Oh, there had been a verbal battle. There had been the accusations, the clanging of the electric gavel, the remonstrances of the Compjudge, the shocked expressions of the other Councilors! Till finally Marmorth had been goaded by the younger man into the Duel. Then into the Silver Corridor.
From which only one of them would emerge. The one who did would force his Theorem on the Council. To be accepted, of course. The Theorem was so basic, the view would be recognized and accepted.
It all revolved, then, around whose view of the Universe, whose Theorem, was the right one. It could be either Krane"s or Marmorth"s.
Marmorth struck out at the black! Mine, mine, mine! He shouted soundlessly. He lashed into the nothingness. My Theorem is the proper one! I believe it! I do!
Then he saw the stringer of white in his hand. So this was Krane in the ascendant, was it! Now came the moment of retaliation.
He whipped the stringer around his invisible head, swaying as he was, there in the depthless black.
The stringer thickened. He cupped it to him, washing it with his hands, strengthening it, shaping and molding it.
In a moment it had grown. In a moment more the white had burst forth like a ripe blossom and flooded all. Revealing Krane standing there, in his breechclout, ma.s.saging the plae pink between his fingers.
"Mine, Krane, mine!" he screamed, flinging the orange-green!
Krane blanched and tried to duck. The orange-green came on like a sliver of Forever, streaking and burning as it rode currents that did not exist. Then the light shattered, and fired, and spat. As Marmorth realized they had nullified each other again, that the illusion was dissolving around them, he heard Krane bellow, even as loud as he had, "Mine, Marmorth, mine!"
Then the colors ran. They flowed, they merged, they sucked at his body, while he...
...shrank up against the gla.s.s wall next to Krane. They both stared in fascinated horror as the huge, ichor-dripping spider-thing advanced on them, mandibles clicking.
"My G.o.d in Heaven!" Marmorth heard Krane bellow. "What is it?" Krane scrabbled at the gla.s.s wall behind them, trying to get out. They were trapped.
The gla.s.s walls circled them, wide; just the spider-thing and each other, trapped in the tiny tomb!
Marmorth was petrified. He could neither move nor speak -he could hardly sense anything but terror. Spiders were his personal fear. He found his legs were quivering at the knees, though he had not sensed it a moment before. The very sight of the hairy beasts had always sent shudders through him. Now he knew this was his illusion. He was in the ascendant!
But how hideously in the ascendant.
The spider-thing advanced on them, the soft plush pads of its hundred feet leaving dampness where it stopped.
Krane fell to his knees, moaning and scratching at the gla.s.s floor. "Out, out, out, out..," he mumbled, froth dripping from his lips.
Marmorth knew this was his chance. This fear was a product of his own mind; he had lived with it all his life. He knew it more familiarly than Krane-he could not cancel it, certainly, but he could utilize it more easily than the other.
Here was where he killed Krane. He pulled himself tightly to the wall, sweating palms flat to the gla.s.s, the valley of his backbone against the cool surface. "I"m right! The Theorem as I stated it i-is c- correct!" He said it triumphantly, though the note of terror quavered undisguised in his voice.
The spider-thing paused in its march, swung its clicking, ghastly head about as though confused, and altered direction by an inch. Away from Marmorth. It descended on Krane.
The black-bearded man looked up, saw it coming toward him, heard Marmorth"s words. Even on the floor, half-sunk in shock, he shouted, pounding his fists against the floor of gla.s.s, "Wrong, wrong, wrong! You"re wrong! I can prove my Theorem is correct! The basic formation of the Judiciary should be planned in an ever-decreasing system of-"
Marmorth didn"t even listen. He knew it was drivel! He knew the man was wrong! But the spider- thing had stopped once more. Now it paused between the two of them, its bulk shivering as though caught in a draft. Krane saw the hesitation on the monster"s part, and rose, the old confidence and impudence regained. He wiped his balled fists across his eyes, clearing them of tears. He continued speaking, steadily, and to Marmorth"s ears, in the voice of a fanatic. The man just could not recognize that he was wrong.
"You"re insane, man!" Marmorth interjected, waving his hands with fervor. "The setup must be balanced between a code of fair practices with a Guild system blocking efforts on the part of the Genres to rise into control of the gross planetary product!" He went on and on, outlining the Theorem.
Krane, too, shouted and gesticulated, both of them suddenly oblivious to the monstrous, black spider-thing which had stopped completely between them, vacillating.
When Marmorth stopped for an instant to regain his breath, the beast twisted its neckless head toward him. Marmorth then speeded up his speech, spewing out detail upon detail, and the beast slowly sank back into uncertainty.
