The Blue World (19 page)

The year, which
subsequently became known as the Year of the Exemplars, came to an
end. Shortly after the beginning of the new year, three swindlers,
working the water to the east of Tranque Float, sighted a fleet
approaching from the east. The two younger swindlers made a hurried
motion to haul in their lines, but the elder halted them. “Our
business is swindling, no more. Let the boats go by; they will not
molest us.”

So the swindlers
sat back and watched the flotilla pass. There were twelve galleys,
rather high of freeboard, sheathed with a dull black membrane. Each
carried a crew of thirty who sat low and rowed through holes in the
hull, and thus were protected from missiles. They wore casques and
corselets of the same black membrane that sheathed the hulls, and
beside each was a bow, a dozen arrows with fire-bulb tips, a long
lance with a tang of orange metal. The galleys accompanied a strange
rectangular barge riding on three hulls. Platforms fore and aft
supported a pair of bulky objects concealed by tarpaulins, with
beside each a tub. In each of the three hulls were rows of squat
glass vats, two hundred and ten in all, each of two quarts capacity,
each two-thirds full of pale liquid. Like the galleys, the barge was
propelled by oarsmen sitting low in the hulls and protected from
hostile missiles by the screen of black membrane.

The Exemplars on
Tranque Float observed the flotilla, hoodwink towers flickered an
alarm: “
The … dissidents … are … returning … in …
force … They … come … in … strange … black … canoes …
and … an … even … more … peculiar … black … barge …
They … show … no … fear.
”

Returning came
instruction in a code unintelligible to those of the flotilla. They
could now see the Tranque docks where the new barges floated and
where already the laden arbors had been brought forth to be attached
and towed astern. The docks swarmed with Exemplars, ready to defeat
any attempt to destroy the barges a second time. But the flotilla
sailed past, and the hoodwink towers flickered once again: “
The
… dissidents … proceed …west … They … are … passing …
Tranque Float … It … is … difficult … to … conjecture …
their … intent.
” And back came coded instructions, evidently
advising cautious observation, for the Exemplars boarded coracles and
rowed on a course parallel to the flotilla, keeping a cautious two
hundred yards between.

The flotilla
continued up the line of floats: Thrasneck, Bickle, Green Lamp; at
last Fay, Quatrefoil, and finally Apprise.

In the water before
the lagoon lolled King Kragen—a bloated monstrous King
Kragen, dwarfing the entire flotilla.

King Kragen became
aware of the boats. He swung about, the monstrous vanes sucking
whirlpools into the ocean. The eyes, with opalescent films shifting
back and forth, fixed upon the black sheathing of galleys, armor, and
barge, and he seemed to recognize the substance of kragen hide, for
he emitted as snort of terrible displeasure. He jerked his vanes, and
the ocean sucked and swirled.

The barge swung
sidewise to King Kragen. The tarpaulins were jerked away from the
platforms at either end to reveal massive crossbow-like mechanisms
fashioned from laminated stalk and kragen chitin, with cables woven
from strips of kragen-leather. Two teams of men turned a windlass
hauling back the great cross-arms. Into the channels were placed iron
harpoons smelted from human blood. In the holds other men lowered one
thousand plates of iron and copper into the glass vats.

King Kragen sensed
menace. Why else should men be so bold? He twitched his vanes, inched
forward to within a hundred feet. Then he lunged. Vanes dug the water
with an ear-shattering shriek King Kragen charged, mandibles
snapping.

The men at the
crossbows were pale as sea-foam; their fingers twitched. Sklar Hast
turned to call: “Fire!” but his voice caught in his throat
and what he intended for an incisive command came forth as a startled
stammer. The command was nevertheless understood. The left crossbow
thudded, snapped; the harpoon, trailing a black cable, sprang at King
Kragen’s turret, buried itself. King Kragen hissed.

The right crossbow
thudded, snapped; the second harpoon stabbed deep into the turret.
Sklar Hast motioned to the men in the hold. “Connect!” The
men joined copper to copper. In the hold two hundred and ten voltaic
cells, each holding ten thin-leaved cathodes and ten thin-leaved
anodes, connected first in series of seventy, and these series in
parallel, poured a gush of electricity along the copper cables
wrapped in varnished pad-skin leading to the harpoons. Into and
through King Kragen’s turret poured the energy, and King Kragen went
stiff. His vanes protruded at right angles to his body. Sklar Hast
laughed an explosion of nervous relief. “King Kragen is
amenable, no less than the smaller kragen.”

“I never
doubted,” said Roger Kelso.

They dove into the
water along with 20 others. They swam to King Kragen, clambered up
the rigid subsurface platform; with mallets and copper chisels they
attacked the lining between dome and turret wall. On Apprise Float a
great throng had gathered. One man, running back and forth, was
Barquan Blasdel. He leaped into one of the coracles and, screaming
orders, led the Exemplars against the dissident flotilla. Fire-arrows
cut arcs across. the sky; seven coracles burst into flames, and the
Exemplars plunged into the water. The others swerved aside. Barquan
Blasdel issued the most strenuous commands, but the Exemplars made no
new sorties.

