VII

On a tiny rock in a lake within a volcanic caldera, a badly injured Zakalwe drifts in and out of delirium. He recalls being betrayed by local allies near Sanctum, fleeing through a furnace room and river, then being beaten and mutilated by robbers who dumped him in the crater lake. Surviving a desperate dive with a sinking rock, he reaches the islet and suffers decompression agony, deciding to signal for rescue.

His mind reels through childhood memories at a great house on a river estate. Cheradenine Zakalwe, his sisters Darckense and Livueta, and the allied boy Elethiomel grow up together. Elethiomel is precocious and favored by tutors, fueling rivalry with Cheradenine. A formative argument about Elethiomel’s executed father sours their bond.

The children steal an autorifle to fire it secretly from a stone boat. As they fumble with the weapon, Livueta spots attackers killing a guard. In panic, Elethiomel fires; return fire rakes the boat and a bullet shatters Darckense’s pelvis. Zakalwe is also wounded by a bone fragment. The attack on the house is repelled, but Darckense’s life and gait are permanently altered.

Back on the islet, Zakalwe scrapes bird droppings to draw a large “Help me!” pictogram visible from the air, while obsessing over words like caldera and Staberinde and over false names he’s used. He clings to the hope the Culture will extract him.

Years later, returned from military academy, Cheradenine bursts into a summerhouse at a scream and finds Elethiomel having sex with Darckense on a small chair Livueta made. He withdraws in shocked silence. Still later, during war, Major Zakalwe commands a tank to the same clearing and, under a starshell’s glare, orders the summerhouse destroyed.