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"It is to be understood," said Semon Voidenvo tartly, "that if I did indeed summon King Kragen, my motives were of the highest order."
"Well, then did you do so?"
Semon Voidenvo cast about for a means to escape from his dilemma, and found none. Finally he said, "There is a means by which the Intercessors are able to summon King Kragen in the event that a rogue kragen appears. This occuired; I so summoned King Kragen."
"Indeed." Phyral Berwick drummed his fingers on the rail of the rostrum. "Are these the only occasions that you summon King Kragen?"
"Why do you question me?" demanded Semon Voidenvo.
"I am Intercessor; the criminal is Sklar Hast."
"Easy, then; the questions illuminate the extent of the alleged crime. For instance, let me ask this: do you ever summon King Kragen to feed from your lagoon in order to visit a punishment upon the folk of your float?"
Semon Voidenvo blinked. "The wisdom of King Kragen is inordinate. He can detect delinquencies, he makes his presence known-"
"Specifically then, you summoned King Kragen to Tranque Float when Sklar Hast sought to kill the lesser kragen?"
"My acts are not in the balance. I see no reason to answer the question."
Phyral Berwick spoke to me crowd in a troubled voice,
"There seems no way to determine exactly when Semon Voidenvo called King Kragen. If he did so after Sklar Hast had begun his attack upon the rogue, then in my opinion, Semon Voidenvo the Intercessor is more immediately responsible for the Tranque disaster man Sklar Hast. Thereupon it becomes a travesty to visit any sort of penalty upon Sklar Hast.
Unfortunately there seems no way of settling this question."
The Apprise Intercessor, Barquan BIasdel, rose slowly to his feet. "Arbiter Berwick, I fear that you are seriously confused. Sklar Hast and his gang committed an act knowingly proscribed both by the Tranque Monitor Ixon Myrex and by the Tranque Intercessor Semon Voidenvo. The consequences stemmed from this act; hence Sklar Hast is guilty."
"Barquen Blasdel," said Phyra! Berwick, "you are Apprise Intercessor. Have you ever summoned King Kragen to Apprise Float?"
"As Semon Voidenvo pointed out, Sklar Hast is the criminal at die bar, not the conscientious Intercessors of the various floats. By no means may Sklar Hast be allowed to evade his punishment. King Kragen is not lightly to be defied. Even though the convocation will not raise their collective fist to smite Sklar Hast, I say that he must die."
Phyral Berwick fixed his pale blue eyes upon Barquan Btasdel. "If the convocation gives Sklar Hast his life, he will not die unless I die before him."
Meth Cagno came forward. "And 1 likewise."
The men of Tranque Float who had joined Sklar Hast in the killing of the rogue kragen came toward the rostrum, shouting their intention of joining Sklar Hast either in life or death, and with them came others, from various floats.
Barquan Blasdel climbed onto the rostrum, held his hands wide- "Before others declare themselves-look out to seaKing Kragen watches, attentive to learn who is loyal and who is faithless."
The crowd swung about as if one individual. A hundred yards off the float the water swirled lazily around King Kragen^ great turret. The crystal eyes pointed like telescopes toward Apprise Float. Presently the turret sank beneath the surface. The blue water roiled, then flowed smooth and featureless.
Sklar Hast went to the ladder, started to mount to the rostrum. Barquen Blasde) the Intercessor halted him. "The rostrum must not become a shouting-place. Stay till you are summoned!" But Sklar Hast pushed him aside, went to face the crowd- He pointed toward the smooth ocean. "There you have seen the vile beast, our enemy! Why should we deceive ourselves? Intercessors, arbiters, all of us-let us forget our differences, let us join our crafts and our resources! If we do so, we can evolve a method to kill King Kragen! So now-decide!"
Barquan Blasdel threw back his head aghast. He took a step toward Sklar Hast. as if to seize him. then turned to the audience. "You have heard this madman-twice you have heard him- You have also observed the vigilance of King Kragen, whose force is known to all. You can choose therefore cither to obey the exhortations of a twitching lunatic, or be guided by your ancient trust in the benevolence of mighty King Kragen. In one ma
The Intercessors followed suit. "Death to Sklar Hast!"
