rub his tiny little limbs with a look of pain so intense that I hurt as well. The second was Yuree, who continued to be a slave under the management of Ouree the Unclaimed. Both problems were to come to a crisis during that winter. Egan worsened. He had no urge for food. We forced him to eat but he did not gain weight or grow. Our girl was fat and healthy and always moving with that endless energy of the very young. Poor Egan lay on his couch and cried with his pain. Before the shortest night of the year, he was in constant pain, and finally, a mere bag of bones, white as if all his blood had left him, he died in great pain and left his father and his mother to grieve. My poor son. My only son. The family ate a feast of mourning, and we dug through snow and chipped away at frozen ground to place my Egan in his grave. «I will retire for a period of mourning,» I told the gathered family. «In my absence it is Yorerie to whom you will come, with the Seer as his adviser.» And for days I did not leave our cave. The only joy in my life was my daughter and my pairmate, and we clung to each other, the antics of the little girl sometimes making us forget, for a moment, our grief. My own grief was compounded by Mar's failure to get with child. Cree's pairmate had delivered a fine son, and I envied him so. I spent much time playing read, learning stories of the giants. Pictures showed giants riding animals of a strange form, four legs, long necks. There were no such animals in our land. It was a puzzle. And I longed to know more, spending more and more time at the game until, one night when both Mar and Margan were sleeping, the eye spoke to me. «You are man,» said the low and strange voice of the eye. I had come to understand it. «I am man,» I said in my pleasingly high voice. «Man learns,» the voice said. «I learn,» I agreed. Could the eye hear me? Yes, I thought so, for some of the games included voice. I could not make a picture change until I spoke the words desired by the eye. «Man has duty to man,» the eye said. «Man has his duty,» I agreed, nodding my head vigorously. «And now it is time for your duty to begin,» the eye said. «You are ready.» And before me the eye moved, an entire plate moving, sliding, opening a hole in the wall of the eye cave, and, curious, I looked to see step stones leading downward into a sunlit long cave which went down and down—I went without waking Mar—into a large and heated and sunlit cave which, at the center, had a chair and a tall thing of lights and other wonders. I walked near and examined. The tall thing extended to the top of the cave and was alive with lights, which, as I watched, began to blink in a pattern that was interesting. I took my place in the chair, and the flat surface in front of me came alive. It was, I discovered, another form of the game. «Man,» said the voice of the eye. «Now learn.» «I learn,» I said. A light came on on the tall part. I looked at my flat surface and saw a light. I pushed. There was a click and another light came on and there was a wait after I pushed the light which matched it and on my flat surface there were protruding things. I played the game until I was tired and left it to sleep. The new game was more complicated than anything I had done and required an exactness which sometimes bored me. Often there was a waiting period as I pushed lights and protrusions and moved little things from one position to the other. When I made a mistake the tall thing lit up and made a sound like a lion wailing. Then the game had to be begun all over again. After days of this I was bored, for there were no pictures. «I will go back to the other game,» I said, «the read game.» But the eye was not alive, and each time I entered the small cave of the eye the plate opened and there was nothing to do but go into the lower cave and push lights and move little things which clicked. I tired. «Man has duty,» the voice told me. «I am tired of this.» «Man has duty. Man must do duty. Man will be rewarded with good things to eat and other wonders.» This was new. I listened. It was repeated. I followed the lights and pushed things and after a long day of it the voice said, «It is good. You are ready.» «I sleep,» I said. «I am ready for that.» But there was not to be sleep. It was early evening, and when I went into the sleep cave above Yorerie was there, looking uneasy as he always did when he was in our cave. I had allowed him to visit us only after I had named him acting family head during my period of mourning. He did not like our cave. «Honorable father,» he said. «There is a problem.» «You are family head. If you need advice, ask the Seer.» «The Seer advised me to come to you, honorable father.» «Speak, then,» I said. «I suppose it is time I ended my mourning.» «It is the young widows,» Yorerie said. «They have spoken with the Seer of Things Unseen and they claim the right of family disaster.» «You will have to tell me,» I said. «I am not as wise as the Seer and do not know all about our ancient customs.» «Indeed, the Seer herself had to search her memory, for she had never experienced disaster,» Yorerie said. «Speak,» I told him. «When disaster, as in war or disease, strikes the men of a family, leaving many widows, it is the right of the widows under our ancient laws to use the remaining hunters for the purpose of getting with child, thus to rebuild the strength of the family.» «Gods of man,» I sighed. «Are we to become like the inbreeders?» «Seer tells me it is true,» Yorerie said. «Sensible, if you ask me,» said my Mar. «Would you lend me, then, to