.
kill the Lord.
. . .>
And rationality finally returned to me. In the evening hours and just before falling asleep, I was able to try to sort out just what the hell had happened to me, to regain some of my confidence. I needed hope, and the only hope I could have was in reasoning a way out of my predicament.
The logic chain I forged may have been faulty, but it worked, and that alone was important. First and foremost was the realization that everyone who came here had undergone substantially the same treatment I had. It
had
cowed them all, driven them into some sort of grudging submission from which they'd had to learn to cope. Was that insanity, or perhaps a fatalistic acceptance?
Patra, that Knight up there in his fairyland castle, even Lord Marek Kreegan. There were no inherited positions or titles on Lilith, except perhaps for those skilled in things useful to the rulers. No political position, no position of authority, was hereditary or elected, either. All those positions, from Supervisor up to Lord, had been taken, won in a contest of power.
Find the aliens . . . kill the Lord. . . .
Everyone on this world who rose at all from the muck of pawn slavery rose from the bottom through the ranks. Everyone.
How did this power operate? How did you find out if you had it?
I felt ashamed of myself for my reaction to Kronlon. I had been in bad situations before, situations in which the enemy had all the power, and I had been stalled only temporarily by those conditions. The only difference between those situations and this one was that in this one I had looked at the lay of the land and the forces of the enemy, and instead of considering the problem and working out how to beat the enemy—or at least die trying—I had instead meekly surrendered. The day I faced and accepted the fact that I had run across a tremendously powerful obstacle, not an impassable barrier, was the day I rejoined the human race.
I started talking to people, although that was a pretty limited thing. Few topics for small talk were available—the weather was always hot and humid, for example—and it was difficult to talk down to people who might be bright and alert but whose whole world was this primitive, nonmechanized existence. What could you say to people whose world view, if they had one, was that the valley was the world and the sun rose and set around it? Oh, they knew there were other Keeps, but they saw them all as being just like this one. And as for mechanization, they had seen the shuttle come and go, but that was as far as it went —after all, they were familiar with large flying insects.
The concept of any machine not powered by muscle was simply beyond them.
That was the core of my problem. I didn't know enough, not by a long shot, but I knew a hell of a lot more than these natives. Also, now that I'd pulled myself together, I craved some kind of intelligent conversation. I'd always been a loner before, but there is a difference between being alone by choice and being alone by force. Conversation and diversion had always been available when I had needed it. Everything seemed stacked against me. I hadn't gotten a single break on this whole mission since waking up. But I did get one now.
Her name was Ti.
A few days after my recovery I encountered her in
the
village common one evening, after the last meal of the day. I had seen her a few times before, and once you saw her you couldn't forget her.
She was about 160 centimeters tall and very thin, particularly at the waist, but she had large breasts and nice buttocks and sandy brown hair—unusual in itself—down to those buttocks. A pretty, sexy young woman, you might say—except that her face was amazingly young and innocent, the kind of face not seen on a body like that in my experience. It was a pretty face, all wide-eyed and innocent. But it was the face of a child, one no more than eleven or twelve, atop that well-developed body. Though the two would eventually reconcile, the body seemed to be developing several years ahead of that face.
I could have understood the contrast more if such a thing had been common on Lilith, but it was not—at least not from this pawn sample. Here was one minor mystery that perhaps I could learn something about, and I asked a couple of my co-workers about her.
Oh, that's Ti, one explained. A chosen of the Bodymaster. He'll pluck her
in
a little while, I'd say. Only thing that's slowed it is that she's got some wild talent in her and they want to see what it'll do.
Several items of new data. I felt like I was on to something new, something that would be of value.
What do you mean, a chosen of the Bodymaster? I asked. Remember, I wasn't born here.
The question got me one of those looks of incomprehension I was becoming used to, since the natives just couldn't picture any other place as being any different than Zeis Keep. But the man shrugged and answered anyway. They had reconciled themselves to me by convincing themselves that the shock to my system, which they
could
comprehend, had made me funny in the head.
Boss Tiel, he breeds women like he breeds
snarks,
the laborer explained.
