I lost sight of “blunder” completely. I have never been what you would call a fast runner. I have never been fast—I escaped being caught in the water but I couldn’t follow “blunder.” I watched him vanish in moonlit streets. I didn’t know what to make of it all. I only half wanted to go after him, I watched him running away, I had no idea where he was running, I thought he might leave Lohach forever, running straight to the horizon. I remember imagining “blunder” running straight to the horizon, and on the horizon was the sun, and the sun’s light was my lamp’s light. I don’t suppose that’s important.
I followed this reasoning in inarticulate images. I saw the sun, then my lamp, and I knew in the way one simply knows things, clearly and distinctly, in dreams, that the lamp had to be ready by the next night, I had to get it working as quickly as could be managed, and then I was off on my way, on my straight-line track, back to the water tower. I went directly back to the water tower and sat down to work on the lamp, and when its light was working I got up again, it was already nearly sundown, I had worked through the rest of the night and through the next day entirely. I had worked without looking up once and the lamp was in perfect order, and I wasn’t tired. I have no special endurance, but I wasn’t tired that evening. I climbed to the top of the water tower with the lamp tied to my back and I fixed it to the peak of the roof, facing Wite’s mountain on the horizon. It was always looming just on the horizon, where it shouldn’t have been visible, it should have been too far away and lost in haze, but it stood out clearly even as the sun was setting.
I was suddenly free, the lamp was finished and working perfectly, my time was my own again. I thought of “blunder” at once, I ran to his smithy, that is I ran to the third market, around the corner; again I say I wasn’t at all tired. The vendors and the crowd had pulled back, down the avenue, away from “blunder”’s smithy, most were busy packing up their things, there was frantic activity further up the avenue where the vendors were closing early, because there had been some sort of altercation, a man had been assaulted there, in front of “blunder”’s smithy. I didn’t enter the street, I slipped up to the next street, Illan our spider had found a little aperture in a wooden fence between two houses. This had been the route he’d taken, I could grasp things that way, through the aperture, behind the smithy. I came up behind to the little window by the forge and peered in, the place was a shambles, worse than usual, I mean disarray, signs of strife. “Blunder” was sitting on the ground leaning against his anvil, gazing out the open door, he was at an angle to me, I could see the look on his face as he gazed serenely out the door, up at the sky. The next moment he caught sight of me, smiling and turning his head a little in my direction, shifting the gory hammer in his hand. “Blunder” had been seen, although I’ve always wondered if men hadn’t come for him on general principles. More would come soon, they most likely were getting themselves together at that very moment, it’s something I simply knew was happening just then, that a number of men were on their way to the smithy, with violent intentions. I tried to indicate this to “blunder” through the window, although I had a strange reluctance to raise my voice above a whisper. I gestured for “blunder” to come with me. He was gazing out at the sky again, he wasn’t paying much attention to me. I stood by his window like an idiot trying to get his attention. “Blunder” stood up and left, walked out into the street and out of my sight. I didn’t want to leave him alone, I was afraid for him, what could I have done for him? I followed him anyway, I went round the smithy and emerged on the street.
