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unrest.”
    â€œThat is understood, Abdiesus,” I said. As sometimes I have seen in the eyes of a boy the worry of the man he will be, I could see the future guilt that
had already come (perhaps without his being aware of it) to settle on the archon’s face.
    â€œThere will be a few guests at the palace tonight. I hope that you will be among them, Severian.”
    I bowed. “Among the divisions of administration, Abdiesus, it has long been customary to exclude one—my own—from the society of the others.”
    â€œAnd you feel that is unjust, which is wholly natural. Tonight, if you wish to think of it in that way, we will be making some restitution.”
    â€œWe of the guild have never complained of injustice. Indeed, we have gloried in our unique isolation. Tonight, however, the others may feel they have reason to protest to you.”
    A smile twitched at his mouth. “I’m not concerned about that. Here, this will get you onto the grounds.” He extended his hand, holding delicately, as though he feared it would flutter from his fingers, one of those disks of stiff paper, no bigger than a chrisos and lettered in gold leaf with ornate characters, of which I had often heard Thecla speak (she stirred in my mind at the touch of it), but which I had never before seen.
    â€œThank you, Archon. Tonight, you said? I will try to find suitable clothing.”
    â€œCome dressed as you are. It’s to be a ridotto—your habit will be your costume.” He stood and stretched himself with the air, I thought, of one who nears the completion of a long and disagreeable task. “A moment ago we spoke of some of the less elaborate ways that you might perform your function. It might be well for you to bring whatever equipment you will require tonight.”
    I understood. I would need nothing beyond my hands, and told him so; then, feeling I had already been remiss in my duties as his host, I invited him to take what refreshment we had.
    â€œNo,” he said. “If you knew how much I am forced to eat and drink for courtesy’s sake, you’d know how much I relish the company of someone whose hospitable offers I can refuse. I don’t suppose your fraternity has ever considered using food as a torment, instead of starvation?”
    â€œIt is called planteration, Archon.”
    â€œYou must tell me about it sometime. I can see your guild is far ahead of my imagination—no doubt by a dozen centuries. After hunting, yours must be the oldest science of them all. But I cannot stay longer. We will see you at evening?”
    â€œIt is nearly evening now, Archon.”
    â€œAt the end of the next watch then.”
    He went out; it was not until the door closed behind him that I detected the faint odor of the musk that had perfumed his robe.
    I looked at the little circle of paper I held, turning it over in my hand. Pictured on the back were a falsity of masks, in which I recognized one of the horrors—a face that was no more than a mouth ringed with fangs—I had seen in the Autarch’s garden when the cacogens tore away their disguises, and a man-ape’s face from the abandoned mine near Saltus.

    I was tired from my long walk as well as from the work (almost a full day’s, for I had risen early) that had preceded it; and so before going out again I undressed and washed myself, ate some fruit and cold meat, and sipped a glass of the spicy northern tea. When a problem troubles me deeply, it remains in my mind even when I am unaware of it. So it was with me then; though I was not conscious of them, the thought of Dorcas lying in her narrow, slant-ceilinged room in the inn and the memory of the dying girl on her straw bound my eyes and stopped my ears. It was because of them, I think, that I did not hear my sergeant, and did not know, until he entered, that I had been taking up kindling from its box beside the fireplace and breaking the sticks with my