Part 15 (1/2)

”Thanks, Patera.”

After that, Auk remained silent for a long time. Silk prayed silently while he waited, listening with half an ear to angry voices in the street and the thunderous wheels of a pa.s.sing cart, his thoughts flitting from and returning to the calm, amused and somehow melancholy voices he had heard in the ball court as he had reached for the ball he carried in a pocket still, and to the innumerable things the owner of those voices had sought to teach him.

”I robbed a few houses up on die Palatine. I was trying to remember how many. Twenty I can think of for sure. Maybe more. And I beat a woman, a girl called-”

”You needn't tell me her name, Auk.”

”Pretty bad, too. She was trying to get more out of me after I'd already given her a real nice brooch. I'd had too much, and I hit her. Cut her mouth. She yelled, and I hit her again and floored her. She couldn't work for a week, she says. I shouldn't have done that, Patera.”

”No,” Silk agreed.

”She's better than most, and high, wide and handsome, too. Know what I mean, Patera? That's why I gave her the brooch. When she wanted more . . .”

”I understand.”

”I was going to kick her. I didn't, but if I had I'd probably

82 Gene Wolfe

have killed her. I kicked a man to death, once. That was part of what I told Patera Pike.”

Silk nodded, forcing his eyes away from Auk's boots. ”If Patera brought you pardon, you need not repeat that to me; and if you refrained from kicking the unfortunate woman, you have earned the favor of the G.o.ds-of Scylla and her sisters particularly-by your self-restraint.”

Auk sighed. ”Then that's all I've done, Patera, since last time. Solved those houses and beat on Chenille. And I wouldn't have, Patera, if I hadn't of seen she wanted it for rust. Or anyhow I don't think I would have.”

”You understand that it's wrong to break into houses, Auk. You must, or you wouldn't have told me about it. It is wrong, and when you enter a house to rob it, you might easily be killed, in which case you would die with the guilt upon you. That would be very bad. I want you to promise me that you will look for some better way to live. Will you do that, Auk? Will you give me your word?”

”Yes, Patera, I swear I will I've already been doing it. You know, buying things and selling them. Like that”

Silk decided it would be wiser not to ask what sorts of things these were, or how the sellers had gotten them. ”The woman you beat, Auk. You said she used rust. Am I to take it that she was an unmoral woman?”

”She's not any worse than a lot of others, Patera. She's at Orchid's place.”

Silk nodded to himself. ”Is that the sort of place I imagine?”

”No, Patera, it's about the best. They don't allow any fighting or anything like that, and everything's real clean. Some of Orchid's girls have even gone uphill.”

”Nevertheless, Auk, you shouldn't go to places of that kind. You're not bad looking, you're strong, and you have some education. You'd have no difficulty finding a decent girl, and a decent girl might do you a great deal of good.”

NlGHTSIDE THE LONG SUN

Auk stirred, and Silk sensed that the kneeling man was looking at him, although he did not permit his own eyes to leave the picture of Scylla. ”You mean the kind that has you shrive her, Patera? You wouldn't want one of them to take up with somebody like me. You'd tell her she deserved somebody better. s.h.a.g yes, you would!”

For a moment it seemed to Silk that the weight of the whole whorl's folly and witless wrong had descended on his shoulders. ”Believe me, Auk, many of those girls will marry men far, far worse than you.” He drew a deep breath. ”As penance for the evil you have done, Auk, you are to perform three meritorious acts before this time tomorrow. Shall I explain to you the nature of meritorious acts?”

”No, Patera. I remember, and I'll do them.”

”That's well. Then I bring to you, Auk, the pardon of all the G.o.ds. In the name of Great Pas, you are forgiven. In the name of Echidna, you are forgiven. In the name of Scylla, you are forgiven ...” Soon die moment would come. ”And in the name of the Outsider and all lesser G.o.ds, you are forgiven, by the power entrusted to me.”