sorry. I don't suppose we'll ever find any food down here, but if we
do, or when we get back home, I'll let you have first pick.'
'I would _refuse_ it, my daughter. That is the _point_ I am _striving_ to
make. I became His Eminence's prothonotary, as I said. I entered the
_Prolocutor's Palace_, not as an awestruck _visitor_, but as an _inhabitant_.
Each morning I sacrificed _one squab_ in the _Private chapel_ below the
reception hall, chanting my prayers to empty chairs. Afterward, I enjoyed
that same _bird_ at my luncheon. _Upon a monthly basis_, I shrove Patera
Bull, His Cognizance's prothonotary, as _he me_. That was the whole compass
of my duties as an augur.
'But from time to time, His Eminence assigned to _me_ such
errands as he felt, or _feigned_ to feel, overdifficult for a _boy_. One
such brought me to that miserable village of _Limna_, as you know. I
was to search for _you_, my daughter, and it was my _ill luck_ to
succeed. Your own life, I suppose, has been, I will not say
_adventurous_, but _tumultuous_. Is that not so?'
'It's had its ups and downs,' Chenille conceded.
'_Mine_ had not, with the result that I had assumed myself
_incapable_. Had some god informed me,' Incus paused to thrust
Auk's needler back into his waistband, then contemplated his
scabbed hands, 'that I should be forced to serve as the _entire crew_ of
a fishing vessel, _bailing, making sail, reefing_, and all the rest, and
this during a _tempest_ as severe as any the Whorl has ever seen, I
should have called it _quite impossible_, declaring roundly that I
should _die_ within an hour. I would have informed this wholly
supposititious divinity that I was a man of _intellect_, now largely
affecting to be a man of prayer, for my early piety had long since
given way to an advancing _scepticism_. Had he suggested that I might
_yet_ become a man of action, I would have declared it to be _beneath_
me, and thought myself profound.'
Urus said, 'Well, if you didn't have a needler 'n this big chem,
we'd see.'
Incus nodded his agreement, his round, plump little face serious
and his protuberant teeth giving him something of the look of a
resolute chipmunk. 'We would _indeed_. Therefore, I shall _kill_ you,
Urus my son, or order Hammerstone to, whenever it appears that I
am liable to lose either.'
'Bad man!' It was not immediately apparent whether Oreb
intended Incus or Urus.
Chenille said, 'You don't really mean that, Patera.'
'Oh, but I do, my daughter. Tell them, Corporal. Do I mean what I say?'
'Sure, Patera. See, Chenille, Patera's a bio like you, and bios like
you and him are real easy to kill. You can't take chances, or him
either. You got a prisoner, he's got to toe the line every minute,
cause if you let him get away with anything, that's it. If it was up to
me, I'd kill him right now, and not chance something happening to Patera.'
'We need him to show us how to get to the pit, and that door that
opens into the cellar of the Juzgado.'
'Only we're not going to either one now, are we? And I know
where the Juzgado is if I can get myself located. So why shouldn't I
quiet him down?' As if by chance, Hammerstone's slug gun was
pointing in Urus's direction; his finger found its trigger.
'We _have not_ been going to the pit, I am happy to say,' Incus told
them. 'It was _Auk_ who wished to go there, for no good reason that _I_
could ever understand. _Unfortunately_, we haven't been going to the
Juzgado, _either_, though it was to the Juzgado that Surging Scylla
directed us. _I_ am the sole person present who _recollects_ her
instructions, possibly. But I _assure you_ it is so.'
'All right,' Chenille said wearily, 'I believe you.'
'As you _ought_, my daughter, because it was _through your mouth_
that Scylla spoke. That very _fact_ brings me to another point. She
made Auk, Dace, and _myself_ her prophets, specifying that I am to
replace His Cognizance as _Prolocutor_. Dace has _departed_ this whorl,
so grievously infected by evil, for the richer life of Mainframe.
Succoring Scylla might recall him _if she chose_, perhaps. I _cannot_. If
our search for _Auk_ is to be given up, or at least _postponed_, and I
confess there is _much_ that appeals to me in that, only _I_ remain of
Scylla's three.
'Earlier, _bedeviled_ by multiple interruptions, I _strove_ to explain
my position. Because neither of you has _patience_ for that explanation,
though it would occupy but a _few moments_ at most, I shall _state_
it. Pay _attention_, both of you.'
Incus's voice strengthened. 'I have awakened to _myself_, both as
_man_ and as augur. A servant of Men, if you will. A servant of the
_gods_, most particularly. You are three. One loves, two _hate_ me. I
am not unaware of it.'
'I don't hate you,' Chenille protested. 'You let me wear this when
I got cold. Auk doesn't hate you either. You just think that.'
'Thank you, my daughter. I was about to remark that from what
I've learned from my brother augurs concerning manteions, the
proportion implied is the one most frequently seen, though our
_congregation_ is so much less numerous. Very well, _my good people_,
I accept it. I shall do my best for each and for all, nonetheless,
trusting in a reward from the east.'
'See?' Hammerstone nudged Chenille. 'What'd I tell you? The
greatest man in the _Whorl_.'
Oreb cocked his head at Incus. 'Where Auk?'
'Nowhere to be found in that shining city we name _Reason_, I
fear,' Incus told him half humorously. 'He hailed someone. _I_ saw
him do it, though there was no one to be seen. After saluting this
_unseen being_, he dashed away. Our good corporal pursued him, as
you saw, but lost him in the _darkness_.'
'These green lights don't work the way people think, see,
Chenille. People think they just crawl around all the time and don't
care where they're at, only they're not really like that. If it's bright
one way and dark the other, they'll head for the dark, see? Real
slow, but that's how they go. It's what keeps them spread out.'
Chenille nodded. 'Urus said something about that.'
'In a little place, they get everything worked out among themselves
