For the second of his five prophesied feats, Charlie must kill someone or something called "'...the Sorrow of Avilyogh!'" (p. 65)
But when should he do it? The Council debates.
Reasons For Three Days Hence
(i) The town will want to tax spectators, the more of them the better.
(ii) Food vendors will need time to purchase extra supplies.
(iii) Inns and private households will want to prepare rooms.
(iv) Souvenir manufacturers will also need time to prepare.
(An ad in Alan Moore's Neopolis, where most people have superpowers: "Let us cater to your Crisis or Crossover!"
(In Mike Carey's Lucifer, when Lucifer Morningstar and an angel are to fight a duel in Hell, a stadium must be built for the spectators, who gamble in souls on the outcome.)
Dzenko's Reason For This Afternoon
If the tyrant, Olaghi, has time to learn what is happening, then his battle fleet will arrive to burn the town.
Another debate is "What is the Sorrow?"
Possible Answers
A great decapod;
the height from which flocks of birds ravish grainfields;
bandits;
a demon or ogre, dangerous in itself and responsible for all the other ills - this is Dzenko's authoritative answer: his hunters have already scouted the ogre's lair and given him a map.
Everything seems to be happening on schedule. The New Lemurians accept unsubstantiated stories in the same way as the Hoka accept new roles to play. The two species seem to have been made for each other.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't think the gullibility of the New Lemurians is all that different from similar, often lethal foolishnesses to be found among humans. Here I'm thinking of two incidents from British history: the Popish Plot mania and the War of Jenkins Ear.
And Lord Dzenko and the magistrates of Avilyogh, in their different ways, were trying to fish in trouble waters for their own benefit! Which is also very human like!
Sean
Sean,
I knew an Old Catholic who did not accept Papal Infallibility and who also said that Guy Fawkes was framed. When you refer to the Popish Plot mania, do you deny that there were any Catholic plots?
The New Lemurians unquestioningly accept Dzenko's new version of "the Sorrow."
Paul.
Paul:
The parts referring to spectators, food vendors, and such reminded me of a scene in H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. Kalvan decrees that the corrupt priests of Styphon are to be put to death by being blasted from cannon muzzles. ("Well, the British had done that during the Sepoy Mutiny, in the reign of her enlightened Majesty, Victoria, and could you get any more respectable than that? He was making a bad pun about cannon-ized martyrs.")
He actually means to offer a pardon to those who recant their money-grubbing arms deals. (Styphon's priesthood long ago discovered gunpowder, and held a monopoly, as well as stirring up wars to increase their profits ... but then Kalvan, Corporal Calvin Morrison of the Pennsylvania State Police, showed up from our world.) Before the leniency, though, he subjects them to some further psychological warfare:
His chief artillerist suggests loading the captured priests into the big bombards. Kalvan raises the point that he wanted to do it in the town square, so the townspeople could watch. His fiancee objects that would "make an awful mess in the square."
"The people could come out from town to watch," Sarrask suggested helpfully. "More than could see it in the square. And vendors could come out and sell honey-cakes and meat-pies."
Styphon's priests are fainting left and right. Time to offer them the chance to repent.
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
Of course I don't deny that some British Catholics, under pressure of persecution, made the mistake of plotting against the regime oppressing them via the Penal Laws. The most famous of which was the Gunpowder Plot of circa 1605. Guy Fawkes was not framed, he was the expert among the plotters familiar with handling gunpowder and bombs. All this and much more was discussed by Antonia Fraser in her book FAITH AND TREASON.
But there was absolutely NO basis to the lying charges of Titus Oates and his cronies, egged on by Lord Shaftesbury and the Whigs, to Catholics plotting to kill King Charles II in 1678-81. It was an excuse seized on by Shaftesbury and his hencemen from motives of hatred, bigotry, lust for power, etc., in their struggle for power against a wily King who constantly outmaneuvered them. NONE of the thirty of so Catholics put to death during that period were guilty of treason. All this and much more was discussed by John Dickson Carr in his book THE MURDER OF SIR EDMUND BERRY GODFREY, a study of the Popish Plot lunacy from the POV of a mystery.
DAVID, I think I read LORD KALVAN OF OTHERWHEN far too long ago as a boy.
Sean
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