Tetrarch

“ When we win this fight I’m going to get me a tetrarch, freeze it, and use it for a light in my fishing lodge.”
“Oh no, you’re not,” a barrel-chested earthman, incongruously named Bunny, informed him, “you’re going to contribute it to help spell Mona Darlanan’s name in lights on Broadway.” ”

“ Claudia, watching Salome now, saw Herodias reach out and gently grasp her daughter’s arm. The girl, still standing, smiled cynically and tossed her head. “Nevertheless, Sire, that is my request. If, however, the Tetrarch wishes to dishonor his oath before this company and refuse me....”
The Tetrarch banged his fist on the table top. “The Tetrarch never dishonors an oath!” he shouted. “He withdraws no promises he makes.” He turned to face the two guardsmen at the door, the soldiers who had brought the Wilderness prophet into the banquet room and had escorted him back to the dungeon. ”

“ They’re all pretty much the same, except for the masks. The ones they use on Earth are built in. Here in Tetrarch they’re removable. They fashioned them to conceal their real structure after they investigated Earth. ”

“ Rod strode forward despite Williamson’s restraining hand.
The whimpering slave gathered himself together and spoke as if he had memorized his piece.
“The tetrarchs say if you’ll surrender yourself they’ll spare the rest of the humans.”
“Bluff! A miserable bluff!” Williamson had come forward blazing with indignation. His contempt at the servile gestures of the slave was mounting. “We’ll kill every tetrarch on the planet—and you with them, if you’re not careful. You can sniffle on back there and tell them that their position is hopeless.” ”

“ We are all greatly fatigued and agitated.”
The servant stepped forward and bowed to the visitors. They in turn, without any further word from their spokesman, bowed to the Tetrarch and turned with the escorting servant to withdraw from the triclinium.
Herodias, seated now and apparently calm, twisted around to watch them depart. But when at the doorway Aretas’ spokesman glanced over his shoulder toward the Tetrarch, she suddenly grabbed the goblet beside her plate. “Go!” she screamed. “Go! Go!” With all her strength she hurled the goblet toward the man; it shattered on the wall near the door. ”

“ As he ran across rocky ground he wondered how Koler was taking to a silica diet.
His course was hazily sketched in his mind. The smuggled note that had started him from Earth had not been too specific. It couldn’t have been. There was too much chance of its being intercepted. But he had a good working knowledge of Tetrarch’s surface. The problem was to get to the Survivors—those who had somehow escaped the gryxon mines and escaped the hunting tetrarchians—and in getting to them he had to throw his pursuers off the trail. ”

“ Koler’s voice rustled, “perhaps Jerry—your brother—can be put to work in the compartment instead of the mines.”
Mona turned her breath-taking beauty on Rod. Her eyes glowed with passionate conviction. “Don’t you see,” she said softly, “we only make things worse by resisting? The tetrarchs want more slaves. Let them get them—from other planets—other galaxies. If we help them perhaps they will send us back to Earth. You’ve got to understand.” ”

“ Rod was now alert. “Why don’t the tetrarchs account for every human that escaped?”
“Well, boss,” the barrel-chested Bunny spoke, “they figure, how can they lose? All of us are due for the torch parade once we hit twenty-five.”
“Further,” Williamson added, “from the info I’ve gotten from Mona, the tetrarchs use the Hunt to test themselves. For each quarry caught without aid of any kind a tetrarchian guard gets promoted. If the guard himself is overcome—on his home field—so to speak—the idea is they’re well rid of him. That means a constant process of self selection.... ”

“ They never let us know what powered the gadgets—we never knew about gryxon power until the tetrarchs took over.
“We found out about gryxon then—in the mines. Once it’s sheathed by radium and the radium sheathed with lead—it’s harmless. But—when human life is used to handle the raw ore—!”
The vibrant timbre of Rod’s voice seemed to die away to death’s whisper, “Well, we all expect to die when we’re twenty-five ... and time’s passing. Try weighing what you might loosely call the human race against one brother! ”

