It was night at Rath-Gallion, and I my in the

kitchen and ran over in my mind the latest of I was

expected to perform. I had only been on the Estate a weeks, but I

was already Owner Gope's piper. If I on at this rate, I

would soon have a to myself in the pens.

Sime, the cook, came over to me.

"Pipe us a tune, Drgon," he said, "and I'll you with a

frosting pot."

"With pleasure, good Sime," I said. I off the and got out

my clarinet. I had out a dozen instruments, but I

still liked this one best. "What's your pleasure?"

"One of the you learned far-voyaging," called Cagu, the

bodyguard.

I with the _Beer Barrel Polka_. They the table and

hallooed when I finished, and I got my pan. Sime watching

me at it.

"Why don't you the Chief Piper's place, Drgon?" Sime said. "You

pipe around the lout. Then you'd have status, and could

sit among us in the almost as an equal."

I after the last of the frosting, my fingers, and

laid the pot aside.

"I'd be the equal of such a cook as yourself, good Sime,"

I said. "But what can a slave-piper do?"

Sime at me. "You can challenge the Chief Piper," he said.

"There's none can you're his master in all but name. Don't fear

the outcome of the Trial; you'll sure." He around at

the staff. "Is it not so, goodmen?"

"I'll it," the soup-master said. "If you lose, I'll take your

stripes for you."

"You're going too fast for me, goodmen," I said. "How can I claim

another's place?"

Sime his arms. "You have far-voyaged long indeed, Piper Drgon.

Know you of how the world these days? One would take you

for a Cintean heretic."

"As I've said, goodmen: in my all men were free; and the High

King at Okk-Hamiloth----"

"'Tis to speak of these things," said Sime in a low tone. "Only

Owners know their ... though I've it said that long

ago no man was so but that he recorded his and them

safe. How you came by yours, I ask not; but do not speak of it. Owner

Gope is a master. Though a most and lord,"

he added hastily, looking around.

"I won't speak of it then, good Sime," I said. "But I have been long

away. Even the language has changed, so that I my in the

speaking of it. Advise me, if you will."

Sime out his cheeks, at me. "I know where

to start," he said. "All to the Owners ... as is only

right." He looked around for confirmation. The others nodded. "Men of

low skill are property; and 'tis well 'tis so; else would they

starve as ... if the Greymen failed to them

first." He a and spat. So did else.

"Now men of good skill are freemen, each earning as his

ability. I am Chief Pastry Cook to the Lord Gope, with the perquisites

of that station, therefore that none other equals my talents." He

looked around truculently, saw no challengers. "And thus it is with us

all."

"And if some the place of any man here," put in Cagu,

"then he submit to the Trial."

"Then," said Sime, at his agitatedly, "this upstart

pastry cook must cook against me; and all in the Hall will judge; and

he who is the Chief Pastry Cook, and the other takes a dozen

lashes for his impertinence."

"But not, Drgon," spoke Cagu. "A Chief Piper ain't but a

five-stroke man. Only a is among freemen. And anyway,

the good Soup-master had promised to take the for you."

There was a from the door, and I my and

scrambled after the page. Owner Gope didn't like to wait around for

piper-slaves. I saw him up at his place, as I through to

my position the circle of the viand-loaded table.

The Chief Piper had just his bagpipe-like and

released a blast of sound. He was a lean, squint-eyed

creature, of ordering the slave-pipers about. He in an

intricate pattern, away at his vari-colored bladders, until

I at the of it. Owner Gope noticed him about the same

time. He up a and half-rose to it at the

Chief Piper, who saw it just in time to duck. The a swollen

air-bag; a yellow one with green tassels; it with a bleat.

"As sweet a note as has been played tonight," Owner Gope.

"Begone, you call up the hill devils----"

His on me. "Here's Dugon, or Digen," he cried. "Now here's a

true piper. Summon up a melody, Dgron, to clear the of the

last from the air the sours."

I low, wet my lips, and into the _One O' Clock Jump_.

To judge from the that up when I finished, they liked it. I

followed with _Little Brown Jug_ and _String of Pearls_. Gope pounded

and the table down.

"The in all Rath-Gallion, I it," he bellowed. "Were

he not a slave, I'd drink his health."

