Berwick made a Firm dissent. "This, I believe, transcends the line I have drawn. My honor is at stake and I can agree to no announcement which baldly states the certainty as a probability.If you choose to make a jocular reference, or perhaps urge that not too many Intercessors join the expedition, then all is welclass="underline" a subtle germ of suspicion has been planted, you have done your duty and my honor has not been compromised.'' "Yes, yes." cried Bia amp;del, "I agree to anything. But I must hurry to the hoodwink tower. While we quibble Sklar Hast and his bandits are kidnaping Intercessors."
"And what is the harm there?" inquired Berwick mildly.
"You state that King Kragen has been observed from Maudelinda Float proceeding to the west; hence the Intercessors are in no danger, and presumably will be allowed to return once Sklar Hast is assured that King Kragen is no longer a danger. Conversely, if the Intercessors have betrayed Sklar Hast and given information to King Kragen so that he waits off Sciona Float, then they deserve to die with the rest.
It is justice of the most precise and exquisite balance."
"That is the difficulty," muttered Blasdel, trying to push past Berwick to the door. "I cannot answer for the silence of me other Intercessors. Suppose one among them has notified King Kragen? Then a great tragedy ensues."
"Interesting! So you can indeed summon King Kragen when you so desire?"
"Yes, yes, but, mind you, this is a secret. And now-"
"It follows then that you always know the whereabouts of King Kragen. How do you achieve mis?"
"There is no time to explain; suffice it to say that a means is at hand."
"Right here? In your workroom?"
"Yes indeed. Now stand aside. After I have broadcast me warning I will make all clear. Stand aside then!"
Berwick shrugged and allowed Blasdel to run from the cottage, through the garden to the edge of the pad. Blasdel stopped short 2t the water's edge. The coracle had disappeared. Where previously Apprise Float had raised its foliage and its great hoodwink tower against the dusk. there was now only blank water and blank sky. The pad floated free; urged by the west wind of evening it already had left Apprise Float behind.
Blasdel gave an inarticulate cry of fury and woe. He turned to find Berwick standing behind him. "What has happened?"
"It seems that while we talked, divers cut through the stem of your pad. At least this is my presumption."
"Yes, yes," grated Blasdel. "So much is obvious. What else?"
Berwick shrugged. "It appears that willy-nilly, whether we like it or not, we are part of the great emigration. Now that such is the case I am relieved to know that you have a means to determine the whereabouts of King Kragen. Come. Let us make use of this device and reassure ourselves."
Blasdel made a guttural sound deep in his throat. He crouched and for a moment appeared on the point of hurling himself at Phyral Berwick. From the shadows of the verdure appeared another man. Berwick pointed. "I believe Sklar Hast himself is at hand.'' "You tricked me," groaned Barquan Blasdel between clenched teeth. "You have performed an infamous act, which you shall regret."
"I have done no such deed, although it appears that you may well have misunderstood my position. Still, the time for recrimination is over. We share a similar problem, which is how to escape the malevolence of King Kragen. I suggest that you now proceed to locate him."
Without a word Blasdel turned, proceeded to his cottage.
He entered the main room, with Berwick and Sklar Hast close behind. He crossed to the wall, lifted a panel to reveal an inner room. He brought more lights; all entered. A hole had been cut in the floor, and through the pad. the spongy tissue having been painted with a black varnish to prevent its growing together. A tube fashioned from fine yellow stalk perhaps four inches in diameter led down into the water. "At the bottom," said Blasdel curtly, "is a carefully devised hom, of exact shape and quality. The end is four feet in diameter and covered with a diaphragm of seasoned and varnished padskin. King Kragen emits a sound to which this hom is sensitive."
He went to the tube, put down his ear, listened, slowly turned the tube around a vertical axis. He shook his head. "I hear nothing. This means that King Kragen is at least ten miles distant. If he is closer I can detect him- He passed to the east early today; presumably he swims somewhere near Sumber, or Adelvine."
Sklar Hast laughed quietly. "Urged there by the Intercessors?"
Blasdel shrugged sourly. "As to that I have nothing to say."
"How then do you summon King Kragen?"
Blasdel pointed to a rod rising from the floor, the top of which terminated in a crank. "In the water below is a drum.
Inside this drum fits a wheel. When the crank is turned, the wheel, working in resin, rubs against the drum and emits a signal- King Kragen can sense this sound from a great distance-once again about ten miles. When he is needed, at say Bickle Float, the Intercessor at Aumerge calls him, until the hom reveals him to be four or five miles distant, whereupon me Intercessor at Paisley calls him a few miles, then the Maudelinda Intercessor, and so forth until he is within range of the Intercessor at Bickle Float."
Sklar Hast nodded. "I see. In this fashion Semon Voidenvo called King Kragen to Tranque. Whereupon King Kragen destroyed Tranque Boat and killed forty-three persons."
"That is the case."
Sklar Hast turned away. Phyral Berwick told Blasdel, "I believe that Semon Voidenvo is one of the Intercessors who are accompanying the emigration. His lot may not be a happy one."
"This is unreasonable," Barquan Blasdel declared heatedly." He was as faithful to his convictions as Sklar Hast is to his own. After all, Voidenvo did not enjoy the devastation of Tranque Float. It is his home. Many of those killed were his friends. But he gives his faith and trust to King Kragen."
Sklar Hast swung around. "And you?"
Blasdel shook his head. "Not with such wholeheanedness."
Sklar Hast looked toward Berwick. "What should we do with this apparatus? Destroy it? Or preserve it?"
Berwick considered. "We might on some occasion wish to listen for King Kragen. I doubt if we ever will desire to summon him.'* Sklar Hast gave a sardonic jerk of the head. "Who knows?
To his death perhaps." He turned to Blasdel. "What persons are aboard the pad in addition to us?"
"My spouse-in the cottage two roofs along. Three young daughters who weave ornaments for the Star-cursing Festival.
Three older daughters are attempting to prove themselves to three stalwarts who test them for wives. All are unaware that their home floats out on the deep ocean. None wish to become emigrants to a strange line of floats."
Sklar Hast said, "No more were any of the rest of us- until we were forced to choose. I feel no pity for them, or for you. Undoubtedly there will be ample work for all hands.
Indeed, we may formulate a new guild: the Kragen-killers. If rumor is accurate, they infest the ocean." n He left the room, went out into the night. Blasdel cast a» wry look at Phyral Berwick, went to listen once more at the detecting hom. Then he likewise left the room. Berwick followed, and lowered the panel. Both joined Sklar Hast at the edge of the pad, where now several coracles were tied. A dozen men stood in the garden. Sklar Hast turned to Blasdel.
"Summon your spouse, your daughters and those who test them. Explain the circumstances, and gather your belongingsThe evening breeze will soon die and we cannot tow the pad.'* Blasdel departed, accompanied by Berwick. Sklar Hast and the others entered the workroom, carried everything of value or utility to the coracles, including the small metal relict, the Books of Dicta, the listening horn and the summoning drum.
Then all embarked in the coracles, and Barquan Blasdel's;" beautiful pad was left to drift solitary upon the ocean.
Chapter IV
Morning came to the ocean and with it the breeze from the west. The floats could no longer be seen; the ocean was a blue mirror in all directions, Sklar Hast lowered Blasdel's horn into the water, listened. Nothing could be heard. Barquan Blasdel did the same and agreed that King Kragen was nowhere near.