Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [218]
As the Hour-Whistler blew, Dathka climbed onto the platform and began immediately to address the crowd.
‘I am taking up the burden of authority for the sake of the city,’ Dathka said. It seemed his old silence had dropped from him. He spoke with eloquence. Yet he stood almost motionless, not gesturing, not using his body to help carry his words, as if the habit of silence had quit nowhere but his tongue. ‘I have no wish to supplant the true ruler of Embruddock, Aoz Roon. When he returns – if he returns – then what is rightfully his will be rightfully handed back to him. I am his lawful deputy. Those he left in command have abused his power, have cast it in tbe gutter. I could not stand by and see it. We will have honesty in these bad times.’
‘Why’s Raynil Layan beside you then, Dathka?’ called a voice from the crowd, and there were other remarks, which Dathka tried to override.
‘I know you have complaints. I’ll hear them after – you hear me now. Judge Aoz Roon’s usurping lieutenants. Eline Tal had the courage to go into the wilderness with his lord. The other two creatures stayed at home. Tanth Ein has the fever as his reward. Here stands the third of them, the worst, Faralin Ferd. Look at the way he trembles. When did he ever address you? He was too busy about his sly lascivious ways indoors.
‘I’m a hunter, as you know. Laintal Ay and I tamed the Western Veldt. Faralin Ferd will die of the pest like his crony, Tanth Ein. Will you be ruled by corpses? I won’t catch the plague. Intercourse passes on the plague, and I’m free of it.
‘My first deed will be to restore guards all round Embruddock, and to train a proper army. As we are at present, we are ripe to fall to any enemy – human or inhuman. Better die in battle than in bed.’
This last remark caused a groundswell of unease. Dathka paused, glaring down at them. Oyre and Dol stood among the people, Dol clutching Rastil Roon in her arms. Oyre cried out loudly as Dathka paused, ‘You are a usurper. How are you any better than Tanth Ein or Raynil Layan?’
Dathka went to the edge of the platform.
‘I steal nothing. I picked up what was dropped.’ He pointed at Oyre. ‘You of all people, Oyre, as the natural daughter of Aoz Roon himself, should know that I will return to your father what is his when he returns. He would wish me to do this.’
‘You cannot speak for him while he’s away.’
‘I can and do.’
‘Then you speak wrongly.’
Others to whom this wrangle meant little, and who cared little about Aoz Roon, also started to shout, calling out complaints. Someone threw an overripe fruit. The guard jostled the crowd, without effect.
Dathka’s face grew pale. He raised his fist above his head in passion.
‘Very well, you scumble, then I will tell you publicly what has always been kept silent. I’m not afraid. You think so greatly of Aoz Roon, you think he was so admirable, I’ll tell you the kind of man he was. He was a murderer. Worse, he was a double murderer.’
They fell quiet, their faces upturned to him in a cloud of flesh.
He was shaking now, conscious of what he had started. ‘How do you think Aoz Roon gained power? By murder, bloody murder, murder by night. There are those of you who will remember Nahkri and Klils, sons of ancient Dresyl, in the days bygone. Nahkri and Klils ruled when Embruddock was just a farmyard. One dark night, Aoz Roon – young then – threw the two brothers off the top of the big tower when they were in their cups. A foul double deed. And who was there as witness, who saw it all? I was there – and so was she – his natural daughter.’ He pointed accusingly down at the thin figure of Oyre, now clinging