The Song of Phaid the Gambler

by Mick Farren

  'What is it?'

  'It said vegetable stew on the outside.'

  'You could have fooled me.'

  'You don't get gourmet emergency rations.'

  'Why not, don't people of wealth and breeding get stranded in the cold?' Edelline-Lan nodded towards Chrystiana-Nex. 'Do you think we ought to feed her?'

  Phaid passed his container under the ex-president's nose. She showed no flicker of reaction. Phaid shook his head.

  'Why bother? She's in a world of her own. Even if we tried, she'd probably spill most of it all over herself.'

  Once the food was finished, Phaid leaned back against the bank and smiled.

  'You know something? This could be a lot worse.'

  'I wouldn't like to make a habit of it.'

  Phaid rummaged in his pocket and pulled out one of the vials of scholomine.

  'I don't think it would be too good an idea for us to both fall asleep at the same time. I'm going to take some of this and keep watch. How about you?'

  'Are you asking me to choose between a hit of scholo­mine and a nap on the cold hard ground?'

  'Yeah, I suppose I was.'

  'You've got to be fucking crazy.'

  They both dropped substantial amounts into their eyes. The cold retreated and the frozen forest was transformed into a fairyland specially created for their pleasure. The fire danced in dazzling bursts of red and yellow and Phaid, in his heightened state, felt that he could recognise the unique configuration of each individual snowflake. He smiled at Edelline-Lan. She smiled back at him. He smiled at Chrystiana-Nex. As usual, she didn't respond.

  In this instance, it made Phaid unutterably sad.

  'She really ought to be seeing all this. It's much too wonderful to miss.'

  Edelline-Lan nodded. There was a faraway look in her eyes.

  'Much too wonderful.'

  For the second time that day Phaid prised open Christ-iana-Nex's eyelids and dropped scholomine into her eyes. This time the effect was not so dramatic. She remained motionless for nearly a minute. Then she sat up and hugged her knees.

  'What a beautiful fire. I do like scholomine.'

  Both Phaid and Edelline-Lan nodded. They were as high as kites. A large tear ran down the ex-president's cheek.

  'I wasn't always president, you know. It was a long hard road to get there. I had to do a lot of things that they now hold against me. I didn't have any choice. I had to fight.'

  Phaid nodded.

  'We've all had to fight.'

  Chrystiana-Nex gave no sign that she had heard him.

  'Do you know what becomes of the third daughter of the fourth wife of a high plains nomad? She is nothing more than a slave to her father. "Crya fetch water." I was Crya then. I didn't get to be Chrystiana-Nex until Hogarn-Nex took me, first for his mistress and then as his wife. I was always cleverer than Hogarn-Nex. That's why he had to die. I made a much better president. Everybody said so. Of course, that was in the times when they loved me; when they worshipped the ground that I walked on.'

  Phaid leaned behind the ex-president and whispered to Edelline-Lan.

  'Have you ever seen her like this before?'

  'Never. She seems to be letting it all flow out of her.'

  'Do you think we should do something about it?'

  'Yeah, we should shut up and listen, this could be fascinating stuff.'

  Chrystiana-Nex gave no sign that she had heard their whispered conversation. She went on talking to no one in particular.

  'It was "Crya watch the veebelings," "Crya serve your brothers," "Crya you spilled my wine," "Crya bare your back," "Crya kneel, Crya scream, Crya crawl away and nurse your stripes." The young bucks would come by on their big flippers to court my sisters and half-sisters. They would smile. My sisters would smile. My half-sisters would smile. My father would smile most of all. And me? I would hide. I wanted a young buck to come by to court me. I ached. I wanted so badly that my body revolted, but I still hid. Then there was the night I ran away. I stole food, a little money and I ran. I knew my father would beat me to death if he caught me. The third daughter of a fourth wife has no value among the wanderers of the high plains.'

  She paused for a moment as if catching her breath and then the torrent of words started again.

