The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog. Doris Lessing
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people have starved for weeks, and our half-rations and a warm hut are hardly a punishment.’
‘Well, then?’
‘When I was in the army in Venn, they branded offenders with marks denoting their offence.’
‘No,’ said Dann at once, ‘no.’ His hand went to his waist where the scars were.
‘No,’ said Griot, ‘I agree. When I was in the army in Theope – that’s on the coast, and it’s a cruel place – they flogged offenders, in front of the whole army.’
‘No, no flogging. I’ve seen it. No.’
‘This is an army – General.’
‘Yes, it is, and congratulations. And how are you going to enforce discipline?’
‘Sir, in my view there is not much we can do. This is an army but it is a voluntary one. What we are depending on is …’
‘Well, out with it.’
‘It’s you – sir. No, I know you don’t like that, General, but it’s true. Everyone is waiting – for you. What we lack is space. You can see that. We are badly overcrowded now. There are parts of the Centre fit for occupation, but if we had the soldiers in it, they would be a rabble in no time.’
‘Yes, you are right. And then?’
‘And the food. You have no idea what a job it is, feeding everyone.’
‘Then tell me.’
‘We’ve got a road zigzagging down to the Bottom Sea and the fish comes up that. We have fishing villages all along the shores of the Bottom Sea now – well, for a good little distance. We have our farms on the slopes of the mountain. The animals are doing well. But there’s never enough of anything.’
‘So, it’s Tundra. I get your message, Griot. So what are your spies saying?’
‘There will be civil war. There’s already fighting in some places out on the eastern edges of Tundra.’ He saw the strain on Dann’s face. Dann was trembling. He seemed hardly able to keep his seat.
‘They want us to invade and keep order and – they want you, sir.’
‘A Mahondi general?’
‘I don’t think they remember that. To tell the truth it is hard to understand how they see it. You are a bit of a legend, sir.’
‘What a prize, Griot. What a general. What a ruler – that’s what they want, I suppose.’
Griot’s eyes were going to overflow if he wasn’t careful. He could hardly bear to see Dann sit shaking there: he was actually putting his weight on the snow dog, for support. Griot could not stop thinking about the handsome young captain in Agre, or, for that matter, the healthy Dann who had returned from his wanderings so recently. And here was this sick unhappy man who looked as if he were seeing ghosts, or hearing them.
‘You’ll get better, Dann – sir.’
‘Will I? I suppose I will. And then …’ Here there was a good long pause and Griot had no idea what Dann might say next. ‘Griot, do you ever think of – of the cities – the cities under the marshes? Did you know they were all copies of the cities that long ago – long, long ago – were all over Yerrup? That was before the Ice. They were built here on permafrost. That is, permanent frost, that would last for ever – that is how we think, you see, Griot, that the things we have will last. But they don’t last. The cities sank down into the water. All of us, we live up here and just down there are the old dead cities.’ Now he was making himself lean forward to hold Griot’s eyes, trying to make what he was saying reach Griot who, he was sure, was not taking it in.
‘Dann, sir, you’ve forgotten, I’ve had bad times too. And when you’re frightened or you’re hungry you have all kinds of bad thoughts. But there’s no point in that, is there? It doesn’t get you anywhere.’
‘No point in starting again. Yes, Griot, exactly; no point. Over and over again, all the effort and the fighting and the hoping, but it ends in the Ice, or in the cities sinking down out of sight into the mud.’
Now Griot leaned across the table and took Dann’s hand. It was cold and it shook. ‘It’s the poppy, sir. It’s still in you. You should go to bed, have a rest, sleep it off.’
The snow dog did not like Griot touching Dann and he growled. Griot removed his hand.
‘We live in these ruins, Griot, these ruins, full of things we don’t know how to use.’
‘We know how to make some of them. And there is something else I discovered while you were away. I’d like to talk to you about it when you wake up.’
‘Rubbish, ancient rubbish, Griot. I had the right idea when I set fire to it. No, I won’t do it again, don’t worry.’
‘There are things here you haven’t seen.’
‘Mara and I explored the place.’
‘There’s a hidden place. The old people didn’t know about it. They didn’t care about all that. All they cared about was you and Mara – well, that’s the past.’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘But the servants – the Centre had hereditary servants.’
‘It would.’
‘Yes. They knew the Centre and the hidden things. They never told the old people. Only the servants knew. And there are things …’
‘More old rubbish.’
‘No, wonders. You’ll see.’
Dann got up unsteadily, his weight on the snow dog who adapted himself to him.
‘And you haven’t heard what is going on at the Farm.’
‘Do I want to hear it? Yes, of course I have to hear it.’
He stood by the table, balancing himself there with one hand, but his weight was on Ruff’s back. He listened.
‘But my child isn’t in danger – Rhea, you say? Because it is Kira’s.’
‘It is Mara’s child who is in danger. But Leta and Donna – they never let Tamar out of their sight.’
‘I was going to suggest you ask Leta to come. She has all that knowledge of medicines.’
Griot knew that there were people in the camp with this knowledge, or some, but he did not want to discourage Dann’s interest, so he said, ‘I’ll send for Leta. Donna can keep watch on Mara’s child.’
Dann said, ‘If Shabis goes back to Agre, the child could go with him.’
Griot repeated what Shabis had said.
‘Then … that’s it,’ said Dann, shaking off these problems, because they were too much for him – as Griot could see.
Dann walked to his quarters, with that cautious steadiness people use when they are afraid of falling. The snow dog went with him.
Griot sat on in the empty hall. The airy apertures of its upper parts showed a light snow whirling about the sky.
Snow: and that mass of people out there he was responsible for might never have seen it. Against extreme cold all they had was fleecy red blankets. Soon they would be streaming into the hall to complain: and so it was, in they came. How were they to make fires when there was no firewood, and reeds burned so fast they were ash before they gave out warmth? Well, it made a change from the problem of too many people in too small a space.
He was expecting Dann to rejoin him: it was his need that made him think so. So much weight on him, Griot, so many difficulties. But Dann did not emerge and when Griot went to see, he was lying as still as a stunned fish and seemed hardly to breathe. The guards were dozing, the snow dog lying stretched out asleep beside him.
It