I think it was on the second morning we were in New Viron that he told me he had been troubled in the night. We slept on the boat the first night. Next day Uncle Calf invited us to stay with him, like Hide and I and Vadsig did before. I slept in the room that had been ours, and he slept in the one that had been Vadsig's.
"I have had a great many strange dreams in my life, Hoof," he said, "as I imagine everyone my age has; but I have never had even one as strange as this. I woke in the middle of the night, as I often do. I got up and relieved myself, walked around the room, looked out the window at the stars, and returned to bed."
"What was your dream?" I asked him.
"I was lying in bed; and Scylla was somewhere in the dark, up near the ceiling. She spoke to me, and I sat up thinking that I was awake and would no longer hear her. I put my feet over the edge of the bed. It was very strange."
I asked who Scylla was, and he said that she was a goddess, and had been patroness of Viron back in the old whorl; when he said that, I remembered Mother talking about her. There was a big lake there and Scylla was the goddess of the lake. They had gods and goddesses for all sorts of things.
"Scylla possessed a woman I knew once," he told me. "She was willful and violent."
I said, "But the Scylla you dreamed wasn't the real goddess, was it?" and I asked him if there had ever been a real Scylla.
"Yes," he said. "Yes, that's the terrible part." Then he said something I did not understand at all: "I feel sorry for Beroep." Beroep was a man we used to know in Dorp.
For the next two or three days, he stayed up late walking the streets at night or sitting in taverns. I went with him the first night. After that I got Aunt Cowslip's son Cricket to watch our boat so Babbie could come with us. We took his bird too, and even if it could not fight it made a good lookout, warning us about people behind us or watching from shadows.
Sometimes he spoke to these people, asking questions. When he thought he had their friendship, he asked them about strangers and the sick. Sometimes we looked for the sick people afterward so he could talk to them and the people who took care of them. Once we found a man that no one was taking care of and spent half a day cleaning and feeding him, and finding somebody who would. Soon people began bringing their sick and asking Father to pray for them.
"If Scylla were here, I'd ask her to heal you," he told one woman. "Scylla is not here-though she may like to think she is-and is no longer a goddess in any case, not even in Old Viron." The woman asked him to pray to Scylla just the same, and he prayed to whatever gods might hear him.
Gyrfalcon sent men for us. They wanted me to go back to Uncle's and take Babbie and the bird, but Father would not go unless we came with him. They said they would make him.
"By shooting me? Gyrfalcon will be furious when he finds out you killed me."
Their leader said, "We'll pick you up and carry you, if we have to."
"You cannot," he told him. The leader grabbed for him, but Father knocked him down with his stick. Another man aimed his slug gun at him, but Babbie knocked him off his feet and opened his leg from his knee to his belt. A lot of people were watching by then.
Gyrfalcon had a big house south of town. He met us on the walk, and shook hands. "So," he said, "have you come to take New Viron from me?" Father smiled and said he had not, and we went into a garden behind the house and sat down at a little round table. The crocuses were up, the blue cup-o'-scents, and many other beautiful flowers that grow from bulbs; but the apple trees had not bloomed yet.
Father got the little knife out of his pen case and ripped the hem of his robe. There were grains of corn in there, black, red, and white. He gave them all to Gyrfalcon. "Cross these," he said, "but always keep the pure strains for the years to come. New Viron will never go hungry."
Gyrfalcon took them, tied them up in his handkerchief, and put it in a pocket inside his tunic. Father cried then for a long time.
Servants with chains brought us wine and food, both very good. I ate and gave some to Babbie, and drank more than I should have.
"Is this your father?" Gyrfalcon asked me, and I said it was. I felt really brave.
"I don't recognize him."
I said, "Well, I do."
"If this is your father, where is Calde Silk?" Gyrfalcon thought he was being very smart when he asked that.
"In a book my mother and father wrote," I told him.
"You are Horn? The same Horn I spoke to a couple of years ago when we got the invitation from Pajarocu?"
"I am," Father said.
"You live on Lizard, near the tail, and make paper?"
He nodded.
"Nettle's husband?"
"Yes, and the father of Sinew, Hoof, and Hide. I am also the father of Krait and Jahlee, neither of whom you know or will ever know-both are dead. If you wish to continue to explore family connections, I am the father-in-law of a woman named Bala. She is Sinew's wife. I am the grandfather of their sons Shauk and Karn, as well."
Gyrfalcon smiled. "The founder of a family. I congratulate you."
The bird seemed to understand Father was being praised, and it called out, "Good Silk!" three or four times.
"Yes, I am." For a few seconds he sat scratching Babbie's ears. "My son Hide will come here soon with my wife and my daughter-inlaw to be, Vadsig. They will be married by Patera Remora. My brother Calf and his wife are making arrangements."
"Assisted by you, financially. So I've heard."
"Correct. They know the town, as Hoof and I do not."
I spoke up then even though I should not have, saying I had been learning a good deal about it recently.
"Prowling over it at night with your... Father? Sitting in bottle shops. Who are you looking for?"
I said I did not know.
"Who are you looking for, Horn? As calde of our city, I think myself entitled to ask."
"By name?" He shrugged. He had not eaten a bite till then, but he picked up a sparkle and began to peel it. "For a friend, that's all. I don't know his name. Or hers. I'll learn it when I find the person."
"You have graciously answered all my questions," Gyrfalcon said. He was making fun of Father, but you could tell he admired him too. "Will you tolerate a few more?"
"If you will tolerate one from me. Will you come-or at least consider coming-to my son's wedding? It would be a great honor for him and his wife, and for our entire family. I'm taking advantage of your hospitality, I realize."
Gyrfalcon stared, then laughed. He has a big booming laugh. "You want me at your son's wedding?"
"Yes," Father said, "I do. I want you there very much, if you will come. All of us will be delighted, I'm sure."
"Let me think now." Still grinning, Gyrfalcon sipped a little wine. "You promised to answer some more questions for me if I would answer that one. I suppose you meant if I would give you an answer you liked."