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diff --git a/31262-8.txt b/31262-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5b36e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/31262-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2725 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rastignac the Devil, by Philip José Farmer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rastignac the Devil + +Author: Philip José Farmer + +Release Date: February 12, 2010 [EBook #31262] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RASTIGNAC THE DEVIL *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe May 1954. Extensive + research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this + publication was renewed. + + + _Here is high fidelity fiction at Philip José Farmer's + story-telling best. It's a vibrant, distractingly different + tale of three centuries into the future. And as you read + you'll have a vague, uneasy feeling that it's all taking + place somewhere in the unexplored parts of the universe, even + today._ + + + rastignac the devil + + + _by ... Philip José Farmer_ + + + Enslaved by a triangular powered despotism--one lone man + sets his sights to the Six Bright Stars and eventual freedom + of his world. + + * * * * * + + + + +_After the Apocalyptic War, the decimated remnants of the French +huddled in the Loire Valley were gradually squeezed between two new +and growing nations. The Colossus to the north was unfriendly and +obviously intended to absorb the little New France. The Colossus to +the south was friendly and offered to take the weak state into its +confederation of republics as a full partner._ + +_A number of proud and independent French citizens feared that even +the latter alternative meant the eventual transmutation of their +tongue, religion and nationality into those of their southern +neighbor. Seeking a way of salvation, they built six huge space-ships +that would hold thirty thousand people, most of whom would be in deep +freeze until they reached their destination. The six vessels then set +off into interstellar space to find a planet that would be as much +like Earth as possible._ + +_That was in the 22nd Century. Over three hundred and fifty years +passed before Earth heard of them again. However, we are not here +concerned with the home world but with the story of a man of that +pioneer group who wanted to leave the New Gaul and sail again to the +stars...._ + + * * * * * + +Rastignac had no Skin. He was, nevertheless, happier than he had been +since the age of five. + +He was as happy as a man can be who lives deep under the ground. +Underground organizations are often under the ground. They are formed +into cells. Cell Number One usually contains the leader of the +underground. + +Jean-Jacques Rastignac, chief of the Legal Underground of the Kingdom +of L'Bawpfey, was literally in a cell beneath the surface of the +earth. He was in jail. + +For a dungeon, it wasn't bad. He had two cells. One was deep inside +the building proper, built into the wall so that he could sit in it +when he wanted to retreat from the sun or the rain. The adjoining cell +was at the bottom of a well whose top was covered with a grille of +thin steel bars. Here he spent most of his waking hours. Forced to +look upwards if he wanted to see the sky or the stars, Rastignac +suffered from a chronic stiff neck. + +Several times during the day he had visitors. They were allowed to +bend over the grille and talk down to him. A guard, one of the King's +mucketeers,[1] stood by as a censor. + +[Footnote 1: Mucketeer is the best translation of the 26th century +French noun _foutriquet_, pronounced _vfeutwikey_.] + +When night came, Rastignac ate the meal let down by ropes on a +platform. Then another of the King's mucketeers stood by with drawn +épée until he had finished eating. When the tray was pulled back up +and the grille lowered and locked, the mucketeer marched off with the +turnkey. + +Rastignac sharpened his wit by calling a few choice insults to the +night guard, then went into the cell inside the wall and lay down to +take a nap. Later, he would rise and pace back and forth like a caged +tiger. Now and then he would stop and look upwards, scan the stars, +hunch his shoulders and resume his savage circuit of the cell. But the +time would come when he would stand statue-still. Nothing moved except +his head, which turned slowly. + +"Some day I'll ride to the stars with you." + +He said it as he watched the Six Flying Stars speed across the night +sky--six glowing stars that moved in a direction opposite to the march +of the other stars. Bright as Sirius seen from Earth, strung out one +behind the other like jewels on a velvet string, they hurtled across +the heavens. + +They were the six ships on which the original Loire Valley Frenchmen +had sailed out into space, seeking a home on a new planet. They had +been put into an orbit around New Gaul and left there while their +thirty thousand passengers had descended to the surface in +chemical-fuel rockets. Mankind, once on the fair and fresh earth of +the new planet, had never again ascended to re-visit the great ships. + +For three hundred years the six ships had circled the planet known as +New Gaul, nightly beacons and glowing reminders to Man that he was a +stranger on this planet. + +When the Earthmen landed on the new planet they had called the new +land _Le Beau Pays_, or, as it was now pronounced, _L'Bawpfey_--The +Beautiful Country. They had been delighted, entranced with the fresh +new land. After the burned, war-racked Earth they had just left, it +was like coming to Heaven. + +They found two intelligent species living on the planet, and they +found that the species lived in peace and that they had no conception +of war or of poverty. And they were quite willing to receive the +Terrans into their society. + +Provided, that is, they became integrated, or--as they phrased +it--natural. The Frenchmen from Earth had been given their choice. +They were told: + +"You can live with the people of the Beautiful Land on our terms--war +with us, or leave to seek another planet." + +The Terrans conferred. Half of them decided to stay; the other half +decided to remain only long enough to mine uranium and other +chemicals. Then they would voyage onwards. + +But nobody from that group of Earthmen ever again stepped into the +ferry-rockets and soared up to the six ion-beam ships circling about +Le Beau Pays. All succumbed to the Philosophy of the Natural. Within a +few generations a stranger landing upon the planet would not have +known without previous information that the Terrans were not +aboriginal. + +He would have found three species. Two were warm-blooded egglayers who +had evolved directly from reptiles without becoming mammals--the +Ssassarors and the Amphibs. Somewhere in their dim past--like all +happy nations, they had no history--they had set up their society and +been very satisfied with it since. + +It was a peaceful quiet world, largely peasant, where nobody had to +scratch for a living and where a superb manipulation of biological +forces ensured very long lives, no disease, and a social lubrication +that left little to desire--from their viewpoint, anyway. + +The government was, nominally, a monarchy. The Kings were elected by +the people and were a different species than the group each ruled. +Ssassaror ruled Human, and vice versa, each assisted by +foster-brothers and sisters of the race over which they reigned. These +were the so-called Dukes and Duchesses. + +The Chamber of Deputies--_L'Syawp t' Tapfuti_--was half Human and half +Ssassaror. The so-called Kings took turns presiding over the Chamber +for forty day intervals. The Deputies were elected for ten-year terms +by constituents who could not be deceived about their representatives' +purposes because of the sensitive Skins which allowed them to +determine their true feelings and worth. + +In one custom alone did the ex-Terrans differ from their neighbors. +This was in carrying arms. In the beginning, the Ssassaror had allowed +the Men to wear their short rapiers, so they would feel safe even +though in the midst of aliens. + +As time went on, only the King's mucketeers--and members of the +official underground--were allowed to carry épées. These men, it might +be noticed, were the congenital adventurers, men who needed to +swashbuckle and revel in the name of individualist. + +Like the egg-stealers, they needed an institution in which they could +work off anti-social steam. + +From the beginning the Amphibians had been a little separate from the +Ssassaror and when the Earthmen came they did not get any more +neighborly. Nevertheless, they preserved excellent relations and they, +too, participated in the Changeling-custom. + +This Changeling-custom was another social device set up millennia ago +to keep a mutual understanding between all species on the planet. It +was a peculiar institution, one that the Earthmen had found hard to +understand and ever more difficult to adopt. Nevertheless, once the +Skins had been accepted they had changed their attitude, forgot their +speculations about its origin and threw themselves into the custom of +stealing babies--or eggs--from another race and raising the children +as their own. + +_You rob my cradle; I'll rob yours._ Such was their motto, and it +worked. + +A Guild of Egg Stealers was formed. The Human branch of it guaranteed, +for a price, to bring you a Ssassaror child to replace the one that +had been stolen from you. Or, if you lived on the sea-shore, and an +Amphibian had crept into your nursery and taken your baby--always +under two years old, according to the rules--then the Guildsman would +bring you an Amphib or, perhaps, the child of a Human Changeling +reared by the Seafolk. + +You raised it and loved it as your own. How could you help loving it? + +Your Skin told you that it was small and helpless and needed you and +was, despite appearances, as Human as any of your babies. Nor did you +need to worry about the one that had been abducted. It was getting +just as good care as you were giving this one. + +It had never occurred to anyone to quit the stealing and voluntary +exchange of babies. Perhaps that was because it would strain even the +loving nature of the Skin-wearers to give away their own flesh and +blood. But once the transfer had taken place, they could adapt. + +Or perhaps the custom was kept because tradition is stronger than law +in a peasant-monarchy society and also because egg-and-baby stealing +gave the more naturally aggressive and daring citizens a chance to +work off anti-social behavior. + +Nobody but a historian would have known, and there were no historians +in The Beautiful Land. + +Long ago the Ssassaror had discovered that if they lived meatless, +they had a much easier time curbing their belligerency, obeying the +Skins and remaining cooperative. So they induced the Earthmen to put a +taboo on eating flesh. The only drawback to the meatless diet was that +both Ssassaror and Man became as stunted in stature as they did in +aggressiveness, the former so much so that they barely came to the +chins of the Humans. These, in turn, would have seemed short to a +Western European. + +But Rastignac, an Earthman, and his good friend, Mapfarity, the +Ssassaror Giant, became taboo-breakers when they were children and +played together on the beach where they first ate seafood out of +curiosity, then continued because they liked it. And due to their +protein diet the Terran had grown well over six feet in height and the +Ssassaror seemed to have touched off a rocket of expansion in his body +with his protein-eating. Those Ssassarors who shared his guilt--became +meat-eaters--became ostracized and eventually moved off to live by +themselves. They were called Ssassaror-Giants and were pointed to as +an object lesson to the young of the normal Ssassarors and Humans on +the land. + + * * * * * + +If a stranger had landed shortly before Rastignac was born, however, +he would have noticed that all was not as serene as it was supposed to +be among the different species. The cause for the flaw in the former +Eden might have puzzled him if he had not known the previous history +of _L'Bawfey_ and the fact that the situation had not changed for the +worst until the introduction of Human Changelings among the +Amphibians. + +Then it had been that blood-drinking began among them, that Amphibians +began seducing Humans to come live with them by their tales of easy +immortality, and that they started the system of leaving savage little +carnivores in the Human nurseries. + +When the Land-dwellers protested, the Amphibs replied that these +things were carried out by unnaturals or outlaws, and that the +Sea-King could not be held responsible. Permission was given to +Chalice those caught in such behavior. + +Nevertheless, the suspicion remained that the Amphib monarch had, in +accordance with age-old procedure, given his unofficial official +blessing and that he was preparing even more disgusting and outrageous +and unnatural moves. Through his control of the populace by the Master +Skin, he would be able to do as he pleased with their minds. + +It was the Skins that had made the universal peace possible on the +planet of New Gaul. And it would be the custom of the Skins that would +make possible the change from peace to conflict among the populace. + +Through the artificial Skins that were put on all babies at birth--and +which grew with them, attached to their body, feeding from their +bloodstreams, their nervous systems--the Skins, controlled by a huge +Master Skin that floated in a chemical vat in the palace of the +rulers, fed, indoctrinated