Vance, Jack - The Narrow Land

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The Narrow Land

by Jack Vance

A pair of nerves joined across the top of Ern's brain; he became conscious, aware of darkness and

constriction. The sensation was uncomfortable. He tensed his members, thrust at the shell, meeting

resistance in all directions except one. He kicked, butted and presently created a rupture. The

constriction eased somewhat Ern squirmed around, clawed at the membrane, tore it back and was met

by a sudden unpleasant exudation: the juices of a being not himself. It wrenched around, reached

forth. Ern recoiled, struck back the probing members, which seemed ominously strong and massive.

There was a period of passivity. Each found the other hateful: they were of the same sort, yet

different. Presently the two small creatures fought, with little near-inaudible squeaks and

chitters.

Ern eventually strangled his opponent When he tried to detach himself, he found that an adhesion

of tissue had occurred, that the two were now one. Ern expanded himself, rounded and fused with

the defeated individual.

For a further period Ern rested, exploring his consciousness. The constriction once again became

oppressive. Ern thrust and kicked, creating a new rupture, and the shell split wide.

Ern struggled forth into soft slime, then up into a glare of light, an acrid dry void. From above

came a harsh cry. An enormous shape hurtled down. Ern dodged, evaded a pair of clicking black

prongs. He napped, paddled, slid down into cool water, where he submerged himself.

Others inhabited the water; Ern saw their dim shapes to all sides. Some were like himself: pale

pop-eyed sprats, narrow-skulled with wisps of film for crests. Others were larger, with the legs

and arms definitely articulated, the crests stiffer, the skin tough and silver-gray. Ern bestirred

himself, tested his arms and legs. He swam, carefully at first, then with competence. Hunger came;

he ate: larvae, nodules on the roots of reeds, trifles of this and that

So Ern entered his childhood, and gradually became wise in the ways of the waterworld. Duration

could not be measured; there was no basis for time: no alteration of light and darkness, no change

except for Ern's own growth. The only notable events of the sea-shallows were tragedies. A water-

baby frolicking too far, recklessly, offshore might be caught in a current and swept out under the

storm-curtain. The armored birds from time to time carried away a very young baby basking at the

surface. Most dreadful of all was the ogre who lived in one of the sea-sloughs: a brutish creature

with long arms, a flat face and four bony ridges over the top of its skull. On one occasion Ern

almost became its victim. Skulking under the roots of the swamp-reeds, the ogre lunged forth; Ern

felt the swirl of water and darted away, the ogre's grasp so near that the claws scraped his leg.

The ogre pursued, making idiotic sounds, then, jerking aside, seized one of Ern's playfellows, and

settled to the bottom to munch upon its captive.

After Ern grew large enough to defy the predator birds, he spent much time on the surface, tasting

the air and marveling at the largeness of the vistas, though he understood nothing of what he saw.

The sky was a dull gray fog, somewhat brighter out over the sea, never changing except for an

occasional wind-whipped cloud or a trail of rain. Close at hand was the swamp: sloughs, low-lying

islands overgrown with pallid reeds, complicated black shrubs of the utmost fragility, a few

spindly dendrons. Beyond hung a wall of black murk. On the seaward side the horizon was obscured

by a lightning-shattered wall of cloud and rain. The wall of murk and the wall of storm ran

parallel, delineating the borders of the region between.

The larger of the water-children tended to congregate at the surface. There were two sorts. The

typical individual was slender and lithe, with a narrow bony skull, a single crest, protuberant

eyes. His temperament was mercurial; he tended to undignified wrangling and sudden brisk fights

which were over almost as soon as they started. The sex differences were definite: some were male,

half as many were female.

In contrast, and much in the minority, were the twin-crested water-children. These were more

massive, with broader skulls, less prominent eyes and a more sedate disposition. Their sexual

differentiation was not obvious, and they regarded the antics of the single-crested children with

disapproval.

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Ern identified himself with this latter group though his crest development was not yet definite,

and, if anything, he was even broader and more stocky than the others. Sexually he was slow in

developing, but he seemed definitely masculine.

The oldest of the children, single- and double-crested alike, knew a few elements of speech,

passed down the classes from a time and source unknown. In due course Ern learned the language,

and thereafter idled away long periods discussing the events of the sea-shallows. The wall of

storm with its incessant dazzle of lightning was continually fascinating, but the children gave

most of their attention to the swamp and rising ground beyond, where, by virtue of tradition

transmitted along with the language, they knew their destiny lay, among the "men."

Occasionally "men" would be seen probing the shore mud for flatfish, or moving among the reeds on

mysterious errands. At such times the water-children, impelled by some unknown emotion, would

instantly submerge themselves, all except the most daring of the single-crested who would float

with only their eyes above water, to watch the men at their fascinating activities.

