“Is this the man?” said one.
“I think he is,” replied another.
“Should we release him?”
“No. If he wishes to be one of us, he will release himself.”
“But if he wishes to be one of them he will also release himself.”
“Earthman,” said a third, “you are being honored above all others—indeed you are the first man not born on this planet ever to be so honored.”
“Come,” said a fourth, “let us go to the Temple and there lie with Boonta and so father Algul, the true prince of this world.”
Carmody began to feel less humiliated. Apparently, he was important, not only to the second group, but to the first. Though if the first wanted him for something, they had a strange way of enlisting him.
What made the procedure so peculiar was that no man in the two groups was distinguished by any conventional marks of good or evil. All were handsome, vigorous, and seemingly self-confident. The only difference in their bearing was that the first, those who spoke for Yess, seemed to be having a good time, and were not afraid to lose their dignity in laughter. The second were uniformly grave and somewhat stiff.
They must need me badly, he thought.
“What will you give me?” he said very loudly, encompassing both groups in one glance.
The men of the first group looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and Tand said,”We will give you nothing you can’t give yourself.”
The spokesman for the newcomers, a tall young man, almost too handsome, said, “When we go into the Temple and there lie with Boonta as the Dark Mother, and father Algul her Dark Son, you will experience an ecstasy that cannot be described because you have never felt anything like it before. And during the years that it will take the babe to grow into manhood and godhood, you will be one of his regents, and there will be nothing in this world denied you—“
“Even,” broke in Tand, “the fear of these others killing you so they may not have to share any of the riches which they cannot possibly spend during their lifetime. For it is true that when the seven evil Fathers triumph, they always plot against each other after Algul is born. They are forced to, because they cannot trust each other. And it has always happened that only one survives, and when Algul comes to manhood, he kills that one, because he cannot endure having a mortal Father.”
“What is to prevent Algul from being killed by one of his Fathers?” asked Carmody.
Even in the violet light, he could see the men of the second group turn pale. They looked at each other. “Though he is a baby who must be fed and have his diapers changed, Algul is yet a god,” said Tand. “That is, being a god, he is the sum and essence of the spirit of those who created him. And, as most men wish for immortality, he, representing them, is immortal. That is, he would live forever if his creators did, too. But, being evil, he cannot trust his fathers, and so they must die. And when they do, he begins to age and eventually dies. Though potentially immortal, he is dead the day he is born because the seeds of evil are in him, and the seeds flower into distrust and hate.”
“This is all very fine,” said Carmody. “Why, then, does Yess, the supposedly good god, also age and die?”
The men of Algul laughed, and their leader said, “Well spoken, Earthman.”
Patiently, as if talking to a child, Tand replied, “Yess, though a god, is also a man, a being of flesh and blood. As such he is limited, and he works within the bounds set for flesh and blood. Like all men, he must die. Furthermore, he is the sum and essence of the predominating spirit of the people who lived at the time he was born—or created, whichever term you prefer. Those who Sleep have as much to do with the formation and tempering of his body and spirit as we seven Wakers do. The Sleepers dream, and the collective force of their dreaming decides which god shall be born during the Night, and also what his spirit—or what you call his personality—shall be. If the inclination of the people who Sleep has been toward evil during the years preceding the Night, then it is likely that Algul will be born. If toward good, then it is likely that Yess will be born. We would-be Fathers are not actually the determining factors. We are the agents, and the Sleepers, the two billion people of our world, are the will.”
Tand paused, stared hard at Carmody as if trying to impress his sincerity upon him, and said, “I will be frank. You are so important partly because you are an Earthman; a man from another star. Only lately have we Kareenans become very much aware of alien religions, of what their existence implies. We have become aware that the Great Mother, or God, or the Prime Cause, or whatever you wish to term the Creator of the universe, is not restricted in Her interest to our little cloud of dust, that She has scattered Her creatures everywhere.
“Therefore, the Sleepers, knowing that man is not alone, that he has blood-brothers everywhere that life may be, outward to infinity and to eternity, wish to have as a Father one of these strangers from the stars. Yess, reborn, will not be the old Yess. He will be as different from the old man who died, his predecessor, as any baby is from his father. He will be, we hope, part alien, because of his alien heritage. And during his princehood over us, he will enable us to understand and become one with these strangers from the stars, and we will be better men because of him and his heritage. That is one reason, Carmody, why we desire you.”
Tand pointed at his Enemies.
“And these six want you also as seventh, but not for quite the same reason. If you are one of the Fathers of Algul, then perhaps Algul may extend his dominion past this planet and to the stars: And they, through Algul, will share in this cosmic loot.”
Carmody felt hope—and craving—surge within him, bringing him strength from somewhere in his exhausted flesh. To take for yourself the richest planets, as you would the biggest diamonds for a necklace! String them on a cord of space and wear them around your neck! With the vast powers he would undoubtedly have as Algul’s regent, he could do anything! Nothing barred!
It was then that the second group must have decided that the right moment had come, for they suddenly launched at him the collective force of their feelings. And he, being wide open, reeled beneath them.
Dark, dark, dark...
Ecstasy...
He, John Carmody, would be forever John Carmody as he now knew him, inviolate, strong, defiant, bending or destroying anything in the way of what he wanted. No danger here of his changing, of becoming something other than what he now was. Body, mind, and soul, he would in the flame of this dark ecstasy become hard as a diamond, resisting all change, permanent, forever John Carmody. The race of man might die around him, suns grow cold, planets slow and fall into their parent suns, but he, John Carmody, would travel outwards with the expanding universe, landing upon freshly born planets, living there until they grew old and died, then setting out again. And always and forever himself, today and tomorrow, unchanging, the same hard-and-bright-as-a-diamond John Carmody.
Then the first group opened themselves up. But instead of launching at him their concentrated essence, like a spear, they merely lowered the wall and allowed him to attack or do whatever he wished. There was not the slightest hint of assault or force, nor the feeling the fathers of Algul gave of withholding something deep within themselves in reserve. They were wide open and transparent to the depths of their beings.