by Mike Resnick
"Enough for a book?" she asked meaningfully.
"Who knows?"
"I'll have to think about it," said Virtue.
The door opened and a doctor, flanked by three assistants, entered the tavern.
"Not for too long," Cain told her.
The medics carried Father William and Moonripple out on air-cushioned stretchers, and the doctor walked over to Cain.
"I'll be back for the other two later," he said. "But I'm going to have to work fast to save Father William."
Cain nodded. "Just come back for this one," he said, gesturing to the Angel. "I'm taking the other home with me."
The doctor looked down at Santiago, then at Cain, and nodded his head.
Cain waited until he and Virtue were alone again before speaking.
"I'd better pull my vehicle up and load him into it," he said. He walked to the door, then turned to her. "I'll need your decision before I go."
He turned back and found himself facing the Jolly Swagman.
"I saw everyone else leaving, so I decided that this might be an opportune time to come over," he said with a smile. "I'm glad to see you're still alive."
He walked past Cain and stared at the two corpses.
"Well, I'll be damned!" he muttered. "Both of them!" He turned back to Cain. "I thought I saw two bodies being carried out."
"Father William and Moonripple," said Cain. "They're still alive."
"I'm glad to hear it. I've got a sneaking fondness for that fat old man." He rubbed his hands together. "Well, here we are—the Three Musketeers! Who would have thought that we'd actually make it?"
"What do you want?" asked Cain.
"What do you mean, what do I want?" laughed the Swagman. "You've got the reward, Virtue's got her story—I want the artwork."
"No deal," said Cain.
The Swagman frowned. "What are you talking about, Songbird?"
"My name's not Songbird."
"All right—Sebastian."
"It's not Sebastian, either."
"Well, what do you want to be called?"
"Santiago."
The Swagman laughed heartily. "He's got that much stashed away?"
"What I have is none of your business."
"All right," said the Swagman. "This has gone far enough. We made a deal. The artwork's mine!"
"You made a deal with a man who no longer exists," said Cain.
"Now listen to me!" said the Swagman. "I don't know what kind of double cross you're trying to pull, but it's not going to work. You've got the reward; I want the artwork."
"What you want doesn't interest me."
"Do you think that just because you're the one who killed him you're entitled to everything?" demanded the Swagman. "It doesn't work that way, Sebastian!"
"His name's Santiago," said Virtue.
"You, too?" he said, turning to face her.
"I'm his biographer," she said with a smug smile. "Who knows Santiago better than me?"
The Swagman turned back to Cain. "I don't know what kind of scam you two have worked out, but you're not getting rid of me that easily. I've put as much work into this as you have; I deserve something for my time."
"Some alien artwork?" suggested Cain.
"Of course some alien artwork! What the hell do you think I've been talking about?"
"All right," said Cain. "You're entitled to something."
He walked to Santiago's body, knelt down, and removed a gold ring from one of his fingers.
"Here you are," said Cain. "Now go away."
The Swagman looked at the ring, then hurled it against the wall.
"I'll tell what I know," he said threateningly.
"Do whatever you think you have to do," said Cain.
"I'm not bluffing, Sebastian. I'll tell them he's dead."
"And next month or next year another navy convoy will be robbed, and everyone will know that Santiago is still alive," replied Cain calmly.
The Swagman stared at Cain. "This isn't over yet," he promised.
"I know," said Cain. "For one thing, you're going to be protecting me."
"What are you talking about?"
"There's still a price on my head, and you know I live on Safe Harbor. If any bounty hunter makes it this far, I'm going to assume that you told him where to find me." He smiled grimly. "I would take a very dim view of that."
"How can I keep tabs on every bounty hunter who's looking for Santiago?" demanded the Swagman in exasperation.
"You're a clever man," said Cain. "You'll find a way."
The Swagman seemed about to protest, then sighed and turned to Virtue.
"You're really going along with this deception?" he asked.
"What deception?" she replied innocently.
"Wonderful," he muttered. "You know," he added thoughtfully, "it occurs to me that you've run through most of your advance already. You're not going to do much more than break even."
"Have you any suggestions?"
He smiled with renewed self-confidence. "Hundreds of them, especially for a famous art critic like yourself."
