The Prisoner of Zhamanak

V PURSUIT

With dawn, Ovanel departed. Minyev appeared, so promptly that Mjipa suspected he had been waiting outside until his master's guest left the premises. To Mjipa's surprise, the Kalwmian greeted him: "Goot mo-nin, suh! You sleep goot?"

"Eh? Where did you learn English, Minyev?"

"I have listened to you and Mistress Dyckman. Now I know a few words. Some day I shall learn good English and Portuguese and be a man of rank, belike an interpreter or even an ambassador."

"Good-oh!"

After breakfast, Mjipa went to the palace, leaving Minyev to guard their possessions. He impatiently waited an hour for Zharvets. When the minister at last ordered Mjipa's admission, the consul said:

"My lord, I pray that you send word to Mistress Dyckman, that I stand ready to escort her forth."

The minister sent a page to the king's private apartments. Soon the page returned, saying: "My lords, Mistress Dyckman wishes to remain in the seraglio for several hours more. She will rejoin Master Mjipa this afternoon." Mjipa bristled, supposing that Alicia was finding the king's embraces too delectable to part with. After growling curses under his breath in English and Setswana, he said: "Could I have a word with His Awesomeness?"

Mjipa did not really wish to see the Heshvavu, but this seemed a likely way to smoke the bastard out. To Mjipa, for a Krishnan male to force sexual favors from a Terran woman was absolutely unforgivable, an insult that could only be wiped out with blood. He made a private resolve to kill King Ainkhist, if he ever had a chance to do so without involving the other Terrans on Krishna.

"Nay, not this morn," said Zharvets."Know that my lord hath gone with some of his gentlemen oh a yeki hunt and will not return ere nightfall."

Mjipa wondered, if Alicia were not bedded with the Heshvavu, what on Krishna she was up to. He would not put it past her to lecture the haremites on the evils of polygamy, or to foment a strike, on the model of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, against their royal master. He said:

"Very well, sir. I shall return anon. May your liver be light!"

Mjipa spent the morning strolling about Yein, looking in the shops. He had to keep moving, because every time he stopped, the Mutabwcians gathered about him, staring. Although experience had hardened Mjipa to the role of exotic curiosity, he still found it irksome. Besides, all it needed was for some anti-Terran fanatic, a local version of King Khorosh, to stir up an otherwise peaceful crowd ...

Mid-afternoon found Percy Mjipa sitting on a cushion on the floor in a corner of Minister Zharvets's chamber of office, filling the air with pipe smoke. At last the minister, coughing, said:

"Master Mjipa, if you will cease smoking that thing, I will send for a flagon of good falat. Belike you'll find drinking it as pleasurable to you and less asphyxiating to me."

"I beg Your Altitude's pardon," said Mjipa, removing the pipe from his mouth. "You said you would not mind."

"Aye, but little I knew what hellish clouds your instrument would give forth."

The native wine proved good. But Mjipa, what with his impatience to begone from Yein, his shame at having failed to preserve Alicia's residual virtue, and his puzzlement over what could be holding her in the seraglio, was in no condition to appreciate its bouquet.

Roqir was low in the west when Alicia appeared. She wore her usual khaki shirt and shorts, but Mjipa could see that beneath the clothes she had been decorated with Khaldoni body paint, the pattern of which appeared on her bare arms, legs, and neck. In one hand she clutched a long rolled strip of native paper, and a necklace of gems gleamed round her slender neck.

"Percy darling!" she cried. "How nice of you to wait all this time! Farewell, Your Altitude," she said gaily to the minister; then to Mjipa again:"We must get back to the inn. I have work to do tonight."

"Eh? What?" said Mjipa as they walked out of the palace, with Alicia holding the black man's arm. "You seem remarkably cheerful for one who has been through a degrading experience."

"Degradation is all in the mind of the degradee. If I feel I've done the right thing, nobody can degrade me."

"Well, how was it?"

"The Heshvavu? No worse than a gynecological examination. It didn't really hurt, though I can't say I liked it, either. Maybe that's what made Ainkhist quit after the first time. Or maybe he expected some strange, exotic experience and was disappointed to find that one orgasm feels much like another."

"Some day I'll kill that son of a bitch," muttered Mjipa.

"Oh, calm down, Percy. He merely acted according to his lights, and I'm none the worse. After he'd done his thing, he insisted on reading aloud the beginning of his great Khaldoni history. But I fell asleep in the third chapter. I guess he took that as a literary criticism, because when I woke up he'd gone hunting."

