Between each quiet, and almost casual, statement Dann waited, and took his time looking over the faces. Not a sound.
‘Griot – where are you?’
Griot stepped out from the doorway that led to Dann’s room and came forward to stand in front of Dann, where he saluted and, at Dann’s gesture, stood beside him.
‘You all know Griot. This is Captain Griot. That is what you will call him. Now, I am speaking for Captain Griot and for myself, General Dann. If any one of you, any one wearing the red fleece, catches me with poppy, it will be your duty to arrest me and take me at once to Captain Griot – or anyone else who is in command. You will take no notice of anything I say or do when under the influence of poppy. This is my order. You will arrest me.’
He paused a long time here. Ruff, standing between Griot and Dann, looked up at Griot’s face and at Dann’s, and then barked softly.
A ripple of laughter.
‘Yes, and Ruff says so too. And now for you. If any one of you is found with poppy, in the camp, let alone smoking it, you will be arrested and severely punished.’
Here a tension communicated itself from Griot to Dann, who said, ‘The degree of punishment has not yet been decided. It will be announced.’
A movement of unease through the soldiers.
‘You will remember, I am sure, that you chose to come here, to the Centre. No one forced you. No one stops you from leaving. But while you are here, you will obey orders. And now, look to Captain Griot for orders and for what you need. I am not well yet and I shall rest, though I am sure I will be well soon. Captain, dismiss them.’
Dann retired back to the great hall and Griot’s working table, where Griot joined him, with the snow dog.
Dann sat carefully, disposing his so thinly covered bones among the folds of his Sahar robe, which had been Mara’s, though Griot did not know this.
Griot waited and, when Dann said nothing, asked, ‘And how are you proposing to punish, sir?’
‘I thought we could dismiss any soldier caught with poppy.’
‘No, that is how I was punishing the looters from the Centre, and all that happens is that they became gangs of outlaws and thieves.’
‘So, what else?’
‘I have put offenders into a punishment hut on half-rations but, you see, some of these people have starved for weeks, and our half-rations and a warm hut are hardly a punishment.’
‘Well, then?’
‘When I was in the army in Venn, they branded offenders with marks denoting their offence.’
‘No,’ said Dann at once, ‘no.’ His hand went to his waist where the scars were.
‘No,’ said Griot, ‘I agree. When I was in the army in Theope – that’s on the coast, and it’s a cruel place – they flogged offenders, in front of the whole army.’
‘No, no flogging. I’ve seen it. No.’
‘This is an army – General.’
‘Yes, it is, and congratulations. And how are you going to enforce discipline?’
‘Sir, in my view there is not much we can do. This is an army but it is a voluntary one. What we are depending on is …’
‘Well, out with it.’
‘It’s you – sir. No, I know you don’t like that, General, but it’s true. Everyone is waiting – for you. What we lack is space. You can see that. We are badly overcrowded now. There are parts of the Centre fit for occupation, but if we had the soldiers in it, they would be a rabble in no time.’
‘Yes, you are right. And then?’
‘And the food. You have no idea what a job it is, feeding everyone.’
‘Then tell me.’
‘We’ve got a road zigzagging down to the Bottom Sea and the fish comes up that. We have fishing villages all along the shores of the Bottom Sea now – well, for a good little distance. We have our farms on the slopes of the mountain. The animals are doing well. But there’s never enough of anything.’
‘So, it’s Tundra. I get your message, Griot. So what are your spies saying?’
‘There will be civil war. There’s already fighting in some places out on the eastern edges of Tundra.’ He saw the strain on Dann’s face. Dann was trembling. He seemed hardly able to keep his seat.
‘They want us to invade and keep order and – they want you, sir.’
‘A Mahondi general?’
‘I don’t think they remember that. To tell the truth it is hard to understand how they see it. You are a bit of a legend, sir.’
‘What a prize, Griot. What a general. What a ruler – that’s what they want, I suppose.’
Griot’s eyes were going to overflow if he wasn’t careful. He could hardly bear to see Dann sit shaking there: he was actually putting his weight on the snow dog, for support. Griot could not stop thinking about the handsome young captain in Agre, or, for that matter, the healthy Dann who had returned from his wanderings so recently. And here was this sick unhappy man who looked as if he were seeing ghosts, or hearing them.
‘You’ll get better, Dann – sir.’
‘Will I? I suppose I will. And then …’ Here there was a good long pause and Griot had no idea what Dann might say next. ‘Griot, do you ever think of – of the cities – the cities under the marshes? Did you know they were all copies of the cities that long ago – long, long ago – were all over Yerrup? That was before the Ice. They were built here on permafrost. That is, permanent frost, that would last for ever – that is how we think, you see, Griot, that the things we have will last. But they don’t last. The cities sank down into the water. All of us, we live up here and just down there are the old dead cities.’ Now he was making himself lean forward to hold Griot’s eyes, trying to make what he was saying reach Griot who, he was sure, was not taking it in.
‘Dann, sir, you’ve forgotten, I’ve had bad times too. And when you’re frightened or you’re hungry you have all kinds of bad thoughts. But there’s no point in that, is there? It doesn’t get you anywhere.’
‘No point in starting again. Yes, Griot, exactly; no point. Over and over again, all the effort and the fighting and the hoping, but it ends in the Ice, or in the cities sinking down out of sight into the mud.’
Now Griot leaned across the table and took Dann’s hand. It was cold and it shook. ‘It’s the poppy, sir. It’s still in you. You should go to bed, have a rest, sleep it off.’
The snow dog did not like Griot touching Dann and he growled. Griot removed his hand.
‘We live in these ruins, Griot, these ruins, full of things we don’t know how to use.’
‘We know how to make some of them. And there is something else I discovered while you were away. I’d like to talk to you about it when you wake up.’
‘Rubbish, ancient rubbish, Griot. I had the right idea when I set fire to it. No, I won’t do it again, don’t worry.’
‘There are things here you haven’t seen.’
‘Mara and I explored the place.’
‘There’s a hidden place. The old people didn’t know about it. They didn’t care about all that. All they cared about was you and Mara – well, that’s the past.’
