Gate of Horn, Book of Silk Read online

  Aloe “a pious woman of Sun Street Quarter” (III, list; III, chap. 3, 94).

  Botany: either the fragrant resin or aloes of the Bible (Agalloch), or the bitter drug or aloes proper.

  ami (cross-reference from PROCHEIN AMI) “a French word, signifying, friend. Prochein ami, (q. v.) the next friend. Alien ami, a foreigner, the citizen or subject of some friendly power or prince” (BLD).

  Commentary: Ranjit notes, “Surely Quetzal is an Alien ami, or perhaps an Alien enemy—‘Aliens are either alien friends or alien enemies. It is only alien friends who have the rights above enumerated; alien enemies are incapable, during the existence of war to sue, and may be ordered out of the country’ (BLD).”

  Amnis a river that feeds Lake Limna: “there are slave boats on the Amnis that raid the fishing villages” (II, chap. 9, 251); “he thought again of slaves, and of the slavers said to ply the rivers that fed Lake Limna” (II, chap. 10, 268).

  Latin: river/stream.

  Aquifolia one of Marble’s young girls at the palaestra (I, chap. 1, 30). Not on lists.

  Botany: the herb Mahonia aquifolia, N.O. Berberidaceae, a shrub about six feet high that has medicinal qualities.

  Aquila “a young eagle being trained by Musk” (II, list; II, chap. 4, 101). Taught to bring down a Flier, that is.

  Latin: eagle.

  Arolla “a woman who has left Orchid’s” (II, list). A blue-eyed prostitute (II, chap. 5, 130).

  Botany: name given in French Switzerland to the Stone Pine, Pinus cembra.

  Asphodella “a girl in the younger (pre-pubescent) group at the palaestra” (III, list), who nearly runs to answer the door when Blood is knocking (I, chap. 1, 29). Later she is possessed by Mucor (III, chap. 10, 361). Last seen in the group heading for the lander (IV, chap. 16, 369).

  Botany: a genus of liliaceous plants with very handsome flowers, mostly natives of the south of Europe.

  Aster “a girl in the older (pubescent) group at the palaestra” (III, list; III, chap. 3, 94). Last seen in the group heading for the lander (IV, chap. 16, 369).

  Botany: (Greek “star”) a large genus of the N.O. Compositae, with showy radiated flowers.

  augur a priest of Viron, so called because he can read augurs in the entrails of sacrifices. Silk says that many are homosexual (IV, chap. 14, 304). Incus seems to be homosexual, and he accuses Gulo.

  Auk an accomplished thief of Viron (I, chap. 3, 63). He has brown straight hair and a reddish beard (II, chap. 7, 178). Because Auk’s face is like that of a wolf or bear, it seems to Silk that “Auk” is not his real name (I, chap. 3, 78). That he has teeth capable of “severing a human hand at the wrist” (I, chap. 12, 306) makes him sound like Fenris, the monster wolf of Norse myth.

  There is some secret about his birth: perhaps an unknown father (I, chap. 3, 64). He was born on Wine Street (IV, chap. 12, 251). He can’t remember his mother Lily (III, chap. 3, 90). His brother Bustard, born in Winter (?), was three years older (III, chap. 3, 90) but he died.

  Auk has a poster of Scylla. Later he meets Scylla, when she is possessing Chenille. Auk offers sacrifices to Tartaros, but Dace says Auk belongs to Hierax (III, chap. 1, 30). Scylla tells Auk to convince Silk to obey her, with the contingency that if Auk cannot persuade Silk, he is to kill Silk and be her caldé himself (III, chap. 1, 32).

  As an orphan, Auk called Mint his mother—it was their secret (I, chap. 3, 78). While trapped in the tunnels, Auk seems to send a telepathic message to Mint, asking her to send a god (III, chap. 8, 190).

  Horn’s observation that “[Chenille would] be a lot like Auk if she was a man” (IV, chap. 15, 338) suggests that Auk is another natural child of Caldé Tussah, which would make Chenille his half-sister.

  Auk claims not to work with or for Blood, saying, “I been there a time or two” (I, chap. 3, 87). Auk has a violent temper: he hit a girl (I, chap. 3, 81; she turns out to be Chenille, 82); he knocked down Teasel’s father, Marten (II, chap. 1, 17); he kicked a man to death (I, chap. 3, 82). Auk is part owner of the Cock tavern in the Orilla (IV, chap. 11, 217).

