The Bones of Zora

XIII - THE RIVER

When the carriage drew up at the base of the Zaidun's pier, a fog was rising from the estuary of the Pichidé. Overhead the moons shone brightly; but a few meters away, people were becoming wraithlike and objects were being swallowed by the mist.

"Watch your step!" Reith warned his companions. "If you don't, you may find yourself in the river."

As they felt their way out on the pier to the Zaidun's berth, the bargeman on watch went to rouse the captain. Ozum, in a knee-length nightshirt, ran stubby fingers though his touseled hair and said:

"Nay, nay, no apologies. I know you well enough, Master Reese, to say ye'd not rouse me at midnight without cause. Come aboard, and sprackly!"

"Have you any other passengers?" asked Reith.

"Nay, not hitherto. We sail at sunrise. Take Cabins Two, Four, and Six. I'm back to Varzai's bosom."

As the morning sun dispersed the fog, the Zaidun, a much larger riverboat than Sarf's, cast off. Under oar and sail it beat its way up the estuary of the Pichidé. At the eastern end of the towpath, the vessel eased up to the bank while the shaihans were driven ashore and harnessed. The long tow to Novorecife had begun.

The passenger quarters were ten cabins in the after part of the deckhouse, five on a side, all opening on the deck. Since Ozum carried no other passengers, each Terran enjoyed the privacy of an entire cabin.

Alicia, wearing the simple Krishnan tunic she had bought in Majbur, disappeared into her cubicle and came out with a sheaf of pencils and a folder holding a ream of blank paper. Settling herself on deck, with her back against the deckhouse, she began scribbling. When Reith spoke, she laid a warning finger on her lips and went on writing.

As the tranquil passage continued, Reith made another effort to draw her into conversation. But she was in an impatient, irascible mood. Anything that distracted her from recording all she could remember brought a sharp retort.

Marot spent his days chipping away at his fossils and practicing his new musical instrument. "It has a lower register than the other," he said. "I should like to play Hayakawa's Moonlight on the Ruins, but I must first transpose all the notes."

Left to his own devices, Reith paced the deck, slept, did calisthenics, played piza with Captain Ozum, and practiced his rusty French on the cheerful Marot.

They were past the halfway point of their journey when, towards dinnertime, Alicia shut her folder with a snap. 'That's all I can remember now; although doubtless I'll add details from time to time. Sorry to have been beastly all these days, but the job had to be done."

She went to her cabin. When she came to dinner, it was not in her working clothes but in her new Majburo dinner dress. The rubies gleamed in her ears, and her face bore a trace of cosmetics. Reith whistled, and the eyes of even the austere Marot shone with admiration.

That evening, Alicia and Reith stood at the Zaidun's rail and watched the rise of Karrim, a silver shield just past the full and nearly twice the size of Terra's moon, behind the darkling trees along the shore. Alicia slipped an arm through Reith's and tipped her head back in such an inviting way that he could not resist the urge to kiss her.

"You're a gorgeous creature tonight, you witch!" said Reith.

"I endeavor to give satisfaction, Mr. Reith."

"You do, Mrs. R—Doctor Dyckman."

Reith looked embarrassed. Alicia's expression changed; her face crumpled as if she were about to burst into tears. Hastily Reith changed the subject. "Where's the necklace from the pirate ship? I'd have thought you'd wear it."

"I left it with Gorbovast to sell for me on commission."

"You did? When was this?"

"I made the arrangements while you were telling his relatives about our adventures. As an advance on the sale price, he gave me a draft for twenty-five thousand karda."

"Twen—good God! That means he must expect to get at least fifty thousand for it. He's a shrewd judge of such things. What'll you do with all that money?"

"For one thing, I may have to use some of it to pay my fare back to Earth."

A sense of impending loss overwhelmed Reith. Taking a deep breath, he asked: "When will you know?"

Alicia paused. "The decision isn't entirely mine to make."

"Oh," he said, grasping her meaning. Not knowing what to say next, he filled in the silence with more kisses. At last Alicia, recovering some of her bravado, said:

"I bought a bottle of the best falat in Majbur, and I've got it in a bucket of water to keep it cool. Why don't we have a little party with it my cabin?"

"Great idea!" said Reith, not without inner qualms. He ardently wanted to be with her but at the same time feared that events were slipping out of his control.

