The Swords of Zinjaban

VI - Cyril Ordway

On their second night out of Mishé, they stopped at Vasabád, the third largest city of Mikardand. Of Vasabád's three inns, Reith tried two before he found one where he could provide Alicia with a room of her own. After they had all settled in, he knocked on her door. "Hey, Wart Hog! I'm giving the boys a little walking tour. Like to come along?"

"You just bet!"

While more impressive than Qou, Vasabád was still a small town. Its sights were nearly exhausted when they came upon the little temple of Bákh. White said: "Fergus, let's have a look. Can we go in?"

"I think so. They're at vespers; but I know the priest, who won't mind if we're quiet."

They found the sparse congregation standing, there being no pews, while an elderly Krishnan priest recited the lesson and a pretty young Krishnan acolyte illustrated the recitation by manipulating a triad of symbolic objects: a mirror, a sword, and a vessel of water. These she lifted from the altar one by one and, with a dancer's grace, gazed at herself in the mirror, clove the air with the sword, and flicked droplets of water from the bowl in the four cardinal directions. Ordway whispered: "I say, do they sacrifice virgins here in the dark of the moons?"

Reith shook his head. "Neither in the light or the dark of the moons; though a cult in Balhib, I understand, went in for that sort of thing a few years back. I sometimes wish the Krishnans hadn't gotten quite so civilized; I know some people I'd like to sacrifice." He gave Ordway a stony stare.

"Our script calls for human sacrifice," Ordway went on, oblivious. "I always thought it a foolish waste of a perfectly serviceable woman."

Reith cocked an eyebrow. "What's your script got to do with the real Krishna? For that matter, what's any movie got to do with real life?"

Ordway sighed. "Fergus, if you were in the business, you might make first-class documentaries; but in entertainment you'd be an utter washout."

The priest finished his reading, covered the sacred objects, led a hymn, and dismissed his worshipers. As they straggled out, Reith brought his Terrans forward. He and the priest grasped thumbs, and Reith introduced his companions to the Reverend Vizram.

"I don't see anything here for our picture," muttered White, peering about. "Nice little temple, but the one in Mishé has it beat."

"A moment, I pray, Master Reef," said the priest. "As ye know, Sifad's comet attains its greatest brilliance tonight."

"I'd forgotten," confessed Reith. "The sky has been so overcast, I've never even seen this comet."

"The sky hath cleared as even veils the day. Tell me, pray, what opinion have ye learned Terrans anent comets? The astrologers make a great to-do thereof, saying they bear messages from the gods. Some predict this world's destruction; others, a thousand years of peace and plenty. What think ye?"

"Terran space ships," replied Reith, "have found comets to be nothing but stones, dust, and frozen water.

We consider them natural phenomena and not signals from the powers unseen." He paused as an idea struck him. "Isn't the platform atop your temple the highest structure in Vasabád?"

"Aye. The cult that owned the temple, ere we servants of Bákh acquired it, used the building for their astrological observations."

Smiling guilelessly, Reith asked: "Would you mind if we returned after dark to view the comet from the platform?"

"I shall be glad to unlock the temple doors, Master Reef," said the aged priest. "Pray, present yourselves within an hour of Roqir's setting, and knock thrice."

Reith did not translate this exchange for the benefit of his male clients. He was less interested in comet watching than he was in finding a moment alone with Alicia, although he was unsure of just what he meant to say. Walking back to the inn, he was so absorbed in composing and discarding little speeches that he was unaware of Ordway's absence until, nearing the inn, Alicia asked: "Where's Cyril?"

White explained: "He ducked back into the temple. Said for us to go on; he could find his own way back."

"Now what's that idiot up to?" growled Reith with foreboding.

"There he is!" exclaimed Alicia. "Somebody's chasing him!"

Ordway had appeared around a corner, his short legs pumping. Behind him rushed a crowd of Krishnans, waving clubs, brandishing knives, and yelling threats and curses. Ordway reached the trio of Terrans just ahead of the pursuers. He dodged behind Reith and seized the slack of Reith's jacket to use the guide as a shield.

Reith clapped a hand to his sword, but common sense told him not to draw it. While he might take one or two Krishnans with him, against such odds he stood no chance. Assuming a loftily commanding expression, he raised a hand.

"Quiet, please!" he shouted. The mob continued to scream: "... rape our maiden ..."

"... filthy dazg ... flay the barbarian alive ..."

As Reith called again, without effect, for quiet, the elderly priest of Bákh pushed forward, waving the sword the acolyte had used in the rituals. He tried to get at the cowering Ordway. White and Alicia hovered anxiously on the fringe of the mob, ignoring gibes.

Reith bent towards the Reverend Vizram's ear. "Tell them to quiet down, so I can find out what happened!"

The priest endeavored, with no more success. On a sudden inspiration, Reith called out: "Sing!" His voice rolled out in a familiar hymn:

After the first line, the priest joined in. Then more and more of the mob added their voices, until all were singing. At the pause at the end of the stanza, Reith called out: "If all of you good people will be quiet, we shall get to the bottom of this. What happened, Father Vizram?"

