Gate of Horn, Book of Silk

by Michael Andre-Driussi

  The needler Hy gives Silk is adorned with hyacinths and a heron/crane (I, chap. 6, 150). This is obviously for Hyacinth from Crane. The azoth she gives Silk is adorned with a reddish stone. They imply it is a blood stone, and the weapon was meant to be a gift for Blood, but he already had two.

  Hyacinth plays a complicated game. She arranges to meet Silk at Ermine’s on Hieraxday, writing him a note that is intercepted by Patera Gulo who shares it with Patera Remora (II, chap. 7, 185). Remora tells him to return it, artfully re-sealed (187). One volume later, Hyacinth is at Ermine’s (III, chap. 7, 277).

  After the miraculous flight of the floater at the Alambrera, Auk kidnaps Hyacinth. He keeps her for days in an old building in the Orilla, with Hammerstone as her jailer (IV, chap. 3, 65–66; chap. 11, 209). They go to the Sun Street manteion because the crowd demands a sacrifice, and Tartaros frees Hyacinth (IV, chap. 3, 65–66). Hy wants to go to Blood’s for her possessions, but it is too far, and she has no money, so she goes to Orchid’s first for cleaning, fresh clothes, and cash (chap. 11, 210). She expects to find Silk at the Grand Manteion, and buys Tick for a sacrifice—five cards of the seven she had borrowed (222). Silk, searching the crowds on Gold Street, spots her, and they have a joyful reunion in the floater (208). She pretends not to know Willet/Hossaan (211).

  On the airship Hyacinth has sex with General Saba (IV, chap. 16, 349–54; 366). Presumably this is to curry favor with their new jailer who is taking them to Trivigaunte, but at the same time it strongly echoes the trysting between Chenille and Siyuf, and Violet and Siyuf, with its hint of goddesses at play.

  Some actions are more mysterious or simply capricious, as when she applies make-up to match the face on her wedding ring (IV, chap. 12, 237).

  Myth: (Greek) Hyacinthus, a beautiful Spartan prince, was beloved by the poet Thamyris. Then Apollo fell in love with Hyacinthus and destroyed his rival Thamyris. But the West Wind also fell for Hyacinthus and, becoming insanely jealous of Apollo, caused an Apollo-thrown discus to veer in flight, so that it struck the prince and killed him. From his blood sprang the hyacinth flower.

  Botany: to Ovid a deep red or “purple” lily (perhaps Lilium martagon—see MURTAGON). In modern use, the English name of the genus Hyacinthus (N.O. Liliaceae), especially H. orientalis, a native of the Levant, of which numerous varieties are cultivated for the beauty and fragrance of their flowers. However, more recently it has been removed from the lily family (which might prove to be highly significant, with regard to Saint Catherine being removed from her place).

  Fabric: a blue or purple fabric (Jacinth).

  Mineral: a precious gem, in ancient times probably the blue sapphire; in modem use a reddish-orange variety of zircon, also applied to varieties of garnet and topaz of similar color.

  Heraldry: in blazoning by precious stones, the name for the color tenné or tawny.

  Commentary: the Greek myth draws a strong connection between Hyacinth and blood. In another tradition, Hyacinth in her scarlet dress resembles the whore of Babylon.

  Hyrax “the dead man in the doorway” (IV, list) in the tunnel (IV, chap. 6, 117).

  Zoology: (Greek word for “shrew-mouse”) a genus of small rabbit-like quadrupeds, containing the daman, “cony,” or rock-rabbit of Syria, an Abyssinian species or sub-species, and the Cape Hyrax or rock-badger (klipdas) of South Africa.

  “Hymenocallis” used by Incus as a signature for forged letters or as an alias for himself (II, chap. 7, 197).

  Botany: a genus of plants that, like hyacinth, used to be placed in the lily family.

  I

  incineratium Incus’s deskside wastepaper receptacle (II, chap. 10, 258).

  Latin: it seems to be formed from incendere (to set on fire) and the suffix -ium (place of ~).

  Incus, Patera Remora’s underling, sent to the Lake to spy on Silk. The fifth and final child of a poor family, he was born seven years after his brother Femur (III, chap. 6, 219). He is at least ten years older than Chenille, and thus in his thirties (III, chap. 1, 27).

  Incus has an unsavory side. He is a black mechanic. He has used “Hymenocallis” as a signature for forged letters (blackmail against augurs) or as an alias for himself (II, chap. 7, 197). (He probably relishes it for the sexual connotations in Greek: “beautiful membrane.”)