"But what the hell are you so cheerful about? And what have you been up to all day?"

"Calm yourself, Percy; you're acting childish."

"God damn it, woman, I ought to know—"

"I'm trying to tell you, if you'll just keep quiet. See this?"

She held up the roll of paper, which he saw was covered with tiny inked symbols. He got out his spectacles to peer at them and asked: "What is it?"

"I've spent the day interviewing the inmates of the harem, and these are my notes. I'll have to spend the night writing them up in my notebooks, while they're still fresh."

"What language is that stuff written in? It looks something like Gozashtandou but isn't."

"English, but in shorthand. It's an almost forgotten art, but I find it handy in my profession. I have material here for a dozen papers and at least one whole book! Nobody has published a study of this milieu! Now do you see why I'm happy?"

"I'm glad it makes up for the other thing. I'll never forgive myself—"

"You mean the Heshvavu again? That was nothing."

"But don't you feel somehow unclean—violated?"

"Not really. I'm sure there's nothing about it in the Bible. If I remember, in the Apocrypha, Judith got high marks for giving her all to some enemy general, so she could murder him in his sleep.

"Understand, Percy, this king and his member mean no more to me emotionally than some mechanical gimmick. For a chance like this, I'd let myself be screwed every hour on the hour, so long as it didn't hurt. Don't look so shocked; I'm just being practical and realistic.

"And speaking of sex, these notes include Ovanel's remarks about you, so you needn't scorn me as a fallen woman. She was telling everyone who'd listen how you rang the bell four times in one night. I suppose there are Krishnans who'd feel about you the way you do towards Ainkhist."

Mjipa hung his head and kicked a pebble. "I've been continent a hell of a long time, you know; and she seemed ready, willing, and eager. But I'm still ashamed of myself."

"Oh, cheer up, Percy dear. You merely proved you 're not wearing an invisible halo."

"I'm just sorry I blotted my copybook, after holding out for so long."

"It's not a record anybody'll give you a medal for in these promiscuous days, no matter how virtuous you've been. In fact, Ovanel praised your virility till some of the haremites wondered if they couldn't persuade the Heshvavu to give or sell them to you. Apparently Ainkhist isn't in the same league with you in that department."

"Good God! We'd better get out of Yein before he tries something like that. Or, more likely, he'll have me liquidated in a fit of jealousy. He thinks himself the kingdom's number one lover, and he wouldn't take kindly to competition."

"He's more talk than action," said Alicia. "But that's usually the case with these self-styled great cocksmen on Earth, and I suppose here, too."

Mjipa sighed. "You 're in a position to know, though I'm still kicking myself for not somehow preventing it. I say, what's that fancy necklace? It looks like the one I saw Ainkhist wearing."

She pulled the necklace off over her head. "It's the same one. He gave it to me; he's basically a kindly soul aside from his sex complex."

"Huh! Kindly by his lights, perhaps; but if you hadn't given in to him, he might just as well have had you flogged to death. I know these blokes."

"You may be right." She held the necklace up to let it glitter in the sunshine. "I think the big green one's a real emerald. But I don't want the damned thing." She drew back her arm, as if to fling the necklace away.

"Oy!" cried Mjipa. "Don't! That's valuable!"

"I know; but it makes me feel like a whore." Alicia held up the roll of paper. "This is my real payment."

"Well, we ought to figure out something more practical to do with that bauble. I know! Sell it to me at a price I can afford, and I'll give it to Vicky as a homecoming present."

"I'll give it to you; here! No, I won't take payment. Either you accept it as a gift, or I'll drop it in a rubbish bin."

"And you're the one always accusing me of impractical sentimentality!"

"Never mind; I mean what I say. But perhaps you'd better not tell Victoria how you came by it."

"Oh, rather! In fact, we'd both better keep quiet about the events of last night. Vicky would be furious; and as for you, you might yet meet a man whom you'd prefer not to have know about these bêtises."

She shrugged. "I doubt that. No use trying to play Cupid for me, Percy. You don't know what it's like to be a highly qualified woman scientist. Most of the men I meet seem hopelessly dull, and those on my educational level run away because they prefer a female they have the psychological bulge over. So I've settled for marriage to my career."

"Haven't you any maternal instincts?"

