"They may win, the water-people. What's the difference? It will be
just the exchange of one Skin for another. Before I heard of the
landing of the Earthman I was going to fight no matter what the cost
to me or inevitable defeat. But not now."
Mapfarity's rumble was angry. "Ah, Jean-Jacques, this is not my
comrade talking. Are you sure you haven't swallowed your Skin? You
talk as if you were inside-out. What is the matter with your brain?
Can't you see that it will indeed make a difference if the Amphibs get
the upper hand? Can't you see _who_ is making the Amphibs behave the
way they have been?"
Rastignac urged the Renault towards the rose-colored lacy castle high
upon a hill. The vehicle trotted tiredly along the rough and narrow
forest path.
"What do you mean?" he said.
"I mean the Amphibs got along fine with the Ssassaror until a new
element entered their lives--the Earthmen. Then the antagonising
began. What is this new element? It's the Changelings--the mixture of
Earthmen and Amphibs or Ssassaror and Terran. Add it up. Turn it
around. Look at it from any angle. It is the Changelings who are
behind this restlessness--the Human element.
"Another thing. The Amphibs have always had Skins different from ours.
Our factories create our Skins to set up an affinity and communication
between their wearers and all of Nature. They are designed to make it
easier for every Man to love his neighbor.
"Now, the strange thing about the Amphibs' Skin is that they, too,
were once designed to do such things. But in the past thirty or forty
years new Skins have been created for one primary purpose--to
establish a communication between the Sea-King and his subjects. Not
only that, the Skins can be operated at long distances so that the
King may punish any disobedient subject. And they are set so that they
establish affinity only among the Waterfolk, not between them and all
of Nature."
"I had gathered some of that during my conversations with Lusine,"
said Rastignac. "But I did not know it had gone to such lengths."
"Yes, and you may safely bet that the Changelings are behind it."
"Then it is the human element that is corrupting?"
"What else?"