and attended day and night by a crew of the +most brilliant scientists of the planet, gave the Kings complete +control of the minds and emotions of the inhabitants of the planet. + +Originally the rulers of New Gaul had desired only that the populace +live in peace and enjoy the good things of their planet equally. But +the change that had been coming gradually--the growth of conflict +between the Kings of the different species for control of the whole +populace--was beginning to be generally felt. Uneasiness, distrust of +each other was growing among the people. Hence the legalizing of the +Underground, the Philosophy of Violence by the government, an effort +to control the revolt that was brewing. + +Yet, the Land-dwellers had managed to take no action at all and to +ignore the growing number of vicious acts. + +But not all were content to drowse. One man was aroused. He was +Rastignac. + +They were Rastignac's hope, those Six Stars, the gods to which he +prayed. When they passed quickly out of his sight he would continue +his pacing, meditating for the twenty-thousandth time on a means for +reaching one of those ships and using it to visit the stars. The end +of his fantasies was always a curse because of the futility of such +hopes. He was doomed! Mankind was doomed! + + * * * * * + +And it was all the more maddening because Man would not admit that he +was through. Ended, that is, as a human being. + +Man was changing into something not quite _homo sapiens_. It might be +a desirable change, but it would mean the finish of his climb upwards. +So it seemed to Rastignac. And he, being the man he was, had decided +to do something about it even if it meant violence. + +That was why he was now in the well-dungeon. He was an advocator of +violence against the status quo. + + +II + +There was another cell next to his. It was also at the bottom of a +well and was separated from his by a thin wall of cement. A window had +been set into it so that the prisoners could talk to each other. +Rastignac did not care for the woman who had been let down into the +adjoining cell, but she was somebody to talk to. + +"Amphib-changelings" was the name given to those human beings who had +been stolen from their cradles and raised among the non-humanoid +Amphibians as their own. The girl in the adjoining cell, Lusine, was +such a person. It was not her fault that she was a blood-drinking +Amphib. Yet he could not help disliking her for what she had done and +for the things she stood for. + +She was in prison because she had been caught in the act of stealing a +Man child from its cradle. This was no crime, but she had left in the +cradle, under the covers, a savage and blood-thirsty little monster +that had leaped up and slashed the throat of the unsuspecting baby's +mother. + +Her cell was lit by a cageful of glowworms. Rastignac, peering through +the grille, could see her shadowy shape in the inner cell inside the +wall. She rose langorously and stepped into the circle of dim orange +light cast by the insects. + +"_B'zhu, m'fweh_," she greeted him. + +It annoyed him that she called him her brother, and it annoyed him +even more to know that she knew it. It was true that she had some +excuse for thus addressing him. She did resemble him. Like him, she +had straight glossy blue-black hair, thick bracket-shaped eyebrows, +brown eyes, a straight nose and a prominent chin. And where his build +was superbly masculine, hers was magnificently feminine. + +Nevertheless, this was not her reason for so speaking to him. She knew +the disgust the Land-walker had for the Amphib-changeling, and she +took a perverted delight in baiting him. + +He was proud that he seldom allowed her to see that she annoyed him. +"_B'zhu, fam tey zafeep_," he said. "Good evening, woman of the +Amphibians." + +Mockingly she said, "Have you been watching the Six Flying Stars, +Jean-Jacques?" + +"_Vi._ I do so every time they come over." + +"Why do you eat your heart out because you cannot fly up to them and +then voyage among the stars on one of them?" + +He refused to give her the satisfaction of knowing his real reason. +He did not want her to realize how little he thought of Mankind and +its chances for surviving--as humanity--upon the face of this planet, +L'Bawpfey. + +"I look at them because they remind me that Man was once captain of +his soul." + +"Then you admit that the Land-walker is weak?" + +"I think he is on the way to becoming non-human, which is to say that +he is weak, yes. But what I say about Landman goes for Seaman, too. +You Changelings are becoming more Amphibian every day and less Human. +Through the Skins the Amphibs are gradually changing you completely. +Soon you will be completely sea-people." + +She laughed scornfully, exposing perfect white teeth as she did so. + +"The Sea will win out against the Land. It launches itself against the +shore and shakes it with the crash of its body. It eats away the rock +and the dirt and absorbs it into its own self. It can't be worn away +nor caught and held in a net. It is elusive and all-powerful and +never-tiring." + +Lusine paused for breath. He said, "That is a very pretty analogy, but +it doesn't apply. You Seafolk are as much flesh and blood as we +Landfolk. What hurts us hurts you." + +She put a hand around one bar. The glow-light fell upon it in such a +way that it showed plainly the webbing of skin between her fingers. He +glanced at it with a faint repulsion under which was a counter-current +of attraction. This was the hand that had, indirectly, shed blood. + +She glanced at him sidewise, challenged him in trembling tones. "You +are not one to throw stones, Jean-Jacques. I have heard that you eat +meat." + +"Fish, not meat. That is part of my Philosophy of Violence," he +retorted. "I maintain that one of the reasons man is losing his power +and strength is that he has so long been upon a vegetable diet. He is +as cowed and submissive as the grass-eating beast of the fields." + +Lusine put her face against the bars. + +"That is interesting," she said. "But how did you happen to begin +eating fish? I thought we Amphibs alone did that." + +What Lusine had just said angered him. He had no reply. + +Rastignac knew he should not be talking to a Sea-changeling. They were +glib and seductive and always searching for ways to twist your +thoughts. But being Rastignac, he had to talk. Moreover, it was so +difficult to find anybody who would listen to his ideas that he could +not resist the temptation. + +"I was given fish by the Ssassaror, Mapfarity, when I was a child. We +lived along the sea-shore. Mapfarity was a child, too, and we played +together. Don't eat fish!' my parents said. To me that meant 'Eat +it!' So, despite my distaste at the idea, and my squeamish stomach, I +did eat fish. And I liked it. And as I grew to manhood I adopted the +Philosophy of Violence and I continued to eat fish although I am not a +Changeling." + +"What did your Skin do when it detected you?" Lusine asked. Her eyes +were wide and luminous with wonder and a sort of glee as if she +relished the confession of his sins. Also, he knew, she was taunting +him about the futility of his ideas of violence so long as he was a +prisoner of the Skin. + +He frowned in annoyance at the reminder of the Skin. Much thought had +he given, in a weak way, to the possibility of life without the Skin. + +Ashamed now of his weak resistance to the Skin, he blustered a bit in +front of the teasing Amphib girl. + +"Mapfarity and I discovered something that most people don't know," he +answered boastfully. "We found that if you can stand the shocks your +Skin gives you when you do something wrong, the Skin gets tired and +quits after a while. Of course your Skin recharges itself and the next +time you eat fish it shocks you again. But after very many shocks it +becomes accustomed, forgets its conditioning, and leaves you alone." + +Lusine laughed and said in a low conspirational tone, "So your +Ssassaror pal and you adopted the Philosophy of Violence because you +remained fish and meat eaters?" + +"Yes, we did. When Mapfarity reached puberty he became a Giant and +went off to live in a castle in the forest. But we have remained +friends through our connection in the underground." + +"Your parents must have suspected that you were a fish eater when you +first proposed your Philosophy of Violence?" she said. + +"Suspicion isn't proof," he answered. "But I shouldn't be telling you +all this, Lusine. I feel it is safe for me to do so only because you +will never have a chance to tell on me. You will soon be taken to +Chalice and there you will stay until you have been cured." + +She shivered and said, "This Chalice? What is it?" + +"It is a place far to the north where both Terrans and Ssassarors send +their incorrigibles. It is an extinct volcano whose steep-sided +interior makes an inescapable prison. There those who have persisted +in unnatural behavior are given special treatment." + +"They are bled?" she asked, her eyes widening as her tongue flicked +over her lips again hungrily. + +"No. A special breed of Skin is given them to wear. These Skins shock +them more powerfully than the ordinary ones, and the shocks are +associated with the habit they are trying to cure. The shocks effect +a cure. Also, these special Skins are used to detect hidden unnatural +emotions. They re-condition the deviate. The result is that when the +Chaliced Man is judged able to go out and take his place in society +again, he is thoroughly re-conditioned. Then his regular Skin is given +back to him and it has no trouble keeping him in line from then on. +The Chaliced Man is a very good citizen." + +"And what if a revolter doesn't become Chaliced?" + +"Then he stays in Chalice until he decides to become so." + +Her voice rose sharply as she said, "But if I go there, and I am not +fed the diet of the Amphibs, I will grow old and die!" + +"No. The government will feed you the diet you need until you are +re-conditioned. Except...." He paused. + +"Except I won't get blood," she wailed. Then, realizing she was acting +undignified before a Landman, she firmed her voice. + +"The King of the Amphibians will not allow them to do this to me," she +said. "When he hears of it he will demand my return. And if the King +of Men refuses, my King will use violence to get me back." + +Rastignac smiled and said, "I hope he does. Then perhaps my people +will wake up and get rid of their Skins and make war upon your +people." + +"So that is what you Philosophers of Violence want, is it? Well, you +will not get it. My father, the Amphib King, will not be so stupid as +to declare a war." + +"I suppose not," replied Rastignac. "He will send a band to rescue +you. If they're caught they'll claim to be criminals and say they are +_not_ under the King's orders." + +Lusine looked upwards to see if a guard was hanging over the well's mouth +listening. Perceiving no one, she nodded and said, "You have guessed it +correctly. And that is why we laugh so much at you stupid Humans. You know +as well as we do what's going on, but you are afraid to tell us so. You +keep clinging to the idea that your turn-the-other-cheek policy will +soften us and insure peace." + +"Not I," said Rastignac. "I know perfectly well there is only one +solution to man's problems. That is--" + +"That is Violence," she finished for him. "That is what you have been +preaching. And that is why you are in this cell, waiting for trial." + +"You don't understand," he said. "Men are not put into the Chalice for +_proposing_ new philosophies. As long as they behave naturally they +may say what they wish. They may even petition the King that the new +philosophy be made a law. The King passes it on to the Chamber of +Deputies. They consider it and put it up to the people. If the people +like it, it becomes a law. The only trouble with that procedure is +that it may take ten years before the law is considered by the Chamber +of Deputies." + +"And in those ten years," she mocked him, "the Amphibs and the +Amphibian-changelings will have won the planet." + +"That is true," he said. + +"The King of the Humans is a Ssassaror and the King of the Ssassaror +is a Man," said Lusine. "Our King can't see any reason for changing +the status quo. After all, it is the Ssassaror who are responsible for +the Skins and for Man's position in the sentient society of this +planet. Why should he be favorable to a policy of Violence? The +Ssassarors loathe violence." + +"And so you have preached Violence without waiting for it to become a +law? And for that you are now in this cell?" + +"Not exactly. The Ssassarors have long known that to suppress too much +of Man's naturally belligerent nature only results in an explosion. So +they have legalized illegality--up to a point. Thus the King +officially made me the Chief of the Underground and gave me a state +license to preach--but not practice--Violence. I am even allowed to +advocate overthrow of the present system of government--as long as I +take no action that is too productive of results. + +"I am in jail now because the Minister of Ill-Will put me here. He had +my Skin examined, and it was found to be 'unhealthy.' He thought I'd +be better off locked up until I became 'healthy' again. But the +King...." + + +III + +Lusine's laughter was like the call of a silverbell bird. Whatever her +unhuman appetites, she had a beautiful voice. She said, "How comical! +And how do you, with your brave ideas, like being regarded as a +harmless figure of fun, or as a sick man?" + +"I like it as well as you would," he growled. + +She gripped the bars of her window until the tendons on the back of +her long thin hands stood out and the membranes between