by Gene Wolfe
But who had made the tunnels, and what had been their purpose? Maytera Marble recalled the Short Sun. Did she remember the tunnels, the digging of the tunnels, and the uses of the tunnels as well?
Their room, which should have been cool, was over-warm-hotter than his bedroom in the manse, which was always too warm, always baking, though both its windows, the Silver Street window and the garden window, stood wide open, their thin white curtains flapping in a hot wind that did nothing to cool the room. All the while Doctor Crane waited outside with Maytera Marble, throwing chips of shiprock from the tunnels through his window to tell him that he must go back for Hyacinth's silver azoth.
Like smoke, he rose and drifted to the window. The dead flier floated there, his last breath bubbling from nose and mouth. Everyone drew a final breath eventually, not knowing it for the last. Was that what the flier had been trying to say?
The door burst open. It was Lemur. Behind him waited the monstrous black, red, and gold face of the fish that had devoured the woman who slept in the glass tube, the tube in which he himself now slept beside Chenille, who was Kypris,,who was Hyacinth, who was Mamelta, with Hyacinth's jet-black hair, which the fish had and would devour, snap, snap, snap, snapping monstrous jaws…
Silk sat up. The room was'wide and dark and silent, its warm, humid air retaining ihe memory of the sound that had awakened him. Crane stirred in the other bed.
It came again, a faint tapping, a knock like the rapid ticking of the little clock in his room in the manse.
"The Guard." Silk could not have explained how he knew.
Crane muttered, "Probably just a maid wanting to change the beds."
"It's still dark. The middle of the night." Silk swung his legs to the floor.
The lapping resumed. An annoyed Guardsman with a slug gun stood in the middle of Dock Street, scarcely visible in the cloud-dimmed sunlight. He waved as he caught sight of Silk at the window, then came to attention and saluted.
"It is the Guard," Silk said. By an effort of will, he kept his tone conversational. "I'm afraid they have us."
Crane sat up. "That's not a Guardsman's knock."
"There's one outside, watching our window." Silk slid back the bolt and swung the door wide. A uniformed captain of the Civil Guard saluted, the click of polished boot heels as sharp as the snap of the great fish's jaws. Behind the captain, another armored trooper saluted like the first, his flattened hand across the barrel of his slug gun.
"May every god favor you," Silk said, not knowing what else to say. He stood aside. "Would you like to come in?" "Thank you, My Caldé."
Silk blinked.
They stepped over the threshold, the captain negligently elegant in his tailored uniform, the trooper immaculate in waxed green armor.
Crane yawned'. "You haven't come to arrest us?"
"No, no!" the captain said. "By no means. I've come to warn you-to warn our Caldé particularly-that there are others who will arrest him. Others who are searching for him even as we speak. I take it that you are Doctor Crane, sir? There are warrants for you both. You stand in urgent need of protection, and I have arrived. I am sorry to have disturbed your sleep, but delighted that I found you before the others did."
Silk said slowly, "This is happening because of an ill-considered remark of Councillor Lemur's, I believe."
"I know nothing of that, My Caldé."
"Some god overheard him-I believe I can guess which. What time is it, Captain?"
"Three forty-five. My Caldé."
"Too early to start back to the city, then. Sit-no, first bring the trooper who's watching our window inside. Then I want you to sit down, all three of you, and tell us what's been happening in Viron."
"It might be better to leave him where he is, My Caldé, if we wish the others to believe I am arresting you."
"And now you've made the arrest." Silk picked up his trousers and sat on the bed to put them on. "Doctor Crane and I have been subdued and disarmed, so the man outside is no longer needed. Bring him in."
The captain motioned to the trooper, who strode to the window and gestured; the captain himself took a chair.
Silk slapped Crane's wrapping against the bedpost. "You addressed me as Caldé. Why did you do that?"
"Everyone knows, My Caldé, that there is supposed to be a Caldé. The Charter, written by Our Patroness and Lord Pas himself, says so plainly-yet there has been no Caldé in twenty years."
