Pulev, Zembla’s Constable of Idleness
Pulev was an opolosok of the Olenich oratay clan. His father was Sid, the clan-uncle of Zembla’s men’s house; his mother, Malina Neyadova, was one of the widows who had come from elsewhere to live in the mothers’ house. Among the clan’s children who were not godkin, Pulev stood out for his laziness, pensiveness, utter inability to learn anything, and almost oratay strength and appetite. He grew up drifting between the mothers’ and men’s houses, occasionally dropping into Guernica to get cigarettes, or onto Yavros, where Beautiful Leya always treated him to whatever there was. Pulev was also noticed committing petty thefts of food and useless objects.
Opoloski are the sons of oratai born to human women, or lyudich women. They do not inherit the oratai’s divine strength, resilience or longevity. They are ordinary lyudichi, though often large and stout, and outwardly resemble their godkin fathers.
Many thought Pulev would become a criminal—he had no intention of working, after all—but things turned out otherwise. A district constable’s post fell vacant in Guernica. Through Aunt Yena’s influence, Pulev acquired this undemanding position and became, however lazy and dim-witted, an officer of the law. The work was a sinecure, and he managed it after a fashion. Getting up early was easy for him: he was a lark by nature. As for wandering around the town and its surroundings asking everyone how they were, that had always been his favourite occupation. Now he was paid to do it, fed at the town hall, and given an old little house of his own at the end of Cherry Street.
During the Solovar, Pulev was drafted into the infantry and wounded. He was treated in the hospital set up in Guernica. After his recovery, Lisovskaya and Kazimirov took him into the Bezdez security service.
After the Exodus, Pulev stayed in the Fieldlands. When Lisovskaya formed her rykar band of Clockmakers, he attached himself to them. Pulev got on well with the Field people, rose early, and wandered about Vasilkov or drove around the countryside in his oratay Blumichel Cavalcade, model 902. To the authorities, Pulev was one of their own. The sovereign’s men preferred not to venture into the Fieldlands more often than necessary, though they had considerable interests there. That was where this sly big fellow came in useful: he knew every dog in Vasilkov and its surroundings, and no one could match his ability to establish a mutually profitable understanding with those acid-addled lunatics.
When Lisovskaya vanished in the Cursed Field, the band broke apart and the Scyllas occupied Vasilkov. To please his cruel new masters, Pulev became a bounty hunter, tracking down independent Clockmakers who worked the Fieldlands without the Scyllas’ permission.
