Free Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

productive
estate, access to the court, and lusty sons, talented daughters... twenty years
from now, perhaps an astutely mercantile husband, or even - in the unlikely
event this particular genderist society was heading that way so soon - a life
of her own; academic, in business, doing good works; whatever.
    But,
probably, death.
    High
in a turret of a great castle rising on a black crag above snowy plains,
besieged and grand, crammed full of an empire's treasure, and he sitting by a
log fire was a sad and lovely princess... I used to dream about such things,
he thought. I used to long for them, ache for them. They seemed the very stuff
of life, its essence. So why does all this taste of ashes?
    I should have
stayed on that beach, Sma. Perhaps after all I am getting too old for this.
    He
made himself look away from the girl. Sma said he tended to get too involved,
and she was not totally wrong. He'd done what they'd asked; he'd be paid, and
at the end of all this, after all, there was his own attempt to claim
absolution for a past crime. Livueta, say
you will forgive me.
    'Oh!'
The princess Neinte had just noticed the wreckage of the bloodwood chair.
    'Yes,'
Keiver stirred uncomfortably. 'That, ah... that was, umm, me, I'm afraid. Was
it yours? Your family's?'
    'Oh,
no! But I knew it; it belonged to my uncle; the archduke. It used to be in his
hunting lodge. It had a great big animal's head above it. I was always
frightened to sit in it because I dreamt the head would fall from the wall and
one of the tusks would stick right into my head and I'd die!' She looked at
both men in turn and giggled nervously. 'Wasn't I silly?'
    'Ha!'
said Keiver.
    (While
he watched them both and shivered. And tried to smile.)
    'Well,'
Keiver laughed. 'You must promise not to tell your uncle that I broke his
little seat, or I shall never be invited to one of his hunts again!' Keiver
laughed louder. 'Why, I might even end up with my head fixed on one of his
walls!'
    The
girl squealed and put a hand to her mouth.
    (He
looked away, shivering again, then threw a piece of wood onto the fire, and did
not notice then or afterwards that it was a piece of the bloodwood chair he had
added to the flames, and not a log at all.)
     
     

    Three
    Sma
suspected a lot of ship crews were crazy. For that matter, she suspected a fair
few of the ships themselves weren't totally together in the sanity department,
either. There were only twenty people on the very fast picket Xenophobe , and Sma had noticed that - as
a general rule - the smaller the crew, the weirder the behaviour. So she was
already prepared for the ship's staff being pretty off the wall even before the
module entered the ship's hangar.
    'Ah-choo!'
the young crewman sneezed, covering his nose with one hand while extending the
other to Sma as she stepped from the module. Sma jerked her hand back, looking
at the young man's red nose and streaming eyes. 'Ais Disgarb, Ms Sma,' the
fellow said, blinking and sniffing, and looking hurt, 'Belcome aboard.'
    Sma
put her hand out again cautiously. The crewman's hand was extremely hot. 'Thank
you,' Sma said.
    'Skaffen-Amtiskaw,'
the drone said from behind her.
    'Heddo,'
the young man waved at the drone. He took a small piece of cloth from one
sleeve and dabbed at his leaky eyes and nose.
    'Are
you entirely all right?' Sma said.
    'Dot
really,' he said. 'God a cold. Blease,' he indicated to one side, 'cob with
be.'
    'A
cold,' Sma nodded, falling into step alongside the fellow; he was dressed in a
jellaba, as though he'd just got out of bed.
    'Yes,'
the young man said, leading the way through the Xenophobe 's collection of smallcraft, satellites and assorted
paraphernalia towards the rear of the hangar. He sneezed again, sniffed.
'Sobthig ob a fad on the shib ad the bow-bid.' (Here Sma, immediately behind
the man as they walked between two closely parked modules, turned quickly back
to look at Skaffen-Amtiskaw and mouthed the word. ' What ?' at it, but the machine