As if drawn, my glance went past the forms of the watchers around the booth and plumbed the pa.s.sing crowd to the figure of a man; a magnificent masculine type of the Veldian race, thick shouldered and strong, thoughtful in motion, yet with something of the swagger of a gladiator, who, as he walked, spoke to the woman who held his arm, leaning toward her cherishingly as if he protected a great prize.
She was wearing a concealing cloak, but her face was beautiful, her hair semi-long, and in spite of the cloak I could see that her body was full-fleshed and almost voluptuously feminine. I had seen few such women on Velda.
Two of the slim, delicately built youths went by arm in arm, walking with a slight defiant sway of bodies, and looked at the couple as they pa.s.sed, with a pleasure in the way the man"s fascinated attention clove to the woman, and looked at the beauty of the woman possessively without l.u.s.t, and pa.s.sed by, their heads held higher in pride as if they shared a secret triumph with her. Yet they were strangers.
I had an answer to my counting. The "youths" with the large eyes and smooth delicate heads, with the slim straight as.e.xual bodies, thought of themselves as women. I had not seen them treated with the subdued attraction and conscious avoidance one s.e.x gives another, but by numbers . . . My memory added the number of these "youths" to the numbers of figures and faces that had been obviously female.
It totaled to almost half the population I had seen. No matter what the biological explanation, it seemed reasonable that half . . .
I bent my head, to not see the enigma of the boy-woman face watching me, and braced my elbow to steady my hand as I moved. For two weeks I had been on Velda and during the second week I had come out of hiding and pa.s.sed as a Veldian. It was incredible that I had been operating under a misunderstanding as to which were women, and which men, and not blundered openly. The luck that had saved me had been undeserved.
Opposite me, across the board, the bleach-skinned hand of the oldster was beginning to waver with
indecision as each pukt was placed. He was seeing defeat, and not wishing to see it.
In eight more minutes I completed the rout of his forces and closed out the game. In winning I had lost only two pukts. The other"s defeat was crushing, but my ruthlessness had been deliberate. I wanted my reputation to spread.
* * * My sign, and the game in progress, by now had attracted a line of challengers, but as the oldster left the line broke and most of them shook their heads and moved back, then crowded around the booth and good-naturedly elbowed their way to positions of better vantage.
I knew then that I had set my lure with an irresistible bait. On a world where the Game was played from earliest childhood-was in fact a vital aspect of their culture-my challenge could not be ignored. I pocketed the loser"s blue slip and nodded to the first in line of the four men who still waited to try me.
This second man played a better game than the old one. He had a fine tight-knit offensive, with a good grasp of values, but his weakness showed early in the game when I saw him hesitate before making a simple move in a defensive play. He was not skilled in the strategy of retreat and defense, or not suited to it by temperament. He would be unable to cope with a swift forward press, I decided.
I was right.
Some of the challengers bet more, some less, all lost on the second game. I purchased a nut and fruit
confection from a pa.s.sing food vender and ate it for a spa.r.s.e lunch while I played through the late afternoon hours.
By the time Velda"s distant sun had begun to print long shadows across the Fair grounds, I was certain
that word of my booth had spread well.
The crowd about the railing of my stand was larger-but the players were fewer. Sometimes I had a break of several minutes before one made a decision to try his skill. And there were no more challenges
from ordinary players. Still the results were the same. None had sufficient adroitness to give me more than a pa.s.sing contest.
Until Caertin Vlosmin made his appearance.
Vlosmin played a game intended to be impregnably defensive, to remain untouchable until an opponent
made a misplay or an overzealous drive, of which he would then take advantage. But his mental prowess was not quite great enough to be certain of a sufficiently concealed or complex weakness in the approach of an adversary, and he would not hazard an attack on an uncertainty. Excess caution was his weakness.
During our play I sensed that the crowd about us was very intent and still. On the outskirts, newcomers
inquiring cheerfully were silenced by whispered exclamations.
Though it required all my concentration the game was soon over. I looked at Vlosmin as he rose to his feet, and noted with surprise that a fine spotting of moisture brightened his upper lip. Only then did I recognize the strain and effort he had invested into the attempt to defeat me.
"You are an exceptional craftsman," he said. There was a grave emphasis he put on the "exceptional"
which I could not miss, and I saw that his face was whiter.
His formal introduction of himself earlier as "Caertin Vlosmin" had meant something more than I had realized at the time.
I had just played against, and defeated, one of the Great Players! * * * The sun set a short time later and floating particles of light-reflecting air-foam drifted out over the Fair grounds. Someway they were held suspended above the ground while air currents tossed them about and intermingled them in the radiance of vari-hued spotlights. The area was still as bright as day, but filled with pale, shifting shadows that seemed to heighten the byplay of sound and excitement coming from the Fair visitors. Around my booth all was quiet; the spectators were subdued-as though waiting for the next act in a tense drama. I was very tired now, but I knew by the tenseness I observed around me that I did not have much longer to wait.
By the bubbles" light I watched new spectators take their positions about my booth. And as time went by I saw that some of them did not move on, as my earlier visitors had done. The weight that rode my stomach muscles grew abruptly heavier, I had set my net with all the audacity of a spider waiting for a fly, yet I knew that when my antic.i.p.ated victim arrived he would more likely resemble a spider hawk. Still the weight was not caused by fear: It was excitement-the excitement of the larger game about to begin.