  Auk steals Hyacinth at the end of volume III. First the flying floater crashes (III, chap. 9, 320). Silk, Hy, Xiphias, Oosik, a doctor, and Quetzal get out. Tartaros tells Auk to return to Chenille, but Auk pushes Silk into the pit and snatches Hy just before a Trivigaunti bomb goes off (321).

  When Auk heals from the head injury he received in the tunnels he becomes Auk the Prophet, preaching about a new world (IV, chap. 2, 45), while stealing cards to repair landers. Pas intends to make Auk into a techno-wizard (IV, chap. 6, 100). At the Grand Manteion, Auk is awakened once (IV, chap. 12, 235), twice (236), three times (237), and then suddenly he knows how to repair the dead chem Sand, to resurrect him (IV, chap. 12, 239).

  Zoology: a family (Alcidae) of flightless water birds. They look similar to penguins but are not closely related.

  Commentary: in Auk we find three strands bound together: Father Brown mysteries, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. First, Auk is to Silk as Flambeau the reformed criminal is to Father Brown, Chesterton’s famous priest detective. Flambeau is a jewel thief who helps Father Brown in a number of his cases, and Auk, whose thievery is primarily jewelry, renders similar aid to Patera Silk. Second, Auk is to Silk as Aaron the Levite is to Moses, heroic figures of the Old Testament. This particular strand changes, however, since Auk becomes a Moses-like prophet and Silk diminishes into an Aaron-like supporting role (adding to Auk’s list of Moses-like qualities, note that it was Moses who kicked an Egyptian to death). That Auk falls asleep three times while trying to keep watch recalls the situation in Gethsemene where Jesus, knowing that the crisis was coming, stepped away to pray alone for an hour. When he returned he found his disciples asleep. They repeated this, and on the third time the soldiers came to arrest Jesus (Matthew: 26). In this way, Auk is Peter to both Sand as Jesus crucified and Pas as Jesus resurrected.

  There is also a fourth role, that of Horus in the Osiris Cycle. Auk seems to take up this role, first as an agent of Tartaros, then more directly in the complicated hunt for the hidden piece of Pas and the convoluted rites subsequently performed. Again it seems as though Auk has replaced Silk as the heroic figure, in this case Horus, reducing Silk to a supporting character.

  ausculator one of Dr. Crane’s medical tools, probably a stethescope (I, chap. 10, 251).

  Latin: listener.

  Ayuntamiento the legislative body governing Viron.

  • Secretary/Ruler—Councillor Lemur.

  • Presiding officer—Councillor Loris.

  • Law Enforcement/Espionage—Councillor Potto.

  • Architecture/Engineering—Councillor Tarsier.

  • Diplomacy/Foreign Affairs—Councillor Galago.

  • A key bureaucrat—Commissioner Simuliid.

  • Diplomacy, ceremony, protocol—Commissioner Trematode.

  See also REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNEMNT OF VIRON.

  Spanish: “a congress of persons, the municipal council of a city or a town” (BLD).

  azoth shaped like a T (I, chap. 6, 151), this rare weapon (153) is a force-sword controlled by a “demon.” The blade can reach a target five chains (330 feet) away (III, chap. 9, 333). The one Hyacinth gives Silk was supposedly meant to be a present for Blood, hence the reddish stone—Silk thinks a hyacinth stone would be blue (I, chap. 8, 202).

  Blood already has two azoths, one of which he uses against Maytera Marble and Caldé Silk. This one has a hilt of rubies and gold, with diamonds ringing its pommel (III, chap. 10, 366).

  Arabic: a term for mercury; in alchemy, applied to the principle of the immaterial.

  B

  Babirousa “a smith’s apprentice, one of Mint’s volunteers” (III, list). In the group with Mint during the big charge against the Alambrera, starting the battle of Cage Street (III, chap 5, 162). See also GIB, GORAL, KINGCUP, MARMOT, SCLERODERMA, and YAPOK.

  Zoology: genus of wild hogs, Babirussa.

  ball court Silk receives enlightenment on th
e ball court located west of the palaestra, between the palaestra and the manteion (I, chap. 3, 67). The court seems somewhat analogous to a basketball court, and while the game seems like a cross between basketball and the Aztec ball game played throughout Mesoamerica, still the game remains significantly different from either. True, there are rings at opposite ends of the court, but these rings seem more like bullseye targets with the “hellstone” at the center (rather than a hoop to pass the ball through from above, as in basketball, or through the side, as in the Aztec game). Furthermore it is played with a black ball that Silk can easily carry in his trouser pocket (I, chap. 1, 11), so it is the size of a handball, whereas the balls for both basketball and the Aztec game are much larger.

