Epiphany of the Long Sun

by Gene Wolfe

  She fell silent, listening to the faint rattle as Shale was helped up the chute, to the sighing of the ever-present breeze, and to Urus's feverish breathing. "The ash is not so thick in the air as it was," she said.

  Schist nodded. "Not so many stirrin' it up, sir."

  "I suppose so, and those ugly beasts were struggling." She jabbed Urus as hard as she could, and he yelped.

  "This one, too. I'm tired, Urus. I'm awfully tired. I've slept on floors, and walked for leagues and leagues. I forget, sometimes, what I've said, and what I intended to say. You were thinking of snatching my needler a moment ago."

  Schist chuckled, a hard dry metallic rattle.

  "No doubt you could. No doubt you can. Taking a needler from a tired woman much smaller than yourself, a woman so close that her needler is within easy reach, should be simple for you. For anybody." She waited.

  "If you're not going to, you'd better raise your hands. Otherwise some small motion may cause me to pull the trigger."

  Slowly, Urus's hands went up.

  "As you say, you haven't served the Ayuntamiento. I've talked with Councillor Potto, Urus. Did you know that?"

  He shook his head.

  "I have. Also with Spider, who served the Ayuntamiento and would serve it still if he could. With a number of Guardsmen, Generalissimo Oosik particularly, who served it for many years. I've questioned prisoners, too. In not one of them did I fail to discover some gleam of good. Councillor Potto is the worst, I think. But even Councillor Potto is not entirely evil."

  From the chute, Slate called, "How about the general and that other bio?"

  Maytera Mint backed away, then motioned toward the area under the chute. "I give you fair warning. I must see some good in you, Urus, and soon."

  His smile was at once pitiable and horrible. "You're goin' to let me get out, lady? Let me go up there?"

  "Call me Maytera!"

  "M-maytera. Maytera, I figured, see, I'd made it out. Only it w-w-was just the pit, the shaggy pit, 'n then we run back down 'n got into it with the old man-"

  Schist lifted him by his ankles. "He ain't got no sores on his legs like that other one, sir. Maybe you saw 'em."

  Looking down at the needler, Maytera Mint felt herself nod.

  "I had to sorta wash off my hands with ashes." Somewhat violently, Schist shoved Urus's head and shoulders into the chute. "After I lifted him, sir. I got pus on 'em, sir."

  "No doubt he'd been nipped from time to time by the beasts he had earlier," Maytera Mint said absenfly. "Those would be the ones our Caldé says Patera Incus killed, perhaps." Eland and Urus might have encountered Auk, in that case; she made a mental note to ask them about it, adding as an afterthought that she must not kill Urus before she had a chance to question him.

  "You're goin' to stay, sir?"

  "Until Private Shale lets down his slings. Yes, I am. Go ahead, Schist. Anytime they're ready for you."

  The safety had been off, as she had said. Did that make her better, because she had told the truth? Or worse, because she had practically nerved herself to killing Urus? Dropping the needler into one of the big side pockets of her torn and soiled habit, she watched Schist's feet disappear into the chute, then sat down in the ash to await Shale's slings, or the beasts that he called gods, and Eland bufes.

  Bison put down the untasted leg of a pheasant. "Two cards to every one of them, Caldé?"

  Silk nodded, his eyes upon Mucor. "Yes. I hadn't meant to tell you tonight, Colonel. To be more exact, I hadn't planned to make my decision until morning."

  Saba began, "I submit-"

  "But if Mucor can locate the manteion to which the woman I've had her looking for is bringing her offering, I'll be busy tomorrow. Besides, it's better that I announce it now, so that Generalissimo Oosik and Generalissimo Siyuf can hear it. We'll send the volunteers home tomorrow, each with a letter of credit worth two cards at the Fisc."

  "Caldé…" Oosik reached across Maytera Mint's vacant place to touch Silk's arm. "It will take longer than one day merely to collect their weapons."

  Silk shook his head. "We won't collect them. They're to keep whatever they have-those are their weapons now"

  Saba looked at Siyuf, and when Siyuf did not speak, said, "That's unheard-of. It's folly. Insanity." Chenille caught Silk's eye and nodded. "She's right, Patera. It's abram."

