Man of Two Worlds Page 4

  Ketan and Elta came out of the overhanging garden growth that lined the roadway into an open space. There they paused as Ketan looked up. He gazed at the other boundary of Kronweld—the Edge.

  No words of description could convey the appearance of the thing. It was simply nothing. A vast, unknowable turtain of nothing, a terrifying blackness that stretched between the impassable horns of Fire Land that met it at cither end of the encircling arc encompassing Kronweld. And stretched to infinity above.

  It was the Edge.

  “Can’t you feel it?” whispered Ketan. - “Haven’t you ever known a longing, a yearning rising up within you, telling you that there is something there that man may know. Something beyond the apparent nothingness of the Edge, calling you to break through, to discover the great Mystery that lies beyond it.”

  Elta shuddered. “Don’t ask me to partake of all your blasphemy. The realm of the God lies beyond the Edge. No man shall ever know what lies beyond the Edge.”

  “Pah—! I know what lies beyond. I have seen it.”

  “You!”

  “In vision I have seen it. There is a great land of desert. Red and white sands stretching from horizon to horizon. There is no Edge there. Only a circle of blue sky that reaches the ground all around. It is hot, and fiery winds sweep clouds of sand like a million sharp needles through the air. And in the midst of this desert is a pinnacle. Some day I shall reach it. There is something there. I do not know what it is, but I shall find out.” , He stopped and stared down at Elta as she fell behind him. She had ceased walking as if frozen instantly. Her hand went to her mouth as she backed slowly away from him.

  “How do you know of this thing? It can’t be true. Ketan … Ketan, you must never try to find this pinnacle. You must not find it. Say you will not.

  “I will go with you, now, tonight. We shall make our companionship and we’ll go wherever you say— here or in Dark Land. I’ll never leave your side again, Ketau. Only promise me you’ll forget these horrible things.

  “Let us go back to Teacher Daran. Go into the House of Wisdom. He will withdraw his complaint.”

  Ketan smiled wryly and looked far beyond her. “You’d hate me forever if I did.”

  She trembled as if with cold.

  They came soon to a curve in the road that led around the large restricted parkway surrounding the center of all Kronweld, the holiest spot of ground that existed—the Temple of Birth.

  Gleaming white even in the black and violet of the night, the thick, mighty walls of the Temple gave forth their own inherent light.

  The structure was a quarter of a sphere resting in the corner of the intersection between the Edge and the surface of Kronweld. As always, faint strains of music came from far away, from somewhere inside the Temple itself. Through the vast gardens a faint wind rustled the trees and drifted perfume from the flowers.

  They walked slowly on the outskirts, not daring to cross the gleaming purple line around the Temple, beyond which no one could trespass and live.

  Ketan recalled a few tara before; he had watched an earnest, foolish young Seeker dash across the forbidden line in fanatic defiance of the most sacred laws of Kronweld —and vanish in a puff of flame.

  Terrible atomic forces lay quiescent in the thin line. They held fast the secrets of the Temple of Birth and lashed out with unrelenting death upon the Seekers who trespassed.

  Ketan paused opposite the center of the forbidden arc. Before him, the scene was like a vast stage—the great black curtain of the Edge stretching to infinity and the chill, mysterious Temple lying at its foot.

  Directly before him, in the center of the garden, stood a glorious golden statue, four times life size. It was of a dancing girl, poised on tiptoe in a graceful pirouette, laughing up at the sky. Transluscent, beaten gold leaf formed her swaying skirt.

  She was the first woman.

  A thousand tara ago, the first woman had found the first man, immature and elemental, who had been created in this spot. She had cared for him until he reached maturity. Then she had directed him to build the great Temple into which she had disappeared and he never saw her again. All creation henceforth had taken place within the Temple of Birth.

  Once each tara thereafter the gates of the Temple opened and a new group of human beings emerged and were led out into the world.

