The Prisoner of Zhamanak

IX RANCOR

"When do we reach the Sadabao?"

Answering Percy Mjipa's question, Captain Farrá said: "If this wind holds, we should sight Fossanderan by tomorrow night. With the best winds, Kalwm to Fossanderan can be sailed in four days. With winds adverse or calm, it may take a fiftnight."

Following departure from Kalwm, Mjipa and Alicia Dyckman had spent the following day and night either sleeping or lying about resting. Their exertions had left them dishrag-limp, and their wounds made movement painful.

Now they began to perk up. Using a wooden tub hauled out on deck, the three passengers bathed and scrubbed off the Khaldonian body paint. The Terrans resumed their khakis. The paper antennae had been discarded; but there was no way to speed the growth of hair on their shaven pates.

Mjipa prowled the deck, limping and using a boarding pike from the ship's small armory as a walking stick. On the fan tail, Isayin in borrowed sailor's garb dissected a fish he had caught and made notes about its anatomy. Overhead, rank after rank of clouds marched past, with an occasional glimpse of Roqir between them. The light southerly breeze that had taken them away from Kalwm had changed to a brisk northeaster, into which they sailed full and by.

Alicia, wearing her Kalwmian straw hat against the sun on her nude cranium, sat on deck with her back to the bulwark, writing in a notebook. As Mjipa passed, she said: "Percy, when we get to Majbur, you must take me shopping again. I want another of those divine kilts!"

"What's wrong with the one you have?"

"I cut so much off .the hem for bandages that now it hardly covers me decently."

"Couldn't you sew the bandages back on, once the blood's been washed out?"

"It would look simply awful. And by the way, what'll we use for money from Majbur on? Captain Farrá's about cleaned us out."

"Gorbovast will cash a draft on Novo. What's that you 're working on?"

"My report on the economics of Krishnan innkeeping."

"You mean you interviewed Irants after all? I thought I told you—"

"Sure you did, but you didn't think I'd let that stop me? I figured if you didn't know, they couldn't hold you responsible."

"Oh, yes they could! You don't know these blighters."

"Anyway, I told Irants it was against orders and swore him to secrecy. He enjoyed being part of a conspiracy. I worked with him late at night, while you were asleep."

Mjipa let out a long sigh. "Lish, you're incorrigible! I suppose I ought to grab your notes and tear them up; but you'd only think of some other dodge, and what's done is done." He peered aft off the stern and spoke to Farrá: "Captain, what's that sail behind us?"

The captain glanced aft, where the triangular tooth of another lateen sail pierced the horizon whenever a wave boosted the Tarvezid aloft. "Can't tell at this remove."

An hour later, Mjipa said: "Captain, I'll swear that ship is closing upon us."

The captain leveled his spyglass. After a long look, he said: "Fry my guts, but methinks that's the Yur, of Kalwm City. When we left port, she was still up for sale by the government. I know her well; she's been lying in her dock for a couple of moons. 'Tis no wonder she gains upon us!"

"Why? Is she a fast sailer?"

"Aye, having more sail and less beam than we. She came from the Sunqar when the allied Sadabao powers destroyed the nest of pirates there, her people avowing they were reformed and pardoned and enlarged by the leaders of the attack on the floating citadel.

"The Phathvum took them at their word, since the Kalwmian navy hath gone to rot since the Heshvavu took to spending all the kingdom's revenues on his tower fantastical. Kalwm, thought the minister, might need seamen and ships some day when this visionary monarch goes to Heaven, whether by his tower or, more likely, at the hands of a mob of insurrectionists. Belike ye heard rumblings of revolt whilst ye sojourned in the kingdom.

" 'Twas not long, howsomever, ere these ex-pirates proved not so ex after all. As Nehavend hath it, once a fruit goes rotten, neither piety nor prayer nor weeping nor wit shall restore its former ripeness. Slipping out of Kalwm Harbor, they began to seize the ships of Peihné and Suria and to raid coastal towns in those lands.