“Blunder” was at the glazier’s shed, just inside. I ran across the street and around to the side of the shed, again at the window. He was standing directly on the other side, gazing up past my head, he was still, beaming up at the sky, his eyes wide open and beaming, still, looking up at the sky, smiling with perfect simplicity, beaming. In my memory it begins to seem as though we were going to go from one place to another and one window to another and repeat the same moment over and over, as if that would forestall the catastrophe. I asked “blunder” and repeated my question, about the cistern. He looked surprised at me but he didn’t stop smiling or gazing. I heard sharp alterations in the air. All at once “blunder” had stepped into the street again, there were four men in front of his smithy. “Blunder” walked up behind one of them, evidently unnoticed, struck him over the head with his hammer, and killed him. These men had brought with them a few leashed dogs, and these now lunged this way and that, hysterical with alarm. One of the men turned in “blunder”’s direction, flinging up his arm before his face, “blunder” swung his hammer instantly, striking the man in the stomach with a terrible sound. Another man, I recall him, I think he had been peering into the smithy, and even calling for “blunder,” although not by name, and who turned back to the street when he heard the commotion, that being the moment I first saw his ruddy face and drooping moustache, the sort of one I never liked, and this one held a pistol in his hand. He raised it and shot, that is, it went off as he raised it. “Blunder” stepped behind a post, one of a number of them at that part of the street, and the man he’d hit in the stomach was lying there, belching, on his face, in front of the posts. There was another man I lost track of, there were four to begin with but more may have arrived in the meantime. No reason exists why all of the men who had assembled elsewhere to confront my friend had to arrive at the same moment. Another man, in fact, did appear from the street below me, and stood not far from where I remained in the glazier’s shop, looking on at the encounter with an expression of hesitation. This had all taken only a few moments, I was surprised, I was stupidly trying to think of something, I knocked one of the glazier’s panes off the back of his display table and when it shattered on the ground, the man standing near to me, who had a puffed-up look, turned automatically to gape at me, and “blunder” ducked around one of the posts, moving with astonishing speed, and hit the man who held the pistol, and who was still standing in the doorway of the smithy, in the ribs with his hammer, so that, from my point of view, the man with the pistol vanished instantly, driven into the smithy like a billiard ball into its pocket. The other of the four men who first came for “blunder,” and about whom I can remember no particulars, simply ran away. The man standing near to me cried out in astonishment and turned, I think, to rejoin whatever others there were. He gaped a moment at me, first, not that he knew me, I’m certain he saw only a stupid-looking, frightened old man, then turned and began to run, but fell a moment later, something had tripped him I think, or perhaps he lost his balance trying to avoid tripping over something, as often happens, and “blunder” darted up to him and struck the side of his head with his hammer and killed him as well. “Blunder” stood upright in front of me, I remember his hammer and hands were dotted with black blood, he was breathing hard and his eyes were like balled-up ribbons of water, I thought precisely in those words, looking at him, when my mind had settled a bit; our minds cleared—no, his did, if it needed to. My mind was clear, if startled.
We stood in the street in front of his shop and the glazier’s shed without speaking. “Blunder” turned his face up again just as it began to rain enormous icy drops. I went up to “blunder,” who was allowing the rain to soak into his face, turning his face bright red from the terrible coldness of those drops, I pawed a little at “blunder”’s arm, a clean bit of sleeve, and then although my voiced cracked and sounded completely unnatural I spoke up, and told him we’d have to leave.
“Blunder” came with me. There would be armed men at any moment, the whole city would turn out in earnest in a matter of moments. That sort of thing was taken personally, and the Alak representatives were certain to arrest or kill “blunder” if they could. This was absolutely necessary, from their point of view.
Illan had found a little crevice.
There was a little crevice, in the wall near the Werse, the city gates would certainly be locked before we got to them, but Illan had found a little crevice in the wall near the Wer
