Exodus from the Long Sun

Chapter 11 — Lovers

As the floater rose, Hossaan said, “I’ve a dozen things to tell you, Calde. I know there won’t be time for all of them. It’s only four streets.”

“I know where it is,” Silk snapped. “Hurry!” Xiphias laid a hand on his arm. “Easy, lad!”

Hossaan glanced at the small mirror above his head, and his eyes met Silk’s. “So I’m going to tell the most important one first. You think there won’t be anybody at the Grand Manteion when Hy gets there, and you’re afraid she’ll leave.”

“Yes!”

“That’s not right. I told you I had to talk to General Mint on your glass, and that was what made me late.” Heeling like a close-hauled boat, the floater swerved around a gilded litter with eight bearers.

“I said we’d discuss it later.”

“Right. Only because of what she said, I thought it might be smart to have a look at the Grand Manteion. There’s three augurs in there and a couple thousand people.”

“Did you see Hyacinth?”

Hossaan shook his head. “But I could’ve missed her pretty easily, Calde. She’s not as tall as the redhead, and there was a bunch of women with animals.”

Oreb muttered, “No cut.”

“She’s probably still outside, Calde. If she was climbing the Palatine when Mucor said she was, she can’t have gotten to the Grand Manteion yet.”

Xiphias asked, “Why’s everybody there, lad?”

“There’s been another theophany — there must have been. Do you know about Pas appearing to His Cognizance?”

“No, lad! Never heard about it!”

“I have,” Hossaan said. “There’s a rumor, anyhow. Do you think that’s brought them?”

Silk shook his head. “It was Molpsday, and would be stale news now.” Half to himseif he added, “What does it mean, when a dead god rises?”

No one answered him. The floater sped on.

A surging crowd filled Gold Street. “Stop!” Silk ordered Hossaan. “No! Higher if you can. I saw her. Turn around.”

“Near us, Calde?” They rose, blowers racing.

“Cut!” Oreb exclaimed. “Cut cat!”

“Two or three streets down the slope. Turn!”

The floater darted forward instead. “Your bird’s right,” Hossaan told Silk. “It would take too long to get through that mob, but we can duck down here—” He swerved onto a steep and narrow street bordered by high walls. “And cut across to Gold so we come up behind her. We’ll be moving with them, and that will make it a lot faster.”

Silk drew breath and exhaled. The aching weakness in his chest was fading, but it seemed to him that he had not filled his lungs properly for days. “You told Horn that your name was Willet, Willet. Also you found clothing — somewhere in the Calde’s Palace, I suppose — similar to the waiters’, so that you could help them serve.”

“I like to be useful, calde.”

“I know you do, and it may be useful for you to tell me why you did those things before we locate Hyacinth — if we do. You say you have a dozen items to relate. That should be the next.”

Still steering their floater expertly, Hossaan glanced over his shoulder at Xiphias.

“If Master Xiphias and Maytera Marble can’t be trusted, no one can. If I explain your actions — I believe I can, you see — will you tell me whether I’m correct?”

They spun around a corner as though it were an eddy. “I’m afraid not. General Mint says Siyufs surrounded the Juzgado. That’s why I thought I ought to check on the Grand Manteion.”

“Where was she, and how did she learn of it?”

“I don’t know, calde. She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. She said one of Oosik’s officers told her. Oosik had told him to try and get in touch with her.”

Xiphias said, “He left when Willet here was handing out those appetizers, lad! Another waiter fetched him, remember?”

“Later than that — after I had asked Mucor to find out to which manteion Hyacinth was bringing her offering.”

Their floater tacked on Gold, pushing through chattering pedestrians.

“You know what she looks like,” Silk muttered. “She had on a black coat, and was carrying a large rabbit, I believe.”

“Cat talk,” Oreb informed him. “Talk bad.”

“The bird’s right, lad! The skinny girl said it talks!” Before Xiphias had finished speaking, their floater was slowing and stopping; the canopy slid into its back and sides.

For the space of a breath, Silk thought there had been a mistake. The hurrying young woman with something orange-furred tucked under her arm seemed too tall and too slender until she turned with their cowling nudging her leg, and he saw her face.

“Hyacinth!” He stood up by reflex, and for a moment he was half outside the floater (and she more than half in it) as they kissed.

When that kiss ended, they lay face-to-face on the soft leather seat, she crowded against its back and he practically falling off, with Xiphias standing over them and waving his saber to force passersby to keep their distance. They sat up, but their hands would not part. “I was afraid you were dead,” Silk confessed.

And Hyacinth, “I shaggy near was, and I — but I…” Her eyes swam with tears. “Can’t we put up the top?”

“I don’t know how.”

“I do.” She freed her hand, and with a flurry of skirt and ruffled underskirt, and a flash of legs and spike-heeled scarlet shoes, was in Hossaan’s seat. Xiphias ducked, and the canopy flowed up and darkened until it was nearly opaque.

She wiped her eyes. “Now I’m coming back. Catch me.” She rolled over the back of the front seat so that Silk had to, and lying in his arms kissed him again. With no need of speech, her kiss said, Beat me, shame and starve me. Do as you want with me, but don’t leave me. I’ll never do those things, he thought, and tried to make his own kiss tell her so.

When they parted, he gasped, “Where do we start?”

She smiled. “That WAS the start. I love you. Let’s start from there. I haven’t felt this way since — since you jumped out my window.”

He laughed, and she turned to Xiphias. “This time I know you from a rat. You teach sword fighting, and I want lessons. Do you always go around with him?”

“Much as I can, lass!”

Silk asked her, “Where have you been? I’ve had people searching everywhere.”

“In a horrible old building in the Orilla, with a soldier as big as this floater watching me for Auk. You must know Auk, he says he knows you. Tartaros turned me loose.”

Hyacinth grinned like a twelve-year-old. “You believe in the gods, but you won’t believe that. I don’t, and I know it happened. Do you mind if I don’t call you darling?”

Silk shook his head. “Not in the least.”

“I’ve called too many men that. I’ll find something else, something good enough, but it may take a while.” She turned back to Xiphias. “There’s jump seats that fold down out of the back of that one. You’d be more comfortable.”

“Feel better outside, lass! Know how to get this plagucy door open?”

She laid her hand on his. “You stay in here or we’ll get all naked and sweaty, and weobught to do that someplace nicer. Where’s the driver?”

“Hunting!” Xiphias jerked down a seat, sat, and contrived to sheath his saber. “Hunting your cat with Silk’s bird!”

“That’s right, I dropped Tick, and he cost five cards.”

Silk said, “When you got free — and I’ll be grateful to Tartaros forever — you should have come to me.”

Hyacinth shook her head.

“I understand. You didn’t know where I was, either.”

“No, you don’t. I did. I knew exactly where you were. At the Juzgado or the calde’s Palace. Everybody I asked wanted to talk about you, and everybody said one place or the other. But I looked, well, like every other slut in the Orilla, only worse, and I stank. I couldn’t wash, or only a little. I tried, but when the water’s dirtier than your face it doesn’t help much. I wanted perfume and powder, and a comb to hold my hair, except I had to wash it first and dry it. I tried to go back to Blood’s. Do you know about Blood?”

