THE CUNNING OF THE BEAST

He will look upon

Our crouching shame, may make us stand upright

Burning in terror—O that it were night!

THERE has been much disagreeable comment on the case of our late brother, the Yawa Eloem, and we number amongst us many who feel that the punishment meted out to him, severe as it was, still did not exact complete retribution for the evil he loosed in our midst.

It is with these vengeful ones I should like to take issue.

Now, let it not be thought that I view with approval the experiments of the learned and unhappy Doctor Eloem. The reverse is true: being one of his oldest friends and earliest confidants, I was perhaps the first to warn him against doing that which he did. This warning I delivered on the night the Yawa conceived his staggering ambition.

But to those who contend that his intention was to overthrow our great civilization, destroy our culture and turn the rulership of our beloved homeland into the hands of barbarian monstrosities, I feel I should present the true facts.

Doctor Eloem is more to be pitied than scorned. His was the sad fate of one who, delving into secrets better left unlearned, succeeded only in creating a monster mightier than its maker …

Well I remember the night the Yawa’s dream was born. It was the Night of Utter Black which occurs but once in each twelve revolutions of Kios. Both suns were set, and all nine moons were vanished from the sky. No doubt the burning stars shone true in the encircling jet vault of space, but from our Refuge they could not be seen. Great clouds hung thickly to our shielding Dome; against its transparent hemisphere torrents of corrosive rain lashed in unending fury.

Though our shelters were warmed and kept dry for just such times as these, my body creaked and groaned when I tried to move; one limb was so stiffened in its socket that I could scarcely will it to function. Eloem was in better condition, having but recently completed a rehabilitation at the Clinic, but the condensation affected his vision, and time and again as we huddled there in misery he wiped the moisture from his visor.

Dimly we heard the thud of running feet, and peering fearfully into the mists we saw our friend Nesro, who had been caught in the deadly storm and was belatedly racing to shelter. But even before we could call him to our Dome he fell prey to the cursed climate. His footsteps faltered; his joints locked; he stumbled and fell headlong.

A horror gripped us. For a Kiosian to lie for more than minutes on that drenched ground meant certain ending. But we were helpless. To attempt a rescue without shedders would only put us in the same plight.

Eloem lurched to his feet, and what he cried should convince his enemies that, whatever else his faults, he was no coward.

“Courage, Nesro,” he cried. “We are coming.”

But in answer to his words came a cry from the fallen Nesro.

“No, comrades! It is better one should end than many.” His voice was feeble. “Open the Refuge. I shall try to make it without my carrier.”

We screamed in unison then, “No, Nesro … no! You can’t possibly make it! The pelting death—”

But our pleas were vain. Desperately Nesro scurried from the rain-glistening cover of his carrier, flashed toward us flaming like a pillar of crimson in the darkness. For an instant it seemed his madness might be crowned with success … but only for an instant. Then the raw and dreadful poison of the rain seeped through his feeble shield. A high, thin scream of pain rent our nerves, and where Nesro had been, briefly there blossomed in the night a white incandescence unbearable to look at. Then … nothing.

So ended Nesro. I was moved, but my emotion was as naught compared to that of my friend, the learned Yawa Eloem. He moaned, and there in our tiny Refuge cursed aloud, speaking Names which I dare not repeat.

“Now, woe and despair,” he cried terribly, “upon the mocking gods who made us the weaklings we are! For we are at once masters of a world and cringing servants to that world’s every element. What matter that our intellect has built for us an empire, or that with wit and wisdom we have plumbed the secrets of a universe? Our minds are living glories, but we hobble about our kingdom like cripples, poorest of all we hold in fee. Even those wild, breathing beasts who grub for worms beneath the stones dare face the forces which strike us low. Even such miserable clods as that—”

And he pointed a shaking hand toward the rain-soaked carrier abandoned by Nesro. It lay face down in a wind-lashed rivulet, motionless, rusting, ruined beyond repair. As we watched, there scampered from the woods a small air-breather. The furry creature sniffed hopefully about the carrier. Then, scenting nothing wherewith to sate its revolting appetite, it shuffled off, rain dripping from its pelt.

I shuddered and asked reasonably, “But surely, Eloem, you would not barter your soul for the brute body of such a beast? True, the gods have ordained that we must pay a price for our mastery. We lack the physical stamina of those lower animals. But is not our superior intellect compensation enough?

