Epiphany of the Long Sun (52 page)

"How good of you to ask!" She displayed her stump of arm. "My hand's fine, my daughter. I've got it in a drawer, wrapped up in a clean towel. It's the rest of-we should go, Patera. He's waiting for you in front of the cenoby. He came in through the garden and knocked at your manse. I thought he was looking for Patera Gulo."

"I was shriving Chenille," Silk explained. "I'm afraid we didn't hear him."

"I did," Chenille declared, "only I thought it was on the street. It was while I was telling you about-" He silenced her, a finger to his lips.

"His name is Hossaan," Maytera Marble continued. "He's foreign, I think, but he says he knows you. He gave you a ride once, and he was on a boat with you out on the lake. Now where are you-? Oh, I forgot. He can't go through the cenoby."

The last words were spoken to Silk's back. At a limping run, he vanished into the narrow opening between the northwest corner of the manteion and the southwest corner of the cenoby.

"There's a gate," Maytera Marble explained to Chenille, "that opens onto the children's playground from Silver Street. But you and I can go through the cenoby."

She mounted the back step and opened the kitchen door. "My granddaughter's in here. I had just fixed her a bite when I saw that man. Do you know her?"

"Your granddaughter?" Chenille shook her head.

"Perhaps you'd enjoy a little boiled beef too?" Maytera Marble lowered her voice. "I think it's good for her to talk with other bio girls. She's been, well, sheltered, I suppose you could call it. And I have something to say to Patera before that man makes off with him. I have a favor to ask him, a great big one."

On Silver Street, Silk was already speaking to "that man." "I haven't been looking for you," he said. "It was stupid of me, incredibly stupid. I've had Guardsmen out combing the city for Hyacinth and some other people, but you had slipped my mind completely."

"We can talk in my floater, Caldé." Hossaan was slight and swarthy, with vigilant eyes. "It'll be more private and get us out of this wind."

"Thank you." Stepping into the floater, Silk let himself sink into its black-leather upholstery.

The translucent canopy went up with a muted sigh, and the freezing gusts that had been punishing Viron ended, if only for them.

"If your Guardsmen had looked, they would've found me." Hossaan smiled as he took his place in the front seat. "These things aren't easy to hide."

"I suppose not. I ran to see you as soon as I realized who you were because I want to ask where Hyacinth is. You brought her to Ermine's on Hieraxday to meet me."

Hossaan nodded.

"From your name-Maytera Marble told me that-you're a Trivigaunti. Is that right? Doctor Crane said once that you were his second in command. Most of the spies he employed seem to have been Vironese, but it would be natural for him to have a few from his own city, people he could trust completely."

"Only me, Caldé. You're right, though. More of us would have made us a lot more effective."

"Do you know where Hyacinth is?"

"No. I wish I did." Hossaan drew a deep breath. "You know, Caldé, you've taken a load off my shoulders. I thought I'd have to find out how much you knew and make sure you didn't learn more than you had to. It turns out you knew everything."

Silk shook his head. "Not at all. Doctor Crane and I made an agreement. I told him all I'd learned or guessed about his activities, and in return he answered my questions about them. I had guessed very little, and he told me very little more, not even his real name."

"It was Sigada." Hossaan smiled bitterly. "It means he was supposed to be handsome and humble."

"But he was neither. Thank you." Silk nodded. "Sigada. I'll always remember him as Doctor Crane, but I'm glad to know how he remembered himself. You weren't called Hossaan when you were at Blood's, I'm sure."

"No. Willet."

"I see. You didn't give that name to Maytera Marble; you gave her your real one. You can't have known that Doctor Crane had told me about you, because you can't have talked to him between our conversation Tarsday afternoon and his death on Hieraxday morning."

"I told you I didn't know how much you knew, Caldé."

"That's right." Futilely, Silk groped in a pocket of his robe. "Do you know, I don't have any prayer beads now? When I was a poor augur, I had beads in my pocket but no money. Now I have money, but no beads."

"An improvement. You can buy some."

"If I can find the time when the shops are open, and get into one without being mobbed. You said you were going to tell me no more than you had to; but plainly you intended to tell me you were a Trivigaunti spy."

