Seasons in Flight by Brian Aldiss

Author:Brian Aldiss [Aldiss, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi Collection
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1988-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

From that moment on, matters acquired their own momentum. The slaves took over the palace and much else besides. They formed their own bodies of advisers. The advisers ordered the women to weave banners, on which were embroidered such fiery slogans as ALL MENARE PRINCES - and PRINCES ARE ONLY MEN. And SLAVES, FORGE YOUR SHACKLES INTO SWORDS. And SHOW YOUR STRENGTH: OVERTHROW A THRONE. Persuaded by such demonstrations, the soldiers of the royal garrison joined the slaves.

Such was the situation when the king arrived from his capital in the south with a strong army. Old he was, but warlike still, and a battle was fought within the palace grounds, to the great detriment of the flowers and livestock.

News of this civil war, as it was called, travelled fast. To the east of the kingdom lay another powerful state. Hitherto, its ruler had shown friendship to the king; but now that the king’s attention was distracted, the ruler struck. With forty thousand men and two dozen elephants, he invaded the disorderly realm.

The slaves, besieged in the palace, immediately hailed the foreign invader as a liberator, and redoubled their attacks on the king. Bravely though he and his men fought, the king’s force was besieged on both sides; after one final assault, he died fighting among his soldiery. The invaders proceeded to lay waste the countryside.

The foreign ruler stepped in smartly, quartered his surviving elephants in the palace grounds, and had all the slaves paraded before him.

The southern slave, who had now given himself a smart uniform, stood forth and made a special salute he had invented.

‘You are a man the same as I,’ he said, uttering the now compulsory phrase of formal greeting.

‘Nonsense, we’ll see about that,’ said the invader, and had all the ex-slaves executed.

As for the Fair Prince, he still lives in a far country, though it lies a little further away than does the country of his birth. He works in a rice field and is given two meals a day. His master is kind to him. That quality in him which nobody has named has now burned itself out and, as we said, the prince also has no name. It has been forgotten by history.

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