In the cabin, when they had drunk enough to make Reith feel expansive, Alicia ventured in a small voice: "Fergus, can't we be friends, in spite of everything?"

"I guess so. It's worth trying, anyhow."

"All right. Tell you what! Let's tell each other everything, you know, like brother and sister. No more pretenses or coquettish maneuvers."

"Okay, we'll see how it works. What would you like to know, Doctor Freud?"

"I want to know about your other women."

"Eh? Why, for goodness' sake?"

"As a xenanthropologist, I'm professionally interested."

"I am a social scientist; thou art a gossip; he is a snoop. Okay, if you insist. Do you include Krishnans?"

"Absolutely."

"Then will you be equally candid if I quiz you?"

"Oh, sure. Truth or consequences, agreed?"

"It's a bargain; though I haven't had quite your breadth of experience—"

"Fergus, that's mean! You make me sound like a half-kard whore."

"Sorry; that's not how I meant it. To tell the truth, I've had only four in my life besides you. Of these, three were Krishnans, and with two of them I was coerced literally at sword's point. As a Don Juan, I'm just a wimp."

"No excuses needed. I just want to know what happened between you and how they compared with me in bed."

Reith took a deep breath. "All right, here goes. Believe it or not, I was completely inexperienced when I boarded the Goyaz and took up with Valerie Mulroy, that nympho on my first tour. Neo-Puritan background, you know. I knew Valerie's appetite was pathological; but she was still a good, patient teacher."

"You mean it's because of her that you're such a superior lover? If I ever meet her, I'll thank her."

"We all have to start somewhere. She broke me in."

"What about the Krishnans?" asked Alicia.

"It's hard to compare them with human women, because their reactions are different—more passive. One told me they prefer Terrans to their own males, because we keep at it longer. This reputation doesn't make us popular with male Krishnans.

"On the other hand, that witch Shosti insisted she disliked it but did it as a religious duty; she thought I'd beget a demigod on her. With poor Borel's gilded skull staring down at me from a shelf in her bedroom, it was hard to keep my mind on my proper job."

"Your improper job, I'd say. How about the princess?"

"Just a sweet little nincompoop who, if she saw me so much as glance at the bed, would giggle, strip, bounce up on to the mattress, and open the way. Half the time I didn't even want it. I'm damned glad to be out of all their clutches."

Alicia said: "You're hard to please, even with a variety of choices."

"Not really. I considered everything about you practically perfect, until our battles began."

"Now you're trying to make me feel guilty for leaving you!"

"We'd better not start on that, if we want to be friends. What more do you want to know?"

"You said you'd had three Krishnan loves," she persisted. "Was the third one that little chatterbox, Qa'di, on the Morkerád?"

"No; I never followed up Qa'di's hints. It was Gashigi in Mishé. She was just a one-night stand, a couple of moons after you left. Said she wanted to broaden her education. What's an unattached gentleman to do when a lady puts it to him that way?"

"Huh! If I'd taken that attitude towards every gentleman who propositioned me, I'd have had more keys in my lock than Messalina. Do you mean this Gashigi's the only one since we— ah—"

"Yes, until you showed up at Zora."

"And only once?"

"Yes. My heart wasn't in it, whatever other ..."

Alicia gave a little sniff of laughter, then looked puzzled.

"Most divorced men would be screwing everything that would hold still."

"You've spoiled me for most women. Whenever I thought intimacy with someone might be fun, you'd rise up like a ghost and make her seem a hag. After you, any other woman would be like skim milk after the best scotch or champagne. Besides, for a while I hoped you'd come back; and I didn't want the complication of another girl friend."

"If you wanted me back, why didn't you contest the preliminary decree? I might have dropped the suit."

"I thought about that, when I got to Novo and found no Alicia, but a fat envelope of legal papers in my mail box." He paused to organize his thoughts. "I let it go through for three reasons. One: You're old enough to know what you want. If you wanted back, you'd come; if you didn't, legal maneuvers wouldn't make you. Two: If anything would poison our relationship forever, it would be our hiring Novo's two lawyers to battle it out. Each would do his damnedest to make the other's client look like a monster. And three: I didn't want to do anything until I'd talked with you and done some hard thinking. I couldn't see setting myself up for another emotional shellacking. But with you off somewhere in the outback ..." He shrugged.

"Poor Fergus! I've treated you abominably, and I'm frightfully sorry." She squeezed his hand. "If I could only make it up somehow ...I never meant to cripple you sexually."

