packed for Mainframe, day after day, and nobody to help me I
could trust till I found Musk, nobody at all. It'd kill both of you in a
week. Shag yes, it would! Twelve years I did it before I ever took my
first crap in this place.'
'Bloody!'
'It's only a guess,' Silk admitted, 'and I can't pretend an intimate
familiarity with your mental processes; but I'd imagine you've been
looking for an opportunity to change sides since sometime last night.'
'What's the shaggy Ayuntamiento ever done for me? Worked me
for payoffs and favors every month. Shut me down to make
themselves look good. What the shag do I owe them?'
'I've no idea. Then--about an hour ago, perhaps--your mother
entered the picture, ostensibly and no doubt principally to help me,
but clearly with influence on the other side and eager to save you as
well. So when I realized Maytera wanted us to stay in this room, I
expected you to step from behind a picture.' Silk smiled and
shrugged apologetically.
Mucor surprised them all by asking, 'Would you like me to see
what they're doing?'
'I'd rather have you eat something,' Silk told her, 'but I don't
suppose there's anything in here. Go ahead, if Lion will behave
himself.'
He waited for her reply, but none came.
'Girl go.' Oreb's croak was scarcely audible. 'No here.' Lion
stretched himself on the floor and closed his eyes.
'Actually, I was surprised you didn't come sooner,' Silk told
Blood conversationally, 'but of course you had to fetch Mucor and
get her dressed--perhaps even clean her up a bit with the help of
one of your maids, and I hadn't allowed for that. The point that
puzzles me is that Mucor seems to have felt it necessary to send Lion
ahead of her.'
'Did she?' Blood eyed his adopted daughter curiously.
'So it seems. Oreb--my bird, up there--must have glimpsed him
or, more likely heard him, because he told us several times that
there was a cat about.'
'She probably didn't realize that the soldiers wouldn't be afraid of
him,' Maytera Marble suggested.
'Bad cat,' Oreb muttered.
'Not too loud,' Silk cautioned him, 'he might hear you.'
'It was nice of you to join us, Bloody.' Maytera Marble smoothed
her skirt. 'It's to your advantage, no doubt, just as Patera says. But
you're taking a big risk just the same.'
Blood stood. 'I know it. You don't think much of me, do you,
Calde?'
'I think a great deal of your shrewdness,' Silk told him. 'I'd be
glad to have your cunning mind on our side. I'm aware that you
have no morals.'
'Colonel Oosik,' Blood gestured with the azoth. 'He's your man,
from what I've heard. This General Saba's there for the Rani,
Colonel Oosik for you.'
'Generalissimo Oosik.'
Blood snorted. 'You trust him and you won't trust me, but I've
had him in my pocket for years.'
Maytera Marble said, 'Sit down, Bloody. Or are you going to do
something?'
'I want a drink, but since the calde doesn't want it, I think I'll
hang onto my azoth as long as that cat's in here. Will you fix me one,
Mama?'
'Certainly.' She rose. 'A little more gin, I imagine?'
Silk began, 'If it's not too much trouble, Maytera--'
'And ice. There's ice behind the big doors underneath.'
'I'll be happy to. Brandy, or--' she examined bottles. 'Here's a
nice red wine, Patera.'
'Just water and ice, please. The same for Mucor, I think.'
Blood shook his head. 'No ice, Mama. She'll throw it. Believe
me,I know.'
'Poor bird!'
'A cup of plain water for Oreb, if you would, Maytera. I
believe he'll come down to drink it if you leave it on top of the
cabinet.'
'Plain water for Oreb.' Revealing two fingers' width of silvery leg
as she stood on tiptoe, she put a brimming tumbler on the cabinet.
'Soda water and ice for Patera, and ice, gin. and soda water for you,
Bloody. Soda water without ice for my granddaughter. It's nice and
cool, though.' As she placed the final tumbler before Mucor, she
added, 'I must say she doesn't look as if you've been taking good
care of her.'
Blood picked up his drink. 'We've got to force-feed her, mostly,
and she tears off her clothes.'
'Who was her mother?' Silk asked.
'She never had one.' Blood sipped his drink and eyed it with
disfavor. 'You know about frozen embryos? You can buy them now
and then if you want them, but you don't always get what you paid for.'
Recalling dots of rotting flesh, Silk shuddered.
'The old calde, Tussah his name was, was supposed to have done
it. That leaked out after he died. So I decided to give it a try. Buy
myself an embryo with spooky powers. I got one of the girls to carry it.'
'And you were actually able to purchase such a thing? An embryo
that would develop into someone with Mucor's powers?'
Blood nodded unhappily. 'Like I said, you don't always get what
you pay for, but I was careful and I did. She's got the stuff, but she's
crazy. Always has been.'
'You engaged a specialist to operate on her brain.'
'Sure, trying to cure her, only it didn't work. If it had, I'd be
calde.'
'She's been my friend,' Silk told him, 'a difficult one, perhaps, but
helpful just the same. She likes me, I believe, and the good god
knows I'd like to help her in return.'
Oreb caught at the phrase. 'Good god?'
