ect to an alien consort!"

"The word is strange to me. Among us you would be a ruler if you married
me. Among us all men have several wives. But women have but one
husband."

"You are offering me the rule of the Schrees?"

"Yes, and if our coming war with the Jivro creatures turns out well, it
will mean not one planet, but many. I cannot say how many, as some of
those never allied with the Schrees before will naturally gravitate to
us in gratitude for our releasing them from the Jivros. I am agreeable
mainly because I know that we need your earth science, your different
culture--as wedded to our own science we would be invincible. We will
need everything finally to conquer the ancient ingrown tyranny of the
Jivros. I am not offering you exactly any bed of roses. Besides, I like
and trust Carna. I can understand why she loves you, and why she
bargains for any part of you. She knows I have but to exert my own
wisdom of Zoorph to release you from her hold on you."

"I see. Let me get this straight. You love me; it is agreeable to you
that I continue to love Carna; but I will love you too. Two wives who
love me, a kingdom, and the chance of knocking over a whole empire of
insects who have parasitized human races in space and meant to do it
here. There is no way I can refuse!"

Carna laughed.

"With two of us working your mind for you, how could you refuse?"

Wananda frowned at Carna's frankness.

"It is stated in the nineteenth law of Zoorph code that no victim is
ever to be told of his enslavement openly, Carna. Why do you break the
law?"

"I don't know, Wananda Highest. I think it is because I want to be fair
to him, and give him a chance to do his own thinking, too."

I grinned.

"Our race has long been familiar with your so-called magic, dear ones.
We call it hypnotism, and if you think I cannot resist it, remember that
I shot the Old One with his eyes upon me."

Wananda suddenly set the big lever she held into a notch, turned to me,
her face full of a charming surprise which I yet knew was an act.

"So you think you can resist your wives' wills, do you, earthman? Come,
Carna, let us humble his boasts once and, for all!"

Their two lovely faces pressed cheek to cheek, the two pair of eyes
bored into my own, and four quick slim hands gestured about my chin. A
dizzy enervation swam into me as though I were bleeding to death, as
though honey and whiskey were being poured down my throat, as though I
had fa