He went deathly pale. He could feel his stomach revolt at the thought.
"The Anolyn breed men for special purposes," Lete went on, unaware of
the loathing in his eyes, "fighters, meat animals, the pink-skinned
Caligans. Oh, there must be fifteen or sixteen different kinds. They're
all 'Edir'," and she dismissed them with a shrug of her shapely brown
shoulders.
Jupiter's cage was swaying along the plastic ribbon of a road. It was
all he could do to keep from being sick, but he knew now the subtle
distinction that had been troubling him.
The humans weren't slaves. They were domesticated--like cattle or dogs
or horses. And Lete's people were wild with all the contempt of the
wild thing for its tame cousin!
Reiloc, trotting beside the cage, grunted suddenly and raised his arm,
pointing ahead. Jupiter lifted his eyes, felt a tingle of excitement
run through him.
There, glittering in the rays of the setting sun were the spires and
battlements of the city by the _Dra Dur_.
* * * * *
Night had fallen by the time they reached the city gate. Yogol, as Lete
called the planet, had no satellite. The darkness was unrelieved except
by the faint starshine.
The caravan halted beneath towering walls of deeper blackness. In his
cage Jupiter heard a horn sound, then a groaning that must be the
massive gate rolling aside. The caravan began to move again.
They passed into a canyon between dark buildings. And all about him he
could hear the shuffle of feet, low voices. He was like a blind man in
the midst of a crowd.
Strange spicy smells beset his nostrils and a cold, dank, salty odor
that must be the _Dra Dur_. He could hear the lap of water and shouts
and loud thumpings and the creak of tackle. And through it all ran the
sibilant voice of the invisible throng.
After an interminable march, they turned through a massive entrance
into a well lit building. The noise of the city stopped as the door
swung shut behind them. Jupiter squinted his eyes, blinded by the
sudden light.
Sometime before, the caravan had split up, and only the cages holding
the wild people remained. Then without warning, they too turned off
down a bisecting passage.
"Lete!" he yelled after the girl; "Lete!" His own bearers were carrying
his cage straight ahead. The girl waved at him forlornly and called:
"A'towee, Jupiter."
It meant, "Goodbye forever" as near as he could translate it. He felt
lonely--more lonely even than after Briggs' suicide.
Good Lord! he thought in alarm. He'd better watch himself. He'd been
in space so long that he was growing overly fond of this naked little
barbarian. The biological urge could be a damned traitorous emotion,
and there was no place for a woman in his plans.
He frowned. Unless he should need Lete to lead him back to his ship....
"Where are they taking the others?" he demanded of Reiloc who still
paced soundlessly beside his cage.
"To the training pits."
"And me?"
Reiloc appeared puzzled. "To the house of the Radiant God. But it's
very strange."
Before Jupiter could voice the questions rising to his lips, a door
opened in the wall ahead. He was borne inside an enormous vaulted
chamber, his cage dropped on the floor. Reiloc hadn't entered, and the
porters retreated through the door. It closed behind them.
Jupiter though, had scarcely been aware of their departure. His whole
attention was focused on a huge statue of an Anolyn dominating the room.
The idol shed a soft luminescence, and there was a sense of power in
its execution that was god-like:
"In their own image," he thought irreverently, then he sucked in his
breath.
The stuff of the image was radioactive! Some incredibly rich uranium or
thorium bearing ore. Radium too! He'd never seen anything quite like
it. Neither pitchblende nor carnotite. And it must weigh a ton!
Enough to take him half way across the super galaxy!
He gave a harsh laugh. He had found his fuel. It only remained for him
to escape carrying a ton of heathen idol with him!