"We'll talk about it later," she said, unable to completely hide her interest.
"I'll be at the boarding house for a few more days. That is," he added sardonically, "if it's all right with Santiago?"
"Two days," said Cain.
"Then, if there are no further objections, I think I'll take my leave of you," he said, walking to the door. "I crave the company of honest men and women."
"I doubt that the feeling is mutual," said Cain.
The Swagman chuckled and left the tavern.
"I was afraid that you were going to kill him," remarked Virtue.
"Cain might have. Santiago will find a use for him."
"But all he has to do is tell the navy where to find you."
"But he won't," said Cain confidently as he walked to the door. "If the navy kills me, the Democracy will appropriate all my belongings, including the artwork."
It took Cain another five minutes to load Santiago's body into his vehicle. Then he and Virtue drove the fifty miles out to the farm.
Jacinto was waiting for him, and while Virtue remained at the house, the two men gently carried Santiago down to the dell, where a third grave had been dug that morning.
"He loved this place," said Jacinto after they had filled in the grave. He looked around. "It is beautiful, isn't it?"
Cain nodded.
Jacinto stared down thoughtfully at the unmarked grave. "He was the best of them all."
"Was he a bounty hunter, too?" asked Cain.
Jacinto shook his head. "He came here as a colonist almost twenty years ago, and built the Barleycorn Tavern."
"What about the one before him?"
"A professor of alien languages."
"And a chess player?" asked Cain.
Jacinto smiled. "A very fine one."
Cain walked to a shaded area beneath a gnarled tree. "When you bury me, I want it to be right here," he said.
Jacinto drew himself up to his full height and looked into Cain's eyes. "Santiago cannot die," he said firmly.
"I know. But when you bury me, remember what I asked."
"I will," Jacinto promised.
Cain walked back to the three graves.
"Go on up to the house," he said. "I'll join you in a little while."
Jacinto nodded and began walking away, while Cain lowered his head and stared at the three mounds of earth. He stood there silently for almost half an hour, then sighed deeply and returned to the house.
Virtue was waiting for him on the veranda, camera in hand.
"Are you ready?" she asked eagerly.
"In a minute. I've got to say something to Jacinto first." He turned to her. "By the way, there's a condition."
"What is it?"
"You're to take no holograph of my face. You'll use the little camera I took from you yesterday and aim it at my hands." He paused. "That's my ground rule. Do you agree to it?"
"Of course." she replied easily. "It may actually extend my term as your biographer."
"I'm glad we understand each other."
He sought out Jacinto and asked for a status report' on Winston Kchanga's organization.
"We've had no reply from them." said Jacinto.
"And the Democracy is still freezing Bortai's funds?"
Jacinto nodded.
"Then I'm going to have to pay our associates a little visit," said Cain grimly. "Load their coordinates into my ship's navigational computer. I'm leaving tomorrow."
"Yes, Santiago."
He returned to the veranda.
"All right." he said. "Let's begin."
"Suppose you start by telling me about this movement of yours," said Virtue, focusing her camera on the back of his right hand. "Who are you fighting against?"
"Movement?" he repeated, puzzled. "I don't know anything about any movement." She opened her mouth to protest. "But I can tell you about the seventeen men and women that I robbed and killed on Silverblue."
She grinned and activated the microphone, and he spoke far into the night, telling her the bloody history of the most notorious criminal in the galaxy.
EPILOGUE
Some say that he's a hundred,
Some say that he is more;
Some say he'll live forever—
This outlaw commodore!
* * * *
That was the last verse Black Orpheus ever wrote.
Shortly after setting the words down, he landed on the fourth planet of the Beta Santori system. It was a beautiful world, a pastoral wonderland of green fields and cool clear streams and sturdy ancient trees, and the moment he stepped out of his ship he decided to spend the rest of his life as its only inhabitant.
He named it Eurydice.
Of course, even without Black Orpheus, life—and death—continued on the Inner Frontier.
Geronimo Gentry, Poor Yorick, and Jonathan Stern were all dead within a year—one from old age, one from too many alphanella seeds, and one from a plethora of sins that still had no names.