It was obviously a battle of belief. Whichever combatant had more conviction-that one would win.
They stood and shouted, screamed, outlined, explained and delineated for what seemed hours.
Finally, as though in exasperation, the spider-thing began to turn. They both watched it, their mouths working, words pouring forth in twin streams of absolute sincere belief.
They watched even though...
...the starships fired at each other mercilessly. Blast after blast exploded soundlessly into the vault of s.p.a.ce. Marmorth found his fingers twisted in the epaulet at his right shoulder.
As he watched Krane"s Magnificent-cla.s.s destroyer wheel in the control-room screens, a half- naked, blood-soaked and perspiring crewman burst into the cabin"s entrance-well.
"Captain! Captain, sir!"
Marmorth looked over the plastic rail, down into the well.
"What?" His voice snapped with brittleness.
"Cap"n, the port side is riddled! We"re losing pressure from thirteen compartments. The Reclamation Mile is completely lost! The engineers" group was in one of the compartments along that mile, Cap"n! They"re all bloated and blue and dead in there! We can see them floating around without any..."
"Get the h.e.l.l out of here!" Marmorth turned, lifting a s.p.a.cetant from his chart-board, and flinging it with all his strength at the crewman. The man ducked and the s.p.a.cetant bounced off the bulkhead, snapping pieces from its intricate bulk.
"You maniac!" he yowled, leaping back out of the well, through the exit port, as Marmorth reached for another missile.
Marmorth shut his eyes tight, blanking out the shuddering ship, s.p.a.ce, the screens, everything.
"Right, right, right, right, right! I"m right!" he shouted, lifting clenched fists.
The explosion came in two parts, as though two torpedoes had been struck almost simultaneously.
The ship rocked and heeled. Bits of metal sheared through the outer bulkheads, crashed against the opposite wall.
As the lights went dead, and the screams drove into his brain, Marmorth shouted his credo once more, with all the force of his conviction, with all the power of his lungs, with all the strength in his gasping body.
"I"m right! May G.o.d strike me dead if I"m not right! I know I"m right, I made an inexhaustible..."
...check!" he finished, opening his eyes and looking back down at the chessboard. The pieces, happily, had not moved. He still had Krane blocked off.
"I say check," he repeated, smiling, steepling his fingers.
Krane"s black-bearded face broke into a wry grimace.
"Most clever, my dear Marmorth," he congratulated the other with sarcasm. "You have forced me to touch a p.a.w.n."
Marmorth watched as Krane, with trembling fingers, reached down to the jet p.a.w.n. It was carved from stone; carved with such care and intricacy that its edges were precisely as they had been desired by the master craftsman. They were razor sharp.
The pieces were all cut the same. Both the blanched alabaster pieces before Marmorth, and the ebony-stone players under Krane"s hand. The game had been constructed for men who played more than a "gentleman"s game." There was death in each move.
Marmorth knew he was in the ascendant. Each of them had had two illusions-that remembrance was sharp-and this was Marmorth"s. How did he know? The older man looked down at the intricately carved chess pieces. He was white, Krane was black. As clear as it could be.
"Uh, have you moved?" Marmorth inquired, his voice unctuous with casualness. He knew the other had not yet touched his players. "I believe you still lie in check." He was enjoying toying with his once-arrogant foe.
He thought he heard a muted, "d.a.m.n you!" under Krane"s breath, but could not be certain.
Slowly Krane touched the player, carefully sliding the fingers of his hand across the razor-thin, razor-sharp facets. The piece almost slid from his grasp, so loosely was he holding it, but the move was made in an instant.
Marmorth cursed mentally. Krane had calculated beautifully! Not only was his King blocked out from Marmorth"s Rook-Marmorth"s check-piece-but in another two moves (so clearly obvious as Krane had desired it) his own Queen would be in danger. In his mind he could hear Krane savoring the words: "Garde! I say garde, my dear Marmorth!"
He had to move the Queen out of position.
He had to touch the Queen!
The most deadly piece on the board!
"No!" he gasped.
"I beg your pardon?" said Krane, the slash-mouth opening in a violent grin.
"N-nothing, nothing!" snapped Marmorth. He concentrated. Deadly poison, instant-acting, lay filmed on those razor edges.
There was little chance he could maneuver that thousand-keen-edged Queen without poisoning himself for his trouble. Lord! It was an insoluble, a double-edged, dilemma. If he did not move, Krane would win. If he won, it was obvious Marmorth would die. He had seen the deadly dirk"s hilt protruding slightly from Krane"s c.u.mmerbund when the other had sat down. If he did move, he would convulse to death before Krane"s taunting eyes.
You shall never have that pleasure! he thought, the bitter determination of a man who will not be defeated rising in him.