se, this crevice trailed down along the stone bank of the Werse, and out of Lohach—“blunder” and I knew about this crevice. I had no doubt “blunder” would be safe from those men once outside the city, I was sure he could make his escape once he managed to get out into the countryside, I knew he had to leave at once, “blunder” would have to escape on his own immediately or be killed by Lohach all together, which hadn’t turned against him or us, it had always been against us, but only now was it angry enough to single us out, I shared the blame for “blunder”’s so-called crimes, without a doubt, that was why I didn’t leave him, whether they knew it or not. I led him to the crevice and we slipped in together; this was a flaw in the stone, where it had cracked and spread apart over time; we reached the crevice, it wasn’t far, by alleys and by the emptier streets. I was still wide awake, I was still not tired. “Blunder” and I made our way through the crevice, out from under the city walls down along the course of the Werse; there were no breaks in the wall, we had to go all along the length of the crevice to the end. “Blunder” and I slipped out from under the city walls, we followed the crevice along the course of the Werse, there were hoofbeats and a horse appeared coming in the opposite direction, carrying an armed man, with more behind, the crevice was too narrow for them to come more than one at a time, this one, the foremost, shot his bullet at me and knocked me over, it struck me in the thigh and broke the bone, I fell seeing stars, you can’t imagine how it hits you, as if there couldn’t be so much force in the world, I saw “blunder” take a sort of skipping leap up the side of a boulder protruding from the crevice walls, he leaped with his hammer hanging low and swung it up as he leaped, the man who’d shot me was coming at him directly but “blunder” was faster, he leaped right up and brought his hammer up, it hissed through the air, you see how well I remember, it swung up inside the man’s right arm and struck his chin, his helmet exhaled a pink cloud, “blunder” drove the hammer back across the head, the chin was down on the chest and “blunder”’s hammer struck the top of his helmet and caved it in completely. “Blunder” did something I couldn’t see just then, I think he was off his balance and trying to get back, away from the next man, I seem to recall he thrust his back against the wall to keep from falling, he jumped down and there was another shot. “Blunder” was in the dark, in a shadow, and I couldn’t see whether or not he’d been injured then. I became confused, but I think he’d struck the man’s horse, or perhaps he’d sent the first one’s horse back out into the second one, the second horse. The mounted man was struggling to get control of his horse, and “blunder” broke his leg, then pulled him to the ground and hit his head. I wanted to call to him, but I’d been shot and was weakened, I was falling over fainting, “blunder” evaded them, those two men I mean, and killed them almost all at once. I was extracting the bullet from my leg. I looked up when I had pulled it out, and I saw the crevice was clear to its end, slickening where it opened with rain, and the smell of rain was blowing in cold fresh air, the first fresh air since I’d come to Lohach, more or less, and “blunder” was standing beaming back at me. On the ground, here and there, I saw the spirits of the dead men mooching around, peering here and there with evil, idiotic faces. I devoured them right away and mended my broken leg with them, and when I looked up again “blunder” was still standing beaming back at me, his eyes like two ribbons of water balled up, gleaming, he was shifting his weight from foot to foot, holding his hammer still, the look on his face—I can’t tell you, he beamed, his face shone with tranquility. I remembered the lamp—I told him to go on. “Blunder” turned immediately and ran out of the crevice; I never saw him again, I know he escaped.
I had repaired my leg, there was nothing wrong with me, I wasn’t tired at all, I made my way back up the crevice and under the wall, there were no armed men there, although there was commotion, I don’t know where they were, I came out into the street and went on without pause, I was bumbling and stumbling as I always did, I’ve never been graceful, I made my way back to the water tower with increasing urgency, I was walking in the rain which came in gusts, blew over me in waves, the rain was blowing over me in irregular waves, I walked on through these irregular waves of rain, with my head down watching the ground and my feet, and sinking into my soaking clothes; walking in the rain like this has always made me confused, or it tends to drive my mind in circles, I was barely aware of the streets, the people who were hiding from the rain and didn’t see me too well, they didn’t see me nor I them I watched my feet and kept moving thinking only of the water tower, I was determined to get back to the water tower even if it cost me my last ounce of strength—why would it cost me anything like my last ounce of strength? But I thought beleagueredly that I would return to the water tower tower even if it cost me all my strength, I fixed my will beleagueredly on the water tower and made my way there single-mindedly, and as I was making my way there another thought was slipped in among my thoughts, I was told without my knowing it why I had to return and what I was to do, what was going to happen—the whole city seemed to be animated by this secret anticipation, for once I had a sense of Lohach as a whole, something that would affect all of it was in my mind, so all of Lohach was clear in my mind, palpable in my mind. I nearly threw myself over onto the ground when I found our door but without stopping I climbed to the roof and the water tower and to the top of the water tower, to my lamp, I was on a ladder looking up at my lamp through a hatch in the roof, we had built this hatch in the roof and I was looking up at the lamp through the hatch, at the top of the ladder, rain was pouring in on me, I could barely see but I clearly saw that the lamp was dry, I knew it wouldn’t work if its contacts were wet but they were dry in the midst of all that rain, I am telling you they were dry. I reached up, my hand is shaking, I reached up and my hand was shaking then as well, I touched the lever and watched the contacts move