* * * I was playing an opponent of recognizably less ability than Vlosmin when I heard a stirring and murmuring in the crowd around my stand. The stirring was punctuated by my opponent rising to his feet.
I glanced up.
The big man who had walked into my booth was neither arrogant nor condescending, yet the confidence in his manner was like an aura of strength. He had a deep reserve of vitality, I noted as I studied him carefully, but it was a leashed, controlled vitality. Like most of the men of the Veldian race he wore a uniform, cut severely plain, and undecorated. No flowing robes or tunics for these men. They were a
warrior race, unconcerned with the aesthetic touches of personal dress, and left that strictly to their women.
The newcomer turned to my late opponent. His voice was impressive, controlled. "Please finish your
game," he said courteously.
The other shook his head. "The game is already as good as over. My sword is broken. You are welcome to my place."
The tall man turned to me. "If you don"t mind?"
"My pleasure," I answered. "Please be seated."
This was it.
My visitor shrugged his close wrapped cloak back from his shoulders and took the chair opposite me. "I
am Kalin Trobt," he said. As if he knew I had been expecting him.
In reply I came near to telling him my correct name. But Robert O. Lang was a name that would have
been alien to Velda. Using it would have been as good as a confession. "Claustil Anteer," I said, giving a name I had invented earlier.
We played the first game as children play it, taking each other"s pukts as the opportunity presented,
making no attempt at finesse. Trobt won, two up. Neither of us had made mention of a wager. There
would be more than money involved in this Game.
I noticed, when I glanced up before the second game, that the spectators had been cleared from around the booth. Only the inner, unmoving ring I had observed earlier remained now. They watched calmly- professionally.
Fortunately I had no intention of trying to escape. * * * During the early part of the second game Trobt and I tested each other carefully, as skilled swordsmen, probing, feinting, and shamming attack, but never actually exposing ourselves. I detected what could have been a slight tendency to gamble in Trobt"s game, but there was no concrete situation to confirm it. My first moves were entirely pa.s.sive. Alertly pa.s.sive. If I had judged correctly the character of the big man opposite me, I had only to ignore the bait he offered to draw me out, to disregard his openings and apparent-too apparent-errors, until he became convinced that I was unshakably cautious, and not to be tempted into making the first thrusts. For this was his weakness as I had guessed it: That his was a gambling temperament-that when he saw an opportunity he would strike-without the caution necessary to insure safety.
Pretending to move with timidity, and pausing with great deliberation over even the most obvious plays, I maneuvered only to defend. Each time Trobt shifted to a new position of attack I covered-until finally I detected the use of slightly more arm force than necessary when he moved a pukt. It was the only sign of impatience he gave, but I knew it was there.
Then it was that I left one-thin-opening.
Trobt streaked a pukt through and cut out one of my middle defenders.
Instead of making the obvious counter of taking his piece, I played a pukt far removed from his invading
man. He frowned in concentration, lifted his arm-and his hand hung suspended over the board.
Suddenly his eyes widened. His glance swept upward to my face and what he saw there caused his
expression to change to one of mingled dismay and astonishment. There was but one move he could make. When he made it his entire left flank would be exposed. He had lost the game.
Abruptly he reached forward, touched his index finger to the tip of my nose, and pressed gently.
* * * After a minute during which neither of us spoke, I said, "You know?"
He nodded. "Yes," he said. "You"re a Human."
There was a stir and rustle of motion around me. The ring of spectators had leaned forward a little as they heard his words. I looked up and saw that they were smiling, inspecting me with curiosity and something that could have been called admiration. In the dusk the clearest view was the ring of teeth, gleaming-the view a rabbit might get of a circle of grinning foxes. Foxes might feel friendly toward rabbits, and admire a good big one. Why not?
I suppressed an ineffectual impulse to deny what I was. The time was past for that. "How did you find out?" I asked Trobt.
"Your Game. No one could play like that and not be well known. And now your nose."
"My nose?" I repeated.
"Only one physical difference between a Human and a Veldian is apparent on the surface. The nose cartilage. Yours is split-mine is single." He rose to his feet. "Will you come with me, please?"
It was not a request. * * * My guards walked singly and in couples, sometimes pa.s.sing Trobt and myself, sometimes letting us pa.s.s them, and sometimes lingering at a booth, like any other walkers, and yet, un.o.btrusively they held me encircled, always in the center of the group. I had already learned enough of the Veldian personality to realize that this was simply a habit of tact. Tact to prevent an arrest from being conspicuous, so as not to add the gaze of his fellows to whatever punishment would be decided for a culprit"s offense. Apparently they considered humiliation too deep a punishment to use indiscriminately. At the edge of the Fair grounds some of the watchers bunched around me while others went to get the tricars. I stood and looked across the park to The City. That was what it was called, The City, The Citadel, The Hearthplace, the home place where one"s family is kept safe, the sanctuary whose walls have never been pierced. All those connotations had been in the name and the use of the name; in the voices of those who spoke it. Sometimes they called it The Hearth, and sometimes The Market, always The as if it were the only one.