Shardik

53 Night Talk

He had been given a bundle of child slaves to take to the Barons' Palace, but they were so heavy that he could not carry them and had to drag them behind him step by step. The way lay up a mountain and he was following Lord Shardik, up through the steep, dreary forests where the ghosts of the dead soldiers flickered and cackled among the branches. At last the way became so steep and the weight so heavy that he had to crawl on his hands and knees, and in this manner he came at last to the top. The Barons' Palace stood on the extreme summit, but drawing nearer he realized that it was nothing but flat, painted wood upon a frame, and as he stood looking at it, it broke to pieces and fell away down the back of the mountain.

Waking, he crawled into the open air and tried to get a sight of the stars. Either leaves or clouds were obscuring them. As best he could, he considered. Ii it were now very late – the middle of the night or later – both Genshed and Lalloc might be asleep: if they were, he might just possibly be able to release Radu and Shara – might even, perhaps, be able to kill Genshed with his own knife.

The night was pitch black, but from one direction he could make out a distant glow of firelight, partly obscured, or so it seemed, by some kind of curtain. He took a few steps towards it and perceived that he had misjudged the distance, for it was close – close by. A cloak had been fastened across the doorlcss gap through which Genshed had led Radu at nightfall. He reached it, knelt and put his eye to one of the slits through which the glow was showing.

Dry stone walls and a floor of cobbles – nothing else – and a low fire burning in the fire-place opposite. Who had collected the wood, he wondered. The slave-dealers must have got it for themselves while he lay asleep. In the further corner Radu and Shara were sleeping on the bare stones. Radu was lying motionless, but Shara whimpered continually, fretful and evidently ill. Beside her, on the wall, her shadow jumped and leapt, exaggerating each movement of the sick child as echoes in a ravine magnify and hurl back the cry of a man standing upon its brink.

Genshed, a long stick in one hand, was sitting on his pack, gazing into the flames and scraping moodily at a cluster of insects that had run to the top of a burning log. The fancy returned to Kelderek that he never slept, or that, like an insect, he became dormant only at certain seasons. Opposite, Lalloc was perched awkwardly on a log, with his wounded leg supported on another. A leather wine-skin was propped against Genshed's pack, and after a few moments the slave-dealer picked it up, drank and passed it across to Lalloc. Kelderek, seeing that any idea of rescue was hopeless, was about to creep away when Lalloc spoke. Curious, despite his light-headed, insect- devoured misery, he listened.

'You wasn't ollways in this line of business, was you?' asked Lalloc, bending forward to rub his leg. 'How long I know you, Gensh – three year?' 'Not always,' answered Genshed. 'What you done – soldier maybe?' Genshed leant forward and dislodged a beetle into the flames. 'I was executioner's mate in Terekenalt.' 'Thot's a good job? Good money?' 'It was a living,' said Genshed. There was a pause. ' Bit of sport, was it, eh?'

'Kids' stuff,' answered Genshed. 'Got tired of it. You learn it all quick enough and you're only allowed to do what you're told.' 'Thot's not moch, eh?'

'Well, it's all right – watch their faces when they bring them out – you know, when they sec it all laid out for their personal benefit -the clindcrs and the frags and that.' 'Frags first, ain't it?' 'Can be either,' answered Genshed, 'long as the fingers are broken. But you can't let yourself go, only now and then.' 'What's now and then?' Genshed drank again, and considered.

'If a man's condemned, all you can do is carry out the sentence. That's all right, but it's no better than boys or animals, is it? That's what I came to see, anyway.' 'Why, what more you can do, then?'

'Screaming and crying, you get tired of that,' said Genshed. 'There's a bit more to it when they want information. The real style's breaking a man's mind, so that he turns what you want and stays that way even when you've finished with him.' 'You got you can do thot?'

'Needs brains,' said Genshed. 'Of course I could have done it; I got the brains, but the bastards wouldn't give me the chance. Job like that's sold to the one who can buy it, isn't it? They don't want quality. I knew what I was worth. I wasn't going to stay hot-iron man all my life, just for the bare living. I started taking what I could get from prisoners – you know, to let 'em off light – or just take the money and not let 'em off – what could they do? That was what lost me the job. After that I was in a bad way for a time. Most people don't want to employ you when you've been in that line of trade – more fools them.'