Each appearance of the men stimulated discussion among the water-children. The single-crested

maintained that all would become men and walk the dry land, which they declared to be a condition

of bliss. The double-crested, more skeptical, agreed that the children might go ashore-after all,

this was the tradition-but what next? Tradition offered no information on this score, and the

discussions remained speculative.

At long last Ern saw men close at hand. Searching the bottom for crustaceans, he heard a strong

rhythmic splashing and, looking up, saw three large long figures: magnificent creatures! They swam

with power and grace; even the ogre might avoid such as these! Ern followed at a discreet distance

wondering if he dared approach and make himself known. It would be pleasant, he thought, to talk

with these men, to learn about life on the shore . . . The men paused to inspect a school of

playing children, pointing here and there, while the children halted their play to stare up in

wonder. Now occurred a shocking incident. The largest of the double-crested water-children was Zim

the Name-giver, a creature, by Ern's reckoning, old and wise. It was Zim's prerogative to ordain

names for his fellows: Ern had received his name from Zim. It now chanced that Zim, unaware of the

men, wandered into view. The men pointed, uttered sharp guttural cries and plunged below the

surface. Zim, startled into immobility, hesitated an instant, then darted away. The men pursued,

harrying him this way and that, apparently intent on his capture. Zim, wild with fear, swam far

offshore, out over the gulf, where the current took him and carried him away, out toward the

curtain of storm.

The men, exclaiming in anger, plunged landward in foaming strokes of arms and legs.

In fascinated curiosity Ern followed: up a large slough, finally to a beach of packed mud. The men

waded ashore, strode off among the reeds. Ern drifted slowly forward, beset by a quivering

conflict of impulses. How, he wondered, could beings so magnificent hound Zim the Name-giver to

his doom? The land was close; the footprints of the men were plain on the mud of the beach; where

did they lead? What wonderful new vistas lay beyond the line of reeds? Ern eased forward to the

beach. He lowered his feet and tried to walk. His legs felt limp and flexible; only by dint of

great concentration was he able to set one foot before the other. Deprived of the support of the

water his body felt gross and clumsy. From the reeds came a screech of amazement. Ern's legs,

suddenly capable, carried him in wobbling leaps down the beach. He plunged into the water, swam

frantically back along the slough. Behind him came men, churning the water. Ern ducked aside, hid

behind a clump of rotting reeds. The men continued down the slough, out over the shallows where

they spent a fruitless period ranging back and forth.

Ern remained in his cover. The men returned, passing no more than the length of their bodies from

Ern's hiding place, so close that he could see their glittering eyes and the dark yellow interior

of their oral cavities when they gasped for air. With their spare frames, prow-shaped skulls and

single crests they resembled neither Ern nor Zim, but rather the single-crested water-children.

These were not his sort! He was not a man! Perplexed, seething with excitement and

dissatisfaction, Ern returned to the shallows.

But nothing was as before. The innocence of the easy old life had departed; there was now a

portent in the air which soured the pleasant old routines. Ern found it hard to wrench his

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attention away from the shore and he considered the single-crested children, his erstwhile

playmates, with new wariness: they suddenly seemed strange, different from himself, and they in

turn watched the double-crested children with distrust, swimming away in startled shoals when Ern

or one of the others came by.

Ern became morose and dour. The old satisfactions were gone; there were no compensations. Twice

again the men swam out across the shallows, but all the double-crested children, Ern among them,

hid under reeds. The men thereupon appeared to lose interest, and for a period life went on more

or less as before. But change was in the wind. The shoreline became a preoccupation: what lay

behind the reed islands, between the reed islands and the wall of murk? Where did the men live, in

what wonderful surroundings? With the most extreme vigilance against the ogre Ern swam up the

largest of the sloughs. To either side were islands overgrown with pale reeds, with an occasional

black skeleton-tree or a globe of tangle bush: stuff so fragile as to collapse at a touch. The

slough branched, opening into still coves reflecting the gray gloom of the sky, and at last

narrowed, dwindling to a channel of black slime.

Ern dared proceed no farther. If someone or something had followed him, he was trapped. And at

this moment a strange yellow creature halted overhead to hover on a thousand tinkling scales.

Spying Ern it set up a wild ululation. Off in the distance Ern thought to hear a call of harsh

voices: men. He swung around and swam back the way he had come, with the tinkle-bird careening

above. Ern ducked under the surface, swam down the slough at-full speed. Presently he went to the

side, cautiously surfaced. The yellow bird swung in erratic circles over the point where he had

submerged, its quavering howl now diminished to a mournful hooting sound.

