'Then you were right to obey, to keep from being burned again. I
don't blame you at all.'
'We're going to kill you, Silk.'
Foliage beside the pool shook, spraying crystal droplets as warm
as blood; a white-haired man stepped into view. In one hand be held
a silver-banded cane with which he had parted the leaves. The other
poised a saber, its slender blade pointed at the visitor's heart.
'Don't!' Silk told him.
'No stick,' Oreb added with the air of one who clarifies a difficult
situation.
'You're Silk yourself, lad! You're him!'
'I'm afraid I am. If you left your place of concealment to protect
me, I would be somewhat safer if you didn't speak quite so loudly.'
Silk turned his attention back to the death-mask that had supplanted
his visitor's face. 'Mucor, how are you supposed to kill me? This
man has Musk's needler now; he followed me here to return it to
me, I imagine. Do you--does the man you're possessing have a
weapon?'
'I'll tell them, and they'll come.'
'I see. And if you won't, they'll burn you.'
The visitor's head bobbed again. 'It brings me back. I can't stay
gone when they burn me.'
'We must get you out of there.' Silk raised the ankle he had
broken jumping from Hyacinth's window and rubbed it. 'I've said
you're like a devil--I told Doctor Crane that, I know. I thought it,
too, when I saw the dead sleepers; I forgot that devils, who torment
others, are themselves tormented.'
The saber inched forward. 'Shall I kill him, lad?'
'No. He's as good a chance for peace as our city has, and I doubt
that killing him would ensure Mucor's silence. You can do no good
here.'
'I can protect you, lad!'
'Before I left you, I knew that I'd meet Hierax tonight.' Silk's face
was somber. 'But there's no reason for you to die with me. If you've
tracked me through half the city to return the needler I dropped,
give it to me and go.'
'This, too!' He held out the silver-banded cane. 'Lame, aren't
you? Lame when we fought! Take it!' He threw the cane to Silk,
then drew Musk's needler and tossed it into Silk's lap as well.
'You're the calde, lad? The one they tell about?'
'I suppose I am.'
'Auk told me! How'd I forget that? Gave your name! I didn't
know until this augur said it. Councillors! Loris? Going to kill you?'
'And Potto and Tarsier.' Silk laid Musk's needler aside, thought
better of it, and put it into his waistband. 'I'm glad that you brought
that up. I'd lost sight of it, and it strains probability. Mucor, do you
have to return to Loris right away? I'd like you to do me a favor, if
you can.'
'All right.'
'Thank you. First, did Councillor Loris tell you about the man
you're possessing? Did he ask you to find him?'
'I know him, Silk. He talks to the man who's not there.'
'To Pas, you mean. Yes, he does, I'm sure. But Loris told you.
Did he say why?'
The visitor's head shook. 'I have to go soon.'
'Go to Maytera Mint first--to General Mint, they're the same
person.' Silk's forefinger traced a circle on his cheek. 'Tell her
where I am, and that they'll come here to kill me. Then tell Maytera
Marble--'
'Girl go,' Oreb remarked.
The corpse-grin was indeed fading. Silk sighed again and rose.
'Sheath that sword, please. We've no need of it.'
'Possession? That's what you call this, lad?'
'Yes. He'll come to himself in a moment.'
Silk's visitor caught hold of the chain to steady himself. 'You
proferred a comment, Pa--? I was taken, ah, vertiginous again, I
fear. Please accept my--um--unreserved apology. This--ah--gentleman
is...'
'Master Xiphias. Master Xiphias teaches the sword, Your Eminence.
Master Xiphias, this is His Eminence Patera Remora,
Coadjutor of the Chapter.'
'Really, ah, Patera, you might be more circumspect, hey?'
Silk shook his head. 'We're past all that, I'm afraid, Your
Eminence. You're in no danger. I doubt that you ever were. My
own is already so great that it wouldn't be much greater if you
and Master Xiphias were to run up to the first Guardsman you
could find and declare that Calde Silk was at Ermine's awaiting arrest.'
'Really! I--ah--'
'You spoke to Councillor Loris, so you told me, through Brigadier
Erne's glass.'
'Why, er, yes.'
'For a moment--while you were dizzy, Your Eminence--I
thought that Loris might have told you where to find me; that a
certain person in the household he's visiting had told him that I
might be here, or had confided in someone else who did. It could
have come about quite innocently--but it can't be true, since Loris
sent someone to you in order to locate me. Clearly the information
traveled the other way: you knew that I might come here tonight. I
doubt that you actually told Loris that you knew where to find me;
you couldn't have been that certain I'd be here. You said something
that led him to think you knew, however. In his place, I'd have
ordered Brigadier Erne to have you followed. Thanks to some
careless remarks of mine Tarsday, he didn't need to. Will you tell
me--quickly, please--how you got your information?'
'I swear--warrant you, Patera--'
'We'll have to talk about it later.' Silk stood up less steadily than
Remora had, leaning on the silver-banded cane. 'A moment ago I
told Master Xiphias not to kill you; I'm not certain it would have
been wrong for me to have told him to go ahead, but I don't have
