er off locked up until I became 'healthy' again. But the
King...."

III

Lusine's laughter was like the call of a silverbell bird. Whatever her
unhuman appetites, she had a beautiful voice. She said, "How comical!
And how do you, with your brave ideas, like being regarded as a
harmless figure of fun, or as a sick man?"

"I like it as well as you would," he growled.

She gripped the bars of her window until the tendons on the back of
her long thin hands stood out and the membranes between her fingers
stretched like wind-blown tents. Face twisted, she spat at him,
"Coward! Why don't you kill somebody and break out of this ridiculous
mold--that Skin that the Ssassarors have poured you into?"

Rastignac was silent. That was a good question. Why didn't he? Killing
was the logical result of his philosophy. But the Skin kept him
docile. Yes, he could vaguely see that he had purposely shut his eyes
to the destination towards which his ideas were slowly but inevitably
traveling.

And there was another facet to the answer to her question--if he had
to kill, he would not kill a Man. His philosophy was directed towards
the Amphibians and the Sea-changelings.

He said, "Violence doesn't necessarily mean the shedding of blood,
Lusine. My philosophy urges that we take a more vigorous action, that
we overthrow some of the bio-social institutions which have imprisoned
Man and stripped him of his dignity as an individual."

"Yes, I have heard that you want Man to stop wearing the Skin. That is
what has horrified your people, isn't it?"

"Yes," he said. "And I understand it has had the same effect among the
Amphibians."

She bridled, her brown eyes flashing in the feeble glowworms' light.
"Why shouldn't it? What would we be without our Skins?"

"What, indeed?" he said, laughing derisively afterwards.

Earnestly she said, "You don't understand. We Amphibians--our Skins
are not like yours. We do not wear them for the same reason you do.
You are imprisoned by your Skins--they tell you how to feel, what to
think. Above all, they keep you from getting ideas about
non-cooperation or non-integration with Nature as a whole.

"That, to us individualistic Amphibians, is false. The purpose of our
Skins is to make sure that our King's subjects understand what he
wants so that we may all act as one unit and thus further the progress
of the Seafolk."

The first time Rastignac had heard this statement he had howled with
laughter. No