"Receiving complaints, the Phathvum, to maintain friendship with neighbors, seized the Yur and such of her crew as he could catch. Their heads presently adorned the spiked wall around the palace grounds. To raise more gold for his folly architectural, Vuzhov the Visionary insisted on offering the Yur for sale. Not being designed to turn a profit, she hath stood in her berth, unsought, unloved and un-wooed."

Captain Farrá bent a scowling visage on Mjipa. "Now, Terran, riddle me this. Ye departed the shore in utmost haste, fleeing not only King Vuzhov's soldiers but also a ging of rogues. Hath the government put the Yur back into service, with a crew scraped up anywhere, to settle accounts with you and yours? Or hath this band of knaves bought the ship and set out .after you?"

Mjipa shrugged. "I don't know yet. May I see your spyglass?"

Farrá handed over the instrument. Mjipa got the pursuing ship in his view and held it there. He could not distinguish individuals, but to judge by her bow wave the ship was making good speed.

"They're using oars," he said at last.

"Then 'tis certain it be ye they're after. The water's too rough for sweeps in any but an exigent cause."

"Can't we use oars, too?"

"Aye, and so we shall." The captain called to his first officer: "Sweeps out, Master Ghanum. Two men to each." He turned back. "But think not they'll not catch us long ere we sight Fossanderan and the Straits of Palindos, unless Bandur smites them with's thunderbolts. We have but six oars; they, twelve or fourteen. The Yur is no proper commercial craft, being wrought to Serve as a pirate, smuggler, rich man's yacht, or royal patrol vessel. She's shrewdly crafted to give her points of speed o'er honest merchantmen like this whereon ye stand. My glass again, pray."

After staring some more, Farrá said:"She gains hand over fist. She rides high in the water; they must have put to sea too hastily to ballast her." He shut the telescope with a snap. "I tell you, Terran, if this be Vuzhov's gilded popinjays, I'll not resist. 'Twould but get my ship seized or sunk and, belike, me and my bullies slain in the bargain."

"I paid you—" began Mjipa.

"Aye, but not to race clear to Majbur against a ship with twice the speed and twice the crew of ours. And whither they'll hale you, ye'd have no use for money. I'd ne'er have taken you and your folk had ye not sworn that once out of the harbor, that were the end of't."

"Suppose it's one of the kidnapping gangs instead of Vuzhov's men? Then if they boarded you, they'd probably kill everyone on general principles. So you might as well fight; they might pull back if they saw you determined to take a few with you."

"Aye, mayhap." The captain cast a glance at the lowering sky and the rising waves. Down in the waist, the twelve oarsmen were having a hard time with the oars. A wave would catch them in the midst of a back stroke and send them staggering. "Master Ghanum! In sweeps! And brail up the mainsail a trifle. I like not this blow."

Mjipa told Alicia of the development. "Oh, damn!" she said. "Every time we think we 're in the clear, something else happens. I've been working on Krishna for years, and I've never had so many menaces to cope with. Could we escape in the ship's boat?" She pointed to the dinghy atop the deckhouse.

"I doubt it. That cockleshell would barely hold the three of us."

"We needn't take Isayin. He's been nothing but a nuisance, first seasick, then complaining about the quarters."

"Even without him, a ship like the Yur could overhaul us in no time."

"Could you grab Captain Farrá and hold a knife to his throat, like you did with Khorosh?"

"What good would that do? Those blokes chasing us wouldn't give a damn if we killed the captain and his entire crew. It's us they're after."

The pursuing ship was now close enough so that Mjipa could appreciate her rakish lines. The water had roughened to the point where the Yur, too, had taken in her oars.

Mjipa went back to where the captain stood. "May I have your glass again, Captain?"

Through the tube, Mjipa could now make out figures on the deck. After a long look, he said: "They're nothing but naked Kalwmian sailors. Not a spangled loin cloth in the lot. So they must be one of the gangs of kidnappers. Couldn't you put the helm up and run for Malayer? It should be almost due west."

"Nay; they'd still sail rings around us. The Yur cannot bear enough honest cargo to pay costs; that's how they get such a turn of speed out of her."

