Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [26]
‘It’s not so easy,’ said the priest.
‘Oh, it is easy, it is easy – now everything will be easy!’ He fell at the priest’s feet, crying his delight.
‘Nothing’s so easy.’
‘Master, I owe you everything. Help me. I want to be a priest, to become as you.’
During the next few days, he went about the lanes and livings noticing new things. No longer did he feel himself encased in gloom, buried underground. He was in a favoured region, protected from all the cruel elements that had made him a savage. He saw how welcome the dim light was.
He saw too how beautiful Pannoval was, in all its chambers. In the course of their long habitation, the caves had been decorated by artists. Whole walls were covered with painting and carving, many of them illustrating the life of Akha and the great battles he had fought, as well as the battles he would fight when again enough humans had faith in his strength. Where the pictures had grown old and faint, new ones had been painted on top of them. Artists were still at work, often perched dangerously on top of scaffolding that reached towards the roof like the skeleton of some mythical long-necked animal.
‘What’s the matter with you, Yuli? You attend to nothing,’ Kyale said.
‘I’m going to be a priest. I’ve made up my mind.’
‘They’ll never let you – you from outside.’
‘My priest is speaking to the authorities.’
Kyale pulled at his melancholy nose, slowly lowering his hand until the tugging operations were taking place at one end of his moustache, as he contemplated Yuli. By now, Yuli’s eyesight had so adjusted to the dimness that every nuance of expression on his friend’s face was clear. When Kyale moved without a word to the back of his stall, Yuli followed.
Again grabbing his moustache for security, Kyale placed his other hand on Yuli’s shoulder. ‘You’re a good lad. You remind me of Usilk, but we won’t go into that … Listen to me: Pannoval isn’t like it was when I was a child, running barefoot through the bazaars. I don’t know what’s happened, but there’s no peace any more. All this talk of change – nonsense, to my mind. Even the priests are at it, with wild men ranting about reform. I say, let well enough alone. Know what I mean?’
‘I know what you mean, yes.’
‘Well, then. You may think that it would be soft, being a priest. So it might. But I wouldn’t recommend it at present. It’s not as – as secure as it used to be, if you follow me. They’ve become restive. I hear they often execute heretical priests in the Holies. You’d do better here indentured to me, making yourself useful. Understand? I’m speaking to you for your own good.’
Yuli looked down at the worn ground.
‘I can’t explain how I feel, Kyale. Sort of hopeful … I think things ought to change. I want to change myself, I don’t know how.’
Sighing, Kyale removed his hand from Yuli’s shoulder. ‘Well, lad, if you take that attitude, don’t say I didn’t warn you …’
Despite Kyale’s grumpiness, Yuli was touched that the man cared about him. And Kyale passed on the news of Yuli’s intentions to his wife. When Yuli went to his little curved room that evening, Tusca appeared in his doorway.
‘Priests can go anywhere. If you become an initiate, you’ll have the run of the place. You’ll come and go in the Holies.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Then you may find what has happened to Usilk. Try to, for my sake. Tell him I still think of him. And come and tell me if you can find any news of him.’
She put a hand on his arm. He smiled at her. ‘You are kind, Tusca. Don’t your rebels who want to bring down the rulers of Pannoval have any news of your son?’
She was frightened. ‘Yuli, you will change in all ways when you’re a priest. So I’ll say no more, for fear of injury to the rest of my family.’
He lowered his gaze. ‘Akha strike me if I ever harm you.’
On the next occasion when he appeared before the priest, a soldier was also present, standing behind Sataal in the shadows with a phagor on a leash. The priest asked Yuli if he would give up everything he possessed to walk in the path of Akha. Yuli