“Ahem!” said the king, and both went quiet, glaring at Lenora. The king gave them a look of admonishment and addressed her. “Centuries ago, our scientists put a giant calendar on a screen in the sky, so everyone in the kingdom would always know what day it was. We got so used to it that we forgot how to tell the dates ourselves. Then yesterday, at midnight, the error message suddenly appeared. Now no one knows what day it is, and my kingdom is on the verge of collapse.”

“Well,” said Lenora, after a moment’s thought, “what day was it yesterday?”

The crowd murmured again. Lenora wished they would stop doing that.

The King of Starpoint Seventeen’s brow furrowed. It was a tiny, almost imperceptible furrow. “I really don’t know,” he said, in the voice of a small, ever so slightly unconfident boy. “It’s embarrassing, I admit. But we never had to bother remembering before. The screen just told us.” He gestured toward a sweating, nervous-looking man in the corner. “My court scientist is prepared to reset the calendar and save my kingdom, but he can’t do that until we know the date.”

Lenora turned to Bendigeidfran. “Any chance that’s in one of the memory chips you’ve still got?”

The crowd gasped.

“Maybe, but…” The robot hesitated. “I have been getting extra confused on dates in particular.”

“Think hard,” said Lenora encouragingly.

Bendigeidfran thought hard. His eyes went an intense purple. Finally, he replied, “I think … it might have been February 28, 8000.”

“Right!” gasped the king. He looked relieved. “I remember now!”

“Excuse me,” sniffed the Court Historian. “As Your Majesty knows, I went to the history books right away when the error message appeared. And if yesterday was February 28, then it is clear that today should be February 29.” He peered down his nose at Lenora. She wondered if his authority felt threatened. “As I told you, Your Majesty, we didn’t need a librarian at all!”

Lenora began to get a feeling. She’d just been reading about this in her book. “Why do you think it is February 29?”

“Because,” sighed the Court Historian, rolling his eyes, “according to ancient records from the year 5739, there’s something called a leap year in any year that can be divided by four. In a leap year, the date goes from February twenty-eighth to the twenty-ninth!”

“8000 can be divided by four,” piped up the Court Mathematician. “We hardly need a librarian to determine THAT!”

Lenora’s feeling became a theory. She was about to speak when the king interrupted.

“Then it is settled!” he cried. “Reset the calendar!”

The Court Scientist grasped a lever in a wall nearby.

For an instant, Lenora hesitated. Everyone in the court seemed so sure of themselves. But she had a theory, and she knew she must be brave, or disaster would surely follow.

“Wait!” she shouted. “Stop!”

CHAPTER FIVE

Lenora Saves the Day