A Voyage to Arcturus Part 26

"Her husband--yes. But where do you come from? I've seen nothing like you before."

"From another world. Where is Matterplay?"

"It's the first country one comes to beyond the Sinking Sea."

"What is it like there--how do you amuse yourselves? The same old murders and sudden deaths?"

"Are you ill?" asked Digrung. "Who is this woman, why are you following at her heels like a slave? She looks insane to me. What's that corpse--why are you dragging it around the country with you?"

Tydomin smiled. "I've already heard it said about Matterplay, that if one sows an answer there, a rich crop of questions immediately springs up. But why do you make this unprovoked attack on me, Digrung?"

"I don't attack you, woman, but I know you. I see into you, and I see insanity. That wouldn't matter, but I don't like to see a man of intelligence like Maskull caught in your filthy meshes."

"I suppose even you clever Matterplay people sometimes misjudge character. However, I don't mind. Your opinion's nothing to me, Digrung.

You'd better answer his questions, Maskull. Not for his own sake--but your feminine friend is sure to be curious about your having been seen carrying a dead man."

Maskull's underlip shot out. "Tell your sister nothing, Digrung. Don't mention my name at all. I don't want her to know about this meeting of ours."

"Why not?"

"I don't wish it--isn't that enough?"

Digrung looked impa.s.sive.

"Thoughts and words," he said, "which don't correspond with the real events of the world are considered most shameful in Matterplay."

"I'm not asking you to lie, only to keep silent."

"To hide the truth is a special branch of lying. I can't accede to your wish. I must tell Joiwind everything, as far as I know it."

Maskull got up, and Tydomin followed his example.

She touched Digrung on the arm and gave him a strange look. "The dead man is my husband, and Maskull murdered him. Now you'll understand why he wishes you to hold your tongue."

"I guessed there was some foul play," said Digrung. "It doesn't matter--I can't falsify facts. Joiwind must know."

"You refuse to consider her feelings?" said Maskull, turning pale.

"Feelings which flourish on illusions, and sicken and die on realities, aren't worth considering. But Joiwind's are not of that kind."

"If you decline to do what I ask, at least return home without seeing her; your sister will get very little pleasure out of the meeting when she hears your news."

"What are these strange relations between you?" demanded Digrung, eying him with suddenly aroused suspicion.

Maskull stared back in a sort of bewilderment. "Good G.o.d! You don't doubt your own sister. That pure angel!"

Tydomin caught hold of him delicately. "I don't know Joiwind, but, whoever she is and whatever she's like, I know this--she's more fortunate in her friend than in her brother. Now, if you really value her happiness, Maskull, you will have to take some firm step or other."

"I mean to. Digrung, I shall stop your journey."

"If you intend a second murder, no doubt you are big enough."

Maskull turned around to Tydomin and laughed. "I seem to be leaving a wake of corpses behind me on this journey."

"Why a corpse? There's no need to kill him."

"Thanks for that!" said Digrung dryly. "All the same, some crime is about to burst. I feel it."

"What must I do, then?" asked Maskull.

"It is not my business, and to tell the truth I am not very interested.... If I were in your place, Maskull, I would not hesitate long. Don't you understand how to absorb these creatures, who set their feeble, obstinate wills against yours?"

"That is a worse crime," said Maskull.

"Who knows? He will live, but he will tell no tales."

Digrung laughed, but changed colour. "I was right then. The monster has sprung into the light of day."

Maskull laid a hand on his shoulder. "You have the choice, and we are not joking. Do as I ask."

"You have fallen low, Maskull. But you are walking in a dream, and I can't talk to you. As for you, woman--sin must be like a pleasant bath to you...."

"There are strange ties between Maskull and myself; but you are a pa.s.ser-by, a foreigner. I care nothing for you."

"Nevertheless, I shall not be frightened out of my plans, which are legitimate and right."

"Do as you please," said Tydomin. "If you come to grief, your thoughts will hardly have corresponded with the real events of the world, which is what you boast about. It is no affair of mine."

"I shall go on, and not back!" exclaimed Digrung, with angry emphasis.

Tydomin threw a swift, evil smile at Maskull. "Bear witness that I have tried to persuade this young man. Now you must come to a quick decision in your own mind as to which is of the greatest importance, Digrung's happiness or Joiwind's. Digrung won't allow you to preserve them both."

"It won't take me long to decide. Digrung, I gave you a last chance to change your mind."

"As long as it's in my power I shall go on, and warn my sister against her criminal friends."

Maskull again clutched at him, but this time with violence. Instructed in his actions by some new and horrible instinct, he pressed the young man tightly to his body with all three arms. A feeling of wild, sweet delight immediately pa.s.sed through him. Then for the first time he comprehended the triumphant joys of "absorbing." It satisfied the hunger of the will, exactly as food satisfies the hunger of the body. Digrung proved feeble--he made little opposition. His personality pa.s.sed slowly and evenly into Maskull's. The latter became strong and gorged. The victim gradually became paler and limper, until Maskull held a corpse in his arms. He dropped the body, and stood trembling. He had committed his second crime. He felt no immediate difference in his soul, but...

Tydomin shed a sad smile on him, like winter sunshine. He half expected her to speak, but she said nothing. Instead, she made a sign to him to pick up Crimtyphon's corpse. As he obeyed, he wondered why Digrung's dead face did not wear the frightful Crystalman mask.

"Why hasn't he altered?" he muttered to himself.

Tydomin heard him. She kicked Digrung lightly with her little foot.

"He isn't dead--that's why. The expression you mean is waiting for your death."

"Then is that my real character?"

She laughed softly. "You came here to carve a strange world, and now it appears you are carved yourself. Oh, there's no doubt about it, Maskull.