Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [285]
He loaded his matchlock, set it in position, and awaited the right moment to apply his fire. His pursuer was approaching at a steady pace, riding among the boulders and taking no particular care.
Pasharatid lit the fuse, tucked the butt into his shoulder, narrowed his eyes, and aimed the gun. He hated using these beastly weapons. They were for barbarians.
Not every firing was a success. This one was. There was a loud explosion, the bullet flew to its mark. YeferalOborol was blown off his mount with a hole in his chest. He crawled into the shadow of a boulder and died.
The Sibornalese ambassador caught the hoxney and continued his journey north.
It must be said: there were no riches in King JandolAnganol’s court to rival the riches of the courts friendly to him in Oldorando and in Pannoval City. In those more favoured centres of civilisation, treasures of all kinds had accumulated; scholars were protected, and the church itself – though this was truer of Pannoval – encouraged learning and the arts to a limited extent. But Pannoval had the advantage of a ruling dynasty which, encouraging a proselytising religion, made for stability.
Almost every week, ships unloaded on to Matrassyl’s harbour cargoes of spices, drugs, hides, animals’ teeth, lapis lazuli, scented woods, and rare birds. But of these treasures, few reached the palace. For JandolAnganol was an upstart king, in the eyes of the world and possibly in his own eyes. He boasted of his grandfather’s enlightened rule, but in truth his grandfather had been little better than a successful warlord – one of many who disputed Borlienese territory – who had had the wit to band phagors into formidable armies under human captaincy and so subdue his enemies.
Not all those enemies had been killed. One of the most striking ‘reforms’ of JandolAnganol’s father’s reign was to appoint a parliament, or scritina; the scritina represented the people and advised the king. It was based on an Oldorandan model. VarpalAnganol had formed the membership of the scritina from two categories of men, from the leaders of guilds and corps, such as the Ironmakers Corps, who had traditional power in the land, and from defeated warlords or their families, thus giving them the chance to air their grievances and him a way of deflating their wrath. Much of the cargo unloaded at Matrassyl went to paying this disaffected body of men.
When the young JandolAnganol deposed and imprisoned his father, he had sought to abolish the scritina. The scritina had refused to be abolished. It met irregularly and continued to harass the king and to make its own members rich. Its leader, BudadRembitim, was also mayor of Matrassyl.
The scritina called an extraordinary meeting. It would certainly demand a fresh attempt to subdue Randonan and stronger defences against the warlike tribes of Mordriat, who were no more than two or three days’ gallop from their homes. The king would have to answer them and commit himself to a definite line of action.
The king presented himself before the scritina that afternoon, when his distinguished visitors were taking a siesta. He left his runt behind and sank into his throne in grim silence.
After the difficulties of the morning, another set of difficulties. His gaze went round the wooden council chamber as if seeking them out.
Several members of the old families rose to speak. Most of them harped on a fresh theme and a stale one. The stale one was the emptiness of the exchequer. The fresh one was the inconvenient report from the Western Wars that the frontier city of Keevasien had been sacked. Randonanese units had crossed the Kacol River and stormed the city.
This led to complaints that General Hanra TolramKetinet was too young, too unskilled, to command the army. Every complaint was a criticism of the king. JandolAnganol listened impatiently, drumming his fingers on the arm of his throne. He recalled again the wretched days of his boyhood,