The Clocks

The only thing Paolo's parents noticed over the next two months was that he was spending a great deal more time in his room than was his wont. That and that there were frequently a number of books missing from the family library. They assumed, rightly, that he was studying his head off. They also assumed, wrongly, that it was so his father would buy him the desk he coveted. The thought that he intended to buy it himself never crossed their minds.

Betting on the exams was not allowed in the final week before they took place, so they had seven weeks to get their plan organized. Both had intuitively realized that if either one of them went to one of the higher class bookies and wagered all their money on someone, the odds would instantly be adjusted against them. Instead, they executed their plans very carefully.

Not wanting to rush things, which might make the bookies start to compare notes, each of them visited two or three a day, with Paolo wagering as little as 12 silver grossi with some bookies in the less affluent districts, or as much as 10 ducats with another. Their techniques, while substantially different, ended up giving the same impression.

Paolo would say something like, "There's this girl at the Chapman School. She's really smart, and really pretty, and I think she's going to do well in the City Exams, so I want to be able to tell her that I've bet something on her." Each bookmaker instantly figured that he wanted to show this girl his receipt as a means of manipulating her into going out with him. When the bookies found that he also wanted to bet on her to place first, he found himself being offered initial odds anywhere from 30 to 40 to 1. They might have been better, but she was on the list of the top 500 students in The City, albeit only at number 441.

Once in a while, when he was with friends who knew he was smarter than he let on, he subtly dropped hints that he'd bet on Sara. Several of them also ended up placing bets on her, usually to be in the top five or top ten. The odds gradually dropped lower, but that also served Paolo's purpose, which was to be one of several betting on a girl who was slowly becoming well enough known to have formal odds listed on the bookie's boards.

After seeing this, a number of people who had nothing in mind but what they'd win if that "long shot girl" won, also placed bets on her, which suited the bookies perfectly. Having another, apparently weak, competitor on the board allowed them to shorten the odds on the stronger contenders a hair. Regardless of who won, they'd make money, just as the house always does.

Sara used a different tactic entirely. She'd approach the bookie, holding her elbows tightly against her sides, with her arms bent, her palms facing upwards, and making her hands into fists. Then she'd lean forward and make an ingenuously vague but enthusiastic expression. "There's this boy, uh, you know, and, ah, well, I think he's going to do well in the exams, so I, uh, want to bet on him. Is that all right?"

They'd ask his name, and look through the book listing the top 500 students in The City. When they didn't find him, they'd beam at her and say, "Of course you can. How much are you interested in betting?"

She split her bets between top five and top 10. She believed in him, and she knew how smart he was, but what she didn't know was how much he could catch up after slacking off for the past six years. In her case she got initial odds of between 15 to 1 and 25 to 1. The bookies thought that they were cheating her outrageously, when his odds, even for a top ten placement, should have been more like 50 to 1.

Sara was content with the odds though, as she was wagering about five times as much as Paolo was. Ever since she had turned 15, the legal age for gambling up to 20 ducats, she'd been slowly building her savings with her winnings. Like Paolo, she didn't want to draw too much attention, and, like him, had let a few people know about what he was going to try to do. Unlike him though, all of the people she talked to were adults, and each person she picked out was one of those who hadn't been fooled by his act. They were from all over The City, and in total wagered enough that her payouts would be tiny compared to theirs, and thus unremarkable.

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What with there being well over 1,000,000 ducats wagered on the results of the exams each year, there were at least a tiny number of people willing to cheat in order to make sure that the ones they had bet on won. Fortunately there was a much larger group of people who wanted to make sure that nobody cheated, and they were willing to go to extreme lengths to prevent it. This latter group consisted of almost every merchant in The City, all the casinos, the bookies, the Duchess, and the Guard.

The merchants and casinos wanted to be sure that the party surrounding the exams took place every year, and that it stayed very, very large. They stood to lose a lot of money if it didn't. If a cheating scandal arose, the number of visitors coming to town for the celebration the next year would plummet, as would their profits.

The Duchess didn't want the reputation of The City, and thus hers by extension, tarnished by any cheating.

And then there was the Guard. Their interest was much more pragmatic. The didn't want to have to bother with quelling brawls and investigating the random, and not so random, murders that had accompanied the few episodes of cheating that occurred in the past centuries -- before the current safeguards were put in place.

