The Bones of Zora

VI - THE BARGE

When, hours later, the fugitives drew up at Sainian's ranch house, the clouds had begun to break. A few golden spears of late-afternoon sunlight pierced the western overcast. Sainian cried:

"By Qondyor's iron yard! Ye look like the survivors of a battle!"

"We are," said Reith.

"Herg rode in this afternoon, telling of a brabble of some sort amidst the rainstorm. He seemed confused as to who fought whom. Come ye in, get dry, eat, drink, and tell me all! The only fee I ask is a good story to bedazzle my copemates. Come in!"

"Master Reith is wounded, sir," said Alicia.

"A wound?" said Sainian. "Let me see ... Ah, I perceive that Terran blood be red, even as I've heard. Strange. Your cut reminds me of the scratch I got when I slew that shaihan-thief. Ilui! Fetch a poultice and a bandage. But first we must rid him of the mud. Babir! Fill the tubs!"

Sainian turned Reith and Marot over to the servant Babir, while Ilui took charge of Alicia. Babir led the men to a small room containing an enormous wooden tub, which he filled with bucketfulls of water.

"You go first, my friend!" said Marot. "No, no, I insist! You have had the more strenuous day."

Knowing that Marot would argue all night rather than yield a point of politeness, Reith let himself be persuaded. He lowered his tired body into the tub, wincing at the cold.

"At times like this," he said, "I miss the hot running water at Novo."

When Reith had bathed, and Marot had bandaged the minor wound, Reith said: "I don't like having you take a bath in used water, but if we ask Babir to empty it, that might take an hour."

"Think nothing!" said Marot, stepping boldly into the cold water. "In a little French hotel, when a family orders a bath, the papa bathes first, then the mama, then the children, all in the same water. No true Frenchman would be so extravagant as to pay for three full tubs when one will serve."

Babir put his head in, saying: "Be ye gentlemen finished? The squire asks if ye need raiment."

"All we own are those muddy work clothes we arrived in. We should certainly appreciate a loan," replied Reith.

"Then, quotha, ye shall be clad from his supply."

Laid out on the bed, they found two fine woollen suits. Each consisted of a pleated kilt and a pearl-gray sleeveless jacket with large brass buttons. One kilt was a sober blue; the other, gaudy with stripes of scarlet and gold. Reith would have preferred the blue; but he was compelled to adopt the other when the red-and-yellow could not be let out at the waist far enough to accommodate Marot's girth.

"Not bad," said Reith, surveying himself in a metal mirror. "Oh, Babir! Would your master mind if we rested an hour before joining him? We've had an exhausting day."

An hour later, clad in their new splendor, Reith and Marot followed Babir to the living room, where Sainian and a burly Krishnan waited. Their host said: "These be the Ertsuma whereof I told you. Maghou is the stout one; Reef, the lean. Sirs, this is my old friend and distant cousin, Captain Sarf bad-Dudán, of the barge Morkerád."

After amenities and a round of kvad, Reith asked: "Where does your ship run to, Captain?"

"Up the Zora to Kubyab, down the Zigros to Jazmurian. This is the head of navigation for vessels larger than a skiff. We make one regular stop, at Jeshang, and as many flag stops as requested."

"How do you work your way upstream?"

"By shaihans on the towpath, same as ye do on the Pichidé. We have sails but seldom use them on the upstream passage."

"What cargo do you carry?" persisted Reith.

"Now, now," said Sainian. "All that can wait. Tell us how went your hunt for ancient bones, and how befell the battle."

Reith was well into the tale of their dig when Alicia came in with Ilui, the rancher's wife. The sight brought Reith's tale to a halt. Alicia had not only been scrubbed but also provided with a filmy violet dress, cut below the breast in the manner seen in Mishé. The captain broke the silence, saying:

"By Batch's mercy, Sainian, this Terran frail's a well-found vessel. Pity 'tis she be not a human being; she'd lay many a fine egg for one of our lusty swains."

"You flatter like a courtier, sir," said Alicia, with a smile that brought Reith's heart into his throat.

