'Indeed,' said Misk, 'it was partly because of this tendency
that we brought man to the Counter-Earth, for he is an
interesting species and it would be sad to us if he
disappeared from the universe.'
'I suppose we are to be grateful,' I said.
'No,' said Misk, 'we have similarly brought various species
to the Counter-Earth, from other locations.'
'I have seen few of these 'other species',' I said.
Misk shrugged his antennae.
'I do remember,' I said, 'a Spider in the Swamp Forests of
Ar.'
'The Spider People are a gentle race,' said Misk, 'except the
female at the time of mating.'
'His name was Nar,' I said, 'and he would rather have died
than injure a rational creature.'
'The Spider People are soft,' said Misk.'They are not
Priest-Kings.'
'I see,' I said.
'The Voyages of Acquisition,' said Misk, 'take place normally
when we need fresh material from Earth, for our purposes.'
'I was the object of one such voyage,' I said.
'Obviously,' said Misk.
'It is said below the mountains that Priest-Kings know all
that occurs on Gor.'
'Nonsense,' said Misk.'But perhaps I shall show you the
Scanning Room someday.We have four hundred Priest-Kings who
operate the scanners, and we are accordingly well informed.
For example, if there is a violation of our weapons laws we
usually, sooner or later, discover it and after determining
the coordinates put into effect the Flame Death Mechanism.'
I had once seen a man die the Flame Death, the High Initiate
of Ar, on the roof of Ar's Cylinder of Justice.I shivered
involuntarily.
'Yes,' I said simply, 'sometime I would like to see the
Scanning Room.'
'But much of our knowledge comes from our implants,' said
Misk.'We implant humans with a control web and transmitting
device.The lenses of their eyes are altered in such a way
that what they see is registered by means of transducers on
scent-screens in the scanning room.We can also speak and
act by means of them, when the control web is activated in
the Sardar.'
'The eyes look different?' I asked.
'Sometimes not,' said Misk, 'sometimes yes.'
'Was the creature Parp so implanted?' I asked, remembering
his eyes.
'Yes,' said Misk, 'as was the man from Ar whom you met on the
road long ago near Ko-ro-ba.'
'But he threw off the control web,' I said, 'and spoke as he
wished.'
'Perhaps the webbing was faulty,' said Misk.
'But if it was not?' I asked.
'Then he was most remarkable,' said Misk.'Most remarkable.'
'You spoke of knowing the Cabots for four hundred years,' I
said.
'Yes,' said Misk, 'and your father, who is a brave and noble
man, has served us upon occasion, though he dealt only,
unknowingly, with Implanted Ones.He first came to Gor more
than six hundred years ago.'
'Impossible!' I cried.
'Not with the stabilisation serums,' remarked Misk.
I was shaken by this information.I was sweating.The torch
seemed to tremble in my hand.
'I have been working against Sarm and the others for
millenia,' said Misk, 'and at last - more than three hundred
years ago - I managed to obtain the egg from which this male
emerged.'Misk looked down at the young Priest-King on the
stone table.'I then, by means of an Implanted Agent,
unconscious of the message being read through him, instructed
your father to write the letter which you found in the
mountains of your native world.'
My head was spinning.
'But I was not even born then!' I exclaimed.
'Your father was instructed to call you Tarl, and lest he
might speak to you of the Counter-Earth or attempt to
dissuade you from our purpose, he was returned to Gor before
you were of an age to understand.'
'I thought he deserted my mother,' I said.
'She knew,' said Misk, 'for though she was a woman of Earth
she had been to Gor.'
'Never did she speak to me of these things,' I said.
'Matthew Cabot on Gor,' said Misk, 'was a hostage for her
silence.'
'My mother,' I said, 'died when I was very young…'
'Yes,' said Misk, 'because of a petty bacillus in your
contaminated atmosphere, a victim to the inadequacies of your
infantile bacteriology.'
I was silent.My eyes smarted, I suppose, from some heat or
fume of the Mul-Torch.
'It was difficult to foresee,' said Misk.'I am truly sorry.'
'Yes,' I said.I shook my head and wiped my eyes.I still
held the memory of the lonely, beautiful woman whom I had
known so briefly in my childhood, who in those short years
had so loved me.Inwardly I cursed the Mul-Torch that had
brought tears to the eyes of a Warrior of Ko-ro-ba.
'Why did she not remain on Gor?' I asked.
'It frightened her,' said Misk, 'and your father asked that
she be allowed to return to Earth, for loving her he wished
her to be happy and also perhaps he wanted you to know
