put down the riots, but in that you were doing your duty. You
questioned Mamelta and me when we were detained for violating a
military area, which could easily be justified.'
'He _hit_ me!' Incus exclaimed. 'An _augur!_'
Silk nodded. 'That is an individual matter, concerning Councillor
Potto alone, and I was considering the Ayuntamiento as a whole--or
rather, what remains of that whole. But what you say, Patera, is
quite right; and it's an indication of the road along which this
Ayuntamiento is traveling. I'd like to persuade Councillor Loris, its
presiding officer, to turn back before it's too late.'
Loris fixed him with a malevolent stare. 'Then you won't
to our demands? I can call in the soldiers at once and get this over
with.'
Silk shook his head. 'I can't accede. Nor can I speak for the Rani
of Trivigaunte, obviously; but I can and do speak for Viron; and for
Viron all of your demands, except the one for my resignation, are
out of the question.'
'Nevertheless,' Maytera Marble put in, 'General Mint and Generalissimo
Oosik may accede to them, in part at least, to save Patera
Silk. May I speak to him in private?'
'Don't be ridiculous!'
'It isn't ridiculous, I must. Don't you see that General Mint and
Generalissimo Oosik and all the rest of them are only acting on the
authority of Patera Silk? When I report that I've seen him and tell
them you've recognized him as calde, they will certainly want to
know whether he's willing to agree to your terms. They'll have to
know what he wants them to do, but they won't pay the least
attention to it unless I can say that he told me in private. Let me talk
to him, and I'll go back and talk to Generalissimo Oosik and
General Saba. Then, if we're lucky, we'll have real peace in place of
this truce.'
'We have not recognized him as calde,' Loris told her coldly. 'I
invite you to retract that.'
'But you have! You've called him Calde several times in my
presence, and I could see you congratulating yourselves on having
the calde. You even called him the key to the crisis. You're
threatening to shoot him because he won't agree to your precious
five demands. If he's the calde, that's only cruel. If he isn't, it's
idiotic.'
She raised her hands and time-smoothed face to Loris in supplication.
'He's terribly weak. I've been watching him while the rest of us
were talking, and if it weren't for his stick I think he would have
fallen. Can't you let him sit down? And tell everyone else to leave?
A quarter of an hour should be enough.'
Blood rose, swaying a little. 'Over here, Patera. Take my seat.
This's a good chair, better than the one you had in here that other
time.'
'Thank you,' Silk said. 'Thank you very much. I owe you a great
deal, Blood.' Chenille, next to him, took his arm; he wanted to
assure her he did not need her help, but stumbled on the carpet
before he could speak, eliciting an unhappy squawk from Oreb.
'Get the rest of them out,' Loris told Potto.
Xiphias paused in the doorway, showing Silk both his hands, then
twisting one slightly and separating them.
Chenille kissed his forehead, the brush of her lips the silken touch
of a butterfly's wing--and was gone, violently pulled away by Potto,
who left with her and shut the door.
Maytera Marble reoccupied the chair beside the one that had
been Blood's. 'Well,' she said.
Silk nodded. 'Well indeed. You did very well, Maytera. Much
better than I. But before we talk about--all of the things we'll have
to talk about, I'd like to ask a question. One foolish question, or
perhaps two. Will you indulge me?'
'Certainly, Patera. What is it?'
Silk's forefinger traced small circles on his cheek. 'I know nothing
about women's clothes. You must know a great deal more--at least,
I hope you do. You got Councillor Loris to bring Chenille her
gown?'
'She was naked under that augur's robe,' Maytera Marble
explained, 'and I refused to talk about anything else until they got
her dressed. Bloody called in one of the maids, and she and Chenille
went with a soldier to find her some clothes. They weren't gone
long.'
Silk nodded, his face thoughtful.
'It's too small for her, but the maid said it was the largest in the
house, and it's only a little bit too small.'
'I see. I was wondering whether it belonged to a woman I met
here.'
'You and Bloody were talking about her, Patera.' Maytera
Marble sounded ill at ease. 'He asked you where she was, and you
said you'd gotten separated.'
Silk nodded again.
'I don't want to pry into your personal affairs.'
'I appreciate that. Believe me, Maytera, I appreciate it very
much.' He hesitated, staring through the open window at the
wind-rippled green lawn before he spoke again. 'I thought it might
be one of Hyacinth's, as I said. In fact, I rather hoped it was; but it
couldn't be. It almost fits Chenille, as you say, and Hyacinth's much
smaller.' The circles, which had ceased to spin, reappeared. 'What
do you call that fabric?'
'It's chen... Why, I see what you're getting at, and you're
right, Patera! That gown's chenille, exactly like her name!'
'Not silk?'
Maytera Marble snapped her fingers. 'I know! She must have told
the maid her name, and it suggested the gown.'
'She kissed me as she left,' he remarked. 'I certainly didn't invite
it, but she did. You must have seen it.'
'Yes, Patera. I did.'
'I suppose she wanted to signal that she was with us--that she
