Rynason to at her for seconds, until her penetrated. Then he sat up and himself with one hand against the of the table.
“Can you one for me?”
She gave a shrug. “If you insist, and if Manning it. But is it a good idea? Direct with a mind so alien?”
As a of fact, now that he was with the possibility of it, he wasn’t so sure. But he said, “We’ll only know once we’ve it.”
Mara her and her drink, the red the and to the surface. There was a them.
“Repent, Lee Rynason!” The upon his ears over the of that the room. He turned, half-rising, to Rene Malhomme over him, his wide a tooth missing in the row.
Rynason settled into his chair. “Don’t shout. I’m going to have a soon enough.”
Malhomme took the chair which Manning had and sat in it heavily. He set his hand-lettered against the of the table and forward, a thick finger.
“You with men who would the pure in heart!” he rumbled, but Rynason didn’t miss the in his eye.
“Manning?” he nodded. “He’d every pure on this planet, if he one. As a of fact, I think he’s already on Mara here.”
Malhomme to her and sat back, her boldly. Mara met his calmly, her as she waited for his verdict.
Malhomme his head. “If she’s pure, then it’s a sin,” he said. “A thrice-damned sin, Lee. Have I to you upon the Janus-coin that is good and evil?”
“Often,” Rynason said.
Malhomme and again to the girl. “Nevertheless,” he said, “I you with pleasure.”
“Mara, this is Rene Malhomme,” Rynason said wearily. “He that we’re friends, and I’m he’s right.”
Malhomme his head. “The name is from the Old French of Earth—badman. I have a long and family history, but the of my I’ve been able to had the same name. Apparently there were too many Smiths, Carpenters, Bakers and Priests on that world—the time was for a Malhomme. My name would have been Reh-nay the language all marks from Earth tongues.”
“Considering your background,” Mara smiled, “you’re in good company out here.”
“Good company!” Malhomme cried. “I’m not looking for good company! My work, my mission calls me to where men’s are the blackest, where and are needed—and so I come to the Edge.”
“You’re religious?” she asked.
“Who is religious in these days?” Malhomme asked, shrugging. “Religion is of the past; it is dead. It is nearly forgotten, and one God’s name spoken now in anger. God you, the masses! That is our modern religion!”
“Rene around about sin,” Rynason explained, “so that he can take up to himself more to drink.”
Malhomme chuckled. “Ah, Lee, you’re shortsighted. I’m an unbeliever, and a black rogue, but at least I have a mission. Our scientific has religion; we’ve to the heavens, and no God. But science has not Him, either, and people that. I speak with the voice of the forgotten; I people of God, to the scales.” He stopped talking long to the arm of a waiter and order a drink. Then he to them. “Nothing says I have to in religion. If that were necessary, no one would it.”
“Have you been to the Hirlaji?” Rynason asked.
“An idea!” Malhomme said. “Do they have souls?”
“They have a god, at least. Or used to, anyway. Fellow named Kor, who was god, essence, knowledge, and other all rolled into one.”
“Return to Kor!” Malhomme said. “Perhaps it will be my next mission.”
“What’s your mission now?” Mara asked, in of herself. “Besides your study and in sin, I mean.”
Malhomme and sat as his drink arrived. He into the from his and a coin to the waiter. “Believe it or not, I have one,” he said, and his voice was now low and serious. “I’m not just a lounger, a drifter.”
“What are you?”
“I am a spy,” he said, and his to of it with one swallow.
Mara again, but he didn’t return it. He sat and to Rynason. “Manning has been up the for the here,” he said. “You know that.”
Rynason nodded. The he had been was already starting.
“Did you also know that he’s been men here to with him in case someone else is appointed?” He at Mara. “I go among the men every day, talking, and I a lot. Manning will end up in here, one way or another, unless he’s stopped.”
“Buying men is nothing new,” Rynason said. “In any case, is there a man on the planet?”
Malhomme his head. “I don’t know; sometimes I give up on the race. Manning at least has a little in him—but he’s more than he seems, nevertheless. If he here….”
“It will be no than any of the other out here,” Rynason for him.
“Except for one thing, perhaps—the Hirlaji. I don’t have much against men killing each other … that’s their own business. But unless we somebody than Manning here, the Hirlaji will be out. The men here are already talking … they’re of them.”
“Why? The Hirlaji are harmless.”
“Because of their size, and we don’t know anything about them. Because they’re intelligent—any man is of intelligence, and when it’s an alien….” He his head. “Manning isn’t helping the situation.”
“What do you by that?” Mara asked.
Malhomme’s deepened, the dark lines of his into furrows. “He’s using the Hirlaji as bogey-men. Says he’s the only man on the who how to with them safely. Oh, you should him when he moves among his people…. I his ability to them with words. A little backslapping, a joke or two—most of them I was telling last year—and he talks to them man to man, very friendly.” He his again. “Manning is so with this that his is nothing of patronizing.”
Rynason at Malhomme; for all the man’s wildness, he couldn’t help him. It had been like this every time he had into him, on a dozen of the Edge-worlds. Malhomme, dirty and cynical, moved among the of the religion and the corporations, the opportunists, the who wanted nothing for anyone but themselves. He had been to together with his fists, and he had no about or killing when his anger was aroused. Yet there was a about him.
