looking for an opportunity to change sides since sometime last night."
"What's the shaggy Ayuntamiento ever done for me? Worked me
for payoffs and favors every month. Shut me down to make
themselves look good. What the shag do I owe them?"
"I've no idea. Then--about an hour ago, perhaps--your mother
entered the picture, ostensibly and no doubt principally to help me,
but clearly with influence on the other side and eager to save you as
well. So when I realized Maytera wanted us to stay in this room, I
expected you to step from behind a picture." Silk smiled and
shrugged apologetically.
Mucor surprised them all by asking, "Would you like me to see
what they're doing?"
"I'd rather have you eat something," Silk told her, "but I don't
suppose there's anything in here. Go ahead, if Lion will behave
himself."
He waited for her reply, but none came.
"Girl go." Oreb's croak was scarcely audible. "No here." Lion
stretched himself on the floor and closed his eyes.
"Actually, I was surprised you didn't come sooner," Silk told
Blood conversationally, "but of course you had to fetch Mucor and
get her dressed--perhaps even clean her up a bit with the help of
one of your maids, and I hadn't allowed for that. The point that
puzzles me is that Mucor seems to have felt it necessary to send Lion
ahead of her."
"Did she?" Blood eyed his adopted daughter curiously.
"So it seems. Oreb--my bird, up there--must have glimpsed him
or, more likely heard him, because he told us several times that
there was a cat about."
"She probably didn't realize that the soldiers wouldn't be afraid of
him," Maytera Marble suggested.
"Bad cat," Oreb muttered.
"Not too loud," Silk cautioned him, "he might hear you."
"It was nice of you to join us, Bloody." Maytera Marble smoothed
her skirt. "It's to your advantage, no doubt, just as Patera says. But
you're taking a big risk just the same."
Blood stood. "I know it. You don't think much of me, do you,
Calde?"
"I think a great deal of your shrewdness," Silk told him. "I'd be
glad to have your cunning mind on our side. I'm aware that you
have no morals."
"Colonel Oosik," Blood gestured with the azoth. "He's your man,
from what I've heard. This General Saba's there for the Rani,
Colonel Oosik for you."
"Generalissimo Oosik."
Blood snorted. "You trust him and you won't trust me, but I've
had him in my pocket for years."
Maytera Marble said, "Sit down, Bloody. Or are you going to do
something?"
"I want a drink, but since the calde doesn't want it, I think I'll
hang onto my azoth as long as that cat's in here. Will you fix me one,
Mama?"
"Certainly." She rose. "A little more gin, I imagine?"
Silk began, "If it's not too much trouble, Maytera--"
"And ice. There's ice behind the big doors underneath."
"I'll be happy to. Brandy, or--" she examined bottles. "Here's a
nice red wine, Patera."
"Just water and ice, please. The same for Mucor, I think."
Blood shook his head. "No ice, Mama. She'll throw it. Believe
me,I know."
"Poor bird!"
"A cup of plain water for Oreb, if you would, Maytera. I
believe he'll come down to drink it if you leave it on top of the
cabinet."
"Plain water for Oreb." Revealing two fingers' width of silvery leg
as she stood on tiptoe, she put a brimming tumbler on the cabinet.
"Soda water and ice for Patera, and ice, gin. and soda water for you,
Bloody. Soda water without ice for my granddaughter. It's nice and
cool, though." As she placed the final tumbler before Mucor, she
added, "I must say she doesn't look as if you've been taking good
care of her."
Blood picked up his drink. "We've got to force-feed her, mostly,
and she tears off her clothes."
"She never had one." Blood sipped his drink and eyed it with
disfavor. "You know about frozen embryos? You can buy them now
and then if you want them, but you don't always get what you paid for."
Recalling dots of rotting flesh, Silk shuddered.
"The old calde, Tussah his name was, was supposed to have done
it. That leaked out after he died. So I decided to give it a try. Buy
myself an embryo with spooky powers. I got one of the girls to carry it."
"And you were actually able to purchase such a thing? An embryo
that would develop into someone with Mucor's powers?"
Blood nodded unhappily. "Like I said, you don't always get what
you pay for, but I was careful and I did. She's got the stuff, but she's
crazy. Always has been."
"You engaged a specialist to operate on her brain."
"Sure, trying to cure her, only it didn't work. If it had, I'd be
calde."
"She's been my friend," Silk told him, "a difficult one, perhaps, but
helpful just the same. She likes me, I believe, and the good god
knows I'd like to help her in return."
Oreb caught at the phrase. "Good god?"
"The Outsider, I ought to have said."
Mucor herself said, "They're arguing about you." Her voice
sounded faint and far away; the tumbler Maytera Marble had filled
for her waited untouched on the low table before her.
Silk sipped from his own, careful not to drink too much too fast.
