Planet of Adventure Omnibus (42 page)

For a week
they sailed and paddled uneventfully, the Jinga growing ever wider. One day
they passed a canoe from which an old man netted fish; the next day they saw a
village on the banks; the day after a power-boat throbbed past. On the night
following they halted at a town and spent the night in a riverside inn,
standing on stilts over the water.

Two more days
they sailed downstream, to a brisk wind from astern. The Jinga was now wide and
deep and the wind raised sizable waves. Navigation began to be a problem.
Coming to another town they saw a river packet headed downstream; abandoning
the boat they took passage for Kabasas on the Parapan.

Three days
they rode the packet, enjoying the comfort of hammocks and fresh food. At noon
on the fourth day, with the Jinga so broad that the far shore could not be
seen, the blue domes of Kabasas appeared on rising land to the west.

Kabasas, like
Coad, served as a commercial depot for extensive hinterlands and like Coad
seemed to seethe with intrigue. Warehouses and sheds faced the docks; behind,
ranks of arched and colonnaded buildings, of beige, gray, white and dark blue
plaster, mounted the hills. A wall of each building, for reasons never clear to
Reith, leaned either inward or out, giving the city a curiously irregular
appearance by no means dissonant with the conduct of the inhabitants. These
were a slender alert people, with flowing brown hair, wide cheekbones, burning
black eyes. The woman were notably handsome and Zarfo cautioned all: “If you
value your lives, pay no heed to the women! Do not so much as look after them,
even though they provoke and tease! They play a strange game here in Kabasas.
At any hint of admiration they set up furious outcry and a hundred other women,
screaming and cursing, rush up to knife the miscreant.”

“Hmmf,” said
Reith. “And the men?”

“They’ll save
you if they can, and beat the women off, which suits all parties very well.
Indeed this is the way of courtship. A man desiring a girl will set upon her
and beat her black and blue. No one would think to interfere. If the girl
approves, she comes the same way again. When he rushes forth to pummel her, she
throws herself on his mercy. Such is the painful wooing of the Kabs.”

“It seems
somewhat awkward,” said Reith.

“Exactly.
Awkward and perverse. Such are affairs in Kabasas. During our stay you had best
rely on my counsel. First, I nominate the Sea Dragon Inn as a base of
operations.”

“We’ll hardly
be here that long. Why not go directly to the dock and find a ship to take us
across the Parapan?”

Zarfo pulled
at his long black nose. “Things are never so easy! And why cheat ourselves of a
sojourn at the Sea Dragon Inn? ... Perhaps a week or two.”

“You
naturally intend to pay for your own accommodations?”

Zarfo’s white
eyebrows dipped sharply. “I am as you know a poor man. My every sequin
represents toil. On a joint venture of this sort openhanded generosity should
certainly be the rule.”

“Tonight,”
said Reith, “we stay at the Sea Dragon Inn. Tomorrow we leave Kabasas.”

Zarfo gave a
dismal grunt. “It is not my place to dispute your wishes. Hmmf. As I understand
the matter, you plan to arrive at Smargash, recruit a team of technicians, then
continue to Ao Hidis?”

“Correct.”

“Discretion
then! I suggest that we take ship to Zara across the Parapan and up the Ish
River. You have not lost your money?”

“Definitely
not.”

“Take good
care of it. The thieves of Kabasas are deft; they use thongs which reach out
thirty feet.” Zarfo pointed. “Observe that structure just above the beach? The
Sea Dragon Inn!”

The Sea
Dragon Inn was indeed a grand establishment, with wide public rooms and
pleasant sleeping cubicles. The restaurant was decorated to suggest a submarine
garden, even to the dark grottos where members of a local sect, who would not
publicly perform the act of deglutition, were served.

Reith ordered
fresh linen from the staff haberdashery and descended to the great bath on the
low terrace. He scrubbed himself and was sprayed with tonic and massaged with
handfuls of fragrant moss. Wrapping himself in a gown of white linen he
returned to his chamber.