Ern gratefully returned to the shallows. It was now clear to him that if ever he wished to go

ashore he must learn to walk. To the perplexity of his fellows, even those of the double-crests,

he began to clamber up through the mud of the near island, exercising his legs among the reeds.

All went passably well, and Ern presently found himself walking without effort though as yet he

dared not try the land behind the islands. Instead he swam along the coast, the storm-wall on his

right hand, the shore on his left. On and on he went, farther than he had ever ventured before.

The storm-wall was changeless: a roll of rain and a thick vapor lanced with lightning. The wall of

murk was the same: dense black at the horizon, lightening by imperceptible gradations to become

the normal gloom of the sky overhead. The narrow land extended endlessly onward. Ern saw new

swamps, reed islands; shelves of muddy foreshore, a spit of sharp rocks. At length the shore

curved away, retreated toward the wall of murk, to form a funnel-shaped bay, into which poured a

freezingly cold river. Ern swam to the shore, crawled up on the shingle, stood swaying on his

still uncertain legs. Far across the bay new swamps and islands continued to the verge of vision

and beyond. There was no living creature in sight. Ern stood alone on the gravel bar, a small gray

figure, swaying on still limber legs, peering earnestly this way and that. The river curved away

and out of sight into the darkness. The water of the estuary was bitterly cold, the current ran

swift; Ern decided to go no farther. He slipped into the sea and returned the way he had come.

Back in the familiar shallows he took up his old routine searching the bottom for crustaceans,

taunting the ogre, floating on the surface with a wary eye for men, testing his legs on the

island. During one of the visits ashore he came upon a most unusual sight: a woman depositing eggs

in the mud. From behind a curtain of reeds Ern watched in fascination. The woman was not quite so

large as the men and lacked the harsh male facial structure, though her cranial ridge was no less

prominent. She wore a shawl of a dark red woven stuff: the first garment Ern had ever seen, and he

marveled at the urbanity of the men's way of life.

The woman was busy for some time. When she departed, Ern went to examine the eggs. They had been

carefully protected from armored birds by a layer of mud and a neat little tent of plaited reeds.

The nest contained three clutches, each a row of three eggs, each egg carefully separated from the

next by a wad of mud.

So here, thought Ern, was the origin of the water-babies. He recalled the circumstances of his own

birth; evidently he had emerged from just such an egg. Rearranging mud and tent, Ern left the eggs

as he had found them and returned to the water.

Time passed. The men came no more. Ern wondered that they should abandon an occupation in which

they had showed so vigorous an interest; but then the whole matter exceeded the limits of his

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understanding.

He became prey to restlessness once again. In this regard he seemed unique: none of his fellows

had ever wandered beyond the shallows. Ern set off along the shore, this time swimming with the

stormwall to his left. He crossed the slough in which lived the ogre, who glared up as Ern passed

and made a threatening gesture. Ern swam hastily on, though now he was of a size larger than that

which the ogre preferred to attack.

The shore on this side of the shallows was more interesting and varied than that to the other. He

came upon three high islands crowned with a varied vegetation-black skeleton trees; stalks with

bundles of pink and white foliage clenched in black fingers; glossy lamellar pillars, the topmost

scales billowing out into gray leaves-then the islands were no more, and the mainland rose

directly from the sea. Ern swam close to the beach to avoid the currents, and presently came to a

spit of shingle pushing out into the sea. He climbed ashore and surveyed the landscape. The ground

slanted up under a cover of umbrella trees, then rose sharply to become a rocky bluff crested with

black and gray vegetation: the most notable sight of Ern's experience.

Ern slid back into the sea, swam on. The landscape slackened, became flat and swampy. He swam past

a bank of black slime overgrown with squirming yellow-green fibrils, which he took care to avoid.

Some time later he heard a thrashing hissing sound and looking to sea observed an enormous white

worm sliding through the water. Ern floated quietly and the worm slid on past and away. Ern

continued. On and on he swam until, as before, the shore was broken by an estuary leading away

into the murk. Wading up the beach, Ern looked far and wide across a dismal landscape supporting

only tatters of brown lichen. The river which flooded the estuary seemed even larger and swifter

than the one he had seen previously, and carried an occasional chunk of ice. A bitter wind blew

toward the stormwall, creating a field of retreating white-caps. The opposite shore, barely

visible, showed no relief or contrast. There was no apparent termination to the narrow land; it

appeared to reach forever between the walls of storm and gloom.

Ern returned to the shallows, not wholly satisfied with what he had learned. He had seen marvels

unknown to his fellows, but what had they taught him? Nothing. His questions remained unanswered.