The priest replied: "The fleshy Terran accosted my virgin daughter, who serves as acolyte. He made some obscene proposal in's Terran tongue. When she would have fled his lechery, he seized and would fain have distrained her; but I heard her cries for help."

Reith pulled Ordway out from behind him, the latter gasping: "What—what's the—the old padre saying?"

"Tell me your story."

Ordway's speech had become thick Cockney. "I saw this bonzer squid and remembered something I read, 'ow in ancient times the temples was combined viv 'ore 'ouses. Gels earned their dowries that way. So, bein' 'orny, I asks her, what's the price of a quick one? Since she didn't understand English, nor I 'er 'eathen speech, I tried sign language. When she starts off, I grabs her arm, thinkin' she 'adn' got it. Then she shrieks, and her gov' and some other wogs comes runnin'."

With a forced-air composure, Reith said to the priest, "My client was so deeply impressed by your service that he wished to give all his money to the temple. Since he and your daughter had no speech in common, a regrettable misunderstanding arose." He turned to Ordway and said in English: "Give him all your cash— every last arzu. Don't argue, or I'll let 'em tear you to pieces!"

The priest accepted the money, thanked Ordway, and apologized for the contretemps. The crowd broke up and drifted away. As the Terrans reentered the inn, Alicia said: "Fergus, I want to apologize."

"What for?"

"Once, back when we—when I went on your tour, I scolded you soundly for mistranslating the talk between one of your tourists and a Krishnan. It was beastly of me, especially since I had to do the same thing when the reporter from the Mishé Defender interviewed us."

"Really? It's been so long, I'd forgotten."

"Not so long for me! Anyway, you were right. If you'd truthfully translated Cyril's words, we'd all be weltering in our gore."

"Lish, I believe you've changed more in two years than I have in twenty! In the old days, you never admitted you were wrong about anything."

"It's not the only thing I've been wrong about." She glanced around. "We'd better get to our table, before our host serves all the best cuts to the others!"

At dinner, Ordway grumbled: "I say: Fergus, couldn't you have at least bargained him down a bit? This leaves me stony until we get to Novo. It's not fair—"

Reith brought his fist down with a bang, making the goblets jump. "You fat-headed schmuck! You two-legged prick! God damn it, I thought you'd learned your lesson in the bathhouse at Rosid, but you never learn. If you're so stupid—"

"Now see here, I won't put up with—"

"Shut up, you blithering ass I If it weren't for the contract, I'd take the carriage and go off, leaving you on your own out here in the boonies. One more whine out of you, and I'll do it anyway, and to hell with your movie!"

Ordway subsided, staring morosely at his plate. The ensuing silence was finally broken by White: "Cyril, I can lend you some money till we get back to base." He turned towards Reith. "Fergus, I must say you showed steel nerves, standing up to that mob."

Reith shrugged. "Anything else would have been riskier."

"Were we in real danger?"

"Judge for yourself. A few years ago we had a gaggle of Russian tourists. The guide, Vera Yurieva, was a good kid; but some of her geese were real oafs. You know the temple of the mother goddess Varzai in Mishé? There's a basin outside for ritual hand-washing before going in to worship. A couple of these gloops mistook it for a public urinal. A mob chased them to the corner where Vera was lecturing the others, who ran for ft. Vera stood her ground and tried to explain, but the mob beat her unconscious and left her for dead. She was moons recovering."

As Ordway and White ate in glum silence, a new group of diners entered and took a table near the doorway. Five were tough-looking Krishnans in divided kilts and uniform jackets of vaguely military appearance, which bore a cipher that Reith could not quite discern.

The sixth newcomer was a big, burly Earthman disguised as a Krishnan, with false antennae and ear points. So carefully had his makeup been applied that most Krishnans and Terrans, too, could have been deceived by it unless they scrutinized him closely. The man's garb was like the others save that his jacket was covered with glittering spangles and bore gold-braided epaulets.

Reith whispered, "Don't look now, Lish; but dip me in guano if that isn't my old pal Enrique Schlegel."

"The man Tony Fallon mentioned, the one you had a fight with?"

"The same."

"What do we do?"

"He hasn't made a hostile move yet. Let's eat quietly and hope he doesn't notice us." After they had finished and left the dining room, Reith sought out his Krishnan assistants. "Doctor Dyckman and I are going to the Temple of Bákh after dark. We want you two lads with us."

"Ohé!" said Zerré in a disappointed tone. "Timásh and I had an engagement after supper."

"How long will it take?"

"Belike an hour."

"It will still be light. Have your fun, but be sure to join us here before dark. And come armed!"

"Master Fergus!" protested Timásh. "I am no swashbuckler, but only a peaceful shaihan-herd."

"Bring those brush knives you two carry. They're as good as half-swords." Reith turned back to Alicia and muttered: "Our boys are going out whoring, but they should be back in time."

Ordway asked: "What's all this mumbling in heathen tongues?"

"Nothing," said Reith. "Alicia and I are going out this evening. When you get to your room, bolt the door; there are some bad characters about."

Reith and Alicia retired to Reith's room and locked themselves in. For the next hour, Reith occupied himself with calculating expenses, while she organized her sociological notes. Silence hung like a rain cloud. Finally Reith glanced at the window.