He approached the Queen, with hand, with eye.
The base was faceted, like a diamond. Each facet ended in a cutting edge so sensitive he knew it would sever the finger that touched it. The shape of the upper segments was involved, gorgeously-made. A woman, arms raised above her head, stretching in tension. Beautiful-and untouchable.
Then the thought struck him: Is this the only move?
Deep within his mind he calculated. He could not possibly recognize the levels on which his intellect was working. In with his chess theory, in with his mental agility, in with his desire to win, his Theorem rearranged itself, fitting its logic to this situation. How could the Theorem be applied to the game?
What other paths, through the infallible truth of the Theorem-in which he believed, now, more strongly than ever before-what other paths could he take.
Then the alternative move became clear. He could escape a route, escape the garde, escape the taunting smile of Krane by moving a relatively safe Bishop. It was not a completely foolproof action, since the Bishop, too, was a razored piece of death, but he had found a way around the certain success of Krane"s maneuverings.
"Ha!" A terrible smile burst upon his face. His eyes bored across to the other"s. Krane turned white as Marmorth reached out, touched the one piece he had been desperately hoping the older man would not consider.
He felt the uncontrollable tightening in his throat as he realized the game would go on, and on, and on and...
...he unclenched his fist as the volcano leaped up around them.
It was more than the inside of a volcanic cone, however. The Corridor was there, too. The dung- brown walls of smooth rock shivered ever so slightly, and both men knew the Silver Corridor was just beyond their vision. They could see it glimmering with unreality.
It was almost as though they were looking at a double exposure; an extinct volcano superimposed over the shining tube of the Silver Corridor.
It isn"t far away, thought Marmorth. This must be the last illusion! Is there a certain pattern to these things? Then he felt, with a blissed release of nervous tension, Someone is going to win soon.
He stared up at the faint patch of gray sky, visible through the roundly jagged opening at the cone"s top. The walls sloped down in a fluid concavity. Here and there across the rough floor of the cavern, stalagmites rose up in sharp spikes.
And there-over and through the walls of the dead formations-the Corridor hung faintly. A ghostly, shivering, not-quite-real shadow, inside the substance of their illusion.
They stood and stared at each other. Each knowing he was not really in the heart of a volcano, but in a metal corridor. Each knowing he could die as easily by this illusion as he could at the other"s hands.
Was this the end? Were there a limited number of illusions to each Affair? Who had won? Could there be a winner?
They stared at each other, across the dusky interior of the extinct volcano.
"I"m right," said Krane, hesitantly.
"You"re wrong," answered Marmorth quickly. "I"m the one who"s right!"
In a moment they were at it again, each screaming till his lungs were raw with the effort, and red patches had appeared in Marmorth"s cheeks. They paused for an instant, gathering air for another tirade, Krane looking about for a weapon.
They were both as they had begun. Naked save the breechclouts which clung to their b.u.t.tocks.
They resumed their shouting, the sound reverberating hollowly in the dim interior of the volcano.
The sounds. .h.i.t them, bounced across the stone walls, reverberated again. The fury had been built to a peak and pitch they both knew could not be exceeded. They had strained every last vestige of belief and conviction in their minds.
As Marmorth realized he was at the pinnacle of his belief, he saw the same conviction come over Krane"s face. He knew that from here on in, it would be a physical thing, with both of them stalemated in illusory power.
Then the woman-thing appeared.
She grazed into being between them. She wasn"t human. There was no question about that.
Marmorth took a halting step backward. Krane remained rooted, though his pale face had blanched an even more deadly shade. A strangled, "My G.o.d, what is it?" slipped past Marmorth"s lips.
It was less than human, yet more than mortal; it was a travesty of a human being. A mad nightmare of a vision! Like some fearsome G.o.d of an ancient cult, it paused with long legs apart, hands on hips.
The woman"s body was lush. Full, high b.r.e.a.s.t.s, trim stomach, exciting legs. Gorgeously proportioned and exciting, the torso and legs, the chest and arms, were normal-even exaggeratedly normal.
But there all resemblance to a woman ceased.
The head was a strangely lizardlike thing, with elongated snout, wattles, huge glowing eyes set atop the skull. Looking out through flesh-sockets thick and deep-little hummocks atop the face-the eyes were small, crimson and cruel.
The nose was almost nonexistent. Two breather-s.p.a.ces pulsed, one on either side of a small rise in the yellowed, pocked flesh of the head.
The mouth was a wide, gaping, triangular orifice, with triple rows of shark teeth in the upper and lower jaws. The woman-thing looked like a gorgeous female-with the wierdly altered head of a crocodile.