“About your trying to go back there? No.”

“And clean clothes, clean underwear and a bunch of other things. You know what I’d look like without all this stuff?”

“Yes,” Silk declared. “Like Kypris herself.”

“Thanks. Like a boy, only with tits down to my waist. You saw me naked.”

Silk felt his face flush. “They weren’t. Not nearly.”

“That’s the trouble with big ones,” Hyacinth explained to Xiphias. “The bigger they are the lower they go, unless you’ve got something to hold them up. Will that make it hard for me to sword-fight?”

“Will if they bounce, lass! But there’s ways! Think I don’t know ’em, long as I’ve been at it?”

“I put myself in your hands, Master Xiphias.” She gave him a sly, sidelong smile, then brushed Silk’s cheek with a kiss. “I was going to see about lessons that time I came to meet you, I mean before I found out it was so bad here, before we left Blood’s. When we got out of bed I said wouldn’t I be a good sword-fighter, and you said you’d back a dell with shorter legs that wasn’t so fond of her looks, or something like that. So I thought I’d learn and surprise you.”

He nodded, speechless.

“I’m a good dancer, I really am, and I never had lessons, so I think with lessons I could learn. Only it’s a long way to Blood’s and Auk took my money, and I looked like a slut, so I turned around and went to Orchid’s. She loaned me gelt and let me wash and, you know, fix up. But she says Blood’s for ice. This was only about, oh, before I went to the market. Did you know? That Blood was dead? Since Phaesday, she says.”

“Yes. I killed him.” Hyacinth’s eyes widened, and Silk felt pride, coupled with a deep shame in it. “I killed him with a sword Master Xiphias had loaned me, and destroyed the sword in the process. I’d rather not discuss the details. I understand why you wanted to return, or at least I believe—”

“All my things are out there! My clothes, my jewelry, everything I’ve got!”

“Also, you thought your driver would have gone back there, I’m certain. I also understand why you went to Orchid’s; you anticipated help from her, and you received it. I went there myself for the same reason a few days ago, and I was helped as well — I found Chenille there. Which brings me to a point I ought to have raised sooner. What was the soldier’s name? The one who watched you for Auk?”

“Hammerstone.” Two tiny lines had appeared on Hyacinth’s forehead. “It was Corporal Hammerstone, and he had stripes on his arm like a happy corporal, but painted on. All of a sudden you’re worried, I can see it. What is it?”

“It would take an hour to explain it all.” Silk shrugged. “I’ll try to be brief. I love you very, very much.”

“I love you, too!”

“Because I do, I have something to lose, someone — you — I must protect. Most men live their entire lives like this, I suppose, but I’m not accustomed to it.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll try to help. I really will.”

“I know you will. You’ll put yourself at risk, and that worries me more than anything else.”

There was a tap on the canopy.

“You see, I’ve forgotten some of my obligations already. I promised Chenille I’d help her find Auk, and Auk took you from me. Do you know where he is, or where this Corporal is? Patera Incus is anxious to locate him, I know.”

Xiphias interjected, “Don’t you think that’s that Willet outside knocking, lad?”

“Let him in, please.”

“I don’t know how to work this soggy door!”

“Then that will give us a little more time. You’ll solve it soon, I’m sure.”

Hyacinth giggled. “You’ve been around people like me too much. That’s what Auk says about houses. And I know where he is, too, or anyway I know where he was, at a reedy old manteion on Sun Street. Was that yours? That’s what somebody said when we were going over there.”

“It was.” Silk found that he was smiling. “It’s old and run down, just as you say; but I used to love it, or thought I did. In a way I suppose I still do.”

Scarcely visible on the other side of the darkened canopy, Hossaan tapped again. This time his taps were followed by a series of sharper ones.

“That’s where Kypris came to your Window? Orchid told me. It was at Orpine’s funeral, she said. I knew Orpine, and I wish I’d been there. I’ve got a shrine for Kypris…” Hyacinth paused, teeth nibbling her full lower lip. “Or I did. Is the house really wrecked? That’s what Orchid said.”

Silk recalled Blood’s villa as he had seen it during his rescue. “It’s badly damaged, certainly.”

“If it was just damaged we’ve got to go there!”

He gestured toward the canopy. “Even with Willet outside knocking? Willet used to be one of Blood’s drivers. You must know him — he drove you to the city so that you could meet me at Ermine’s.”

“That’s wonderful! He can take us.”

Xiphias exclaimed. “Think I’ve got it! Want me to let him in, lad?”

Silk nodded, and the door opened. Hossaan reached through it to unlatch the one in front, and Oreb shot past him to land upon Silk’s shoulder, a-flutter with excitement and indignation. “Bad cat! Cut cat!”

Hossaan slid into the driver’s seat as the orange-and-white animal he held spat, “Add word!”

“He led us quite a chase, Hy,” Hossaan said, “but we got him in the alley trying to wriggle through a hole.”

“You’re bleeding!”

“He put up a fight. If somebody else will hold him, I’ll get out the aid kit.”

“Add, add word!” the little orange-and-white catachrest reiterated. “Pack! Itty laddie, peas dun lit am kilt may!”

“She won’t, for an hour or two at least,” Silk told him. “Willet, I want you to take us out to Blood’s and help us collect Hyacinth’s belongings.” For a moment, Silk paused to gaze upon Hyacinth. “Then to the Prolocutor’s Palace.” As the floater slid forward, he added, “We may well need weapons, but we’d have to go back to the calde’s Palace, and we can’t afford that. I’d never get away.”

Xiphias accepted the small catachrest from Hossaan. “I’ve my sword, lad!”

Silk nodded absently as the song of the blowers strengthened to a muted roar. “Let’s hope it will suffice.”

“We might have these drinks I wish in the bar, perhaps,” Siyuf told Chenille, “but in my lodging would be more nice, do you not think also?”

“I had three with dinner.” By intent, Chenille spoke too loudly. “If I’m going to start falling down and taking off my clothes, I’d a whole lot rather do it in private.” She. looked around Ermine’s sellaria with interest. “Only we’ve got to get a room, don’t you?”

“My staff has arrange this for me while I watch our parade with your friend the calde.” Siyuf stopped a liveried waiter. “My lodging will be up the big stairs, I think? Number seventy-nine?”

He shook his head. “We don’t have a room seventy-nine at Ermine’s, General.”

“Generalissimo. Wait, I will show you.” While Chenille smiled and strove to appear innocent, Siyuf fished a key from her pocket.

“Ah!” The waiter nodded. “Number seven nine. That’s a double room, we call it the Lyrichord Room, Generalissimo. On your right at the top of the Grand Staircase. You can’t miss it.”

“A room you say. More, I understood.”