  At the same time, women of Kronweld who volunteered for lifetime service entered the Temple to spend the rest of their lives in the service of birth. They were replacements for those who had died during the tara.

  Katan viewed the building somberly. “I’ll destroy that some day,” he said softly. “It’s like a horrible disease in the flesh of Kronweld. If it were not for that building and the secrets it keeps from us, we would have known the secrets of life long ago. We would know the origin of man. We would perhaps know the solution to the Mystery of the Edge.”

  “If it doesn’t destroy you first,” said Elta. “Let’s go away. It makes me afraid.”

  They turned away in time to see a two-man car glide silently up beside them. Instantly, Ketan knew its purpose. Elta felt a chill of dull fear close in upon her.

  Servicemen.

  They climbed out and approached Ketan.

  “You are learner Seeker Ketan?” One of them spoke in statement, rather than question.

  He was a round faced, paunchy man who spoke with the pride of one who had been unable to achieve the heights of Seekership, but who held occasional authority over them as an emissary of the First Group.

  Ketan nodded slowly in answer to the question, and remained silent.

  “You are requested to return to your house and appear before the reprimander of the First Group by the second rising.”

  “Who makes a complaint against me ?”

  The fat Serviceman leered smugly. “You have made no secret—”

  The taller, more dignified Serviceman interrupted. “Respect to you, learner Seeker Ketan—it is Teacher Daran who has brought your name before the Group. We but carry out our mission. May we accompany you?”

  Ketan looked at the man’s earnest face intently. He knew the man’s story as certainly as if he heard it from the man’s own lips. He had seen these Servicemen before—too fumbling and unthinking in their habits to ever become Seekers, yet worshiping fervently at the shrine of Seeking. He knew the duty of his arrest must pain the man.

  But the other was impatient. “At once, if you please!”

  Ketan turned, ignoring the Serviceman’s insolence, and murmured a word to Elta. Then he stepped into the car, leaving her staring in unbelief.

  VI.

  Elta stood motionless in the night until the car had long disappeared around a turn in the road. Above her the reflected lights of Fire Land whipped in mad patterns of color that turned the landscape into a living, twisting thing. It writhed as if reflecting the torment of her own mind.

  Swiftly, then, she turned and retraced her steps. The soft night wind touseled the golden strands of her hair as she turned into the path leading to the garden of Teacher Daran. He was still reclining on the grass listening to the music.

  She approached through the mist floating over the garden.

  “What are you going to do with him?” she demanded without preamble.

  The old man looked up with a slow, knowing smile. “Do? My dear, there’s only one thing we can do with him He must die, of course.”

  Elta’s crying fear jerked and tore at the bands of her self-control. “Can’t you think of any other solution to human problems but death? Is your mind so far gone in its dotage that no clever solution is at all possible now?”

  “Sorry, Elta,” he said maliciously, “but I’m afraid you can’t scold me into saving your lover’s life. He threatens our whole existence. In the hundred and twenty years that we have been here he is the first man of Kronweld to become dangerously aware of us. He will discover us completely if he is allowed to go on.”

  “The first except Igon and all those who followed him.”


  “We took care of them—just as we are going to take care of this Ketan.”

  At that moment a tall, magnificent figure approached them through the streamers of vapor that tumbled from the mud fountain.

  Teacher Daran turned slightly. “Recline, Leader Hoult,” he invited, his voice edged with a trace of mockery.

  Hoult ignored it. “Did you know that Matra was out of the Temple tonight?” he demanded.

  “No!” Daran leaped to his feet. “Whom did she see?”

  “Our fair companion’s lover, for one thing. She would be sure to go to the Karildex to try to spot us, but I went there tonight and found Ketan pretending to be working on a problem. It was obvious when I mentioned her that he had seen her. How much she found out, I don’t know. I’ve long suspected that Ketan knows the operation of the master keyboard.”

  He turned meaningly to Elta. “How much did he tell you?”

