Epiphany of the Long Sun (90 page)

"The wife, the friend, they are soldiers also?"

Hammerstone said, "No, sir. My wife's a civilian. Her name's Moly. She's no bigger'n you, sir, maybe smaller. My friend's a bio, a augur, His Eminence Patera Incus. People think he's the coadjutor. Really he's the Prolocutor, only people don't know yet."

The monitor's face gained color, reshaping itself to become that of Siyuf's intelligence officer.

"There is here too much of warlockery, Colonel. You see here soldiers, marvels we should have in museums but here fight us, and for us also. They are come to offer a bargain. Am I not a woman of honor?"

Violet nodded enthusiastically and Abanja said, "You are indeed, Generalissimo."

"Just so. I do not cheat, not even these soldiers. So I must know. Do we have the holy man Incus? Violet, my darling, read the names. How many now, Colonel?"

"Eighty-two, sir. There were some other holy men besides the Caldé, and I suppose this might be one of them." Abanja leafed through papers below the field of her glass.

Leaning over Violet's shoulder, Hammerstone pointed with a finger thrice the size of hers.

"I don't really read so good," she whispered. "What's that second word? It can't-Sweetheart, there's a Chenille in here. Is that the Chen we know?"

Abanja looked up. "The paramour of the Vironese who was plotting to steal our airship, sir. She was seated across the table from me at that dinner at the Caldé's residence."

Hammerstone said, "It says, 'Maytera Marble a holy woman,' on here, sir. That's my wife, Moly. Patera's here, too. You got them all right."

"Then you must give me your information," Siyuf told Sand. "If it is worth their freedom, I will free them as soon as I can. I do not say at once. At once may not be possible. But as soon as is possible. You do not betray your city when you do this?"

Sand shook his head. "Help it, is what we figure. See, if you're smart you'll let the Caldé go when we tell you. And with us, it's him. He's the top of the chain of command, and we know you got him."

"Sir, the airship…" Abanja's face was agitated.

Siyuf motioned her to silence. "We speak of that later, Colonel. First I must learn what this soldier knows."

She turned back to Sand. "I will release your Caldé, you say. I do not say this. With regard to Caldé Silk, I give no promise. You do not bargain for him; I notice this."

"Because we know you wouldn't, sir. You'd say you were going to keep him, and dismissed. But you'll let him go if you're smart. It'll be better for us and better for you, too. You're going to, is what we think. Only we want to see to it Hammerstone's wife and his buddy get loose too."

Sand hesitated, glancing at Abanja's face in the glass, then back to Siyuf. "The insurrection's over. That's what we're here to tell you, sir. Give us your word on Moly and Patera What'shisnarne-"

"Incus," Hammerstone prompted.

"And Patera Incus, and we'll give you the details. Have we got it?"

"I will release both as soon as I am able. Have I not said? Bring to me the image of the sole great goddess, and I swear on it. There is not one here, I think."

"Your word's good enough for us, sir." Sand glanced at Harnmerstone, who nodded.

"All right. You want me to tell you, or you want to ask questions, sir?"

"First I ask one question. Then you tell, and after I ask more if I wish. When I am satisfied, I give the order, and if there is a place to which you wish them brought, we will do it. But not more than a day's travel.

Hammerstone said, "The Caldé's Palace. That's where me and Moly have been living." Shale asked, "You got any problem with that, sir?"

"No. This is within reason. My question. You say I will let go your Caldé, the head of your government. I do not think so, so I am curious. Why do you say this?"

"Cause out of all the people you got to deal with here, he's the one that likes you the most," Hammerstone told her. "I know him pretty well. Me and Sarge picked him up one time on patrol, and I shot the bull with him before he gave me the slip. Then too, I been living in his palace like I said, and I heard a lot from Moly."

"I helped Councillor Potto interrogate him the next time we got him," Sand said, "so I know him pretty well too. He's big for peace. He was trying to stop the insurrection before you got here."

For a second or more, Siyuf studied Sand as if she hoped to find a clue to his thoughts in his blank metal face. "You have kill this man Potto. After, I suppose? This Mint tells. But you have not kill him well. He is now back."

"I been dead too," Sand told her, and Violet gasped. "I could give you the scoop on that, but it'd take a while."

"Rather I would hear of the end of the insurrection. This you proposed."

