Nightside the Long Sun (33 page)

“What would you do if you didn't, Chenille?” Silk asked mildly. “Stab me? I don't think so; you've no dagger now.”

Her brightly painted mouth fell open then clamped shut again.

Silk leaned back against the wall. “It wasn't terribly obscure. If the Civil Guard had been notified, as I suppose it should have been, I'm certain they would have understood what happened at once. It took me a minute or two, but then I know very little about such things.”

Her eyes blazed. “She did it herself! You saw it. She stabbed herself.” Chenille gestured toward her own waist.

“I saw her hand on the hilt of your dagger, certainly. Did you put it there? Or was it only that she was trying to pull it out when she died?”

“You can't prove anything!”

Silk sighed. “Please don't be foolish. How old are you? Honestly now.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing, I suppose. It's only that you make me feel very old and wise, just as the children at our palaestra do. You're not much older than some of them, I believe.”

For several seconds Chenille gnawed her lip. At last she said, “Nineteen. That's the lily word, too, or anyhow I think it is. As well as I can figure, I'm about nineteen. I'm older than a lot of the girls here.”

“I'm twenty-three,” Silk told her. “By the way, may I ask you to call me Patera? It will help me to remember who I am. What I am, if you prefer.”

Chenille shook her head. “You think I'm some cank chit you can get to suck any pap you want to, don't you? Well, listen, I know a lot you never even dream about. I didn't stick Orpine. By Sphigx, I didn't! And you can't prove I did, either. What're you after, anyhow?”

“Fundamentally I'm after you. I want to help you, if I can. All the gods—the Outsider knows that someone should have, long ago.”

“Some help!”

Silk raised his shoulders and let them drop. “Little help so far, indeed; but we've hardly begun. You say that you know much more than I. Can you read?”

Chenille shook her head, her lips tight.

“You see, although you know a great deal that I do not—I'm not denying that at all—what it comes down to is that we know different things. You are wise enough to swear falsely by Sphigx, for example; you know that nothing will happen to you if you do that, and I'm beginning to feel it's something I should learn, too. Yesterday morning I wouldn't have dared to do it. Indeed, I would hardly dare now.”

“I wasn't lying!”

“Of course you were.” Silk laid Blood's stick across his knees and studied the lioness's head for a moment. “You said that I couldn't prove what I say. In one sense, you're quite correct. I couldn't prove my accusation in a court of law, assuming that you were a woman of wealth and position. You're not, but then I have no intention of making my case in any such court. I could convict you to Orchid or Blood easily, however. I'd add that you've admitted your guilt to me, as in fact you have now. Orchid would have the bald man who seems to live here beat you, I suppose, and force you to leave. I won't try to guess what Blood might do. Nothing, perhaps.”

The raspberry-haired girl, still seated on the bed, would not meet his eyes.

“I could convince the Civil Guard, also, if I had to. It would be easy, Chenille, because no one cares about you. Very likely no one ever has, and that's why you're here now, living as you do in this house.”

“I'm here because the money's good,” she said.

“It wouldn't be. Not any longer. The big, bald man—I never learned his name—would knock out a tooth or two, I imagine. What Musk might do if Blood allowed him a free hand I prefer not to speculate on. I don't like him, and it may be that I'm prejudiced. You know him much better, I'm sure.”

The girl on the bed made a slight, almost inaudible sound.

“You don't cry easily, do you?”

She shook her head.

“I do.” Silk smiled and shrugged again. “Another of my all too numerous faults. I've been close to tears since I first set foot in this place, and the pain in my ankle is no help, I'm afraid. Will you excuse me?”

He pushed down his black stocking and took off Crane's wrapping. It was warm still to his touch, but he lashed the floor with it and replaced it. “Shall I explain to you what happened, or would you prefer to tell me?”

“I'm not going to tell you anything.”

“I hope to change your mind about that. It's necessary that you tell me a great deal, eventually.” Silk paused to collect his thoughts. “Very well, then. This unhappy house has been plagued by a certain devil. We'll call her that for the present at least, though I believe that I could name her. As I understand it, several people have been possessed at one time or another. Did they all live here, by the way? Or were patrons involved as well? Nobody's talked about that, if some were.”

