Priest-Kings of Gor

Chapter Sixteen: THE PLOT OF MISK

I took my eyes from the young Priest-King and looked up at

Misk.I could see the disklike eyesin that golden head

above me and see the flicker of the blue torch on their

myriad surfaces.

'I must tell you, Misk,' I said slowly, 'that I came to the

Sardar to slay Priest-Kings, to take vengeance for the

destruction of my city and its people.'

I thought it only fair to let Misk know that I was no ally of

his, that he should learn of my hatred for Priest-Kings and

my determination to punish them, to the extent that it lay

within my abilities, for the evil which they had done.

'No,' said Misk.'You have come to the Sardar to save the

race of Priest-Kings.'

I looked at him dumbfounded.

'It is for that purpose that you were brought here,' said

Misk.

'I came of my own free will!' I cried.'Because my city was

destroyed!'

'That is why your city was destroyed,' said Misk, 'that you

would come to the Sardar.'

I turned away.Tears burned in my eyes and my body trembled.

I turned in rage on the tall, gentle creature who stood,

unmoving, behind that strange table and that still form of

the young Priest-King.

'If I had my sword,' I said, pointing to the young Priest-

King, 'I would kill it!'

'No, you would not,' said Misk, 'and that is why you and not

another were chosen to come to the Sardar.'

I rushed to the figure on the table, the torch held as though

to strike it.

But I could not.

'You will not hurt it because it is innocent,' said Misk.'I

know that.'

'How can you know that?'

'Because you are of the Cabots and we know them.For more

than four hundred years we have known them, and since your

birth we have watched you.'

'You killed my father!' I cried.

'No,' said Misk, 'he is alive and so are others of your city,

but they are scattered to the ends of Gor.'

'And Talena?'

'As far as we know she is still alive,' said Misk, 'but we

cannot scan her, or for others of Ko-ro-ba, without raising

suspicion that we are solicitous for you - or are bargaining

with you.'

'Why not simply bring me here?' I challenged.'Why destroy a

city?'

'To conceal our motivation from Sarm,' said Misk.

'I don't understand,' I said.

'Occasionally on Gor we destroy a city, selecting it by means

of a random selection device.This teaches the lower orders

the might of Priest-Kings and encourages them to keep our

laws.'

'But what if the city has done no wrong?' I asked.

'So much the better,' said Misk, 'for the Men below the

Mountains are then confused and fear us even more - but the

members of the Caste of Initiates, we have found, will

produce an explanation of why the city was destroyed.They

invent one and if it seems plausible they soon believe it.

For example, we allowed them to suppose that it was through

some fault of yours - disresepct for Priest-Kings as I recall

- that your city was destroyed.'

'Why when first I came to Gor, more than seven years ago, did

you not do this?' I asked.

'It was necessary to test you.'

'And the siege of Ar,' I asked, 'and the Empire of Marlenus?'

'They provided a suitable test,' said Misk.'From Sarm's

point of view of course your utilisation there was simply to

curtail the spread of the Empire of Ar, for we prefer humans

to dwell in isolated communities.It is better for observing

their variations, from the scientific point of view, and it

is safer for us if they remain disunited, for being rational

they might develop a science, and being subrational it might

be dangerous for us and for themselves if they did so.'

'That is the reason then for your limitations of their

weaponry and technology?'

'Of course,' said Misk, 'but we have allowed them to develop

in many areas - in medicine, for example, where something

approximating the Stabilisation Serums has been independently

developed.'

'What is that?' I asked.

'You have surely not failed to notice,' said Misk, 'that

though you came to the Counter-Earth more than seven years

ago you have undergone no significant physical alteration in

that time.'

'I have noticed,' I said, 'and I wondered on this.'

'Of course,' said Misk, 'their serums are not as effective as

ours and sometimes do not function, and sometimes the effect

wears off after only a few hundred years.'

'This was kind of you,' I said.

'Perhaps,' said Misk.'There is dispute on the matter.'He

peered intently down at me.'On the whole,' he said, 'we

Priest-Kings do not interfere with the affairs of men.We

leave them free to love and slay one another, which seems to

be what they enjoy doing most.'

'But the Voyages of Acquisition?' I said.

'We keep in touch with the earth,' said Misk, 'for it might,

in time, become a threat to us and then we would have to

limit it, or destroy it or leave the solar system.'

'Which will you do?' I asked.

'None, I suspect,' said Misk.'According to our

calculations, which may of course be mistaken, life as you

know it on the earth will destroy itself within the next

thousand years.'

I shook my head sadly.

'As I said,' went on Misk, 'man is subrational.Consider

what would happen if we allowed him free technological

development on our world.'

I nodded.I could see that from the Priest-Kings' pint of

view it would be more dangerous than handing out automatic

weapons to chimpanzees and gorillas.Man had not proved

himself worthy of a superior technology to the Priest-Kings.

I mused that man had not proved himself worthy of such a

technology even to himself.

'Indeed,' said Misk, 'it was partly because of this tendency

that we brought man to the Counter-Earth, for he is an

interesting species and it would be sad to us if he

disappeared from the universe.'

