Gene Wolfe: On Blue's waters

It has always been like this for me. Once I have decided to leave a place (as I decided, for example, to leave the hopeless little farm that had fallen our lot) I cannot wait to be away. No doubt I felt just the same way that night, as I sat before our fire in the sloop with Seawrack and Sinew, trying to put my thoughts in order.

Seawrack asked Sinew whether he was a drinker, a brawler, and a troublemaker, too; I doubt that she had any very clear idea of what those words represented. He grinned and said no to the first and yes to the others, adding, “Ask my father. He knows me.” I did indeed, and that was when I decided not to give him the second knife, although I had gotten it for him, until he had need of it.

Seawrack wanted to know more about the woman who had been bitten; and I, needing desperately to speak to Sinew in private, suggested that he and I might be able to bring her back to our sloop so that Seawrack could talk with her in person, adding that she and Sinew might be able to help her in some way after the lander flew.

“No! We will be on it with you.” She turned to Sinew. “Or will you stay?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t come all this way to get left behind. When I was waiting here, I thought that if they were going to go and Father didn’t come I’d go by myself and bring back Silk if I could. Only they didn’t fly and didn’t fly, and so I went looking for you.”

I stood up. “We’ll argue about this later. Meanwhile, Sinew and I are going back to the Bush and get her. We’ll come back as soon as we can.”

Sinew said, “She’ll be looking after her husband. They’re going to whip him or something.”

I said, “It will be difficult, I know. That’s why I’ll need your help.”

When we were some distance from the sloop, I halted in the shadow of a towering tree. “I can’t make you obey me. I know that.”

He nodded and glanced around suspiciously. “What are you whispering for?”

“Because it’s just possible that Seawrack may have followed us. I doubt it, but I can’t be sure, and it’s very important that she not overhear us-that no one does, especially the inhumi; I have reason to think there may be inhumi about. Do you remember how He-hold-fire told us in the lander than nobody would be permitted to bring slug guns, needlers, or even knives? That no one was to bring so much as a stick?”

“Sure, but I’m hanging on to my knife just the same.”

I hoped that he would not be going at all, but that was not the time to say it. “When he said that, I thought it a prudent precaution. I reminded myself that we would be a week or more on the lander. Clearly it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suppose we might fight among ourselves. Now I know that what they have in mind is something much worse. Listen to me, Sinew. If you’re ever going to listen to anyone in your life, listen now. That lander’s not going back to the Whorl. It’s going to Green.”

I had expected him to ask what led me to think so, but he did not.

“It is controlled by inhumi, and it will go to Green unless I can redirect it with the help of the other men who’ll be on it with me.”

I waited for him to speak; when he remained silent I added, “You know that the inhumi fly here from Green. Maybe you also know that the passage is a very difficult one, and that many of those who try it are killed.”

“Good.”

“No doubt it is, but not for us. Not now. They like human blood; and because they do, they do their best to steer human beings to Green to supply it. Your mother and I have told you many times how Patera Quetzal deceived us. He was an inhumu, and he would have directed our lander to Green if he could, even though he himself was dying.”

“It’s in your book.”

“As I said, the inhumi-other inhumi-control this lander. It must bring them from Green, and it must carry hundreds at a time. Then-”

“They trick us into getting on it and bring back a bunch of us.” Slowly Sinew nodded. “Pretty clever.”

Knowing his skepticism and stubbornness, I had thought that it would be practically impossible to convince him. I was weak with relief.

“There’s a whole lot of inhumi around here, that’s what I think. Maybe I should have said something sooner. I saw a bunch together one time when I was here before.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, three. They didn’t know I was there, so they weren’t bothering to look like people. I watched for a while until one flew away. Then I got away myself and went looking for somebody, and I found He-bring-skin and said there’s two inhumi over there, and if you’ll give me a knife I’ll help kill them. That’s when he told me they didn’t bite anybody-that was what he said-in Pajarocu.”

“I see.”

“He said they had a deal. They don’t bother them here, and they don’t bite. Father…?”

“What is it?”

“You’re going on their lander just the same?”

“Yes, I am. Krait and I will board it, as we have planned from the beginning.”

I had promised that I would not betray Krait’s secret and I did not, although I knew by then that Krait was betraying all of us. The memory of the pit, or perhaps only my twisted sense of honor, remained too strong.

“To me this is a high and holy mission,” I told Sinew. “That hasn’t changed. New Viron needs the things I’ve been sent to bring back very badly. Most of all, it needs someone like Silk.”

“You’ll get killed.”

“Not if I can seize control of the lander-and I think I can.” I paused, collecting my thoughts. “If I can, I’ll have it in which to bring Silk back. When we return, I can order it to land at New Viron. What is even more important, the inhumi will no longer be able to use it to come here in relative safety, or to transport human beings to Green.”

He shook his head and repeated that I would be killed.

“Perhaps, but I hope not. I said I couldn’t make you obey me, and I can’t. I know that. All that I can do is beg you to help me keep Seawrack off the lander. Will you do it?”

He swore that he would, and we shook hands; and after that I hugged him as I had when he was a child.

Evensong has returned!

Just a moment ago I heard the sentries at the main entrance challenge her, and her reply. Time presses.

Next day, Sinew and I circulated among the other travelers, telling them that we suspected that the lander might actually be bound for Green, and urging them to bring weapons they could conceal when they boarded. That night, he and I decided that the best plan would be for him to sail some distance down the river with her after telling us about a good place to gather wild berries. I would excuse myself at the last moment, saying (quite truthfully) that I had to bargain in the market for the food we would need on the lander.

Evensong has bought me a boat that sounds like it is exactly the sort I need. She smiled proudly as she described it, and even borrowed this quill and a sheet of paper so that she could sketch it for me, small enough for me to handle alone and even row if need be, with a little shelter like a hut at the waist, and a mast that can be taken down, or put up by one man to spread a small sail. It is newly painted, she says; crimson and black, which in Han are thought to be the luckiest colors.

Best of all, she said that she was very tired and asked if I would mind terribly if she slept in the women’s quarters, offering to send Chandi or Moti to me if I wished. I said that I was half asleep already after having waited up for her. When Oreb croaked loudly, “Silk go!” I explained that he wanted me to go to bed.

A line or two more, but only a few.

They collected our weapons, promising to return them to us as soon as we reached the Whorl . I gave up the slug gun Marrow had given me, ignorant of the fact that the inhumi were arming their slaves to subdue the human settlers on Green and supposing that I had seen the last of it. Ironically, everything we had surrendered was loaded into one of the freight bays-exactly as promised.