The waiter lowered his voice confidentially. “Our suites are four, five, or six rooms, depending. We call them rooms for convenience. Your room, the Lyrichord Room on account of the instrument in the music room, is a double suite with eleven rooms and three baths, besides balconies and so forth. Three bedrooms, sellaria, cenatiuncula for formal dining, breakfast cosy, drawing room—”

She waved him to silence. “You have here a wine waiter, one good and knowing?”

“The sommelier, Generalissimo. He’s at the Calde’s Palace just now, I believe.”

“I come from there. He too, I think. Send him to me when he arrive.”

Siyuf turned away, motioning to Chenille. “Men are so stupid, do you think also? It is what renders them less than attractive, even the most fine. One thing, better I had say, one thing from many. Men are duty. So we are taught in my home. Girls are pleasure.”

Chenille nodded meekly, blinking to show that she was assimilating this information. “In Trivigaunte, you mean? That’s where your home is? I still can’t get used to liking somebody from someplace so far away.”

“This is natural. I have a house there bigger than this Ermine of your Viron’s, the house which was my mother’s. Also outside our city, a farmhouse made large for rest and educating my horses. For the hunt two houses also, one in a cave where is more cool. Do you perhaps hunt? I will show it to you. You will be very delighted I think, but there are places where you could not stand so straight, perhaps.”

“I’d like to learn. Only I thought all of you were east of here. The calde, I call him Patera, said something about tents out there. Anyway, it’s really nice you’ve got this suite too, only I never would have guessed.”

Arms linked, they started up the broad staircase. “I have my tent outside your city, and my headquarters, which I bring closer soon. Also this is convenient, as we see. I have good hunting there, so perhaps I will not have to take you home to teach. Already we kill three wing people and catch one also.”

“Four Fliers?” In her astonishment Chenille forgot to sound admiring. “I didn’t think anybody could.”

Siyuf laughed. “Nine years in Trivigaunte another kill a wing person, but she does not catch the round thing on the back that push forward. I forget this word.”

“I have no idea.”

“By this we put wings on my pterotroopers. This time it is me that kill and I have catch the things that push also, but he does not yet tell me how it go.”

Siyuf moistened her lips, and for the first time Chenille felt frightened. “Not yet he will not tell. But soon. He is like all men stupid, and not fine even but small and thin. We take his clothes and do other things until he is our friend. This is not confusing to you, I hope?”

“I think I get it.”

“We take the clothes, and look, he is nothing. I have five husbands, all are more fine. Perhaps you would like him? When we have finish, I will give him to you.”

“Oh, no! I don’t want him, Siyuf.”

“Good.”

“I really don’t like men at all, except Petera and one other one.”

They had reached the top of Ermine’s sweeping and richly carpeted Grand Staircase. Siyuf glanced to her right and down at her key. “My husbands I like sometimes, but so one like a hound. For me, tall girls and strong over all else. I enjoy, you see, at first a certain resistance.”

Maytera Marble paused to stare at the strange procession crossing Manteion Street; although it was some distance away, Maytera Rose’s legacy had improved her eyes out of reckoning. In the streetlights’ glow, she saw a large and rough-looking man, accompanied by a smaller man so thin that he seemed a mere assemblage of sticks. After them, three soldiers, large and handsome like all soldiers, two of whom appeared to be carrying a fourth. Behind the soldiers, a tall augur and — and…

“Sib! Oh, sib! General, General Mint! It’s me, sib!” In her joy Maytera Marble actually sprang into the air. The diminutive sibyl walking beside the tall augur looked around, and her mouth dropped open.

Maytera’s eyes were not the only things Maytera Rose’s legacy had improved; Maytera Marble dashed up Manteion Street as though winged, and Oreb himself could not have covered the distance more rapidly. Her good hand clutching her coif, she shot between the rough men, collided with the leading soldier with a clang and a fluster of elided apologies, and threw her arms about Maytera Mint.

“It’s you, it’s really you! We’ve been so worried! You don’t know! You can’t, and when Patera said you were all right I thought that’s just when it happens, when everyone’s saying the danger’s over, that’s when they get killed, and, and — oh, Hierax! Oh, Scylla! Oh, Thelxiepeia! I simply couldn’t stand it. You were the light of my existence, sib. I know I never told you but you were, you were! If I’d had to live by myself in the cenoby with just Maytera Rose and that chem I couldn’t have stood it. We’d have gone mad!”

Maytera Mint was laughing and hugging her and trying to lift her off the ground, which was so ridiculous that Maytera Marble exclaimed, “Stop, sib, before you hurt yourself!” But it really did not matter at all. Maytera Mint was right there, laughing, and was the same dear Maytera Mint but better because she was the Maytera Mint who had come back from Tartaros knew where and there was no mother and daughter, no grandmother and granddaughter half so close as they, and no child or grandchild half so dear.

“I’m happy to be back, Maytera,” Maytera Mint declared when she could stop laughing. “I hadn’t really known how happy till now.”

“Where have you been? Dear, dear sib, dear girl! Patera said they’d got you, they had you in some horrible place under the city, and then they didn’t, you were with soldiers, but the generalissimo, not the fat one, the other one, said you were dead and — oh, sib! I missed you so much! I wanted you to meet Chenille. I still do, because Chenille’s been a second granddaughter to me, but nobody, nobody in the whole whorl can ever mean as much to me as you!”

The tall augur said, “The — ah — all Viron. Feels as you do, eh, Maytera? Just look at them.”

Already heads were turning and people pointing.

“You — ah — speak to them, General? Or, um, I myself—”

Maytera Mint waved both hands and blew the onlookers half a dozen kisses; then the silver trumpet sounded, the trumpet that Maytera Marble had heard in Sun Street on that never to be forgotten Hieraxday when the Queen of the Whorl had manifested during her final sacrifice, ringing from every wall and cobble like a call to battle: “I am General Mint! His Eminence and I have been down in the tunnels where the Ayuntamiento’s hiding, and Pas himself has given us instructions. We’re going to the Grand Manteion! All of you are going there, too, aren’t you?” She pointed with a wide gesture that was like the unsheathing of a sword.

There were cheers, and several voices shouted, “Yes!”

“Lord Pas’s prophet, Auk, will be there. We know, because Lord Pas told us. Please! Do any of you know him?”

A giant, taller even than Remora, waved. He held a ram under his left arm, and a tame baboon trotted after him as he pushed through the crowd; Maytera Marble thought that she had never seen so big a bio, a bio nearly as big as a soldier.

“I do.” His voice was like the thudding of a bass drurn. “I know you, too, General. Know you a dog’s right, anyhow, but me an’ Auk’s a old knot.” Legs like two pillars devoured the distance between them with swinging strides.

For a second time, Maytera Mint’s small face went blank with surprise. “Gib! You’re Gib! We charged the floaters on Cage Street together!”

