AiToyo Seco, where
there had once been a famous stadium. And he and Dekko took a cab to
headquarters, of the Thieves Guild.
This,
it turned out, was a large, rambling, temporary structure made of twenty-year
plastic, high up on the side of the mountains. Inside the front door was an anteroom and a surprisingly beautiful blonde woman in
early middle age. She and Dekko spoke together for a moment in low tones beyond
Kil's hearing. Then she rose from the desk where she had been sitting and
walked across the room to a door which she opened with her own Key.
"Go
ahead," she said. "He's in." And she stood aside to let them
pass. Following Dekko through the door, all un-
prepared ,
Kil caught his breath and stopped dead with an exclamation.
Sitting
facing them in an oversized chair was a huge man with a completely bald head
above a sad oriental face. He sat as if weary with the weight of his great
body; and "all the furniture of the room about him, like the chair he sat
on, was built oversize, outsize, larger than human. The effect was not so much
to strike the stranger with surprise at something so bizarre and unusual, as
to make him feel that these overlarge proportions were in fact the true ones,
and that it was he who was diminished, reduced, brought down to childhood's
size again. Like children, Kil and Dekko approached the giant; but if this was
not without its profound effect on Kil, it appeared to affect Dekko not at all.
"Kil," said
Dekko, stopping before the chair. "This is Toy."
The
obsidian eyes in the wide yellow face turned to focus on Kil.
"Yes,
that woman's my wife," said Toy, without preamble, in a bass as heavy as
himself. "I'll tell you that to satisfy your curiosity right from the
start. She's my wife and she ioves me. I don't know why. Any normal woman would
have left me long ago."
Kil,
startled and embarrassed by this unexpected attack, found himself suddenly wordless. He stared at the giant, caught too suddenly and unpreparedly
to be angry. Dekko smiled.
"Fishing, Toy?"
he asked.
"Only
observation," replied Toy. "How many people do you think have come
through that door or some similar door, and seen me, and not wondered about her?" His eyes went back to Kil. "Excuse me.
It's my one bitterness. Like King Midas who turned everything he touched to
gold. Everything I touch," his huge right hand curled around the end of
his chairarm and the tough plastic bent like cardboard, "turns to
fragments."
He let go of the chair arm.
"Excuse me again," he said.
"You've come at a bad time. I've been pitying myself. What can I do for you?" Dekko nodded at Kil.
"Him," he said, succinctly.
"Him?"
echoed Toy. The black eyes took in Kil for a long moment. "You look as if
you had a problem, young man. How do you like it—this world, this ant-swarm,
this mechanized midden heap, this modern age of ours? Does it suit you? Can you
find accomplishment in our better mousetraps, art in our improved plumbing,
glory in our conquest of bloodless mathematics, and adventure in our
antiseptic, well-lighted and airconditioned vice dens? What purposeful lives we
lead in our inoculated trottings to and fro about the world. Don't you
agree?"
"It looks like you
don't," said KiL
"Me?"
said the giant. "I'm an anachronism. No, by God, I flatter myself. I'm a
living fossil, a most excellent specimen of Tyrannosaurus Rex, claws clipped, teeth capped, and set to holding hanks of yarn for
old ladies with knitting on their mind. I'm a superb body in an age when bodies
have gone out of style. What a successful chieftan, what an outstanding hero I
would have made at any time up to the last few hundred years, before the world
became so cluttered up. What a Khan, what a Varanger, what a Viking. Just think , I could have been a Greek legend, like Hercules, or a
Roman Emperor of the Legions like Maximilian. No, forget fame. Think just what
a happy cave man I would have made. I can break the neck of a bull with one
twist of my arms; what an
there had once been a famous stadium. And he and Dekko took a cab to
headquarters, of the Thieves Guild.
This,
it turned out, was a large, rambling, temporary structure made of twenty-year
plastic, high up on the side of the mountains. Inside the front door was an anteroom and a surprisingly beautiful blonde woman in
early middle age. She and Dekko spoke together for a moment in low tones beyond
Kil's hearing. Then she rose from the desk where she had been sitting and
walked across the room to a door which she opened with her own Key.
"Go
ahead," she said. "He's in." And she stood aside to let them
pass. Following Dekko through the door, all un-
prepared ,
Kil caught his breath and stopped dead with an exclamation.
Sitting
facing them in an oversized chair was a huge man with a completely bald head
above a sad oriental face. He sat as if weary with the weight of his great
body; and "all the furniture of the room about him, like the chair he sat
on, was built oversize, outsize, larger than human. The effect was not so much
to strike the stranger with surprise at something so bizarre and unusual, as
to make him feel that these overlarge proportions were in fact the true ones,
and that it was he who was diminished, reduced, brought down to childhood's
size again. Like children, Kil and Dekko approached the giant; but if this was
not without its profound effect on Kil, it appeared to affect Dekko not at all.
"Kil," said
Dekko, stopping before the chair. "This is Toy."
The
obsidian eyes in the wide yellow face turned to focus on Kil.
"Yes,
that woman's my wife," said Toy, without preamble, in a bass as heavy as
himself. "I'll tell you that to satisfy your curiosity right from the
start. She's my wife and she ioves me. I don't know why. Any normal woman would
have left me long ago."
Kil,
startled and embarrassed by this unexpected attack, found himself suddenly wordless. He stared at the giant, caught too suddenly and unpreparedly
to be angry. Dekko smiled.
"Fishing, Toy?"
he asked.
"Only
observation," replied Toy. "How many people do you think have come
through that door or some similar door, and seen me, and not wondered about her?" His eyes went back to Kil. "Excuse me.
It's my one bitterness. Like King Midas who turned everything he touched to
gold. Everything I touch," his huge right hand curled around the end of
his chairarm and the tough plastic bent like cardboard, "turns to
fragments."
He let go of the chair arm.
"Excuse me again," he said.
"You've come at a bad time. I've been pitying myself. What can I do for you?" Dekko nodded at Kil.
"Him," he said, succinctly.
"Him?"
echoed Toy. The black eyes took in Kil for a long moment. "You look as if
you had a problem, young man. How do you like it—this world, this ant-swarm,
this mechanized midden heap, this modern age of ours? Does it suit you? Can you
find accomplishment in our better mousetraps, art in our improved plumbing,
glory in our conquest of bloodless mathematics, and adventure in our
antiseptic, well-lighted and airconditioned vice dens? What purposeful lives we
lead in our inoculated trottings to and fro about the world. Don't you
agree?"
"It looks like you
don't," said KiL
"Me?"
said the giant. "I'm an anachronism. No, by God, I flatter myself. I'm a
living fossil, a most excellent specimen of Tyrannosaurus Rex, claws clipped, teeth capped, and set to holding hanks of yarn for
old ladies with knitting on their mind. I'm a superb body in an age when bodies
have gone out of style. What a successful chieftan, what an outstanding hero I
would have made at any time up to the last few hundred years, before the world
became so cluttered up. What a Khan, what a Varanger, what a Viking. Just think , I could have been a Greek legend, like Hercules, or a
Roman Emperor of the Legions like Maximilian. No, forget fame. Think just what
a happy cave man I would have made. I can break the neck of a bull with one
twist of my arms; what an
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