Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [316]
‘Sir, I know it. Therefore set me free. Let me follow the queen. Why lock me up when I mean no harm?’
‘I lock you up because I may get some good out of you. Stand up.’
The chancellor surveyed his captive. Certainly, there was something odd about the fellow. His physiology was not the attenuated one of a Campannlatian, nor had he the barrel shape of those freak humans, sometimes displayed at fairs, whose ancestors (according to medical thought) had escaped the near-universal bone fever.
His friend CaraBansity in Ottassol would have said that underlying bone structure accounted for the peculiar rounded quality of the captive’s features. The man’s skin texture was smooth, with a notable pallor, though his button nose was sunburnt. His hair was fine.
And there were more subtle differences, such as the quality of the captive’s gaze and its duration. He seemed to look away to listen, and regarded SartoriIrvrash only when he spoke – although fear could account for that. His eyes were often cast upward, instead of down. In particular, he spoke Olonets in a foreign style.
All this the chancellor observed before saying, ‘Give me an account of this world above from which you claim to come. I am a rational man, and I shall listen without prejudice to what you have to say.’ He drew upon his kane and coughed.
Lex returned with an empty bucket and stood motionless against one wall, fixing his cerise glare on an undefined point in the middle distance.
When Billy sat down, his chains rattled. He placed his weighted wrists on the table before him and said, ‘Merciful sir, I come, as I told you, from a much smaller world than yours. A world perhaps of the size of the great hill upon which Matrassyl Castle stands. That world is called Avernus, though your astonomers have long known it as Kaidaw. It lies some fifteen hundred kilometres above Helliconia, with an orbital period of 7770 seconds, and its—’
‘Wait. On what does this hill of yours lie? On air?’
‘There is no air about Avernus. In effect, the Avernus is a metal moon. No, you don’t have that word in Olonets, sir, since Helliconia possesses no natural moon. Avernus orbits Helliconia continually, as Helliconia orbits Batalix. It travels through space, as Helliconia does, and moves continually, as Helliconia does. Otherwise, it would fall under the pull of gravitation. I think you understand this principle, sir? You know of the true relationships between Helliconia on the one hand and Batalix and Freyr on the other.’
‘I understand what you say very well.’ He slapped at a fly crawling over his bald pate. ‘You are addressing the author of “The Alphabet of History and Nature”, in which I seek to synthesise all knowledge. It is understood by few men – but I happen to be one of them – that Batalix and Freyr revolve about a common focus, while Copaise, Aganip, and Ipocrene revolve with Helliconia about Batalix. The haste of our sister worlds in their orbits is commensurate with their stature and their distance from the parent body, Batalix. Furthermore, cosmology informs us that these sister worlds sprang from Batalix, as men spring from their mothers, and Batalix sprang from Freyr, which is its mother. In the realm of the heavens, you will find me suitably informed, I flatter myself.’
He looked up at the ceiling and blew smoke among the flies.
Billy cleared his throat. ‘Well, it’s not quite like that. Batalix and its planets form a relatively aged solar system which was captured by a much larger sun, which you call Freyr, some eight million years ago, as we reckon time.’
The chancellor moved restlessly, crossing and uncrossing his legs, with a peevish expression on his face. ‘Among the impediments to knowledge are the persecutions of those who seek power, the difficulties of investigation, and – this in particular – a failure to recognise what should be investigated. I set all this out in my first chapter.
‘You clearly have some knowledge, yet you betray it by mingling it with falsehood for your own reasons.