  She hesitated, looking from one to the other, and then .her fear exploded into catastrophe. It was no use trying to shield Ketan from what they were certain of.

  “He merely told me that you had come there, looking for an old woman.”

  “That means she found us, then,” Daran swore volubly.

  “Why do you say that? You always jump to conclusions.”

  “And usually correct ones, my dear. You see, if he hadn’t known that you were one of the Statists, he would never have told you merely that. He was simply testing you. I hope you didn’t react— though you probably did.”

  Elta let her glance fall away from the two. Her heart was sick and weary within her, sick of the years of deception and falsehood. She stared for a seeming eternity into the bubbling mud pool.

  “All right,” she said at last. “He does know of us, then. He told me that Matra had found us. He knows about me but is unwilling to believe it.

  “As to the duties I was given to perform here, they are now complete. My sister has the complete information on atomic power. It is in a form that our leading engineers can understand, this time. Nothing more is needed. Therefore, I withdraw. I ask for your mercy upon Ketan. When he comes before the Council, your power is sufficient to have him exiled to Dark Land. I will go with him. We shall live out our lives in Dark Land and you can go with your miserable struggle to sustain your futile position. You can carry that word to my beloved father,” she said with bitterness. “But let us live—even as savages— and vve shall be grateful never to see your faces or hear of you again.”

  “You pretend that you would give up all you have known in exchange for the Bors of Dark Land —and your Ketan!” Daren laughed softly. “You expect us to believe that!”

  “I wonder—” Hoult said thoughtfully. “Perhaps she is right, Daran. Surely we could spare that much mercy for one who has served the Statists so faithfully.

  You say the complete information on atomic power has been turned over to your twin?”

  “I don’t trust her any more than this one,” Daran exploded hotly. “She is hungry for power. She would slit the throats of all of us if she thought it would do her any good.”

  Elta smashed the open palm of her hand against his face. Hoult chuckled,

  “Daran is simply too suspicious and bloodthirsty. I think we can grant you that much mercy—providing what you say is true. If we have the secret of atomic power, we will seal up Kronweld forever, and let it die. If you wish to die with it, that is no concern of ours.”

  “Thank you.”

  She turned after a moment and strode away from them through the fog.

  Her heart was heavy. She knew she had failed. They had not believed her. Only one more desperate chance remained. She must go back to her father as quickly as possible. Yet it would not be possible at all without the knowledge of Hoult and Daran. She must find a way to keep it secret.

  The two men watched her slim figure disappear like a wraith in the mist.

  “You’re a fool,” Daran croaked. “Do you think for an instant that she will be content to live in Dark Land? If we should seal it up, they would be at work breaking through the very instant we did. Men like Ketan can be conquered only by death.”

  “I’ve often noticed a quality in the old,” replied Hoult with intent thoughtfulness, “they have a tendency to simplify matters so, and deal directly when subterfuge is much the more effective. Do you think for a moment that I have the power to cause abandonment of our predetermined plan of utter destruction of Kronweld—because of an idle promise to a lovesick girl?”

  For the entire distance to his home, Ketan saw only the smooth cast surface upon which they rode. His head was down, the tight planes of his forehead pursed with somewhat nervous determination.

  His hands grasped the lapels of the day cloak which he had thrown needlessly about his shoulders again and drew it tight, outlining the slump of his shoulders which the Servicemen interpreted as dejection.

  They knew Ketan’s house and drew up before it without asking for direction. Slightly ahead of them, he entered the house first and light flooded on. Ketan threw aside his cloak and motioned the Servicemen to lounges. It was their right to his hospitality for the night while they kept a formal watch over him.

  They sat down. The paunchy one began toying with the refreshment levers on the panel at his side.

  “Help yourself,” Ketan invited.

  A tray swung out beneath the refreshment panel, bearing the food and drink the Serviceman selected. He offered some to his companion who shook his head irritably.

