"No. Not now."
"Then tell me why you cared whether I was a spy or not, if you weren't going to hand me over to the Ayuntamiento."
"I was," Silk said simply, "if you wouldn't help me save our manteion from Blood. I was going to say that if you did that, I'd let you leave the city."
He sat down in the corner farthest from the cot, finding the steel floor as cold and as hard as Crane had said. "But if you wouldn't, I planned to roll you over to the hoppies. That's the way the people of our quarter would say it, and I was working for them as well as for the Outsider, who wanted to save our manteion because he cares so deeply about them."
He pulled off his shoes. "By 'hoppies' they mean the troopers of our Civil Guard. They say that the Guardsmen look like frogs, because of their green uniforms."
"I know. Why did you go into the tunnels? Because I'd asked some people about them?"
Silk was peeling off his stockings as he replied. "Not really. I didn't intend to enter the tunnels, although I'd heard of them vaguely-circles of black mechanics meeting there and so on, which they told us at the schola was a lot of nonsense. You and this wrapping you lent me had made it possible for me to walk out to Scylla's shrine on the lake. I went out there because Commissioner Simuliid had; and the person who told me that said you'd been interested to learn of it."
"Chenille."
"No." Silk shook his head, knowing that it would hurt, but eager to make his answer as negative as possible.
"You know it was. Not that it matters. I was listening outside while you shrove her, by the way. I couldn't hear a lot, but I wish I'd heard that." "You couldn't have heard it, because it was never said. Chenille acknowledged her own transgressions, not yours." Silk removed the wrapping.
"Have it your way. Did Blood's talus turn you over to Potto?"
"It was more complicated than that," Silk hesitated. "I suppose it's imprudent for me to say it; but if Councillor Potto has someone listening to us, all the better-I want to get this off my conscience. I killed Blood's talus. I had to in order to preserve my own life; but I didn't like it, and I haven't come to like it any better since it happened."
"With . . . ?"
Silk nodded. "With an azoth I happened to have upon my person. It was later taken from me."
"I've got you. Maybe we'd better not say anything else about that."
"Then let's talk about this," Silk said, and held up the wrapping. "You very generously lent me this, and I've been as ungrateful as I could possibly be. You know my excuse, which is that I was hoping to do what the Outsider had asked-to justify his faith in me, who in twenty-three years had never paid him even trifling honors. It wouldn't be right for me to keep this, and I'm grateful for this opportunity to return it."
"I won't accept it. Is it cold now? It must be. Do you want me to recharge it for you?"
"I want you to take it, Doctor. I would have extorted the money I need from you if I could. I deserve no favors from you."
"You've never gotten any, either." Crane drew his legs onto the cot to sit cross-legged. "I didn't invent you, but I wish I had, because I'd like to take credit for you. You're exactly what we've needed. You're a rallying point for the underclass in Viron, and a city divided is a city too weak to attack its neighbors. Now recharge that thing and put it back on your ankle." "I never wished to weaken Viron," Silk told him. "That was no part of my task."
"Don't blame yourself. The Ayuntamiento did the damage when they assassinated the calde and governed in defiance of your Charter and their people-which won't save your life when Lemur's finished with you. He'll kill you just like he'll kill me."
Silk nodded ruefully. "Councillor Potto said something of the sort. I hoped-I still hope that it was no more than a threat. That he will no more kill me, despite his threat, than Blood would."
"The situation is entirely different. You'd gone out to Blood's, and it seemed likely that others knew about it. If his talus caught you and dragged you into the tunnels, it's not likely that anybody else knows the Ayuntamiento has you. Not even the talus, since you say you killed it."
"Only Mamelta, the woman who was captured with me."
'"What's more," Crane said, "killing you would have made Blood much less secure. Killing you would make Lemur and the rest more secure. In fact, I'm surprised they haven't done it already. Who's Mamelta, by the way? One of those holy women?"
"One of the people whom Pas put into the whorl when he had finished it. Did you know that some of them are still alive, though sleeping?"
Crane shook his head. "Did he tell you that? Pas?"
"No, she did. I had been captured by soldiers-I left the azoth behind when that happened, because I knew I'd be searched. A drift of ashes almost filled that tunnel, and I left it buried in them when the soldiers pulled me out."
Crane grinned. "Shrewd enough."
"It wasn't. Not really. I was going to say that one of the soldiers showed me the sleeping people and told me they had been there since the time of the first settlers. Mucor woke one, Mamelta, and I exorcised Mucor, as I told you."
"Yes."
"Mamelta and I got away from the soldiers-Hammerstone will be punished for that, I'm afraid-but we were arrested again when we went back for the azoth. They locked me up in a place worse than this one, and after a while they brought me my robe. Mamelta had been wearing it, so they must have given her proper clothing; at least, I hope they did." Silk paused, gnawing his lower lip. "I could have resisted the soldiers with the azoth, I suppose; it's quite possible that I would have killed them both. But I couldn't bring myself to do it."
"Very creditable. But by the time you were rearrested Potto was there?"
"Yes."
"And he soon realized who you were."
"I told him," Silk admitted. "That is to say, he asked my name, and I gave it. I would do it again. I'm a loyal citizen, as I assured him repeatedly."
"I wonder if it's possible to be toyal while dead. But that's your bailiwick. The thing that interests me is that you escaped the first time, with this woman. Mind telling me how you reconciled that with your loyalty?"
"I had an urgent matter to attend to," Silk said. "I won't go into detail now, but I did; and because I had done nothing wrong, I was morally justified in leaving when the opportunity presented itself."
"But now you have? Are you a criminal deserving of death?"
"No. My conscience isn't entirely clear, but the worst thing on it is that I've failed the Outsider. If I could get away again in some fashion-though that appears impossible now-it's conceivable that I might succeed after all."
"Then you'd be willing to escape if we could?"
"From an iron room with a locked door?" Silk ran his fingers through his untidy thatch of yellow hair. "How do you propose to do it, Doctor?"
"We may not be here forever. Would you be willing?" "Yes. Certainly."
"Then recharge your wrapping. We may have to run, and I hope we will. Go ahead, kick it or wallop the floor with it."
Silk did as he had been told, flailing the steel plates. "If there's even the slightest chance to fulfill my pledge to the Outsider, I must take it; and I will. He'll surely bless you, as I do, for your magnanimity."
"I won't bank on it." Crane smiled, and for a moment actually appeared cheerful. "You had a cerebral accident, that's all. Most likely a tiny vein burst as a result of your exertions during the game. When that happens in the right spot, delusions like yours aren't at all uncommon. Wernicke's area, it's called." He touched his own head to indicate the place.
Chapter 12. LEMUR
Silk knelt in silent prayer, his face to the gray-painted wall of the compartment.
Marvelous Moipe, be not angry with me, who have always honored you. Music is yours. Am I never to hear it again? Recall my music box, Moipe, how many hours I spent with it when I was a child. It is in my closet now, Moipe, and if only you will free me I will oil the dancers and its works as well, and play it each night. I have searched my conscience, Moipe, to discover that in which I have displeased you. I find this: that I dealt overharshly with Mucor when she possessed Mamelta. Those whose wits are disordered and those who, though grown, remain as children are, are yours, I know, Moipe, and for your sake 1 should have been more gentle with her. Nor should I have called her a devil, for she is none. I renounce my pride, and I will separate Mucor from Blood if I can, and treat her as I would my own child. This I swear. A singing bird to you, Moipe, if you will but-