"It's dark outside," he said. "Our randy helpers should be back by now." He stepped to the door, opened it carefully, and satisfied himself that the two Krishnans were not in their quarters.

Another half-hour passed, and Reith became restless. At last Alicia snapped her notebook shut. "Oh, for heaven's sake, Fearless, let's go! We can leave a message for your lads to follow when they arrive."

Scowling, Reith shook his head. "If it were just me, I'd say to hell with Schlegel and take my chances. But I can't take that risk with you."

"Don't be a timorous beastie! We've been in and out of a lot of tight places together, and I've never seen a comet. I'll take this along." She dug into her traveling bag and brought out a crossbow pistol. "Besides, if we just sit here, Schlegel's men could break down the door and come in for us. And if we wait much longer, Father Vizram will decide we're not coming and lock up again. Either we go now, or we check out and take to the road tonight!"

"I hate to cut and run," growled Reith.

"Then let's go templing!" She picked up her handbag and the crossbow pistol. "Sivird sold me this little beauty."

"All right," said Reith, with an uneasy feeling that, even though Alicia had discarded her former imperious, dictatorial manner, she still managed to get her way in most things. They went quietly downstairs and left word with the innkeeper to send Timásh and Zerré to the temple when the two Krishnans appeared. They saw no sign of Schlegel and his minions.

The observation platform atop the Temple of Bákh was a rectangular terrace, about two by eight meters, paved with flagstones and protected by a waist-high guard rail. Access to the structure was by a ladder and a trapdoor. At each end of the terrace, an ornamental spire rose from the slate roof for several meters more.

From the edges of the terrace, the roof sloped away on all sides.

Reith and Alicia arrived, breathing hard from the climb, as the last glow of twilight was vanishing. Above them, the boat-shaped crescent of huge Karrin illumined the landscape with the argentic brilliance of Terra's full moon. Golnaz, the second moon, was out of sight; while little Sheb, the most distant, appeared but slightly larger than Venus seen from Earth on a clear night. High in the northern sky hung the long, pallid whisk broom of Sifad's comet, named in honor of the Gozashtando astrologer who first recorded it.

Reith and Alicia gazed silently. At last Reith said: "Karrim sets in an hour. We ought to wait, because the comet will look much brighter without the competition."

They sat on a low stone bench with their backs against the masonry of one of the spires. For a while they were content to enjoy the heavenly spectacle of two moons, a comet, and the gleaming stars. Now and then a night-flying aqebat, pursuing arthropod prey, whirred overhead.

As Karrim neared the horizon, Reith slid an arm around Alicia, who responded warmly to a kiss. He cleared his throat and spoke hesitantly: "Lish—ah—I've been thinking."

"Yes?"

"Well—uh—I'd like to know more about your plans for the fat—"

"What's that?" said Alicia, suddenly straightening up as the clatter of people climbing the ladder broke the silence.

"Maybe it's the boys," said Reith.

"And maybe not!" She sprang to her feet. "We'd better hold the lid down till we know for sure!"

Alicia started for the trapdoor, with Reith a pace behind her. Before they reached it, the trapdoor flew up and Enrique Schlegel emerged, sword in hand. Four armed Krishnans followed him.

"You are Reith, are you not?" growled Schlegel in accented English.

Reith had drawn his own sword. "That's my name. What about it?"

"Is it true what I hear, that you are guiding representatives of a Terran cinema company, in order a motion picture on this world to make?"

"Yes. So what?"

"This I cannot allow."

"And who in hell—"

"I am the protector of native Krishnan culture! I know your cinema people. They will make a disgraceful burlesque of Krishnan life, giving Terrans a contempt for us. If the foul blow you struck me in Mishé were not enough reason ..."

Schlegel threw himself forward, barking as he did so in Mikardandou: "Seize the strumpet! I will deal with the barbarian!"

Schlegel lunged at Reith, while the four Krishnans leaped towards Alicia. Her crossbow pistol twanged, and the foremost Krishnan doubled over with a howl.

Reith parried Schlegel's lunge and sent a quick counterthrust at Schlegel's broad chest. A mail shirt beneath the jacket stopped Reith's point.

Schlegel's three remaining followers sprang upon Alicia. Lacking time to recock the pistol, a task requiring muscle, she received the first assailant with a swing of the handbag. The bag struck the Krishnan's flattish face with a crunch. Krishnan blood, black in the moonlight, spattered as the blow flung the Krishnan back against the rail. His legs flew up, and he flipped over the railing. Then he slid rattling down the slates and off the roof. A shriek was followed by a solid thud.

The other two got their hands on Alicia before she could aim another swing. They wrenched away the handbag and pistol and pummeled and kicked her, while she fought like a wildcat.

Reith and Schlegel traded lunge for lunge, thrust for thrust, and cut for cut. Reith found his opponent less skilled at fencing than himself but immensely strong. His strength, together with his light armor, evened the odds.

The swords whirled, flashed in the moonlight, struck sparks, and clashed with harsh resonance. The furious pace of the combat slowed as Reith and Schlegel both began to pant.

