!"

"Oh, _then_! Well, Lusine, you've had enough experience to know that
such protestations of tenderness and affection are only inevitable
accompaniments of the moment's passion."

For the first time since he had known her he saw Lusine's lower lip
tremble and tears come in her eyes. "Do you mean you were only using
me?" she sobbed.

"You forget I had good reason to think you were just using _me_.
Remember, you're an Amphib, Lusine. Your people can't be trusted. You
blood-drinkers are as savage as the little sea-monsters you leave in
Human cradles."

"Jean-Jacques, take me with you! I'll do anything you say! I'll even
cut my foster-father's throat for you!"

He laughed. Unheeding, she swept on. "I want to be with you,
Jean-Jacques! Look, with me to guide you in, my homeland--with my
prestige as the Amphib-King's daughter--you can become King yourself
after the rebellion. I'd get rid of the Amphib-King for you so
there'll be nobody in your way!"

She felt no more guilt than a tigress. She was naive and terrible,
innocent and disgusting.

"No, thanks, Lusine." He scratched her with the dream-snake needle. As
her eyes closed he said, "You don't understand. All I want to do is
voyage to the stars. Being King means nothing to me. The only person
I'd trade places with would be the Earthman the Amphibs hold
prisoner."

He left her sleeping in the locked cabin.

Noon found them loafing on the great square in front of the Palace of
the Two Kings of the Sea and the Islands. All were disguised as
Waterfolk. Before they'd left the castle, they had grafted webs
between their fingers and toes--just as Amphib-changelings who weren't
born with them, did--and they wore the special Amphib Skins that
Mapfarity had grown in his fleshforge. These were able to tune in on
the Amphibs' wavelengths, but they lacked their shock mechanism.

Rastignac had to locate the Earthman, rescue him, and get him to the
spaceship that lay anchored between two wharfs, its sharp nose
pointing outwards. A wooden bridge had been built from one of the
wharfs to a place halfway up its towering side.

Rastignac could not make out any breaks in the smooth metal that would
indicate a port, but reason told him there must be some sort of
entrance to the ship at that point.

A guard of twenty Amphibs repulsed any attempt on the crowd's part to
get on the bridge.

Rastignac had contacted the harbor-master and made arrangements for
workmen to unload hi