Owen Calca spoke to no one, not even when he dropped the telescope back into Pearlbinder’s saddlebag. The warm brass of the telescope, still fully extended, had turned a sickly green. The men had all dismounted and now rested on the rounded boulders before setting up camp. After they ate, Follett told Alvarez to get the Pyx and Calca ready for the next Steeping. The lone brother was still deathly white and morose. He walked like a broken man, or one who had exhausted his view of the world. Owen was in prime condition for a deep and significant confession.
“It’s got to be a good Steeping, this one. We might need its steering or forewarning to get us down and off this mountain and into the civil realm.”
Calca barely lifted his head to acknowledge what he was being told.
Alvarez thrust the box into his hands and said, “Do it. Do it now.”
Owen Calca’s voice had always been strange. He and Abna shared the same split octave—a quiet rasp that shredded the softness of words—but now it had almost vanished, shrunk to the sound of a pin scratching slate.
“Pearlbinder was right. It was all too much, impossible, so I did what he said and looked through the telescope turned backward, to change the burning in mine eye and set such things in a distance, in a past. But the sound came in louder and with it the hollow of where One should be.”
His voice faded. Its swallowing seemed to fill his legs with a jellied motion that propelled him toward a dim shadow behind an ancient boulder that had not moved since the arrival of upright men. He folded himself and opened the box and emptied the husk of his voice into it.
“All I be is shrunken. All I have done is nothing, and any word I had hath been eaten from below by the noise of teeth, all those teeth chattering, bone on bone, chattering jaws on head bone. Chattering more than pebbles in a tide.
“Chattering, forever chattering. Any word I had hath been eaten from below by the noise of teeth, all those teeth chattering, bone on bone, chattering jaws on head bone. Chattering more than pebbles in a tide. Chattering, forever chattering. Any word I had hath been eaten from below by the noise of teeth, all those teeth chattering, bone on bone, chattering jaws on head bone. Chattering more than pebbles in a tide. Chattering, forever chattering, chattering more than pebbles in a tide.
“Chattering, forever chattering. Any word I had hath been eaten from below by the noise of teeth, all those teeth chattering, bone on bone, chattering jaws on head bone. Chattering more than pebbles in a tide. Chattering, forever chattering, chattering more than pebbles in a tide. Chattering, forever chattering, chattering more than pebbles in a tide. Chattering, forever chattering, chattering more than pebbles in a tide. Chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering chattering…”
And then he spoke no more but rose as if through thick water and walked to his horse, mounted, and turned back in the direction whence they had come. The three other men wondered where he was going, but the question needed no answer, so it never passed their mouths to reach the air outside. Only Follett shouted, “Where goeth thee?”
Calca did not turn but quietly said, “To find my brother’s horse.”
Alvarez groaned and made his way toward the box of bones, which lay on its side. He seriously doubted the nature of what Calca had said and did not relish feeding the bad, swollen marrow to their precious cargo.
Follett wisely decided that their final night on the mountain would not be in the eastern quadrant, so they moved farther down the spiral, farther away from the atmosphere of that terrible place. A night breeze of a different color rustled the trees as the last sunlight of the day vanished. A small stream crossed the path, and they stopped to partake of its benefaction. While Alvarez was preparing the Oracle, the others collected wood and thought about the Calca brothers meeting high above them and tried to gain some hope from the image. Follett cleaned his spear and thought about the reward that was growing larger as the number of men diminished.
“It won’t eat!” shouted Alvarez from his seclusion. “It took but one spoonful.”
“Try the bones at the bottom of the Pyx,” called Follett.
Shuffling curses and mumbled squeaks came from behind Alvarez’s rock. After another forty minutes, they heard the wooden lid close and knew the job was done.
“It’s barely taken a cupful,” Alvarez whispered as they prepared to Choir, the shivering bundle held between them.
Then it spoke: “Cloy of the earth bites hard, all those bone lips un-kissing the promise.” The men looked at one another. “Thank thee for my new oncoming burial. Thank thee for thine own.”
“Sounds pissed off to me,” said Pearlbinder.
“Cos that weren’t enough, it needs more. Let me go now,” said Alvarez.
“It’s got plenty to get us there and finished,” answered Follett, preparing to leave.
“It needs more!” Alvarez growled back. “And I can give it.”
“Fuck thee, Alvarez, do what you are damned well told and stop jabbering like some old wet nurse.”