One of the Krishnans shouted: "Master! Give us leave to slay this she-demon! She hath kicked me in the crotch!"

"Do but hold her fast," panted Schlegel, who had never fully recovered his breath from the long climb to the platform.

"The kargán hath poked me in the eye!" shrilled the other Krishnan. "Methinks I'm half blinded!"

"Hold her whilst I account for this Terran!" snarled Schlegel. "Then shall she pay her just dues!"

For an instant Reith and Schlegel faced each other immobile, with their blades crossing but not touching. They gasped for breath. Schlegel's forehead sparkled with moonlit sweat, and Reith supposed that his did likewise.

"Someone comes!" cried one of the Krishnans.

Behind Schlegel, Reith glimpsed movement in the semidarkness, but he had no time for scrutiny. Schlegel threw himself forward, trying to beat down Reith's guard by the sheer weight and fury of his attack. Reith passed up openings on Schlegel's torso because of the mail shirt; but at last he homed a thrust at Schlegel's face, laying open one cheek.

"Dm Schurke!" panted Schlegel as the whole side of his face became masked with blood.

From beyond Schlegel came the voices of Alicia, Timásh, and Zerré, and the meaty sound of brush knives biting into flesh. There were cries and groans and the thud of bodies. Simultaneously came a solid clank; Schlegel reeled sideways, dropped his sword, and tumbled over the rail as the first Krishnan had done.

Alicia stood disheveled in the moonlight, holding her handbag by its strap. Behind her, Timásh and Zerré bent over the three Krishnan bodies, finishing off the one whom Alicia had wounded with a bolt from her crossbow pistol.

As Reith quickly perceived, when his herdsmen had emerged from the trapdoor, the two Krishnans holding Alicia had tried to defend themselves while retaining their grip on her. Hence they had readily been wounded. Wrenching free, Alicia had snatched up her handbag and struck Schlegel from behind on the side of the head.

Satisfying himself that his attackers were dead, Reith wiped his blade on a Krishnan's garments, sheathed his sword, and cradled Alicia in his arms. At last he glowered at his Krishnan employees.

"And where were you, my fine fellows, when we were in dire straits?"

Timásh and Zerré hung their heads and scuffed their feet. Zerré said: "A thousand pardons, Sir Fergus. 'Twas wrong of us, I know. We expected to be entertained by two ladies, but lo! We arrived to find but one. So we—ah—"

"Took turns," said Reith. "Now get to work. We've disposed of these rascals, but there were others. Doctor Dyckman knocked two off the roof."

"Terran women must be deadly creatures," muttered Timásh.

"Those whereof ye speak we saw not," said Zerré, "But we did find one standing guard at the temple door. When he would fain have barred our entry, we slew him like an unha for the stew pan."

Reith inspected the fallen Krishnans. "Pitch these bodies over yonder rail, so they shall fall in the street. Collect their weapons and follow me. I shall go down to see what happened to those two we knocked off the roof."

In the temple garden, they (bund the missing Krishnan groaning. Both legs lay twisted among the crushed shrubbery. The priest and his daughter fluttered helplessly about, wringing their hands.

"Sir Fergus!" cried the Reverend Vizram. "What tally of horror and bloodshed hath polluted my sacred fane?"

Reith recounted what he knew. Vizram said, "Pray, slay not this poor wight, villain though he be! There hath been enough of slaughter."

"I won't kill him," said Reith. "For one thing, we shall need him to testify tomorrow, lest we be charged with a crime. Help us to carry him in; I know enough first aid to set his legs. Then I'll send my men out to find the watch, to collect the bodies. Where is the Ertsu who led them? He, too, fell off."

A search of the grounds found no Schlegel, but only a smashed shrub into which the Terran had fallen. "Dupulán takes care of his own," grumped Reith. "Bet he didn't even sprain an ankle."

Back at the inn, as Reith and Alicia climbed the stairs, White and Ordway appeared. As they regarded the tour guide in the lamplight, White exclaimed: "Fergus, your hands are all bloody! What's happened?"

Ordway, peering at Alicia, said: "My God, what have you two been up to? Has Fergus been beating you up, Alicia? I'm no hero, but I won't stand by and let anyone mistreat a white woman—"

Reith interrupted. "Just a little difficulty. We had to kill a few people, that's all. Alicia took some bruises in the fight, but nothing's broken."

White and Ordway exchanged appalled glances. " 'Had to kill a few people,' just like that!" said Ordway. "Human or Krishnan?"

"Both; but the Terran got away. The casualties were four Krishnans dead and one disabled. I won't even bother to notch my hilt for them."

"Cyril," said White, "I think we'd better be pretty damned careful how we speak to Mr. Reith henceforth. Fergus, what'll happen now?"

"We may be a day or two late getting back to Novo," said Reith. "I have to appear in court tomorrow, to convince the magistrate it was self-defense."

"Are we likely to be stuck here," asked White, "while you're in jail waiting for the guy with the mask and the ax?"

Reith shrugged. "You can never be sure, but it's not likely. Krishnans take a relaxed view of homicide among Terrans. They figure that if Earthmen loll other Earthmen, that's their problem. Excuse us; we've got to clean up."

