Wyst: Alastor 1716 by Jack Vance Read Free Book Online Page B

eaten them.”
    Esteban jumped to his feet. “A good idea, but let me! I’ll
be glad to run the errand.”
    “Don’t be silly,” said Skorlet. “It’s only a step or two.”
Esteban said, laughing, “We’ll both go, if you’re so stubborn.”
    Jantiff looked from one to the other, bemused, “Is it really
such a point of courtesy? I’ll come too, in that case.”
    “ Esteban sighed and shook his head. “Of course not. Skorlet
is merely a wayward person… None of us will go.”
    Skorlet shrugged. “As you wish.”
    Jantiff said, “We can easily restrain our appetites. At
least I can. And we’ll drop off the gruff on our way out.”
    “Of course,” said Esteban. “That’s the fair way.”
    Jantiff wondered at the exquisite nicety of Esteban’s politesse.
    “Eat the wump and shut up,” said Skorlet.
    The meal was taken in silence. Jantiff inspected his fellow
residents with interest. There was no reserve and anonymity; everyone seemed to
know everyone else; cheerful greetings, banter, allusion to social events and
mutual friends rang around the room. A slender girl with fine honey-colored
hair paused beside Skorlet and whispered something in her ear, with an
arch side glance toward Jantiff. Skorlet gave a dreary laugh. “Go on with you!
It’s all nonsense, as well you know!”
    The girl went on to a nearby table, where she joined
friends. Jantiff thought her slender round body, her charming features and her saucy
spontaneity all attractive, but made no comment.
    Skorlet noticed the direction of his gaze. “That’s Kedidah.
The old sandpiper yonder is Sarp, her roommate. He tries to copulate a dozen
times a day, which makes for an inconvenient roommate; after all, one’s social
life is usually elsewhere. She just offered to trade you for Sarp, but I
wouldn’t hear of it. Esteban is always handy when I’m in the mood, which
perhaps isn’t as often as it should be.”
    Jantiff, spooning up his wobbly, forbore comment.
    Upon leaving the refectory, the three stopped by the apartment
where Skorlet dropped off the three cakes of gruff. Skorlet turned to Jantiff. “Are
you ready?”
    “I’m just debating whether to bring my camera. My family
wants photographs by the dozen.”
    “Better not this time,” said Esteban. “Wait till you know
the ropes. Then you can get some really dramatic photographs. And also you’ll
have learned to cope with the, alas, all too prevalent snergery.”
    “‘Snergery’? What is that?”
    “Theft, to put it bluntly. Arrabus abounds with merges.
Haven’t you heard?”
    Jantiff shook his head. “I can’t understand why anyone
should steal under egalism.”
    Esteban laughed. “Snerging ensures egalism. It’s a very direct
remedy against anyone accumulating goods. In Arrabus we share and share alike.”
    “I can’t understand the logic in all this,” said Jantiff,
but neither—Esteban nor Skorlet showed any interest in pursuing the topic.
    The three proceeded to the man-way and rode half a mile to
the district crèche, where Tanzel waited: a pretty wisp of a girl with Skorlet’s
round face, Esteban’s fine features and a thoughtful intelligence all her own.
She greeted Skorlet and Esteban with restrained affection, and Jantiff with
quite obvious curiosity. After a few moments of covert inspection, she told
him: “Really, you look much like the rest of us!”
    “Of course! How did you expect me to look?”
    “Like a cannibal, or an exploiter, or maybe one of their victims.”
    “What odd ideas!” said Jantiff. “On Zeck at least no one
would care to be thought an exploiter, much less a victim.”
    “Then why did you come to Arrabus?”
    “That’s a hard question,” said Jantiff somberly. “I’m not sure
that I know the answer myself. At home too much pressed on me, while all the
time I searched for something I couldn’t find. I needed to get away and order
my mind.”
    Esteban and Skorlet had been listening to the conversation
with distant