Gene Wolfe - Exodus from the Long Sun

“That’s right. I was going to tell you because you would have known it from the news I came to give you. Generalissimo Siyuf is coming to reinforce you, with thousands of troopers. I just found out about it myself.” Hossaan twisted in his seat until he was face-to-face with Silk. “It means your victory is assured, Calde. If you’re not defeated before she arrives, it will be impossible for you to be defeated at all.” There was a timid tap on the canopy, and Hossaan said, “It’s the sibyl.”

Turning, Silk saw Maytera Marble’s metal face, hardly a span from his. “Let her in, please. I can’t imagine myself saying anything. I wouldn’t want her to know — or hearing any such news or confidence, except in shriving.”

The canopy retraced, and Maytera Marble entered, her long black skin and wide sleeves flapping in the wind. “I spoke to you, Patera, but you couldn’t hear me.”

“No,” Silk said. “No, Maytera, I couldn’t.” He motioned to Hossaan and the canopy enclosed them as before.

“I don’t want to interrupt, but seeing you in this machine I thought you might be about to leave. And…and…”

“I suppose we are, but not without Chenille. I want to take her with me. Is she in the cenoby?”

Maytera Marble nodded. “I’ll go get her in a moment, Patera. She’s eating.”

“But first you want to tell me something. Is it about her, or,” Silk hesitated, “your granddaughter, Maytera?”

“I wanted to ask you for something, Patera, actually. I realize that you and this foreign gentleman were conferring, and that it’s important. But this won’t take long. I’ll ask and go.”

“Hossaan is from Trivigaunte,” Silk told her, “like your friend General Saba. They’re our allies, as you must know, and I’ve just learned from Hossaan that they’re sending more troops to help us.”

“Why, that’s wonderful!” Maytera Marble smiled, her head back and inclined to the right. “But after news like that my little problem will seem terribly insignificant, I’m afraid.”

“I’m certain it won’t, Maytera. You’re not the sort who bothers others with insignificant problems.” To Hossaan, Silk added, “Now I want to say that Maytera was to me what you were to Doctor Crane, but she was far more. I came to this manteion straight from the schola, and I’d been here only a bit over a year when Patera Pike died. Maytera saved me from making a fool of myself at least once a day.” He paused, remembering. “Though I wish it had been more, because I did make a fool of myself often, in spite of all that she could do.”

“I intrigued against you, too,” Maytera Marble confessed. “I didn’t hate you, or at least I told myself I didn’t. But I obstructed and embarrassed you in small ways, telling myself that it was for your own good.” Her voice grew urgent. “I don’t have the right to ask favors. I know that, but—”

“Of course you do!”

“I can’t manage it myself. I wish I could. I’ve prayed for the means, but I can’t. Do you know Marl, Patera?”

“I don’t think so.” Silk, who knew few chems, exhausted his mental list quickly. “She — ?”

“He, Patera.”

“He can’t attend our sacrifices. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a chem there — except you, of course.”

“There aren’t many left,” Hossaan put in, “here or in my own city. Is he a soldier?”

Maytera Marble shook her head. “He’s a valet. He works for a man called Fulmar. I don’t see him often at all, but I went over yesterday, my granddaughter and I did, and…”

“Go on, Maytera.”

“I showed him my hand. The one that my — you know…”

Silk nodded, he hoped encouragingly. “It’s better not to dwell on that, Maytera, I’m sure. You showed him your hand.”

“I brought it in a little basket, wrapped up in a towel, because there’s fluid that might leak out. It’s a very good hand still. It’s just that I can’t put it back on.”

“I understand.”

“Marl says there’s a shop, though I’d think it would have to be a big place, really, way over past the crooked bridge, where they make taluses and fix them. Mostly it’s fixing, he said, because it takes so long to make one, and so much money. We chems aren’t really like taluses. We were made in the Short Sun Whorl, and we can think and see a great deal better, and we don’t burn fish oil,” she laughed nervously, “or anything like that. But Marl thought they might be able to do this for me — put it back — if I had the money. It wouldn’t be like making a chem or even a talus, just a simple repair.”

“Yes. Yes, of course. I should have thought of something like that, Maytera. Welding? Is that that they call it?”

Hossaan said, “That’s what they call it when they fix a floater.”

“It’s not just reuniting the metal, Patera. There are little tubes in there, tiny tubes, and wires, and things like threads — fibers, they’re called — that pipe light. Look.” She held up her useless right arm, pushing back the sleeve so that he could see the sheared end. “Marl thought they might be able to do it. He’s as old as I was, Patera, and I don’t think he always reasons correctly any more. But…”

Silk nodded. “It’s your only chance. I understand.”

“Marl would have given me the money if he’d had it, but he’s very poor. This Fulmar doesn’t pay him, just clothes and a place to live. And even if I had money, they might not want to try it, Marl said, unless I had a great deal.”

“Believe me, I’ll help you, Maytera. We’ll go as quickly as we can. You have my word on it.”

She had taken a large white handkerchief from her empty sleeve. “I’m so sorry, Patera.” She dabbed at her eyes. “I can’t really cry, not for a long, long time. And yet I feel that way. There’s so much work, with you gone and Patera Gulo gone, and Maytera Mint gone, and my granddaughter to take care of, and just one hand for everything.”

Silk reached another decision. “I’m going to take you away, too, Maytera, for the time being at least. You and Mucor both. I need you both, and it’s too dangerous for you — and for her, particularly — to be here alone. Will you come with me if I ask you to? Remember, I’m still the augur of this manteion.”

She looked up at him with a new glow behind the scratched, dry lenses of her eyes. “Yes indeed, Patera, if you tell me to. I’ll have to straighten up first and put things away. Put a notice on the door of the palaestra so the children will know.”

“Good. There’s a Calde’s Palace on the Palatine, as well as the Prolocutor’s. I’m sure you must remember when the calde lived there.”

She nodded.

“I’m reopening it. I’ve slept in the Juzgado the past few nights, but that’s never been more than an expedient; if Viron’s to have a new calde, he has to live in the Calde’s Palace. I’ll need a place to entertain Generalissimo Siyuf when she arrives, to begin with. We’ll want an official welcome for her and her troops, too, and I’ll have to notify Generalissimo Oosik as soon as possible. Thousands of fresh troops are certain to change his plans.”

Silk turned to Hossaan. “How long do we have? Can you give me some idea?”

“Not an accurate one, Calde. I’m not sure when she left Trivigaunte, and Siyul’s a famous hard marcher.”

“A week?”

“I doubt it.” Hossaan shook his head. “Three or four days, at a guess.”

“Patera.” Maytera Marble touched Silk’s arm. “I can’t live in the same house with a man, not even an augur. I know nothing will — but the Chapter…”

“You can if he’s ill,” Silk told her firmly. “You can sleep in the same house to nurse him. I’ve a chest wound — I’ll show it to you as soon as we get there, and you can change the dressing for me. I’m also recovering from a broken ankle. His Cognizance will grant you a dispensation, I’m sure, or the coadjutor can. Hossaan, can you take us back to the Juzgado? There will be four of us.”