'That is why your city was destroyed,' said Misk, 'that you

would come to the Sardar.'

I turned away.Tears burned in my eyes and my body trembled.

I turned in rage on the tall, gentle creature who stood,

unmoving, behind that strange table and that still form of

the young Priest-King.

'If I had my sword,' I said, pointing to the young Priest-

King, 'I would kill it!'

'No, you would not,' said Misk, 'and that is why you and not

another were chosen to come to the Sardar.'

I rushed to the figure on the table, the torch held as though

to strike it.

But I could not.

'You will not hurt it because it is innocent,' said Misk.'I

know that.'

'How can you know that?'

'Because you are of the Cabots and we know them.For more

than four hundred years we have known them, and since your

birth we have watched you.'

'You killed my father!' I cried.

'No,' said Misk, 'he is alive and so are others of your city,

but they are scattered to the ends of Gor.'

'And Talena?'

'As far as we know she is still alive,' said Misk, 'but we

cannot scan her, or for others of Ko-ro-ba, without raising

suspicion that we are solicitous for you - or are bargaining

with you.'

'Why not simply bring me here?' I challenged.'Why destroy a

city?'

'To conceal our motivation from Sarm,' said Misk.

'I don't understand,' I said.

'Occasionally on Gor we destroy a city, selecting it by means

of a random selection device.This teaches the lower orders

the might of Priest-Kings and encourages them to keep our

laws.'

'But what if the city has done no wrong?' I asked.

'So much the better,' said Misk, 'for the Men below the

Mountains are then confused and fear us even more - but the

members of the Caste of Initiates, we have found, will

produce an explanation of why the city was destroyed.They

invent one and if it seems plausible they soon believe it.

For example, we allowed them to suppose that it was through

some fault of yours - disresepct for Priest-Kings as I recall

- that your city was destroyed.'

'Why when first I came to Gor, more than seven years ago, did

you not do this?' I asked.

'It was necessary to test you.'

'And the siege of Ar,' I asked, 'and the Empire of Marlenus?'

'They provided a suitable test,' said Misk.'From Sarm's

point of view of course your utilisation there was simply to

curtail the spread of the Empire of Ar, for we prefer humans

to dwell in isolated communities.It is better for observing

their variations, from the scientific point of view, and it

is safer for us if they remain disunited, for being rational

they might develop a science, and being subrational it might

be dangerous for us and for themselves if they did so.'

'That is the reason then for your limitations of their

weaponry and technology?'

'Of course,' said Misk, 'but we have allowed them to develop

in many areas - in medicine, for example, where something

approximating the Stabilisation Serums has been independently

developed.'

'What is that?' I asked.

'You have surely not failed to notice,' said Misk, 'that

though you came to the Counter-Earth more than seven years

ago you have undergone no significant physical alteration in

that time.'

'I have noticed,' I said, 'and I wondered on this.'

'Of course,' said Misk, 'their serums are not as effective as

ours and sometimes do not function, and sometimes the effect

wears off after only a few hundred years.'

'This was kind of you,' I said.

'Perhaps,' said Misk.'There is dispute on the matter.'He

peered intently down at me.'On the whole,' he said, 'we

Priest-Kings do not interfere with the affairs of men.We

leave them free to love and slay one another, which seems to

be what they enjoy doing most.'

'But the Voyages of Acquisition?' I said.

'We keep in touch with the earth,' said Misk, 'for it might,

in time, become a threat to us and then we would have to

limit it, or destroy it or leave the solar system.'

'Which will you do?' I asked.

'None, I suspect,' said Misk.'According to our

calculations, which may of course be mistaken, life as you

know it on the earth will destroy itself within the next

thousand years.'

I shook my head sadly.

'As I said,' went on Misk, 'man is subrational.Consider

what would happen if we allowed him free technological

development on our world.'

I nodded.I could see that from the Priest-Kings' pint of

view it would be more dangerous than handing out automatic

weapons to chimpanzees and gorillas.Man had not proved

himself worthy of a superior technology to the Priest-Kings.

I mused that man had not proved himself worthy of such a

technology even to himself.

'Indeed,' said Misk, 'it was partly because of this tendency

that we brought man to the Counter-Earth, for he is an

interesting species and it would be sad to us if he

disappeared from the universe.'

'I suppose we are to be grateful,' I said.

'No,' said Misk, 'we have similarly brought various species

to the Counter-Earth, from other locations.'

'I have seen few of these 'other species',' I said.

Misk shrugged his antennae.

'I do remember,' I said, 'a Spider in the Swamp Forests of

Ar.'

'The Spider People are a gentle race,' said Misk, 'except the

female at the time of mating.'

'His name was Nar,' I said, 'and he would rather have died

than injure a rational creature.'

'The Spider People are soft,' said Misk.'They are not

Priest-Kings.'

'I see,' I said.

'The Voyages of Acquisition,' said Misk, 'take place normally

when we need fresh material from Earth, for our purposes.'

'I was the object of one such voyage,' I said.

'Obviously,' said Misk.

'It is said below the mountains that Priest-Kings know all

that occurs on Gor.'

'Nonsense,' said Misk.'But perhaps I shall show you the

Scanning Room someday.We have four hundred Priest-Kings who

operate the scanners, and we are accordingly well informed.

For example, if there is a violation of our weapons laws we

usually, sooner or later, discover it and after determining

the coordinates put into effect the Flame Death Mechanism.'

I had once seen a man die the Flame Death, the High Initiate

of Ar, on the roof of Ar's Cylinder of Justice.I shivered

involuntarily.

'Yes,' I said simply, 'sometime I would like to see the

Scanning Room.'

'But much of our knowledge comes from our implants,' said

Misk.'We implant humans with a control web and transmitting

device.The lenses of their eyes are altered in such a way

that what they see is registered by means of transducers on

scent-screens in the scanning room.We can also speak and

act by means of them, when the control web is activated in

the Sardar.'

'The eyes look different?' I asked.

'Sometimes not,' said Misk, 'sometimes yes.'

'Was the creature Parp so implanted?' I asked, remembering

his eyes.

'Yes,' said Misk, 'as was the man from Ar whom you met on the

road long ago near Ko-ro-ba.'

'But he threw off the control web,' I said, 'and spoke as he

wished.'

'Perhaps the webbing was faulty,' said Misk.

'But if it was not?' I asked.

'Then he was most remarkable,' said Misk.'Most remarkable.'

'You spoke of knowing the Cabots for four hundred years,' I

said.

'Yes,' said Misk, 'and your father, who is a brave and noble

man, has served us upon occasion, though he dealt only,