Captives of the Flame

by Samuel R. Delany

  CHAPTER V

  A few hours earlier, Geryn gave Tel a kharba fruit. The boy took thebright-speckled melon around the inn, looking for Alter. Unable to findher, he wandered onto the street and up the block. Once a cat with astruggling gray shape in its teeth hurtled across his path. Later he sawan overturned garbage can with a filigree of fish bones ornamenting theparti-colored heap. Over the house roofs across the street, the tallerbuildings and towers of Toron paled to blue, with sudden yellowrectangles of window light scattered unevenly over their faces.

  Turning down another block, he saw Rara standing on the corner, stoppingthe occasional passers-by. Tel started up to her, but she saw him andmotioned him away. Puzzled, he went to a stoop and sat down to watch. Ashe ran his thumbnail along the orange rind, and juice oozed from theslit, he heard Rara talking to a stranger.

  "Your fortune, sir. I'll spread your future before you like a silvermirror ..." The stranger passed. Rara turned to a woman now coming towardher. "Ma'am, a fragment of a unit will spread your life out like apatterned carpet where you may trace the designs of your fate. Just aquarter of a unit ..." The woman smiled, but shook her head. "You looklike you come from the mainland," Rara called after her. "Well, goodluck here in the New World, sister, the Island of Opportunity."Immediately she turned to another man, this one in a deep green uniform."Sir," Tel heard her begin. Then she paused as she surveyed his costume."Sir," she continued, "for a single unit I will unweave the threads ofyour destiny from eternity's loom. Would you like to know the promotionabout to come your way? How many children you'll ..."

  "Come on, lady," said the man in uniform. "It's illegal to tell fortuneshere."

  "But I've got my license," declared Rara. "I'm a genuine clairvoyant.Just a second ..." And her hands began to plunge into the seams andpockets of her gray rags.

  "Never mind, lady. Just get moving," and he gave her a push. Rara moved.

  Tel peeled back the strip of rind he'd loosened from the kharba fruit,licked the juice from the yellow wound, and followed Rara.

  "Son of an electric eel," she said when Tel reached her, her birthmarkscarlet. "Just trying to make a living, that's all."

  "Want a bite?"

  Rara shook her head. "I'm too angry," she said. They walked back to theinn.

  "Do you know where Alter is?" Tel asked. "I was looking for her."

  "She's not in the inn?"

  "I couldn't find her there."

  "Did you look on the roof?" Rara asked.

  "Oh," said Tel. "No." They turned into the tavern and Tel went upstairs.It was not until he was halfway up the ladder on the second floor thatwent to the trap door in the ceiling that he wondered why she was on theroof. He pushed the trap door back and hoisted himself to the dusty,weathered rim.

  Alter was hanging head and white hair down from a pipe that went fromthe stone chimney to a supporting pipe that was fastened by a firmcollar to the roof.

  "What are you doing?" Tel asked.

  "Hi," she smiled down at him. "I'm practicing."

  "Practicing what?"

  She was hanging double from her waist over the pipe. Now she grabbed thebar close to her waist and somersaulted forward, letting her feet slowlyand evenly to the ground, her legs perfectly straight. "My stunts," shesaid. "I'm an acrobat." She did not let go of the bar, but suddenlyswung her legs up so that her ankles nearly touched her hands, and thenwhipped them down again, ending the kip by supporting herself upright onthe metal perch. Then she flung her legs back (Tel jumped because shelooked like she was going to fall) and went out and down, then under,swung up, arced over, and went down again in a giant circle. She circledonce more, then doubled up, caught one knee over the bar, reverseddirection, and suddenly was sitting on top of the rod with one leg over.

  "Gee," Tel said. "How did you do that?"

  "It's all timing," Alter said. Suddenly she threw her head back, andcircled the bar once more, hanging from her hands and one knee. Thenthe knee came loose, and her feet came slowly to the ground. "You'vejust got to be strong enough to hold up your own weight. Maybe a littlestronger. But the rest is all timing."

