Epiphany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe Read Free Book Online Page B

liturgy you know. And I saw-The gods provide us such graces! I looked into his wound, there where the chest plate's sprung. They train us, you know, at the schola, to repair Sacred Windows."
    Afraid to stand near the edge of the talus's back, he crawled across it to the motionless soldier, pointing. "I was quite good at it. And-And I've had occasion since to-to help various chems. Dying chems, you understand."
    He took the gammadion from about his neck and held it up for Auk's inspection. "This is Pas's voided cross. You've seen it many times, I'm sure. But you can undo the catches and open up a chem with the pieces. Watch. "
    Deftly he removed the sprung plate. There was a ragged hole near its center, through which he thrust his forefinger. "Here's where a flechette went in."
    Auk was peering at the mass of mechanisms the plate had concealed. "I see little specks of light."
    "Certainly you do!" Incus was triumphant. "What you're seeing is what I saw under this plate when I was bringing him the Pardon of Pas. His primary cable had been severed, and those are the ends of the fibers. It's exactly as if your spinal cord were cut."
    Dace asked, "Can't you splice her?"
    "Indeed!" Incus positively glowed. "Such is the mercy of Pas! Such is his concern for us, his adopted sons, that here upon the back of this valiant talus is the one man who can in actual fact restore him to health and strength."
    "So he can kill us?" Auk inquired dryly Incus hesitated, his eyes wary, one hand upraised. The talus was advandng even more slowly now, so that the chill wind that had whistled around them before the shooting began had sunk to the merest breeze. Chenille (who had been lying flat on the slanted plate that was the talus's back) sat up, covering her bare breasts with her forearms.
    "Why, ah, no," Incus said at last. He took a diminutive black device rather like a pair of very small tongs or large tweezers from a pocket of his robe. "This is an opticsynapter, an extremely valuable tool. With it-Well, look there."
    He pointed again. "That black cylinder is the triplex, the part corresponding to your heart. It's idling right now, but it pressurizes his working fluid so that he can move his limbs. The primary cable runs to his microbank-this big silver thing below the triplex-conveying instructions from his postprocessor."
    Chenille asked, "Can you really bring him back to life?"
    Incus looked frightened. "If he were dead, I could not, Superlative Scylla-"
    "I'm not her. I'm me." For a moment it seemed that she might weep again. "Just me. You don't even know me, Patera, and I don't know you."
    "I don't know you either," Auk said. "Remember that? Only I'd like to meet you sometime. How about it?"
    She swallowed, but did not speak.
    "Good girl!" Oreb informed them. Neither Incus nor Dace ventured to say anything, and the silence became oppressive.
    With an arm of his gammadion, Incus removed the soldier's skull plate. After a scrutiny Auk felt sure had taken half an hour at least, he worked one end of a second gamma between two thread-like wires.
    And the soldier spoke: "K-thirty-four, twelve. A-thirty-four, ninety-seven. B-thirty-four…"
    Incus removed the gamma, telling Dace, "He was scanning, do you follow me? It's as if you were to consult a physician. He might listen to your chest and tell you to cough."
    Dace shook his head. "You make this sojer well, an' he could kill all on board, like the big feller says. I says we shoves him over the side."
    "He won't." Incus bent over the soldier again.
    Chenille extended a hand to Dace. "I'm sorry about your boat, Captain, and I'm sorry I hit you. Can we be friends? I'm Chenille."
    Dace took it in his own large, gnarled hand, then released it to tug the bill of his cap. "Dace, ma'am. I never did hold nothin' agin you."
    "Thank you, Captain. Patera, I'm Chenille."
    Incus glanced up from the soldier. "You asked whether I could restore life, my daughter. He isn't dead, merely unable to actuate those parts