  Incus teases Gulo by suggesting that Gulo’s admiration for Silk is lustful (II, chap. 7, 198), but Incus himself is homosexually attracted to Auk until Auk tosses him overboard. Scylla, possessing Chenille, elevates Incus to Prolocutor (if he kills Quetzal), but later he settles for Remora’s position (Coadjutor). After repairing and reprogramming the injured chem soldier Hammerstone in the tunnels, Incus gains the upper hand against Auk. Later he uses his skill again when he repairs the fiber optics of Marble’s hand with his opticsynapter, just before her wedding to Hammerstone (IV, chap. 11, 228; 230).

  Allied to Scylla, he is thus opposed to Kypris, but Kypris only laughs at him (IV, chap. 9, 178). He has sudden combat skills, which might be a side effect of his brush with divinity (III, chap. 3, 110), but he “enchanted” the slug gun on the airship by putting his finger behind the trigger so it couldn’t be activated (IV, My Defense, 373).

  Patera Jerboa thinks an incus is an egg-eating, tree-dwelling creature (IV, chap. 9, 172).

  Anatomy: (Latin word for “anvil”) a bone of the inner ear, shaped something like an anvil.

  Commentary: there is something about “fabrication” in the way that Hammerstone is altered by Incus, and how Auk, caught between the “hammer” of Stony and the “anvil” of Incus, is transformed into Auk the Prophet.

  inhumu vampire-like creatures, native to Green. They fly to Blue when the worlds are in conjunction (IV, My Defense, 381), they drink blood, they seem to change shape, they can fly through the air and the space between worlds, they can vanish within an eye-blink. However, contrary to vampire legends, they do have reflections in mirrors.

  Patera Pike had fought against these creatures in Viron. Silk learned from him, and through his own investigations of the bitten Teasel and Mattak. See VAMPIRE ATTACKS.

  Iolar “the Flier downed by Musk’s eagle” (III, list). He was permitted three wives, but the second had left him after less than a year; the first wife had given him three children and the third wife had given him five, including his favorite, Dreoilin (II, chap. 6, 142).

  After being hit by the bird, he drops into Lake Limna, where the Councillors in their submarine capture him. When he refuses to give them information, they kill him.

  Irish: [UH-ler] eagle.

  isagogics “It’s one of the paradoxes of isagogics—That Pas, with all power at his disposal, squanders none” (IV, chap. 8, 148). Introductory study, especially the study of the literary history of the Bible as a preparation to exegesis (interpretation of the Bible).

  J

  Jerboa, Patera “the augur of the Brick Street manteion” (III, list; III, chap. 5, 173). He is eighty-one years old (176). He carries a piece of Pas in his mind, but he has no awareness of it, nor does it confer unusual powers to him. Still, when it is taken back by Pas, Jerboa dies (IV, chap. 11, 248), suggesting that long life and sudden death may be a symptom, as in the case of Maytera Rose.

  Zoology: small rodent quadruped, Dipus sagitta, found in the deserts of Africa. The jumping mouse.

  jeweler of Gold Street the shop owner who promises Patera Moray a nice gold chalice for his manteion (III, chap. 6, 253), only to see Sergeant Eft kill Patera Moray in the shop before dragging his corpse to the alley (252).

  Juzgado, the the court of law. Hyancinth’s father is a head clerk at the one in Viron. From Remora’s office, the Juzgado is at the foot of the slope on the western end of Palatine Hill (II, chap. 7, 180). That is, it seems to be down Manteion Street from the Prolocutor’s Palace. The direction to Trotter’s from the Juzgado is “a street down and turn west” (IV, chap. 11, 221), suggesting that Cage is west of Manteion. See map at PALATINE.

  During the revolution, Silk sleeps at the J
uzgado a few nights before moving into the Caldé’s Palace. Then the Trivigauntis take it over.

  Vulpes works at the Juzgado in Limna.

  Spanish: court of justice; judicature.

  K

  Kalan “a thief killed by Auk” (II, list) at the Cock tavern (I, chap. 3, 81).

  Zoology: native name for sea-otter of the North Pacific (Enhydris lutris).

  Kerria Kit’s big sister seen in the group heading for the lander (IV, chap. 16, 369). Kerria’s entry in the character list of volume IV is “boy of four,” but this is probably an error, a switch with the Kit entry, “a former pupil at Silk’s palaestra,” since Kerria is a plant name and Nettle identifies Kerria as a female.

  Botany: a deciduous shrub, native to China and Japan, belonging to the family Rosaceae.