“Pure quill, General.” The giant dropped to one knee, eliciting an enraged bleat from the ram. “I’m Gib from the Cock, an’ I was tryin’ to stick by you, but that sham horse couldn’t keep up. Too much weight’s what Kingcup says. Then he took a slug an’ down we went.” He held up his free arm to show a cast, then touched the ridge above his eyes with the fingertips protruding from it. “So I can’t salute like I’d like to, but Bongo here can. Salute the General lady, Bongo. Salute!”

The baboon rose on his hind legs, his forepaw seeming to shade startlingly human eyes.

Maytera Mint demanded, “But you know Auk, Gib? I mean Pas’s prophet named Auk?”

Maytera Marble sensed her uncertainty. “She knows a man called Auk who went to our palaestra; but I don’t believe she’s sure he’s the one Pas — Pas told you about this Auk, sib?”

“Yes!” Maytera Mint nodded so hard her short brown hair danced. “Just now, a few minutes ago, down in a chapel under the Palace. He came to the Window there, Maytera, and all of us could see him, even Spider and Eland. It was wonderful!”

The soldier carrying the feet of the fourth soldier said, “He talked about our sergeant. We gave him to Pas.”

The third soldier objected, “He gave himself, that’s how it was. Now Pas wants him fixed. Not ’cause he don’t want him but ’cause we need him. Pas don’t want to scrap him.”

The augur tossed back a lock of lank black hair. “It — ah — gave. Sense of the word, hey? I myself—”

Maytera Mint was not to be distracted. “Do you know Auk the Prophet, Gib? Yes or no!”

“Sure do, General.”

“Describe him!”

“He’s part owner in my place, he’s maybe forgot but he is. Pretty big cully.” Gib waved his cast toward the larger of the rough-looking men. “Bout like him, only not so old. Got more hair than he needs an’ ears that stick out of it anyhow.”

“A strong, forthright jaw!” She was fairly dancing with anxiety and impatience.

“That’s him, General. You could hang your washing on it.” Gib chuckled, the laughter of a happy ogre hiding in his barrel chest. “I was wantin’ to say he looks like Bongo here. Auk’s my ol’ knot an’ wouldn’t mind. Maybe you would of, though, an’ maybe the god that’s tapped him. Tartaros is what he says.”

“This, er, hiatus, General…”

Maytera Mint nodded vigorously. “He’s right, Gib. Stand up. You needn’t address me as if I were a child, just because I’m not tall.”

She trotted forward, drawing the giant behind her like a magnet. “Let’s see… You don’t know anybody here except me. Neither does poor Maytera, whom I ought to have introduced. Or have you been introduced to His Eminence, Maytera?

“Your Eminence, this is my senior and my dearest friend, Maytera Marble. Maytera, this is His Eminence the Coadjutor, Putera Remora.”

Maytera Marble, hurrying after them, paused long enough to bow in approved fashion.

“An honor, eh? For me, Maytera. For me. Very much so. Um — privilege. We begin our acquaintance under the most — ah — propitious circumstances. You, um, concur?”

“Decidedly, Your Eminence!”

Maytera Mint never broke stride. “This is Gib, as you heard, a friend of Auk’s and a comrade-in-arms of mine. The soldier with his slug gun pointed at our prisoners — Slate, you really don’t need to do that. They’re not going to run.”

She glanced back at Maytera Marble. “Where was I? Oh, yes. That’s Acting Corporal Slate. I’ve put him in charge of his fellow soldiers till Great Pas, as he promised, restores Sergeant Sand to us by Auk’s agency.”

Catching up to her, Maytera Marble ventured, “That must be poor Sergeant Sand they’re carrying?”

“That’s right, and Schist and Shale are carrying him. Our prisoners — they’re friends now, friends of mine at least, and His Eminence’s too, I’d say — are Spider and Eland.” She had reached the milling crowd before the Grand Manteion and stood on tiptoe in the hope of catching a glimpse of Auk.

Xiphias had found a candle and lit it; Silk drew Hossaan away from its light and out into the darkness of the corridor. “Master Xiphias can help her look — hold the light, at least, which is all she needs. You and I have things to talk about.”

“Good man!” Oreb assured Silk.

“I employed you — knowing you are an agent of the Rani’s — because you Trivigauntis are our allies. You realize that, I’m sure.”

“Certainly, Calde.”

“You owe nothing to Viron, and nothing to me. But if you want to remain, you’ll have to be more forthcoming than you’ve been thus far.”

“Only because the old man was listening, Calde. I know you trust him, and you probably can. But I’m not you. I try not to trust anybody more than I’ve got to.”

“I understand. Do they trust you? I mean the officials to whom you report.”

There was a momentary silence; it was too dark for Silk to see Hossaan’s face, but he sensed that it would have done little good. Then Hossaan said, “No more than they have to, Calde. I don’t mind, though. I’m used to it.”

“I’m not. No doubt I must become used to it, too; but I’m finding that difficult. You’re deceiving them. That was the reason you had Horn — and others, no doubt — call you Willet, the name you had used here. That was also why you helped serve dinner. You wanted to show someone at my table that you had penetrated my household — someone who would recognize you at once. Isn’t that correct?”

Hossaan’s only answer was an eerie silence. On Silk’s shoulder, Oreb croaked and fluttered uneasily.

“That person will assume, of course, that I am not aware you’re a Trivigaunti—”

“Let’s not dodge words, Calde. I’m a spy. I know it and you’ve known it since you spotted me on the boat.”

“You will be applauded and rewarded.”

Hossaan started to speak, but Silk cut him off. “I’m not finished. While you took us out here, I was thinking about your deception and your position as my driver. Please don’t tell me that your lie is essentially the truth because I’m the only one who knows and you intend to inform your superiors that I do. It would only be a further lie.”

“All right, I won’t.”

“Then I say this. You may tell your superiors everything you learn. I’ve assumed that you would from the start, and since I haven’t the least intention of betraying the Rani, it can do Viron no harm. But you must afford me the same courtesy Doctor Crane did — you must tell me everything I want to know about what you’re doing and reporting. In return, I’ll keep your secret.”

A second crept by, then two. “All right, Calde. But I’ve always been willing to tell you whatever you needed to know.”

“Thank you. Earlier I asked whether Generalissimo Siyuf or General Saba knew you by sight. You said neither did, and I believed you.” For a moment, it seemed to Silk that something stealthy moved through the darkness. He paused to listen, but heard only the sudden flapping of wings as Oreb launched himself from his shoulder.

“I ask again — was it the truth? Does either know you?”

“It is, Calde. I’ve never spoken with them, and I doubt that they know what I look like, either one of them.”

“There was someone at my dinner who does. Who was it?”

“Colonel Abanja. Didn’t you ask what she does on Siyuf’s staff? She intelligence officer.”

“Do you report to her?”

“I will now, probably. You still don’t see—”

Soft candlelight had appeared in Hyacinth’s doorway. Oreb announced, “Cat come!” from Xiphias’s shoulder.

Silk asked, “How are you faring, Master Xiphias?”

The old man shook his head. “Not a thing, lad! Want a bit of silver chain? Ring worth half a card?”

“No, thank you.”

