nice red wine, Patera."
"Just water and ice, please. The same for Mucor, I think."
Blood shook his head. "No ice, Mama. She'll throw it. Believe
me,I know."
"Poor bird!"
"A cup of plain water for Oreb, if you would, Maytera. I
believe he'll come down to drink it if you leave it on top of the
cabinet."
"Plain water for Oreb." Revealing two fingers' width of silvery leg
as she stood on tiptoe, she put a brimming tumbler on the cabinet.
"Soda water and ice for Patera, and ice, gin. and soda water for you,
Bloody. Soda water without ice for my granddaughter. It's nice and
cool, though." As she placed the final tumbler before Mucor, she
added, "I must say she doesn't look as if you've been taking good
care of her."
Blood picked up his drink. "We've got to force-feed her, mostly,
and she tears off her clothes."
"Who was her mother?" Silk asked.
"She never had one." Blood sipped his drink and eyed it with
disfavor. "You know about frozen embryos? You can buy them now
and then if you want them, but you don't always get what you paid for."
Recalling dots of rotting flesh, Silk shuddered.
"The old calde, Tussah his name was, was supposed to have done
it. That leaked out after he died. So I decided to give it a try. Buy
myself an embryo with spooky powers. I got one of the girls to carry it."
"And you were actually able to purchase such a thing? An embryo
that would develop into someone with Mucor's powers?"
Blood nodded unhappily. "Like I said, you don't always get what
you pay for, but I was careful and I did. She's got the stuff, but she's
crazy. Always has been."
"You engaged a specialist to operate on her brain."
"Sure, trying to cure her, only it didn't work. If it had, I'd be
calde."
"She's been my friend," Silk told him, "a difficult one, perhaps, but
helpful just the same. She likes me, I believe, and the good god
knows I'd like to help her in return."
Oreb caught at the phrase. "Good god?"
"The Outsider, I ought to have said."
Mucor herself said, "They're arguing about you." Her voice
sounded faint and far away; the tumbler Maytera Marble had filled
for her waited untouched on the low table before her.
Silk sipped from his own, careful not to drink too much too fast.
"Men and women breed children from their bodies on impulse. We
augurs rail against it; but although inexcusable, it is at least
understandable. They are swept away by the emotions of the
moment; and if they weren't, perhaps the whole whorl would stand
empty. Adoption, on the other hand, is a considered act, consummated
only with the assistance of an advocate and a judge. Thus an
adoptive parent cannot say, 'I didn't know what I was doing,' or 'I
didn't think it would happen.' Worthless though those protestations
are, he has no claim to them."
"You think I knew she'd turn out like this? She was a baby." Blood
glared at his daughter. "I'm twice your age, Patera, maybe more.
When you're as old as I am, maybe you'll have a few little things
that you regret too."
"There are many already."
"You think there are. Women, you mean. My. Oh shag it, what's
the use?" Blood set his drink aside and wiped his damp left hand on
his thigh. "I don't care much for them. Neither would you, if you'd
been in my business as long as I have. I started when I was seven or
eight, just a dirty little sprat going up to men in the market.
Anyhow, Mucor's the only child I'll ever have, probably."
Maytera Marble told him, "She's the only granddaughter I'll ever
have, too, Bloody. If you won't take proper care of her, I will."
Blood looked angrier than ever. "Like you did me?"
"It would be better if we kept our voices down," Silk said. "You're
not supposed to be here."
"I wish I wasn't." A smile twisted Blood's mouth. "That would be
the elephant, wouldn't it? Shot for trying to pick up a couple bits
down at the market. Hey, Patera, you want to meet my sister? She'll
give you some hot mutton."
"Bloody, don't!"
"It's pretty late to tell me that, Mama. Or don't you think so?"
Without waiting for an answer, he turned to Silk. "I'm going to
outline a deal. If you take it, I'm in, and I'll do everything I can to
get you out of here in one piece."
Silk opened his mouth to speak.
"When I say you, that's you and the other augur, the old man,
Mama here, and that big piece from Orchid's. Even your bird. All
of you. All right?"
"Certainly."
"If you don't take it, I'm out the window, understand? No hard
feelings, but no deal either."
"You could be shot going out the window, too, Bloody," Maytera
Marble warned him. "I'm surprised that you weren't, you and my
granddaughter, before you got back inside."
Blood shook his head. "There's a truce, remember? And I'll stick
the azoth back under my tunic. They aren't going to shoot an
unarmed man and a girl that never even come close to the wall."
"As good as a secret passage." Maytera Marble's eyes gleamed
with amusement.
"Right, it is." Blood went to the window. "Now here's what I say,
Calde. I'll come over to you and Mint, gun, goat, and gut, and try to
see to it that all of us get clear. When we do, I'll sign over your
manteion to you for one card and other considerations, as we say,
and you can owe me the card."
He waited for Silk to speak, but Silk said nothing.
"After we get out, I'm still your bucky. I've done plenty of favors
for the Ayuntamiento, see? I can help you too, and I will,
everything that I can. I've got Mucor, remember," Blood nodded
toward her, "and I know what she can do now. Lemur's crowd never
got anything half as good as that."
Silk sipped from his tumbler.
"More talk," Oreb muttered; it was not clear whether it was a
suggestion or a complaint.
"Here's all I want from you, Calde. No gelt, just three things.
Firstly, I get to hang onto my other property. That means my real
estate, my accounts at the fisc, and the rest. Number two, I stay in
business. I'm not asking you to make it legal. I don't even want you
to. Only you don't shut me down, see? Last, I don't have to pay
anybody anything above regular taxes. I'll open my books to you,
but no more payoffs on top of that. You understand what I'm telling you?"
Blood leaned against the window frame. "Look it over, and you'll
see I'm making you as good a deal as anybody could ask for. I'm
giving you my complete, unlimited support, plus some valuable
property, and all I want from you is that you leave me alone. Let me
keep what's mine and earn my living, and don't come down on me
any harder than you do on anybody else. What do you say?"
For a few seconds, Silk did not say anything. The tramp of
rubber-shod metal feet came faintly from the wide foyer on the
other side of the carved walnut door, punctuated by Potto's strident
tones; embroidered hangings stirred, whispering, in the cool wind
from the window.
"I've been expecting to be tested." Silk glanced at his tumbler,
surprised to find that he had drunk more than half his soda water.
"Tested by the Outsider. He's been testing me physically, and I felt
quite confident that he would soon take my measure morally as