Return to the Whorl (The Book of the Short Sun #3)

Return to the Whorl (The Book of the Short Sun #3) Page 39

He paused, fingering his beard. "That's true, I do. But that's not really why I go home to eat. It's because I want to talk to my wife about whatever has come up that morning. Now I want to talk to her about this. For one thing, she knows Silk better than I do."

He said, "You must mean Maytera Mint. In a book we wrote, we-my wife Nettle and I-tried to imply that you and Maytera Mint might marry; but we couldn't be certain that such a marriage would actually take place."

"Good girl!"

Bison laughed. "Don't call her Maytera, please. She isn't a sibyl anymore and doesn't like to be reminded of it. Call her General, or just Mint. She doesn't mind either one of those."

When no one else spoke, Pig muttered, "Bonny ride, bucky. Traveled far, aye, an' h'every way but flyin'. This's best. Feel a' h'it."

"I had almost forgotten about these, but I rode in the calde's once or twice before we left." He was looking out at the city through the transparent dome. "Willet was the driver, and he promised to teach me to drive, too. That was the day before we went up to the airship, and I've wondered sometimes whether he-well, never mind. It doesn't matter."

"Ter yer, bucky."

Bison told his own driver to go slower, then spoke to Pig, first touching his knee. "Do you know about my wife?"

"Nae had ther honor."

"Then I should tell you. She's in a wheelchair. It's not that she can't walk. She can, but it's painful. So she uses the chair, mostly. I thought you ought to know. Horn does already, I'm sure."

He turned from the contemplation of empty shops. "No, I didn't. What happened?"

"Someone tried to kill her."

Hound said, "I remember people talking about it."

"Why?"

"I don't know. He was killed himself a few seconds after he fired." Bison lifted his shoulders and let them fall. "If it weren't for your friend here, I wouldn't have mentioned it."

"Poor man," Oreb muttered. It was not clear whether he intended Bison or the assassin. "Poor girl."

Their floater, already moving slowly, slowed more, then settled to the wide, smooth paving stones before the Calde's Palace. With the whisper of one who betrays a secret, its transparent dome vanished into its gleaming sides. The driver sprang from his seat to open one side for them; from his green uniform, he was a hoppy, a member of the Calde's Guard.

Two more Guardsmen threw back the wide front doors of the Calde's Palace.

Pig had taken his arm. "Braw place, bucky? Feels sae."

"Handsome? Is that what brave means? It is indeed, with a door you won't have to duck through. Mind the steps, though."

The questing tip of Pig's sheathed sword found the first.

"I kept you waiting outside my office," Bison explained as he went up, "because I wanted to get my wife on the glass and ask about inviting you. She doesn't always feel up to entertaining, and it seemed better to find out how she was today in private. Frankly, I was amazed. She's eager to see you."

Hound was already wide-eyed. "I just wish Tansy were here. That's my own wife. She would be so thrilled..."

"If you live near here-" Bison began.

"Oh, no. It's-we live in Endroad. And she'd have to dress and everything. To tell you the truth, she probably wouldn't come, because she doesn't have a dress good enough."

Bison's wife Mint was waiting for them in the big dining room in which Silk had once entertained Generalissimo Siyuf. Bison hurried over to her. "My dear, I would like to present Horn, a visitor from Blue, and his friends Hound and Pig."

"Know girl!" Oreb proclaimed.

Mint smiled at all four; and although her face was pale and drawn, her smile was bright. "Welcome. Welcome, all of you. Horn, you can't have forgotten me. You used to be my runner."

He smiled and saluted. "Of course not, General."

"It's good to see you again. No, it's better than good. Wonderful, in fact. Have we been feeding you here in Viron?"

"Bountifully."

Hound said, "We breakfasted at our inn, just down the street. There was lots of very good food, but he kept giving his to Pig."

"Bird eat!"

"And to Oreb, though Oreb didn't eat as much."

"We have plenty for him here." She gestured toward the table. "For all of you. Sit down, please. I'm seated already, and we don't stand on ceremony here, or not till shadelow. My dear, would you push me?"

Bison did.

"There, that's better." From one end of the long table, Mint regarded the silver serving dishes with satisfaction. "I've put you all on one side because I had to. We can't pass, unless there are at least three on a side. The calde and I have to sit at a corner when we eat in here by ourselves."

She rapped her glass three times with back of a table knife, and told the maid who appeared, "We're ready, I believe. You may-no, we're not. We ought to have an invocation. Would you do it, Horn?"

He shook his head ruefully. "You think I've become an augur. I have not. I have no right to this robe."