In her room, Alicia dropped her handbag with a heavy thud, took off her shirt, and lugubriously examined her face and body in the mirror. "Oh, dear!" she sighed. "What horrible bruises! I can put makeup over the shiner; but this cut lip I can't disguise."

"It'll all be healed up by the time we get back to Novo," said Reith, picking up Alicia's handbag and hefting it. "What's in this, Lish? A flatiron?"

She opened the handbag and took out a spherical, tightly packed leather sack. Reith fingered the sack, saying, "Coins?"

She nodded. "It comes in handy with tumescent males."

"No wonder you knocked those guys off the roof! I'd better say good night before you decide to use it on me!"

Leisurely Krishnan legal proceedings put them two days behind schedule. As a result, they reached the village of Zinjaban, in the westerly province of the same name, seven days after leaving Mishé. Since rainfall hereabouts was less than in the central and eastern parts of Mikardand, the landscape was open, sparsely covered by many-colored Krishnan analogues of grass and herbs. Trees, with gaudy trunks of ruby and turquoise and amethyst, were confined to gallery forests along the streams, while elsewhere clumps of spiny bushes hugged the bare brown soil. As they traveled west, the riotous colors of the well-watered eastern provinces gradually faded to pastels and sober greenish grays.

The village boasted one tiny inn. Reith signed in for his party and then discovered that the second floor had only three bedrooms, a large one occupied by the innkeeper and his family, and two small guest chambers, each of which contained one double bed.

Before, Reith had always obtained a private room for Alicia. Now Timásh and Zerré made ready to stretch out in the common room below, while Ordway and White bore their belongings into one of the two available bedrooms.

Reith and Alicia halted at the door of the remaining room. She glanced in, then faced him with an enigmatic expression on her classic features. Reith thought she had gone pale under her light tan, but he could not tell whether her countenance betokened apprehension or anticipation, hope or fear.

For an instant, Reith was balanced on a knife edge of indecision. The male animal in him urged him one way, while his inbred caution, and suspicion that all of Alicia's fangs had not yet been drawn, pushed him in the other. His neo-Puritan conscience warned him that, the instant they bedded together, the brother-and-sister relationship he had been cultivating would not have the chance of a snowball in Hishkak.

Then Ordway, peering out of his doorway, gave a salacious smirk. Alicia looked at the production manager with distaste, then said coolly: "Fergus, we must have an understanding ..."

"I already understand," said Reith reading into her tone an uncertainty like his own. "Don't worry about me. Hey, Zerré!"

"Aye, sir?" The Krishnan looked up from below stairs.

"Get out my sleeping bag and hand it up, will you please?"

Reith entered the other men's bedroom and threw his sleeping bag on the floor. Ordway said: "Good God, man, you're bunking in with us?"

"Yep."

Ordway shook his head. "Either you're out of your calabash, mate, or you're a bloody neo-Puritan."

"Call it a little of both," said Reith, stamping on a many-legged scuttler that raced across the floor.

Reith was already kicking himself for having ducked a chance to clarify his anomalous relationship with his former wife, his desire for whom waxed daily stronger. But he was too stubborn to reverse his snap decision and too protective of his dignity to present Ordway with ammunition for lewd jokes and innuendoes. Besides, he hated to give satisfaction to busybodies, like Strachan and Fallon, who were doubtless fantasizing about a romantic reunion between the ill-starred Reiths.

Next morning, Reith and White went location hunting. Alicia said she was tired and wanted to repair some clothes. Ordway also begged off on the ground that he could never learn to ride a six-legged gnu at his time of life. Reith told his Krishnans to saddle three ayas, so that Timásh could go along in case of accident.

The trio rode downstream along the Khoruz, circling about and examining landscapes that might serve as movie-sequence sites. In the afternoon, they worked upstream from the village.

The location manager, who made frequent notes and took pictures with his Hayashi ring camera, was becoming a passable aya rider. The Krishnan sun was fast turning his pale skin swarthy, and he could even exchange greetings in Mikardandou.

When they returned to the inn, White announced that he had found several good sites. The next day, Alicia said to Reith: "Fergus, I'm coming with you. I don't care to be left alone with our resident sex maniac again."

"What! Has that dreg—"

"No, no, he hasn't laid a hand on me. But he fixes me with his glittering eye and says things like: 'If that skinny ex of yours hasn't got any balls, there are others who have!' or 'If that's all the enterprise he's got, no wonder you gave him the burlap!' "

Clenching a pair of knobby fists, Reith interrupted. "I'll punch his leering face in! I'll dance on his recumbent form with my climbing boots, the ones with hobnails!"

"No, no! He doesn't mean any harm. He's just a vulgar, pushy little gloop who thinks he's Batch's gift to women and doesn't like to see them unf—going to waste, as he'd put it. So he drags the subject in by the hair of its crotch. I'm not afraid of him, but he's a bother. At least, don't hit him until the movie's been shot and you're paid off in full!"

"All right; but I still think he'd look better stuffed. I'd like to be the taxidermist, too."

