Epiphany of the Long Sun (39 page)

"Auk,
my son-"

He shooed Incus with the hanger. "You get back in the tunnel, Patera, before you get hurt. That's what Tartaros says, and he's right."

The floater was descending faster now, almost as though it were really falling. Watching it, Auk got the feeling it was, only not straight down the way other things fell. Until the last moment, it seemed it might come to rest upright; but it landed on the side of its cowling and tumbled over.

Something much higher was falling much faster, a tiny dot of black that seemed almost an arrow by the time it struck the ruined battlement of the Alambrera's wall, which again erupted in a gout of flame and smoke. This time masses of shiprock as big as cottages were flung up like chaff. Auk thought it the finest sight he had seen in his life.

"Silk here!" Oreb announced proudly, dropping onto his shoulder. "Bird bring!" A hatch opened at the front of the fallen floater.

"Hackum!" Chenille shouted. "Hackum, come on! We're going back in the tunnel!"

Auk waved to silence her. The wall of the Alambrera had taken its death blow. As he watched, cracks raced down it to reappear as though by magic in the shiprock side of the pit. There came a growl deeper than any thunder. With a roar that shook the ground on which he struggled to stand, the wall and the side of the pit came down together. Half the pit vanished under a scree of stones, earth, and shattered slabs. Coughing at the dust, Auk backed away.

"Hole break," Oreb informed him.

When he looked again, several men and a slender woman in scarlet were emerging from the overturned floater; its turret gun, unnaturally canted but pointing skyward, was firing burst after burst at the flying troopers.

"Return to the woman," the blind god told him. "You must protect her. A woman is vital. This is not."

He looked for Chenille, but she was gone. A few skeletal figures were disappearing into the hole from which he and she had emerged into the pit. Men from the floater followed them; through the billowing dust he could make out a white-bearded man in rusty black and a taller one in a green tunic.

"Silk here!" Oreb circled above two fleeing figures.

Auk caught up with them as they started down the helical track; Silk was hobbling fast, helped by a cane and the woman in scarlet. Auk caught her by the hair. "Sorry, Patera, but I got to do this." Silk's hand went to his waistband, but Auk was too quick-a push on his chest sent him reeling backward into the lesser pit.

"Listen!" urged the blind god beside Auk; he did, and heard the rising whine of the next bomb a full second before it struck the ground.

Silk looked down upon the dying augur's body with joy and regret. It was-had been-himself, after all. Quetzal and a smaller, younger augur knelt beside it, with a woman in an augur's cloak and a third man nearly as old as Quetzal.

Beads swung in sign after sign of addition: "I convey to you, Patera Silk my son, the forgiveness of all the gods."

"Recall now the words of Pas-"

It was good; and when it was over, he could go. Where? It didn't matter. Anywhere he wished. He was free at last, and though he would miss his old cell now and then, freedom was best. He looked up through the shiprock ceiling and saw only earth, but knew that the whole Whorl was above it, and the open sky.

"I pray you to forgive us, the living," the smaller augur said, and again traced the sign of addition, which could not-now that he came to think of it-ever have been Pas's. A sign of addition was a cross; he remembered Maytera drawing one on the chalkboard when he was a boy learning to do sums. Pas's sign was not the cross but the voided cross. He reached for his own at his neck, but it was gone.

The older augur: "I speak here for Great Pas, for Divine Echidna, for Scalding Scylla."

The younger augur: "For Marvelous Molpe, for Tenebrous Tartaros, for Highest Hierax, for Thoughtful Thelxiepeia, for Fierce Phaea, and for Strong Sphigx."

The older augur: "Also for all lesser gods."

The shiprock gave way to earth, the earth to a clearer, purer air than he had ever known. Hyacinth was there with Auk; in a slanting mass of stones, broken shiprock rolled and slid to reveal a groping steel hand. Glorying, he soared.

The Trivigaunti airship was a brown beetle, infinitely remote, the Aureate Path so near he knew it could not be his final destination.

He lighted upon it, and found it a road of tinsel down a whorl no bigger than an egg. Where were the lowing beasts? The spirits of the other dead? There! Two men and two women. He blinked and stared and blinked again.

"Oh, Silk! My son! Oh, son!" She was in his arms and he in hers, melting in tears of joy. "Mother!" "Silk, my son!"