"Men and women breed children from their bodies on impulse. We
augurs rail against it; but although inexcusable, it is at least
understandable. They are swept away by the emotions of the
moment; and if they weren't, perhaps the whole whorl would stand
empty. Adoption, on the other hand, is a considered act, consummated
only with the assistance of an advocate and a judge. Thus an
adoptive parent cannot say, 'I didn't know what I was doing,' or 'I
didn't think it would happen.' Worthless though those protestations
are, he has no claim to them."
"You think I knew she'd turn out like this? She was a baby." Blood
glared at his daughter. "I'm twice your age, Patera, maybe more.
When you're as old as I am, maybe you'll have a few little things
that you regret too."
"There are many already."
"You think there are. Women, you mean. My. Oh shag it, what's
the use?" Blood set his drink aside and wiped his damp left hand on
his thigh. "I don't care much for them. Neither would you, if you'd
been in my business as long as I have. I started when I was seven or
eight, just a dirty little sprat going up to men in the market.
Anyhow, Mucor's the only child I'll ever have, probably."
Maytera Marble told him, "She's the only granddaughter I'll ever
have, too, Bloody. If you won't take proper care of her, I will."
Blood looked angrier than ever. "Like you did me?"
"It would be better if we kept our voices down," Silk said. "You're
not supposed to be here."
"I wish I wasn't." A smile twisted Blood's mouth. "That would be
the elephant, wouldn't it? Shot for trying to pick up a couple bits
down at the m
arket. Hey, Patera, you want to meet my sister? She'll
give you some hot mutton."
"Bloody, don't!"
"It's pretty late to tell me that, Mama. Or don't you think so?"
Without waiting for an answer, he turned to Silk. "I'm going to
outline a deal. If you take it, I'm in, and I'll do everything I can to
get you out of here in one piece."
Silk opened his mouth to speak.
"When I say you, that's you and the other augur, the old man,
Mama here, and that big piece from Orchid's. Even your bird. All
of you. All right?"
"Certainly."
"If you don't take it, I'm out the window, understand? No hard
feelings, but no deal either."
"You could be shot going out the window, too, Bloody," Maytera
Marble warned him. "I'm surprised that you weren't, you and my
granddaughter, before you got back inside."
Blood shook his head. "There's a truce, remember? And I'll stick
the azoth back under my tunic. They aren't going to shoot an
unarmed man and a girl that never even come close to the wall."
"As good as a secret passage." Maytera Marble's eyes gleamed
with amusement.
"Right, it is." Blood went to the window. "Now here's what I say,
Calde. I'll come over to you and Mint, gun, goat, and gut, and try to
see to it that all of us get clear. When we do, I'll sign over your
manteion to you for one card and other considerations, as we say,
and you can owe me the card."
He waited for Silk to speak, but Silk said nothing.
"After we get out, I'm still your bucky. I've done plenty of favors
for the Ayuntamiento, see? I can help you too, and I will,
everything that I can. I've got Mucor, remember," Blood nodded
toward her, "and I know what she can do now. Lemur's crowd never
got anything half as good as that."
Silk sipped from his tumbler.
"More talk," Oreb muttered; it was not clear whether it was a
suggestion or a complaint.
"Here's all I want from you, Calde. No gelt, just three things.
Firstly, I get to hang onto my other property. That means my real
estate, my accounts at the fisc, and the rest. Number two, I stay in
business. I'm not asking you to make it legal. I don't even want you
to. Only you don't shut me down, see? Last, I don't have to pay
anybody anything above regular taxes. I'll open my books to you,
but no more payoffs on top of that. You understand what I'm telling you?"
Blood leaned against the window frame. "Look it over, and you'll
see I'm making you as good a deal as anybody could ask for. I'm
giving you my complete, unlimited support, plus some valuable
property, and all I want from you is that you leave me alone. Let me
keep what's mine and earn my living, and don't come down on me
any harder than you do on anybody else. What do you say?"
For a few seconds, Silk did not say anything. The tramp of
rubber-shod metal feet came faintly from the wide foyer on the
other side of the carved walnut door, punctuated by Potto's strident
tones; embroidered hangings stirred, whispering, in the cool wind
from the window.
"I've been expecting to be tested." Silk glanced at his tumbler,
surprised to find that he had drunk more than half his soda water.
"Tested by the Outsider. He's been testing me physically, and I felt
quite confident that he would soon take my measure morally as
well. When you began, I was certain this was it. But this is so easy!"
Lion raised his head to look at him inquiringly, then rose,
stretched, and padded over to rub his muscled, supple body against
Silk's knees.
Maytera Marble shook her finger at her son. "What you've been
doing is very wrong, Bloody. You sell rust, don't you? I thought so."
"To begin," Silk told Blood, "you must turn my manteion over to
me--you're going to do that right now. If you didn't bring along the
deed, you can go out that window and get it. I'll wait."