They crossed the Khoruz at the ford near the village and followed the Balhib road, winding through the rugged Qe'bas, until they sighted Castle Kandakh, perched on its elephant-gray crag, with blue-and-orange pennants flying and drawbridge down. A trumpet brayed as the riders clattered into the courtyard. Reith, stiffly formal, presented the Grand Master's letter to the commanding officer, a Sir Litáhn.

To show the party around the fortress, Sir Litáhn called to him a knight with a false beard of a poisonous green. Reith turned to Alicia and quoted:

Viewing the arrow slits and other defensive measures, White became voluble with excitement. "Couldn't be better!" he cried. "Superbly photogenic! A cameraman's dream! Say, Fergus, the morning's not half over, with these long days they have here. Is there anything else we ought to see?"

Reith thought. "A Krishnan friend of mine lives a few hoda west of here. Let's ride down and say hello."

Under the blazing rays of the yellow primary, they trotted westward downgrade along the trans-Qe'ba road. When they walked the ayas to breathe them, Reith explained. "Yekar bad-Sehr is a cousin of the rancher Sainian, whose spread lies southeast of here. It was on his ranch that I helped to discover some kind of fossil reptile, which they say is an important evolutionary link. Remember, Lish?"

"How could I ever forget! What does this Yekar do?"

"Runs a shaihan ranch, like Sainian's, only smaller. I've thought he and I might go into dude ranching together. It would be quite an experience for rich Terran dudes.

"Yekar's spread lies in what used to be Balhibo territory; but when the Qaathians conquered Balhib, the late Grand Master seized the Qe'ba range. So one fine night, Yekar went to bed a Balhibo subject and woke up a Mikardandu."

West of the Qe'bas, the undulating plain wore a drab mantle of sparse vegetation in dull greens, browns, and grays. Yekar, who proved to be a younger cousin of Sainian's wife, welcomed the travelers warmly, and his mate served them a lunch big enough for a hungry yeki. When Reith asked him for news, the rancher replied: "Something is brewing with the Qaathians. Across the border on a clear, windless day, we see distant clouds of dust. I should guess cavalry maneuvers."

"Anything more definite?"

"Nay. For the past year, they've kept the border sealed, save for a few well-guarded crossing points.

They've put up new fences, bishtar-strong, shomal-high, and burha-tight. Their patrols gallop along these barriers day and night. Thus little news gets out."

Back in Zinjaban, Ordway greeted his dusty location team as they dismounted. "I'll wager you've all got sore buns. Any luck, Jack?"

"Absolutely!" said White. "The castle is splendid— very visual."

"D'you think we're finished here?"

"I believe so."

Ordway continued. "Obviously, this lousy little inn won't hold our shooting crew. We shall have to get tents, portable WCs, etcetera. I say, Fergus! Are we going back through Mishé?"

"No; it's quicker to follow the river road down the Khoruz to its junction with the Pichidé, then along the Pichidé to Novo. There's no point in going out of our way—through Mikardand—again until the whole crew's here."

"Damn! I wanted another go at the lady treasurer, the fair Gashigi."

"You'll have more chances later," said Reith dryly.

"How will our people keep clean in Zinjaban? Manshu's rotten little inn doesn't even have a tub."

"They'll have to use the river, as the natives do."

"But doesn't the river have those man-eating sea serpents—or I should say, river serpents? They call 'em evils or awfuls or something."

"Avvals? They're more like giant eels. I'm sure they don't range this far upstream; they prefer deeper waters."

Ordway sighed. "I see we shall have to face a cold plunge. Haven't had a bath since Vasabád. While I don't insist on one daily, like you Americans, we're all jolly ripe by now."

"Good idea," said Reith. "I'll tell Manshu to have dinner late, and I'll meet you all at the ford in a quarter-hour, with soap and towels."

Ordway looked sharply at Alicia, and the pupils of his eyes dilated. "You mean—her, too?"

"I'm an old Krishnan hand, Cyril," said Alicia severely. "We make nothing of it and expect you to do likewise."

The setting Roqir reddened the water as the travelers assembled at the ford, wearing raincoats in lieu of robes. White said nervously: "Shouldn't the men bathe in one place and Alicia in another, for decency?"

Reith snapped: "Alicia and I have taken more baths together than I can count. If it'll make you happy, wash below the ford, while she and I dunk ourselves above it."

"What about me?" said Ordway.

"Wherever you like."

"The water looks kind of muddy," said White.

"They had a heavy rain recently; so the river is high. We'll still come out cleaner than we went in." Reith and Alicia cast off their coats and strode resolutely into the ford, then upstream to deeper water. Behind they heard low-voiced complaints of the cold.

Soaping himself, Reith found Ordway staring at him in a marked manner. With a mischievous smirk, Ordway said: "I see you've got 'em after all."

"Got what?"

"Oh, you know! For a while I wondered ..."

Reith pressed his lips together in an angry line. After manfully resisting his growing enchantment with Alicia, he did not need such gibes.

Oblivious of Reith's annoyance, Ordway persisted: "The trouble with you, old boy, is, you don't give your natural instincts a chance—assuming you've got—yeeow!"