Alicia came .and stood at the rail beside Mjipa. On the fantail Isayin, oblivious, continued to study his fish.

Time oozed past. The Yur was coming up on their starboard quarter. The captain said: "They'll blanket our sails and so retard us that we shall be easy prey."

"You could turn down-wind and gain some distance ..."

"Terran!" snapped the captain. "By the six teats of Varzai, yet be an interfering busybody, a tyro at seamanship, and a bringer of ill luck. Now shut your gob! I wot what my vessel can and cannot do!"

The bow of the Yur now drew abreast of the Tarvezid's stern. A Krishnan shouted through a speaking trumpet: "Heave to! In the name of my master, the mighty Heshvavu Khorosh, I command you to halt!"

"Oh, hell!" said Alicia. "It's Verar. He's the worst of the lot."

"What saith she?" asked the captain, since she had spoken English.

Mjipa explained: "There were two of these bands. One sought to seize Mistress Dyckman for King Ainkhist "s harem; the other wanted our heads. Those on the Yur are the latter."

Farrá grunted. "Cutthroats like that are wont to have a mort of sport with their victims ere dispatching them. I can rob them of that pleasure. If ye'll lend me your sword, and if ye twain will kneel down and bow your heads, I'll have them off in a twinkle, ready to give yonder carls when they come aboard. There'll be no pain, I promise. Just whisht! and 'twill be all over."

"Thanks," said Mjipa, grasping his hilt. "If my sword is drawn, it'll drink blood other than mine, I assure you."

The captain turned away. The wind had freshened still further, so that Mjipa and Alicia had to grip the rail to keep their footing on the tossing deck. Water foamed along the port edge of the deck. Mjipa saw the captain in vigorous argument with the first officer and the boatswain, but he could not hear what was said over the roar of the wind and the waves.

A cloud blacker than those before loomed up to starboard. A flash of lightning lit up the dark scene, and thunder mingled with the sounds of the angry sea. Both ships rolled until their people could barely move about their decks.

The captain concluded his argument, and several sailors emerged from the hold with armfuls of boarding pikes. One carried swords, which he passed out to the captain and his officers.

"At least," Mjipa shouted in Alicia's ear, "he seems to have decided to put up a fight. Go get Khostavorn's sword from the cabin."

"Why? You already have—"

"Not for me; for you! You might get a chance to let the stuffing out of one of those bad lots."

As Alicia staggered towards the deckhouse door, another cry came from the Yur: "Heave to, or we'll run you down!"

A sailor was inching up the slanting yard of the Tarvezid's mainsail. He untied the brails he had previously tied up and took them in his teeth, so that the sail resumed its full area. The sailor was halfway back down to the foredeck when another clap of thunder heralded a terrific gust, bringing a blinding sheet of rain.

"Hold on!" shouted Mjipa as the ship heeled further. He wondered if they were about to capsize. A glance aft showed that Doctor Isayin, holding his sheets of notepaper in his teeth, was also gripping the rail.

A loud cracking resounded over the tumult. With a snapping of stays, the mainmast broke off at deck level and fell away to port, taking the mainsail with it. That left the smaller mizzen standing; but the loss of sail, together with the drag of the mass of rigging in the water, brought the Tarvezid to a halt.

At almost the same instant, a chorus of screams from the Yur competed for the Terrans' attention. The Yur rolled over to port until her sails were in the water. She kept on rolling, slowly, until she showed her keel, like the back of some sea monster. All around the barnacled bottom, the heads of swimmers and pieces of debris bobbed in the merciless waves.

"Captain!" shouted Mjipa, pointing."Did you see that?"

Farrá exchanged a brief glance with Mjipa, gave a curt affirmative head motion, and turned stolidly to the repair of damage. A sailor threw a rope to the one who had been on the yard when the mast went over, and hauled the mariner back to the deck. Others climbed out along the broken mast in the water, to chop away the parrel holding the yard to the mast. Still others belayed ropes to the mainsail and its yard.

The squall blew itself out. The rain died away; Roqir broke through the clouds again. The wind dropped to its former level, although the sea still heaved and tossed the Tarvezid.

