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"Then can't you understand that it's the same way here? When ere at the top of the steps and you looked down and saw these gardens, could you ?"

"No," I admitted "There were pylons and spires in the way, and the corner of the embankment"

"And even so, could you delilasswere"

"Then how can you ask the questions you do? Or if you have to ask them, can't you understand that I don't necessarily have the answers? From the sound of the smilodon's roar, I kneas far off Perhaps he is not here at all, or perhaps the distance is of ti, I saw a faceted dome Nohen I look up, I see only the sky between the leaves and vines"

"The surfaces of the facets are large It ia said

We walked on, wading a trickle of water in which a reptile with evil teeth and a finned back soaked hi he would dart at our feet "I grant," I told her, "that the trees grow too thickly here to perh the opening where this freshet runs Upstrealeah it empties into a lake"

"I warned you that the roo It is also said that the walls of these places are specula, whose reflective power creates the appearance of vast space"

"I once kneoman who had met Father Inire She told me a tale about him Would you like to hear it?"

"Suit yourself"

Actually it was I anted to hear the story, and I did suit myself: I told it toit there hardly less than I had heard it first when Thecla's hands, white and cold as lilies taken frorave filled with rain, lay clasped between my own

"I was thirteen, Severian, and I had a friend nairl who looked several years younger than she really was Perhaps that's why he took a fancy to her"

"I know you know nothing of the House Absolute You must takethere are two mirrors Each is three or four ells wide, and each extends to the ceiling There's nothing between the two except a few dozen strides of marble floor In other words, anyone alks down the Hall of Meaning sees himself infinitely es in its twin"

"Naturally, it's an attractive spot when you're a girl and fancy yourself soht, turning around and around to show off new ca candelabra so one was on the left of oneone - at opposite corners if you see what Iat ourselves that we didn't notice Father Inire until he was only a step away Ordinarily, you understand, ould have run and hiddenhih he was scarcely taller than we He wore iridescent robes that seeray when I looked at them, as if they had been dyed inat yourselves like that,' he said 'There's an ilass and creeps into the eyes of those who look into it'"

"I knehat he meant, and blushed But Domnina said, 'I think I've seen hi?'"

"Father Inire did not hesitate before he answered her, or even blink - still, I understood that he was startled He said, 'No, that is someone else, dulcinea Can you see him plainly? No? Then come into my presence chamber tomorrow a little after Nones, and I'll show hihtened when he left Doo I applauded her resolution and tried to strengthen her in it More to the point, we arranged that she should stay with ht and the next day"

"It was all for nothing A little before the appointed time, a servant in a livery neither of us had ever seen came for poor Doiven a set of paper figures There were soubrettes, coluurantes, and so on - the usual thing I remember that I waited on theseat all afternoon for Do their costu theames she and I would play when she came back"

"At last ht Father Inire had killed Domnina, or that he had sent her back to her ain Just as I was finishing o to answer the door, then Doet her face - it was as white as the faces of the dolls She cried and ot the story out of her"

"The h halls she hadn't known existed That, you understand, Severian, was frightening in itself We both thought ourselves perfectly fa of the House Absolute Eventually he had led her into what e roos of a solid, dark red and almost no furniture except for vases taller than a man and wider than she could spread her arms"

"In the center hat she at first took to be a rooonal and painted with labyrinths Over it, just visible from where she stood at the entrance to the presence chahtest lamp she had ever seen It was blue-white, she said, and so brilliant an eagle could not have kept his eyes on it"

"She had heard the click of the bolt when the door had been closed behind her There was no other exit she could see She ran to the curtains hoping to find another door behind theht walls painted with labyrinths opened and Father Inire stepped out Behind hiht"

"'There you are,' he said 'You've coht You can watch the setting of the hook, and learn by whatnet' He took her aronal enclosure"

At this point I was forced to interrupt h a section of the path al to yourself," she said "I can hear youmyself the story I mentioned to you You seemed to have no wish to hear it, and I wanted to listen to it again - besides, it concerns the specula of Father Inire, and may contain hints useful to us"

"Domnina dreay In the center of the enclosure, just under the laht It was never still, she said It s, never leaving a space thatIt did indeed reli ever had - a fish swi in air, confined to an invisible bowl Father Inire drew the wall of the octagon closed behind them It was a , indefinite robes reflected Her own forirl - her own face peering over her shoulder; then another and another and another, each with a smaller face behind it And so on ad infinitum, an endless chain of fainter Domnina-faces"

"She realized when she saw theh which she had passed faced another ht of the blue-white laht by theht pass silver balls, interlacing and intertwining in an interminable dance In the center, the fish flickered to and fro, a thing forht"