The Search for Zei

CHAPTER XVI

When the Shambor finally put forth from the harbor of Damovang with Barnevelt and Zakkomir aboard—and Tanga-loa, surrounded by Amazons, waving his good arm from the pier—Barnevelt had accumulated several items of special equipment which, he hoped, would somewhat ease his task. There were smoke bombs made by a local manufacturer of pyrotechnics from yasuvar-spores, and a light sword with a hinge in the middle of the blade so that it could be folded and slipped down inside one of the expressman's boots. As a weapon it was inferior to a regular rapier, the hinge constituting a weak spot and the hilt lacking a proper guard. Barnevelt, however, doubted that the pirates would admit him to their inner circle fully armed.

He also bore a chest of gold and gewgaws, as a present from Queen Alvandi to Sheafase, and a letter asking for terms for Zei's release. A Krishnan quadrant, simple but rugged and fairly accurate, would give him his latitudes.

Zakkomir, similarly clad and looking quite different without his face paint, waved a similar sticker, saying: "My lord Snyol, will you teach me to wield a sword in practiced style? For under our laws have I never had a chance for such instruction. 'Twas simple happenstance I wasn't spitted during the raid. Ever have I nursed a perverse wish to be a woman—that is, not like the women of your land, or the men of mine, but a woman of mine, and to swear and swagger with rough muliebrity. Would I'd been hatched in your land, where custom to the male such part assigns!"

At least, thought Barnevelt, the kid's willing to learn.

The first leg of the trip was easy, for they ran free before the prevailing westerly along the coast of the Qiribo peninsula, where dark stunted trees overhung rocky promontories on which the spray broke. Zakkomir had a couple of days of seasickness, then snapped out of it. They stopped at Hojur to top off supplies.

Barnevelt studied his navigational guide and familiarized himself with the workings of the Shambor. Not far in the future all three moons would be in conjunction at full, which meant a real high tide—something that occurred only once in several Krishnan years.

In hull and rudder, the ship compared well with the yachts he'd sailed on Earth. The sail, though, was something else: a lateen sail of the high-peaked asymmetrical type used in these waters, in contrast to the symmetrical lateen sail of Maj-bur and the lug and square sails of the more boistrous northern seas. He learned that a lateen sail, however pretty, had but weak powers of working to windward. In fact, it combined many of the disadvantages of a square sail and a fore-and-aft sail with few of the advantages of either.

Chask explained; "Captain, there be six ways of tacking with a lateen sail, all impractical. Now, had we one of them Majburo rigs, with the two short sides equal, we could pay out the tack and haul in the vang, so that the low corner rises and the high one falls, meanwhile wearing ship. But with this rig must ye either lower sail altogether and re-rig on't'other side of the mast, or put half the men on the tack and haul aft to up-end the yard and twist it round the mast. Still, in the region of variables and calms whither we're bound, that high peak'll prove its worth in catching light airs."

At last they reached the end of the peninsula, where the Zogha sloped down to the sea like the spinal scutes of some stegosaurine monster. They turned to starboard and headed south with the wind abeam. Barnevelt gave his men only an occasional turn at the oars, enough to keep them hardened but not enough to tire them. He'd need their strength later. The water was too rough for effective rowing anyway.

Then the emerald waters turned to slate, the wind fell, and they spent a day rowing in a fog through which a warm drizzle fell unceasingly. They spread a canvas tank to catch the rain for drinking water.

Barnevelt was standing in the eyes of the ship, peering into the mist, when the Shambor lurched suddenly as if she had struck bottom. Yells rose from the men aft.

On the port side of the ship, in the water, an elongated body was moving away. Covered with flint-gray leather, it might have been part of the barrel of a finback whale or a sea serpent. As it slipped through the water, the particular coil or loop that was arched up next to the ship sank down out of sight.

