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It was Vorbis's voice Brutha hurried out into the courtyard and into Vorbis's cell

"Ah, Brutha"

"Yes, lord?"

Vorbis was sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring at the wall

"You are a younga new place," said Vorbis "No doubt there is much you wish to see"

"There is?" said Brutha Vorbis was using the exquisitor voice again-a level monotone, a voice like a strip of dull steel

"You s, Brutha Learn everything you can You are my eyes and ears And my memory Learn about this place"

"Er Really, lord?"

"Have I ie, Brutha?"

"No, lord"

"Go away Fill yourself And be back by sunset"

"Er Even the Library?" said Brutha

"Ah? Yes, the Library The Library that they have here Of course Crae I can see it in ine that?"

"No, Lord Vorbis"

"Your innocence is your shield, Brutha No By all o to the Library I have no fear of any effect on you "

"Lord Vorbis?"

"Yes?"

"The Tyrant said that they hardly did anything to Brother Murduck"

Silence unrolled its restless length

Vorbis said, "He lied"

"Yes" Brutha waited Vorbis continued to stare at the wall Brutha wondered what he saw there When nothing else appeared to be forthco, he said, "Thank you"

He stepped back a bit before he went out, so that he could squint under the deacon's bed

He's probably in trouble, Brutha thought as he hurried through the palace Everyone wants to eat tortoises

He tried to look everywhere while avoiding the friezes of unclad nymphs

Brutha was technically aware that woe until he elve, by which time some of his conteed early h any activity involving any part of the human anatomy between neck and knees was more or less Sinful in any case

Brutha wished he was a better scholar so he could ask his God why this was

Then he found hient God so it could answer

He hasn't screaht I' hi one of the statues directed him to the Library Brutha pounded down an aisle of pillars

When he reached the courtyard in front of the Library it was croith philosophers, all craning to look at so that showed that philosophical discourse was under way

In this case:

"I've got ten obols here says it can't do it again!"

"Talkingyou don't hear every day, Xeno"

"Yeah And it's about to say goodbye"

"Look, don't be stupid It's a tortoise It's just doing adance"

There was a breathless pause Then a sort of collective sigh

"There!"

"That's never a right angle!"

"Come on! I'd like to see you do better in the circu now?"

"The hypotenuse, I think"

"Call that a hypotenuse? It's wiggly"

"It's not wiggly It's drawing it straight and you're looking at it in a wiggly way!"

"I'll bet thirty obols it can't do a square!"

"Here's forty obols says it can"

There was another pause, and then a cheer

"Yeah!"

"That's ram, if you ask me," said a petulant voice

"Listen, I knows a square when I sees one! And that's a square"

"All right Double or nothing then Bet it can't do a dodecagon"

"Hah! You bet it couldn't do a septagon just now"

"Double or nothing Dodecagon Worried, eh! Feeling a bit avis domestica? Cluck-cluck?"

"It's a shame to take your money"

There was another pause

"Ten sides? Ten sides? Hah!"

"Told you it wasn't any good! Whoever heard of a tortoise doing geometry?"

"Another daft idea, Didactylos?"

"I said so all along It's just a tortoise"

"There's good eating on one of those things"

Thepast Brutha without paying hiliures Orubby pair of philosophers, counting out a pile of coins

"How did we do, Urn?" said Didactylos

"We're fifty-two obols up, s improve Pity it didn't know the difference between ten and twelve, though Cut one of its legs off and we'll have a stew"

"Cut off a leg?"

"Well, a tortoise like that, you don't eat it all at once"