Before Helward could reply the man had turned away and hurried into the stables. For a moment Helward was tempted to go after him, but an instinct told him that it would serve no purpose. Perhaps Collings had already told him more than he should.
With mixed feelings, Helward continued down the tunnel to the elevator and waited for the car. When it arrived he went straight to the fourth level to look for Victoria. She was not in their room, so he went down to the synthetics plant to find her. She was now more than eighteen miles pregnant, but was planfling to continue working for as long as possible.
When she saw him she left her bench, and they returned to the room together. There were still two hours to spare before Helward was to see Future Clausewitz, and they passed the time with inconsequential conversation. Later, when the door was unlocked, they spent a few minutes together on the outside platform.
At the appointed time Helward went up to the seventh level, and gained access to the guild block. He was now no stranger to this part of the city, but he visited it infrequently enough to feel still slightly in awe of the senior guildsmen and Navigators.
Clausewitz was waiting in the Future guild room, and was alone. When Helward arrived he greeted him cordially, and offered him some wine.
From the Futures’ room it was possible to see through a small window towards the north of the city. Ahead, Helward could see the rising ground he had been working in during the last few days.
“You’ve settled in well, Apprentice Mann.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Do you feel ready to become a Future?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good… from the guild’s point of view there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. You’ve earned yourself some good reports.”
“Except from the Militia,” Helward said.
“You needn’t concern yourself with that. Military life doesn’t suit everyone.”
Helward felt a small relief; his bad showing in the Militia had made him wonder if word of it had got back to his guild.
“The purpose of this interview,” Clausewitz went on, “is to tell you what is to happen next. You still have a nominal three miles’ apprenticeship to serve with our guild, but as far as I am concerned that will be a mere technicality. Before that, though, you are to leave the city. It’s a part of your training. You will probably be away for some time.”
“May I enquire for how long?” said Helward.
“It’s difficult to say. Several miles, certainly. It might be as few as ten or fifteen, or it might be as long as a hundred miles of time.”
“But Victoria—”
“Yes, I understand she’s expecting a child. When is it due?”
“In about nine miles,” said Helward.
Clausewitz frowned. “I’m afraid you will have to be away at that time. There’s really no alternative.”
“But couldn’t it be left until afterwards?”
“I’m sorry, no. There’s something you have to do. You know by now that from time to time the city is obliged to barter for the use of women from the outside. We keep these women for as short a time as possible, but even so they are rarely here for less than thirty miles. It is part of the bargain we strike that they are given safe conduct back to their settlements… and there are now three women who wish to leave. It is the custom of the city to use the apprentices to conduct them back, particularly as we now see this as an important part of the training process.”
Helward had been forced, by the very nature of his work, to become more sure of himself. “Sir, my wife is expecting her first baby. I must be with her.”
“It’s out of the question.”
“What if I refuse to go?”
“You will be shown a copy of the oath you swore, and you will accept the punishment it prescribes.”
Helward opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated. This was evidently not the time to debate the validity of the oath. Future Clausewitz was clearly restraining himself, for on Helward’s resistance to the instruction his face had turned a deep pink, and he had sat down, resting his hands palm down on the table-top. Instead of saying what was on his mind, Helward said: “Sir, can I appeal to your reason?”
“You can appeal, but I cannot be reasonable. You swore in your oath to place the security of the city above all other matters. Your guild training is a matter of city security, and that’s the end of it.”
“But surely it could be delayed? As soon as the child is born, I could leave.”
“No.” Clausewitz turned round, and pulled forward a large sheet of paper, covered in part with a map, and in part with several lists of figures. “These women must be returned to their settlements. In the nine miles or so of time it will take for your wife to deliver her baby, the settlements will be dangerously distant. They are already more than forty miles to the south of us. The plain fact is that you are the next apprentice on this schedule, and it is you who must go.”
“Is that your last word, sir?”
“Yes.”
Helward put down his untouched glass of wine, and walked towards the door.
“Helward, wait.”
He paused at the door. “If I am to leave, I would like to see my wife.”
“You have a few more days yet. You leave in half a mile’s time.”
Five days. It was almost no time.
“Well?” said Helward, no longer feeling the need to display customary courtesies.
“Sit down, please.” Reluctantly, Helward complied. “Don’t think I’m inhuman, but ironically this expedition will reveal to you why some of the city’s customs might seem to be inhuman. It is our way, and it is forced on us. I understand your concern for… Victoria, but you must go down past. There is no better way for you to understand the situation of the city. What lies there to the south of us is the reason for the oath, for the apparent barbarisms of our ways. You are an educated man, Helward… do you know of any civilized culture in history which has bartered for women for the simple, uncomplicated reason of wanting one gestation from them? And then, when that gestation is completed, to return them?”
“No, sir.” Helward paused. “Except—”
“Except primitive tribes of savages who raped and pillaged. Well, maybe we’re a little better than that, but the principle’s no less savage. Our barter is one-sided, for all that the contrary may seem to be. We propose the bargain, call our own terms, pay the price, and move on our way. What I am telling you must be done; that you abandon your wife at a time when she needs you most is one small inhumanity that stems from a way of life that is itself inhuman.”
Helward said: “Neither one excuses the other.”
“No… I’ll grant you that. But you are bound by your oath. That oath stems from the causes of the major inhumanities, and when you make your personal sacrifice you will understand better.”
“Sir, the city should change its ways.”
“But you will see that’s impossible.”
“By travelling down past?”
“Much will become clear. Not all.” Clausewitz stood up. “Helward, you’ve been a good apprentice so far. I can see that in the miles to come you will continue to work hard and well for the city. You have a good and beautiful wife, a lot to live for. You aren’t under threat of death, I promise you that. The penalty of the oath has never been invoked as far as I know, but I ask that this task that the city calls upon you to do is done, and done now. I have done it in my time, so has your father… and so have all other guildsmen. Even now there are seven of your colleagues — all apprentices — down past. They have had to face similar personal hardships, and not all have faced them willingly.”
Helward shook hands with Clausewitz, and went in search of Victoria.
3
Five days later, Helward was ready to leave. That he would go had never been in serious doubt, but it had not been easy to explain to Victoria. Although at first she had been horrified by the news, her attitude had changed abruptly.