Changes were taking place; they could not be ignored. The whole of Ern's class lived at the

surface, breathing air. Infected by some pale dilution of Ern's curiosity, they stared uneasily

landward. Sexual differentiation was evident; there were tendencies toward sexual play, from which

the double-crested children, with undeveloped organs, stood contemptuously aloof. Social as well

as physical distinctions developed; there began to be an interchange of taunts and derogation,

occasionally a brief skirmish. Ern ranged himself with the double-crested children, although on

exploring his own scalp, he found only indecisive hummocks and hollows, which to some extent

embarrassed him.

In spite of the general sense of imminence, the coming of the men took the children by surprise.

In the number of two hundred the men came down the sloughs and swam out to surround the shallows.

Ern and a few others instantly clambered up among the reeds of the island and concealed

themselves. The other children milled and swam in excited circles. The men shouted, slapped the

water with their arms; diving and veering, they herded the water-childien up the slough, all the

way to the beach of dried mud. Here they chose and sorted, sending the largest up the beach,

allowing the fingerlings and sprats to return to the shallows, taking the double-crested children

with sharp cries of exultation.

The selection was complete. The captive children were marshaled into groups and sent staggering up

the trail; those with legs still soft were carried.

Ern, fascinated by the process, watched from a discreet distance. When men and children had

disappeared, he emerged from the water, clambered up the beach to look after his departed friends.

What to do now? Return to the shallows? The old life seemed drab and insipid. He dared not present

himself to the men. They were single-crested; they were harsh and abrupt. What remained? He looked

back and forth, between water and land, and at last gave his youth a melancholy farewell:

henceforth he would live ashore.

He walked a few steps up the path, stopped to listen.

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Silence.

He proceeded warily, prepared to duck into the undergrowth at a sound. The soil underfoot became

less sodden; the reeds disappeared and aromatic black cycads lined the path. Above rose slender

supple withes, with gas-filled leaves half-floating, half-supported. Ern moved ever more

cautiously, pausing to listen ever more frequently. What if he met the men? Would they kill him?

Ern hesitated and even looked back along the path . . . The decision had been made. He continued

forward.

A sound, from somewhere not too far ahead. Ern dodged off the path, flattened himself behind a

hummock.

No one appeared. Ern moved forward through the cycads and, presently, through the black fronds, he

saw the village of the men: a marvel of ingenuity and complication! Nearby stood tall bins

containing food-stuffs, then, at a little distance, a row of thatched stalls stacked with poles,

coils of rope, pots of pigment and grease. Yellow tinkle-birds, perched on the gables, made a

constant chuckling clamor. The bins and stalls faced an open space surrounding a large platform,

where a ceremony of obvious import was in progress. On the platform stood four men, draped in

bands of woven leaves and four women wearing dark red shawls and tall hats decorated with tinkle-

bird scales. Beside the platform, in a miserable gray clot, huddled the single-crested children,

the individuals distinguishable only by an occasional gleam of eye or twitch of pointed crest.

One by one the children were lifted up to the four men, who gave each a careful examination. Most

of the male children were dismissed and sent down into the crowd. The rejects, about one in every

ten, were killed by the blow of a stone mallet and propped up to face the wall of storm. The girl-

children were sent to the other end of the platform, where the four women waited. Each of the

trembling girl-children was considered in turn. About half were discharged from the platform into

the custody of a woman and taken to a booth; about one in every five was daubed along the skull

with white paint and sent to a nearby pen where the double-crested children were also confined.

The rest suffered a blow of the mallet. The corpses were propped to face the wall of murk...

Above Ern's head sounded the mindless howl of a tinkle-bird. Ern darted back into the brush. The

bird drifted overhead on clashing scales. Men ran to either side, chased Ern back and forth, and

finally captured him. He was dragged to the village, thrust triumphantly up on the platform, amid

calls of surprise and excitement. The four priests, or whatever their function, surrounded Ern to

make their examination. There was a new set of startled outcries. The priests stood back in

perplexity, then after a mumble of discussion signaled to the priest-women. The mallet was brought

forward-but was never raised. A man from the crowd jumped up on the platform, to argue with the

priests. They made a second careful study of Ern's head, muttering to each other. Then one brought

a knife, another clamped Ern's head. The knife was drawn the length of his cranium, first to the

left of the central ridge, then to the right, to produce a pair of near-parallel cuts. Orange

blood trickled down Ern's face; pain made him tense and stiff. A woman brought forward a handful

of some vile substance which she rubbed into the wounds. Then all stood away, murmuring and

speculating. Ern glared back, half-mad with fear and pain.

He was led to a booth, thrust within. Bars were dropped across the aperture and laced with thongs.