Each year, before the tests were distributed, public announcements were made reciting the law regarding disclosure, in any form, of the questions prior to the test. Inasmuch as the tests were considered public documents, and manipulating the contents of public documents affected the entire population (at least to some degree), the penalty for so doing was life on the road gangs. As a matter of fact, falsification of public documents was the only crime where there was no appeal allowed once one was convicted. There was no statute of limitations for this crime either. Even the penalties for killing someone were sometimes less severe.

Said safeguards were perhaps a tad more than were necessary. In fact some considered them draconian, but the appearance of honesty was as important as the real thing. In addition to the anti-cheating law, all students competing in the exams had to be identified by two staff from their school before they were allowed into the exam rooms. Only 12 students were allowed in each room, three in each of four widely separated rows. Even then the exams were different for each student insofar as the questions appeared in a different order on each exam, although the questions were the same otherwise. It's rather difficult to copy the answer to a question if those near to you are working on different problems.

Each exam was numbered, and checking the numbers as the exams were distributed to the examinees, and then again when gathered, was done by two people, one from the school and one from the Guard or Militia. Once the time for each day's tests had expired, two members of the Guard or Militia entered each room and escorted the proctor to the street. Once there, the tests were placed in a locked chest that was escorted by a half squad of Militia. The master list matching examinee to each numbered test was held only by the Duke or Duchess so nobody knew who had written which test until the grading was finished.

At The Residence each subject was graded by those of the appropriate discipline. In subjects where essays were required, at least three people reviewed each. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation were scored as well as clarity and logic. (It should be said that interpretations of history and philosophy that were...shall we say...unconventional, were common. But they could be graded as highly as those supporting the official position, IF the arguments presented made sense. In cases of significant disagreement, the final determination was made by scholars brought in each year from Rome.)

Once again, this could be considered significant overkill, since any essay that could result in such spirited discourse was invariably written by someone who excelled in the exams as a whole. Even so, nobody was ever inclined to do away with that rule, especially the visiting scholars. Those evaluating the controversial papers rarely had the time or incentive to get together otherwise, and, outside of their brief scoring duties, they tended to spend their time in The City partying and saying nasty things about each other's research. In other words, they had a great deal of fun and always left with a strong desire to return the following year.

By the day of the announcement of the results, always the Monday following the exams, every inn in and around The City, and all temporary lodgings in The City were always full. Hundreds more people camped on the public greenways outside the city walls. An hour prior to the announcement of the names of the top ten students, and the posting of the names of the rest of the top 100, one member of the Guard or Militia and also one soldier from the army post nearby were assigned to protect each of The City's bookmakers. First of all, they didn't want any of them to run away without paying their debts. Secondly, they didn't want riots resulting from all the winners trying to get paid at the same time. Not to mention that there had been some occasions in the past where thieves had attempted to steal whatever they could get their hands on in the confusion.

The casinos were expected to provide their own security.

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On the morning of the third day after the exams, the square in front of the Ducal Residence was nearly full an hour ahead of time. The main streets leading up to it were almost as crowded. A large number of lives were about to be changed, and nobody wanted to miss the show, or the opportunities. By law and custom, the area directly in front of the gates was reserved for the examinees.

Even though slightly over 2,000 had taken the exam, only those who knew that they'd done well, and those who hoped that they'd done well claimed a place. Therefore it was most common that only about 400 examinees appeared.

A fair number of the audience were businessmen, naval and army officers, and representatives of various Crown offices who had traveled to The City for the sole purpose of hearing the results. It had been discovered several centuries earlier that any graduate who scored in the top 100 in this particular city had the potential to excel in whatever field of endeavor they chose. The recruiters who had gathered had an intense desire to be those whose businesses were so chosen. Most would receive a substantial bonus for hiring one of the top 100. In the highly unlikely event that they snagged one of the top 10, the bonuses were tripled. Should the person hired do well, or exceedingly well, the one who hired them could receive the same amount as another bonus five years later.

Most of the students present had their futures already planned, but there were always some who were as of yet undecided, and others willing to change their plans if given a large enough incentive.