"Don't worry about my sex drive. It's normal; it's just that you've been too much in my thoughts. I'd have begun to get over you by now if you hadn't appeared at Zora."

She signed. "I must say I enjoy being your exclusive sex object, and I think you're wonderful. So why can't we get along? If only ..." After a pause, she asked: "Why didn't you go after Qa'di?"

"It would have been embarrassing to get her fired up and not be able to perform."

"What, you?"

"Darling, I don't think you understand. When you puncture the male ego, as you often do with that razor tongue of yours, you deflate other things as well. Remember how, when we were married, and we quarreled, and you told me off, I wouldn't make a pass at you for a week or more? It wasn't that I was sulking; I was simply physically unable."

"You poor thing! I had no idea your little ego was so tender. I thought you were punishing me. You seemed so reasonable and self-controlled that petty emotions never bothered you."

"That's my facade," he said. "I hate to admit it, but underneath I'm human. After the Vizman episode, I was in the megrims for days, until the pirates gave me more to think about than feeling sorry for myself."

"You didn't act depressed."

"In my trade, the show must go on. That's one thing tour guiding has taught me."

"Weren't you furious after your ducking? You had a right to be."

"Not for long. I can get as angry as the next one when somebody does me dirt. But when I've cooled down, I say: take it easy, Fergus That person merely did what he'd been programmed for by heredity and environment. It's as much my fault as his, for not understanding him better."

"I wish I had your godlike detachment. By the day we reached Majbur, I felt so horrible about what I'd done in Ghulindé" that I wished you'd hit me or rape me or something."

"Darling, I just don't do things like that. I may be a softy, but I couldn't deliberately hurt you, even when you deserved it."

"I wish I could be as good to you. End of inquisition. I guess the party's over."

"Hold it! You haven't answered my questions."

"Well?"

"Tell me about you and Foltz."

"Oh, forget Warren Foltz! He was a cold fish—completely selfish, in bed or out of it. That's all you need to know."

"No it isn't, and you promised. How did you get involved with the guy in the first place?"

"I'd just got back from Katai-Jhogorai and found I was broke. Also-Judge Keshavachandra had issued the final decree that I'd applied for in a crazy moment. Feeling blue. I was unloading my troubles on Juana Rincon, when she told me about Foltz. He was all set to leave for Chilihagh and needed a research assistant. So I hunted him down. He asked me to have a drink in the Nova Iorque and turned on the charm."

"Was it then that he said what he'd—ah—expect of you?"

"Oh, yes; he was quite frank about it. He said: 'Alicia, you can't expect a healthy man like me to travel with a beautiful woman for moons at a time and not make advances. So to save altercations later, let's understand each other right now. Either I have bed privileges, or we call the deal off.'

"You know, Fergus, I enjoy being told I'm good-looking as much as the next woman. But sometimes I've wished I'd been born really ugly, so I could go about my work without having to fend off tumescent males at every step."

"If nobody ever made a pass, you might not like that, either. So you took Foltz up on his offer?"

"Obviously. I had to decide quickly; and I'm not good at snap judgments. When I'd been with him a few hours, I suspected I'd made another ghastly mistake. But then we were well on our way to Mishé; so I hung on, hoping my suspicions were unfounded. But they weren't."

"Didn't the nature of the bargain tip you off?"

"Not really. Such arrangements are common, and nobody thinks a thing about them. When Lucy McKay went to Ormazd, she took a handsome young photographer, and everyone knew he was hired for night duty as well as picture-taking."

"Did she pay him overtime?"

"Not how it's done, stupid. I'd avoided these liaisons up to then, mainly by going on my research trips alone."

"Poor Lish!" It was the first time since Ghulindé that Reith had used that nickname. "If only I'd been there! Was he good in bed?"

She shook her head vigorously. "No better than a Krishnan. Every three days, like clockwork, he'd shake me awake and say: 'Come here, girl; I want you!' Then wham, bam, thank you ma'am, and back to his fossils and notes. Not a trace of affection in him. He viewed sex as a bothersome biological necessity, to be gotten over with as soon as possible. I once said, if he was so perfunctory about it, what did he need me for? When I suggested the obvious alternative, he slapped me hard enough to knock me down. That time he apologized; but I should have been warned."

"If I ever meet that swine—" growled Reith. After a pause he added: "You hinted that Krishnans aren't much good, either."

