Gate of Horn, Book of Silk

by Michael Andre-Driussi

  Sciathan “the Flier who accompanied Silk, Horn, and others to Mainframe” (V, list; chap. 10, 248). (See entry in LS Half.)

  Irish: wing.

  Scleroderma “a friend of Maytera Marble’s, now dead” (V, list). Shrike’s wife. At the time of Viron’s revolution she was short, fat, and over 40, yet she got a needler and was a surprising fighter, capable of leading 50 or 100 troopers (VI, chap. 5, 87). She also rescued wounded under fire, including Horn himself (88). She was in the first wave of colonists to New Viron, where she wrote a book about her experience in the revolution. Her grandson allows people to copy this book. (See entry in LS Half.)

  Botany: a kind of puffball mushroom.

  Scylla “a major goddess of the Long Sun Whorl, the patroness of Viron” (V, list); “a frequent visitor to Incanto’s dreams (also a sea-monster of the Red Sun Whorl)” (VI, list). (See entry in LS Half.)

  The goddess of the Long Sun Whorl possessed Oreb from a “glass” at the moment when Incus asked Silkhorn to assist at sacrifice in the Grand Manteoin (event VII, chap. 16, 318; revealed VII, chap. 17, 356).

  This goddess-in-Oreb later possesses Aanvagen or at least haunts her dreams, such that Silkhorn says he feels sorry for her husband Beroep (VII, chap. 17, 339).

  Silkhorn, in New Viron, says, “Scylla is not here—though she may like to think she is—and is no longer a goddess in any case, not even in Old Viron” (VII, chap. 17, 340).

  The “sea-monster” of Urth is “Greater Scylla,” an entity that is presumably in league with Erebus and Abaia. Among all the Great Lords of Urth, she is the one of whom we get the clearest physical description. Hoof writes that she appears as rows of women rising up from the sea (VII, chap. 17, 365). They are arranged so that they all look the same size, but this means the ones in back are giants. Many wear black robes and cowls, but some are naked, especially the big ones further back.

  Hoof states, “It was like they were standing on something under the water that moved.” After they surround the riverboat, two of them rise up to address Scylla-in-Oreb. One of them, wearing a cowl, looks at Hoof and smiles, showing her sharp pointed teeth.

  This vision is in contrast with what Horn sees of the Mother as a single figure in a pulsing red robe.

  Silkhorn petitions Greater Scylla on behalf of the Scylla-in-Oreb and learns about Cilinia. In exchange for the exorcism of Scylla-in-Oreb, Greater Scylla tells Silkhorn how to find Seawrack again (VII, chap. 20, 407).

  Myth: (Greek) monster at sea, she ate some of Odysseus’s men. See ODYSSEUS.

  scythe grass a type of grass on Blue (V, chap. 9, 226).

  Sealily the boat Marrow offers Horn for his trip, but Horn refuses (V, chap. 1, 39). See WAVELILY.

  Zoology: a marine animal, also known as feather-star, that resembles a plant.

  Seanettle “a yawl, a kind of two-masted boat having a mainmast and a small mizzen” (VII, list; VII, chap. 13, 273). Silkhorn’s new name for the Wavelily.

  Zoology: a stinging jellyfish.

  Seawrack “a one-armed maiden” (V, list); “the one-armed woman Horn left behind in Pajarocu” (VI, list). Horn meets her at the weird green-scum carpeted island where the flatfish in the tarn nearly killed him (V, chap. 5, 145). She is a year or two older than Hoof and Hide (V, chap. 6, 150), meaning that she is fourteen or fifteen at that time.

  At her first meeting of Krait, she says that Horn belongs to her, that he was given to her by the Mother (V, chap. 7, 175). Horn wonders if Seawrack, who had been used as a Siren, was sent with Horn to release her or to make her better at luring (V, chap. 7, 186).

  She is called a Siren first by Krait (V, chap. 9, 200). After Horn has emerged from the pit, Seawrack has gone semi-feral. Krait instructs Horn on how to tame her again. Following these instructions, Horn demands that she sing the Siren song. When she does, he brutally rapes her (V, chap. 10, 234–35).

  Krait says that Seawrack lies constantly, like most humans; Horn is different for lying only half the time (V, chap. 12, 307).

  Horn abandons her at Pajarocu, but when Silkhorn comes to Blue he hears her singing even when far from the sea.

