Part 34 (1/2)

NlGHTSIDE THt LoNG SUN

171.

Something like that.” Recalling certain cla.s.sroom embarra.s.sments, he forced himself to breathe deeply so that he would not yawn; the faint throbbing in his foot seemed very far away, driven beyond the fringes of the most remote Vironese lands by the kindly sorcery of the squat tumbler. ”I would have given it to one of my-to another augur, one I know well. I was going to seal it, and make him promise to deliver it to the Juzgado if anything happened to me. Something like that.”

”Not too bad.” Blood took Hyacinth's little needier from his waistband, thumbed off its safety catch, and aimed it carefully at Silk's chest.

Musk frowned and touched Blood's arm.

Biood chuckled. ”Oh, don't worry. I only wanted to see how he'd behave in my place. It doesn't seem to bother him much.” The needler's tiny, malevolent eye twitched to the right and spat, and the squat tumbler exploded, showering Silk with shards and pungent liquor.

He brushed himself with his fingers. ”What would you like me to sign over to you? I'll be happy to oblige. Give me the paper.”

”I don't know.” Blood dropped Hyacinth's gold-plated needier on the stand that had held his drink. ”What have you got, Patera?”

”Two drawers of clothing and three books. No, two; I sold my personal copy of the Writings. My beads-I've got those here, and I'll give them to you now if you like. My old pen case, but it's still in my robe up in that woman's room. You could have somebody bring it, and I'll confess to climbing onto your roof and entering your house without your permission, and give you the pen case, too.”

Blood shook his head. ”I don't need your confession, Patera. I have you.”

”As you like.” Silk visualized his bedroom, over the kitchen in the manse. ”Pas's gammadion. That's steel, of

course, but the chain's silver and should be worth something. I also have an old portable shrine that belonged to Patera Pike. I've set it up on my dresser, so I suppose you could say it's mine now. There's a rather attractive triptych, a small polychrome lamp, an offertory cloth, and so on, with a teak case to carry them in. Do you want that? I had hoped-foolishly no doubt-to pa.s.s it on to my successor.”

Blood waved the triptych aside. ”How'd you get through the gate?”

”I didn't. I cut a limb in the forest and tied it to this rope.” Silk pointed to his waist. ”I threw the limb over the spikes on your wall and climbed the rope.”

”We'll have to do something about that.” Biood glanced significantly at Musk. ”You say you were up on the roof, so it was you that killed Hierax.”

Silk sat up straight, feeling as if he had been wakened from sleep. ”You gave him the name of the G.o.d?”

”Musk did. Why not?”

Musk said softly, ”He was a griffon vulture, a mountain bird. Beautiful. I thought I might be able to teach him to kill for himself.”

”But it was no go,” Blood continued. ”Musk got angry with him and was going to knife him. Musk has the mews out back.”

Silk nodded politely. Patera Pike had once remarked to him that you could never tell from a man's appearance what might give him pleasure; studying Musk, Silk decided that he had never accorded Patera Pike's sagacity as much respect as it had deserved.

”So I said that if he didn't want him, he could give him to me,” Blood continued, ”and I put him up there on the roof for a pet.”

”I see.” Silk paused. ”You clipped his wings.”

”I had one of Musk's helpers do it,” Blood explained, ”so he wouldn't fly off. He wouldn't hunt anyhow.”

172.

Gene Wolfe

Silk nodded, mostly to himself. ”But he attacked me, I suppose because I picked up that sc.r.a.p of hide. We were next to the battlement, and in the excitement of the moment he-I will not call him Hierax, Hierax is a sacred name-forgot that he could no longer fly.”