The Search for Zei

CHAPTER VIII

They stopped the first night at Yantr, where a train going the other way was standing on a siding to let them by; and the next night at another village. At the end of the third day they reached Qa'la, where they again came in sight of the waves of the Sadabao Sea. The climate was noticeably warmer, and they began to see people dressed in Qiribo fashion, in wrap-around kilts and blanketlike mantles.

Next morning they were taking their places in the train when a deep voice said: "Be this seat occupied?"

A tall young Krishnan with a face like a fish dressed much like themselves but more expensively, climbed aboard. Without waiting for an answer he kicked the Earthmen's duffel-bag off the empty seat it occupied and tossed his own bag on the rack above that seat. Then he unfastened his scabbard and leaned it in the corner, and sat down on the crosswise seat facing the Earthmen.

Another would-be passenger, looking through the cars for a choice seat, put his head into the one where Barnevelt sat.

"All filled!" barked the new arrival, though there was obviously room for one more. The passenger went away.

Barnevelt felt himself grow cold inside. He was about to say: "Pick that up!" and enforce his command, if need be, by tearing the young man limb from limb, when Tangaloa's musical voice spoke up: "Do my senses deceive me, or are we honored with the companionship of one of rank?"

Barnevelt stole a quick look at his companion, whose round brown face showed nothing but amiable interest. Where xenological investigations were concerned, George could take as detached and impersonal an attitude towards Krishnans as if they were microorganisms under his microscope. Their amiabilities and insolences were alike mere interesting data, not touching his human emotions in the least. In that respect, thought Barnevelt, George was one up on him, for he tended to react emotionally to the stimuli they presented.

"A mere garm," replied the youth briefly, but in a slightly less belligerent tone. "Sir Gavao er-Gargan. Who be you?"

"Tagde of Vyutr," said Tangaloa, "and this is my trusty companion in many a tight predicament, answers to Snyol of Pleshch."

"The Snyol of Pleshch?" said Sir Gavao. "While I've no use for foreigners, the Nyamen are well spoken of, save that they bathe less often than is meet for folk of culture."

"It's a cold country, sir," said Tangaloa.

"That could be the way of it. As 'tis, I must spend a ten-night amongst these effeminate Qiribuma, who let their women rule 'em. Be you bound thither also?"

The expressman said "Aye."

Barnevelt wondered at the phrase "The Snyol of Pleshch"; he thought he'd heard it from Gorbovast, too. When Cas-tanhoso had bestowed the nom-de-guerre upon him, he had assumed that it was that of some ancient gloop. If the authentic Snyol were still about, the consequences might, to put it mildly, be embarrassing.

"Have a cigar?" he said. "Where do you come from?"

"Balhib," said Sir Gavao. He drew on the cigar, looked at it with distaste, and threw it away. He then got out a jeweled case, took out and lit one of his own and put the case away. Barnevelt gritted his teeth, trying to take George's detached view.

Tangaloa purred: "Balhib, eh? Do you know anything about a survey of the kingdom ordered by the king?"

"Not I."

"We heard a most fascinating tale about that land," continued the xenologist. "Something to do with the king's beard."

"Oh, that!" Gavao's face cracked in its first smile. " 'Twas indeed a saucy piece of ropery, that this Sir What's-his-name from Mikardand did commit. Were't not that the Republic outweighs us five to one, there would have been robustious war betwixt us. Serves old Kir right for being so free with dirty foreigners."

"How did Sir Shurgez get close enough to the king?" asked Barnevelt.

"By a crafty cautel. He came disguised as an expressman like our friend here, saying he bore a package marked for i special personal delivery, to be yielded only on signature of a receipt by His Altitude himself."

Tis nothing special," said the expressman, "but our routine procedure, to avoid suits for non-delivery of parcels."

"Be that as it may," Gavao went on, "as the king was posing his seal ring upon the document—for he, a warrior true, can neither read nor write—did the feigned courier whip from the packet a pair of shears wherewith he did effect his zany lune. He sneaped the whisker and, ere any could stay or smite, did this bold bully-rook flee forth from the court with wightly step and gallop off upon his aya."

"A most perverse and unjust antic!" exclaimed the expressman. "My company has lodged an action at law against this same Shurgez for his impersonation. Ever has this garb been known as a badge of probity and discretion, so that messengers of the Mejrou Qurardena can safely penetrate whither none other can go. But now if these braggartly japers be granted leave ourselves to personate, what becomes of our immunity?"

" 'Twill go whither went the scarecrow's ghost in Daghash's ballet," said Gavao. "Namely and to wit, into the nothingness of nought. But you, my masters, since you're in the mood for personalities, tell me whence and whither travel you and why?"

"We're planning a gvam-hunting expedition," said Barne-velt.

"Then I suppose you'll set forth from Malayer?"

"No, we were thinking of organizing in Ghulind6. We heard Malayer was under siege."

"It has fallen," said Sir Gavao.

"Really?"