“Me neither! But we found ’em! Think she’d keep ’em? Threw ’em on the floor! Fact!”

Oreb confided, “Girl cry.”

“You shouldn’t have left her in the dark,” Silk muttered.

“Chased me out, lad! Candle and all!”

Feeling the pressure of Hossaan’s hand on his back, Silk said, “You’re right, of course, Willet. I must go in to her. I don’t know that I can help, but I must try.”

Alone, he walked down the dark corridor and turned into the darker doorway of what had been Hyacinth’s suite. Here there had been a dressing table inlaid with gold and ivory, wardrobes crammed with expensive gowns and coats, and a summonable glass. Only darkness remained, and the melancholy sweetness of spilled perfume. One door had led to Hyacinth’s balneum, Silk reminded himself, another to her bedchamber. In vain, he tried to recall which was to the left and which to the right, although with her sobs to guide him he did not really need to know. By touch, he located the correct door and found that it was open.

After that, there was nothing for it but to walk in, with the ghost of the Patera Silk that he had been.

“Halt!” The voice was male, accompanied by the rattle of sling swivels and the click of the safety; Siyuf’s intelligence officer raised her hands while trying to make out the sentry in the cloud-dimmed skylight. “I am Colonel Abanja, in the Rani’s service.”

Whispering. There were two or more sentries, clearly. “Advance and give the password.”

Abanja moved forward slowly, hands still in the air. If these nervous men were from the Calde’s Guard, they were (or at least ought to be) disciplined troopers. If they were General Mint’s volunteers, they might fire without warning.

“Halt in the name of the Rani!”

Abanja stopped again and identified herself a second time. Somewhere behind her, a voice hissed, “They’re shaggy shook up, lady. I wouldn’t stand between ’em.”

“Thank you,” she murmured. “That’s good advice, I’m sure.”

A lanky trooper of the Companion Cavalry stepped from a shadow; Abanja was happy to see that the muzzle of her slug gun was lowered. “You must give to me our password also, Colonel.”

“Boraz.” Now she would see whether this trooper’s lack of familiarity with the Common Tongue, with its implication of aristocracy, was real or feigned.

“You can pass, sir.”

Feigned.

“Halt!” It was the calde’s men again. Abanja said, “I’ve already halted for you once.”

“Do you have our password?”

Inwardly, she sighed. “I didn’t know one was required. I have to speak with the officer in charge of our detachment.”

“You can’t go in the Juzgado without our password.”

“Then you must give it to me.”

Another whispered conference. “It’s against regulations, Colonel.”

Her eyes were adapting to the darkness; both male sentries were visible to her now, skylight gleaming on their waxed armor. “If it’s against regulations to give it to me, you can’t expect me to know it.” She spoke to the cavalry trooper. “Go get her. You have my permission to leave your post.”

Too softly for the men to overhear, the voice behind Abanja hissed, “There’s a nice place, Trotter’s. A street down ’n turn west. We can have a drink. Tell these hoppies to send her when she comes.”

Abanja shook her head.

“Lady, you need me worse’n I need you.”

Without looking around Abanja murmured, “Do I? I hadn’t realized it.”

“I could of got you in without a hitch. Shag, I still will. Tell ’em Charter. This’s for free.”

“Sentry!” Abanja called. “I remember your password now. Your calde told me at dinner.”

Both advanced with leveled slug guns. “Give it.”

She smiled. “Unless someone’s changed it without notifying your calde, it’s Charter.”

“Pass, friend.”

“Thank you again,” Abanja murmured.

The hiss was scarcely audible. “Back room. Name’s Urus.”

“All g-gone.” Slowly, Hyacinth’s sobs had subsided into sniffles. “All the times. All that smiling. Cream and lotion. Beggar’s root and rust, do this and do that. N-nothing left.” The sobs returned. “Oh, K-k-kypris! Have pity!”

Silk muttered, “I think perhaps she already has.”

“Bake here shop!” It was the catachrest. “Cuss-cuss.”

He did, kissing Hyacinth’s ear and the nape of her neck, and when she raised her face to his, her lips.

“Niece! Mow cuss!” The little catachrest attempted a smacking that emerged between the intended kiss and a squall.

The third cuss was not yet over. When it was, Hyacinth said, “Wipe your face. I got snot all over you.”

“Tears.” Silk took out his handkerchief.

“B-both. I was crying so hard my nose ran. Don’t think I can’t cry pretty when I w-want to.”

“Itty laddie, done! Shop!”

“I’ve got certain things I think about, and here it comes. Know what I had when I left h-home?”

He shook his head, then said, “What was it?” realizing that she could not have seen the motion.

“Two gowns M-Mother made and her umbrella. She didn’t have a-anything else to give me, so she gave me that. A big green umbrella. I kept it for years, and I don’t know what happened to it. H-Here’s what I’ve got now. The clothes I’ve got on and a gown Orchid promised to get cleaned, Tick here, and one card. But I owe her seven. That’s w-way too much for what I got, but what could I say?”

Silk stood. “That you’ll repay her later. You can say that again, too.”

“Y-y-you know…” A stifled sob. “You’re learning, you really are. Listen, I’m not through crying about all this yet. I’ll cry m-m-more — cry some m-more…”

“Shop!”

“Tonight. Before I go to sleep. I just about always cry then, and when I’m asleep, too, s-sometimes. Well, by Thelx!”

“What is it?” Silk inquired.

“Go stand in the doorway. Shut it behind you. Don’t ask, do it quick.”

He did, and heard voices in the dark: “Tick? Tick, are you still in here?” “Puck Tuck ape no!” “All right, quit pulling my skirt.” “Nod heavey.” “Did I say why I got him? You can open the door again. I was going to give him to Kypris and ask her to give me you.”

Once more, Silk was speechless.

“The market was closed, but some animal culls are always in there, and I gave the watchman a card to let me in and got Tick. The cull said talking animals are the best.”

“So I’ve been told — by the same seller, I’m sure.”

“I had a string around his neck, and I held it while I was looking for my things. Sometimes I held it in my teeth. When I got to crying I put my foot on it, but he got it off. Untied it or got it up where he could bite it, I guess.”

“Nod rum.”

“No, you didn’t run, and I know you knew what I was going to do, ’cause you kept on begging me not to.” To Silk, Hyacinth added, “Then everybody was going to that big manteion uphill, so I did, too.”

“I understand.”

“But when he got loose he didn’t beat hoof. Why not, Tick?”

“Say wharf laddie.”

“I guess.” Abandoning Tick, she addressed Silk. “What I’m trying to say is I know you’re really religious. I’m not, but you could teach me.”

He could not escape the thought that it would be better if she taught him. “I’m far from being the best possible teacher, but I’ll try if you wish it.”

“You said we’d go to the Prolocutor’s when we were done here. If it was for me, we don’t have to.”

He smiled. “You’re not going to offer Tick?”

“I will if you want me to.”

Tick protested, “New!”