Promptly at 10 a.m., the decorative, wrought-iron, inner gates of The Residence swung open, Duchess Henrietta strode to the temporary stand erected for the event, and the crowd hushed. She was a no-nonsense person, though one with a wicked sense of humor when in private, and she disdained the "frippery" of horn fanfares and such.

The first time she'd spoken in public, when she was 19 years old, some few people in the crowd had continued their personal conversations. The Duchess had stopped speaking and had the Guard remove the offenders from the room. Ever since then, her audiences had been most attentive. Fortunately she always had something interesting to say and, even more fortunately, had the ability to convey what she wanted concisely. Nobody ever complained about her being boring.

Thus she began speaking immediately after mounting the stand, "This year was most unusual, for three reasons. First of all, there won't be a listing of the top 100 this year. Instead we will be posting 108 names. The final 37 examinees had nearly identical scores, and it would be a dis-service to them and to the community as a whole not to recognize them properly. Secondly, the scores of these top 108 averaged 21 points above the average for the top 100 in the past 50 years. Denying such excellence would be a crime.

"Oh, and one other thing. We are not differentiating the rankings of these 37 people. Therefore each will be ranked as number 71 for the purposes of determining the results of people's bets. Our bookmakers may be a bit upset, but, if they think about it for a while, denying payment for bets made in good faith would likely result in various unpleasantnesses for them at the hands of the bettors.

"The final bit of unusual news is that many of The City's bookmakers will find that they have either made more or less money than they anticipated. I say this as even I, with all my resources, was only able to predict the names of four of the top 10. The other six surprised me, pleasantly, as I do hate being bored, and these, ah, 'upsets' is what I suppose you can call them, were definitely surprising.

"Now, without further ado, I'll begin as always with the name of the person with the highest score. I should like to add that this person received not only the highest score this year, but the maximum possible score. The last time someone managed this extraordinary achievement was 83 years ago. I should also like to add that her future plans have already been made, and I will not be pleased should any of you gentle-beings from out of town try to hire her. Do I make myself clear?"

Seeing nodding and not a few pale faces in the crowd, she smiled down at them and said, "Very well. Sara Macklin stand forward. You are this year's top scorer."

The announcement was initially met by dead silence as very few people knew her at all much less that she was a good student. Then the silence was punctured here and there by the raucous shouting of those who had bet on her, and good-hearted cheering by her friends, some of her other classmates, and her proud parents.

The name the duchess next announced, once Sara had come to stand beside her, was prefaced by, "This young woman is one of those I personally predicted would do well. I almost wish that I were allowed to bet on this, but that could have been considered cheating. Oh well... Kaho Fukui, come forward."

A willowy young woman whose face was suffused with a brilliant blush came forward with careful steps, bowing to one and all as she passed. As her results HAD been generally expected to be excellent, her name was met with substantial and general applause.

"Now for our third place finisher. Frankly this young man is one who I had never before heard of as a contender. However, after learning the names of our top scorers last night, I arranged a meeting with his parents for early this morning so I could find out something about him...and so I wouldn't look like an idiot when I announced his name and had nothing to say. As I now have met his parents, and heard his story, I do have something pertinent to say, and that is this: Those who act due to strong motivation can exceed even their own expectations. Paolo Donetti you are a fine example of what such motivation can accomplish."

Everyone from his class cheered wildly, having mistakenly assumed that he studied so hard in order to impress Sara. A few others cheered because they had followed Sara's advice and had bet on him. Again the impression left on the crowd was in accord with Sara and Paolo's planned misdirection.

Soon the names of the seven other top scorers were announced, and all 10 had gathered on the stand to the right hand of the Duchess. She wrapped up her part of the ceremony by shaking the hands of each while the Guard posted two copies of the names of the other 98 top scorers. Each was placed 20 meters to either side of the gate so as to keep the crowds checking the results from interfering with the passage of those needing to enter The Residence on business.

The Duchess finished by saying, "You are all well begun, and I expect that you will all continue to do well in your service to your families, your cities, and your countries."

Then she scowled at them and added, "Now don't you disappoint me. If you do I'll be very upset, and you don't want me upset with you, do you?"

All shook their heads "no" in unison, each looking a bit desperate.

Henrietta winked and grinned at them then took herself back into The Residence. Unlike most of the others in the square, she still had a great deal of work to do.