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Silk chuckled, cheered by the memory. “Later, one of the officers of the Fisc made the same remark; and I recalled what we were taught in the schola — that the malice of devils is such that they destroy even evil people. My teachers didn’t really believe in them, as Patera Pike did; but I believe that what they said was true, and that what Hyacinth’s father and the official from the Fisc said was true as well.
“MI right, let the Ayuntamiento accommodate the devils. Peace would mean that nine-tenths of Siyufs horde could go home. Thousands of i
“You were going to win by giving up?”
Silk shook his head. “No one wins by giving up, Nettle, though many fights are not worth wi
Horn said, “General Mint and Colonel Bison got away. So did Generalissimo Oosik.” Nettle added, “The fat councillor did, too, I think. Is there going to be peace now because of what you said?”
“I don’t know, but I doubt it.” Silk sighed. “It will depend mostly on the Trivigauntis; and as long as they hold us, Generalissimo Oosik and General Mint are liable to regard them as enemies as bad as the Ayuntamiento, if not worse.
Maytera Marble sniffed. “I don’t see why they want us.”
“His Cognizance is fond of giving short and long answers,” Silk told her. “In this case, he’d probably say that the short answer was that Siyuf has a bad conscience. She came to Viron as an ally, ostensibly, but with the secret hope of making it dependent upon Trivigaunte — a servant city.”
“Did she actually say that, Patera?”
“Of course not; but she was quick to believe that we were plotting against her, and people who always suspect they’re being cheated are generally trying to cheat. When General Mint and Patera Remora tried to treat with the Ayuntamiento, Siyuf feared we’d come to an agreement unfavorable to Trivigaunte. By taking our Juzgado, she showed clearly that she intended to govern Viron. Today — though that’s yesterday now, I suppose — I made the mistake of telling Councillor Loris that he and Potto could confer in person with us, since that was what they wanted. I thought it was safe, because Hossaan would report everything we said to Colonel Abanja, and I was resolved to say nothing that Siyuf could object to.
“I don’t think you did, Calde, except there at the end.”
“Thank you. There at the end it no longer rnattered. Horn and Mucor had told me the Trivigauntis were on their way, and I knew I’d overplayed my hand just by letting the councillors into the Calde’s Palace. Unfonunately, Hossaan overplayed his as well. If he and his spies had simply kept us from leaving until the troopers arrived, something might have been gained. I doubt it, but it might have been. As things are, a great deal has been lost — peace first of all. Peace is always a great deal, but now it’s more urgent than ever, because of Pas’s threat.”
Silk wiped his eyes. “Having saved our manteion, I tried to save Viron and the whorl, Nettle; and now all I can do is sit here crying.”
“That’s a awfully bigjob for just one man, Calde, saving the whorl. Do you really think Pas is going to destroy us?”
As if he had not heard her, Silk said, “We were talking about those who escaped, and no one mentioned Oreb. Did he get out? Did anyone see him?”
A horse voice croaked, “Bird here!”
“Oreb! I should’ve known. Come down here.”
Wings beat in the darkness, and Oreb landed with a thump.
“His Cognizance reminded me once that there are people who love birds so much they cage them, and others who love them so much i they free them. Then he said that Echidna and the Seven were people of the first kind, and Pas a person of the second kind. When I bought Oreb, he was in a cage; and when I freed him I smashed that cage — never thinking that it might have seemed a place of refuge to him.”
“Horn said, “I never thought of the whorl being a cage.”
“I never had either, until the Outsider showed me what lies outside it.”
“Maybe Auk and Chenille can steal General Saba’s airship, Calde, and take Sciathan back to Mainframe like he wants.”
“Good man,” Oreb informed them. “Man fly.”
“He is, Oreb, in both senses, I believe. So is Auk, and even Chenille is a very competent person in her way. But to tell you the truth I have no confidence in them at all when it comes to this — less than I would have in Potto and Spider, if anything. Frankly, I’ve never imagined that there was any way to get Auk and his followers to Mainframe other than getting General Saba and her crew to fly them there.
“That was another reason for wanting peace, and in fact it was the most pressing one — as long as there was war, Siyuf would want to keep the airship here. It couldn’t be used in the tu
“With the war ended, it might — I say might — have been possible to persuade her to do what we wanted. Now we’ll have to wait for it to end, I’m afraid, or at least for Pas to do whatever he plans to do first to drive humanity out. I can think of a dozen possibilities, none pleasant.”
Silk awaited another question, but even Oreb was silent. At length he said, “Now let’s sleep if we can. We’ll have a trying day tomorrow, I’m afraid.”
“Ah — Calde?” Remora’s nasal voice floated out of the darkness.
“Yes, Patera. I’m sorry we woke you. We tried to keep our voices down.”
“I have listened with great, um, edification. Sorry I did not wake sooner, eh? But there is one, um, point. Eland, eh? I knew him. You said — ah—”
“I said I had a vague description of his killer. Vague from our point of view, anyway. I believe it was Hossaan, whom you may have met as Willet, my driver. I won’t tell you at present how I obtained it. Let us sleep, Patera.”
“Good girl,” Oreb confided.
“Add cot end add word,” Tick commented sleepily from his place at Hyacinth’s side.
Staring up at the still-distant airship, Silk clenched his teeth, determined equally that the icy wind that whipped his robe would not make them chatter and that the airship would not make him gape, though so immense a flying structure seemed less an achievement than a force of nature. Ever so slowly, it edged its vast, mummy-colored bulk across the gray midday sky, lost at times among low clouds dark with snow, always reappearing nearer the winter-wet meadow where he and his companions waited under guard.
Maytera Mint’s grip on his arm tightened, and she uttered a sound like a raindrop falling into a scrub bucket, then another, and another. He turned from his contemplation of the airship to her. “Why are you making that noise, Maytera?”
Hyacinth whispered, “She’s crying. Let her alone.”
“Wise girl!” Oreb approved.
“You won’t be able to take your bird, Calde.” Dismounting and dropping her reins, Saba strode over to them, her porcine face sympathetic and severe. “I’m sorry, but you can’t.” She indicated Hyacinth with her riding crop. “You had some sort of animal too, girly. Where is it?”
“A c-catachrest,” Hyacinth told her through chattering teeth. “I gave him a little of my food this morning and sent him away.”
Silk said, “You’ll have to leave, Oreb. Fly back to the place where you were caught if you can.”
“Good Silk!”
“Good bird too, but you must go. Go back to the Palustrian Marshes, that’s where the man in the market said you came from.”