"Good here. Last night there was a confab at the Caldé's place. None of us were there, but we heard from General Mint. Your people tried to grab everybody, only four made it out, and Councillor Loris is K. The ones that gave you the slip was her and Colonel Bison, and the Generalissimo and Councillor Potto."

"I know of this." Siyuf delivered a withering glance to Abanja's image in the glass.

Schist said, "Tell her about surrendering, Sarge. That's pretty important."

"Yeah, he did. The Caldé did. Maybe you don't know that, sir. It was before your people came in."

Siyuf nodded. "Colonel Abanja have report this. She has had an informant in your Caldé's household, a most praiseworthy accomplishment."

Abanja said, "Thank you, Generalissimo."

"So the four that got clear put their heads together, see? Our generalissimo, he'd come in a Guard floater, and they piled in and took off, Councillor Potto too. Naturally he said, well, your Caldé's called quits so we're in charge again. Councillor Loris's dead so I'm the new presiding officer. You're working for me, and if you do what I say maybe I won't shoot you."

Schist interjected, "He figured they all had it coming, I guess. What we figure is, not just them. He'll probably stop Sarge's works real good."

Violet said,
"Ah!"
and Siyuf laughed. "Shadeup, after so long a night. Potto is not friend to this soldier who not one month past shoot him. Potto has the… What is this word?"

"He'll have it in for him."

Sand nodded. "But he can't hand out anything that I can't take. I been dead already, just like I said. You want to talk about me, or you want to hear the rest?"

Hammerstone said, "They went around quite a bit, to hear Colonel Bison tell it. Only there was one thing they didn't have any trouble with. Tell 'em, Sarge."

"You foreigners, sir." Sand leveled his huge forefinger at Siyuf. "Councillor Potto's mean as a bad wrench, and he hates you worse'n dirt in his pump. General Mint, she hates Councillor Potto, but you're number two on her list."

"She is the central, to be sure. The sole woman." Siyuf looked thoughtful. "Colonel, what is it you say of this?"

In the glass, Abanja's image shrugged. "It doesn't run counter to any information I have, Generalissimo."

"You have leave off two, Sergeant. What of those?"

"I didn't leave 'em out, sir," Sand protested, "I hadn't got to 'em yet. Colonel Bison's General Mint's man. If she says spit oil, he says how far?"

"I grasp this. Proceed."

"We haven't seen Generalissimo Oosik, but Corporal Slate here chewed things over with his driver this morning, the one that brought him and got them clear. Tell her, Slate."

"He brought a slug gun to the meetin', sir," Slate began. "That's what his driver says, 'n he says he don't usually have nothin' but a needler 'n his sword, see? So who was that for? Then when they was talkin' in back-you know how them armed floaters are laid out, sir? There's no wall or nothin' between the seats up front and the back, so he tuned in. General Mint said somethin' about how Councillor Loris was the head of the Ayuntamiento, and it was Generalissimo Oosik that said he was dead. He thinks maybe Generalissimo Oosik did it himself, he seemed so happy about it."

Sand looked from Violet to Abanja, then at Siyuf. "Only Councillor Potto's got it in for him, and he knows it. He was like a brigadier back before the insurrection, so he had to be one of the Ayuntamiento's floor bolts. But when Caldé Silk came along, he went over right away and got made head of the whole host of Viron. He knows Councillor Potto, so he's got to know how pissed off he is about that."

Siyuf, who had been slouching in her chair, straightened up. "You desire me to set free your Caldé to save your Viron, so much is plain. I do not care about your Viron."

Violet said, "I do, a little. Besides, I know his wife."

"You're thinking it's going to go back the way it was," Sand told Siyuf. "Them in the tunnels and us on top. Stuff it. Like we say, there's one thing they're together on."

He paused and Abanja said, "That we must return to our own city, I'm sure. He's probably right, Generalissimo."

"I am, only you're not. What they're saying, all four of them, is that they can't let you go back. Or won't. To start off, they don't think you'll go."

Sand wanted for Siyuf to speak, but she did not.

"So they're thinking let's take care of this, wipe 'em out-that's you, sir-before they can get reinforcements from Trivigaunte."

Hammerstone declared, "The Caldé wouldn't do that, or I don't think so, sir. They're getting set now, getting General Mint's troopers together again, and lining up the Guard and getting the Army into position. If we weren't detached, we'd be with it this minute. You got maybe a day, maybe two. But if you let the Caldé go, he'll put a lid on it."

