Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [407]
Seeing the burnt-out ruins of the town had changed his mind. He returned to the scene of action in time to witness the Vajabhar Prayer gliding by his own ship, with Hanra TolramKetinet, favourite of the queen of queens, standing on its quarterdeck.
Io Pasharatid was not entirely sunk in self-interest, though in this instant jealousy played some part in his actions. He ran forward, rallying the men who crouched among the bushes, driving them back aboard the Union. The tidal wave had set it on a strip of beach, unharmed.
After some manoeuvring with oars, assisted by the flood tide, they floated the carrack free of the beach. The sails were trimmed and, slowly, her bows drifted round towards the open sea.
Signal flags were run up, reporting that the Union was in pursuit of the pirate. The signal was intended for the eyes of Dienu Pasharatid on the Golden Friendship; but she would never read another signal. Hers was one of the first human deaths occasioned by the death-flight of the assatassi.
Only when they were out of the bay and a fresh west wind was carrying them slowly against the prevailing ocean stream, did TolramKetinet and SartoriIrvrash take the chance to embrace each other.
When they had given each other some report of their adventures, TolramKetinet said, ‘I have little to be proud of. Since I am a soldier, I cannot complain where I am sent. My generalship has been such that my forces dissolved without my being able to fight a single battle. It is a disgrace I shall always live with. Randonan swallows men whole.’
The ex-chancellor said, after a moment, ‘I am grateful for my travels, which were no more planned than yours. The Sibornalese used me, but from the experience has come something valuable. More than valuable.’
He made a gesture indicating Odi Jeseratabhar, whose wound was now dressed, and who sat on the deck listening to the men talking, her eyes closed.
‘I’m getting old and the loves of the old are always funny to mere youths like you, Hanra. No, don’t deny it.’ He laughed. ‘And something more. I realise for the first time how fortunate our generations are to live at this period of the Great Year, when heat prevails. How did our ancestors survive the winter? And the wheel will turn, and again it will be winter. What a malign fate, to grow up as Freyr is dying and know nothing else. In parts of Sibornal, people don’t see Freyr at all during the centuries of winter.’
TolramKetinet shrugged. ‘It’s chance.’
‘But the enormous scale of growth and destruction … Perhaps our mistake is to think ourselves apart from nature. Well, I know of old that you are less than enthralled by such speculations. One thing I must say. I believe I have resolved one question of such revolutionary nature …’
He hesitated, stroking his damp whiskers. Smiling, TolramKetinet urged him to go on.
‘I believe I have thought what no man has ever thought. This lady has inspired me. I need to get to Oldorando or Pannoval to lay my thought before the powers of the Holy Pannovalan Empire. My deduction, I should call it. There I shall certainly be rewarded, and Odi and I can then live comfortably.’
Scrutinising his whiskery face, TolramKetinet said, ‘Deductions that are paid for! They must be valuable.’
The man’s a fool and I always knew it, thought the ex-chancellor, but he could not resist the chance to explain.
‘You see,’ SartoriIrvrash said, lowering his voice so that it could hardly be heard for the slap of the canvas above them, ‘I could never abide the ancipital race, unlike my master. There lay much of our difference. My thought, my deduction, weighs very much against the ancipitals. Hence it will be rewarded, according to the terms of the Pannovalan Pronouncement.’
Rising from her chair, Odi Jeseratabhar took SartoriIrvrash’s arm and said to TolramKetinet and Lanstatet, who had joined them, ‘You may not know that King JandolAnganol destroyed all the chancellor’s life’s work, his “Alphabet of History and Nature