On the couch
sat a man in a soiled dark blue suit. Reith stared. Helsse looked back at him
with an unfathomable expression. He made no move and uttered no sound.

The silence
was intense.

Reith slowly
backed from the room, to stand uncertainly on the balcony, heart pounding as if
he had seen a ghost. Zarfo appeared, swaggering back to his room with white
hair billowing.

Reith
signaled to him. “Come, I want to show you something.” He took Zarfo to the
door, thrust it ajar, half-expecting to find the room unoccupied. Helsse sat as
before. Zarfo whispered: “Is he mad? He sits and stares and mocks us but does
not speak.”

“Helsse,”
said Reith. “What are you doing here? What happened to you?”

Helsse rose
to his feet. Reith and Zarfo moved involuntarily back. Helsse looked at them
with the faintest of smiles. He stepped out on the balcony, walked slowly to
the stairs. He turned his head; Reith and Zarfo saw the pale oval of his face;
then, like an apparition, he was gone.

“What is the
meaning of all this?” Reith asked in a husky voice.

Zarfo shook
his head, for once subdued. “The Pnume love their pranks.”

“Should we
have held him?”

“He could
have stayed, had he wished.”

“But-I doubt
if he is sane.”

Zarfo’s only
response was a hunch-shouldered shrug.

Reith went to
the edge of the balcony, looked out over the town. “The Pnume know the very
rooms in which we sleep!”

“A person
floating down the Jinga ends up at Kabasas,” said Zarfo testily. “If he is
able, he patronizes the Sea Dragon Inn. This is not an intricate deduction. So
much for Pnume omniscience.”

On the
following day Zarfo went off by himself and presently returned with a short man
with skin the color of mahogany, walking with a sore-footed swagger as if his
shoes were too tight. His face was seamed and crooked; small nervous eyes
looked slantwise past the beak of his nose. “And here,” declared Zarfo grandly,
“I give you Sealord Dobagq Hrostilfe, a person of sagacity, who will arrange
everything.”

Reith thought
that he had never seen a more obvious rascal.

“Hrostilfe
commands the
Pibar
,” explained Zarfo. “For a most reasonable sum he will
deliver us to our destination, be it the far coast of Vord.”

“How much
across the Parapan?” Reith asked.

“Only five
thousand sequins, would you believe it?” exclaimed Zarfo.

Reith laughed
scornfully. He turned to Zarfo: “I need your help no longer. You and your
friend Hrostilfe can try to swindle someone else.”

“What?” cried
Zarfo. “After I risked my life in that infernal chute and endured all manner of
hardship?”

But Reith had
walked away. Zarfo came after him, somewhat crestfallen. “Adam Reith, you have
made a serious mistake.”

Reith nodded
grimly. “Instead of an honest man I hired you.”

Zarfo swelled
up indignantly. “Who dares name me other than honest?”

“I do.
Hrostilfe would rent his boat for a hundred sequins. He gave you a price of
five hundred. You told him: ‘Why should we not both profit? Adam Reith is
credulous. I’ll name a price and anything over a thousand sequins is mine.’ So,
be off with you.”

Zarfo pulled
ruefully at his black nose. “You do me vast wrong. I have only just come from
chiding Hrostilfe, who admitted knavery. He now offers his boat at”-Zarfo
cleared his throat-”twelve hundred sequins.”

“Not a bice
more than three hundred.”

Zarfo threw
his hands into the air and stalked away. Not long after Hrostilfe himself
appeared with the plea that Reith inspect his ship. Reith followed him to the
Pibar
:
a jaunty craft forty feet long, powered by electrostatic jet. Hrostilfe kept up
a halfhectoring, halfplaintive commentary. “A fast seaworthy vessel! Your price
is absurd. What of my skills, my sea-lore? Do you appreciate the cost of
energy? The voyage will exhaust a power cell: a hundred sequins which I cannot
afford. You must pay for energy and additionally for provisions. I am a
generous man but I cannot subsidize you.”

