The Search for Zei

CHAPTER XV

The queen was wild. "Cowards!" she screamed. "I should let slay the whole mangy pack of you—and you detestable strangers, too!" she added, indicating Barnvelt and Tangaloa, the latter of whom was having his arm bandaged. "For what's a monarchy without a monarch, save a worthless rabble, and what's a monarch whose subjects will not spend their blood to save her? Caitiff knaves, all my subjects! Burn the lot! Why should they live when my chick's gone?"

"Now, now," said Qvansel the astrologer. "Your Altitude, what had happened was writ upon the firmament and not to be avoided. The opposition of Sheb to Roqir did presage…"

"Shut your mouth! Enough time for star-gazing foolery when my girl's recovered. You, madam!" Queen Alvandi shot a thick forefinger at her spinsterly minister. "How account you for this arrant botchery?"

"Madam, may I speak without fear?"

"Say on," said the queen, though her angry-lioness expression did not invite candor.

"Then hear me, Awesomeness. What happened was predestined, though not for the reason given by our star-staring friend. For five reigns now has the right to bear arms in this land been limited to our own sex. Hence have your subjects male become unused to the shock of combat, while your armed females, though valiant enough, lack the size and stoutness to endure the onslaught of these rampant depredators."

The queen glowered. " 'Tis well you extracted from me a promise of immunity, or, by the six breasts of Varzai, I would tear the flesh from your aged bones myself for your treasonous talk! But let's consider what is to be done. And no counsel of overturning the basis of our state, either! I'll see Ghulinde razed to the ground and the heads of its people piled in pyramids 'ere I'll- put out the beacon light our state does shed upon this sorry world by the exaltation of the better sex to its proper seat. How about an expedition to rescue her?"

"Could be," said the minister, "save that the Sunqaruma no doubt entertain some plan of holding Zei for hostageship or ransom, and would slay her should you press attack upon them."

The high priestess, Sehri, muttered something about expense, and the chief of the Amazon guards protested: "Though we yield to no mere males in intrepidity, Your Altitude, yet the Sunqar is a fearsome place to overcome, as it can neither be walked over nor sailed through. Methinks that the occasion cries more for guile than brute puissance."

"Guile?" said the queen, looking from face to face. "As, let us say, to slip a small group into this steamy stronghold on some fair-seeming pretext, and then away to snatch my daughter?" Her small glittering eyes came to rest on Barnevelt. "You, sir, come hither claiming you'll seek the gvam stone in the Banjao Sea to inflame the lust of lechers. You buy a suitable ship, amass gvam-hunting gear, and hire men—and also, my spies report, procure one used expressman's uniform. Now wherefore this last? Could it be that you twain also entertain some plot the Sunqar in disguise to enter?"

No flies on Alvandi, thought Barnevelt, giving the queen a noncommittal smile. "One never knows when such a thing will come in handy, Your Altitude."

"Humph! I take your evasion for assent. So, since you wish it, you shall do it. You are hereby commissioned to rescue the princess from the clutch of these misdemeanants."

"Hey!" cried Barnevelt. "I never volunteered for anything like that!"

"Who said you did? 'Tis my command and your obedience. You leave on the morrow."

"But I couldn't even think of going without Ge—my friend Tagde, and he won't be ready till his arm heals!"

"Such delay might well be fatal. I'll lend you Zakkomir in his stead."

"I shall be glad to go," said Zakkomir. " 'Twould be an honor to serve under the great Snyol."

Barnevelt scowled at the young Krishnan, then addressed the queen again: "Look here, madam, I'm not a citizen of Qirib. What's to stop me from going about my own business as soon as I'm out of your country?"

"The facts that, first, Snyol of Pleshch is known as one who keeps his plighted word, and second, that your companion remains with me as hostage, your acquiescence to assure. Guards! Seize these twain, and fetch the executioner with his instruments of torment."

A couple of Amazons seized Dirk's arms. He struggled, but they were strong, and before he overcame his Earthly inhibitions against kicking a lady in the abdomen, more fastened onto him until he could not move at all. Others seized Tangaloa, who did not even try to resist.

Presently the man with the bag over his head appeared with a brazier full of hot coals, in which the business ends of an assortment of pincers and other instruments of interesting design were heating.

"Now," said Queen Alvandi, "do you submit, or must I stage a painful demonstration of my will?"

