haven’t you? It’s more than I ever do.’ And she actually seemed about to cry.
This was such a new thing in Kira, this childishness, that Griot was again set back by it, and Shabis called to him, ‘Come on, Griot.’
The two men went out into the dusk, with the dogs.
They stood well away from the house. Kira was in the doorway trying to overhear. Griot told how Dann had been ill since the news of Mara’s death; he explained why Dann had heard so late. He told as much as he had gathered of Dann’s adventures at the Bottom Sea and at last made himself say that Dann was mad, and he didn’t know what to do.
‘Let us go further,’ said Shabis, with a glance back at the looming purple shape that was Kira. They walked down a stony path while the noise of the Western Sea loudened, and stopped close together where spray came hurtling over a cliff, but the noise was not too bad.
‘He was very ill once before,’ said Shabis and told Griot of the events in the Towers at Chelops.
‘Yes, when he is rambling he talks about it.’
‘Usually he never mentions it. Mara said he was afraid of thinking about it.’
‘And now he is afraid of poppy.’ Griot told Shabis of Dann’s orders never to give him poppy.
‘Then that’s the main thing,’ said Shabis. ‘And I’ll ask Leta, she has medicines for everything. But meanwhile tell me about the Centre. What’s all this about a new army?’
Griot told Shabis his story, not boasting, but proud of what he had achieved, and he ended saying that Tundra’s cities should be invaded. Now was the right time.
‘You talk easily about invasions and killing, Griot.’
‘I think Tundra will soon start invading us. The Centre is a rich prize. And the old people are dead. They want Dann, for his reputation.’
‘Really, and what reputation is that?’ said Shabis, surprising Griot, who then saw the older man’s ironical smile. ‘But it seems to me there are two. One, General Dann – and he deserved that; when I promoted him so young I think I can say I knew what I was doing. But this other reputation, the wonder worker Prince Dann? That’s all just moonshine and talk.’
‘It’s not Prince Dann, or prince anything, people talk about. But he does seem to have some kind of – authority that it’s hard to explain. And my spies tell me that all over Tundra they are waiting for him.’
‘I see. I seem to have been here before. I spoke against the invasion of Shari. That is why I became the enemy of the other three generals. And I was right. Nothing was achieved except the usual tale of refugees and deaths. In my experience easy talk about wars and invasions means weakness, not strength.’
‘It’s a question of need. The refugees keep coming and coming – I am sure you must see them here – and they have to be fed and clothed and looked after. I remember how you used to give us lectures and lessons, and I try to do the same, Shabis. We are all so crowded, there’s no room. And Tundra is mostly empty.’
‘Everything is so unstable, can’t you see that? The wars along the road to the east – they show no signs of ending. On the contrary, new wars flare up … The great unknown quantity, Griot – it’s the masses of refugees. Are you going to control armies of displaced people with some talk about a wonder worker called General Dann? And down south, there is bad trouble in Charad, in my country. The three generals were killed in a coup and the army is wanting me back.’
Griot could see that Shabis, standing there so close, was talking to himself, though loudly, because of the sea noise; he was rehearsing thoughts that he went over when he was alone.
‘And yes, Griot, you are too polite to say it, but you’re thinking I am too old for generalling and war. Yes, I am, but I’m not too old to be a figurehead. I am General Shabis, who was against the three bad generals, and they are dead. So I am wanted back to unify Agre and protect them against the Hennes. But how can I leave, Griot? You must see …’
Griot saw. Shabis could not take the child with him on a long and dangerous journey south. And she couldn’t be left here with Kira, who wished her ill.
‘I have a wife in Agre,’ said Shabis. ‘She’s a good woman but she would not welcome Mara’s child. Why should she? She longed for her own child but – we weren’t lucky. If I arrived there with Mara’s – no, I can’t even think of it. And so – you do see, Griot?’
‘You could come to the Centre, with the child,’ said Griot.
‘I feel I have responsibilities here, apart from Tamar. Daulis, I know, would go back to Bilma if there weren’t Leta to consider. And Leta knows it. If Leta returned to Bilma she would find herself back in the … did you know Leta was in the whorehouse there?’
‘Yes. When Dann rambles he tells a good deal. But you forget, I was living here before and Leta is not exactly shy about her life as a whore.’
‘You don’t understand. She’s so ashamed of it, and that’s why she has to talk.’
‘If you came to the Centre, you and Dann together could lead us invading Tundra.’ Griot’s voice trembled, telling how this seemed to him the apotheosis of the best he could hope for – General Shabis and General Dann … ‘You and Dann,’ he said again.
‘Have you thought that Dann might not be so pleased to see me? He lost his sister to me – that’s how he sees it. Rather, how he feels it. He was always generous to me – to us – to me and Mara. But when I think of how he feels – well, I try not to, Griot.’
Griot was silent. The sea crashed and washed below them and stung them with spray.
‘So, you see, Griot, there’s a stop to any path I might want to take.’
Griot, who had been a child left to fend for himself, was thinking that the little girl, Tamar, was surely too small, too unimportant – was that it? – to stand in the way of General Shabis and his duty to heal his country.
‘Back to the house, Griot. I’m glad you came. Don’t imagine I’m not thinking about all this – it’s what I think about all the time.’
Kira met them on the veranda, and she was glittering with anger in the lamplight.
‘In a minute, Kira,’ said Shabis and the two men went past her. In the main room Leta and Daulis were playing dice. Donna was with the children.
Shabis asked Leta to go with him. They left Kira with Griot.
‘So, what’s the big secret?’ said Kira. ‘Has Dann gone completely crazy at last?’
This was most unpleasantly acute.
‘I’m sure you would be told if he were,’ said Griot.
Leta returned with packets of herbs, which she spread out and began instructing Griot.
‘These are all sedative herbs,’ said Kira.
‘We have people who are ill,’ said Griot, refusing to surrender Dann to Kira.
‘Well, tell Dann it