Ern watched the remainder of the ceremony. The corpses were dismembered, boiled and eaten. The

white-daubed girl-children were marshaled into a group with all those double-crested children with

whom Ern had previously identified himself. Why, he wondered, had he not been included in this

group? Why had he first been threatened with the mallet, then wounded with a knife? The situation

was incomprehensible.

The girls and the two-crested children were marched away through the brush. The other girls with

no more ado became members of the community. The male children underwent a much more formal

instruction. Each man took one of the boys under his sponsorship, and subjected him to a rigorous

discipline. There were lessons in deportment, knot-tying, weaponry, language, dancing, the various

outcries.

Ern received minimal attention. He was fed irregularly, as occasion seemed to warrant The period

of his confinement could not be defined, the changeless gray sky providing no chronometric

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reference; and indeed, the concept of time as a succession of definite interims was foreign to

Ern's mind. He escaped apathy only by attending the instruction in adjoining booths, where single-

crested boys were taught language and deportment Ern learned the language long before those under

instruction; he and his double-crested fellows had used the rudiments of this language in the long-

gone halcyon past.

The twin wounds along Ern's skull eventually healed, leaving parallel weals of scar-tissue. The

black feathery combs of maturity were likewise sprouting, covering his entire scalp with down.

None of his erstwhile comrades paid him any heed. They had become indoctrinated in the habits of

the village; the old life of the shallows had receded in their memories. Watching them stride past

his prison, Ern found them increasingly apart from himself. They were lithe, slender, agile, like

tall keen-featured lizards. He was heavier, with blunter features, a broader head; his skin was

tougher and thicker, a darker gray. He was now almost as large as the men, though by no means so

sinewy and quick: when need arose, they moved with mercurial rapidity.

Once or twice Ern, in a fury, attempted to break the bars of his booth, only to be prodded with a

pole for his trouble, and he therefore desisted from this unprofitable exercise. He became fretful

and bored. The booths to either side were now used only for copulation, an activity which Ern

observed with dispassionate interest

The booth at last was opened. Ern rushed forth, hoping to surprise his captors and win free, but

one man seized him, another looped a rope around his body. Without ceremony he was led from the

village.

The men offered no hint of their intentions. Jogging along at a half-trot, they took Ern through

the black brush in that direction known as "sea-left:" which was to say, with the sea on the left

hand. The trail veered inland, rising over bare hummocks, dropping into dank swales, brimming with

rank black dendrons.

Ahead loomed a great copse of umbrella trees, impressively tall, each stalk as thick as the body

of a man, each billowing leaf large enough to envelope a half-dozen booths like that in which Ern

had been imprisoned.

Someone had been at work. A number of the trees had been cut, the poles trimmed and neatly

stacked, the leaves cut into rectangular sheets and draped over ropes. The racks supporting the

poles had been built with meticulous accuracy, and Ern wondered who had done such precise work:

certainly not the men of the village, whose construction even Ern found haphazard.

A path led away through the forest: a path straight as a string, of constant width, delineated by

parallel lines of white stones: a technical achievement far beyond the capacity of the men,

thought Ern.

The men now became furtive and uneasy. Ern tried to hang back, certain that whatever the men had

in mind was not to his advantage, but willy-nilly he was jerked forward.

The path made an abrupt turn, marched up a swale between copses of black-brown cycads, turned out

upon a field of soft white moss, at the center of which stood a large and splendid village. The

men, pausing in the shadows, made contemptuous sounds, performed insulting acts-provoked, so Ern

suspected, by envy, for the village across the meadow surpassed that of his captors as much as

that village excelled the environment of the shallows. There were eight precisely spaced rows of

huts, built of sawed planks, decorated or given symbolic import by elaborate designs of blue,

maroon and black. At the sea-right and sea-left ends of the central avenue stood larger

constructions with high-peaked roofs, shingled, like all the others, with slabs of biotite.

Notably absent were disorder and refuse; this village, unlike the village of the single-crested

men, was fastidiously neat. Behind the village rose the great bluff Ern had noticed on his

exploration of the coast.

At the edge of the meadow stood a row of six stakes, and to the first of these the men tied Ern.

"This is the village of the 'Twos'," declared one of the men. "Folk such as yourself. Do not

mention that we cut your scalp or affairs will go badly."

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They moved back, taking cover under a bank of worm plants. Ern strained at his bonds, convinced

that no matter what the eventuality, it could not be to his benefit

The villagers had taken note of Ern. Ten persons set forth across the meadow. In front came four

splendid 'Twos," stepping carefully, with an exaggerated strutting gait, followed by six young One-

girls, astoundingly urbane in gowns of wadded umbrella leaf. The girls had been disciplined; they

no longer used their ordinary sinuous motion but walked in a studied simulation of the Two

attitudes. Ern stared in fascination. The "Twos" appeared to be of his own sort, sturdier and

heavier than the cleaver-headed "Ones."

