The Bones of Zora

XI - THE SHIP

For the next two days, Alicia and Reith treated each other with cold formality, seldom speaking save when circumstances demanded. They resumed employment of given names, since "Mr. Reith" and "Doctor Dyckman" seemed silly between two who, whatever their current feelings, had known each other so intimately. But to Reith she was now always "Alicia," never "Lish."

He tried to treat her with the same neutral, impersonal politeness that he had found effective with his tourists; but the contradictory emotions that her presence aroused made this hard. Although he had heard of "love-hate" relationships, this was the first time that one had struck him with all its brutal force.

An old love, he found, dies hard, even when it has been kicked around and trampled. But so do old animosities. He supposed that, for this reason, most divorced couples, even with the best intentions, would find it difficult to be "just friends." Every time they got together, the mere presence of the other would stir up a witch's brew of conflicting emotions in each: loving tenderness from the memory of the good times they had shared; but also rankling resentment of hostile words and deeds from the bad times. Hence each meeting would be likely to erupt either into frantic lovemaking or into a furious quarrel.

The warm south wind carried the Kubitar briskly eastward into th& broad Sadabao Sea. On the second day from Damovang, the course veered to the north, and the ship hove to for the complicated process of shifting the boom of the lateen foresail from one side of the mast to the other.

For the rest of the day, the Kubitar ran wing-and-wing, like some gigantic leather-winged aqebat. As swells crept up behind and forged past, the vessel pitched with the slow, easy motion of a porch swing. Nevertheless, Aristide Marot looked more and more unhappy. He finally fed his breakfast to the piscoids.

"The poor fellow's as green as a Krishnan," said Alicia. "Aristide, why don't you work on your fossils, to take your mind off things?"

"But no! With the ship moving in this manner, some piece might roll overboard. I think I shall go in and lie down."

"My experience," said Reith, "is that it's better to stay on your feet. Then your body remains vertical despite the ship's motion."

"Thank you, my friend," said Marot. "You are a great comfort." But he went into the cabin.

The rugged hills of Cape Dirkash, beyond which Reith and Marot had been snatched from the train by the Bákhites, rose from the sea a few hoda to port. The yellow sun glared in a blue-green sky, and the temperature climbed swiftly. Fanning herself with her hat, Alicia, breaking the near-silence between them, said: "I've never seen it so hot and sticky. Those sailors have the right idea." She nodded towards the Krishnans, who were going about their duties naked but for coats of grease.

Reith had not intended to let himself be drawn into chitchat with Alicia, but the temptation to lecture a willing pupil proved too strong. "It's this running free," he said. "When you go with the wind, the velocity of the ship is subtracted from that of the air. So, if we have a ten-knot breeze and are sailing at five, the wind passes us at five knots, which is practically a calm. Besides, the humidity is a hundred percent at sea level, so of course we're sticky."

"No use being more uncomfortable than we must. Wait here a minute." She disappeared into the cabin and came out with her new sewing kit. "Now take off your clothes, and I'll sew up those rips and tears." She stripped off her own torn khakis and ragged underwear. "Aristide would be embarrassed, but he's asleep in his bunk. Sewing is my only domestic accomplishment—though I daresay I could learn others."

Reith stripped and handed her the garments. Then he got his sword from the cabin and, standing at the rail with his back to her, devoted himself to removing the peace wires that bound the hilt to the sheath. If he let himself gaze upon her splendid pink-and-ivory body, he knew his frustrated passions would become all too visible.

All the long afternoon, Alicia worked away. When she handed Reith back his clothes, he could not resist exclaiming: "But that's marvelous, Alicia! You've made my rags as good as new. Thank you very much!"

"You're welcome, Fergus. Sorry I can't mend everything so easily." She rose and slipped on her shorts. "Now I'm going to pester the captain for some sociological data. See you at dinner." With the grace of a professional dancer, she walked aft to where the gruff, taciturn Gendu leaned on the after rail, with one eye on the sails, another on the helmsman, and a cigar between his teeth.

An hour later, as Roqir winked out behind the hills of Cape Dirkash, Alicia came back to where Reith stood at the rail, staring morosely at the sea. Her face now bore an evasive little smile.

"What now?" said Reith, forgetting for the moment that he was supposed to be coldly furious. "I see that something's happened."

"Nothing much. The captain has asked me to share his bunk tonight, just as Sarf did on the Morkerád."

"These Krishnan big shots have good taste in Terran women, anyway. What did you decide?"

"Why? Would you mind? The day before yesterday you practically urged me to give the captain my all."

Reith's lips tightened, his face flushed, and his jaw became rigid. At last he forced himself to say: "I'm sorry I was rude; I was in a bad temper. As to what you do, it's entirely your affair. If you want one more native lover, it's not my place to advise you."

She flinched but forced a smile, coming close and looking appealingly up. "Are you sure? Because if you really don't care, I can go back and say I've changed my mind; that I'll sleep with him after all."

"You mean you turned him down?" Despite his efforts to maintain a poker face, Reith felt his expression lightening.

"Yes. But what difference does that make to you?"

"Of course I—" Reith began with some heat. Then he took a grip on himself. "Look, Alicia, let's get something straight. There are many things you have a right to do, and that are absolutely no business of mine. But, because of what you've been to me, I can't take an objective, cold-blooded view of them. Sometimes they hurt me, or fill me with rage or jealousy or fear. I warned you in Jazmurian that, like lots of other people, I develop proprietary feelings towards those dear to me." Reith was vexed to find his lip trembling and his eyes watering, but he plunged on:

"If you take some crazy risk that may get you killed, I shouldn't care any more than I would about any other Earth-woman; but I'm terrified for you. If you lie down with some blug like that so-called President, I suppose I ought, like some Terran spouses, to say: 'Have fun, kid!' and dismiss the matter. But I'll never be so liberal-minded as all that; instead-, I want to kill the bastard. If I'm considered a barbarian in Katai-Jhogorai, that's just too bad."

