manteion, you tell me. Well, we didn’t take it away from you.” Blood emphasized his point with the needler, jabbing at Silk’s face. “If we’re going to talk about what’s not legal, we’ve got to talk about what’s legal, too. And legally you never did own it. It belonged to the Chapter, according to the deed I’ve got. Isn’t that right?”
Silk nodded.
“And the city took it from the Chapter for taxes owed. Not from you, because you never had it. Back last week that was, I think. Everything was done properly, I’m sure. The Chapter was notified and so on. They didn’t tell you?
“No.” Silk sighed, and forced himself to relax. “I knew that it might happen, and in fact I warned the Chapter about it. I was never informed that it had happened.”
“Then they ought to tell you they’re sorry, Patera, and I hope they will. But that’s got nothing to do with Musk and me. Musk bought your manteion from the city, and there was nothing irregular about it. He was acting for me, with my money, but there’s nothing illegal about that either, it’s just a business matter between him and me. Thirteen thousand cards we paid, plus the fees. We didn’t steal anything, did we? And we haven’t hurt you—or anybody—have we?”
“It will hurt the entire quarter, several thousand poor families, if you close the manteion.”
“They can go somewhere else if they want to, and that’s up to the Chapter anyhow, I’d say.” Blood gestured toward the welts on Silk’s chest with the needler. “You got hurt some, and nobody’s arguing about that. But you got banged up fighting my pet bird and jumping out a window. Hy was just defending herself with that azoth, something she’s got every right in the whorl to do. You aren’t planning to peep about her, are you?”
“Peep?”
“Go crying to the froggies.”
“I see. No, of course not.”
“That’s good. I’m happy to hear you being reasonable. Just look at it. You broke into my house hoping to take my property—it’s Musk’s, but you didn’t know that. You’ve admitted that to Musk and me, and we’re ready to swear to it in front of a judge if we have to.”
Silk smiled; it seemed to him a very long time since he had last smiled. “You aren’t really going to have me killed, are you, Blood? You’re not willing to take the risk.”
Blood’s finger found the trigger of the needler. “Keep on talking like that and I might, Patera.”
“I don’t believe so. You’d have someone else do it, probably Musk. You’re not even going to do that, however. You’re trying to frighten me before you let me go.”
Blood glanced at Musk, who nodded and circled behind Silk’s chair. Silk felt the tips of Musk’s fingers brush his ears.
“If you go on talking to me like you have been, Patera, you’re going to get hurt. It won’t leave any marks, but you won’t like it at all. Musk has done it before. He’s good at it.”
“Not to an augur. Those who harm an augur in any way suffer the displeasure of all the gods.”
The pain was as sudden as a blow, and so sharp it left Silk breathless, an explosion of agony; he felt as though his head had been crushed.
“There’s places behind your ears,” Blood explained. “Musk pushes them in with his knuckles.”
Gasping for air, his hands to his mastoids, Silk could not even nod.
“We can do that again and again if we have to,” Blood continued. “And if we finally give up and go to bed, we can start over in the morning.”
A red mist had blotted out Silk’s vision, but it was clearing. He managed, “You don’t have to explain my situation to me.”
“Maybe not. I’ll do it whenever I want to, just the same. So to get on with this—you’re right, we’d just as soon not kill you if we don’t have to. There’s three or four different reasons for that, all of them pretty good. You’re an augur, to start with. If the gods ever paid any attention to Viron, they quit a long time ago. Myself, I don’t think there was ever anything in it except a way for people like you to get everything they wanted without working. But the Chapter looks after you, and if it ever got out that we did for you—I mean just talk, because they’d never be able to prove anything—it would get people stirred up and be bad for business.”
Silk said, “Then I would not have died for nothing,” and felt Musk’s fingers behind his ears again.
Blood shook his head, and the contingent agony halted, poised at the edge of possibility. “Then too, we just bought your place so that might make some people think of us. Did you tell anybody you were coming?”
Here it was. Silk was prepared to lie if he must, but preferred to dodge if he could. He said, “You mean one of our sibyls? No, nothing like that.”
Blood nodded, and the danger was past. “It could get somebody’s attention anyway, and I can’t be sure who’s seen you. Hy has, and talked with you and so on. Probably even knows your name.”
Silk could not remember, but he said, “Yes, she does. Can’t you trust her? She’s your wife.”
Musk tittered behind him. Blood roared, his free hand slapping his thigh.
Silk shrugged. “One of your servants referred to her as his mistress. He thought that I was one of your guests, of course.”
Blood wiped his eyes. “I like her, Patera, and she’s the best-looking whore in Viron, which makes her a valuable commodity. But as for that—” Blood waved the topic aside. “What I was going to say is I’d rather have you as a friend.” Seeing Silk’s expression, he laughed again.
Silk strove to sound casual. “My friendship’s easily gained.” This was the conversation he had imagined when he had spied on the villa from the top of the wall; frantically he searched for the smooth phrases he had rehearsed. “Return my manteion to the Chapter, and I’ll bless you for the rest of my life.” A drop of sweat trickled from his forehead into his eyes. Fearing that Musk might think he was reaching for a weapon if he got out his handkerchief, he wiped his face on his sleeve.