her fingers +stretched like wind-blown tents. Face twisted, she spat at him, +"Coward! Why don't you kill somebody and break out of this ridiculous +mold--that Skin that the Ssassarors have poured you into?" + +Rastignac was silent. That was a good question. Why didn't he? Killing +was the logical result of his philosophy. But the Skin kept him +docile. Yes, he could vaguely see that he had purposely shut his eyes +to the destination towards which his ideas were slowly but inevitably +traveling. + +And there was another facet to the answer to her question--if he had +to kill, he would not kill a Man. His philosophy was directed towards +the Amphibians and the Sea-changelings. + +He said, "Violence doesn't necessarily mean the shedding of blood, +Lusine. My philosophy urges that we take a more vigorous action, that +we overthrow some of the bio-social institutions which have imprisoned +Man and stripped him of his dignity as an individual." + +"Yes, I have heard that you want Man to stop wearing the Skin. That is +what has horrified your people, isn't it?" + +"Yes," he said. "And I understand it has had the same effect among the +Amphibians." + +She bridled, her brown eyes flashing in the feeble glowworms' light. +"Why shouldn't it? What would we be without our Skins?" + +"What, indeed?" he said, laughing derisively afterwards. + +Earnestly she said, "You don't understand. We Amphibians--our Skins +are not like yours. We do not wear them for the same reason you do. +You are imprisoned by your Skins--they tell you how to feel, what to +think. Above all, they keep you from getting ideas about +non-cooperation or non-integration with Nature as a whole. + +"That, to us individualistic Amphibians, is false. The purpose of our +Skins is to make sure that our King's subjects understand what he +wants so that we may all act as one unit and thus further the progress +of the Seafolk." + +The first time Rastignac had heard this statement he had howled with +laughter. Now, however, knowing that she could not see the fallacy, he +did not try to argue the point. The Amphibs were, in their way, as +hidebound--no pun intended--as the Land-walkers. + +"Look, Lusine," he said, "there are only three places where a Man may +take off his Skin. One is in his own home, when he may hang it upon +the halltree. Two is when he is, like us, in jail and therefore may +not harm anybody. The third is when a man is King. Now you and I have +been without our Skins for a week. We have gone longer without them +than anybody, except the King. Tell me true, don't you feel free for +the first time in your life? + +"Don't you feel as if you belong to nobody but yourself, that you are +accountable to no one but yourself, and that you love that feeling? +And don't you dread the day we will be let out of prison and made to +wear our Skins again? That day which, curiously enough, will be the +very day that we will lose our freedom." + +Lusine looked as if she didn't know what he was talking about. + +"You'll see what I mean when we are freed and the Skins are put back +upon us," he said. Immediately after, he was embarrassed. He +remembered that she would go to the Chalice where one of the heavy and +powerful Skins used for unnaturals would be fastened to her +shoulders. + +Lusine did not notice. She was considering the last but most telling +point in her argument "You cannot win against us," she said, watching +him narrowly for the effect of her words. "We have a weapon that is +irresistible. We have immortality." + +His face did not lose its imperturbability. + +She continued, "And what is more, we can give immortality to anyone +who casts off his Skin and adopts ours. Don't think that your people +don't know this. For instance, during the last year more than two +thousand Humans living along the beaches deserted and went over to us, +the Amphibs." + +He was a little shocked to hear this, but he did not doubt her. He +remembered the mysterious case of the schooner _Le Pauvre Pierre_ +which had been found drifting and crewless, and he remembered a +conversation he had had with a fisherman in his home port of Marrec. + +He put his hands behind his back and began pacing. Lusine continued +staring at him through the bars. Despite the fact that her face was in +the shadows, he could see--or feel--her smile. He had humiliated her, +but she had won in the end. + +Rastignac quit his limited roving and called up to the guard. + +"_Shoo l'footyay, kal u ay tee?_" + +The guard leaned over the grille. His large hat with its tall wings +sticking from the peak was green in the daytime. But now, illuminated +only by a far off torchlight and by a glowworm coiled around the band, +it was black. + +"_Ah, shoo Zhaw-Zhawk W'stenyek_," he said, loudly. "What time is it? +What do you care what time it is?" And he concluded with the stock +phrase of the jailer, unchanged through millenia and over light-years. +"You're not going any place, are you?" + +Rastignac threw his head back to howl at the guard but stopped to +wince at the sudden pain in his neck. After uttering, "_Sek Ploo!_" +and "_S'pweestee!_" both of which were close enough to the old Terran +French so that a language specialist might have recognized them, he +said, more calmly, "If you would let me out on the ground, _monsieur +le foutriquet_, and give me a good épée, I would show you where I am +going. Or, at least, where my sword is going. I am thinking of a nice +sheath for it." + +Tonight he had a special reason for keeping the attention of the +King's mucketeer directed towards himself. So, when the guard grew +tired of returning insults--mainly because his limited imagination +could invent no new ones--Rastignac began telling jokes. They were +broad and aimed at the mucketeer's narrow intellect. + +"Then," said Rastignac, "there was the itinerant salesman whose +_s'fel_ threw a shoe. He knocked on the door of the hut of the nearest +peasant and said...." What was said by the salesman was never known. + +A strangled gasp had come from above. + + +IV + +Rastignac saw something enormous blot out the smaller shadow of the +guard. Then both figures disappeared. A moment later a silhouette cut +across the lines of the grille. Unoiled hinges screeched; the bars +lifted. A rope uncoiled from above to fall at Rastignac's feet. He +seized it and felt himself being drawn powerfully upwards. + +When he came over the edge of the well, he saw that his rescuer was a +giant Ssassaror. The light from the glowworm on the guard's hat lit up +feebly his face, which was orthagnathous and had quite humanoid eyes +and lips. Large canine teeth stuck out from the mouth, and its huge +ears were tipped with feathery tufts. The forehead down to the +eyebrows looked as if it needed a shave, but Rastignac knew that more +light would show the blue-black shade came from many small feathers, +not stubbled hair. + +"Mapfarity!" Rastignac said. "It's good to see you after all these +years!" + +The Ssassaror giant put his hand on his friend's shoulder. Clenched, +it was almost as big as Rastignac's head. He spoke with a voice like a +lion coughing at the bottom of a deep well. + +"It is good to see you again, my friend." + +"What are you doing here?" said Rastignac, tears running down his face +as he stroked the great fingers on his shoulder. + +Mapfarity's huge ears quivered like the wings of a bat tied to a rock +and unable to fly off. The tufts of feathers at their ends grew stiff +and suddenly crackled with tiny sparks. + +The electrical display was his equivalent of the human's weeping. Both +creatures discharged emotion; their bodies chose different avenues and +manifestations. Nevertheless, the sight of the other's joy affected +each deeply. + +"I have come to rescue you," said Mapfarity. "I caught Archambaud +here,"--he indicated the other man--"stealing eggs from my golden +goose. And...." + +Raoul Archambaud--pronounced Wawl Shebvo--interrupted excitedly, "I +showed him my license to steal eggs from Giants who were raising +counterfeit geese, but he was going to lock me up anyway. He was going +to take my Skin off and feed me on meat...." + +"Meat!" said Rastignac, astonished and revolted despite himself. +"Mapfarity, what have you been doing in that castle of yours?" + +Mapfarity lowered his voice to match the distant roar of a cataract. +"I haven't been very active these last few years," he said, "because I +am so big that it hurts my feet if I walk very much. So I've had much +time to think. And I, being logical, decided that the next step after +eating fish was eating meat. It couldn't make me any larger. So, I ate +meat. And while doing so, I came to the same conclusion that you, +apparently, have done independently. That is, the Philosophy of...." + +"Of Violence," interrupted Archambaud. "Ah, Jean-Jacques, there must +be some mystic bond that brings two Humans of such different +backgrounds as yours and the Ssassaror together, giving you both the +same philosophy. When I explained what you had been doing and that you +were in jail because you had advocated getting rid of the Skins, +Mapfarity petitioned...." + +"The King to make an official jail-break," said Mapfarity with an +impatient glance at the rolypoly egg-stealer. "And...." + +"The King agreed," broke in Archambaud, "provided Mapfarity would turn +in his counterfeit goose and provided you would agree to say no more +about abandoning Skins, but...." + +The Giant's basso profundo-redundo pushed the egg-stealer's high pitch +aside. "If this squeaker will quit interrupting, perhaps we can get on +with the rescue. We'll talk later, if you don't mind." + +At that moment Lusine's voice floated up from the bottom of her cell. +"Jean-Jacques, my love, my brave, my own, would you abandon me to the +Chalice? Please take me with you! You will need somebody to hide you +when the Minister of Ill-Will sends his mucketeers after you. I can +hide you where no one will ever find you." Her voice was mocking, but +there was an undercurrent of anxiety to it. + +Mapfarity muttered, "She will hide us, yes, at the bottom of a +sea-cave where we will eat strange food and suffer a change. +Never...." + +"Trust an Amphib," finished Archambaud for him. + +Mapfarity forgot to whisper. "_Bey-t'cul, vu nu fez yey! Fe'm sa!_" he +roared. + +A shocked hush covered the courtyard. Only Mapfarity's wrathful +breathing could be heard. Then, disembodied, Lusine's voice floated +from the well. + +"Jean-Jacques, do not forget that I am the foster-daughter of the King +of the Amphibians! If you were to take me with you, I could assure you +of safety and a warm welcome in the halls of the Sea-King's Palace!" + +"Pah!" said Mapfarity. "That web-footed witch!" + +Rastignac did not reply to her. He took the broad silk belt and the +sheathed épée from Archambaud and buckled them around his waist. +Mapfarity handed him a mucketeer's hat; he clapped that on firmly. +Last of all, he took the Skin that the fat egg-stealer had been +holding out to him. + +For the first time he hesitated. It was his Skin, the one he had been +wearing since he was six. It had grown with him, fed off his blood for +twenty-two years, clung to him as clothing, censor, and castigator, +and parted from him only when he was inside the walls of his own +house, went swimming, or, as during the last seven days, when he laid +in jail. + +A week ago, after they had removed his second Skin, he had felt naked +and helpless and cut off from his fellow creatures. But that was a +week ago. Since then, as he had remarked to Lusine, he had experienced +the birth of a strange feeling. It was, at first, frightening. It made +him cling to the bars as if they were the only stable thing in the +center of a whirling universe. + +Later, when that first giddiness had passed, it was succeeded by +another intoxication--the joy of being an individual, the knowledge +that he was separate, not a part of a multitude. Without the Skin he +could think as he pleased. He did not have a censor. + +Now, he was on level ground again, out of the cell. But as soon as he +had put that prison-shaft behind him he was faced with the old second +Skin. + +Archambaud held it out like a cloak in his hands. It looked much like +a ragged garment. It was pale and limp and roughly rectangular with +four extensions at each corner. When Rastignac put it on his back, it +would sink four tiny hollow teeth into his veins and the suckers on +the inner surface of its flat body would cling to him. Its long upper +extensions would wrap themselves around his shoulders and over his +chest; the lower, around his loins and thighs. Soon it would lose its +paleness and flaccidity, become pink and slightly convex, pulsing with +Rastignac's blood. + + +V + +Rastignac hesitated for a few seconds. Then he allowed the habit of a +lifetime to take over. Sighing, he turned his back. In a moment he +felt the cold flesh descend over his shoulders and the little bite of +the four teeth as they attached the Skin to his shoulders. Then, as +his blood poured into the creature he felt it grow warm and strong. It +spread out and followed the passages it had long ago been conditioned +to follow, wrapped him warmly and lovingly and comfortably. And he +knew, though he couldn't feel it, that it was pushing nerves into the +grooves along the teeth. Nerves to connect with his. + +A minute later he experienced the first of the expected _rapport_. It +was nothing that you could put a mental finger on. It was just a +diffused tingling and then the sudden consciousness of how the others +around him _felt_. + +They were ghosts in the background of his mind. Yet, pale and +ectoplasmic as they were, they were easily identifiable. Mapfarity +loomed above the others, a