  He spoke to Maytera Marble, at the far end of the table. "You told me something earlier that weighed heavily with me, Maytera; there's no one whose judgement I value more, as you know. Would you repeat it for us?"

  "I can't, Patera. I don't remember what it was."

  Xiphias put in, "Couldn't you just let them keep their swords, lad?"

  "I could scarcely take those, could I? Those are their own property already. Chenille, you agree that I shouldn't do this. Why not?"

  Saba snapped, "Because they're men, ninety percent of them, and unstable, like all men." Chenille added, "They'll kill each other, Patera."

  "Of course they will-they always have." Silk addressed Siyuf "My manteion is in what we call the Sun Street Quarter. I should explain that our city counts many more quarters than four; a quarter in our sense really means no more than the area served by a manteion."

  If she inclined her head, the motion was too slight to be seen. "Fifty thousand, Caldé Silk? All with slug guns?"

  "There are more than fifty thousand certainly, but not all of them have slug guns. Fifty thousand slug guns, perhaps, or a little over."

  When she put no further question, he said, "It's a violent quarter; most augurs would say it's the worst in the city. It borders on the Orilla, which is what we call an empty quarter-one without a manteion. A few people from the Orilla come to our manteion, however, just as a few from our quarter go into the Orilla to buy stolen goods. What I was going to say is that there's seldom a week without a killing or two, and there are often three or four. When one man decides to kill another, he does it. If he has a slug gun or a needler, he may use it; but if he doesn't, he uses a dagger or a sword. Or a hatchet, an axe, or a stick of firewood."

  Recalling Auk, Silk added, "A big, strong man may simply knock down a weaker one and kick him to death. A group of men could clearly do the same thing; and I know of one instance in which a man who had raped a child was killed by a dozen women, who beat him to death with their washing sticks and stabbed him with kitchen knives and scissors."

  Hadale told him, "One woman can kill a man, Caldé. It's common at home, and there's a woman at this table who's killed several."

  "It isn't uncommon here, either, Major; and that bears on the thing Maytera told me that impressed me so much. A woman from our quarter came to see her this afternoon, and Maytera asked if she wasn't afraid to walk so far through the city when just about everyone has a slug gun or a needler. The woman said she wasn't, because she had one, too."

  Silk paused, inviting comment, and Saba growled, "They'll over throw you, Caldé, in half a year or less."

  "You may well be right." He spread his hands. "But not by force, since they won't have to-I haven't the least desire to retain this office if our people don't want me. That's the chief difference between the Ayuntarniento and our side, really. But I think you've hit on something important. The reason the Ayuntamiento didn't let our people have slug guns or launchers like the one Chenille told me about this afternoon was that they are effective means of fighting soldiers and troopers in armor. The Ayuntanniento believed that if our people didn't have those weapons it could rule as long as it retained the loyalty of the Army and the Guard."

  "Very sensible," Saba declared.

  "Perhaps, but it didn't work very well. A few days ago, our people overwhelmed hundreds of Guardsmen and took their weapons. I see I have not convinced you."

  Saba shook her head.

  "Then let me say this. Generalissimo Oosik says that he would need more than a day to collect the weapons of General Mint's volunteers."

  Bison added, "If they'd surrender them."

 
; "Exactly. The best troopers would give their weapons up when they were ordered to, but the worst would hide theirs-the precise opposite of the situation we'd prefer. Furthermore, it would take at least as long to reissue those weapons, and we may need the volunteers again any day."

  Quetzal, who had been nodding over his untouched plate, murmured, "One hundred thousand cards is a large sum, Patera Caldé. Can you afford that much?"

  Silk shook his head.

  Xiphias exclaimed, "Then don't, lad! Don't do it!"

  "We can't afford to do it, Master Xiphias." Silk smiled wryly. "But we cannot afford not to, either. In the first place, I promised to reward those who fought bravely on either side, and I've done nothing thus far. There may be a thousand things we cannot afford. No doubt there are. But the thing we cannot afford above all-the thing we dare not risk-is to have people come to believe that my promises are worthless. So tomorrow, as I say, every trooper that General Mint and Colonel Bison have is to receive two cards, and permission to return to his or her home and occupation. Those who were given slug guns or other weapons are to be told that the weapons are theirs now. No one will be able to complain that those who fought on our side went unrewarded, at least."