The pair in the van apparently shared equal authority. They comported themselves with canonical

dignity, and their garments-fringed shawls of black, brown and purple, boots of gray membrane with

metal clips, metal filigree greaves- were formalized and elaborate. He on the stormward side wore

a crest of glittering metal barbs; he on the darkward side a double row of tall black plumes. The

Twos at their back seemed of somewhat lesser prestige. They wore caps of complicated folds and

tucks and carried halberds three times their own length. At the rear walked the One-girls,

carrying parcels. Ern saw them to be members of his own class, part of the group which had been

led away after the selection ritual. Their skin had been stained dark red and yellow; they wore

dull yellow caps, yellow shawls, yellow sandals, and walked with the mincing delicate rigidity in

which they had been schooled.

The foremost Twos, halting at either side of Ern, examined him with portentous gravity. The

halberdiers fixed him with a minatory stare. The girls posed in self-conscious attitudes. The Twos

squinted in puzzlement at the double ridges of scar tissue along his scalp. They arrived at a

dubious consensus: "He appears sound, if somewhat gross of body and oddly ridged."

One of the halberdiers, propping his weapon against a stake, unbound Ern, who stood tentatively

half of a mind to take to his heels. The Two wearing the crest of metal barbs inquired,

"Do you speak?"

"Yes."

"You must say "Yes, Preceptor of the Storm Dazzle'; such is the form."

Ern found the admonition puzzling, but no more so than the other attributes of the Twos. His best

interests, so he decided lay in cautious cooperation. The Twos, while arbitrary and capricious,

apparently did not intend him harm. The girls arranged the parcels beside the stake: payment, so

it seemed, to the One-men.

"Come then," commanded he of the black plumes. "Watch your feet, walk correctly! Do not swing your

arms; you are a Two, an important individual; you must act appropriately, according to the Way."

"Yes, Preceptor of the Storm Dazzle."

"You will address me as 'Preceptor of the Dark Chill'!"

Confused and apprehensive, Ern was marched across the meadow of pale moss. The trail, demarcated

now by lines of black stones, bestrewn with black gravel, and glistening in the damp, exactly

bisected the meadow, which was lined to either side by tall black-brown fan-trees. First walked

the preceptors, then Ern, then the halberdiers and finally the six One-girls.

The trail connected with the central avenue of the village, which opened at the center into a

square plaza paved with squares of wood. To the darkward side of the plaza stood a tall black

tower supporting a set of peculiar black objects; on the stormward side an identical white tower

presented lightning symbols. Across and set back in a widening of the avenue was a long two-story

hall, to which Ern was conducted and lodged in a cubicle.

A third pair of Twos, of rank higher than the halberdiers but lower than the Preceptors-the

'Pedagogue of the Storm Dazzle' and the 'Pedagogue of the Dark Chill'-took Ern in charge. He was

washed, anointed with oil, and again the weals along his scalp received a puzzled inspection. Ern

began to suspect that the Ones had used duplicity; that, in order to sell him to the Twos, they

had simulated double ridges across his scalp; and that, after all, he was merely a peculiar

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variety of One. It was indeed a fact that his sexual parts resembled those of the One-men rather

than the epicene, or perhaps atrophied, organs of the Twos. The suspicion made him more uneasy

than ever, and he was relieved when the pedagogues brought him a cap, half of silver scales, half

of glossy black bird-fiber, which covered his scalp, and a shawl hanging across his chest and

belted at the waist, which concealed his sex organs.

As with every other aspect and activity of the Two-village there were niceties of usage in regard

to the cap. "The Way requires that in low-ceremonial activity, you must stand with black toward

Night and silver toward Chaos. If a ritual or other urgency impedes, reverse your cap."

This was the simplest and least complicated of the decorums to be observed.

The Pedagogues found much to criticize in Ern's deportment.

"You are somewhat more crude and gross than the usual cadet," remarked the Pedagogue of Storm

Dazzle. "The injury to your head has affected your condition."

"You will be carefully schooled," the Pedagogue of Dark Chill told him. "As of this moment,

consider yourself a mental void."

A dozen other young Twos, including four from Ern's class, were undergoing tutelage. As

instruction was on an individual basis, Ern saw little of them. He studied diligently and

assimilated knowledge with a facility which won him grudging compliments. When he seemed

proficient in primary methods, he was introduced to cosmology and religion. "We inhabit the Narrow

Land," declared the Pedagogue of Storm Dazzle. "It extends forever! How can we assert this with

such confidence? Because we know that the opposing principles of Storm and Dark Chill, being

divine, are infinite. Therefore, the Narrow Land, the region of confrontation, likewise is

infinite."