  'But he didn't catch me. The drovers caught me instead. They took me to the city. Oh Lords, how they took me, all the way to the city. A line of them every night. All the way to the city. I didn't fight. I didn't scream. I got to the city. They took me in the city, too. I danced with bells on my ankles, naked with bells on my ankles. Naked with eyes crawling all over my body. The drovers had stopped me wanting. The drovers had stopped me aching. I danced with bells on my ankles and eyes on my body. I'd learned everything those drovers knew.'

  There was another pause. Her voice grew quiet and her delivery slowed by at least half.

  'Then there were the other things I did. The dark things, the hot moist things, the things I did that couldn't be thought about while I was doing them. The things that hurt, the things that made me throw up after I'd done them. I was still young. A lot of them, the hands and the mouths and the teeth, forgot how young I was. That's not quite true. They all knew how young my body was. They never bothered to think that my mind might have still retained a trace of its innocence. They thought that I could take it all, and I suppose the truth was that I could.'

  Pitch, intensity and speed began to build up again.

  'There was the colonel in the secret police. I changed all the ranks because of him, after I came to power. I even changed the uniforms. I didn't want to be reminded. He had me dress up in furs and . . . and then he passed me on to his superior. He had me hung up in a cage. They all passed me on. Crya the notorious, Crya the desirable, Crya the adaptable. Now Crya is mad, but then, ah then. They passed me up the line until Nex had me. Nex, next, Nex who thought he was so inventive, so perverted and who was really so dull. Nex was only exciting, only perverted because he had the power. He thought he could own me, control me, keep me away from the others. In fact, I owned him, I controlled him, I didn't want the others but I got them to kill him. Then I had the power and the whole world loved me.'

  Phaid shook his head as though he could hardly believe what he was hearing.

  'This is incredible!'

  'Then he came and it really didn't matter. He didn't want my body. He didn't want to chain me or dress me or lick my shoes. He could get right inside my mind. He could make me see visions, wonderful visions of glory.'

  'Is she talking about Solchaim?'

  'I think she must be.'

  'And then he went. He took the visions and he went away and the mob came and . . . what was that?'

  It took Phaid a few moments to realise that Chrystiana-Nex had snapped back into the present and was talking to him directly.

  'What was what?'

  'Listen.'

  'It's only the rustling of the trees.

  'There's more.'

  Phaid started to ease his blaster out of its holder. Edelline-Lan did the same. Something big and grey-blue moved at the very extreme of the firelight, going at a swift loping run. It was a big, doglike thing, but bigger than any dog Phaid had encountered. Then there was a high, mournful howl.

  'Lupes! That's all we needed! Lords know what a pack of lupes is going to do to us.'

  Chapter 26

  Soon we will come.'

  The voice, if indeed it was a voice, floated from between the dark trees, Phaid thought he could see baleful eyes watching from beyond the ring of firelight.

  'We will eat of you, humans.'

  As with most animals, it was hard to tell whether the sound of the lupe's voice was heard by the ears or somehow sensed inside the mind.

  'It is cold and we hunger.'

  Phaid tossed another length of branch on to the fire. A cloud of sparks billowed up into the frozen air.

  'But you are afraid of our fire.'

  'We are afraid of your fire, but your fire will
die and then it will not protect you.'

  Phaid thought he could just make out one of the big doglike shapes moving closer to the outer fringe of the light.

  'A lot of you will die before you kill us.'

  'Such is the nature of the pack. Some die, but the others survive.'

  'Are you the leader of this pack?'

  'The pack has no leader.'

  Edelline-Lan gripped Phaid's arm.

  'Is it true that lupes won't attack while there is fire?"

  Phaid nodded.

  'That's right, but sooner or later the fire's going to go out, either when we want to move or when we have to go too far afield to get more wood.'

  'We've got our blasters.'

  'I wouldn't bet on our chances of stopping a whole pack of lupes. It only needs one to jump on your back and it's all over. Do you know how big those things are?'

  'They're only big dogs.'

  'They're twice the size of the biggest dog that you've ever seen. Two of them can pull down a bull veebe, and even a cub could probably snap your neck.'

  'I'm frightened.'