"You are wise," Siyuf said. "I agree. Colonel Abanja, you have our friend Caldé Silk? Bring him to my Juzgado, I meet him there. This holy woman Marble, and the holy man, also. Saba's airship have not depart?"

"I'm afraid it left an hour ago, Generalissimo," Abanja sounded regretful. "I'll contact General Saba on the glass, however, and convey your request that she return to Viron."

Hammerstone edged closer, his hard features and scratched paint incongruous among so much satin, porcelain, and polished rosewood. "We don't want a request. We want a order. Tell them to turn around!"

"This I cannot do," Siyuf explained. "When the airship has leave Viron, it come under control of our War Minister in Trivigaunte. She will send it back, I think, when I ask."

"Get her now. Tell her!"

"This I cannot either. Monitor, this is sufficient of Abanja. She know what she is to do."

Siyuf turned back to Sand and Hammerstone. "Abanja must speak to General Saba, then Saba to our War Minister. While they speak I must make prepares for this attack. It may be we attack first. This we see."

As Abanja's face faded to gray, Violet murmured, "I'd help if I could, only-"

"Sure, Plutonium." Slinging his slug gun, Sand stooped, grasped an astonished Siyuf about the waist, and tossed her headfirst onto his broad steel shoulder. "You come too. You can keep her company."

Shale caught Violet's arm. "You make one more for us to trade, see? That don't ever hurt."

Sitting crosslegged on one of the ridiculous bladders that served as mattresses aboard the airship, Silk found it almost impossible to remain upright without holding onto the swaying, whispering bamboo grill that substituted for a floor. "You're wonderfully cheerful," he told Auk. "I admire it more than I can say. Cheerfulness is a sacred duty." He swallowed. "A cheerful agreement with the will of the gods is a-a-"

"I been sick already," Auk told him. "Had the dry heaves, too. Worst thing since I busted my head down in the tunnels."

The Flier smiled impishly. "I heard no cheerful agreement to the wishes of Mainframe at that time, however. Cursing is not a new thing to me, and my own tongue is a superior vehicle to this Common Tongue we speak. But never have I heard curses such as that."

Face down and miserable behind Auk, Chenille muttered, "Just don't talk about it, all right?"

"I do not. Instead I talk of cursing, a different thing. Should I say in this Common Tongue, may your pubic hair grow longer than your lies and become entangled in the working of a mill, it is but laughable. In my own tongue, it soars to the sun and leaves each hearer awed. Yet the cursing of Auk was new to me, grand and hideous as the birth of devils."

Silk managed to smile. "I have been sick, actually. I was sick in the cage that swings so horribly in the wind, and we were so tightly packed into it that I couldn't help soiling myself and Hyacinth, and Patera Remora, too; they bore it with such fortitude and good will that I felt worse."

Hyacinth smiled as she sat down beside him. "You didn't get a whole lot on me, but you filled up one of his shoes. If you're feeling better now, you should take a look around. Gib showed me, and it's pretty interesting."

"Not yet." Silk found his handkerchief and wiped his nose.

"It's not like the Juzgado at all, no bars on the windows."

"Sure." Auk winked. "We can climb right out."

"I opened one and looked outside. Not long, because it's so cold. I wish you could see better through the white stuff."

"That's sheep's hide stretched and scraped till it's real thin," Auk told her. "When you get it the way you want it, you rub fat on it, and it lets the daylight in. They use it in the country 'cause they can make it themselves, but glass costs. It's a lot lighter, too, so that's why they got it here.

"See, Patera, even with this as big as it is, everything's got to be real light, 'cause it's lifting the guns and those charges they blew up the Alambrera with, and food and water, and palm oil for the engines. That's going to make it easy for us."

"To do what?"

Gib sat down so violently that Silk feared the grill would give way. "To hook it, Patera. We got to. Only I wish I had Bongo here. He'd be abram about this place."

Chenille groaned. "You're all abram. Me, too."

"This ain't bad," Auk told her. "See, Patera, after they loaded us on in the city, it had to go northeast to get you, lousewise into the wind. It was doing this." He illustrated with gestures. "We all got pretty sick. Only now-"

"I did not," Sciathan objected. "I am accustomed to the vagaries of winds."