the widows to make babies?» I asked her in amazement. «Would you cease to love me if you did?» she asked. «Would it change you? Would you still not be Eban the Hunter?» «Gods of man,» I said. I resolved to speak with the family. I gathered them on a clear and starry night before a huge and ceremonial campfire. «I will hear the thoughts of all,» I said. «Seer of Things Unseen, tell us the law.» «The family needs hunters,» Seer said. «For soon all will be old and there are only five young ones who are male and they will have to feed and protect all. It is the right of widows, when males number fewer than females, to be serviced for the purpose of making child. So says the law. So says the Seer, for this family has, indeed, come to disaster.» «And the dangers?» I asked. «Are the laws of blood then repealed in time of disaster?» «I have made a study,» the Seer said. «The law, as I can remember it…» Would that we had all our laws written on the eye, I thought to myself, there to be permanent and not to be trusted to the frail memory of a Seer. «… allows no coupling of sister and brother, parent and child, nor the coupling of sons and daughters of brothers and sisters. Thus, Cree the Kite would be banned from servicing two widows, who are daughters of his mother and father's sisters and brothers, Yorerie of two. Of the family, you alone, Eban, are not so close by blood, your father having no brothers or sisters and your mother coming from another family by capture. Since there are but three hunters, thus, you service the widows not serviceable by Cree and Yorerie.» «Gods of man,» I said. «We beg our rights,» said one of the widows, prostrating herself in the cleared area beside the campfire. «Arise,» I said. «And how say the pairmates of Yorerie and Cree?» I asked. Roden, pairmate of Cree, stood. «We like it not,» she said, «but we abide by the law, provided that it is over when the widows are with child.» «That is the law,» the Seer said. «When the widows are with child the family returns to normal until the new children are walkers, and then—» «Again?» I asked, awed by the idea of fathering so many children. «Until the balance is repaired and the boys of the family begin to reach age,» the Seer said. «This is for the family,» I said. «A vote.» The widows voted, save Yuree, who was silent. The old voted and then the pairmates, Mar grinning at me with mischief in her eyes. That left only the hunters. Yorerie, clearly red-faced, said he would do his duty, his eyes on the pleasing form of one of his appointed widows. Cree said yes. «So be it,» said I. «Honorable father,» Yuree the Slave said, prostrating herself. «You may speak,» I said. «I beg forgiveness,» she said. «If it is still your will to give me another chance to be a member of your family, I beg your blessing.» «Gladly,» I said. «Slave Yuree, arise.» She stood. «Welcome, sister,» I said. «As family head, I make Yuree the widow a member, and all are to treat her as such.» «Honorable father,» Yuree said, a little smile on her face. «Am I not a full member?» «I have granted it.» «I claim my right,» she said. «As a family member you have all rights,» I said. «Both Yorerie and Cree are sons of sisters of my mother,» Yuree said, with that funny little smile. I realized the import and looked quickly at Mar. She was no longer smiling. «The family has spoken,» I said. «So be it.» «Honorable father,» the Seer of Things Unseen said, «here are the widows to be honored by your seed. Young Til, who was childless, having only this summer come of age; Fanan the widow of Bloc; now that she is no longer a slave, Yuree widow of Logan; and, lastly, the daughter of Bla, Ouree the Unclaimed.» «Does the Unclaimed have the right of disaster?» «Clearly,» the Seer said. «So be it,» I muttered, looking at Yuree with a strange feeling of anticipation surging in my blood. Thus it was that the winter passed. I will not speak much of the events, for such things are private and, except in times of disaster, kept within the hidehouse of pairmates. Let me say only that Young Til was shy and sent me away quickly when my duty was done, she being the first of my duties, the times chosen by the moon as interpreted by the Seer, and that Fanan was easily pleased, begged me to stay—I did, on two occasions until the sun was a redness, Fanan pleasing as well as being pleased; and that Ouree the Unclaimed was so grateful for my attentions that it made me feel ashamed. I found her to be untouched, of course, and it was the work of two nights to penetrate her tightness, and then she was tender, loving, grateful, and brought gifts of pretty red berries to Mar to thank her for allowing me to present her with child, for she was the first to miss her moon period. It was Yuree who was a puzzle. I went into her house with sinful anticipation, feeling very much as if I had, in my mind, joined the honorless inbreeders, to be so able to find joy in thinking of coupling with her. She was ready for me, allowed no preliminary play, but guided me to her quickly and was quickly done with me. However, of the four to whom I gave service, she was the last to miss her moon period, and thus after all the other three were finished with me I was still visiting the house of Yuree after two winter moons, much to Mar's disgust. So. It was, I must admit, an interesting winter, one which saw me out of my cave many nights, leaving me no time for the game. When I went back to it, having only Yuree left to service, I was slow to follow the lights, and we had to begin all over again. In view of later events I must depart