  Ketan went immediately to a desk, selected a sheet and began writing after first adjusting the stylus to permanent. Its delicately heated tip began burning words into the- treated paper.

  While the Serviceman gorged, Ketan wrote furiously, and when he was through, Ketan rose. His eyes were filled with suppressed emotion and his cheeks were flushed.

  “Take this to the council at once,” he ordered.

  The two glanced at the sheet. The taller looked across at him. “You don’t dare—the risk is too great for so little.”

  The paunchy one set down a glass and eyed him. “It isn’t many learner Seekers who tempt the Seekers Council this way. If you take what’s coming to you, they will simply order you to cease your inquiry into the lines that Teacher Daran has complained of. Why tempt them to throw you down to ordinary Servicemanship—like us ?” He leered with curiosity.

  “A full hearing before the Seekers Council is my privilege,” said Ketan. “I am asking a public hearing. Carry the message.”

  The Serviceman took a final swallow from his glass and stepped out to the car. As leader of the two, it was his duty to carry Ketan’s appeal to the First Group, but he was reluctant to give up a night of ease in Ketan’s house.

  “You were not always a Serviceman?” Ketan settled on the lounge and turned to his remaining attendant.

  The man smiled a wry, wistful smile. “No—respect to you—may I speak as a co-operator?”

  “As an equal,” Ketan assented.

  “I am Varano. I proposed the cultivation of the creatures of Dark Land for food—that we might find an excellent and useful source of food there. Igon and others were forced to use them when they became lost there. I was declassed for my barbarism.”

  “So you were the one. I remember the instance.” Ketan looked at the Serviceman quizzically with a half smile on his face. Then he indicated the buttons on the refreshment panel.

  “Push the blue one down twice and pull up on the red one.”

  “Pull up—!”

  The Serviceman, Varano, obeyed wonderingly. Then his eyes popped and his mouth hung open. The tray swung slowly out bearing a steaming slab of browned meat.

  He leaped up and glanced furtively around the room as if hidden eyes might be watching him. “Hide it!” he cried. “You could be declassed for life on the evidence of this.”

  “You are the only one in the vicinity with authority to bring that about. Taste it.” He motioned towards the thick steak.

&n
bsp; Slowly, the Serviceman sat down again. “What do you want of me?”

  “Nothing. Just thought you’d like a little more substantial nourishment than your fat little friend had.”

  The Serviceman deliberately cut a piece from the steak and ate it. “You’re a queer one, Ketan. I wish we’d met—before. But all that is vain. There is no hope for either of us. You will be declassed as surely as the two globes rise tomorrow. Kronweld must protect itself from your kind—it is too small to hold you.”

  “What about yourself?”

  Varano shrugged. “It’s all settled and I’ve forgotten the ambitions I once had. It’s just as well. The First Group knows best. I’m in the place I belong.”

  Ketan shook his head. “I know your kind. You’ve let them beat you down until there’s nothing left of the things you once dreamed and planned. You’re nothing but an empty shell, doing the bidding of a bunch of worn out old men and women.”

  Varano flushed and rose slowly. “You forget my purpose in remaining here. It is not your province to insult.”

  “Sorry.” Ketan rose. “You don’t need to get so stiff about it.” He hesitated, then: “Come with me and I’ll show you what I am talking about.”

  Varano hesitated, then followed as Ketan led him out of the room and down a short corridor past his laboratories. At the end, they came to steps leading downward. It seemed to the Serviceman that there were hundreds of endless steps burying them ever deeper in the ground as they plodded down the lighted way.

  They made a turn and came to the bottom at last. The room was white walled and perfectly blank on its four narrow sides. Ketan whistled a low tune and a panel slid aside revealing an immense cavern beyond.

  From somewhere deep within it came a low growl and a steady rumbling that pricked the short hairs on the back of Varano’s neck. An unfamiliar rank odor stabbed at his nostrils.