“And as for form and substance, we have made great progress. Our forefathers knew not how to build themselves tangible bodies. Today we encase ourselves in cleverly wrought metal carriers which perform all physical functions for us.”

“Bah!” spat the Yawa savagely. “Carriers which but accentuate our impotence. We garb ourselves in shells of forged metal, and fancy we have gained mobility. But is this true? No! We have succeeded only in making ourselves slaves to the bodies we have wrought—” He laughed hollowly, mocking the chatter of the Clinic specialists—“Grease here … grease there … a drop of oil in the knee-joint. Replace lens … replace digits … repair rusted plate in frontal lobe—”

“Still,” I protested, “our metal bodies do enable us to get about more easily, perform tasks otherwise impossible.”

“And under what handicap?” he thundered. “In cold weather we shiver and tremble in our metal homes; in hot, our yielding rivets warp and melt. In dry weather our joints lock with grating sand. In wet—” He paused and stared bitterly at the empty carrier of Nesro—“we perish.”

I said resignedly, “What you say is true. But there is nothing to be done about it. I, for one, am content—”

“But I am not! There must be some way of living other than huddling pitifully caged in a metal carcase. There must be some other form of servant—”

He stopped abruptly, and I stared at him curiously. “Yes?”

“Servant,” he repeated. “Yes, that’s it! Another kind of servant. One which does not melt in the heat and freeze in the cold, shrivel in drouth and rot in the rain. A servant by Nature adapted to combat Nature’s terrors. That is what our race needs; what we must have … will have!”

“But where will you find such a servant?”

The Yawa Eloem pointed a creaking arm to the mist-shrouded forest. “Out there, my brother.”

“In the forest? You mean—?”

“Yes. The creatures of flesh. The air-breathers.”

I laughed. Despite my pain and misery, I laughed. It was just too ridiculous, the concept of training those tiny furry beasts to perform for us our manual tasks.

“Oh, come now, Eloem, you can’t be serious. Those miserable, dwarfed weaklings?”

“Bear within them,” he said slowly, shrewdly, “the seed of animate life. That is all that matters, my friend. The germ of life. Their size, their form… such things are unimportant. These I will mold to meet our requirements. I will raise them from all fours, refashion their brute brains to give them intellect. Yes, even this I, the Yawa Eloem, shall do. And I so pledge unto the gods.”

A strange uneasiness filled me, I knew not quite why. I said thoughtfully, “Have a care, O Yawa, lest these same gods take offense at your intent. I am no carping sophist, but it seems to me there are certain limits beyond which one may not go without too greatly daring. The altering of form, the giving of wisdom, these are feats which only the gods may accomplish with impunity. It is not for ones like thee and me—”

But I fear the Yawa did not hear my words. Too intent was he on the vision that had come to him. There in the wet and the darkness beside me he stirred, and his voice was rapt and strident with a dream.

“Yes, this shall I do,” he proclaimed. “I shall build a new race, a race of servants obedient to us, their masters.”

Many time-periods passed ere next I saw the Yawa Eloem. We of Dios are a recluse race, separate by nature and individual in our working habits, and I was busy with duties of my own. The Grand Council had commissioned me to perfect a form of craft wherein our colonists might hurtle the darkness of space to the yet unconquered planets of our double sun. With this tremendous labor was I occupied.

So the moons waxed and waned. Thrice changed the seasons, warm and cold, and wet and dry and wet again. And in the privacy of his own domed laboratory the Yawa Eloem pursued his secret labors in solitude.

And then one double twilight, when the crimson rays of the smaller sun sinking in the north merged weird shadows with the pale green luminescence of the greater sun’s southern setting, there came to me in my workshop the Yawa.

Excitement was strong within him, and he cried without preface of formal greeting, “My friend, would you behold a marvel to strike awe into the boldest heart?”

“Why, who would not?” I laughed.

“Then come!” cried the Yawa intently. “Then come with me and wonder and behold!”

And he led the way to his own Dome …

Let me say that never dwelt a scientist amidst such great refinement as that with which Eloem had surrounded himself. His Dome comprised no single chamber, as is the case with most of us; his was a mighty structure subdivided into numerous rooms and niches, each dedicated to its own purpose.

