by Gene Wolfe
Oreb spoke for his master. "No, no!"
"Darling, you must, you simply must, learn to be tactful." Mint's smile was gone. "Look at him. Look at his face."
His head was in his hands. "If you-this is insane."
She nodded. "It certainly is. Let me explain. It will be insane just the same, and I can't do anything about that. But an explanation may help. You've been gone since the war?"
He nodded.
"You know Silk became calde. Do you also know that he resigned the office in my favor?"
"He was forced out, so I was told."
She shook her head. "He may have felt he was, and even said he was. But he wasn't. A lot of people disagreed with some of his policies, particularly concerning emigration. My own husband was one of them. Eventually the disagreement grew strident, and Silk made a speech. He isn't a very good speaker, and he seldom attempts it, but that was a good one. It was so good, in fact, that it's taught in the palaestras now. He said that he had sent so many people out from Viron because he felt it was his duty to the gods, to Pas and the Outsider, particularly."
Hound, seated at Bison's end of the table, leaned toward her, cupping his ear. "Could you speak up just a little, please? I can't hear you, and I-I'd like to."
"I'll try. Silk also said that he felt it was his duty to the city, to Viron. That he had been in communication with the gods, with Pas specifically, and that the whole whorl would be scourged if enough people didn't go. There were no godlings then, or anyway nobody here had seen one."
Oreb inquired, "See ghost?"
Mint smiled and shook her head. "Then he reminded everyone that he'd promised us often that he would be calde only as long as we wanted him. After that he asked whether the people did. He was still popular with many citizens, but a lot of his firmest supporters had boarded the landers."
Bison said, "There were cheers and boos. You'll want to know whether I cheered or booed, but I doubt that any of you will ask. I cheered. You don't have to believe me, but it's the truth."
"It is. I was with him, and I cheered too. But then, and this struck us both like a lightning bolt, he said that he bowed to the popular will. As of the moment he resigned his office-Yes, what is it, Honeysuckle?"
There was a whispered conference before Mint waved her maid away. "Pig, would you be so kind as to push my chair for me? I can move it myself when I have to, but it's a rather heavy chair. Will you help me?"
"Aye, mistress. Honored ter." Pig rose. Groping fingers thrice the size of hers found the handles of her chair and drew her slowly back from the table. "Have ter tell me which way."
"To my right a quarter turn, please."
The three remaining men watched them depart in silence; when they had vanished through a gilded arch, Hound murmured, "I wonder what she wants with him."
Bison picked up the wine bottle. "What makes you think she wants anything?"
"It's-well, obvious. Or I think it is. Maybe I wouldn't think so if I hadn't been around Horn for the past couple days. But it seems obvious after what I've heard. She could have had that girl push her, or pushed herself. Or any of us could have done it, and we can see. Pig might run her into a wall, though I hope he won't. So she wanted to speak to him alone, and jumped at the first opportunity to do it. Jumped is a bad word here, I suppose. But she did."
Bison refilled Hound's wineglass. "If a few days of Horn's company has done that, I ought to keep him around myself. What do you say, Horn? Is your pupil right?"
"I don't know. It seems plausible."
"What is she saying to him? Your best guess."
"If you're asking what she's telling him, I doubt that she's telling him anything. I would guess she's questioning him about something-something she thinks he might speak openly about when the two of them are alone-"
Hound snapped his fingers and looked pleased.
"You've guessed it? What is it? I confess I have only the foggiest ideas."
Hound's mouth opened, then shut again.
Bison said, "Tell us. I'd like to know, too."
"No. I won't. I apologize, Calde. I'm sorry, Horn. But I like General Mint, and Pig's my friend. If they want us to know, they can tell us."
Oreb bobbed approval. "Wise man!"
Bison smiled. "Shall we try to force it out of him, Horn?"
He shook his head. "He's right, and so is Oreb. Hound, you surprise me about once a day. I believe I've said something like that to you before, and it's true. I hadn't thought through the ethical implications. General Mint is an extraordinarily good woman, and a wise one. If she believes her question-and its answer-demands privacy, she's probably correct."