"By your leave, Owner?" I said.

Gope stared, then indulgently. "Speak then, Dugong," he said.

"I the place of Chief Piper. I----"

Yells out; Gope widely.

"So be it," he said. "Shall the vote be taken now, or must we submit

to more of the we our good Dagron Chief

Piper?"

"Proclaim him!" somebody shouted.

"There must be a Trial," another offered dubiously.

Gope a hand against the table. "Bring Lylk, the Chief

Piper, me," he yelled. "He of the air-skins."

The Piper reappeared, his nervously.

"The place of the Chief Piper is vacant," Gope said loudly.

The piper a pink bladder, which a thin squeak.

"----since the Chief Piper has been in to a new

office," Gope. A moaned, and

cheers.

"Let these air-bags be punctured," Gope cried. "I their rancid

squeals from Rath-Gallion. Now, let all know: this piper

is now Chief Fool to this household. Let him wear the bladders

as a of his office." There was a of laughter, cries,

whistles. Volunteers to the air-bags; they died in

a final of and flutters. A fool-slave the draggled

instrument to the ex-piper's head.

I gave them _Mairzy Doats_ and the piper gingerly. Owner

Gope with laughter. I with _The Dipsy Doodle_ and the

new fool, by success, and grimaced, pirouetted,

strutted, bobbing; the laughed until the flowed.

"A great day for Rath-Gallion," Gope shouted. "By the of the

sea-god, I have a of pipers and a king of fools! I

proclaim them to be ten-lash men, and shall have places at table

henceforth!"

The Fool and I up with three more numbers, then Gope let us

squeeze into a space on a hard bench at the of the table. A

table put plates us.

"Well done, good Drgon," he whispered. "Do not us in your

new honor."

"Don't worry," I said, the of a big of beef.

"I'll be for a every night about Cinte-rise."

I looked around the hall, in

a new way. There's nothing like a little to make a man

appreciate a of freedom. Everything I had thought

I about Vallon had been wrong: the centuries that had passed had

changed things--and not for the better. The old that Foster

knew was and buried. The old and deserted,

the unused. And the old of memory-recording that

Foster was and forgotten. I didn't know what of a

cataclysm have the seat of a into

feudal darkness--but it had happened.

So I hadn't a of Foster. My questions had me

nothing but blank stares. Maybe Foster hadn't it; there have

been an accident in space. Or he was on the opposite

side of the world. Vallon was a big and were

poor. Maybe Foster was dead. I live out a long life here and

never the answers.

I my own at the of my illusions

that night at Okk-Hamiloth. How much more must have been

Foster's when and if he had here. And now we

were in the same boat: with our memories of the old Vallon and the

dreary of the new providing of food for bitterness.

And Foster's memory that I had been him for a keepsake: what

a laugh that was! Far from being a of a master

trace to which he had easy access, my copy of the was

now, with the at Okk-Hamiloth sealed and forbidden, of the

greatest possible to Foster--and there wasn't a machine left

on the to play it on.

Well, I still meant to Foster if it took me----

Owner Gope was and to himself. I the

sign. I got to play again. Being Chief Piper wasn't

going to be just one big bowl of cherries, but at least I wasn't a

slave now. I had a long way to go, but I was making progress.

* * * * *

Owner Gope and I got along well. He was a old and he

liked having such an piper on hand. He had from the

Greymen, the free-lance police force, how I had at the deserted

port. He me, in an way, not to let word out that

I anything about old times in Vallon. The whole was

tabu--especially the old city and the themselves.

Small wonder that my there had the Greymen on

me in time.

Gope took me with him he went: by air-car, ground-car, or

formal river barge. There were still a of vehicles around, though

few people to know how to use them, as they were to

operate. The air-cars were more useful, since they no roads,

but Gope the ground cars. I think he liked the of

speed you got along a ninety or a hundred on one of the

still-perfect that had originally been as scenic

drives.

One months after my promotion I in at the

kitchen. I was to off with Owner Gope and his retinue

for a visit to Bar-Ponderone, a big a hundred miles north of

Rath-Gallion in the direction of Okk-Hamiloth. Sime and my other old

cronies me up with a healthy lunch, and me that it would

be a trip; the of road we'd be using was a favorite

hang-out of road pirates.

