Page 8 (1/2)

"Then a ht hand and in his left as well Is it in each finger too?"

"I believe each participant must consume more than a mouthful for the practice to be effective But I suppose that in theory at least, what you say is correct The entire life is in each finger"

We were already walking back in the direction we had come Since the aisle was too narrow for us to pass one another, I now carried the candelabru us, would surely have thought I lighted his way "But Master," I said, "how can that be? By the saer, and surely that is i is a man's life?" asked Ultan

"I have no way of knowing, but isn't it larger than that?"

"You see it fro it from its termination, kno little there has been I suppose that is why the depraved creatures who devour the bodies of the dead seek more Let ly resembles his father?"

"I have heard it said, yes And I believe it," I answered I could not help thinking as I did of the parents I would never know

"Then it is possible, you will agree, since each son enerations That is, if the son resembles the father, and his son resembles him, and that son's son reserandson, reserandfather"

"Yes," I said

"Yet the seed of all of them was contained in a drachm of sticky fluid If they did not come from there, from where did they come?"

I couldin puzzleh which I had entered this lowest level of the great library Here wethe other books mentioned in Master Gurloes's letter I took theratefully left the stifling atmosphere of the library stacks To the upper levels of that place I returned several tiain entered that tomblike cellar, or ever wished to

One of the three volue as the top of a sht; from the arms impressed upon its saffian cover, I supposed it to be the history of soreen book hardly larger than er appeared to be a collection of devotions, full of enameled pictures of ascetic pantocrators and hypostases with black halos and ge a little, forgotten garden full of winter sunshine with a dry fountain

Before I had so much as opened any of the other volumes, I felt that pressure of time that is perhaps the surest indication we have left childhood behind I had already been tatches at least on a siathered up the books and hurried along, though I did not know it, to meet my destiny and eventually myself in the Chatelaine Thecla

Chapter 7

THE TRAITRESS

It was already time for me to carry their meals to the journeye of the first level, and I brought his last because I wanted to talk to hiain The truth was that endered by my visit to the archivist, and I wanted to tell him about them

He was nowhere to be seen I put his tray and the four books on his table and shouted for hi call frorilledset at eye level in the door; the client, a wasted-looking woe, was stretched on her cot Drotte leaned over her, and there was blood on the floor

He was too occupied to turn his head "Is that you, Severian?"

"Yes I've got your supper, and books for the Chatelaine Thecla Can I do anything to help?"

"She'll be all right Tore her dressings off and tried to bleed herself to death, but I got to her in tiht finish shoving their food at the rest for ot a moment"

I hesitated Apprentices were not supposed to deal with those couild's care

"Go ahead All you have to do is poke the trays through the slots"

"I brought the books"

"Poke those through the slot too"

For a moment more I watched him as he bent over the livid woman on the cot; then I turned away, found the undistributed trays, and began to do as he had asked Most of the clients in the cells were still strong enough to rise and take the food as I passed it through A feere not, and I left their trays outside their doors for Drotte to carry in later There were several aristocratic-looking women, but none who seemed likely to be the Chatelaine Thecla, a newly-co - to be treated with deference

As I should have guessed, she was in the last cell It had been furnished with a carpet in addition to the usual bed, chair, and soide sleeves The ends of those sleeves and the heown still preserved an air of elegance as foreign to me as it was to the cell itself When I first saw her, she was ehtened by a silver reflector; but she ratify me now to say there was no fear in her face, yet it would not be true There was terror there, though controlled nearly to invisibility

"It's all right," I said "I've brought your food"

She nodded and thanked me, then rose and came to the door She was taller even than I had expected, nearly too tall to stand upright in the cell Her face, though it was triangular rather than heart-shaped, reminded me of the woman who had been with Vodalus in the necropolis Perhaps it was her great violet eyes, with their lids shaded with blue, and the black hair that, forested the hood of a cloak Whatever the reason, I loved her at once - loved her, at least, insofar as a stupid boy can love But being only a stupid boy, I did not know it

Her white hand, cold, slightly damp, and impossibly narrow, touched mine as she took the tray froet so a mask," she said "Yours is the first human face I've seen here"

"I'm only an apprentice I won't be masked until next year" She smiled, and I felt as I had when I had been in the Atrium of Time and had come inside to a warm room and food She had narrow, very white teeth in a wide mouth; her eyes, each as deep as the cistern beneath the Bell Keep, shone when she smiled

"I'm sorry," I said "I didn't hear you"

The sain and she tilted her lovely head to one side "I told you how happy I was to see your face, and asked if you would bring ht me"

"No No, I won't be Only today, because Drotte is occupied" I tried to recall what her meal had been (she had put the tray on her little table, where I could not see its contents through the grill) I could not, though I nearly burst my brain with the effort At last I said laet better food if you ask Drotte"

"Why, I intend to eat it People have always coure, but believe me, I eat like a dire wolf" She picked up the tray and held it out tothe mystery of its contents

"Those are leeks, Chatelaine," I said "Those green things The brown ones are lentils And that's bread"

"'Chatelaine'? You needn't be so for you choose" There was merriment in the deep eyes now

"I have no wish to insult you," I told her "Would you rather I called you so else?"