To starboard, the raft attached by light lines to the roof of the Yur's deckhouse had broken loose when the ship capsized. Now, one by one, the Yur's people climbed aboard this raft, which bobbed in the lee of the inverted hull.

For the next hour, the crew of the Tarvezid worked to get the fallen mainsail and yard back aboard. They cut the sail loose from the yard and folded it up. The yard they laid atop the deckhouse. Since it was as long as the whole ship, its end projected far out over the stern.

With the cutting of the last lines to the floating broken mast, the Tarvezid, urged on by the mizzen sail, began to move. Then came a yell from starboard: "Ahoy! Leave us not! Take us aboard!"

The mizzen yard was lowered, so that the Tarvezid again lay dead in the water. Captain Farrá, with a worried look, came to where Mjipa and Alicia, the latter now wearing Khostavorn's sword, stood by the rail. He said:

"Master Mjipa, here's a puzzle. These knaves be rogues of dye as deep as Dupulán's; that I'll allow. Yet 'twere clean against the code of the sea to leave them to perish amid the waste of waters. The mate and I have spoken on the matter and decided to put the choice to you. How say ye?"

Mjipa hesitated, then said: "I'd rescue them, but with precautions."

"Percy!" cried Alicia. "Are you out of your mind? Or are you having another of your idiotic attacks of chivalry?"

"I shouldn't feel right about leaving them," said Mjipa.

"I can kill them with a clear conscience when they attack me, but this—no."

"You 're stark, raving mad!" shrilled Alicia."The minute they get a chance, they'll cut off both our heads!"

"They shan't have a chance. I didn't say to take them aboard. Leave them on the raft, and we'll tow them. I'll also see to it that they have nothing to cut off heads with."

Captain Farrá accepted Mjipa's decision without demur. Through his speaking trumpet he bellowed to the Khaldonians to paddle, with their hands if need be, close enough to seize a line.

As the raft, bobbing on the swells, inched near to the Tarvezid's stern, Mjipa said: "Before we throw you a line, drop all your weapons into the sea. I said all—swords, knives, everything."

Three of the dozen raft riders wore swords; the others had knives or dirks. They expostulated:"How shall we cut up our meat?"

"How shall we defend ourselves?"

"Mean ye to slay us once we're disarmed?"

Mjipa waited silently until, at last, the weapons were dropped over the side of the raft. Then Mjipa threw the rope, which a Khaldonian secured to the raft. The Tarvezid's mizzen yard was hoisted again, and the ship got under way. Between the reduction in her sail area and the drag of the raft, she moved sluggishly. Mjipa said:

"Captain, if I may be an interfering busybody again, I suggest you post a couple of sailors with pikes aft to watch the raft. If it got close enough, they might try to climb aboard and rush us."

"Ohé! For a Terran and a landlubber," said the captain, "ye be not altogether wanting in sense." Soon the sailors were posted as Mjipa had proposed.

When Mjipa went to the cabin, he found Isayin bemoaning the ruin by the rain of his notes on the fish, and Alicia spoiling for a fight. She shouted:

"My God, don't you ever learn? Even a flatworm can learn; but once you get one of your silly notions of honor, you'll die before you change it, and probably take me with you. Anybody who knows psychology can see that Verar's a fanatic about obeying his king's commands. He'll get you yet or die trying.

"Those bastards were all born to be hanged anyway. So what's the harm in advancing the date a bit? What would they do to you if they had you? For a grown man, you have the craziest lot of small-boy attitudes ..."

After several minutes of this tirade, Mjipa snarled: "Oh, shut up, you bloodthirsty bitch!" He left the cabin and spent the rest of the day morosely leaning on the rail, watching the waves and the Khaldonians on the raft and enjoying the ruby, golden, and emerald glory of the Krishnan sunset.

As Roqir neared the horizon, the consul stood by the two sailors on watch on the fantail. The twelve rescuees, huddled miserably on their tossing raft astern, stared sullenly up at him. He called:

"O Master Verar!"

"Aye?" said one of the twelve. "What wouldst?"

"I want news.