  Phaid put his arm around her.

  'Believe me, honey, so am I.'

  Phaid was grateful that Chrystiana-Nex had gone quiet directly the first howl of a lupe had been heard. He couldn't have handled both her and the animals. He turned to Edelline-Lan.

  'Did you think to bring any booze from the train?'

  She looked at him as though she didn't like his tone.

  'I brought some brandy. It seemed like a sensible idea.'

  'Will you give it to me?'

  'Are you cold?'

  'No, I want to marinate myself before the lupes eat me.'

  'Don't joke.'

  'I'm not.'

  Phaid swallowed a hefty gulp of the liquor and waited for the burn to come. When it did, he gasped. Edelline-Lan looked at him questioningly.

  'Are you really going to get drunk?'

  Phaid held up the bottle.

  'Sadly there's not enough here.'

  He handed it back to her and she too drank. It didn't change the worried expression on her face.

  'Do you think that there's a chance that the lupes might give up waiting for the fire to go out and move on of their own accord?'

  The voice of the lupe pack answered before Phaid had a chance to speak.

  'You humans have killed many of us and you have taken too many of our hunting grounds. We are cold and hungry and we have nowhere to go. There is nothing for us to eat here but you. We will not move on.'

  Edelline-Lan swallowed hard.

  'Phaid, it's horrible.'

  Phaid took another drink. He spat some brandy into the fire and it flared up.

  'We still have the fire at the moment. Maybe when the dawn comes things will look different.'

  Phaid was aware that he probably didn't sound very convincing. For a while they sat in silence. Edelline-Lan stared wistfully into the fire.

  'The world will never be the same again. Most of the court is dead. Roni-Vows has been captured and I'm in a forest surrounded by lupes. What's going on, Phaid?'

  Phaid shrugged and drank some more brandy.

  'I don't want to sound unkind, but in a lot of ways you're getting what you deserve.'

  'Were we that bad?'

  'To a peasant starving on the northside, you were that bad.'

  'Nobody asked them to come to the northside and starve.'

  Phaid shook his head.

  'What can I tell you, when you say it all yourself.'

  'I don't understand.'

  'I don't think you ever will.'

  Edelline-Lan didn't say anything and Phaid went back to staring into the fire. A lupe howled as though remind­ing them that he and his family were still there.

  'Do you know what happened to Abrella-Lu?'

  Phaid, despite the cold and the lupes, had almost nodded off. Edelline-Lan repeated the question.

  'Do you know what happened to Abrella-Lu?'

  Phaid grunted.

  'She got me thrown in jail and almost executed, that's what happened.'

  'No, I mean after that.'

  'I should care, but, strangly enough, I do know what happened to her. The rebels have her on a chain gang back in the city. I saw her one time. She was stripped to the waist and humping rubble. There was a big woman with a whip in charge of the gang. I figured that maybe I could have got her off it, me being the hero and all, but I didn't. I thought she might as well stay there. It was good exercise and she would probably have worked out a way to enjoy it. She has an almost limitless capacity for perversion.'

  'You really hate her, don't you.'

  Phaid sighed.

  'Hate her? I don't know. It takes a lot of energy to hate.

  She almost got me killed. Yeah, I guess I hate her.'

  A lupe howled and Edelline-Lan shivered.

  'You're very weird.'

  Phaid nodded vigorously.

  'Damn right I'm weird. That's why I'm sitting in the snow, surrounded by lupes that intend to eat me when the fire goes out. That's why I'm helping a totally demented tyrant to escape the slow and painful death that she so justly deserves. You can bet your ass that I'm weird.'

  Edelline-Lan fell silent. Phaid took another slug from the bottle and sank deeper into his coat.

  Just before dawn the snow had petered out and the wind had dropped. It made the forest a little more tolerable. A strip of grey was visible in the eastern sky.

  Phaid, who once again had been coldy dozing, raised a chilly eyebrow and wondered whether the fire would still deter the lupes once it was daylight. He estimated that they'd find out in a little more than a half-hour. Edelline-Lan had her eyes shut and was breathing very softly. He wondered if he ought to wake her and make his peace. The sour note that they had struck seemed a bad one on which to die. On the other hand, it also seemed a pity to let her see the bad news before it was absolutely neces­sary.