"You can't tell whether you have them until you have a . child to trigger them. I've seen too many of my women colleagues, with excellent professional prospects, get married. Then the guy wants kids; so they have them. They have to quit work to raise the brats, and by the time they go back, , they've lost fifteen or twenty years of professional advancement and can never catch up."

"Oh, come off it! With modern longevity, that can't be the factor it used to be."

"Yes it is; I've seen it. Then sometimes these women get desperate and run out on the family, which leaves everybody miserable. Sometimes the man tells them one day, so long, old girl; I've decided to trade you in on a newer model. Not for me, thanks!

"But about your suggestion: you're quite right. You keep my shameful secret and I'll keep yours."

"You won't put anything about me and Ovanel in those books and articles you're going to write, even though they're in your notes?" said Mjipa with a note of apprehension in his voice.

"Of course not! Now, when can I use the bathhouse? I can't wait to get this sticky paint off. It was the haremites' idea of making me as beautiful as Sivandi in the legend."

Mjipa dropped Alicia off at the bathhouse, identified by the large sea shell over the door. He paid her fee and went back to the inn. As he mounted the stairs, Minyev popped out, frantically beckoning. When the two were alone, the Kalwmian said: "My lord, ye be in dire peril! We must fly!"

"Eh? What now?"

"Whilst ye were at the palace, I was in the common room below, enjoying a flask of falat with the taverner. In came a ging of bully-rooks to demand if we wist of a brace of Terrans, one small and yellow-polled, one tall and black as the smoke of Hishkak. Taverner Thathord opened his mouth to reply, but I hastily interposed a stout denial that either of us had laid eyes upon such monstrous aliens. Thathord's no ninny, so kept's peace whilst these coystrils sniffed about, swearing they sensed the Terran odor. But at length they departed.

"Now, these rudesbies spake Khaldoni with the Zhamanacian accent. So what think ye? That Lord Khorosh hath sent them to avenge the slight ye put upon him?"

"I think you're right. Master Thathord will expect a reward for his silence. Pack up your stuff and help me with ours; we'll pick up the lady at the bathhouse."

When Mjipa had paid their bill and added a generous tip to the taverner, they led the saddled ayas down the street to the bathhouse. Mjipa cursed himself for not having remembered sooner what he had once, long before, read in a W.F. report that the Krishnans living near the equator, such as the Khaldoni nations, not only had larger olifactory antennae than those living farther from it but also keener senses of smell. Hence it would be hard for him to throw off these humanoid bloodhounds, once they got on his trail.

The bathhouse was advertised by a sign, which Minyev translated: GENUINE SOAP FROM THE TERPAHLA WORKS OF THE BANJAO SEA. Not long before, the Interplanetary Council had relaxed the technological blockade to allow knowledge of soap-making into Krishna. After the suppression of the pirates of the Sunqar (the vast mass of floating terpahla weed in the Banjao) and of the manufacture of dangerous drugs centered there, a Terran named Barnevelt had set up a soap factory in the derelict ships of the Sunqar. Knowledge of soap was just beginning to penetrate the nations around the Triple Seas.

Mjipa threaded his way around pools and tubs in the bathhouse, where Mutabwcians swam, splashed, soaped, scrubbed, dried, played games, and sat to have their body paint renewed. As he walked past one pool, a Krishnan female, shrieking with laughter, ran past him pursued by a male. She banged into Mjipa, who fell into the pool with a great splash.

As he came up sputtering, the other Krishnans in the pool, thinking the Terran wanted to play games with them, began splashing him. Ignoring the horseplay as best he could, he climbed out the shallow end and continued looking for Alicia. He found her toweling herself after washing off her paint. Seeing the consul approach dripping, she said:

"Why, Percy! Have you been taking a bath with your clothes on?"

"Never mind that; come along right away! Don't put your clothes on; in Nude City you'll be less conspicuous without em.

"What's the matter?" she asked, drying an arm. "I'll explain later. Hurry up, damn it!"

"I won't move until you explain! I have a right to know—"

"God damn it, come along or I'll drag you! This is a life-and-death matter!"

At Mjipa's menacing aspect, Alicia, with a frightened look, snatched up her garments and followed him, still dripping, out of the bathhouse. At the sight of the saddled and laden ayas, she started to say: "What on Krishna—"

"Into the saddle!" snapped Mjipa. "Lively, or I'll spank that pretty pink arse!"

