A Blink of the Screen

of course I didn’t think there was a mystic king out there. I kept telling myself that. But there was a good chance that there was a lad who looked good on a horse and was bright enough to take advice from any wizardly types who happened to be around. Like I said, I’m a practical man.
    Anyway … what was I saying? Oh, yes. All the mechanical ways of doing it I had to rule out. That left electricity. Strange thing is, it’s a lot easier to make a crude electrical generator than a crude steam engine. The only really critical things are the bearings.
    And the copper wire.
    It was Nimue who eventually sorted that one out.
    ‘I’ve seen ladies wearing fine jewellery with gold and silver wires in it,’ she said. ‘The men who made them must know how to do it with copper.’
    And of course she was right. I just wasn’t thinking straight. They just pulled thin strips of metal through tough steel plates with little holes in them, gradually bullying it into smaller and smaller thickness. I went to London and found a couple who could do it, and then I got a blacksmith to make up some more drawplates because I didn’t want wire in jewellery quantities but in industrial amounts. I’d already got quite a reputation then, and no one asked me what I needed it for. I could have said, ‘Well, half of it will be for the generator, and the rest will be for the electro magnets in the stone,’ and what would they have known? I had another smith make me up some soft iron cores and the bearings, and Nimue and I spent hours winding the wire and shellacking every layer.
    Getting the motive power was simpler. The country was thick with mills. I chose a tide mill, because it’s dependable and this one was on an impressive stretch of coast. I know the legend said it was done in London or Winchester or somewhere, but I had to go where the power was and, anyway, it looked good, there on the shore with the surf pounding on the rocks and everything.
    The stone was the easy bit. There’s been a crude concrete technology ever since the Romans. Though I say it myself, I made a quite nice-looking stone around the electromagnets. We got it finished days before the day I’d set for the big contest. We’d put up a big canvas shield around it, although I don’t think any of the locals would have come near it for a fortune.
    Nimue operated the switch while I slid the sword in and out.
    ‘That means you’re king,’ she said, grinning.
    ‘Not me. I haven’t got what it takes to rule.’
    ‘Why? What does it take?’
    ‘We’ll know when we see it. We’re looking for a boy with the air of authority. The kind of lad a war-weary people will follow.’
    ‘And you’re sure you’ll find him?’
    ‘If I don’t, the universe isn’t being run properly.’
    She’s got this funny way of grinning. Not exactly mocking, but it’s always made me feel uneasy.
    ‘And he’ll listen to you?’
    ‘He’d better. I’m the wizard around here. There’s not a man in the country I can’t out-think, my girl.’
    ‘I wish I were as clever as you, Mervin,’ she said, and grinned again.
    Silly little thing …
    And now back to the present. Time-travel! Your mind wanders. Back to this rocky shore. And the stone and the sword.
    Hold it … hold it …
    I think …
    Yes.
    This looks like the one.
    A slight young lad, not swaggering at all, but strolling up to the stone as if he’s certain of his fortune. Ragged clothes, but that’s not a problem, that’s not a problem, we can do something about those later.
    People are moving aside. It’s uncanny. You can see Destiny unfolding, like a deck-chair.
    Can’t see much under the hood. It’s one of those big floppy ones the peasants wear, but he’s looking directly at me.
    I wonder if he suspects? I wonder if he’s real?
    I wonder where he’s been hiding all these years?
    Well, never mind that now. Got to seize the moment. Shift my weight slightly, so my foot comes off the buried switch, cutting the current to the rock.
    Good lord, he’s not even making an effort. And up comes the sword, sweet as you like.
    And everyone’s cheering, and he’s waving the thing in the air, and the sun’s coming out and catching it in a way that even I couldn’t arrange.
Ting
.
    And it’s done. They’ll have to stop squabbling now. They’ve got their king and no one can argue with it, because they’ve all seen the miracle. Bright new future, etc., etc.
    And, of course, he’ll need some good advice from