Once we passed through a chemical laboratory, its shelf-lined walls aglisten with innumerable rows of vials and beakers; again we crossed a library whose musty tomes spanned the whole range of living knowledge; elsewhere sprawled chambers filled with electrical apparatus, surgical equipment and curious machines of which I could not even guess the purpose. I recall traversing a steaming room wherein was sunk a hydroponic tank whence emanated an oddly noisome scent. I cannot speak with surety of what this tank contained, but I do recall that as we passed, from its oily depths there flopped a strange, amorphous something which scrabbled with nailless paws at the walls of its prison and bubbled piteous plaints in a voice of tongueless horror.

But past all these, his chambers of experiment, the Yawa led me swiftly until we came at last to the furthermost door. Before this he paused for an instant dramatically. And then:

“Here,” he proclaimed, “is my final testing chamber. Here the fulfillment of my great invention.”

He flung open the door and bade me enter.

Well might the Yawa glory in what he here had wrought. For frankly do I confess that my eyes, following the motion of his hand, widened in astonishment at what they beheld.

This was no mere room. It was a vast Dome-covered acreage, formed to the semblance of a veritable living forest. Nay, more than forest; say rather a garden spot, a paradise. For its growth was as various as any wrought by Nature. Yet with such thought had the Yawa Eloem conceived and carried out its purpose that here he had brought into being a landscape more beautiful than ever was sown by Nature’s heedless hand.

Here a high grove cast towering green spires upward; there, through mossy banks bedecked with fragrant flowers, purled a tiny crystal brooklet; elsewhere, rimmed by lush meadows, sprawled lazy hills and flatlands ripe with grain. Small beasts stirred in the forests, their restless murmurings a balm to weary spirits; fish flashed and rippled in the eddies of the stream; and from some distant grove came the thrilling cadence of birdsong raised in joy.

I stared at Eloem, stunned with wonderment. “It is,” I cried aloud, “it is indeed a miracle you have created here, wise Yawa! What beauty and what charm! The Grand Council will be astonished.”

“You think so?” he asked, pleased at my praise. “You really think so?”

“How could they be otherwise? By the gods, Eloem, would that the whole of our planet were as delightful as this small niche you have created beneath your laboratory Dome. What joy would be ours, what wonderful existence, if all Kios were such a garden spot as this; a shielded wonderland wherein we might dwell without fear of the natural terrors which beset us … heat and cold, drouth and murderous rainfall.

“You said you would awe me, my friend. You have succeeded beyond your wildest imaginings. I humble myself before a master artist who has created perfection.”

“But,” said the Yawa, “you have not seen all.”

“There is more to see?”

“Much more. Not yet have you seen the greatest of my accomplishments. Come.”

And he led the way down a tiny path curving through the wilderness. As we neared a grove deep-nestled in the rolling hills he called in gentle tones, “My son! My son! Where art thou, child of my making?”

And before I could question this strange salutation a movement broke the silence of the glade. Branches parted, and from a leafy bower stepped a vision which stunned and left me speechless.

It was a living creature, an animal of flesh and blood, an air-breather walking upright on its two hind limbs. Truly had Eloem boasted he would mold a creation in his own image. So closely did its shape resemble that of the carriers which we of Kios build for our own usage that for an instant I believed it a gigantic hoax. I thought Eloem to amuse me had coated the carrier of a friend or assistant with pigment.

Then I saw this monster’s body was not forged of sturdy metals like our own, but was soft, pulsating, resilient. The curious dark growth of fur which covered its head, its breast and its limbs grew naturally, it seemed, from its very flesh. It breathed with great gulping motions of the chest, and its wide, natural optics were not sensitive visors such as those through which we see, but were the natural eyes of animals.

These now shifted from one to the other of us in mute appraisal as the sensate beast asked, “Yes, my lord? You called me?”

Eloem, his voice benevolent and warm as that of a parent asked, “Where hast thou been, my son?”

The creature replied quietly, “I wandered through the fields, my nostrils savoring the fragrance of the flowers. I walked amongst the trees and touched them, marveling at their strong, rough firmness. Beside the brook I knelt and drank of its waters. I tasted the berries of the vines and the fruit of the trees, and gave thanks unto thee, O my lord, who brought these things into being and myself unto this paradise.”

“And art thou happy, my son?”

“Happy?” The beast’s blank stare questioned the very meaning of the word.

“Lack you anything for which your heart hungers?”

