On November 12, Hawk House was finally complete.
In the meantime, Gene stayed at Master Temena’s pottery shop. His life was in no danger, but his left arm had been badly slashed, and the exploding corpses had left wounds large and small all over his body. Once he had recovered to some degree, he asked to be sent back to his lodgings. His excuse was that, this time, he would lie quietly and properly rest. It was firmly refused. And so Gene came to memorize every price in the pottery shop. Well enough to sell the wares in the owner’s absence.
Rosa had injured only her ankle. And since she knew how to splint and bandage it herself, she had no need of separate treatment. But she could not walk far, so she mostly stayed at the house and did not see Gene.
Luke became so obsessed with rebuilding Hawk House that he almost reported there for work every day. As the work approached completion, he and Neups found ever more reasons to shout at each other. Then, toward evening, they would make peace over a drink. Only to begin fighting again the next day.
Tahyang began taking Nana out for walks on Huka. He had started because she grew bored while Rosa could not move about. But Tahyang with Huka drew attention, and Nana did too. Before long, a rumor spread throughout the city that an extraordinarily beautiful girl was going about with two large cats.
On the evening Hawk House was completed, Gene received permission to leave. He could have left earlier without much difficulty, and almost felt that Master Temena had kept him there deliberately. Perhaps someone had put him up to it. Gene resolved to discover who. Being unable to go out was trying enough, but there was someone he wanted to see, and that made it harder to bear.
When he returned to Hawk House after so long, it looked so little different from before that he doubted it had really been rebuilt. At least, that was how it appeared from the square. Reddinus had painted a fresh picture on the dirty outer wall. There were a few new letters beneath it too. The entrance, once rank with tobacco, seemed somewhat tidier. Dismounting, Gene muttered,
“Surely it won’t smell of horse piss as it did before.”
Hal, who had come to fetch him from the pottery shop, was smiling suspiciously. Fortunately, a new stable had been built outside. Gene tied his horse, climbed the steps, and opened the door.
“Welcome!”
“It’s the captain!”
The men rose in a crowd and gathered around the entrance. They had visited often, but all had eagerly awaited Gene’s return in good health, and their faces shone. Gene, however, was not looking at their faces. The first-floor interior was so absurd that he had lost the power of speech.
“What do you think?”
Luke and Neups approached with their arms around each other’s shoulders. At the sight of them, Gene shouted,
“What is all this? Who told you to do it like this?”
On the ground floor, the old stable with horse manure rolling about had faced a rotting kitchen, and horse troughs had stood in rows in the main room. Now there were sofas in green, purple, and blue-green, and silk cushions. Old walls were splendidly concealed by curtains and hangings. A long bar had been built along one side and stocked with every kind of drink and beverage. Smoothly painted tables and chairs filled the room, and chandeliers even hung from the ceiling. No wonder Gene could not close his mouth.
Luke spoke.
“Well? My sense of the latest fashions? We’ve created a patrol house without precedent. After every kind of trouble trying to decorate this place, I had a little inspiration at the Emerald Tavern… Well, to be honest, I copied it outright.”
Gene still looked uncomfortable. He had never been to the Emerald Tavern, but in truth he was accustomed to splendid surroundings. He simply did not like them. After finally escaping to Delphinad, he could hardly believe even this place had become like that. The men, however, seemed delighted. The bottles arrayed along the wall were especially popular.
But Gene disliked silk clothes too, and incense gave him a headache. And there really was incense in the air. Frowning, he muttered,
“You’ve turned our lodgings into a tavern.”
“You’re rather old-fashioned underneath, Captain. Everyone likes it. We save on drinks, and it’s atmospheric.”
“Surely men would rather live in a tavern than at home.”
Perhaps because the men approved so enthusiastically, Luke and Neups remained full of confidence despite Gene’s frown.
“Where did all the money come from, anyway?”
Luke chuckled.
“In a manner of speaking, we bought it by selling the captain. I’ll leave out the source.”
