He reached for a bottle of bourbon.
"Would you like some?"
"What is it?" said Andre, cautiously.
"A beverage. No mystical potion, I promise you. It's made from a mash of corn and malt and rye. It's called whiskey. The effects of drinking it are much like drinking ale, only this is a far more potent brew."
He held out the bottle and Andre took it carefully.
Her eyes bulged after the first swallow and she coughed. "By God! You drink this swill?"
"It takes some getting used to," Hunter said, "because of its strength. Once you grow accustomed to the taste, you actually enjoy it."
"It does give a pleasant warmth," said Andre.
"Just drink a little," Hunter said. "To one who's never had a taste before, the effects can be overpowering, like giving ale to an infant."
"This knowledge of which you spoke," she said, "you called it a craft. Yet, there is a craft to magic, is there not? It is one thing to craft a suit of armor, and yet it is another to bring forth music from the empty air and to appear and disappear at will. How can this not be magic? And this black apparatus which gives forth heat—"
"Is called a stove," said Hunter. "Look." He kicked open the door, showing the flames inside. "Nothing but a fancy fireplace, only a more efficient one. All it is is metal to contain a fire of wood and coal."
"But will the metal not grow red and soft from the fire's heat?" said Andre.
"Not if it's made properly," said Hunter. "The metal is thick and the fire is never hot enough to soften it. Simple, isn't it?"
"And this metal tube?"
"Is just a chimney to carry the smoke away."
"And the music?"
"That's a little harder to explain," said Hunter.
"I will attempt to understand."
"Well ... let me put it this way. There are musical instruments with which you are familiar, such as the wood flute and the lute, for instance. There are other musical instruments which you have never heard of. They produce very different sounds. Look here," he said, showing her the sound system. "All this is is a device that records the sound of music made by musicians. Just as a monk records holy works on paper, through the art of writing, so this device records sounds. It reproduces them."
"How?"
"How. Good question. How do you explain electronic recording to a woman of the Middle Ages? Well, for now, you'll just have to be satisfied with this: there is a method of preserving sounds made by a musician. The method of preserving spoken words is called writing. One speaks, another writes those words down and later, still another who knows how to read can reproduce those words by reading what was written. In a way, this is similar, but the knowledge involved is far greater. This is a . . . tool . . . which preserves sounds, just as writing preserves words. Only with this tool, there is no need of reading. The tool records the sounds and then plays them back to you. It can even reproduce the sound of your own voice. Perhaps I'll show you, later."
"This is not magic?"
"No, it is a simple craft, but men will not know how to make such tools for many, many years to come."
"Then how have you learned this?"
Hunter sighed. "I was afraid you were going to ask that."
"The knowledge is secret, then."
"No, it's not a secret, it's just... very difficult to explain."
"I would like to learn, if this is possible."
"Oh, it's possible, all right, but you're going to have
to be very patient. And forbearing."