  Silkhorn periodically confuses Seawrack with Nettle or Hyacinth. The case on the Long Sun Whorl (VII, chap. 8, 169) is probably the chronological first example, except that Silkhorn did not write it (see BOOK OF THE SHORT SUN). In Dorp, Silkhorn writes, “these judges recall the Ayuntamiento, the council we overthrew in Viron. By ‘we’ I mean not only Maytera Mint and Patera Silk, and Seawrack and I, but several hundred others” (VII, chap. 9, 181). In the end, Silkhorn meets Seawrack at New Viron.

  Seawrack’s song, or one of them, at least, has these lyrics:

  In our small house with shining windows,

  I waited till the tide brought your wreck through.

  Lie here beside me in the darkness

  I’ll wake to life the corpse I say is you (VI, chap. 17, 267).

  Myth: (Greek) a Siren is a bewitching seamonster that lures sailors into wrecking their ships upon hidden shoals. The Sirens then feast. See ODYSSEUS.

  Onomastics: “seawrack” is property cast ashore by the sea, but it can also be seaweed, either in general or a specific type. This botanical sense matches Vironese naming conventions. Robert Borski makes the case that her real “unpronounceable” name might be screadhbhuidhe, a type of seaweed (The Long and Short of It, chap. 14, 116).

  Commentary: in the larger context, two major goddesses of the Long Sun Whorl are named after Sirens (Thelxiepeia, Molpe), which hints at a pattern where Sirens grow up into goddesses.

  In fact, Seawrack has a few details that identify her with the Greco-Roman Goddess of Love. Like Aphrodite, Seawrack is born of the sea. Her lack of one arm seems like an allusion to the armless statue Venus de Milo. And Horn himself associates her with Hyacinth, who was possessed by Kypris.

  It seems barely possible that Seawrack could have a piece of Kypris in the way that Hyacinth seems to have had. As an infant, Seawrack was on a sea vessel that sank. Her mother was eaten, but she was preserved.

  If Seawrack was born on the Long Sun Whorl, then she could have been possessed by Kypris. Blue’s sea goddess the Mother might recognize this god fragment in the baby, and this could be the reason for saving her.

  This chain of thought means that Silk is reunited with Kypris. Such a conclusion is downbeat.

  However, Seawrack does not seem to have the powers of Kypris. Both Silk and Horn seem rather skeptical or unenthusiastic about Kypris. If we eliminate Kypris from the mix, then there is a curious hope: Seawrack’s personality or type is identical to Hyacinth’s. That is to say, Silk’s love for Hyacinth went beyond the Kypris mask and touched upon the buried essence of “wild” Hyacinth.

  “Sentry and His Brother, The” this is Inclito’s first story (VI, chap. 2, 45–49). Two brothers from Blanko hated each other. Volto was ugly; Mano was nice. Both were serving under Inclito during a war against Heleno. One night Volto was shot dead while relieving Mano of sentry duty. Mano said Volto had shot himself. The judge decided against him.

  But the war against Heleno did not end, and so they gave Mano a dangerous courier mission. He succeeded but was shot. As he lay dying he received a pardon from his previous conviction. Then he admitted to Inclito that he had killed Volto.

  Commentary: the theme of deceptive appearances plays a part in a couple of the stories told around the table, including “The False Friend and the True Friend.”

  Serval a young man of New Viron, in the group who raped and murdered Lily (“The Night Chough”). Presumably he is related to Captain Serval of Old Viron, perhaps a son or nephew, but then again, there were many different men named “Auk” in Viron—fifty-four in the Orilla alone, according to the monitor (I, chap. 6, 143)—so the relationship might not be so close after all.

  Zoology: medium-sized African wild cat.

  Sfido, Captain “an officer of Soldo” (VI, list). The one in charge of the mercenary group that Incanto meets at the saddle (VI, chap. 12, 187)
. After the warp to Green and back, he reports to Rigoglio and urges a negotiated peace. Rigoglio throws him in jail for a while (VI, chap. 16, 239–40), and then sends him out to assassinate Incanto. Sfido instead offers to serve Incanto in return for his townhouse in Soldo and three farms (234). Incanto hires him and they succeed. After the war is over he is called Duko Sfido, presumably having been installed as the new duko of Soldo (VI, chap. 19, 281).

  Italian: challenge.

  Shadelow “Horn’s name for the western continent” (V, list). This is the location of Land of Fires, Wichote, and Pajarocu.

  shambass a type of fish on Blue, one of which Horn catches and offers to Marble as sacrifice (V, chap. 3, 92).

  Shauk “a three-year-old boy, Sinew’s son” (VI, list; VI, chap. 24, 363). His mother is Bala and his little brother is Karn.