"That's right. I was going to tell you because you would have known it from the news I came to give you. Generalissimo Siyuf is coming to reinforce you, with thousands of troopers. I just found out about it myself." Hossaan twisted in his seat until he was face-to-face with Silk. "It means your victory is assured, Caldé. If you're not defeated before she arrives, it will be impossible for you to be defeated at all." There was a timid tap on the canopy, and Hossaan said, "It's the sibyl."

Turning, Silk saw Maytera Marble's metal face, hardly a span from his. "Let her in, please. I can't imagine myself saying anything. I wouldn't want her to know-or hearing any such news or confidence, except in shriving."

The canopy retraced, and Maytera Marble entered, her long black skin and wide sleeves flapping in the wind. "I spoke to you, Patera, but you couldn't hear me."

"No," Silk said. "No, Maytera, I couldn't." He motioned to Hossaan and the canopy enclosed them as before.

"I don't want to interrupt, but seeing you in this machine I thought you might be about to leave. And…and…"

"I suppose we are, but not without Chenille. I want to take her with me. Is she in the cenoby?"

Maytera Marble nodded. "I'll go get her in a moment, Patera. She's eating."

"But first you want to tell me something. Is it about her, or," Silk hesitated, "your granddaughter, Maytera?"

"I wanted to ask you for something, Patera, actually. I realize that you and this foreign gentleman were conferring, and that it's important. But this won't take long. I'll ask and go."

"Hossaan is from Trivigaunte," Silk told her, "like your friend General Saba. They're our allies, as you must know, and I've just learned from Hossaan that they're sending more troops to help us."

"Why, that's wonderful!" Maytera Marble smiled, her head back and inclined to the right. "But after news like that my little problem will seem terribly insignificant, I'm afraid."

"I'm certain it won't, Maytera. You're not the sort who bothers others with insignificant problems." To Hossaan, Silk added, "Now I want to say that Maytera was to me what you were to Doctor Crane, but she was far more. I came to this manteion straight from the schola, and I'd been here only a bit over a year when Patera Pike died. Maytera saved me from making a fool of myself at least once a day." He paused, remembering. "Though I wish it had been more, because I did make a fool of myself often, in spite of all that she could do."

"I intrigued against you, too," Maytera Marble confessed. "I didn't hate you, or at least I told myself I didn't. But I obstructed and embarrassed you in small ways, telling myself that it was for your own good." Her voice grew urgent. "I don't have the
right
to ask favors. I know that, but-"

"Of course you do!"

"I can't manage it myself. I wish I could. I've prayed for the means, but I can't. Do you know Marl, Patera?"

"I don't think so." Silk, who knew few chems, exhausted his mental list quickly. "She-?"

"He, Patera."

"He can't attend our sacrifices. I can't even remember the last time I saw a chem there-except you, of course."

"There aren't many left," Hossaan put in, "here or in my own city. Is he a soldier?"

Maytera Marble shook her head. "He's a valet. He works for a man called Fulmar. I don't see him often at all, but I went over yesterday, my granddaughter and I did, and…"

"Go on, Maytera."

"I showed him my hand. The one that my-you know…"

Silk nodded, he hoped encouragingly. "It's better not to dwell on that, Maytera, I'm sure. You showed him your hand."

"I brought it in a little basket, wrapped up in a towel, because there's fluid that might leak out. It's a very good hand still. It's just that I can't put it back on."

"I understand."

"Marl says there's a shop, though I'd think it would have to be a big place, really, way over past the crooked bridge, where they make taluses and fix them. Mostly it's fixing, he said, because it takes so long to make one, and so much money. We chems aren't really like taluses. We were made in the Short Sun Whorl, and we can think and see a great deal better, and we don't burn fish oil," she laughed nervously, "or anything like that. But Marl thought they might be able to do this for me-put it back-if I had the money. It wouldn't be like making a chem or even a talus, just a simple repair."

"Yes. Yes, of course. I should have thought of something like that, Maytera. Welding? Is that that they call it?"

Hossaan said, "That's what they call it when they fix a floater."

"It's not just reuniting the metal, Patera. There are little tubes in there, tiny tubes, and wires, and things like threads-fibers, they're called-that pipe light. Look." She held up her useless right arm, pushing back the sleeve so that he could see the sheared end. "Marl thought they might be able to do it. He's as old as I was, Patera, and I don't think he always reasons correctly any more. But…"

Silk nodded. "It's your only chance. I understand."