“Nay, nothing, lord. Save perhaps—”

The Yawa’s creation hesitated. His voice stopped, his eyes fell, as if he were abashed at his own temerity in questioning the perfection of this garden.

Eloem demanded, “Then there is something, my child?”

“There is … one small thing, my lord. It is scarce worth mentioning, but—” The creature shuffled in embarrassment—“I am lonely, O Yawa. I walk at evening in the cool of the garden, seeing about me the bright colored birds, the rustling insects and the beasts of the fields, and lo! for each of these there is one to be companion. Only I, of all the creatures who inhabit this paradise, am mate-less.”

“But—” frowned Eloem.

“I question not thy bounty, O great Yawa,” said the creature hastily. “In thy infinite wisdom thou knowest best what shall be given thy servant. Still—”

He faltered to silence, head bowed servilely before the pondering Yawa. But I could not help noticing that his glance darted swiftly up from beneath shyly lowered lashes.

I said, with a touch of pique I am afraid, “This is a strange being you have created, Eloem. Though he dwells in paradise, still he dares question the perfection thereof.”

But Eloem said gently, slowly, “Nevertheless, there is wisdom in what he suggests. It was much effort to create this being. It were folly to attempt the creation of scores, hundreds, thousands of others like him in my laboratory. Perhaps in his innocent demanding he has offered the proper solution to this problem. A mate? But yes, of course! I need but create for him a mate and then—in the fullness of time—he and she shall produce for Kios the race of servants for which they were conceived.

“Very well, my son.” He turned again to the waiting creature. “It shall be as you ask. On the morrow come to the room where first thou wakened. There, out of thy substance and my wisdom, shall I create a second like thyself, but of another sex. And now … farewell.”

So left I Eloem’s garden. But this time I did not allow so long a time to pass ere my returning. My curiosity was stirred, not only as to how the Yawa’s magnificent experiment would turn out, but also as to what form of creature he would create to be his beast’s companion. Moreover, when it was bruited about that I, alone of all Kios, had been invited to visit Eloem’s laboratory, great interest was aroused and I was summoned before the Grand Council, there to report on that which I had seen.

In glowing terms I told them of the wonders he had wrought, and greatly did they marvel. Great Kron, who heads our Council, mused, “Intelligent life in fleshly form? But, yes! That is the answer to our problem. The Yawa Eloem is a sage spirit, and mighty is this thing he seeks to accomplish.”

Another cried rapturously, “Now dawns the long-dreamed liberation of our race! When this new herd of servants has been bred, then will we of Kios be free to rid ourselves once and for all of the metal carriers in which we house ourselves. Secure beneath great Domes we may rest ourselves in easeful pursuit of pleasure and knowledge while our servants, not sensitive as we to climatic conditions, carry out our instructions.”

But still another, older than the rest, spoke dubiously.

“I do not know,” he said. “This is, in truth, a mighty thing the Yawa has attempted. Perhaps it is too mighty. The gods in their omnipotence frown upon our seeking to delve too deeply into certain mysteries. And methinks already Eloem has tampered with a secret and occult lore … the creation of living souls.”

“Souls?” laughed one of our younger councilors. “But how can there be souls in bestial bodies?”

“Where life alone exists, perhaps the soul is absent. But our brother has told us that this creature of Eloem’s not only moves and obeys, but voices his own thoughts. That bespeaks intelligence. And where exists intelligence may also be a soul. If this be true—”

The speaker shook his head gravely. But the rest of us laughed. As we all knew, old Saddryn was ever a pessimist and a crier-of-woe.

Yet Kron in his infinite wisdom took heed of even this gloomy warning, and bade me continue my visits to Eloem’s laboratory that I might keep the Council informed as to the progress of the experiment.

Thus it was that some short time later once again I strolled with the Yawa through his delightful garden.

As we neared the glade wherein it was the creature’s custom to lurk, I sensed a subtle change. What it was I could not at first detect, whether of sight or sound or simply atmosphere. Then suddenly and with a sense of resharpened curiosity I realized what was different. When first I had strode this pathway, a part of its beauty had been in its fresh, untrammeled wildness of growth … the helter-skelter confusion of vines and trees and bushes, the lavish abundance with which bright flowers sprang from unexpected places, the haphazard delight of natural beauties seen amidst natural surroundings.

