by Gene Wolfe
Page 16
The bridge was as well lighted as the Water Way had been shadowed. There were flambeaux on staggering poles every ten strides or so, and at intervals of about a hundred strides, bartizans whose guardroom windows glared like fireworks clung to the bridge piers. Carriages with lanterns rattled along, and most of the people who thronged the walkway were accompanied by linkboys or carried lights themselves. There were vendors who shouted the wares they displayed in trays hung from their necks, externs who gabbled in rude tongues, and beggars who showed their sores, feigned to play flageolets and ophicleides, and pinched their children to make them weep.
I confess I was much interested by all this, though my training prohibited me from gawking at it. With my hood drawn well over my head, and my eyes resolutely to the front, I passed among the crowd as if indifferent to it; but for a short time at least I felt my fatigue melt away, and my strides were, I think, the longer and swifter because I wanted to remain where I was.
The guards in the bartizans were not city roundsmen but peltasts in half-armor, bearing transparent shields. I was almost at the western bank when two stepped forward to bar my way with their blazing spears. "It is a serious crime to wear the costume you affect. If you intend some jape or artifice, you endanger yourself for its sake. "
I said, "I am entitled to the habit of my guild. "
"You seriously claim you are a carnifex, then? Is that a sword you carry?"
"It is, but I am no such thing. I am a journeyman of the Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence. "
There was a silence. A hundred people or so had surrounded us in the few moments required for them to ask, and me to answer, their question. I saw the peltast who had not spoken glance at the other as if to say he means it, and then at the crowd.
"Come inside. The lochage wishes to speak with you. "
They waited while I preceded them through the narrow door. The interior boasted only one small room, with a table and a few chairs. I mounted a little stair much worn by booted feet. In the room above, a man in a cuirass was writing at a high desk. My captors had followed me up, and when we stood before him, the one who had spoken previously said, "This is the man. "
"I am aware of that," the lochage answered without looking up.
"He calls himself a journeyman of the guild of torturers. "
For a moment the quill, which had skated along steadily before, paused. "I had never thought to encounter such a thing outside the pages of some book, but I dare say he speaks no more than the truth. "
"Ought we to release him then?" the soldier asked.
"Not quite yet. "
Now the lochage wiped his quill, sanded the letter over which he had labored, and looked up at us. I said, "Your subordinates stopped me because they doubted my right to the cloak I wear. "
"They stopped you because I ordered it, and I ordered it because you were creating a disturbance, according to the report of the eastern turrets. If you are of the guild of torturers - which to be honest I had supposed reformed out of existence long ago - you have spent your life in the - What do you call it?"
"The Matachin Tower. "
He snapped his fingers, and looked as though he were both amused and chagrined. "I mean the place where your tower stands. "
"The Citadel. "
"Yes, the Old Citadel. Its east of the river, as I recall, and just at the northern edge of the Algedonic Quarter. I was taken there to see the Donjon when I was a cadet. How often have you gone out into the city?"
I thought of our swimming expeditions and said, "Often. "
"Dressed as you are now?"
I shook my head.
"If youre going to do that, pull back that hood. I can only see the tip of your nose wiggle. " The lochage slid from his stool and strode to a window overlooking the bridge. "How many people do you think there are in Nessus?"
"I have no idea. "
"No more do I, Torturer. No more does anyone. Every attempt to count them has failed, as has every attempt to tax them systematically. The city grows and changes every night, like writing chalked on a wall. Houses are built in the streets by clever people who take up the cobbles in the dark and claim the ground - did you know that? The exultant Talarican, whose madness manifested itself as a consuming interest in the lowest aspects of human existence, claimed that the persons who live by devouring the garbage of others number two gross thousands. That there are ten thousand begging acrobats, of whom nearly half are women. That if a pauper were to leap from the parapet of this bridge each time we draw breath, we should live forever, because the city breeds and breaks men faster than we respire. Among such a throng, there is no alternative to peace. Disturbances cannot be tolerated, because disturbances cannot be extinguished. Do you follow me?"