Reith stared at the waves and composed himself. "I try not to show these feelings or interfere in your affairs. If I don't always succeed, the reason is that I'm not quite the 'cold fish' you once called me during a quarrel. Some day I may think of you as only one more Terran; but that day's not here yet. If I believed in some Krishnan god, I'd pray to him to hasten its coming." Reith hastily wiped his eyes with his knuckles.

Alicia stared at him, then seized both shoulders and kissed him. "You're sweet, under that gruff manner, and I'm glad you care. You deserve a woman with all my better qualities and none of my horrible faults. With this captain, you needn't worry. I used the same gag I did with King Ainkhist."

"Teeth in your personal person?"

"Sure. I said it would be a pity if, in a transport of passion, I bereft him of the pride of the merchant fleet. He was a little puzzled, saying: "In that case, how do you Terrans propagate, if every male who impregnates a female suffers mortal hurt?' I told him the teeth wouldn't bite the female's official mate."

"But, as I remember, that talk didn't scare off Ainkhist the second time."

"That's true; but the reason was that Percy, unintentionally, had given the game away. So the second time I was in Mutabwk, it was either give the king what he demanded or be flogged to death for lèse majesté. Percy swore he'd kill Ainkhist if he got a chance, for dishonoring Terran womanhood. Percy has some of the quaintest ideas you ever heard of outside a nineteenth-century novel."

"Quaint, maybe," growled Reith, "but I'd kill the swine, too."

"Dear Fergus! You and Percy want me to be a delicate, dimwitted, fluttery female like the heroine of one of those old novels."

"That's not the point. I'm no killer, but the thought of my woman's being laid by one of those quasi-men pushes the same buttons in me as if he were human."

She looked sharply at Reith. "What do you mean, your woman?"

"Well, say a woman I care about. Didn't you feel somehow degraded?"

"Yes; because I'd been compelled against my will, not because Ainkhist wasn't human. When you live among Krishnans as much as I have, you forget they're of another species. So, while I wouldn't ask anybody to take vengeance, if I heard that Ainkhist had come to a sticky end, my grief wouldn't overwhelm me. And in the long run I profited from the episode."

"You mean Ainkhist paid you?"

"No—yes—well, not exactly. He gave me a valuable necklace; but after we escaped from him, I gave the thing to Percy to give his wife as a homecoming present. I didn't want it; it made me feel like a whore. And don't you dare ever tell Vicky where it came from!"

"Of course not! But how did you profit?"

"I had a whole day in the harem, while Ainkhist went hunting; and I interviewed all the inmates. After I left you, I wrote Women of a Khaldoni Harem and sent it off to my Terran agent. Of course it'll be years before I learn whether the book was published and how it made out."

Reith shook his head. "You're the most amazing person I've ever known."

She turned away with a small smile of satisfaction.

Reith had taken one of the upper bunks, to save his companions the trouble of climbing. During the night, a change in the ship's motion woke him. For a confused moment he wondered if they had reached port, though an instant's pause quashed this idea. Carefully he lowered himself to the cabin floor. He lit the candle in the small lantern, put on shirt and pants, and went out.

Thick fog lay like a sable blanket over oily-smooth water. A faint breeze stirred the limp sails, giving the ship just enough way to dispatch a line of ripples from each side of the bow.

Aft, Captain Gendu stood at the taffrail, near the sailor at the whipstaff. Above their heads, a lantern hung from a pole, its feeble yellow light pushing ineffectually at the fog. To starboard, a faint pearly luminescence heralded the coming dawn.

"Fear not; 'twill lift after sunup," growled the captain when Reith came up to him. "Then we may hope the breeze will freshen."

Reith walked the deck to warm his muscles and did a few knee bends and pushups. Little by little, the light in the east waxed stronger and the fog began to turn pink.

"Sun's up," said Gendu. "Twill soon burn off the vapor."

Reith reentered the cabin, meaning to try to snatch another hour's sleep before full daylight. Marot snored in his bunk; Alicia breathed lightly in hers. Reith set down the lantern and began to remove his trousers when a sound from outside brought him to full alert. It was a shout, which seemed to come, not from aboard the Kubitar, but from across water.

Captain Gendu's deep, rasping voice gave an answering shout. Then came cries of crewmen, a patter of bare feet on the deck, and a clash of metal. Something metallic struck wood with a sound like that of an ax biting into a log. Amid a rising babel of voices came a grinding and cracking of strained timbers. The deck jerked beneath Reith's feet, staggering him.

In the seconds between the first shout and the jolt of the ship-to-ship contact, Reith, groping in the dim light, found his sword and stepped to the door on the side whence the noise seemed to come. A glance showed Marot and Alicia sitting up in their bunks and putting their feet on the floor.

"Qu'est que—" mumbled Marot, in chorus with Alicia's soprano: "What's this—"

"Hold the other door, Aristide!" shouted Reith. "Alicia, get some clothes on!"

As he spoke, the door in which Reith stood flew open. In the doorway stood a Krishnan wearing a dirty breechclout and a dented, rusty breastplate. The newcomer brandished a curved sword, aiming a forehand cut at Reith's neck.

Reith got his blade up in time to parry, though the shock of the contact with the massive weapon made his hand tingle. The invader next swung a backhand slash, wielding the heavy blade as if it were feather-light. Again, Reith barely caught the sweep on his own sword.

At that instant, Reith heard the other door, behind him, fly open and the sound of entry of more armed Krishnans. A shriek from Alicia cut through a shout from Marot and sounds of struggle.

Reith sent a quick thrust at his opponent's face while the latter was still recovering from his second slash. The Krishnan jerked back out of range, brought his heavy sword up over his head, and started a terrific downright cut, with both hands on the hilt. Reith had an instant of fear that, while he could get his sword up in time to parry the blow, the impact might break his lighter blade.

The Krishnan, however, had forgotten that he was standing in a doorway, with the lintel a few spans above his head. His blade struck the lintel, pierced deeply into the wood, and stuck fast.