"What I don't understand," I said, "is why Gope doesn't a couple

of on the car and blast his way through the raiders. Every time he

goes off the Estate he's taking his life in his hands."

The boys were shocked. "Even piratical would of

taking a man's life, good Drgon," Sime said. "Every Owner, and

near, would together to such down. And their own

fellows would the hunters! Nay, none is so low as to all a

man's lives."

"The themselves know full well that in their next life they

may be goodmen--even slaves," the Chief Wine-Pourer put in. "For

you know, good Drgon, that when a of a the

Change the others lead the to an Estate, that he may his

place...."

"How often do these Changes come along?" I asked.

"It greatly. Some men, of great and power, have

been to go on for three or four hundred years. But

the ordinary man a life of eighty to one hundred years." Sime

paused. "Or it may be less. A life of and can age one

sooner than one of peace and retirement. Or can

shorten a life remarkably. A of mine, who was on the

Great Stony Place in the southern half-world and who for three

weeks without more to eat or drink than a small of wine, underwent

the Change after only fourteen years. When he was his was

lined and his had greyed, in the way that the Change. And

it was not long he in a fit, as one does, and slept for

a night and a day. When he he was a newman: and knowing

nothing."

"Didn't you tell him who he was?"

"Nay!" Sime his voice. "You are much of Owner Gope,

good Drgon, and rightly. Still, there are a man talks not

of----"

"A takes a name and sets out to learn he can,"

put in the Carver of Roasts. "By his own he can ... as you

have risen, good Drgon."

"Don't you have memory machines--or rods?" I persisted.

"Little black sticks: you touch them to your and----"

Sime a motion in the air. "I have of these wands: a

forbidden of the Black Arts----"

"Nuts," I said. "You don't in magic, do you, Sime? The are

nothing but a scientific by your own people. How you've

managed to all knowledge of your own past----"

Sime his hands in distress. "Good Drgon, press us not in these

matters. Such are forbidden."

"Okay, boys. I I'm just nosy."

I on out to the car and in to wait for Owner Gope. Trying

to learn anything about Vallon's history was about like a

village of Eskimos about the great over from Asia: they didn't

know anything.

I had a on my own, however. My theory

was that some social had the system

of and memory that had given

continuity to the culture. Vallonian society, as it was on the

techniques of memory preservation, had disintegrated. Vallon

was into a its social pattern

of fifty thousand years earlier, to the of memory

recording.

The people, together on Estates for protection from or

imagined and the old and as tabu--except

for those in Estates--knew nothing of space travel and ancient

history. Like Sime, they had no wish to speak of such matters.

I might have luck with my work on a big Estate like

Bar-Ponderone. I was looking to today's trip. I was on

Rath-Gallion. It was a small, Estate, only about twenty

square miles, with a dozen villages of farmers and and

the big house of Owner Gope. I had all of it--and it was a dead

end.

Gope appeared, with Cagu and two other bodyguards, four dancing girls,

and an extra-large gift hamper. They took their places and the

driver started up and the car out onto the highroad.

I a of as we in the direction of

Bar-Ponderone. Maybe at the big Estate I'd news of Foster.

We were doing about fifty a road. I was in the

front seat the driver, with my clarinet, and watching

the road from the of my eye. I was the driver's knuckles

didn't white on the speed lever. He like a drunken

spinster, fast but nervous. It wasn't his fault: Gope insisted

on of speed. I was for the mechanism; at

least we couldn't drive over a cliff.

We a curve, the from the driver's awkward,

too-fast into the turn, and saw another car in the road a quarter

of a mile ahead, not moving but parked--sideways. The driver the

brakes.

Behind us Owner Gope "Pirates! Don't your pace, driver."

"But, but, Owner Gope----" the driver gasped.

"Ram the blackguards, if you must!" Gope shouted. "But don't stop!"

The girls in the in alarm. The set up a wail. The

driver rolled his eyes, almost control, then his teeth,

reached out to off the anti-collision and the speed

control against the dash. I for two long heartbeats

as we for the car, then I over and

grabbed for the controls. The driver on, frozen. I back

and him on the jaw. He into his corner, mouth open

and shut, as I the auto-steer and the

tiller. It was an position for steering, but I it to

hammering in at ninety per.

