Free Epiphany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe Page A

could. If we had blankets or-or anything we could beat it out with."
    " I die! Hear me! "
    "I just wanted to say we're sorry." She glanced back at the four men, and Dace nodded.
    " I serve Scylla! You must! "
    Incus drew himself up to his full height. "You may rely upon me to do everything in my power to carry out the goddess's will. I speak here for my friend Corporal Hammerstone, as well as for myself."
    " The Ayuntamiento has betrayed her! Destroy it! "
    Hammerstone snapped to attention. "Request permission to speak, Talus."
    The slender black barrel of one buzz gun trembled and the gun fired, its burst whistling five cubits above their heads and sending screaming ricochets far down the tunnel.
    "Maybe you better not," Auk whispered. He raised his voice, "Scylla told us Patera Silk was trying to overthrow them, and ordered us to help him. We will if we can. That's Chenille and me, and his bird."
    " Tell the Juzgado! "
    "Right, she said to." Dace and Incus nodded.
    A tongue of flame licked the talus's cheek. " The tessera! Thetis! To the subceltar… " An interior explosion rocked it.
    Needlessly, Auk shouted, "Get back!" As they fled down the tunnel, fire veiled the great metal face.
    "She's done fer now! She's goin' down!" Dace was slower even than Auk, who tottered on legs weaker than he had known since infancy.
    A second muffled explosion, then silence except for the sibilation of the flames. Hammerstone, who had been matching strides with Auk, broke step to snatch up a slug gun. "This was a sleeper's," he told Auk cheerfully. "See how shiny the receiver is? Probably never been fired. I couldn't go back for mine 'cause I was supposed to watch you. Mine's had about five thousand rounds through it." He put the new slug gun to his shoulder and sighted down the barrel.
    Oreb squawked, and Auk said, "Careful there! You might hit Jugs."
    "Safety's on." Hammerstone lowered the gun. "You knew her before, huh?"
    Auk nodded and slowed his pace enough to allow Dace to catch up. "Since spring, I guess it was."
    "I had a girl myself once," Hammerstone told him. "She was a housemaid, but you'd never have guessed it to look at her. Pretty as a picture."
    Auk nodded. "What happened?"
    "I had to go on reserve. I went to sleep, and when I woke up I wasn't stationed in the city any more. Maybe I should've gone looking for Moly." He shrugged. "Only I figured by then she'd found somebody else. Just about all of them had."
    "You'll find somebody, too, if you want to," Auk assured him. He paused to look back up the tunnel; the talus was still in view but seemed remote, a dot of orange fire no larger than the closest light. "You could be dead," he said. "Suppose Patera hadn't fixed you up?"
    Hammerstone shook his head. "I can't ever pay him. I can't even show how much I love him, really. We can't cry. You know about that?"
    "Poor thing!" Oreb sounded shocked.
    Auk told him, "You can't cry either, cully."
    "Bird cry!"
    "You meatheads are always talking about how good us chems have it," Hammerstone continued. "Good means not being able to eat, and duty seventy-four, maybe a hundred and twenty, hours at a stretch. Good means sleeping so long the Whorl changes, and you got to learn new procedures for everything. Good means seven or eight tinpots after every woman. You want to try it?"
    "Shag, no!"
    Dace caught Auk's arm. "Thanks for waitin' up."
    Auk shook him off. "I can't go all that fast myself."
    More cheerfully Hammerstone said, "I could carry you both, only I'm not supposed to. Patera wouldn't like it."
    Dace's grin revealed a dark gap from which two teeth were missing. "Mama, don't put me on no boat!"
    Auk chuckled.
    "He means well," Hammerstone assured them. "He cares about me. That's one reason I'd die for him."
    Auk suppressed his first thought and substituted, "Don't you think about your old knot any more? The other soldiers?"
    "Sure I do. Only Patera comes first."
    Auk nodded.
    "You got to consider the whole setup. Our top commander