  Kingcup the owner of a livery stable (III, chap. 5, 162), she was in the group of Mint’s volunteers for the big charge at the Alambrera. (See also GIB, GORAL, GARMOT, SCLERODERMA, and YAPOK.) Later she becomes the new post-rebellion councillor chosen by Mint (IV, chap. 14, 314).

  Botany: a name given to the common species of buttercup, Ranunculus acris, bulbosus, and repens; also to Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris.

  Kit Kerria’s little brother in the group heading to the lander (IV, chap. 16, 369). Probably the “boy of four” under entry for Kerria (IV, list).

  Zoology: a kitten; a fish (aka mary-sole, smear-dab, and sand-fluke); a kit fox.

  Kypris minor deity, mistress of Pas. Mentioned seven times in the Chrasmologic Writings, where it is said that she always takes an interest in prostitutes (II, chap. 2, 48). Her associated animals are rabbits (I, chap. 12, 305) and doves (II, list). See PIKE.

  Kypris has blue-almost-black eyes (I, chap. 12, 295), sometimes seen as violet (IV, chap. 9, 177). The color of her hair is not given. There is a hint of blonde in her Holy Hues of “lemon, pink, and sorrel.” It seems likely that her hair is not reddish, since Silk thinks on how “love was a fire, and Kypris had possessed Chenille, whose hair was dyed flaming red” (III, chap. 3, 96), and later, “If Kypris had chosen to possess Chenille because of her fiery hair” (98). That would have been the spot to say that Kypris has red hair.

  She remembers mass executions on Urth (I, chap. 12, 296). She says she is being hunted (I, chap. 12, 298). In Chenille she dreams of Urth (II, chap 10, 254) and later remembers Pas (III, chap. 3, 89).

  Her first near-appearance in the text is at Hyacinth’s glass, where it seems she impersonates a monitor (I, chap. 6, 142–55). She appears at Orchid’s after the exorcism (I, chap. 12, 295), where she admits she was in Hy’s room, but not for him, rather for Hy, whom she “plays with sometimes” (298). The brothel is a former manteion.

  Silk puzzles over Love and Sacred Windows, how Kypris could choose such different women as Chenille and Mint (III, chap. 3, 98). Silk reasons that when Hyacinth’s monitor directed him to the weapons hidden in her room, the monitor had been ordered to do so by Kypris (III, chap. 4, 129). In a dream by the fish pool at Ermine’s, Silk sees the Outsider dancing with “Kypris, who was Hyacinth and Mother, too” (III, chap. 7, 266).

  Myth: the oldest name for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of Love; from the island of Cyprus, where her most ancient temples were located.

  Commentary: her name is that of Aphrodite, yet her role is not as a daughter of the chief god, but rather his mistress. Thus she is more like the long line of lovers Zeus dallied with. In the Osiris mode she is Isis.

  L

  Lake Limna the body of water south of Viron. In the early days of the Whorl its waters reached to the Orilla, but by the year 332 the shore is at the village of Limna, a wagon ride away. Silk guesses that the original lake was twice the size it is in his day (II, chap. 6, 150). The lake itself is a dedicated terminal for Scylla. A shrine cave on the west side of the lake (III, chap. 1, 35) was built by order of Scylla (32). South of the lake is the desert frontier of Trivigaunte. Among the rivers that feed the lake is the Amnis. For the village/town, see LIMNA.

  Zoology: Limnaea, the common pond-snail.

  Commentary: Silk estimates that the lake originally was twice the size it is in his time (II, chap. 6, 150). The distance from Viron to Limna is never given, but it seems to be around sixteen miles (Dr. Crane estimates a four-hour donkey ride, and a donkey walks at 4 miles per hour). Together, these details point to a geometry problem regarding area: that is, “find the diameter of a circle where a reduction of the radius by sixteen miles cuts the total area by one half.”

  Following through on this, it seems as though the lake was originally 110 miles across and has shrunk down to 78 miles across.

  Lamp Street street of Viron with three given buildings: Orchid’s brothel; the Alambrera at Cage, south of Orchid’s place; the Cock tavern, located at the edge of the Orilla. Music Street is the next street to the east.

  After Rose’s funeral, Silk and Quetzal walk “up a deserted Sun Street” (III, chap. 4, 153). They come to Lamp and keep walking (154). Then Tiger shoots Silk.

  landers the vehicles used to transport the colonists from the Whorl to a planet surface. Silk and Mamelta explore one, which Silk feels is an underground tower. The entry room is circular, with a ceiling 30 cubits (45 feet) high (II, chap. 10, 263). A trapdoor in the center of the floor opens on rungs going down 50 cubits (75 feet) to “the nose.” Above the entry room, a series of small rooms, the widest of which is higher than the principal tower of the Grand Manteion (265). In the room atop this very tall cylindrical room, Silk finds the “cold one” stores, and a very small room for repairing the monitor with cards (266).

