Bolodo Man live in love
gold fine gold
Bolodo Man live in love
pearl and emarald.
Churri’s rich resonant baritone filled the hold; around, beneath, above it, the Omperiannas improvised a driving support (Tom’perianne, lectric harp, Nym’perianne, tronc fiddle, Lam’perianne, the flute).
Tribulation, sufferation
Boring blaggard Bolodo Man
Sing I sing thee sing we
Bloody bane for Bolodo Man
Get cold get old, senility
Cankers chankers dropsy pox
Virus venin worm and tox
Bolodo Man live in love
gold fine gold
Bolodo Man live in love
pearl and emarald.
Kante Xalloor stretched her restraints to the utmost, standing on her cot, dancing with the twanging ties, her body singing a wordless answer to the chanted curse.
Malediction, imprecation,
Jerk his melts, the B’lodo Man,
Mockery, indignity, calumny and ban
Rash and rumor, rancid liver,
Bob Bob B’lodo Man
Rot and rancor, snarl and spoil
Ulcer, abcess, fester, boil,
Epilepsy, apoplexy,
Indigestion, inflammation,
Fecculence and fulmination
Dilapidation, moth and rust
Treachery, atrocity, malignity and lust
Bolodo Man live in love
gold fine gold
Bolodo Man live in love
pearl and emarald.
Jaunniko snapped thumb and forefinger, diving headlong into the music; when Churri paused and looked at him, he began his contribution:
Wa ha wa hunh
Sibasiba Bird
Come out
Come from the river come
Wa ha
The bird come from the river
Wa hunh
Sibasiba
Eat gold
Eat gold
Eat gold
Eat fat greedy soul.
The bird come from the river
Eat those pearl those emarald
Eat you bare, Bolodo Man
Bare ass, Bolodo Man.
Churri laughed, his booming laughter filling the hold, filling that echoing impossible space.
Execration, vituperation
Call your curses, raise them high
Bolodo Man live in love
gold fine gold
Bolodo Man live in love
pearl and emarald
Fulmination, imprecation
Curse him up and
Curse him down
Curse him neck and
Curse him thigh
Curse him heel and
Curse him crown
Bolodo Man live in love
gold fine gold
Bolodo Man live in love
pearl and emarald.
Parnalee stood on his cot, straining his restraints, hunched over, slapping his shovel hands against his massive thighs, his burring basso waking echoes until his words got lost in them.
Thump them, dump them
Down among the dead men
Ekkeri akkari oocar ran
Down among the dead men
Bolo Bolo B’lodo Man
Down among the dead men
Blood and bone, heart and stone
Down among the dead men
Fillary fallary hickery pen
Down among the dead men
Blackery luggary lammarie
Eat the brain, the bod dy
Gut and liver, black kid ney
Rowan rumen mystery
Down among the dead men
The Curse Song went on and on, the transportees taking turns at soloing, their curses growing more extravagant, more surreal as each dipped into his or her culture to surpass the contribution of the last. The rest belted out the refrain until the hold rocked with it. Round and round, Churri playing variations on his verses, the Omperiannas adding flourishes, round and round until, finally, the transportees collapsed in exhaustion and laughter and fell into extravagant speculation about where Bolodo was going to dump them.
“Yo, I remember you. May’s Ass.”
“Aslan.”
Abruptly realizing what he’d said, Jaunniko went bright red, so red his ears and the tip of his long nose were nearly purple. “Ah,” he said. “Thing is,” he said, “May sort of went round saying you had the neatest ah um derriere he uh… He turned even redder. “The time we met,” he went on hastily, “it was at a party, you probably don’t remember me, you brought your mother along and that wasn’t being too successful, I talked to her a while, she was bored out of her skull, one icy lady…” He sneaked a look at her. Her expression must have been rather daunting, because he stopped talking altogether.
After she calmed down, she took pity on him and changed the subject. “How’d Bolodo get you?”
He stretched out on his cot, crossed his ankles, laced his fingers over his flat stomach. “I’d just got my papers. Junior Master. May found me a commission, he’s good about that, you know, Jeengid in the Blade, the Keex of Jelkim. I was one of about fifty she hired, she liked my part of the piece well enough to give me a little bonus, I was feeling whoooo no pain when this stringman came on to me. Woke up in a Bolodo scout tied down and sick as a… well, sick.”
“Any idea where we’re going?”
“None. Except we aren’t coming back from it.”
“So Xalloor thinks. I expect you’re right.