Ern ventured a question. "What exists behind the wall of storm?"

"There is no 'behind.' STORM-CHAOS is, and dazzles the dark with his lightnings. This is the

masculine principle. DARK-CHILL, the female principle, is. She accepts the rage and fire and

quells it. We Twos partake of each, we are at equilibrium, and hence excellent."

Ern broached a perplexing topic: "The Two-women do not produce eggs?"

"There are neither Two-women nor Two-men! We are brought into being by dual-divine intervention,

when a pair of eggs in a One-woman's clutch are put down in juxtaposition. Through alternation,

these are always male and female and so yield a double individual, neutral and dispassionate,

symbolized by the paired cranial ridges. One-men and One-women are incomplete, forever driven by

the urge to couple; only fusion yields the true Two."

It was evident to Ern that questioning disturbed the Pedagogues, so he desisted from further

interrogation, not wishing to call attention to his unusual attributes. During instruction he had

sensibly increased in size. The combs of maturity were growing up over his scalp; his sexual

organs had developed noticeably. Both, luckily, were concealed, by cap and shawl. In some fashion

he was different from other Twos, and the Pedagogues, should they discover this fact, would feel

dismay and confusion, at the very least

Other matters troubled Ern: namely the impulses aroused within himself by the slave One-girls.

Such tendencies were defined to be ignoble! This was no way for a Two to act! The Pedagogues would

be horrified to learn of his leanings. But if he were not a Two-what was he?

Ern tried to quell his hot blood by extreme diligence. He began to study the Two technology, which

like every other aspect of Two society was rationalized in terms of formal dogma. He learned the

methods of collecting bog iron, of smelting, casting, forging, hardening and tempering.

Occasionally he wondered how the skills had first been evolved, inasmuch as empiricism, as a mode

of thought, was antithetical to the Dual Way.

Ern thoughtlessly touched upon the subject during a recitation. Both Pedagogues were present. The

Pedagogue of Storm-Dazzle replied, somewhat tartly, that all knowledge was a dispensation of the

two Basic Principles.

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"In any event," stated the Pedagogue of Dark-Chill, "the matter is irrelevant What is, is, and by

this token is optimum."

"Indeed," remarked the Pedagogue of Storm-Dazzle, "the very fact that you have formed this inquiry

betrays a disorganized mind, more typical of a 'Freak' than a Two."

"What is a 'Freak'?" asked Ern.

The Pedagogue of Dark-Chill made a stern gesture. "Once again your mentality tends to random

association and discontent with authority!"

"Respectfully, Pedagogue of Dark-Chill, I wish only to learn the nature of 'wrong,' so that I may

know its distinction from right'"

"It suffices that you imbue yourself with 'right,' with no reference whatever to 'wrong'!"

With this viewpoint Ern was forced to be content The Pedagogues, leaving the chamber, glanced back

at him. Ern heard a fragment of their muttered conversation. "-surprising perversity-" "-but for

the evidence of the cranial ridges-"

In perturbation Ern walked back and forth across his cubicle. He was different from the other

cadets: so much was clear.

At the refectory, where the cadets were brought nutriment by One-girls, Ern covertly scrutinized

his fellows. While only little less massive than himself, they seemed differently proportioned,

almost cylindrical, with features and protrusions less prominent If he were different, what kind

of person was he? A "Freak'? What was a 'Freak'? A masculine Two? Ern was inclined to credit this

theory, for it explained his interest in the One-girls, and he turned to watch them gliding back

and forth with trays. In spite of their One-ness, they were undeniably appealing...

Thoughtfully Ern returned to his cubicle. In due course a One-girl came past Ern summoned her into

the cubicle and made his wishes known. She showed surprise and uneasiness, though no great

disinclination. "You are supposed to be neutral; what will everyone think?"

"Nothing whatever, if they are unaware of the situation."

"True. But is the matter feasible? I am One and you are a Two-"

"The matter may or may not be feasible; how will the

truth be known unless it is attempted, orthodoxy notwithstanding?"

"Well, then, as you will..."

A monitor looked into the cubicle, to stare dumbfounded. "What goes on here?" He looked more

closely, then tumbled backward into the compound to shout: "A Freak, a Freak Here among us, a

Freak! To arms, kill the Freak!"