“ It is not in thy power to stop the victim at the foot of the altar of expiation.’
“Saying these words, he disappeared like a luminous shadow behind the curtain.
“What could I do further? Fate could not be averted. The tetrarch who then reigned in Judea, and who has since died, devoured by worms, was a foolish and a wicked man. The chiefs of the law had chosen this man to be the tool of their hate and vengeance. To him the whole cohort addressed themselves in their thirst for vengeance against the Nazarene. ”

“ Every so often one of the hot-heads decides to escape. The tetrarchs love it. Sometimes, they deliberately give them the chance.”
He pointed to the oxygen cannisters attached to the back of Rod’s space suit. “The cylinders in our human space suits supply enough air to last for eight hours. When the air is exhausted it seems to be a natural reaction to rip the suit open. ”

“ Sometimes a man would interrupt the prophet to seek an answer to some deeply perplexing problem. But no one yet had spoken openly of the Tetrarch’s presence among them.
Then a tall, narrow-faced Jew, unkempt, ill-clothed, evidently a man of the earth, stepped forward and held up his hand. “This repentance of which you speak,” he questioned, “is it necessary for the rich man in the same manner as it is for the poor and dispossessed, for the man of authority as well as for the servant? ”

“ Koler paused. He peered with bloodshot eyes to see if his remarks were taking effect. “The tetrarchs are anxious to expand their conquests. They need those that are spending their time guarding the humans now. ”

“ Koler grasped a handful of the sand swirling about them. “That’s the climax of the Hunt. We—uh—they allow about an hour’s head start and then stalk the quarry. The idea is to catch him just as he rips his suit. And to get him to the operating chamber just before he dies.
“The tetrarchs are brilliant technicians, even if they are weak on theory. So I’ve helped them. We are anxious to find out why humans exposed to gryxon die on their twenty-fifth birthday. They think research on still-living humans will give them the answer.” ”

“ And we’ve got to kill every tetrarchian space ship crew either at the same time or immediately after we destroy communications. We’ve none too much oxygen for a job of this size. That’s our main weapon. ”

“ The Tetramorph, i.e. the union of the four attributes of the Evangelists, in one figure, is in Greek Art always angelic or winged—a mysterious thing. The Tetramorph in Western Art has in some instances become monstrous, instead of mystic and poetical. In a miniature of the Hortus Deliciarum, we find the new Law, or Christianity, represented as a woman crowned and seated on an animal which, with the body of a horse, has the four heads of the mystic creatures; and of the four feet, one is human; one hoofed, for the ox; one clawed like an eagle’s ”

“ The few of the old, true blood stand out head and shoulders above the throng, and you stand out, even among them. Who else could it have been? Who else hath the strength of arm and soul, the inner and the outer courage? No coward I, Tedric, nor ever called so, but on that altar my very bones turned jelly. I could not have swung weapon against Sarpedion. I tremble yet at the bare thought of what you did; I know not how you could have done it."
"You feared the god, Lady Rhoann, as do so many. I hated him."
"'Tis not enough of explanation. And 'Rhoann' merely, Tedric, remember?" ”

“ Each time the Tartharol reply, “Purs ad!” The Teivali man then touches the remains with the bow and arrow. He puts down the tadri on the ground, and the calf is driven away from the spot on which it had been standing. As soon as it begins to move all present, Tartharol and Teivaliol, cry out, “ua! ua!” and fall down and touch the earth with their foreheads. The bell is then removed from the calf, which is not killed, [377] but is allowed to go free. The bell (tukulir mani) is kept by the Kotas or Badagas till it is required by the Todas for another funeral. ”

“ Tedric roared, in such a voice that not a man moved. "If anybody takes one forward step, priest, or makes one move toward spear or arrow, your brains will spatter the walls across the street. Can your copper helmet stop this hammer? Can your girl-muscled, fat-bellied priest's body move fast enough to dodge my blow? And most or all of those runty little slavelings behind you," waving his left arm contemptuously at the group, "will also die before they cut me down. And if I die now, of what worth is Sarpedion's fraction of a metal that will never be made? ”

