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“Paca.” While seconds crawled by, Spider stared at the handkerchief-shrouded face. “He was a pretty good all-round cull, know what I say? For jabber or a breakin’ lay or rags-and-tags, any of the jobs we do, smokin’ or liffin’ seal—”
Remora looked up.
“Any game you name, I could name you better. You don’t always know, though, and sometimes that cull’s got his plate full or he’s crank, and Paca could take it. Once in a while he’d big my glimms.”
Spider spoke to Remora. “I was goin’ to ask, Patera, if you’d cap for him. Think you could?”
“Pray for, um, Peccary? Paca. I, er, have. Privately, eh? While we, er, now.”
“When I slide him in,” Spider explained impatiently. “Cut bene whiddes for everybody.”
“I — ah — indeed. Honored.”
“What about Guan?” Maytera Mint inquired. “Aren’t we going to bury him, too? Wouldn’t you like His Eminence to pray for him as well? Perhaps we could make it a group ceremony.
“Guan’s not for ice.”
“Certainly he is.” She sighed. “Where is your stretcher?”
“He’ll be along in a minute.”
“Thirsty, eh? Might we, um, hungry, likewise.”
“So am.I,” Maytera Mint declared. “You have a stretcher somewhere, or so you say, Spider. If there’s food and water there, too, may we not go to it?”
“I, ah—”
“You ate and drank last night, I assume, and this morning. You, Guan, Paca, and the others. We didn’t.”
Spider clambered to his feet. “All right, you two, you got it. Come on. I want to see what’s keepin’ those putts.”
“Ah — water? And, um, something to eat?”
“Sure thing. We got prog and plonk. There’s a well, too. I ought to of let you have some last night. You need a hand up, Patera? How ’bout you, Maytera?”
“I’m fine, thank you, Spider.”
“I — ah — give warning,” Remora said as Spider helped him to stand. “The next, um, instance. Strike the General. Or me. I shall attack, eh? Will. Martyr, hey? Gone but — um, er — commemorated. Unforgotten.”
“He isn’t going to,” Maytera Mint told Remora briskly. “We are past all that hitting and hating with Spider. Don’t you understand, Your Eminence?”
“Come on,” Spider repeated, and started down the tu
“Um, forbidden.”
“Wagering is contrary to the regulations of the Chapter,” Maytera Mint explained, “but I am prepared to violate them and accept whatever punishment may be meted out to me. I say that they are dead, all of them. The men you sent for the stretcher, and Guan, too. As dead as Paca. Will you take my bet?”
“Sure thing.” Spider had drawn his needler again. “I got a card says I’m right.”
“I don’t want your card. What I want are answers to three questions. You must promise to answer in full. No lies and no evasions. No half truths. What will you have from us if we lose? We haven’t any money, or at least I have none.”
Spider halted, waiting for her. “I do
She nodded. “We call one another sib, which is short for sibyl, because maytera is reserved for the sibyl in charge of the cenoby in which we live. There’s only one other sibyl in my cenoby since Maytera Rose passed on, Maytera Marble. She is senior to me, so she is in charge. I will call her Maytera when next we meet, assuming that Maytera Rose has been buried.”
“You, too, huh? Well, I’m sorry, Maytera. Come on, Your Eminence, shake it up.”
“His Eminence has a gold gammadion set with gems,” Maytera Mint confided. “He might be willing to make it my stake in our bet. I’ll try to persuade him.”
Spider shook his head. “I could nab it anytime.”
“Certainly you could, but you would have stolen it. Though Tenebrous Tartaros, whose realm this surely is, is the patron of thieves, I doubt very much that he approves of stealing from augurs, and all the other gods surely condemn it. If you won His Eminence’s gammadion you would have acquired it honesdy, and would have no reason to fear divine retribution.”
“Yeah. But you don’t think I’ll win.”
Maytera Mint shook her head. “No, I don’t. I will not deceive you, Spider. I am as sure as I can be without having seen them that all those men are dead. If you accept my bet, you’ll have to answer my questions, one for each dead man.”
“All right, I’ll tell you what I want, Maytera. But I’m goin’ to call you General. That’s who I want to bet with, the rebel general. Can I do that? Patera does.”
“Certainly. I’d prefer it, in fact.”
“You figure I’m a thief. I can tell by the way you were talkin’ a minute ago. That’s the lily, isn’t it, General?”
“You employ a great deal of cant, Spider, and cant is used principally by thieves. Also by prostitutes, with whom I’ve spoken now and then, but most of them steal when it seems safe.”
“Most everybody will,” Spider told her positively.
“Perhaps. If so, it is small wonder that the gods show us no more affection than they do.”
“Well, I ain’t a thief. I talk like I do ’cause we’re with them a lot. Spies don’t ken with people like you, General, or this other sibyl you call Maytera. She don’t know anythin’ they need, see? You do, but if they were to ken with you, they’d need a shaggy good reason or you’d start thinkin’, why’s he around all the time?” Spider paused for breath.
“You go to some city to look into things, you know, and you want somebody local to help out, what you want’s a thief six to one. When we got to have new blood, that’s where we look, too. Not always, but mostly.”
“I understand, Spider…”
“Out with it.”
“Very well.” Maytera Mint took a deep breath. “Were you a thief previously? Is that how you came to be a spy-catcher?”
He gri
“I’m a good judge of character.”
“I’d lie to you.”
“Indeed you would, and you might do it so skillfully, that I would think you were telling the truth. But you won’t lie to me about this, not here and not now. Were you? It’s none of my affair, and to confess the truth there is a thief I taught when he was a child of whom I’m very fond. His name is Auk.”
“I know him,” Spider said.
“You do? That hadn’t occurred to me, but now that you’ve mentioned it, no doubt you must. Does he — is he one of your knot, as you call it?”
“That’d feague you, huh? He’s not. Auk won’t work for anybody else, and he’s too peppery for my trade anyhow. I wasn’t a thief either. I was a hoppy. You believe that?”
“If you say it’s true, absolutely. May I ask why you left the Calde’s Guard?”
“They callin’ it that again? That’s what it was when I went in, then they changed it. They kicked me out. Let’s not talk about why.”
Remora, who had caught up with them and overheard much of their conversation, muttered, “No, ah, never. Only shriving, hey? There — um — solely.”
“I won’t ask,” Maytera Mint promised.
“Pulled off my stripes and put them on my back. I could show you the scars. Cull called Desmid brought me in. He’s cold. I been catchin’ spies for Viron twenty-two years now. I don’t know how many I’ve nabbed or helped nab, thirty or forty. Could be more, and there’s a lot we don’t want to nab but could anytime we wanted to. I’m tellin’ you ’cause of what I want my end of our bet to be. I’m stickin’ with Councillor Potto, see? Twenty-two years I been workin’ for him, and he took me when I didn’t have two bits or a padken. I’m his man, always will be.”
“In that case, let us hope a peace can be arranged that will permit Councillor Potto to retain his seat.”
Spider nodded. “Sure thing. All right, let’s talk about this bet. First off, these three questions. Suppose you were to ask me who my boys are, the ones you think’s yours. I can’t tell you names. You see that? I won’t lie to you, General, but I won’t tell, either.”