Lalloc threw another branch on the fire and squinted into the neck of the wine-skin. In the corner Shara twisted on the floor, babbled a few words and licked her dry lips without waking. 'Ortolgans give you chonce, eh, like me?' 'They wouldn't give me a licence, the bastards. You know that.' 'Why they don't?'

'Too many children injured, they said. More like I hadn't got the money to buy the licence.'

Lalloc chuckled, but broke off as Genshed looked sharply across at him.

'Well, I don't laugh, no, no, but you need style, Gensh, to be slave-dealer, you know. Why you don't gotting proper overseers? Then don't lot your children the, don't hurt them where it shows. Make them look nice, you know, teach them act up a little for the costomers.' Genshed crashed his fist into his palm.

'All right for you, eh? I got to work on the cheap. You don't need overseers for kids. Pick out a couple of the kids themselves -get rid of them soon as they know more than you want them to know. You – you only buy from other dealers, don't you, got capital to work with? I got to go out and get 'em on the cheap, all the trouble, all the danger, no licence, then you buy them off me and sell 'cm for more, don't you?' 'Well, but you ollways spoil so monny, Gensh, ain't it?'

'You got to expect to spoil some – got to expect to lose some as well. You got to break their minds – make them so they can't even think of running away. Beat one or two to death if you have to – frighten the rest half silly. I don't have to do so much as I did once – not now I've got the trick. I've driven kids mad without even touching them – that's style, if you like.' 'Bot you can't soil them if they're gone mad, Gensh.'

'Not for so much,' admitted Genshed. 'But you can count on getting some sort of price for almost anything, and you've had a bit of sport for the difference. Loony ones, ugly ones, all the ones rich dealers like you don't take – I can still sell them to the beggar-masters. You know, chop their hands off, chop their feet off, something of that, send them out to beg. Man in Bekla used to live off eighteen or twenty, most of them he got from me. Used to send them out begging in the Caravan Market.'

'Well, thot might be your style, Gensh, but it's not big money. You got to make them look pretty, jost ontil the costomer's bought them, you know. Then you got to stoddy what the rich costomer want, you got to talk to the children, tell them it's all for their good they tickle the costomer, you know, eh?'

His voice held a barely-concealed note of condescension. Genshed slashed at the fire in silence.

'What you keeping the little girl for?' asked Lalloc. 'You gotting rod all the girls in Tonilda, you told me. Why you not soiling her?'

'Ah – to keep him in order, that's it,' said Genshed, jerking his thumb at Radu. 'Ow's thot?'

'He's a funny one,' said Genshed. 'Smartest thing I ever did, biggest risk I ever took; if it comes off I'll make a fortune; and it still could. That's a young aristocrat, that is – ransom job, once I get him back to Terekenalt. Long as I keep him I can lose all the rest I can't break him – not altogether – you never can tell with that sort, even when they think they're broken themselves. The baby – she's better than anything for keeping the likes of him in order. Long as he's set himself to look after her, he won't be trying anything on, will he? The joke was he came to me of himself at Thettit and said we had to keep her – got her across the Vrako, too. That was a risk – he could have drowned – but it was worth it to have no trouble from him. That sort can make a lot of trouble. Pride – oh yes, he's too good for the likes of you and me. But I'll break him before I'm done, the fine young gentleman – I'll have him flogging boys to earn his supper and never have to raise a finger to force him – you sec if I don't,' 'Who is he?'asked Lalloc.

'AhI Who is he?' Genshed paused for effect 'That's the Ban of Sarkid's heir, that is.'

Lalloc whistled. 'Oh, Gensh, woll, no wonder the place full of Ikats, eh? You done it right, now we know why they don't stop looking, eh? We got a lot to thonk you for, Gensh.'

'Two hundred thousand meld,' said Genshed. 'Isn't that worth a risk? And you said we'd get over the river in the morning, didn't you?'

'Who's the other one, Gensh – the man? 'Thought you dodn't only go for boys and girls?'

'Don't you know?' replied Genshed. 'You ought to, you oily, creeping, bribing bastard.'