The Rebel and the King

(Mark Wood – 16 June 2811)

The dirigibles lumbered through the air like monstrous sturgeon, their bellies fat with roe.

'They certainly know how to catch 'em early, don't they?' said Pali. He was peering down at the cluster of huts huddled in a clearing that was today's target. 'That red-headed one taking pot shots at us doesn't look a day older than twelve.'

'Younger, mebbe,' panted out Rastil. He had ten years and as many pounds on all the others, and the pedalling was beginning to feel like hard work. 'Looks no more than my Freda's age.' A shot whistled through the dirigible's rigging, just above their heads. 'She's a right fine shot, however old she is.'

'For fuck's sake, take that girl out before she grounds you!' yelled the captain from the second dirigible, a hundred yards or so behind them.

Rastil thought the captain was a sadist, but no one but a fool would want to meet General Haddsson at a court martial hearing, so he kept his thoughts to himself. Orders were orders, after all, and these came right from the top.

The glass globes looked innocent enough, like a pile of fishing floats at Holand dock, where Rastil had been born. At first they hit roofs. The thatch kindled instantly, and flames jumped from hut to hut. Rastil prays the girl will run, but she stands her ground and when one smashes at her feet, she just looks startled, too startled to make a sound. Then the flames engulf her and she's screaming but the sound's deadened by the rip and roar of the flames, and she runs at last but the flames run after her, and she's running and burning, running and burning—

Rastil looked away.

~*~

(Kernsburgh – 19 June 2995)

Jenro Rithson: That was a clip from the opening of 'The Rebel and the King', the finale of the seventies historical drama, Hobin's Way. It's fifteen years today since that episode first hit our screens, believe it or not, and in honour of the anniversary, I'm joined in the studio by Anor Orilson, the show's creator, Mareth Greendale, who directed some of the most controversial episodes, Dr Luthan Singer from the University of Dropwater, an expert on the Civil War when the series is set – and we're particularly pleased that Ham Amilson has agreed to join us in his first ever television interview. [Applause] As I'm sure you all know, Ham played the show's central character Hobin. Are you all right, Ham? You're looking a bit pale. [Laughter]

Ham Amilson: I haven't watched that episode in quite a while, Jenro.

Mareth Greendale: That scene always got to you, didn't it? More than the last one, surprisingly. I remember when we were filming it on location – well, actually in a plantation on the edge of the National Park, long story – you stumbled past me and threw up under a tree. You weren't even supposed to be on set until the afternoon!

HA: Even though it's getting on for two hundred years ago, I can't stop thinking of all the people – men, women, children – who died so horrifically that day.

Anor Orilson: You've got to appreciate, Ham, that what's referred to now as the 'Mark Wood massacre' happened long after the peace treaty, so Dalemark for the Free was technically acting as a terrorist organisation by then.

Luthan Singer: 'Technically' doesn't come into it, Orilson! The well-documented terrorist actions attributed to the group during the early years of the reconstruction must run into the… let's see… the explosion that destroyed the first Flenn Tunnel Project—

MG: Oh, yes – that trapped fifty of the construction workers underground, didn't it?

HA: Fifty-three.

LS: —the bombings of New Holand Port, Hark Lighthouse and a whole series of bridges, Canderack— [JR coughs] Well, I see we don't have time to list them all.

MG: I've always been interested in how the event was considered at the time. I think I'm right in saying that it wasn't even called the Mark Wood massacre until after 'The Rebel and the King' aired.

LS: That's correct. The phrase first appeared in reviews of the series.

AO: The massacre didn't seem to dent Amil's popularity – he enjoyed considerable popular support throughout his reign, but it was especially strong at the start. Of course, all the Kernsburgh newspapers and even the Dalemark Daily were essentially palace organs at that time, so it's difficult to know what people really thought.

HA: The Gazette perhaps, but the KT and the DD were never censored by the palace! At least, I'm no expert, but I've never heard that suggested.

LS: I'm afraid that Dalemark's independent press didn't really emerge until Amil the Third's reign, with the growth of the universities.

AO: But to get back to Mareth's question, the massacre seems to have passed almost unnoticed at the time. Amil was never directly criticised for his actions.

LS: In so far as the historical record shows—

AO: There were so many atrocities during the Civil War, of course, so many murders that went unpunished.

LS: —however, the fact that the first Duke of Kernsburgh devotes five or six pages to justifying the attack on the compound in his memoirs seems significant. Volume 3, part 2, I believe.

HA [simultaneous with LS]: Atrocities on both sides.

MG: You think that might suggest there'd been some public criticism?

AO [simultaneous with MG]: On both sides, of course, but—

LS: Perhaps, Ms Greendale. If so, no record has survived.

HA [simultaneous with LS]: Hobin's soldiers beheaded the entire population of White Hill in an attempt to stamp out the Earl of Dermath's relatives!

LS: Of course, the memoirs weren't published until the Duke's retirement, which would suggest a date in the 2830s, much later in Amil the Great's reign.

AO [simultaneous with LS]: —one really can't equate the actions of rebel factions with those of the legitimate army of the King!

JR: I think the discussion's getting a little sidetracked here. Let's all get back to talking about the show. Mareth, you mentioned the problems of filming on location…

Extract from transcript of interview on TV 2995 with Jenro Rithson (19 June 2995) for the 'Man in Furs' website by KingHobin101