"
"Yes," explained Ghek, "all of us are from Luud's eggs, just as
all the swarm of Moak are from Moak's eggs."
"Oh!" exclaimed Tara of Helium understandingly; "you mean that
Luud has many wives and that you are the offspring of one of
them."
"No, not that at all," replied Ghek. "Luud has no wife. He lays
the eggs himself. You do not understand."
Tara of Helium admitted that she did not.
"I will try to explain, then," said Ghek, "if you will promise to
sing to me later."
"I promise," she said.
"We are not like the rykors," he began. "They are creatures of a
low order, like yourself and the banths and such things. We have
no sex--not one of us except our king, who is bi-sexual. He
produces many eggs from which we, the workers and the warriors,
are hatched; and one in every thousand eggs is another king egg,
from which a king is hatched. Did you notice the sealed openings
in the room where you saw Luud? Sealed in each of those is
another king. If one of them escaped he would fall upon Luud and
try to kill him and if he succeeded we should have a new king;
but there would be no difference.
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