by Gene Wolfe
The effectual point: "In the name of all the gods you are forgiven forever, Doctor Crane. I speak here for Great Pas-" So many in the Nine, each with an honorific. Silk was seized by the feeling that none of them really mattered, not even Hierax, though Hierax was surely present. "And for the Outsider and all lesser gods."
He stood.
A muddy figure crouching behind a dead horse shouted, "Run, My Caldé! Save yourself!" then turned to fire again at the Guard floater bearing down on them.
Silk raised his hands, the rope that had not bound him still dangling from one wrist. "I surrender!" The azoth in his waistband seemed a lump of lead. He limped forward as fast as he could, slipping and sliding in the mud while rain pelted his face. "I'm Caldé Silk!" Lightning flared across the sky, and for an instant the advancing floater seemed a talus with tusks and staring, painted eyes. "If you have to shoot someone, shoot me!"
The mud-smeared figure dropped its slug gun and raised its hands as well.
The floater halted, the air blasting from its blowers raising a secondary rain of muddy water.
"They fired upon us from ambush, My Caldé." As though by a trick, the muddy figure spoke with the captain's voice. "We die for you and for Viron."
A hatch below the turret opened, and an officer whose uniform was instantly soaked with rain vaulted out.
"I know," Silk said. "I'll never forget you." He tried to recall the captain's name, but if he had ever heard it, it was gone, like the name of the trooper with the long, serious brown face, the one whose father's pond had gone dry.
The officer strode toward them, halted, and drew his sword with a flourish. Heels together and head erect, he saluted with it as though upon the drill field, holding it vertically before his face. "Caldé! Thank Hierax and all the gods that I was able to rescue you!"
THE END OF BOOK TWO
Table of Contents
Book One
Nightside the Long Sun
Chapter 1 THE MANTEION ON SUN STREET
Chapter 2 THE SACRIFICE
Chapter 3 TWILIGHT
Chapter 4 NIGHTSIDE
Chapter 5 THE WHITE-HEADED ONE
Chapter 6 NEW WEAPONS
Chapter 7 THE BARGAIN
Chapter 8 THE BOARDER ON THE LARDER
Chapter 9 OREB AND OTHERS
Chapter 10 THE CAT WITH THE RED-HOT TAIL
Chapter 11 SUMMONED
Chapter 12 DINNER ON AUK
Chapter 13 SILK FOR CALDÉ
Book Two
Lake of the Long Sun
GODS, PERSONS, AND ANIMALS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT
Chapter 1 THEY HAD SCIENTISTS
Chapter 2 LADY KYPRIS
Chapter 3 COMPANY
Chapter 4 THE PROCHEIN AMI
Chapter 5 THE SLAVE OF SPHIGX
Chapter 6 LAKE LIMNA
Chapter 7 THE ARMS OF SCYLLA
Chapter 8 FOOD FOR THE GODS
Chapter 9 IN DREAMS LIKE DEATH
Chapter 10 ON THE BELLY OF THE WHORL
Chapter 11 SOME SUMMATIONS
Chapter 12 LEMUR
Chapter 13 THE CALDÉ SURRENDERS