Gene Wolfe - The Land Across

It was pretty cold for outside tables by that time. There was another couple two tables over, and maybe half a dozen empty tables. There were a lot more people inside. “Here is more private,” Naala explained. “For you and I, private is good. Also I hear better the things you say. Why it is the Rathaus woman do not need clothes?”

“Because she’s hiding out in one of those dress shops. She’s scared of you, and I promised her I wouldn’t tell you which one. So I won’t. But you could find her easy enough anytime you really wanted to, and I’ll produce her if we need her.”

“The shopkeeper hides her?”

“Right. And gave her some nice clothes. The thing is, we mustn’t send her back. You thought at first that somebody must have gotten her out.”

Naala nodded.

“Well, in a way somebody did. There was a girl named Yelena in there who looked a lot like Rosalee. She slept in the same building, and had a bed not very far from where Rosalee slept on the floor. Rosalee was lying there nearly asleep when she saw a man come in and go from bed to bed looking at the women. When he came to Yelena’s bed, he stabbed her. Or anyway that was what Rosalee thought she saw.”

Naala raised an eyebrow. “But he did not?”

“I don’t think so.” I was getting close to things I really did not want to talk about. “I think it must have been a hypodermic needle. Something like that. Only Rosalee thought it was a knife, and as soon as he was gone she got out fast. I never asked her exactly how she got out, but we both know security’s pretty lax. They’re counting on the women not wanting to get out all that much.”

A waiter showed up about then, and we ordered kabanos .

When he had gone, I said, “I told you about Yelena. Nobody saw anything wrong until she collapsed. They took her to the infirmary, and I went to see her there.”

“Yes. What did you learn from her?”

“More respect for death, I guess. She couldn’t talk much, but I was sitting beside her when she died, thinking about the man Rosalee’d seen.”

“It was Rathaus? Like him?”

“It was everybody. She couldn’t see him that well, just a man. I asked her how she knew it was a man, but she couldn’t tell me. She just knew. Men move differently, I guess.”

“This Yelena, she does not cry out?”

“When he stabbed her? I doubt it. Rosalee didn’t say anything about it.” I thought back. “Yelena gave me a name, a guy who kept hanging around her. Ferenc Narkatsos. She said he wouldn’t try to kill her, but I don’t think anybody really wanted to kill her. I think they were after Rosalee.”

“I, also,” Naala said. “We will remember this name when we have nothing else, perhaps. You have more for me, you say. The woman who brings the hand to Papa? You say Rathaus sends her. This is because you wish to find her. You will say Rathaus and I will look for her for you.”

I shook my head. “I said it because it’s true. I’d like to find Martya, sure. But she’s mixed up in this, and if I’m going to get her out I need to understand what’s going on. For one thing I’ve got to find out how Rathaus got the hand. Another one is I have to find out how he got Martya.”

“If he have her, of which you are too confident. You speak again with Papa.”

I nodded. “You were the one who said Martya might have mentioned me to Papa Iason, and that might be the reason Papa Zenon was sure she was here.”

“I am guilty. I do not know this, or anything. Only that Papa Zenon believe she have come here. He is not like you—for say it he must have some reason. Papa Iason does not tell you she says this?”

“No. I was hoping he would, but he told me everything she said while she was with him. Or anyway he said he did. And that wasn’t in it.”

Naala looked thoughtful. “Too many are elbowing, one pushing another.”

“What does that mean?”

“What it say. Those who send the gray-hair lady and three more hope to find Rathaus first. I hope to find Rathaus first. Papa Zenon hope to find those who free him before us.”

I said, “You still haven’t asked me how I know it was Rathaus who sent Martya with the hand.”

“I do not ask this because it is too easy. She is go to Rathaus’s son, of all priests. Rathaus think, ‘My son will do this and will not bungle.’ Others would not think this.”

“Nope. I’ve got more. There are two shops, right side-by-side. One handles ladies’ clothes, good stuff. The other one magic supplies. Not for tricks with boxes like that guy we saw, but roots and dried flowers, funny stones all polished and packed in cotton in little boxes. Powders. Bones. Stuff in bottles with labels I couldn’t read. Like that. It was one of the places that bought dolls from Russ.”

“The Rathaus woman tells this?” I could see Naala was interested.

“No. She can’t remember the names. I know about it because I broke into the shop and saw some of Russ’s dolls. That shop next door, with women’s clothes? It’s where the shawl came from.”

After that, Naala was quiet until our sausages came. There was bread and butter and mustard, and lots of other stuff with them. So while she was thinking hard, I built a sandwich, kabanos and grilled garlic on nice soft white bread.

Finally she said, “It may be that Rathaus is hiding in that shop.”

I shook my head. “He isn’t there. I looked.”

“They let you search?”

Head shake again. “I broke in. I told you that.”

“You perhaps break into prison.”

“I’ve been in prison already,” I explained. “I was put in for nothing and locked up in there until you got me out. I figure I might as well do whatever’s handy. Then if I have to go back I won’t waste a lot of time thinking how innocent I am. Hey, if the American embassy knew about me, would they try to get me out?”

“You are rich and famous?”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ve got it. Don’t laugh at me.”

“I am not laughing. You find much in one day. I am try to think of one in JAKA who sometime find out so much so fast, but I cannot. We send a letter to Papa.”

“Papa Iason?”

“Of course no. Papa Zenon.”

She clapped her hands, and when the waiter came she got paper and an envelope from him. I watched her write for a while, and that was when I remembered the girl with the red pen. The guy I had punched out in the coffee shop was not the one who had been sitting with her in the other café. I was pretty sure of that. When Naala had finished, I asked her what she had said.

“I say that we are not his enemies, and he is not ours. Friends is better. We are search for Rathaus, Papa for those who work magic by the help of devils. These are not the same, but we believe Rathaus know who they are, also that they know where Rathaus hide. They are key to him, and the hand is key to them. We are given the hand by His Excellency, as he know. Let us work as one.”

“That sounds good,” I told her, “only you said you couldn’t find the hand.”

Naala smiled. “I do not say we have it still. Also, it may be we find it tonight, you and I. Too soon it is to say it is forever gone.”

“Okay.”

“At end I say let us meet for breakfast in the Great Square Café. It is where we see him this morning.”

She had been folding the paper while she talked. She waved to our waiter, and when he came over she showed her badge and gave him the letter and some money. He nodded a lot, listening to her instructions, and when he left he was almost running.

“Will he read it?” I asked her.

“This I do not think, but perhaps I am wrong. If he read, he will not learn much. What is he to do? Say to Rathaus the JAKA look for him? Rathaus already know, I think. Tell to the magic workers, ‘The archbishop does not like you?’”