"Well, I'm not a connoisseur of Krishnan sex—"

"Neither am I. But from what you do know—"

"They're built differently from men, with some sort of reinforcing bone or cartilage. But they're all through in a matter of seconds; then they're back twenty minutes later, and so on. Some human women may like it, but I found it merely frustrating."

"Thanks, Lish. What you tell me hurts, but it's better than always wondering."

"Anything else you want to know about my scarlet past?"

"Oh, come off it! A pale pink past, maybe; and I'm sure you've already told me more than I wanted to know about your experiences. Compared to most women of your age, your life has been practically conventical."

"Then you'll admit your experience has been quite as wide as mine, any way you measure it?"

"I guess so," said Reith, patting a yawn. "I think we can turn in now."

Alicia set down her goblet, rose, and sat on Reith's lap. Encircling him with her arms, she gave him a long, passionate kiss. "Fergus dear, are you getting ideas?"

"Well, all this talk of sex does raise one's—ah ..."

"Darling, what are ex-wives for?"

"Without any promises or commitments?"

"Without any promises or commitments. I'd adore being your amorex again. There's only one thing I want more." (Reith knew that the "thing" was a new marriage certificate, but he kept silent.) "Come on, stupid! How explicit must I be?" She began unbuttoning his jacket.

Reith said: "If we're brother and sister, doesn't this seem a little incestuous? And are you safe? Your last FM pill must have run out by now."

"Oh, I begged a couple more off Gorbovast."

Struggling with the loops on the back of Alicia's dress, Reith chuckled. "Gorbovast is the greatest little old fixer on Krishna, but I didn't expect him to keep a supply of Terran contraceptives. Darling, you're beautiful whether you're wearing rags or ball gowns; but when I see just the pure, simple you, I'm speechless!"

From out on deck floated the plaintive notes of Hayakawa's Moonlight on the Ruins.

When at last Reith rose and reached for his clothes, Alicia rolled over and buried her face in the bedding, stifling sobs. "Oh, why," she murmured, "do I always throw away my most precious possessions? Damn, damn, damn!" With each "damn" she punched the pillow.

Long before dawn, Reith found himself awake and, as had often happened lately, stewing over the question of Alicia. He did not think her remark during their quarrel on the Kubitar, that she would refuse an offer of marriage from him, was seriously meant. If it were, that would make things easy. He could say, will you marry me again? and she could say, no; and he would be free of further moral obligations. But he could not count on her refusal. To offer a marriage that his rational side did not want, and have the proposal accepted, would be another invitation to disaster ...

Reith gave up trying to sleep, dressed, and went out on deck. The Zaidun was tied up at Gadri for the night. A moon-silvered fog lay over the river, making everything indistinct more than a few meters away.

With a faint gurgle, the current lapped around the pilings of the pier and the hull of the Zaidun. In their pen at the stem, the shaihans munched their hay throughout the night. These sounds were the only ones audible to Reith's ears. Even the late-night revelers of Gadri must have gone home.

Reith strolled up to the bow, where the boatman assigned the sentry-go sat on the rail and smoked his cigar. Keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the sleepers, Reith said:

"Hail, Seaman Káj! How goes it?"

"Well enough, Master Reef. And your good self?"

"As well as one can expect ..." Reith broke off, listening.

A faint sound had jerked him to full alertness, head up, senses atingle, and eyes probing the mist-shrouded darkness. A light patter of feet and a murmur of low voices were not in themselves alarming. But, with the Bákhites, Vaklaf the Duru, and Gorbovast's vague warning, Reith was keyed up to anticipate danger.

"Stand by, O Káj!" he whispered. "Got your cutlass? I'm going for my hanger."

Reith strode quickly back to his cabin, moving silently because, like his companions, he had formed the habit of going barefoot on shipboard. He came out of the cabin pulling his baldric on over his head. Then he paused at the gangway, hand on his sword hilt.

As Reith reached the gangplank, nebulous figures emerged from the fog at the shoreward end. Reith caught shreds of talk in the Majburo dialect: "Go on, faintheart! ... The sentry first ... All together, now ... Seize them alive ..."

"All hands out!" bellowed Reith, drawing. "We're attacked!"

Another cry of warning came from the bargeman in the bow. Then a drumming of feet announced the rush to board.

Since the gangplank was barely wide enough for two abreast, Reith sprang up on it, thinking he could make a better stand there than on the deck. He could not count his assailants in the fog, but he guessed that there were at least a dozen.