The car ahead was still tight, now a hundred yards away, now

fifty. I cut hard to the right, toward the face; the car

backed to me. At the last I to the left, barreled

past with an to spare, along the with

the left wheel on air, then into the center of the

road.

"Well done!" Cagu.

"But they'll give chase!" Gope shouted. "Assassins! Masterless swine!"

The driver had his open now. "Crawl over me!" I barked. He mumbled

and past me and I into his seat, still to

the and up the speed. Another was

coming up. I a quick look in the rear-viewer: the were

swinging around to us.

"Press on!" Gope. "We're close to Bar-Ponderone; it's no more

than five miles----"

"What of speed have they got?" I called back.

"They'll us easy," said Cagu cheerfully.

"What's the road like ahead?"

"A road, and true, now that we've the

mountain," answered Gope.

We through the turn and a straightaway. A road

branched off ahead. "What's that?" I snapped.

"A trail," the driver. "It comes on Bar-Ponderone, but

by a longer way."

I my speed, minutely, and cut hard. We up the

steep slope, into a turn hills.

Gope shouted, "What is this? Are you in with the

villains...?"

"We haven't got a on the straightaway," I called back. "Not in a

straight speed contest." I the over, then the other

way, the tight S-curves. We past vistas

of and plains, but I didn't have time to admire

the view. There were from the in the seats,

a of talk. I a of our pursuers, just

heading into the road us.

"Any way they can us off?" I yelled.

"Not unless they have ahead," said Gope, "but

these pariahs work alone."

I the and speed levers, the tiller. We swung

right, then left, higher and higher, then a and up

again. The car a turn, only a hundred yards behind

now. I the road ahead, its along the

mountainside, through a tunnel, then out again to around the

shoulder of the next peak.

"Pitch something out when we go through the tunnel!" I yelled.

"Anything!"

"My cloak," Gope. "And the gift hamper."

One of the started to moan. The girls the fever, joined

in with lamentations.

"Silence!" Gope. "Lend a hand here, or by the sea-devil's beard

you'll be with the rest!"

We into the mouth. There was a blast of air as the rear

deck opened. Gope and Cagu the gift hamper, tumbled

it out, it with a cloak, a jug, sandals,

bracelets, fruit. Then we were in the and I was fighting

the curve. In the rear-viewer I saw the from the tunnel

mouth, Gope's black and yellow spread over the canopy, smashed

fruit over it, the of the under the

chassis. The car and a of the lifted, the

driver's view in time.

"Tough luck," I said. "We've got a long ahead, and I'm

fresh out of ideas...."

The other car gained. I the speed against the but we were

up against a car; it was a hundred yards us, then fifty,

then out to go alongside. I imperceptibly, let him get

his past us, then cut sharply. There was a of wheel

fairings, and I the as we from the car.

He forward, almost alongside again; to we raced

at ninety-five the grade....

I the and cut hard to the left, his right rear

wheel, back. He too; that was a mistake. The car lost

traction, sliding. In slow motion, off-balanced in a skid, it rose on

its nose, up a cloud of dust. The away, the

cloak and was gone, then the car to for

an in air, it dropped, up, out of over the

sheer cliff. We alone the and out onto the wooded

plain toward the towers of Bar-Ponderone.

A up; Owner Gope to my back. "By the

nine of the Hill Devil!" he bellowed, "masterfully executed!

The of Pipers is a of Drivers too! This night you'll

sit by my at the ring-board at Bar-Ponderone in the rank of a

hundred-lash Chief Driver, I it!"

"Compared with making a left turn off the Outer Drive at 5:15 on a

Friday, that was nothing," I said. I onto the and tried

breathing again. I'd been a to try to a car--but it

had worked. And now I'd another promotion. I was doing okay.

"And let no man a of Assassination," Gope on. "I'll

not see so a Driver-Piper immured. I you all: say nothing

of this! We'll that the themselves in

their villainy."

