al--all of us?"

"The people of my race do not all like the same things," said the girl.

"How strange!" commented Ghek. "All kaldanes like the same things and
dislike the same things. If I discover something new and like it I know
that all kaldanes will like it. That is how I know that Luud would like
your singing. You see we are all exactly alike."

"But you do not look like Luud," said the girl.

"Luud is king. He is larger and more gorgeously marked; but otherwise
he and I are identical, and why not? Did not Luud produce the egg from
which I hatched?"

"What?" queried the girl; "I do not understand you."

"Yes," explained Ghek, "all of us are from Luud's eggs, just as all the
swarm of Moak are from Moak's eggs."

"Oh!" exclaimed Tara of Helium understandingly; "you mean that Luud has
many wives and that you are the offspring of one of them."

"No, not that at all," replied Ghek. "Luud has no wife. He lays the
eggs himself. You do not understand."

Tara of Helium admitted that she did not.

"I will try to explain, then," said Ghek, "if you will promise to sing
to me later."

"I promise," she said.

"We are not like the rykors," he began. "They are creatures of a low
order, like yourself and the banths and such things. We have no
sex--not one of us except our king, who is bi-sexual. He produces many
eggs from which we, the workers and the warriors, are hatched; and one
in every thousand eggs is another king egg, from which a king is
hatched. Did you notice the sealed openings in the room where you saw
Luud? Sealed in each of those is another king. If one of them escaped
he would fall upon Luud and try to kill him and if he succeeded we
should have a new king; but there would be no difference. His name
would be Luud and all would go on as before, for are we not all alike?
Luud has lived a long time and has produced many kings, so he lets only
a few live that there may be a successor to him when he dies. The
others he kills."

"Why does he keep more than one?" queried the girl.

"Sometimes accidents occur," replied Ghek, "and all the kings that a
swarm has saved are killed. When this happens the swarm comes and
obtains another king from a neighboring swarm."

"Are all of you the children of Luud?" she asked.

"All but a few, who are from the eggs of the preceding king, as was
Luud; but Luud has lived a long time and not many of the others are
left."

"You live a long time, or short?" Tara asked.