Ilui said: "Like ye the dress, Master Reef?"

"I'm dumb with admiration."

"Ah, ye do but blandish our poor rustic fashions. Methinks 'tis not the dress but its occupant that doth kindle your admiration."

"Let's say, they complement each other," said Reith. He was about to ask whence the costume came, but Sainian had poured a second round, saying:

"Pray proceed with your story, Master Reef. I am agog to hear it."

The tale of the Terrans' adventures continued through dinner. Afterwards, as all but Reith and Alicia lit strong cigars, Reith said: "We need your advice, squire."

"Do but ask."

Reith told of the loss of their cash. "Were this one of those decadent cities you speak of, I could borrow enough to get us back to Novorecife on the strength of this token."

Reith drew the chain of the tessara over his head and handed the green slab to Sainian, who said: "Nought like this have I seen; nor, I'll wager, hath any of the villagers. Another time, I'd lend the money without asking more than a handclasp to secure it. But ye come when we have but little coin in the house—barely enough to pay my shaihan-herds till more comes in."

"When will that be, sir?"

"After the next shaihan-drive—in two or three moons. Meanwhile ye are welcome to stay here, for I fain would hear more tales of distant places and strange adventures. Shaihan-ranching's the only life for me; but betimes it grows monotonous. We've had no variety since I drowned that rascally peddler in the aya trough."

Reith shook his head. "I fear we cannot accept your generous offer, sir. We must get back to Novorecife to meet the next incoming ship from Terra. I have a flock of tourists coming in; while Doctor Marot has a berth reserved on the return passage."

"Then I know not ..."

Captain Sarf blew smoke. "Ye escaped the rogues on ayas, did ye not?"

"So we did."

"If they haven't been foundered, they should fetch you enough to get you home."

"It's a Hishkak of a walk from here to Novorecife, takings—" (Reith paused in calculation.) "—at least a solid moon of hiking. I might be able, but I doubt if my companions could do it.".

"Besides," said Sainian, "I've examined those beasts. They should bring a good five hundred karda. Methinks that sum's not to be had in Kubyab, an ye turned every villager upside down and shook him."

"Is the railroad from Jazmurian to Majbur running?" asked Reith.

"Aye," said the captain, "or 'twas the last I heard."

"Do you carry passengers?"

"Aye; we can sleep up to ten."

"What's the fare to Jazmurian?" asked Reith.

"Thirty-five a head. Oho, I see whither blows the wind! Let's say, I'll bear the three of you to Jazmurian at a special rate: one hundred for the three, plus carriage for your beasts. That were an additional fifty."

"Fine, if we had the hundred and fifty karda," said Reith.

"Since Sainian seems to trust you," said Sarf, "I'll do the like. Let ye and your beasts ride with me to Jazmurian. There ye can sell them, pay me what ye owe, and buy your way homeward."

The squire interrupted. "Why ask the Terrans to pay for shipping ayas to Jazmurian, when the beasts were useful here? I'd say, leave the animals and board the Morkerád. I'll give you a letter to my agent in Jazmurian, praying him to advance four hundred karda to you and pay my cousin Sarf the hundred for your passage. The agent can deduct the debt from the profits due me after the next shaihan sale. Four hundred should see you safely back to Novorecife."

"Admirably thought on!" said Sarf. "What say ye?"

"An excellent idea," said Reith. He was struck by the informality of the arrangement. In Mishé or Majbur, there would have been an endless haggle, paring sums down to fractions of a kard, followed by written contracts with witnesses, bonds, and guarantees. He continued:

"I agree with all my liver. Permit me, squire, to thank you for your courtesy to strangers."

Sainian waved a hand. "I've lent money many a time and oft, mostly to shaihan-herds when, at the end of a drive, they'd squandered their pay on drink, gambling, and their other great pastime. Never have I lost an arzu. Nay, that's not quite sooth. One town sought to cheat me of money I'd lent him for a house." The squire puffed smoke.

"What happened to him?" asked Reith, suspecting that he already knew the answer.

