He began to feel afraid. The immensity of what had happened was slowly dawning upon him. Until now, Rorden had given little thought to the consequences of his actions. His own historical interests, and his affection for Alvin, had been sufficient motive for what he had done. Though he had humored and encouraged Alvin, he had never believed that anything like this could possibly happen.
Despite the centuries between them, the boy’s will had always been more powerful than his own. It was too late to do anything about it now: Rorden felt that events were sweeping him along towards a climax utterly beyond his control.
* * *
“Is all this really necessary,” said Alvin, “if we are only going to be away for two or three days? After all, we have a synthesizer with us.”
“Probably not,” answered Theon, throwing the last food containers into the little ground-car. “It may seem an odd custom, but we’ve never synthesized some of our finest foods-we like to watch them grow. Also, we may meet other parties and it’s polite to exchange food with them. Nearly every district has some special product, and Airlee is famous for its peaches. That’s why I’ve put so many aboard-not because I think that even you can eat them all.”
Alvin threw his half-eaten peach at Theon, who dodged quickly aside. There came a flicker of iridescence and a faint whirring of invisible wings as Krif descended upon the fruit and began to sip its juices.
Alvin was still not quite used to Krif. It was hard for him to realize that the great insect, though it would come when called and would-sometimes-obey simple orders, was almost wholly mindless. Life, to Alvin, had always been synonymous with intelligence-sometimes intelligence far higher than Man’s.
When Krif was resting, his six gauzy wings lay folded along his body, which glittered through them like a jewelled scepter. He was at once the highest and the most beautiful form of insect life the world had ever known- the latest and perhaps the last of all the creatures Man had chosen for his companionship.
Lys was full of such surprises, as Alvin was continually learning. Its inconspicuous but efficient transport system had been equally unexpected. The ground-car apparently worked on the same principle as the machine that had brought him from Diaspar, for it floated in the air a few inches above the turf. Although there was no sign of any guide-rail, Theon told him that the cars could only run on predetermined tracks. All the centers of population were thus linked together, but the remoter parts of the country could only be reached on foot. This state of affairs seemed altogether extraordinary to Alvin, but Theon appeared to think it was an excellent idea.
Apparently Theon had been planning this expedition for a considerable time. Natural history was his chief passion-Krif was only the most spectacular of his many pets-and he hoped to find new types of insect life in the uninhabited southern parts of Lys.