wrenched it loose by superior strength. But her hands
remained busy, striking him on nerves so that the pain
was excruciating. She had the combat art of the Weapon-
less, all right!
Yet muscle and experience counted heavily, and they
both knew that Neq could subdue her at any time merely
by striking her hard enough with his claw. She was not
really trying to defeat him; her intent was to maintain
physical contact until her sexuality became irresistible.
But they had left the vine behind. The air was clear,
here, and so was his head. Neq saw no more visions, and
reacted nomally. He had won.
Realizing this, Vara stopped abruptly. "So it didn't
work," she said, as though she had merely stubbed her
toe. "But I tried, didn't I?"
"Yes." How was it possible to comprehend her thought
processes!
"So now it's real."
"Yes." He started to get up.
She was crying, with real tears. "You monster! You
denied me my love, you denied me my vengeance, you
even denied me my rationale. Are you going to deny me
my humiliation too?"
Hers no more than his! "Yes."
She flung herself on him again, kissing him with her
teary face, bearing him back against the brush. There
was blood on her body where the branches Imd thorns
had scraped her. "I call you by your name! Neq. Neq the
Sword! No artifice between us. No deceit."
"No humiliation!" he said.
"No humiliation! Do you take me now as a woman—or
do I take you as a man? It shall bel"
It had been a long time, she was highly desirable, and
there were limits. Neq sighed. He, too, had tried. "It shall
be."
They made love quickly, she doing more than he be-
cause he could not use his hands.
"I never completed the act with her," he said, both
satisfied and bitter. "She was afraid. . . ."
"I know," Vara said. "As were you." Then: "Now we
have done it. Now there is no onus. Stay if you wish."
"It is only sex. I do not want to love you."
"You have loved me for a month," she said. "As I have
you. Stay."
Neq stayed. It was the first time he had completed the
act with any woman, and she must have known that too,
but she did not show it. Gradually they explored each
other, letting down the physical and emotional barriers.
They did not talk; it was no longer necessary.
The second time it was much better. Vara showed him
some of what she knew, and she seemed to be as experi-
enced in this respect as he was in battle. But mostly it
was love, unfettered.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The trip was done. The three reported to Dr. Jones at the
crazy building. Tyi, the tacit leader, did the talking, sum-
marizing Neq's search for missing people, Tyi's own trek
with Neq, their encounter with Var and Vara, and their
journey back—except for the dialogue and romance.
"Neq has renounced bis sword," Tyi concluded. "He
wears the glockenspiel now. Yet he retains the capacity
for leadership."
Dr. Jones nodded as though something significant had
been said. "The others will no doubt take the matter under
advisement."
Tyi and the crazy leader went to round up the "others."
Neq and Vara took the vine outside where there was more
light. They settled under a spreading tree.
"Tyi will be master of Helicon," Vara said. "See how
close he is to the crazies."
Neq agreed. "He brings people together."
"You and I came together inevitably," she said with
feminine certainty. "Helicon was your idea. You should
be master."
"With this?" He uncovered the glockenspiel.
"You could change it back. The sword is still there,
underneath."
It was too complicated to explain that he never had
been considered for the Helicon office. "If'"! wore the
sword again, you would have to kill me."
She frowned, surprised. "I suppose I would."
A little boy about four years old wandered by, spotting
them. "Who are you?" he asked boldly.
"Neq the Glockenspiel."
"Vara the Stick."
"I'm Jimi. You have funny hands."
"They are metal hands," Neq said, surprised that the
boy had not been frightened. "To make music."
"My daddy Jim has metal guns. They make bangs."
"Music is better."
"It is not!"
"Listen." And Neq lifted the glockenspiel, took the
little hammer in his pincers, and began to play. Then he
sang:
A fanner one day was a traveling to town
Hey! Boom-fa-le-la,
sing fa-le-la,
boom fa-le-la lay!
Saw a crow in a & tree way up in the crown
Hey! Boom fa-le-la,
sing fa-le-la,
boom fa-le-la lay!
"What's a town?" the boy inquired, impressed.
"A nomad camp with crazy buildings."
"I know what a boom falela is! A gun."
Vara laughed. "I want one like him," she murmured.
"Find Jim the Gun, then."
