Epiphany of the Long Sun (85 page)

Potto put in, "Except Brigadier Erne."

"Except for Erne. That's right. We were lucky, in that the brigadiers wanted to clear those orders with Generalissimo Oosik. He countermanded them, naturally. Now we've dispersed our people so that it will be impossible for the Trivigauntis to disarm them themselves."

Potto's giggle mounted to a shrill laugh. He slapped his thigh. "You can't use them against us unless you call them up again. And you won't dare call them up because your friends from Trivigaunte will disarm them. You're in a pickle!"

Maytera Mint told him, "Yours is worse."

She glanced at Silk, who told Potto, "We have a strategy, you see-one that you cannot frustrate. The Trivigauntis are preparing to mount a vigorous offensive against you. You know that, I'm sure."

Loris nodded.

"I listened to Generalissimo Siyuf outline her plans last night, and I've been thinking about our options all day. In order to win, all that we have to do now is sit back and let them carry out those plans. She is a rigid disciplinarian, and she's never been down in those tunnels. Furthermore, a she's not greatly concerned about the lives of her troops, especially her infantry, which consists largely of conscripts."

Silk leaned back, his fingers joined in a pointed tower. "As I said, all we have to do is to let her do as she plans. There will be a terrible war of attrition, fought underneath the city between foreigners and soldiers most of the men and women who live in it have scarcely seen. In the end, one side or the other will triumph, and it won't make much difference which it is, since the winner will be too weak to resist General Mint's horde when we reassemble it. Either way, we'll be masters of the city. And either way, you will both be dead."

Potto sneered. Loris said smoothly, "A few minutes ago somebody was saying we're all Vironese here, with a single exception. Was it you, General? You, whose troops are to complete the destruction once Viron's army has defeated the Trivigauntis for you?"

"Yes," she told him. "It was.

Silk said, "There are at least three major objections to the strategy I have just outlined, Councillor, though I do not doubt that it would succeed-that it will, if we choose to employ it. You've voiced the first yourself: it entails the destruction of Viron's army. The second is that it will take at least half a year, and very possibly several years; either would be too long, as we'll explain in a moment. The third is that there is one part of Siyuf's force that we must have, and it is exactly the part that would almost certainly escape us. I refer to General Saba's airship.

"Sciathan, will you please tell these councillors what you told me?"

The Flier nodded, his small, pinched face solemn. "We of Mainframe, we Crew, were visited by the god you call Tartaros. It was the morning of the day on which I was captured."

Auk put in, "Right after he left me, see?"

"His instructions were urgent. We were to find this man Auk," Sciathan pointed, "and bring him and his followers to Mainframe, so that they can leave the
Whorl
to journey to a short-sun sphere outside." Sciathan turned to Silk. "They do not believe me."

"They need only believe that I believe you," Silk told him, "as I do. Continue."

"This very wise man Caldé Silk has spoken to you of the airship, the great vessel that flies without wings, stirring the air with wooden arms. The god also spoke to us of this airship. We were to employ it to carry back this man who is my friend now, and those who wish to accompany him."

Profound conviction lent intensity to Sciathan's voice. "It cannot be accomplished otherwise. No, not though a god should demand it. He cannot fly as we do, nor can the others who wish to accompany him. For them to walk or ride animals would consume many months. There are mountains and deserts, and many swift rivers."

"We'd need enough bucks with slug guns and launchers to fight our way past anybody that tried to stop us," Auk added. "We ain't got them." Seeing Chenille enter with a tray, he inquired, "What you got there, Jugs? Tea and cookies?"

She nodded, "Maytera thought you might like something. She's busy with Stony and Patera, so Nettle and I baked."

"There is too much eating here," Sciathan protested in a whisper, "also, too much drinking. Behold that one." He indicated Potto with a nod.

"I agree," Silk said, accepting a cup of tea, "but we must consider hospitality."

"In short," Loris was saying, "you want us to help you take over the airship. I won't argue about your reason for wanting it, though I might if I thought we could do it. I doubt that we can."

Potto rocked from side to side, bubbling with mirth. "I might. Yes, I might! Silk, I'll make you an offer on behalf of my cousins and myself, but you'll have to trust me."