from my honor and speak of my last night with Yuree. I went to her house, as was my duty, prepared for a joyless coupling quickly done and quickly finished, wondering if I was fated to spend my virile years servicing two women who could not, apparently, conceive. She awaited me. The fire was stacked with green wood, the house was warm, and she was in her couch, covered by her sleephides. I removed my clothing and joined her. I lay beside her, not speaking, waiting for the heat of her desirable body to prepare me. She touched me. It was something she had not done before. Her hand was warm and soft, and I responded immediately and started to mount her, to do my duty quickly. She would not open for me; instead, she began to use her lips on mine, to cling and love as the others had loved, and as she had not done. And it was good. I allowed her. «There is a change,» I sighed, as she kissed and clung and fondled. «That is because this is the last night,» she said. «How can you say?» «I know. I feel it,» she said. «Tonight I will conceive, and your duty will be finished, and I wish to make it memorable.» «Yes,» I said. For foolish moments I dreamed that the killbird had slept, leaving me to win Yuree, and that this was our first time and I was warm, and then I felt a pang of disloyalty. «I want to show you, Eban, what a woman can be,» she whispered, and continued to do things to me until, with a roar of need, I mounted her and she was alive and responsive and loving, and then it was ended. «Was it good?» she whispered. «Very good,» I said. «I wanted it to be good, so that you would remember,» she said. «There will be other times,» I said. «When your child is a walker there will be other times.» «No,» she said. «You will never touch me again.» There was something in her voice. I withdrew my slackness from her and cleaned myself, wondering. «But,» she said, «when you are with your skinny and ugly hag of an inbreeder, you will remember and lust for Yuree.» So much malice? I was stunned. But I spoke. «Mar is neither skinny nor ugly,» I said. «She is my pairmate by choice, Yuree. And although you were sweet, until this malice which I did not suspect came out in you, you are not the woman Mar is, for she knows delights which you have not imagined.» Her face darkened. «The art of love is hers,» I said, «and she uses her lips and her hot tongue in such ways as to make other women seem passive. So, Yuree, you have not hurt me. I will not lust for you.» «Killer,» she spat. «Know, then, that I have already missed my moon period and am with your child and that it is so for one reason and one alone. I will bear a boy. He will live and grow to kill you, killer, and be family head.» «Yuree, your hate has poisoned you. If it be a son, he will be a family member and have as much chance to win family head as the others. But do not poison his mind against me or I will try you for disloyalty.» «I hate you,» she said. «I'm glad your sickly infant son died.» I struck her across the face heavily, sending her head back against the couch, and then I left her to her own hate, much disturbed. Chapter Eight During our long periods of being alone, having no one in the world save ourselves, Mar and I had developed the habit of sharing every thought. Indeed, she questioned me closely when I returned from each of my duty periods with the four women I serviced and often laughed at my accounts. After my last visit to Yuree I was troubled and waited a day to speak with Mar. «The sickness of hate is in her,» Mar said. «Perhaps a child will change it.'» «She has right to hate me,» I said. «For I brought death to father, mother, family, pairmate.» «I'm sick of your blaming yourself for all of that,» Mar said. «Think of the good you've done for these people. Look at the love which is given you, with honor, by all save the soured one. Do you actually think she hates you?» «Are you saying she doesn't, when she told me she did, and promised to rear her son to kill me?» «She loved you, fool,» Mar said. «She has always loved you. She sent you to get the dragon guts. But she loved you. She thought you dead and took a weak man, and this has soured her, for she sees you with me and thinks it is her right to be at your side in your sleep couch.» «Wrong, wrong,» I said. «She hates me because of the death I brought into her life.» «Ha,» Mar said. «Go to her, then, tell her you are tired of the inbreeder and will be her pairmate, and see how quickly her frown changes.» «Mar,» I said, shocked. «Oh, I know you wouldn't,» she said. «You're much too honorable. But it is true, what I speak.» «Mar, have you ever doubted my love for you?» She smiled, came to me, pushed me back and put her sweet weight atop me. «Never,» she said. «My only regret is that I cannot give you babies.» «We have Margan.» «With the sickness, as you tell me, in her bones. Promise me one thing, Eban.» «Of course.» «Keep that our secret.» «The sickness?» «Yes.» «So be it.» «You will have children. Sons and daughters by all of them. The four.» «They will not be ours, but theirs.» «No,» she said. «We will make them ours, even the offspring of Yuree. You are family head. You can speak. You can demand the right of the father.» «All would give it gladly, save Yuree.» «And you will force it on her, or you will raise the thing you fear, a killer, in your bosom,» Mar said. «You are wise, as always,» I said. So we watched with interest as the spring came and a summer of joy began, the family happy, well fed, eager, industrious, together. Even Yuree seemed resigned. Bellies fattened with summer.