so that I blushed deeply at the nearness and the nudity ofher, and she laughed, amusedly, as at a child. Her long, gemmed handreached out and touched me, and she talked to Holaf excitedly, her faceall smiles and interest; I was a wholly fascinating new toy he hadbrought her, it seemed. Then she sank to the bench, crossing her lovelyknees over her hands, clasped together as if to make sure they behaved.To me she was wholly cultured and I some strange boor who had never beenin a drawing room. I felt the impact of that culture in her interestedeyes and in the sleek, smart bearing of her utterly relaxed body. Shestretched a hand to gesture me to be seated, and I tried Korean on her.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, lady. If I but knew who you were, and howto speak properly, there is much we could find of interest to discuss."
"I am sure of it, stranger. First you must tell me of yourself, and thenlater we will talk of what is familiar to me. I cannot put off thecuriosity which burns me. Please tell me all about your people andyourself!" Her voice was hard to follow, she handled the clumsy Koreanwith a bird-like quickness and an utter disregard for the nature of thelanguage. Her eyes burned into my own, and I sat embarrassed beside her,tongue-tied, while Holaf smiled quietly and kept his hand on his weapon.
So I talked about New York, about my home town in Indiana, about my minein South America, about anything and everything, and she listened, rapteyes encouraging me, hanging on every stumbling, mispronounced,difficult word. I would have given an arm to have been able to talkexpertly in her own tongue.
Thus engaged, and engrossed by her, I glanced up absently to noteNokomee's eyes blazing into my own in fury, and spaced about the room ina listening circle, a score of others. I stopped abruptly, and Nokomeelashed out at the woman beside me with a string of alien expletives thatmade her face flame with an anger as great as Nokomee's own. I wonderedvaguely what I had done....
Their strange, grim faces, all watching me, seeming to peer inside me,trying to gauge me as an enemy or a friend. I stood up, for the excitingnear-nude body of the woman who had caused Nokomee's outburst was tooclose, too intimately relaxed.
Abruptly Nokomee took me by the hand, led me out and along the ledge onthe cliff. Into another cavern entrance she led me, to a smallerchamber, where another fire burned, and another bench invited to itswarmth. She half pushed me to a seat, and busied herself in the nextadjoining chamber, rattling dishware, and now and again giving a sharpexclamation as of extreme disgust.
I gathered I had been guilty of falling for the Zerv equivalent of avamp. How wrong I was in this deduction I was to learn. It was not thewoman's beauty that Nokomee feared, but something vastly more dangerous.I was very ignorant then. The Zervs were an ancient people and theirways were strange entirely. For the net-clad beauty had been a "Zoorph."I asked Nokomee, as she repeated the word again.
"What is a Zoorph, that makes you so angry? I thought she was verycharming. I saw no harm in talking to her!"
Nokomee thrust her head out of the curtained doorway, from which thesmell of food told me I had not eaten since morning.
"A Zoorph dear _child_ of earth, is a creature not good for man orbeast! Only a Zerv would be fool enough to keep so dangerous an animalabout! If I told you, you would not believe it."
"Tell me anyway, Nokomee."
The girl came, bearing food on a tray. She squatted at my feet, puttingthe tray on the bench, and holding a large graceful urn of some liquidto replenish my cup. Very prettily she did this, yet I gathered that itwas something which would have overwhelmed me with the honor if I hadunderstood. I did appreciate her service, and I tried to say so, but shesilenced me.
"Never mind, one day you will understand how proud we are, that in ourown world and in our own society _you_ would be less than a worm. Yet Iserve you, who am more above you than a princess would be in your world.Thus does the world change about one, and one adjusts. But do not thinkof it. It must be, or some terrible thing like the Zoorph would seizeupon you here among us."
I laughed a little, for I was sure she was telling a lie, to warn meagainst the "vamp" in the only words she could think of in the alientongue.
Her face flushed deep red at my laughter, and she half rose as if toleave, but restrained her anger.
