The Thing in the Attic Read online

abstractedly passed a pine cone to him and he triedto occupy his mind with the business of picking the juicy seeds from it,but somehow they had no flavor.

  More captives were being brought in now, while the Spokesman watchedwith glittering black eyes from his high perch. There was Mathild theForager, shivering as if with ague, the fur down her left sideglistening and spiky, as though she had inadvertently overturned a tankplant on herself. After her was brought Alaskon the Navigator, amiddle-aged man only a few years younger than Honath himself; he wastied up next to Honath, where he settled down at once, chewing at ajoint of cane with apparent indifference.

  Thus far, the gathering had proceeded without more than a few wordsbeing spoken, but that ended when the guards tried to bring Seth theNeedlesmith from the nets. He could be heard at once, over the entiredistance to the glade, alternately chattering and shrieking in a mixtureof tones that might mean either fear or fury. Everyone in the glade butAlaskon turned to look, and heads emerged from purses like newbutterflies from cocoons.

  A moment later, Seth's guards came over the lip of the glade in atangled group, now shouting themselves. Somewhere in the middle of theknot Seth's voice became still louder; obviously he was clinging withall five members to any vine or frond he could grasp, and was no soonerpried loose from one than he would leap by main force, backwards ifpossible, to another. Nevertheless he was being brought inexorably downinto the arena, two feet forward, one foot back, three feet forward....

  Honath's guards resumed picking their pine-cones. During thedisturbance, Honath realized Charl the Reader had been brought inquietly from the same side of the glade. He now sat opposite Alaskon,looking apathetically down at the vine-web, his shoulders hunchedforward. He exuded despair; even to look at him made Honath feel arenewed shudder.

  From the High Seat, the Spokesman said: "Honath the Pursemaker, Alaskonthe Navigator, Charl the Reader, Seth the Needlesmith Mathild theForager, you are called to answer to justice."

  "Justice!" Seth shouted, springing free of his captors with a tremendousbound and bringing up with a jerk on the end of his tether. "This is nojustice! I have nothing to do with--"

  The guards caught up with him and clamped brown hands firmly over hismouth. The Spokesman watched with amused malice.

  "The accusations are three," the Spokesman said. "The first, the tellingof lies to children. Second, the casting into doubt of the divine orderamong men. Third, the denial of the Book of Laws. Each of you may speakin order of age. Honath the Pursemaker, your plea may be heard."

  Honath stood up, trembling a little, but feeling a surprisingly renewedsurge of his old independence.

  "Your charges," he said, "all rest upon the denial of the Book of Laws.I have taught nothing else that is contrary to what we all believe, andcalled nothing else into doubt. And I deny the charge."

  The Spokesman looked down at him with disbelief. "Many men and womenhave said that you do not believe in the Giants, pursemaker," he said."You will not win mercy by piling up more lies."

  "I deny the charge," Honath insisted. "I believe in the Book of Laws asa whole, and I believe in the Giants. I have taught only that the Giantswere not real in the sense that we are real. I have taught that theywere intended as symbols of some higher reality and were not meant to betaken as literal persons."

  "What higher reality is this?" the Spokesman demanded. "Describe it."

  "You ask me to do something the writers of the Book of Laws themselvescouldn't do," Honath said hotly. "If they had to embody the reality insymbols rather than writing it down directly, how could a merepursemaker do better?"

  "This doctrine is wind," the Spokesman said. "And it is plainly intendedto undercut authority and the order established by the Book. Tell me,pursemaker: if men need not fear the Giants, why should they fear thelaw?"

  "Because they are men, and it is to their interest to fear the law. Theyaren't children, who need some physical Giant sitting over them with awhip to make them behave. Furthermore, Spokesman, this archaic belief_itself_ undermines us. As long as we believe that there are realGiants, and that some day they'll return and resume teaching us, so longwill we fail to seek answers to our questions for ourselves. Half ofwhat we know was given to us in the Book, and the other half is supposedto drop to us from the skies if we wait long enough. In the meantime, wevegetate."