  "You mean I could do that?"

  "You want to try something?"

  "Like what?"

  "Come here and grab hold of the bar."

  Tel came over and grabbed. He could just keep his feet flat on thetar-papered roof and still hold on. "All right," he said.

  "Now pull yourself up and hook your left knee around the bar."

  "Like this?" He kicked up once, missed, and tried again.

  "When you kick, throw your head back," she instructed. "You'll balancebetter."

  He did, pulled up, and got his foot through his arms, and suddenly feltthe bar slide into the crook of his knee. He was hanging by his leftknee and hands. "Now what do I do?" he asked, swaying back and forth.

  Alter put her hand on his back to steady him. "Now straighten your rightleg, and keep your arms fairly straight." He obeyed. "Now swing yourright leg up and down, three times, and then swing it down real hard."Tel lifted his leg, dropped it, and at once began swinging back andforth beneath the pole. "Keep the leg straight," Alter said. "Don't bendit, or you'll loose momentum."

  He got to the third kick, and then let go (with his thigh muscles, nothis hands) and at once the sky slipped back behind him and his bodyswung upward away from the direction of the kick. "Whoooo," he said, andthen felt an arm steadying his wrist. He was sitting on top of the barwith one leg over it. He looked down at Alter. "Is that what wassupposed to happen?"

  "Sure," she said. "That's how you mount the bar. It's called a kneemount."

  "I guess it's easier than climbing. Now what do I do?"

  "Try this. Straighten out your arms. And make sure they stay straight.Now straighten your back leg behind you." As he tried, he felt her handon his knee, helping. "Hey ..." he said. "I'm not balanced."

  "Don't worry," she said. "I'm holding you. Keep those arms straight. Ifyou don't obey instructions you'll have a head full of tar paper. Sevenfeet isn't very high, but head first it's sort of uncomfortable."

  Tel's elbows locked.

  "Now when I count three, kick the leg I'm holding under you and throwyour head back as hard as you can. One ..."

  "What's supposed to happen?" Tel demanded.

  "Follow instructions," replied Alter. "Two ... three!"

  Tel threw and kicked, and felt Alter give his leg an extra push. He hadplanned to close his eyes, but what he saw kept them open. Sky and thenroof were coming at him, fast. Then they veered away, along with Alter'sface (which was upside down), till an instant later the pale blue towersof Toron, all pointing in the wrong direction, pierced his sight.Righting themselves, they jerked out of his line of vision and he waslooking straight up at the sky (there was a star out, he noted before itbecame a meteor and flashed away) until it was replaced by the roof andAlter's face (laughing now) and then once more everything swept into itsproper position for a moment.

  He clamped his stinging hands tightly on the bar, and when he felthimself stop, he hunched forward and closed his eyes. "Mmmmmmmmmm," hesaid. Alter's hand was on his wrist, very firm, and he was sitting ontop of the bar again.

  "You just did a double back knee circle," she said, "You did it verywell too." Then she laughed. "Only it wasn't supposed to be double. Youjust kept going."

  "How do I get down?" Tel asked.

  "Arms straight," said Alter.

  Tel straightened his arms.

  "Put this hand over here." She patted the bar on the other side of hisleg. Tel transferred his grip. "Now bring your leg off the bar." Telhoisted his leg back so that he was supported by just his hands. "Nowbend forward and roll over, slowly if you can." Tel rolled, felt thebar slip from where it was pressed against his waist, and a moment laterhis feet were brushing back and forth over the tar paper. He let go andrubbed his hands together. "Why didn't you tell me what I was gonna do?"

  "Because then you wouldn't have done it. Now that you know you can, ther
est will be easier. You've got three stunts now in less than fiveminutes. The knee mount, back knee circle, and the forward dismount. Andthat was the best I've ever seen anybody do for a first try."

  "Thanks," said Tel. He looked back up at the horizontal bar. "You know,it feels real funny, doing that stuff. I mean you don't really do it.You do things and than it happens to you."

