The fisherman nodded. 'Scup's boat. I've knowed Scup thirty year.'
'You may be right,' Chenille told him. 'You may be too valuable
to sacrifice, and one old man is nothing anyway.'
She strode toward the Window before whirling to face them
again. 'Pay attention to what I say, all three of you. In a moment,
I'll depart from this whore. My divine essence will pass from her
into the Sacred Window that I have caused to be put here, and be
reintegrated with my greater divine self in Mainframe. Do you
understand me? All of you?'
Auk nodded mutely The augur knelt, his head bowed.
'Kypris, my mortal enemy and the enemy of my mother, my
brothers, and my sisters--of our whole family, in fact--has been
mischief-making here in Viron. Already she seems to have won to
her side the meager fdol this idiot--What's your name, anyhow?'
'Incus, Savage Scylla. I-I'm Patera _Incus_.'
'The fool this idiot calls His Eminence. I don't doubt that she
intends to win over my Prolocutor and my Ayuntamiento too, if she
can. The four of you, I include the whore after I'm through with her,
are to see to it that she fails. Use threats and force and the power of
my name. Kill anyone you need to, it won't be held against you. If
Kypris returns, do something to get my attention. Fifty or a hundred
children should catch my eye, and Viron's got plenty to spare.'
She glared at each man in turn. 'Questions? Let's hear them now,
if there are any. Objections?'
Oreb croaked in his throat, one bright black eye trained warily
upon her.
'Good. You're my prophets henceforth. Keep Viron loyal, and
you'll have my favor. Believe nothing Kypris may tell you. My slave
should be here shortly. He'll carry you there, and assist you. See the
Prolocutor and talk to the commissions in the Juzgado. Tell
everyone who'll listen about me. Tell them everything I've said to
you. I'd hoped that the Ayuntamiento's boat would be in this dock.
It usually is. It isn't today, so you'll have to see the councillors for
me. The old man can bring you back here. Tell them I mean to sink
their boat and drown them all in my lake if my city goes over to Kypris.'
Incus stammered, 'A th-theophany, S-savage S-s-scylla, w-would--'
'Not convince your councillors. They think themselves too wise.
Theophanies may be useful, however. Reintegrated, I may consider them.'
She strode to the damp stone altar and sprang effonlessly to its top.
'I had this built so your Ayuntamiento might offer private
sacrifices and, when I chose, confer with me. Not a trace of ash!
They'll pay for that as well.
'You.' She pointed to Auk. 'This augur Silk's plotting to overthrow
them for Kypris. Help him, but show him where his duty lies.
If he can't see it, kill him. You've my permission to rule yourself as
my Calde in that case. The idiot here can be Prolocutor under
similar circumstances, I suppose.'
She faced the Window and knelt. Auk knelt, too, pulling the
fisherman down. (Incus was kneeling already.) Clearing his throat,
Auk began the prayer that he had bungled upon the Pilgrims' Way,
when Scylla had revealed her divine identity. 'Behold us, lovely
Scylla, woman of the waters--'
Incus and the fisherman joined in. 'Behold our love and our need
for thee. Cleanse us, O Scylla!'
At the name of the goddess, Chenille threw high her arms with a
strangled cry. The dancing colors called the Holy Hues filled the
Sacred Window with chestnut and brown, aquamarine, orange,
scarlet, and yellow, cerulean blue and a curious shade of rose
brushed with drab. And for a moment it seemed to Auk that he
glimpsed the sneering features of a girl a year or two from
womanhood.
Chenille trembled violently and went limp, slumping to the altar
top and roiling off to fall to the dark and slimy stone of the quay.
Oreb fluttered over to her. 'God go?'
The girl's face--if it had been a face--vanished into a wall of
green water, like an onrushing wave. The Holy Hues returned, first
as sun-sparkles on the wave, then claiming the entire Window and
filling it with their whirling ballet before fading back to luminescent
gray.
'I think so,' Auk said. He rose, and discovered that his needler
was still in his hand; he thrust it beneath his tunic, and asked
tentatively, 'You all right, Jugs?'
Chenille moaned.
He lifted her into a sitting position. 'You banged your head on the
rock, Jugs, but you're going to be all right.' Eager to do something
for her, but unsure what he should do, he called, 'You! Patera! Get
some water.'
'She throw?'
Auk swung at Oreb, who hopped agilely to one side.
'Hackum?'
'Yeah, Jugs. Right here.' He squeezed her gently with the arm
that supponed her, conscious of the febrile heat of her sunburned skin.
'You came back. Hackum, I'm so glad.'
The old fisherman coughed, striving to keep his eyes from
Chenille's breasts. 'Mebbe it'd be better if me an' him stayed on the
boat awhile?'
'We're all going on your boat,' Auk told him. He picked up
Chenille.
Incus, a battered tin cup of water in his hand, asked, 'You intend
to _disobey?_'
Auk dodged. 'She said to go to the Juzgado. We got to get back to
Limna, then there's wagons to the city.'
'She was sending someone, sending her slave she said, to take us
there.' Incus raised the cup and sipped. 'She also said _I_ was to be
_Prolocutor_.'
The old fisherman scowled. 'This feller she's sendin', he'll have a
boat o' his own. Have ter, ter git out here. What becomes o' mine if
we go off with him? She said fer me ter fetch the rest back ter see
them councillors, didn't she? How'm I s'posed ter do that if I ain't
