Ice and Fire by David Wingrove Read Free Book Online

part.’
    Li Shai Tung shrugged – the slightest movement of his shoulders – then looked back at the image. ‘But why is the other as it is? Why aren’t both alike?’
    ‘Ben has a wicked sense of humour.’
    Again the T’ang did not understand, but this time Shepherd made no attempt to enlighten him.
    Li Shai Tung studied the hologram a moment longer then turned from it, looking all about him. ‘He gets such talent from you, Hal.’
    Shepherd shook his head. ‘I never had a tenth of his ability. Anyway, even the word “talent” is unsatisfactory. What he has is genius. In that he’s like his great-great-grandfather.’
    The T’ang smiled at that, remembering his father’s tales of Augustus Shepherd’s eccentricity. ‘Perhaps. But let us hope that that is all he has inherited.’
    He knew at once that he had said the wrong thing. Or, if not the wrong thing, then something that touched upon a sensitive area.
    ‘The resemblance is more than casual.’
    The T’ang lowered his head slightly, willing to drop the matter at once, but Shepherd seemed anxious to explain. ‘Ben’s schizophrenic too, you see. Oh, nothing as bad as Augustus. But it creates certain incongruities in his character.’
    Li Shai Tung looked back at the pictures above the bed with new understanding. ‘But from what you’ve said the boy is healthy enough.’
    ‘Even happy, I’d say. Most of the time. He has bouts of it, you understand. Then we either dose him up heavily or leave him alone.’
    Shepherd leaned across and switched off the viewer, then lifted the thin black sheet and slipped it back into the folder. ‘They used to think schizophrenia was a simple malfunction of the brain; an imbalance in certain chemicals – dopamine, glutamic acid and gamma-amino-butyric acid. Drugs like largactil, modecate, disipal, priadel and haloperidol were used, mainly as tranquillizers. But they simply kept the thing in check and had the side-effect of enlarging the dopamine system. Worst of all, at least as far as Ben is concerned, they damp down the creative faculty.’
    The T’ang frowned. Medicine, like all else, was based on traditional Han ways. The development of Western drugs, like Western ideas of progress, had been abandoned when Tsao Ch’un had built his City. Many such drugs were, in fact, illicit now. One heard of them, normally, only in the context of addiction – something that was rife in the lowest levels of the City. Nowadays all serious conditions were diagnosed before the child was born and steps taken either to correct them or to abort the foetus. It thus surprised him, first to hear that Ben’s illness had not been diagnosed beforehand, second that he had even considered taking drugs to keep the illness in check.
    ‘He has not taken these drugs, I hope.’
    Shepherd met his eyes. ‘Not only has but still does. Except when he’s working.’
    The T’ang sighed deeply. ‘You should have told me, Hal. I shall arrange for my herbalist to call on Ben within the next few days.’
    Shepherd shook his head. ‘I thank you, Shai Tung. Your kindness touches me. But it would do no good.’
    ‘No good?’ The T’ang frowned, puzzled. ‘But there are numerous sedatives – things to calm the spirit and restore the body’s yin-yang balance. Good, healthy remedies, not these… drugs!’
    ‘I know, Shai Tung, and again I thank you for your concern. But Ben would have none of it. Oh, I can see him now – “Dragon bones and oyster shells!” he’d say scornfully. “What good are they against this affliction?”’
    The T’ang looked down, disturbed. In this matter he could not insist. The birthright of the Shepherds made them immune from the laws that governed others. If Ben took drugs to maintain his mental stability there was little he, Li Shai Tung, could do about it. Even so, he could not stop himself from feeling it was wrong. He changed the subject.
    ‘Is he a good son, Hal?’
    Shepherd laughed. ‘He is the best of