With a cream, Ordway leaped almost clear of the water and splashed madly towards shore. He yelled, "An awful has got me! An awful bit me!"

A blond head emerged from the turbulent water like a Rhine maiden rising to complain of the theft of the Rheingold. Alicia stood up, spat water, and put her hands on Reith's shoulders to steady herself while she shook with laughter. Reith asked, "Did you bite old Priapus in the leg?"

"You just bet! I won't have that—that microorganism teasing you about your manhood; I could tell him a thing or two about that! I figured he couldn't see me under this muddy water."

"Darling!" said Reith, enfolding her. "There's nobody like you on two planets." After a hearty kiss, he drew back. "But we'd better finish and get out!"

Ordway had disappeared, though his yells of "Awful! Awful!" could still be heard. Soon a dozen Krishnans converged on the ford, carrying hunting spears, axes, and other improvised weapons. Ordway, shouting and pointing, hopped about among them, his belly bouncing. He ceased his antics when Reith and Alicia, hand in hand, waded out of the shallows towards the rescue party.

"It—it d-didn't bite you?" he stammered.

"There wasn't any," said Reith. "It was just your guilty conscience." In a few words of Mikardandou, he explained the contretemps to the Krishnans, who broke into the gobbling Krishnan laugh and walked off, shaking their heads.

Four days after leaving Zinjaban, the scouting party came to Rimbid, on the northern bank of the Pichidé. Reith looked furtively about in case they should encounter Sari, his local occasional sweetheart. Much to his relief, she failed to appear. Another confrontation like those with Vázni and Gashigi, he thought, would be just more than he could bear.

When they were settled, Alicia heaved a sigh. "Well, at least you won't have to sleep on the floor tonight."

"No," said Reith, his lips twitching in a secret smile. "The boys and I have the big room, with four beds. The only trouble is that they snore like thunder in the hills."

"Well, if we ever—" She broke off.

"Ever what?" said Reith with ill-concealed eagerness.

"Never mind. Maybe I'll tell you some day." As Reith opened his mouth to carry the conversation further, Alicia gave him a quick kiss and pushed him out her bedroom door.

Now why the hell, Reith asked himself as he walked to the big bedroom, can't we make up our minds and speak them? Because, Fergus my lad, you're basically a coward. You're in a blue funk at the thought that she might turn you down in a scornful, humiliating way, to get even with your rejection of her. If she's watching for a chance to tell you off, her words would take the hide off a rhinoceros.

But if you dillydally much longer, she'll either go back to Terra, take off on some scientific safari, or start looking around. There are plenty of mateless male Krishnanders who'd be delighted at the chance. If she really wanted to hurt me, she could even let Cyril...

Half an hour later Reith, filled with resolution, knocked on Alicia's door. "Yes?" she said, opening it a crack.

"Lish, we have a couple of hours before dinner. Like a little walk?"

"Oh, good! I've never seen Rimbid. Give me a minute to dress."

"Okay; I want to discuss something serious."

Another quarter-hour saw them strolling arm in arm along Rimbid's main avenue. After lingering before some shops, they came to a small park, where a gaggle of Krishnan children chased one another screaming. Reith said: "Lish, I want to ask you something."

"That makes two," she said, "because I want to ask something of you."

"Oh?" Reith felt a rising tension. "Go ahead."

"No, you spoke first. You ask."

"Absolutely not! By my honor as a male chauvinist, the lady gets first whack."

"Oh, all right. I want the whole story about you and Elizabeth. Don't think I was fooled by your dismissing the matter in a few words! Meilung hinted that the tale was dramatic."

"Hmm." Reith looked around. "Very well; you'll have to know some time. It's a long story, so how about sitting down?" He gestured towards a stone bench in the park. Seated, he said: "Here goes. Every so often, some nubile young tourist falls in love with her guide. It's a hazard of the profession. A smart man keeps them at arm's length; but this one sneaked into my bed and—well, the woman tempted me, and I did screw.

"The next I knew, Elizabeth was pregnant. Her old man, who was on the tour, was a director of the Magic Carpet Travel Bureau, and he'd have yanked the rug from under me, unless ..." Reith smiled wryly. "So before you could count ten, I found myself with an adolescent bride."

"When did this happen? How long after I—we ..."

"About three years after you left for Earthside. By then I'd stopped bleeding."

"Oh, dear Fergus ... Go on, please."

"We got along well enough until young Alister was a toddler. Then Elizabeth got itchy about my job and my absences on tours. She thought I was giving all the female tourists the extra service I'd given her, although I wasn't. She talked about a communal family—you know, couples to take turns with each other's spouses."

"That's been tried on Terra," said Alicia judicially. "The experiment nearly always ends in divorce."

Reith said: "Two couples tried it here, and it ended in murder. I'm sure some of my tourists have played such games, but usually they're discreet about it."

"What about Elizabeth?"

"I returned one day to find she'd gone off with a fat slob of a drug smuggler, a Terran, from the Hamda'.

Elizabeth got her divorce; but when she asked for custody of Alister, Judge Keshavachandra turned her down with some scorching remarks. Later, she told a friend she'd left because I was too sober and rational and predictable—in a word, dull."

