Digest whorl.v008.n039Whorl

Ooh-whoo, whaddya got there, Spec? -alga-

Mucor, talking to Silk when he climbs onto the top of the airship gondola: "You were worried about me with so many people gone. My grandfather came to see if I was all right. The old man and the fat woman are taking care of me. He wanted to know where Grandmother and the little auger went, and I told him." My grandfather was Hammerstone, clearly; Silk nodded and smiled. Exodus, Ch 14, p305 in my copy. Silk makes an assumption, which is always a bad sign. [I like the way Wolfe requires his characters to think as hard as his readers if they want to follow the plot - a kind of metaphysical equal opportunities!] The alternative explanation of "my grandfather" is so odd that he can be forgiven for not thinking of it, though I think he knows who it could be: Maytera Marble paused to collect her thoughts; her rapid scan was back, and she revelled in it. "We were three sibyls, I was about to say. Maytera Mint was still young and pretty, but so shy that she ran from you whenever she could. When she couldn't, she would hardly speak. Maybe she guessed what had happened to me, long ago. I've sometimes thought that, and you were young and good-looking, as you still are." He began a question, but thought better of it. "I won't tell you who Bloody's father was, Patera." - Calde, Ch 10, after Silk had not asked who Blood's father was, or even mentioned him for a while. What are the odds that the ghost is simply the unquiet spirit of Patera Pike, a good man trying to make amends for past sins? -- Spectacled Bear, stick ready to climb. Peter Westlake, Harlequin Ltd, Barrington Hall, Barrington, Cambs CB2 5RG.