Without thinking out his next move, Reith threw himself forward in an extended lunge, aiming for the Krishnan heart region, as if he faced an unarmored foe. The lunge went home perfectly, striking the Krishnan about where the solar plexus would be on a Terran and the heart on a Krishnan.

The point, however, skittered off the steel of the breastplate. Remembering too late the difference between an armored and an unarmored foe, Reith jerked his arm back to send a remise at the Krishnan's unprotected throat. But something hard and heavy struck his skull from behind. The surroundings dissolved in a pyrotechnics of whirling lights. Reith dimly heard the clang of his dropped sword and felt the impact of the deck against the hands and knees to which he had fallen.

Horny hands seized Reith, hauled him to his feet, and hustled him, staggering, out the door, vaguely surprised to find himself still alive. Outside, the brightening light showed that alongside the Kubitar lay another ship, of similar length but more slender hull. Three grapnels from the strange ship were sunk in the Kubitar's starboard bulkhead. Figures, dimly seen through the fog on the deck of the other ship, held the grapnel ropes and thus kept the ships together.

The deck was crowded with a swarm of Krishnans in motley garb, some wearing bits of armor and all carrying swords, pikes, or axes.

"Fergus!" came Alicia's high voice. "Where are you?"

"Here!" replied Reith, looking about. He located her in the crowd, with a pair of burly Krishnans holding her arms. Another pair held the arms of Aristide Marot; blood ran down one of Marot's arms and dripped on the deck.

"What happened to us?" Reith called.

Marot replied: "I think I made a slight wound on one of our attackers, but another gave me a cut on the arm. Then one ran up behind you and struck you with the pommel of his sword."

Beyond Alicia and Marot, Captain Gendu and his crew stood in a group with the invaders' swords at their throats. Several bled blue-green Krishnan blood from untended wounds. Among the legs of the attackers, Reith glimpsed the bodies of two of Gendu's crewmen. A hoarse voice bellowed:

"Move not! Yield or die! Those who resist no longer shall not be hurt!"

The speaker appeared at the rail of the other ship. Through the thinning mist, Reith perceived the outline of a short, stout female Krishnan, in helmet, cuirass, and kilt.

The rising sun spread a rosy carpet across the still waters, so that Reith could discern the features of individuals.

"Put them on our ship!" shouted the female leader. "We'll scrutinize them when the light waxes stronger. Do I see some Ertsuma? With hair of red, yellow, and black, as described in the contract? 'Tis indeed they, praise Maibud! The old witch of Jeshang will pay us more for these creatures than we'd get in a score of ordinary ransoms. Lucky for you scum that ye took them alive as I commanded! Get them aboard! Yare, yare!"

Reith and his companions were hustled to and over the rails of the ships, which ground together with the slight motion of the waves. Reith and Alicia managed to land on their feet on the deck of the other ship, but Marot fell heavily and got up groaning. Gendu and his surviving crewmen were likewise forced over the rails. As the captives reached the deck of the other ship, other pirates seized them and tied their wrists together with stops of light line. Meanwhile other pirates—for such Reith assumed they were—scattered over the Kubitar for loot. Reith called:

"Alicia! Are you okay?"

"I don't know that 'okay' is quite the word," she answered, "but I'm not wounded."

"You, Aristide?"

"Except for this cut."

"Let me fix that!" said Alicia. In starting to dress as Reith commanded, she had only gotten as far as a pair of panties. Now, with her wrists bound, she slipped these off and tore them into a couple of long strips; the disintegrating fabric parted easily. Soon she had a bandage around Marot's upper right arm. The pirates neither helped nor hindered her first aid.

"Just a scratch, luckily," said Marot. "It will heal up in a few days. Fergus! What is all this?"

"I'm trying to find out," said Reith. "Captain Gendu! Who are these people?"

Wearily, Gendu explained: "This ship is Tondi's Haghrib. That she-devil's the worst pirate captain of the lot."

For the next hour the captives—three Terrans, Captain Gendu, his mate Chindor, his cook, and his nine surviving seamen—huddled unhappily in the bow, while the pirates went through the Kubitar and handed their pickings across the rails to the deck of the pirate craft. Tondi supervised the stowage of loot. As each item came aboard, a stout pirate with a wooden peg leg and eyeglasses incongruously perched on his nose entered the accession on a sheet of paper. Then the object was carried down a ladder into the hold.

Standing at the edge of the hatch opening, Tondi shouted down to place the wine jars together, pile the bolts of cloth neatly in one spot, and so on. Presently a pirate appeared at the rail with Marot's sack of fossils, saying:

"Captain, be this the bag of stones the Bákhite said his mistress wanted?"

"Is't the only bag of stones aboard? Well then, this must needs be it. Old Lazdai must be getting soft in the brain, to collect stones; but 'tis all one to us so that she pays us what she promised. Fetch it aboard!"

At last a pirate reported: "Captain, we find nought else save bulk goods of low value: slabs of marble, ingots of lead, farm produce, and the like. No jewels and no coin but a few hundred karda. This is no treasure ship." Reith inferred that the "few hundred karda" were mostly his.

"Then we must needs scour this route until we find more profitable prey," Tondi replied.

"But Captain!" said a pirate who seemed to be a ship's officer of some sort. "Won't the price of these Terrans from the priestess suffice for the voyage?"

"And how if the old puzzel renies her debt to us, once she hath the off-worlders in her grasp? I trust her not. So we'll cruise some more and then seek the rendezvous to turn these creatures over. Loose the other ship and scuttle her!"

When the first curl of dark smoke arose from the Kubitar's hold, the pirates pushed the ships apart with boathooks. Oars quickly emerged from their holes to drive the Haghrib away from her victim. As the distance increased, the fire on the Kubitar blazed more and more brightly through the thinning fog. The sails went up like torches, for an instant rivaling the wan, fog-shrouded sun in brilliance.

Reith heard Captain Gendu mutter: "I told the owners we needed armed guards. But nay, they said; the pirate menace is abated, and good guards cost good silver."