"A Zoorph is worse than a disease, it has enervated my people until theyhave lost everything, and still they are among us. They are childrenraised by a secret cult on my own world, trained into strange practices.It is somewhat like a witch or sorcerer would be to you, but much, muchdifferent. You could not understand unless you were raised among us.When men are tired of life, they go to a Zoorph. It is not nice to speakof, what they are and what they do. To us, it is like death, only worse.Yet we have them, as ants have pets, as dogs have lice, as your peoplehave disease. It is a custom. It is a kind of escape from life andlife's dullness--but it is escape into madness, for the Zoorph has anart that is utter degradation, and few realize how bad they are for us.You must never go near her again!"
Days passed into weeks, and every day I learned a few words of the Zervlanguage, every day I picked up a little more insight into their utterlydifferent ways and customs and standards--their scale of values. It wasa process replete with surprises, with revelations, with newunderstanding of nature itself as seen through the alien eyes.
I remained as a kind of semi-prisoner, tolerated because of Nokomee'sposition and her affection for me. Nokomee, I learned, was "of theblood," though there were few surviving of her family to carry on thepower and prestige she would have inherited. Yet, she was "of the blood"and entitled to all the respect and obedience the Zervs gave even totheir old ruler.
He was an attenuated skeleton of a man, with weary eyes and tremblinghands, and I grew more and more sure that the inactivity against theirusurpers visible in the valley beneath was due more to his age andtimorous nature than to any inability to turn the tables. They seemed tohold the "Schrees" in contempt, yet never took any action against them,so that I wondered if the contempt were justified or was an inherited,sublimated hatred.
The supplies, rifles and ammunition which had been left on our horseswhen we entered the cavern of the golden image, had been brought toNokomee's cavern and locked in a small chamber before my eyes. It wasall there. As the time dragged on, I chafed at the inactivity, foughtagainst the barriers of language and alien custom that separated me fromthese people, struggled to overcome their indifference and their, to me,impossible waiting for _what_ I did not understand.
Finally I could wait no longer. In the night, I burst the lock of thecloset with a bar, took out a rifle and .45 and two belts of cartridges.I slid over the lip of the ledge that hid us from the city's eyes. I wasgoing to see for myself what we were hiding from, what we were waitingfor, was going to take my chances with the dangers in that place theyhad built and from which they now hid. I had pressed Nokomee forexplanations and promises of future participation in their life andactivities, and I had been refused for the last time! Like a runaway, Islid down the steep cliff face, putting as much space between the Zervsand myself as rapidly as I could.
The night was dark as pitch. I had left Nokomee asleep in her chamber. Ihad avoided Holaf, who still kept a kind of amused watch over myactivities, and I was free. Free to explore that weird city of ploddinglives, of strange unexplained sounds, of ominously hidden activity!
Scrambling, sliding, worrying in the dimness, I finally reached the lessprecipitous slopes of the base of the cliff. As I stopped to get abearing on the direction of the city, above me came a slithering, a softfeminine exclamation, and down upon me came a perfumed weight, knockingme sprawling in the grass.
My eyes quickly adjusted, I crawled to the dim shape struggling to herfeet. Her face was not Nokomee's, as I had at first thought. Thoseenormous shadowed eyes, that thin lovely nose, the flower-fragile lips,the mysterious allure--were the woman whom Nokomee had described as a"Zoorph" and whom she had both feared and despised. I spoke sharply inthe tongue of the Zervs. I had learned enough under Nokomee's tutelageto carry on a conversatio
n.
"Why do you follow me, Zoorph?"
"Because I am weary of being cooped up with those who do not trust me,just as you. I want to find a new, exciting thing; just as do you. Evenif it is death or worse, I want it. I am alive, as are you."
I put down the dislike and distrust the girl Nokomee had aroused in meagainst her. Perhaps she _had_ been merely jealous of her.
"Don't you _know_ what could happen in the city?" To me it was curiousthat she should want to go where the others feared to go.
"I know no better than you what awaits there, and I do not believe whatthey have told me of the Schrees. They are not wholly human, but neitherare they evil wholly, as the Zervs suppose."
"Why do the Zervs wait, instead of trying to do something forthemselves? They speak of the threat of these raiders, yet they do nottry to help me bring