During the ride to the Kalwm Gate, Alicia plied Mjipa with questions: "What's this all about? What danger is there? Has something happened? How did you get wet?"

The consul kept silence until they were outside the city wall. Then Alicia said: "At least let me stop long enough to put on some clothes. You don't want me chafed raw again."

"Very well," said Mjipa. While she dressed, he told about the band of ruffians from Zhamanak who sought them. "If I know these natives, Khorosh sent them out with orders to bring back our heads, without the rest of us. Now you see why I didn't want to stop to dither at the bathhouse? It's bad enough to risk your own head by stopping to argue every step, but you're risking mine as well."

"What do you expect?" she flared. "You burst in and start bellowing at me as if I were one of those poor tailed slaves. All you had to do was ask politely, and I'd have come. You're a hell of a diplomat!"

"God damn it, woman, at such times you've got to forget fine manners ..."

The quarrel raged on for a quarter-hour, at the end of which Mjipa said: "Tais-toi! Il ne faut pas chicaner en anglais, parce que notre bonhomme-là le comprend un peu."

Warned from quarreling in English before Minyev, Alicia fell silent. The two spoke to each other no more that day.

They rode half the night. When they finally made camp, Mjipa posted watches, taking the first watch himself. Alicia had the last. When Mjipa awoke, it was daylight. Across from the remains of the fire, Alicia sat hunched over one of her notebooks, writing furiously. She looked up, saying:

"Hello, Percy! I'm sorry, but I can't help with breakfast. I've got to use every minute to get this stuff down before it fades. If you don't think I deserve any food, don't give me any; this is more important."

"Nonsense!" growled Mjipa. "You know we wouldn't let you starve. But I can see why you scare off the men. Nobody as dedicated to her science as you would have room for the softer feelings."

With a slight smile, tinged with melancholy, she replied: "I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an aspersion." She returned to her writing.

At the Kalwmian border, Lieutenant Spisov was duty officer. When he saw Mjipa, he exclaimed: "You again!"

"Yes, I," said Mjipa, teeth showing whitely against the black of his skin. "Here are the papers. And I should like to send an important message back to your government."

After a conference among the officers, one said: "Master Mjipa, we will see that your message is despatched with the next fiftnightly report. Hast written it?"

"No; I don't write Khaldoni. Can someone write it for me?"

"Certes!" said the officer. "Spisov! Fetch paper and pen. "

Spisov departed, muttering: "Why must it always be I?" When he returned, Mjipa dictated:

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR ALTITUDES, THE HESHVAVU KHOROSH HAS SENT TO YEIN A BAND OF MURDERERS TO SLAY ME AND MY PARTY. WE FLED THE CITY, BUT SUCH A BREACH OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO YOUR ATTENTION. PERCY MJIPA, TERRAN CONSUL.

The message completed, Mjipa turned to Alicia. "It may not do much good," he said, "but we want to put every obstacle we can in these larrikins' way."

It had taken nine days for Mjipa to get from Kalwm City to the border post, but they made the opposite journey in eight. The trip went faster, albeit in far less comfort, because a small party wastes less time than a larger one in getting started mornings, arguing over where to stop to pitch camp, and disputing about who shall do which chore.

On the afternoon of the eighth day, the sky was overcast, with a drizzle, as on the first day that Mjipa had seen the city. Mjipa and his two companions looked like disaster victims.

Mjipa and Minyev wore their Kalwmian kilts; Alicia, her shorts and shirt. So covered with dust and mud were they, however, that a beholder would have had trouble telling where cloth ended and hide began. Dirt lessened the differences in color between Mjipa and Alicia, so that they presented merely different shades of brown. The drizzle had eroded runnels in their coatings of dirt, giving a zebra effect.

Beneath the dirt they all looked gaunt, worn, and weary. They had been lashed by tropical rains, baked by tropical suns, and bitten by Krishnan arthropods, some of whom seemed to find Terran blood as attractive as did insects on Earth. As a result of their hurried departure from Yein, without time to gather supplies, they ran out of food and traveled the last two days on empty stomachs. The Terrans' tempers, never phlegmatic, were shorter than ever.

One of the fiercest quarrels between the Terrans had erupted when they crossed a river, and the girl demanded that they halt while she bathed. Mjipa had vetoed the plan on the ground that some of these rivers harbored dangerous life, comparable to the crocodiles and piranhas of Earth. He refused to take a chance on a dip without a better knowledge of the local fresh-water fauna.