The sun brightened and the breeze strengthened. The last wisps of fog drifted past like homing ghosts. The temperature began to rise.

"Now," barked Tondi, "we'll look over our guests."

With blows, threats, and curses, the pirates dragged the captives to their feet and pushed them into line against the gunwale. Overhead, the beige-colored sails caught the freshening breeze and filled; below, the oars were again withdrawn, releasing the rowers to join their fellow pirates on deck.

Tondi went to her cabin but soon reappeared. She had shed her helm and cuirass and now wore nothing but a short kilt, which had once been white. She was barrel-shaped, flat-breasted, and ugly both by Terran and by Krishnan standards. She looked as if she had not had a bath in years. Her long, greasy hair bore the bluish tint of the Krishnan races dwelling east of the Triple Seas.

She started down the line. The first captive, a sailor, turned gray and his antennae quivered with fear as she examined him. She said: "He'd be useless."

She jerked a thumb. As two pirates seized the sailor and hoisted him up on the rail, he screamed: 'Tondi! Ye promised us no harm—" A splash heralded his end.

Tondi gave a snort of laughter and went to the next sailor, who stammered: "T-tondi, I'll gladly join your crew!"

"We already have a full complement." Again she jerked a thumb, and, yelling protests, the sailor was tossed over the side like the other.

The next captive was Chindor, the mate. He said: "Ye durst not drown me, Tondi! My brother's High Admiral of Ulvanagh. He'd hunt you down as far as the Southern Pole—"

"Ye threaten me?" screamed Tondi. "Over the side with him!"

"Cursed fool!" mumbled Gendu. "If he'd bragged of's seamanship, he'd like have bought's life."

"No Pirates of Penzance here," murmured Reith to his companions.

The massacre continued until only Captain Gendu and the three Terrans remained. Gendu growled: "How did ye catch us so featly. Captain Tondi?"

"We followed you through the night by your stern lantern."

"Ye showed no lights!"

Tondi gave a scornful snort. "Think ye we're noodles, to warn of our coming?"

" 'Twas a' clever scheme, anyway, worthy of your repute."

Tondi allowed herself a Krishnan smile. "If ye futter as well as ye flatter, I may not regret sparing your worthless life. Be ye not Captain Gendu, of Goftan and Fori?"

"Aye."

"I know the firm. They'll pay well for one of their ablest skippers. So consider your life prolonged for the nonce; but ye'd better give me a good stroking when your turn comes!"

She passed on to Reith: "Ah, he of the fiery hair! What's your name and business?"

Reith gave the information. Tondi asked: "How be ye in bed? Canst deliver many a mighty stroke?"

"My women haven't complained," said Reith, trying not to show how repelled he felt by her stench.

"Ye shall have your chance to prove your words," Tondi said, "and woe betide you if ye prove but a bladder filled with air."

"What's this about the High Priestess of Balch in Jeshang?" asked Reith. "When we left Chilihagh a ten-day ago, the Dasht had ordered Lazdai and her council clapped into prison."

"Ah, but things have changed yet again! The High Priestess and her folk were delivered from jail by a mob of her faithful. Lazdai called for an uprising, and part of the army joined the Bákhites. The latest word is that Lazdai rules the Dashtate, whilst the Dasht and his few loyal followers are besieged in's palace."

"How do you learn these things?"

Tondi laid a finger beside her nose. 'Trade secret. My spies are everywhere!"

She turned to Alicia. "Aha, the Terran female we were besought to watch for! I'm told they provide high pleasure for virile human men like my knaves. Lusty though I be, I can't keep the whole shipful happy." She raised her voice. "Men! See ye this Ertsui? Who craves to ram his yard into her alien cleft?"

"I!" shouted a pirate, and others took up the cry.

"Line up, then. We must needs do things in an orderly way. Ye two, hold the strumpet down."

Two pirates seized Alicia and threw her to the deck. She tried to kick and bite but, with her hands tied, her struggles were unavailing.

Reith was in agony. His mind raced in an effort to find some way to save Alicia. Then he remembered his talk with Alicia after Gendu had made advances to her. He forced a loud, raucous laugh, as if he had just heard the dirtiest joke of his life.

Tondi scowled. "Wherefore so buffoonish?" Reith said: "I look forward to the sight of your lusty rouges' losing their privy members. A revenge fit for the god Qondyor!"

"What mean ye, rascallion?"

"Only that, as all Terrans know, the female Terran is provided, in her tunnel of love, with razor-sharp teeth. If her lover please her not, these teeth go—" He closed his jaws with a click. "—and the poor wight's unmanned forever. Many die of this rough usage."

Tondi turned to Marot. "Be this tale true?"

"Of a certainty, mistress. It is the sure defense against unwanted entry, wherewith the gods of the Ertsuma have provided the females of my species."

"Absolutely!" added Reith. "That's why rape is unknown among us."

Tondi growled: "Methought rape was unknown amongst Terrans because your females were so hot to be tupped that there's never a need for force. What if the male hold a knife to the female's throat, commanding her to keep her nether fangs sheathed till the deed be done?"

"That would be useless," said Reith. "The action works of itself, whenever the female's inner spirit be unwilling."

"What know ye of this?" Tondi asked Gendu.

"Only what these aliens tell," replied the captain. "But I'm not lief to risk my own precious pintle to make a test of the tale!"

"I know not whether to believe this taradiddle," snorted Tondi. Turning away, she said to her crewmen: "Ye heard these rascals, did you not? Who's fain to put this story to the proof? Tokh! Ye?" She pointed to the first pirate in line.

"Pray excuse me," said Tokh. "I've not been well of late."

After several others had given similar excuses, Tondi burst into a bellowing laugh. "Gods, this is the funniest thing that hath befallen since we flayed alive that fat Majburo merchant! My lusty rogues, unmanned by the mere thought of a tooth-bearing cunt! For this enjoyment, I'll have you unbound. But ye shall remain here on the deck—" With the point of her sword she scratched a square on the planking. "—and not stir therefrom without express permission. Tokh, ye and Ferdur shall guard them; let none stray. Allow the drab to rise!"

