Read Online Maske: Thaery by Jack Vance - Free Book Online Page A

took his own flask and goblet to the table. “May I intrude upon your company?”
    “As long as you like.”
    “I assume you to be a National.”
    “This observation, which surely you do not intend offensively—”
    “By no means.”
    “—is correct. I am master of the Clanche , whose mast swings yonder; my name is Shrack.”
    “I am Jubal Droad, a gentleman of Glentlin. I would like to ask your advice.”
    Shrack made an expansive gesture. “A National’s advice is generally reckoned no more and no less profound than the cry of the kakaru-bird. Nonetheless, ask away.”
    Jubal signaled to the waitress for wine. “My dilemma is this. I am a Glint of irreproachable caste; however this serves no purpose at Wysrod. I have been offered the post of sewer inspector at a salary of seventeen toldecks a week. Needless to say, my ambitions reach beyond a career of this sort.”
    Shrack accepted a goblet of wine from the waitress. “Seventeen toldecks would seem an inadequate stipend for a gallant gentleman. I, a mere sea-farer, average almost half this amount.”
    “I see three choices for myself,” said Jubal. “I can become a National; I can emigrate; or I can submit to expediency and become an inspector.”
    The sea-farer drank from the goblet. Leaning back, he turned his mild gaze up to the ceiling. “Each of these courses, it is safe to say, entails a characteristic set of consequences which a stranger to the situation can only imagine. His projections will be inaccurate; how can anyone create real worlds from will-o’-the-wisps? Experience is the only source of wisdom: by which I mean, the competent conduct of life. In short, I can advise you only in regard to sea-faring. To complete your survey you should confer with an inspector and then an emigrant.”
    “By coincidence I know one of each,” said Jubal, “but I can rely on neither for information, especially the emigrant. Will you drink more wine?”
    “With pleasure! But allow me to arrange this phase of our discussion.” Shrack the sea-farer acquainted the waitress with his needs, then resumed his easy posture. “Like yourself, I was at one time forced to make a hard choice. By and large, I have not regretted it. I have seen strange sights; I have known startling experiences of which no city-dweller could be aware, no matter how agile his intellect.
    The Clanche is my home. I love each splinter of her fabric, but I agree that a boat is different from a parcel of land, with a cottage, a stream, a meadow and an orchard of fruit. Better? Or worse? I have known both and I cannot decide.”
    “Please continue,” said Jubal. “Your remarks bear directly on my problem.”
    “I have taken the Clanche fourteen times around the Long Ocean. I have visited the Happy Isles, the Morks, and the Apparitions. I have bartered honey for musk with Wolvishmen of Dohobay. I have sailed up the Swal River of far Djanad to the town Rountze; on the Rountze mud-flats, during the dark of Skay 20 , nineteen Binadaries attacked me with sharp staves. I have traded at Weary on Bazan; at Thopold on the Sea of Storms; at Erdstone Pool on Wellas. In exchange for a good adze, a half-witted Wael dryad took me to a talking tree, and was subsequently planted—”
    “Planted?”
    “That is the Wael punishment. I consider them the strangest folk of Maske, perhaps of the whole Gaean Reach; they are said to derive from a union between the Vile Fourteenth and a band of rogue Djans.”
    “I have heard a similar theory, but I am not convinced.”
    Shrack nodded. “The coupling of Gaean with Djan produces no issue, as we all can attest. Still special potions might have been used; who knows the truth? I hope to visit Erdstone Pool soon, if only to drink rum punch at Tanglefoot Tavern.”
    “Might you need an inexperienced assistant?”
    “You have applied to the wrong ship,” said Shrack. “I am as land-bound as you; I cannot sail till I clear myself of certain writs. Rather than