But now all that was changed. The pathway upon which we walked no longer twisted aimlessly beneath arboreal bowers. It had been carefully scraped and straightened; the rank brush flanking it had been trimmed to a semblance of order; the low and overhanging boughs had been cut back to allow the wanderer headroom. Beauty was still present, but no longer was it the clean, unspoiled improvisation of Nature; it was a neat and regimented orthodoxy, pleasing to the eye but somehow strangely stifling to the senses.

I commented on this to Eloem, and he smiled quietly.

“That,” he said, “is the doing of the She. An orderly creature, that one!” And he shook his head with almost reluctant admiration.

“Her doing? Then you have finished her?”

“Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, I finished two of them. The first one dwelt here with him for a while, but I had to—” He sighed—“remove her. She was too much like the He. Carefree, adventurous, enamored of gay wanderings and pleasant sloth, rather than earnestly intent upon her duties. They were more companions than mates. They laughed and played together throughout the livelong day and accomplished nothing. So I was forced to create another She, one with instincts and desires unlike his own.”

“But I should think,” I demurred, “this would not be to his liking? After all, a companion is what he asked for.”

The Yawa chuckled.

“What he asked for, but not what he really wanted. You should study psychology, my friend, to realize that in nature, even as in the electrical art, it is opposites which attract. This second She is so unlike him that he is drawn to her as by a magnet. She baffles and confuses him … and brings him running. She commands and he obeys; she demands and he fulfills. With a motion of a finger she exacts from him the most arduous labor. She is a bother to him, I fear, and a source of vexing trouble … but for her rare words of praise he has done more actual work than ever since I placed him in this garden.”

“Then,” I said, comprehending, “you followed the example of the insect? Made her larger than him, and stronger, that she might enforce her demands?”

“On the contrary,” denied Eloem, “I made her … But see for yourself.” And he called, “My children!”

The bower parted, and into its opening strode his twain creatures.

In a glance I saw it was as he said. The male beast was oddly changed. There was a new assurance in his features, a confidence which might have been born of his newfound capabilities. But there was at the same time a … a something else I could not quite decipher. It was a reserve, a furtiveness which had not been present when first I saw him. But more than this first glance I saw not, for my attention was drawn and riveted to the creature’s new companion. And strange as it may seem, coming from one uncorporeal as myself, I must confess that even I was fascinated by this, the Yawa Eloem’s latest creation.

For he had combined in her not only the sturdiness and the nobility of the male, but something subtler still; a grace, a charm, a winsomeness and allurement far out of proportion to the small physique with which he had endowed her.

Shorter by half a head was she than her mate, slighter of bone and more fragile, whiter of skin. One could tell at a glance that hers was strength not built of sinew but of purpose. She bore herself lightly, walking on the balls of her feet with lissom grace, and she seemed all sweet docility. Yet, curiously, she spoke for both.

“You called, my lord?” she asked. “What would you of us?”

“Naught,” said the Yawa Eloem. “I wished but to see you, show you to my friend. You are happy here, my children?”

“Yes, my lord,” said the She. “Of course, there are a few things—”

“Yes?” asked Eloem.

The male spoke querulously.

“She wants the streambed widened that we may swim therein. She thinks, too, that I should transplant berry bushes nearer to our glade that we need not hunt so far for provender. And we have talked—” He cast a dubious glance at his mate—“that is, she has talked much of our building some sort of dwelling.”

“She?” laughed Eloem. “Always she? What is your desire in these matters, my firstmade?”

“Well—” said the male hesitantly.

“I have pointed out to him,” interrupted the She in sweet and lilting tones, “that only by doing these things can we prove to the lesser beasts that we are their superiors and their rightful masters. It is true, my lord, is it not, that we are their masters?”

I asked impatiently, “Since when do beasts rule beasts?” but the Yawa silenced me with a gesture.

“There is logic to that. It is right and proper that one animal should exercise dominion over its inferiors. If your mate wants these things, I see no harm in your providing them for her.”

“Oh, very well,” said the male petulantly. “But it is wearisome work, which I like not. When the other She was here we roamed where we would for berries, swam at chance when we found a widening of the stream; we laughed and played and found no need of stifling shelter.”