transparent Colossus radiating streamers of +confidence in his clumsy strength. A meat-eater, uncertain about the +future, with a hope and trust in Rastignac to show him the right way. +And with a strong current of anger against the conqueror who had +inflicted the Skin upon him. + +Archambaud was a shorter phantom, rolypoly even in his psychic +manifestations, emitting bursts of impatience because other people did +not talk fast enough to suit him, his mind leaping on ahead of their +tongues, his fingers wriggling to wrap themselves around something +valuable--preferably the eggs of the golden goose--and a general +eagerness to be up and about and onwards. He was one round fidget on +two legs, yet a good man for any project requiring action. + +Faintly, Rastignac detected the slumbering guard as if he were the +tendrils of some plant at the sea-bottom, floating in the green +twilight, at peace and unconscious. + +And even more faintly he felt Lusine's presence, shielded by the walls +of the shaft. Hers was a pale and light hand, one whose fingers tapped +a barely heard code of impotent rage and voiceless screaming fear. Yet +beneath that anguish was a base of confidence and mockery at others. +She might be temporarily upset, but when the chance came for her to do +something she would seize it with every ability at her command. + +Another radiation dipped into the general picture and out. A wild +glowworm had swooped over them and disturbed the smooth reflection +built up by the Skins. + +This was the way the Skins worked. They penetrated into you and found +out what you were feeling and emoting, and then they broadcast it to +other closeby Skins, which then projected their hosts' psychosomatic +responses. The whole was then integrated so that each Skin-wearer +could detect the group-feeling and at the same time, though in a much +duller manner, the feeling of the individuals of the _gestalt_. + +That wasn't the only function of the Skin. The parasite, created in +the bio-factories, had several other social and biological uses. + +Rastignac almost fell into a reverie at that point. It was nothing +unusual. The effect of the Skins was a slowing-down one. The wearer +thought more slowly, acted more leisurely, and was much more +contented. + +But now, by a deliberate wrenching of himself from the +feeling-pattern, Rastignac woke up. There were things to do, and +standing around and drinking in the lotus of the group-rapport was +not one of them. + +He gestured at the prostrate form of the mucketeer. "You didn't hurt +him?" + +The Ssassaror rumbled, "No. I scratched him with a little venom of the +dream-snake. He will sleep for an hour or so. Besides, I would not be +allowed to hurt him. You forget that all this is carefully staged by +the King's Official Jail-breaker." + +"_Me'dt!_" swore Rastignac. + +Alarmed, Archambaud said, "What's the matter, Jean-Jacques?" + +"Can't we do anything on our own? Must the King meddle in everything?" + +"You wouldn't want us to take a chance and have to shed _blood_, would +you?" breathed Archambaud. + +"What are you carrying those swords for? As a decoration?" Rastignac +snarled. + +"_Seelahs, m'fweh_," warned Mapfarity. "If you alarm the other guards, +you will embarrass them. They will be forced to do their duty and +recapture you. And the Jail-breaker would be reprimanded because he +had fallen down on his job. He might even get a demotion." + +Rastignac was so upset that his Skin, reacting to the negative fields +racing over the Skin and the hormone imbalance of his blood, writhed +away from his back. + +"What are we, a bunch children playing war?" + +Mapfarity growled, "We are all God's children, and we mustn't hurt +anyone if we can help it." + +"Mapfarity, you eat meat!" + +"_Voo zavf w'zaw m'fweh_," admitted the Giant. "But it is the flesh of +unintelligent creatures. I have not yet shed the blood of any being +that can talk with the tongue of Man." + +Rastignac snorted and said, "If you stick with me you will some day do +that, _m'fweh_ Mapfarity. There is no other course. It is inevitable." + +"Nature spare me the day! But if it comes it will find Mapfarity +unafraid. They do not call me Giant for nothing." + +Rastignac sighed and walked ahead. Sometimes he wondered if the +members of his underground--or anybody else for that matter--ever +realized the grim conclusions formed by the Philosophy of Violence. + +The Amphibians, he was sure, did. And they were doing something +positive about it. But it was the Amphibians who had driven Rastignac +to adopt a Philosophy of Violence. + +"_Law_," he said again. "Let's go." + +The three of them walked out of the huge courtyard and through the +open gate. Nearby stood a short man whose Skin gleamed black-red in +the light shed by the two glowworms attached to his shoulders. The +Skin was oversized and hung to the ground. + +The King's man, however, did not think he was a comic figure. He +sputtered, and the red of his face matched the color of the skin on +his back. + +"You took long enough," he said accusingly and then, when Rastignac +opened his mouth to protest, the Jail-breaker said, "Never mind, never +mind. _Sa n'apawt_. The thing is that we get you away fast. The +Minister of Ill-Will has doubtless by now received word that an +official jail-break is planned for tonight. He will send a company of +his mucketeers to intercept you. By coming in advance of the appointed +time we shall have time to escape before the official rescue party +arrives." + +"How much time do we have?" asked Rastignac. + +The King's man said, "Let's see. After I escort you through the rooms +of the Duke, the King's foster-brother--he is most favorable to the +Violent Philosophy, you know, and has petitioned the King to become +your official patron, which petition will be considered at the next +meeting of the Chamber of Deputies in three months--let's see, where +was I? Ah, yes, I escort you through the rooms of the King's brother. +You will be disguised as His Majesty's mucketeers, ostensibly looking +for the escaped prisoners. From the rooms of the Duke you will be let +out through a small door in the wall of the palace itself. A car will +be waiting. + +"From then on it will be up to you. I suggest, however, that you make +a dash for Mapfarity's castle. Follow the _Rue des Nues_; that is your +best chance. The mucketeers have been pulled off that boulevard. +However, it is possible that Auverpin, the Ill-Will Minister, may see +that order and will rescind it, realizing what it means. If he does, I +suppose I will see you back in your cell, Rastignac." + +He bowed to the Ssassaror and Archambaud and said, "And you two +gentlemen will then be with him." + +"And then what?" rumbled Mapfarity. + +"According to the law, you will be allowed one more jail-break. Any +more after that will, of course, be illegal. That is, unthinkable." + +Rastignac unsheathed his épée and slashed it at the air. "Let the +mucketeers stand in my way," he said fiercely. "I will cut them down +with this!" + +The Jail-breaker staggered back, hands outthrust. + +"Please, Monsieur Rastignac! Please! Don't even talk about it! You +know that your philosophy is, as yet, illegal. The shedding of blood +is an act that will be regarded with horror throughout the sentient +planet. People would think you are an Amphibian!" + +"The Amphibians know what they're doing far better than we do," +answered Rastignac. "Why do you think they're winning against us +Humans?" + +Suddenly, before anybody could answer, the sound of blaring horns came +from somewhere on the ramparts. Shouts went up; drums began to beat, +calling the mucketeers to alert. + +And above it all came the roar of a giant Ssassaror voice: "_An +Earthship has landed in the sea! And the pilot of the ship is in the +hands of the Amphibians!_" + +As the meaning of the words seeped into Rastignac's consciousness he +made a sudden violent movement--and began to tear the Skin from his +body! + + +VI + +Rastignac ran down the steps, out into the courtyard. He seized the +Jail-breaker's arm and demanded the key to the grilles. Dazed, the +white-faced official meekly and silently handed it to him. Without his +Skin Rastignac was no longer fearfully inhibited. If you were forceful +enough and did not behave according to the normal pattern you could +get just about anything you wanted. The average Man or Ssassaror did +not know how to react to his violence. By the time they had recovered +from their confusion he could be miles away. + +Such a thought flashed through his head as he ran towards the prison +wells. At the same time he heard the horn-blasts of the king's +mucketeers and knew that he shortly would have a different type of Man +to deal with. The mucketeers, closest approach to soldiers in this +pacifistic land, wore Skins that conditioned them to be more +belligerent than the common citizen. They carried épées and, while it +was true that their points were dull and their wielders had never +engaged in serious swordsmanship, the mucketeers could be dangerous +from a viewpoint of numbers alone. + +Mapfarity bellowed, "Jean-Jacques, what are you doing?" + +He called back over his shoulder, "I'm taking Lusine with us! She can +help us get the Earthman from the Amphibians!" + +The Giant lumbered up behind him, threw a rope down to the eager hands +of Lusine and pulled her up without effort to the top of the well. A +second later, Rastignac leaped upon Mapfarity's back, dug his hands +under the upper fringe of the huge Skin and, ignoring its electrical +blasts, ripped downwards. + +Mapfarity cried out with shock and surprise as his skin flopped on the +stones like a devilfish on dry land. + +Archambaud ran up then and, without bothering to explain, the +Ssassaror and the Man seized him and peeled off _his_ artificial hide. + +"Now we're all free men!" panted Rastignac. "And the mucketeers have +no way of locating us if we hide, nor can they punish us with shocks." + +He put the Giant on his right side, Lusine on his left, and the +egg-stealer behind him. He removed the Jail-breaker's rapier from his +sheath. The official was too astonished to protest. + +"_Law, m'zawfa!_" cried Rastignac, parodying in his grotesque French +the old Gallic war cry of "_Allons, mes enfants!_" + +The King's official came to life and screamed orders at the group of +mucketeers who had poured into the courtyard. They halted in +confusion. They could not hear him above the roar of horns and thunder +of drums and the people sticking their heads out of windows and +shouting. + +Rastignac scooped up with his épée one of the abandoned Skins flopping +on the floor and threw it at the foremost guard. It descended upon the +man's head, knocking off his hat and wrapping itself around the head +and shoulders. The guard dropped his sword and staggered backwards +into the group. At the same time the escapees charged and bowled over +their feeble opposition. + +It was here that Rastignac drew first blood. The tip of his épée drove +past a bewildered mucketeer's blade and entered the fellow's throat +just below the chin. It did not penetrate very far because of the +dullness of the point. Nevertheless, when Rastignac withdrew his sword +he saw blood spurt. + +It was the first flower of violence, this scarlet blossom set against +the whiteness of a Man's skin. + +It would, if he had worn his Skin, have sickened him. Now, he exulted +with a shout of triumph. + +Lusine swooped up from behind him, bent over the fallen man. Her +fingers dipped into the blood and went to her mouth. Greedily, she +sucked her fingers. + +Rastignac struck her cheek hard with the flat of his hand. She +staggered back, her eyes narrow, but she laughed. + +The next moments were busy as they entered the castle, knocked down +two mucketeers who tried to prevent their passage to the Duke's rooms, +then filed across the long suite. + +The Duke rose from his writing-desk to greet them. Rastignac, +determined to sever all ties and impress the government with the fact +that he meant a real violence, snarled at his benefactor, "_Va t'feh +fout!