'Yes, it is, It's hard to change hands yourself, Bloody, because
you have to do it one-handed. It was particularly hard for me,
because by then I already had a great many new parts. Or rather, I
had reclaimed a great many old ones. They worked better, that was
why I wanted them, but I wasn't used to the new assembly yet,
which made changing hands harder. It would have been wasteful to
burn them, though. They were in much better condition than my old
ones.'
'Even if it is, I'm not going to call you Mother.'
Maytera Marble smiled, lifting her head and inclining it to the
right as she always did. 'You have already, Bloody. Out there. You
called me Mama. It sounded wonderful.'
When he said nothing, she added, 'You said you were going to
open that window. Why don't you?'
He nodded and raised the sash. 'That's why I bought your
manteion, do you know about that? I wasn't just a sprat nobody
wanted any more. I had money and influence, and I got word my
mother was dying. I hadn't spoken to her in fifteen, twenty years,
but I asked Musk, and he said if I really wanted to get even it might
be my last chance. I saw the sense in that, so we went, both of us.'
'To get even, Bloody?' Maytera Marble lifted an eyebrow.
'It doesn't matter. I was sitting with her, see, and she needed
something, so I sent Musk. Then I said something and called her
Mom, and she said your mother's still alive, I tried to be a mother to
you, Blood, and I swore I wouldn't tell.'
Turning from the window to face Maytera Marble, he added, 'She
wouldn't, either. But I found out.'
'And bought our manteion to torment me, Bloody?'
'Yeah. The taxes were in arrears. I'm real close to the Ayuntamiento.
I guess you know that already or you wouldn't have come
out here shooting.'
'You have councillors here, staying with you. Loris, Tarsier, and
Potto. That was one reason I wanted to talk.'
Blood shook his head. 'Tarsier's gone. Who told you?'
'Like your foster mother, I've sworn not to tell.'
'One of my people? Somebody in this house?'
'My lips are sealed, Bloody.'
'We'll get into that later, maybe. Yeah, I've got them staying
here. It's not the first time, either. When I found out about you--if
you're who you say you are--I talked to Loris, just one friend to
another, and he let me have it for taxes. Know how much it was?
Twelve hundred and change. I was going to leave you hanging, keep
talking about tearing the whole thing down. Then Silk came out
here. The great Calde Silk himself! Nobody would believe that now,
but he did. He solved my house like a thief. By Phaea, he was a thief.'
Maytera Marble sniffed. It was at once a devastating and a
confounding sniff, the sniff of a destroyer of cities and a confronter
of governments; Blood winced, and she enjoyed it so much that she
sniffed again. 'So are you, Bloody.'
'Lily.' Blood swallowed. 'Only your Silk's no better, is he? Not a
dog's right better. So I saw a chance to turn a few cards and have a
little fun by making the whole wormy knot of you squirm. I'd got
your manteion for twelve hundred like I told you, just a little
thankyou from Councillor Loris, and I was going to tell Silk thirteen
hundred, then double that.' Blood crossed the room to an inlaid
cabinet, opened it, and poured gin and water into a squat glass.
'Only when I'd talked to him a little, I made it thirteen _thousand_,
because he really thought those old buildings in the middle of that
slum were priceless. And I said I'd sell them back to him for
twenty-six thousand.'
Blood chuckled and sat down again. 'I'm not really a bad host,
Mama. If I thought that you'd drink it, I'd stand you a drink, even
after you called me a thief.'
'I was speaking of fact, Bloody, not calling names. Here in private
you may call me a trull or a trollop any other such filthy sobriquet.
That is what I am, or at any rate what I've been, although no man
but your father ever touched me.'
'Not me,' Blood told her. 'I'm above all that.'
'But not above defrauding that poor boy because he valued the
things given to his care, and was so foolish as to imagine you
wouldn't lie to an angur.'
Blood grinned. 'If I were above that, Mama, I'd be as poor as he
is. Or as he was, anyhow. I don't remember how much time I gave
him to come up with the gelt. A couple of weeks, maybe, or
something like that. Then when I had him crawling, I said that if he
brought me something next week or whatever, I might let him have
a little more time. Then after a couple days, I sent Musk to tell him
I had to have it all right away. I figured he'd come out here again
and beg me for more time, see? It looked like it was going to be a
nice little game, the kind I like best.'
Maytera Marble nodded sympathetically. 'I understand. I suppose
all of us play wicked little games like that from time to time. I
have, I know. But yours is over, Bloody. You've won. You have
him here, a prisoner in your house. The person who told me that the
councillors were here told me that, too. You have me as well. You
say you wanted to avenge yourself on the foster mother we found
for you, and you bought our manteion so you could avenge yourself
on me, because I gave you life and tried to see that you were taken
care of.'
Blood stared at her and licked his lips.
'You've won both games. Perhaps all three. So go ahead, Bloody.
A single shot should kill me, and I saw a lot of slug guns out there in
your foyer. Then the Trivigauntis can kill you for killing General
Saba's adjutant, or Generalissimo Oosik can shoot you for shooting
me. Possibly you'll be given your choice. Would you rather die
justly? Or unjustly?'
When Blood did not reply, she added, 'Perhaps you ought to ask
your friend Musk about it. He advises you, from what you've said.
Where is he, anyway?'