Vuzhov's tower loomed out of the mist, standing high above the city wall. Frowning, Mjipa said: "By Jove, I believe they've added another story to that thing! It's time for God to step in and cause a confusion of tongues, as in the Bible."

"Percy, you don't really believe—"

"Good lord, no! At Oxford they told me the Tower of Babel was merely the Ziggurat of Babylon."

"Somebody ought to stir up a revolution against this crazy king and his obsolete government," said Alicia. "I'd like a chance—"

"Now look here! You tried that once and got kicked out of the country. If you do it again, the results may be more painful."

"I have a right to point out a plain fact—"

"And get yourself killed doing it? Not while you're with me, lassie! Remember, we've got agang of Khorosh's killers on our spoor. If you make a bloody nuisance of yourself, Vuzhov's people would be happy to turn you over to this crew, thus ducking responsibility—"

"Bloody nuisance, am I? Damn you, Percy Mjipa, why did you bother to come after me? All you care about is your bureaucratic rules and your fitness reports ..."

By the time they reached the Mutabwcian Gate, the quarrel had subsided into grim silence. The officer of the duty squad looked at Mjipa's papers, saying: "Welcome back, Master Mjipa! The city buzzes with a rumor of a brabble 'twixt you and the mighty lord of Zhamanak, with no two tales alike. Canst give the sooth of it?"

"Nothing of consequence, sir. He and I had words in a minor argument, wherefore our parting was less amicable than its usual wont."

They passed into the city. Mjipa went to Irants's Inn, where he had stayed aforetime. When he led his companions in, Irants looked up from his cushion, saying sharply: "Begone, ragamuffins! No beggars or vagrants in here!... Oh, 'tis ye, Master Mjipa! Phaighost save me, but ye ghasted me sore, appearing like a ghost from the past. What befell you, that ye bear an aspect so tristful? What would ye? A room? Can ye still pay?"

"I can pay," said Mjipa. "I want two rooms, with one and two beds respectively."

Mjipa gave Alicia the single room. When she was settled, she said: "Percy, I want to interview the taverner. I'm sure I could get a paper on the economics of Krishnan innkeeping."

" 'Fraid not," said Mjipa. "One of the conditions under which they let me through was that, if I returned with you, I should keep you under wraps, as you Americans say, while we were in Kalwm. That means no interviews."

"But that's terrible! Here I have a virgin field, anthropologically speaking, and I'm not allowed to ask one little question! I may never get back here again!"

"The beggars are afraid you'd start setting 'em right on the shape of the planet." Mjipa saw from Alicia's expression that she was about to fly into one of her rages. "Now calm down, my dear! I don't like these restrictions any better than you, but if we want to get back to Novo with our heads still attached, we'd jolly well better pay them heed.

"Now I'll order our dinners from Irants. I don't know about you, but I could eat enough for three. Meanwhile there's a bathhouse down the street, which we could all use.

After dinner we shall be too tired for anything but sleep, even though it'll still be daylight."

Next morning Alicia overslept. Mjipa breakfasted with Minyev in Irants's common room. As they finished, Mjipa told his factotum:

"Minyev, I want to know the sailing dates of the next ships to Shaf, or Jazmurian, or Majbur. Shaf's at the end of the rail line, so we would go from there to Majbur." (A Krishnan railroad consisted of a pair of wooden rails, on which tame bishtars pulled strings of little wooden cars.) "But either of the other ports would do as well. Can you do it?"

"Aye, master."

"Then go to it. Make sure the ship has quarters for the three of us, and reserve our places."

Minyev departed. A couple of local breakfasters also finished and went, leaving Mjipa alone in the common room. Irants came over and sat in Minyev's seat, saying:

"My lord, tell me some things anent Terrans. Amongst the breed whence ye spring, is't usual for the males to be tall and black, whereas the females be of medium size, pale of skin, and yellow of hair?"

"No. Mistress Dyckman and I come from different parts of our world. Hence the racial differences between us."

Irants digested this information. Then he said: "Another thing, sir, if I may speak of familiar matters. I could not help observe that ye placed the female in the single room, whilst ye and Goodman Minyev took the double. Amongst us, a male and his mate cohabit in the same quarter. Or could it be that ye suffer what we call the curse of the gods, that ye know not which sex ye appertain to?"

