Gene Wolfe - CALDE OF THE LONG SUN

"A child's, I thought, My Calde."

"You may search the upper floor if you wish, Captain. If you find

a woman--or a child, either--please let me know."

"Hierax have my bones if I have thought of such a thing, My

Calde!"

"She is a child of Hierax's, certainly."

The Silver Street door was barred, as it should have been; Silk

rattled the handle to make certain it was locked as well. The window

was shut, and locked behind its bars.

"I can station a trooper in here, if you wish, My Calde."

Silk shook his head. "We'll need every trooper you have and

more, I'm afraid. That officer in the floater--"

"Major Civet, My Calde.

"Tell Major Civet to station men to give the alarm if the

Ayuntamiento sends its troopers to arrest me. They should be a

street or two away, I suppose."

"Two streets or more, My Calde, and there must be patrols

beyond them."

"Very well, Captain. Arrange it. I'm willing to stand trial if I must,

but only if it will bring peace."

"You are willing, My Calde. We are not. Nor are the gods."

Silk shrugged and went into the sellaria. The Sun Street door was

locked and barred. Two letters on the mantel, one sealed with the

Chapter's knife and chalice, one with a flame between cupped

hands; he dropped them into the large pocket of his robe. Both the

Sun Street windows were locked.

As they hurried through the garden again and into the street, he

found himself thinking of Mucor. And of Blood, who had adopted

her; then of Highest Hierax, who had dropped from the sky a few

hours ago for Crane and the solemn young trooper with whom he

and Crane had talked in the Rusty Lantern. Mucor wanted to die, to

yield to Hierax; and he, Silk, would have to save her if he could.

Had it been wrong of him, then, to call her a child of Hierax?

Perhaps not. Women as well as men were by adoption the

children of the gods, and no other god so suited Mucor.

"Bad thing," Oreb muttered, watching the burning talus to see

whether it could hear him. When it did not react, he repeated more

loudly, "Bad thing!"

"Shut up." Auk, too, watched it warily.

Chenille addressed it, stepping forward with her launcher ready.

"We'd put out the fire if we could. If we had blankets or--or

anything we could beat it out with."

"_I die! Hear me!_"

"I just wanted to say we're sorry." She glanced back at the four

men, and Dace nodded.

"_I serve Scylla! You must!_"

Incus drew himself up to his full height. "You may rely upon me to

do everything in my power to carry out the goddess's will. I speak

here for my friend Corporal Hammerstone, as well as for myself."

"_The Ayuntamiento has betrayed her! Destroy it!_"

Hammerstone snapped to attention. "Request permission to

speak, Talus."

The slender black barrel of one buzz gun trembled and the gun

fired, its burst whistling five cubits above their heads and sending

screaming ricochets far down the tunnel.

"Maybe you better not," Auk whispered. He raised his voice,

"Scylla told us Patera Silk was trying to overthrow them, and

ordered us to help him. We will if we can. That's Chenille and me,

and his bird."

"_Tell the Juzgado!_"

"Right, she said to." Dace and Incus nodded.

A tongue of flame licked the talus's cheek. "_The tessera! Thetis!

To the subceltar..._" An interior explosion rocked it.

Needlessly, Auk shouted, "Get back!" As they fled down the

tunnel, fire veiled the great metal face.

"She's done fer now! She's goin' down!" Dace was slower even

than Auk, who tottered on legs weaker than he had known since

infancy.

A second muffled explosion, then silence except for the sibilation

of the flames. Hammerstone, who had been matching strides with

Auk, broke step to snatch up a slug gun. "This was a sleeper's," he

told Auk cheerfully. "See how shiny the receiver is? Probably never

been fired. I couldn't go back for mine 'cause I was supposed to

watch you. Mine's had about five thousand rounds through it." He

put the new slug gun to his shoulder and sighted down the barrel.

Oreb squawked, and Auk said, "Careful there! You might hit Jugs."

"Safety's on." Hammerstone lowered the gun. "You knew her

before, huh?"

Auk nodded and slowed his pace enough to allow Dace to catch

up. "Since spring, I guess it was."

"I had a girl myself once," Hammerstone told him. "She was a

housemaid, but you'd never have guessed it to look at her. Pretty as

a picture."

Auk nodded. "What happened?"

"I had to go on reserve. I went to sleep, and when I woke up I

wasn't stationed in the city any more. Maybe I should've gone

looking for Moly." He shrugged. "Only I figured by then she'd found

somebody else. Just about all of them had."

"You'll find somebody, too, if you want to," Auk assured him. He

paused to look back up the tunnel; the talus was still in view but

seemed remote, a dot of orange fire no larger than the closest light.

"You could be dead," he said. "Suppose Patera hadn't fixed you up?"

Hammerstone shook his head. "I can't ever pay him. I can't even

show how much I love him, really. We can't cry. You know about that?"

"Poor thing!" Oreb sounded shocked.

Auk told him, "You can't cry either, cully."

"Bird cry!"

"You meatheads are always talking about how good us chems

have it," Hammerstone continued. "Good means not being able to

eat, and duty seventy-four, maybe a hundred and twenty, hours at a

stretch. Good means sleeping so long the _Whorl_ changes, and you

got to learn new procedures for everything. Good means seven or

eight tinpots after every woman. You want to try it?"

"Shag, no!"

Dace caught Auk's arm. "Thanks for waitin' up."

Auk shook him off. "I can't go all that fast myself."

More cheerfully Hammerstone said, "I could carry you both, only

I'm not supposed to. Patera wouldn't like it."

Dace's grin revealed a dark gap from which two teeth were

missing. "Mama, don't put me on no boat!"

Auk chuckled.

"He means well," Hammerstone assured them. "He cares about

me. That's one reason I'd die for him."

Auk suppressed his first thought and substituted, "Don't you

think about your old knot any more? The other soldiers?"

"Sure I do. Only Patera comes first."

Auk nodded.

"You got to consider the whole setup. Our top commander ought

to be the calde. That's our general orders. Only there isn't one, and

that means all of us are stuck. Nobody's got the right to give an

order, only we do it 'cause we've got to, to keep the brigade

running. Sand's my sergeant, see?"

"Uh-huh."

"And Schist and Shale are privates in our squad. He tells me and I

tell them. Then they go sure, Corporal, whatever you say. Only

none of us feels right about it."

"Girl wait?" Oreb inquired. He had been eyeing Chenille's distant,

naked back.

"Sooner or later," Auk told him. "Snuff your jaw. This is interesting."

"Take just the other day," Hammerstone continued, "I was

watching a prisoner. A flap broke and I tried to handle it, and he got

away from me. If everything was right, I'd've lost my stripes over

that, see? Only it's not, so all I got was a chewing out from Sand and

double from the major. Why's that?" He leveled a pipe-sized finger

at Auk, who shook his head.

"I'll tell you. "Cause both of them know Sand wasn't authorized to

give anybody orders in the first place, and I could've told him