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The Priest-King halted before what appeared to be a blind wall.
He lifted one foreleg high over his head and touched something high in the wall which I could not see.
A panel slid back and the Priest-King stepped into what seemed to be a closed room.
I followed him, and the panel closed.
The floor seemed to drop beneath me and my hand grasped my sword.
The Priest-King looked down at me and the ante
I resheathed my sword.
I was in an elevator.
After perhaps four or five minutes the elevator stopped and the Priest-King and I emerged.
The Priest-King rested back on the two posterior supporting appendages and with a small cleaning hook behind the third joint of one of his forelegs began to comb his ante
'These are the tu
I looked about meand found myself on a high, railed platform, overlooking a vast circular artificial canyon, lined with bridges and terraces.In the depths of this canyon and on the terraces that mounted its sides were i
I stood on the platform, my hands clenched on the railing, staggered by what I saw.
The light of energy bulbs set in the walls and in the dome like stars shed a brilliant light on the entire canyon.
'This,' said the Priest-King, still grooming the golden hairs of his ante
From my position on the platform I could see numerous tu
I wondered what would be the function of the structures, probably barracks, factories, storehouses.
'Notice the energy bulbs,' said the Priest-King.'They are for the benefit of certain species such as yourself.Priest-Kings do not need them.'
'Then there are creatures other than Priest-Kings who live here,' I said.
'Of course,' it replied.
At that moment to my horror a large, perhaps eight feet long and a yard high, multilegged, segmented arthropod scuttled near, its eyes weaving on stalks.
'It's harmless,' said the Priest-King.
The arthropod stopped and the eyes leaned toward us and then its pincers clicked twice.
I reached for my sword.
Without turning it scuttled backwards away, its body plates rustling like plastic armour.
'See what you have done,' said the Priest-King.'You have frightened it.'
My hand left the sword hilt and I wiped the sweat from my palm on my tunic.
'They are timid creatures,' said the Priest-King, 'and I am afraid they have never been able to accustom themselves to the sight of your kind.'
The Priest-King's ante
'Your kind is terribly ugly,' it said. I laughed, not so much because I supposed what it said was absurd, but because I supposed that, from the viewpoint of a Priest-King, what it said might well be true.
'It is interesting,' said the Priest-King.'What you have just said does not translate.'
'It was a laugh,' I said.
'What is a laugh?' asked the Priest-King.
'It is something men sometimes do when they are amused,' I said.
The creature seemed puzzled.
I wondered to myself.Perhaps men did not much laugh in the tu
'I think I understand,' said the Priest-King.'It is like shaking and curling your ante
'Perhaps,' I said, now more puzzled than the Priest-King.
'How stupid I am,' said the Priest-King.
And then to my amazement the creature, resting back on its posterior appendages, began to shake, begi
Then the Priest-King ceased to rock and its ante
Once again it addressed itself to the patient, meticulous combing of its ante
Somehow I imagined it was thinking.
Suddenly it stopped grooming its ante
'Thank you,' it said, 'for not attacking me in the elevator.'
I was dumbfounded.
'You're welcome,' I said.
'I did not think anaesthesia would be necessary,' it said.
'It would have been foolish to attack you,' I said.
'Irrational, yes,' agreed the Priest-King, 'but the lower orders are often irrational.
'Now,' it said, 'I may still look forward someday to the Pleasures of the Golden Beetle.'
I said nothing.
'Sarm thought the anaesthesia would be necessary,' it said.
'Is Sarm a Priest-King?' I asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Then a Priest-King may be mistaken,' I said.This seemed to me significant, far more significant than the mere fact that a Priest-King might not understand a human laugh.
'Of course,' said the creature.
'Could I have slain you?' I asked.
'Possibly,' said the creature.
I looked over the rail at the marvellous complexity which confronted me.
'But it would not have mattered,' said the Priest-King.
'No?' I asked.
'No,' it said.'Only the Nest matters.'
My eyes still did not leave the dominion which lay below me. Its diameter might have been ten pasangs in width.
'This is the Nest?' I asked.
'It is the begi
'What is your name?' I asked.
'Misk,' it said.
Chapter Eleven: SARM THE PRIEST-KING
I turned from the railing to observe the great ramp which for pasangs in a great spiral approached the platform on which I stood.
Another Priest-King, mounted on a low, oval disk which seemed to slide up the ramp, was approaching.
The new Priest-King looked a great deal like Misk, save that he was larger.I wondered if men of my species would have difficulty telling Priest-Kings apart.I would later learn to do so easily but at first I was often confused.The Priest-Kings themselves distinguish one another by scent but I, of course, would do so by eye.
The oval disk glided to within some forty feet of us, and the golden creature which had ridden it stepped delicately to the ramp.
It approached me, its ante
It seemed to me much like Misk except in size.
Like Misk it wore no clothing and carried no weapons, and its only accoutrement was a translator which dangled from its neck.
I would learn later that in scent it wore its rank, caste and station as clearly on its body as an officer in one of the armies of Earth might wear his distinguishing braid and metal bars.
'Why has it not been anaesthetised?' asked the new creature, training its ante
'I did not think it would be necessary,' said Misk.
'It was my recommendation that it be anaesthetised,' said the newcomer.