Misk.
'I came of my own free will!' I cried.'Because my city was
destroyed!'
'That is why your city was destroyed,' said Misk, 'that you
would come to the Sardar.'
I turned away.Tears burned in my eyes and my body trembled.
I turned in rage on the tall, gentle creature who stood,
unmoving, behind that strange table and that still form of
the young Priest-King.
'If I had my sword,' I said, pointing to the young Priest-
King, 'I would kill it!'
'No, you would not,' said Misk, 'and that is why you and not
another were chosen to come to the Sardar.'
I rushed to the figure on the table, the torch held as though
to strike it.
But I could not.
'You will not hurt it because it is innocent,' said Misk.'I
know that.'
'How can you know that?'
'Because you are of the Cabots and we know them.For more
than four hundred years we have known them, and since your
birth we have watched you.'
'You killed my father!' I cried.
'No,' said Misk, 'he is alive and so are others of your city,
but they are scattered to the ends of Gor.'
'And Talena?'
'As far as we know she is still alive,' said Misk, 'but we
cannot scan her, or for others of Ko-ro-ba, without raising
suspicion that we are solicitous for you - or are bargaining
with you.'
'Why not simply bring me here?' I challenged.'Why destroy a
city?'
'To conceal our motivation from Sarm,' said Misk.
'I don't understand,' I said.
'Occasionally on Gor we destroy a city, selecting it by means
of a random selection device.This teaches the lower orders
the might of Priest-Kings and encourages them to keep our
laws.'
'But what if the city has done no wrong?' I asked.
'So much the better,' said Misk, 'for the Men below the
Mountains are then confused and fear us even more - but the
members of the Caste of Initiates, we have found, will
produce an explanation of why the city was destroyed.They
invent one and if it seems plausible they soon believe it.
For example, we allowed them to suppose that it was through
some fault of yours - disresepct for Priest-Kings as I recall
- that your city was destroyed.'
'Why when first I came to Gor, more than seven years ago, did
you not do this?' I asked.
'It was necessary to test you.'
'And the siege of Ar,' I asked, 'and the Empire of Marlenus?'
'They provided a suitable test,' said Misk.'From Sarm's
point of view of course your utilisation there was simply to
curtail the spread of the Empire of Ar, for we prefer humans
to dwell in isolated communities.It is better for observing
their variations, from the scientific point of view, and it
is safer for us if they remain disunited, for being rational
they might develop a science, and being subrational it might
be dangerous for us and for themselves if they did so.'
'That is the reason then for your limitations of their
weaponry and technology?'
'Of course,' said Misk, 'but we have allowed them to develop
in many areas - in medicine, for example, where something
approximating the Stabilisation Serums has been independently
developed.'
'What is that?' I asked.
'You have surely not failed to notice,' said Misk, 'that
though you came to the Counter-Earth more than seven years
ago you have undergone no significant physical alteration in
that time.'
'I have noticed,' I said, 'and I wondered on this.'
'Of course,' said Misk, 'their serums are not as effective as
ours and sometimes do not function, and sometimes the effect
wears off after only a few hundred years.'
'This was kind of you,' I said.
'Perhaps,' said Misk.'There is dispute on the matter.'He
peered intently down at me.'On the whole,' he said, 'we
Priest-Kings do not interfere with the affairs of men.We
leave them free to love and slay one another, which seems to
be what they enjoy doing most.'
'But the Voyages of Acquisition?' I said.
'We keep in touch with the earth,' said Misk, 'for it might,
in time, become a threat to us and then we would have to
limit it, or destroy it or leave the solar system.'
'Which will you do?' I asked.
'None, I suspect,' said Misk.'According to our
calculations, which may of course be mistaken, life as you
know it on the earth will destroy itself within the next
thousand years.'
I shook my head sadly.
'As I said,' went on Misk, 'man is subrational.Consider
what would happen if we allowed him free technological
development on our world.'
I nodded.I could see that from the Priest-Kings' pint of
view it would be more dangerous than handing out automatic
weapons to chimpanzees and gorillas.Man had not proved
himself worthy of a superior technology to the Priest-Kings.
I mused that man had not proved himself worthy of such a
technology even to himself.
