'Like the Master!' Var exclaimed.
'So it seems. I should like to meet that man some day.'
And in the course of that adaptation to godhood, they provided me with-this.' Mines opened his garment. Var was impressed. 'The opposite of castration, you see. My appetite differs correspondingly from that of the normal male. But it waxes only with the moon.'
'Then Soli-and the others-'
'You will note that I have stayed well within my domidile. Should I go near enough to the entrance to pick up the nuptial odor I should immediately lose control of myself. That is the way I have been designed; it is in my blood, my brain, my gonad. My onslaught is such that my partner does not survive.'
Var pictured the member he had just seen, and the force with which it would be wielded, and shuddered to remember that Soli awaited this. Better a full under hand smash by a club!
'Why don't they provide-old women?'
'Who would die soon anyway? Because they are not virgins. Minos must have chastity. This is part of it. My glands simply do not tolerate any other condition.'
This seemed remarkable to Vat, but no more so than other things he had seen and learned in his travels. 'What happens if a mistake is made if the sacrifice is not chaste?'
Minos smiled hideously, all his teeth exposed on one side. 'Why then I betake myself to the temple and I raise a fuss. And it is said that bad luck follows for a month.'
Var attacked the last of his repast. He remembered something. 'Do you know about the amazons-the hivewomen?'
'Oh, yes. Fascinating subculture there. I had them in mind when I mentioned ritual mutilation.'
'The men-how do they do it?'
'No problem at all. The women do it. Simple manipulation of the prostate and seminal vesicles so as to force out the ejaculate at the critical moment. Not the most comfortable mode for the man, particularly if he has hemorrhoids or if she has a broken fingernail, but effective enough.'
Var nodded, not caring to admit that this explained nothing to him. He had never heard of a prostate, and obviously babies were not conceived by fingernails, whole or broken.
The meal was done. 'I must fight you,' Var said.
'Surely you know I would kill you. I should think you would find a more romantic solution, pun intended. I would not like to have the blood of both of you on my horns-not when you have traveled so far, and worked so hard, and suffered such ironies already. Particularly when it is so easily avoided.'
Var looked at him, not understanding. 'She won't go with me. Not until the sacrifice.'
Minos stoad up. 'There are things a god does not tell a man. Go now, or assuredly we shall fight, for the need is rising in me.'
Var drew his sticks.
Minos knocked them numbingly from his hands with one lightning swipe. 'Go! I will not reason with a fool.'
Var, seeing that it was hopeless, picked up his sticks and went. This time he found the proper passage.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Soli remained at the rock. Var ran to her. 'You must go with me. Minos is coming!'
She hardly seemed surprised to see him alive. 'I know, it is nearly noon.' Her fair face was reddening in the slanting sun, and her lips were cracked.
'He doesn't want to kill you! But he has to, if he finds you here.'
'Yes.' She was crying again, but he could tell from her expression that she had not changed her mind.
'I can't stop him. I'll try, but he