  Hindi: hobbies.

  Hindustani: eagerness.

  Islamic: desire.

  Onomastics: Indian name.

  She-pick-berry “He-pen-sheep’s wife” (V, list). She sews clothing for Horn and boots for Seawrack (V, chap. 11, 262).

  shearbear a creature of Blue, on the western continent (V, chap. 5, 137). He-pen-sheep, the primitive hunter Horn meets on Shadelow, says, “Long time the shearbear, he talk to me” (V, chap. 11, 261). Horn had never heard of the animal. The wife explains they mixed blood together (261). Later, on Green, Horn wonders if the shearbear on Blue seeks carrion beside the rivers (VI, chap. 6, 102).

  Short Sun “the star orbited by the Whorl” (V, list). It has two inhabitable worlds named Blue and Green.

  Orbital Position of Green and Blue

  At first glance, the detail of the six year conjunction between planets makes it seem like Green has a six year orbit compared with Blue’s one year orbit. In our Solar System this would put Green out in the freezing asteroid belt, with dramatic seasonal change. This arrangement would be sort of “cometary.”

  Further pondering suggests that if Blue is in an Earth orbit, Green could be in either an inner orbit, closer to the Sun like Venus (but not that close), or an outer orbit, further from the Sun like Mars (but not that far). For the sake of this model, assume that Blue has a circular orbit, Green has an oval orbit, and the point where the two orbits intersect is conjunction. A Venusian Green, whose orbit would match up with Blue every six years, would have an orbit of .89 AU from the Short Sun. A Martian Green would have an orbit of 1.1 AU.

  Silent Silk in the Long Sun Whorl a minor god, or an aspect of Pas (VII, chap. 8, 164–65). Also known as “Silver Silk,” he looks out of Sacred Windows but does not speak or show himself (165).

  Silent Silk is the version of Silk scanned at Mainframe when he was in his twenties. The nature of where the scanning took place is initially obscured by multiple implications: the fish pool at Ermine’s is one, and this seems furthered when Kypris shows on the airship’s glass the image of Silk’s head on Pas’s body.

  Silkhorn writes, “When I was back on the Whorl, and Silk spoke to me through my friend Pig, I was eager to hear all that had befallen him since we had gone to Mainframe. He never complied, although I was permitted a few glimpses” (VII, chap. 9, 177).

  The terrible irony is that Silent Silk is the closest to being the “Silk” that everyone is looking for: the young hero of The Book of the Long Sun, unbroken by what came later. Paradoxically he is also tainted by his presumed merging with Pas, and Horn has vowed not to allow Pas to go to Blue.

  Silk, Patera “the caldé of Viron at the time the colonists boarded their landers, also called Caldé Silk” (V, list). “The phantom who has eluded me on three worlds” (V, chap. 1, 18). The Rajan of Gaon writes that Silk “has become a mythic figure. I hear rumors of altars and sacrifices. Disciples who have never seen him promulgate his teachings” (V, chap. 1, 40). (See entry in LS Half.)

  Incanto (Silkhorn) writes, “Silk had been one of them [frozen embryos with special talents]. Silk had been our leader. That was his talent, leadership” (VI, chap. 10, 158).

  The bereaved and suicidal man in his forties is a far cry from the young caldé of Viron he had been. While washing the new wounds on his arms, the wife of the corn seed man notes old scars there as well—these are referenced later as having come from fighting the white-headed bird at Blood’s mansion (VII, chap. 9, 188). That was a fight against “Death,” which he won.

  Caldé Silk had been run out of Viron (VII, chap. 2, 38) ten or twelve years ago (VII, chap. 4, 78), but there were rumors of him going around in disguise, helping people (79).

  On the subject of Silk being scanned, Sinew says to Horn that Silk “went off with the flying man and wouldn’t let you tag along. That’s what you and Mom said.” To which Horn replies, “That’s what we wrote, because it was all we knew” (V, chap. 1, 35). This is a reference to a scene wherein, after the group watches the first lander with Auk and Chenille leave the Long Sun Whorl, Sciathan offers to let them visit with their deceased. Silk refuses for himself, then says he has to confer with Sciathan. When Horn asks if he and Nettle can accompany him, “Silk hesitated, then shook his head” (IV, chap. 16, 349). In the next scene we learn that Nettle saw her grandmother, Remora saw his mother, and Hyacinth saw her mother (352).

