Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [386]
‘By his experiments, Rushven found a rule which he called a cline. He proved that the Others in Cage One could sometimes produce progeny when mated with Nondads. Those progeny were infertile. No, the progeny of the Nondads breeding with Madis were infertile. I forget details. Madis could produce progeny when mated with the humans in Cage Four. Some of those progeny are fertile.
‘He carried on his experiments for many years. If Others and Madis were forced to copulate, no issue resulted. Humans mating with Nondads produce no issue. There is a grading, a cline. These facts he discovered. Rushven was a gentle person. He did what he did for the sake of knowledge.
‘You probably blame him, as you blame everyone but yourself. But Rushven paid for his knowledge. One day, two years ago – you were absent then, in the wilds as usual – his wife came to this quarry to feed the captives, and the Others broke out of their cage. They tore her to pieces. This old guard will tell you …’
‘It was her arm I found first, sir,’ said the guard, pleased to be mentioned. ‘The left arm, to be partic’lar, sir.’
‘Rushven certainly paid for his knowledge. Roba, I have paid for mine. The time will come when you too have to pay a price. It won’t always be summer.’
Roba tore leaves from a bush as if he would destroy the bush, and wrapped the leaves about his wounded hand. The guard went to help him, but Roba kicked him away with a bare foot.
‘This stinking place … these stinking cages … the stinking palace … Taking notes of dirty little ruttings … Once, look, before kings were born, the world was a big white ball in a black cup. Along came the great kzahhn of all ancipitals and mated with the queen of all the humans, split her open with his enormous prodo and filled her right up with golden spume. That rumbo so shook the world that it jarred it out of its winter frigidity and caused the seasons—’
He could not finish the sentence, so overcome was he by laughter. The old guard looked disgusted and turned to the king.
‘I can assure you, sir, the chancellor never carried out no such experiment here, to my certain knowledge.’
The king remained rigid, eyes bright with contempt, not moving until his son’s outburst was over. He turned his back to him then, before speaking.
‘We have no need of that, and no need of quarrelling, not in a time of grief. Let us return together to the palace. You can ride behind me on Lapwing, if you wish.’
Roba fell to his knees and covered his face with his hands. He made noises that were not weeping.
‘Perhaps he’s hungry,’ suggested the guard.
‘Get out, man, or I’ll slice your head off.’
The guard fell back. ‘I still feed them faithfully every day, Your Majesty. Bring all the food up from the palace, and I’m not as young as I was.’
JandolAnganol turned back towards his kneeling son. ‘You know your grandfather is now one with the gossies?’
‘He was tired. I saw his grave yawn.’
‘I do my best, sir, but really I need a slave to assist me …’
‘He died in his sleep – an easy death, for all his sins.’
‘I said he was tired. Self-demented, mother-tormented, granddad-fermented … that’s three blows you’ve struck. Where next?’
The king folded his arms and tucked his hands into his armpits. ‘Three blows! You child – they’re my one wound. Why do you plague me with nonsense? Stay and comfort me. Since you’re unfit to marry even a Madi, stay.’
Roba put his hands on the dirt before him and began slowly to get to his feet. The guard seized his chance to say, ‘They don’t copulate any more, sir. Only among themselves, each cageful, as a way of passing time.’
‘Stay with you, Father? Stay with you as Grandfather stayed, in the bowels of the palace? No, I’m going back to the—’
As he was speaking, the guard shuffled forward in supplicatory fashion and interposed himself between JandolAnganol and his son. The