The Sargasso Rose remained a lonely and bitter woman, cursing Sebastian Cain nightly for not fulfilling his promise to her. Skullcracker Murchison lost his unofficial title, regained it, and finally retired after taking one blow too many to the head.
Peacemaker MacDougal hunted down Quentin Cicero and Carmella Sparks, then went deeper toward the core of the galaxy in search of Santiago. Dimitri Sokol served as ambassador for two years on Lodin XI, resigned when he felt he had accumulated enough political favors, and moved to Deluros VIII, where he ran successfully for a minor office and later was offered a major post within the government.
Father William was slow to heal from his wounds. He remained in the hospital for the better part of six months, invoking the wrath of God upon all the doctors who refused to release him until he had lost half his body weight. The day he walked out he began regaining his lost bulk with a vengeance, but his stamina was gone, and he finally settled on Safe Harbor, the pastor of that planet's only church.
As for the Swagman, he actually did team up with Virtue Mackenzie for a brief period. After they had yet another falling-out, he returned to Goldenrod and sat down to write his memoirs. His enthusiasm soon waned, though he never completely abandoned the project, and before long he had hired a new batch of menials and was once again adding to his collection in his inimitable way.
Virtue had left the Democracy in obscurity, but she returned as a celebrity. Her series of interviews with Santiago won her three major awards, and her biography of the notorious bandit made her wealthy. She returned to the Inner Frontier every couple of years for fresh material on the King of the Outlaws and never failed to come up with it. She drank too much, slept with too many men, and spent too much money—and enjoyed every minute of it.
Cain carried on his campaign for nine more years, spending what his network of illicit enterprises accumulated where it would do the most good, fighting only that handful of battles he knew he could win, and spreading the myth of Santiago even farther across the Frontier.
He had always felt that when the end came it would be at the hands of Peacemaker MacDougal—but it was Johnny One-Note, making only his ninth kill, who finally hunted him down. He was sitting on his veranda, gazing tranquilly across the rolling fields of corn and wheat, when it happened, and he never knew what hit him. Johnny One-Note got to within half a mile of his ship before they tracked him down and killed him.
That afternoon there was a fourth unmarked grave in the small dell by the pond—under the gnarled tree, as Cain had requested. In the evening Moonripple came all the way out from town on foot.
A slender man, with sad eyes and a brilliant streak of white running through his dark hair, stood on the front porch and watched her approach.
"Yes?" he said.
"I've come to see Santiago."
"Why?" he asked.
"I've been a barmaid all my life," she replied. "Father William says that it's time to do something more." She paused uneasily. "He says that Santiago might be able to help me."
"It's possible."
"Where can I find him?" asked Moonripple.
"Come, child," he said gently, reaching out his bandaged right hand to her. "I am Santiago."
-The End-
CHRONOLOGY
Chronology of the universe created in BIRTHRIGHT: THE BOOK OF MAN (through May 1, 2010), showing the year, the era, and the title:
