Wyst: Alastor 1716 by Jack Vance Read Free Book Online

two cases, a table, now cluttered with Skorlet’s small
belongings, and two cots separated by a flimsy curtain. Skorlet brushed the trinkets
to one side of the, table. “Your half,” she said, “and your bed.” She jerked
her thumb. “During my drudge the apartment is: at your disposal, should you
wish to entertain a friend, and vice versa. Things work out well unless we draw
the same stint, but that’s not too often.”
    “Aha, yes, I see,” said Jantiff.
    Esteban returned with three blue glass mugs; Skorlet solemnly
poured them full. “To the. Centenary!” she called in a brassy voice. “May the
Connatic do his duty!”
    Jantiff drank down the murky liquid and controlled a grimace at the aftertaste, which he associated with mice and old mattresses.
    “Very bold,” said Esteban approvingly. “Very bold indeed.
You have an active thumb for the swill!”
    “Yes, very good,” said Jantiff. “And when does the Centenary
occur?”
    “Shortly—a matter of a few months. There’s to be a simply
explosive festival, with free games and dancing along the ways, and probably no
end of swill. I’ll surely put down a good supply. Esteban, can’t you scrounge
me a dozen jugs?”
    “My dear, I’ve drawn the vitamin stint only once, and the Mutual
stood right on top of me, watching my every move. I was lucky to capture the
two of them.”
    “Then we must do without swill.”
    “Can’t you use a plastic bag?” Jantiff suggested. “After
all, the container need not be rigid.”
    Esteban ruefully shook his head. “It’s been tried many
times; our plastic bags all leak.”
    Skorlet said: “Old Sarp has a jug which he’s too parsimonious
to use . I’ll have Kedidah put the merge on it. That’s three jugs at
least. Now where’s the gruff?”
    “I’ll contribute from lunch,” said Esteban.
    “If it’s needed,” said Jantiff, “I will too.”
    Skorlet looked at him approvingly. “That the spirit! Who
said the immigrants are lampreys sucking our juices? Not the case with Jantiff!”
    Esteban said meditatively: “I know a chap in Purple Vendetta
who taps sturge from the pipe and he makes a very fierce swill indeed. I might
just promote a bucket or two of raw sturge; it’s worth the experiment.”
    Jantiff asked: “What is ‘sturge’?”
    “Simple food pulp. It’s piped out from the central plant. In
the kitchen it magically becomes gruff, deedle and wobbly. No reason why it
shouldn’t make good swill.”
    Skorlet carefully poured each of the three mugs half full. “Well—once
again to the Festival, and may the Connatic put all would-be immigrants to work
making pickles and pepper sausage, for consignment to Uncibal I”
    “And let the Propuncers gnaw last week’s gruff!”
    “Save some for the Connatic. He can be as egal as the rest
of us.”
    “Oh, he’ll dine on banter at the Travelers Inn; no fear of
that.”
    Jantiff asked: “Is the Connatic actually coming to the Festival?”
    Skorlet shrugged. “The Whispers are going out to Lusz to
invite him, but who knows what he’ll say?”
    “He won’t come,” said Esteban. “Total fool he’d feel at the
ceremony, with everybody screaming ‘Hurrah for egalism!’ and ‘Egalism for the
Cluster!’”
    “And ‘Low drudge for the Connatic, just like the
rest of
    “Exactly. What could he say?”
    “Oh, something like, ‘My dear subjects, I’m disappointed
that you haven’t laid red velvet along Uncibal River for my delicate feet. Now
it’s not well known, and I’d never reveal it anywhere but here on Arrabus, but
I’m actually a chwig. [13] I command that you fill me a tank with your best banter.”
    Half amused, half scandalized, Jantiff protested: “Really. you
do him injustice! He lives a most sedate life!”
    Skorlet sneered. “That’s all smarm from his Bureau of Acclamation.
Who knows what the Connatic’s really like?”
    Esteban drained his blue glass mug and looked in calculation
toward the jug.
    “We all know that the