The first was a litter for one, with a pair of bearers. Silk climbed into it with some trepidation, wondering whether there would be any such conveyance to carry him to the manse when the business of the evening was done. The shade had risen until no sliver of gold remained, and a dulcet breeze whispered soothingly that the dust and heat of vanquished day had been but empty lies. It fanned Silk"s flushed cheeks, and the sensual pleasure it gave him told him he had drunk one goblet of wine too many. Sadly, he resolved to watch himself more strictly in the future.
Auk strode along beside the litter, his grin flashing in the
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semidarkness. Silk felt something small, squarish, and heavy dirust into his hand.
"What we was talking about, Patera. Put "em in your pocket."
By that time, Silk"s fingers had told him that it was a paper-wrapped packet, tightly tied with string. "How... ?"
"The waiter. I had a word widi him when I stepped out, see? They ought to fit, but don"t try them here."
Silk dropped the packet of needles into the pocket of his robe. "I- Thank you again, Auk. I don"t know what to say."
"I had him whistle out this trot-about for you, and he sent a pot boy off after those. If they don"t fit, tell me tomorrow. Only I think they will."
The litter halted much sooner than Silk had expected, before a tall house whose lower and third stories were dark, though the windows between them blazed with light. When Auk knocked, the door was opened by a lean old man with a small, untidy beard and white hair more disordered even dian Silk"s own.
"Aha! Good! Good!" The old man exclaimed. "Inside! Inside! Just shut the door. Shut the door, and follow me." He went up the stair two steps at a time, with a speed that Silk would have found astonishing in someone half his age.
"His name"s Xiphias," Auk told him when he had finished paying the bearers. "He"s going to be your teacher."
"Teacher of what?"
"Hacking. Thirty years ago, he was best. The best in Viron, anyhow." Turning, Auk led Silk inside and closed the door. "He says he"s better now, but the younger men won"t accept his challenges. They say they don"t want to show him up, but I don"t know." Auk chuckled. "Think how they"d feel if the old goat beat them."
Nodding and content to wonder for a few minutes longer what "hacking" might be, Silk seated himself on the
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second step and removed Crane"s wrapping; it was cold, and though he could not be certain in the dimness of the hallway, he thought that he could feel actual ice crystals in the nap of its cloth covering. He struck the floor with it. "Do you know about these?"
Auk stooped to look more closely. "I don"t know. What you got?"
"A truly wonderful bandage for my ankle." Silk lashed the floor again. "It winds itself around the broken bone almost like a serpent. Doctor Crane lent it to me. You"re supposed to kick it or something until it gets hot."
"Can I see it for a minute? I can do that better, standing up."
Silk handed him the wrapping.
"I heard of them, and I saw one once, only I didn"t get to touch it. Thirty cards they wanted for it." Auk slapped the wall with the wrapping; when he squatted to help Silk replace it, it felt hot enough to smoke.
The stair was as steep and narrow as the house itself, covered with torn carpeting so threadbare as to be actually slick in spots; but helped manfully by Auk and urged forward by curiosity, jaw set and putting as much weight as possible on Blood"s lioness-headed stick, Silk climbed it almost as quickly as he might have with two sound legs.
The door at the top opened upon a single bare room that occupied the entire second story; its floor was covered with worn sailcloth mats, its walls decorated with swords, many of them of shapes that Silk had never seen or never noticed, and long cane foils with basketwork hilts.
"You"re lame!" Xiphias called. "Limping!" He danced toward them, thrusting and parrying.
"I injured my ankle," Silk told him. "It should be better hi a few weeks."
Xiphias pushed his foil into Silk"s hands. "But you must start now! Begin your lessons this very evening! Do you
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know how to hold that? You"re left-handed? Good! Very good! I"ll teach you the right, too, eventually. Keep your stick in your right, eh? You may parry, but not thrust or cut with it. Is that understood? May I have a stick too? You agree that"s fair? No objection? Where-Over there!" An astonishing bound carried him to the nearest wall, from which he s.n.a.t.c.hed two more foils and a yellow walking stick so slender that it was scarcely more than a wand; like the foils it was of varnished bamboo.
Silk told him," "I can"t engage you with this bad ankle, sir, and the Chapter frowns upon all such activities-not that I"d be an even match or anything like a match for you. Besides, I have no funds to pay for a lesson."
"Aha! Auk"s your friend? Your word on his score, Auk? It"s not just to get him killed, is it?"
Auk shook his head.
"He"s my friend, and I"m his." As soon as Silk spoke, he realized that it was no more than the truth. He added, "Because I am, I won"t let him pay."
Xiphias"s voice dropped to a whisper. "You won"t fight, you say, with your cloth and gimp leg. But what if you were attacked? You"d have to. Have to ... And since Auk"s your friend, he"d fight too, wouldn"t he? Fight for you? You say you don"t want him to pay. Don"t you think he feels the same way?"
He tossed Auk a foil. "Not made of money are you, Auk? A good thief but a poor man, isn"t that what they say about you? Wouldn"t you-wouldn"t you both like to save Auk all diat money? Yes! Oh, yes! I know you would."
Auk unbuckled his hanger and laid it against the wall. "If we beat him, he won"t charge me."
"That"s right!" Xiphias sprang away. "Will you excuse me, Patera, while I remove my trousers?"
They fell as he spoke; one spindle-thin leg was black synthetic and gleaming steel. At the touch of the old man"s
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fingers, it too fell away, leaving him swaying on a single, natural, knotted, blue-veined leg. "What do you think of my secret? Five it took!" He hopped toward them, balancing himself precariously with his foil and the yellow walking stick. "Five I found!"
Almost too late, Silk blocked a wide, whistling cut at his head.
"Too many parts? Scarcely enough!" Another swinging slash. "Don"t cringe!"
Auk lunged at the old man. His parry was too swift for the eye to follow; the crack of his foil against Auk"s skull sounded louder than Auk"s shot in the c.o.c.k. Auk sprawled on the sailcloth mat
"Now, Patera! Guard yourself!"
For the s.p.a.ce of a brief prayer that seemed half the night, that was all Silk did, frantically fending off cut after cut, forehand, backhand, to the head, to the neck, to the arms, the shoulders, the waist There was no time to think, no time to do anything but react. Almost in spite of himself, he began to sense a certain pattern, a rhythm that governed the old man"s slashing attack. Despite his ankle, he could move faster, turn faster, than the old man on his one leg.
"Good! Good! After me! Good!"
Xiphias was on the defensive now, parrying the murderous cuts Silk launched at his head and shoulders.