Gene Wolfe - Return to the Whorl

"Did he have…?" Hound pointed to Oreb.

"No bird?"

Mint shook her head. "In a robe, with his famous pet upon his shoulder, he would have been recognized by everyone. With neither, he was still recognized by our cook, who used to be his. She must have seen him every day then, or very nearly. Wouldn't you say she sees you about that often, darling?"

Bison nodded.

"After I became calde, he and Hyacinth were often here as our guests. Shall I bring the cook in so you can question her yourselves?"

"Nae fer me, mistress."

"What do you think, Hound? Should I bring her in?"

With more spirit than might have been expected, Hound said, "I think we should all be open and honest for a change."

Oreb flapped his applause. "Silk talk!"

"Very well," he said, "I will begin. You know, obviously, that it was I and not Calde Silk your cook saw. It was. If you want to bring her in and have her identify me, go ahead."

Mint said, "No."

"As you wish." He was about to mention the gardener, but reflected that the old man had not betrayed him; the least he could do was to reciprocate. "You want me to tell you who your ghost is. I understand that-I'd feel the same way in your place. But she reposed her trust in me, thinking I was Patera Silk; and I intend to keep faith with her."

Bison said, "She thought you were Silk."

He nodded. "I just said so."

"So does the Prolocutor. He wants you to sacrifice in the Grand Manteion this afternoon."

"I've told you I'm not an augur."

Mint said, "You would be assisting him, I would imagine," and Bison nodded.

Pig pushed back his chair. "Best gang, bucky, an' yer weel nae. Bide, an' she'll make fast."

"But we hope he will," Bison said, "and if he will there's no reason he shouldn't remain. I ask it as a favor to me, and to my wife."

"So do I," Mint declared.

"Gang h'or bide, bucky?" Pig's big hand found his forearm.

He shrugged. "Bide. I've honored General Mint since I was a boy. I can't refuse her now."

"Good!" Bison poured himself more wine. "Your friend Hound says we ought to be more honest, so here's my contribution. I knew about this when you came to my office. That is to say, I knew that the Chapter has been looking for you and that it was because the Prolocutor had heard you were here and wanted you for manteion this afternoon. I didn't want you to do it, and so-"

Hound interrupted. "Why not?"

"Because I thought he was going to tell everybody to get on landers. We've had too much of that already. Besides, I don't have landers to give them. A couple, actually, but they're not in working order. It would cost more than the city can spare to send them off." Bison sipped his wine. "But he's not going to say that. Are you?"

"No." He sighed. "No, I'm not. I'm going to tell them what the godling told me, which is that they are to remain. That Pas-well, never mind. I'll tell them to stay, and ask their help in finding Silk."

"Silk here," Oreb declared testily.

Mint nodded. "You said our little ghost mistook you for Calde Silk."

"Yes," he said. "She did." He recalled the gardener again and added, "It happens fairly frequently."

"I dare say. Darling, I should let you finish, but I'll do it for you. Possibly I can save you embarrassment. You were going to confess, weren't you, that you arranged this luncheon to get our guests out of the Prolocutor's reach? You were going to keep them here on one pretext or another until his sacrifice was over. Isn't that right?"

Bison grunted assent.

"Very well." Mint raised a shirred oyster halfway to her mouth, then laid her fork aside. "We've had Horn's honesty and my husband's. I don't think Oreb has to unburden his conscience. He's been entirely open from the beginning. I'll go next, and after that it will be Hound's turn, and Pig's. I intend to require it of you both, gentlemen, so be warned."

"Nae meself fashes me, mistress," Pig rumbled.

"Here then is my confession,"Mint continued. "Horn, you said our ghost mistook you for Calde Silk, and implied that our cook did as well. You say such mistakes happen often."

"Yes."He was looking around again, not for Olivine or Mucor this time, but because he wanted to see the room itself.

(I'll never come here again, he thought. Soon we'll go to the Grand Manteion, and I'll assist. I don't know where we'll go after that, perhaps back to Ermine's or the Juzgado, but we won't come back here. I'll walk out the big door, the troopers will shut it behind me, and I'll never see this any more.)

"Were you on Blue before you came here? You were sent out from there, you said, and you talk about taking Silk there."

He shook his head. "I was on Green. I spent nearly a year there; but I came there from Blue. We've a house-you'd call it a cot tage-on the south end of Lizard Island, near the Tail. A house and a mill. I used to have a boat, too, though I'm afraid that's gone forever."

"I must ask you this. It may be cruel. I think it is, but I have to. Were mistakes of this kind common when you were on Green? Did people there sometimes call you Silk, for example?"

He shook his head again. "I doubt that any of them had ever seen Silk-or knew his name, unless they had heard it from me."

"New Viron must have been settled by people from here. Its name implies that. There must be many people there who've heard of Calde Silk, and some who saw him at one time or another. Did they mistake you for Silk, Horn? Did that ever happen?"

"No," he said. And then, when no one else spoke, added, "I know what you're going to say."

"Do you? Then why don't you say it yourself and save me the trouble."

Oreb took up the word. "Say Silk!"

He ate instead, hoping that someone else would speak.

"Pig and Hound know. Are you aware of that? They have from the beginning. I asked Pig to push my chair, and as soon as we were out of earshot I explained to him that I had taught Horn, and seen him in my classroom every day."

"No see!" Oreb commented. "No boy."

"My husband told me you were calling yourself Horn when we talked on our glasses, but he thought it was to deceive the men with you. He had fallen in with the imposition, and suggested I fall in with it, too. I did, but soon came to suspect that you believed it yourself. I asked Pig, and he confirmed it. You had never been trying to deceive him, Silk. Neither had you tried to deceive Hound. You have only been trying to deceive yourself, and now even that is at an end."

"You've never had any of the pickled pilchards," he told Pig. "Would you like a couple? I'm going to try them myself."

"Horn went." Mint's face was grim. "He carried out the Plan of Pas, as we did not. It has cost me sleepless nights, Calde. It has cost you a great deal more, I'm afraid. Horn incurred no guilt. You would be rid of yours, if you could, just as I would prefer to be rid of mine. But you cannot rid yourself of it like this."

"Thank yer, bucky. Thank yer kin'ly."

Having added three pickled pilchards to Pig's plate, he forked two more onto his own. "I know I look like Patera Silk, but I also know who I am," he said. "No one, not even you, Maytera, can make a man who knows who he is believe that he is someone else."

Wind in the west, but it is not much of a wind and we are on the lee side of Mucor's Rock. We could have anchored in the little bay. Perhaps we should have.

Shadow for us, while all around us the blue water dances in the last light.

We set out from New Viron at first light-Hide, Vadsig, Jahlee, and I. Hide and I would be crew enough for this yawl, and I honestly believe I could manage it alone if I had to, but Vadsig is as good as a third man (far better than some men I have seen) and even Jahlee helped. This west wind was just what we wanted for our south-southwest course; we set both jibs and spread a three-cornered main topsail between the gaff and the maintop-all this over and above the mainsail and the jigger-and fairly flew. I believe I wrote earlier that the yawl was not as fast as my old sloop. I may not have allowed sufficiently for its ability to carry sail.