"Yes. 'Tis said the renegade Kugird took it by some foul mitching means, using a baleful new invention 'gainst the walls."

"What sort of invention?"

"I know not. To me they're all one, devices of Dupulan to ruin the fine old art of war. All inventors should be slain on sight, say I. Methinks 'twere a meritorious deed to start a secret society for the prevention of inventions in warfare. Do we not such precaution take, 'twill not be long ere war's as unvalorous and mechanical as among the cursed Earthmen. Why, 'tis said that there the noble martial art became so noxiously machinal that the Terrans abolished it—setting up a planetary government this prohibition to enforce. Canst fancy anything more dismal?"

The expressman said: "We should destroy those Earthmen slinking amongst us in disguise, ere we're hopelessly corrupted by their evil magic."

"An interesting idea," said Barnevelt. "However, I think we'll still set out from Ghulinde, for Malayer would be pretty disorganized yet after having been besieged and sacked."

Gavao laughed. "Good hunting to you, but ask me not to patronize your product, for never yet have I found the gvam stone necessary to the enjoyment of life's elementary pleasures. Why, ere I quitted Qa'la…"

And Gavao was off on the one subject on which he was truly eloquent. For hours he regaled his companions with tales of exploits which, if true, made him the planet's leading boudoir athlete. He was a mine of information on the more intimate customs and characteristics of the females of the various races and nations of Krishna. Barnevelt realized that he was in the presence' of a great specialist. However, he became bored after a while, and there was nothing he could do short of assault to staunch the flow of amorous anecdote.

All went smoothly enough as they stopped the night at another village and rolled on next day along the coast towards Jazmurian.

As they neared their destination they came to another border, from Mikardand into Qirib. As the train halted, Barnevelt became aware that the guards on the Qiribo side were women in musical-comedy outfits of pleated kilts and brass helmets and brassieres. Some of them sported shields and spears as well.

"Stand by your cars," said a beamy specimen (evidently the commanding officer) in Qiribo dialect. "Ah, you there!" She pounced on Barnevelt and his companions. "Hither, Na'i! Seal these fellows' swords into their sheaths, for we let no males go armed in this our land. As for you with the mace…" She picked her teeth with a twig as she pondered. "Since it has no sheath, we'd best fasten it to your belt. Then if you'd use that ugly thing it must needs be at the cost of your breeches, which would enhance neither your prowess nor your dignity."

"That, madam, depends on what you mean by prowess," said Tangaloa. The Amazon went off scratching her head, while the other men suppressed their mirth.

The girl called Na'i came over with a kit and belayed the swords of Barnevelt and Gavao into their sheaths with several turns of stout iron wire wound around the guard and through one of the scabbard-rings. The ends of the wire were then clamped together in a little gadget that left them buried in a lead seal like that used on Earthly freight-cars.

The customs guard added severely: "Should these seals be broken, you must answer to our magistrates forthwith. And your excuse had better be good, or else…" She drew a finger across her throat. "Now get in line to pay your tariffs."

Then they were off for Jazmurian again. They were no sooner out of sight of the frontier station than Sir Gavao brought out an apparatus of his own. First he pulled on the wire until he had some slack in one length of it. Then he snipped it with a small pair of pliers and twisted the ends together. Then out of a tiny container he dug a fragment of dark waxy substance which he rubbed over the splice until only the most careful examination »would show that the wire had been tampered with.

"Now," he said with a sly piscene grin, "does trouble impend, I have but to give my hilt a good tug, and the wire parts and out comes my lady fair. 'Tis the wont of gentry forced to travel through this noisome province of…" He used a badly anatomical term to describe the matriarchate.

"How about doing the same to ours?" said Barnevelt, for Gavao was putting away his kit.

"Oh, very well." And soon the Earthmen, too, had their weapons freed in this manner.

"Thanks," said Tangaloa. "What sort of place is Jazmurian?"

"A reeky hovel where honest men durst not went abroad o'nights save in pairs or more. While 'tis under the rule of Qirib like the other land hereabouts, 'tis an international garbage heap, swarming with the vermin of the five seas, and Queen Alvandi's she-officers can no more cope with it than you can catch an avval with a fishhook."

Before reaching Jazmurian, late in the day, the railroad detoured inland until it came to the Zigros River, then turned east again and followed the river as it wound towards the town. The sun, setting behind the creaking cars, was reflected redly in the rough native glass of many windows. The second largest port of the Sadabao Sea did not prove quite so bad as Gavao's words, though indeed it showed a less prepossessing face than Majbur, being a sprawled-out city of slums, grog shops, and dilapidated-looking characters of varied hue and garb.

"Where are you staying?" Barnevelt asked Gavao.

"Angur's Inn, across the street from the station. 'Tis the only hostelry where the stench assailing the antennae is not such as to turn a gentleman's second stomach."

Barnevelt exchanged a glance with Tarigaloa. Gorbovast in Majbur had recommended this same place to them, for here they would have to stop overnight before taking the stage for Ghulinde in the morning.