  In play, Silk scores a “double,” which appears to be the result of his throw that both hits the hellstone and threads the ring on the way out (11). After he scores a second double, the final score is 13 to 12. If “double” means two points, then the score had been 9 to 12.

  balneum a bathroom (I, chap. 6, 144).

  Latin: bath, bathing place, bathroom.

  bandeau Vironese word for a brassiere (III, chap. 3, 85).

  French: a strapless top that covers the breasts.

  Basket Street a street in Viron, part of the East Edge (III, chap. 5, 177). The location of the house where Silk is held after being shot by Tiger.

  Bass bouncer at Orchid’s (I, chap. 11, 285; II, list).

  Zoology: fresh/salt water fishes.

  beggar’s root an aphrodisiac in Viron (I, chap. 6, 157). When Silk first meets Hyacinth she is under the influence of this drug. She offers him some, then takes more herself.

  Bellflower “one of the women at Orchid’s” (II, list); a blue-eyed prostitute (II, chap. 5, 130).

  Botany: campanula.

  Betel “once one of the sibyls at the manteion on Sun Street, now deceased” (II, list); “the dark, sleepy-eyed sibyl noted by Silk during his enlightenment” (III, list). Silk describes part of his enlightenment: “I saw the prayers of all you sibyls, from the very beginning . . . There used to be a Maytera Milkwort here, and I saw her praying, and a Maytera Betel” (I, chap. 3, 62).

  Botany: Piper betel, an Asiatic narcotic plant.

  Bharal a dying person Silk comforted in the past (II, chap. 12, 294). Not on lists.

  Zoology: Pseudois nayaur, the wild or blue sheep of the Himalayas and Tibet.

  Bison “the big, black-bearded man who becomes Mint’s chief lieutenant” (III, list). He turns into Mint’s love object before she knows his name (III, chap. 4, 139), and she resolves to remember it (141).

  It turns out he is working for Spider. Through this he knows the tunnels, including an entrance in the Orilla in addition to the one under the Juzgado that Sand and his soldiers used (IV, chap. 9, 174). When it becomes clear that Spider has taken Mint and Remora hostage, he puts this knowledge to use, taking thirty troopers to an old guard room down there, only to find fresh bloodstains (174).

  Zoology: shaggy-maned, short-horned bovine animal of western North America.

  Bittersweet “a member of Incus’s circle of black mechanics” (II, list), she has achieved wonders in reprogramming an old porter chem to “adore her as Echidna, Scylla, Molpe, Thelxiepeia, Phaea, or Sphigx on command” (II, chap. 10, 257).

  Botany: Celastrus scandens or Solanum dulcamara (nightshade).

  black mechanics bios who are chem-hackers, reprogramming chems for fun and profit. They are organized into “circles,” and the one Incus is in meets once a month (II, chap. 10, 257). Other members include Bittersweet, Fulmar, and Patera Tussah. Perhaps Patera Shell and/or Maytera Maple are members as well.

  Blood crime lord who works for the Ayuntamiento (I, chap. 1, 19). At least 55 years old (I, chap. 7, 186), his “heavy, cunning face” holds “far too many [traces] of his father” (III, chap. 10, 339). His mother is Maytera Rose, his father is Patera Pike. Speaking about Blood’s father, Rose says, “He never knew.” Speaking about her secret past to Silk, Rose/Marble says, “Mint . . . was so shy that she ran from you. . . . Maybe she guessed what happened to me long ago. I’ve sometimes thought that, and you were young and good-looking, as you still are” (III, chap. 10, 363). Blood was raised by a foster mother.

  Blood’s life of crime began when, as a boy, he prostituted himself to men. (His homosexuality seems confirmed with the presence of his lover Musk.) Blood has a controlling interest in Orchid’s brothel. His villa has a talus for security, cellars that link to the tunnels, a suite for Hyacinth, a room for Dr. Crane, and a small room for Mucor, his “daughter.”

  In order to have revenge upon Rose, he buys the Sun Street manteion. Learning that Rose/Marble had killed Musk after Echidna’s theophany, Blood tries to kill her but is instead killed by Silk (III, chap. 10, 376).

  Anatomy: the bodily fluid that delivers oxygen and nutrients to cells of the body.

  Bongo the trained baboon Silk notices when buying Oreb (I, chap. 2, 36), later bought by Gib (IV, list), who was teaching it to steal for him (IV, chap. 11, 230).