Hound laid a finger to his lips.
As she came through the doorway, Mint announced, "There will be four hot meats, I'm afraid, instead of the five cook planned. But Pig has tasted the shirred oysters for me and pronounces them excellent."
"Aye. H'oreb? H'oreb h'about?"
"Bird here. No go."
"Gi'e yer ae. Yer nae had ther like."
"Good Pig!"
With her chair back at the table, Mint speared an artichoke heart with her fork. "Where was I? Oh, yes, I was trying to explain about the man who shot me."
Bison gave her a concerned look.
"Yes, I was. That's what I was circling around toward. That and the ghost. Pig wants to know about the ghost. He asked me back in the kitchen."
"See ghost?" Oreb repeated.
"I didn't, Oreb, but my cook did. Horn, I want to tell you these things particularly. You say you're looking for Silk."
"I am."
Bison said, "So is someone else. I want to tell you about that before we finish lunch, but I'll let my wife go first."
"Thank you. I don't know whether these things I'm going to tell you will help you, Horn, but they may."
He nodded. "Please go on. I'm very grateful."
"I used to be calde. I don't know whether you remember our law here. The one concerning succession says that the calde can designate his own successor. He can tell the people whom he wants, or leave a paper in case he dies. Calde Silk resigned, and in the speech I've described he designated me."
He nodded again.
"The Rani's government was beside itself." Mint's smile warmed them. "Here they had been saying that Vironese women were slaves, and Viron had its first woman calde. We thought at first that the man who shot me might have been working for the Trivigauntis. But he was Vironese, and if there was a Trivigaunti connection we couldn't trace it."
Hound asked, "Isn't it possible that he shot you just because you're a woman? There are men who feel like that, or anyway they say they do."
Bison shook his head. "Not many."
"But there are some. Isn't that right, Horn?"
"Yes, there are, I'm sure. One would be sufficient."
Mint said, "I agree, but I don't think that's what it was. Neither does my husband, though he won't say so."
"I have no opinion. We've never been able to learn enough for me to form an opinion."
"I have my own, just the same. You see, when I became calde, the sun went out. I don't mean the moment I assumed the office. It was about a week later."
"Eight days," Bison said.
"Yes, eight days. It had been hot, terribly hot, and from what we were able to find out, even hotter in Urbs than it was here. We lost about a hundred citizens to heatstroke, mostly old people, but in Urbs it was over a thousand. We conferred with the Ayuntamiento then, Calde Silk, my husband, and I. It wasn't a formal meeting, but it lasted for hours and we learned a great deal, as did Calde Silk, I feel sure."
Pig swallowed. "Calde yet call him."
"Yes, he retains the title even though he's out of office, just as I do. Just as I retain my rank of general, for that matter, though I'm not on duty or fit for it."
Honeysuckle carried in a steaming tray.
"Horn, do you remember what I told you long ago about the tunnels? How they carry warm air to the surface of the whorl and
return cooler air to the interior?"
He nodded.
"Spider explained it to me while I was his prisoner. He had learned it from Councilor Potto, and Potto had learned it from Tarsier. The meeting was Silk's idea, as I should have said, and he told us about a tunnel he'd seen that was entirely blocked with water. There are others, far too many, that have collapsed and are blocked with stones and earth."
"That's why it gets too hot?" Hound asked. "Is that what you're saying?"
"Why ther wee folk douses yer glim." Pig helped himself to a handful of fragrant roast pork.
"If that means what I think, you're both right," Mint told Hound. "Heat accumulates, our summers are much too hot and our winters too mild. To keep things from getting worse, Pas blows out the sun. We didn't know that then, but the gods have told us since, and so have the godlings.
"What was I was going to say was that I made two decisions at that conference. The first was that we wouldn't let anyone else leave the whorl. And the second was that we would put crews to work clearing the tunnels under Viron, directed by Councilor Tarsier. I said I made those decisions, and I did. But we all agreed, even Silk."