Crane said, "But everything's gone along pretty well, hasn't it? The city's quiet?"
The captain shook his head. "Not really, Doctor." He glanced toward his trooper, then shrugged. "There was more rioting last night, and houses and shops were burned. An entire brigade was scarcely enough to defend the Palatine. Unbelievable! It gets a little worse each year. The heat has iT/ade things very bad this year, and the high prices in the market…" He shrugged again. "If the Ayuntamiento had asked my opinion, I would have advised buying up staples-corn and beans, the foods of the poor-and reselling them below cost. They did not ask, and I shall write my opinion in their blood."
Unexpectedly, the trooper said, "A goddess spoke to us, Caldé."
The captain smoothed his thin mustache. "That is so, My Caldé. We were signally honored yesterday at your manteion, where now the gods speak again."
Silk wound the wrapping about his ankle. "One of you understood her?" "We all did, My Caldé. Not in the way that I understand you, and not in the way that you yourself would beyond doubt have understood her. Yet she told us plainly that what we had been ordered to do was blasphemy, that you are accounted sacred. By the favor of the goddess, your acolyte returned as she spoke. He can relate her message in her own words. The substance was that the immortal gods are displeased with our unhappy city, that they have chosen you to be our Caldé, and that all who resist you must perish. My own men-"
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door; the trooper opened it to admit his comrade.
"These men," the captain continued, "were ready to kill me if I insisted we carry out our orders, My Caldé. I had no intention of doing so, however, you may be sure."
Silk received this in silence. When the captain had finished speaking, Silk pulled on his red tunic.
The trooper who had just come in glanced at his captain; he nodded, and the trooper said, "Everybody can see there's something wrong. Pas is holding back the rain, and there's all this heat. One crop after another's failing. My father had a good big pond, but we pumped it dry to water the corn. Now it's stayed dry all summer, and he was lucky to get ten quintals."
The captain cocked his head toward the trooper who had spoken as if to say you see the difficulties with which I must deal. "There is talk of digging canals from the lake, My Caldé, but it will take years. Meanwhile the skies are locked against us, and every manteion in the city is silent except yours. Long before the goddess spoke, it was clear that the gods are displeased witli us. Many of us feel that it is equally obvious why. Are you aware. My Caldé, that people all over the city have been chalking 'Silk for Caldé' on walls?"
Silk nodded.
"Tonight my men and I have been doing a bit of chalking of our own. We write, 'Silk is Caldé.' "
Crane chuckled dryly. "They mean the same thing, don't they, Captain? 'Silk will be killed if caught.' "
"Let us be grateful that it has not occurred, Doctor."
"I'm grateful, I can tell you that." Crane threw aside his sweat-soaked sheet. "But gratitude won't get the Caldé into theJuzgado. Can you suggest a place where we could hide until that's attended to?"
"I'm not going to hide," Silk told him. "I'm going back to my manteion."
Crane's eyebrow went up, and the captain stared.
"In the first place, because I want to consult the gods. In the second, because I have to tell everyone that we must overthrow the Ayuntamiento by peaceful means, if we can."
The captain stood up. "But you agree that it must be overthrown, don't you, My Caldé? Peacefully if it can be done peacefull
y, but by force if force is required?"
Silk hesitated.
"Remember Iolar," Crane muttered.
"All right," Silk said at last. "New councillors must replace those presently in the Ayuntamiento, but it's to be accomplished without bloodshed if possible. You three have indicated that you're ready to fight for me. Are you ready to accompany me to my manteion as well? If someone comes to arrest me, you can tell them I'm under arrest already, just as you were going to do here. You might say you returned me to my manteion so I could collect my belongings. A courtesy like that, extended to an augur, wouldn't be out of place, would it?"
"It will be very dangerous, My Caldé," the captain said grimly.
"Anything we do will be dangerous, Captain. What about you, Doctor?"
"Here I shaved my beard, and you're going to go back to the quarter where everybody knows you."
"You can begin on a new one today."
"Then how could I refuse?" Crane grinned. "There's no way to get rid of me, Caldé. You couldn't scrape me off of your shoes."