A moment later, the first Krishnan was upon him. The fellow came straight at him with a dagger in his extended fist. Reith straightened his arm in a stop thrust, and the fog-mazed Krishnan ran upon the point.

Reith shoved desperately, forcing the attacker over backwards. As he jerked his blade free and the knife man slumped to the gangplank, the second assailant stumbled over the body and fell to hands and knees.

Reith slashed in the dark and felt the blade strike home. The wounded Krishnan screamed and pulled back among his fellows' legs. The moonlight and the yellow gleam of the stern lantern showed part of his face hanging down in a bloody flap below his jaw.

"At him! At him!" shouted a voice from behind. "All at once, and you'll have him! Seize his limbs!" Reith recognized the Terran accent and guessed that the gang had been recruited by his old foe Warren Foltz.

Now Reith encountered two attackers on the narrow way, one with a bludgeon and the other with a half-sword. The fellow with the club aimed a blow. Reith jerked back. The end of the bludgeon missed his nose by a centimeter; he felt the wind of its passage.

Pressing forward, he thrust at the club wielder, hoping to drive home before the Krishnan could recover; but his point was stopped by some metal fitting on the fellow's clothing. The recruit with the half-sword thrust at Reith before he recovered, and Reith had to leap back to avoid the blade.

The three combatants feinted, thrust, and swung. The pressure of those behind propelled the attackers forward and forced Reith back. Several times he saw an opening, but he had to guard himself against the other fighter's weapon and could not exploit the opportunity. For their part, his attackers were hampered by lack of space.

Then both attackers moved in unison, the swordsman with a thrust, the club man with a swing. Reith was forced back again. This time his foot met air, he had backed off the inboard end of the gangplank. Down he went in a heap on the hardwood deck, while the club swished through the air where his head had been a few seconds before.

All at once, the deck was crowded with the Zaidun's people. Someone stepped on Reith and fell across his legs. As Reith scrambled up, he found himself crowded by Marot wielding a sword on his left and Captain Ozum swinging a cutlass on his right. Swords clanged, and everyone seemed to be shouting at once.

The attacker with the club disappeared with a loud splash, while the Krishnan with the half-sword lay gasping out his life at Reith's feet. A Majburo voice cried:

" 'Tis useless. They're all alert and armed!"

"Let me at them, cowards!" snarled Foltz's voice. As Reith sprang back on the gangplank, Foltz pushed to the front and launched a flèche or running attack. He tried to catch Reith's sword in a double bind, whipping the blade around in a circle before thrusting home.

Reith disengaged and straightened up in another stop thrust. As Foltz plunged forward, Reith's blade pierced the deltoid muscle of his right arm. Foltz gasped as his weakened arm dropped, letting the point of his weapon touch the deck. Ozum, reaching out over the rail, chopped at Foltz's calf.

Despite two crippled limbs, Foltz made a resolute effort to shift his sword to his left hand while remaining upright. But Reith caught the wrist of his injured arm and jerked him forward, so that he fell on the deck on top of the dying half-swordsman.

Suddenly the shoreward end of the gangplank pulled away from the pier and dropped, catapulting several of Foltz's gangsters into the river. Leaning on his bloody sword and panting, Reith was relieved to realize that one of the bargemen had cut the mooring lines, setting the Zaidun adrift downstream with the gangplank trailing in the water.

Standing on the deck, besides Marot, Ozum, and the crew, Reith saw Alicia. She was holding a boathook and bending over the rail.

"Alicia!" gasped Reith. "What are you doing with that boathook?"

"I pulled the guy with the club off the plank, and I was looking to see if he swam away. I don't see him."

"Most of these city rats can't swim," said Reith, setting a foot on Foltz's sword lest the paleontologist try to pick it up again.

"Me, I rosed one in the arm," said Marot, wiping his blade on the clothing of the half-swordsman's body.

"You mean, you pinked him," said Reith. He nudged the body with his toe. "Who got this one?"

"That was our gallant captain. What shall we do with this?"

Marot pointed his blade at Foltz, who sat huddled on the deck, clutching his wounded shoulder.

"If you idiots let him go again ..." muttered Alicia.

"Let's question him," said Reith. "Help me to pull him into my cabin."