"We had lost too many people already," Bison explained. "If Trivigaunte had resumed the war, we would have fallen like ripe fruit. The darkness was even worse. It had everybody terrified. Clearing the tunnels may have helped, and we got Urbs to do it too. Whether it's helped or not, at least it lets everybody feel that we're doing something."
Mint smiled again. "Trivigaunte declared a victory. It was unexpected, but very welcome. They said we had capitulated to the will of Sphigx. So we said we had, too, and it would have been difficult for them to attack us after that. Why are you shaking your head, Horn? Don't you believe me?"
"Yes." He moved a lettuce leaf on his plate so as to obscure Scylla's likeness and laid down his emblazoned silver fork. "Yes, of course. I would believe you even if you said things a thousand times more fantastic than that. I was thinking that it can't be the way things are now. People are boarding landers again to go to Blue or Green. They've got to be."
"They are," Mint said. "We-"
Bison interrupted her. "Why do you say that?"
"General Mint said the gods had told you that Pas puts out the sun, and that a godling had confirmed it. I, too, have spoken with a godling. Having newly returned to this Long Sun Whorl, I may perhaps have regarded the conversation as less extraordinary than it was."
"A huge one," Hound told them. "He sat in its hand. It bent its fingers up to keep the rain off."
"None of which matters at all. What does matter is what it saidwhat it told me."
"Silk talk!" Oreb suggested.
"Yes, he does. Too much at times, and doesn't eat enough. These are excellent rolls." He took another, and buttered it.
Mint asked, "Isn't your name Horn?"
He glanced at her. "Of course it is. Oh, that. Oreb calls me that, that's all. He's accustomed to calling his master Silk, it seems; and he considers me his master now. No doubt he'll return to Patera Silk when we find him. Oreb seems to be looking for him, too."
Bison said, "What did the godlings say to you? I'm waiting to hear that."
"And I'm waiting to hear where Silk is. I should offer to trade information. In fact, I do. I'll tell you, of course, whether we trade or not-as calde you have a right to know. But will you tell me? As a reward for being open with you?"
"Yes," Mint said.
Bison sighed. "My wife has a habit of committing us to more than we can do. I don't know where Calde Silk's living at present, although I could probably find out. My ignorance is intentional. If I explain, will that be enough?"
"I'd prefer you do more," he said.
"Then I'll try. My wife told you how she became calde. The darkdays began shortly afterward, and the first godling came."
"I understand."
"Here's what she was leading up to. We think the man who shot her may have done it because he thought Silk would be calde again if she died. There's a feeling-"
"It's not widespread," Mint told them, "but it's there."
"A feeling among a few people that the gods are angry at Viron because he's no longer calde."
Pig rumbled, "Wanted ter gang, mistress said."
"He resigned his office voluntarily," Mint affirmed, "just as I told you. He didn't even ask me whether I'd accept it. That may have been wise of him, because I don't think I would have. As it was, I was fool enough to take it when he named me as his successor."
Bison told her, "You had to. They'd have rioted."
"I suppose. I can only thank the gods, as I do, that I had the good sense to resign after I was shot, and to use my wound as an excuse."
"Your wound was very severe."
"It kept me from sitting at my desk." She smiled. "I can joke about it now, you see, and say that I got terribly tired of lying on my stomach. But the shot broke my right hip, and I pray for the day when I can joke about that as well. Horn, you said people were leaving in landers again."
He nodded.
"You were right. A lot of people want Silk back. Some simply feel that Silk is the calde the gods want. Others think Silk was right, that the gods want us to keep sending people outside. I stopped it. I ordered a complete cessation, and had my Guards seize every lander. Pas had put soldiers down there to protect them originally. Did you know that?"
"Aye," Pig said.
Hound shook his head. "Well, I didn't. Did you, Horn?"
"Yes. Silk told me about one, and later we found the bodies of others in the tunnels. They'd been painted blue, not green like ours. They had been shot with slug guns."
"As I was not. He had a needler." Mint's smile turned bitter. "He wouldn't have been able to get a slug gun that close. Where was I?"
