Part 35 (1/2)

”I see. No, of course not.”

”That's good. I'm happy to hear you being reasonable. Just look at it You broke into my house hoping to take my property-it's Musk's, but you didn't know that. You've admitted that to Musk and me, and we're ready to swear to it in front of a judge if we have to.”

Silk smiled; it seemed to him a very long time since he had last smiled. ”You aren't really going to have me killed, are you, Blood? You're not willing to take the risk.”

Blood's finger found the trigger of the needier. ”Keep on talking like that and I might, Patera.”

”I don't believe so. You'd have someone else do it, probably Musk. You're not even going to do that, however. You're trying to frighten me before you let me go.”

Blood glanced at Musk, who nodded and circled behind Silk's chair. Silk felt the tips of Musk's fingers brush his

ears.

”If you go on talking to me like you have been, Patera, you're going to get hurt. It won't leave any marks, but you won't like it at all. Musk has done it before. He's good at it.”

”Not to an augur. Those who harm an augur in any way suffer the displeasure of all the G.o.ds.”

The pain was as sudden as a blow, and so sharp it left Silk breathless, an explosion of agony; he felt as though his head had been crushed.

NlGHTSIDE THE LONG SUN

175.

”There's places behind your ears,” Blood explained. ”Musk pushes them in with his knuckles.”

Gasping for air, his hands to his mastoids, Silk could not even nod.

”We can do that again and again if we have to,” Blood continued. ”And if we finally give up and go to bed, we can start over in the morning.”

A red mist had blotted out Silk's vision, but it was clearing. He managed, ”You don't have to explain my situation to me.”

”Maybe not. I'll do it whenever I want to, just the same. So to get on with this-you're right, we'd just as soon not kill you if we don't have to. There's three or four diffei^nt reasons for that, all of them pretty good. You're an augur, to start with. If the G.o.ds ever paid any attention to Viron, they quit a long time ago. Myself, I don't think there was ever anything in it except a way for people like you to get everything they wanted without working. But the Chapter looks after you, and if it ever got out that we did for you-I mean just talk, because they'd never be able to prove anything-it would get people stirred up and be bad for business.”

Silk said, ”Then I would not have died for nothing,” and felt Musk's fingers behind his ears again.

Blood shook his head, and the contingent agony halted, poised at the edge of possibility. ”Then too, we just bought your place so that might make some people think of us. Did you tell anybody you were coming?”

Here it was. Silk was prepared to lie if he must, but preferred to dodge if he could. He said, ”You mean one of our sibyls? No, nothing like that”

Blood nodded, and the danger was past. ”It could get somebody's attention anyway, and I can't be sure who's seen you. Hy has, and talked with you and so on. Probably even knows your name.”

176.

Gene Wolfe

Silk could not remember, but he said, ”Yes, she does. Can't you trust her? She's your wife.”

Musk t.i.ttered behind him. Blood roared, his free hand slapping his thigh.

Silk shrugged. ”One of your servants referred to her as his mistress. He thought that I was one of your guests, of course.”