"I brought it," Blood admitted. He fished a folded paper from an
inner pocket of his tunic.
"Good. My manteion, for three cards."
Blood crossed the room to an inlaid escritoire; after a time,
Mucor stood as well, her mouth working silently as though she were
pronouncing the labored scratchings of Blood's pen.
"I'm not much of a scholar," he said at length, "but here you are,
Patera. I had to sign for Musk, but it should be all right. I've got his
power of advocacy."
The ink was not yet dry; Silk waved the deed gently as he read.
"Fine." He took three of Remora's cards from his pocket and handed
them to Blood.
"You're to do everything in your power to end the fighting
without further loss of life," he told Blood, "and so am I. If I'm calde
when it's over, as you obviously expect, you will be prosecuted for
any crimes you may have committed, in accordance with the law.
No unfair advantage will be taken beyond that which I just took.
That's a large concession, but I make it. I warn you, however, that
nothing that you may have done will be overlooked, either. If you're
found guilty on any charge, as I expect that you will be, I'll ask the
court to take into consideration whatever assistance you've rendered
our city in this time of crisis. Am I making myself clear?"
Blood glowered. "You extorted that property from me. You took
it under false pretences."
"I did." Silk nodded agreement. "I committed a crime to right the
wrong done to the people of our quarter by an earlier one. Why
should men like you be free to do whatever you wish whenever you
wish, guaranteed that you yourself will never be victimized? You
may, if you choose, complain about what I've done when peace has
been restored. You have a witness in the person of your mother."
He gave the lynx a last pat before pushing him away. "I wouldn't
advise you to call your adopted daughter, however. She's not
competent to testify, and she might tell the court about the nativity
of her pets."
"You had better not ask me to testify, either, Bloody," Maytera
Marble told him. "I'd have to tell the judge that you tried to bribe
our calde."
"They're coming," Mucor announced to Silk. "Councilior Loris has
finished talking to Councillor Tarsier through the glass. They've
decided to kill you and send your body back with the woman that
killed Musk."
Silk froze, his eyes on Blood.
Oreb squawked, "Watch out!"
Instinctively, Maytera Marble reached out to her son, a plea for
forgiveness and understanding.
His grip on the azoth tightened, and the shimmering horror that
was its blade divided the cosmos, leaving Maytera Marble on one
side and the hand she had held out to him on the other. It dropped
to the carpet as the hideous discontinuity swung up, showering them
with plaster and sundered lath. Silk shouted a warning; absurdly, he
tried to shield her from Blood's downward cut with Xiphias's cane.
Its thin wooden casing exploded in blazing splinters; but the
azoth's blade sprang back from the double-edged steel bl
ade the
casing had concealed, having notched it to the spine.
It seemed to Silk then that his arm moved of itself--that he
merely watched it, a spectator fully as horrified as she, and fully as
separated from his arm's acts. As the door flew in with a crash, that
arm swung the ruined blade.
From behind Sergeant Sand and a second soldier equally soldier
large, Potto barked, "_Shoot him?_"
The notched blade slid forward, penetrating Blood's throat as
readily as the manteion's old bone-handled sacrificial knife had ever
entered that of a ram.
"Shoot the calde?" Sand's hand caught the other soldier's slug gun.
Blood's knees buckled as the light left his eyes. The double-edged
blade, scarlet to within a hand's breadth of the notch with Blood's
own blood, retreated from his throat.
"Yes, the calde!"
For a moment it seemed to Silk that Maytera Marble should have
knelt to catch Blood's blood; perhaps it seemed so to her as well, for
she crouched, her remaining hand extended to her son as he fell.
Silk turned, the sword still in his hand. Sand's slug gun was no
longer pointed at him, if it had ever been. Sand fired, and the
second soldier a fraction of a second after him. Potto fell, his
cheerful face slack with surprise.
"Take this, Patera." Maytera Marble was pressing Blood's azoth
into his free hand. "Take it before I kill you with it."
He did, and she took Xiphias's ruined sword from him, and with
its crook wedged between her small black shoes, contrived to wipe
its blade with a big handkerchief that she shook from her sleeve.
There was a clash of heels and a crash of weapons as Sand and the
second soldier saluted. Soldiers and men in silvered armor peering
around them began to salute as well. Silk nodded in response, and
when that seemed inadequate traced the sign of addition the air.
Epilogue
It had been hastily erected, Calde Silk reflected, studying the
triumphal arch that spanned the Alameda--very hastily. But surely
this new generalissimo from Trivigaunte would understand the
situation, would realize the difficulties they had labored under in
organizing a formal welcome in a city still at war with what remained
of its Ayuntamiento, and make allowances.
Now, this wind.
It stirred yellow dust from the gutters, whistled among the
chimneys, and shook the ramshackle arch until it trembled like an