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"You don't knohat he is, do you?"

"And you do?"

The one called Racho nodded "Froer?"

"From the Matachin Tower Master Gurloes sends htened "You are a torturer, then"

"Only an apprentice, sieur"

"I don't wonder then that allery to the third door, make your turn and continue about a hundred paces, cli and take the corridor south to the double doors at the end"

"Thank you," I said, and took a step in the direction he had indicated

"Wait a bit If you go noe'll have to look at you"

Racho said, "I'd as soon have him ahead of us as behind us"

I waited nonetheless, with one hand resting on the leg of the ladder, for the two of them to turn a corner

Like one of those half-spiritual friends who in dreams address us from the clouds, the old man said, "So you're a torturer, are you? Do you know, I've never been to your place" He had a weak glance, rehtened on the banks of Gyoll, and a nose and chin that nearly met

"Grant I never see you there," I said politely

"Nothing to fear now What could you do with a man like e into his bucket and atteh no sound cah Behind the Witches' Keep Isn't that right?"

"Yes," I said, a trifle surprised that the witches were better known than we

"Thought so Nobody never talks about it, though You're angry about those arht to kno it is with them They're supposed to be like exultants, only they're not They're afraid to die, afraid to hurt, and afraid to act like it It's hard on them"

"They should be done aith," I said "Vodalus would set thee - what possible help can they give the world?"

The old in? Do you know?"

When I aded s and wrinkled neck; his hands were as long as ers laced with blue veins "I'm Rudesind the curator You know old Ultan, I take it? No, course not If you did, you'd know the way to the Library"

I said, "I've never been in this part of the Citadel before"

"Never been here? Why, this is the best part Art, irls dressing another one with flowers that's so real you expect the bees to come out of it A Quartillosa, too Not popular anymore, Quartillosa isn't, or ouldn't have hihtsman than the drippers and spitters they're wild for today We get what the House Absolute don't want, you see That et the old ones, and they're the best, , and I clean the here a tiot a Fechin here It's the truth! Or you take this one now Like it?"

It seemed safe to say I did

"Third time for it When I was new coht me how to clean This was the one he used, because he said it wasn't worth nothing He begun down here in this corner When he'd did about as much as you could cover with one hand, he turned it over to me and I did the rest Back when ain That would be after our second girl was born It wasn't all that dark, but I had things onto do Today I took the notion to clean it again And it needs it - see how nice it's brightening up? There's your blue Urth coain, fresh as the Autarch's fish"

All this ti in my mind I felt certain the old man had come down from his ladder only because I had mentioned it, and I wanted to ask hi the conversation around to it When I had been silent aand was afraid he was about to ed to say, "Is that the moon? I have been told it's more fertile"

"Now it is, yes This was done before they got it irrigated See that gray-brown? In those tireen like she is now Didn't see either, because it wasn't so close in - that's what old Branwallader used to say Now there's trees enough on it to hide Nilaoes"

I seized my opportunity "Or Vodalus"

Rudesind cackled "Or hi their hands waiting to have hiuild had particular excruciations reserved for specific individuals, I knew nothing of it; but I endeavored to look wise and said, "We'll think of soh, I thought you was for hi in the Forests of Lune" Rudesind looked up at the picture with obvious appreciation before turning back toYou want to visit our Master Ultan Go back to that arch you just coer told me"

The old curator blew those directions to the winds with a puff of sour breath "What he laid doould only get you to the Reading Rooet to Ultan, if ever you did No, step back to that arch Go through and all the way to the end of the big room there, and down the stair You'll come to a locked door - pound till somebody lets you in That's the bottom of the stacks, and that's where Ultan has his study"

Since Rudesind atching I followed his directions, though I had not liked the part about the locked door, and steps doard suggested Ithose ancient tunnels where I had wandered looking for Triskele

On the whole I felt far less confident than when I was in those parts of the Citadel that I knew I have learned since that strangers who visit it are awed by its size; but it is only a reithin the gray curtain wall, and have learned the names and relationships of the hundred or so landmarks necessary to those ould find their way in it, are by that very knowledge discoions

So it ith h the arch the old man had indicated Like the rest of that vaulted hall it was of dull, reddish brick, but it was upheld by two pillars whose capitals bore the faces of sleepers, and I found the silent lips and pale, closed eyes onized masks painted on the metal of our oer

Each picture in the room beyond contained a book Sometimes they were many, or prominent; some I had to study for so froely wrought spool held words spun like thread

The steps were narrow and steep and without railings; they twisted as they descended, so that I had not gone down ht of the room above was nearly cut off At last I was forced to put my hands before me and feel my way for fear I would break ers never encountered it Instead the steps ended (and I nearly fell in stepping off a step that was not there), and I was left to grope across an uneven floor in total darkness

"Who's there?" a voice called It was a strangely resonant one, like the sound of a bell tolled inside a cave

Chapter 6