_" + +The Duke was disconcerted at this harsh command, so obviously +impossible to carry out. He blinked and said nothing. The escapees +hurried past him to the door that gave exit to the outside. They +pushed it open and stepped out into the car that waited for them. A +chauffeur leaned against its thin wooden body. + +Mapfarity pushed him aside and climbed in. The others followed. +Rastignac was the last to get in. He examined in a glance the vehicle +they were supposed to make their flight in. + +It was as good a car as you could find in the realm. A Renault of the +large class, it had a long boat-shaped scarlet body. There wasn't a +scratch on it. It had seats for six. And that it had the power to +outrun most anything was indicated by the two extra pairs of legs +sticking out from the bottom. There were twelve pairs of legs, equine +in form and shod with the best steel. It was the kind of vehicle you +wanted when you might have to take off across the country. Wheeled +cars could go faster on the highway, but this Renault would not be +daunted by water, plowed fields, or steep hillsides. + +Rastignac climbed into the driver's seat, seized the wheel and pressed +his foot down on the accelerator. The nerve-spot beneath the pedal +sent a message to the muscles hidden beneath the hood and the legs +projecting from the body. The Renault lurched forward, steadied, and +began to pick up speed. It entered a broad paved highway. Hooves +drummed; sparks shot out from the steel shoes. + +Rastignac guided the brainless, blind creature concealed within the +body. He was helped by the somatically-generated radar it employed to +steer it past obstacles. When he came to the _Rue des Nues_, he slowed +it down to a trot. There was no use tiring it out. Halfway up the +gentle slope of the boulevard, however, a Ford galloped out from a +side-street. Its seats bristled with tall peaked hats with outspread +glowworm wings and with drawn épées. + +Rastignac shoved the accelerator to the floor. The Renault broke into +a gallop. The Ford turned so that it would present its broad side. As +there was a fencework of tall shrubbery growing along the boulevard, +the Ford was thus able to block most of the passage. + +But, just before his vehicle reached the Ford, Rastignac pressed the +Jump button. Few cars had this; only sportsmen or the royalty could +afford to have such a neural circuit installed. And it did not allow +for gradations in leaping. It was an all-or-none reaction; the legs +spurned the ground in perfect unison and with every bit of the power +in them. There was no holding back. + +The nose lifted, the Renault soared into the air. There was a shout, a +slight swaying as the trailing hooves struck the heads of mucketeers +who had been stupid enough not to duck, and the vehicle landed with a +screeching lurch, upright, on the other side of the Ford. Nor did it +pause. + +Half an hour later Rastignac reined in the car under a large tree +whose shadow protected them. "We're well out in the country," he said. + +"What do we do now?" asked impatient Archambaud. + +"First we must know more about this Earthman," Rastignac answered. +"Then we can decide." + + +VII + +Dawn broke through night's guard and spilled a crimson swath on the +hills to the East, and the Six Flying Stars faded from sight like a +necklace of glowing jewels dipped into an ink bottle. + +Rastignac halted the weary Renault on the top of a hill, looked down +over the landscape spread out for miles below him. Mapfarity's +castle--a tall rose-colored tower of flying buttresses--flashed in the +rising sun. It stood on another hill by the sea shore. The country +around was a madman's dream of color. Yet to Rastignac every hue +sickened the eye. That bright green, for instance, was poisonous; that +flaming scarlet was bloody; that pale yellow, rheumy; that velvet +black, funeral; that pure white, maggotty. + +"Rastignac!" It was Mapfarity's bass, strumming irritation deep in his +chest. + +"What?" + +"What do we do now?" + +Jean-Jacques was silent. Archambaud spoke plaintively. + +"I'm not used to going without my Skin. There are things I miss. For +one thing, I don't know what you're thinking, Jean-Jacques. I don't +know whether you're angry at me or love me or are indifferent to me. I +don't know where other people _are_. I don't feel the joy of the +little animals playing, the freedom of the flight of birds, the +ghostly plucking of the growing grass, the sweet stab of the mating +lust of the wild-horned apigator, the humming of bees working to build +a hive, and the sleepy stupid arrogance of the giant cabbage-eating +_deuxnez_. I can feel nothing without the Skin I have worn so long. I +feel alone." + +Rastignac replied, "You are not alone. I am with you." + +Lusine spoke in a low voice, her large brown eyes upon his. + +"I, too, feel alone. My Skin is gone, the Skin by which I knew how to +act according to the wisdom of my father, the Amphib King. Now that it +is gone and I cannot hear his voice through the vibrating tympanum, I +do not know what to do." + +"At present," replied Rastignac, "you will do as I tell you." + +Mapfarity repeated, "What now?" + +Rastignac became brisk. He said, "We go to your castle, Giant. We use +your smithy to put sharp points on our swords, points to slide through +a man's body from front to back. Don't pale! That is what we must do. +And then we pick up your goose that lays the golden eggs, for we must +have money if we are to act efficiently. After that, we buy--or +steal--a boat and we go to wherever the Earthman is held captive. And +we rescue him." + +"And then?" said Lusine, her eyes shining with emotion. + +"What you do then will be up to you. But I am going to leave this +planet and voyage with the Earthman to other worlds." + +Silence. Then Mapfarity said, "Why leave here?" + +"Because there is no hope for this land. Nobody will give up his Skin. +_Le Beau Pays_ is doomed to a lotus-life. And that is not for me." + +Archambaud jerked a thumb at the Amphib girl. "What about her people?" + +"They may win, the water-people. What's the difference? It will be +just the exchange of one Skin for another. Before I heard of the +landing of the Earthman I was going to fight no matter what the cost +to me or inevitable defeat. But not now." + +Mapfarity's rumble was angry. "Ah, Jean-Jacques, this is not my +comrade talking. Are you sure you haven't swallowed your Skin? You +talk as if you were inside-out. What is the matter with your brain? +Can't you see that it will indeed make a difference if the Amphibs get +the upper hand? Can't you see _who_ is making the Amphibs behave the +way they have been?" + +Rastignac urged the Renault towards the rose-colored lacy castle high +upon a hill. The vehicle trotted tiredly along the rough and narrow +forest path. + +"What do you mean?" he said. + +"I mean the Amphibs got along fine with the Ssassaror until a new +element entered their lives--the Earthmen. Then the antagonising +began. What is this new element? It's the Changelings--the mixture of +Earthmen and Amphibs or Ssassaror and Terran. Add it up. Turn it +around. Look at it from any angle. It is the Changelings who are +behind this restlessness--the Human element. + +"Another thing. The Amphibs have always had Skins different from ours. +Our factories create our Skins to set up an affinity and communication +between their wearers and all of Nature. They are designed to make it +easier for every Man to love his neighbor. + +"Now, the strange thing about the Amphibs' Skin is that they, too, +were once designed to do such things. But in the past thirty or forty +years new Skins have been created for one primary purpose--to +establish a communication between the Sea-King and his subjects. Not +only that, the Skins can be operated at long distances so that the +King may punish any disobedient subject. And they are set so that they +establish affinity only among the Waterfolk, not between them and all +of Nature." + +"I had gathered some of that during my conversations with Lusine," +said Rastignac. "But I did not know it had gone to such lengths." + +"Yes, and you may safely bet that the Changelings are behind it." + +"Then it is the human element that is corrupting?" + +"What else?" + +Rastignac said, "Lusine, what do you say to this?" + +"I think it is best that you leave this world. Or else turn +Changeling-Amphib." + +"Why should I join you Amphibians?" + +"A man like you could become a Sea-King." + +"And drink blood?" + +"I would rather drink blood than mate with a Man. Almost, that is. But +I would make an exception with you, Jean-Jacques." + +If it had been a Land-woman who made such a blunt proposal he would +have listened with equanimity. There was no modesty, false or +otherwise in the country of the Skin-wearers. But to hear such a thing +from a woman whose mouth had drunk the blood of a living man filled +him with disgust. + +Yet, he had to admit Lusine was beautiful. If she had not been a +blood-drinker.... + +Though he lacked his receptive Skin, Mapfarity seemed to sense +Rastignac's emotions. He said, "You must not blame her too much, +Jean-Jacques. Sea-changelings are conditioned from babyhood to love +blood. And for a very definite purpose, too, unnatural though it is. +When the time comes for hordes of Changelings to sweep out of the sea +and overwhelm the Landfolk, they will have no compunctions about +cutting the throats of their fellow-creatures." + +Lusine laughed. The rest of them shifted uneasily but did not comment. +Rastignac changed the subject. + +"How did you find out about the Earthman, Mapfarity?" he said. + +The Ssassaror smiled. Two long yellow canines shone wetly; the nose, +which had nostrils set in the sides, gaped open; blue sparks shot out +from it; at the same time the feathered tufts on the ends of the +elephantine ears stiffened and crackled with red-and-blue sparks. + +"I have been doing something besides breeding geese to lay golden +eggs," he said. "I have set traps for Waterfolk, and I have caught +two. These I caged in a dungeon in my castle, and I experimented with +them. I removed their Skins and put them on me, and I found out many +interesting facts." + +He leered at Lusine, who was no longer laughing, and he said, "For +instance, I discovered that the Sea-King can locate, talk to, and +punish any of his subjects anywhere in the sea or along the coast. He +has booster Skins planted all over his realm so that any message he +sends will reach the receiver, no matter how far away he is. Moreover, +he has conditioned each and every Skin so that, by uttering a certain +code-word to which only one particular Skin will respond, he may +stimulate it to shock or even to kill its carrier." + +Mapfarity continued, "I analyzed those two Skins in my lab and then, +using them as models, made a number of duplicates in my fleshforge. +They lacked only the nerves that would enable the Sea-King to shock +us." + +Rastignac smiled his appreciation of this coup. Mapfarity's ears +crackled blue sparks of joy, his equivalent of blushing. + +"Ah, then you have doubtless listened in to many broadcasts. And you +know where the Earthman is located?" + +"Yes," said the Giant. "He is in the palace of the Amphib King, upon +the island of Kataproimnoin. That is only thirty miles out to the +sea." + +Rastignac did not know what he would do, but he had two advantages in +the Amphibs' Skins and in Lusine. And he burned to get off this doomed +planet, this land of men too sunk in false happiness, sloth, and +stupidity to see that soon death would come from the water. + +He had two possible avenues of escape. One was to use the newly +arrived Earthman's knowledge so that the fuels necessary to propel the +ferry-rockets could be manufactured. The rockets themselves still +stood in a museum. Rastignac had not planned to use them because +neither he nor any one else on this planet knew how to make fuel for +them. Such secrets had long ago been forgotten. + +But now that science was available through the newcomer from Earth, +the rockets could be equipped and taken up to one of the Six Flying +Stars. The Earthman could study the rocket, determine what was needed +in the way of supplies, then it could be outfitted for the long +voyage. + +An alternative was the Terran's vessel. Perhaps he might invite him to +come along in it.... + +The huge gateway to Mapfarity's castle interrupted his thoughts. + + +VIII + +He halted the Renault, told Archambaud to find the Giant's servant and +have him feed their vehicle, rub its legs down with liniment, and +examine the hooves for defective shoes. + +Archambaud was glad to look up Mapfabvisheen, the Giant's servant, +because he had not seen him for a long time. The little Ssassaror had +been an active member of the Egg-stealer's Guild until the night three +years ago when he had tried to creep into Mapfarity's strongroom. The +crafty guildsman had avoided the Giant's traps and there found the +two geese squatting upon their bed of minerals. + +These fabulous geese made no sound when he picked them up with +lead-lined gloves and put them in his bag, also lined with lead-leaf. +They were not even aware of him. Laboratory-bred, retort-shaped, their +protoplasm a blend of silicon-carbon, unconscious even that they +lived, they munched upon lead and other elements, ruminated, gestated, +transmuted, and every month, regular as the clockwork march of stars +or whirl of electrons, each laid an octagonal egg of pure gold. + +Mapfabvisheen had trodden softly from the strongroom and thought +himself safe. And then, amazingly, frighteningly, and totally +unethically, from his viewpoint, the geese had begun honking loudly! + +He had run, but not fast enough. The Giant had come stumbling from his +bed in response to the wild clamor and had caught him. And, according +to the contract drawn up between the Guild of Egg-stealers and the +League of Giants, a guildsman seized within the precincts of a castle +must serve the goose's owner for two years. Mapfabvisheen had been +greedy; he had tried to take both geese. Therefore, he must wait upon +the Giant for a double term. + +Afterwards, he found out how he'd been trapped. The egglayers +themselves hadn't been honking. Mouthless, they were utterly incapable +of that. Mapfarity had fastened a so-called "goose-tracker" to the +strong-room's doorway. This device clicked loudly whenever a goose was +nearby. It could smell out one even through a lead-leaf-lined bag. +When Mapfabvisheen passed underneath it, its clicks woke up a small +Skin beside it. The Skin, mostly lung-sac and voice organs, honked its +warning. And the dwarf, Mapfabvisheen, began his servitude to the +Giant, Mapfarity. + +Rastignac knew the story. He also knew that Mapfarity had infected the +fellow with the philosophy of Violence and that he was now a good +member of his Underground. He was eager to tell him his servitor days +were over, that he could now take his place in their band as an equal. +Subject, of course, to Rastignac's order. + +Mapfabvisheen was stretched out upon the floor and snoring a sour +breath. A grey-haired man was slumped on a nearby table. His head, +turned to one side, exhibited the same slack-jawed look that the +Ssassaror's had, and he flung the ill-smelling gauntlet of his breath +at the visitors. He held an