  Siyuf smiled. "Like you, Caldé Silk, I think we may need the horde of Mint again, and soon. When you call for them they will come, having been rewarded handsomely for the first time."

  "Thank you. Most of our financial troubles result from various businesses-"

  Hossaan had entered as he spoke, carrying a huge roast upon a magnificent golden platter. "The people from Ermine's can see to that, Willet," Silk told him. "Please get your floater ready-I'll want it soon."

  Oreb flew up the table, circling warily before perching on Silk's shoulder. "Bird too!"

  "Of course, if you wish."

  "Let me hear the rest, Caldé Silk. I am most interested."

  "I was about to say that if the overdue taxes were paid, our city government would be rolling in wealth, Generalissimo. General Mint's troopers will spend the cards they receive very quickly for the most part, and that should produce a wave of prosperity. If we make forceful efforts to collect the overdue taxes then, we may be able to meet our other obligations."

  Siyuf looked down the table to Saba. "You have tell me he is mad. He is not mad. He is only more clever than you. It is not the same."

  Might not the dead rise and walk again? There were tales of such things, and they flitted through Maytera Mint's mind as she was drawn up the chute.

  I was sacrificed, she thought. I should have realized it when Councillor Potto had Spider bend me over his knee. A drop struck me, too. How wonderful it would be if all the rest could come back up through these the way I am!

  The top of the chute was a glaring rectangle above her, light so bright that it seemed to her it must surely be noon, with the whole of Pas's long sun pouring golden radiance through the windows of the manteion into which she rose. Fascinated, she watched Slate's metal hands in silhouette as they slowly and steadily hauled her up, each grip succeeded by the next.

  Then a hand of flesh, Remora's long blue-veined hand, was reaching for her; she caught it and let him help her climb from the looped slings to a mosaic floor. "There you are, Maytera. I, um, we have been waiting for you. The sergeant is most, er, desirous to proceed, eh?" Remora's face was clean, his soiled overrobe was gone, and his costly robe had been replaced by one more costly still.

  She looked for the windows she had pictured, expecting to find them glowing with sunshine; but there were no windows, only scores of rock-crystal holy lamps surmounted by long, bright flames, and a fire blazing upon the altar.

  "I-ah-kindled the, um," Remora ventured, following the direction of her eyes. "It seemed provident."

  "Certainly. You've cleaned up, too. May I ask where, Your Eminence?" Catching sight of Urus edging toward the back of the manteion, she shouted, "Sergeant! Stop that prisoner!"

  "An, er, dressing chamber? Cubiculum. Off the sacristy, eh? For sibyls. Cabinets-ah-wardrobes in there. So I, um, given to understand."

  "I'll want water and soap," she told him. "Warm water, if that's possible. You've washed, clearly."

  Spider interjected, "The sergeant wants to sacrifice right away. He-" From his position between Urus and the door, Sand himself rasped, "The Prolocutor told us Pas would come, sir. I reported that. It's the Plan, and standing orders say it's got higher priority than anything else." Slate nodded agreement.

  "Indeed it does. But Pas may not come as well. We must be prepared for that eventuality, too. I say that, though I hate putting myself on the same side as Urus, who feels certain Pas won't. But if he comes, as we hope, we must be fit to receive him. Not only I, but all of you as well." She followed Remora onto the sanctuary elevation and past the fire-crowned altar.

  "The, um, locality, hey?" Remora was almost grinning.

  "What about it, Your Eminence? If you're asking whether I know where we are," she glanced around her, "I haven't the least idea. I didn't know that a manteion like this existed."

  They entered the sacristy, thrice the size of Silk's on Sun Street; a shelf held a long row of jeweled chalices, and a block of fragrant sandalwood a dozen sacrificial knives whose gold or ivory handles flashed with gems.

  "I have officiated here, er, innumerable," Remora informed her. "Five hundred, eh? A thousand? I should not contest even so lofty a figure as that. It is the, um, oratorium abolitus, the private chapel beneath the Palace. For His Cognizance's use, hey? And augurs who have-ah-administrative duties, eh? We, er, offer our-ah-seldom-seen? Obscure services to the gods."

