Gene Wolfe - Return to the Whorl

He had watched Pig as he spoke; but if Pig's expression had altered in the slightest, the distance between them had been too great. Now a venerable augur approached the ambion carrying a gleaming sacrificial knife upon a black velvet pillow. The heat of the altar fire was palpable.

"We are ready, Patera," the augur whispered.

"No." As his hand closed on the jeweled hilt, two more augurs led a great, gray stallion into the central aisle.

"This's what we call the sacristy? It's where we all vest, even His Cognizance, sometimes." The voice of the eager young augur who had gone to get Pig and Hound floated through the open doorway. "His Cognizance isn't in there now, or I don't think so. But Patera Horn is."

He sighed as he dabbed at the bloodstains that spattered his robe, telling himself that it was at least an improvement on "Silk."

The brass tip of Pig's long sword tapped the stone floor and rattled against the sides of the doorway. "Man come," Oreb announced superfluously.

"Come in, Pig. Most of us have finished cleaning up. I'm almost finished myself."

Pig did, forced to duck only slightly to get through the doorway and looking pleased about it.

The eager young augur followed him. "I'm sorry, Patera, but I couldn't bring the other gentleman. He had to go. A man spoke to him, and he said he had leave."

"'Twas candles, bucky," Pig rumbled. "Couple a' hundred fer a card, an' Hound h'off like a h'arrow."

"He did appear to me to be a merchant," the eager young augur added. "I endeavored to get his name, but he was engaged with the other gentleman and did not reply. If you're concerned I could make inquiries."

"I doubt that it matters." He dried his hands on a spotless white towel, watching the blood-tinged water in the washbowl drain away, then used the towel again to mop his sweating face. "He'll rejoin us this evening, I feel sure. Pig, would you like a chair? I'll fetch you one."

"I'll do it, Patera," the eager young augur said, and did.

"Thank yer," Pig rumbled.

"Wouldn't you like a chair too, Patera Horn?"

He shook his head, trying to indicate by his expression that the eager young augur had better go.

"This is a very, very great honor for me, Patera. Was, I mean. I, uh… I mean you. And His Cognizance, naturally."

"One that you have more than earned, I feel certain." He motioned toward the door.

When the eager young augur had gone, Pig said, "Win't, hain't yer, bucky? Nae wonner, h'all yer done."

"Tired? Actually, I'm not. His Cognizance had me toiling like a whole slaughterhouse and more than half sick at the thought of so many valuable animals dying. But I'm not tired now. Far from it." He got his knobbed staff from a corner and twirled it, although he knew that Pig could not see the gesture. "If it were up to me, I'd be out on the streets looking for Silk this very minute."

"Good Silk!"

"Time tint be time toom, bucky."

"Wasted time cannot be recovered? Is that what it means?"

"Stray't."

"Near enough, then. But we can't go, or at least not yet. There's a crowd waiting for us. For me. Several of these augurs told me about it, and that was when I sent that one for you and Hound. I thought that since we had to wait, we might as well wait together." He paused, smiling. "They'll forget about us in half an hour or so, I imagine. Or at least they'll think we went out some other way, and go on about their business. Were you able to follow the ceremony?"

"Ho, aye. Hound tittled ter me. Bucky…?"

"Yes, Pig." He grounded his staff. "What is it?"

"'Tis nae me fash, bucky. But yer were ter h'ask h'about yer frien' Silk, were yer nae? Yer dinna."

"No. No, you're quite right. I did not."

He carried over a second chair for himself and sat down. "I didn't ask them-ask you, I should say, you of the congregation-about Silk for one simple reason."

"Good Pig," Oreb muttered.

"You're right," Oreb's master told him. "Pig is a good man, and he knows the reason as well as I. So does Hound for that matter."

"Know h'it? He does nae."

"I believe he does. I did not ask the congregation, Pig, because I knew that everyone in it thought that I myself was Silk. As you do."

Pig did not speak. The blind face was tilted upward and to the left; as the silent seconds passed, two dots of moisture darkened the dirty gray rag that covered his empty sockets.

"They left you tears. I'm glad. But if they're for me-"

"Men come," Oreb announced distinctly.

"There's no need. I know who I am, and what I am to do."

A very tall man in an immaculate white head-cloth, darkcomplexioned and strikingly handsome, strode into the sacristy, followed by similar men less richly dressed. "Patera Silk."

He shook his head.

The tall man knelt, one hand holding up the gilded scabbard of a long, sharply curved sword. "We come to proclaim you Rajan of Gaon, Patera Silk. Hail the Rajan!"

"Hail!" shouted the six with him. Their swords were out almost before the first cheer. They waved them above their heads, and one fired a needler into the ceiling. "Rajan Silk!" Oreb fled through an open window.

"No." He rose. "I am not Silk. I appreciate the honor you seek to do him. Believe me, I do. But you are addressing the wrong man."

"Tentie noo, bucky. Tentie be."

"I don't believe they have come to harm us, Pig. They want me to go to their town, or so I imagine."

The tall man stood, and was half a head the taller. "To judge our town, Rajan. That is why we have come."

He nodded to himself. "I thought it was something like that. You created a disturbance at Ermine's. Beat the clerk."

"Yes, Rajan." The tall man's smile was as bright as the sapphire over his forehead. "We knew you were there. Someone had seen you go in. The clerk would not tell us, so with our belts we chastised him. Our belts and the flats of our swords. A donkey beaten is well next day."

"I see." He paused. "And you would like to have Patera Silk judge you."

"You." The tall man bowed profoundly, his hands together. "You, Rajan, are he."

"My proper name is Horn. This is my friend Pig."

The tall man bowed again. "Your servant is called Hari Mau, Rajan." The others bowed too, and there was a flurry of names and shining smiles. "You must come with us," Hari Mau said, still smiling.

"I will not."

"Tentie," Pig rumbled again, and stood.

"You must. Hear me, Rajan. Echidna herself demands it."

He raised his eyebrows. "You have a Sacred Window on Blue?"

"No, Rajan. Yet we still serve the gods, and they speak to us in dreams. I swore-"

There was a murmur of objections behind him.

"We swore, we brothers, that we would not return to our homes and wives without you. We will do you no hurt." Hari Mau's smile had faded; his eyes were serious. "You will live in the palace we are building you, and judge us with justice."

He sighed. "Did you read about me in a book, Hari Mau? Before your dream?"

"Yes, Rajan. Afterward, too. Many, many others had the same dream, even the priests in the temple of the goddess."

"You cannot compel me." His right hand gripped the knobbed staff; his left touched the hilt of the azoth under his tunic.

"We do not seek to compel you, Rajan. Far better that you come willingly."

"I am going to tell you now, for the final time-"

"Good man?" Oreb spoke from the windowsill.

"That I am not the one you seek-the one whom I sought too. That I am Horn, not Silk."

"Good Silk!"

"Knowing that, do you still want me to come with you?"

Hari Mau said, "We do, Rajan," and the men around him murmured their agreement.

"You have a lander-that's what Calde Bison told me. It's below this city now, guarded by your followers?"

"It is. As soon as you are on board, Rajan, we will fly back to Gaon."