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“We could have talked at di
“Not alone. Part of what I’m going to say…” Bison let the thought trail off.
Oosik rose. “We must speak more upon our topic, Calde. Not now, but soon. I hope you agree.”
Silk nodded, causing Oreb to hop from his head to his left shoulder.
“With your permission, I shall look in on my son. I hope he is well enough to attend. I will return at eight.”
Silk glanced at the clock; it was after seven. “Of course. Tell your son, please, that all of us hold high hopes for his recovery.” Oosik saluted and made an about face.
Stepping aside for Oosik, Horn put in, “Willet’s back with Master Xiphias, Calde. He asked me to tell you.”
Silk was on the point of instructing Horn to call Hossaan by his true name, but thought better of it. If Hossaan had called himself Willet, Hossaan had no doubt had a reason.
“Master Xiphias’s in the Blue Room. He says he doesn’t have to see you before di
“That’s good.” Silk smiled. “I’m in dire need of people who don’t have to see me. I wish that there were more. You’d better go home now, Horn, or you’ll miss supper.”
“Nettle and me are going to help. We’ll get something.”
“Fish heads?” Oreb inquired.
“If there are any, I’ll save them for you,” Horn promised.
“Very well, Horn, and thank you.” Silk returned to Bison. “When I heard you were here early, I hoped that you had come to tell me you’d found Maytera Mint. I take it you haven’t.”
“No, Calde, but that’s what I want to talk to you about.”
“Then sit down and do it. I don’t have long before di
Bison sat; like Oosik, he seemed too large for the chair. “You’ve talked to Loris and Potto on a glass, Calde.”
Silk nodded.
“They won’t talk to me. I know, because I tried before I came here. But they talked to you, and they might talk to you again. I want you to ask them to let you see General Mint for yourself. They say they’ve got her. Make them prove it.”
“Why do you doubt them, Colonel?”
Bison sighed and leaned back. “I knew you’d ask that. I don’t blame you, I would too. Just the same, I kept hoping you wouldn’t.”
“Poor man!” Oreb commiserated.
“When I ask to see her, they’ll want to know why. I must have something to tell them, and the more compelling it is, the more likely it will be that they’ll show her to us — assuming that they have her.”
“You’ll let me watch?”
“Certainly.” Silk paused, his forefinger tracing circles on his cheek. “You’re emotionally involved. Oreb senses it, and so do I. I hope you won’t let your attachment to Maytera Mint, one that I feel myself, goad you into acting rashly.
“I hope so, too, Calde.” Bison clenched hairy fists that looked as big as hams. “You’ve been down in the tu
“Bad hole!”
“Well, so have I. Maybe I should’ve told you then, but I didn’t because it didn’t seem relevant and I didn’t want you to think I was showing off. There’s a way down in the Orilla, and I’m pretty sure there’s more, besides the one under the Juzgado that Sand and his soldiers used.”
Silk nodded. It had not occurred to him that Bison might be a thief, and he adjusted his mind to the new information as Bison spoke again.
“I got a hunch after a while. I remembered a place down there, an old guardroom that they used when there were soldiers underneath the city all the time. I had a feeling they might have taken her there, and went in with thirty of my troopers to check it out myself.”
“Bad hole!” Oreb repeated; and Silk nodded again. “It is a bad hole, and I’m not in the least sure that what you did was wise, Colonel. I understand why you did it, however.
“We found the place all right.” The big hands clasped and seemed intent upon pulling each other’s fingers off “The door was open, and there were bloodstains all over the floor. Fresh blood, Calde.”
“Which could have been anybody’s.” Silk hoped that his expression did not reveal the dismay he felt. “Horn! Horn, would you come back in here for a moment, please?”
“When we got back to the sufface, I tried to talk to the Ayuntamiento on a glass,” Bison continued. “There used to be one in that old guardroom, I think, but it was stolen a long time ago, if there was. Anyway, I tried to talk to Potto, and when he wouldn’t, to Loris. Then to Tarsier or Galago. None of them would speak to me. That was when I came here.”
“Did you ask your glass to find Maytera for you?”
Bison shook his head. “It didn’t occur to me. Do you think they might have her where there’s a glass?”
Horn burst in. “Yes, Patera? I mean Calde.
“It’s late,” Silk said, “and I’m getting tired. It seems to me that I’ve been inviting people to di
“I can tell you, Calde. Or write it out for you if you’d rather. I wrote the placecards and put them around.”
“Tell me then. If I need a written list afterward, I’ll have you do it.”
“You, Calde, at the head of the table. On your right will be Generalissimo Siyuf. Maytera said we had to put her there because the di
Silk nodded. “Quite right.”
“Then His Cognizance. She’ll be between you and him.”
Oreb fluttered uncomfortably; Silk said, “Go on.”
“Then General Saba, she’s the captain of their airship. Then Colonel Bison.”
“I’m Colonel Bison,” Bison explained. “I came a little early to speak to the Calde.”
“Good man!” Oreb assured Horn.
“Horn is one of the boys at our palaestra,” Silk told Bison. “The leader of the boys at our palaestra, I ought to say, and he’s been worth a hundred cards to us. Continue, if you please, Horn.”
“Sure. Colonel Bison, then Generalissimo Siyuf’s staff officer, whoever she is. And then Maytera at the foot of the table, only I don’t think she’s going to sit down there much and talk to people, Calde. She’s too excited and worried about something going wrong in the kitchen. That’s the chair closest to the kitchen.”
“Of course.
“On her right there’ll be General Saba’s staff officer, then Chenille, then Master Xiphias.”
“I’m begi
“On your left, Calde. Then his son. When he got here, he said please put his son right beside him, because he’s been so sick. He’s worried about him.”
“Naturally,” Silk said.
“Then Master Xiphias on the Generalissimo’s son’s left.”
“If I’ve been following you, there should be five people on the right side of the table and five on the left.” Silk counted on his fingers. “Right — Siyuf, His Cognizance, Saba, Colonel Bison here, and Siyufs staff officer. Left — Oosik, his son, Xiphias, Chenille, and Saba’s staff officer.
“That’s right, Calde, and you and Maytera make twelve.”
“Bird eat?”
“Yes indeed.” Silk smiled, glancing sidelong at Oreb. “I wouldn’t think of dining without your company. Unfortunately you’d make thirteen at table the way things stand; you won’t, however, because I’m asking Horn to ask Maytera to set one more place to my immediate left — a place for General Mint. Please letter a card for her as well, Horn, and set her place exactly like all the others. It will make the left side a trifle more crowded than the right, but the guests on that side will have to bear it.”
“It’s a real big table, Calde. It won’t be bad.”