'I suppose we are to be grateful,' I said.

'No,' said Misk, 'we have similarly brought various species

to the Counter-Earth, from other locations.'

'I have seen few of these 'other species',' I said.

Misk shrugged his antennae.

'I do remember,' I said, 'a Spider in the Swamp Forests of

Ar.'

'The Spider People are a gentle race,' said Misk, 'except the

female at the time of mating.'

'His name was Nar,' I said, 'and he would rather have died

than injure a rational creature.'

'The Spider People are soft,' said Misk.'They are not

Priest-Kings.'

'I see,' I said.

'The Voyages of Acquisition,' said Misk, 'take place normally

when we need fresh material from Earth, for our purposes.'

'I was the object of one such voyage,' I said.

'Obviously,' said Misk.

'It is said below the mountains that Priest-Kings know all

that occurs on Gor.'

'Nonsense,' said Misk.'But perhaps I shall show you the

Scanning Room someday.We have four hundred Priest-Kings who

operate the scanners, and we are accordingly well informed.

For example, if there is a violation of our weapons laws we

usually, sooner or later, discover it and after determining

the coordinates put into effect the Flame Death Mechanism.'

I had once seen a man die the Flame Death, the High Initiate

of Ar, on the roof of Ar's Cylinder of Justice.I shivered

involuntarily.

'Yes,' I said simply, 'sometime I would like to see the

Scanning Room.'

'But much of our knowledge comes from our implants,' said

Misk.'We implant humans with a control web and transmitting

device.The lenses of their eyes are altered in such a way

that what they see is registered by means of transducers on

scent-screens in the scanning room.We can also speak and

act by means of them, when the control web is activated in

the Sardar.'

'The eyes look different?' I asked.

'Sometimes not,' said Misk, 'sometimes yes.'

'Was the creature Parp so implanted?' I asked, remembering

his eyes.

'Yes,' said Misk, 'as was the man from Ar whom you met on the

road long ago near Ko-ro-ba.'

'But he threw off the control web,' I said, 'and spoke as he

wished.'

'Perhaps the webbing was faulty,' said Misk.

'But if it was not?' I asked.

'Then he was most remarkable,' said Misk.'Most remarkable.'

'You spoke of knowing the Cabots for four hundred years,' I

said.

'Yes,' said Misk, 'and your father, who is a brave and noble

man, has served us upon occasion, though he dealt only,

unknowingly, with Implanted Ones.He first came to Gor more

than six hundred years ago.'

'Impossible!' I cried.

'Not with the stabilisation serums,' remarked Misk.

I was shaken by this information.I was sweating.The torch

seemed to tremble in my hand.

'I have been working against Sarm and the others for

millenia,' said Misk, 'and at last - more than three hundred

years ago - I managed to obtain the egg from which this male

emerged.'Misk looked down at the young Priest-King on the

stone table.'I then, by means of an Implanted Agent,

unconscious of the message being read through him, instructed

your father to write the letter which you found in the

mountains of your native world.'

My head was spinning.

'But I was not even born then!' I exclaimed.

'Your father was instructed to call you Tarl, and lest he

might speak to you of the Counter-Earth or attempt to

dissuade you from our purpose, he was returned to Gor before

you were of an age to understand.'

'I thought he deserted my mother,' I said.

'She knew,' said Misk, 'for though she was a woman of Earth

she had been to Gor.'

'Never did she speak to me of these things,' I said.

'Matthew Cabot on Gor,' said Misk, 'was a hostage for her

silence.'

'My mother,' I said, 'died when I was very young…'

'Yes,' said Misk, 'because of a petty bacillus in your

contaminated atmosphere, a victim to the inadequacies of your

infantile bacteriology.'

I was silent.My eyes smarted, I suppose, from some heat or

fume of the Mul-Torch.

'It was difficult to foresee,' said Misk.'I am truly sorry.'

'Yes,' I said.I shook my head and wiped my eyes.I still

held the memory of the lonely, beautiful woman whom I had

known so briefly in my childhood, who in those short years

had so loved me.Inwardly I cursed the Mul-Torch that had

brought tears to the eyes of a Warrior of Ko-ro-ba.

'Why did she not remain on Gor?' I asked.

'It frightened her,' said Misk, 'and your father asked that

she be allowed to return to Earth, for loving her he wished

her to be happy and also perhaps he wanted you to know

something of his old world.'

'But I found the letter in the mountains, where I had made

camp by accident,' I said.

'When it was clear where you would camp the letter was placed

there,' said Misk.

'Then it did not lie there for more than three hundred years?'

'Of course not,' said Misk, 'the risk of discovery would have

been too great.'

'The letter itself was destroyed, and nearly took me with

it,' I said.

'You were warned to discard the letter,' said Misk.'It was

saturated with Flame Lock, and its combustion index was set

for twenty Ehn following opening.'

'When I opened the letter it was like switching on a bomb,' I

said.

'You were warned to discard the letter,' said Misk.

'And the compass needle?' I asked, remembering its erratic

behavious which had so unnerved me.

'It is a simple matter,' said Misk, 'to disrupt a magnetic

field.'