“I see no point in it.” Something large and soft pressed Silk’s leg; he groped for it in the dark, but there was nothing there. “You want me to teach you. The gods — this is what I’ve found — aren’t greatly influenced by our gifts. When they give us what we ask—” The soft pressure resumed, practically pushing him off his feet.

“What is it?”

“That’s what I was wondering myself, but now I believe I know. Oreb tried to tell me out in the hall; and I should have guessed when he flew the first time I heard it. Mucor calls them lynxes. There’s one in the room with us.”

“Are they like bats?” Hyacinth sounded alarmed.

“They’re cats.”

“Have — something touched me. As big as a big dog.”

“That’s it; but there’s no point in my describing them, when you could see this one for yourself.” Silk raised his voice. “Master Xiphias, bring your candle, please.”

“Are they the big cats the talus used to let out at night?” Hyacinth sounded more frightened than ever.

“Mucor controls them, to her benefit and ours.” Silk tried to sound reassuring. “I’d imagine that this one would like us to bring it to the Calde’s Palace, where she is.”

There was a muted yowl, far too deep and reverberant to have proceeded from Tick.

Abanja glanced around Trotter’s, which seemed deserted except for an old man asleep at a table and a fat man washing earthenware mugs. “Barman?”

“Yeah, sister. You need a drink?”

She shook her head. “I’m addressed as Colonel. Since I want something, you may call me sister. When you want something from me, call me Colonel. You might get it if you do.”

The fat man looked up. “Hey, I’ll call you Colonel right now, sister.”

“Though I don’t think so. You have a patron named Urus.”

“Couple, anyhow,” the fat man said. “Three I can lay hand to, only one got the pits.”

“Urus is in your back room, and he’s expecting me. Show me where it is.”

“Nobody’s in my back room, sister.”

“Then I’ll wait there for him. That yellow bottle.” She pointed. “I take it that’s sauterne?”

The fat man shrugged. “S’posed to be.”

“Bring it, and two clean glasses.”

“I got some that’s better, only it’s twenty-seven bits. That up there’s sixteen.”

“Bring it. You keep accounts for patrons? Start one for me. My name is Abanja.”

“You mean you’ll pay later? Sister, I don’t — put that thing away!”

“You men.” Abanja smiled as she stepped behind the bar. “How are you to face lances if one small needler terrifies you? Get the good sauterne and the glasses. Are you going to send for the Calde’s Guard when you leave me? They won’t arrest an officer of the Rani’s, but I don’t think my friend Urus will like it.”

“I never do that, sister.”

“Then it won’t be necessary for me to have you arrested when they come. Nor will I have to shoot you. I admit I had thought about it.” Abanja smiled more broadly, amused by the clinking of the glasses in the fat man’s hand. “Lead the way. If you don’t misbehave, you have no reason to be frightened.”

With her needler in his back, he pushed aside the dirty green curtain that had concealed the entrance to a dark and narrow hall. She said, “You know, I think I understand this Trotter’s of yours. Are you Trotter?”

He nodded.

“Your courts meet in the Juzgado, and this is where the accused drink before they go there. Or if they’re discharged. It’s empty because your courts are not in session.”

“The back room’s empty, too.” Trotter had stopped before a door. He gulped. “You can wait if you want to, only I close—”

She shook her head.

“When you leave. After that, all right? If anybody called Urus comes in, I’ll tell him you’re here.” Trotter opened the door and gaped at the filthy, bearded man at the table inside.

With exaggerated politeness, Urus rose and pulled out a chair for Abanja. As she sat, Trotter mumbled, “I forgot the calde let ’em out. A lot can’t hardly walk.”

“I sprung myself,” Urus told him. “Get me somethin’ to eat. Put it on her tab.”

Still smiling, Abanja nodded.

When the door had closed behind Trotter, Urus said, “Thanks for gettin’ the bottle ’n standin’ me a meal. You’re the dimber damber, lady.” His voice became confidential. “What I got to tell you is I’m all right too. You treat Urus brick ’n he’ll treat you stone. Ain’t you goin’ to put your barker up?”

“No. Trotter didn’t know you were in here.”

“He’d of wanted me to drink, ’n I didn’t have the gelt. Lily with you, see? Yeah, I been in the pits. I just got out. Yeah, I’m flat. Only you need me, lady, so you’re goin’ to give me ten cards—”

She laughed.

“’Cause I’m goin’ to tell you a lot. Then I’m goin’ to find out a lot more, ’n you ’n me’ll knot up again, see?”

“Open that and pour yourself as much as you want,” she told him. “I feel sorry for you, so I’m giving you a drink, and food if the barman has any.”

“You know who Spider is?”

“Should I?”

“Shag yes. You got spies here. Spider knows ’em all. He knows me, too, only he don’t know I’m workin’ for you.”

“You aren’t. Not yet. To whom does this Spider report, assuming that he exists?”

“Councillor Potto. He’s Potto’s right hand. You ever hear of Guan? How ’bout Hyrax? Sewellel? Paca?”

Abanja looked thoughtful. “Some of those names may be familiar to me.”

“They’re dead, all of ’em, ’n I know what happened to ’em. Spider was their jefe, ’n he ain’t. I know where he is ’n what he’s doin’. I could bring you. I don’t scavy you’d want me to, only I could. You twig they nabbed General Mint?”

“She’s free now.” Abanja holstered her needler. “That’s what I’ve been told.”

“You don’t cap to it.”

“I believe what I see.”

Urus grinned. “Pure keg, lady. All right, it’s the lily, she’s loose. I could show her to you ’n throw in Spider, ’cause they’re together. Only I’m like you, see? ’n what I want to see’s gelt.”

Abanja took a card from her card case and pushed it toward Urus, across the stained and splintered old table.

With a furtive glance into the next room, Chenille tapped the surface of the glass with her forefinger. A floating gray face appeared. “Yes, madame.”

“Keep your voice down, all right?” Chenille herself was whispering. “There’s somebody asleep in the big bed.”

“Generalissimo Siyut madame. She is well within my field of view.”

“That’s right, and you wouldn’t want to wake her up, would you? So keep it down.”

“I shall, madame. I suggest, however, that you close the door. It would provide additional security, madame.”

Chenille shook her head, her raspberry curls bobbing. “I got to know if she’s waking up. Pay attention. You know the Calde’s Palace?”

“Certainly, madame.”

“I’ve asked three or four times on the glass there, see? He let me, the calde did, I’m a friend of his. What I want to know is are you the same one? The monitor I talked to there?”

“No, madame. Each glass has its own, madame, though I can utilize others, and consult their monitors if need be.”

“That’s good, ’cause he couldn’t find Auk for me, ever, and I saw this glass of yours when me and Generalissimo Siyuf came in, and I’ve been wanting to try it ever since, only not where she could hear ’cause I’m looking for Auk. I know there’s a lot of Auks. You don’t have to tell me that. The one I want’s the one that lives in the Orilla, the one they call Auk the Prophet now. Real big, not too bad looking, broken nose—”

“Yes, madame. I have located him. It was a matter of no difficulty, the word prophet being a sufficient clue. Do you wish to speak with him?”