  In short, then, Silk has been broken up into a number of different pieces: Silent Silk, which preserves his youthful heroism with a presumed taint of Pas; Silkhorn, the confused remnant of Silk; and literary Silk, the focus of a book and perhaps a new religion.

  Silk Sayings

  • Stories about two men trying to cheat each other (VII, chap. 17, 338).

  • Stories about the best thief in Viron.

  • “You glory in your cruelty, because you believe it shows you are master of your victim” (VII, chap. 17, 339)

  Silkhorn a term coined by readers to refer to the narrator as a blend of Horn and Silk.

  Horn sets out from New Viron, is tricked into going to Green when he thought he was going to the Long Sun Whorl, and dies on Green. Some part of his spirit is placed within the body of a despairing Silk on the Long Sun Whorl.

  Throughout the Short Sun series the narrator exhibits an ebb and flow between the personalities of Horn and Silk. We know a number of Silk’s traits and quirks from The Book of the Long Sun: for example, Silk traces circles on his cheek when wrapped in thought, and he is always fasting himself in a way that is both pious self-denial and practical weight-watching.

  We know far less about Horn. It seems likely that he is the “engineer” among the two, due to his experience of making the paper mill on Lizard Island.

  So if “Silkhorn” is eating a meal with gusto, or making a device, or admiring the material of an artifact, then it seems likely that the personality of Horn is dominant at that moment. If Silkhorn is holding forth on religious matters, performing an exorcism, or mis-identifying one of his twin sons, then it is probable that Silk is the dominant one at the time.

  Silkhorn writing of Horn in the third person: “Horn made several [simple musical instruments] for his young siblings before we went into the tunnels” (V, chap. 5, 139–40).

  Silkhorn as Silk: “Bars [on the palace window] would be more practical . . . but I cannot forget how I hated the bars on the windows of my manse” (V, chap. 12, 308).

  Myth: (Egyptian) Horus loses his left eye avenging his father; (Norse) Odin sacrifices an eye in exchange for wisdom.

  Silver Silk another name for Silent Silk (VII, chap. 8, 164), the reason being that he looks out of the mirror-like glass without showing himself (165).

  Silver Street a street in Old Viron (VII, chap. 10, 210). Horn’s childhood home was on Silver Street but it burned down during the revolution.

  Sinew “Horn and Nettle’s eldest son” (V, list). He resembles Horn (V, chap. 1, 42). That Sinew is on Green is given quite early in the text (V, chap. 1, 41). Krait the inhumu is his blood-twin, since Krait’s mother Jahlee had bitten Sinew as a baby. Sinew’s wife on Green is Bala. His sons are Shauk and Karn.

  Sinew seems to have s
et out for Pajarocu within a month of Horn’s leaving, since at week seven or so (Day 57 on Timeline 1) Strik tells Horn he met Sinew recently. Sinew finds Pajarocu first, in fact, and despite their deep division, they board the lander together and fight as allies on Green. It seems that they have repaired their relationship until Sinew leaves Horn for the woman Bala.

  It is possible, perhaps even likely, that Sinew gave Horn the wound that eventually killed him.

  Silkhorn’s belief that Sinew could show up on Blue at any time is based on experience, since Sinew has the ring that allowed Horn transport to the Long Sun Whorl.

  Sinew and Horn have a very strained relationship, which is not uncommon between teenage boys and their fathers. On Horn’s side is deep guilt about the inhuma bite, but there is also the unarticulated rift between Horn and his own father Smoothbone. Seawrack points out that Sinew’s voice sounds exactly like Horn’s, and the situation starts to seem “genetic,” suggesting that the fate of Smoothbone anticipates that of Horn as well as Sinew.

  Sister “a small girl living with her brother in a forest northwest of Gaon” (V, list; V, chap. 16, 378).

  Siyuf, Generalissimo “the commander of the Rani’s horde” (V, list). Horn supposes she would re-install Silk as caldé if necessary (V, chap. 2, 65). (See entry in LS Half.)

  Skany “an inland town some distance from Gaon” (V, list). Three men come from Skany to ask “Silk” in Gaon to rule Skany as well (V, chap. 6, 147). The Skany colony was created through a single wealthy man. This founding father requested a very extensive tract of land, and this was granted. Recently he expressed the desire to marry a servant, and she is willing, but an old woman came forth claiming the bride price (148; 155). The three men ask the Rajan how he would judge this case. He suspects that one of the three men is the founder in question. Intrigued, the Rajan goes to Skany and remains most of the summer (158). See CASE OF THE SERVANT GIRL CLAIMED AS DAUGHTER.