Shadow & Claw (The Book of the New Sun #1-2 ) - Gene Wolfe Page 0,54

seemed narrower, and the flesh to either side less inflamed. To reach the lower end of the wound, I lifted the cloth a trifle. When I thrust in my hand, I heard a faint note; the gem had struck metal. Drawing back the cloth more, I saw that my friend’s skin ended as abruptly as grass does where a large stone lies, giving way to shining silver.

My first thought was that it was armor; but soon I saw that it was not. Rather, it was metal standing in the place of flesh, just as metal stood in the place of his right hand. How far it continued I could not see, and I was afraid to touch his legs for fear of waking him.

Concealing the Claw again, I rose. And because I wanted to be alone and think for a few moments, I walked away from Jonas and into the center of the room. It had been a strange enough place the day before, when everyone was awake and active. Now it seemed stranger still, a ragged blot of a room, frayed with odd corners and crushed under its lowering ceiling. Hoping that exercise would set my mind in motion (as it often does), I decided to pace off the room’s length and width, trading softly so as not to wake the sleepers.

I had not gone forty paces when I saw an object that seemed completely out of place in that collection of ragged people and filthy canvas pallets. It was a woman’s scarf woven of some rich, smooth material the color of a peach. There is no describing the scent of it, which was not that of any fruit or flower that grows on Urth, but was very lovely.

I was folding this beautiful thing to put in my sabretache when I heard a child’s voice say, “It’s bad luck. Terrible luck. Don’t you know?”

Looking around, then down, I saw a little girl with a pale face and sparkling midnight eyes that seemed too large for it; and I asked, “What’s bad luck, Mistress?”

“Keeping findings. They come back for them later. Why do you wear those black clothes?”

“They’re fuligin, the hue that is darker than black. Hold out your hand and I’ll show you. Now, do you see how it seems to disappear when I trail the edge of my cloak across it?”

Her little head, which small though it was seemed much too big for the shoulders below it, nodded solemnly. “Burying people wear black. Do you bury people? When the navigator was buried there were black wagons and people in black clothes walking. Have you ever seen a burying like that?”

I crouched to look more easily into the solemn face. “No one wears fuligin clothes at funerals, Mistress, for fear they might be mistaken for members of my guild, which would be a slander of the dead—in most cases. Now here is the scarf. See how pretty it is? Is it what you call a finding?”

She nodded. “The whips leave them, and what you ought to do is push them out through the space under the doors. Because they’ll come and take their things back.” Her eyes were no longer on mine. She was looking at the scar that ran across my right cheek.

I touched it. “These are the whips? The ones who do this? Who are they? I saw a green face.”

“So did I.” Her laughter held the notes of little bells. “I thought it was going to eat me.”

“You don’t sound frightened now.”

“Mama says the things you see in the dark don’t mean anything—they’re different almost every time. It’s the whips that hurt, and she held me behind her, between her and the wall. Your friend is waking up. Why are you looking so funny?”

(I recalled laughing with other people; three were young men, two were women of about my own age. Guibert handed me a scourge with a heavy handle and a lash of braided copper. Lollian was preparing the firebird, which he would twirl on a long cord.)

“Severian!” It was Jonas, and I hurried over. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said when I was squatting beside him. “I … thought you’d gone away.”

“I could hardly do that, remember?”

“Yes,” he said. “I remember now. Do you know what this place is called, Severian? They told me yesterday. It’s the antechamber. I see you already knew.”

“No.”

“You nodded.”

“I recalled the name when you pronounced it, and I knew it was the right one. I … Thecla was here,