Ern thrust the girl outside. "Mingle with the others, deny everything. I now feel that I must

leave." He ran out upon the central avenue, looked up and down. The halberdiers, informed of

emergency, were arraying themselves in formally appropriate gear. Ern took advantage of the delay

to run from the village. In pursuit came the Twos, calling threats and ritual abuse. The sea-right

path toward the pole forest and the swamp was closed to him; Ern fled sea-left, toward the great

bluff. Dodging among fan trees and banks of wormweed, finally hiding under a bank of fungus, he

gained a respite while the halberdiers raced past

Emerging from his covert, Ern stood uncertainly, wondering which way to go. Freak or not the Twos

had exhibited what seemed an irrational antagonism. Why had they attacked him? He had performed no

damage, perpetrated no wilful deception. The fault lay with the Ones. In order to deceive the Twos

they had scarred Ern's head-a situation for which Ern could hardly be held accountable. Bewildered

and depressed, Ern started toward the shore, where at least he could find food. Crossing a peat

bog he was sighted by the halberdiers, who instantly set up the outcry: "Freakl Freak! Freakl" And

again Ern was forced to run for his life, up through a forest of mingled cycads and pole-trees,

toward the great bluff which now loomed ahead.

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A massive stone wall barred his way: a construction obviously of great age, overgrown with black

and brown lichen. Ern ran staggering and wobbling along the wall, with the halberdiers close upon

him, still screaming: "Freak! Freak! Freak!"

A gap appeared in the wall. Ern jumped through to the opposite side, ducked behind a clump of

feather-bush. The halberdiers stopped short in front of the gap, their cries stilled, and now they

seemed to be engaged in controversy.

Ern waited despondently for discovery and death, since the bush offered scant concealment. One of

the halberdiers at last ventured gingerly through the wall, only to give a startled grunt and jump

back.

There were receding footsteps, then silence. Ern crawled cautiously from his hiding place, and

went to peer through the gap. The Twos had departed. Peculiar, thought Ern. They must have known

he was close at hand ... He turned. Ten paces distant the largest man he had yet seen leaned on a

sword, inspecting him with a brooding gaze. The man was almost twice the size of the largest Two.

He wore a dull brown smock of soft leather, a pair of shining metal wristbands. His skin was a

heavy rugose gray, tough as horn; at the joints of his arms and legs were bony juts, ridges and

buttresses, which gave him the semblance of enormous power. His skull was broad, heavy, harshly

indented and ridged; his eyes were blazing crystals in deep shrouded sockets. Along his scalp ran

three serrated ridges. In addition to his sword, he carried, slung over his shoulder, a peculiar

metal device with a long nozzle. He advanced a slow step. Ern swayed back, but for some reason

beyond his own knowing was dissuaded from taking to his heels.

The man spoke, in a hoarse voice: "Why do they hunt you?"

Ern took courage from the fact that the man had not killed him out of hand. "They called me

'Freak' and drove me forth."

" 'Freak" The Three considered Ern's scalp. "You are a Two."

"The Ones cut my head to make scars, then sold me to the Twos." Ern felt the weals. On either side

and at the center, almost as prominent as the scars, were the crests of an adult, three in number.

They were growing apace; even had he not compromised himself, the Twos must have found him out on

the first occasion he removed his cap. He said humbly: "It appears that I am a 'Freak' like

yourself."

The Three made a brusque sound. "Come with me."

They walked back through the grove, to a path which slanted up the bluff, then swung to the side

and entered a valley. Beside a pond rose a great stone hall flanked by two towers with steep

conical roofs-in spite of age and dilapidation a structure to stagger Ern's imagination.

By a timber portal they entered a courtyard which seemed to Ern a place of unparalleled charm. At

the far end boulders and a great overhanging slab created the effect of a grotto. Within were

trickling water, growths of feathery black moss, pale cycads, a settle padded with woven reed and

sphagnum. The open area was a swamp-garden, exhaling the odors of reed, water-soaked vegetation,

resinous wood. Remarkable, thought Ern, as well as enchanting: neither the Ones nor the Twos

contrived except for an immediate purpose.

The Three took Ern across the court into a stone chamber, also half-open to the refreshing

drizzle, carpeted with packed sphagnum. Under the shelter of the ceiling were the appurtenances of

the Three's existence: crocks and bins, a table, a cabinet, tools and implements. The Three

pointed to a bench, "Sit." Ern gingerly obeyed. "You are hungry?"

"No."

"How was your imposture discovered?" Ern related the circumstances which led to his exposure. The

Three showed no disapproval, which gave Ern encouragement. "I had long suspected that I was

something other than a Two'."

"You are obviously a Three," said his host. "Unlike the neuter Twos, Threes are notably masculine,

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Vance, Jack - The Narrow Land

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