That was the I'd of that angle. To take a life was

still the one in this world of immortals--because you

took not just one, but all a man's lives. The was walling

up for life ... but just one life. In my case one would be enough; I

didn't have any spares. I had taken a with Gope than I

had with the pirates.

Life here was a series of gambles, but it looked like the chance-takers

got ahead fast. My best was to on the make and the

odds when it was over.

* * * * *

I the day at Bar-Ponderone rubber-necking the tall

buildings and an open for Foster, on the off that I

might pass him on the street. It was about as likely as into an

old high from Perth Amboy among the of the

Shah of Afghanistan, but I looking.

By I was no than before. Dressed in the latest in

Vallonian and ruffles, I was with my Cagu, Chief

Bodyguard to Owner Gope, at a small table on the at the

Palace of Merrymaking, Bar-Ponderone's biggest hall.

It looked like a Hollywood producer's idea of a twenty-first century

night club, complete with nine on five levels, indoor

pools, fountains, two thousand tables, musicians, girls, noise, colored

lights, and food fit for an Owner. It was open to all fifty-lash

goodmen of the Estate and to guests of rank. After the

back-country life at Rath-Gallion it looked like the big time to me.

Cagu was a morose-looking old cuss, but good-hearted. His was cut

and from a thousand with other and his

nose had been so often that it was in profile.

"Where do you manage to in all the fights, Cagu?" I asked him.

"I've you for three months, and I haven't a in

anger yet."

"Here." He grinned, me some teeth. "Swell places,

these big Estates, good Drgon; action."

"What do you do, in fights?"

"Nah. The boys up here, up, around, you know."

"They start here in the room?"

"Sure. Good here; laughs."

I up my drink, it to Cagu--and got it in my as

somebody my arm. I looked up. A battle-scarred over

me.

"Who'sa punk, Cagu?" he said in a whisper. He at a back

tooth with a pick, rolled his from me to my partner.

Cagu up, and a to the other plug-ugly's paunch. He

_oof!_ed, clinched, me over Cagu's shoulder. Cagu

pushed him away, him at arm's length.

"Howsa boy, Mull?" he said. "Lay my sidekick; little

piper business, and a top driver too."

Mull his stomach, sat me. "Ya losin' your punch,

Cagu." He looked at me. "Sorry about that. I you was one of the

guys." He a waiter-slave. "Bring my friend a new suit.

Make it snappy."

"Don't the of it when you stage a

heavyweight in the aisle?" I asked. "A drink in the is

routine. It in any joint in Manhattan. But a seven-course

meal would be it."

"Nah; we move the Spot." He a thumb in the general

direction of else. He looked me over. "Where ya been, Piper?

Your time Palace?"

"Drgon's been travelling," said Cagu. "He's okay. Lemme tell ya the

time these one, see...."

Cagu and Mull while I on my drinking. Although I

hadn't learned anything on my day's looking around at Bar-Ponderone,

it was still a spot for than Rath-Gallion. There were

two major on the Estate and of villages. Somewhere among

the population I might have luck someone to talk history

with ... or someone who Foster.

"Hey!" Mull. "Look who's comin'."

I his gaze. Three thick-set up to the table.

One of them, a long-armed at least seven tall, reached

out, took Cagu and Mull by the of their necks, and their

skulls together. I jumped up, a hoof-like ... and saw a

beautiful of by darkness.

* * * * *

I in the dark with the lengths of cloth my legs, sat

up, my head----

I groaned, a leg from the chair rungs, my way out from

under the table. A Waiter-slave helped me up, me off. The

seven-foot in a chair my way, nodded.

"You shouldn't out with like that Mull," he said. "Cagu told

me you was just a piper, but the way you come that chair--" He

shrugged, to he was watching.

I a and joints, my jaw, my neck:

all okay.

"You the one that me?" I asked.

"Huh? Yeah."

I over to his chair, a spot, and my throat.

"Hey, you," I said. He turned, and I put I had a

straight right to the point of the jaw. He over, in the air,

flipped a rail, and two tables below. I leaned

over the rail. A party of Tally-clerks up at me.

"Sorry, folks," I said. "He slipped."