A scream jerked Barnevelt's attention to the stern. There in mid-air, its means of support hidden by the fog, appeared a crocodilian head with jaws big enough to down a man at a gulp. The head tilted to one side and swooped down onto the deck, a colossal neck coming into view behind it. Clomp! went the jaws, and a screaming sailor was borne back into the mist.

Barnevelt, caught by surprise, did not spring into action until the victim was on his way into the sea. Then he caught up a spare oar and ran to the stern, but too late. The shrieks of the victim were cut off as the dreadful head disappeared beneath the water.

"Row!" yelled Chask, and the oarsmen dug in their blades.

Barnevelt unhappily gave orders to mount a deck watch with pikes in case of another such attack. He went back to the bow for a while, then started back for the deckhouse.

He was just opening the door when a shuffle of feet and a clearing of throats behind him made him look around. There were Zanzir and three other sailors.

Zanzir spoke up: "Captain Snyol, the boys and I have taken thought and concluded that 'twere best for all if ye now do turn back homeward."

"What?" cried Barnevelt, not sure he had heard right.

"Aye, so we've decided. Is it not so, bullies?" The other three made the affirmative head motion. "Some of us feel poorly in this drizzle. Others have families at home. To press on through this ominous fog into a realm of uncharted rocks and bloodthirsty men…"

"And unknown deadly monsters, forget not," reminded one of the others.

"And unknown deadly monsters, like that which but now did snatch our comrade, were cruelty compounded. So we know that, being a good friend of ours…"

"Who admits we're as good as he," reminded the same prompter.

"Who admits we're as good as he, that ye'll heed our rede and return us to our happy homes. Is't not true, bullies?" And all three indicated "yes."

"I'll be damned," said Barnevelt. "No, I will not turn back. You were warned at the start about our dangers, and now you shall see them through."

"But Cap old fellow," said Zanzir, laying a hand on Barne-velt's arm. "Between friends should there not be mutual trust and consideration? We've voted on it, and you're overborne by four to one . . ."

"Get back to your work!" said Barnevelt sharply, shaking off Zanzir's hand. "I'm boss, and by Qondyor's rump I'll— I'll…"

"Ye mean ye won't?" said Zanzir with an air of pained astonishment. "Not even to please your friends?"

"Get out! Hey, Chask! Put these men to work and discipline the next one who talks of quitting."

The men went aft, glowering back at Barnevelt who, upset and angry, flung into the deckhouse to work out a dead-reckoning plot. So that was what happened when you made pals of your men! All very fine while the going was good, but the minute the going got tough they were like a rope of sand. He'd heard it before, of course, but hadn't believed it, supposing that theory to be mere self-justification by aristocrats and tyrants. Now they'd be sore—and not altogether without cause—for he'd led them to think they could have their way and then rudely disillusioned them.

"I like this not," said Zakkomir, peering palely out~ the cabin windows into the mist. "Varzai knows on which side of Palindos Strait we'll make landfall, if indeed we run not upon the rocks. Would there were some means of closely fixing one's position east and west."

Barnevelt looked up from the plot he was comparing with his chart, and almost said something about marine chronometers and radio signals before he remembered where he was. Instead he said: "We're not due to reach the south shore of the Sadabao Sea for some hours yet. I'll slow down to take soundings before we get into dangerous waters."

"Let's hope you do, sir. We'd cut poor figures, setting forth with such brave impetus to save our damsel from disaster dire, only to find our immediate end in the maw of some monster maritime."

"Are you in love with Zei?" Barnevelt asked with elaborate casualness, though his heart pounded as he said it.

Zakkomir forced a smile. "Nay, not I! From long acquaintance I regard her as a sister and will lavish on the chick all brotherly affection. But love as between man and woman? To be the consort of a queen were difficult enough. To be that of one who's required by our customs to send her mate to death at end of year were quite impossible. The little Lady Mula'i, whom you've met at the palace, is my intended, if I can induce her to propose."