Sainian made a negligent gesture with his cigar. "I slew him."

"When you can, will you please pay Doukh and Girej whatever I owe them, and deduct it from the sum your agent is instructed to advance to me?"

"Aye; though methinks ye owe those poltroons little, since they fled from the fight."

"I can't blame them; the odds were great, and they weren't fighters."

Captain Sarf arose. "Ye'll forgive me, cousin, but I maun get home, where my good wife awaits me."

"Captain!" said Reith. "When does your ship sail?"

"Day after tomorrow, soon after dawn. I'll look for you at the pier. Good-even, all!"

When the captain had taken his leave, Sainian chuckled. "Sarf hath a double comfort, with a wife at either end of's voyage. Thus he never wearies of either."

Alicia said: "I thought the Chilihaghuma were monogamous?"

"So they be, like unto the other Varasto nations, saving the promiscuous knightly class in Mikardand and the loose-living Balhibuma. But since Sarf's wives dwell in different jurisdictions, he's not like to be called to account."

Reith suppressed a yawn. "I trust you'll excuse us, too, sir. It's been a long, hard day."

"Indeed it hath! I see the learned doctor hath fallen asleep in's chair. Then to bed, my friends. And—ah—there's a little matter ..." Sainian hesitated.

"Yes?"

"As ye've seen, ye have two rooms, with one large bed and one small. I know not the Terran custom in a case like unto yours ..."

"Don't worry, squire. We have our arrangements all worked out."

"Ye relieve my mind; I feared embarrassment. How were ye fain to pass the morrow? I can take you on aya-back for a fifty-hoda tour of the ranch ..."

"Thank you, squire," said Alicia sweetly, "but after today's adventures, I'm sure we shall be happy to do nothing at all and let our cuts and bruises heal."

"I grasp the nib. Remain bedded the livelong day, an ye would. Rise when ye will, and Babir shall feed you."

Reith and Alicia took the larger room. After Reith had closed the door, she put her hands on his shoulders and gave him a long, vigorous kiss. "Darling Fergus, I'm sorry I was beastly again this afternoon! You were right as usual. You were a real hero."

"Huh!" he grunted. "I feel anything but heroic. All day, events were one jump ahead of me, and I've been too stupid to catch up. I'd be dead now but for your cutting us loose and the blunder of Foltz's gang."

"How do you mean?" She sat down on the bed and pulled him down beside her. Morosely, Reith explained:

"A hero wouldn't have let Foltz catch him without a sword. When Aristide conked the fellow with a hammer, I shouldn't have let that cowboy drag Foltz away. I should have at least tied him up until we were on our way to Kubyab. We were much too casual and dilatory about Foltz. We should have killed him, as you said. Failing that, we should have cut and run, fossil or no fossil, as soon as Herg told us of the priestly party, or even sooner. As a hero, I'm just a poop."

Alicia clasped him around the neck and spoke, punctuating each sentence with a kiss: "I won't have you speak of the man I love that way! ... You were wonderful, and you know it! ... You were brave enough to face Foltz unarmed, ... and to kill that Krishnan with the ayas ... But for you, Foltz would be beating and raping the hell out of me right now ... And he made just as many bungles as we did ..."

Between the praise and the kisses, Reith's spirits began to revive. Alicia found him staring at her with a look she knew of old. "Fergus, don't tell me you want it again, after all we've been through today? How can you, with all those bruises?"

"It's that topless dress, darling. The sight of you in it would give carnal thoughts to Aristide's fossil. Where did you get it?"

"Ilui gave it to me. It's one their daughter left behind when she married and moved away. I'm so happy to be able to dress up again! I had one good blue dress, which I'd have worn the other night if I'd known it was you coming to dinner: but Warren cut that one up." She stood up, turning her back to him. "Please, could you undo those little buttons?"

As Reith struggled with the loops, she added: "What I missed most about being husbandless was having nobody to help with clothes that fasten down the back. There!" She gave him a smile pregnant with meaning. "Give me a few minutes, and we'll see if you can rise to the occasion!"