“Only girls.”

“I see. What about Orchid? Has she been possessed? She didn't mention it.”

Chenille shook her head again.

“Orpine? Was she one of them?”

There was no reply. Silk asked again, with slightly more emphasis,
“Orpine?”

The door opened, and Crane looked in. “There you are! They said you were still around somewhere. How's your ankle?”

“Quite painful,” Silk told him. “The wrapping you lent me helped a great deal at first, but—”

Crane had crouched to touch it. “Good and hot. You're walking too much. Didn't I tell you to stay off your feet?”

“I have,” Silk said stiffly, “insofar as possible.”

“Well, try harder. As the pain gets worse you will anyhow. How's the exorcism coming?”

“I haven't begun. I'm going to shrive Chenille, and that's far more important.”

Looking at Crane, Chenille shook her head.

“She doesn't know it yet, but I am,” Silk declared.

“I see. Well, I'd better leave you alone and let you do it.” The little physician left, closing the door behind him.

“You were asking about Orpine,” Chenille said. “No, she was never possessed that I know of.”

“Let's not change the subject so quickly,” Silk said. “Will you tell me why that doctor takes such an interest in you?”

“He doesn't.”

Silk made a derisive noise. “Come now. He obviously does. Do you think I believe he came here to inquire about my leg? He came here looking for you. No one but Orchid could have told him I was here, and I left her only a few moments ago; almost the last thing she said to me was that she wanted to be alone. I just hope that Crane's interest is a friendly one. You need friends.”

“He's my doctor, that's all.”

“No,” Silk said. “He is indeed your doctor, but that's not all. When Orchid and I heard someone scream and went out into the courtyard, you were fully dressed. It was very noticeable, because you were the only woman present who was.”

“I was going out!”

“Yes, precisely. You were going out, and thus dressed, which I found a great relief—sneer if you like. I didn't begin, of course, by asking myself why you were dressed, but why the others weren't; and the answers were harmless and straightforward enough. They'd been up late the previous night. Furthermore, they expected to be examined by Crane, who would make them disrobe in any event, so there was no reason for them to dress until he'd left.

“Crane and I had arrived together just a few minutes earlier, yet you were fully dressed, which was why I noticed you and asked you to bring something to cover poor Orpine's body. The obvious inference is that you had been examined already; and if so, you must certainly have been first. It seemed possible that Crane had begun at the far end of the corridor, but he didn't—this room is only halfway to the old manteion at the back of the house. Why did he take you first?”

“I don't know,” Chenille said. “I didn't even know I was. I was waiting for him, and he came in. If nothing's wrong, it only takes a second or two.”

“He sells you rust, doesn't he?”

Surprised, Chenille laughed.

“I see I'm wrong—so much for logic. But Crane has rust; he mentioned it to me this morning as something that he could have given me to make me feel better. Orchid and a friend who knows you have both told me you use it, and neither has reason to lie. Furthermore, your behavior when you encountered Orpine confirms it.”

Chenille appeared about to speak, and Silk waited for her to do so while silence collected in the stuffy room. At last she said, “I'll level with you, Patera. If I give you the lily word, will you believe me?”

“If you tell me the truth? Yes, certainly.”

“All right. Crane doesn't sell me, or anybody, rust. Blood would have his tripes if he did. If you want it, you're supposed to buy it from Orchid. But some girls buy it outside sometimes. I do myself, once in a while. Don't tell them.”

“I won't,” Silk assured her.

“Only you're dead right, Crane's got it, and sometimes he gives me some, like today. We're friends, you know what I mean? I've done him a few favors and I don't charge him. So he looks at me first, and sometimes he gives me a little present.”

“Thank you,” Silk said. “And thank you for calling me Patera. I noticed and appreciated that, believe me. Do you want to tell me about Orpine now?”

Chenille shook her head stubbornly.