The four prisoners, with hands untied, huddled miserably on the square of deck outlined by Tondi. Another hour passed before Marot remarked:

"I once read a romantic novel about a pirate queen, in the days of the flintlock musket and the muzzle-loading cannon. She was tall, slender, beautiful, and fastidious, with hair as fiery red as yours, Fergus. Any man who approached her lewdly was spitted on her rapier like a pat of butter. Somehow our present hostess fails to match that description."

Reith gave a grim smile. "If there ever were any of those— pirettes, I guess you'd call 'em—on Terra, they probably looked more like Tondi than that fictional heroine."

"Yes. I—" Marot clapped a hand to his forehead. "Mon dieu! I have just realized that I have no eyeglasses! If something demands itself to be read, you or Alicia must read it to me. They took my ring camera and film. And my longevity capsules, also, remained on the other ship."

"Alicia has obviously lost her LPs, too," said Reith. "Mine are in my money belt, which I've been sleeping in. These yucks haven't searched me yet. I haven't pills enough to last the three of us to Novo; but I'll share those I have as far as they go."

Alicia leaned against Reith, who put an arm around her. She murmured: "Oh, Fergus, I'm so bruised and miserable! And my beautiful notes, all burned up on that ship!" She began to cry.

Reith, his anger forgotten, hugged and kissed her and stroked her blond hair. Despite her nearness and nudity, he felt no sexual arousal, but only a vast tenderness. If at that moment, despite all that had happened, she had begged him to take her back ... But she did not. He said:

"Things could be worse. At least we're still alive, and you weren't gang-raped."

"Much as I'd have hated it, I'd rather put up with that than with the loss of my notes."

Marot said: "I understand, my dear. But whereas you have lost notes, much of which you can reconstruct from memory, I have lost the specimen that I crossed light-years of space to find."

She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. "You're right, Aristide. I'm sorry to be a sissy, when you've suffered a worse loss than I. My, this sun's getting hot! I know Roqir doesn't affect human skin so severely as Sol, but I just burn and peel."

"Same here," said Reith, taking off his khaki shirt and wrapping it around her. "Hey, Tokh!" He addressed one of the pirates guarding them. "How about some water?"

When a dipperful had been passed around, and each had drunk a few swallows, they were silent for a while. Then Alicia said: "This is worse than yesterday. Wouldn't some shade ..."

"Seaman Tokh!" said Reith.

"Aye?"

"We Ertsuma can't endure so much direct sunlight without covering. A full day of this could kill us."

"That were your misfortune, alien. I got you water."

"But if we're dead, you'd get no ransom. Hadn't you better warn your captain?"

"To what avail? We can't turn off the sun."

"I saw you bring our clothing aboard. Could this female have her own garments back?"

Tokh conferred in an undertone with his companion and departed to the cabin. Presently he returned.

"The captain saith to put you all in the hold," he announced. "Come."

They followed the guards aft to where a large wooden grating occupied much of the deck between the bulwarks. The guards yelled for help, and four brawny pirates heaved up the hatch cover. Another picked up a hooked ladder and lowered it into the hole until the hooks caught in the coaming.

"Down ye go!" said Tokh.

"What's down there?" said Alicia nervously.

Reith bent over the edge of the opening. "Seems to be mostly stacks of loot. Gentlemen precede ladies on stairs. Come on!" He backed into the hole, and soon all four stood on the floor of the hold. The pirates pulled up the ladder and replaced the grating.

Reith looked about. Little squares of sunlight through the grating relieved the gloom, and as his eyes adjusted to the dark, Reith found he could see quite well. The hold extended for most of the length of the ship, ending at wooden bulkheads fore and aft. The bare deck stretched around for many meters; but at bow and stem the space was crowded by chests, jars, and crates.

"Their hold's about half full," said Reith, "so they'll plan a few more captures before returning to base."

Alicia discovered a large, untidy pile of garments. She darted to it and burrowed into the heap, throwing kilts, jackets, and mantles aside.

"I'm looking for my own clothes," she said. "Nakedness is all very well in this heat, but I'm tired of getting splinters in me whenever I sit down. Some of these clothes look nice. I wouldn't mind owning this!"

She held up a black kilt of velvetlike material, with a waistband and a hem sparkling with spangles.

"Take it," said Reith.

She slipped on the kilt and continued to hunt. She next found a little crimson bolero with short sleeves, open in front.

"To hell with my old khakis!" she said. "I like this better. With all this looted stuff, we can have a one-woman fashion show."

Marot said: "You are amazing, Alicia. Nothing keeps you down for long."

Gendu grumbled: "If ye'd talk in a speech that I can understand, instead of that off-world chatter, we might get on better."

"We beg your pardon," said Marot.

"Our next order of business," said Reith in a low voice, slipping back into Gozashtandou, "is to find a way out."

"Ye dream, Ertsu!" said Gendu. "We lack a ladder wherewith to gain the deck. Best await our ransoming with such patience as we can muster."

"We certainly shan't escape if we never try," said Reith.

"Besides," said Alicia, "High Priestess Lazdai somehow got word to Tondi that she'd pay well for us. I don't know how they'd get us from here to Chilihagh without detection; but still ..."

"I daresay they have ways," said Reith. "In any case, I'm not going to sit still while Lazdai has her kettle fired up again. I'll take a look around, to see what might be useful."

He strolled among the piles and ranks of loot. Towards the ends of the hold, where the light was too dim to make objects out clearly, he fingered the materials. At last he paused at a row of chests, neatly lined up. He opened one and found it full of heavy cloth, perhaps for blankets. Another held plates and tableware. A third was full of rolls of Krishnan paper, each tied up with a colored ribbon.

"They look like wills and deeds, the way they do them up here," murmured Alicia at Reith's elbow.

"They must be from some Krishnan lawyer's archives. Now why should Tondi keep a chest full of legal papers?"

Alicia shrugged. "I suppose she hopes to find someone who'll pay for their return, on a no-questions-asked basis."