Mjipa felt a passing wave of anger but then burst into laughter. "No, my friend, you have it wrong. First, I have no urge of that sort towards another male; the idea revolts me. Second, Mistress Dyckman is not my mate, or anyone's else, but a learned lady of respect and authority in her own world. I am but her guide and helper—ah there, Lish! Thought you'd sleep all morning. I've been disabusing Master Irants of illusions; tell you later. While Minyev's out finding us a ship, why don't we take a dekko at Vuzhov's tower, if you're up to it? You could write a learned paper on that."

The sky, for once, was clear. Vuzhov's tower rose at the west end of Kalwm City, amid an open area. Mjipa, who had examined the tower on his previous visits to Kalwm City, and Alicia came out from the narrow streets into this cleared space. Alicia was quick to say that this plaza had formerly been a mass of dwellings of the poor of the city. She pointed to lines of walling amid the rubble.

"You can see the house plans," she explained. "Small houses of mud brick. I'll bet the Heshvavu simply ordered the space cleared, and his people told the inhabitants to get out pronto. Then they knocked over the houses and hauled away the debris; but they never finished the job, so you can still see traces of what they did. Do you suppose they ever paid the people whose property they expropriated?"

Mjipa shrugged. "Don't know. Some of the more advanced states, like Zamba, might; but I doubt if the idea would occur to these chaps. After all, we have countries on Earth, quite advanced, who confiscate the property of anyone they dislike."

They strolled across the plaza, skirting piles of rubble. Around the base of the tower, the ground had been properly leveled. A pair of tracks of the man-powered street-railway system made a loop around the tower. A small crowd of Krishnans stood craning their necks to look up. From their appearance, Mjipa decided that they were mostly visitors from other parts of Kalwm and from the other Khaldoni kingdoms.

Sounds of construction came from the tower, and little figures could be glimpsed moving around the top. At ground level, Krishnans were bringing heaps of red-brown bricks in hand carts. Others stacked these bricks in a couple of large baskets, from which ropes soared upwards.

Mjipa followed these ropes up with his eyes, squinting against the glare of Roqir, until they reached a pair of brackets jutting from the wall at the top. These brackets supported pulleys, over which the ropes were laid. As Mjipa watched, one of the ground crews sang out. Two Krishnans of this crew turned cranks, and the basket rose as the other leg of the rope was reeled in on a large spool, connected by gearing with the crankshaft. When the basket reached the top, one of the crank men belayed his crank by slipping a leather loop over it.

Alicia said: "Do you suppose, if we acted important enough, they'd let us inside?"

"We might try." Mjipa approached the monumental entrance to the tower, guarded by a pair of Vuzhov's gilded soldiers. The massive valves of the door, of squared timbers bound with bronze, stood open, and workmen went in and out.

"Good morning," said Mjipa to one guard. "We are Terrans from Novorecife. May we speak to the chief of construction?"

The guard went in and presently returned with a small, elderly Krishnan in a black kilt, who said: "Chief Engineer Arraj, at your service!"

Mjipa made a ceremonious introduction of himself and Alicia, adding: "Having heard of the wonders of this tower, we should be much obliged if you would permit us to view the details of construction."

"Certes, my dear Terrans! A thousand times aye! 'Twill be bliss inexpressible to show you round myself. We hear so much rumor of the might of Terrans in such matters that I would fain monstrate to you that we Khaldonians, too, can perform feats of dought in building. Come hither, pray."

They followed the affable engineer into the building. The interior, cluttered with construction materials, had a great spiral stair, which went round and round and up and up. Every five or six meters of height, the stair pierced a broad circular gallery bracketed out from the tower wall. Windows on each level admitted light.

Their host rattled on: "Since Kalwm has but little good stone, being in essence a plain of alluvial mud, stone is costly. Hence the bulk of the structure is of brick. Ye wite that I used stone for the foundation and for the lowest course, despite the expense, to withstand the superincumbent weight. For the rest, the outermost layer and the next within are of kiln-dried brick, lest rain water soften it and bring the tower over the years to collapse."

"Why not kiln-dried brick all the way through?" asked Mjipa.

"Why, sir, not e'en the wealth of Dakhaq would suffice to pay for the fuel such baking would devour. Now, would ye behold the finest overview of Kalwm City that life affords? 'Tis an exigent climb, I'll warrant you."

Mjipa turned to his companion. "How's your heart, Lish? I shouldn't care to have you drop dead in the middle of this climb."

