Read Online Nightside the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe - Free Book Online Page B

will find new manteions for us. Better manteions, I think, because it would be difficult to find worse ones. I’ll go on teaching and assisting, and you’ll go on sacrificing and shriving. It will be all right.”
    â€œI received enlightenment today,” Silk said. “I’ve told no one except a man I met in the street on my way to the market and you, and neither of you have believed me.”
    â€œPatera—”
    â€œSo it’s clear that I’m not telling it very well, isn’t it? Let me see if I can’t do better.” He was silent for a moment, rubbing his cheek.
    â€œI’d been praying and praying for help. Praying mostly to the Nine, of course, but praying to every god and goddess in the Writings at one time or another; and about noon today my prayers were answered by the Outsider, as I’ve told you. Maytera, do you…” His voice quavered, and he found that he could not control it. “Do you know what he said to me, Maytera? What he told me?”
    Her hands closed upon his until their grip was actually painful. “Only that he has instructed you to preserve our manteion. Please tell me the rest, if you can.”
    â€œYou’re right, Maytera. It isn’t easy. I had always thought enlightenment would be a voice out of the sun, or in my own head, a voice that spoke in words. But it’s not like that at all. He whispers to you in so many voices, and the words are living things that show you. Not just seeing, the way you might see another person in a glass, but hearing and smelling—and touch and pain, too, but all of them wrapped together so they become the same, parts of that one thing.
    â€œAnd you understand. When I say he showed me, or that he told me something, that’s what I mean.”
    Maytera Marble nodded encouragingly.
    â€œHe showed me all the prayers that have ever been said to any god for this manteion. I saw all the children at prayer from the time it was first built, their mothers and fathers too, and people who just came in to pray, or came to one of our sacrifices because they hoped to get a piece of meat, and prayed while they were here.
    â€œAnd I saw the prayers of all you sibyls, from the very beginning. I don’t ask you to believe this, Maytera, but I’ve seen every prayer you’ve ever said for our manteion, or for Maytera Rose and Maytera Mint, or for Patera Pike and me, and—well, for everyone in this whole quarter, thousands and thousands of prayers. Prayers on your knees and prayers standing up, and prayers you said while you were cooking and scrubbing floors. There used to be a Maytera Milkwort here, and I saw her praying, and a Maytera Betel, a big dark woman with sleepy eyes.” Silk paused for breath. “Most of all, I saw Patera Pike.”
    â€œThis is wonderful!” Maytera Marble exclaimed. “It must have been marvelous, Patera.” Silk knew it was impossible, that it was only their crystalline lenses catching the light, but it seemed to him that her eyes shone.
    â€œAnd the Outsider decided to grant all those prayers. He told Patera Pike, and Patera Pike was so happy! Do you remember the day I came here from the schola, Maytera?”
    Maytera Marble nodded again.
    â€œThat was the day. The Outsider granted Patera Pike enlightenment that day, and he said—he said, here’s the help that I’m—that I’m…”
    Silk had begun to weep, and was suddenly ashamed. It was raining harder now, as if encouraged by the tears that streaked his cheeks and chin. Maytera Marble pulled a big, clean, white handkerchief out of her sleeve and gave it to him.
    She’s always so practical, he thought, wiping his eyes and nose. A handkerchief for the little ones; she must have a child sobbing in her class every day. The record of her days is written in tears, and today I’m that sobbing child. He managed to say, “Your children can’t often be