Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [207]
But the answer was obvious. The Sibornalans had caught her and traded her to the phagors. She would never get to Sibornal now. By this time, Shay Tal was a gossie. She and her little party, one with time.
The name of the guard captain was Skitosherill. A wary friendship developed between him and Laintal Ay. Laintal Ay could see that Skitosherill was frightened; he touched nobody, and wore a posy of raige and scantiom at his lapel, to which his long nose frequently resorted, hoping to protect its owner from the plague.
‘Do you Oldorandans worship a god?’ he asked.
‘No. We can look after ourselves. We speak well of Wutra, that’s true, but we kicked all his priests out of Embruddock several generations ago. You should do the same in New Ashkitosh – you’d have an easier life.’
‘Barbarian behaviour! That’s why you caught the plague, vexing God.’
‘Nine prisoners died yesterday, and six of your people. You pray too much, and it does no good.’
Skitosherill looked angry. They stood in the open, a breeze rippling their cloaks. The music of prayer drifted over to them from the church.
‘Don’t you admire our church? We’re only a simple farming community, yet we have a fine church. There’s nothing like it in Oldorando, I’ll gamble.’
‘It’s a prison.’
But as he spoke, he heard a solemn melody coming from the church which addressed him with mystery. The instruments were joined by voices, uplifted.
‘Don’t say that – I could have you beaten. Life’s in the Church. The circular Great Wheel of Kharnabhar, the holy centre of our faith. If it was not for the Great Wheel, we’d still be in the grip of snow and ice.’ He made a circle on his forehead with his index finger as he spoke.
‘How’s that?’
‘It’s the Wheel that moves us closer to Freyr all the time. Didn’t you know that? I was taken to visit it on pilgrimage as a child, into the Shivenink Mountains. You are not a true Sibornalan unless you’ve made the pilgrimage.’
The following day brought another seven deaths. Skitosherill was in charge of the burial party, which consisted of Madi prisoners, scarcely competent enough to dig graves.
Laintal Ay said, ‘I had a dear friend who was captured by your people. She wished to make a pilgrimage to Sibornal, to consult the priests of that Great Wheel of yours. She thought they might be the source of all wisdom. Instead, your people made her prisoner and sold her to the stinking phagor. Is that how you treat people?’
Skitosherill shrugged. ‘Don’t blame me. She was probably mistaken for a Pannoval spy.’
‘How could she be mistaken? She rode a hoxney, as did members of her party. Have the people of Pannoval hoxneys? I never heard so. She was a splendid woman, and you brigands handed her over to the fuggies.’
‘We’re not brigands. We just wish to settle here in peace, moving on when the ground’s used up.’
‘You mean, when you’ve used up the local population. Fancy trading women in exchange for your safety.’
Grinning uneasily, the Sibornalan said, ‘You barbarians of Campannlat, you don’t value your women.’
‘We value them highly.’
‘Do they rule?’
‘Women don’t rule.’
‘They do in some countries of Sibornal. In this settlement, see how well we take care of our women. We have women priests.’
‘I haven’t seen one.’
‘That’s because we take care of them.’ He leant forward. ‘Listen, Laintal Ay, I understand you are not a bad fellow, all things considered. I’m going to trust you. I know the state of affairs here. I know how many scouts have gone out and not returned. They’ve died of the plague in some miserable thicket and had no burial, their corpses probably devoured by birds or Others. It’s going to become worse, while we sit here. I am a religious man, and I believe in prayer; but the bone fever is so strong that even prayer cannot prevail against it. I have a wife I love dearly. I wish to strike a bargain with you.’
As Skitosherill spoke, Laintal Ay stood on a low eminence, looking down a miserable bit of ground which sloped towards a stream; stunted thorn trees grew along the watercourse. Among the stones littering the slope, the