Chapter, for sibyls like me and augurs like Patera Silk. Discipline,
it's called, and it comes from an old word for pupil or student. If
you're a teacher, as I am, you must have discipline in the classroom
before you can teach anything. If you don't, they'll be so busy
talking among themselves that they won't hear a thing that you say,
and draw pictures instead of doing the assignment.'
Bison nodded.
Recalling an incident from the year before, Maytera Mint smiled
again. 'Unless you've _told_ them to draw pictures. If you've told
them to draw, they'll write each other notes.'
The captain smoothed his small mustache. 'My General. We have
discipline also, we officers and men of the Civil Guard. The word is
the same. The practice, I dare say, not entirely different.'
'I know, but I can't use you to patrol the streets and stop the
looting. I wish I could, Captain. It would be very convenient, and no
doubt effective. But to many people the Guard is the enemy. There
would be a rebellion against our rebellion, and that's exactly what
we cannot afford.'
She turned back to Bison. 'You understand why this is needed,
don't you? Tell me.'
'We're robbing ourselves,' he said.
His beard made it difficult to read his expression, but she tried
and decided he was uncomfortable. 'What you say is true. The
people whose houses and shops are being looted are our people,
too, and if they have to stay there to defend them, they can't fight
for us. But that isn't all, is it? What else did you want to say?'
'Nothing, General.'
'You must tell me everything.' She wanted to touch him, as she
would have touched one of the children at that moment, but decided
it might be misconstrued. 'Telling me everything when I ask you to
is discipline as well, if you like. Are we going to let the Guard be
better than we are?'
Bison did not reply.
'But it's really more important than discipline. Nothing is more
important to us now than my knowing what you think is important.
You and the captain here, and Zoril, and Kingcup, and all the rest.'
When he still said nothing, she added, 'Do you want us to fail, so
you won't be embarrassed, Bison? That is what is going to happen if
we won't share concerns and information: we will fail the gods and
die. All of us, probably. Certainly I will, because I will fight until
they kill me. What is it?'
'They're burning, too,' he blurted. 'The burning's worse than the
looting, a lot worse. With this wind, they'll burn down the city if we
don't stop them. And--and...'
'And what?' Maytera Mint nibbled her underlip. 'And put out the
fires that are raging all around the city already, of course. You're
right, Bison. You always are.' She glanced at the door. 'Teasel? Are
you still out there? Come in, please. I need you.'
'Yes, Maytera.'
'We're telling one another we should rest, Teasel. It seems to be
the convention of this night. You're not exempt. You were quite ill
only a few days ago. Didn't Patera Silk bring you the Peace of Pas?'
Teasel nodded solemnly; she was a slender, pale girl of thirteen,
with delicate features and lustrous black hair. 'On Sphixday,
Maytera, and I started getting better right away.'
'Sphixday, and this is Hieraxday.' Maytera Mint glanced at the
blue china clock on the sideboard. 'Thelxday in a few hours, so we'll
call it Thelxday. Even so, less than a week ago you were in
imminent danger of death, and tonight you're running errands for
me when you ought to be in bed. Can you run one more?'
'I'm fine, Maytera.'
'Then find Lime. Tell her where I am, and that I want to see her
just as soon as she can get away. Then go home and go to bed.
_Home_, I said. Will you do that, Teasel?'
Teasel curtsied, whirled, and was gone.
'She's a good, sensible girl,' Maytera Mint told Bison and the
captain. 'Not one of mine. Mine are older, and they're off fighting
or nursing, or they were. Teasel's one of Maytera Marble's, very
likely the best of them.'
Both men nodded.
'Captain, I won't keep you waiting much longer. Bison, I had
begun to talk about discipline. I was interrupted, which served me
right for being so long-winded. I was going to say that out of twenty
boys and girls, you can make eighteen good students with discipline.
I can, and you could too. In fact you would probably be better at it
than I am, with a little practice.' She sighed, then forced herself to
sit up straight with her shoulders back.
'Of the remaining, two one will never be a good student. He
doesn't have it in him, and all you can do is stop him from unsettling
the others. The other one doesn't need discipline at all, or at least
that's how it seems. Pas's own truth is that he's already disciplined
himself before you ever called the class to order. Do you understand me?'
Bison nodded.
'You're one of those. If you weren't, you wouldn't be my
surrogate now. which you are, you know. If I am killed, you must
take charge of everything.'
Bison grinned, big white teeth flashing in the thicket of his black
beard. 'The gods love you, General. Your getting killed's one thing
I don't have to worry about.'
She waited for a better answer.
'Hierax forbid,' Bison said at last. 'I'll do my best if it happens.'
'I know you will, because you always do. What you have to do is
find others like yourself. We don't have enough time to establish
real discipline, though I wish very much that we did. Choose men
with needlers, won't need slug guns for this--older men, who won't
loot themselves when they're sent to stop looters. Organize them in
groups of four, designate a leader for each group, and have to tell--
'Don't forget this, it's extremely important. Have them tell
everyone they meet that the looting and burning have to stop, and
