“Pyuika Riders are a sorry lot”

“Pyuika Riders are a sorry lot” is Van’s father’s unsparing description of the riders’ relationship with their mounts: they use the pyuika for their own purposes, then try to reconcile themselves to that dependence by singing and asking the animals’ forgiveness. Remembered by Van as he watches the pyuika’s drooping heads, the saying becomes a principle for choosing whose suffering should be relieved.

Meaning and Origin

Van recalls the words his father had told him long ago. The father acknowledged that riders might try to convince themselves otherwise, but they still used the pyuika for their own ends. Their soul-stirring songs did not undo that fact; in his image, the riders sang while begging their mounts to forgive them. The rueful phrase “Pyuika Riders are a sorry lot” names that contradiction rather than excusing it.

Van’s Recognition

The saying returns as Van looks at the drooping pyuika and admits to himself that his father is right. He recognizes that the riders have used the animals for their own designs, and decides that it is his turn to yield, not theirs. Though he hates the thought of Zolian warriors riding the pyuika, he understands that the pain of that prospect belongs to him: unlike him, the animals did not choose to leave their homeland and were dragged there without a choice.

Ethical Consequence

Van’s reflection distinguishes the burdens of human politics from the animals’ own suffering. War, subjugation, oppressive taxation, and the suffering caused by a regime that squeezes people dry are problems of people; sacrificing the flying deer would have only an infinitesimal effect on those larger problems. Once Van acknowledges this, the turmoil in his mind recedes. He concludes that he can try to relieve the suffering of those in front of him, both the pyuika and the people living there.

Narrative Significance

The saying joins the riders’ songs to the guilt those songs cannot settle. Rather than treating the pyuika simply as instruments in human struggle, it makes their lack of choice central to Van’s judgment. His father’s warning thus guides a practical change in perspective: Van accepts his own pain instead of asking the animals to bear it, and turns toward the immediate suffering he can help relieve.