by Gene Wolfe
Page 5
I had been answered, and doubly.
Chapter Six
Miles, Foila, Melito, and Hallvard
That evening I fell prey to a fear I had been trying to put from my mind for some time. Although I had seen nothing of the monsters Hethor had brought from beyond the stars since little Severian and I had escaped from the village of the sorcerers, I had not forgotten that he was searching for me. While I traveled in the wilderness or upon the waters of Lake Diuturna, I had not been much afraid he would overtake me. Now I was traveling no longer, and I could feel the weakness in my limbs, for despite the food I had eaten I was weaker than I had ever been while starving in the mountains.
Then too, I feared Agia almost more than Hethors notules, his salamanders and slugs. I knew her courage, her cleverness, and her malice. Any one of the scarlet-clad priestesses of the Pelerines moving between the cots might easily be she, with a poisoned stiletto beneath her gown. I slept badly that night; but though I dreamed much, my dreams were indistinct, and I will not attempt to relate them here.
I woke feeling less than rested. My fever, of which I had hardly been conscious when I came to the lazaret, and which had seemed to subside on the day previous, returned. I felt its heat in every limb - it seemed to me that I must glow, that the very glaciers of the south would melt if I came among them. I took out the Claw and clasped it to me, and for a time even held it in my mouth. My fever sank again, but left me weak and dizzied.
That morning the soldier came to see me. He wore a white gown the Pelerines had given him in place of his armor, but he appeared wholly recovered, and told me he hoped to leave the next day. I said I would like to introduce him to the acquaintances I had made in this part of the lazaret and asked if he now recalled his name.
He shook his head. "I can remember very little. I am hoping that when I go among the units of the army I will find someone there who knows me. "
I introduced him anyway, calling him Miles since I could think of nothing better. I did not know the Ascians name either and discovered that no one did, not even Foila. When we asked him what it was, he only said, "I am Loyal to the Group of Seventeen. "
For a time Foila, Melito, the soldier, and I chatted among ourselves. Melito seemed to like him very well, though perhaps only because of the similarity of the name I had given him to his own. Then the soldier helped me into a sitting posture, lowered his voice, and said, "Now I have to talk to you privately. As I said, I think I will leave here in the morning. From what I have seen of you, you wont be getting out for several days - maybe not for a couple of weeks. I may never see you again. "
"Let us hope that isnt so. "
"I hope not either. But if I can find my legion, I may be killed by the time youre well. And if I cant find it, Ill probably go into another to keep from being arrested as a deserter. " He paused.
I smiled. "And I may die here, of the fever. You didnt want to say that. Do I look as bad as poor Melito?"
He shook his head. "Not as bad, no. I think youll make it - "
"Thats what the thrush sang while the lynx chased the hare around the bay tree. "
Now it was his turn to smile. "Youre right; I was about to say that. "
"Is it a common expression in that part of the Commonwealth where you were brought up?"
The smile vanished. "I dont know. I cant remember where my home is, and thats part of the reason I have to talk to you now. I remember walking down a road with you at night - thats the only thing I do remember, before I came here. Where did you find me?"
"In a wood, I suppose about five or ten leagues south of here. Do you recall what I told you about the Claw as we walked?"
He shook his head. "I think I remember you mentioning such a thing, but not what you said. "
"What do you remember? Tell me all of it, and Ill tell you what I know, and what I can guess. "
"Walking with you. A lot of darkness. . . I fell, or maybe flew through it. Seeing my own face, multiplied again and again. A girl with hair like red gold and enormous eyes. "
"A beautiful woman?"
He nodded. "The most beautiful in the world. "
Raising my voice, I asked if anyone had a mirror he would lend us for a moment. Foila produced one from the possessions beneath her cot, and I held it up for the soldier. "Is this the face?"
He hesitated. "I think so. "
"Blue eyes?"
