'My lord?'
'It's possible I know one of them.' The hint was too vague and she made no response. 'A friend of mine,' he explained. 'A tall man wearing a scarlet robe.' Description enough for a cyber and to be too detailed would be to indulge in guesswork. Even as it was not all cybers were tall. 'Well?'
'I'm not sure, my lord.' Recollection was beyond her, and yesterday was an eternity away. Or else she had been ordered to act the simpleton. 'But you'll see them all soon,' she said brightly. 'At the banquet. My lady sent me to warn you it commences in an hour's time.'
Charisse sat at the head of the board, regal in her splendor, hair and throat alive with scintillant gems, a queen dispensing hospitality, the guests her devoted subjects, but Dumarest knew there was method in her generosity. The others at the table were buyers from various worlds come to purchase stock or place their needs for specialized forms. Agents of both sexes acted for wealthy consortiums or enlightened rulers, for supply houses or communities wanting to ease life on hostile planets.
Charisse had introduced them with a casual gesture.
'Earl, meet some friends of mine. Enrice, Cleo, Krantz- all of you, meet Earl Dumarest.'
That had been before they had taken their places, time for casual drinks and conversation and less casual study. All seemed to be what they claimed; buyers who had waited patiently to get down to business and who now were about to relax over good food and wine.
'Your health, Charisse!' Enrice Helva, old, fat, a little ridiculous with his blouse of puffed and ornamented lace, his trousers of slashed and frilled satin, lifted his glass as he called the toast. 'May your genius never wither!'
The wish was shared and for a moment there was silence.
'Charisse may-'
'No, Lunerach.' She was firm. 'Too many toasts will ruin appetites though I thank you for your good wishes. Now let us eat before we annoy the cook-a good chef is hard to find.'
She had found one of the best and Dumarest watched as servants carried in a succession of dishes, each a minor work of art. The tastes matched the display and he helped to ruin castles, farms, boats, ranked armies, birds dressed in golden plumage, beasts formed of sugar and pastry and spices to form perfect miniature zoos. Over fruit and jellies and cakes made of pungent herbs and various flours the talk shifted and swung like a ship in a tormented sea.
'Eighteen,' said Ienda Chao. 'That's all they could afford, but I ask you! Eighteen when I knew the minimum had to be at least double that. With forty, I told them, you have a chance. With fewer none at all.'
'So what happened?' Her neighbor cracked a nut and gnawed at the meat with strong, white teeth. 'A wipeout?'
'What else? Every last beast was dead within a matter of weeks. They tried to blame me, said I'd bought bad stock, but that was ridiculous and they knew it. They paid the price of greed and ignorance. More stock would have been able to suffer the anticipated losses and left a residue for successful breeding.'
'It happens.' A woman dressed in somber black reached for a fruit and shredded the peel with glinting nails. 'The expert is the last to be listened to. I sometimes wonder if greed robs the intelligence. What do you think, Earl?' Her eyes, darkly ringed with cosmetics, searched his face. 'You've sat very quietly-nothing to say?'
'I prefer to listen.'
'How nice for your companion-if she too is a good listener.' She chuckled at her own jest. 'Have you no opinions?'
'None of importance.' Dumarest picked up a shard of cake and crumbled it between his fingers. 'For one man greed is the desire to obtain more-for another it can be economic necessity.'
A man facing him lifted his eyebrows. 'Meaning?'
'Nothing, but what you may call greed could be simple lack of funds.'
'Farmers!' A woman lower down the table shook her head. 'You can't know them as I do, Earl. Always pleading poverty. Offer them good stock and they whine they can't afford the price. Warn them of potential risks and they'll swear you're trying to cheat them. Like Astin I know them too well.'
'Especially the male ones, eh, Glenda?' Laughter followed the speaker's comment. 'How many deals have you sealed in a barn?'
'As many as you, Corm, but at least I draw the line at cows.'
More laughter and Dumarest guessed she had touched on a sore subject-the meat of an old joke. He sat back as the talk continued, uninterested in financial deals, stories of profits earned, of dangers avoided. Charisse noted his detachment.
'We are being discourteous,' she said. 'What has Dumarest to do with farms and stock? Has none of you any ideas of how to entertain him?'
'I could think of something.' The woman in black smiled from where she sat. 'Have we anything in common, Earl? Worlds we both know, for example? Pleasures we have both shared?'
'I doubt the first,' he said dryly. 'I'm not so sure about the second.'
'Thank God for a man with a sense of humor,' she said. 'Charisse, where did you find him? If you ever get around to producing copies of him in your laboratory I'll be your first customer.'
'Earl is unique, Linda. I'd like to keep him that way.'
'I can't blame you.' Her nails glinted as she reached for another fruit, a gleam which attracted his attention, focused his eyes. 'You like them?' She extended her hands to show the metal implants. 'I've found them useful at times.'
'A harlot's trick,' sneered Glenda. 'You advertise yourself, my dear.'
'You have no need, Glenda.' The sneer was returned. 'Everyone knows your weakness-or is it your depravity?'
'Bitch!'
Dumarest said, loudly, 'I was interested in what Armand was trying to achieve. Sayer told me about it.'
'The teleths?'
'No, why he developed them.'
'The Original Man.' Charisse held up a hand and a servant came to fill her glass with wine. A gesture and others attended to the guests. 'Armand was certain we had devolved from a higher life form,' she explained. 'He worked on the theory that nature does not produce organs just to let them wither. The vermiform appendix, the pineal gland-are you with me?'
'If the appendix were functional we could live on cellulose,' said Dumarest. He added, 'There have been times when I would have found that most convenient.'
'To live on grass?' Lina Ynya was quick with her comment. 'Earl, you surprise me. Do you really mean that?'
'If you'd ever gone hungry on a world covered with bushes and grass you'd know I mean it. But the pineal gland?'
'Something left over like the appendix,' said Charisse. 'Some say it's the vestigial remains of a third eye. Can you imagine what it would be like to have three eyes? Think of the advantage you'd have over binocular vision.'
'Would there be any?' Corm burped and hastily drank some wine. 'The spice,' he complained. 'Your chef is too heavy with the spice. But to get back to eyes, Charisse, what advantage would a third one give?'
'Maybe it enabled its owner to see into the ultraviolet,' suggested Krantz. He was big, solid, his head matted with a grizzle of hair. He added, frowning, 'But would that really be an advantage? Of course, if the lens could be adjusted we'd have telescopic vision. That would be an aid to anyone.'
'Couldn't you develop something like that yourself, Charisse?' said Vayne. 'Build a superbeing. It could be fun?'
'Now you're talking about genetic manipulation,' protested Glenda. 'Armand was concerned with natural devolution. If we have devolved then from what?'
'Speculation.' Astin signaled for more wine. 'I've heard such fantasies before. The proposition that we are the products of a genetic engineer-a creature who took beasts and fashioned them into men. In the light of Charisse's achievements is that such an impossible conception? Of course it gives rise to further speculation-who and what was this supposed manipulator? Where did it come from and what happened to it? Did we, Mankind, get out of hand and turn against our creator?' He drank and chuckled at the conception. 'Now where have I heard that
