Read Online The Blue World by Jack Vance - Free Book Online

often watched proceedings from a distance of a quarter-mile or
so. How King Kragen gained his knowledge was a matter of great
mystery; some asserted, that on every float lived a man who was a man
in semblance only, who inwardly was a manifestation of King Kragen.
It was through this man, according to the superstition, that King
Kragen knew what transpired on the floats.
    For three days
preceding the convocation there was incessant flickering along the
line of the hoodwink towers; the destruction of Tranque Float was
reported in full detail, together with Ixon Myrex’s denunciation of
Sklar Hast and Sklar Hast’s rebuttal. On each of the floats there was
intense discussion and a certain degree of debate. Since, in most
cases, the arbiter and the intercessor of each float inveighed
against Sklar Hast, there was little organized sentiment in his
favor.
    On the morning of
the convocation, early, before the morning sky showed blue, coracles
full of folk moved between the floats. The survivors of the Tranque
Float disaster, who for the most part had sought refuge on Thrasneck
and Bickle, were among the first under way, as were the folk from
Almack and Sciona, in the far west.
    All morning the
coracles shuttled back and forth between the floats; shortly before
noon the first groups began to arrive on Apprise. Each group wore the
distinctive emblems of its float, and those who felt caste
distinction important likewise wore the traditional hair-stylings,
forehead plaques, and dorsal ribbons; otherwise all dressed in much
the same fashion: shirts and pantalets of coarse linen woven from
sea-plant fiber, sandals of rug fish leather, ceremonial gauntlets
and epaulettes of sequins cut from the kernels of a certain
half-animal, half-vegetable mollusk.
    As the folk
arrived, they trooped to the famous old Apprise Inn where they
refreshed themselves at a table on which was set forth a collation of
beer, pod-cakes, pepperfish, and pickled fingerlings, after which the
newcomers separated to various quarters of the float, in accordance
with traditional caste distinctions. In the center of the float was a
rostrum. On surrounding benches the notables took their places:
craft-masters, caste-elders, arbiters and intercessors. The rostrum
was at all times open to any person who wished to speak, so long as
he gained the sponsorship of one of the notables.
    The first speakers
at the convocations customarily were elders intent on exhorting the
younger folk to excellence and virtue; so it was today. An hour after
the sun had reached the zenith, the first speaker made his way to the
rostrum—a portly old Incendiary from Maudelinda Float who had
in just such a fashion opened the speaking at the last five
convocations. He sought and was perfunctorily granted sponsorship. By
now his speeches were regarded as a necessary evil. He mounted the
rostrum and began to speak. His voice was rich, throbbing,
voluminous; his periods were long, his sentiments well-used, his
illuminations unremarkable.
    “We meet
again. I am pleased to see so many of the faces which over the years
have become familiar and well-beloved, and alas there are certain
faces no more to he seen, those who have slipped away to the Bourne,
many untimely, as those who suffered punishment only these few days
past before the wrath of King Kragen, of whom we all stand in awe. A
dreadful circumstance thus to provoke the majesty of this Elemental
Reality; it should never have occurred; it would never have occurred
if all abided by the ancient disciplines. Why must we scorn the
wisdom of our ancestors? Those noble and most heroic of men who dared
revolt against the tyranny of the mindless helots, to seize the Ship
of Space which was taking them to brutal confinement, and to seek a
haven here on this blessed world! Our ancestors knew the benefits of
order and rigor; they designated the castes and set them to tasks for
which they presumably had received training on the Home World. In
such a fashion the