  He was about to go; she caught the voluminous sleeve of his robe. "The room where I can wash? Where there may be a clean habit I can borrow?"

  "Oh, yes, yes, yes! Right-ah-door." He opened it for her. "Should be a bolt, eh? Inside. No doubt, no doubt. Water likewise. Tank, eh?" He pointed at the ceiling. "Under the-ah-in the west cupola."

  The room was twice as large as her longed-for bedroom in the cenoby. Gratefully, she shut its door and shot the bolt. Two large wardrobes and a wash basin; a pierced copper hamper, presumably for laundry; a full-length mirror on one wall and a glass on another. A table in a corner.

  Opening one of the wardrobes, she found half a dozen clean habits of various sizes; she draped the biggest over the glass, then emptied her pockets onto the table, took off her own habit, and dropped it into the hamper. It was probably beyond saving, and the Chapter owed her a round hundred new ones at least.

  Grimly stepping out of her soiled underdrawers and removing her chemise and bandeau, she resolved to collect those habits and distribute them to sibyls as poor as she.

  It was Mainframe itself to take off her shoes and stockings, although she had to sit on the floor to do it, which made it seem likely there were no clean stockings. She rinsed the ones she had taken off, wrung them as dry as she could, and hung them over the open door of the wardrobe.

  The tap to her left gushed water that was at first tepid, then pleasantly steaming. There was a boiler somewhere in the Palace, presumably; Maytera Mockorange, whose family had been wealthy, had spoken of such luxury, although Maytera Mint had never dreamed it might be available to sibyls.

  She had to wash her hands three times (with scented soap!) before the suds that streamed from them were no longer black with filth. Even so, small crescents remained under her nails. The point of a needle from her needler attended to those.

  Her small, tired face seemed to her equally dirty, if not worse; gingerly dabbing at the bruises and burns, she washed it again and again, washing her short brown hair too, then sponged her entire body, heedless of the pools that formed on the red-tiled floor.

  Remora's querulous voice penetrated the heavy wooden door. "The…Sergeant Sand. Sergeant Sand wishes-"

  She felt her sly little smile, although she struggled to repress it. "Tell him that I myself wish for sandwiches, Your Eminence, and ask what he knows about court-martials."

  "You�
��chaff."

  "Not at all. Tell him that and ask him." Her image in the mirror appalled her. If Bison were ever to see her like this!

  Not that he or any other man ever would, presumably; but men did not like skinny legs, narrow hips, or small breasts, all of which she possessed to a degree that seemed appalling. Yet she had been pretty twenty years ago; many people had told her so, many of them men.

  A pretty girl whose long curls had bordered upon chestnut. Some of those men might have been lying, and no doubt some had been. But all of them? It seemed improbable.

  The other wardrobe was divided into pigeonholes; most were empty, but one held two clean chemises and two pairs of clean underdrawers. The underdrawers were several sizes too large, but wearable with the string pulled tight. She could rinse her bandeau as she had her stockings-

  In a flurry of rebellion, she flung it into the hamper. A bandeau to cover up what? To hold in what? She had worn one because her mother, and subsequently Maytera Rose, had said she must; she looked no different now in this yellowed chemise than she had in her own in the cenoby.

  Snatching the habit from the glass, she clapped her hands. "Monitor? Monitor?" She had used glasses during the past few days, but was not completely comfortable with them.

  "Yes, madame." The floating gray face was at once detached and deferential.

  "Look at me. I'm lacking an essential item of feminine apparel. What is it?"

  "Several, madame. A gown, madame. Hose, and shoes."

  "Besides those." She turned sideways and stood on tiptoe. "What is it?"

  "I am at a loss, madame. I might offer a conjecture."

  "You needn't bother." She took the smallest habit from the first wardrobe. "Do you know who I am?" For an instant she was wrapped in darkness before it setfied into place. Still no coif, she thought. Still no coif.

  "I recognize you now, madame. You are General Mint. I was ignorant of your identity, previously. Would you prefer that I address you as General?"