Maytera Mint shook her head, but Silk told her, "This is progress, whether we accept it or not. Let's hear it."

"I'll seize the airship for you within a month, capturing as many of the technicians who operate it as possible. I'll turn them over to you after they've agreed to cooperate with you in every way." He tittered. "They will, I promise you, when I've had them for a few days. Ask the general there."

He turned to Chenille, who was serving Remora. "May I have a cup of your tea, my dear? I can't drink it, but I like the smell."

Maytera Mint snorted.

"I do, my dear young General. You think I'm mocking you, when I'm simply indulging the only pleasure of the flesh left to me." As Chenille poured, he added, "Thank you very, very much. Five bits? Would that be acceptable?"

Chenille stared. "Is this… I don't-"

Silk said, "Councillor Potto is merely using you to make a point, Chenille. He prefers to make his points in the most objectionable way possible, as General Mint and I can testify. What is it, Councillor?"

"That even trivial things are seldom free." Potto smiled. "That there is a price to pay, even when it's a trivial price. Want to hear mine for the airship?"

Silk nodded, feeling Hyacinth's hand tighten about his,

Loris said, "I've no idea what he has in mind, but I'm going to attach one of my own first. You're to do nothing to interfere with us during the month specified. No attacks on any position of ours, including Erne's."

Silk said, "We wouldn't, of course-if we accepted. But it's your cousin's price that concerns me."

"Two men." Potto held up two fingers. "I want to borrow one and keep the other. Can't you guess which they are?"

"I believe so. Perhaps I should have made it clear that I haven't the least intention of accepting. Even if you had offered to do it for nothing, as a gesture of goodwill, I still could not have accepted."

Auk started to protest, but Silk cut him off. "Let me say this once and for all, not just to you, Auk, and not just to these councillors; but to everyone present. Trivigaunte is our ally. There has been friction between us, true. I daresay that there is always friction in every alliance, even the small and simple alliance of husband with wife."

Hyacinth's lips brushed his cheek.

"I did not ask the Rani to send us help, but I welcomed it with open arms when she did. I have no intention of turning against her and her people now, because of a little friction. Maytera Marble often tells me things she's learned from watching children's games, and I received the greatest lesson of my life during one such game; now I want to propose a game for us. Let us pretend for a few minutes that I'm Generalissimo Siyuf. Will all of you accept that, for the sake of the game?"

His eyes went from face to face. "Very well, I am Siyuf. I understand that some of you are nursing grievances in spite of my long and swift march to your rescue, and in spite of the aid I brought you. Let me hear them now. There is not one I cannot dispose of."

Loris said, "I hope you're not so deep in your part as to shoot me."

Silk smiled and shook his head.

"Very well then, Generalissimo Siyuf. I have a complaint, exactly as you said. I'm speaking as the presiding officer of the Ayuntamiento, the legitimate government of this city. You and your troops are interfering in our internal affairs. That is an act of war."

Silk heaved a sigh, and his gaze strayed to Chenille, who was pouring tea for Maytera Mint. "Councillor, your government was never legitimate, because it was established by murdering your lawful Caldé. I can't say which of you ordered his murder, or whether you acted jointly. For the purposes of discussion, let's assume it was Councillor Lemur, and that he acted alone. You nevertheless-"

"I didn't intend to get into this," Loris protested. His craggy face was grim.

"You introduced the subject yourself when you referred to yours as the legitimate government, Councillor. I was about to say that though you searched for the adopted son Caldé Tussah had named as his successor, as your duty required, you did not hold elections for new councillors, as your Charter demands. My ally Caldé Silk governs because the people of your city wish it, and so his claim is better than yours. Aid given by a friendiy power is not an act of war. How could it be? Are you saying that we of Trivigaunte attacked your city? It welcomed us with a parade."

Silk waited for a response; when none came, he said, "You have already heard that I know the contents of your previous Caldé's will. I found a copy in your Jurgado. Let me say, too, that in my opinion the adopted son you searched for with so much diligence did not exist. Caldé Tussah invented this son to draw your attention from an other child, an illegitimate child who may or may not have been born before his death. If she had already been born, referring to an adopted
son
was doubly misleading, as he doubtless intended it to be." Silk sipped his tea. "Don't go, Chenille."

