Gate of Horn, Book of Silk

by Michael Andre-Driussi

  Zoology: any of the birds of the numerous species of the family Laniidae, characterized by a strong hooked and toothed beak; in this case, the bird known as “Butcher-bird,” the (Great or European) Grey Shrike, Lanius excubitor.

  shrine a dedicated glass connected only to a specific god or goddess, a private line rather than a party line, a hotline to the named deity.

  • Lake Shrine at end of Pilgrims’ Way, Cave Shrine and submarine pen: Scylla.

  • Hyacinth’s private shrine: Kypris.

  • Pas Shrine: Pas.

  • Oldest shrine, in the tunnels: Tartaros.

  • Thelxiepeia’s mirror and/or pond at Ermine’s: Thelxiepeia.

  Shrub a dying person Silk comforted in the past (II, chap. 12, 294). Not on lists.

  Botany: a perennial plant having several woody stems growing from the same root.

  sibyl the term for a Vironese priestess. They take new names upon becoming sibyls; thus Magnesia took the name Marble, and someone whose name was perhaps related to citrus and/or deer took the name Mint.

  Sigada Crane’s real Trivigaunti name, said to mean “handsome and humble” (IV, chap. 2, 51). Not on lists.

  Arabic: words for “rug” and “prostrate” (which might lead to “humble”).

  Silah a daughter of the Rani of Trivigaunte (IV, chap. 4, 77). Not on lists.

  Arabic: weapon.

  Silk the hero, an augur enlightened by the Outsider on the BALL COURT of the first page.

  He is 23 years old. He is tall, with blond hair and blue eyes, in contrast to his mother who was small and dark (I, chap. 7, 167).

  Of his early life, there was the year he and his mother had gone to the country for no reason (II, chap. 4, 105). When he was 12 years old he required glasses to read (I, chap. 4, 108) and he broke into a deserted house (I, chap. 5, 136).

  His mother wanted him in politics, to become a clerk (like Hyacinth’s father) and perhaps rise to commissioner (III, chap. 10, 346). Despite this, Silk chose instead to become an augur. He spent eight years at schola (I, chap. 2, 35), but his (foster/surrogate) mother died before he was assigned to the Sun Street manteion (I, chap. 1, 26). In fact, he had been at schola for six years when she died (II, chap. 1, 25).

  Silk came to assist Patera Pike, but after the first year Pike died, leaving Silk as leader of the place. As the series begins he has been there about two years.

  Silk has many features of a sacred king: “virgin” birth, foster mother, hidden identity as heir to the throne, secret flight from homeland, and lamed (while escaping Hyacinth). He also wrestles “Death” and wins, obtains a magic sword, rides toward a city on a white donkey, dies and is revived (a few times at least).

  The “Silk for Caldé” movement arrives rapidly and seemingly from nowhere. One source seems to be the public meeting between Silk and Blood. Another source is support from Dr. Crane’s spy network.

  Silk for Caldé

  • A brick-hauling man shouts and kneels (I, chap. 8, 205).

  • Willet, one of Crane’s agents, says to Silk, “You’re going to bring back the caldé—that’s what they say [back at Blood’s mansion]” (I, chap. 8, 206). Willet kneels (I, chap. 8, 206).

  • The first mention of the chalked slogan (I, chap. 12, 308).

  Silk is “stabbed” by Musk after the yellow house exorcism (I, chap. 12, 303).

  Xiphias, master swordsman, thinks Silk is left-handed and has been trained in sword fighting (I, chap. 13, 326). But Silk says he is not left-handed (II, chap. 5, 108). Which suggests something has happened to change him: either he has been possessed by a god/goddess (as have Chenille, Hyacinth, and Auk), or the enlightenment caused “cold one” genetically engineered deep programming systems to start up, like a seed that spent thousands of years entombed in a pharaoh’s pyramid suddenly sprouting when brought into sunlight.

  Tiger shoots him with a needler while Silk is walking with Quetzal (III, chap. 4, 159). For this he has surgery (III, chap. 5, 165).

  Silk dies underground, in a tunnel collapse (III, chap. 9, 321) and sees four ghosts: mother, Tussah, biological mother, and biological father (the latter of whom is blue-eyed). Silk had been buried alive (III, chap. 9, 326), probably revived by infusion/first aid by Quetzal.