  "That's right," Alter said. "I hadn't thought of it like that Maybethat's why a good acrobat has to be a person who can sort of relax andjust let things happen. You have to trust both your mind and your body."

  "Oh," said Tel. "I was looking for you when I came up here. I wanted togive you something."

  "Thank you," she smiled, brushing a shock of white hair from herforehead.

  "I hope it didn't get broken." He reached into his pocket and pulled outa handful of something sinewy; he had strung the shells on lengths ofleather thong. There were three loops of leather, each longer than theone before, and the shells were spread apart and held in place by tinyknots. "Geryn gave me the thong, and I put it together this afternoon.It's a necklace, see?"

  She turned while he tied the ends behind her neck. Then she turned backto him, touching the green brilliance of one frail cornucopia, passingto the muted orange of another along the brown leather band. "Thankyou," she said. "Thank you very much, Tel."

  "You want some fruit?" he said, picking up the globe and beginning topeel the rest of it.

  "All right," she said. He broke it open, gave her half, and they went tothe edge of the roof and leaned on the balustrade, looking to thestreet below, then over the roofs of the other houses of the Devil's Potand up to the darkening towers.

  "You know," Tel said. "I've got a problem."

  "No identification papers, no place to go. I should say you do."

  "Not like that," he said. "But that's part of it, I guess. I guess it'sa large part of it. But not all."

  "Then what is it?"

  "I've got to figure out what I want. Here I am, in a new place, with noway to get anything for myself; I've got to figure a goal."

  "Look," said Alter, assuming the superiority of age and urban training,"I'm a year older than you, and I don't know where I'm going yet. Butwhen I was your age, it occurred to me it would probably all take careof itself. All I had to do was ride it out. So that's what I've beendoing, and I haven't been too unhappy. Maybe it's the difference betweenliving here or on the seashore. But here you've got to spend a lot oftime looking for the next meal. At least people like you and me have to.If you pay attention to that, you'll find yourself heading in the rightdirection soon enough. Whatever you're going to be, you're going to be,if you just give yourself half a chance."

  "Like a big acrobatic stunt, huh?" asked Tel. "You just do the rightthings and then it happens to you."

  "Like that," said Alter. "I guess so."

  "Maybe," said Tel. The kharba fruit was cool, sweet like honey, orange,and pineapple.

  A minute later someone was calling them. They turned from the balustradeand saw Geryn's white head poking from the trap door. "Come down," hedemanded. "I've been looking all over for you. It's time."

  They followed him back to the first floor. Tel saw that the scarredgiant was still sitting at the table, his hands folded into quiethammers before him.

  "Now, everyone," Geryn called as he sat down at the table. Somewhatreluctantly people left the bar. Geryn dropped a sheaf of papers on thetable. "Come around, everyone." The top sheet was covered with finewriting and careful architectural drawing. "Now this is the plan." Sowere the other sheets, when Geryn turned them over. "First, I'll divideyou into groups."

  He looked at the giant across the table. "Arkor, you take the firstgroup." He picked out six more men and three women. He turned to thewhite-haired girl now. "Alter, you'll be with the special group." Henamed six more people. Tel was among them. A third group was formedwhich Geryn himself was to lead. Arkor's group was for strong-arm work.Geryn's was for guard duty and to keep the way clear while the princewas being conveyed back to the inn. "The people in the special groupalready know what to do."

  "Sir," said Tel, "you haven't told me, yet."

  Geryn looked at him. "You have to get caught."

  "Sir?"

  "You go past the guards, and make enough noise so that they catch you.Then, when they're occupied with you, we'll break in. Because you haveno papers, they won't be able to trace you."

  "Am I supposed to stay caught?"

  "Of course not. You'll get away when we distract them."

  "Oh," said Tel. Geryn went back to the papers.

  As the plan was reviewed, Tel saw two things. First the completeness ofthe research, information, and attention to detail--habits of individualguards: one who left at the first sound of the change signal; anotherwho waited a moment to exchange greetings with his replacement, a friendfrom his military academy days. Second, he saw its complexity. Therewere so many ins and outs, gears that had to mesh, movements to be timedwithin seconds, that Tel wondered if everything could possibly go right.