Snarks
were those hairy monsters in the pasture that were raised for their highly prized meat. When a child, particularly a girl child, is born with looks or something else special, well, she gets marked by the Bodymaster in charge of the breeding. He brings 'em along 'til they're the way he wants 'em, then he breeds 'em with selected boys. See?
I
did
see, sort of, although the concept repelled me more than anything yet about this foul world. Repelled, but didn't surprise.
But her—ah—development isn't natural, is it? I prompted.
He chuckled and held up an index finger. See this finger? I lost it—got chopped clean away—in an accident a while back. Bled like mad. They took me to the Bodymaster, who had only to look ^t it to stop the blood. Then he looked at it, touched it, and I came back. It grew back out in time, good as new. Look. He wiggled it for emphasis.
But what does that . . . ? I began, then realized what he was saying and shook my head in wonder. He caught my look and grinned.
Breed stock needs to make lotsa babies, needs to want to make lotsa babies, the man noted. You see?
I saw, all right. Slowly, to make certain her cells and nervous system were capable of standing it, this Bodymaster was somehow reaching inside her with his power, in the same way as he had ordered the finger regenerated and as Kronlon had inflicted paralysis and pain. Subtle alterations were being made, had probably been made from the point of puberty, which could only have taken place a year or so ago. Hormones stimulated, body chemistry subtly altered, so that actually he was making her unnatural, his exaggeration deforming her somewhat—but all for his purposes. Breeding stock he wanted, not show stock. For what? The beautifully colored hair, perhaps? Possibly as little as that, although another thought came to me.
Hogi? I prodded my laborer companion once again.
Uh?
You said she had some wild talent. What kind? What can she do?
He shrugged. Don't know. Might not understand it, anyway. I
do
know that none of the Supers bother her much, not even Kronlon. A little scared, maybe, which may mean she's got really great power—but it's wild. Comes and goes. No control.
I nodded. That would explain why the powers that be had left her here a while .after puberty instead of taking her into the main village or perhaps to the castle grounds. They weren't quite sure what her powers were, either, or whether she might not someday learn to control them. They wanted to see more, first, to ascertain what she could or could not do. They were afraid of her potential, which indicated great power. If it stayed wild, well, she'd become a breeder and that was that. But if she gained control, she could threaten them.
I suspected that that was the real reason for this breeding program. It must frustrate that upper class to see their own children wind up as pawns, to have to pass on their splendor and holdings to some stranger or subordinate who would take it from them. For the first time I thought I understood people like the Masters and Knights. How galling, how frustrating it must be to be like a god and know that you can't pass it on, leave it to anyone. Genetic manipulation was out, as were all the scientific tests and lab procedures of the civilized worlds. What bestowed and regulated that mysterious and terrifying Warden power had eluded technological science and would elude them as well. They would have no choice but to try and breed for it. First among themselves, of course, but that hadn't worked.
It struck me that, except for Patra, virtually all the powerful people I'd heard about were male. That might be a misleading statistic, based as it was on so small a sample, but if it held, even partly, it would mean even more problems in pure inbreeding.
Hogi at least knew enough to answer that. Well, yes, more men than women, but lots of women have it, he assured me. No, I hear tell that when a woman like a Master or a Duke gets with child, she loses control, becomes a wild talent while carrying the child. During that tune somebody could steal her job, see?
I
did
see. With only a few thousand positions near the top and only 471 really at the top, people in those positions were always on the spot, always being challenged by newcomers—and to put yourself in the position of being wide open to challenge for nine months would be unthinkable.
You mean the big people don't have sex? I asked incredulously.
Haw. Sure. When you got the power it's easy, Hogi responded. You get cut, you just tell your body not to bleed. You also just tell your body not to get pregnant. See? This was all said in the boy-are-you-dumb tone he usually used when talking to me.
It all fit, though. They were breeding with the strong wild talents that occasionally cropped up among the pawns' children. Trying for power
and
control—and perhaps the key to breeding power in their own young.
But this young gkl had the power, even if it was wild, and that was the most important thing to me. I had to know a lot more about that power, and since she was the only one around who had it that I could talk to as an equal, I determined to get to know her.