Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [330]
Billy seized the moment to bluff his way out of replying to BranzaBaginut’s question by saying to him, with more confidence than he felt, ‘My lord, I am a person of importance, and have received bad treatment from this court. Let me go free. I can work with you. I can tell you details about your world you need to know. I have nothing to gain—’
The Archpriest clapped his large hands together, and said in a gentle voice, ‘Don’t deceive yourself. You are of no importance whatsoever, except when you condemn further Chancellor SartoriIrvrash of conspiring against his royal majesty.’
‘You have made no attempt to assess my importance. Supposing I tell you that thousands of people are watching us at this moment? They wait to see how you behave towards me, to test you. Their judgement will influence how you are set down in history.’
Colour rose to the dignitary’s cheeks. ‘It is the All-Powerful who watches us, no one else. Your dangerous lies of godless worlds would overturn our state. Hold your tongue, or you will find yourself on a bonfire.’
In some desperation, Billy approached the king, displaying his watch with its three faces to him. ‘Your Majesty, I beg you to free me. Look on this artifact I wear. Every person on the Avernus wears a similar one. It tells the time on Helliconia, on Avernus, and on a distant controlling world, Earth. It is a symbol of the tremendous strides we have made in conquering our environment. To a sympathetic audience, I could convey marvels far in advance of anything Borlien could manage.’
Interest woke in the king’s eyes. He lowered his silk and asked, ‘Can you make me a functioning matchlock, the equal of Sibomars?’
‘Why, matchlocks are nothing. I—’
‘Wheel locks, then. You could produce a wheel lock?’
‘Well, no, I – sir, it’s a question of the tensile strengths of the metal. I daresay I could devise – Such things are obsolete where I come from.’
‘What kind of weapon can you make?’
‘Sir, first interest yourself in this watch, which I beg you to accept as a present, in token of my faith.’ He dangled the watch before the king, who showed no inclination to accept it. ‘Then let me free. Then let me work from first principles with some of your learned men, such as the Archpriests here. Very soon we might devise a good, accurate pistol, and radio, and an internal combustion engine …’
He saw the expressions on both the king’s and the archpriest’s face, changed his mind about what he was going to say, and instead held out the watch again in supplicatory fashion.
The little figures wriggled and changed under the king’s inspection. His majesty seized the timepiece; he and BranzaBaginut inspected it, whispering. Prophets had spoken of a time when magical machineries would appear and the state would be overthrown and the Empire destroyed.
‘Will this jewel tell me how long I have left to reign? Can it inform me of the age of my daughter?’
‘Sir, it is science, plain science, not magic. Its case is of platinum trawled from space itself …’
The king brushed it away with a sweep of his hand.
‘The jewel is evil. I know it. Kings as well as deuteroscopists are cunning about the future. Why did you come here?’ He threw the watch back to Billy.
‘Your Majesty, I came to see the queen.’
JandolAnganol was disconcerted by this reply and stepped back as if he were confronting a ghost. Said BranzaBaginut, ‘So you are not only an atheist but a Myrdolator? And you expect to be welcome here? Why should his majesty tolerate any more of your riddling? Yon are neither lunatic nor jester. Where did you come from? SartoriIrvrash’s armpit?’
He advanced threateningly on Billy, who backed against a wall. Other members of the court began to close in, anxious to show their sovereign how they regarded unroasted Myrdolators.
Krillio Muntras rose from his cushions and advanced to where the king stood, looking about sharply in some indecision.
‘Your majesty, why not ask your prisoner by what ship he arrived from this other world of his?’
The king looked as if undecided as to whether to become angry. Instead,