Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [351]
‘Do you mean to say that people out there – real people like us—’ said Abath, ‘could be watching us even now? Seeing us big-like, not down the gullet of a worm?’
‘It’s more than possible, my darling Abath. Your face and your name may already be known to millions of people on Earth – or rather, that is to say will be known when a thousand years have passed, for that’s how long it takes communications to get from Avernus to Earth.’
Unimpressed by figures, she could think of only one thing. Putting her hand to her mouth, she moved her mouth closer to Billy’s ear. ‘You don’t suppose they will see us having a go on the bed, do you?’
Overhearing the remark, Pallos laughed and pinched her bottom. ‘You charge extra for anyone watching, don’t you, girl?’
‘You mind your own scumbing business,’ Billy told him.
Muntras pursed his lips. ‘What possible pleasure can they get, watching us in all our native stupidity?’
‘What distinguishes Helliconia from thousands of other worlds,’ said Billy, returning to something like a dry lecturer’s tone, ‘is the presence here of living organisms.’
As they were digesting his remark, a noise reached them from the mist and the jungle, a prolonged shrilling, distant but clear.
‘Was that an animal?’ asked the girl.
‘I believe it was a long horn blown by phagors,’ said Muntras. ‘Often a danger sign. Are there many free phagors hereabouts, Grengo?’
‘There could be. The freed phagor slaves have learned men’s ways and live quite comfortably in their own jungle settlements, I hear tell,’ said Pallos. ‘They never get very bright in the harneys, though – you can charge them a good high price for broken ice.’
‘They buy ice off you, phagors?’ asked Abath, in surprise. ‘I thought it was only King JandolAnganol’s Phagorian Guard that got treated to ice!’
‘Well, they bring in things to Osoilima to trade – gwing-gwing stone necklaces, skins, and suchlike, so then they’ve the money to pay me for ice. They crunch it straightaway, standing in my store. Disgusting! Like a man drinking liquor.’
Silence descended on them. They stood quiet, peering out at the night, under the limitless vault of stars. To their imaginations, the wilderness seemed almost as limitless, and it was from there that the occasional sound came – once a cry, as if even those rejoicing in newfound freedom suffered. From the stars came only the uninsistent signals of light and, from the great Stone below them, darkness.
‘Well, the phagors won’t worry us,’ said Muntras, curtly, breaking in on their speculations. ‘Billish, over where Sol is, over in that direction somewhere lies the Eastern Range, what people call the High Nktryhk. Very few people visit it. It’s almost inaccessible, and only phagors live there, legend has it. When you have been riding on your Avernus, have you ever seen the High Nktryhk?’
‘Yes, Krillio, often. And we have simulations of it in our recreation centres. The Nktryhk peaks are generally wreathed in cloud, so that we watch through infrared. Its highest plateau – which covers the top of the range like a roof – is over nine miles high, and protrudes into the stratosphere. It is a most impressive sight – awesome, to be true. Nothing lives on the very highest slopes, not even phagors. I wish I had brought a photograph to show you, but such things are heavily discouraged.’
‘Can you explain to me how to make – photogiraffes?’
‘Photographs. I’ll try, when we reach Lordryardry.’
‘Good, let’s go down, then, and never mind hanging about for Akhanaba to appear. Let’s get some food and sleep, and we will be off promptly in the morning, before noon.’
‘Avernus will be up in an hour. It will make a transit of the whole sky in about twenty minutes.’
‘Billish, you’ve been ill. You must be in bed in an hour. Food, then bed – alone. I must be your father on Earth – I mean to say, on Helliconia. Then if your parents watch us, they will be happy.’
‘We don’t really have parents, only clans,’ Billy explained, as they went under the arch and prepared to descend. ‘Extra-uterine birth is