Luke had borrowed money from Leonis when he proposed the betting event on Gene’s duel. And he had put it on Nikephoros, not Gene. Had he calculated the enormous payout if it succeeded? It was certainly not because he doubted Gene’s skill… Or rather, it was. In truth, he had gambled in the belief that Nikephoros would never propose such a duel without having some trick. He had recognized that day’s earnest provocation for what it was.
Nevertheless, Luke had calmly anticipated Gene’s defeat and made every preparation to save him. Choosing a public place, gathering an audience, turning it into an entertainment, stirring up excitement through the wager: every bit of it had been part of that preparation. He insisted again and again that it had absolutely not been done to make money. He had poured those winnings into Hawk House, and they must understand his sincerity.
He insisted it to Rosa.
Rosa had nicknamed Luke the Third-Floor Resident in a Crisis, and he had been trying desperately to escape it lately. He had plainly climbed the tree to do something important, but for some reason that had only strengthened the impression.
“Are you healed now?”
Rosa rose from where she sat at the bar and approached. It was their first meeting since they had briefly seen each other after returning to Delphinad. Gene tried to smile, but somehow his expression became awkward.
“I think so. And you?”
“I’m all right.”
In truth, there was much he wanted to ask. Where she had disappeared to on the island, and how; what the bird he had glimpsed that day was; how she had learned the stories of Randri, Sidin, and young Nikephoros that he had heard while bedridden. There was no end to the questions. But he hesitated to ask before the men in case some parts were secret.
When Rosa returned to the bar, Gene gave up and sat there too. Applause broke out among the men.
“Wow, you’re settling in now, aren’t you? It’s surprisingly nice.”
They were all making a cheerful fuss. Apparently they had feared Gene might order them to restore everything. Since he was still recovering, he asked for a glass of water instead of a drink, then spoke to Rosa.
“With the atmosphere like this, will Nana be all right?”
Rosa looked around before answering.
“It’s hardly decadent. To be honest, it’s unfamiliar and rather interesting.”
At that, Gene gave up complaining too. Since she was from the north, perhaps she found a southern style of decoration fascinating. In truth, the associations it brought to Gene were rather different from Rosa’s. There was no need to explain them, of course.
Before long, Luke and Tahyang sat with the two of them. Luke brought a special ginger drink he had learned, with some difficulty, at the Emerald Tavern. Leonis’s betting shop had sold it too. Sitting together again after so long brought back their feeling on the island, when they had been prepared to die. Gene felt the reality of having gained companions with whom he had shared his life. No, friends.
“You’re all very much alive.”
“Fortunately.”
“You could call it a miracle.”
“How’s your arm?”
“All right now.”
As Gene moved his left arm to show them, Tahyang smiled and patted his shoulder.
Soon the conversation turned to Nikephoros’s final moments. No one outside the four knew he had died that way. There were no other surviving witnesses, and reporting it to the guards seemed likely to create too many misunderstandings. They had decided to leave it buried. Nikephoros was currently missing. An investigation might discover the island, but by then many traces of his death would have vanished.
At high tide, water flowed into the hall, and most of the bodies had been washed out through the same entrance by which Rosa escaped on the Snow Bird. Any intact body would have washed ashore within a few days. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, there were none.
Gene spoke.
“Nikephoros took revenge because he believed the officiant and his followers had betrayed him. But after preparing for decades, perhaps, the final fate of Sing’s people was absurd.”
“Perhaps not decades, but thousands of years. He said he was the ninety-eighth officiant. At three every hundred years, that’s about three thousand.”
At Rosa’s words, Luke tilted his head.
“After enduring that long, have they really all vanished? Might they turn up somewhere else?”
“But the tree is dead, so it won’t matter.”
After Luke took the axe handle Rosa carried and drove it into the tree, it had crumbled until it seemed beyond recovery. Perhaps it could be restored, but in any case, there was nothing more they could do. Rosa spoke.
“But that god of plunder, or whatever it was. Was it really a god?”
“They said they were gods.”
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