"Why should I give you any, ye insolent princox?"

"Because if you don't, I shall cut this rope." Mjipa placed the edge of his dirk against the tow rope where it was looped around the rail. At once the other Khaldonians set up an outcry, urging their leader not to send them to certain death.

"Very well, ask your questions," grumbled Verar.

"Who are the men with you?"

"This one and this one and this one are all that be left of those who came from Mejvorosh with me. The others are local lads, mostly former pirates of the Sunqar, who escaped the Phathvum's purge. We had an equal number more, but they perished when the ship overset."

"Where's the rest of your gang?"

"Some dead in the fighting in the tower; some too sorely hurt to travel; some captured by Vuzhov's gendarmes. 'Twas a cruel, merciless scathe ye dealt my poor men, the sort of thing to be expected of a vile alien."

"Where are Kuimaj and his Mutabwcians?" asked Mjipa.

"Most dead or in Vuzhov's prisons, I ween. One, now drowned, shifted allegiance from Kuimaj to me. For the rest, I know not. We saw them not when we bought the ship and fitted her for this voyage."

"How came you by the ship?"

"I know a dealer in goods got by not altogether honest means, clept Stipvuv, in Kalwm City. He advanced the money for the ship and bought it from the government in's own name, trusting my mighty master to repay him with a profit. We swinked day and night to fit her for sea and cast off but little more man a day after ye did."

"You forgot ballast, which is why you capsized."

"Aye, even as ye forgot to bar the door in the tower against our entry."

"There was no bar. Why didn't the Kalwmian government send a ship after us?"

"I know not for certain. But Stipvuv avouched that the Phathvum persuaded the Heshvavu that, with ye Terrans and the heretic gone from the kingdom, ye were as good as dead to Kalwm, and 'twere folly to squander gold in vain pursuit. When may we have food and water?"

"Ask the captain." Mjipa walked away to lean on the rail and puff smoke into the easterly wind. The Khaldonians at last persuaded the captain to have a loaf and a jar of water lowered to them on cords. Mjipa asked:

"Captain Farrá, what's your plan now? Do you expect to sail to Majbur with this rig?"

"Nay; 'twould take a fiftnight or more, wherefor we 're not provisioned. It will be quicker to anchor off Fossanderan, cut a tree, and make a new mast. Methought I saw a crack in the old stick, but my astrologer assured me 'twould hold for one more voyage. At least, Bandur answered my prayer to cripple the Yur.

"I'll not, howsomever, tow those villains beyond the island. If we struck a calm, they'd eat up our reserve of aliment ere we raised our home port."

"You don't fear the tailed men of Fossanderan? They're very primitive."

"Methought they'd been pacified by some Terran."

"Yes; I was that Terran. After slavers had raided them, they took to killing and eating any strangers who landed. The problem is to get them to distinguish between slavers and honest traders."

"Slavers are honest traders!" said the captain. "To say otherwise were brutish prejudice. At least, they're as honest as other merchants, provided they pass not a sickly slave off on you as hale."

Mjipa turned away. The idea that slavery was wrong had not yet achieved much currency on Krishna. It was merely a speculation by a few of the more radical philosophers, whom few Krishnans had heard of and fewer still took seriously. Although as vigorously opposed to slavery as any Terran, Mjipa did not consider it expedient to press his views upon the Krishnans. He found enough risk and hardship in the ordinary discharge of his consular duties without arousing more antagonism than he had to.

When Mjipa went to the cabin, he found Alicia and Isayin already in their bunks. He stretched out on his own—or rather tried to, because it was centimeters shorter than he. Then he heard a sniffle from Alicia's bunk. After a while a small voice said: "Percy?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry I was beastly again. I don't know why I do those things. You 're a better person than I am. You make me look like an amoral opportunist."

"Oh, forget it!"

"I can't. I—I'd like to make it up to you—if you wanted me ..."

"With the professor in the next bunk? Who's crazy now? Anyway, we shall soon be home. So go to sleep!"