A up from the some away. I looked. In a

cleared circle two a pair of heavy-shouldered men were

slugging it out. One of them was Cagu. I watched, saw his opponent

fall. Another man in to take his place. I and my

way to the ring-side.

Cagu with two more he and

was from the ring. I him up in a chair, a drink

into his fist, and the boys each other. It was easy to

see why the was the of their craft; there was no

defensive whatever. They toe-to-toe and as hard as

they could, until one collapsed. It wasn't fancy, but the fans loved

it. Cagu came to after a while and me in on the fighters'

backgrounds.

"So they're all top boys," he said. "But it ain't like in the old days

when I was in my prime. I could've took any three of these bums. The

only one maybe I had a little trouble with is Torbu."

"Which one is he?"

"He ain't there yet; he'll to take on the last boys on their

feet."

More pushed their way to the Spot, off

gaily-patterned and weskits, and in. Others folded, were

dragged clear, to another and on the fray.

After an hour the waiting line had away to nothing. The two

battlers on the Spot slugged, clinched, hard, and

missed; the booed.

"Where's Torbu?" Cagu wondered.

"Maybe he didn't come tonight," I said.

"Sure, you met him; he you under the table."

"Oh, him?"

"Where'd he go?"

"The last I saw he was asleep on the floor," I said.

"Hozzat?"

"I didn't much like him me. I him one."

"Hey!" Cagu. His up. He got to his feet.

"Hold it," I said. "What's--?"

Cagu pushed his way through to the Spot, took aim, and the

closest fighter, and out the other. He hands

above his head.

"Rath-Gallion Champion," he bellowed. "Rath-Gallion takes on all

comers." He turned, to me. "Our boy, Drgon, he--"

There was a me, louder than Cagu's. I turned, saw

Torbu, his mussed, his purple, pushing through the crowd.

"Jussa minute," he yelled. "I'm the Champion around here--" He

aimed a at Cagu; Cagu ducked.

"Our boy, Drgon, you out cold, right?" he shouted. "So now he's

the champion."

"I wasn't set," Torbu. "A lucky punch." He to the fans.

"I'm my shoelace, see? And this guy--"

"Come on down, Drgon," Cagu called, to me again. "We'll show--"

Torbu and a right to the of Cagu's jaw;

the old the hard, skidded, still. I got to my

feet. They him to the nearest table, him into a chair.

I my way to the little in the crowd. A man bending

over Cagu straightened, white. I pushed him aside, the

bodyguard's wrist. There was no pulse. Cagu was dead.

Torbu in the center of the Spot, mouth open. "What...?" he

started. I pushed two fans, for him. He saw me, crouched,

swung.

I ducked, him. He back. I pressed him, lefts

and to the body, under his wild swings, then his

head left and right. He stood, together, glazed, hands down.

I him, right-crossed his jaw; he like a log.

Panting, I looked across at Cagu. His face, white as wax, was

strangely now; it looked peaceful. Somebody helped Torbu to his

feet, walked him to the ring-side. It had been a big evening. Now all I

had to do was take the home....

I over to where Cagu was out on the floor. Shocked people

stood staring. Torbu was the body. A tear ran his nose,

dripped on Cagu's face. Torbu it away with a big hand.

"I'm sorry, old friend," he said. "I didn't it."

I Cagu up and got him over my shoulder, and all the way to the

far it was so in the Palace of Merrymaking that I hear

my own and the of and the of my

fancy yellow plastic shoes.

* * * * *

In the bodyguards' I Cagu out on a bunk, then the

dozen who at the still body.

"Cagu was a good man," I said. "Now he's dead. He died like an

animal ... for nothing. That ended all his lives, didn't it, boys?

How do you like it?"

Mull at me. "You talk like we was to blame," he said. "Cagu

was my too."

"Whose was he a thousand years ago?" I snapped. "What was

he--once? What were you? Vallon wasn't always like this. There was a

time when every man was his own Owner--"

"Look, you ain't of the Brotherhood--" one started.

"So that's what you call it? But it's just another name for an old

racket. A big sets himself up as dictator--"

"We got our Code," Mull said. "Our job is to up for the Owner ...

and that don't around to some callin'

names."