The Whorl was filth and stink, futility and betrayal; this was everything-joy and love, freedom and purity.

"You must go back, Silk. He sends us to tell you."

"You must, my lad." A man's voice, the voice of which Lemur's had been a species of mockery. Looking up he saw the carved brown face from his mother's closet.

"We're your parents." He was tall and blue-eyed. "Your fathers and your mothers."

The other woman did not speak, but her eyes spoke truth.

"You were my mother," he said. "I understand."

He looked down at his own beautiful mother. "You will always be my mother. Always!"

"We'll be waiting, Silk my son. All of us. Remember."

***

Something was fanning his face.

He opened his eyes. Quetzal was seated beside him, one long, bloodless hand swinging as regularly and effortlessly as a pendulum. "Good afternoon, Patera Caldé. I would guess, at least, that it may be afternoon by now."

He lay on dirt, staring up at a shiprock ceiling. Pain stabbed his neck; his head, both arms, his chest, both legs, and his lower torso ached, each in its separate, painful way.

"Lie quietly. I wish I had water to offer you. How are you feeling?"

"I'm back in my dirty cage." Too late, he remembered to add
Your Cognizance
. "I didn't know it was a cage, before."

Quetzal pressed down on his shoulder. "Don't sit up yet, Patera Caldé. I'm going to ask a question, but you are not to put it to the test. It is to be a matter for discussion only. Do you agree?"

"Yes, Your Cognizance." He nodded, although nodding took immense effort.

"This is my question. We are only to speak of it. If I were to help you up, could you walk?"

"I believe so, Your Cognizance."

"Your voice is very weak. I've examined you and found no broken bones. There are four of us besides yourself, but-"

"We fell, didn't we? We were in a Civil Guard floater, spinning over the city. Did I dream that?"

Quetzal shook his head.

"You and I and Hyacinth. And Colonel Oosik and Oreb. And…"

"Yes, Patera Caldé?"

"A trooper-two troopers-and an old fencing master that someone had introduced me to. I can't remember his name, but I must have dreamed that he was there as well. It's too fantastic."

"He is some distance down the tunnel now, Patera Caldé. We have been troubled by the convicts you freed."

"Hyacinth?" Silk struggled to sit up.

Quetzal held him down, his hands on both shoulders. "Lie quietly or I'll tell you nothing."

"Hyacinth? For-for the sake of all the gods! I've got to know!"

"I dislike them, Patera Caldé. So do you. Why should either of us tell anyone anything for their sake? I don't know. I wish I did. She may be dead. I can't say."

"Tell me what happened, please."

Slowly, Quetzal's hairless head swung from side to side. "It would be better, Patera Caldé, for you to tell me. You've been very near death. I need to know what you've forgotten."

"There's water in these tunnels. I was in them before, Your Cognizance. In places there was a great deal."

"This is not one of those places. If you have recovered enough to grasp how ill you are and keep a promise, I'll find some. Do you remember blessing the crowds with me? Tell me about that."

"We were trying to bring peace-peace to Viron. Blood had bought it-Musk, but Musk was only a tool of Blood's."

"Had bought the city, Patera Caldé?"

Silk's mouth opened and closed again.

"What is it, Patera Caldé?"

"Yes, Your Cognizance, he has. He, and others like him. I hadn't thought of that until you asked. I'd been confusing the things."

"What things, Patera Caldé?"

"Peace and saving my manteion. The Outsider asked me to save it, and then the insurrection broke out, and I thought I would have saved it if only I could bring peace, because the people made me Caldé, and I would save it by an order." For a second or two, Silk lay silent, his eyes half closed. "Blood-men like Blood-have stolen the city, every part of it except the Chapter, and the Chapter has resisted only because you are at its head, Your Cognizance. When you're gone…"

"When I die, Patera Caldé?"

"If you were to die, Your Cognizance, they'd have it all. Musk actually signed the papers. Musk was the owner of record-the man whose body we burned on the altar, Your Cognizance. I remember thinking how horrible it would be if Musk were the real owner and clenching my teeth-puffing myself up with courage I've never really had and telling myself over and over that I couldn't allow it to happen."

"You're the only man in Viron who doubts your courage, Patera Caldé."

Silk scarcely heard him. "I was wrong. Badly mistaken. Musk wasn't the danger, was never the danger, really. There are scores of Musks in the Orilla, and Musk loved birds. Did I tell you that, Your Cognizance?"

