Do Shuptarp, then, had escaped the Bellers and probably fled to the upper stories. He had returned to find out what was happening. Podarge had also returned after her flight from the room during the
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battle between the Bellers and Wolff. And the two, who really had no cause for conflict, had fatally burned each other.
Kickaha spoke to the Teutoniac, who muttered something, Kickaha bent close to him. The words were almost unintelligible, but he caught some of them. They were not in German. They were in Lord-speech!
Kichaha retured to Podarge. Her eyes were open and dulling, as if layer upon layer of thin veils were slowly being laid over them. Kickaha said, “Podarge! What happened?”
The Harpy moaned and then said something, and Kickaha was startled again. She spoke, not in Mycenaean, but in Lord-speech!
And after that she died.
He called Anana in. While she stood guard, he tried to question Do Shuptarp. The Teutoniac was in deep shock and dying swiftly. But he seemed to recognize Kickaha for just a moment. Perhaps the lust to live surged up just enough for him to make a plea which would have saved him—if Kickaha had had mercy.
“My bell… overthere … put it… my head… I’ll be …”
His lips twitched; something gurgled in his throat. Kickaha said, “You took over Do Shuptarp, didn’t you, instead of killing him? Who were you?”
“Ten thousand years,” the Beller murmured. “And then . . . you.”
The eyes became as if dust had sifted into the brain. The jaw dropped like a drawbridge to release the soul—if a Beller had a soul. And why not, if anyone did? The Bellers were deadly enemies, peculiarly horrible because of their
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method of possession. But in actuality they were no more vicious or deadly than any human enemy, and though possession seemed especially horrible, it was not so to the victim, whose mind was dead before the Beller moved into the body.
Kickaha said,’ ‘A third Beller usurped Do Shuptarp ‘s brain. He must have taken off for the upper stories then, figuring that if his buddies didn’t get me, he would later. He thought I’d accept him as Do Shuptarp.
“Now, there’s Podarge. I would have said a Beller had transferred to her on the moon, but that couldn’t be. There were only two Bellers, von Tubat and von Swindebarn, on the moon. And Luvah said he saw them gate into the control room. So the transference must have taken place after Wolff and Chryseis had gotten away. One of those two Bellers took over Podarge, but not until the two had rayed down the Drachelander troops with them to make it look as if everybody had been killed by Wolff and Chryseis.
“Then they switched to Pordarge and one soldier they must have spared for this purpose. And the Beller in that soldier was the one who jumped Nimstowl. So now von Turbat and von Swindebarn are dead, despite their trickery! And the Beller in Podarge’s body was to pretend that she had given up the attempt to get me, I’ll bet. She was to plead friendship, act as if she’d really repented. And when my guard was down, powie! It’s real funny, you know. Neither the Podarge-Beller nor the Do Shuptarp-Beller knew the other was a Beller in disguise. So they killed each other!”
He whooped with laughter. But, suddenly, he became thoughtful.
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“Wolff and Chryseis are marooned somewhere. Let’s go to his library and look up the code book. If he’s logged that gate, then we can know how to operate it and where they are.”
They walked toward the door. Kickaha hung back a little because the sight of Podarge saddened him. She had Anana’s face, and that alone was enough to make him downcast, because she looked like Anana dead. Moreover, the madness of the Harpy, the torment she had endured for 3,200 years, weighed him down. She could have been put into a woman’s body again, if she had accepted Wolff s offer. But she was too deep* in her madness; she wanted to suffer and also wanted to get a horrible revenge on the man who had placed her in the Harpy’s body.