Hesitantly, indecisively, other fists raised, then others and others- Some changed their minds and drew down their fists; others submitted to arguments and either drew down their fists or thrust them high; some raised their fists only to have others pull them down. Altercations sprang up across the float; the hoarse sound of contention began to make itself heard. Barquan Blasdel leaned forward in sudden concern, calling for calm. Sklar Hast likewise started to speak, but he desisted-because suddenly words were of no avail. In a bewildering, almost magical, shift the placid convocation had become a melee. Men and women tore savagely at each other, screaming, cursing, raging, squealing. Emotion accumulated from childhood, stored and constrained, had suddenly exploded; and the identical fear and hate had prompted opposite reactions. Across the float the tide of battle surged, out into the water where staid Bezzlers and responsible Larceners sought to drown each other. Few weapons were available: clubs of stalk, a bone axe or two, a half-dozen stakes, as many knives. While the struggle was at its most intense King Kragen once more surfaceed, this time a quarter-mile to the north from whence he turned his vast incurious gaze upon the float.
The fighting slowed and dwindled, from sheer exhaustion.
The combatants drew apart into panting bleeding groups. In tile lagoon floated half a dozen corpses; on the float lay as many more. Now for the first time it could be seen that those who stood by Sklar Hast were considerably outnumbered, by almost two to one, and also that this group included for the most part the most vigorous and able of the craftsmen, though few of the Masters: about half of the Hoodwinks, two-thirds of the Scriveners, relatively few from the Jacklegs, Advertisermen. Niggiers and other low castes, fewer still of the Arbiters and no Intercessors whatever.
Barquan Blasdel, still on the rostrum, cried out, "This is a sorry day indeed; a sorry day! Sklar Hast, see the anguish you have brought to the floats! There can be no mercy for you now!"
Sklar Hast came forward, pale and flaming-eyed. Blood coursed down his face from me slash of knife. Ignoring Blasdel, he mounted the rostrum, and addressed the two groups:
"As Blasdel the Intercessor has said, there is no turning back now. So be it. Let those who want to serve King Kragen remain. Let those who want free lives go forth across the sea.
There are floats to north and south, to east and west, floats as kind and hospitable as these, where we will soon have homes as rich and modern-perhaps more so."
Barquan Blasdel stroked forward. "Go then! AU you faithless, you irreverent ones-get hence and good riddance! Go where you will, and never seek to return when the teeming kragen, unchided by the great King, devour your sponges, tear your nets, crush your coracles!"
"The many ca
"You need not fear our interference," said Blasdel. "You may depart at will; indeed we will facilitate your going."
"On the morning of the third day hence, then, when the wind blows fair, we depart."
Chapter III
Barquan Blasdel the Apprise Intercessor, with his spouse and six daughters, occupied a pad to Ac north of the main float, somewhat isolated and apart. It was perhaps the choicest and most pleasant pad of the Apprise complex, situated where Blasdel could read the hoodwink towers of Apprise, of Quatrefoil and the Bandings to the east, of Granolt to the west.
The pad was delightfully overgrown with a hundred different plants and vines: some yielding resinous pods. others capsules of fragrant sap, others crisp tendrils and shoots. Certain shrubs produced stains and pigment; a purple-leaved epiphyte yielded a rich-flavored pith. Other growths were entirely ornamental-a situation not too usual along the floats, where space was at a premium and every growing object weighed for its utility. Along the entire line of floats few pads could compare to that of Barquan Blasdel for beauty, variety of plantings, isolation and calm.
In late afternoon of the second day after the turbulent convocation, Barquan Blasdel returned to his pad. He dropped the painter of his coracle over a stake of carved bone, gazed appreciatively into the west. The sun had only just departed the sky, which now glowed with effulgent greens, blues, and. at die zenith, a purple of exquisite purity. The ocean, shuddering to the first whispers of the evening breeze, reflected me sky, Blasdel felt surrounded, immersed in color. He aimed away, marched to his house, whistling a complacent time between his teeth. On the morrow the most troublesome elements of all the floats would depart on the morning breeze, and no more would be heard from them ever. And Blasdel's whistling became slow and thoughtful. Although life flowed smoothly and without contention, over the years a certain uneasiness and dissatisfaction had begun to make itself felt.
Dissident elements had begun to question the established order. The sudden outbreak of violence at the convocation perhaps had been inevitable: an explosion of suppressed or even unconscious tensions. But all was working out for the best. The affair could not have resolved itself more smoothly if he had personally arranged the entire sequence of events.
At one stroke all the skeptics, grumblers, ne'er-do-wells, the covertly insolent, the obstinate hardheads-at one stroke, all would disappear, never again to trouble the easy and orthodox way of life.