"Any woman who found you dull," said Alicia, "should have her pulse checked to make sure she's alive."

"Thanks. Anyway, Elizabeth was one of those who, never having had a real adventure, imagines they're fun. They may be fun to tell about later; but whenever I've been caught in one—well, as the saying goes, on the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia."

"I know," said Alicia.

"After I won the custody suit, Elizabeth's lover boy sent a couple of Krishnans to kidnap Alister."

"The poor baby! Were you living in your house at the time?"

"We'd just moved in. By pure luck, I came home from working the livestock to find these two bravos carrying my kid out, screaming. I let the sawdust out of one, and the other dropped the boy and ran.

"Later, Elizabeth showed up, begging me to take her back. I turned her down."

"I could have told her you would," said Alicia. "Do go on."

"The next thing, I learned that she had killed herself in the Hamda'. For a while I felt guilty as hell. Why was I such a resounding failure as a husband?"

"You're an excellent husband," said Alicia. "It's just that some women don't appreciate your virtues until it's too late. And now it's your turn to ask the question you had in mind."

Reith hesitated; the moment of truth had arrived at last. "Well—uh—I don't know quite how to put it. You know we've been through a lot together."

"So?" her face had gone blank.

Trying to keep his voice steady, Reith continued:

"We've had our troubles, but perhaps these are behind us ...

"What I mean," Reith stumbled on, "is, I think we should give serious thought to ..."

"For-gass!" cried a high-pitched Krishnan voice, which went on in Gozashtandou: "I knew not that ye were in town. Why didst not let me know?"

Reith and Alicia looked up. A comely young female Krishnan stood before them, wearing a topless dress of sheer, shimmery fabric, through which her lithe body was visible.

"And who is the Terran lady?" continued the native girl. "I do perceive that she be a fair dame, even by our human standards."

In English, Reith muttered: "Gods of Krishna, not again! It must be a curse!" In Gozashtandou he said: "Mistress Sári bab-Khahir, I have the honor to present Doctor Alicia Dyckman, a learned lady who works for a Terran company. I am showing her about the country."

"I am honored to meet the learned Terran lady," said Sari, bending one knee almost to the ground and rising again.

"I am equally favored by the charming Mistress Sari," said Alicia, nodding.

"Oh!" cried Sári. "Ye speak our language? Ye must have spent much time in this world, to utter it so purely."

"I lived on this planet years ago," said Alicia. "And did ye know Sir Forgass then? Hast known him well?"

"Fairly well." Alicia raised her delicate eyebrows. "And you?"

Sári clasped her hands. "Ah, words cannot describe my good fortune, to have so marvelous a friend amongst the Terrans. He hath bought me this beautiful dress!" She pirouetted.

"Really, Lish," said Reith in English, "I don't want to sit through another discussion of my personal habits between two—uh—"

"How well have you known him?" Alicia persisted, ignoring Reith's complaint.

Sári rolled her eyes heavenward. "Ah, Doctor, how favored by the gods am I, to have the love of so magnificent a Terran gentleman! So brave! So kind! And such a lover! Why, compared to—"

"Please, Lish," said Reith. "I beg you—"

"Relax, Fergus," said Alicia. "This is a valuable sociological sidelight, and I mean to make the most of it."

Sári rushed on. "I have but two regrets. One is that he visits me no more than once a moon; the other, that he will not wed me. I understand his reasons—that he could never father an egg—"

Reith rose. "If you think I'm going to sit here turning pretty colors while you two analyze my sex life ..."

Alicia smiled. "Tell me, Sari, why did you not force this dezd to marry you before giving yourself to him? Would that have improved your social standing?"

"You'll find me back at the inn in an hour or two," barked Reith, turning and striding away. Behind him, he heard Sári's high, sharp little voice.

"Oh, some old fogies still disparage the mistresses of Terrans, but ..."

Hiking furiously, Reith worked off his anger. He marched down to the waterfront and back with so formidable an air that Krishnans, even if they could not read Terran facial expressions, shrank out of his way.

By the time he returned to the inn, he took a more indulgent view of his recent discomfiture. He knew Sári to be a garrulous, gushy young thing. He should have foreseen this meeting and, if he truly feared it, should have changed the schedule to avoid the stop in Rimbid. He should also have known that whenever Alicia scented some new fact in her field of xenanthropology, she would go for it like a terrier after a rat.

When they met at dinner with Ordway and White, the temperature between Reith and Alicia was noticeably lower. They were polite and friendly; but their exchanges were cooler, more impersonal and siblinglike, as if the undercurrent of sex had been washed out of them. After dinner they bade each other a prim goodnight, without a kiss.

This coolness persisted all next day, during the long drive to Novorecife. Reith spent most of the day either driving the carriage or riding one of the spare ayas, so time for conversation was limited. Upon reaching Novorecife, he drove into the compound, dropped all three passengers at the Visitors' Building, carried Alicia's bag in, and said: "Have a good night's sleep! I'll see you all in the morning."

Without further words, he returned to his box. Turning the carriage smartly, he slapped the ayas with the reins and headed for his ranch.