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Although he heard Dr. Rasputin enter the training room, noting the stiff deliberation of the man's pace, Alexei stayed stretched out face down on the exercise table where the masseuse had left him. He felt deliciously relaxed after the workout with Gustav Vasa.
"You look comfortable," said Rasputin in his calm but high-pitched voice.
Alexei raised his head, saw the man's stick figure standing several paces away, took in a glance the wrinkled black clothing, the square block of a head with purple lips and drooping mustache, the diamond of Imperial Conditioning on his forehead, the long black hair caught in the Suk School's silver ring at the left shoulder.
"You'll be happy to hear that we haven't time for regular lessons today," Rasputin said. "Your father will be along shortly."
Alexei sat up.
"However, I have arranged for you to have a filmbook viewer and several lessons during the crossing to Dyuna."
"Oh."
Alexei began pulling on his clothes. He felt excitement that his father would be coming. They had spent so little time together since the Sultan's command to take over the fief of Dyuna.
Rasputin crossed to the ell table, thinking: How the boy has filled out these past few months. Such a waste! Oh, such a sad waste. And he reminded himself. I must not falter. What I do is done to ensure that my Ashura no longer can be hurt by the Seppanen beasts.
Alexei joined him at the table, buttoning his jacket. "What will I be studying on the way across?"
"Ah-h-h-h, the terranic lifeforms on Dyuna. The planet seems to have opened its arms to certain terranic lifeforms. It's not clear how. I must seek out the planetary ecologist when we arrive---a Dr. Holstein---and offer my help in the investigation."
Rasputin thought: What am I saying? I play the hypocrite even with myself.
"Will there be something on the Szganys?" Alexei asked.
"The Szganys?" Rasputin drummed his fingers on the table, caught Alexei staring at the nervous motion, withdrew his hand.
"Maybe you have something on the whole Dyuni population," Alexei said.
"Yes, to be sure," Rasputin said. "There are two general separations of the people---Szganys, they are one group, and the others are the people of the graben, the sink, and the pan. There's some intermarriage, I'm told. The women of pan and sink villages prefer Szgany husbands; their men prefer Szgany wives. They have a saying: "Polish comes from the cities; wisdom comes from the desert."
"Have you any pictures of them?"
"I'll see what I can get you. The most interesting feature, of course, is their eyes---totally blue, no whites in them."
"Mutation?"
"No; it's linked to the saturation of the blood with smesh."
"The Szganys must be brave to live at the edge of the desert."
"By all accounts," Rasputin said. "They compose poems to their knives. Their women are as fierce as the men. Even Szgany children are violent and dangerous. You'll not be permitted to mingle with them, I'm sorry to say."
Alexei stared at Rasputin, finding in those few glimpses of the Szganys a power of words that caught his whole attention. What a people to win as allies!"
"And of the great beasts who swim beneath the sands?" Alexei asked.
"Beasts who swim beneath the sands?"
"I refer to the saandwurms. I wish to know more about them."
"Ah-h-h-h-h yes. I possess a filmbook on one small specimen, only one hundred and ten meters long and twenty-two meters in diameter. It was taken in the northern latitudes. Saandwurms of more hundred meters in length have been recorded by reliable witnesses, and there's reason to believe that even bigger ones exist."
Alexei glanced down at a conical projection chart of the northern Dyuni latitudes spread on the tables. "The desert belt and south polar regions are marked uninhabitable. Is it the saandwurms?"
"And the storms."
"But ay place can be made habitable."
"If it's economically feasible," Rasputin said. "Dyuna has many costly perils." He smoothed his drooping mustache. "Your father will be here soon. Before I go, I've got a gift for you, something I came across in packing." He put an object on the table between them---black, oblong, no larger than the end of Alexei's thumb.
Alexei looked at it. Rasputin noted how the boy did not reach for it and thought: How cautious he is.
"It's a very old Dlydrathian Testament made for space travelers. Not a filmbook, but actually printed on filament paper. It has its own magnifier and electrostatic charge system." He picked it up, demonstrated. "The book is held closed by the charge, which forces against spring-locked covers. You press the edge---thus, and the pagers you've selected repel each other and the book opens."
"It's so small."
"But it is eighteen hundred pages long. You press the edge---thus, and so---and the charge moves ahead one page at a time as you read. Never touch the actual pages with your fingers. The filament tissue is too delicate." He closed the book and handed it to Alexei. "Try it."
Rasputin watched Alexei work the page adjustment, thought I am my own conscience. I give him the opiate of religion by betraying him. Thus, may I say to myself that he has gone where I cannot go.
"This must have been made before filmbooks," Alexei said.
"It's quite old. Let it be our secret, eh? Your parents might think it too valuable for one so young."
And Rasputin thought: His mother and father would surely wonder as to my motives.
"Well..." Alexei closed the book, held it in his hand. "If it's so valuable..."142Please respect copyright.PENANAvYZveB9GP4
"Indulge an old man's whim," Rasputin said. "It was given to me when I was very young." He then thought: I must catch his mind as well as his cupidity. "Open it to four-sixty-seven Zhenya---where it says: 'From water doth all life spring.' There's a slight notch on the edge of the cover to mark the spot."
Alexei felt the cover, detected two notches, one shallower than the other. He pressed the shallower one and the book spread open on his palm, its magnifier sliding into place.
"Read it out loud," Rasputin said.
Alexei wet his lips with his tongue, read: 'Think ye of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What sense lack we that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us? What is there around us which cannot...'"
"Stop it!" Rasputin barked.
Alexei broke off, stared at him.
Rasputin closed his eyes, fought to regain his composure. What perversity caused the book to open at my Ashura's favorite passage? He opened his eyes, saw Alexei staring at him.
"Did---did I do something wrong?" Alexei asked.
"No, of course not," Rasputin said. "It's just that.... What you were reading was my late wife's favorite passage. It's not the one I wished you to read. It brings up memories that are painful."
"There are two notches," Alexei observed.
Of course, Rasputin thought. Ashura marked her passage. His fingers, being more sensitive than my own, found her mark. It was an accident, nothing more.
"You may find the book interesting," Rasputin said. "It has as much historical truth in it as it does good ethical philosophy."
Alexei looked down at the tiny book in his palm---such a small thing. Yet it contained a mystery---something had happened while he read from it---he had felt something stir his awful purpose.
"Your father will be here any minute," Rasputin said. "Put the book away and read it at your leisure."
Alexei touched the edge of it as Rasputin had instructed him. The book thus re-sealed itself. He slipped it into his tunic. For a moment there when Rasputin had screamed at him, Alexei had feared the man would demand the book's return.
"I thank you for the gift, Dr. Rasputin," Alexei said, speaking formally. "It will be our secret. If there is a gift of favor you wish of me, please do not hesitate to ask."
"I need for nothing," Rasputin replied.142Please respect copyright.PENANAwiEZjBsCB6
Why do I stand for torturing myself? the beleaguered old physician thought. Why do I torture this poor lad, though he does not know it? Oeyh! Damn those Seppanen beasts! Why did they choose me for their abomination?142Please respect copyright.PENANAEXq8G7wdhn
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