'We have handled you roughly here in the Third, Calde. You
have been beaten. Tortured.'
Silk shook his head. 'You shot me. At least, I suppose that it was
one of your officers who shot me. But I've been treated by a doctor
and installed in this comfortable room. No one has beaten me.'
'With your leave.' Oosik peered at him. 'Your face is bruised. I
assumed that we had beaten you.'
Silk shook his head, pushing back the memory of hours of
interrogation by Councillor Potto and Sergeant Sand.
'You do not wish to explain the source of your bruises. You have
been fighting, Calde, a shameful thing for an augur. Or boxing.
Boxing would be permissible, I suppose.'
'Through my own carelessness and stupidity, I fell down a flight of
stairs,' Silk said.
To his surprise, Oosik roared with laughter, slapping his knee.
'That is what our troopers say, Calde,' he wiped his eyes, still
chuckling, 'when one has been beaten by the rest. He says he fell
down the barracks stairs, almost always. They don't want to
confess that they've cheated their comrades, you see, or stolen
from them.'
'In my case it's the truth.' Silk considered. 'I had been trying to
steal, though not to cheat, two days earlier. But I really did fall
down steps and bruise my face.'
'I am happy to hear you haven't been beaten. Our men do it
sometimes without orders. I have known them to do it when it was
contrary to their orders, as well. I punish them for that severely, you
may be sure. In your case, Calde,' Oosik shrugged. 'I sent out an
officer because I required better information concerning the
progress of the battle before the Alambrera than my glass could give
me. I had made provisions for wounded and for prisoners. I needed
to learn whether they would be sufficient.'
'I understand.'
'He came back with you.' Oosik sighed. 'Now he expects a medal
and a promotion for putting me in this very difficult position. You
understand my problem, Calde?'
'I'm not sure I do.'
'We are fighting, you and I. Your followers, a hundred thousand
or more, against the Civil Guard, of which I am a senior officer, and
a few thousand soldiers. Either side may win. Do you agree?'
'I suppose so,' Silk said.
'Let us say, for the moment, that it is mine. I do not intend to be
unfair to you, Calde. We will discuss the other possibility in a
moment. Say that the victory is ours, and I report to the Ayuntamiento
that you are my prisoner. I will be asked why I did not
report it earlier, and I may be court-martialed for not having
reported it. If I am fortunate, my career will be destroyed. If I am
not, I may be shot.'
'Then report it,' Silk told him, 'by all means.'
Oosik shook his head again, his big face gloomier than ever.
'There is no right course for me in this, Calde. No right course at all.
But there is one that is clearly wrong, that can lead only to disaster,
and you have advised it. The Ayuntamiento has ordered that you be
killed on sight. Do you know that?'
'I had anticipated it.' Silk discovered that his hands were clenched
beneath the quilt. He made himself relax.
'No doubt. Lieutenant Tiger should have killed you at once. He
didn't. May I be frank? I don't think he had the stomach for it. He
denies it, but I don't think he had the stomach. He shot you. There
you lay, an augur in an augur's robe, gasping like a fish and bleeding
from the mouth. One more shot would be the end.' Oosik shrugged.
'No doubt he thought you would die while he was bringing you in.
Most men would have.'
'I see,' Silk said. 'He'll be in trouble now if you tell the
Ayuntamiento that you have me, alive.'
'_I_ will be in trouble.' Oosik tapped his chest with a thick
forefinger. 'I will be ordered to kill you, Calde, and I will have to do
it. If we lose after that, your woman Mint will have me shot, if she
doesn't light upon something worse. If we win, I will be marked for
life. I will be the man who killed Silk, the augur who was, as the city
firmly believes, chosen by Pas to be calde. If it is wise, the
Ayuntamiento will disavow my actions, court-martial me, and have
me shot. No, Calde, I will not report that I hold you. That is the last
thing that I will do.'
'You said that the Guard and the Army--I've been told there are
seven thousand soldiers--are fighting the people. What is the
strength of the Guard, Colonel?' Silk strove to recall his conversation
with Hammerstone. 'Thirty thousand, approximately?'
'Less.'
'Some Guardsmen have deserted the Ayuntamiento. I know that
for a fact.'
Oosik nodded gloomily.
'May I ask how many?'
'A few hundred, perhaps, Calde.'
'Would you say a thousand?'
For half a minute or more, Oosik did not speak; at last he said, 'I
am told five hundred. If that is correct, almost all have come from
my own brigade.'
'I have something to show you,' Silk said, 'but I have to ask you
for a promise first. It's something that Patera Shell brought me,
and I want you to give me your word that you won't harm him or
the augur of his manteion, or any of their sibyls. Will you promise?'
Oosik shook his head. 'I cannot disobey if I am ordered to arrest
them, Patera.'
'If you're not ordered to.' It should give them ample time to
leave, Silk thought. 'Promise me that you won't do anything to them
on your own initiative.'
Oosik studied him. 'You are offering your information very
cheaply, Calde. We don't bother you religious, except under the
most severe provocation.'
