Contents
VI
Overview
Zakalwe briefly abandons Culture work to pursue a poet’s life on a pastoral world but finds himself unsuited to it. Witnessing a slave’s mutilation and later killing a wounded bird triggers his rejection of this path. He leaves, and the brutal overseer is found dead in a symbolic murder, implying Zakalwe’s violent reprisal.
Summary
Between campaigns, Zakalwe takes leave and decides to abandon soldiering for poetry. He lodges with an elderly couple in a quiet rural village on a low-tech world, walking the hills, observing wildlife, and rigorously journaling and paring words in an attempt to craft poems.
He struggles with poetry, finding criticism opaque and verse soporific. In the fields he witnesses a slave recaptured by an overseer, beaten, and later learns the man takes tongues from escapees, displaying them as trophies. That night the old man shares a folk tale of beguilement, rot, and a soul scattered like pollen—an image of beauty masking corruption.
Days later, while chasing a small animal for sport, Zakalwe lands on a nest and crushes the eggs. Confronted by the maimed parent bird, he snaps its neck, then abandons his journal. Oppressive heat settles; he avoids a distant kite-flier and accepts he will never be a poet.
He leaves the village soon after. That same night the notorious overseer is discovered bound in bed, dead from choking on dried human tongues and blank paper. The marshal circulates notices for the suspicious stranger, but Zakalwe has vanished, the killing implying his return to violent redress.
Who Appears
- Cheradenine ZakalweTakes leave to become a poet; observes cruelty, kills a wounded bird, abandons poetry, and likely exacts revenge on the overseer.
- The OverseerBrutal farm enforcer who cuts out slaves’ tongues; later found bound and killed, choking on tongues and paper.
- Old Man (host)Zakalwe’s host; explains the overseer’s mutilations and tells a cautionary folk tale of beauty and decay.
- Slave WomanAttempts escape; recaptured and beaten by the overseer, emblem of local brutality.
- Kite-Flying ManA distant, recurring figure on the hills whom Zakalwe deliberately avoids.