Gene Wolfe - Return to the Whorl

"Aye," Pig said.

Hound shook his head. "Well, I didn't. Did you, Horn?"

"Yes. Silk told me about one, and later we found the bodies of others in the tunnels. They'd been painted blue, not green like ours. They had been shot with slug guns."

"As I was not. He had a needler." Mint's smile turned bitter. "He wouldn't have been able to get a slug gun that close. Where was I?"

Hound said, "About having the Calde's Guard take charge of the landers. I've never even seen one. I suppose I'm the only one here who hasn't."

"Nae me," Pig declared, and Oreb seconded him: "No see."

"The soldiers Pas had posted there so long ago were killed by men who wanted to steal the cards they knew were in the landers. We replaced them with our own. Five soldiers to each lander. Wasn't that it, dear?"

Bison nodded.

"When I was shot, my husband wanted to punish everyone who had expressed a desire to go-"

"The ones who had demonstrated and signed petitions," Bison said. "That had started after the first darkday, and I'd gone to a lot of trouble to find out who the organizers were, and then who the rest were. The Chapter was behind a lot of it."

"Good Silk!" Oreb exclaimed. "No cut!"

He nodded. "I'm not surprised."

"Pas had spoken to the Prolocutor, supposedly," Bison told them. "The usual cant."

"At any rate," Mint said, "we decided it was best to defuse the unrest as much as we could." She glanced toward Bison for confirmation, and he nodded.

"It would have been terrible to have to arrest all those people. We would have had another revolution-"

Bison snorted.

"Oh, we would have won," she said. "I agree completely about that. But what a victory! Having killed the people we should have led, we could go around congratulating ourselves."

"You decided to allow some people to go-to do the will of Pas, if you'll allow the expression."

Bison said, "Certainly. It was just that we didn't feel that it was Pas's will to destroy Viron, and we had reached that point. Under Silk so many had left that the city was about to collapse. That was why he had to go."

"Then you can't object to my taking him to Blue-but you don't know where he-"

"Lives. Exactly. And you're not the only one looking for him, Horn. Are you aware of that?"

He shrugged. "I know some men came to Ermine's last night. That was where we stayed, and supposedly-I admit I find this hard to credit-Silk was there, too."

Bison nodded. "They beat the desk clerk. They demanded that he tell them which room Silk had, and he said quite honestly that Ermine's had no guest of that name and showed them his register. They beat him pretty badly, and roamed through the corridors until the Guard chased them out."

"Bad men?" Oreb inquired.

"You didn't arrest them?"

"We tried."

Mint said, "I haven't heard of this. What do they want with Calde Silk?"

"To take him to Blue. So they say."

Mint pursed her lips and looked thoughtful.

Hound told Bison, "We heard the disturbance outside our room, and a shot."

"Three, 'twas." Pig's big hands were groping the snowy tablecloth for more food.

Mint nudged a platter of venison madere until it was within his reach. "You said New Viron had sent you, Horn, and that you have been gone for nearly a year. Is it possible New Viron sent them out, too? When you didn't come back?"

Slowly, he shook his head. "It's possible, but I doubt it. I think I saw one talking to the clerk at Ermine's. He wasn't dressed like one of us; and though there are some very foreign-looking people in New Viron now, I don't believe they would have sent someone like that for Patera Silk."

Bison said, "They've got a lander. They came in one, and they've set a guard on it. If you can find Silk…" He glanced at Mint.

"Here Silk!" Oreb sounded annoyed.

"You may be right." Mint nodded. "That's another thing we have to talk about, the ghosts. But let's dispose of this first. May I speak without interruption for one actual minute?"

Hound said, "Please do."

"Then I'll say that it's still more possible my husband's correct. Ycu want to take Silk to Blue, and so do these strange men. If you have Silk and they have their lander, it's possible that some accommodation-"

Bison nodded. "We could take their lander, you understand. I don't know how many men they have guarding it, but it doesn't seem likely there's more than twenty or thirty. A dozen soldiers could take it, but it would mean we'd have to let another lander full of people leave, and more than that if it came back."

"Horn's shaking his head again, darling. What's the matter, Horn? Do you think we ought to send more people to your town on Blue, even if we have to kill to do it?"

"Just the opposite. You shouldn't permit anyone to go. That was the message the godling gave me, and what I promised to tell you, hoping you'd tell me where Silk is in return."

"Pah!" Bison leaned back in his chair. "This changes everything. I have to think."

Mint said, "Good. I'll have a real chance to talk while you're doing it, and I may be able to accomplish something. Did the godling tell you why, Horn?"

He shook his head.

"They never do." There was something trumpet-like in her soft, sweet voice, a distant trumpet summoning scattered troops. "If it told you anything more, anything that we should hear or can hear, I'd like to hear it right now."

"It told me that I was to proclaim its message here in Viron, its message being that no more were to go. Pig and Hound have heard all this."

"They can stand to hear it again, I'm sure. Have you proclaimed it?"

He tugged with some irritation at his thin, pale beard. "I felt that my task was to find Silk and bring him back-to do the thing I have promised to do. I felt that the godling had no right to give me orders, no matter who or what he may represent. But I haven't found Silk-"

Mint shook her head.

"I haven't, and I'm beginning to believe that may be why-that as long as I refuse to obey, I will not."

Bison said, "There may be some truth in it."

Mint nodded. "In which case, you're nearer to finding him already. You've told us. And these friends, for that matter. Proclaiming would be too strong a word for what you've done so far, but it would seem you're moving in the right direction."

"Thank you. Thank you very, very much." There were tears in his eyes.

"You think my husband's cheated you. I could hear it in your voice a few moments ago."

"No talk!"

"Oreb's right-I shouldn't say what you're suggesting. But if you could hear it, I don't have to."

"He told you the truth. He doesn't know where Silk's living now, and neither do I. After what I've told you about the man who shot me, you should be able to understand that. Quite a few people want Silk back-"

Bison leaned forward again; one thick hand struck the table. "He made my wife calde, and she's made me calde. We've explained all that."

Hound nodded vigorously. "You certainly have."

"So I say to you what I've said before to any number of people. If Silk were to come to me and ask me to resign the office, designating him, I would do it that day."

Mint laid her hand, small and very white, upon Pig's. "You're Horn's friend, and you're concerned about him, I know that, and it does you credit."

"So am I," Hound said.

"I feel sure you are. Horn, you must understand that Silk has friends, too. Not only personal friends, like Pig and Hound are to you, but what might be called public friends, people who love him and supported him. They're very protective of him."

"Such ken yer maun do fer him, mistress?"

"Does that mean know? If it does, they don't. Because we wouldn't. We're friends of Silk's. But many believe we might. Or if they don't believe it, they fear it. Some of them have hidden him away, probably out in the country."