"My heart's fine, thank you. I was an intercollegiate tennis champion." As they started up the stairs, she spoke to the engineer: "Good Master Arraj, tell me when you expect to reach—ow!"

Mjipa had pinched her arm. He said in English:"You were going to ask him when he expected to get to Heaven, weren't you?"

"What if I was? That hurt!"

"Didn't I tell you not to converse with the natives? I promised the government you wouldn't, and you were about to bugger it up again. The next thing would have been an argument over the shape of the planet. Want to get us killed? Damn it all, forget you know a word of Khaldoni! If you have something to say, tell me and I'll translate."

Mjipa thought if human eyes could really emit sparks, Alicia's would have done so. But she clamped her lips together in a thin, tight line and said no more.

They reached the third gallery from the bottom. While catching breath from the climb, Mjipa opened the door of a chamber built into the tower wall, which was several meters thick. The room was empty and without furnishings save for rows of pegs protruding from the wall. "What's this, Master Arraj?"

"Merely a chamber for the storage of tools. There's one on each level. The tools have been moved to the fifth story. Ye will observe that we are completely flooring only every fifth level, to save weight."

At last they reached the fifth level, which unlike those below was completely floored. The floor was open to the sky. Here construction made a din. Workmen hammered and sawed, moved scaffolding about, mixed mortar with hoes in troughs, laid bricks, and shouted orders back and forth. Arraj beckoned them to a window. Raising his voice above the noise, he said: "Here's your view, sir and madam."

Mjipa stared down at the sea of red-tiled roofs. After some minutes of trying to identify the roof of Irants's Inn, he gave up. He thanked Arraj effusively for the tour, and he and Alicia returned to the ground. They took a man-powered street car back to the inn, where Minyev awaited them in the common room.

"My lord!" said Minyev. "I have bespoken three berths on the ship Tarvezid, leaving for Majbur seven days hence."

Mjipa frowned. "Was that the earliest sailing?"

"Aye, sir. The next was a ship for Jazmurian, leaving a fiftnight later. I hope ye be satisfied, sir."

"I'm sure I shall be, though I'll go to the docks tomorrow to look the Tarvezid over."

"If she meet not your requirements, is't likely ye'd defer departure?"

"I don't know yet. Why?"

"Because, may it please Your Lordship, the execution of the heretic Isayin is set for two days after the Tarvezid's sailing. 'Twere a spectacle well worth beholding."

Mjipa grunted. During the last moon, other thoughts had crowded the fate of Doctor Isayin out of his mind. Now he felt a rush of contrition for having helped to condemn the savant, although he told himself, what else could he have done? At last he said:

"Where is Isayin kept?"

"In the Old Prison, sir, I do believe."

"Is that part of the palace?"

"Nay; 'tis westerly of the palace, near the waterfront. An ,ye'd like to see it, I'll guide you thither on the morrow."

"I'll consider that, Minyev. How long before dinner?"

"Eftsoons, my lord. Wouldst that I broached the matter to Irants?"

Before Mjipa could answer, the street door flew open, and in marched a squad of King Vuzhov's soldiery, spangled loin cloths and all. "Enter first murderers," muttered Mjipa.

The officer in command headed straight for Mjipa, halted with a click of gilded sandals, and said: "Pen-see Um-jee-pah, ye are summoned to the palace to answer a legal process against you. Ye also, A-lee-shah Dah-eek-man. Come!"

Surrounded by Kalwmian soldiery, Mjipa and Alicia were herded out and along the street. Minyev had somehow managed to vanish, as if by a magical spell, as soon as the soldiers appeared. Mjipa tried to question the officer but was rebuffed.

They were taken to Chanapar's office. The minister said: "Ah, Master Mjipa and Mistress Dyckman! Whereas I am pleased to see you again, I regret that our meeting be under these litigious circumstances."

Mjipa: "I seem, Your Altitude, to have spent most of the last moon being arrested on one false charge after another. What is it this time?"

"It is no violation of our Kalwmian laws that fetches you hither, but a request from the Heshvavu Khorosh for your extradition, to face charges in his own demesne." The minister turned to a Krishnan holding a scroll. "Proceed, Master Verar."

