Gene Wolfe - In Green's Jungles

Oreb bobbed agreement. "Bird hear!"

"He's trying to frighten game. Greenbuck, I suppose. He isn't fast enough to run them down, you see. He has to lie in wait and spring at them, and they don't move around very much in weather like this. There is little food for them anywhere, and they try to find shelter from the wind."

"Sometimes they die, too. My brother, my other brother, I mean-"

"Sinew."

"Yes, sir. Sinew. He told me one time he'd find them in the winter sometimes, starved to death or else frozen. He'd skin them and take that, but there wouldn't be any meat."

"They'll be poor soon," I agreed, "and few."

"I left my slug gun with her," Hide said. "Not this one, I got this one here. I was supposed to take it, and Hoof took his. Only I left mine where she'd find it. These people would come out from New Viron after Father and Sinew went away, and take things and make us do whatever they said. So Mother traded for slug guns for Hoof and me, so we could fight."

"No cut!"

"I wasn't going to cut anything."

I said, "He means you are not to shoot him. You wouldn't anyway, I know.

"He's going to shoot food for the baletiger, Oreb, and perhaps for us as well. Fish heads.

"Go on, please, Cuoio."

"Shoot good?"

"Sure," Hide declared. "She got them so we could fight if they came anymore, only we didn't have to. Hoof shot at them a couple of times while they were still on their boat, and they went away. Only I'm afraid they'll come back now that we're gone. Mother knows how to shoot, though."

I nodded, recalling the fighting in the streets of Viron, and our desperate battle with the Trivigauntis in the tunnels under the city.

"We figured to go over to the big island and hunt the way Sinew used to, and we did. We didn't have much stuff we could trade for cartridges though." Hide laughed softly. "So after we'd missed a little we learned how to get up real close and put the slug right where we wanted it." He sighed, and I knew that he was thinking of past hunts. "You know why they call these greenbuck, sir?"

"Say Father. You must learn to do that, just as I must learn to call you Cuoio."

"All right, Father."

Now I, too, heard the baletiger.

"Do you think he'll give us some, Father? There's not much to eat back at the fire, and I didn't bring much." He raised his slug gun to his shoulder as he spoke.

"If you can get enough for him and us too."

Oreb croaked softly, wordlessly, as the first game came in sight.

I told Hide, "Not now, my son-wait until they're closer." He nodded, his head scarcely moving as he squinted down the barrel.

I am writing this in bed, in the little bedroom with a fireplace, and one brick wall, and one window, that I shared with Sfido. I have just spoken with Jahlee. Oreb is hopping about the little table they put beside my bed and eyeing the breakfast on my tray. I told him to take whatever he wanted, and he seems to be trying to decide. He would like a fish head better than any of it, I feel sure. Hide has gone to fish through the ice in the river, which is what everyone seems to be doing at present except for our prisoners and Inclito's coachman, who is guarding them.

And Jahlee, Oreb, and me. I must rest.

I have been ill. Perhaps I can begin there. A strange sort of sickness-no pain, just very tired. We brought the fourgoat back to camp, Hide going ahead to be sure no one fired. It was very welcome and was skinned and eaten at once. I ate some of the meat. Much less than the others, but they were not sick.

No matter. I was ill, I feel quite certain, before we reached the fire.

Jahlee came in again to chide me for not eating. "You can't live as we do, you know!"

I asked whether she had been feeding from my veins. She denied it, but conceded that another might have, and examined me for the punctures of fangs, finding none.

Or so she said.

"We don't bring all sickness. Besides, you have a fever. We don't do that."

I agreed, recalling Teasel. How cold her skin was!

I should have written down our earlier talk as well. I see that I did not. In summary:

She asked why I had not betrayed her. I tried to explain.

"But you hate us!"

As a group, I said, because you nearly killed my son and for the hideous conditions on Green where my son is.

She pointed out that I could have told my troopers, who would have shot and killed her, and burned her body.

I conceded that it was so.

"Would you rather see me the way I looked in Gaon?" She began to change as she spoke-taller, her face lengthening, and so on. I said it might be hazardous for her.

"Somebody might try to rape me, you mean. It's been tried before."

I was-am-surprised. That lean, wicked, famished, thin-lipped face would not have appealed to me even when I was Hide's age.

My head aches.

"Silk well!" proclaims Oreb, which would seem to mean that I must write again. To confess the truth, I am far from well, too weak almost to stand; nevertheless, I certainly feel better. I have an appetite again-I wanted no food at all while I was so ill and for some time before I realized I was. I ate a little of the fourgoat, I remember that. Hide would have been hurt if I had not. I feel better now than I did when I conducted my experiment, and I thought myself much better then. No doubt I was.

First I should explain that I was eager to see whether I could make use of another inhuma to visit Sinew on Green. With Jahlee present, and as friendly as these creatures ever are, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Naturally I could not tell anyone else what I intended; I merely asked Sfido to bring our prisoners and our troopers, including Cuoio, to my room, saying that I wished to speak to everyone at once and that I was still too weak to leave my bed. It was quite true as such things are ordinarily judged, but what irony!

He brought them all, filling the room almost to bursting. I asked him to fetch the old woman then. He was surprised, but went for her. He had hardly left the room, however, when we heard the clatter of horses' hooves. Oreb flew to the window at once. "Girl come. Boy. Good girl!"

There was a knock at the front door a moment afterward, followed by Jahlee's hurrying footsteps. "We have company," the Duko remarked dryly, to which Hide added, "A man and a pretty big lady."

The Duko said, "You can't know that."

"She has a pretty deep voice. I never saw a little lady with a deep voice like that."

I had a presentiment then but kept it to myself.

Crowded though he was, Morello managed a bow. "I want to ask you something, Master Incanto. I've already asked this boy who was with you, but he won't tell me anything."

I warned him that I might not tell him anything either, and was applauded for it by Oreb: "Wise man!"

"On the night before we came here, the boy-"

"Cuoio," I said. "He has a name, General, and there's no reason why we shouldn't use it."

"Private Cuoio came back to the place where we were sleeping. Everyone was asleep except the sentry and me. He warned the sentry not to shoot, no matter what he saw, and tried to persuade him to take the cartridges out of his slug gun, which he would not do."

Rimo protested. "It's against regulations, sir."

I nodded. "I understand."

Morello said, "He challenged you and you told him who you were, and then he and Private Cuoio helped you drag the fourgoat. Who was it that Private Cuoio thought the sentry might shoot?"

"We didn't want him to shoot anyone," I said, "very much including me."

For the time being at least, I was saved by Jahlee, who looked in at that moment. "A nobleman and a noblewoman to see you. She says she's-"

"Inclito's daughter." I raised my voice. "Come in, Mora. Is that Eco with you?"