"I was hoping you'd say something like that. Captain, have you been searching for me all night? That's what it sounded like."
"Since the goddess favored us, My Caldé. First in the city, then here because your acolyte said you'd gone here."
"Then all three of you ought to have something to eat before we leave, and so should Doctor Crane and I. Could you send one of your troopers down to wake up the inn- keeper? Tell him we'll pay for everything, but we must eat and go as soon as possible."
A look sent one of the troopers hurrying out.
Crane asked, "Do you have a floater?"
The captain's face fell. "Only horses. One must be a colonel at least to authorize a floater. My Caldé, it might be possible to commandeer a floater for you here. I will make the attempt."
Silk said, "Don't be ridiculous. A floater for your prisoner! I'll walk in front of your horse with my hands tied. Isn't that how you do it?"
Reluctantly, the captain nodded. "However-"
Crane sputtered, "He's lame! You must've noticed it. He has a broken ankle. He can't possibly walk from here to Viron."
"There is a Guard post here, My Caldé. I could procure an additional horse there, perhaps."
Recalling his ride to Blood's villa with Auk, Silk said, "Donkeys. It must be possible to rent donkeys here, and I can have Horn or one of the other boys bring them back. An augur and a man of the doctor's age might be permitted to ride donkeys, I'd think."
THE FIRST GRAY light of shadeup had filled the streets of Limna before they were ready to leave. Silk was still murmuring the morning prayer to High Hierax as he mounted the young white donkey one of the troopers held for him, and put his hands behind his back for the other to tie.
"I'll make this real loose, Caldé," the trooper told him apologetically. "Loose enough so it won't hurt, and you can shake it off whenever you want to."
Silk nodded without interrupting his prayer. It seemed strange to pray now in a red tunic, though he had frequently prayed in colored clothes before he entered the schola. He would change at the manse, he told himself; he would put on a clean tunic and his best robe. He was a poor speaker (in his own estimation), and people would make fun of him if he wasn't habited like an augur. There would have to be a lot of people, tooAs many as he and the three sibyls-and, yes, of course, the students from the palaestra-could get together. When he spoke… In the manteicm or outside? When he spoke, he The captain had mounted his prancing charger. "If you are ready, My Caldé?"
Silk nodded. "It's occurred to me that you might easily turn this pretended arrest into a real one, Captain. If you do, you'll have nothing to fear from me-or from the gods, I believe."
"Hierax have my bones if I intend any such treachery, My Caldé. You may take the reins whenever you wish." Though Silk could not recall kicking it, his donkey was ambling forward. After a moment's reflection, he concluded that the trooper who had tied his hands had probably prodded it from behind.
Crane was studying the black cloud banks rolling across the lake. "Going to be a dark day." He urged his donkey forward to keep up with Silk's. "The first one in quite a while. At least we won't have to fry on these things in the sun."
Silk asked how long he thought the ride would take. "On these? Four hours, minimum. Don't donkeys ever run?"
"I saw one run across a meadow when I was a boy," Silk said. "Of course it had no man on its back."
"That fellow just finished tying my hands, and my nose itches already."
They trotted up Shore Street, past theJuzgado in which the helpful woman who had admired Oreb had mentioned Scylla's shrine and the Pilgrims' Way, past Advocate Vulpes's gaudy signboard with its scarlet fox. Vulpes would wonder why he had not given the captain his card, Silk thought-assuming that Vulpes saw him and recognized him in his new clothes. Vulpes would protest that criminals arrested in Limna should not be returned to the city to deprive them of his services.
Vulpes's card had been lost with so many other things when he had been searched-with his keys to the mante- ion, now that he came to think of them. Possibly Lemur, who had gotten Hyacinth's needler, the azoth, and his gammadion and beads from Councillor Potto, had taken Vulpes's card as well, though it would do Lemur no good in the court to which he had gone…
Silk looked up, and Limna had vanished behind them. The road wound among low, sandy hills that must have been islets and shallows even when the lake was much larger. He turned in his saddle for a final glimpse of the village, but behind the captain and the two troopers on their horses saw only the steely blue waters of the lake.