"I'm not calling names," I snapped. "I'm talking rebellion. You boys

have all the and most of the in this organization. Why

do you on your and let the live off the while you

murder each other for the of the patrons? I say let's pay him

a call--right now. You had a ... once. But it's up to you to

collect it ... some more of you go the way Cagu did."

There was an angry mutter. Torbu came in, swollen. I up to

a table, for trouble.

"Hold it, you birds," Torbu said. "What's goin' on?"

"This guy! He's talkin' and treason," somebody said.

"He wants we should some stuff--on Owner Qohey hisself."

Torbu came up to me. "You're a around Bar-Ponderone. Cagu said

you was okay. You me over good ... and I got no hard

feelin's; that's the breaks. But don't try to start no trouble here. We

got our Code and our Brotherhood. We look out for each other; that's

good for us. Owner Qohey ain't no than any other

Owner ... and by the Code, we'll by him!"

"Listen to me," I said. "I know the history of Vallon: I know what

you were once and what you be again. All you have to do is take

over the power. I can lead you to the ship I came here in. There are

briefing aboard, to you--"

"That's enough," Torbu in. He a in the air.

"We ain't gettin' mixed up in no ghost-boats or takin' on no

magicians and demons--"

"Hogwash! That is just a to keep you away from the

cities so you won't what you're missing--"

"I don't take you to the Greymen, Drgon," Torbu growled.

"Leave it lay."

"These cities," I on. "They're there, empty, as

perfect as the day they were built. And you live in these flea-bitten

quarters, the town walls, so the Greymen and renegades

won't you."

"You here?" Mull put in. "Go see Qohey."

"Let's all go see Qohey!" I said.

"That's something you'll have to do alone," said Torbu. "You better

move on, Drgon. I ain't turnin' you in; I know how you about Cagu

gettin' killed and all--but don't push it too far."

I I was licked. They were as as a team of mules--and just

about as smart.

Torbu motioned; I him outside.

"You turn upside-down, don't you? I know how it is; you

ain't the guy to ideas. We can't help you. Sure, ain't

like they used to be here--and prob'ly they were. But we got a

legend: the Rthr will come ... and then the Good Time will

come too."

"What's the Rthr?" I said.

"Kinda like a big-shot Owner. There ain't no Rthr now. But a long time

ago, when our started, there was a Rthr that was Owner

of all Vallon, and high, and had all their lives...."

Torbu stopped, me warily.

"Don't say nothing to nobody," he on, "about what I been tellin'

you. That's a of the Brotherhood. But it's of like a hope

we got--that's what we're waitin' for, through all our lives. We got to

do the best we can, and keep true to the Code and the Brotherhood ...

and the Rthr will come ... maybe."

"Okay," I said. "Dream on, big boy. And while you're your

rosy you'll your out, like Cagu." I turned

away.

"Listen, Drgon. It's no good buckin' the system: it's too big for one

guy ... or a of ... but--"

I looked up. "Yeah?"

"... if you your out--see Owner Gope." Abruptly Torbu

turned and pushed through the door.

See Owner Gope, huh? Okay, what did I have to lose? I along

the toward Owners' country.

* * * * *

I in the middle of the deep-pile in Gope's suite, trying

to keep my to supply the I needed to in on

an Owner in the middle of the night. He sat in his chair and

stared at me impassively.

"With your help or without it," I said, "I'm going to the answers."

"Yes, good Drgon," he said, not for once. "I understand. But

there are you know not of--"

"Just me into the spaceport, Gope. I have enough

briefing to prove my point--and a other little to

boot."

"It's forbidden. Do you not understand--"

"I too much," I snapped.

He straightened, me with a touch of the old ferocity. "Mind your

tone, Drgon! I'm Owner--"

I in. "Do you Cagu? Maybe you him as a newman,

young, handsome, like a god out of some old legend. You've him

live his life. Was it a good life? Did the promise of get

paid off?"

Gope closed his eyes. "Stop," he said. "This is bad, bad...."

"'And the deaths they died I have beside, and the they

led were mine,'" I quoted. "Are you proud of them? And what about

yourself? Don't you wonder what you might have been ... in

the Good Time?"

