The Ban

I lay behind my back, before the boat, and into darkness I must row. I rowed with weak arms, watching my hands to make sure I kept hold of the oars, for I could not feel my grip. I came thus into rough water and the dark, out on the open Gulf. There I had to stop. With each oarstroke the numbness of my arms increased. My heart kept bad time, and my lungs had forgotten how to get air. I tried to row but I was not sure my arms were moving. I tried to pull the oars into the boat then, but could not. When the sweet light of a harbour patrol ship picked me out of the night like a snowflake on soot, I could not even turn my eyes away from the glare.

They unclenched my hands from the oars, hauled me up out of the boat, and laid me out like a gutted blackfish on the deck of the patrol ship. I felt them look down at me but could not well understand what they said, except for one, the ship’s master by his tone; he said, ‘It’s not Sixth Hour yet,’ and again, answering another, ‘What affair of mine is that? The king’s exiled him, I’ll follow the king’s order, no lesser ma

So against radio commands from Tibe’s men ashore and against the arguments of his mate, who feared retribution, that officer of the Kuseben Patrol took me across the Gulf of Charisune and set me ashore safe in Shelt Port in Orgoreyn. Whether he did this in shifgrethor against Tibe’s men who would kill an unarmed man, or in kindness, I do not know. Nusuth. ‘The admirable is inexplicable.

I got up on my feet when the Orgota coast came grey out of the morning fog, and I made my legs move, and walked from the ship into the waterfront streets of Shelt, but somewhere there I fell down again. When I woke I was in the Commensal Hospital of Charisune Coastal Area Four, Twenty-fourth Commensality, Sennehny. I made sure of this, for it was engraved or embroidered in Orgota script on the headpiece of the bed, the lampstand by the bed, the metal cup on the bed-table, the bedtable, the nurses’ hiebs, the bedcovers and the bedshirt I wore. A physician came and said to me, ‘Why did you resist do

‘I was not in dothe,’ I said, ‘I was in a sonic field.

‘Your symptoms were those of a person who has resisted the relaxation phase of a dothe.’ He was a domineering old physician, and made me admit at last that I might have used dothe-strength to counter the paralysis while I rowed, not clearly knowing that I did so; then this morning, during the thangen phase when one must keep still, I had got up and walked and so near killed myself. When all that was settled to his satisfaction he told me I could leave in a day or two, and went to the next bed. Behind him came the Inspector. Behind every man in Orgoreyn comes the Inspe

‘N

I did not ask him his. I must learn to live without shadows as they do in Orgoreyn; not to take offence; not to offend uselessly. But I did not give him my landname, which is no business of any man in Orgo

‘Therem Harth? That is not an Orgota name. What Commensal

‘Karh

‘That is not a Commensality of Orgoreyn. Where are your papers of entry and identificat

Where were my pa

I had been considerably rolled about in the streets of Shelt before someone had me carted off to the hospital, where I had arrived without papers, belongings, coat, shoes, or cash. When I heard this I let go of anger and laughed; at the pit’s bottom is no anger. The Inspector was offended by my laughter. ‘Do you not understand that you are an indigent and unregistered alien? How do you intend to return to Karh

‘By cof

‘You are not to give inappropriate answers to official questions. If you have no intention to return to your own country you will be sent to the Voluntary Farm, where there is a place for criminal riffraff, aliens, and unregistered persons. There is no other place for indigents and subversives in Orgoreyn. You had better declare your intention to return to Karhide within three days, or I shall

‘I’m proscribed from Karh

The physician, who had turned around from the next bed at the sound of my name, drew the Inspector aside an

I lay behind my back, before the boat, and into darkness I must row. I rowed with weak arms, watching my hands to make sure I kept hold of the oars, for I could not feel my grip. I came thus into rough water and the dark, out on the open Gulf. There I had to stop. With each oarstroke the numbness of my arms increased. My heart kept bad time, and my lungs had forgotten how to get air. I tried to row but I was not sure my arms were moving. I tried to pull the oars into the boat then, but could not. When the sweet light of a harbour patrol ship picked me out of the night like a snowflake on soot, I could not even turn my eyes away from the glare

They unclenched my hands from the oars, hauled me up out of the boat, and laid me out like a gutted blackfish on the deck of the patrol ship. I felt them look down at me but could not well understand what they said, except for one, the ship’s master by his tone; he said, ‘It’s not Sixth Hour yet,’ and again, answering another, ‘What affair of mine is that? The king’s exiled him, I’ll follow the king’s order, no lesser ma

So against radio commands from Tibe’s men ashore and against the arguments of his mate, who feared retribution, that officer of the Kuseben Patrol took me across the Gulf of Charisune and set me ashore safe in Shelt Port in Orgoreyn. Whether he did this in shifgrethor against Tibe’s men who would kill an unarmed man, or in kindness, I do not know. Nusuth. ‘The admirable is inexplicable.

I got up on my feet when the Orgota coast came grey out of the morning fog, and I made my legs move, and walked from the ship into the waterfront streets of Shelt, but somewhere there I fell down again. When I woke I was in the Commensal Hospital of Charisune Coastal Area Four, Twenty-fourth Commensality, Sennehny. I made sure of this, for it was engraved or embroidered in Orgota script on the headpiece of the bed, the lampstand by the bed, the metal cup on the bed-table, the bedtable, the nurses’ hiebs, the bedcovers and the bedshirt I wore. A physician came and said to me, ‘Why did you resist do

‘I was not in dothe,’ I said, ‘I was in a sonic field.

‘Your symptoms were those of a person who has resisted the relaxation phase of a dothe.’ He was a domineering old physician, and made me admit at last that I might have used dothe-strength to counter the paralysis while I rowed, not clearly knowing that I did so; then this morning, during the thangen phase when one must keep still, I had got up and walked and so near killed myself. When all that was settled to his satisfaction he told me I could leave in a day or two, and went to the next bed. Behind him came the Inspector. Behind every man in Orgoreyn comes the Inspe

‘N

I did not ask him his. I must learn to live without shadows as they do in Orgoreyn; not to take offence; not to offend uselessly. But I did not give him my landname, which is no business of any man in Orgo

‘Therem Harth? That is not an Orgota name. What Commensal

‘Karh

‘That is not a Commensality of Orgoreyn. Where are your papers of entry and identificat

Where were my pa

I had been considerably rolled about in the streets of Shelt before someone had me carted off to the hospital, where I had arrived without papers, belongings, coat, shoes, or cash. When I heard this I let go of anger and laughed; at the pit’s bottom is no anger. The Inspector was offended by my laughter. ‘Do you not understand that you are an indigent and unregistered alien? How do you intend to return to Karh

‘By cof

‘You are not to give inappropriate answers to official questions. If you have no intention to return to your own country you will be sent to the Voluntary Farm, where there is a place for criminal riffraff, aliens, and unregistered persons. There is no other place for indigents and subversives in Orgoreyn. You had better declare your intention to return to Karhide within three days, or I shall

‘I’m proscribed from Karh

The physician, who had turned around from the next bed at the sound of my name, drew the Inspector aside and....ide.’ be—’fin.’ide?’pers?ion?’ide.’ity?’reyn.ame?’ctor.’

 the?’’

 n’s.’.d....ide.’ be—’fin.’ide?’pers?ion?’ide.’ity?’reyn.ame?’ctor.’

 the?’’

 n’s.’ turned around from the next bed at the sound of my name, drew the Inspector aside and....