Blade handed over the cylinder. It was true. He had left Zulekia out of his account. It occurred to him that doing so was a holdover from his other life, had to do with privacy and chivalry, and might very well prove fatal in Tharn. He now told Sutha everything about his relations with the Maiduke girl.
Sutha listened while he scrutinized the little cylinder with a magnifying glass. He kept nodding and chuckling as Blade spoke. Finally he put the cylinder away and smiled at Blade.
'I sent Zulekia to the Provo of North Gorge. To Honcho's territory. As a spy. I did not, of course, know about you then. And that you would confirm my suspicions of Honcho. I had not heard from her. I am relieved to know that she is still alive. Much more so to see that she, in turn, confirms all that you have told me about yourself and your relations with Honcho. It clears the air, so to speak.'
He seemed prepared to let the matter drop, but Blade would not have it. That last near embrace with Zulekia, the look in those large violet eyes still haunted him.
'Zulekia told me that she had been sent to the Gorge Tower to be punished. That she had committed a crime. Karno! She had been caught in coi with one of the Lordsmen. This is not true, then?'
The old neuter appeared puzzled. He narrowed his eyes at Blade. 'But of course it is true. She did commit karno. Her chastity seal was broken! She was sent to the Gorge Tower to be punished: to be given to the ceboids and then flung into the Gorge. Nothing of that has changed. It will still be done. Why are you so concerned, Blade?'
The big man realized, once more, how much he had to learn about the manner of Tharnian thought.
'But she is spying for you, Sutha! Working for you. Surely you promised to commute her sentence, to save her, if she did the job you wanted done?'
Sutha shook his head. 'I promised her nothing. Why should I? She has sinned and must pay for it anyway. I needed a spy near Honcho. It was a perfect, a valid, excuse to do what I had to do. Simple. What is it that you do not understand?'
'Why she obeyed, why she worked so well for you if you did not promise her anything. If she has nothing to gain. But then perhaps she is depending on your mercy?'
'Mercy?' Sutha repeated the word, frowning. 'I do not think I understand. It is not Tharnian. What does it mean?'
Blade hesitated, then tried another tack. He was in Tharn! Think and do and speak as the Tharnians did. But how to make Sutha understand? Sex without love. Autocracy and obedience without mercy!
He tried bluntness. 'I would have this girl, Zulekia, saved. I had coi with her, as I told you, and I liked it very much. I want it again. With Zulekia. I wish her saved and brought back to Urcit.'
Sutha raised a hand in warning. There was a glint of terror in his eyes. Blade waited. The neuter stared around the room, listening, waiting for something. He put a trembling finger to his lips and with the other hand kept waving Blade to silence.
Nothing. Blade guessed that Isma had kept her word. Angry with both of them, pouting, she had shut off communication.
Sutha stood up and beckoned to Blade, still with his finger at his lips. Blade followed him. They left the chamber through the narrow postern in the screen.
They were in a long room that stretched away as far as Blade could see. It was empty but for row upon row of computers clacking and humming away. They were all made of teksin, large and small, and their sound was as ominous as a flight of giant bees. Acre upon acre of them spinning and clicking and flashing.
Sutha blinked his narrow eyes at Blade. He waved a hand at the vast and serried rows of computers and in a loud voice, and bunking another warning, he said: 'This is the central control room of all of Tharn. All orders, directives, codes physical and moral, regulations and decisions, everything to do with running Tharn, it all emanates from here. I do not say that power originates here. Come, I will show you where it does originate.'
His eyes were still enjoining silence. Blade said nothing, but his impatience was growing and his temper fraying. He knew himself and he knew his trouble. He was afraid, but not afraid enough. K his temper got off the leash he could wreck everything. He fought it.
They left the. maze of computers and went down stairs that were broad and shallow. They seemed endless, but at last they came to a short hall leading to tall double doors. Over the doors was the symbol of the phallus.
Sutha, still speaking loudly, said, 'As Mazda it is fitting, Lord, that you be shown the Power Pool at once. It was given by you, and to you we now return it. It is the source of all things and I know that you and Isma will use it wisely.' The green eyes went blink-blink-blink.
They halted. Sutha put out a hand. The huge doors swung slowly open. Blade shifted the great sword at his side. The baldric was too narrow and at times galled his shoulder.
They advanced into a gloomy cavernous chamber. The phallic symbols were everywhere. In the exact center of the chamber was a circular pool of water. Near it was a long altar, built so low that they could look down into the open sarcophagus.
She might have been sleeping. She was naked except for a single strip of golden teksin covering the pubic area. Her long hair fell over her shoulders and partially hid her firm upthrust breasts with a fine veil of tawny gold. Her eyes were closed and there was a faint smile on the scarlet lips. It was the dual face of Astar and Isma. Her flesh was copper-gold tinted, the legs so long and sensually curving, so rounded and pneumatic and firm with life that it did not seem possible that she was dead.
'The first Queen-Goddess,' said Sutha. 'Astar I. She has been dead for many millions of kronos. Yet she lives. She will live as long as Tharn lives. And Tharn will live as long as she lives.'
Blade stepped back to watch as the old neuter made obeisance before the sarcophagus. He sensed that in this the neuter was sincere. His face, his voice and gestures, were solemn and deeply felt. Cynic, skeptic, Tharnian sophisticate to the core, yet this sexless thing was worshiping this long dead corpse. It was eerie and Blade did not try to deny the prickle of near fear, and awe, that plucked at his nerves.
The long dead Queen-Goddess lay in eternal silence. In her right hand was clutched the phallus staff. Sutha was still on his knees. The silence in the chamber was absolute.