"Marl would have given me the money if he'd had it, but he's very poor. This Fulmar doesn't pay him, just clothes and a place to live. And even if I had money, they might not want to try it, Marl said, unless I had a great deal."

"Believe me, I'll help you, Maytera. We'll go as quickly as we can. You have my word on it."

She had taken a large white handkerchief from her empty sleeve. "I'm so sorry, Patera." She dabbed at her eyes. "I can't really cry, not for a long, long time. And yet I feel that way. There's so much work, with you gone and Patera Gulo gone, and Maytera Mint gone, and my granddaughter to take care of, and just one hand for everything."

Silk reached another decision. "I'm going to take you away, too, Maytera, for the time being at least. You and Mucor both. I need you both, and it's too dangerous for you-and for her, particularly-to be here alone. Will you come with me if I ask you to? Remember, I'm still the augur of this manteion."

She looked up at him with a new glow behind the scratched, dry lenses of her eyes. "Yes indeed, Patera, if you tell me to. I'll have to straighten up first and put things away. Put a notice on the door of the palaestra so the children will know."

"Good. There's a Caldé's Palace on the Palatine, as well as the Prolocutor's. I'm sure you must remember when the Caldé lived there."

She nodded.

"I'm reopening it. I've slept in the Juzgado the past few nights, but that's never been more than an expedient; if Viron's to have a new Caldé, he has to live in the Caldé's Palace. I'll need a place to entertain Generalissimo Siyuf when she arrives, to begin with. We'll want an official welcome for her and her troops, too, and I'll have to notify Generalissimo Oosik as soon as possible. Thousands of fresh troops are certain to change his plans."

Silk turned to Hossaan. "How long do we have? Can you give me some idea?"

"Not an accurate one, Caldé. I'm not sure when she left Trivigaunte, and Siyul's a famous hard marcher."

"A week?"

"I doubt it." Hossaan shook his head. "Three or four days, at a guess."

"Patera." Maytera Marble touched Silk's arm. "I can't live in the same house with a man, not even an augur. I know nothing will-but the Chapter…"

"You can if he's ill," Silk told her firmly. "You can sleep in the same house to nurse him. I've a chest wound-I'll show it to you as soon as we get there, and you can change the dressing for me. I'm also recovering from a broken ankle. His Cognizance will grant you a dispensation, I'm sure, or the coadjutor can. Hossaan, can you take us back to the Juzgado? There will be four of us."

"Sure thing, Caldé."

"I don't have a floater at present, except for the Guard floaters, and Oosik needs those. Perhaps I could hire you and your floater-we'll talk about it.

"Maytera, do whatever you must, and tack up that note. I was hoping to sacrifice here and go to the Cock when I left, but both will have to wait. Tomorrow, perhaps.

"Hossaan, I'm going into the manse for a moment while she does all that; then we'll collect Mucor and a young woman who came here with me, and pay off my litter."

"I heard you had a pet bird," Saba said, eyeing Oreb; she was a massive woman with a marked resemblance to an angry sow.

Silk smiled. "I'm not sure pet's the correct word. I've been trying to set him free for days. The result has been that he comes and goes as he pleases, says anything he wants, and seems to enjoy himself far more than I do. Today we went back to my manteion, mostly to enlist Maytera Marble's help in airing this place out. I got some important news there, by the way, which I'll give you in a moment."

"That's right." Saba snapped her fingers. "You holy men are supposed to be able to find out the gods' will by looking at sheep guts, aren't you?"

"Yes. Some of us are better at it than others, of course, and no one's ever suggested that I'm much better than average. Don't you have augurs in Trivigaunte?"

"No cut!" Oreb required reassurance.

"Not you, silly bird. Positively not." Silk smiled again. "I got him as a victim, you see; and though I've ruled that out, he's afraid I'll change my mind. What I wanted to tell you is that I went into the manse to see if I'd left my beads there Phaesday night. I should have said earlier that he'd flown off when I got out of my litter.

"Well, I went into the kitchen because I empty my pockets on the kitchen table sometimes, and there he was on the larder. 'Bird home,' he told me, and seemed quite content; but he rode out on my shoulder when I left."