'I'll be down in a moment, Captain.'
'_I heard voices, My Calde. You are in no danger?_'
'This manse is haunted, Captain. You may come up and see for
yourself if you like.'
Mucor tittered. 'Isn't this how you talk to them? In the glasses?'
'To a monitor, you mean?' He had been thinking of one; could
she read his thoughts? 'Yes, it's very much like this. You must have
seen them.'
'They don't look the same to me.'
'I suppose not.' With a considerable feeling of relief, Silk pulled
on clean black trousers.
'I thought I'd be one for you.'
He nodded in recognition of her consideration. 'Just as you use
your window and the gods their Sacred Windows. I had not thought
of the parallel, but I should have.'
Unreflected, her face in his mirror bobbed up and down. 'I
wanted to tell you it's no good any more, telling my father to lock
my window. He'll kill you if he sees you, now. Potto said he had to,
and he said he would.'
The Ayuntamiento had learned that he was alive and in the city,
clearly; it would learn that he was here soon, if it had not already. It
would send loyal members of the Guard, might even send soldiers.
'So it doesn't matter. My body will die soon anyway, and I'll be
free like the others. Do you care?'
'Yes. Yes, I do. Very much. Why will your body die?'
'Because I don't cat. I used to like it, but I don't any more. I'd
rather be free.'
Her face had begun to fade. He blinked, and nothing but the
hollows that had been her eyes remained. A breath of wind stirred
the curtains, and those hollows, too, were gone.
He said, 'You must eat, Mucor. I don't want you to die.' Hoping
for a reply, he waited. 'I know you can hear me. You have to eat.'
He had intended to tell her that he had wronged her and her father.
That he would make amends, although Blood might kill him
afterward. But it was too late.
Wiping his eyes, he got out his last clean tunic. His prayer beads
and a handkerchief went into one trouser pocket, Hyacinth's
needler into the other (He would return it when he could, but that
problematic moment at which they might meet again seemed
agonizingly remote.) His waistband claimed the azoth; it was
possible that augury would provide some hint of what he ought to do
with it. He considered selling it again, and thought again of the
howling face that had been so like Mucor's in his minor, and
shuddered.
Clean collar and cuffs on his second-best robe would have to do.
And here was the captain, waiting at the foot of the stair and
looking nearly as spruce as he had in that place--what had it been
called? In the Rusty Lantern in Limna.
'I was concerned for your safety, My Calde.'
'For my reputation, you mean. You heard a woman's voice.'
'A child's, I thought, My Calde.'
'You may search the upper floor if you wish, Captain. If you find
a woman--or a child, either--please let me know.'
'Hierax have my bones if I have thought of such a thing, My
Calde!'
'She is a child of Hierax's, certainly.'
The Silver Street door was barred, as it should have been; Silk
rattled the handle to make certain it was locked as well. The window
was shut, and locked behind its bars.
'I can station a trooper in here, if you wish, My Calde.'
Silk shook his head. 'We'll need every trooper you have and
more, I'm afraid. That officer in the floater--'
'Major Civet, My Calde.
'Tell Major Civet to station men to give the alarm if the
Ayuntamiento sends its troopers to arrest me. They should be a
street or two away, I suppose.'
'Two streets or more, My Calde, and there must be patrols
beyond them.'
'Very well, Captain. Arrange it. I'm willing to stand trial if I must,
but only if it will bring peace.'
'You are willing, My Calde. We are not. Nor are the gods.'
Silk shrugged and went into the sellaria. The Sun Street door was
locked and barred. Two letters on the mantel, one sealed with the
Chapter's knife and chalice, one with a flame between cupped
hands; he dropped them into the large pocket of his robe. Both the
Sun Street windows were locked.
As they hurried through the garden again and into the street, he
found himself thinking of Mucor. And of Blood, who had adopted
her; then of Highest Hierax, who had dropped from the sky a few
hours ago for Crane and the solemn young trooper with whom he
and Crane had talked in the Rusty Lantern. Mucor wanted to die, to
yield to Hierax; and he, Silk, would have to save her if he could.
Had it been wrong of him, then, to call her a child of Hierax?
Perhaps not. Women as well as men were by adoption the
children of the gods, and no other god so suited Mucor.
Chapter 3 -- A Tessera for the Tunnel
'Bad thing,' Oreb muttered, watching the burning talus to see
whether it could hear him. When it did not react, he repeated more
loudly, 'Bad thing!'
'Shut up.' Auk, too, watched it warily.
Chenille addressed it, stepping forward with her launcher ready.
