumb together. Sticky.
Talking of which – he looked down at his right arm, but there was nothing to see. He flexed the fingers. They were sticky too. But the watch on his left wrist appeared to be working perfectly.