“Like,” laughed the secondmade gayly and, I thought, perhaps a bit tauntingly, “like two happy and carefree children. All day they played, then in the dark of night they curled apart, each to his own soft nest of ferns, and slumbered in cool companionship. Of course—” And she laughed again, flexing her muscles smoothly, languorously; until that moment I had not realized how strong was the animal within her—“Of course, if that is what you want, the master can no doubt bring back the other She—”

But a swift light, warm and hungry, brightened in the male’s eyes, and he shook his head.

“No,” he decided, “I shall do as she asks, my lord.”

“Very well,” said Eloem. “It is your decision to make. And now farewell, my children. We must go.”

But even as we turned the She addressed us, humble as ever and sweetly supplicating, but with a cunning determination nonetheless.

“Master—”

“Yes, my daughter?”

“There is another thing … another trifling thing. We are humble creatures, ignorant and unworthy of your attentions. We would not trouble you for counsel and advice on every tiny thing we wish to do. Is it not possible that when need arises we may be allowed to enter into the chamber wherein are stored the books of knowledge and learning? If we could but do this, we need not waste time and effort learning to do things wrongly, but may build and create in proper fashion.”

“No!” said the Yawa Eloem. “No, my daughter, that is one thing you may not do. All this wide garden is open unto you; its hills and valleys, glades and rivulets. But there is one door through which you may not pass: that which leads to my private laboratory. This is the Law, and the only Law I have laid down unto you.”

“But—” pouted the She enticingly.

“Let us speak of it no more,” cried Eloem sternly. “You have heard my word. And now, goodbye.”

So left we them standing there, he shrugging and resigned, she with head lowered. Yet as we left I felt her eyes upon us, shrewd and bold beneath their lowered lashes.

You may wonder, my brothers, why waste I so much wordage on the telling of this. Believe me, it is but to demonstrate that never did the Yawa Eloem—as has been accused by his detractors—conspire against our own race for the overthrow of our empire. Who says so speaks untruth. The Yawa came near to bringing disaster upon us, true; but only because, being the soul of righteousness himself, he could not comprehend the cunning of the beasts he had created …

From this point on you are familiar with the facts of the case. You know how on the Night of the Four Moons it was strangely noted that the laboratory Dome of Eloem glowed with the reflection of a ruddy flame throughout the evening. It is unfortunate that no investigation was made of this at the time, but it is understandable. We of Kios are a recluse race, self-sufficient and solitary by nature. None knew that the Yawa was not in his laboratory, but was traveling afar in search of new equipment with which to stock his depleted stores.

All those of us, including myself, who maintain residence within sight of our brother’s laboratory remember well the subsequent series of incidents emanating from that spot. Once the sound of explosion. Still another time the clamorous pounding of metal upon metal as if a dozen of us, carrier-clad, vied in games of strength.

But none knew or guessed the import of these sights and sounds.

Knowledge of dawning peril came to us only when one morn we wakened to discover the Dome of our neighbor Lato smashed and in smoldering ruins. When startled friends braved the wreckage to learn Lato’s fate they were grieved to find Lato’s carrier lying amidst the wreckage. When the headpiece was forced open it was found that Lato himself was ended. His volatile energy had been expended in a single gigantic burst of flame which fused the metal wherein he had maintained residence.

Even after this disaster no suspicion attached to Eloem’s labors. And certainly none dreamed that his creations were in any way responsible. Not even when a few nights later the nearby Dome of the councilor Palimon was found to be rudely split and flooded with poisonous oxide of hydrogen was it guessed that the animals could be responsible for such a brutal attack upon their overlords.

Palimon was, of course, ended. His spirit seared and shriveled by the lethal liquid, he could tell us nothing. What dreadful tale of agony he might have related is better left unguessed.

And then, at fearful last, came revelation as to the cause of these disasters. This occasion was, as you will remember, the destruction of the Dome of the Grand Council itself. Like the other events, it occurred in the dark of night when no Kiosian dares venture forth, and horrible was its accomplishment.

First came, as had before, a violent explosion. Then in its wake rose a fearful sea of flame, sweeping the council-hall and slaying all who dwelt beneath the Dome. And when blistering fire had gutted the ruined hemisphere, then came the dank night wind, bearing with it lethal rains to destroy such life as might remain within the halls.