'But I returned to the same place I had fled from,' I said.

'The frightened human, when fleeing and disoriented, tends to

circle,' said Misk.'But it would not have mattere, I could

have picked you up had you not returned.I think that you

may have sensed there was no escape and thus, perhaps as an

act of pride, returned to the scene of the letter.'

'I was simply frightened,' I said.

'No one is ever simply frightened,' said Misk.

'When I entered the ship I fell unconscious,' I said.

'You were anaesthetised,' said Misk.

'Was the ship operated from the Sardar?' I asked.

'It could have been,' said Misk, 'but I could not risk that.'

'Then it was manned,' I said.

'Yes,' said Misk.

I looked at him.

'Yes,' said Misk.'It was I who manned it.'He looked down

at me.'Now it is late, past the sleeping time.You are

tired.'

I shook my head.'There is little,' I said, 'which was left

to chance.'

'Chance does nbot exist,' said Misk, 'ignorance exists.'

'You cannot know that,' I said.

'No,' said Misk, 'I cannot know it.' The tips of Misk's

antennae gently dipped towards me.'You must rest now,' he

said.

'No,' I said.'Was the fact that I was placed in the chamber

of the girl Vika of Treve considered?'

'Sarm suspects,' said Misk, 'and it was he who arranged your

quarters, in order that you might succumb to her charms, that

she might enthrall you, that she might bend you helplessly,

pliantly to her will and whim as she had a hundred men before

you, turning them - brave, proud warriors all - into the

slaves of a slave, into the slaves of a mere girl, herself

only a slave.'

'Can this be true?' I asked.

'A hundred men,' said Misk, 'allowed themselves to be chained

to the foot of her couch where she would upon occasion, that

they might not die, cast them scraps of food as though they

might have been pet sleen.'

My old hatred of Vika now began once again to enfuse my

blood, and my hands ached to grip her and shake her until her

bones might break and then throw her to my feet.

'What became of them?' I asked.

'They were used as Muls,' said Misk.

My fists clenched.

'I am glad that such a creature,' said Misk, 'is not of my

species.'

'I am sorry,' I said, 'that she is of mine.'

'When you broke the surveillance device in the chamber,' said

Misk, 'I felt I had to act quickly.'

I laughed.'Then,' I said, 'you actually thought you were

saving me?'

'I did,' said Misk.

'I wonder,' I said.

'At any rate,' said Misk, 'it was not a risk we cared to

take.'

'You speak of 'we'?'

'Yes,' said Misk.

'And who is the other?' I asked.

'The greatest in the Nest,' said Misk.

'The Mother?'

'Of course.'

Misk touched me lightly on the shoulder with his antennae.

'Come now,' he said.'Let us return to the chamber above.'

'Why,' I asked, 'was I returned to Earth after the siege of

Ar?'

'To fill you with hatred for Priest-Kings,' said Misk.'Thus

you would be more willing to come to the Sardar to find us.'

'But why seven years?' I asked.They had been long, cruel,

lonely years.

'We were waiting,' said Misk.

'But for what?' I demanded.

'For there to be a female egg,' said Misk.

'Is there now such an egg?'

'Yes,' said Misk, 'but I do not know where it is.'

'Then who knows?' I asked.

'The Mother,' said Misk.

'But what have I to do with all this?' I demanded.

'You are not of the Nest,' said Misk, 'and thus you can do

what is necessary.'

'What is necessary?' I asked.

'Sarm must die,' said Misk.

'I have no wish to kill Sarm,' I said.

'Very well,' said Misk.

I puzzled on the many things which Misk had told me, and then

I looked up at him, lifting my torch that I might better see

that great head with its rich, disklike, luminous eyes.

'Why is this one egg so important?' I asked.'You have the

stabilisation serums.Surely there will be many eggs, and

others will be female.'

'It is the last egg,' said Misk.

'Why is that?' I demanded.

'The Mother was hatched and flew her Nuptial Flight long

before the discovery of the stabilisation serums,' said Misk.

'We have managed to retard her aging considerably but eon by

eon it has been apparent that our efforts have been less and

less successful, and now there are no more eggs.'

'I don't understand,' I said.

'The Mother is dying,' said Misk.

I was silent and Misk did not speak and the only noise in

that paneled metallic laboratory that was the cradle of a

Priest-King was the soft crackle of the blue torch I held.

'Yes,' said Misk, 'it is the end of the Nest.'

I shook my head.'This is no business of mine,' I said.

'That is true,' said Misk.

We faced one another.'Well,' I said, 'are you not going to

threaten me?'

'No,' said Misk.

'Are you not going to hunt down my father or my Free

Companion and kill them if I do not serve you?'

'No,' said Misk.'No.'

'Why not?' I demanded.'Are you not a Priest-King?'

'Because I am a Priest-King,' said Misk.

I was thunderstruck.

'All Priest-Kings are not as Sarm,' said Misk.He looked

down at me.'Come,' he said, 'it is late and you will be

tired.Let us retire to the chamber above.'

Misk left the room and I, bearing the torch, followed him.

To be continued…