When Alicia returned to the bedroom, she found Reith sound asleep. She kissed his ear lightly, put out the lamp, and slid under the covers. After all, their host had invited them to spend the whole next day in bed.

The following day Reith and Alicia, smothering yawns, emerged for a very late breakfast. Marot had finished his, and the others of the household had long since departed on their various tasks.

The three Terrans set out for a walk about Kubyab, responding to the villagers' stares with amiable greetings. At that instant Reith felt that he loved everybody, with a few exceptions like Warren Foltz. They encountered Doukh, who began volubly to excuse his flight from the field of battle.

"Never mind," said Reith. "If we'd had better sense, we should have run for it, too. But you'll have to wait a while for your money."

Chewing a grasslike plant stem, Doukh looked past Reith, saying: "Here comes the priest of Bákh ye spake with yesterday."

A startled glance showed the Reverend Behorj's litter swaying between its ayas, and the rest of the priest's entourage riding behind. "Into this alley!" snapped Reith. "Quickly!"

"But what—" began Alicia as she was dragged into a narrow, muddy lane.

"Don't argue!" said Reith in a low, tense voice, tugging his companions along the alley. "Over here, in the shade!" He flattened himself against a house wall, whence he could watch traffic passing on the main street with little chance of detection.

The litter lumbered past. Then, guarded by the mounted priestly escort, six bound captives shambled past afoot. One was Warren Foltz. Beside Reith, Alicia uttered a faint squeak.

"Hush, darling!" breathed Reith. "The less that lot knows about us, the better." For once Alicia forbore to argue.

As Roqir's red shield thrust its rim above a thicket of trees downstream, the three travelers boarded the Morkerád. They stood in the bow and watched the loading of heaps of hides, baskets of farm produce, and sacks of iron ore. Two local workers carried Marot's shaihan-hide bag of fossil-bearing stones, slung from a pole, up the gangplank. The team of shaihans, which had pulled the boat upstream, were stabled in a pen in the stern, whence the light westerly breeze wafted their pungent odor the length of the riverboat.

At last Captain Sarf and his four riverboat hands cast off and pushed the craft free of the pier. Two of the hands clambered to the roof of the deckhouse and broke out the triangular sail; while the other two, manning a pair of sweeps, maneuvered the boat out to midstream, where the current ran swiftest.

Reith and Alicia remained at the rail. Alicia had her arm through Reith's and clutched his elbow as if she feared that, should she slacken her grip, he would plunge overboard or fly away like a winged arthropod. Ever since leaving Sainian's ranch house, she had clung to Reith like some timid, helpless ingénue. Knowing that she was anything but that, Reith felt both amused and gratified.

"Sainian was a generous host," said Reith, glancing at his companions. Like Reith, Marot wore the kilt and jacket which the squire had insisted on their keeping. Alicia had packed away her seductive gown; but her khakis, like those of the men, had been washed and mended by Babir.

"Yes, darling," said Alicia. "The squire's a sweetheart so long as you keep on his good side. The minute you don't— khlk!" She drew a finger across her throat.

Marot said: "The mores of this country differ much from ours. I gather that to these people, to keep one's word and meet one's obligations are important; but homicide—if that is the right word—is no great matter. We were fortunate not only in escaping Foltz and his troupe, but also in avoiding offense to our recent host through ignorance of local customs and tabus."

"I wouldn't dare bring a party of tourists to Chilihagh," mused Reith. "If they didn't run afoul of the state religion, they'd accidentally insult some cowboy and be walking around without their heads."

"Speaking of religion," said Marot, "what shall we do at Jeshang? Priestess Lazdai will probably be back on her throne. She may wish to question us further."

"We'll stay aboard," said Reith, "and keep strictly out of sight—and I hope, out of mind as well."

"How long is this journey, Fergus?" asked Alicia.

"About a hundred and fifty kilometers to Jeshang and some» thing more than that to Jazmurian. With a favoring wind and no stops, we could sail to Jeshang in two days. In practice it takes three, because this tub stops at a lot of little private piers along the way."