"After this one," she said, patting her abdomen.
Neq, startled, sang another verse for the boy.
Then the gun from his shoulder
he quickly brought down . . .
And he shot that black crow
and it fell to the ground ...
"I told you guns were better!"
The feathers were made
into featherbeds neat...
And pitchforks were made
from the legs and the feet...
"How big was that crow?" Jimi inquired, fascinated.
Neq struck a loud- note. "About that size."
"Oh," the boy said, satisfied. "What's that thing?"
"A flower vine."
"It is not!"
"The flowers only open in the dark. Then they smell
funny, and people do funny things."
"Like crows with pitchforks?"
Vara laughed again. "Just about," she said.
Tyi emerged from the building. "They're ready."
Vara picked up the vine-pot and they went inside. Jimi
followed. "He has funny hands," he informed Tyi. "But
he's fun."
They were all there: the group of odd-named oldsters
he had rounded up, along with Dick the Surgeon, and
Sola, and several more he did not know. Apparently Dr.
Jones had located more of the people on the list during
Neq's absence. Some were nomads, male and female. Jimi
went to one of these, evidently Jim the Gun.
Vara, poised until this moment, took Neq's covered
arm. "Who's that?" she whispered, nodding specifically.
"Sola," he replied before realizing the significance of
her identity. The woman had recovered more than a sug-
gestion of her former splendor.
Vara clutched his arm as though terrified. It was en-
tirely uncharacteristic of her.
Tyi stepped in and performed the introduction. "Sola
... Vara. You have known each other."
Sola did not make the connection, for she had not
known of Var's marriage. But
the others saw the resem-
blance as the two women stood together. "Mother and
daughter ..." Dick said.
"Widows, both," Tyi said. The words seemed cruel, but
they were not, for this clarified a prime source of concern
and confusion at once. No further questions about that
matter would be asked. That meant in turn that the more
devious and less honorable relationships would not be
exposed.
Yet it was awkward. Sola and Vara had parted perhaps
thirteen years ago, when Vara was hardly more than a
baby. What was there to say?
Once more Tyi interceded. "You both knew Var well.
And Sol. And the Weaponless. As I did. Soon we must
talk together of great men."
"Yes," Sola said, and Vara agreed.
"In your absence," Dr. Jones said to Neq, "we located a
few more volunteers, as you see. We have screened them
as well as we could, and believe they represent a viable
unit. Provided suitable leadership develops."
"There are leaders here," Neq said. Did the cra2y want
him to affirm his support for the leader already chosen?
"The destruction of the prior Helicon suggests that its
leadership was inadequate," Dr. Jones said. "We have
been obliged to make certain restrictions."
Neq pondered that. Apparently he was being asked not
only to support, but to nominate the leader! "You won't
work with just anybody. But you can work with Tyi—"
"I return shortly to my tribe," Tyi said. "My job is done.
I am not of this group. I would not leave the nomad
culture or take my family under the mountain."
Neq was amazed. So Tyi, too, had been merely sup-
porting the effort, not directing it!
"I know of Jim the Gun," Neq said. "He armed the
empire for the assault on—"
"I made a mistake!" Jim broke in. "I shall not make
another. I know better than to command what I once
destroyed."
Apparently Dr. Jones had not set things up so neatly
after all! "What are your requirements?" Neq asked the
crazy. "Literacy? Helicon experience? What?"
"We would have preferred such things," Dr. Jones ad-
mitted. "We would have liked very much to have found
the Weaponless. But other qualities are more important
now, and we must work with what we have."
"Why not Neq?" Vara asked.
Neq laughed uncomfortably. "My leadership has become
a song. I shall not kill again."
"That is one of our requirements," Dr. Jones said.
"There has been too much shedding of blood."
"Then you require the impossible," Neq said grimly.
"Helicon was built on blood."
"But it shall not be rebuilt on blood!" Dr. Jones ex-
claimed with unseemly vehemence for one of his char-
acter. "History has clarified the folly of violence and
deceit."
Many of the people in the room were nodding agree-
ment. But Neq thought of the way the outlaws would have
to be tamed, and knew the dream of nonviolent civiliza-
tion was untenable.
