Iain Banks Culture 06 Inversions

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appetite had left
Lattens so weak he could barely lift his head to drink. For a few mornings he
seemed to be getting better, but then he relapsed and seemed once again at the
very door of death.
UrLeyn was distraught. The servants reported that he raged round his
apartments, tearing sheets and pulling down tapestries and smashing ornaments
and furniture and slicing ancient portraits with a knife. The servants started
to clean up the destruction when he went to visit Lattens on his sick bed, but
when he returned UrLeyn threw the servants out, and from then on he would let
nobody into his rooms.
The palace seemed a terrible, bleak place to be, the atmosphere contaminated
by the powerless fury and despair of the man at its heart. UrLeyn remained in
his wrecked apartments during this time, only leaving to visit his son every
morning and afternoon, and the harem each evening, where he lay, usually with
Perrund, collapsed in her lap or bosom while she stroked his head until he
fell asleep. But such peace never lasted long, and he would soon twitch in his
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sleep and cry out and then wake, and subsequently rise and return to his own
rooms, old and haggard-looking and sunk in despair.
The bodyguard DeWar slept in a cot along the corridor from the door to
UrLeyn's rooms.
For most of the day he would pace up and down the same corridor, fretting and
waiting for UrLeyn to make one of his rare appearances.
The Protector's brother RuLeuin tried to see UrLeyn. He waited patiently in
the corridor with DeWar, then when UrLeyn appeared from his apartments and
walked quickly in the direction of his son's room, RuLeuin Joined DeWar at
UrLeyn's side and tried to talk to
his brother, but UrLeyn ignored him, and told DeWar not to let RuLeuin or
anybody else approach him until he ordered so. YetAmidous, ZeSpiole and even
Doctor BreDelle were all told this by the bodyguard.
YetAmidous did not believe what he was being told. He thought DeWar was trying
to keep them all away from the General.
He too waited in the corridor one day, defying DeWar to force him to leave.
When the door to UrLeyn's apartments opened, YetAmidous pushed past DeWar's
outstretched arm and walked towards the Protector, saying, 'General! I must
talk to you!'
But UrLeyn just looked at him from the doorway, then without a word closed the
door from the inside before YetAmidous could get there. The key turned in the
lock.
YetAmidous was left to fume in the doorway, then he turned and walked away,
ignoring
DeWar.
'Will you really see no one, sir?' DeWar asked him as they strode to Lattens'
room one day.
He thought UrLeyn would not answer, but then he said, 'No.'
'They need to talk to you about the war, sir.'
'Do they?'
'Yes, sir.'
'How goes the war?'
'Not well, sir.'
'Well, not well. What does it matter? Tell them to do whatever has to be done.
I do not care to concern myself with it any more.'
'With respect, sir '
'Your respect for me will be expressed from now on by speaking only when you
are spoken to, DeWar.'
'Sir '
'Sir!' UrLeyn said, whirling to face the younger man and forcing him to
retreat until his back was hard against a wall. 'You will remain silent until
I ask you to speak, or I will have you removed from this building. Do you
understand? You may answer yes or no.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Very well. You are my bodyguard. You may guard my body. No more. Come.'
The war was indeed going badly. It was common knowledge in the palace that no
more cities had been taken, and indeed that one had been retaken by the
barons' forces. If the
message to try to capture the barons themselves had got through, it was either
not being acted upon or was impossible to accomplish. Troops disappeared into
the lands of
Ladenscion and only the walking wounded seemed to return, with tales of
confusion and horror. The citizens of Crough began to wonder when the men who
had been sent to the conflict might return, and started to complain about the
extra taxes which had been levied to pay for the war.
The generals at the war itself called for more troops, but there were scarcely
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any troops left to send. The palace guard had been halved, with one half being
formed into a company of pikemen and sent off to the war. Even the eunuchs of
the harem guard had been pressed into service. The generals and others who
were attempting to administer the land and run the war while UrLeyn closeted [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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