The day drifted lazily by. The Morkerád passed placid marshes, whence aqebats rose squawking to flap away on leathery wings. At other times the river quickened its pace between steep brown bluffs. As they continued down-river, the plant cover thickened and trees became larger and more numerous, presenting a polychrome of trunks clad in bark of crimson and emerald and gold.

"These colors pertain to cross-fertilization," Marot explained. "Krishnan plants lack the true flower, but those bright-hued tree trunks perform the function of flowers. They permit the flying arthropods, which here have the color vision, to find the species they are designed to pollenate."

Now and then wild Krishnan herbivores, surprised at their drinking, scrambled up the riverbank and bounded away. A family of bishtars, standing in the shallows, held its ground and continued to scoop up hectoliters of water plants, which they stuffed into their huge pink mouths. This Krishnan elephant was a colossal, barrel-bodied beast on six columnar legs, with an elongated, tapering, tapirlike head ending in a short, bifurcated trunk or pair of trunks. Its vast hide was clothed in short, glossy, white-spotted purplish-brown hair. A pair of small, trumpet-shaped ears completed the ensemble.

By mid-morning the Terrans, lulled by the slight motion of the hull as the wind on the sails varied and by the gentle slapping of wavelets against the hull, went into the deckhouse to sleep. They found accommodations minimal: a stack of pallets, from which any passenger might choose one to spread out on the floor. The Captain had a private cabin, but for the others there was no privacy. Reith realized that intimacy with Alicia would be impossible before Jazmurian. Perhaps, he thought, that would be just as well; a few days' rest would be welcome.

When Reith and his companions emerged from the deckhouse, Marot dragged out his bag of fossil fragments. He also brought out his geologist's hammer, which had somehow survived the journey. With this and a pocket knife, he began going through his fossil-bearing stones, examining each to see what fragments of rock might be tapped or pried loose from the bone. He explained:

"This task awaits me sooner or later. If I do it now, perhaps I can reduce the weight of the mass till I can take the whole sackful back to Earth. Scientists would naturally prefer the original material to plastic replicas, no matter how accurate."

"How will you ever put all those pieces back together?" asked Reith.

"The computer in Paris will take care of that. If you put one piece in the machine and run a hundred others through on the conveyor, the machine will pick out the piece whose fracture surface matches the piece you are testing. It is, one might say, an electric jigsaw-puzzle solver."

Leaving Marot to his work, Reith saw that the Morkerád was angling towards the south bank. On a small, rickety pier stood a Krishnan signaling with a white square of cloth on a pole. Two crewmen leaped to the pier to snag lines around wooden bollards. They held the boat against the pull of the current while Captain Sarf climbed on the pier, conferred with the flag-waving Krishnan, and received a small package from him. The captain leaped back to the barge, the lines were cast off, and the vessel pulled away.

They stopped again around midday, when the Terrans were eating on deck, and made a third stop before sunset, to take on another passenger. The newcomer proved a short, middle-aged, black-clad Krishnan who paid his fare, stared hard at the Terrans, and silently moved to the other side of the boat.

At dinner, the Terrans joined the others in the deckhouse, where the cook had set up a folding table. As they took their places, Alicia addressed the newcomer: "Good-evening, sir. I am Doctor Alicia Dyckman; may I know your name?"

The Krishnan stared at his plate and said: "I care not to hold converse with godless Ertsuma."

"That simplifies things," said Reith in English. "We leave him alone, and he leaves us alone."

"But I only wanted to pick up a little data—" Alicia began.

"Which he obviously doesn't want to give. So pipe down, darling. We have enough problems."

Alicia's eyes flashed anger, but she pressed her lips together and resolutely remained silent.

The second day passed like the first, a long panorama of wild scenery with occasional stops at shabby little piers, while the Krishnan passenger ostentatiously ignored the Terrans.

On the afternoon of the third day, the quays of Jeshang hove in sight. As soon as the Morkerád was tied up, the Krishnan passenger stepped briskly ashore. Looking back at the three Terrans, all now clad in their shabby fossil-digging khakis, he snapped:

"Ye shall see what befalls heretics in the holy Dashtate of Chilihagh!"