"There is the alternative of order. But yes, until that is achieved, I understand. "
The lochage sighed and turned to face me. "If you understand that at least, good. It will be necessary, then, for you to obtain more conventional clothing. "
"I cannot return to the Citadel. "
"Then get out of sight tonight and buy something tomorrow. Have you funds?"
"A trifle, yes. "
"Good. Buy something. Or steal, or strip the clothes from the next unfortunate you shorten with that thing. Id have one of my fellows take you to an inn, but that would mean more staring and whispering still. Theres been some kind of trouble on the river, and theyre telling each other too many ghost stories out there already. Now the winds dying and a fogs coming in - that will make it worse. Where are you going?"
"I am appointed to the town of Thrax. "
The peltast who had spoken before said, "Do you believe him, Lochage? Hes shown no proof that hes what he claims. "
The lochage was looking out the window again, and now I too saw the threads of ochre mist. "If you cant use your head, use your nose," he said. "What odors entered with him?"
The peltast smiled uncertainly.
"Rusting iron, cold sweat, putrescent blood. An impostor would smell of new cloth, or rags picked from a trunk. If you dont wake to your business soon, Petronax, youll be north fighting the Ascians. "
The peltast said, "But Lochage - " shooting such a look of hatred toward me that I thought he might attempt to do me some harm when I left the bartizan.
"Show this fellow you are indeed of the torturers guild. "
The peltast was relaxed, so there was no great difficulty. I knocked his shield aside with my right arm, putting my left foot on his right to pin him while I crushed that nerve in the neck that induces convulsions.
Chapter 15
BALDANDERS
The city at the western end of the bridge was very different from the one I had left. At first there were flambeaux at the corners, and nearly as much coming and going of coaches and drays as there had been on the bridge itself. Before quitting the bartizan, I had asked the lochages advice about a place to spend what remained of the night; now, feeling the fatigue that had deserted me only briefly, I plodded along watching for the inn sign.
After a time the dark seemed to thicken with each step I took, and somewhere I must have taken the wrong turning. Unwilling to retrace my way, I tried to maintain a generally northerly route, comforting myself with the thought that though I might be lost, each stride carried me nearer Thrax. At last I discovered a small inn. I saw no sign and perhaps it had none, but I smelled cooking and heard the clink of tumblers, and I went in, throwing open the door and dropping into an old chair that stood near it without paying much attention to where I had come or whose company I had entered.
When I had been sitting there long enough to get my breath and was wishing for a place where I could take off my boots (though I was far from ready to get up to look for one), three men who had been drinking in a corner got up and left; and an old man, seeing, I suppose, that I was going to be bad for his business, came over and asked what I wanted. I told him I required a room.
"We have n
one. "
I said, "Thats just as well - I have no money to pay anyway. "
"Then you will have to leave. "
I shook my head. "Not yet. Im too tired. " (Other journeymen had told me of playing this trick in the city. )
"Youre the carnifex, aint you? You take their heads off. "
"Bring me two of those fish I smell and you wont have anything but the heads left. "
"I can call the City Guard. Theyll have you out. "
I knew from his tone that he did not believe what he said, so I told him to call away, but to bring me the fish in the meantime, and he went off grumbling. I sat up straighter then, with Terminus Est (which I had had to take from my shoulder to sit down) upright between my knees. There were five men still in the room with me, but none of them would meet my eye, and two soon left.
The old man returned with a small fish that had expired upon a slice of coarse bread, and said, "Eat this and go. "
He stood and watched me while I had my supper. When I had finished it, I asked where I could sleep.
"No rooms. I told you. "
If a palace had stood with open doors half a chain away, I do not think I could have driven myself to leave that inn to go to it. I said, "Ill sleep in this chair, then. Youre not likely to have more trade tonight anyway. "
"Wait," he said, and left me. I heard him talking to a woman in another room. When I woke, he was shaking me by the shoulder. "Will you sleep three in a bed?"
"With whom?"