1885 A.D. "The Hunter" (IVORY)
1898 A.D. "Himself" (IVORY)
1982 A.D. SIDESHOW
1983 A.D. THE THREE-LEGGED HOOTCH DANCER
1985 A.D. THE WILD ALIEN TAMER
1987 A.D. THE BEST ROOTIN' TOOTIN' SHOOTIN'
GUNSLINGER IN THE WHOLE DAMNED GALAXY
2057 A.D. "The Politician" (IVORY)
2908 A.D. 1 G.E.
16 G.E. Republic "The Curator" (IVORY)
264 G.E. Republic "The Pioneers" (BIRTHRIGHT)
332 G.E. Republic "The Cartographers" (BIRTHRIGHT)
346 G.E. Republic WALPURGIS III
367 G.E. Republic EROS ASCENDING
396 G.E. Republic "The Miners" (BIRTHRIGHT)
401 G.E. Republic EROS AT ZENITH
442 G.E. Republic EROS DESCENDING
465 G.E. Republic EROS AT NADIR
522 G.E. Republic "All the Things You Are"
588 G.E. Republic "The Psychologists" (BIRTHRIGHT)
616 G.E. Republic A MIRACLE OF RARE DESIGN
882 G.E. Republic "The Potentate" (IVORY)
962 G.E. Republic "The Merchants" (BIRTHRIGHT)
1150 G.E. Republic "Cobbling Together a Solution"
1151 G.E. Republic "Nowhere in Particular"
1152 G.E. Republic "The God Biz"
1394 G.E. Republic "Keepsakes"
1701 G.E. Republic "The Artist" (IVORY)
1813 G.E. Republic "Dawn" (PARADISE)
1826 G.E. Republic PURGATORY
1859 G.E. Republic "Noon" (PARADISE)
1888 G.E. Republic "Midafternoon" (PARADISE)
1902 G.E. Republic "Dusk" (PARADISE)
1921 G.E. Republic INFERNO
1966 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: MUTINY
1967 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: PIRATE
1968 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: MERCENARY
1969 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: REBEL
1970 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: FLAGSHIP
2122 G.E. Democracy "The 43 Antarean Dynasties"
2154 G.E. Democracy "The Diplomats" (BIRTHRIGHT)
2239 G.E. Democracy "Monuments of Flesh and Stone"
2275 G.E. Democracy "The Olympians" (BIRTHRIGHT)
2469 G.E. Democracy "The Barristers" (BIRTHRIGHT)
2885 G.E. Democracy "Robots Don't Cry"
2911 G.E. Democracy "The Medics" (BIRTHRIGHT)
3004 G.E. Democracy "The Policitians" (BIRTHRIGHT)
3042 G.E. Democracy "The Gambler" (IVORY)
3286 G.E. Democracy SANTIAGO
332
2 G.E. Democracy A HUNGER IN THE SOUL
3324 G.E. Democracy THE SOUL EATER
3324 G.E. Democracy "Nicobar Lane: The Soul Eater's Story"
3407 G.E. Democracy THE RETURN OF SANTIAGO
3427 G.E. Democracy SOOTHSAYER
3441 G.E. Democracy ORACLE
3447 G.E. Democracy PROPHET
3502 G.E. Democracy "Guardian Angel"
3504 G.E. Democracy "A Locked-Planet Mystery"
3504 G.E. Democracy "Honorable Enemies"
3505 G.E. Democracy "If the Frame Fits…"
3719 G.E. Democracy "Hunting the Snark"
4375 G.E. Democracy "The Graverobber" (IVORY)
4822 G.E. Oligarchy "The Administrators" (BIRTHRIGHT)
4839 G.E. Oligarchy THE DARK LADY
5101 G.E. Oligarchy THE WIDOWMAKER
5103 G.E. Oligarchy THE WIDOWMAKER REBORN
5106 G.E. Oligarchy THE WIDOWMAKER UNLEASHED
5108 G.E. Oligarchy A GATHERING OF WIDOWMAKERS
5461 G.E. Oligarchy "The Media" (BIRTHRIGHT)
5492 G.E. Oligarchy "The Artists" (BIRTHRIGHT)
5521 G.E. Oligarchy "The Warlord" (IVORY)
5655 G.E. Oligarchy "The Biochemists" (BIRTHRIGHT)
5912 G.E. Oligarchy "The Warlords" (BIRTHRIGHT)
5993 G.E. Oligarchy "The Conspirators" (BIRTHRIGHT)
6304 G.E. Monarchy IVORY
6321 G.E. Monarchy "The Rulers" (BIRTHRIGHT)
6400 G.E. Monarchy "The Symbiotics" (BIRTHRIGHT)
6521 G.E. Monarchy "Catastrophe Baker and the Cold Equations
6523 G.E. Monarchy THE OUTPOST
6524 G.E. Monarchy "Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for
Leibowitz
6599 G.E. Monarchy "The Philosophers" (BIRTHRIGHT)
6746 G.E. Monarchy "The Architects" (BIRTHRIGHT)
6962 G.E. Monarchy "The Collectors" (BIRTHRIGHT)
7019 G.E. Monarchy "The Rebels" (BIRTHRIGHT)
16201 G.E. Anarchy "The Archaeologists" (BIRTHRIGHT)
16673 G.E. Anarchy "The Priests" (BIRTHRIGHT)
16888 G.E. Anarchy "The Pacifists" (BIRTHRIGHT)
17001 G.E. Anarchy "The Destroyers" (BIRTHRIGHT)