ding in a pretty pout.

He said, "Day after tomorrow is the day on which the new Kings are
crowned, isn't it?"

Tonelessly she said, "Supposedly. Actually, the present Kings will be
crowned again."

Rastignac smiled. "I know. Peculiar, isn't it, how the 'people' always
vote the same Kings back into power? However, that isn't what I'm
getting at. If I remember correctly, the Amphibs give their King
exotic and amusing gifts on coronation day. What do you think would
happen if I took a big shipload of bottles of wine and passed it out
among the population just before the Amphibs begin their surprise
massacre?"

Lusine had seen Mapfarity and Rastignac experimenting with the wine
and she had been frightened by the results. Nevertheless, she made a
brave attempt to hide her fear now. She spit at him and said, "You
mud-footed fool! There are priests who will know what it is! They will
be in the coronation crowd."

"Ah, not so! In the first place, you Amphibs are almost entirely
Aggressive Pantheists. You have only a few priests, and you will now
pay for that omission of wine-tasters. Second, Mapfarity's concoction
tastes not at all vinous and is twice as strong."

She spat at him again and spun on her heel and walked out.

That night Rastignac's band and Lusine went through a tunnel which
brought them up through a hollow tree about two miles west of the
castle. There they hopped into the Renault, which had been kept in a
camouflaged garage, and drove to the little port of Marrec. Archambaud
had paved their way here with golden eggs and a sloop was waiting for
them.

Rastignac took the boat's wheel. Lusine stood beside him, ready to
answer the challenge of any Amphib patrol that tried to stop them. As
the Amphib-King's foster-daughter, she could get the boat through to
the Amphib island without any trouble at all.

Archambaud stood behind her, a knife under his cloak, to make sure she
did not try to betray them. Lusine had sworn she could be trusted.
Rastignac had answered that he was sure she could be, too, as long as
the knife point pricked her back to remind her.

Nobody stopped them. An hour before dawn they anchored in the harbor
of Kataproimnoin. Lusine was tied hand and foot inside the cabin.
Before Rastignac could scratch her with dream-snake venom, she
pleaded, "You could not do this to me, Jean-Jacques, if you loved me."

"Who said anything about loving you?"

"Well, I like that! You said so, you cheat