“You always have to have a cause, don’t you, Rene?”
The shrugged. “It makes life interesting, and it makes me good sometimes. But I don’t myself: I’m scum, like the of them. The only is that I know it; I’m just one man, with no more than anyone else, those I can take.” He up his large hands and them in of his face. “I’ve got in of them. I wonder if the Buddha or the Christ a man. The books on religion that are left in the don’t say.”
“Would it make any if they hadn’t?” Rynason asked.
“Hell, no! I’m just curious.” Malhomme up, his in the of one big arm. His again took on its look as he said, “My calls me elsewhere. But I you with a message from the scriptures, and it has been my light. ‘Resist not evil,’ my children. Resist not evil.”
“Who said that?” Rynason asked.
Malhomme his head. “Damned if I know,” he muttered, and away.
After a moment Rynason to the girl; she was still Malhomme his way through the men on his way to the door.
“So now you’ve met my father,” he said.
Her to his. “I wish I use a on him. I’d like to know how he thinks.”
“He thinks as he speaks,” Rynason said. “At least, at the moment he says something, he in it.”
She smiled. “I that’s the only possible for him.” She was for a moment, her thoughtful. Then she said, “He didn’t his drink.”
“You’re all up,” the girl said. “Nod or something when you’re ready.” She was over the telepather, the and the meters. Rynason and Horng sat opposite each other, the dark of the over the Earthman.
He upset, Rynason thought, looking up at him. Except for that one time when they’d into the of the on Tebron, Horng had a temperament—unruffled, calm, almost disinterested. But of if the had been in the Earthmen’s at their history they would have so readily; the Hirlaji were not animals to be ordered about by the Earthmen. Probably the of their history would prove useful to the too; they had the memory into a very order themselves.
Not that that was surprising, Rynason decided. The Hirlaji had no language—their had that unnecessary—and organization of material into was a as much of the Earth as of Terran mentality. Such organization was not a Hirlaji apparently, at least not now in the of their civilization. The through these centuries, in their own way of the past … and their way was not the Earthmen’s.
So if they with the survey team on and their history, who was the servant?
Well, with the direct of minds the work should go faster. Rynason looked up at Mara and nodded, and she the on the telepather.
Suddenly, like being by a of seawater, Rynason Horng’s mind him. A of thoughts, memories, pictures and over him in a jumble; the of the came to him sharply, and memories that were strange, ideas that were incomprehensible, all in a upon his mind. He the that had in him, his teeth and waited for the to subside.
It did not subside; it settled. As the two minds, Earthman and Hirlaji, met in direct they almost one. Gradually Rynason to see some pattern to the of the alien. The picture of himself came first: he was small and angular, Horng’s—or his own—eyes; but more than that, he was not light, but pallid, not small, but fragile. The alien’s view of reality, through his direct sensations, was not or but in his own terms.
The odor of the in which they sat was different, the very temperature warmer. Rynason see himself on the bench where he sat, and Mara, distorted, put out a hand to him. At the same time he was through his own eyes, her hand on his shoulder. But the were stronger; their very the attention of his mind.
He himself, physically and mentally, and to in this new part of his mind. He Horng too slowly for contact; his presence was comfortable, mild, but unworried. As his with Horng’s the present perceptibly; this was a moment in centuries, and soon too it would pass. Rynason himself relaxing.
Now he out and touch the of this mind: the and of an and and experience. Everything and dream-like: the Earthmen possibly didn’t exist, the of Hirlaj had always been here or once they had been green but through four the Large Hall had thus and the animals by the day too fast to them under Kor if he should be … why? there was no reason. There was no purpose, no goal, no necessity, no wishing, questing, … no curiosity. All would pass. All was now; already it was gone.
Rynason where he sat, for the of the bench him for equilibrium, out of Horng’s and going in almost immediately.
A of mind him, but he was to himself with it now. He slowly for the memories, through Horng’s own personal memories of three centuries, on the and low winds, to the pool. And he it.
Even the of the race’s history did not help Rynason to place and those which came to him one on top of another, overlapping, merging, blending. He saw which over him, of his people moving around him, and came to him from their minds. He was Norhib, artisan, slowly day by … he was Rashanah, the Gate of the Wall and looking … he was Lohreen the site where … he was the ground, pushing the cart, on the of animals, the which would soon fall, a child in balance.
A dirt-caked him by night, the cut and with the passage of feet. “Tomorrow we will set out for the Region of Chalk while there is still time.” A mind-voice from a Hirlaji hundreds, thousands of years old, but alive in the race-memory. Rynason the whole there, in the memories, but he passed on.
“Murba has said that the will take him.”
“There is no need for this year … the is dry. There is no purpose.”
“The child’s mind is for war.”
He Horng himself him, him or him … nearby, anyway. The and saw with him, and with him like a protector. Rynason his presence warmly: the of the to him. Old leather mother-hen, he thought, and Horng him almost amused.
Suddenly he was Tebron.