  Silk sheds tears several times in the text. Upon hearing about the thousand dead on Cage Street (III, chap. 5, 167), at Rose’s funeral, and he has tears for Mucor. Trying to avoid bloodshed, he attempts to betray the Outsider by sabotaging the airship engines (IV, chap. 14, 318).

  A second enlightenment comes on his wedding night (IV, chap. 12, 235), explained somewhat later (IV, chap. 15, 342). On the airship, Kypris tempts him to become scanned and merge with Pas, using what amounts to a cheap monitor trick to show the projected results (IV, chap. 15, 346).

  It bears mentioning that Silk’s first enlightenment comes when there is no context about how the gods of Mainframe can possess people from glasses, Sacred Windows, and even bodies of water (certainly a lake, and possibly a fishpond). In light of this revelation, which only develops through the course of four volumes, it seems significant that the BALL COURT where Silk had his enlightenment features a glass that keeps the score: thus, there is a vector for a Mainframe god to interact with a bio, hidden in plain sight.

  Zoology: silk is the thread with which the caterpillar makes its cocoon in preparation for its metamorphosis from larva to a moth or butterfly.

  Silk’s Enlightenment (revealed in three sections and other traces)

  • Patera Pike mumbling prayers, slitting throat of speckled rabbit, pointing to how Pike’s prayers were answered with Silk; and note that a rabbit sacrifice implies Kypris (I, chap. 1,9).

  • Dead woman in an alley off Silver Street, perhaps Hyacinth’s mother (9).

  • Lights beneath everyone’s feet, the reality of stars outside the Whorl (9).

  • Proud houses on the Palatine, perhaps Hycinth’s servitude (9).

  • Marble, Mint, and Rose (9).

  • Countless quiescent soldiers (I, chap. 3, 88).

  • Feather falling; how one can lose a battle but win the war (II, chap. 11, 285).

  • Viron and the lake; the battleground or ball court of the game (285).

  • Huge fires outside the Whorl (285).

  • A beetle that looked like a piece of jewelry but laid its eggs in dung (285).

  • A boy who can’t speak and lives like a wild beast (285).

  • A naked criminal on a scaffold, and we came back to that when he died, and again when his body was taken down. His mother was watching with a group of his friends, and when someone said he had incited sedition, she said that she didn’t think he had ever been really bad, and that she would always love him (285).

  • A dead woman who had been left in an alley (285).

  • Patera Pike (285).

  • A hero riding through some foreign city while a cheering crowd waved big fanlike leaves (III, chap. 9, 314).

  Silk’s Second Enlightenment (on his wedding night)

  • Horn and Nettle sleeping together; colonists/chroniclers (IV, chap. 12, 235).

  • Patera Pike cutting throat of speckled rabbit (235).

  • A ragged child weeping on a mattress of straw (235).

  • A blind god; Tartaros (235).

  • A man scarcely larger than the child; Sciathan (235).

  • A madman among tombs (235).

  • Violet embraced by Siyuf (235).

  • Auk asleep (235).

  • That the Outsider created Pas (IV, chap. 15, 341).

  Silk’s strange powers

  There is a suggestion that Caldé Tussah sought a COLD ONE to use as an heir or a weapon (II, chap. 7, 189). Silk shows signs of being a genetically engineered vengeance weapon for Pas, in that he is a fighting machine who is so loyal that he would never usurp the throne, a “Horus device” to be used if a revolt in Mainframe deposes Pas.

  Silk’s uncanny fighting ability is revealed when he bests Master Xiphias (III,
chap. 6, 231), when his hand goes for his needler (III, chap. 5, 214), and in his killing of Blood (III, chap. 10, 376). He also magically knows how to activate the azoth and imagines boyhood games had a kernel of truth.

  Silk’s powerful loyalty drive is illustrated when he becomes suicidal on the airship after having failed at betraying the Outsider. This is exactly what Pas would want, a charismatic leader who is a super-soldier and yet so loyal that he would not become a usurper.

  Commentary: at first Patera Silk seems very much like Chesterton’s Father Brown, the famous priest detective of fiction. Adding to this impression is the fact that Auk matches Brown’s sidekick Flambeau, the reforming jewel thief. But Silk is also growing into a Moses-like character, groping toward monotheism from within a polytheistic church, and in this regard Auk is his Aaron the Levite.