"This must be about the time Chenille used to arrive as a child," he told Crane. "She used to look for the water at shadeup. Did she ever tell you about it?"
"That would have been earlier than this."
A falling drop of water darkened the hair of the white donkey's neck; another splashed Silk's own rather less tidy hair, wet but astonishingly warm.
"Good thing this didn't come a little earlier," Crane said, "not that I like it anytime."
Silk heard the rattle of shots an instant after he saw Crane stiffen. Behind him, the captain shouted, "Get down!" and something else, words drowned by the boom of a trooper's slug gun.
The rope about Silk's wrists, which had been about to fall off a moment before, seemed to tighten as soon as he tried to free his hands from it.
"Caldé! Get down!"
He dove from the saddle into the dust of'the road. By a seeming miracle, one hand was free. The roar of a floater was followed by a longer coarse, dry rattles, the sound of an immense child hurrying a lath along the bars of a cage.
He scrambled to his feet. Crane's hands were free, too; he put them about Silk's neck as Silk helped him off his donkey. More shots. The captain's charger screamed-a horrible sound-reared and plunged into them, knocking them both into the ditch.
"My left lung," Crane muttered. Blood trickled from his mouth.
"All right." Silk pushed up Crane's tunic and tore it in a single motion.
"Azoth."
The booms of slug guns were followed by the greater boom of thunder, as if the gods were firing and dying too. Pale drops the size of pigeons' eggs splattered the dust.
"I'm going to bandage you," Silk said. "I don't think it's fatal. You're going to be all right."
"No good." Crane spat blood. And then, "Pretend you're my father." A torrent of rain engulfed them like a wave.
"I am your father, Doctor." Silk pushed a wadded rag into the hot and pulsing cavity that was Crane's wound and tore a long strip from Crane's tunic to hold it in place.
"Caldé. Take the azoth." Crane put it into his hands, and died. "All right."
Bent above him, the useless strip of rag in his hands, Silk watched him go, saw the shudder that convulsed him and the upward rolling of his eyes, felt the final stiffening of his limbs and the relaxation that followed, and knew that life had gone, that the great and invisible vulture that was
Hierax at such moments had swooped through the driving rain to sei/.e Crane's spirit and tear it free from Crane's body-that he himself, kneeling in the mud, knelt in the divine substance of the unseen god. As he watched, Crane's wound ceased to throb with blood; in a second or two, the rain had washed it white.
He put Crane's azoth into his own waistband and took out his beads. "I convey to you, Doctor Crane, the forgiveness of all the gods. Recall now the words of Pas, who said, 'Do my will, live in peace, multiply, and do not disturb my seal. Thus you shall escape my wrath.' "
Yet Pas's seal had been disturbed many times; he him- self had scraped up the remains of one such seal. Embryos, mere flecks of rotten flesh, had lain among the remains of another. Was Pas's seal to be valued more than the things it had been intended to protect? (Thunder crashed.) Pas's wrath had been loosed upon the whorl.
" 'Go willingly,' " (Where?) " 'and any wrong that you have ever done shall be forgiven.' "
The floater was nearer, the roar of its blowers audible above the roaring of the storm.
"O Doctor Crane, my son, know that this Pas and all the lesser gods have empowered me to forgive you in their names. And I do forgive you, remitting every crime and wrong. They are expunged." Streaming water, Silk's beads traced the sign of subtraction. "You are blessed."
There was no more shooting. Presumably the captain and both troopers were dead. Would the Guard let him bring them the Pardon of Pas before he was taken away?
"I pray you to forgive us, the living." Silk spoke as quickly as he could, racing words his teachers at the schola would never have approved. "I and many another have wronged you often, Doctor, committing terrible crimes against you. Do not hold them in your heart, but begin the life that follows life in all innocence, all thesewrongs forgiven."
A slug gun boomed three times in rapid succession, very near. The buzz gun rattled again, and mud erupted a hand's breadth from Crane's head.