The wooded hills of Fossanderan at last inched up above the horizon. The shores of the Banjao Sea narrowed down to the Straits of Palindos, in the middle of which rose the island. Of the two channels between the island and the mainland, the eastern was normally used by ships. The western was too shallow, save at certain conjunctions of the moons, for anything larger than a dinghy. Beyond the straits, the Sadabao Sea opened out.

"Methinks there's a beach off to eastward," said Captain Farrá, "where we can safely anchor."

Hours passed, and the Tarvezid hove to in a bay, embraced by a broad crescent of beach. The anchor was dropped, and the sailors climbed down a rope ladder into the breast-deep water to wade ashore.

On the fantail, Mjipa untied the rope that held the raft to the stern. He called down: "You can paddle ashore."

"But what then?" asked Verar. "Won't ye tow us to Majbur?"

"Not on your life! You're on your own. You can easily reach the mainland, east to Ziada or west to Rakh, which belongs to the Republic of Suruskand."

"But we shall starve!"

"That's your problem. You might beg Captain Farrá for a couple of fishlines."

"Takh! Ye be a cruel, unfeeling monster!" yelled one of the Khaldonians, dancing up and down and shaking a fist.

"After you rascals wanted to cut off my head? Ha!"

"That was merely obeying orders," said Verar. "We're not to blame, that our lawful sovran be filled with unforgiving rancor. 'Tis our sacred duty to serve him unto death."

"Well, perform your sacred duties elsewhere." Mjipa went forward to see how the repair work was going.

The ship's carpenter, now the most important person aboard after the captain, went ashore in the dinghy with a box of tools. Mjipa could see him in the distance, prowling the beach with a pair of sailors carrying axes, as he examined trees near the beach.

The Khaldonians paddled their raft with their hands to the western end of the beach. They pulled the raft up on shore and disappeared into the trees.

At Mjipa's elbow, Alicia said: "I don't like to see those guys on the loose. I'm sure they'd do us more mischief if they could."

"You're probably right," said Mjipa. "So it's up to us to see they don't get a chance. When we go ashore, you'd better wear one of the spare swords."

"Then you'd better give me lessons in how to use it. I never set out to be Alicia the sword-maiden."

"All right, here's mine. Take the first guard position, like this ..."

Next day, Mjipa told Alicia: "I must admit that these coves know their business. Look at that mast, taking shape before our eyes!" He pointed shoreward, where the trunk of the felled tree, laid out on trestles, had been quickly stripped of branches and bark and was being planed down to size.

Doctor Isayin asked: "Mister Mjipa, could you accompany me to shore? I would fain make a study of local plants."

"Why can't you go yourself?"

"I—I am fearful of the tailed men and other creatures that lurk in the woods. You are far stronger than I, so with you and your trusty blade I should feel safe."

"Let's all go ashore and eat a picnic lunch!" said Alicia. "It'd be fun to get off this ooky tub for a change."

Mjipa at first demurred. But Alicia kept at him, begging prettily. Eventually Mjipa allowed himself, against his better judgment, to be persuaded. He, too, was tired of the Tarvezid's rocking deck and frowsty smells, and Alicia's proposal allured him.

"All right," he said. "Lish, get a sword. I'll borrow another pike for you, Doctor."

They went in the dinghy. When they had climbed out and waded ashore, Mjipa could have shouted with pleasure at feeling solid, unmoving ground beneath his feet.

"Don't get in the sailors' way," he said, as they walked past the Krishnans working on the mast. Mjipa still used the pike as a stick, for his leg was not yet altogether healed. They found a grassy hump in the forested strip above the beach, climbed the bank, and sat down to open their lunch basket. While Mjipa and Alicia ate, Isayin prowled, picking twigs and herbs and making notes. He said:

"Nay, I like not dining so early. Why could you not have waited till a civilized hour?"

Below, work on the mast continued. Eventually a whistle blew. The Krishnans stopped work and betook themselves to their own midday meal, which among Majburuma was eaten earlier than in the Khaldoni nations.

Suddenly a disturbance broke out. Four Khaldonians rushed out of the woods to where the sailors ate. As they ran, they snatched up anything edible as they passed.

