he said. ‘You left too late and now you come back, too late again.’
‘Why did they do this?’
‘The Autarch doesn’t need reasons.’
‘He was here?’ Gentle said. The thought that the Butcher of Yzordderrex had stood in Beatrix made his heart beat faster. But Tasko said:
‘Who knows? Nobody’s ever seen his face. Maybe he was here yesterday, counting the children, and nobody even noticed him.’
‘Do you know where Mother Splendid is?’
‘In the heap somewhere.’
‘Jesus
‘She wouldn’t have made a very good witness. She was too crazy with grief. They left alive the ones who’d tell the story best. Atrocities need witnesses, Zacharias. People to spread the word.’
‘They did this as a warning?’ Gentle said.
Tasko shook his huge head. ‘I don’t know how their minds work,’ he said.
‘Maybe we have to learn, so that we can stop them.’
‘I’d prefer to die,’ the man replied, ‘than understand filth like that. If you’ve got the appetite, then go to Yzordderrex. You’ll get your education there.’
‘I want to help here,’ Gentle said. ‘There must be something I can do.’
‘You can leave us to mourn.’
If there was any profounder dismissal, Gentle didn’t know it. He searched for some word of comfort or apology, but in the face of such devastation only silence seemed appropriate. He bowed his head, and left Tasko to the burden of being a witness, returning up the street past the heap of corpses to where Pie’oh’pah was standing. The mystif hadn’t moved an inch, and even when Gentle came abreast of it, and quietly told it they should go, it was a long time before it looked round at him.
‘We shouldn’t have come back,’ it said.
‘Every day we waste, this is going to happen again …
‘You think you can stop it?’ Pie said, with a trace of sarcasm.
‘We won’t go the long way round, we’ll go through the mountains. Save ourselves three weeks.’
‘You do, don’t you?’ Pie said. ‘You think you can stop this.’
‘We won’t die,’ Gentle said, putting his arms around Pie’oh’pah. ‘I won’t let us. I came here to understand and I will.’
‘How much more of this can you take?’
‘As much as I have to.’
‘I may remind you of that.’
‘I’ll remember,’ Gentle said. ‘After this, I’ll remember everything.’
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