together, the connection was already made, the contacts moved together and my lamp’s piercing single light shot its beams, brighter than I expected, I was nearly blasted from the top of the ladder, the light was bright as the sun, I stood looking at it although my eyes were smarting, I stood at the top of the ladder looking at it through the hatch with the rain falling on my face, my eyes opened wide and my mouth dropped open and I beamed at it, just as I’m doing now, this was the signal, I was thinking with joy, I had seen the glint of Wite’s glasses shining from his mountain, I could see it now, through the rain, in the distance, I was sending the corresponding sign, I was filled with joy looking at my light. Did Tzdze see my light? I wondered that then, did you see it and know that it meant I was still alive, still in love, and all that? I could see from there, or I knew from there, my light was visible everywhere in Lohach, in every corner of Lohach, the gravediggers saw it and flung down their spades; Illan, surrounded by horrible high-society automata of Lohach, his eye was tapped by my beams; and in every corner of Lohach those who understood knew what was coming, every one of them, they climbed out from under their clients, they dropped their daily work, they crawled to their feet from where they had fallen and made their way out—I saw it happen from the water tower, I saw them throwing up their hands, their daily work, and spitting in faces, silently running, and without knowing why others who took up their mood, even in the gusting rain, now it was getting dark, even in the gusting rain I watched fires coming up here and there, sounds of riot, sounds of splintering shop doors and bursting shop windows, I watched fires come up here and there, I stood on the roof with the water tower above me, I stood in the wind on the roof and watched the fires come up, poking up like little flowers here and there, each fire came up like a little rip in my soul, in my chest, tore a little hole and smooched the little tear with fiery lips, don’t argue with me I’m telling you how it felt I watched the fires come up and was whipped by cold rain and wind and felt my ears fill up with the sounds of riot in the streets, only the Lohach-proper people were rioting, rioting or holing up frightened in their homes, while my people were running, I could see them to my joy I saw
them here and there running over the grass, outside the walls. Little dark spots I could just see in the last few moments as night was falling and I was whipped to and fro by icy rain and cold wind, smoke and fire here and there beaten in icy rain and cold wind, riot in the streets, I hope they all got away!
I hope they all got away, I turned when I saw a glint on the horizon, I saw a dark sinuousness coming from the woods, the part in the woods which was a wide opening was showing a dark sinuousness, a vast black bulk like a snake with white crests on its hulk, it hulked irregularly with little white crests crawling over its body, I saw it turning and coming, widening and throwing up a long ridge on its humped back and it roared audibly without pause continuously howling with mounting strength without taking breath, covered with flickering white crescents like fire-shadows and I am not lying, this is the truth, this is what happened, I was blown into the air, I was swept from the roof into the air on a gust of wind that drew me up above the city and carried me along over the city, over the streets where there were fires and mobs, I was blown off the roof into the air the moment I saw that dark sinuousness was a wave filling the channel of the Werse and spanning it at greater breadth, swamping the channel of the Werse, and as I was swept off the roof and watched the roof vanish away from me in the downpour I saw the Werse billow and charge its banks, the wave struck the first flood bridge and smashed it to pieces and surged greedily in all directions inside the walls and over the walls in a moment sweeping down the streets to every side, this was the sign and invitation that “blunder” had made when he struck down the cistern, he either had word from Wite or had known somehow it doesn’t matter how or had somehow it doesn’t matter how invoked it by knocking over the cistern, the water boiled down the streets and the wave rolled down the banks bursting the second flood bridge and the third flood bridge and the fourth flood bridge like popping stitches, Lohach was swamped in a moment and the buildings were swept aside like the flat of a hand flattening them successive waves rippling along the backside of the first hammering back the buildings and toppling the heavy walls of Lohach, the fires were all extinguished in the blink of an eye and the mobs in the streets and the frightened ones holed up in their houses were swept aside and crushed and drowned, this flood in the middle of the dry season plowed Lohach into the earth and left only nameless pieces behind and only the ones who saw my light—which went out only at the last, the water tower floated and my light was swept along still visible in the cloudburst and still burned under the black surface of the water for a moment, a shining black halo of devastating water gleamed at me and at the same time a glint flashed at me from the horizon, and then my light went out—only the ones who saw my light escaped, only they lived, stood aside and watched. I had been blown aside, I was set down by the air on the earth again at the edge of the woods. I looked up and saw Tamt above me in the branches of a tree, still asleep.
The Traitor Page 18