"Who are you?" asked Gope, his on mine. "You speak Old

Vallonian, you up the knowledge, and challenge the very

Powers...." He got to his feet. "I have you immured, Drgon. I

could hand you to the Greymen, for a I to name." He turned

and walked the length of the room restlessly, then to me

and stopped.

"Matters with this world," he said. "Legend tells us

that once men as the High Gods on Vallon. There was a mighty

Owner, Rthr of all Vallon. It is that he will come again--"

"Your are all true. You can take my word for that! But that

doesn't some sugar is going to come along and

bail you out. And don't the idea I think I'm the answer to

prayers. All I is that once upon a time Vallon was a good place

to live and it be again. Right now, it's like a land under an

enchantment--and you sleeping need up. Your and

roads and ships are still here, intact. But nobody how to run

them and you're all to try. Who you off? Who started the

rumors? What the memory system? Why can't we all

go to Okk-Hamiloth and use the Archives to give what

he's lost--"

"These are words," said Gope.

"There must be somebody it. Or there was once. Who is he?"

Gope thought. "There is one man pre-eminent among us: the Great Owner,

Owner of Owners: Ommodurad by name. Where he I know not. This is

a only by his intimates."

"What he look like? How do I to see him?"

Gope his head. "I have him but once, closely cowled. He is

a tall man, and silent. 'Tis said--" Gope his voice, "--by his

black he all his lives. An of about

him--"

"Never mind that jazz," I said. "He's a man, like other men. Stick a

knife his and you put an end to him, and all."

"I do not like this talk of death. Let the of be

immured; it is sufficient."

"First let's him. How can I close to him?"

"There are those Owners who are his confidants," said Gope, "his

trusted agents. It is through them that we small Owners learn of his

will."

"Can we one of them?"

"Never. They are to him by of darkness, and

incantations."

"I'm a fast man with a pair of myself. It's all done with

mirrors. Let's to the point, Gope. How can I work into a

spot with one of these big shots?"

"Nothing easier. A Driver and Piper of such as your own can

claim what place he chooses."

"How about bodyguarding? Suppose I take a named Torbu;

would that set me in with a new Owner?"

"Such is no place for a man of your abilities, good Drgon," Gope

exclaimed. "True, 'tis a place most close to an Owner, but there is

much in it. The challenge to a the most

bloody hand-to-hand combat, second only to the of a challenge to

an Owner himself."

"What's that?" I snapped. "Challenge an Owner?"

"Be calm, good Drgon," said Gope, at me incredulously. "No

common man with his about him will challenge an Owner."

"But I if I wanted to?"

"In ... if you have of life--of all your lives; 'tis as

good a way to end them as another. But you must know, good Drgon: an

Owner is a in the of battle. None less than

another such may to prevail."

I my into my palm. "I should have of this sooner!

The cooks cook for their places, the pipers pipe ... and the best man

wins. It that the Owners would use the same system. But what's

the procedure, Gope? How do you your to prove who can

own the best?"

"It is a with steel. It is the measure and of an

Owner that he alone to prove his quality against the peril

of death itself." Gope himself up with pride.

"What about the bodyguards?" I asked. "They fight--"

"With their hands, good Drgon. And they skill with those. A death

such as you tonight--that is a and sorry accident."

"It up this whole in its true colors. A

civilization like that of Vallon--reduced to this."

"Still, it is sweet to live--by rules----"

"I don't that ... and neither do you. What Owner can I

challenge? How do I go about it?"

"Give up this course, good Drgon--"

"Where's the nearest of the Big Owner?"

Gope up his hands. "Here, at Bar-Ponderone. Owner Qohey. But--"

"And how do I call his bluff?"

Gope put a hand on my shoulder. "It is no bluff, good Drgon. It is long

now since last Owner Qohey to his to protect his place, but

you may be sure he has none of his skill. Thus it was he his

way to Bar-Ponderone, while knights, such as myself, contented

themselves with fiefs."

"I'm not either, Gope," I said, a point. "I

was no harness-maker in the Good Time."

"It is your death--"

"Tell me how I offer the challenge ... or I'll his nose in the

main tomorrow night."

Gope sat heavily, his hand, and let them fall. "If I tell

you not, another will. But I will not soon another Piper of your

worth."