Gene Wolfe - Return to the Whorl

Here I should say that Hide has found a bonnet for one of the jibs. He is anxious to try it; so I suppose we will on the trip home, if the weather is still good.

"Hus back!" announced Oreb. I looked around the yawl, then saw Babbie swimming from the island. He had gone ashore, and Mucor asked to keep him for a while. She is finished with him, I suppose. I wish I knew what she did.

We poled through the cleft about midafternoon, the sides scraping rock. No doubt there have been other boats in the tiny harbor since I sailed out of it in the sloop, but they left no evidence of their visits-it seemed precisely as I left it, with a few scales still on the flat stone where the fish jumped for Mucor. Hide wanted Vadsig to stay behind to watch the yawl; she wanted to go ashore, and both appealed to me.

"The women's hut is at the top," I explained to them. "I've made the climb before and have no wish to make it again. You may all go. I'll take care of the boat."

There was a flurry of expostulations.

"You're mistaken," I told them, "when you say Mucor does not know you. Believe me, she knows all of you almost as well as she knows me. You'll have to introduce yourselves to Maytera Marble, and explain who you are, but there should be no difficulty about that. Tell her I'm in the boat and eager to speak with her, and ask her come down if that is convenient."

Hide wanted to know whether to take his slug gun. I told him to take it if made him feel more secure, but that I doubted he would need it. He took it; and Vadsig had her needler in the pocket of her skirt. Babbie, who has been guarding the yawl for us while it was tied to the pier in New Viron, seemed to believe I would not allow him ashore. When I told him it was all right, that he could go with the young people if he wanted, he was overjoyed.

It was just after we left that I thought I saw her among the sunlit waves. I have said nothing to the others, and it was only for a moment. Very likely I was mistaken.

Maytera Marble came down. Oreb saw her before I did, and flew up to guide her, perching upon her shoulder and exclaiming, "Silk here!" or "In boat!" every step or two. It seemed terrible to disappoint her as I knew I must, so I postponed identifying myself as long as possible.

"Patera?" Groping, Maytera found our mooring line.

I was already poling the yawl nearer. "You don't have to climb aboard," I told her. "I'm getting off."

"You-you… Oh! Oh, Patera. I… It would be so good, so very, very good to see you, Patera."

I stepped to shore, getting only a little wet, and caught her by the shoulders. I made her look up, and turn so sunlight fell upon the thousand minute mechanisms of her face, thinking that it would be difficult to insert the new eye, readying myself and her. By that time, she must surely have guessed what I was about. "Horn? I asked Horn. Such a good boy! Did he… Did he tell you… Did Horn happen to mention, Patera, I mean it wasn't important, but… Oh! Oh, oh! Oh, Scylla!"

That last sticks in my mind. I remember everything vividly, and the joy in her voice most vividly of all. I won't describe the way her hands-her whole spare frame-shook, or the way she hugged me, or the dance she did there on the rocks, a dance so wild it frightened Oreb, or the way she hugged me again and even picked me up like a child when her dance was done. I would describe my own joy, if I could. I cannot.

But, "Oh, Scylla!"

It resonates in a way that nothing else does. It is no more vivid, yet it is colored as the other memories are not. They are wonderful and warm, and I shall treasure them always; but if ever a time comes when I must justify my existence-when I must account for the space I have occupied, the food I have eaten, and the air I have breathedI will tell about Maytera's eye first of all. I doubt that I will have to tell anything else.

Supper cooked by Vadsig and very good indeed, considering what she has to work with. Hide is fishing and promises fresh fish for breakfast, though he has caught nothing so far.

"Going tomorrow we are, mysire?" asked Vadsig.

"Tomorrow I must talk with Maytera Marble alone," I told her. "I don't think that will be difficult, and it shouldn't take long. After that we'll leave, weather permitting."

Jahlee joined us. "You talked to her alone today. You didn't think that business about staying behind to watch the boat fooled me, did you?"

I protested that I had not been trying to fool anyone.

"You made me climb way up there, and you know my legs aren't strong."

Vadsig was surprised. "The witch to see you did not wish?"

Jahlee shook her head vehemently.

"Behind she stayed, mysire. More she cannot go, she said. All right, we said, and up the steep path we climbed. To the top we got, and there she is."

"I climbed the rocks instead of the path. I told you. It was much quicker, but much more dangerous."

Jahlee looked to me, plainly in need of rescue, and I said, "I remained behind for two reasons, neither of which had to do with fooling anyone. First, Hide was worried about the boat, and would have stayed behind himself-so I feared-if no one else would do it. I wanted him to meet Mucor face-to-face, to speak with her and to gain her friendship if he could."

Jahlee said, "She knows me already, and I know her."

"I was aware of it. Also that Hide would continue to be uneasy about the boat if you were the only one who remained behind. In addition, I wanted to speak with Maytera in private."

Vadsig said, "So her sight you might give, mysire?"

I shook my head. "I would gladly have done that before thousands. So I could tell her how I was able to do it."

"No bad!" Oreb dropped from the rigging to my shoulder to tug my hair. "Give bird!"

"Oh, I'm not so down as all that," I told him.

"Bird take! Make nest!"

"Aren't I bald enough for you already?"

"Not bald at all you are, mysire." Poor Vadsig looked as puzzled as she had made me feel; I ran my fingers through my hair (it is getting much too long) and conceded that I was not.

"You wanted to be alone with that metal woman. What do we call them?"

"Chems," I told Jahlee.

And Oreb: "Iron girl."

"With that chem, but you didn't even give her the black gown you bought her. Did you tell her where you got her eye?"

"No. Perhaps I should have told her first, and given her the gown as well; but I couldn't be sure the eye would restore her sight, and if it had not…" I shrugged. "Afterward she was so happy, so full of joy, and the gown would have been nothing to her." I thought of Pig, and Silk.

"So you're going to give it to her tomorrow?"

"Yes, and tell her where her eye came from. She will want to know, and has a right to know. There is not a female chem left in Viron. I asked His Cognizance, and that is what he told me. Or rather, there are none left save for the one who gave the eye. He has tried to bring her to the Prolocutor's Palace, but she will not go."

"What it is of which you speak, mysire?" Vadsig's honest blue eyes went from me to Jahlee (who looked bored), and back.

"Of chems," I told her, "and young chems a-building. There is an instinct, I think, that keeps them in one place and in hiding, until they are complete. I don't believe Olivine was aware of it; but we are generally unaware of our instincts."

Hide called Vadsig then, giving Jahlee and me a moment of privacy. I said, "When Maytera received her new eye, she said something that puzzled me, as it still does. She said, `Oh, Scylla!' Do you know that name?"

"I don't think so."

"Because I do, you see. I even dream of her at times. It is the name of the patroness of Viron, Pas's eldest daughter. Maytera is a religious woman, and lived in Viron for centuries."

"No say," Oreb croaked; I am not sure what he meant by it.