It is by sheer chance that on this night scarce half the Council was foregathered, else might a blow have been struck from which our empire might never have recovered. But as it was, great Kron and half his Council had been in my Dome inspecting my new and nearly complete spacecraft. Shedder-garbed against the night mists they were returning to their dwelling when the explosion trembled the ground beneath their feet. As they spurred their carriers to top speed, they—or I should say we, for I was with them—reached the scene in time to see outlined against the flickering flames two bodies. These, like our own, were carrier-clad, and at the sight of them Kron burst forth with a terrible cry.

“Traitors!” he roared. “Two of our own people … traitors! Now the gods forfend that I should live to see this awful day! Then the other explosions were not accidents; they were deliberate murder! Woe upon Kios that has spawned such vermin—”

Then I stopped him with a shrill, excited cry. For upon sight of us the two marauders had turned and raced away. And though the taller of these could not be told from one of our own brethren, by the pace and motion of the other —an awkward, gliding run—I recognized and knew the nature of our enemy.

“Nay, these are no children of Kios, O Kron,” I cried, “but the beasts… the beasts of the Yawa Eloem, turned like serpents against their masters!”

Great Kron cried loud in his thunderous rage, then turned he to the royal messenger. “Gavril,” he ordered, “sound now your trumpet over all the land. Bid Eloem here instantly. Mikel, arouse your troops!”

And then I knew the fury of great Kron, for not in a score of centuries had the gleaming troops of Mikel been ordered into action. But without a word the commander of our armed forces turned and sped toward the armory wherein are carefully stored against the hour of need those dreadful weapons which our race holds ever in reserve.

What happened next you know. The Yawa, being summoned, came immediately. Nor waited he even upon the slow movements of his mechanical carrier. Risking the night mists and the dark, with the speed of light he flashed from the other end of the land in his natural form. We saw him approach from afar, a pillar of flame in the darkness.

When he learned what had befallen, a cry of pain and anguish broke from him. Like a patient parent he might have denied the evil intent of his children were not the proof of their mischief a smoldering wreckage before him.

Then said Kron, “Now great is the evil your creations have wrought, O Yawa. But greater still shall be their punishment. For even now our warriors sweep forth to destroy them.”

But the Yawa pleaded, “Wait, O Kron! Stay your hand till I have learned what lust inspired this evil. Let me go to my children and learn from their lips the reason for this deed.”

And Kron nodded.

“So be it. But be swift.”

Eloem turned to me beseechingly.

“You, my friend? Will you come with me?”

So, for the last time, together went we two into the paradise which the Yawa had created beneath his Dome. Within, the paths were cool, the grottoes shadowed, and the soft brook purled through mossy silences. No songbird sang, but from the thicket came the soft and lazy cadences of restless insects. Together but alone, unspeaking, we trod the paths marked out by the He and She. And as we neared the glade wherein it was the creatures’ wont to dwell, the Yawa Eloem raised his voice in stern command … but in sadness, too, I thought.

It is perhaps meaningful that in this hour of sorrow he should have called only to the first of his creations.

“My son!” he called. “My son! Where art thou, O child of mine own making?”

There came no answer but the rippling of the breeze through the boughs, the rustling of a frightened thing in the high grass.

“My son,” cried Eloem again. “Where art thou? Know you not the voice of your lord and maker?”

Then suddenly, a dim whiteness in the shadows, rose the crouching figure of the He from the brush before us. And I saw with sick horror that he was not, as ever before, clad only in his own fleshly raiment, but that his body was shielded within the greaved and bucklered harness of a carrier such as we ourselves wear.

He spoke, and his voice was meek.

“You called, my lord?”

The Yawa’s voice was stricken.

“My son, my son!” he grieved. “And wherefore hast thou donned this raiment?”

The male’s voice was a thick mumbling in the darkness. He spoke in half apology, half defiance.

“It was the She, my lord. She told me I was naked and a weakling, and I was ashamed. Together we built these garments that we might be strong and mighty.”

“Built?” repeated Eloem. “Built those garments? But where, O creature of little knowledge, learned you the secret of such things?” Then in a tone of sudden understanding, “You learned this not in the garden, my son, but … elsewhere.”

The beast shuffled miserably. “It was the She, my lord,” he whined. “It was the She who—”

Then cried the Yawa in a terrible voice, “Let the She stand forth?”

And suddenly she was there, rising from the thicket beside her mate. She too was garbed in a metal carrier, but her headpiece was removed, and never thought I to see such boldness in the eyes of a creature bred to serfdom. On her features was scorn; on her lips pride, anger, and rebellion.

