Read Online The Last Castle by Jack Holbrook Vance - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jack Holbrook Vance
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if you were as charming and gay as you are beautiful.”
The girl shrugged and Xanten could not be sure whether she were pleased or not, compliments from gentlemen sometimes setting the stage for a sorry aftermath. “Well, no matter. I came also to speak to Claghorn.”
“He is yonder,” she said in a voice toneless, even cool, and pointed. “He occupies that cottage.” She returned to her blackberry picking. Xanten bowed, proceeded to that cottage the girl had indicated.
Claghorn, wearing loose knee-length breeches of gray homespun, worked with an axe chopping faggots into stove-lengths. At the sight of Xanten he halted his toil, leaned on the axe, mopped his forehead. “Ah, Xanten. I am pleased to see you. How are the folk of Castle Hagedorn?”
“As before. There is little to report, even had I come to bring you news.”
“Indeed, indeed?” Claghorn leaned on the axe handle, surveyed Xanten with a bright blue gaze.
“At our last meeting,” went on Xanten, “I agreed to question the captive Mek. After doing so I am distressed that you were not at hand to assist, so that you might have resolved certain ambiguities in the responses.”
“Speak on,” said Claghorn. “Perhaps I shall be able to do so now.”
“After the council meeting I descended immediately to the storeroom where the Mek was confined. It lacked nutriment; I gave it syrup and a pail of water, which it sipped sparingly, then evinced a desire for minced clams. I summoned kitchen help and sent them for this commodity and the Mek ingested several pints. As I have indicated, it was an unusual Mek, standing as tall as myself and lacking a syrup sac. I conveyed it to a different chamber, a storeroom for brown plush furniture, and ordered it to a seat.
“I looked at the Mek and it looked at me. The quills which I removed were growing back; probably it could at least receive from Meks elsewhere. It seemed a superior beast, showing neither obsequiousness nor respect, and answered my questions without hesitation.
“First I remarked: “The gentlefolk of the castles are astounded by the revolt of the Meks. We had assumed that your life was satisfactory. Were we wrong?’
“ ‘Evidently.’ I am sure that this was the word signaled, though never had I suspected the Meks of wit of any sort.
“ ‘Very well then,’ I said. In what manner?’
“ ‘Surely it is obvious. We no longer wished to toil at your behest. We wished to conduct our lives by our own traditional standards.’
“The response surprised me. I was unaware that the Meks possessed standards of any kind, much less traditional standards.”
Claghorn nodded. “I have been similarly surprised by the scope of the Mek mentality.”
“I reproached the Mek: ‘Why kill? Why destroy our lives in order to augment your own?’ As soon as I had put the question I realized that it had been unhappily phrased. The Mek, I believe, realized the same; however, in reply he signaled something very rapidly which I believe was: ‘We knew we must act with decisiveness. Your own protocol made this necessary. We might have returned to Etamin Nine, but we prefer this world Earth, and will make it our own, with our own great slipways, tubs and basking ramps.’
“This seemed clear enough, but I sensed an adumbration extending yet beyond. I said, ‘Comprehensible. But why kill, why destroy? You might have taken yourself to a different region. We could not have molested you.’
“ ‘Infeasible, by your own thinking. A world is too small for two competing races. You intended to send us back to Etamin Nine.’
“‘Ridiculous!’ I said. ‘Fantasy, absurdity. Do you take me for a mooncalf?’
“ ‘No,’ the creature insisted. ‘Two of Castle Hagedorn’s notables were seeking the highest post. One assured us that, if elected, this would become his life’s aim.’
“ ‘A grotesque misunderstanding,’ I told him. ‘One man, a lunatic, can not speak for all men!’
‘“No? One
The girl shrugged and Xanten could not be sure whether she were pleased or not, compliments from gentlemen sometimes setting the stage for a sorry aftermath. “Well, no matter. I came also to speak to Claghorn.”
“He is yonder,” she said in a voice toneless, even cool, and pointed. “He occupies that cottage.” She returned to her blackberry picking. Xanten bowed, proceeded to that cottage the girl had indicated.
Claghorn, wearing loose knee-length breeches of gray homespun, worked with an axe chopping faggots into stove-lengths. At the sight of Xanten he halted his toil, leaned on the axe, mopped his forehead. “Ah, Xanten. I am pleased to see you. How are the folk of Castle Hagedorn?”
“As before. There is little to report, even had I come to bring you news.”
“Indeed, indeed?” Claghorn leaned on the axe handle, surveyed Xanten with a bright blue gaze.
“At our last meeting,” went on Xanten, “I agreed to question the captive Mek. After doing so I am distressed that you were not at hand to assist, so that you might have resolved certain ambiguities in the responses.”
“Speak on,” said Claghorn. “Perhaps I shall be able to do so now.”
“After the council meeting I descended immediately to the storeroom where the Mek was confined. It lacked nutriment; I gave it syrup and a pail of water, which it sipped sparingly, then evinced a desire for minced clams. I summoned kitchen help and sent them for this commodity and the Mek ingested several pints. As I have indicated, it was an unusual Mek, standing as tall as myself and lacking a syrup sac. I conveyed it to a different chamber, a storeroom for brown plush furniture, and ordered it to a seat.
“I looked at the Mek and it looked at me. The quills which I removed were growing back; probably it could at least receive from Meks elsewhere. It seemed a superior beast, showing neither obsequiousness nor respect, and answered my questions without hesitation.
“First I remarked: “The gentlefolk of the castles are astounded by the revolt of the Meks. We had assumed that your life was satisfactory. Were we wrong?’
“ ‘Evidently.’ I am sure that this was the word signaled, though never had I suspected the Meks of wit of any sort.
“ ‘Very well then,’ I said. In what manner?’
“ ‘Surely it is obvious. We no longer wished to toil at your behest. We wished to conduct our lives by our own traditional standards.’
“The response surprised me. I was unaware that the Meks possessed standards of any kind, much less traditional standards.”
Claghorn nodded. “I have been similarly surprised by the scope of the Mek mentality.”
“I reproached the Mek: ‘Why kill? Why destroy our lives in order to augment your own?’ As soon as I had put the question I realized that it had been unhappily phrased. The Mek, I believe, realized the same; however, in reply he signaled something very rapidly which I believe was: ‘We knew we must act with decisiveness. Your own protocol made this necessary. We might have returned to Etamin Nine, but we prefer this world Earth, and will make it our own, with our own great slipways, tubs and basking ramps.’
“This seemed clear enough, but I sensed an adumbration extending yet beyond. I said, ‘Comprehensible. But why kill, why destroy? You might have taken yourself to a different region. We could not have molested you.’
“ ‘Infeasible, by your own thinking. A world is too small for two competing races. You intended to send us back to Etamin Nine.’
“‘Ridiculous!’ I said. ‘Fantasy, absurdity. Do you take me for a mooncalf?’
“ ‘No,’ the creature insisted. ‘Two of Castle Hagedorn’s notables were seeking the highest post. One assured us that, if elected, this would become his life’s aim.’
“ ‘A grotesque misunderstanding,’ I told him. ‘One man, a lunatic, can not speak for all men!’
‘“No? One
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