"I still say she must have been the person the gamekeeper's boy saw taking leave of the Duke's guard," Colin said, breaking another handful from what was once a much longer loaf of bread. "The trim on her coat and the jewel she wore were just as you described them." 

"Perhaps," Conan said, chewing the last scraps of meat off a joint, "but it makes no sense. Why should the Duke give her a horse and a safe escort? Especially after what happened." 

Colin chuckled. "But she had nothing to do with that. You said yourself she and the Duke seemed on good terms when they left you. Who knows what happened? Anyway, the boy did not see which way she went at the crossroad. One can only assume she would have continued toward your destination or returned home. After the riot we caused, she would have no more luck trying to find you. What was your destination, by the way?" 

"A reference quest, not a known destination. We argued last about the interpretation of the signs at the marketplace." Conan scowled at the fire. "If we had gone my way, we would not have crossed paths with the Duke. But, the Prism was given to her." 

"Ah," Colin chewed and they both stared at the fire. "May one ask the nature of the quest? I am more familiar with the technical arts myself, but I am much in your debt for the rescue and all. I mean, if there's anything I could do to help..." 

Conan regarded his new friend. He was skinny and pale but his blue eyes were sincere and he had proved himself quick-witted and stronger than he looked. "How well do you know the talisman called the AACR2?" he asked at last. 

"Why, I have studied it of course. It is the heart of the Temple, as they say. Without it no knowledge can flow." 

"Ours was stolen." And Conan told Colin how he and Meta had followed the track of the Hyper-Cats to the marketplace. "And Meta still has the Prism, the charm we were given to track it. Even if she did not, we dare not enter the Duke's lands again to pick up the trail." He scowled at the picked-clean bone in his hands. "I will not return empty handed. Conan does not fail on a quest." 

The fire burned low. One of the horses shifted its weight. Colin stirred the fire and added a couple more branches. 

"What did you say," he said, "about you and Meta interpreting the signs at the marketplace differently? Maybe you were right. Maybe the trail lies not across the Duke's lands. Anyway, what other course do we have open?" 

"You're right!" Conan through the bone into the fire. "I will trust my own powers to read signs. The vendor sold charms for communication with the oracle, OCLC. In the morning we ride to Dublin!" 

"Dublin, then. Jolly good." Colin started to pack away what was left of the food, then stopped. "Here," he said, his eyes round as an owl's, "you don't mean the OCLC, the Mother of all Databases?" 

© 1994, by Hadley V. Baxendale

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