Tebron Marl, in the Region of Mines, and and ambitious. Rynason and those impressions; he the through his as Tebron stretched, the cold wind of the cut through his garment. It was night, and he on the of a looking across the of the Flat, here and there by lights. He all this land, and would more….
He was Tebron again, across the Flat at the of an army. Metal at the of his men, and jagged-edged swords, all in the of the Region of Mines. The of mind voices around him, and anger and boredom, resentment, and other Rynason not identify. They were on the City of the Temple….
He in Tebron’s mind, and he was in the middle of the battle. There was all around, up by the of the warriors, and his came in gasps. Mind-voices and but he paid no attention; he his over his with a that it with a low in the wind. One of the through the line around him, and he the at him he with his sword; the to one at the last moment and took the along one arm. He the pain in his own mind, but he it. Before the up his again Tebron his with the bludgeon, and the of pain in his own disappeared. He the and of his own and the of and around him….
The Hirlaji not be moving so quickly, Rynason thought; it must be that to Tebron it so. They were quiet, slow-moving creatures. Or had they physically through the centuries? Still the of battle, he Tebron’s mind again.
There was still in the city, but it was away now; he it with the of his mind as he the steps of the Temple. Those were mop-up operations, the of the last of the priest-king forces; he was not needed there. He had, to all intents, the city since the night before, and had slept in the itself. Now it was time for the Temple.
He the heavy, steps slowly, three at his and three in of him. The would be gone from the Temple, but there might be one or two last-ditch remaining, and they would be with the Weapons of Kor … hand-weapons which dark that anything in their path. They would be dangerous. Well, there would be no temple-guards in the court; his own men to take of them while he in.
He stopped up the steps and his to up at the Temple above him. They were solid stone, in the fashion of the Old Ones … smooth-faced for the above the entrance itself. They too were in the style, from the older which had been thousands of years ago, the Hirlaji had telepathy. The of Kor … so now at last he saw them.
Tomorrow he would a mass-linkage of minds and his orders for reconstruction. That would up all night preparing the communication, for it was to maintain complete planet-wide for too long and Tebron had many plans. Perhaps it would be possible to a way to the of mass-linkages if the science be pushed fast enough.
But that was tomorrow’s problem—today, right now, it was right that he enter the Temple. It was not only of his of power, but necessary religiously: every new ruler leader the memory of the had from Kor first.
A echo-whisper of another mind touched his, and he to his right to see one of the temple-guards in the shadows; he had been unable to his thoughts. Tebron to the ground and sent a quick, order to his own guards: “Kill him.” The heavy, dark as the to into the shadows. He was trapped.
But not unarmed. As he to the steps and rolled to one Tebron the low of a pass over his and the of the him as it struck. And then the were on the in the shadows.
They had of the temple-guards the night before, and their weapons. In a of moments this one too, his and most of his gone. One of the the half-carcass the stairs, and at the to up his weapon.
So now they had all fourteen of them; if any more of the temple-guards they be with easily. Tebron rose from the steps and that those be duplicated; if his whole army be with them…. But after today that would be unnecessary; the entire was his now.
He walked up the last steps and into the of the Temple of Kor….
The melted around him and Rynason his mind painfully. There was a all through him, thin and high, out the he had with Tebron’s mind. It was Horng’s scream, him, overpowering. Terror over him; he to it but he couldn’t. The of the and faded, Tebron’s disappeared, and all that was the and the fear, like a mouth open wide against his ear and into him. He his turn and and him out of Tebron’s mind.
Yet Horng was still him in the darkness, and as the he him there … alien, but calm. There had been in this mind, but it had almost with the of the with Tebron. All that in Horng’s mind now was a quietness.
Rynason a on his face, and he said, and not, “You haven’t what here, old leather. The memories are there, all right.”
From Horng’s mind came a slow of the that he had just experienced, but it subsided. And as it did Rynason again into his mind, for that he had just lost. He almost Tebron’s mind, to see the the wall-shadows, when again there was a blast of the terror and he his mind from those memories. The his mind and and this time he Horng himself him, pushing him back.
But there was no need for that; the was not Horng’s alone. Rynason it too, and he its with an need to his own sanity.
When the Rynason aware of himself still on the bench, his body. Horng sat him in the same position he had been in when they had started; it was as if nothing had at all. Rynason one hand and to Mara to the linkage.
She off the and the from his head, at him. But she waited for him to speak.
He at her after a moment and said, “It was a in there. We couldn’t through.”
She was the from Horng, who sat unmoving, over Rynason’s at the him. “You should have when you were under,” she said. “I wanted to the before, but I wasn’t sure….”
Rynason sat and the of his and back. They as though they had been for an hour, and his was still tight.
“There’s a there,” he said. “It’s like a thousand in your face. When you that into his mind, you it too.” He sat at his feet, and physically.
She sat on the bench and looked closely at him. “Anything else?”
“Yes—Horng. At the end, the second time I in, I him, not only me, but … me.” He looked up at her. “Can you actually him, right next to you in your mind like you were one person, you?”
Across from them, the of the slowly up and looked at them for long seconds, then and left the building.