empty bottle in one loose hand. Two other +bottles lay on the stone floor, one shattered. + +Besides the bottles lay the men's Skins. Rastignac wondered why they +had not crawled to the halltree and hung themselves up. + +"What ails them? What is that smell?" said Mapfarity. + +"I don't know," replied Archambaud, "but I know the visitor. He is +Father Jules, priest of the Guild of Egg-stealers." + +Rastignac raised his queer, bracket-shaped eyebrows, picked up a +bottle in which there remained a slight residue, and drank. + +"Mon Dieu, it is the sacrament wine!" he cried. + +Mapfarity said, "Why would they be drinking that?" + +"I don't know. Wake Mapfabvisheen up, but let the good father sleep. +He seems tired after his spiritual labors and doubtless deserves a +rest." + +Doused with a bucket of cold water the little Ssassaror staggered to +his feet. Seeing Archambaud, he embraced him. "Ah, Archambaud, old +baby-abductor, my sweet goose-bagger, my ears tingle to see you +again!" + +They did. Red and blue sparks flew off his ear-feathers. + +"What is the meaning of this?" sternly interrupted Mapfarity. He +pointed at the dirt swept into the corners. + +Mapfabvisheen drew himself up to his full dignity, which wasn't much. +"Good Father Jules was making his circuits," he said. "You know he +travels around the country and hears confession and sings Mass for us +poor egg-stealers who have been unlucky enough to fall into the +clutches of some rich and greedy and anti-social Giant who is too +stingy to hire servants, but captures them instead, and who won't +allow us to leave the premises until our servitude is over...." + +"Cut it!" thundered Mapfarity. "I can't stand around all day, +listening to the likes of you. My feet hurt too much. Anyway, you know +I've allowed you to go into town every week-end. Why don't you see a +priest then?" + +Mapfabvisheen said, "You know very well the closest town is ten +kilometers away and it's full of Pantheists. There's not a priest to +be found there." + +Rastignac groaned inwardly. Always it was thus. You could never hurry +these people or get them to regard anything seriously. + +Take the case they were wasting their breath on now. Everybody knew +the Church had been outlawed a long time ago because it opposed the +use of the Skins and certain other practices that went along with it. +So, no sooner had that been done than the Ssassarors, anxious to +establish their check-and-balance system, had made arrangements +through the Minister of Ill-Will to give the Church unofficial legal +recognizance. + +Then, though the aborigines had belonged to that pantheistical +organization known as the Sons of Good And Old Mother Nature, they +had all joined the Church of the Terrans. They operated under the +theory that the best way to make an institution innocuous was for +everybody to sign up for it. Never persecute. That makes it thrive. + + * * * * * + +Much to the Church's chagrin, the theory worked. How can you fight an +enemy who insists on joining you and who will also agree to everything +you teach him and then still worship at the other service? Supposedly +driven underground, the Church counted almost every Landsman among its +supporters from the Kings down. + +Every now and then a priest would forget to wear his Skin out-of-doors +and be arrested, then released later in an official jail-break. Those +who refused to cooperate were forcibly kidnapped, taken to another +town and there let loose. Nor did it do the priest any good to +proclaim boldly who he was. Everybody pretended not to know he was a +fugitive from justice. They insisted on calling him by his official +pseudonym. + +However, few priests were such martyrs. Generations of Skin-wearing +had sapped the ecclesiastical vigor. + +The thing that puzzled Rastignac about Father Jules was the sacrament +wine. Neither he nor anybody else in L'Bawpfey, as far as he knew, had +ever tasted the liquid outside of the ceremony. Indeed, except for +certain of the priests, nobody even knew how to make wine. + +He shook the priest awake, said, "What's the matter, Father?" + +Father Jules burst into tears. "Ah, my boy, you have caught me in my +sin. I am a drunkard." + +Everybody looked blank. "What does that word _drunkard_ mean?" + +"It means a man who's damned enough to fill his Skin with alcohol, my +boy, fill it until he's no longer a man but a beast." + +"Alcohol? What is that?" + +"The stuff that's in the wine, my boy. You don't know what I'm talking +about because the knowledge was long ago forbidden except to us of the +cloth. Cloth, he says! Bah! We go around like everybody, naked except +for these extradermal monstrosities which reveal rather than conceal, +which not only serve us as clothing but as mentors, parents, censors, +interpreters, and, yes, even as priests. Where's a bottle that's not +empty? I'm thirsty." + +Rastignac stuck to the subject "Why was the making of this alcohol +forbidden?" + +"How should I know?" said Father Jules. "I'm old, but not so ancient +that I came with the Six Flying Stars.... Where is that bottle?" + +Rastignac was not offended by his crossness. Priests were notorious +for being the most ill-tempered, obstreperous, and unstable of men. +They were not at all like the clerics of Earth, whom everybody knew +from legend had been sweet-tempered, meek, humble, and obedient to +authority. But on L'Bawpfey these men of the Church had reason to be +out of sorts. Everybody attended Mass, paid their tithes, went to +confession, and did not fall asleep during sermons. Everybody believed +what the priests told them and were as good as it was possible for +human beings to be. So, the priests had no real incentive to work, no +evil to fight. + +Then why the prohibition against alcohol? + +"_Sacre Bleu!_" groaned Father Jules. "Drink as much as I did last +night and you'll find out. Never again, I say. Ah, there's another +bottle, hidden by a providential fate under my traveling robe. Where's +that corkscrew?" + +Father Jules swallowed half of the bottle, smacked his lips, picked up +his Skin from the floor, brushed off the dirt and said, "I must be +going, my sons. I've a noon appointment with the bishop, and I've a +good twelve kilometers to travel. Perhaps one of you gentlemen has a +car?" + +Rastignac shook his head and said he was sorry but their car was tired and +had, besides, thrown a shoe. Father Jules shrugged philosophically, put on +his Skin and reached out again for the bottle. + +Rastignac said, "Sorry, Father. I'm keeping this bottle." + +"For what?" asked father Jules. + +"Never mind. Say I'm keeping you from temptation." + +"Bless you, my son, and may you have a big enough hangover to show you +the wickedness of your ways." + +Smiling, Rastignac watched the Father walk out. He was not +disappointed. The priest had no sooner reached the huge door than his +Skin fell off and lay motionless upon the stone. + +"Ah," breathed Rastignac. "The same thing happened to Mapfabvisheen +when he put his on. There must be something about the wine that +deadens the Skins, makes them fall off." + +After the padre had left, Rastignac handed the bottle to Mapfarity. +"We're dedicated to breaking the law most illegally, brother. So I'm +asking you to analyze this wine and find out how to make it." + +"Why not ask Father Jules?" + +"Because priests are pledged never to reveal the secret. That was one +of the original agreements whereby the Church was allowed to remain on +L'Bawpfey. Or, at least that's what my parish priest told me. He said +it was a good thing, as it removed an evil from man's temptation. He +never did say why it was so evil. Maybe he didn't know. + +"That doesn't matter. What does matter is that the Church has +inadvertently given us a weapon whereby we may free Man from his +bondage to the Skins and it has also given itself once again a chance +to be really persecuted and to flourish on the blood of its martyrs." + +"Blood?" said Lusine, licking her lips. "The Churchmen drink blood?" + +Rastignac did not explain. He could be wrong. If so, he'd feel less +like a fool if they didn't know what he thought. + +Meanwhile, there were the first steps to be taken for the unskinning +of an entire planet. + + +IX + +Later that day the mucketeers surrounded the castle but they made no +effort to storm it. The following day one of them knocked on the huge +front door and presented Mapfarity with a summons requiring them to +surrender. The Giant laughed, put the document in his mouth and ate +it. The server fainted and had to be revived with a bucket of cold +water before he could stagger back to report this tradition-shattering +reception. + +Rastignac set up his underground so it could be expanded in a hurry. +He didn't worry about the blockade because, as was well known, Giants' +castles had all sorts of subterranean tunnels and secret exits. He +contacted a small number of priests who were willing to work for him. +These were congenital rebels who became quite enthusiastic when he +told them their activities would result in a fierce persecution of the +Church. + +The majority, however, clung to their Skins and said they would have +nothing to do with this extradermal-less devil. They took pride and +comfort in that term. The vulgar phrase for the man who refused to +wear his Skin was "devil," and, by law and logic, the Church could not +be associated with a devil. As everybody knew, the priests have always +been on the side of the angels. + +Meanwhile, the Devil's band slipped out of the tunnels and made raids. +Their targets were Giants' castles and government treasuries; their +loot, the geese. So many raids did they make that the president of the +League of Giants and the Business Agent for the Guild of Egg-stealers +came to plead with them. And remained to denounce. Rastignac was +delighted with their complaints, and, after listening for a while, +threw them out. + +Rastignac had, like all other Skin-wearers, always accepted the +monetary system as a thing of reason and steady balance. But, without +his Skin he was able to think objectively and saw its weaknesses. + +For some cause buried far in history, the Giants had always had +control of the means for making the hexagonal golden coins called +_oeufs_. But the Kings, wishing to get control of the golden eggs, had +set up that élite branch of the Guild which specialized in abducting +the half-living 'geese.' Whenever a thief was successful he turned the +goose over to his King. The monarch, in turn, sent a note to the +robbed Giant informing him that the government intended to keep the +goose to make its own currency. But even though the Giant was making +counterfeit geese, the King, in his generosity, would ship to the +Giant one out of every thirty eggs laid by the kidnappee. + +The note was a polite and well-recognized lie. The Giants made the +only genuine gold-egg-laying geese on the planet because the Giants' +League alone knew the secret. And the King gave back one-thirtieth of +his loot so the Giant could accumulate enough money to buy the +materials to create another goose. Which would, possibly, be stolen +later on. + +Rastignac, by his illegal rape of geese, was making money scarce. +Peasants were hanging on to their produce and waiting to sell until +prices were at their highest. The government, merchants, the league, +the guild, all saw themselves impoverished. + +Furthermore, the Amphibs, taking note of the situation, were making +raids of their own and blaming them on Rastignac. + +He did not care. He was intent on trying to find a way to reach +Kataproimnoin and rescue the Earthman so he could take off in the +spaceship floating in the harbor. But he knew that he would have to +take things slowly, to scout out the land and plan accordingly. + +Furthermore, Mapfarity had made him promise he would do his best to +set up the Landsmen so they would be able to resist the Waterfolk when +the day for war came. + +Rastignac made his biggest raid when he and his band stole one +moonless night into the capital itself to rob the big Goose House, +only an egg's throw away from the Palace and the Ministry of Ill-Will. +They put the Goose House guards to sleep with little arrows smeared +with dream-snake venom, filled their lead-leaf-lined bags with gold +eggs, and sneaked out the back door. + +As they left, Rastignac saw a cloaked figure slinking from the back +door of the Ministry. Seized with intuition, he tackled the figure. It +was an Amphib-changeling. Rastignac struck the Amphib with a venomous +arrow before the Water-human could cry out or stab back. + +Mapfarity grabbed up the limp Amphib and they raced for the safety of +the castle. + +They questioned the Amphib, Pierre Pusipremnoos, in the castle. At +first silent, he later began talking freely when Mapfarity got a heavy +Skin from his fleshforge and put it on the fellow. It was a Skin +modeled after those worn by the Water-people, but it differed in that +the Giant could control, through another Skin, the powerful neural +shocks. + +After a few shocks Pierre admitted he was the foster-son of the +Amphibian King and that, incidentally, Lusine was his foster-sister. +He further stated he was a messenger between the Amphib King and the +Ssarraror's Ill-Will Minister. + +More shocks extracted the fact that the Minister of Ill-Will, +Auverpin, was an Amphib-changeling who was passing himself off as a +born Landsman. Not only that, the Human hostages among the Amphibs +were about to stage a carefully planned revolt against the born +Amphibs. It would kill off about half of them. The rest would then be +brought under control of the Master Skin. + +When the two stepped from the lab they were attacked by Lusine, knife +in hand. She