"A real friendly fellow," said Alicia. "I'm a brass monkey if he's not on his way to make trouble for us."

"If he goes to the Bákhite temple and makes charges ... Oh, Captain!"

"Aye?" said Sarf, supervising the unloading of cargo. "What would ye?"

"When do you mean to sail?"

"Tomorrow morn, Bákh willing, as soon as we finish loading."

Later Alicia said: "He seems to like us. When he finishes loading, I'll tackle him about hiding us."

When the last basket, jar, and crate had been carried ashore, Alicia went to the captain and spoke earnestly and long—so long that Roqir sank behind the trees and Reith became uneasy. At last she returned, while Sarf hastened down the pier towards the town.

"I had some trouble with him," she said. "But I got what I was after. Now he's gone off on a drinking date with some cronies."

"What did he say?" asked Reith and Marot together.

"Any friend of his cousin Sainian is a friend of his; so he'll help. We talked about ways of concealment in case the priests come aboard looking for us. The only way that makes sense is to hide us among those big bags of ore in the hold."

"What shall we do with the ore, while we're tied up in the sacks?" asked Reith.

"That's the problem. Sarf said that, much as he wished to befriend us, he couldn't dump three bagfulls of good ore overboard to make room for us. He'd show up at Jazmurian three bags short. I suggested dumping the ore in some corner of the hold, but the idea horrified him. He runs a neat little ship.

"He proposed that one of us go ashore and buy three bags of the same design for us to hide in. He even lent me the money and gave me directions to the ship chandler's shop, three blocks west along the waterfront. I'll go if you like—"

"Not you!" said Reith. "This is a tough neighborhood, and some of the local hooligans might think it fun to gang-bang a Terran woman. Since I speak the best Mikardandou, I'd better go"

"I should go, too, to guard your back," said Marot.

"Hm." Reith hesitated. "Yes, I guess you'd better. Be sure to wear your sword!"

They found the chandler's shop, just as the proprietor was fastening his shutters. "Closed for the night!" he snapped.

Wanting to yell with frustration, Reith turned a dangerous red. Marot whispered: "Let me, Fergus." Then to the chandler he began: "Sir, do you know Captain Sarf bad-Dudán?"

"Aye, an old customer. What of him?"

"He has sent us hither on an urgent errand. He carries a load of ore in sacks. Three sacks have burst, spilling fragments about the hold. He begs—"

"He never bought those sacks from me!" said the chandler. "My sacks have only the best canvas and are double-stitched. He must have picked them up from one of those cheap-Jack dealers in Jazmurian."

"In any case," Marot resumed, "he begs you to sell him three of your superior sacks to confine the spilled ore before he makes delivery." When the chandler hesitated, Marot added: "He instructed me to tell you that it is a desperate emergency. He hopes for the sake of future transactions that you can accommodate him."

"Oh, very well," growled the chandler, folding back his shutters. "What size?"

"I know not the exact dimensions," said Reith, "but they hold—" In English he asked: "What's thirty kilos in Mikardandou pounds, Aristide?"

"About fifty, I think," replied Marot. Reith translated.

"That were a Number Four heavy-duty," said the chandler. "Come inside." He rummaged among piles of canvas, coils of rope, racks of tools, and jars of paint and tar until he found what he sought. He slapped down three sacks of heavy, dun-colored canvas. "One kard fifty, an ye please."

"A moment," said Reith, fumbling for the money. "Aristide, wouldn't you like a real bag for your fossils instead of that stiff, awkward hide?"

"You are right, Fergus." When the chandler had added a fourth bag to the pile, they paid and left with sighs of relief.

Back at the ship, in the gathering dusk, they found a big-eyed Alicia at the rail. She looked pale and shattered. "Fergus!" she called in a half-whisper.

"Yes?" said Reith.

"Do you know what happened while you were gone?"

"How should we? Tell us!"

