Gene Wolfe - Return to the Whorl

Vadsig said, "Cruel to him you are, mysire."

"No, Vadsig. I'm causing him pain. Only children believe that there is no difference between cruelty and education."

Hide asked, "Are they gone now?" and she giggled.

"No, my son, they are not. Vadsig loves you so much that when she sensed that what I'd said had left you confused and unhappy she broke through to protest. Suppose you were on a mare, and the mare heard her foal cry out. You might be able to get her back under control, but you'd have to do it. For a moment you would have lost control, as Mora and Fava did then."

"I want them gone, Father!" Hide's fists clenched.

I said, "I would ask who it is you think that you're about to strike, but it would be useless, I'm sure. You may strike me, if you like, but I'll restrain you-if I can-should you attempt to strike Vadsig. It will not drive out her possessors, and she's done nothing to deserve it."

"I won't hit you."

"Thank you. As for making Mora and Fava leave, I suppose we might be able to if we tried, but there's little point in trying. They'll go when Onorifica wakes Mora for breakfast, as Mora told us. Meanwhile we must confer with them, and with Vadsig as well.

"Will you please let Vadsig speak? It is late already, we have a lot to talk over, and if Fava wants to eat and Vadsig allows it, I'll have to arrange for food-"

"Fish heads?"

I looked up in surprise, and found Oreb in his accustomed place on the chimney corner.

"Bird back!"

Vadsig said, "Speaking to you I am, mysire. What wanting you are?"

"First, your consent to the possession, Vadsig. Is it all right for Mora and Fava to remain with you till sunrise? It will help you and Hide in the long run, I'm sure."

She did not reply.

"Bird find." Oreb announced. "Find hus."

"That's right, I sent you after Babbie. Thank you. I haven't time to ask where he is, but I will later. Meanwhile, please don't forget."

"Hus good!"

"If helps it does, all right it is. Friends we are."

"Fine. Thank you, Vadsig. You're not only helping Hide and yourself, you're helping me, too. Now I must ask one more thing of you. Fava-I believe it's Fava-would like you to eat. I may be mistaken, but I think she'll make you eat voraciously. Is that all right? Have you objection to a big meal?"

"No, mysire."

"You'll have to talk more than that, I'm afraid. I can't be certain after hearing only two words."

"Sorry I am, mysire. Stupid I feel."

Hide said, "That was her. They couldn't fool me."

"Speaking I am, kandij. Late it is and hungry we are. If eating too much I am, stop me you can. But I won't make her hurt herself or drink blood like I used to, Incanto. I won't let Fava make her sick."

"Good. Thank you, all three. I'm hungry myself-"

Oreb croaked, "Bird eat?" from the chimney corner.

"Yes, Oreb. Certainly."

I turned back to Vadsig, wondering whose facial expression I was studying. "No doubt Hide's hungry too, and we might as well eat while we talk. Hide, would you go down and arrange for food with Aanvagen, if she hasn't gone to bed?"

"Right away, Father." Hide blew Vadsig a kiss.

"What do you want to talk about, Incanto?"

"Overthrowing the judges who rule Dorp."

Oreb whistled sharply.

"It seems to be the only course open to me. Nat is well connected and vindictive, and if I'm tried I'll certainly be found guilty and punished severely. I may be executed, and I'll certainly be flogged. Hide, Jahlee, and I will be deprived of our property. When they discover much of it missing-I've taken it out and sold it-Beroep and Aanvagen will be ruined, as Strik has been."

"A good man he is, mysire," Vadsig assured me. "This Master often says. This Parel also says. A hard trader Strik is, but as he says his goods are. Do you think we can really do it, Incanto? We overthrew the Duko, and I like to think Eco and I had something to do with that, but we had the Horde of Blanko, and they had a lot more to do with it than we did."

I told them, "Let me say first that if we succeed we should be able to restore Captain Strik's property. He helped me when I was just set ting out, and I certainly intend to try; in fact I'll try to restore all the property that's been unjustly confiscated. The judges have been using their positions to enrich themselves; we will deprive them of both riches and position-if we can.

"Second, these judges recall the Ayuntamiento, the council we overthrew in Viron. By `we' I mean not only Maytera Mint and Patera Silk, and Seawrack and I, but several hundred others who formed the nucleus of our rebellion. There were five councilors, too-Lemur, Loris, Potto, Galago, and Tarsier-and they controlled the Army and the Guard, immense advantages that the judges here lack. The Horde of Dorp is largely made up of reservists."

Vadsig looked doubtful. "These names not knowing, I am, mysire. This knowing I am. Legermen there are, and slug guns they have."

"We have weapons, too, Vadsig. The difficulty is to find men and women who'll use them with determined courage."

"She'll fight if she's fighting for Hide and a house of her own, Incanto. Mora and I will too, but then it won't be so dangerous for us."

"Boy come!" Oreb announced; and in a few seconds we heard Hide's feet on the stairs.

"The lady here… Aanvagen? Is that her name?"

We nodded.

"She and her husband and that fellow Strik have gone to Strik's to get some things so he can make himself comfortable, but I told the cook what we wanted, and she said she'd do it if I'd carry it up. She'll yell when it's ready."

"Down to help her I will go," Vadsig offered.

I shook my head. "We have a great deal to discuss. I mentioned the rebellion in Viron, in which I took part; I was one of General Mint's runners, was shot in the chest, and so on and so forth-none of which I need go into. The point is that it succeeded, though it faced opposition far more serious than the rebellion we will foment here in Dorp. It was sparked by a theophany, Echidna's appearing in the Sacred Window of my manteion. I doubt that any of you have seen a Sacred Widow."

Hide and Vadsig shook their heads. Oreb piped tentatively, "Bird see?"

"That's right, you were with me in the Grand Manteion, so you did indeed. You'll have to excuse me though, Oreb, while I explain to the young people."

Vadsig said, "I've heard about them." (It was probably Mora who spoke.) "Can you climb through them, like a real window?" That was certainly Fava.

"An interesting point. In a sense, the gods can. They can leave the Sacred Window in the form of unnoticed flashes of light to possess us, very much as you and Mora are possessing Vadsig. You don't do it like that, do you?"

"I don't know, Incanto. I don't think so. Into me they have walked, mysire, as one into this house might walk. Me they did not ask, but friends become we have."

"What I was going to say is that to anyone who hadn't been brought up to reverence the gods-and even in Viron many people had not-a god in a Sacred Window was nothing more than a large picture that spoke. Even so, that single theophany set off a rebellion that many had longed for but no one had prepared for. I believe something of the same sort might have the same effect here, with a little preparation."

Hide asked, "Do you, Father? Are you sure?" The simple words fail to convey his expression and voice; it was one of the few times I have felt absolutely certain that he loves me.

"No," I told him, "but I'm going to bet my life on it. I have no choice."

All of this took place before Hide went to Strik's house in hope of reclaiming his old bed and was beaten by Strik and his wife, and before Hoof joined us and Jahlee rejoined us in the dram shop. Now I would like to pray for a few minutes, and after that I must get to court. This High Judge business is becoming very reminiscent of Gaon, save that I have no wives here and want none.