The next chest brought a squeal of joy from Alicia. Even the gloom could not conceal the sparkle of a heap of bejeweled necklaces, bracelets, and other gauds. She dug her fingers into the mass and held up piece after piece to the dim light.

"Looks like costume jewelry," grunted Reith. "You won't find any valuable stones there—just brass and colored glass."

"I don't care! I'm tired of being a mere female scientist in dirty khaki. I want to be a womanly woman for a change. How's this?"

Around her neck she clasped an ornate necklace—a lacelike collar of golden filigree in which was set a dazzling array of colored stones resembling emeralds, rubies, sapphires, amethysts, garnets, and Bákh knew what else. Each large stone was surrounded by a circlet of winking diamonds, or at least rhinestones, whence depended a fringe of lesser gems in graduated sizes. She said:

"It looks like the neckpiece worn by that entertainer at Angur's. Do look, Fergus!"

"Very pretty," said Reith absently. "But you'd better hide it before the pirates see it on you."

Alicia danced over to the pile of assorted garments and dug among them until she found a scarf. This she tied around her neck so as to hide the necklace.

Meanwhile, Reith opened the next chest. After an astounded pause, he called in an excited whisper: "Hey, Aristide! Gendu! Come here!"

The chest was half full of swords—fancy weapons with jeweled hilts, and scabbards decorated with gold and silver filigree. The other males drew in sharp breaths. Reith said in a low voice:

"These must have been made for rich lordlings." He picked out a sword, unsheathed it, and gave a disappointed grunt. "Purely a parade weapon—no edge."

Marot handled another. "This one seems sharp."

They hunted through the chest, thumbing each blade. Of the fourteen swords, five proved fighting weapons.

"All very well," grumbled Gendu, "but locked in this crypt, we shall have little use for them."

"Don't be too sure of that," said Reith.

The day crawled past. The prisoners told each other stories and jokes to while away the time and to take their minds off their ever-growing pangs of hunger. Even the glum, irascible Gendu was persuaded to recount tales from his seagoing career. Eventually lack of water dried out their throats and brought their speech to a halt.

When the daylight was fading, a pirate called down: "Come up for dinner, prisoners. 'Ware ladder!"

- "Should we take swords in hand and set upon them?" whispered Marot.

"No," said Reith. "It's still daylight, and they'll be watching us. But I'm getting an idea."

Roqir was half occluded by the jagged hills of Cape Dirkash when the pirates directed their prisoners to a section of deck. There, sitting on the boards in a circle, they were served bowls of some sort of stew, on top of which had been dumped a number of rock-hard biscuits.

"Eat hearty, my bullies," said the pirate assigned to watch them. 'Twice a day is all the repasts ye shall get."

Marot took one bite and proffered his bowl to the others. 'Take it, my friends, if you are hungry. With the mal de mer, I could not keep it down."

"Thanks," said Reith. "I could eat enough for three. Take your share, Gendu. Yours, too, Alicia. The trick is to soften the biscuits in the gravy; otherwise you may break a tooth on them."

Tondi appeared. At the sight of Alicia in her spangled kilt, jacket, and scarf, she cried: "Ho, Earthwoman, what do ye in those garments? They're our property by right of conquest!"

"Oh, please don't be angry, Captain!" said Alicia in her most winsome manner. "I was awakened from sleep and didn't have time to put anything on. I couldn't find my own clothes in that pile downstairs, so I took the liberty of borrowing these." She rose and spun around. "Do you like them on me?"

Tondi gave a snort of laughter. "Well, I'll add the value of those fripperies to your ransom fee, and ye may keep them."

She touched Marot's shoulder. "As for you, when ye finish your repast, I'm fain to have you in my cabin. I've never been futtered by an Ertsu, and here's a chance to try it. Dost understand?"

"Of a certainty!" He looked a sigh at Reith. "Je ferai tout mon petit possible; mais, elle pue!"

When Reith, Alicia, and Gendu had been returned to the hold, Reith said: "We'd better make our try tonight."

"Why?" said Gendu. "We're a man short. Why not wait till all be present?"

"Because tomorrow night she'll have picked you or me for yard duty, and the night after the other of us, and so on.

Moreover, we're now within sight of the coast. Another night we may be out of sight of land."

"What good doth the sight of the coast do us?" grumbled Gendu. "We cannot walk on water, as some Terran god is reputed to have done."

"We'll swim."

"Great Qondyor! Belike you Terrans can swim that monstrous distance; but I cannot swim at all. No proper sailor swims. If a man fall overboard in a storm, he's dead in any case."

"You see that hatch grating?" Reith pointed up. "Aye. What oft?"

"When they open the hatch to let us come up, they lean it upright against the mast stays. If we could throw it overboard and jump in after it, we could use it as a raft."

"Ye be mad, Ertsu! I know somewhat of rafts, and yon thing's too small to bear one of us, let alone four."

"We won't ride upon it. We'll hold it by the edge, to keep our heads out of water, and swim with our legs, pushing it ahead of us."

"The thing must weigh above a hundred Qiribo pounds. Think ye one of us could lift it and cast it forth?"

"I think two could."

"But if I jump over the side, being no swimmer, I shall be dead as soon as I strike water!"

"We'll catch you and pull you to the raft."

Alicia asked: "On the water, how can we keep headed in the right direction? We can't take the ship's compass with us."

"Alicia, with three moons and a sky full of stars to steer by, even I could keep track of our course," Reith replied.

Gendu spoke: "What of the other Ertsu?"

"When Tondi hears the disturbance, she'll come boiling out, and Marot will come, too. We'll call to him, and he'll know what to do."

" 'Twill never work. Ye haven't even named a way to get us to the main deck. Think ye these villains'll stand about quietly whilst we ascend to the deck and make off with their hatch cover? Belike wishing us a pleasant voyage?"

"All right, what do sailormen fear most at sea?"

Gendu pondered. "A fire. A storm ye can ride out, if your ship be sound and well-handled. But if ye bum, that's the end of you. Therefore the first rule of the sea, for pirate and honest merchantman alike, is: no smoking below decks!"

