Inversions c-6

by Iain Banks

  "Then you will spread the ill humour to others, they will incubate it while you grow well again, they will perhaps subsequently inadvertently sneeze in your presence and consequently reinfect you, who will play host to it again while they recover, and so on."

  "Don't lecture me, Doctor. I'm in no mood for it." The King looked round at the slumped pile of pillows propping him up, opened his mouth to call a servant but then started to sneeze, his blond locks bouncing as his head went back and forth. The Doctor stood up from her chair and, while he was still sneezing, pulled the King upright and rearranged his pillows. The King looked at her in some surprise.

  "You are stronger than you look, are you not, Doctor?"

  "Yes, sir," the Doctor said with a modest smile as she went back to undoing the dressing on the King's ankle. "And yet still weaker than I would be." She was dressed as she had been the day before. Her long red hair was more carefully prepared than was usual, combed and plaited and hanging down her long dark jacket almost to her slim waist. She looked at me and I became aware that I was staring. I looked down at my feet.

  Poking out from under the great bed's valance was a corner of cream-coloured clothing that looked oddly familiar. I wondered at this for a moment or two until, with a pang of jealousy for the right of Kings, I realised it was part of a shepherdess's costume. I pushed it further under the valance with my shoe.

  The King settled himself back amongst his pillows. "What is the news on that boy who ran away? The one who killed my chief questioner?"

  "They caught him this morning," the Doctor said, busying herself with the old dressing. "However, I do not think he committed the murder."

  "Really?" the King said.

  Personally, Master, I did not think he sounded as if he particularly cared one way or the other what the Doctor thought on this matter, but this was the cue for the Doctor to explain in some detail — especially to a man, however exalted, who had a cold and had just eaten a light breakfast — exactly why she had convinced herself that Unoure had not killed Nolieti. I have to say that the consensus amongst the other apprentices, assistants and pages, arrived at in the kitchen parlour of the palace the previous evening, was that the only perplexing aspect about the whole business was how Unoure had been able to put off the dark decd fox so long.

  "Well," the King said, "I dare say Quettil's fellow will get the truth out of him."

  "The truth, sir? Or what is required to satisfy the prejudices of those already convinced they know the truth?"

  "What?" the King said, dabbing at his reddened nose.

  "This barbaric custom of torture, sir. It produces not the truth but rather whatever those commanding the questioner wish to hear, for the agonies involved are so unbearable that those subject to them will confess to anything — or more precisely, will confess to what they think their tormentors wish them to confess to — in the hope of causing the suffering to cease."

  The King looked at the Doctor with an expression of confusion and disbelief. "People are beasts, Vosill. Lying beasts. The only way to get the truth out of them sometimes is to wring it from them." The King snorted mightily. "My father taught me that."

  The Doctor looked at the King for a long moment, then started to undo the old dressing. "Indeed. Well, I'm sure he could not possibly have been wrong, sir," she said. She supported the King's foot with one hand and unwound the white dressing with the other. She started sniffing too.

  The King kept on sniffing and snorting and staring at the Doctor. "Doctor Vosill?" he asked eventually as the last of the dressing floated free from his ankle and the Doctor gave it to me to put away.

  "Sir?" she asked, wiping her eyes on her cuff and looking away from Quience.

  "Madam, have I upset you?"

  "No," the Doctor said quickly. "No, sir." She made as though to start applying the new dressing, then put it aside and made an exasperated clicking noise with her mouth. She busied herself with the inspection of the small wound healing on the King's ankle and then ordered me to fetch water and soap, which I had already provided and set by the bed. She seemed annoyed that I had done this, but quickly ensured the wound was clean, washed and dried the King's foot and began to secure the new dressing.

  The King appeared discomfited during all this. When the Doctor was finished he looked at her and said, "You will be looking forward to the ball yourself, Doctor?"

  She smiled briefly at him. "Of course, your majesty."

  We packed our things away. As we were about to take our leave, the King reached out and took the Doctor's hand. There was a troubled, uncertain look I did not think I had seen before in his eyes. He said, "Women bear pain better than men, they say, Doctor." His eyes seemed to search hers. "It is ourselves we hurt most when we question."