". . . I cant be sure. "
I returned the mirror to Foila. "I will tell you again what I told you on the road, and I wish we had a more private place in which to do it. Some time ago a talisman came into my hands. It came innocently, but it does not belong to me, and it is very valuable - sometimes, not always, but sometimes - it has the power to heal the sick, and even to revive the dead. Two days ago, as I was traveling north, I came across the body of a dead soldier. It was in a forest, away from the road. He had been dead less than a day; I would say its likely he had died sometime during the preceding night. I was very hungry then, and I cut his pack straps and ate most of the food he had been carrying with him. Then I felt guilty about doing that and got out the talisman and tried to restore him to life. It has failed often before, and this time I thought for a while it was going to fail again. It didnt, although he returned to life slowly and for a long time did not seem to know where he was or what was happening to him. "
"And I was that soldier?"
I nodded, looking into his honest blue eyes.
"May I see the talisman?"
I took it out and held it in the palm of my hand. He took it from me, examined both sides carefully, and tested the point against the ball of his finger. "It doesnt look magical," he said.
"Im not sure magical is the right term for it. Ive met magicians, and nothing they did reminded me of this or the way it acts. Sometimes it glows with light - its very faint now, and I doubt if you can see it. "
"I cant. There doesnt seem to be any writing on it. "
"You mean spells or prayers. No, Ive never noticed any, and Ive carried it a long way. I dont really know anything about it except that it acts at times; but I think it is probably the kind of thing spells and prayers are made with, and not the kind that is made with them. "
"You said it didnt belong to you. "
I nodded again. "It belongs to the priestesses here, the Pelerines. "
"You just came here. Two nights ago, when I did. "
"I came looking for them, to give it back. It was taken from them - not by me - some time ago, in Nessus. "
"And youre going to return it?" He looked at me as though he somehow doubted it.
"Yes, eventually. "
He stood up, smoothing his robe with his hands.
I said, "You dont believe me, do you? Not about any of it. "
"When I came here, you introduced me to the others nearby, the ones youd talked with while you lay here on your cot. " He spoke slowly, seeming to ponder every word. "Of course Ive met some people too, where they put me. Theres one who isnt really wounded very badly. Hes just a boy, a youngster off some small holding a long way from here, and he mostly sits on his cot and looks at the floor. "
"Homesick?" I asked.
The soldier shook his head. "He had an energy weapon. A korseke - thats what somebody told me. Are you familiar with them?"
"Not very. "
"They project a beam straight forward, and at the same time two quartering beams, forward left and forward right. Their range isnt great, but they say theyre very good for dealing with mass attacks, and I suppose they are. "
He looked about for a moment to see if anyone was listening, but it is a point of honor in the lazaret to disregard completely any conversation not intended for oneself. If it were not so, the patients would soon be at each others throats.
"His hundred was the target of one of those attacks. Most of the others broke and ran. He didnt, and they didnt get him. Another man told me there were three walls of bodies in front of him. He had
dropped them until the Ascians were climbing up to the top and jumping down at him. Then he had backed away and piled them up again. "
I said, "I suppose he got a medal and a promotion. " I could not be sure if it was my fever returning or merely the heat of the day, but I felt sticky and somehow suffocated.
"No, they sent him here. I told you he was only a boy from the country. He had killed more people that day than he had ever seen up to the time a few months before when he went into the army. He still hasnt gotten over it, and maybe he never will. "
"Yes?"
"It seems to me you might be like that. "
"I dont understand you," I said.
"You talk as if youve just come here from the south, and I suppose that if youve left your legion thats the safest way to talk. Just the same, anybody can see it isnt true - people dont get cut up the way you are except where the fighting is. You were hit by rock splinters. Thats what happened to you, and the Pelerine who spoke to us the first night we were here saw that right away. So I think youve been north longer than youll admit, and maybe longer than you think yourself. If youve killed a lot of people, it might be nice for you to believe you have a way to bring them back. "
I tried to grin at him. "And where does that leave you?"
