The Crystal City by Card Orson Scott

Author:Card, Orson Scott [Card, Orson Scott]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 0312864833
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2003-11-10T05:00:00+00:00

It was no riverboat they boarded for the Mexico expedition. Steve Austin must have found somebody with mighty deep pockets, because what they had was a three-masted lateen-rigged schooner, good for the coastal trade, and with oar ports like a galley ship because the Gulf of Mexico was so often calm. There were full blown cannon on this ship, and field-pieces to take ashore when they got there. Artillery, by damn!

Calvin’s respect grew for Sieve Austin’s ability to get things done. Naturally, there were plenty of people willing to put up money to conquer Mexico—if they believed the expedition could actually succeed. And since there was almost no chance that it would—not with just one ship and a hundred or so minimally obedient “soldiers”—the fact that he got so much money behind this project meant that Steve Austin knew how to sell.

That’s something I need to learn, thought Calvin. I’ll watch this man and learn how he persuades people to invest money in insane projects. That would be a useful knack to have.

The ship turned in the river with the help of a couple of lines still attached to shore, so there’d be no chance of it getting out into the perpetual fog on the far bank and being lost. Then they cast free and began the long, stately voyage to the Mizzippy’s mouth.

Not far below Barcy, the fog on the right bank thinned and well before they reached the open sea the fog was gone. That was interesting. The fog must not be attached to the river, it must be attached to the boundary of the land that Tenskwa-Tawa intended to protect. Which made Calvin wonder if there was fog along the coast, too, and fog between the Mexica lands and the lands that Tenskwa-Tawa had taken under his protection.

Or was Tenskwa-Tawa somehow allied with the Mexica? Did Tenskwa-Tawa maybe do some of this human sacrificing, too? And if he does, does Alvin know about it? What an interesting thought. All this high-mindedness about opposing slavery and trying to prevent a bloody war, and all the time he’s best friends with a red prophet who chums up with the heart-ripping savages of Mexico.

Not that Calvin didn’t know it all along. Alvin pretended to be virtuous and only use his power for “good,” but he didn’t know what “good” was any more than Calvin did or anyone else. Whatever story he believed in, whatever “us” he was protecting against “them,” Alvin had to think that whatever he was doing was noble, but it wasn’t. It never was. Alvin was just like everybody else, doing what he wanted that he thought he could get away with, using whatever power came to hand, and stepping on whoever got in his way.

At least Calvin knew that about himself. Didn’t have any illusions.

He looked out over the sun-shimmered water as the breeze caught the sails and bellied them and allowed the ship to zigzag its way out to sea. So smooth and clean, this ocean, so bright and dazzling.

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