  The first lander to be used is launched from Mainframe carrying Auk, Chenille, and all the thieving followers who were on the airship with them. The other two landers used in the text are filled with people from the Sun Street neighborhood of Viron, as well as the sleepers that Mucor awakened for the trip. More than 400 people, including sleepers (IV, My Defense, 377), filled two landers (381).

  The Sun Street group heading for the lander includes: Asphodella, Aster, Feather, Ginger, Goldcrest, Hart, Holly, Horn’s brothers, Horn’s mother, Horn’s sisters, Kerria, Kit, Marrow, “Moly” (Marble/Rose/Magnesia), Moorgrass, Mucor, Nettle, the (unnamed) old man who sells ice, Quetzal, Patera Remora, Scleroderma, Shrike, Teasel, and Villus (IV, chap. 16, 369).

  Latin a foreign language used in passages of the Chrasmologic Writings (IV, chap. 5, 89).

  lavabo a basin for washing the hands (I, chap. 6, 145).

  Lemur, Councillor “the secretary of the Ayuntamiento and thus the de facto ruler of Viron” (II, list; I, chap. 9, 240). Lemur and Loris were brothers (IV, chap. 1, 27).

  Zoology: (Latin word for “ghost”) a small African primate.

  Liana “one of Zoril’s subordinates” (III, list; III, chap. 6, 246). She becomes a lieutenant. Linsang is her boyfriend.

  Botany: a tropical vine.

  Lijam “the Minister of War in Trivigaunte; she is a political ally of Siyuf’s” (IV, list). (Spelled “Ljam” in text [IV, chap. 14, 316]; spelled “Lijam” in list.) Her name comes up because Mint and the new Ayuntamiento contact Trivigaunte about the airship carrying Caldé Silk, offering to exchange Siyuf for Silk. When Lijam will not even talk about it, this makes the Vironese wonder if a coup has happened in Trivigaunte. The other possibility is that Trivigaunte has lost contact with the airship.

  Arabic: bridle; rein.

  Lily “Auk’s mother, now dead” (III, list). Her older son is Bustard. See also LILY in the Languages Section.

  Botany: any plant (or its flower) of the genus Lilium (N.O. Liliaceae) of bulbous herbs bearing at the top of a tall slender stem large showy flowers of white, reddish, or purplish color; especially the White or Madonna Lily, L. candidum.

  Lime “Mint’s chief female lieutenant” (III, list). A lank woman, age 40, with ginger hair, probably dyed (III, chap. 4, 140).

  Botany: the globular fruit of the tree Citrus medica.

  Limna at the north side of the lake is a v
illage or town named Limna, a blend of resort and fishing town. It is separate from Viron but close enough to fall within its orbit.

  The street leading in is Lake Street, with cross streets Shore, Water, and Dock. Silk supposes that Water Street was the lake’s edge twenty or thirty years before (II, chap. 6, 149–50). This suggests, in turn, that Shore Street was the lake’s margin forty or sixty years before.

  The Limna Juzgado and the solicitor Vulpes are on Shore Street, which also leads to the Pilgrims’ Way, the trail leading to the shrine. The Rusty Lantern tavern is located on Dock Street. Less expensive places to eat include the Catfish and the Full Sail.

  Visitors wanting to return to Viron before dark should take the six o’clock wagon (148).

  Linsang “Liana’s sweetheart” (III, list) is a sergeant. He meets Silk at Gold Street (III, chap. 6, 246) and later meets Auk the Prophet (IV, chap. 6, 97).

  Zoology: a civet-like mammal of the genus Prionodon found in Southeast Asia. A related African species is the Guinea Linsang, Poiana richardsoni.

  Lion “the largest male among Mucor’s lynxes” (III, list). Lion attacks the assassin of Eland and is himself killed by the same needler (IV, chap. 12, 247).

  Loach man with a wagon (I, chap. 10, 258). Not on lists.

  Zoology: a small European fish, Cobitis (Nemachilus) barbatula (-us), inhabiting small clear streams and highly prized for food.

  Locust boy at manteion (II, chap. 1, 26). One of the tall ones. Not on lists.

  Zoology: an orthopterous saltatorial insect of the family Acridiidae, especially the Migratory Locust, renowned for its ravages in Asia and Africa, where, migrating in countless numbers, it frequently eats up the vegetation of whole districts.