Plugger was a tall, well-built, dark-skinned man. His hands werelong andnarrow with long tapering fingers. These were covered with smallprotuberances, a feature Sybil had not described.
"Our enemies--and yours--were moving in fast," Pao said. "That iswhy we hadto take you two away. I am sorry; we're all sorry. But it had to bedone. Otherwise, you would have fallen into the hands of the Tocs."
"Tocs?" Childe said.
"Everything will be explained," Pao said. "Very quickly. Meanwhile, werequire your presence elsewhere."
"And Sybil?" "She will have to stay here. But she won't be harmed." Childe kissed Sybil and said, "I'll be back. I don't think they
intend us any evil. Not now, anyway."
He watched Plugger shut the door. There was a button in itsmiddle; whenthis was pressed, an unlocking mechanism was activated. Childereached out and pressed the button, and the door swung out swiftly.
Pao said, "What are you doing?" and pressed the button to shut the door. "I just wanted to see how it worked," Childe said. They started down the hall, which was wide and luxuriously
carpeted andfurnished. He stopped after a few steps. He had been right. Themirror was a one-way device. He could see Sybil still standing in the middle ofthe room, herhands clenched by her side.
He decided to see how valuable he was to them. "I'd like that mirror turned off," he said. "I don't like being
spied on." Pao hesitated and then said, "Very well." He pressed a button on the side of the mirror and it darkened. "I'd like the other mirror turned off, too," Childe said. "I'll see it's done," Pao said. "Come along now." Childe followed him with the other two men behind him. At the end
of the hall, they turned left into another hall and halfway down that turnedright intoa very large room. This looked like the salon of a millionaire'shouse as constructed for a movie set. There was a magnificent concert piano atthe far end and very expensive furniture, perhaps genuine Louis XV pieces, around the room. A peculiar feature, however, was the glass or transparent metalcube set in the middle of the room. Inside this was a slender-legged dark-redwooden table on top of which was a silvery goblet. Or half a goblet. Oneside seemed to be complete, but the other was missing. It was as if a shears had cutthroughthe cup part of the goblet at a forty-five degree angle,
Pao led Childe to the transparent cube and motioned to a man tobring achair. Childe looked around. There were six exits, some of them broadenough forthree men to go through abreast. There were also about fifty men andwomen in the room, a large number of them between him and the exits. All weredressed in tails and gowns. Pao and his two men were the only ones in businessclothes. He recognized Panchita Pocyotl and Vivienne Mabcrough. Vivienne wore ascarlet floor-length formal with a deep V almost to her navel. Her pale skinand auburn hair contrasted savagely with the flaming gown. She was holding a bigostrich fan. Seeing his eyes on her, she smiled.
The crowd had been talking when he entered but the conversationsoftened as he was brought before the cube.
Now Pao held up his hand, and the voices died away. A man broughta chair with three legs, a heavy wooden thing with a symbol carved into theback. The symbol was a delta with one end stuck into the open mouth of arampant fish.
"Please sit down," Pao said. Childe sat down in the chair and leaned against its back. Hecould feel the alto-relief of the carved symbol pressing into his back. At the sametime, thedull silver of the goblet inside the cube became bright and shimmery. The brightness increased until it glowed as if it were about to melt.
A murmur of what sounded to him like awe ran through the people.
Pao smiled and said, "We would appreciate it if you wouldconcentrate on the goblet, Herald Childe."
"Concentrate how?" Childe said.
"Just look at it. Examine it thoroughly. Let it fill your mind. You will know what I mean."
Childe shrugged. Why not? The procedure and the goblet hadaroused his curiosity, and their intentions did not seem sinister. Certainly, hewas beingtreated far better than when he had been a prisoner in Igescu's.
He sat in the chair and stared at the shining goblet. It had abroad base with small raised figures the outlines of which were fuzzy. After awhile, as hestudied them, they became clear. They were men and women, naked, andanimals engaged in a sexual orgy. Set here and there among them were gobletslike that at which he looked, except that these were complete. There was acurious scene in which a tiny woman was halfway into a large goblet while acreature that looked like the Werewolf of London, as played by Henry Hull, rammed along dickinto her asshole. At one side of the base, almost out of view, was a man emerging from a goblet. His legs were still within the cup, but hisstiff dongwas out and was being squeezed by the tentacle of a creature thatseemed to be a six-legged octopus with human hermaphroditic organs. While it wasjacking-offthe man in the goblet, it was also fucking itself.
Childe did not know what the scene represented, but it seemed tohim that it had something to do with fecundity. Not with fecundity in the senseof begettingchildren but of...
He almost grasped the sense of the figures and their play, but itdanced away.
The goblet stem was slender. A snake-like thing of silver coiledaround it, its head flattening out to become the underpart of the cup. Its twoeyes, distorted, were the only dark spots on the bright silver of thegoblet.
The outside of the cup, except for the serpent's head, was bare. But the inside bore some, raised geometrical figures that shifted as helooked at them. Sometimes he could pin them down for a half a second and the figuresbegan tomake sense, even if they were totally unfamiliar.
The goblet shone even more brilliantly. The room became quieter, and then, suddenly, he could hear the breathing of everyone in the room, exceptfor himself, and, far away, the impact of rain on the roof and the wallsof the house and, even more distantly, the roar of the waters down thestreet outside.
There was a hissing he could not at first identify. It was soweak, soremote. And then he knew. He did not have to turn his head to look, and it would have done no good if he had. The thing was hidden under Vivienne'sdress. It had slid out and was dangling between her legs. Its little bearded mouthwas open, the tongue flickering out, and it was hissing with rage or lust. Or, perhaps, some other emotion. Awe?
The light from the goblet became more intense. Surprisingly, hecould look at it without pain. Its whiteness seemed to drill into his eyes andflood his brain. The interior of his skull was white; his brain was a glowingjewel.
There was a collective intake of breath, and the light went out. The darkness that followed was painful. He felt as if something very muchbeloved had died. His life was empty; he had no reason to live.
He wept.
CHAPTER 36
When he was finished sobbing--and he still did not know why hehad felt so bereaved--he looked up. The people were not talking, but they weremaking somenoise as they shifted around. Also, several were passing through thecrowd and serving a liquid in small goblets. The people drank it with oneswallow and then put their goblets back onto the large silver trays.
Pao appeared from behind him with a tray on which stood a gobletfilled with a dark liquid and several sandwiches. The bread was coarse and black.
"Drink and then eat," Pao said. "And if I don't?" Pao looked stricken, but he shrugged his shoulders and said,
"This is one thing that we can't compel you to do. But I swear by my mother planetthat the food and drink will not harm you."