Hound said, "About having the Calde's Guard take charge of the landers. I've never even seen one. I suppose I'm the only one here who hasn't."
"Nae me," Pig declared, and Oreb seconded him: "No see."
"The soldiers Pas had posted there so long ago were killed by men who wanted to steal the cards they knew were in the landers. We replaced them with our own. Five soldiers to each lander. Wasn't that it, dear?"
Bison nodded.
"When I was shot, my husband wanted to punish everyone who had expressed a desire to go-"
"The ones who had demonstrated and signed petitions," Bison said. "That had started after the first darkday, and I'd gone to a lot of trouble to find out who the organizers were, and then who the rest were. The Chapter was behind a lot of it."
"Good Silk!" Oreb exclaimed. "No cut!"
He nodded. "I'm not surprised."
"Pas had spoken to the Prolocutor, supposedly," Bison told them. "The usual cant."
"At any rate," Mint said, "we decided it was best to defuse the unrest as much as we could." She glanced toward Bison for confirmation, and he nodded.
"It would have been terrible to have to arrest all those people. We would have had another revolution-"
Bison snorted.
"Oh, we would have won," she said. "I agree completely about that. But what a victory! Having killed the people we should have led, we could go around congratulating ourselves."
"You decided to allow some people to go-to do the will of Pas, if you'll allow the expression."
Bison said, "Certainly. It was just that we didn't feel that it was Pas's will to destroy Viron, and we had reached that point. Under Silk so many had left that the city was about to collapse. That was why he had to go."
"Then you can't object to my taking him to Blue-but you don't know where he-"
"Lives. Exactly. And you're not the only one looking for him, Horn. Are you aware of that?"
He shrugged. "I know some men came to Ermine's last night. That was where we stayed, and supposedly-I admit I find this hard to credit-Silk was there, too."
Bison nodded. "They beat the desk clerk. They demanded that he tell them which room Silk had, and he said quite honestly that Ermi
ne's had no guest of that name and showed them his register. They beat him pretty badly, and roamed through the corridors until the Guard chased them out."
"Bad men?" Oreb inquired.
"You didn't arrest them?"
"We tried."
Mint said, "I haven't heard of this. What do they want with Calde Silk?"
"To take him to Blue. So they say."
Mint pursed her lips and looked thoughtful.
Hound told Bison, "We heard the disturbance outside our room, and a shot."
"Three, 'twas." Pig's big hands were groping the snowy tablecloth for more food.
Mint nudged a platter of venison madere until it was within his reach. "You said New Viron had sent you, Horn, and that you have been gone for nearly a year. Is it possible New Viron sent them out, too? When you didn't come back?"
Slowly, he shook his head. "It's possible, but I doubt it. I think I saw one talking to the clerk at Ermine's. He wasn't dressed like one of us; and though there are some very foreign-looking people in New Viron now, I don't believe they would have sent someone like that for Patera Silk."
Bison said, "They've got a lander. They came in one, and they've set a guard on it. If you can find Silk…" He glanced at Mint.
"Here Silk!" Oreb sounded annoyed.
"You may be right." Mint nodded. "That's another thing we have to talk about, the ghosts. But let's dispose of this first. May I speak without interruption for one actual minute?"
Hound said, "Please do."
"Then I'll say that it's still more possible my husband's correct. Ycu want to take Silk to Blue, and so do these strange men. If you have Silk and they have their lander, it's possible that some accommodation-"
Bison nodded. "We could take their lander, you understand. I don't know how many men they have guarding it, but it doesn't seem likely there's more than twenty or thirty. A dozen soldiers could take it, but it would mean we'd have to let another lander full of people leave, and more than that if it came back."
"Horn's shaking his head again, darling. What's the matter, Horn? Do you think we ought to send more people to your town on Blue, even if we have to kill to do it?"
"Just the opposite. You shouldn't permit anyone to go. That was the message the godling gave me, and what I promised to tell you, hoping you'd tell me where Silk is in return."