"Better a false augur than none. If you don't do it, I'll have to ask the calde. He'll send to the Prolocutor's Palace, and it will be time for dinner before we have our lunch."

"I-"

"Please, Horn. For me."

He rose and made the sign of addition. "Gracious Outsider, I, who learned so many prayers at the urging of this good woman, do not know the proper one to make you on such an occasion. We offer our thanks to you-inadequate thanks, yet all we have to give-for good food and for bringing us together in hospitality and friendship."

He sat, and Bison murmured, "Phaea bless our feast."

Mint picked up a platter. "Here is squab salad, Pig. It's a specialty here, or so we like to think. May I give you some?"

"Thank yer kin'ly."

She heaped his plate. "You're the most reticent of our guests. You've hardly spoken a word since you came, so it is my duty as hostess to draw you out."

"Pig talk!"

"Thank you, Oreb. Hound, you're not eating. Give him some of that salmon and caper mixture, dear, before Honeysuckle brings in the hot meats.

"Now you must help me, Pig. I'm not very good at this, so you have to pretend that I've very cleverly made you relax and babble like a brook."

"Nae sae guid meself, mistress."

"He's a difficult case," Mint told her husband. "These overgrown boys are often like that. It's hard to get them to contribute in class, but one must persevere."

"Let me try. Pig, I know why Horn came to see me this morning. He wants Calde Silk, and thinks I can give him to him. I take it you're a friend of his. Of Horn's, I mean."

"Aye."

"Did you come with him simply to provide moral support? Or do you have some request of your own?"

"Me een."

Bison looked back to his wife; and Hound said hurriedly, "This is my fault, Calde. I told him I thought there might be a doctor here who could help him."

Pig coughed, a self-conscious little sound that might have proceeded from an unusually mannerly mountain. "There's nae. Yer neednae say h'it. Auld Pig knows h'it."

"Then I won't, and for all I know there may be someone here who can help you. I'll make inquiries."

"Nae. Save yer pother. Yer guid wife would nae be crouchy an' sae guid a leech yer ha'." Although Pig's shaggy head did not turn, his hand brushed Mint's arm with claw-tipped fingers nearly as thick as that arm itself. "Yer sees an' Pig walks. 'Tis ther better part. A ghaist told me ter stick wi' bucky ter get me cen back. If auld Pig's ter see, yer might skelp yet."

Mint looked to the man Pig mentioned. "Is that a ghost?"

"I think it must be, though the woman-Mucor, you may remember her."

Mint nodded.

"She isn't dead, or at least I don't believe she is. But she can appear to people, rather like a ghost, and she appeared to Pig. I know it sounds mad to talk of someone's appearing to a blind man, but he could see her. Couldn't you, Pig?"

"Aye, bucky."

"He thought it wonderful, as I still do. She told him that if he remained with me he might get his sight back. Isn't that correct, Pig? That's what I understood you to say."

"Aye." Pig shifted his huge bulk in his chair. "Yer will nae leave me mair, will yet, bucky?"

"I won't, and that's a promise." He spoke to Mint. "When we got to the city, I wanted very much to be alone awhile in the Sun Street Quarter. You'll understand that, I believe, General; or at least I hope you will."

"We-I've done the same thing."

"I asked Pig to go. He did, and it wasn't until much later that I realized how cruel it had been."

"'Tis Nall right, bucky."

"No, it isn't, and it won't happen again. Perhaps I should say here and now, so that the calde and General Mint can hear it, that if your vision hasn't been restored by the time Silk and I leave for Blue, you're coming with us."

Mint smiled. "That reminds me. I should tell my husband, and you, that we've been haunted again. Not just the little one this time, but by Silk as well."

He stared in consternation. "Are you saying he's dead?"

"No." Her smiled was impish. "In fact, I'm quite certain he's not, Patera."

"Good Silk!" Oreb exclaimed.

He sighed and laid down his fork. "I won't tell you again that I'm not an augur-you know it, and there's no harm in your amusing yourself. Please understand, however, that this is a serious matter to me. I must find Silk and bring him to Blue. I've pledged myself to make every effort. I've kept that pledge so far, and I intend to keep it. If I had been able to find Calde Silk, I wouldn't be troubling you like this; but I haven't. He had a house in the country, or so I'm told-"

Hound interrupted. "A cottage. That's what they say."

"But he's not there, and no one seems to know where he's living now. Hound and Tansy didn't, and they seemed to think it unlikely that anybody in Endroad did. But the calde does-the calde must-"

"I don't," Bison said.

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-"