The translator, incidentally, supposing it to be turned on, would provide only the translation of what was said, and the words, unless the volume control was manipulated during the message, would always occur at the same sound level.An analogue to listening to a translator would be to imagine words as pictures which, in the same type face and size, flash serially on a screen.There would be no clue in the individual pictures, per se, of the rhythm of the language or the mood of the speaker.The translator can tell you that the speaker is angry but it cannot show you that he is angry.
After a minute or two the Priest-Kings stopped circling one another and turned to face me.As one creature, they turned on their translators.
'You are Tarl Cabot of the City of Ko-ro-ba,' said the larger.
'Yes,' I said.
'I am Sarm,' it said, 'beloved of the Mother and First Born.'
'Are you the leader of the Priest-Kings?' I asked.
'Yes,' said Sarm.
'No,' said Misk.
Sarm's antennae darted in Misk's direction.
'Greatest in the Nest is the Mother,' said Misk.
Sarm's antennae relaxed.'True,' said Sarm.
'I have much to speak of with Priest-Kings,' I said.'If the one whom you call the Mother is chief among you, I wish to see her.'
Sarm rested back on his posterior appendages.His antennae touched one another in a slightly curling movement.'None may see the Mother save her caste attendants and the High Priest-Kings,' said Sarm, 'the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Born.'
'Except on the three great holidays,' said Misk.
Sarm's antennae twitched angrily.
'What are the three great holidays?' I asked.
'The Nest Feast Cycle,' said Misk, 'Tola, Tolam and Tolama.'
'What are these feasts?' I asked.
'They are the Anniversary of the Nuptial Flight,' said Misk, 'the Feast of the Deposition of the First Egg and the Celebration of the Hatching of the First Egg.'
'Are these holidays near?' I asked.
'Yes,' said Misk.
'But,' said Sarm, 'even on such feasts none of the lower orders may view the Mother - only Priest-Kings.'
'True,' said Misk.
Anger suffused my countenance.Sarm seemed not to notice this change but Misk's antennae perked up immediately. Perhaps it had had experience with human anger.
'Do not think badly of us, Tarl Cabot,' said Misk, 'for on the holidays those of the lower orders who labour for us - be it even in the pastures or fungus trays - are given surcease from their labours.'
'The Priest-Kings are generous,' I said.
'Do the men below the mountains do as much for their animals?' asked Misk.
'No,' I said.'But men are not animals.'
'Are men Priest-Kings?' asked Sarm.
'No,' I said.
'Then they are animals,' said Sarm.
I drew my sword and faced Sarm.The motion was extremely rapid and must have startled him.
At any rate Sarm leaped backward on his jointed, stalklike legs with almost incredible speed.
He now stood almost forty feet from me.
'If I cannot speak to the one you call the Mother,' I said, 'perhaps I can speak to you.'
I took a step towards Sarm.
Sarm pranced angrily backward, his antennae twitching with agitation.
We faced one another.
I noticed the tips of his forelegs were inverted, unsheathing the two curved, hornlike blades which reposed there.
We watched one another carefully.
From behind me I heard the mechanical voice of Misk's translator: 'But she is the Mother,' it said, 'and we of the Nest are all her children.'
I smiled.
Sarm saw that I did not intend to advance further and his agitation decreased, although his general attitude of awareness was not relaxed.
It was at this time that I first saw how Priest-Kings breathed, probably because Sarm's respiratory movements were now more pronounced than they had been hitherto.Muscular contractions in the abdomen take place with the result that air is sucked into the system through four small holes on each side of the abdomen, the same holes serving also as exhalation vents.Usually the breathing cycle, unless one is quite close and listens carefully, cannot be heard, but in the present case I could hear quite clearly from a distance of several feet the quick intake of air through the eight tiny, tubular mouths in Sarm's abdomen, and its almost immediate expellation through the same apertures.
Now the muscular contractions in Sarm's abdomen became almost unnoticeable and I could no longer hear the evidence of his respiratory cycle.The tips of his forelegs were no longer inverted, with the result that the bladed structures had disappeared and the small, four-jointed, hooklike prehensile appendages were again fully visible.Their tips delicately touched one another.Sarm's antennae were calm.
He regarded me.
He did not move.
I would never find myself fully able to adjust to the incredible stillness with which a Priest-King can stand.
He reminded me vaguely of the blade of a golden knife.
Suddenly Sarm's antennae pointed at Misk.'You should have anaesthetised it,' he said.
'Perhaps,' said Misk.
For some reason this hurt me.I felt that I had betrayed Misk's trust in me, that I had behaved as a not fully rational creature, that I had behaved as Sarm had expected me to.
'I'm sorry,' I said to Sarm, resheathing my sword.
'You see,' said Misk.
'It's dangerous,' said Sarm.
I laughed.
'What is that?' asked Sarm, lifting his antennae.
'It is shaking and curling its antennae,' said Misk.
On the receipt of this information Sarm did not shake nor did his antennae curl; rather the bladelike structures snapped out and back, and his antennae twitched in irritation.I gathered one did not shake and curl one's antennae at Priest-Kings.
'Mount the disk, Tarl Cabot of Ko-ro-ba,' said Misk, gesturing with his foreleg to the flat oval disk which had brought Sarm to our level.
I hesitated.
'He is afraid,' said Sarm.
'He has much to fear,' said Misk.
'I am not afraid,' I said.
'Then mount the disk,' said Misk.
I did so, and the two Priest-Kings stepped delicately onto the disk to join me, in such a way that one stood on each side and slightly behind me.Scarcely had they placed their weight on the disk when it began to smoothly and silently accelerate down the long ramp which led toward the bottom of the canyon.
The disk moved with great swiftness and it was with some difficulty that I managed to stand on my feet, leaning into the blast of air which rushed past me.To my annoyance both of the Priest-Kings seemed immobile, leaning alertly forward into the wind, their forelegs lifted high, their antennae lying flat, streaming backwards.
Chapter Twelve: THE TWO MULS
On a marble circle of some half pasang in width, in the bottom of that vast, brilliantly lit, many-coloured artificial canyon the oval disk diminished its speed and drew to a stop.
I found myself in some sort of plaza, surrounded by the fantastic architecture of the Nest of Priest-Kings.The plaza was crowded, not only with Priest-Kings but even more with various creatures of other forms and natures.Among them I saw men and women, barefoot with shaven heads, clad in short purple tunics that reflected the various lights of the plaza as though they might have been formed of some reflective plastic.
I stepped aside as a flat, sluglike creature, clinging with several legs to a small transportation disk, swept by.
'We must hurry,' said Sarm.