"Oh, I'll go," grumbled Barnevelt. "But if you want me to accomplish anything, tell me about the Sunqar. There's some connection between it and the janru trade and Qirib, isn't there? You knew one of the men I was fighting with."

"He's right, exalted guardian," said Zakkomir. "This foray will prove perilous enough without sending this mighty man against his foes half-blind by ignorance."

"Very well," said the queen. "Release them, guards, but watch them close. Sit, my friends.

"Know that the janru is but an extract made from that same sea vine of which the Sunqar is composed. And since the founding of the matriarchal monarchy, because that nature had unequitably made my, sex the smaller, we have redressed the balance by the use of perfume mingled with this volatile essence called janru. 'Tis not broadcast among the general, but any wench whose man develops fractiousness can draw a ration of it from the temple of the Mother Goddess, her churlish spouse to tame.

"The foundress of the dynasty, great Dejanai, did organize a party to invade the Sunqar, then a watery and weedy desert, to erect a floating factory the stuff to make. All went as planned, save that our women caring not for heat and damp and stench, the work came more and more to be performed by convicts exiled to this lonesome spot to expiate their crimes. In time the men outnumbered women two to one, whereat some base subversive rebel stirred the silly males to rise by tempting them with tales of male superiority among the savage nations. So rise they did and seized the factory, the women there degrading to the state of common queans. (The worst of't was, that many of 'em seemed to like it.) Our navy they repelled, and from us did extort a tribute in return for a meager tricle of janru. We tried by gathering terpahla that grows on rocks along our coasts, to free ourselves from their rapacity—but only in the Sunqar does the vine occur in quantities sufficient.

"Since then the Sunqar has continued to defy us. Not only does it squeeze us juiceless for this wondrous substance, but serves as sanctuary for our malcontented males. Hence has its population grown and divaricated into other lines of enterprise: for ensample, gvam hunting and plain piracy. In the days of my immediate predecessor did a chief named 'Avasp make a deal with Dur, whereby Dur did pay him tribute on his agreement to withhold his hand from Duro ships, butvon all others in the Banjao Sea most balefully to prey. Thus does Dur reach out for a monopoly, not only in its own Va'andao Sea, but in the other waters of this hemisphere as well.

"All sorts of curious characters have assembled in this fearsome fastness. Not only discontented Qiribuma, but also tailed men from Za and the Koloft Swamp, and even Earth-men and other creatures from the deeps of space. When 'Avasp died, the new chief chosen in his room was one of these— a scaly, odious horror from a planet called Osiris: a towering monstrosity named Sheafase who, 'tis said, maintains a rule of iron by a dreadful power of fascination. And this Sheafase had far and wide outspread the tentacles of his, enterprise, until he does amass the wealth of Dakhaq by the drug to Earthmen selling…"

Despite the. queen's harrying, they did not sail the next day, nor yet the day after that.

For one thing, half the crew disappeared when they learned the real object of the expedition, so that new men had to be signed on and broken in. One of these, a bright young fellow named Zanzir, followed Barnevelt around asking questions. Barnevelt, flattered, gave the youth a good deal of his time until Tangaloa warned him against favoritism. Thereafter Barnevelt tried to treat the others with equal cordiality.

He also hired a new boatswain, Chask: a thickset, gnarly, snag-toothed man with his green hair faded to pale jade. Chask took hold of the crew and soon welded them into an effective rowing and sailing unit. All went well until one day while Barnevelt was in the cabin and the men were practicing evolutions on deck, he heard the sound of a scuffle. He went out to find Chask nursing a knuckle on the catwalk and Zanzir a bloody nose in the scuppers.

"Come here," he said to Chask. When the latter was in the cabin he gave him a dressing down: "… and my crew are to be treated like human beings, see? There shall be no brutality on my ship."

"But Captain, this young fellow disputes my commands, saying he knows better than I how to do what I've spent my life…"

"Zanzir's an intelligent boy. He's to be encouraged rather than suppressed. You're not afraid hell take your job away, are you?"

"But sir, with all respect, ye cannot run a ship like a social club, with all entitled to a voice in deciding each maneuver.

And if those in command let common sailors think they're as good as them, and entitled every order to discuss, then when comes the pinch…"

Despite inner qualms, Barnevelt felt he must show a firm front. "You have your order, Chask. We're running this ship my way."

Chask went out muttering. Thereafter the sailors seemed happier but also less efficient.