"A Bákhite priest and four armed guards came aboard. After some argument with the crew, the priest cornered me and told me Her Holiness, High Priestess Lazdai, desires forthwith the presence of you and the bone-seeker."

"Did he say what for?" asked Reith.

"Only something about 'further questioning'."

"What did they say when they saw we weren't here?"

"I explained that you two had gone ashore and might not be back until morning, and they'd have to comb all the taverns to flush you out. Then, I said we were wearing our oldest clothes, and it wouldn't be fitting to come before the High Priestess in such condition. I don't know which argument carried the most weight; but they went away, stating they'd be back at sun-up to escort us. I was to tell Captain Sarf to delay his sailing until it's been decided whether to let the Earthlings continue their journey."

"Sarf'll love that," said Reith.

"If he finds out," said Marot. "Perhaps the beautiful Alicia will forget to pass the word. You know women." He winked.

"Aristide," said Reith, "I never suspected you of being such an intriguer."

Marot shrugged. "What is a diplomat but an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country?" He turned to Alicia. "But, my dear, why did they not seize you and carry you off? They could have held you as a hostage to assure our appearance."

"I don't know. I suppose the warrant was based on the original dossier for the expedition, and that mentions only you two. I'd be listed in Foltz's dossier."

"Proving," said Reith, "that bureaucracy works the same everywhere."

At sun-up, a priest of Bákh and six guards appeared at the foot of the gangboard. Longshoremen were already loading bundles and cases of cargo; but at the sight of priestly vestments, they hastily stepped aside. The intruders marched up to the deck, where Sarf awaited them.

"Where are they?" barked the priest.

"Whom seek ye, sir?"

"Feign not stupidity! Where are the Terrans you have aboard, who yestereve were summoned by Her Holiness?"

"Oh, the, Terrans!" said Sarf. "They've gone ashore. So eager were they to see Her Holiness that they waited not for their escort. They thought to meet you on the way."

"A likely tale!" sneered the priest. "Search this vessel, men!"

For an hour the guards prowled, opening bundles, peering under benches, and poking into comers. Reith, curled up below deck in total darkness, could hear them tramping about, gabbing and prying. His sack, tied at the top, stood amid the other sacks of ore, as did the sacks containing his companions and Marot's fossils.

Sounds, muffled by the canvas, implied that a couple of the guards were investigating the ore sacks. Reith caught snatches of speech: "Nay; this one, too, holds nought but lumps of stone ..." "How shall we know the petrified bones from the ore? In this light, all look alike ..." "If we catch the Ertsuma, we'll make them tell us. Go on, open another ..." "Oh, Hishkak! That's my tenth, with never a sign of Terrans or their bones ..."

Presently these sounds died away. Straining his ears, Reith heard faintly from above the voice of the guard: "Your Reverence, we've searched every nook and cranny in vain."

"Opened you all those bags in the hold?"

"Aye, sir; we examined every one. There were at least fifty."

The priest's voice was heard directed at the imperturbable captain: "Bákh curse you! Why detained you not these suspects?"

"None so commanded me, Reverend Sir; and none told me that the Earthmen were suspects."

"This whole investigation hath been bungled. Sending out that easygoing old fool Behorj, and failing to hale the alien female back to the Temple when Qásh had her cornered on this tub ..."

The voice sank to a mutter and then to silence. Booted footsteps on the gangplank told of the guards' departure.

"Fergus!" came a faint, high voice, muffled by the heavy cloth. "I'm smothering!"

"For God's sake, Lish, shut up! They may come back. We stay mousey quiet until the ship's at sea again."

He heard a little snort of suppressed laughter. "Some sea!"

Another endless hour dragged past. Overhead could be heard the footfalls of longshoremen, the shouting of orders, and the sounds of crates and other containers being moved.

At last these sounds quieted, and Reith heard the gong strokes that signaled the ship's departure. Hard on the last sonorous stroke came the sound of running feet and an excited, unintelligible rush of speech.

The slight motion of the boat on the bosom of the current and the faint creaking of her timbers showed that the Morkerád was at last under way. Wind thrummed against the sail. Footsteps approached, and the lashing atop Reith's sack was untied.