  Zoology: a large, forest-dwelling antelope of central Africa.

  Book of the Long Sun a series of four volumes. They are written in a third person narrative style, with elements of the thriller (action oriented, using cliff-hangers and shifting viewpoints). Patera Silk is the main character, but the point of view shifts, often within a single chapter—for example, the first chapter opens with Silk meeting Blood but then switches to Maytera Marble meeting Blood.

  This thriller template allows the further ratcheting up of tension through the use of non-chronological sequencing, as when depicting the battle at the Alambrera. First Marble sees the Trivigaunti airship being fired upon from a distance (III, chap. 8, 285), then the viewpoint shifts to Auk’s group just ascending to the pit from the tunnels a few minutes earlier (285–88) before Hammerstone snatches Chenille’s rocket launcher and fires the shot that Marble sees (289). At which time the viewpoint changes to that of Silk in the afterglow of his wedding night, some hours before (290), from whence it proceeds with Silk toward the place and time where the rocket is launched at the airship (chap. 9, 318).

  As such, it seems like a work by Gene Wolfe in the vein of Free Live Free (1984), There Are Doors (1988), or Castleview (1990). This reading is demolished rather late in the final volume, when the narrator suddenly and famously intrudes: “At that moment I burst into the room” (IV, chap. 13, 282). The narrator is revealed to be Horn, which changes the template into that of a biography of a boyhood hero.

  While this revelation is a delight, it also causes retrospective tensions to arise in the reader with regard to plausibility. Many of these quibbles are addressed in “My Defense,” the penultimate chapter, where Horn writes about the composition of what he calls The Book of Silk. He states that Nettle has corrected sections that readers had complained about. He declares that Nettle and himself are the primary sources, augmented by Marble and Chenille. They had studied Auk during the flight to Mainframe, and Hyacinth when they could. Several characters were based upon secondary sources: Blood is based upon stories from Silk and Marble; Crane upon words from Marble and Chenille; and Incus upon reminiscences of Remora (augmented by observations made during the flight to Mainframe). In addition to all this, Horn and Nettle have literally manufactured the ink and the paper.

  Commentary: in “Five Steps towards Briah” (1998), Nick Gevers points out that each volume is written in a different genre type: Detective, Espionage, Revolutionary, and Utopian.

  books at Blood’s ruined villa, Mint notices three books which she guesses are erotic, but they suggest ironic commentary upon Silk’s recent experience (IV, chap. 1, 20):

  1. Three Maids and Their Mistresses—many permutations of females and goddesses are possible here: Hyacinth/Kypris, Magnesium/Rose, Rose/Echidna, etc.

  2. The Astonishing Exploits of a Virile Young Man and His Donkey—Silk riding the donkey up to Blood’s villa in the first place.

  3. His Resistance Over
come—how Hyacinth got Silk to renounce his vows and marry her.

  Box Street located in the east side of Viron (III, chap. 6, 235). Silk tries to use this street to go from Basket Street to the Palatine, but Guardsmen line one side and rebels line the other, so he works his way over to Xiphias’s place on String. For location, see map of BRICK STREET QUARTER.

  Bream “the thief who provides a white goat for Kypris at Rose’s final sacrifice” (III, list; III, chap. 2, 46). Mint sees a bream in the entrails (III, chap. 2, 48). Later appearance (III, chap. 5, 160).

  Zoology: a freshwater fish, Abramis brama, native to Europe.

  Brick Street a quarter of Viron located to the east of Sun Street, part of the “east edge” of Viron (III, chap. 10, 367). The crooked bridge (III, chap. 5, 177) seems to be on Sun Street and marks the quarter’s western edge. Close to this landmark is Patera Jerboa’s Brick Street manteion, whereas Swallow’s brown mechanics shop seems further east on Sun. Basket Street is five streets away from the manteion—Silk is held at a house on Basket after being shot by Tiger (III, chap. 5, 177).

  Brocket “a distant cousin of Mint’s” (III, list), he taught her to ride horses (III, chap. 13, 333).

  Zoology: a second-year male European red deer; or any of a group (Mazama) of small deer (with spike-like horns) of Central and South America.

  Commentary: since cousins in the text share name-traits, there is a suggestion that Mint’s original name had some of “deer” to it, e.g. Deergrass, Deer-eyes, Deer-berry, Deer-foot, Deer’s Tongue, etc.

  brown mechanics legal robotics experts, who repair chems and manufacture taluses. Director Swallow is one.