gashed Rastignac in the arm before he knocked her out +with an upper-cut. Later, while Mapfarity applied a little jelly-like +creature called a _scar-jester_ to the wound, Rastignac complained: + +"I don't know if I can endure much more of this. I thought the way of +Violence would not be hard to follow because I hated the Skins and the +Amphibs so much. But it is easier to attack a faceless, hypothetical +enemy, or torture him, than the individual enemy. Much easier." + +"My brother," boomed the Giant, "if you continue to dwell upon the +philosophical implications of your actions you will end up as helpless +and confused as the leg-counting centipede. Better not think. Warriors +are not supposed to. They lose their keen fighting edge when they +think. And you need all of that now." + +"I would suppose that thought would sharpen them." + +"When issues are simple, yes. But you must remember that the system on +this planet is anything but uncomplicated. It was set up to confuse, +to keep one always off balance. Just try to keep one thing in +mind--the Skins are far more of an impediment to Man than they are a +help. Also, that if the Skins don't come off the Amphibs will soon be +cutting our throats. The only way to save ourselves is to kill them +first. Right?" + +"I suppose so," said Rastignac. He stooped and put his hands under the +unconscious Lusine's armpits. "Help me put her in a room. We'll keep +her locked up until she cools off. Then we'll use her to guide us when +we get to Kataproimnoin. Which reminds me--how many gallons of the +wine have you made so far?" + + +X + +A week later Rastignac summoned Lusine. She came in frowning, and with +her lower lip protruding in a pretty pout. + +He said, "Day after tomorrow is the day on which the new Kings are +crowned, isn't it?" + +Tonelessly she said, "Supposedly. Actually, the present Kings will be +crowned again." + +Rastignac smiled. "I know. Peculiar, isn't it, how the 'people' always +vote the same Kings back into power? However, that isn't what I'm +getting at. If I remember correctly, the Amphibs give their King +exotic and amusing gifts on coronation day. What do you think would +happen if I took a big shipload of bottles of wine and passed it out +among the population just before the Amphibs begin their surprise +massacre?" + +Lusine had seen Mapfarity and Rastignac experimenting with the wine +and she had been frightened by the results. Nevertheless, she made a +brave attempt to hide her fear now. She spit at him and said, "You +mud-footed fool! There are priests who will know what it is! They will +be in the coronation crowd." + +"Ah, not so! In the first place, you Amphibs are almost entirely +Aggressive Pantheists. You have only a few priests, and you will now +pay for that omission of wine-tasters. Second, Mapfarity's concoction +tastes not at all vinous and is twice as strong." + +She spat at him again and spun on her heel and walked out. + +That night Rastignac's band and Lusine went through a tunnel which +brought them up through a hollow tree about two miles west of the +castle. There they hopped into the Renault, which had been kept in a +camouflaged garage, and drove to the little port of Marrec. Archambaud +had paved their way here with golden eggs and a sloop was waiting for +them. + +Rastignac took the boat's wheel. Lusine stood beside him, ready to +answer the challenge of any Amphib patrol that tried to stop them. As +the Amphib-King's foster-daughter, she could get the boat through to +the Amphib island without any trouble at all. + +Archambaud stood behind her, a knife under his cloak, to make sure she +did not try to betray them. Lusine had sworn she could be trusted. +Rastignac had answered that he was sure she could be, too, as long as +the knife point pricked her back to remind her. + +Nobody stopped them. An hour before dawn they anchored in the harbor +of Kataproimnoin. Lusine was tied hand and foot inside the cabin. +Before Rastignac could scratch her with dream-snake venom, she +pleaded, "You could not do this to me, Jean-Jacques, if you loved me." + +"Who said anything about loving you?" + +"Well, I like that! You said so, you cheat!" + +"Oh, _then_! Well, Lusine, you've had enough experience to know that +such protestations of tenderness and affection are only inevitable +accompaniments of the moment's passion." + +For the first time since he had known her he saw Lusine's lower lip +tremble and tears come in her eyes. "Do you mean you were only using +me?" she sobbed. + +"You forget I had good reason to think you were just using _me_. +Remember, you're an Amphib, Lusine. Your people can't be trusted. You +blood-drinkers are as savage as the little sea-monsters you leave in +Human cradles." + +"Jean-Jacques, take me with you! I'll do anything you say! I'll even +cut my foster-father's throat for you!" + +He laughed. Unheeding, she swept on. "I want to be with you, +Jean-Jacques! Look, with me to guide you in, my homeland--with my +prestige as the Amphib-King's daughter--you can become King yourself +after the rebellion. I'd get rid of the Amphib-King for you so +there'll be nobody in your way!" + +She felt no more guilt than a tigress. She was naive and terrible, +innocent and disgusting. + +"No, thanks, Lusine." He scratched her with the dream-snake needle. As +her eyes closed he said, "You don't understand. All I want to do is +voyage to the stars. Being King means nothing to me. The only person +I'd trade places with would be the Earthman the Amphibs hold +prisoner." + +He left her sleeping in the locked cabin. + +Noon found them loafing on the great square in front of the Palace of +the Two Kings of the Sea and the Islands. All were disguised as +Waterfolk. Before they'd left the castle, they had grafted webs +between their fingers and toes--just as Amphib-changelings who weren't +born with them, did--and they wore the special Amphib Skins that +Mapfarity had grown in his fleshforge. These were able to tune in on +the Amphibs' wavelengths, but they lacked their shock mechanism. + +Rastignac had to locate the Earthman, rescue him, and get him to the +spaceship that lay anchored between two wharfs, its sharp nose +pointing outwards. A wooden bridge had been built from one of the +wharfs to a place halfway up its towering side. + +Rastignac could not make out any breaks in the smooth metal that would +indicate a port, but reason told him there must be some sort of +entrance to the ship at that point. + +A guard of twenty Amphibs repulsed any attempt on the crowd's part to +get on the bridge. + +Rastignac had contacted the harbor-master and made arrangements for +workmen to unload his cargo of wine. His freehandedness with the gold +eggs got him immediate service even on this general holiday. Once in +the square, he and his men uncrated the wine but left the two heavy +chests on the wagon which was hitched to a powerful little six-legged +Jeep. + +They stacked the bottles of wine in a huge pile while the curious +crowd in the square encircled them to watch. Rastignac then stood on a +chest to survey the scene, so that he could best judge the time to +start. There were perhaps seven or eight thousand of all three races +there--the Ssassarors, the Amphibs, the Humans--with an unequal +portioning of each. + +Rastignac, looking for just such a thing, noticed that every non-human +Amphib had at least two Humans tagging at his heels. + +It would take two Humans to handle an Amphib or a Ssassaror. The +Amphibs stood upon their seal-like hind flippers at least six and a +half feet tall and weighed about three hundred pounds. The Giant +Ssassarors, being fisheaters, had reached the same enormous height as +Mapfarity. The Giants were in the minority, as the Amphibs had always +preferred stealing Human babies from the Terrans. These were marked +for death as much as the Amphibs. + +Rastignac watched for signs of uneasiness or hostility between the +three groups. Soon he saw the signs. They were not plentiful, but they +were enough to indicate an uneasy undercurrent. Three times the guards +had to intervene to break up quarrels. The Humans eyed the non-human +quarrelers, but made no move to help their Amphib fellows against the +Giants. Not only that, they took them aside afterwards and seemed to +be reprimanding them. Evidently the order was that everyone was to be +on his behavior until the time to revolt. Rastignac glanced at the +great tower-clock. "It's an hour before the ceremonies begin," he said +to his men. "Let's go." + + +XI + +Mapfarity, who had been loitering in the crowd some distance away, +caught Archambaud's signal and slowly, as befit a Giant whose feet +hurt, limped towards them. He stopped, scrutinized the pile of +bottles, then, in his lion's-roar-at-the-bottom-of-a-well voice said, +"Say, what's in these bottles?" + +Rastignac shouted back, "A drink which the new Kings will enjoy very +much." + +"What's that?" replied Mapfarity. "Sea-water?" + +The crowd laughed. + +"No, it's not water," Rastignac said, "as anybody but a lumbering +Giant should know. It is a delicious drink that brings a rare ecstacy +upon the drinker. I got the formula for it from an old witch who lives +on the shores of far off Apfelabvidanahyew. He told me it had been in +his family since the coming of Man to L'Bawpfey. He parted with the +formula on condition I make it only for the Kings." + +"Will only Their Majesties get to taste this exquisite drink?" +bellowed Mapfarity. + +"That depends upon whether it pleases Their Majesties to give some to +their subjects to celebrate the result of the elections." + +Archambaud, also planted in the crowd, shrilled, "I suppose if they +do, the big-paunched Amphibs and Giants will get twice as much as us +Humans. They always do, it seems." + +There was a mutter from the crowd; approbation from the Amphibs, +protest from the others. + +"That will make no difference," said Rastignac, smiling. "The +fascinating thing about this is that an Amphib can drink no more than +a Human. That may be why the old man who revealed his secret to me +called the drink Old Equalizer." + +"Ah, you're skinless," scoffed Mapfarity, throwing the most deadly +insult known. "I can out-drink, out-eat, and out-swim any Human here. +Here, Amphib, give me a bottle, and we'll see if I'm bragging." + +An Amphib captain pushed himself through the throng, waddling clumsily +on his flippers like an upright seal. + +"No, you don't!" he barked. "Those bottles are intended for the Kings. +No commoner touches them, least of all a Human and a Giant." + +Rastignac mentally hugged himself. He couldn't have planned a better +intervention himself! "Why can't I?" he replied. "Until I make an +official presentation, these bottles are mine, not the Kings'. I'll do +what I want with them." + +"Yeah," said the Amphibs. "That's telling him!" + +The Amphib's big brown eyes narrowed and his animal-like face +wrinkled, but he couldn't think of a retort. Rastignac at once handed +a bottle apiece to each of his comrades. They uncorked and drank and +then assumed an ecstatic expression which was a tribute to their +acting, for these three bottles held only fruit juice. + +"Look here, captain," said Rastignac, "why don't you try a swig +yourself? Go ahead. There's plenty. And I'm sure Their Majesties would +be pleased to contribute some of it on this joyous occasion. Besides, +I can always make more for the Kings. + +"As a matter of fact," he added, winking, "I expect to get a pension +from the courts as the Kings' Old Equalizer-maker." + +The crowd laughed. The Amphib, afraid of losing face, took the +bottle--which contained wine rather than fruit juice. After a few long +swallows the Amphib's eyes became red and a silly grin curved his +thin, black-edged lips. Finally, in a thickening voice, he asked for +another bottle. + +Rastignac, in a sudden burst of generosity, not only gave him one, but +began passing out bottles to the many eager reaching hands. Mapfarity +and the two egg-thieves helped him. In a short time, the pile of +bottles had dwindled to a fourth of its former height. When a mixed +group of guards strode up and demanded to know what the commotion was +about, Rastignac gave them some of the bottles. + +Meanwhile, Archambaud slipped off into the mob. He lurched into an +Amphib, said something nasty about his ancestors, and pulled his +knife. When the Amphib lunged for the little man, Archambaud jumped +back and shoved a Human-Amphib into the giant flipper-like arms. + +Within a minute the square had erupted into a fighting mob. +Staggering, red-eyed, slur-tongued, their long-repressed hostility +against each other, released by the liquor which their bodies were +unaccustomed to, Human, Ssassaror and Amphib fell to with the utmost +will, slashing, slugging, fighting with everything they had. + +None of them noticed that every one who had drunk from the bottles had +lost his Skin. The Skins had fallen off one by one and lay motionless +on the pavement where they were kicked or stepped upon. Not one Skin +tried to crawl back to its owner because they were all nerve-numbed by +the wine. + +Rastignac, seated behind the wheel of the Jeep, began driving as best +he could through the battling mob. After frequent stops he halted +before the broad marble steps that ran like a stairway to heaven, up +and up before it ended on the Porpoise Porch of the Palace. He and his +gang were about to take the two heavy chests off the wagon when they +were transfixed by a scene before them. + +A score of dead Humans and Amphibs lay on the steps, evidence of the +fierce struggle that had taken place between the guards of the two +monarchs. Evidently the King had heard of the riot and hastened +outside. There the