“I — wait. If I speak to him, he can see me, right?”

Like a floating bottle disturbed by a ripple, the gray face bobbed in nothingness. “You might postpone your conversation until you are dressed, madame. If you prefer.”

“That’s all right. Just tell me where he is.”

“In the Grand Manteion, madame. It is two streets north and one west, or so I am informed.”

“Yeah, I know. Listen, he’s there now? Auk’s there right now, in the Grand Manteion?”

“Correct, madame.”

“Is he all right? He’s not dead or anything?”

“He appears somewhat fatigued, madame. Otherwise I judge him in excellent health. You do not care to converse?”

“I think it would be better if he didn’t know about me and the generalissimo. Better if I don’t shove it at him, anyhow, and even if I close the door he’s bound to want to know what I’m doing here.”

The gray face nodded sagely. “Prudent, madame.”

“Yeah, I think so. Wait up, I got to think.”

“Gladly, madame.” For nearly a minute, there was no sound in the Lyrichord Room save Siyuf’s hoarse respiration.

At last Chenille announced, “This is going to be one tough job for you, Monitor.”

“We thrive upon adversity, madame.”

“Good, I’ve got some for you. I want to get word to a lady named Orchid. Get her, or get anybody that might be able to get a message to her. What time is it?”

“Two twenty-one, madame. It is Phaesday morning, madame. Shadeup is less than four hours distant.”

“That’s what I was afraid of. If you can’t do it, just tell me. I won’t blame you a bit.”

“I shall make the utmost effort, madame, but Orchid is also a widely employed appellation. Additional information may be of assistance.”

“Sure. This Orchid’s got a yellow house. It’s on Lamp Street. Music runs right in back, and there’s a pastry shop across the street. Across Lamp Street, I mean. She’s a big fat woman, I guess forty or forty-five.”

“That is sufficient, madame, I have identified her. There is a glass in her private apartments, and she is preparing for bed in the room beyond. Shall I summon her to her glass?”

“I know that glass and it doesn’t work.”

“To the contrary, madame, it is fully operational, though it was out of service for… eighteen years. Would you care to speak with Orchid?”

Chenille nodded, and in half a minute saw Orchid standing in front of her own glass in lacy black pantaloons and a hastily assumed peignoir. “Chen! How’d you get this thing turned on?”

“Never mind, it just is. Orchid, I need a favor, only there’ll be something for you. Maybe a card. Maybe more.”

Orchid, who had been eyeing the rich furnishings of the Lyrichord Room, nodded. “I got my ears up.”

“All right, you see the mort in doss in the next room? She’s the Trivigaunti’s generalissimo. Her name’s Siyuf.”

“You always were lucky, Chen.”

“Maybe. The thing is, I got to beat the hoof. Is Violet riding pretty light?”

Orchid shrngged, plump shoulders rising and falling like pans of dough. “Pretty much. You know how it is, Chen. Where are you?”

“Ermine’s. This’s Room Seven and Nine, get it? It’s a double room, so seven and nine too. Right at the top of the big stairs. Siyuf likes tall dells, she would’ve given me five easy. Five’s nothing to her. Violet ought to get more if she soaps her. Tell her to come uphill and play spoons, tell Siyuf she’s my pal and I told her what a nice time I’d had, so she thought she’d drop by and party. I’ll leave the door unlocked when I go out.” Chenille’s voice hardened. “Only I get half. Don’t think you’re going to wash me down.”

“Sure thing, Chen.”

“The way I’m set with the calde—” groping the carpet at her feet, Chenille found her bandeau, “I ought to be able to throw something your way pretty often. Only don’t try to wash me, Orchid. The word from me could shut you down.”

Under her breath, Hyacinth asked, “Do you really want to go through with this?”

It seemed too foolish to require a reply, but Silk nodded. “Your Cognizance, you and His Eminence, with Patera Jerboa and Patera Shell, are more than sufficient, surely.”

From Echidna’s dark chapel behind the ambulatory, Maytera Marble called, “Just one moment more, please, Patera. Patera Incus is working as quickly as he can, and — and…”

Like a rumble of thunder, Hammerstone’s deeper voice added, “She wants to be there, and there’s another reason. Hold on, Calde. Patera’s about finished.”

Hyacinth whispered, “We really don’t have to. We could just go somewhere and do it all night. It doesn’t matter to me, honest.” Tick added, “Goo no!” from her arms.

“I’ve revoked your vow of chastity,” Quetzal said; it was impossible to say whether he had overheard her. “You’re still an augur. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly, Your Cognizance.”

Remora smiled in a way he meant to be reassuring. “Can’t, eh? Not even Quetzal. Indelible, hey?”

The Prolocutor himself nodded. “I could enjoin you from augural duties, but you’d still be an augur, Patera Calde.”

“I understand, Your Cognizance.”

“I’m not doing it. You’re relieved of the requirements. You need not say the office and sacrifice, but you can if you want to. You can and should wear the robe. Our citizens have chosen an augur, believing the gods chose for them. We must keep it so. We must sustain their faith. If necessary, we must justify it.”

He glanced at Maytera Mint, who said, “Your Cognizance is wondering whether I retain mine after Pas failed to appear. I don’t know, and it may be weeks before I do. Years, even. I wish Bison were here.”

Spider nodded. “Me, too.”

Spokesman for his master, Oreb croaked, “Do now!”

Hoping his bird had been understood, Silk said, “You told me what took place, General, but I’m afraid I wasn’t listening as closely as I should have been. I couldn’t think beyond my need to obtain His Cognizance’s permission and persuade Hyacinth to accept me. Did Pas actually say that he would grant you a second theophany when you got here?”

“I…” Maytera Mint sighed, her face in her hands. “To tell you the truth, I don’t remember. I thought so.”

Slate put in, “No, he didn’t, sir. He said you take the sarge to the Grand manteion, ’cause my prophet Auk’s there and I mean to tell him how to fix him up. He didn’t say nothing about right away.”

Remora nodded.

Auk said, “He told me he’d teach me, and he will. Only he ain’t yet.” Auk cleared his throat. “This was as queer for me as for Maytera. Worse, when I had to watch what it did to her. Pas had us fetch Patera Jerboa there — that’s Hammerstone and me, and Patera Incus. All right we did, only nothing’s happened yet. I had all my people up here and they’re not here any more, so I guess you know what they think about me after this.”

Oreb sympathized. “Poor man!”

“Only that don’t matter.” Defiantly, Auk looked around at the rest of the impromptu wedding party. “They still think more of me than what I do myself. It’s what they think about the Plan, and that’s what’s hardest, harder even than Maytera. But I’m sticking. If everybody goes, that’s all right, only not me. I’m here, like Pas said, and I’m sticking.”

From deep within the vast nave, far from the light of the dying altar fire, a voice rumbled, “This’s my fault, Calde.” A man taller even than Auk rose, and as he did a misshapen figure sprang to the top of the pew before him.