King Kragen floated
stiff and still—eyes staring, palps protruding. His turret
was thirty feet in circumference, but twenty-two men hacked with
chisels, and now the lining was broken. Bars were inserted into the
crack, all heaved. With a splitting sound the dome was dislodged. It
slid over and in falling pulled away one of the harpoons. The circuit
was broken; King Kragen once more owned his self-control.

For one galvanic
instant he lay quiescent, trembling. Then he gave vent to an
appalling scream, a sound which sent the folk on the float to their
knees.

King Kragen hurled
himself out of the water. The men who had hacked away his turret were
flung far and wide; all except three who had managed to reach into
the turret and cling to the knotted gray cords. One of these was
Sklar Hast. While King Kragen lunged and thrashed, he slashed at the
nerve nodes with his iron knife. Again King Kragen screamed, and
thrust himself into the ocean. Water crashed down into the turret;
two men were washed away. Sklar Hast, with arms and legs clenched
among the strands, alone remained in place. The salt water on the
exposed brain caused King Kragen great discomfort, and he sprang back
out of the water, bent double; Sklar Hast hewed and hacked; the
vanes, palps, and mandibles jerked, contracted, twisted, snapped in
accordance. King Kragen’s vehemence lessened; he floated moaning with
vanes dangling limp. Some of the men who had been flung away swam
back; in a ceremony both dreadful and exalted King Kragen’s nerve
nodes were torn out and cast into the sea.

King Kragen floated
limp, a lifeless hulk. The men plunged into the sea to wash
themselves, swam back to the barge. The flotilla now eased toward
Apprise Float. Sklar Hast stood on the forward platform. Barquan
Blasdel cried to the folk: “To arms! Stakes, chisels, mallets,
knives, bludgeons! Smite the miscreants!”

Sklar Hast called
to the throng: “King Kragen is dead. What do you say to this?”

There was silence;
then a faint cheer, and a louder cheer, and finally uproarious
celebration.

Sklar Hast pointed
a finger at Barquan Blasdel. “That man must die. He organized
the Exemplars. He murdered Henry Bastaff. He has fed your food to the
vile King Kragen. He would have continued doing so until King Kragen
overgrew the entire float.”

Barquan Blasdel
cried to his Exemplars: “Weapons at the ready! Any who attack—kill!”

Sklar Hast called
to the Exemplars: “Throw down your weapons! You are finished.
King Kragen is dead. You are Exemplars only to a dead sea-beast.”
Barquan Blasdel looked quickly in all directions. His Exemplars,
outnumbered by the men of the float, showed no disposition to fight.
Barquan Blasdel laughed brassily and turned away. “Hold!”
called Morse Swin, the Apprise Arbiter. “Barquan Blasdel,
return! You must face the verdict of a convocation!”

“Never! Not
I!” Barquan Blasdel tried to push through the throng, and this
was a mistake, for it triggered the counter-impulse to halt him. When
he was touched, he smote, and again he erred, for the blow brought a
counter-blow and Barquan Blasdel was presently torn to pieces. The
crowd now turned upon the Exemplars, and all those who were unable to
escape to the coracles shared Barquan Blasdel’s fate. Those who lied
in the coracles were intercepted by the black galleys, herded into a
clot, where they surrendered themselves.

“Come ashore,
men of the New Floats; deliver us the Exemplars, that they may be
served like their fellows!” cried one from the float.

Another voice
called, “Come greet your old friends, who long have been
saddened at your absence!”

And another voice
cried, “Tonight the arrack will flow; come drink your share!
Tonight the yellow lamps will burn; we will play the pipes and dance;
come dance in the light of our yellow lamps!”

Sklar Hast
considered a moment, then he replied, “We will come ashore, and
we will deliver the prisoners. Let us have no more frantic bloodshed,
however. Those who have committed crimes, let them face a convocation
and be punished or freed according to our ancient traditions. Is it
agreed? Otherwise we must return to New Floats!”

Morse Swin called
out, “We agree in all respects! Enough blood has been spilled;
we want no more!”

“Then we come
ashore, to rejoice with you!”

And the black boats
of the New Floats landed upon Apprise; the men went ashore to greet
old friends, caste-fellows and guild-brothers.

The corpse of King
Kragen floated in the ocean, a desolate hulk. Already dusk had come;
the hoodwink towers flickered in all earnest; from Tranque in the
east to Almack and Sciona in the far west dashed the news.
Intercessors stared mournfully across the water. Exemplars divested
themselves of their uniforms and sheepishly mingled with those whom
so recently they had treated with arrogance. They were derided and
vilified, but none were injured; the mood of the folk was too rich
and full. Before every hut yellow lamps flared; the oldest arrack,
the most mellow spirits of life were brought forth; old friends drank
together. All night, under the white constellations, there was
revelry and joy and great thanksgiving that never again need the folk
of the floats serve King Kragen or another like him.