  While he was wondering, they were suddenly already on their way, eachone with a bit of the plan fixed firmly in his mind, no one with tooclear a picture of the entire device. The groups were to split intosubgroups of two or three, then reconvene at appointed spots around thecastle. Tel and Alter found themselves walking through the city withthe giant. Occasional street lights wheeled their shadows over thecracked pavement.

  "You're from the forest, aren't you?" Tel finally asked the giant.

  He nodded.

  "Why did you come here?" Tel asked, trying to make conversation as theywalked.

  "I wanted to see the city," he said, raising his hand to his scars witha small chuckle. After that, he said nothing.

  * * * * *

  Prime Minister Chargill took his evening constitutional along theusually deserted Avenue of the Oyster at about this time every night.Prime Minister Chargill always carried on him a complete set of keys tothe private suites of the royal family. This evening, however, a drunkin rags reeled out of a side street and collided with the old man. Amoment later, making profuse apologies, he backed away, ducking hishead, his hands behind his back. When the drunk returned to the sidestreet, his weaving gait ceased, his hand came from behind his back, andin it was a complete set of keys to the private suites of the royalfamily.

  * * * * *

  The guard who was in charge of checking the alarm system loved flowers.He could--(and had been)--observed going to the florist's at least oncea week on his time off. So when the old woman with a tray of scarletanemones came by and offered them for his perusal, it is not surprisingthat he lowered his head over the tray and filled his lungs with thatstrange, pungent smell somewhere between orange rind and the sea wind.Forty-seven seconds later, he yawned. Fourteen seconds after that, hewas sitting on the ground, his head hung forward, snoring. Through thegate two figures could be seen at the alarm box ... had anyone beenthere to look.

  * * * * *

  At another entrance to the castle, two guards converged on afourteen-year-old boy with black hair and green eyes who was trying toclimb the fence.

  "Hey, get down from there! All right, come on. Where're your papers?What do you mean you don't have any? Come on with us. Get the cameraout, Jo. We'll have to photograph him and send the picture to ChiefRecords Headquarters. They'll tell us who you are, kid. Now hold still."

  Behind them, a sudden white-haired figure was out of the shadows andover the gate in a moment. The guards did not see her.

  "Hold still now, kid, while I get your retina pattern."

  * * * * *

  Later on a bunch of rowdies, led by a giant, started to raise hellaround the palace. They hadn't even gotten the kid to the guard houseyet, but somehow in the confusion the boy got away. One guard, who worea size seventeen uniform was knocked unconscious, but no one else washurt. They disperse
d the rowdies, carried the guard to the infirmary,and left. The doctor saw him in the waiting room, then left him theremomentarily to look for an accident report slip in the supply room atthe other side of the building. (He could have sworn that a whole pad ofthem had been lying on the desk when he'd stepped out for a bit tenminutes ago.) When the doctor returned with the slip the soldier wasstill there--only he was stark naked.

  * * * * *

  A minute later, an unfamiliar guard, wearing a size seventeen uniform,saluted the guard at the gate, and marched in.

  * * * * *

  Two strange men behind the gate flung a cord with a weight on one endover a third story cornice. They missed once, then secured it the secondtime and left it hanging there.

  A guard wearing a size seventeen uniform came down the hall of the westwing of the castle, stopped before a large double door on which was asilver crown, indicating the room of the Queen Mother; he took acomplete set of keys to the private suites of the royal family from hiscloak, and locked her Majesty firmly in her room. At the next door, helocked Prince Let securely in his. Then he went rapidly on.

  Tel ran till he got to the corner, rounded it, and checked the streetsign. It was correct. So he went to a doorway and sat down to wait.