Potto sprang to his feet. "You!"

"Did you kill my father, Councillor?" Chenille's dark eyes flashed. "The real one? I don't know, but I don't think it was really Councillor Lemur. I think it was you!"

Oosik raised his slug gun, telling Potto to sit down.

"If you did and evidence can be found," Silk continued, "you will have to stand trial. So far we have none."

"Are you Silk or Siyuf?" Potto demanded.

"Silk at present. I'll resume the game in a moment. Your Cognizance, will you speak? I ask it as a favor." Upon Silk's shoulder, Oreb fluttered uneasily.

"If you want me to, Patera Caldé." Quetzal's glittering gaze was fixed on Potto. "Not many of us knew Tussah. Patera Remora did, and Loris. Did you, Generalissimo?"

Oosik shook his head. "Twenty years ago I was a captain. I saw him several times, but I doubt that he knew my name."

"He knew mine, eh?" Remora cleared his throat. "I had, er, was coadjutor in those-um-happier days. Ah-mother still living, eh, General? It, um, sufficient in itself, hey? Though there were other favorable circumstances."

Chenille, who had stopped pouring tea, murmured, "I wish I knew more about him."

"I, um, disliked him, I confess," Remora told her. "Not hatred, you understand. And there were times, eh? But I was, er, substantially alone in it. Wrong, too, eh? Wrong. I, um, concede it now. Loud, brawling, vigorous, and I was-um-determined, quite determined secretly, to be offended. But he, er, put the city first. Always did, and I-ah-accorded insufficient weight to it."

"He wouldn't flatter my then coadjutor, Patera Caldé," Quetzal explained. "He flattered me, however. He flattered me by confiding in me. He never married. Are you both aware of that?"

Silk and Chenille nodded.

"Clergy take a vow of chastity. Even with its support, chastity is too severe for many. He confided to me, as one friend to another, that his housekeeper was his mistress."

"Not-ah-under the Seal, eh?"

Quetzal's hairless head swayed on its long neck. "I don't and won't speak of shriving, though I shrove him once or twice. This was at dinner, one at which only he and I were present. If he were alive I wouldn't speak of it. He's dead and can't speak for himself. He introduced the woman to me. He asked me to take care of her should he die.

Chenille said, "If that was my mother, you didn't."

"I did not. I couldn't find her. Though she was good-looking in her way, she was an ignorant woman of the servant class. I know she disliked me, and I think she was afraid of me. She was guilty of adultery weekly, and unable to imagine forgiveness for it."

Silk said, "You searched for her as soon as you heard Caldé Tussah was dead?"

"I did, Patera Caldé. Not as thoroughly as I should, since she was alive and I failed to find her."

Loris said, "I remember her now. The gardener's wife. She oversaw the kitchen and the laundry. A virago."

Quetzal nodded frigidly. "She was the type he admired, and he was the type she did."

Auk began, "This gardener cully-"

"A marriage of convenience, performed by my prothonotary in five minutes. There would have been talk if Tussah had a single woman in this palace. His gardener wasn't intelligent, though a good man and a hard worker. He was proud to be seen as married, as a man who'd won the love of an attractive woman. I imagine she dominated him completely. I thought they would look for new employment when Tussah died, and I planned to make places for them on our staff. They didn't. I know now, thanks to Patera Caldé, that they became beggars. At the time I assumed they'd known something about Tussah's death, and had been silenced."

Chenille said, "We sold watercress. But if somebody wanted to give us money, we took it. I used to ask for money, too, and run errands. Do little jobs." She swallowed. "After a while I found out there were things men would give me half a card for. It was a fortune to us, enough food for a week." She stared at her listeners, challenging them.

Loris smiled. "Blood will tell, they say."

"Blood won't," Silk declared. "Blood's dead-I killed him. But if Blood were alive, he might tell you that it was good business to give rust, at first, to the young women at Orchid's, and to sell it to them afterward-to keep them in constant need of money, and thus keep them there for as long as he and Orchid let them stay. The Ayuntamiento let him bring rust and other drugs into our city, in return for what I must call criminal services."