"No, Patera Caldé. Tell me now, if you wish."

"He did. Mucor told me he liked birds, and he'd brought her a book about the cats she carried for Blood. When he saw Oreb, he said I'd gotten him because I wanted to be friends, which wasn't true, and threw his knife at him. He missed, and I believe he intended to miss. Blood, with his money and his greed for more, has done Viron more harm than all the Musks. Everything I've done has been trying to pry bits of the city from Blood. I was trying to save my manteion, I said; but you can't save just one manteion-I can't save our quarter and nothing else. I see that now. And yet I like Blood, or at least I would like to like him."

"I understand, Patera Caldé."

"Little pieces-the manteion, and Hyacinth and Orchid, and Auk, because Auk matters so much to Maytera Mint. Auk…"

"Yes, Patera Caldé?"

"Auk pushed me, Your Cognizance. We had been together in the floater, Hyacinth and I. Your Cognizance, too, and-and others. We were coming down, and Colonel Oosik-"

"You've made him Generalissimo Oosik," Quetzal reminded Silk gently.

"Yes. Yes, I did. He passed me the ear, and I talked to the convicts, telling them they were free, and then we hit the ground. We opened a hatch and Hyacinth and I climbed out-"

"I'm satisfied, Patera Caldé. Promise me you won't try to stand until I come back, and I'll look for water."

Silk detained him, clasping one boneless, bloodless hand. "You can't tell me what's happened to her, Your Cognizance?"

Again Quetzal's head swung from side to side, a slow and almost hypnotic motion.

"Then Auk has her, I don't know why, and I must get her back from him. What happened to me, Your Cognizance?"

"You were buried alive, Patera Caldé. When the floater crashed, some of us climbed out. I did, as you see, and you and your young woman, as you say. The fencing master, too, and your physician. I'm sure of those. The convicts were running to a hole in the ground to escape the shooting and explosions. Do you remember them?"

This time Silk was able to nod without much difficulty, although his neck was stiff and painful.

"There was a ramp down the side of the hole, and a break in this tunnel at the bottom. The fencing master and I ducked through. Almost at once there was another explosion, and the hole fell in behind us. We were lucky to have gotten in. Do you know my coadjutor's prothonotary, Patera Caldé?"

"I've met him, Your Cognizance. I don't know him well."

"He's here. I was surprised to see him, and he to see me. There is a woman with him called Chenille who says she knows you. They went into the tunnel yesterday, at Limna. They had been trying to reach the city."

"Chenille, Your Cognizance? A tall woman? Red hair?"

"Exactly so. She's an extraordinary woman. Soon after the explosion, the convicts attacked us. They were friendly at first, but soon demanded we give them Patera and the woman. We refused, and Xiphias killed four. Xiphias is the fencing master. Am I making myself clear?"

"Perfectly, Your Cognizance."

"We tried to dig our way out and found you. We thought you were dead, and Patera and I brought you the Peace of Pas. Eventually we stopped digging, having realized that the effort was hopeless. For a dozen men with shovels and barrows, two days might be enough."

"I understand, Your Cognizance.

"By then I was exhausted, though I had dug less than the woman. The others left to look for another way out. She and Patera are famished, and they have a tessera that they believe will admit them to the Juzgado. They promised to return for your body and me. I prayed for you after they had gone."

"Your Cognizance distrusts the gods."

"I do." Quetzal nodded, his hairless head bobbing on its long neck. "I know them for what they are. But consider. I believe in them. I have faith. You mentioned your quarter. How many there really believe in the gods? Half?"

"Less than that, I'm afraid, Your Cognizance."

"What about you, Patera Caldé? Look into your heart."

Silk was silent.

"I'll give you my thoughts, Patera Caldé. This young man believes, and he loves the gods even after seeing Echidna. I too believe, though I distrust them. He would want me to pray for him, and that's my office. I've done it often, hoping I wouldn't be heard. This time it's possible one will restore him, to prove she's not at bad as I think."

Faint yet unmistakable, the crack of a needler echoed down the tunnel.

"That will be Patera, Patera Caldé. We've been lucky in the matter of weapons. Xiphias has a sword, and had a small needler he said was yours. You left it on your bed, and he took charge of it for you. He gave it to the woman. We found a large one in your waistband. Patera took it, surprising me again. Our clergy have hidden depths."