Gene Wolfe - Return to the Whorl

Aanvagen brought a most ample supper, accompanied by her portly husband, who was red-faced and panting after two flights of stairs. "My name-mysire… Beroep it is." He offered a very large and very soft hand, which I shook. "You Mysire Horn…" Another gasp for breath. "Mysire Rajan… Mysire Incanto… Mysire Silk-"

"Good man!" This from Oreb.

"Are. A man of many… Names you are." He smiled in a breathless fashion he plainly intended to be friendly.

"A man of many names, perhaps, but I'm certainly not entitled to all those. Call me Horn, please."

"You to my house I could not welcome… For the troopers watching were. Sorry I am." Yet another gasp. "Mysire Horn."

I assured him that it was quite all right, that I bore no animus toward him or his wife. "You have fed me very well indeed and provided me with firewood, wash water, and ample coverings for this comfortable bed. Believe me, I'm very much aware that the conditions under which most prisoners live are not one-tenth as good."

Aanvagen nudged her husband, who asked, "With gods you speak… Mysire Horn?"

"Sometimes. And sometimes they condescend to reply. But I ought to have invited you both to sit down. I have only my bed, but you are very welcome to sit there."

They did, and Aanvagen's husband got out a handkerchief with which he mopped his face and his bald head. "Nat. Him I know. A greedy thief he is."

Aanvagen added hastily, "To others this you do not say, Mysire Horn."

"Of course not."

"Judge Hamer Nat's cousin is."

Aanvagen's husband watched me for some reaction, but I tried to keep from showing what I felt.

"Already this knowing you are?"

"I knew that Dorp was governed by five judges, and that Nat was said to have a great deal of influence with them; but not that Nat was related to one. Am I to take that he's the judge who will try us?"

Aanvagen's husband nodded gloomily; Aanvagen herself poked a second time at his well-padded ribs. "You must about our dreams ask, Beroep."

"Mysire Horn not friendless is, first I say, woman. Poor, Judge Hamer him will make. Beaten, that also may be. But not friendless, he will be. Nat a greedy thief is. All Dorp knows."

I thanked him and his wife very sincerely, and inquired about their dreams.

"Beroep awake is, so he dreams. All through our house voices he hears."

Aanvagen's husband nodded vigorously. "Talking and tapping they are, Mysire Horn. Whisper, whisper and tap, tap."

"I see. You didn't get up to investigate?"

"Asleep I am. I cannot."

"I see. What did the voices say?"

He shrugged. "Psst, psst, psst!"

It was a passable imitation of Oreb's hoarse whisper, and I gave him a severe look to indicate that he was not to speak. He responded by saying "Good bird!" and "No, no!" quite loudly.

"You're not giving me a lot to go on," I told Aanvagen's husband. "Let me hear your wife's dream before I attempt to interpret yours."

"In my own house I am," she began eagerly, "in the big room for company. This room you see, mysire, when here you come."

"Yes. Certainly."

"With me two children sitting are. Darker than my cat one is, mysire. Beroep and I no children have. This you know?"

I admitted that Vadsig had so informed me.

"Girls in pretty dresses they are. Faces clean they have. Hair very nice, it is. A daughter you have, mysire?"

"Yes. A daughter and three sons."

Aanvagen's husband said, "A son by Strik kept is."

"Yes, my son Hide, who was traveling with me. My sons Hoof and Sinew are still free, as far as I know."

"From Dorp much traveling we are. To New Viron we go. Farther even, we sail." He waved a hand expansively. "Now travelers we arrest? Not good for traveling it is."

"I understand."

Aanvagen leaned toward me from her seat on my bed. "This these girls to me say. Bad with us it goes, for you keeping."

I made what I hoped was an encouraging noise.

"About your daughter they talk. Sick she is. Away with you her send we must. My cheeks they kiss." Aanvagen's formidable bosom rose and fell. "Mother, me they call, mysire. Bad things to me they don't want. Warned be! Warned be!"

Oreb interpreted. "Watch out!"

I asked, "Was there anything else about your dream that seemed significant to you?"

Aanvagen's mouth opened, then closed again.

"Was there any other sign associated with the gods?"

Her husband inquired, "One sign already you finding are?"

"Yes, of course. The two children. Molpe is the goddess of childhood, as you must surely know. Were there any animals, Aanvagen?"

She shook her head. "Just the children and me there were."

"Mice? Monkeys? Cattle? Songbirds?" I reminded myself so much of poor old Patera Remora then that I could not resist adding, "Vultures, eh? Hyenas-um-camels?"

Aanvagen had heard only the first. "No mice, no rats in my house there are, mysire."

"What about you?" I asked her husband. "Were there animals in your dream? Bats, for instance? Or cats?"

"No, mysire. None." He sounded very positive.

"I see. Oreb, I want you to speak freely. Do you think this a good man?"

"Good man!"

"What about Aanvagen here? Is she a good woman, too?"

"Good girl!"

"I agree. Beroep, could that have been the voice you heard? Could it have been my bird-or another, similar, bird? Think carefully before you reply."

He stared at me for a moment before patting his forehead with his handkerchief again. "Possible it is, mysire. Not so I will not say."

"That's interesting. My bird is a night chough; and the species is sacred to the god who governs the boundless abyss between the whorls, just as owls are to Tartaros. We have an indication of Molpe in your wife's dream, and an indication of the Outsider in yours." There was a knock at the door, and I called, "What is it, Vadsig?"

"Merfrow Cijfer here is. Through our kitchen she comes, in our front room she sits. With Mistress to speak she wants."

Aanvagen sought my permission with a glance, received it, and hurried out. "A moment only, mysire. Beroep."

"A good woman she is," Aanvagen's husband told me as the door closed, "but no more brain than her cat she has. Better we without her talk. To the court you have thought given? To Judge Hamer? Not friendless you are, I say."

I said that I had tried, but that I knew little of the politics of Dorp-only that I had done no wrong. "Speaking thus from ignorance, it would seem to me that my best chance is to get Nat to drop his charges. If I had the jewelry from my luggage-"

Beroep shook his head regretfully. "This I cannot do, mysire. The inventory Judge Hamer has, by me signed. Fifty cards pay, this to me he would tell."

"Most unfortunate."

Again the gloomy nod. "Why you here are, mysire. This do not you wonder? Why your jailer I am?"

I confessed that I had thought very little about it.

"You will escape, this they hope. A hundred cards paying I am. Ruined I am."

"Poor man!"

Aanvagen's husband patted the bed on which he sat. "Many blankets you have. A fire you have. Good food you get."

"So you won't be ruined. I understand. This is certainly very unfortunate. I take it that it would be useless for you to plead with Nat to drop the charges."

"Me he hates." Beroep wiped sweat-beaded face again. "Bribe him I might. I will, this I think. A greedy thief he is. Friends might help."

"Good. Who did you say is holding my son Hide?"

"Strik he is. An honest trader like me he is."

"Might he not assist you, too?"

"This I will discover, mysire. It may be."

"My son Hide is young and athletic. Headstrong, as all such young men are. He's far more likely to escape, I would say, than I am."

"No go!"

I looked up at Oreb on his perch near the chimney. "All right, I won't. Beroep, you need not worry about my escaping. That won't happen; I give you my word. I can't speak for my son, however, since I can't communicate with him. You might want to tell your friend Strik so."