"And if this ship developed a fire in the hold, what would the crew do?"

"Saw ye not that row of buckets along the bulwark? The sailors'd form a line coming down into the hold here and hand buckets of water along to quench the blaze."

"Well then," said Reith. "We'll set the ship afire. When the smoke rises through the hatch and they hear us yelling, the crew will raise the hatch and lower the ladder. The first who come down will have a surprise awaiting them. Then up we go, and in the confusion we'll throw the hatch cover over the side and dive after it. I ought not to say 'dive,' because one should jump off feet first. If you hit your head on the raft, that might be your finish."

"And what's to hinder the fire from burning us up, or the smoke from smothering us, whilst we await the ladder?"

"I think they'll move lively enough. Anyway, that's a chance we'll have to take."

"A terrible chance indeed. And even if we can swim that distance, a gvam or a saferir may swallow us at a gulp."

"That's just one more chance—"

"Chance, chance! When ye add these chances, that of survival is like unto that of slaying a yeki with your bare hands. 'Tis a mad scheme. Why not quietly await your ransoms?"

"We have places to go and things to do; and I doubt if the plan's any riskier than life on this craft, with its murderous mistress. No more argument; pick a sword! You, too, Alicia."

Reith chose a sword of medium length and weight. Alicia picked the lightest weapon with a good edge. Gendu gloomily handled the remaining swords and chose one with a curved blade, twice as heavy as most. He swished it through the air, saying:

"Those pretty needle-pointed things serve well enough on land, where the footing is solid. But on a rolling deck, a man hath no use for fancy fencing; his thrusts and lunges go agley. What ye need is something that'll cut deep, whithersoever ye swing it!"

When full darkness came, slightly mitigated by moonlight through the grating, Reith examined his lighter. "Damn!" he muttered. "I forgot I used the last charge of tinder to light the lamp this morning, and I don't have my tinderbox."

Alicia: "These gauzy clothes might do."

"Splendid! Help me to cut some little pieces."

An hour later, the three had laid half a dozen small fires about the hold and piled combustibles around them. For kindling, they used scrolls from the chest of documents and slivers of wood from the chest itself, which Gendu whittled off with his cutlass.

"Ready?" said Reith. "Here goes!"

He snapped the lighter. The fluff of cloth in the chamber caught and blazed up ruddy yellow. With his other hand he touched the end of one of the scrolls to the flame. When the scroll caught fire, he handed his torch to Alicia, who darted away to set one of the blazes. He handed another flaming scroll to Gendu. He lit a third for his own use; but by the time he had it going, his companions had started all six fires.

Reith pressed his sword into Alicia's hand. "Stand behind me now and keep this sticker out of sight until I reach back for it." He coughed in the gathering smoke. "Ready, everyone? Yell Fire!' "

The cry of "Fire!" was echoed from the deck above, which soon resounded to the drumming of naked feet. Amid a babel of voices, the grating was raised, letting the full light of the moons into the hold. The ladder slanted down. Reith looked up to see a ring of worried Krishnan faces, tinged yellow by the flames below, which crackled and waxed larger by the second.

"Hurry with those buckets!" screamed Reith, as if in mortal terror. He heard rumblings and splashings and shouts. Presently a pirate backed down the ladder, holding a bucket in one hand.

"Hasten!" shouted Reith, reaching behind him. Alicia thrust the sword hilt into his hand.

The first pirate reached the floor of the hold and stared goggle-eyed at the circle of fires. When a glance assured Reith that the second pirate was halfway down, Reith thrust his sword into the firstcomer's belly, twisted the blade, and tore it loose. The bucket crashed to the deck.

Reith's blade took the second pirate in the ribs. As the Krishnan, with a yell, fell off the last two steps of the ladder, Reith's sword was nearly wrenched from his grasp. Seizing the hilt with both hands, he pulled the weapon free.

Reith then scampered up the ladder. Above him loomed the backside of another sailor. Hugging one upright with his sword arm, Reith caught the Krishnan's ankle with his free hand and plucked the pirate from his perch. The Krishnan tumbled past him with a shout, spilling his bucket over Alicia; but his yell was cut short by the chopping sound of Gendu's cutlass.

When Reith reached the topmost rung, he found a pirate, holding a bucket, standing agape before him. Reith ran the Krishnan through and sprang out on deck. The other prisoners followed. The unarmed pirates scattered before the three swords, screaming to one another to get weapons from the armory.

A naked, potbellied Tondi flung open the door of the captain's cabin and bellowed commands. Golden tongues of flame licked up above the hatch coaming.

"Get the grating!" panted Reith. "Guard our backs, Alicia! Aristide! Where in hell are you?"

"Here!" came a voice. In his ragged undershorts, Marot, carrying something in a sack, shoved Tondi aside and ran towards Reith and Gendu, who struggled with the grating. When a pirate barred his way, the Frenchman swung his bag and smote the Krishnan over the head. The pirate fell to his knees, clasping his skull.

With straining muscles, Reith and Gendu turned the grating at right angles to the bulwark and heaved it up. Marot set a hand under the lower edge and heaved, so that the structure was balanced on the rail. Then over it went with a great splash. Marot's tossed his sack after the grating, on which it landed with a clank.

"Over the side, feet first!" gasped Reith, climbing the rail. "Don't hit the grating!"

A pirate charged the fugitives with a pike. Captain Gendu snatched up the cutlass he had dropped and whirled. A sound of chopping meat, followed by the clatter of the pike and the thud of a body, told that tale.

Alicia swung at another pirate, who dodged back. Then, throwing her sword at the Krishnan, she sprang to the rail.

Reith struck the water feet first, went under, and bobbed up. Alicia's falling body struck his shoulder and knocked him under again. This time he came up choking and coughing.

"G-get away from the ship!" he wheezed. "Where's Gendu?"

"I have him," said Marot's calm voice. "Put your elbows on the raft, Captain, and let us do the swimming."