  But then things change. When Auk becomes a prophet, it almost seems as if Silk-as-Moses is competing against Auk-as-Moses. This is first hinted at when Auk grabs Hyacinth from Caldé Silk’s side and runs off with her. It reaches a dramatic culmination when Silk sabotages the airship to thwart Auk’s plan of stealing the airship, in the hope of saving the lives of Auk and his thieving followers, even as he knows he is going against the plan of the Outsider.

  There is also a third Moses, in the form of Quetzal.

  In the Egyptian thread of the drama, Silk has the role of Horus to Pas’s Osiris and Kypris’s Isis. Silk fulfills this in one sense when he becomes caldé, the equivalent of the “true king.”

  Silver Street the Sun Street manteion is at Silver and Sun streets.

  Simuliid, Commissioner present at Blood’s villa when Musk first releases Aquilla (I, chap. 9, 240). Not on lists.

  Zoology: a black fly.

  Sinew “Nettle’s eldest son” (IV, list), born on Blue (IV, Afterward).

  Anatomy: connective tissue.

  Sirka, Major “the officer in charge of the Trivigaunti advance party” (IV, list), the first to meet the Fliers who are looking for Auk (IV, chap. 5, 85).

  Hindi/Urdu: vinegar.

  Siyuf, Generalissimo “the commander of the armed forces of Trivigaunte” (III, list; III, Epilogue, 379). She has a hawk-like profile and is related to the Rani on her father’s side (IV, chap. 4, 75). She leads her own regiment, the Generalissimo’s Light Horse (76).

  She has five husbands (IV, chap. 11, 214). Her house in Trivigaunte is larger than Ermine’s. She also has a horseranch and two hunting lodges, one located in a cave (213).

  At the dinner in the Caldé’s Palace, Siyuf says she thinks Mint is dead (IV, chap. 9, 182), that she was shot (183), which suggests a leak of Bison’s information on the fresh blood found in the guardroom (IV, chap. 9, 174). Then she says (183) exactly what Oosik said the Trivigauntis would say (170): that Trivigaunti forces will go into the tunnels.

  After enjoying Chenille, she enjoys Violet. She is later taken hostage by Sand. A chem doppleganger of her is created, and allowed to “escape” (IV, chap. 14, 317); but the fake Siyuf gets too far into the role and wages war rather than making peace (IV, chap. 16, 365).

  Arabic: sword.

  Skate, General “a subordinate of Oosik’s, the nominal commander of the Caldé’s Guard” (IV, list; IV, chap. 1, 30).

  Zoology: a fish of the genus Raia; especially the common species Raia batis, a very large, flat, cartilaginous fish much used for food.

  skiagraph the mutes were “the very skiagraph of misery” (II, chap. 2, 34). While this term is used in modern times for a radiograph (e.g., an x-ray photo), previously it was used for an early Greek form of art known as “shadow painting.”

  Skin, Major “a subordinate of Bison’s” (IV, list; IV, chap. 1, 18).

  Anatomy: covering tissue, the natural protective covering of the body and site of the sense of touch.

  Skink “the insurgent leader who attempts an all-out assault on the Palatine early Hieraxday night” (III, list; III, chap. 6, 235); “one of Mint’s subordinates, crippled in the fighting” (IV, list). Both of his legs were blown off (IV, chap. 6, 96).

  Zoology: a small lizard, Scincus officianalis, common in northern Africa and Arabia, formerly regarded as of great value in medicine for its stimulative qualities.

  Slate, Private “a soldier in Sand’s squad” (IV, list; IV, chap. 10, 185).

  Mineral: a fine-grained metamorphic rock.

  Snail a hypothetical (or typical) donkey’s name (III, chap. 2, 63). Not on lists.

  Zoology: one or another of the terrestrial or freshwater gastropods having a well-developed spiral or whorled shell capable of housing the whole body.

  songs a listing of songs in the text:

  • “Brave Guards of the Third Brigade” with the line, “To fourteen more my sword I pledged” (I, chap. 5, 125). Played by the orchestra at Blood’s villa.

  • “First Romance” (II, chap. 1, 24). Silk’s childhood music toy of dancers on a stage (23) could play three tunes, and this was one of them.