Barnevelt experienced a certain relief at this reply, though he knew it was silly since he did not intend to marry Zei. As he pondered his charts, he became aware of a clicking sound, which he finally identified as the chattering of Zakkomir's teeth.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

"Nay, only f-frightened. I sought to hide my mannish weakness from you."

Barnevelt slapped him on the back. "Cheer up—we're all frightened at times."

"Why, have even you, the great and fearless General Snyol, knowjnt fear?"

"Sure! Don't you suppose I was scared when I fought those six fellows from Olnega single-handed? Pull yourself together!"

Zakkomir pulled himself together, almost with an audible click, and Barnevelt continued his computations. When his dead-reckoning showed they were getting close either to Palindos Strait or to the shores adjacent to it, Barnevelt gave orders to take soundings. The first attempt touched bottom at fourteen meters. Thereafter they went slowly until the water shoaled to five meters and they thought they could hear the sound of a small surf ahead. There they anchored until a brisk north wind sprang up and blew the fog away in tatters.

"Said I not you were infallible?" cried Zakkomir, his courage regained.

Palindos Strait appeared in plain sight to the South and East of them. The strait was divided by the island of Fos-sanderan, the eastern or farther channel being the one used for navigation. The western channel was much smaller, and a note on Barnevelt's chart stated that its minimum depth was about two meters—too shallow for the Shambor unless tidal conditions were just right.

Zakkomir added: "What perplexes me is how you, a man from Nyamadze where no large bodies of water exist, should add such adroit seamanship to your many other accomplishments."

Barnevelt ignored this comment as they ran through the eastern channel, off the wind, at a good clip.

Pointing to Fossanderan, Zakkomir said: " 'Tis said that on that isle it was the hero Qarar mated with a she-yeki, and from their union came a race of beast-men with human limbs and animal heads. 'Tis yet reported that there these monsters still hold riotous revels at certain astrological conjunctions, with din of drums and clash of cymbal making the long night hideous."

Barnevlt remembered the yeki he had seen in the zoo in Majbur: a carnivore about the size of an Earthly tiger but looking more like an oversized six-legged mink. "Why doesn't somebody land and find out?" he asked.

"Know you, sir. the thought never occured to me? When this present task be over, who knows what we'll next essay? For under your inspiring leadership I feel brave enough to mate with a she-yeki myself."

"Well, if you think I'm going to hold a she-yeki while you experiment, you can think again."

The air grew warmer and more humid as they entered the belt between that of the prevailing westerlies and that of the northeast trades. Calms made them rely on oars alone for days at a time, and Barnevelt checked his supplies of food and water and worried.

Krishnan flying-fish, which really flew with flaps of jointed wings, and did not merely glide like those of Earth, soared past the ship. Once Barnevelt sighted his nominal prey, a gvam, plowing whalishly after a school of lesser sea creatures and darting its barb-pointed tentacles at them to spear them and convey them to its maw.

Barnevelt said: "After one of those, the Sunqaruma don't seem at all terrible."

Floating patches of terpahla appeared more frequently, and then at last the jagged line of a fleet of derelicts on the horizon. As they came nearer, the vine grew thicker until they had to zigzag through it. Somewhere in the haze ahead lay the stronghold 6% the Sunqar pirates. Probably Zei was there, and possibly also Igor Shtain.

Presumably the Morya Sunqaruma got in and out of their lair by an open channel. Although none of his informants had known where this channel was, it seemed to Barnevelt that he could probably find it by simply coasting along the edge of this floating continent.

Hence, when they reached their first derelict (a primitive seagoing raft with a tattered sail flapping feebly in the faint breeze) they turned the Shambor to starboard and inched along to westward. To port the vine grew almost solid, brown slimy stuff supported by clusters of little purple gas-bladders that looked like grapes.

Looking over the side, Barnevelt saw a flash of motion. It was a spotted eel-like creature, about as long as he was, swimming beside the Shambor.