Yells of anger arose from the sailors, who scrambled to their feet. Some searched for sticks, stones, or anything else to attack the raiders with. Others ran after them with knives. A few had been posted with pikes, against a possible attack by the tailed Krishnans. Some of these pursued the Khaldonians; one hurled his pike but missed.

"By Jove, look at that!" said Mjipa. "They'll—"

At that instant, a heavy blow descended on Percy Mjipa's head. The world spun before him; his eyes were filled with shooting stars; and he fell to his knees. Hearing a shriek from Alicia, he knew in a vague way that she, too, was being borne off, and that Isayin had fled. Mjipa tried to shout, but so muddled were his wits by the blow that nothing came out but a croak.

When full consciousness returned, Mjipa was sitting on the ground in a small natural clearing, deep in the forest of Fossanderan. His wrists were bound behind him, and his ankles were tied by a length of rope. He thought he recognized the rope by which the Tarvezid had towed the raft, and which he had carelessly tossed to the raft when he untied their craft from the ship.

Looking around, despite the shooting pains that the movement caused him, he saw that Alicia sat beside him likewise bound, with a tear streaking a runnel through the dirt on her face. Around the clearing stood or sat the Khaldonians, hungrily gnawing the scraps of food that the raiders had snatched. Several had rude clubs made of broken tree branches. Mjipa surmised that a blow from one of these had felled him.

"Well!" said Verar, standing before Mjipa with Mjipa's purple baldric crossing his naked torso. "So the mighty, all-wise Terran proves not invincible after all! He comes ashore with's cronies, bristling with arms. Yet so simple is he that a slight diversion, furnished by our raid on the sailors' provender, so distracts his attention that any ninny can steal up and rap his pate!"

"What do you want?" growled Mjipa.

"Why, the same thing as before, namely and to wit: that which your neck conjoins to your trunk—at least at the moment—to bear back to my mighty lord, along with your leman's noggin."

"She's not my leman. What earthly good would our heads do your Heshvavu, save to bring upon him endless trouble with Novorecife?"

"Ye understand not, having no proper sense of honor. The slight ye put upon my master is such that 'twere a defilement did he let you live. Were we to return to Mejvorosh without these trophies, our own heads might answer for't; whereas, an we fetch these mementoes home, we shall be rich for life.

"Understand, Terran, I have nought against you personally; but the commands of one's natural lord must be obeyed. And your deaths were but a just requital for the cruel wounds and deaths ye dealt us in Vuzhov's Tower."

Verar drew Mjipa's sword and thumbed the edge. " 'Twas generous of you to furnish us with the means of achieving this honorable end. Would we had had such a blade when we cut the rope into lengths; sawing with a sharp stone is tedious work. Now bow your head, that the deed shall be accomplished without needless pain."

"There must be something Khorosh wants more than my head!" cried Mjipa. "Let's discuss the matter in civilized fashion ..."

"Nay, we Zhamanacians know better than to let you Terran knaves entrap us in your webs of lies and subtle equivocations. Will ye bow your head, or must I have my men hold you in suitable posture?"

"I—" persisted Mjipa. But then came an interruption. Out of the woods erupted a horde of tailed Krishnans, naked and hairy and carrying stone-bladed axes and spears, together with a few metal weapons. With yells of surprise and alarm, the Khaldonians snatched up their clubs and backed into a clump.

The leader of the tailed Krishnans had fitted over his head an artificial head resembling that of a huge Terran baboon. He pointed to Mjipa and shouted something in a language full of grunts and clicks.

Verar had joined his men. Another Khaldonian held the sword that Alicia had been wearing; two others bore the pikes that Mjipa and Isayin had carried.

Mjipa was astonished to hear the same language of grunts and clicks coming from Alicia. The leader stepped forward and took off his artificial head. Holding it under one arm, he addressed Alicia, who replied.

After several exchanges, the tailed man turned and shouted to his followers. Instantly they rushed upon the twelve Khaldonians. Mjipa glimpsed a sword waving in the air for an instant; then it vanished. The Khaldonians disappeared beneath a mass of hairy bodies. Presently one dead Khaldonian, with blue-green blood pouring from jagged wounds inflicted by stone weapons, was dragged out of the mass by his-ankles; then another, and soon until all twelve, including Verar, had been dragged away.