Oozing blood, Foltz sat on the floor of the cabin with his back to the bulkhead. The three Terrans and Captain Ozum stood guard over him; even Alicia, who had picked up Foltz's sword, scowled at him from where she sat with her weapon ready.

"If you mean to kill me," rasped Foltz, "let's get it over with."

"We haven't decided," said Reith. "First, we have some questions for you."

"You might at least bandage my wounds," said Foltz. "I can't answer questions if I pass out from loss of blood."

"There's merit in that," said Captain Ozum. "Besides, I'm not fain to have my ship beslabbered with's alien blood." He shouted for one of the bargemen, who brought two strips of cloth and bound them around Foltz's arm and leg.

"Now," said Reith, "what have you been doing since our trial at Jeshang? We know something of what's happened, so it won't help you to lie."

"I've been through a lot," said Foltz in a self-pitying whine. "Kharob's escort took me to the Mikardando border. Before they pushed me over the line, they stripped me, leaving me with no money, no clothes, not even shoes. I'd have died if a kindly peasant hadn't taken me in, given me some old clothes, and lent me a few karda to buy food on the long walk to Mishé. There, by claiming that I was a friend of yours, I established credit."

"A friend of mine!" howled Reith. "Why didn't you tell them you were Napoleon or Muhammad?"

"While I was recovering in Mishé," Foltz continued, "from that three-hundred-hoda hike, I heard the Bákhites had risen and shut the Dasht up in his palace.

"As you know, I'd become something of a pet of old Lazdai. Not that I believe her theology, but for obvious reasons I had to pretend to be a fanatical convert." Foltz studied his knuckles. "Since I'd lost everything at Zora, I needed money to get my researches going again—perhaps in a geological formation outside of Chilihagh."

"Get to the point," snapped Reith.

"I'll get there, if you let me say it in my own way. Well, I rode back from Mishé to Jeshang, stopping off to repay that peasant the money he'd lent me, with interest. In Jeshang I found Lazdai in control and wild with rage because you'd slipped through her fingers three times. Anyhow, she offered me enough money from the treasury of Bákh to keep me digging for the rest of my life, if I'd bring the three of you back to Jeshang, along with Aristide's specimen. By the way, do you still have that thing?"

"That's our business," said Reith. "Go on."

"I traced you to Majbur, where I hired a squad of local bravos. But by the time I had them organized, your boat had sailed. So, with Lazdai's advance, I bought ayas for the gang and followed you. I thought that tonight, by a sudden rush, we could overpower you without unnecessary bloodshed."

"How kind of you," sneered Reith, "to save us for the kettle later!"

"I don't like seeing people boiled," said Foltz. "I begged Lazdai not to execute you and Marot, but she wouldn't—"

Smack! Marot reached down and hit Foltz a back-handed blow in the face. "That is for the lying. We had the true story from the Dasht."

Foltz shook his head and wiped a drop of blood from a cut lip. "You're wrong, Aristide. When Lazdai sent me out on his mission, I exacted a promise that you would not be tortured or killed."

Reith and Marot exchanged glances. Marot said: "How could we confirm that story?"

"By going to Jeshang and asking the old witch," growled Reith. "But I don't think we need the truth so badly as all that." He turned back to Foltz. "So what was your objective?"

"With the Priestess's money, I could set up my own institute here and put Krishnan paleontology on a sound basis, not screwing up the facts like my muddle-headed colleague. In the long run, Terran science would benefit."

Marot began to sputter with rage, but Reith cut in: "Well, we've heard his story, some of which is undoubtedly true. So what to do with him?"

"Kill him!" said Alicia. "Think of all the trouble we'd have been saved if we'd done it the first time! If we let him go, he'll only plot more outrages. I know him, to my sorrow, and I know he's one of mankind's most passionate haters."

"Alicia!" cried Foltz. "Is that any way to treat a man who loves you?"

"Love? You?" said Alicia, staring incredulously.

"Yes. I fell in love with you at Zora, though I didn't fully realize it till after you'd left me. I've been hoping to find you again and marry you. And I did save you from starvation by giving you a job, didn't I?"

"By making me your whore! And it's a funny kind of love that plots to deliver me to that she-monster in Jeshang—"

"But my dear Alicia, as my wife you'd be protected—"

"I can just see it," said Alicia in deadly tones. "You get me to Jeshang and say: 'All right, my dear, marry me or prepare for boiling!"