  The Doctor looked down at her hand, held within the King's. "Women bear pain better because we must give birth, sir," she said in a low voice. "Such pain is generally regarded as being unavoidable, but is alleviated to whatever extent it can be by those of my calling." She looked up into his eyes. "And we only become beasts — we become worse than beasts — when we torment others, sir."

  She took her hand carefully from his, picked up her bag and with a small bow to the King, turned and headed for the doors. I hesitated, half expecting the King to call her back, but he did not. He just sat there in his vast bed, looking hurt, and sniffing. I bowed to the King and followed the Doctor.

  Unoure never was put to the question. A few hours after he was captured and brought back to the palace, while the Doctor and I were attending the King and while Ralinge was still preparing the chamber for his inquisition, a guard looked in on the cell where the youth was being held. Somehow, Unoure had slit his own throat with a small knife. His arms and legs were tightly chained behind him and he had been stripped naked before being placed in the cell. The knife had been wedged hilt-first into a crack in the stone walls of the cell at about waist height. Unoure had been able to kneel before it at the extremity of the reach the chains securing him would allow and slice his neck across its blade, before collapsing and bleeding to death.

  I understand that the two Guard Commanders were furious. The guards who had been charged with Unoure's custody were lucky they were neither punished nor put to the question themselves. It was eventually agreed that Unoure must have placed the knife there before his attack on Nolieti, in case he was captured and brought back to the palace.

  Our shared station might dictate both that we knew little and that our opinions were worth less, but none of us who had had occasion to experience the full extent of Unoure's intelligence, forethought and cunning found this explanation even remotely convincing.

  Quettil: Good Duke, how very pleasant it is to see you. Is this not a fine view?

  Walen: Hmm. I find you well, Quettil?

  Q: In most rude health. You?

  W: Tolerable.

  Q: I thought you might want to sit down. See? I have arranged for chairs.

  W: Thank you, no. Let us go over here…

  Q: Oh. Well, very well… Well, here we are. And afforded an even finer view. However, I cannot imagine you wished to meet me up here to admire my own estates.

  W: Hmm.

  Q: Allow me to hazard a guess. You have some misgivings about… what was his name? Nolieti? Nolieti's death? Or rather about his and his apprentice's?

  W: No. I believe that matter is closed. I attach no great significance to the death of a pair of torturers. Theirs is a despicable if necessary craft.

  Q: Despicable? Oh no. No indeed. Why, I would call it a form of art at its most elevated. My man, Ralinge, is a veritable master. I have only avoided singing his praises to Quience because I'm afraid he might take him from me, and that would be most upsetting. I should feel deprived.

  W: No, my concern is with one whose profession is concerned with the alleviation of pain, not the causing of it.

  Q: Really? Ah, you mean that woman who calls herself a doctor? Yes, what does the King see in her? Can't he just fuck
her and have done with it?

  W: Perhaps he has, more likely he has not. She looks at him in a way that leads me to believe she would like to be tumbled… but I care not either way. The point is that he seems convinced of her efficacy as a physician.

  Q: And… what? There is someone you would rather see in her place?

  W: Yes. Anybody. I believe she is a spy, or a witch, or something between the two.

  Q: I see. Have you told the King?

  W: Of course not.

  Q: Ah-ha. Well, my own physician is of much the same opinion as yourself, if that is any comfort. Which I warn you it ought not to be, really, given that my physician is a self-important fool and no better than any of the rest of these blood-letters and saw-bones at curing anything.

  W: Yes, quite. I am sure, nevertheless, that your physician is as competent a doctor as can be found, and so I am glad that he shares my opinion of the woman Vosill. That may well prove useful if eventually we have to convince the King of her unsuitability. I can tell you that Guard Commander Adlain feels that she is a threat too, though he agrees with me that it is not yet possible to move against her. That is why I wanted to talk to you. May I rely on your discretion? I wish to speak of something that would have to be done without the King's knowledge, even though it would be done solely to protect him.

