Orson Card - Hart's Hope

"Then you must entertain us."

"How?"

"Tell us a tale of two sisters, who were both twins of the flesh, joined at the face, and who by magic and prayers and surgery were separated, the one with a single eye, and the other with no face at all except a mouthhole that drools constantly and leaves a trail of spittle between her breasts down to her belly."

"I—I don't—I can't tell you that tale—"

"Oh, we won't believe it, mind you. Such a thing could not be. Tell us what these pathetic

women are doing in a whorehouse."

"They—sit. In a room upstairs."

"And what do these women do while they sit?"

"They—listen."

"And what do you think they hear?"

"The sounds of—of—"

"Love?"

Orem nodded. The one-eyed sister shook her head.

"Not love," Orem said.

"What then?" "The sound of—of birds."

What was above the birds? What was this tale supposed to mean? "The sound of wind across the roof of the house."

The blank one moaned, and the other hooted with laughter. "Yes, he knows, he knows, he has many many ears inside his head, yes, and what else do they hear?"

He understood now. It was a game, like the riddles and puzzles of the manuscripts. "The sound of the sun rising and falling. The sound of the stars as they pass overhead. The sound of God closing his eyes upon the world. The sound of the Hart as it shakes its head and tosses the planets."

The one eye opened wide; the hole of the mouth emphatically stopped drooling for a moment, so that the mucous spittle broke in midstring, and the top of the thread was drawn up into her mouth like the body of a dangling spider.

"The mouth opens and it speaks," said the one-eyed sister.

"Nnnnnnng," said the other.

"We are bound about with magic," said the one-eyed woman, "yet he speaks with our tongues. Beauty has silenced us, yet our own gifts come from the boy's mouth. Ah, Hart, you have more wit than we."

"What does it mean?" Orem asked.

"Nothing to you, forget, forget, tell no one what you have seen, for it is no favor, you are just an ordinary boy."

His stomach clenched with fear at the force of her words.

"We are whores, too, did you know that? We left our father's house and came here because we knew that without faces we had only our bodies. Do you know what it costs to take us? A thousand of gold or a hundred acres of farmland. For a single night. And we are busy twenty nights a year. Oh, we are rich, we twins of the flesh, we sisters of beauty. We are blessed. And not all who come to us are men. There are women who come and spend the night exploring us, trying to discover what makes us so beautiful. They cannot guess. But you know, don't you?"

"No. I don't."

"That's right. You cannot know if you think that you know. We hear another thing, we listen to another thing, not just the stars. Not just the heartbeat of the great thousand-horned Hart who holds the worlds on the points of his horns. Not just the great eruption of the sun that ejaculates its gusts of light to inseminate the world. We hear this also:"

And she stopped. And after a long, long silence, in which Orem heard nothing but his own heavy breathing, she said, "Did you hear it, too?"

"That is why they pay so much to have us."

The one with the eye opened a small chest beside her. It was filled with jewels that glistened in the torchlight like a thousand tiny fires.

And the one whose face was as featureless as fog, she stood and made a single motion with her hand. Abruptly she was naked, and her face glowed like the sun itself; there was no hair on her body, and her skin was deep as amber, and she was so beautiful that Orem could not keep his eyes from flowing with tears so he could no longer see.

"It is as I thought," said the one who could speak. "His eyes cannot be closed except by his own weeping and his own trust."

The blank-faced woman was sitting again, as suddenly as she had stood; how could she have clothed herself so quickly?

"Hunnnnnnng," she moaned. "Ngiiiiiunh."

"Four coppers, says my sister, and a kiss."

It was not for the coppers that he kissed them, but for fear of them. He kissed their mouths, such as they were, and the coppers fell into his hand, and he fled the room.

As he ran along Whore Street he could hear for the first time in his life the song that his mother had loved best: the steady hissing of the sap up the trees, the song of capillarity, ah, it was beautiful, and he wept until the spittle of the fog-faced woman's mouth had dried upon his lips.

A cot at the Spade and Grave cost only a copper for two nights, not as expensive as he had feared. He lay for some time with both hands pressed between his legs, because of the great ache at the base of his belly. He could hear the sap flowing also in himself. Why have I come to Inwit? he cried to himself. But he knew that the question itself was a lie. He had not come at all. He was shoved.

That is why Orem was a virgin when Beauty needed him.

Thieves

How Orem learned what life was worth in Beauty's city. The Song in the Cistern

As he passed the innmaster the fellow tossed him a chit. Orem looked at it. "I don't want to carry this all day."

The innmaster shrugged. "As you like. But I warn you, I'll cheat you if you let me."

Orem put the chit in his bag. "Thanks. Will every thief in Inwit be so thoughtful as to warn me?"

The innmaster regarded him calmly. "I'm a Godsman. I only cheat them as want to be cheated."

Nothing in Orem's life had prepared him for the daytime streets of Inwit. The flow of the crowds led him to the Great Market, and for some time he was swept back and forth in the eddies of the buying and selling. In all his life before he had never seen so many people as were in the marketplace that day, rags and velvets, uniforms and livery, all bumping together in the battle to get much for little. Orem gawked, and so marked himself as an easy target for thieves.

A boy brushed up against him and a small hand reached under his shirt, and as fast as Orem could realize what was happening his coppers were out of his wrap. Without a thought Orem swung out and caught the child a blow on the chin. The boy fell soundlessly, and as silently scrambled to his feet—but Orem had learned to be quick in the House of God. He had the boy by an ankle before he was fairly afoot. The child kicked viciously at Orem's face. Was the battle worth an eye? Orem's few coins were his life and hope here, and so he struggled on despite the blows.

No one seemed to notice the cruel battle going on in the street, except to leave a space for them to roll in the sand. At last Orem got the thief in a coward's hold, legs bent painfully and Orem's hand firmly tucked into the boy's crotch, ready to inflict that irresistible pain. "I want the coppers, little bastard," Orem said.

"Coppers!"

"Or in Sister's name I'll have your balls off."

"God's name, I haven't got your money!" The boy's wail was loud and pitiful. Now that the fighting was done, people began to take notice.

"Leave be," said a voice in the crowd. "It's a coward who takes down a little child."

The little swine was winning sympathy. Orem leaned down and whispered in the boy's ear. "I'm a farmer, boy, and I've made bulls into steers with my bare hands before." It was enough. The boy's eyes went wide and he spat four coppers into the dust. Orem released the boy and quickly grabbed up the coins. From the corner of his eye he saw the thief moving in a way that he feared might be an attack—what, a kick? Yes. Orem dodged out of the way just in time, then leaped to his feet to prepare for the next onslaught.

"Don't you know all pissers keep them in the same place? And half of them have soil in their wraps, it's filthy work to put them in my mouth."