The strange Khaldonian, a Zhamanacian from his total nudity and body paint, unrolled the scroll and read: "Whereas two aliens from the alleged world called Terra, namely Percy Mjipa and Alicia Dyckman," (he mangled their names) "while guests of the Heshvavu Khorosh, may he live forever, did conspire to lay impious hands upon his sacred person, and kidnap, abduct, and carry off by force the said Heshvavu, leaving him many regakit from the city of Mejvorosh, we therefore call upon our brother Heshvavu of Kalwm to return these inhuman creatures to us, to face charges of lèse majesté, threat, assault, hostage taking, and kidnapping ..."

The scroll went on and on, citing various laws and legal precedents; but the opening paragraph gave the gist. When the envoy had finished, Chanapar said: "How say you, Master Mjipa?"

"I say that in the first place, we were not guests of the Heshvavu but his captives. Neither had he arrested us for violation of his laws, but seized us arbitrarily and locked us up as part of a bizarre experiment for which he hoped to use us as subjects.

"In the second, we did indeed lay hands upon his sacred person, since that was the only way we could regain the freedom from which, in defiance of civilized custom and diplomatic immunity, he had bereft us. We took him into the country and let him go. He should be grateful; had we wished him harm, we could easily have killed him."

"Ye see!" cried the envoy. "The alien admits his guilt! He says his assault upon His Awesomeness was justified; but nought extenuates so foul a deed. Do but once breach the sacredness of the ruler's person, and the land falls into anarchy and rapine!"

"How say you, Mistress Dyckman?" said Chanapar.

"I agree in every particular with the statement of Master Mjipa."

Chanapar stroked his antennae. "Good my sirs, a case of this weight must needs be tried before the full court. Since their calendar be crowded, I misdoubt they'll take it up in less than a full moon hence. 'Twill give the Terrans time to find an advocate and prepare their defense.

"Now, as for the interim: Master Mjipa, were you twain but common scrowles, you'd await the hearing in one of our prison cells. But since you come from Novorecife and be persons of rank and repute, we'll suffer you to remain in your present abode, on condition that you post a bond and promise never to go beyond the city walls."

"I protest!" cried Verar. "These aliens will slip away, no matter how closely watched. They're said to have mysterious powers. Who knows that they'll not sprout wings and fly away? Or make themselves invisible? My master were better pleased if ye put them in the deepest dungeon, laden with the heaviest gyves."

"Your protest is noted," said Chanapar. "Well, Master Mjipa?"

"How much bond?" said Mjipa.

"One hundred khichit of gold."

Mjipa turned to Alicia. "What's that in karda? Mental arithmetic was never my strong point."

The girl frowned. "About a hundred and seventy."

"I think we can make it, though it'll leave us a bit short." Mjipa pulled out his money belt and stacked ten-kard gold pieces until he made his bond. "May I please have a receipt, Your Altitude?"

Mjipa and Alicia hastened back to the inn. Alicia said: "It ought to be smooth sailing, since the ship leaves long before the hearing comes up."

"Huh!" said Mjipa. "You mean, smooth sailing if the government doesn't get wind of our plan to leave, and if they don't post guards over our ship."

"The minister seems friendly. He sounded as if he really wanted us to jump bail and skip."

"Maybe, but the Heshvavu might have different ideas. Policy in an autocracy is subject to change without notice. Also, if Vuzhov's gang doesn't do us in first. They'll have no trouble finding us. Verar will write a letter, saying: 'I've located them here in Kalwm City! Send the gang, and I'll lead you to their lair."'

"Oh, dear!" Alicia. "What shall we do, then?"

"What we can. And I have a debt of honor to pay to Doctor Isayin."

"What do you mean? I hope it's not something that'll get us all in the soup."

"You'll see, old girl."

"You're not thinking of trying to rescue him—"

"That's my business! The less you know about it the better. If I do, I'll see that you 're on the ship when it happens and won't be involved."

"Oh, Percy, there you go with your crazy notions of honor and chivalry again! We'll be lucky if we can get ourselves away with whole skins. Haven't you any common sense?"

"You 're nobody to talk. You 're to blame for poor Isayin's trouble in the first place, for selling him the idea of a round planet."

"But he already had a suspicion. I merely confirmed—"

"If you'd kept your little pink mouth shut, you could have done all the research you wanted, right here in Kalwm."

"Oh, you're impossible! That's no reason for risking a couple of valuable Terran lives—"

"Oh, so our lives are more valuable than those of the poor bloody natives? And who's always ragging me about looking down on the blighters? ..."

The quarrel escalated into a shouting match, at the end of which Alicia retired to her room and slammed the door. The pair spoke no more to each other that day.