Amphib-changeling King had apparently realized that +the rebellion was way ahead of schedule, but he had attacked the +Amphib King anyway. + +And he had won, for his guardsmen held the struggling flipper-footed +Amphib ruler down while two others bent his head back over a step. The +Changeling-King himself, still clad in the coronation robes, was about +to draw his long ceremonial knife across the exposed and palpitating +throat of the Amphib King. + +This in itself was enough to freeze the onlookers. But the sight of +Lusine running up the stairway towards the rulers added to their +paralysis. She had a knife in her hand and was holding it high as she +ran toward her foster-father, the Amphib King. + +Mapfarity groaned, but Rastignac said, "It doesn't matter that she has +escaped. We'll go ahead with our original plan." + +They began unloading the chests while Rastignac kept an eye on +Lusine. He saw her run up, stop, say a few words to the Amphib King, +then kneel and stab him, burying the knife in his jugular vein. Then, +before anybody could stop her she had applied her mouth to the cut in +his neck. + +The Human-King kicked her in the ribs and sent her rolling down the +steps. Rastignac saw correctly that it was not her murderous deed that +caused his reaction. It was because she had dared to commit it without +his permission and had also drunk the royal blood first. + +He further noted with grim satisfaction that when Lusine recovered +from the blow and ran back up to talk to the King, he ignored her. She +pointed at the group around the wagon but he dismissed her with a wave +of his hand. He was too busy gloating over his vanquished rival lying +at his feet. + +The plotters hoisted the two chests and staggered up the steps. The +King passed them as he went down with no more than a curious glance. +Gifts had been coming up those steps all day for the King, so he +undoubtedly thought of them only as more gifts. So Rastignac and his +men walked past the knives of the guards as if they had nothing to +fear. + +Lusine stood alone at the top of the steps. She was in a half-crouch, +knife ready. "I'll kill the King and I'll drink from his throat!" she +cried hoarsely. "No man kicks me except for love. Has he forgotten +that I am the foster-daughter of the Amphib King?" + +Rastignac felt revulsion but he had learned by now that those who deal +in violence and rebellion must march with strange steppers. + +"Bear a hand here," he said, ignoring her threat. + +Meekly she grabbed hold of a chest's corner. To his further +questioning, she replied that the Earthman who had landed in the ship +was held in a suite of rooms in the west wing. Their trip thereafter +was fast and direct. Unopposed, they carted the chests to the huge +room where the Master Skin was kept. + +There they found ten frantic bio-technicians excitedly trying to +determine why the great extraderm--the Master Skin through which all +individual Skins were controlled--was not broadcasting properly. They +had no way as yet of knowing that it was operating perfectly but that +the little Skins upon the Amphibs and their hostage Humans were not +shocking them into submission because they were lying in a wine-stupor +on the ground. No one had told them that the Skins, which fed off the +bloodstream of their hosts, had become anesthetized from the alcohol +and failed any longer to react to their Master Skin. + +That, of course, applied only to those Skins in the square that were +drunk from the wine. Elsewhere all over the kingdom, Amphibs writhed +in agony and Ssassarors and Terrans were taking advantage of their +helplessness to cut their throats. But not here, where the crux of the +matter was. + + +XII + +The Landsmen rushed the techs and pushed them into the great chemical +vat in which the twenty-five hundred foot square Master Skin floated. +Then they uncrated the lead-leaf-lined bags filled with stolen geese +and emptied them into the nutrient fluid. According to Mapfarity's +calculations, the radio-activity from the silicon-carbon geese should +kill the big Skin within a few days. When a new one was grown, that, +too, would die. Unless the Amphib guessed what was wrong and located +the geese on the bottom of the ten-foot deep tank, they would not be +able to stop the process. That did not seem likely. + +In either case, it was necessary that the Master Skin be put out of +temporary commission, at least, so the Amphibs over the Kingdom could +have a fighting chance. Mapfarity plunged a hollow harpoon into the +isle of floating protoplasm and through a tube connected to that +poured into the Skin three gallons of the dream-snake venom. That was +enough to knock it out for an hour or two. Meanwhile, if the Amphibs +had any sense at all, they'd have rid themselves of their extraderms. + +They left the lab and entered the west wing. As they trotted up the +long winding corridors Lusine said, "Jean-Jacques, what do you plan on +doing now? Will you try to make yourself King of the Terrans and fight +us Amphibs?" When he said nothing she went on. "Why don't you kill the +Amphib-changeling King and take over here? I could help you do that. +You could then have all of L'Bawpfey in your power." + +He shot her a look of contempt and cried, "Lusine, can't you get it +through that thick little head of yours that everything I've done has +been done so that I can win one goal: reach the Flying Stars? If I can +get the Earthman to his ship I'll leave with him and not set foot +again for years on this planet. Maybe never again." + +She looked stricken. "But what about the war here?" she asked. + +"There are a few men among the Landfolk who are capable of leading in +wartime. It will take strong men, and there are very few like me, I +admit, but--oh, oh, opposition!" He broke off at sight of the six +guards who stood before the Earthman's suite. + +Lusine helped, and within a minute they had slain three and chased +away the others. Then they burst through the door--and Rastignac +received another shock. + +The occupant of the apartment was a tiny and exquisitely formed +redhead with large blue eyes and very unmasculine curves! + +"I thought you said Earth_man_?" protested Rastignac to the Giant who +came lumbering along behind them. + +"Oh, I used that in the generic sense," Mapfarity replied. "You didn't +expect me to pay any attention to sex, did you? I'm not interested in +the gender of you Humans, you know." + +There was no time for reproach. Rastignac tried to explain to the +Earthwoman who he was, but she did not understand him. However, she +did seem to catch on to what he wanted and seemed reassured by his +gestures. She picked up a large book from a table and, hugging it to +her small, high and rounded bosom, went with him out the door. + +They raced from the palace and descended onto the square. Here they +found the surviving Amphibs clustered into a solid phalanx and +fighting, bloody step by step, towards the street that led to the +harbor. + +Rastignac's little group skirted the battle and started down the steep +avenue toward the harbor. Halfway down he glanced back and saw that +nobody as yet was paying any attention to them. Nor was there anybody +on the street to bother them, though the pavement was strewn with +Skins and bodies. Apparently, those who'd lived through the first +savage mêlée had gone to the square. + +They ran onto the wharf. The Earthwoman motioned to Rastignac that she +knew how to open the spaceship, but the Amphibs didn't. Moreover, if +they did get in, they wouldn't know how to operate it. She had the +directions for so doing in the book hugged so desperately to her +chest. Rastignac surmised she hadn't told the Amphibs about that. +Apparently they hadn't, as yet, tried to torture the information from +her. + +Therefore, her telling him about the book indicated she trusted him. + +Lusine said, "Now what, Jean-Jacques? Are you still going to abandon +this planet?" + +"Of course," he snapped. + +"Will you take me with you?" + +He had spent most of his life under the tutelage of his Skin, which +ensured that others would know when he was lying. It did not come easy +to hide his true feelings. So a habit of a lifetime won out. + +"I will not take you," he said. "In the first place, though you may +have some admirable virtues, I've failed to detect one. In the second +place, I could not stand your blood-drinking nor your murderous and +totally immoral ways." + +"But, Jean-Jacques, I will give them up for you!" + +"Can the shark stop eating fish?" + +"You would leave Lusine, who loves you as no Earthwoman could, and go +with that--that pale little doll I could break with my hands?" + +"Be quiet," he said. "I have dreamed of this moment all my life. +Nothing can stop me now." + +They were on the wharf beside the bridge that ran up the smooth side +of the starship. The guard was no longer there, though bodies showed +that there had been reluctance on the part of some to leave. + +They let the Earthwoman precede them up the bridge. + +Lusine suddenly ran ahead of him, crying, "If you won't have me, you +won't have her, either! Nor the stars!" + +Her knife sank twice into the Earthwoman's back. Then, before anybody +could reach her, she had leaped off the bridge and into the harbor. + +Rastignac knelt beside the Earthwoman. She held out the book to him, +then she died. He caught the volume before it struck the wharf. + +"My God! My God!" moaned Rastignac, stunned with grief and shock and +sorrow. Sorrow for the woman and shock at the loss of the ship and the +end of his plans for freedom. + +Mapfarity ran up then and took the book from his nerveless hand. "She +indicated that this is a manual for running the ship," he said. "All +is not lost." + +"It will be in a language we don't know," Rastignac whispered. + +Archambaud came running up, shrilled, "The Amphibs have broken through +and are coming down the street! Let's get to our boat before the whole +blood-thirsty mob gets here!" + +Mapfarity paid him no attention. He thumbed through the book, then +reached down and lifted Rastignac from his crouching position by the +corpse. + +"There's hope yet, Jean-Jacques," he growled. "This book is printed +with the same characters as those I saw in a book owned by a priest I +knew. He said it was in Hebrew, and that it was the Holy Book in the +original Earth language. This woman must be a citizen of the Republic +of Israeli, which I understand was rising to be a great power on Earth +at the time you French left. + +"Perhaps the language of this woman has changed somewhat from the +original tongue, but I don't think the alphabet has. I'll bet that if +we get this to a priest who can read it--there are only a few left--he +can translate it well enough for us to figure out everything." + +They walked to the wharf's end and climbed down a ladder to a platform +where a dory was tied up. As they rowed out to their sloop Mapfarity +said: + +"Look, Rastignac, things aren't as bad as they seem. If you haven't +the ship nobody else has, either. And you alone have the key to its +entrance and operation. For that you can thank the Church, which has +preserved the ancient wisdom for emergencies which it couldn't forsee, +such as this. Just as it kept the secret of wine, which will +eventually be the greatest means for delivering our people from their +bondage to the Skins and, thus enable them to fight the Amphibs back +instead of being slaughtered. + +"Meanwhile, we've a battle to wage. You will have to lead it. Nobody +else but the Skinless Devil has the prestige to make the people gather +around him. Once we accuse the Minister of Ill-Will of treason and +jail him, without an official Breaker to release him, we'll demand a +general election. You'll be made King of the Ssassaror; I, of the +Terrans. That is inevitable, for we are the only skinless men and, +therefore, irresistible. After the war is won, we'll leave for the +stars. How do you like that?" + +Rastignac smiled. It was weak, but it was a smile. His bracket-shaped +eyebrows bent into their old sign of determination. + +"You are right," he replied. "I have given it much thought. A man has +no right to leave his native land until he's settled his problems +here. Even if Lusine hadn't killed the Earthwoman and I had sailed +away, my conscience wouldn't have given me any rest. I would have +known I had abandoned the fight in the middle of it. But now that I +have stripped myself of my Skin--which was a substitute for a +conscience--and now that I am being forced to develop my own inward +conscience, I must admit that immediate flight to the stars would have +been the wrong thing." + +The pleased and happy Mapfarity said, "And you must also admit, +Rastignac, that things so far have had a way of working out for the +best. Even Lusine, evil as she was, has helped towards the general +good by keeping you on this planet. And the Church, though it has +released once again the old evil of alcohol, has done more good by so +doing than...." + +But here Rastignac interrupted to say he did not believe in this +particular school of thought, and so, while the howls of savage +warriors drifted from the wharfs, while the structure of their world +crashed around them, they plunged into that most violent and circular +of all whirlpools--the Discussion Philosophical. + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rastignac the Devil, by Philip José Farmer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RASTIGNAC THE DEVIL *** + +***** This file should be named 31262-8.txt or 31262-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/6/31262/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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