The Traitress

CHAPTER VII SUMMARY*

Severian meets Thecla, the prisoner who requested the books, and learns from Master Gurloes that she is being held as a lever against Vodalus, since her half-sister Thea is Vodalus’s lover.

TERMINOLOGY

exarch (51.2/27) an exhultant title, but also an ecclesiastic ranking between a patriarch and metropolitan.

Starost (51.2/27) another exhultant title.

Egino (51.2/27) 12th century bishop in Switzerland - take note: note a saint.

mountebank (51.21/46) a charlatan.

lansquenet (52.19/66) mercenary cavalry)

fulgurator (53.1/67) at the Citadel, one employed by the torturers whenever the electrical devices are used.

fatigues (53.6/72) punishing exercises.

quadrille (53.12/78) a card game played by four persons with forty cards, here it is a euphemism for sex and orgies.

khaibit (54.2/80) meaning shadow woman; a clone of an Autarch's concubines, created as a bedroom surrogate in the House Absolute.

Increate (54.8/86) one of several names for the Ultimate Power in Severian's time.

leman (55.3.93) a lover or a sweetheart, a kept woman.

pursuivant (55.17/107) an assistant to a herald, a messenger with some limited authority to negotiate.