  Q: Hmm? Yes, of course, good Duke. Go on. Nothing will go beyond these walls. Well, balustrades.

  W: I have your word?

  Q: Of course, of course.

  W: Adlain and I had an agreement with Nolieti that should it prove necessary, the woman could be taken and put to the question… without reference to the King.

  Q: Ah, I see.

  W: This plan was ready to be put into effect while we travelled from Haspide to here. But now we are here, and Nolieti is dead. I would ask you to be willing and ready to put a similar plan into effect. If your fellow Ralinge is as efficient as you say then he ought to have no difficulty extracting the truth from the woman.

  Q: Certainly, to date, I can think of no woman who has been able to resist his advances in that respect.

  W: Well then, will you let some part of the Palace Guard arrange for her apprehension, or at least allow it to take place without their interference?

  Q:… I see. And what would be my interest in doing so?

  W: Your interest? Why, the safety of the King, sir!

  Q: Which is of course my first concern, as it is so clearly and creditably yours, dear Duke. Yet without some obviously deleterious action by the woman, it might rather look as though one was acting on no more than your own dislike of her, however well informed.

  W: My likes and dislikes are predicated entirely on what is good for the royal house and I would hope that my service over the past many years, indeed decades, has proved that. You care less than nothing for the woman. Are you saying you would object?

  Q: You have to see this from my stand-point, dear Walen. While you are all here the responsibility for your safety is formally mine. On this occasion, only a few days after the arrival of the Court at Yvenir, one of its officers was killed unlawfully and his murderer escaped the questioning and punishment that should rightfully have been his. That displeased me greatly, sir, and it was only because the matter was concluded almost as soon as it began, and appeared to be entirely internal to the royal court that I felt no more insulted. Even so, I think Polchiek does not realise how close he came to being brought down a rung or two. And I might add that my Guard Commander still worries that something is being hidden, that the apprentice's death was somehow arranged by somebody who might have benefited from his silence. But in any event, if, after such a murder and suicide, a favourite of the King were to disappear, then it would mean that I would have no choice but to discipline Polchiek with the utmost severity. My honour could be preserved by nothing less, and arguably would still suffer. I would need the most decidedly persuasive proof that the woman meant the King some harm before I could possibly countenance any such action.

  W: Hmm. I fancy the only proof you would accept would be the King's corpse, and that alone might prove satisfactory to you.

  Q: Duke Walen, I would hope that your wit might devise a way to discover the woman's fraudulent nature long before that could possibly occur.

  W: Indeed. And I have just such a commission in hand.

  Q: There, you see? And what is your plan?

  W: Close to fruition, I hope.

  Q: You will not tell me?

  W: It is unfortunate that it seems neither of us can indulge the other, Quettil.

  Q: Yes, isn't it?

  W: I have no more to say, I think.

  Q: Very well. Oh, Duke?

  W: Sir?

  Q: I take it I can rely on the woman not still somehow disappearing while the court rests at Yvenir, can I? If she did, I might have to think most carefully about whether to reveal to the King what you have revealed to me.

  W: You gave me your word.

  Q: Why, that I did, dear Walen. But I'm sure you would agree that my first loyalty is to the King, not to you. If I judged that the King was being deceived for no persuasive reason, it would be my duty to inform him.

  W: I am sorry I have troubled you, sir. It would appear that we have both wasted our time this morning.

  Q: Good day, Walen.

  This too I found later, not in the Doctor's journal but in some other papers (and have edited it slightly to present a more continuous narrative). The common participant of these two passages is Walen, but — especially given all that happened later — I simply do not know what to make of it. I record. I do not judge. I do not even offer speculation.

  12. THE BODYGUARD

  The Royal Park of Croughen Hills had been a private game reserve of the royal house of Tassasen for several centuries. UrLeyn had parcelled large parts of it out to various of the nobles who had supported his cause in the war of succession, but reserved the right of the Protector and his court to go hunting in the forests.

  The four mounts and their riders circled the tall clump of brush and tangled creeper bush where they reckoned their prey had gone to ground.