Carrying one of the swords, the leader came to Alicia and spoke. She replied and bent her head forward. For a horrible moment, Mjipa thought the Fossanderaner was going to give her the treatment Verar had promised. But the tailed one wanted only to saw the rope that bound her wrists. When it parted, he severed the rope on her ankles and then Mjipa's. There was more talk in the tongue of the tailed men. The chief put his artificial head back on and stalked away after his men. They took the Terrans' swords and spears with them. Mjipa dismissed the thought of demanding these weapons back. He probably would not get them, and anyway they were a cheap enough price for their lives.

He let out a long breath. "I'm not due for retirement for another hundred years, but sometimes I wonder if it's worth it ... Tell me what happened, Lish."

"They suspected Verar's gang of being slavers. On the other hand, they recognized you as the Terran who tried to pacify them in return for stopping the slavers. They think well of you because of your square dealing with them. Didn't you learn any of their language?"

"No; I didn't have time. I took a tame tailed man from Koloft as interpreter. How did you learn it?"

"By a book and a set of tapes, as usual."

"But what happened?"

"I explained that you had come to investigate rumors of slaving raids, and that Verar's gang were slavers about to kill us to prevent exposure. I said they were welcome to take the Khaldonians away and barbecue them."

Mjipa made a face. "I have a strong prejudice against cannibalism; but I suppose Verar's gang might as well serve some practical use." He got up and extended a hand to help Alicia, but she bounced to her feet without assistance.

They set out along the trail that ran parallel to the sea, which they could glimpse through the trees. Finding himself limping badly, Mjipa cut himself a walking stick from a branch with his dirk, of which he had not been deprived. In the distance he heard the boom of log drums, heralding the feast that the tailed men would soon enjoy.

"I told you not to rescue those guys when they were helpless on the raft," said Alicia. "They 're just as dead now as they would be if you'd left them at sea. All your magnanimous gesture got us was another hairbreadth escape, by dumb luck. And why didn't you—"

"Lish!" said Mjipa in a tone so stern that for once she paused in her catalogue of criticisms. "Let's not start the game of if-you-had-only-done-this, and that-was-your-fault-not-mine. We've both made enough mistakes to go round; you're the one who insisted on the picnic, for instance. But you made up for it by knowing the caudates' language. Still—" He held up a hand as she seemed about to burst into angry speech. "I'm older than you, and I can tell you one thing. Anyone who has never had occasion to say to himself, 'How could I have been such an idiot?' just hasn't lived. If you'll keep mum about my shortcomings and blunders, I'll do likewise for you. Agreed?"

She gave him a sour little look. "Okay; agreed."

Back at the beach, Mjipa learned that Isayin had returned to the ship. He and Alicia went aboard and found the scholar in his bunk.

"Ah me!" moaned Isayin. "I am unstrung by all this excitement! I need rest and security. Master Mjipa, why didst let those varlets steal upon us undetected? 'Twas stupid of you."

"No more than you," growled Mjipa. "You could have watched our rear as well as I. Why didn't Captain Farrá arm some of his men and send them to find us?"

"Because he holds you to be bringers of bad luck. Caring nought for Terrans, he'd have been happy to see the last of you."

"And why did you run, leaving your weapon, without the least effort to defend us?"

"I am no vulgar swashbuckler, but an intellectual. 'Tis not my part to engage in such affrays, whereas you are hardened to them. As the philosopher Kurde points out—"

Mjipa clenched his fists. "The gods of Krishna give me strength!" he roared. "And to think I risked my hide to save you from Vuzhov's justice! If I could, I'd send you back to Kalwm."

He slammed out of the cabin. When Alicia, who had followed the exchange, gave him a smirk, he said: "And if you say, T told you so!', you'll get an impromptu bath in the Banjao Sea!"

"Percy darling! We just agreed not to say such things, remember?"

"So we did. Agreed?"

"Agreed."