  "If a part of the Book be untrue, there can be nothing to prevent thatit is all untrue," the Spokesman said heavily. "And we will lose evenwhat you call the half of our knowledge--which is actually the whole ofit--to those who see with clear eyes."

  Suddenly, Honath lost his temper. "Lose it, then!" he shouted. "Let usunlearn everything we know only by rote, go back to the beginning, learnall over again, and _continue_ to learn, from our own experience.Spokesman, you are an old man, but there are still some of us whohaven't forgotten what curiosity means!"

  "Quiet!" the Spokesman said. "We have heard enough. We call on Alaskonthe Navigator."

  "Much of the Book is clearly untrue," Alaskon said flatly, rising. "As ahandbook of small trades it has served us well. As a guide to how theuniverse is made, it is nonsense, in my opinion; Honath is too kind toit. I've made no secret of what I think, and I still think it."

  "And will pay for it," the Spokesman said, blinking slowly down atAlaskon. "Charl the Reader."

  "Nothing," Charl said, without standing, or even looking up.

  "You do not deny the charges?"

  "I've nothing to say," Charl said, but then, abruptly, his head jerkedup, and he glared with desperate eyes at the Spokesman. "I can read,Spokesman. I have seen words in the Book of Laws that contradict eachother. I've pointed them out. They're facts, they exist on the pages.I've taught nothing, told no lies, preached no unbelief. I've pointed tothe facts. That's all."

  "Seth the Needlesmith, you may speak now."

  The guards took their hands gratefully off Seth's mouth; they had beenbitten several times in the process of keeping him quiet up to now. Sethresumed shouting at once.

  "I'm no part of this group! I'm the victim of gossip, envious neighbors,smiths jealous of my skill and my custom! No man can say worse of methan that I sold needles to this pursemaker--sold them in good faith!The charges against me are lies, all lies!"

  Honath jumped to his feet in fury, and then sat down again, choking backthe answering shout almost without tasting its bitterness. What did itmatter? Why should he bear witness against the young man? It would nothelp the others, and if Seth wanted to lie his way out of Hell, he mightas well be given the chance.

  The Spokesman was looking down at Seth with the identical expression ofoutraged disbelief which he had first bent upon Honath. "Who was it cutthe blasphemies into the hardwood tree, by the house of Hosi theLawgiver?" he demanded. "Sharp needles were at work there, and there arewitnesses to say that your hands held them."

  "More lies!"

  "Needles found in your house fit the furrows, Seth."

  "They were not mine--or they were stolen! I demand to be freed!"

  "You will be freed," the Spokesman said coldly. There was no possibledoubt as to what he meant. Seth began to weep and to shout at the sametime. Hands closed over his mouth again. "Mathild the Forager, your pleamay be heard."

  The young woman stood up hesitantly. Her fur was nearly dry now, but shewas still shivering.

  "Spokesman," she said, "I saw the things which Charl the Reader showedme. I doubted, but what Honath said restored my belief. I see no harm inhis teachings. They remove doubt, instead of fostering it as you saythey do. I see no evil in them, and I don't understand why this is acrime."

  Honath looked over to her with new admiration. The Spokesman sighedheavily.

  "I am sorry for you," he said, "but as Spokesman we cannot allowignorance of the law as a plea. We will be merciful to you all, however.Renounce your heresy, affirm your belief in the Book as it is writtenfrom bark to bark, and you shall be no more than cast out of the tribe."

  "I renounce it!" Seth cried. "I never
shared it! It's all blasphemy andevery word is a lie! I believe in the Book, all of it!"

  "You, needlesmith," the Spokesman said, "have lied before this Judgment,and are probably lying now. You are not included in the dispensation."

  "Snake-spotted caterpillar! May your--_ummulph_."

  "Pursemaker, what is your answer?"

  "It is No," Honath said stonily. "I've spoken the truth. The truth can'tbe unsaid."

  The Spokesman looked down at the rest of them. "As for you three,consider your answers carefully. To share the heresy