"Where I am now. Im not trying to say I owe you nothing. I had fever, and you found me. Maybe I was delirious. I think its more likely I was unconscious, and that let you think I was dead. If you hadnt brought me here, I probably would have died. "
He started to stand up; I stopped him with a hand on his arm. "There are some things I should tell you before you go," I said. "About yourself. "
"You said you didnt know who I was. "
I shook my head. "I didnt say that, not really. I said I found you in a wood two days ago. In the sense you mean, I dont know who you are - but in another sense I think I may. I think youre two people, and that I know one of them. "
"Nobody is two people. "
"I am. Im two people already. Perhaps more people are two than we know. The first thing I want to tell you is much simpler, though. Now listen. " I gave him detailed directions for finding the wood again, and when I was certain he understood them, I said, "Your pack is probably still there, witthe straps cut, so if you find the place you wont mistake it. There was a letter in your pack. I pulled it out and read a part of it. It didnt carry the name of the person you were writing to, but if you had finished it and were just waiting for a chance to send it off, it should have at least a part of your name at the end. I put it on the ground and it blew a little and caught against a tree. It may still be possible for you to find it. "
His face had tightened. "You shouldnt have read it, and you shouldnt have thrown it away. "
"I thought you were dead, remember? Anyway, a good deal was going on at the time, mostly inside my head. Perhaps I was getting feverish - I dont know. Now heres the other part. You wont believe me, but it may be important that you listen. Will you hear me out?"
He nodded.
"Good. Have you heard of the mirrors of Father Inire? Do you know how they work?"
"Ive heard of Father Inires Mirror, but I couldnt tell you where I heard about it. Youre supposed to be able to step into it, like youd step into a doorway, and step out on a star. I dont think its real. "
"The mirrors are real. Ive seen them. Up until now I always thought of them in much the same way you did - as if they were a ship, but much faster. Now Im not nearly so sure. Anyway, a certain friend of mine stepped between those mirrors and vanished. I was watching him. It was no trick and no superstition; he went wherever the mirrors take you. He went because he loved a certain woman, and he wasnt a whole man. Do you understand?"
"Hed had an accident?"
"An accident had had him, but never mind that. He told me he would come back. He said, I will come back for her when I have been repaired, when I am sane and whole. I didnt quite know what to think when he said that, but now I believe he has come. It was I who revived you, and I had been wishing for his return - perhaps that had something to do with it. "
There was a pause. The soldier looked down at the trampled soil on which the cots had been set, then up again at me. "Possibly whenever a man loses his friend and gets another, he feels the old friend is with him again. "
"Jonas - that was his name - had a habit of speech. Whenever he had to say something unpleasant, he softened it, made a joke of it, by attributing what he said to some comic situation. The first night we were here, when I asked you your name, you said, I lost it somewhere along the way. Thats what the jaguar said, who had promised to guide the goat. Do you recall that?"
He shook his head. "I say a lot of foolish things. "
"It struck me as strange; because it was the kind of thing Jonas said, but he wouldnt have said it in that way unless he meant more by it than you seemed to. I think he would have said, That was the baskets story, that had been filled with water. Something like that. "
I waited for him to speak, but he did not.
"The jaguar ate the goat, of course. Swallowed its flesh and cracked its bones, somewhere along the way. "
"Havent you ever thought that it might be just the peculiarity of some town? Your friend might have come from the same place I do. "
I said, "It was a time, I think, and not a place. Long ago, someone had to disarm fear - the fear that men of flesh and blood might feel when looking into a face of steel and glass. Jonas, I know youre listening. I dont blame you. The man was dead, and you still alive. I understand that. But Jonas, Jolenta is gone - I watched her die, and I tried to bring her back with the Claw, but I failed. Perhaps she was too artificial, I dont know. You will have to find someone else. "
The soldier rose. His face was no longer angry, but empty as a somnambulists. He turned and left without another word.