From his position behind and to the right of Quetzal and Remora, old Patera Jerboa quavered, “My son…”

“Probably you don’t remember me, Calde, only I gave you one on the house once, ’cause you said Pas for Kalan. I’m Gib from the Cock.”

Silk nodded and smiled. “Of course I remember you, Gib; though I admit I didn’t expect to meet you here, and I thought we’d met everyone. Have you been praying?”

“Tryin’, anyhow.” Gib strode down a side aisle, his tame baboon leaping from one pew to the next.

Auk said, “Muzzle it, Gib. You didn’t do anything.”

Silk nodded again. “If by ‘fault’ you mean this delay, the fault certainly isn’t yours, Gib. If anyone is at fault, I am the person. I should have acted much more expeditiously to have Maytera’s hand repaired.”

Tick said, “Ale rat, nod rung.” And Hyacinth, “You always blame yourself. Do you really think you’re the only one in the whorl that makes mistakes?”

“I tagged along after Auk when he went to your place over on Sun,” Gib explained. “Me an’ him’s a old knot. I’d got Bongo here when I broke my flipper, see, Calde? I can’t pluck proper. He’ll do for anybody I say. I figured to sell him when it was fixed.”

“I believe I’m beginning to understand,” Silk said.

“Then Auk says to fetch animals, so I fetched him. Bongo here, that is. Then comin’ up here I thought maybe—”

Jerboa’s trembling hand motioned him to silence. “It was I, Calde. I—” his thin old voice trembled and broke, “have an aversion to offering them. Just an old fool.”

“It isn’t, Patera,” said a sibyl who seemed at least as old. “Calde, they remind him of children. I don’t feel that way, but I know how he feels. We’ve talked about it.”

Patera Shell stepped forward. “Someone brought one once for Thelxiepeia, Calde, a little black monkey with a white head. Patera had me offer it.”

Silk cleared his throat. “In your youth — I understand, Patera Jerboa. Or at least I believe I do. Let us say that I understand as much as I need to. You dissuaded Gib.”

“While we were walking—” Jerboa coughed. “It’s a long, long way. He helped me along. He’s a kind man, Calde. A good man, though he doesn’t look it. I asked him to refrain for my sake. He said he would, and left us to buy a ram. I offered it for him tonight.”

Gib said, “Only I think that’s why Pas won’t come. They kill stuff at weddin’s, don’t they? So you—”

“Auk!” Silk recognized Chenille’s voice before he saw her. “Auk, is this a wedding?” Holding up her skirt, she sprinted down an aisle. “Hello, Putera! Hi, Hy! Congrats! Are you going to marry them, Your Cognizance?”

Quetzal did not reply, smiling at Hammerstone and Maytera Marble as they emerged from Echidna’s chapel. She knelt before him. “I begged your predecessor, Your Cognizance…”

Quetzal’s hairless head bobbed upon his long, wrinkled neck. “My predecessor no longer holds the baculus, Maytera.”

“I begged him to. I implored him, but he wouldn’t. I should tell you that.”

Maytera Mint looked down at her in amazement.

“Your Eminence, you said a moment ago, I overheard you, that not even His Cognizance can unmake an augur. It’s true, I know. But — but…”

“Their vow, eh?” Remora spoke to Silk. “Not indelible, hey? Not as — ah — serious.”

Quetzal inquired, “Do you want me to free you from your vow, Maytera? Yes or no will suffice.”

“Yes, but I really ought—”

“To explain. You’re right. For your own peace of mind, you must. You’ve good sense, Maytera, I’ve seen that. Doesn’t your good sense tell you I’m not the one to whom you owe your explanation? Stand, please. Tell your sib Maytera Mint. Also Maytera Wood and her sibs. Be brief.”

As Maytera Marble got to her feet, Hammerstone said, “We knew each other a long time ago. You remember, Calde? I told you before you gave me the slip. Her name was Moly then.”

Maytera Marble spoke to Maytera Mint and the other sibyls in a voice so soft that Silk could scarcely hear her. “I was the maid, the sibyls’ maid, when the first bios moved into the city. I got our cenoby ready for them, and in those days I used to look like — like Dahlia, I nearly said, sib, but you never knew Dahlia. Like Teasel, a little.” She laughed nervously. “Can you imagine me looking like Teasel? But I did, then.”

Still staring, Maytera Mint managed to nod.

“There were six then. Six sibyls on Sun Street. I didn’t have a room, you see. I don’t really need one. But there were never more than six, and as time went on, fewer. Five and then four, then three. And then — and then only two, as it was with us, dear, dear sib, after I died.”

The youngest sibyl from Brick Street started to object, glanced around at the others, and thought better of it.

Maytera Marble displayed a string of yellowed prayer beads. “Just Maytera Betel and I. These were hers. They’re ivory.” She lifted her head, a smile and a plea. “The chain is silver. She was a fine, fine woman.”

“Girl cry,” Oreb informed Silk, although no tears streaked Maytera Marble’s smooth metal face.

“We couldn’t do it all. There was just the two of us and young Patera Pike. And ever so many children, and so Maytera called — called upon…”

Hammerstone explained, “She drafted Moly.”

“Upon me. I knew arithmetic. You’ve got to, to keep any sort of house. How much to buy for so many, and how much you can spend, that sort of thing. I kept a — a diary, I suppose you call it, to practice my hand, which was really quite good. So I could teach the youngest their sums and letters, and I did. Some parents complained, and There wasn’t any reason not to. I put my hand on the Writings and promised, and Maytera and Maytera Rose witnessed it and kissed me, and — and then I got new clothes.”

She looked at Hammerstone, begging his understanding. “A new name, too. I couldn’t be Moly any more once I was a sibyl, or even Maytera Molybdenum. We all take new names, and you were gone. I hadn’t seen you in years and years.”

“He slept,” Incus told her. “He was so ordered.”

“Yeah, I did,” Hammerstone confirmed. “For me a order’s a order. Always has been. Only now Patera says it’s all right. If he’d of said no—” Slate slapped him on the backplate, the clang of his hand startingly loud in the religious hush of the Grand Manteion.

Xiphias nudged Silk. “Double wedding, lad!”

“Your Cognizance must think this terribly strange,” Maytera Marble ventured.

“Perfectly natural,” Quetzal assured her.

“We — we’re not like bios about this. It matters terribly to you how old somebody is. I know, I’ve seen it.”

“Her and me are really about the same age,” Hammerstone confided. “Only I slept so much.”

“What matters to us is — is whether we can.” Maytera Marble raised her right hand to show Quetzal the weld that had reattached it, and moved her fingers. “My hand’s well again, and I’ve got a lot of replacement parts, and I can. So we’re going to. Or at least we want to, if — if Your Cognizance—”

“You are released,” Quetzal told her. “You are a laywoman again, Molybdenum.”

“Like a story, right, lass?” Xiphias edged toward Hyacinth and spoke in a tone he intended as confidential. “Must be the end! Everybody getting married! Need another ring!”