"Oh, you can't really believe I'd do such a—"

"Shut up and listen to me, Warren Foltz! I've had marriage proposals from two Krishnan heads of state, a king and a president. I have no desire for a Krishnan mate; but I'd infinitely prefer either of those to you. You're a treacherous, fanatical, sadistic, narcissistic, paranoid egomaniac, incapable of loving anyone but yourself. You're a slimy thing. You're also the planet's lousiest human lover. And you're not even a villain in the grand manner, but an infantile egotist, so petty as to cut up my one good dress after I ran away. I hate your guts, and I always shall. Do I make myself clear?"

Reith saw the paleontologist wince as Alicia spat out each sentence. He seemed to shrivel, to shrink into himself, and wax older as she spoke. At last he mumbled:

"Well, I can understand why you might be a little prejudiced against me. But I swear things will be different—"

"Shut up!" said Reith. "What to do with him? It'll soon be daylight—"

"Let me suggest," said Marot, "that we vote."

"If ye vote, as they do in Suruskand and Katai-Jhogorai, ye should count me in," said Ozum. "After all, 'tis my ship."

"Okay," said Reith. "How do you vote, Aristide?"

"Death. I hate bloodshed; but a man who wantonly destroys scientific knowledge is worse than a murderer."

Foltz sighed and shook his head. "That's no way to treat a colleague. We men of superior education should stick together against the ignorant masses."

"You, Captain?" said Reith, ignoring Foltz's plaints.

"I say not," said Ozum. "The story of this brabble must soon or late reach the ears of those in high places, and I would not be held culpable for any affray amongst Terrans. I have my living to earn on this river. Ye can demand his arrest under the laws of Gozashtand, in whose demesne the Zaidun now rides."

"Alicia?" said Reith.

"Kill him! We've been all through this before. If we let him go, he'll only try to have us killed in one way or another."

"And to think I've loved you!" said Foltz. "How can you kill the man who loves you?"

"I'd rather be loved by a cobra," said Alicia. "How about you, Fergus?"

Reith drew a long breath. "I think we'd better follow Ozum's advice and turn him over to the local authorities. I hope to go on working here, too, so it behooves me to keep my legal skirts clean. I can tie up Foltz with so many charges and suits that he'll be harmless for a long time."

"He'll wheedle and bluff his way out again," said Alicia. "Besides, the litigation would keep us all here till doomsday."

"No; I can get depositions from you and Aristide, to use if you leave the planet ..."

Since the four were deadlocked, the arguments went round and round, becoming ever more vehement. Ozum suggested, as a compromise, that instead of killing him they blind him and turn him loose. This proposal evoked another storm of dispute.

Up to that point, considering his desperate plight, Foltz had conducted himself with a fair degree of courageous, cold-blooded self-possession. When he heard the proposal to put out his eyes, however, his features took on an expression of horror. While his captors were too intent on shouting each other down to notice, Foltz suddenly heaved himself up and, though limping heavily, lunged for the door. He bowled over Marot and was out of the cabin before any could stay him.

With a shriek, Alicia leaped after him. Behind her pounded Reith and Captain Ozum, the latter roaring oaths. The two collided as they tried to get through the door at the same instant. By the time Reith reached the deck, he saw Alicia bending over the rail and pushing something down with a pole. He cried: "What are you doing, Alicia?"

"Drowning Warren Foltz," she replied crisply. "He tried to climb over the rail, wounded arm and leg and all. But he slipped on the blood and fell flat into the water. So I grabbed the boathook, and now I'm holding him under."

Reith looked over the side. The sky was paling with dawn light, and beneath the black surface of the river he could make out a pale human body, whose limbs made feebly struggling motions.

Despite his bias for law and order, Reith did not interfere. Foltz, he thought, was due for a sticky end sooner or later, and what difference if it were compassed by Alicia or another?

"There!" she said in tones of satisfaction. "He's stopped moving."

"My ruthless little superwoman!" said Reith. "Captain, shouldn't we weigh the body down, so it won't bob to the surface and cause a hue and cry?"

"The 'avvals will take care of it, fear not," said Ozum.

The body disappeared, and Alicia retrieved the boathook. Reith and Ozum heaved the body of the half-swordsman over the side, as Roqir's disk began to show scarlet through the thinning fog. Marot said:

"My dear Captain, let us hope that so-called cook of yours can for once furnish a decent breakfast. I could eat one of your shaihans, hide, bones, and all!"