"A fondaq," said Chask. "Their venomous bite is swift death, and they swarm hereabouts."

Barnevelt followed the creature's graceful motions with fascination.

After half a day of this, Chask called into the cabin: "Ship ahead, sir."

Barnevelt came out. It seemed to be a galley, long and many-legged. The Shambor's crew muttered and pointed in the manner of frightened men. Barnevelt and Zakkomir went back into the cabin to put on their expressman's costumes, for the Krishnan had procured one too. Zakkomir did not want to wear his vest of fine chain mail under his jacket, arguing speed and lightness, especially if they fell in the water. But Barnevelt insisted, adding: "Don't forget our new names. What's mine?"

"Gozzan, sir. And my lord: To you do I confess that terror's grip again lies heavy on my windpipe. Do I falter or flinch, strike me down or ever you let our-plan miscarry on account of my despicable timidity."

"You're doing pretty well, son," said Barnevelt, and went out again.

As they neared the galley, Barnevelt saw that this ship lay just outside the mouth of the channel he sought into the interior of the Sunqar. A pair of cables ran from the stern down into a large mass of terpahla, which at first seemed to be part of the Sunqar. As they came closer yet and heard the «, ratchety sound of a catapult being wound up, it transpired that the mass to which the galley was attached "was separate from the rest. Barnevelt wondered if this mass of terpahla might not be kept there as a sort of floating plug for the channel, to be pulled into the mouth of this waterway as a defensive measure in case of attack.

The galley was a deck higher than the little Shambor and over twice as long—thirty or forty meters, Barnevelt judged. When a face looked over the rail of the galley and challenged the Shambor, he leaned carelessly against the mast and called back:

"A courier of the j^Iejrou Qurardena, with a consignment and a message from Queen Alvandi of Qirib for Sheafase, chief of the Sunqaruma."

"Heave to alongside," said the face. Presently a rope ladder tumbled down to the Shambor's deck and the owner of the face, a man in a helmet and pair of dirty white shorts, with an insigne of rank slung round his neck on a chain, followed. Several other Sunqaruma leaned over the galley's rail, covering the Shambor's deck with cocked crossbows.

"Good afternoon," said Barnevelt pleasantly. "If you'll step into the cabin, sir, I'll show you our cargo. And perhaps a drop of some of Qirib's worst falat wine will lessen the tedium of your task."

The inspector looked suspiciously at Barnevelt but carried out his inspection, accepted the drink with a grunt of thanks, and sent the Shambor on its way with one of his men to act as pilot.

Up the channel they crept, the oarsmen looking nervously over their shoulders between strokes towards the mass of ships and other floating structures that loomed a couple of hoda ahead. From among these structures several thin plumes of smoke arose, to hang in the stagnant air, veiling the low red sun.

To one side of the channel, a tubby little scow was engaged in a curious task. A chain ran from the scow to the shell of a sea creature, something like an enormous turtle, flipping itself slowly along the edge of the terpahla and eating the vine with great chomps of its beak. The men in the scow were guiding the creature with boathooks. Barnevelt aimed his Hayashi camera at the creature, wishing he could stop to get better acquainted with it.

"That," said Zakkomir with a glance over his shoulder to make sure the Mourya Sunqaru at the tiller in the stern was not within hearing, "is how these villains keep the vine from overunning their channel and trapping 'em. What shall we do if our scheme miscarry? Suppose, for ensample, the Shambor be fprced to flee ere our mission be accomplished, leaving us in the strong-thieves' hands?"

Barnevelt thought. "If you can, try to rendezvous near that derelict sailing raft we came to early this morning. You know the one, Chask?"

"Aye, sir. But how'd one trapped in the Sunqar win to this glace of meeting? Ye cannot fly without wings."

"Don't know. Perhaps if we could steal a light boat we could pole it through the weed…"

And then they came to where the channel opened out into the most astonishing floating city any of them had ever seen: the stronghold of Sheafase.