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It was not a bird, but had a balloon-shaped body, paddled by five webbed feet. It disappeared among the trees. Joiwind pointed to it, as it went by. "I love that beast, grotesque as it is perhaps all the more for its grotesqueness. But if I had children of my own, would I still love it? Which is best to love two or three, or to love all?"

The love expressed by the caress was rich, glowing, and personal, but there was not the least trace of sex in it and so he received it. She removed her tentacle, placed her two arms on his shoulders and penetrated with her eyes right into his very soul. "Yes, I wish to be pure," he muttered. "Without that what can I ever be but a weak, squirming devil?" Joiwind released him.

The upper part of it was covered with a kind of glittering vegetation which he could not comprehend. Joiwind put her hand on Maskull's shoulder, and pointed upward. "Here you have the highest peak in the whole land that is, until you come to the Ifdawn Marest." On hearing that strange name, he experienced a momentary unaccountable sensation of wild vigour and restlessness but it passed away.

"Thoughts and words," he said, "which don't correspond with the real events of the world are considered most shameful in Matterplay." "I'm not asking you to lie, only to keep silent." "To hide the truth is a special branch of lying. I can't accede to your wish. I must tell Joiwind everything, as far as I know it." Maskull got up, and Tydomin followed his example.

One of them at least must be a bad man, and yet if he is following Surtur or Shaping, as he is called here he can't be really bad." "What do you know of Surtur?" asked Maskull in astonishment. Joiwind remained silent for a time, studying his face. His brain moved restlessly, as though it were being probed from outside. "I see.... and yet I don't see," she said at last.

It was at that moment that the determination flashed into his heart to walk to the Marest and explore its dangers. He returned to the cavern to say good-by to his hosts. Joiwind looked at him with her brave and honest eyes. "Is this selfishness, Maskull?" she asked, "or are you drawn by something stronger than yourself?" "We must be reasonable," he answered, smiling.

He did not answer, but stared past her. Another figure was standing, erect and mournful, not far behind her. It was Joiwind. Her face was wan, and there was an accusing look in her eyes. Maskull knew that it was a phantasm, and that the real Joiwind was miles away, at Poolingdred. "Turn around, Tydomin," he said oddly, "and tell me what you see behind you."

"Thanks, Joiwind!" said Maskull simply. The colors chased each other rapidly beneath her skin. "Oh, why do you say that? What pleasure is greater than loving-kindness? I rejoiced at the opportunity.... But now we must exchange blood." "What is this?" he demanded, rather puzzled. "It must be so. Your blood is far too thick and heavy for our world.

"What is your name, and your husband's name?" "Mine is Joiwind my husband's is Panawe. We live a very long way from here; still, it came to us both last night that you were lying here insensible. We almost quarrelled about which of us should come to you, but in the end I won." Here she laughed. "I won, because I am the stronger-hearted of the two; he is the purer in perception."

The swampy lake extended for about half a mile from where they were standing to the lower buttresses of the mountain. Feathery purple reeds showed themselves here and there through the shallows. The water was dark green. Maskull did not see how they were going to cross it. Joiwind caught his arm. "Perhaps you don't know that the lake will bear us?"