  RuLeuin took out his sword and leaned down from the saddle, poking at the mass of vegetation. "Are you sure he went in here, brother?"

  "Quite certain," UrLeyn said, dipping his face towards his mount's neck and squinting at an opening into the bushes. He lowered himself still further, letting go of the reins with one hand to peer into the undergrowth. DeWar, riding at his side, reached out to hold the reins of UrLeyn's mount. RuLeuin, on the far side of the bushes, also leant down upon the neck of his mount.

  "How is the boy today, UrLeyn?" YetAmidous said, voice booming. His big face was red and bright with sweat.

  "Oh, he's well," UrLeyn said, levering himself upright again. "Better with every day. Still not strong, though." He glanced round, looking back up the slope beneath the trees. "We need some beaters here…"

  "Get your dark man to beat for us," YetAmidous said to UrLeyn, referring to DeWar, "You'll get down and beat for us, won't you, DeWar?"

  DeWar smiled thinly. "I only beat out human prey, General YetAmidous."

  "Human prey, eh?" YetAmidous said with a hearty laugh. "Those were the days, what?" He slapped his saddle. DeWar's thin smile lasted a little longer.

  In the last years of the old Kingdom, when King Beddun had been at his most carelessly cruel, prisoners — or poachers unlucky enough to be caught plying their trade in the forest had provided most of the prey for hunts. That tradition of savagery had been outlawed, but there was one memento of the time present, DeWar thought, in the shape of the old King Beddun's antique hunting crossbow, which UrLeyn carried slung over his back.

  UrLeyn, DeWar, YetAmidous and RuLeuin had become separated from the main part of the hunt, 'Which could be heard on the far side of the hill. "Sound your horn, will you, Yet?" UrLeyn said. "Let's get some of the others here."

  "Right you are." YetAmidous brought his horn to his lips and let a gre
at blare of sound escape. It almost coincided, DeWar noticed, with the sound of horns coming from the other side of the hill, so probably was not heard. He chose not to say anything. YetAmidous shook some spit from the horn's mouthpiece and looked pleased with himself.

  "Is Ralboute joining us, Protector?" he asked. "I thought he was supposed to."

  "A message came this morning," UrLeyn said, standing up in the saddle to stare into the clump of bushes. He shielded his eyes as a beam of sunlight fell across his face. "He has been detained at — " He looked at DeWar.

  "I believe it is the city of Vynde, sir."

  "— Vynde. The city of Vynde is proving more resilient than expected."

  RuLeuin stood in the saddle too and directed his gaze at the same place as his brother. "There was talk that we lost a couple of the siege mortars," he said.

  "It is only a rumour as yet," UrLeyn said. 'Simalg has rushed ahead as usual and out-distanced his supporting forces. Communication has been erratic. With Simalg, you never know. He may have advanced too fast for his guns, or otherwise misplaced them. Let's not assume the worst."

  "I have heard other grumbles, still, Protector," YetAmidous said, undoing the top of a wineskin and taking a quick gulp. "Perhaps we should go to Ladenscion ourselves and take matters in hand." YetAmidous" brows compressed. "I tell you, Protector, I miss making war. And I'd warrant you for one would not misplace siege guns."

  "Yes," RuLeuin said. "You ought to take charge of the war yourself, brother."

  "I have thought about it," UrLeyn said. He unsheathed his own sword and whacked at the tops of some bushes. "I have been concerned to appear less of a warlord and more of a statesman, and anyway did not reckon the rebellion in Ladenscion merited the full weight of our forces, but I may change my mind if I think the situation demands it. I shall wait for Ralboute's return, or for a message from him. Yet, blow that horn again, would you? I don't think they heard the first time." UrLeyn put away his sword and took off his green hunting cap. He wiped his brow.

  "Ha!" YetAmidous said. He lifted the hunting horn, took a gargantuan breath that raised his formidable body off the saddle of his mount and turned his expression into a deep frown, then put the instrument to his lips and blew with all his might, his face going scarlet with the effort.