“Very well, then. You said that Orpine had never been possessed, but that was mendacious—she was possessed at the time of her death, in fact.” The moment had come, Silk felt, to stretch the truth in a good cause. “Did you really think that I, an anointed augur, could view her body and not realize that? When Crane had gone you took some of the rust he'd given you, dressed, and left your room by that other door, stepping out onto the gallery, which you call the gangway.” Silk paused, inviting contradiction.

“I don't know where you had your dagger, but last year we found that one of the girls at our school had a dagger strapped to her thigh. At any rate, while you were coming down those wooden steps, you came face-to-face with Orpine, possessed. If you hadn't taken the rust Crane gave you, you would probably have screamed and fled; but rust makes people bold and violent. That was how I hurt my ankle last night, as it happens; I encountered a woman who used rust.

“In spite of the rust, Orpine's appearance must have horrified you; you realized you were confronting the devil all of you have come to fear, and your only thought was to kill her. You drew your dagger and stabbed her once, just below the ribs with the blade angled up.”

“She said I was beautiful,” Chenille whispered. “She tried to touch me, to stroke my face. It wasn't Orpine—I might have knifed Orpine, but not for that. I backed away. She kept coming, and I knifed her. I knifed the devil, and then it was Orpine lying there dead.”

Silk nodded. “I understand.”

“You figured out my dagger, didn't you? I didn't think of it until it was too late.”

“The picture representing your name, you mean. Yes, I did. I had been thinking about Orpine's name ever since I'd heard it. There's no point in going into that here, but I had. Crane gave you the dagger, isn't that right? You said a moment ago that he occasionally makes you a present. Your dagger must have been one of them.”

“You think he gave it to me to get me into trouble,” Chenille said. “It wasn't like that at all.”

“What was it like?”

“One of the other girls had one. She has, most of us have—do you really care about all this?”

“Yes,” Silk told her. “I do.”

“So she went out that night. She was going to meet him someplace to eat, I guess, only a couple of culls jumped her and tried to pull her down. She plucked, and cut them both. That's what she says. Then she beat the hoof, only she'd got blood on her.

“So I wanted to get one for when I go out, but I don't know much about them, so I asked Crane where I could get a good one, where they wouldn't cheat me. He said he didn't know either, but he'd find out from Musk, because Musk knows all about knives and the rest of it, so next time he brought me that one. He'd got it specially made for me, or anyhow the picture put on.”

“I see.”

“Do you know, Patera, I'd never even seen chenille, not to know it was my flower anyway, till he brought me a bouquet for my room last spring? And I love it—that's when I did my hair this color. He said sometimes they call it burning cattail. We laugh about it, so when I asked he gave me the dagger. Bucks buy dells things like that pretty often, to show they trust her not to do anything.”

“Is Doctor Crane the friend you mentioned?”

“No. That's somebody younger. Don't make me tell you who, unless you want to get me hurt.” Chenille fell silent, tight-lipped. “That's abram. This's going to hurt me a lot more, isn't it? But if I don't tell, he might help me if he can.”

“Then I won't ask you again,” Silk said. “And I'm not going to tell Orchid or Blood, unless I must to save someone else. If the Guard were investigating, I suppose I'd have to tell the officer in charge, but I believe it might be a far worse injustice to turn you over to Blood than to permit you to go unpunished. Since that's the case, I'll let you go unpunished, or almost unpunished, if you'll do as I ask. Orpine's service will take place at eleven tomorrow, at my manteion on Sun Street. Orchid's going to demand that all of you to attend it, and doubtless many of you will. I want you to be among those who do.”

Chenille nodded. “Yeah. Sure, Patera.”

“And while the service is in progress, I want you to pray for Orpine and Orchid, as well as for yourself. Will you do that as well?”

“To Hierax? All right, Patera, if you'll tell me what to say.”

Silk gripped Blood's walking stick, flexing it absently between his hands. “Hierax is indeed the god of death and the caldé of the dead, and as such is the most appropriate object of worship at any such service. It will be Scylsday, however, and thus our sacrifice cannot be his alone.”