  • “Know I’ll Never Leave You” (I, chap. 5, 119). Played by the orchestra at Blood’s villa.

  Sphigx “a major goddess, the goddess of war and courage, and the patroness of the seventh day of the week; particularly associated with lions and other felines” (II, list). “Echidna’s youngest child, the patroness of Trivigaunte and the goddess of war” (III, list). In Trivigaunte she forbids images of gods.

  Mint imagines “a naked woman with yellow hair—a wild eyed fury . . . wielding a scourge” (III, chap. 5, 163), which sounds like Sphigx. Silk calls Sphigx a “tawny-maned virago” (IV, chap. 4, 71).

  Myth: (Greek/Egyptian) this is the Greek spelling of “Sphinx” (we use the Latin spelling). The Greek myth describes a winged monster with the body of a lion and the head and breasts of a woman. Her most famous role was asking a riddle of Oedipus. However, the Greeks also applied this term to the wingless Great Sphinx of Egypt, which seems somewhat closer to the Whorl’s Sphigx. The Egyptian sphinx frequently represented the pharaoh as an incarnation of the sun god Ra.

  Spider “Potto’s chief spycatcher” (IV, list). He holds Mint down for Potto’s proposed boiling water eyewash torture (IV, chap. 1, 34). He was brought into his job by Desmid. He has slept with a hundred women but there were only two he didn’t have to pay (IV, chap. 8, 159).

  Eland is killed (mistaken for Spider) by order of Siyuf, and the probable assassin is Willet/Hossaan (IV, chap. 14, 291).

  Zoology: memeber of the class Arachnida.

  String Street west of the Sun Street manteion, just a few streets away (III, chap. 5, 187). Adjacent to Saddle Street. Master Xiphias seems to live on String, south of Sun Street (I, chap. 13, 330).

  subrogative Dr. Crane refers to Mucor’s “subrogative abilities” (II, chap. 11, 284). From subrogate: to substitute (one person) for another.

  subtrahend the number subtracted from another (I, chap. 1, 14).

  Sumaire “one of the Fliers killed by the Trivigaunti” (IV, list). A female Flier in the five-member team sent by Tartaros to find Auk (IV, chap. 5, 83).

  With dark hair, she is smaller than Aer (coming up to her eyes), smaller than Sciathan (coming up to his chin), but she is the best fighter in the team, the one who kills the troopers (IV, chap. 12, 243). See GREAN and MEAR.

  Irish: a word with a number of meanings—“blood-sucker, leech,” “vampire,” “scrounger,” and “whirlpool.”

  Sun Street manteion the manteion of Patera Silk and Mayteras Rose, Marble, and Mint. Silk lives in the triangular manse at the corner of Silver and Sun. The sibyls live in the cenoby. Between manse and cenoby is the arbor area, with the herb garden and the dying fig tree. The manteonis where sacrifices are performed before the Sacred Window. The palesestra is where the children are taught. The ball court is where Silk was enlightened.

  Sun Street Quarter named for Sun Street, which runs parallel to the long sun, that is, east/west. (Most streets appear to run at an angle, such that the grid forms a crosshatching pattern.) Immediately to the west is the mar
ket, to the south is the Orilla, and off to the east is the Brick Street Quarter. Among its streets are Silver, Lamp, and Music. Sun Street itself has a guardpost and a statue or Tarsier, near or on Lamp Street.

  Swallow, Director “the head of the manufactory that builds taluses” (IV, list; IV, chap. 7, 120). Swallow is a short man beginning to go bald (IV, chap. 7, 120). A talus head is nearly as tall as he (131).

  Zoology: a bird of the genus Hirundo, especially H. rustica. Swallows build nests out of mud, the little engineers.

  T

  talus robot guards, from talos (I, chap. 4, 97). Called “tall ass” by criminal types. It is something like a cross between a centaur and an armored fighting vehicle (I, chap. 4, 108), possessing treads and telescoping arms that can stretch 20 cubits (30 feet) or more (I, chap. 4, 114).

  Myth: (Greek) Talos the metal guard, “a bronze (or brass . . .) man built by Vulcan (Hephaestus) under Mt. Etna. This Talos (or Talus) was put on the island of Crete, where he served as a watchman, running around the island three times a day. His blood was liquid fire” (Castle of Days, 254).