“ This has been long in the planning, but only your discovery of the god-metal made it possible of execution." Then, as Tedric glanced involuntarily at his gold-plated armor: "Yea, the overlay made it possible for me to live—although I may die this day, being the center of attack and being weaker and of lesser endurance that I thought—but my life matters not beside the good of Lomarr. A king's life is of import only to himself, to his Family, and to a few—wouldst be surprised to learn how very few—real friends."
"Your life matters to me, sire—and to Sciro!" ”

“ I fancy that this narrow cove prescribes the proper limits of a sonnet; and when I count the lines of ripple within yonder projecting wall, there proves to be room for just fourteen. Nature meets our whims with such little fitnesses. The words which build these delicate structures of Petrarch’s are as soft and fine and close-textured as the sands upon this tiny beach, and their monotone, if such it be, is the monotone of the neighboring ocean. ”

“ Rounding up his guerillas, he led them at a fast pace to the Lake of the Spiders, around it, and to the place where the Lomarrian army had been encamped. Four fifty-man rafts were waiting, and Tedric noticed with surprise that a sort of house had been built on the one lying farthest down-stream. This luxury, he learned, was for him and his squire Rahlion and their horses and armor!
The Middle Branch was wide and swift; and to Tedric and his bowmen, landlubbers all, it was terrifyingly rough and boisterous and full of rocks. Tedric, however, did not stay a landlubber long. ”

“ Any other man of your nation—yes, of your world—would have been scared out of what few wits he has."
"You are not one of ours, Lord." Tedric went to one knee. He knew, of course, that gods and devils existed; and, while this was the first time that a god had sought him out personally, he had heard of such happenings all his life. Since the god hadn't killed him instantly, he probably didn't intend to—right away, at least. Hence: "No god of Lomarr approves of me. Also, our gods are solid and heavy. ”

“ Even though a man is alone, the gods and hence the priests who serve them have power to hear. Then the man lies on the green rock and loses his brain, liver, and heart."
"You will not be overheard. I have power enough to see to that."
Tedric remained silent.
"I understand your doubt. Think, then; that will do just as well. What is it that you are trying to do?"
"I wonder how I can hear when there is no sound, but men cannot understand the powers of gods. I am trying to find or make a metal that is very hard, but not brittle. Copper is no good, I cannot harden it enough. ”

“ The most hot and sandy tracts, which we might naturally imagine would now be parched up, are in full glory. The erica tetralix, or bell-heath, the most beautiful of our indigenous species, is now in bloom, and has converted the brown bosom of the waste into one wide sea of crimson; the air is charged with its honied odour. ”

“ He does not fall down and worship Petrarch, because he knows that Petrarch is only one expression of the great power that lives behind all thought and speech—one part of the great whole that lies spread out before him on the river and the cliff. ”

“ Tartarin began cutting down his food, taking very watery soup. Early in the morning, too, he walked round the town seven or eight times, and at nights he would stay in the garden from ten till eleven o'clock, alone with his gun, to inure himself to night chills; while, so long as the menagerie remained in Tarascon, a strange figure might have been seen in the dark, prowling around the tent, listening to the growling of the lion. This was Tartarin, accustoming himself to be calm when the king of beasts was raging. ”

“ Skandos One (The Skandos of Time Track Number One, numbered for reasons which will become clear) showed, by means of the chronoviagraph, that civilization would destroy itself in one hundred eighty-seven years. To prevent this catastrophe he went back to the key point in time and sought out the key figure—one Tedric, a Lomarrian ironmaster who had lived and died a commoner; unable, ever, to do anything about his fanatical detestation of human sacrifice.
Skandos One taught Tedric how to make one batch of super-steel; watched him forge armor and arms from that highly anachronistic alloy. ”

“ This was a terrapin-like bug that was more than a mouthful. His body, indeed, was already out of sight, but claw-like legs protruded from both sides of that isosceles triangle [Pg 84] which a turtle’s mouth makes when it is closed, and waved a frantic farewell to the passing under-water world. The turtle was a long time in masticating his terrapin, but it was a happy time. His whole body blinked contentedly, and he waved his forelegs with a caressing out-push, a motion exactly like that of a child at the breast. ”