"Ye may come up for air now," said Captain Sarf, grinning.

Alicia and Marot, their hair disordered, stood blinking in the half-light from the hatchway overhead, while their sacks lay crumpled about their feet.

"Many thanks," said Reith. "If I can ever do you a favor ..."

"The biggest favor whereof I bethink me," said Sarf, "is to go quietly back to Novorecife, boasting to none how ye gulled the mighty priesthood of Bákh. If ye did, the story would spread and make life chancy for me, the next time I put in at Jeshang."

"I promise." When Alicia and Marot had added their pledges, Sarf said: "Come up on deck and greet our new passenger. Ye'll find her friendlier than that sour-faced pietist."

On deck, they found a young Krishnan female carrying a box with a handle, which Reith recognized as a portable incubator. The captain introduced her as Qa'di bab-Gavveq.

"Ah, how thrilled am I to meet true Terrans!" she gushed. "Oft have I heard tales of their ways and wonders, but hitherto I've seen them only at a distance."

"Enchanted!" said Marot, kissing the girl's hand. "Whither are you bound, may I ask?"

"Jazmurian, sir. I do pursue the father of my egg here. This liverless wight hath fled thither to escape the wedding that he promised."

"What will you do when you locate him?" murmured Marot.

"I shall obtain a court order, binding him to pay the child's support and to post a bond lest he think to slip away again. I am not without friends, and I'll show the losel!"

She launched into a catalogue of the iniquities of her seducer. After a few minutes of this verbal downpour, Reith and Alicia glided quietly away, leaving Marot to bear the brunt of her confidences.

"Fergus," said Alicia, "I thought you ought to know."

"Know what?"

"When Sarf untied you, you said you'd be glad to do him a favor. Well, I said something similar. He told me I could indeed do him a favor—in the bunk in his cabin tonight."

"Yes?" said Reith, his face studiously immobile.

"I turned him down."

"Why?"

"Why! Fergus, you stupid idiot! Having just found you again, do you think I want to ruin my chances for good and all? Don't tell me you wish I'd taken up with the captain's offer. That would be cruel."

"I didn't mean that at all." He slid an arm about her waist. "In fact I'm delighted. I have my share of old-fashioned jealousy, too. On the other hand, you're a free, single, independent woman who, as you've said, can do as you like."

Unexpectedly, Alicia began to cry, burying her face in his shirt. Alicia was not one to cry easily. "All right, throw my past up to me!" she sobbed.

"But I didn't—"

"Oh, yes you did! You're thinking: here's this dame I was once silly enough to marry, who's been screwed by all and sundry. Now she's dangling the hook in front of my nose, with her personal person as bait—"

"Nothing of the sort. I've told you—"

"But for now anyway, you're my one-and-only whatever-it-is, as long as you want me. What would you call an ex-spouse with whom one is having a love affair?"

"Let me think. Ah! Before I left Terra, a fad word was going round: 'amorex,' meaning one who is a lover of his or her former spouse. Okay! You're my amorex, darling. Give me a kiss and dry those tears. There, now!"

"I was never promiscuous, and I was never unfaithful while we were married. I was forced to let that old professor and King Ainkhist and Warren Foltz take their pleasure of me; so you could call it constructive rape ..."

"I know darling; you've already told me all about it, more than once. You're a compulsive confesser. Let's not hear any more about your amatory adventures, which don't amount to much anyhow. Compared to most people nowadays, we've both been pretty abstemious. Instead, let's think how lucky we are that Sarf didn't decide to cut his risk by pitching us overboard tied up in those bags."

"What a gruesome idea!"

"Yes. The thought came to me in that sack, with no way to get out and no way to defend you. It made for a nasty couple of hours."

"I suppose he has too much regard for his cousin Sainian." She pulled away and wiped the backs of her hands across her cheeks. "I hate being a silly, sentimental feminine female! I'd better go rescue Aristide. That egg-layer is beating his ears off, and he's too polite to tell her to go jump in the Zigros."