retire there, and if by chance or mischance one of their women should conceive, she goes elsewhere — any elsewhere — to have her child, and if she returns, she returns alone.
“Now — You have a question. Before stopping to answer it, I think I’d best enumerate the Seven — was that your question? I had an idea it was — the Seven Signs.
“Green eyes.
“Long fingers.
“Long ears, with tips.
“Smooth and hairless bodies.
“Full mouths.
“Slender feet.
“Melodious voices.”
The atmosphere was like that of a small but very up-to-date and well-maintained medical centrum. Except that, at the moment, there seemed to be only one patient. “That’s quite a bill to fill,” he observed, quietly. He had seldom felt so passive, entirely submitting, in his life before. Perhaps never. He was no longer, at this moment, physically naked … but the tests and examinations he had been undergoing all day, and all day the day before, left him still feeling — he reached about for the thought — internally naked. As though everything about every cell of his body was now known and revealed, exposed.
The Craftsman at the desk said, “You have no idea, I think, just how large the bill is. But it may not involve endowing you with each and every one of the Seven Signs. As a matter of fact, not all of the Tarnisi by any means have all seven. It’s the ideal of them which matters. As for you, we will see … . Which one of them, do you suppose, is the most difficult to achieve?”
The patient considered. “Oh … the green eyes, I suppose.”
A brief smile rested on the Craftsman’s thin, precise lips. “No. That will be the easiest. Fingers and feet pose the biggest problem, because there we are dealing with bone structure. Fortunately, you already have long fingers and slender feet. You were certainly aware that all of this has to be paid for,” the Craftsman, changing the subject in so smooth and easy a voice that the transition seemed natural; “and that brings us to the matter of the price, which is 100,000 units.”
“Yes, I … Oh. I haven’t got that much. I never had.”
“True. You have 35,000 in the National Fiscal, and three accounts under other names in other places which total 27,000 units. Your, ah, professional equipment we will not consider. Part of it belongs to your backers, and it will cause the least disturbance if we allow your crewmen to assume your equity for the present. There remains, then, personal property to the amount of 17,000 units; and all this comes to 69,000 units, or 31,000 less than is required. The Craftsmen will extend credit for the remainder. There is little doubt, we consider, that you will be paying it off before you leave Tarnis. We know what you have, what you have done, what you can do. It requires only a simple extension of logic to calculate, minimally, what you will do.” He let out a satisfied breath. “And, if, after you leave Tarnis, you wish to assume another and different identity and form … the Craftsmen will make that possible for you, too.” He looked very, very satisfied as he said this.
In the patient’s mind, and, it seemed to him, in the very contours of the Craftsman’s face and in the very molecules of the ambient air, the words took form:
And that will cost you more … much, much more
.
CHAPTER FOUR
Hob Sarlamat brought his hand up and out in the approved slow manner which avoided alike ungraceful abruptness and the possibility that his sleeve would ride up his arm and ruffle his cuff. “I have never seen the Tree of Consultation in finer bloom,” he said.
“I suppose it’s not more than three hundred years old,” Atoral Tarolioth said, dryly. She made her mouth smaller, and glanced away when he looked at her.
“Really, Atoral, I am not
that
old,” he protested.
“No, I believe that Tree is, let me see — it was planted by Tulan Soloniant in his third year as Guardian,” the man on Atoral’s other side said, considering.
“Now — You have a question. Before stopping to answer it, I think I’d best enumerate the Seven — was that your question? I had an idea it was — the Seven Signs.
“Green eyes.
“Long fingers.
“Long ears, with tips.
“Smooth and hairless bodies.
“Full mouths.
“Slender feet.
“Melodious voices.”
The atmosphere was like that of a small but very up-to-date and well-maintained medical centrum. Except that, at the moment, there seemed to be only one patient. “That’s quite a bill to fill,” he observed, quietly. He had seldom felt so passive, entirely submitting, in his life before. Perhaps never. He was no longer, at this moment, physically naked … but the tests and examinations he had been undergoing all day, and all day the day before, left him still feeling — he reached about for the thought — internally naked. As though everything about every cell of his body was now known and revealed, exposed.
The Craftsman at the desk said, “You have no idea, I think, just how large the bill is. But it may not involve endowing you with each and every one of the Seven Signs. As a matter of fact, not all of the Tarnisi by any means have all seven. It’s the ideal of them which matters. As for you, we will see … . Which one of them, do you suppose, is the most difficult to achieve?”
The patient considered. “Oh … the green eyes, I suppose.”
A brief smile rested on the Craftsman’s thin, precise lips. “No. That will be the easiest. Fingers and feet pose the biggest problem, because there we are dealing with bone structure. Fortunately, you already have long fingers and slender feet. You were certainly aware that all of this has to be paid for,” the Craftsman, changing the subject in so smooth and easy a voice that the transition seemed natural; “and that brings us to the matter of the price, which is 100,000 units.”
“Yes, I … Oh. I haven’t got that much. I never had.”
“True. You have 35,000 in the National Fiscal, and three accounts under other names in other places which total 27,000 units. Your, ah, professional equipment we will not consider. Part of it belongs to your backers, and it will cause the least disturbance if we allow your crewmen to assume your equity for the present. There remains, then, personal property to the amount of 17,000 units; and all this comes to 69,000 units, or 31,000 less than is required. The Craftsmen will extend credit for the remainder. There is little doubt, we consider, that you will be paying it off before you leave Tarnis. We know what you have, what you have done, what you can do. It requires only a simple extension of logic to calculate, minimally, what you will do.” He let out a satisfied breath. “And, if, after you leave Tarnis, you wish to assume another and different identity and form … the Craftsmen will make that possible for you, too.” He looked very, very satisfied as he said this.
In the patient’s mind, and, it seemed to him, in the very contours of the Craftsman’s face and in the very molecules of the ambient air, the words took form:
And that will cost you more … much, much more
.
CHAPTER FOUR
Hob Sarlamat brought his hand up and out in the approved slow manner which avoided alike ungraceful abruptness and the possibility that his sleeve would ride up his arm and ruffle his cuff. “I have never seen the Tree of Consultation in finer bloom,” he said.
“I suppose it’s not more than three hundred years old,” Atoral Tarolioth said, dryly. She made her mouth smaller, and glanced away when he looked at her.
“Really, Atoral, I am not
that
old,” he protested.
“No, I believe that Tree is, let me see — it was planted by Tulan Soloniant in his third year as Guardian,” the man on Atoral’s other side said, considering.
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