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? You 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, he said, with his nose still covered. “Well, creature, to please our ice trader—by what vehicle came you here?”
Edging round the perimeters of BranzaBaginut, Billy said, “My ship was of metal, a ship entirely enclosed, carrying its own air. I can make all this comprehensible with the aid of diagrams. Our science is advanced, and could aid Borlien… The ship brought me down to Helliconia safely, and left, to return on its own to my world.”
“Has it a mind then, this vessel?”
That’s difficult to answer. Yes, it has a mind. It can calculate—navigate through space, perform a thousand actions by itself.”
JandolAnganol bent in a careless way and lifted up a wine jar, elevating it slowly until it was above his head. “Which of us is mad, creature, you or I? This vessel has a mind—yes, yes, it too can navigate all by itself. Look!” He flung it. The jar flew through the air, crashed into a wall and broke, splashing its contents all about. This small violence caused everyone to become as immobile as phagors.
“Your Majesty, I endeavoured to answer your—” He sneezed violently.
“It’s guilt and anger only that forces me to try and get reason out of you. But why should I bother? I’m deprived, I have nothing, this place is an empty larder, with rats for courtiers. All has been taken away, yet still more is asked of me. You too ask something of me… I am confronted by demons all the way… I must do penance again, Archpriest, and your hand must not be light upon me. This is SartoriIrvrash’s demon, I do believe. Tomorrow, I will endeavour to address the scritina and all will be changed. Today I am merely a father who bleeds a lot…”
He said in a lower voice, to himself. “Yes, that’s it, simply, I must change myself.”
He lowered his eyes and looked weary. A drip of blood fell to the floor.
Ice Captain Muntras gave a cough. As a practical man, he was embarrassed by the king’s outburst.
“Sire, I come on you at a bad time, as I see. I am just a trader, and so had best be on my way. For the past many years, I have brought you the best Lordryardry ice straight off the best slice of our glaciers, and at the best prices. Now, sire, I will give my grateful thanks for your custom and hospitality at the palace, and take my leave of you for ever. Despite the fog, it’s best I was off back home.”
The speech seemed in a measure to revive the king, who put a hand on the Ice Captain’s shoulder. The eyes of the latter were rounded in innocence.
“I would I had such men as you about me, talking plain sense all the time, Captain. Your service has been appreciated. Nor do I forget your assistance to me when I was wounded after that fearsome occasion in the Cosgatt—as I am wounded now. You are a true patriot.”
“Sire, I am a true patriot of my own country, of Dimariam. To which I am about to retire. This is my last trip. My son will carry on the ice trade with all the devotion I have shown you and the—hm—the ex-queen. As the weather grows hotter, your majesty will perhaps be needing additional loads of ice?”
“Captain, you good trader in better climates, you should be rewarded for your service. Despite my dreadful state of penury, and the meanness of my scritina, I ask—is there anything I might present you with as a token of our esteem?”
Muntras shuffled. “Sire, I am unworthy of reward, and do not seek one, but supposing I said to you that I would make an exchange? On the journey here from Oldorando, I, being a compassionate man, rescued a phagor from a drumble. He is recovered from a watery ordeal, often fatal to his kind, and must find a living away from Cahchazzerh, where he was persecuted. I will present this stallun to you as a slave if you will present me with your prisoner, whether demon or not. Is it a deal?”
“You may have the creature. Take it away, together with its mechanical jewel. You need give me nothing in return, Captain. I am in your debt if you will remove it from my kingdom.”
“Then I will take him. And you shall have the phagor, so that my son may call on you in the same civil terms as I have always done. He’s a good boy, sir, is Div, though with no more polish than his father.”
So Billy Xiao Pin passed into the keeping of the Ice Captain. And on the following day, when the fog was dispersing before a slight breeze, the king’s cloudiness also dispersed. He kept his promise to address the scritina.
To that body, who sat coughing in their pews, he presented the appearance of a changed man. Having attested to the wickedness of Chancellor SartoriIrvrash, and to his major role in the reverses recently suffered by the state, JangolAnganol launched into a confession.
“Gentlemen of the scritina, you swore fealty to me when I ascended the throne of Borlien. There have been reverses to our dearly beloved kingdom, that I do not deny. No king, however powerful, however benevolent, can greatly change the condition of his people—that I now realize. I cannot command droughts or the suns which bring such plagues to our land.
“In my desperation, I have committed crimes. Urged on by the chancellor, I was responsible for the deaths of the Myrdolators. I confess and ask your forgiveness. It was done to set the kingdom right, to stop further dissension. I have given up my queen, and with her all lust, all seeking for self. My marriage to the Princess Simoda Tal of Oldorando will be a dynastic one—chaste, chaste, I swear. I will not touch her except to breed. I will take thought for her years. I shall henceforth devote myself wholeheartedly to my country. Give me your obedience, gentlemen, and you will have mine.”
He spoke controlledly, with tears in his eyes. His audience sat in silence, gazing up at him sitting on the gilded throne of the scritina. Few felt pity for him; most saw only the opportunity to exploit this fresh instance of his weakness.
Despite the absence of a moon, there were tides on Helliconia. As Freyr drew nearer, the planet’s water envelope experienced an increase in tidal strength of some sixty percent above conditions at apastron, when Freyr was more than seven hundred astronomical units distant.
MyrdemInggala, in her new home, liked to walk alone by the shore of the sea. Her troubled thoughts blew away for a while. This was a marginal place, the strip between the kingdoms of the sea and the kingdoms of the land. It reminded her of her dimday garden left behind, placed between night and day. She was only vaguely aware of the constant struggle that went on at her feet, perhaps never to be entirely won or lost. She gazed towards the horizon, wondering as she did every day if the Ice Captain had delivered her letter to the general in the distant wars.