“My middle name is Francis,” Burton said, grinning. “So I’ll be frank with you. I don’t like you. I never have. You’ve changed character, true. But I can’t forgive what you did to me and my friends. It’s a case of forgiving but not forgetting. Though I suppose that fundamentally the two are the same.”
Goring waved his hands imploringly.
“That is the burden I must carry. I deserve it, and I won’t be able to put it down until every person who knows my evil deeds has truly forgiven me. But that is not the issue now. What is, is that I can be of great help. I am quick and strong and very determined and not unintelligent. Also…”
“Also, you’re a Second Chancer, a pacifist,” Burton said. “What use would you be if we have to fight?”
Goring said, fiercely, “I won’t compromise my principles! I will not shed the blood of another human! But I doubt very much that you’ll have to fight. The area upstream is thinly populated and becoming thinner every day. Haven’t you seen the many boats coming through the strait? The news is out that the Virolanders are leaving. The people up-River are deserting their cold land to settle down here.”
“There may well be a fight,” Burton said. “If we catch up with those agents, we’ll try to make them talk. And when we get into the tower.. .who knows what we’ll find there? We may have to battle for our lives.”
“Will you take me?”
“No. That’s final! I don’t care to discuss this anymore. Ever!”
He strode away while Goring roared, “If you won’t take me, I’ll go alone!”
Burton glanced back then. The man’s face was red, and he was shaking his fist. Burton smiled. Even the ethically advanced bishops of the Church could get angry.
When Burton looked back orice more, he saw Goring walking swiftly toward the temple, his face set. Evidently, he was on his way to tell La Viro that he was not obeying his orders to go down-River.
That night, the eleven, headed by Burton, overpowered the guards on the Post No Bills. They came up from The Riverside, having swum silently to the railing, and boarded the port side. Two of the guards ^were sitting on the starboard railing and talking. These were grabbed from behind, and their noses and mouths were gripped until they passed out from lack of air. At the same time, Joe Miller entered the launch from the bankside. After a few words with the remaining sentinel, he seized him and carried him struggling to the bow and cast him into the water.
“Jethuth!” he called out to the yelling guard. “I hate to do thith, Thmith, but I got a higher duty! Give my regretth to Kimon!”
After the guards had been thrown off, Burton’s group carried aboard their grails and other possessions and some long ropes and tools which had been brought up by divers from the Not For Hire. Aphra Behn turned on the electricity. As soon as the last of the supplies had been thrown onto the deck and the tie lines loosed, she took the boat away. It was shortly going at its top speed while behind them torches flared and men and women yelled.
It was not until the launch had gotten through the strait that Burton felt they had really begun the next-to-last stage of the long, long journey.
Burton thought briefly about X. According to Cyrano’s story of X’s visit to him, X had told him to relay to the recruits that they should wait a year for X at Virolando. Burton didn’t want to do this and neither did his colleagues. They were going on now.
Traveling against the shoreline current at thirty miles per hour and only stopping for two hours each day, the Post No Bills averaged 660 miles every twenty-four hours. When they had to abandon the boat, they still had some distance to go, the most difficult part of the journey. Before that, they’d have to stop and catch fish to smoke and make acorn bread and collect bamboo tips. These would not be all they’d have to eat, though. They carried twenty “free grails” some of which they’d owned and some of which they’d stolen. They planned to fill these before getting to the final grailstone in order to have extra provisions. The food which would decay swiftly would be kept in the launch’s refrigerator or dragged behind in a cask in the cold water.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201