The Fall of Chance (38 page)

“On the grounds that you need all the people you can get,” said Unt. “On the grounds that the exile you imposed has given me skills that this town will sorely need. On the grounds that you threw a boy to the wilderness for the great crime of making a mistake.”

Lasper latched onto that last argument alone. “Mistake?” he sneered, “What you did was no mere transgression. You debased the principles this town was built upon. We are all living with the consequences of your action and now you’ve got the nerve to swan in here like you’re the solution.”

“Peace, Councillor,” Hodd waved him back, “You’ll have your say in due course.”

Unt answered him anyway. “The reason this town is dying is a mistake that you made. It was a mistake to hold your ideals too dear ahead of human suffering. Accepting me back will correct that mistake.”

“Unt,” said Hodd, “You were given fair warning when sentence was given: you were not to return upon pain of death. Do you expect us to let our judgements be ignored so soon?”

Unt shrugged. “If you choose to murder a man in cold blood, you’re welcome to try.”

Hodd threw an impatient hand at him. “There’s no need for that. If it comes to it, re-exile or imprisonment will settle the matter just as well. But my point is that your re-admittance is far from decided. We must be willing to back our convictions if we are to keep order.”

“I’m not here to cause trouble,” said Unt.

“And yet trouble might come with you,” said Hodd. He looked at his colleagues. “I think now would be a good time to open up the floor to any comments anyone would like to make.”

“The boy stays,” Brooker’s bold voice came from Unt’s left on the seat near the top of the table. “Those of you who sat in judgement on this boy know you went too far. It’s convenient and easy to pin our woes on Unt but he’s a symptom of the disease, not the cause.

“We can’t fix our problems in one fell swoop but we have the opportunity to fix one problem right here and now.”

“If the boy is readmitted, it can’t be as Councillor,” said Kelly. He was sat to Brooker’s right. It was strange to see him so removed from the centre of things. As a Councillor, he seemed smaller, but his human qualities seemed more real.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Hodd. “We can deal with the details later.”

“Unt wanted to be a farmer and he has the skills for it,” Brooker ignored Hodd’s comments. “We might as well put him to use there.”

“But then he’d be seen to have won,” said Erk from Hodd’s right.

“Each position has as much merit as any other,” said Kelly.

“The system’s supposed to put people where they’re most useful,” said Brooker.

“With a countermeasure of random chance,” objected Erk.

Then why not include him in the next Fall?” said Kelly. “Put him in the fields for now and then he can draw a placement like any other.”

“Gentlemen,” Hodd tapped his hammer with a hint of temper. “We should only discuss the minutiae after we’ve decided the main outcome. Doing otherwise prejudices the whole thing.”

“He was told he would die if he ever returned and he chose to return,” said Lasper, “Therefore, he should die.”

“Everyone is always fond of calling me the father of our system,” said Pello. He was opposite Brooker and beside Lasper. “Well, I wouldn’t want my system preserved at a human cost.”

“Oh, be quiet you old fool,” snapped Taylor form Pello’s left, “You may have been the one who came up the whole crazy notion but that doesn’t mean you own it. It belongs to all of us and our opinions matter just as much as yours. This young man has got to be punished.”

“If you think it’s crazy, why do you think we should punish Unt?” asked Brooker.

“Hey,” said Taylor, “It’s a shit system. You all know what I think of it. But it’s also what we’re stuck with. If we won’t enforce our own rules then how the hell are we going to keep order?”

“I think we can all agree some penance has been served,” said Erk. “It certainly falls within the scope of punishment for Unt’s crime. We can let him back without seeming weak and then gain the practical benefits of his skills. We can heal and so can he.”

“Enough!” Lasper struck a fist on the table. “The issue here is ideological. We shouldn’t even be debating it. What’s the point of trying to preserve our society if you’re going to abandon its principles to do so?”

Unt was becoming mentally divorced with each shift of speaker. Even Lasper’s outburst didn’t affect him. His return to the town had awoken neither nostalgia nor revulsion. It just was what it was.

The debate was simply noise to him. Come what may, he would do only what he chose to. The Wizard had at least taught him that. The Wizard had taught him many things, some of which was bitter drivel, but some of it had been true. Do unto others as you’d have them do to you, he’d told Unt once. If people could work to that principle and put their will to it, surely all else would follow. Was that not the basis of society?

Sanctimonious crap, he told himself. There was no easy fix. The rules people imposed on themselves came from the same random confusion as filled the room right now.

He had thought long on the subject on many occasions, but right now, it bored him as much as the Councillors and their debate. There was only one thing on his mind right now. He was going to find Mélie and find out where things stood between them.

He turned to leave and was at the door before anyone noticed.

“Hey, where are you going?” asked Hodd.

“To meet someone,” said Unt. “I’ll leave calculating the future to you. Let me know what you decide.”

COMING 2015:

Look out for

The Tall, Tall Tower

What lies up the Tall, Tall, Tower?

Up the Tall Tower,
Tighter it goes.
Can’t see your fingers,
And can’t see your toes.
The darkness around you,
A light way on high.
Pray for forgiveness,
Or ever here lie.

When a woman loses her mother and gains a baby on the same day, her world changes forever. Forced to move into the old family home with its hidden past, she starts to exhibit a disturbing change in behaviour.

Alone and in a strange new place, her husband must desperately seek answers to some unsettling questions. Is she suffering from postnatal depression or is there really a ghost, as his wife claims? And what is the meaning of the disturbing lullaby he hears her singing to their baby?

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