"Two optimates, I swear to you. Very nice men, traveling together. "
The woman in the kitchen shouted something I could not understand. "Did you hear that?" the old man continued. "One of thems not even come in yet. This time of night, he probably wont come at all. Therell be just the two of you. "
"If these men have rented a bedchamber - "
"They wont object, I promise. Truth is, Carnifex, theyre behind. Three nights here, and only paid for the first. "
So I was to be used as an eviction notice. That did not disturb me much, and in fact it seemed somewhat promising - if the man sleeping there tonight left, I would have the room to myself. I clambered to my feet and followed the old man up a crooked stair.
The room we entered was not locked, but it was as dark as a tomb. I could hear heavy breathing. "Goodman!" the old fellow bawled, forgetting he had said his tenant was an optimate. "What-do-you-call-yourself? Baldy? Baldanders? I brought company for you. If you wont pay your rate, you got to take in boarders. " There was no reply.
"Here, Master Carnifex," the old man said to me, "Ill make you a light. " He puffed at a bit of punk until it was bright enough to ignite a stub of candle. The room was small, and held no furniture but a bed. In it, asleep on his side (as it appeared) with his back toward us and his legs drawn up, was the largest man I had ever seen - a man who might fairly have been called a giant.
"Arent you going to wake, Goodman Baldanders, and see who your lodgemate might be?"
I wanted to go to bed and told the old man to leave us. He objected, but I pushed him out of the room and as soon as he was gone sat down on the unoccupied side of the bed and pulled off my boots and stockings. The weak light of the candle confirmed that I had developed several blisters. I took off my cloak and spread it on the worn counterpane. For a moment I considered whether I should take off my belt and trousers or sleep in them; prudence and weariness together urged the latter, and I noticed that the giant seemed fully dressed. With a feeling of inexpressible fatigue and relief I blew out the candle and lay down to spend the first night outside the Matachin Tower that I could recall.
"Never. "
The tone was so deep and resonant (almost like the lowest notes of an organ) that I was not certain at first what the meaning of the word had been, or even if it had been a word at all. I mumbled, "What did you say?"
"Baldanders. "
"I know - the innkeeper told me. Im Severian. " I was lying on my back, with Terminus Est (which I had brought into the bed for safekeeping) between us. In the dark, I could not tell whether my companion had rolled to face me or not, yet I was certain I would have felt any motion of that enormous frame.
"You - strike off. "
"You heard us when we came in then. I thought you were asleep. " My lips shaped themselves to say I was no carnifex, but a journeyman of the torturers guild. Then I recalled my disgrace, and that Thrax has sent for an executioner. I said, "Yes, Im a headsman, but you need not fear me. I only do what I am told to do. "
"Tomorrow, then. "
"Yes, tomorrow will be time enough for us to meet and talk. "
And then I dreamed, though it may have been that Baldanders words, too, were a dream. Yet I do not think so, and if they were, it was a different dream.
I bestrode a great, leather-winged being under a lowering sky. Just equipoised between the rack of cloud and a twilit land we slid down a hill of air. Hardly once, it seemed to me, the finger-winged soarer flapped her long pinions. The dying sun was before us, and it seemed we matched the speed of Urth, for it stood unmoving at the horizon, though we flew on and on.
At last I saw a change in the land, and at first I thought it a desert. Far off, no cities or farms or woods or fields appeared, but only a level waste, a blackened purple in color, featureless and nearly static. The leathern-winged one observed it as well, or perhaps snatched some odor from the air. I felt iron muscles beneath me grow tense, and there were three wing strokes together.
The purple waste showed flecks of white. After a time I became aware that its seeming stillness was a sham born of uniformity - it was the same everywhere, but everywhere in motion - the sea - the World-River Uroboros - cradling Urth. Then for the first time I looked behind me, seeing all the country of humankind swallowed in the night.
When it was gone, and there was everywhere beneath us the waste of rolling water and nothing more, the beast turned her head to regard me. Her beak was the beak of an ibis, her face the face of a hag; on her head was a miter of bone. For an instant we regarded each other, and I seemed to know her thought: You dream; but were you to wake from your waking, I would be there.