Marot added the strength of his legs to the vehement kicks of Reith and Alicia, and slowly the ponderous hatch crept away from the Haghrib.

Something whistled through the dark and plunked into the water. "They're shooting!" said Reith. "Faster!" He moved to the side of the raft, holding it with one hand while swimming side stroke.

Another arrow hissed, and the sound ended in a faint thud. "I'm struck!" said Gendu.

Marot said: "It appears to be lodged in your shoulder muscle, Captain. I do not think that it is fatal. We shall remove it ashore."

"I knew ... this crazy scheme ... my doom," growled Gendu.

Hours passed, while the moons and stars wheeled slowly across the sky. They neared the shore of Cape Dirkash with heartbreaking slowness, as they often had to stop to rest. During the first of these halts, Alicia said: "We must have swum clear to Majbur!"

"Save your breath, Alicia. We could make better time without clothes dragging at us."

"Right! Hold my head out of water."

Reith held up her chin while she struggled out of the scarf, the jacket, and the kilt. He then tried to unbutton his own shirt and trousers, but gave himself a ducking as he fumbled with the wet garments.

"Put your shoulders up on the raft, Fergus," said Alicia. "I'll manage the buttons ... There!"

Reith's and Alicia's clothes and Reith's money belt were heaped on the grating. Reith said:

"How about you, Aristide?"

"My undergarment, it does not incommode me."

Rests became more frequent as they tired. At the second stop, Marot exclaimed: "Where is Captain Gendu?"

They peered into the ambient dark and called, but the captain was not to be seen. Reith said: "He must have slipped off and drowned. His wound looked superficial, but I guess the loss of his ship destroyed his will to live."

"Unless," said Marot, "he was taken by one of those sea monsters, like the gvam."

"Oh, lord!" said Alicia. "What if it comes back for seconds?"

"Nothing much we can do about it," said Reith. "All we can do is keep swimming and hope for the best. Let's go!"

They swam again. At the next halt, Alicia said: "Aristide, what's in that bag of stuff you brought out of the cabin?"

"My fossils, naturellement."

"What?" cried Reith. "How in Bákh's name did you salvage them?"

"That is a curious story. Tondi drank heavily during our assignation, perhaps to steel herself for the ordeal of an interplanetary amour. Hence she told me more than, I suspect, she would have sober.

"It came out that, while we were riding back to Jazmurian, High Priestess Lazdai got word by bijar post to members of her faction in the Temple of Bákh in Jazmurian, offering a fabulous reward for us and the fossils. When the members of this faction, who hope to seize control of the temple in her name, went to look for us, we had already parted on the Kubitar.

"But Tondi keeps a spy in Qirib, to apprise her of the sailings of treasure ships, to arrange ransoms, et ainsi de suite. Lazdai's faction informed this spy of the offer, and he passed it on to Tondi at their next rendezvous, in a secret cove on the coast of Qirib."

"How'd you make out with Tondi?" asked Reith.

"I upheld the honor of France, although I was tempted to hold my nose while so doing. But that was not the most serious difficulty."

"What was that?" exclaimed Alicia and Reith in unison.

"It was trying not to laugh at a time when laughter might have had fatal results. You see, my friends, the pirate queen had somehow got her hands on the little Alicia's Krishnan dress, the one that shows her mamelons. Needless to say, it did not fit; but Tondi was determined to play the glamorous seductress. When I entered, she had split the fabric in pulling it over her circumference, and she demanded that I push the little buttons through all those loops in back. But the edges of the material failed to come within half a meter of meeting. I did not dare tell her so, lest in a rage she have me thrown overboard like those poor sailors."

"What did you do?" Alicia asked.

"I convinced her that the buttons were purely ornamental, not intended to be fastened. Then she pirouetted before me as she had seen Alicia do, evidently hoping thus to arouse my passions. But so bizarre was the spectacle that I was compelled to disguise my laughter by a violent spasm of coughing. After I had coughed like a terminal case of pulmonary disease, we got down to the serious business of the assignation.

"When I could not repeat my performance every few minutes, I explained that we poor, weak Ertsuma had to rest between times. That was when she asked me about the bag of stones; so I told her about fossils. Oddly, she seemed fascinated by my talk of ancient eras and vanished life forms and begged me to tell her more. I was lecturing her on paleontology when your diversion began. I must say for her that she proved a more attentive audience than some undergraduate classes I have addressed on Terra." He glanced back at the blazing hulk of the Haghrib, small in the distance. "The fire seems to have defeated their efforts. There goes a mast! I do not think any of these rascals will survive."

"I hope not," said Reith. "Now let's swim some more."

The stars had wheeled across the sky, and the sky itself was growing opalescent with the approach of dawn, when the swimmers heard breakers. Marot said: "I hope we approach a sandy beach and not a stretch of jagged rock. It would be a pity to be dashed to our deaths against a cliff after having endured so much."

"Sounds like a beach surf to me," grunted Reith. "We'll know when we get there."

In the feeble dawn light they staggered out on a smooth, sandy beach. They picked their few possessions off the grating and abandoned it to the sea. Reith and Alicia spread their clothes out to dry and collapsed on the sand beside the already recumbent Marot. Alicia still wore the ornate necklace she had picked out of the chest. Its gems, winking in the growing light, outshone the fading stars.

Roqir was rising high in the greenish Krishnan sky when three armed men on shomals—a tall Krishnan quadruped, somewhat like a humpless camel—trotted along the beach. They halted at the sight of three Ertsuma, two nude and one clad in Terran underdrawers, asleep on the sand. At the sound of voices, the younger male awoke.

"Qararuma?" asked Reith blearily.

"Aye," said the rider who, respendent in silvered mail, appeared the leader. "I hight Sir Hulil, and these be my men-at-arms. The burning of a ship off this shore hath been reported. Canst tell aught of this?"

"Can I!" said Reith. "I could a tale unfold ..." He touched Alicia and Marot. "Wake up! Help has arrived! Aristide, you may get another train ride after all."