"Neq the Sword," Sola said after a pause. "We know
your history. We do not condemn you. You say you shall
not kill again. How can we believe you, when your whole
way of life has been based on vengeance by the sword?"
Neq shrugged. He saw already that no man who could
give the absolute assurance of pacifism they demanded
could be an effective leader of Helicon. He could not kill
by his own arm, but he had agreed to the indirect slaughter
of the flower vine during the trek here. His stance against
killing had been hypocritical.
'Take him as your leader!" Vara exclaimed. "All of you
are here because of him!"
"Yes," one thin old crazy agreed. 'This man lifted an
outlaw siege against my post, and took a message for me
that brought rescue. I trust him, whatever else he has
done."
Jim the Gun spoke. He was a little old nomad with
curly yellow hair. "We do not question Neq's capacity. We
question his judgment under pressure. I myself was ready
to shoot somebody when I learned how my brother had
died in Helicon—but I did not. A man who would go
berserk for weeks at a time, whatever the provocation—"
"I like him," Jimi said. "He has music hands."
Startled, Jim looked at his son. "That man is Neq the
Sword!"
"He says music is better'n guns. But I like him."
"We share your vision," Sola said to Neq. "But we must
have a leader of inflexible temperament. A man like the
Weaponless."
"The Weaponless destroyed Helicon!" Vara flared. "Can
anybody even count how many men died because of him?
Yet you say no killing, and you want—"
Sola looked at her sadly. "He was your father."
"That's why he did it! He thought I was dead. You talk
about a few weeks berserk—He planned it for years, then
he followed Var for years. Nothing had happened to me
And you—you sent Var to kill the man who might harm
me, when no one had. Who are you to judge? But Neq
saw his wife—Dr. Jones' own secretary, a beautiful and
literate woman—Neq saw her raped by fifty men, and
then they cut off his hands and dumped him in the forest
with her corpse. He should have died then—but he brought
"that tribe to justice. Now he wants to stop all outlaws by
rebuilding Helicon. And you hypocrites quibble about
the past!"
"Where is Var the Stick?" Sola asked quietly.
Vara couldn't answer.
"I slew him," Neq said.
Their faces told the story. Many of these people had
known Var, and more had heard of him. They were hardly
ready to accept his killer as their leader. And why should
they?
"It was an accident," Tyi said. "Neq thought Var had
killed Soli in her childhood, as we all thought. He reacted
as we all did. Before he learned the truth, Var was dead.
Because of that error, Neq put aside the sword. Now I
speak for his sincerity—and so does Vara."
"So we noticed," Jim said, in a tone that made Vara
flush furiously.
Jimi was looking at the vine.
"Show your weapons," Tyi said to Neq.
Neq unveiled the glockenspiel. There was a murmur of
amazement, for none of them had seen it before.
"Use it," Tyi said.
Neq looked about. The faces were grim and sad—grim
for him, sad for Vara, who was crying without shame.
These people evidently shared his vision of a new Helicon,
but the example of the prior one frightened them. It
frightened him too, for he had seen it in ruins.
Perhaps Helicon could not function without bloodshed,
direct or indirect. Perhaps there was no way to restore
the old society. But it had to be tried, and now was the
time, and this was the group. He could not let it all slide
away just because of the confused scruples of the moment.
They needed a leader. If he did not assume command,
no one would. He was far from ideal, but there
was no
one else.
Neq turned to Dr. Jones. "You asked me to find out
why Helicon perished, so that we could prevent it from
happening again. How did- the leadership fail? I do not
know. Perhaps it will fail again. Perhaps Helicon is
doomed. But this is a risk that must be taken."
Dr. Jones did not respond.
Neq looked for his little hammer, but couldn't find it.
So he tapped out a melody slowly with the pincers, touch-
ing the glockenspiel lightly so as to avoid the unpleasant
metallic effect. Then he sang.
If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning.
I'd hammer in the evening
all over this land.
I'd hammer out danger,
I'd hammer out warning!
As he sang, he looked first at one person, then another.
The song had special meaning for him, as every song did,
and while the melody was venting itself through his lung
and mouth and instrument he believed it. Its pre-Blast
originators could not have honored its precepts—but he
was hammering out warning.
,It was as though he were meeting each man in the
circle and conquering him with his syncopation. And