  * * * * *

  At the same time, Prince Let, getting ready for bed and wearing nothingbut his undershirt, looked out the window and saw a girl with white hairhanging head down outside the shutter. He stood very still The upsidedown face smiled at him. Then the hands converged at the window lock,did something, and the two glass panels came open. The girl rolled overonce, turned quickly, and suddenly she was crouching on the windowledge.

  Let snatched up his pajama bottoms first, and ran to the door second.When he couldn't open it, he whirled around and pulled on his pajamapants.

  Alter put her finger to her lips as she stepped down into his room."Keep quiet," she whispered. "And relax," she added. "The Duchess ofPetra sent me. More or less." She had been instructed to use that nameto calm the prince. It seemed to work a trifle.

  "Look," explained Alter, "you're being kidnapped. It's for your owngood, believe me." She watched the blond boy come away from the door.

  "Who are you?" he asked.

  "I'm a friend of yours if you'll let me be."

  "Where are you going to take me?"

  "You're going to go on a trip. But you'll come back, eventually."

  "What has my mother said?"

  "Your mother doesn't know. Nobody knows except you and the Duchess, andthe few people who're helping her."

  Let appeared to be thinking. He walked over to his bed, sat down, andpressed his heel against the side board. There was a tiny click. Nothingelse happened. "Why won't they open the door?" he asked.

  "It's been locked," Alter said. Suddenly she looked at the clock besidethe Prince's bed, and turned to the window. Light from the crystalchandelier caught on the shells that were strung on leather thongsaround her neck as she turned.

  Let put his hand quietly on the newel post of his bed and pressed histhumb hard on the purple garnet that encrusted the crowning ornamentaldolphin. Nothing happened except a tiny click.

  At the window, Alter reached out her hand, just as a bundle appearedoutside on a lowered rope. She pulled them in, untied them, and shookthem out as the rope suddenly flew out the window again. "Here," shesaid. "Get into these." It was a suit of rags. She tossed them to him.

  Finally Let slipped out of his pajama pants and into the suit.

  "Now look in your pocket," Alter said.

  The boy did and took out a bunch of keys.

  "You can open the door with those," Alter said. "Go on."

  Let paused, then went to the door. Before he put the key in the lockthough, he bent down and looked through the keyhole. "Hey," he said,looking back at the girl. "Come here. Do you see anything?"

  Alter crossed the room, bent down, and looked. The only motion Let madewas to lean against one of the panels on the wall, which gave a slightclick. Nothing happened.

  "I don't see anything," Alter said. "Open the door."

  Let found the proper key, put it in the lock, and the door swung back.

  "All right, you kids," said the guard who was standing on the other sideof the door (who incidentally wore a size seventeen uniform), "you comealong with me." He took Let firmly by one arm and Alter by the other andmarched them down the hall. "I'm warning you to keep quiet," the guardsaid to Let as they turned the last corner.

  Three minutes later they were outside the castle. As the guard passedanother uniformed man at the Sentry's post, he said, "More stupid kidstrying to break into the palace."

  "What a night," said the guard and scratched his head. "A girl too?"

  "Looks like it," said the guard who was escorting Alter and the Prince."I'm taking them to be photographed."

  "Sure," answered the guard, and saluted.

  The two children were marched down the street toward the guard house.Before they got there, they were turned off into a side street. Thensuddenly the guard was gone. A black-haired boy with green eyes wascoming toward them.

  "Is this the Prince?" Tel asked.

  "Un-huh," said Alter.

  "Who are you?" Let asked. "Where are you taking me?"

  "My name is Tel. I'm a fisherman's son."

  "My name is Alter," Alter introduced herself.

  "She's an acrobat," Tel added.

  "I'm the Prince," Let said. "Really. I'm Prince Let."

  The two others looked at the blond boy who stood in front of them inrags like their own. Suddenly they laughed. The Prince frowned. "Whereare you taking me?" he asked again.

  "We're taking you to get something to eat and where you can get a goodnight's sleep," Alter answered. "Come on."

  "If you hurt me, my mother will put you in jail."

  "Nobody's going to hurt you, silly," Tel said. "Come on."