  Phaid was still deliberating when a loud crack made him sit upright. A lupe screamed and a flight of birds panicked into the air. There were more cracks and more screams. Someone or something was attacking the lupe pack. Phaid could just make out some of the big dog shapes slinking away through the trees. Two more human shapes were silhouetted against the lightening strip of sky. The shapes became fur-clad men. They stepped into the firelight.

  'Be thee all right, chum?'

  Phaid scrambled to his feet and looked bemusedly at the newcomers.

  'Yes, we're okay, but we're damn glad to see you.'

  The two men made Makartur look civilised. They were dressed from head to foot in greasy wolf pelts and stained, cracked leather. Heavy fur caps were pulled down over their eyes and the rest of their faces were obscured by full blond beards and drooping, braided moustaches. About the only part of them that was exposed to the air was the red skin around their piercing blue eyes.

  There was an older man and a younger one. The elder of the two seemed to hold the authority. Phaid suspected that they might be father and son. They both cradled long barrelled projectile guns. The weapons were very old, but lovingly cared for. The older of the hunters jerked a slide on the underside of his gun's stock. A spent magazine flew out. It dropped into the snow. He slammed in a fresh one and then gathered up the discard and tucked it carefully into his furs.

  'Can't waste nothing in these here parts.'

  'No, I suppose not.'

  Phaid didn't know exactly what he was supposed to say. The son, if indeed that was what he was, stretched out a hand to Phaid's blaster. At first Phaid thought he was going to disarm him. Then he realised that he only wanted to examine the weapon. Phaid eased it out of its holster and handed it over. The son hefted it and then passed it back with a grin.

  'Blaster no good for lupes.'

  Phaid put the blaster away.

  'Burns up the fur?'

  'That's right. No good for lupes.'

  The father seemed to have had enough. He shifted his gun fro
m one arm to another.

  'Go thee south?'

  'Yes . . . south, south to Bluehaven.'

  The older man grunted.

  'Thee's well armed, but . . .' He fingered Phaid's coat, 'Thee'll freeze for sure.'

  Edelline-Lan chose exactly that moment to wake up. She saw the two men and started. She let out a short squeal.

  'Wha?'

  'Hunters. They drove off the lupes.' He looked back at the father. 'You are hunters, aren't you?'

  He nodded.

  'Hunters, aye. We hunt lupes, sell the pelts in Fasbhad and Bluehaven.'

  The son was looking at Edelline-Lan and Chrystiana-Nex with interest . . .

  'Women.'

  It was a flat statement. Phaid bit his lip.

  'Ah . . . yeah.'

  He wondered what the sexual mores were among lupe hunters. He was relieved that the young hunter didn't simply seize the women by the hair and drag them away. At least they were a little more civilised. Exactly how civilised remained to be found out. While the son was looking at the women, the older hunter was giving Phaid a hard scrutiny.

  'Thee have name?'

  'Phaid.'

  'Phaid?'

  'That's right.'

  'Hill name?'

  'That's right.'

  'But thee cityite?'

  'Yeah, well . . .' Phaid didn't like this cross examina­tion'. . . I was born in the hills but I went to the city.'

  'I never bin to hills, city neither.' The hunter wasn't exactly scintillating, but he did come straight to the point. 'Thee go south a' Bluehaven.'

  'Yes.'

  'Thee don't. Thee die first.'

  'You think so?'

  'I know so. Thee hasna' cold suits.'

  'Is there anything that you could do to help us?'

  'Thee pay?'

  Now Phaid was on territory that he fully understood.

  'Yes. We pay.'

  The older hunter nodded.

  'We go Bluehaven. You pay, we take. We sell thee cold suits. Agree?'

  'Agree.'

  It was quite light. The son had dragged three dead lupes to near the fire and was starting the skinning process.

  'We hear they talking t' thee. That's how we find pack.'