Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [348]
Muntras sighed, shuffling his chair round so as to be able to peer down into the mist, perhaps hoping that a greeb would emerge to prove Pallos wrong.
‘When young Billish comes off the kooni, I think I’ll take him up to the top of the Stone, if he’s strong enough. Ask your old woman to get us some supper, will you?’
Muntras sat where he was when the local manager had gone. He lit a veronikane and remained smoking contentedly, absently watching the smoke ascend to the rafters. He did not even wonder where his son was, for he knew: Div would be in the local bazaar. Muntras’s thoughts were much further away.
Eventually, Billy and Abath appeared, holding hands. Billy’s face was only just wide enough to accommodate his grin. They sat down at the table without speaking. Without speaking, Muntras offered the Exaggerator bottle. Billy shook his head.
It was easy to see that he had undergone an emotional experience. Abath looked as composed as if she had just returned from church with her mother. Her features resembled a younger Metty’s, but there was a lustre about her which Metty had lacked for many a day. Her gaze was bold, where Metty’s was slightly furtive, but there was, thought Muntras, who considered himself a judge of human nature, the same kind of reserve to her as to her mother. She was escaping some kind of trouble in Matrassyl, which might account for her guarded manner. Muntras was content just to admire her in her light dress, which emphasised her generous young breasts and echoed the chestnut brown of her hair.
Perhaps there was a god. Perhaps he kept the world going, despite its idiocy, because of beauty like Abath’s …
At length, Muntras exhaled smoke and said, ‘So, don’t they go in for trittoming between man and woman on your world, Billish?’
‘We are taught to trittom, as you call it, from the age of eight. It’s a discipline. But down here – I mean with Abath – it’s … the reverse of discipline … it’s real … Oh, Abathy …’ Exhaling her name as Muntras exhaled smoke, he seized her and began to kiss her passionately, breaking off only to utter endearments. She responded in a minor key.
Billy shook Muntras’s hand. ‘You were right, my friend, she is the equal of the queen in every way. Better.’
The captain said, ‘Perhaps all women are equal and it is only in the imagination of men that differences lie. Remember the old saying, “Every rumbo romps home to the same rhythm …” You have a very vivid imagination, so I imagine that you found her a very good trittom in consequence … Are koonis in our world as deep as in yours?’
‘Deeper, softer, richer …’ He fell to kissing the girl again.
The captain sighed. ‘Enough of that. Passion is as boring as drunkenness in other men. Go away, Abath. I want some sense out of this young man, if possible … Billish, if you have managed to see over the top of your own prodo since we landed, you may have noticed the Osoilima Stone. You and I are going to ascend it. If you are well enough to mount Abath, you are well enough to mount the Stone.’
‘Very well, if Abath can come too.’
Mantras gazed at him with an expression at once a scowl and a grin. ‘Tell me, Billish boy – you’re really from Pegovin in Hespagorat, aren’t you? They’re great jokers there.’
‘Look.’ He sat down facing the captain. ‘I’m what I say – from another world. Born and brought up there, recently landed in the space-vehicle I described to you between fever fits. I would not lie to you, Krillio, because I owe you too much. I feel I owe you more than life.’
A dismissive gesture. ‘You owe me nothing. People shouldn’t owe others anything. Remember, I was a beggar. Don’t think too much of me.’
‘You’ve worked with devotion and built up a great enterprise. Now you are the friend of a king …’
Filtering a little smoke between pursed lips, Muntras said stonily, ‘That’s what you think, is it?’
‘King JandolAnganol? You are a friend of his, aren’t you?