Science Fiction: Welcome to my Worlds

might have just offended someone who could have her drawn and quartered without a second thought. “I, I, was sent here by Master Diokles, sir. No offense intended. I am to help Tellus with the Sumerian translations.”

The old man showed a brief spark of surprise but his gaze was quickly recaptured by the open pages beckoning. “Well, off with you then.” He waved vaguely in the direction she’d been traveling. “He’s down there somewhere.”

Calixte let her breath out, not realizing she’d been holding it. He was so absorbed he wasn’t likely to notice her further, so she slipped quietly away down the wide corridor. She hadn’t realized the Archive was so big. And had so many odd smells. Her nose wrinkled as she tried to shut out a sharp sour stench that drifted from a doorway ahead. Curiously she peered in, then gasped in dismay. A naked man lay tied to a table moaning in agony.

“Curses on you Herophilus and your ancestors to the end of time,” the man on the table gasped in Egyptian. “Plagues and poxes aplenty, though even that is too good for the likes of you who would defile the human form and cut it open like a sow to be slaughtered.”

Now she could see that the chest of the man on the table was sliced and torn and his ribs were held apart by wooden sticks, exposing his beating heart. Calixte couldn’t help herself. “Why have you done this? Such torture is barbaric!”