She cried defiantly, “Yea, even I, my lord. It was I who showed the He how to build the garments. I, too, who read the books and learned the secret of making the flame which explodes, the fire that destroys, of smashing the Masters’ Domes, that the night-waters might seep in and end them.”

“These things,” said the Yawa in awful tones, “you could learn in but one place. In my library, which was forbidden to you. But how entered you there? The door was locked and bolted.”

The male creature shifted nervously.

“There was a grill in the door, O Master,” he explained. “Through this the She sent our friend the serpent with instructions to unlock the portal to us.”

The Yawa trembled with an awesome rage, and his voice was like the rolling of great thunders.

“Now cursed be you!” he cried. “For you have defied my commands, and in opening the forbidden gate tasted the fruits of evil knowledge I forbade you! And cursed be the serpent who aided your rebellion. May he be eyed with endless loathing by all who spring from your loins in countless generations to come! For surely I say unto you, never shall it be forgotten what you have this night done … neither by yourselves, nor by your children, nor by your children’s children’s children unto the end of time.

“Here—” And his voice broke with the intensity of his passion—“here did I build for you a garden of wondrous beauty, a paradise wherein was all for which your hearts might hunger. But it was not enough. You would escape its walls and set yourselves up as masters even over those who created you. Henceforth I rid my heart of you. You are a broken reed, an experiment which failed. I disclaim myself of you and your beast-born ambitions.

“Mikel!” And he called to the warrior captain who now, with gleaming sword held high, had appeared at the gate of the garden. “Do what you must, Mikel!”

But Mikel said quietly and with a great sorrow, “My orders have been changed, O brother Eloem.”

“Changed?”

“Yes. Kron has decided that mere ending is not a fitting punishment for that which these creatures have done.”

“But,” I gasped, “if not ending, then what—?” It was Kron himself who answered.

“According to our laws, O Yawa Eloem, it is forbidden that any living creature with a soul be brought by our hands to mortal ending. And in council sage have we decided that by their very rebellion have these creatures proven the existence of their souls.

“Yet since we must rid ourselves of their evil presence, there is one solution. They shall be placed in the spacecraft recently completed by our friend here, and transported across the everlasting darkness of space to such bourne as may be farthest removed from our own planet.

Where this journey may end I cannot say nor guess, but somewhere may be another planet where you and your ill-spawned experiments can exist beyond our ken and finding until the gods, in the fullness of their mercy, see fit to rule otherwise.”

The Yawa Eloem whispered shakily, “Not only they, but … myself?”

And said great Kron sadly, “Even so. For was it not you, O Yawa, who brought them into being?”

Thus ended the matter of the Yawa Eloem and those beasts which, in the great folly of his wisdom, he undertook to remold as fleshly servants in the image of himself. It is a sad and disheartening tale, and one I would not tell save that some critics have seen fit to cast aspersions upon the truly noble character of our exiled brother.

Thus ended, too—so far as our knowledge extends—the existence of the Yawa and his creations. As had been commanded, they were placed within my spacecraft, therein forever banished from fair Kios. Where, when and how their journey ended, or if ever, I know not. Perhaps they wander still, their craft a tiny mote in the vastness of all-swaddling space. Perhaps somewhere they met cruel ending in the flaming heart of a star. Perhaps—and this I hope —they found somewhere a planet, and upon it made a new home.

However this may be, I cannot say. But this I know: those do great wrong who criticize the Yawa Eloem, naming him fiend and traitor. Never lived a nobler soul, nor one with greater ambition for the welfare of his own race. That he sinned is undeniable, but his sin was only that of tampering with forces too great for him. For as all know, there are limits beyond which one is forbidden to probe.

And they who seek to know, with the gods, the secret of the creation of life are ever doomed to failure.

It was a wondrous dream the Yawa Eloem dreamed. But there was one thing he failed to take into consideration: the animal nature of those he tried to endow with intelligence. Never, never—though they raised themselves from all fours to walk like beings—could they slough off those animal instincts. It was that which the Yawa could not foresee, and that which caused his downfall.

So … they are gone, the Yawa Eloem and they whom he created: the male to whom he gave the name Adam and the she who was called Eve. Yet mourn I my exiled brother, and ever is my soul sick within me when I think on that which overthrew him—

—On the cunning … the dreadful, dreadful cunning of the beasts …

Table of Contents

Start