“So go,” Gentle said. “Leave me to her tender mercies. But you’ll have to pick the fluff from between my teeth.”
He found Mother Splendid in the kitchen, kneading dough for the morrow’s bread.
“You’ve honored our home, coming here and sharing our table,” she said as she worked. “And please, don’t think badly of me for asking, but. . .”—her voice became a frightened whisper—“what do you want?”
“Nothing,” Gentle replied. “You’ve already been more than generous.”
She looked at him balefully, as though he was being cruel, teasing her in this fashion.
“I’ve dreamt about somebody coming here,” she said. “White and furless, like you. I wasn’t sure whether it was a man or a woman, but now you’re here, sitting at the table, I know it was you.”
First Tick Raw, he thought, now Mother Splendid. What was it about his face that made people think they knew him? Did he have a doppelganger wandering around the Fourth?
“Who do you think I am?” he said.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “But I knew that when you came everything would change.”
Her eyes suddenly filled with tears as she spoke, and they ran down the silky fur on her cheeks. The sight of her distress in turn distressed him, not least because he knew he was the cause of it, but he didn’t know why. Undoubtedly she had dreamt of him—the look of shocked recognition on her face when he’d first stepped over the threshold was ample evidence of that—but what did that fact signify? He and Pie were here by chance. They’d be gone again by morning, passing through the millpond of Beatrix leaving nary a ripple. He had no significance in the life of the Splendid household, except as a subject of conversation when he’d gone.
“I hope your life doesn’t change,” he said to her. “It seems very pleasant here.”
“It is,” she said, wiping the tears away. “This is a safe place. It’s good to raise children here. I know Efreet will leave soon. He wants to see Patashoqua, and I won’t be able to stop him. But Emblem will stay. He likes the hills, and tending the doeki.”
“And you’ll stay too?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve done my wandering,” she said. “I lived in Yzordderrex, near the Oke T’Noon, when I was young. That’s where I met Eloign. We moved away as soon as we were married. It’s a terrible city, Mr. Gentle.”
“If it’s so bad, why did he go back there?”
“His brother joined the Autarch’s army, and when Eloign heard he went back to try and make him desert. He said it brought shame on the family to have a brother taking a wage from an orphan-maker.”
“A man of principle.”
“Oh, yes,” said Larumday, with fondness in her voice. “He’s a fine man. Quiet, like Emblem, but with Efreet’s curiosity. All the books in this house are his. There’s nothing he won’t read.”
“How long has he been away?”
“Too long,” she said. “I’m afraid perhaps his brother’s killed him.”
“A brother kill a brother?” Gentle said. “No. I can’t believe that.”
“Yzordderrex does strange things to people, Mr. Gentle. Even good men lose their way.”
“Only men?” Gentle said.
“It’s men who make this world,” she said. “The Goddesses have gone, and men have their way everywhere.”
There was no accusation in this. She simply stated it as fact, and he had no evidence to contradict it with. She asked him if he’d like her to brew tea, but he declined, saying he wanted to go out and take the air, perhaps find Pie ‘oh’ pah.
“She’s very beautiful,” Larumday said. “Is she wise as well?”
“Oh, yes,” he said. “She’s wise.”
“That’s not usually the way with beauties, is it?” she said. “It’s strange that I didn’t dream her at the table too.”
“Maybe you did, and you’ve forgotten.”
She shook her head. “Oh, no, I’ve had the dream too many times, and it’s always the same: a white furless someone sitting at my table, eating with me and my sons.”
“I wish I could have been a more sparkling guest,” he said.
“But you’re just the beginning, aren’t you?” she said. “What comes after?”