Reith agreed
to pay for energy and a reasonable amount for provisions, but not the
installation of new water tanks, extra foul-weather gear, good-luck fetishes
for the prow; furthermore he insisted on departure the following day, at which
Hrostilfe gave a sour chuckle. “There’s one in the eye for the old Lokhar. He
had counted on swanking it a week or more at the Sea Dragon.”

“He can stay
as long as he likes,” said Reith, “provided that he pays.”

“Small chance
of that,” chuckled Hrostilfe. “Well then, what about provisions?”

“Buy them.
Show me an itemized tally, which I will check in detail.”

“I need an
advance: a hundred sequins.”

“Do you take
me for a fool? Remember, tomorrow noon we leave.”

“The
Pibar
will be ready,” said Hrostilfe in a sullen voice.

Returning to
the Sea Dragon Inn, Reith found Anacho on the terrace. Anacho pointed to a
black-haired shape leaning against the seawall. “There he stands: Helsse. I
called him by name. It was as if he never heard.”

Helsse turned
his head; his face seemed deathly white. For a moment or two he watched them,
then turned and walked slowly away.

At noon the
travelers embarked on the
Pibar
. Hrostilfe gave his passengers a brisk
welcome. Reith looked skeptically here and there, wondering in what fashion
Hrostilfe thought he had won advantage for himself. “Where are the provisions?”

“In the main
saloon.”

Reith
examined boxes and crates, checked them against Hrostilfe’s tally sheet, and
was forced to admit that Hrostilfe had secured good merchandise at no great
price. But why, he wondered, were they not stored forward in the lazaret? He
tried the door, and found it locked.

Interesting,
thought Reith. He called Hrostilfe: “Best to stow the stores forward in the
lazaret, before we start pitching to the waves.”

“All in good
time!” declared Hrostilfe. “First things first! Now it’s important that we make
the most of the morning current!”

“But it will
only require a moment. Here, open the door; I will do it myself.”

Hrostilfe
made a waggish gesture. “I am the most finicky of seamen. Everything must be
done just so.”

Zarfo, who
had come into the saloon, gave the lazaret door a speculative frown. Reith
said, “Very well then, just as you like.” Zarfo started to speak but catching
Reith’s gaze, shrugged and held his tongue.

Hrostilfe
nimbly hopped here and there, casting off lines, starting the jet, and finally
jumping into the control pulpit. The boat surged out to sea.

Reith spoke
to Traz, who went to stand behind Hrostilfe. Bringing forth his catapult Traz
checked its action, dropped a bolt into the slot, cocked it and hung it loosely
at his belt.

Hrostilfe
grimaced. “Careful, boy! A foolhardy way to carry your catapult!”

Traz seemed
not to hear.

Reith, after
a word or two with Zarfo and Anacho, went to the foredeck. Setting fire to some
old rags, he held them in the forward ventilator, so that smoke poured down
into the lazaret.

Hrostilfe
cried out in anger: “What nonsense is this? Are you trying to set us afire?”

Reith set
more rags burning and dropped them into the ventilator. From below came a choked
cough, then a mutter of voices and a stamping of feet. Hrostilfe jerked his
hand toward his pouch, but noticed Traz’s intent gaze and his ready catapult.

Reith
sauntered aft. Traz said, “His weapon is in his pouch.”

Hrostilfe
stood rigid with dismay. He made a sudden move but stopped short as Traz jerked
up the catapult. Reith detached the pouch, handed it to Traz, took two daggers
and a poniard from various parts of Hrostilfe’s person. “Go below,” said Reith.
“Open the door to the lazaret. Instruct your friends to come forth one at a
time.”

Hrostilfe,
gray-faced with fury, hopped below and, after an exchange of threats with
Reith, opened the door. Six ruffians came forth, to be disarmed by Anacho and
Zarfo and sent up to the deck where Reith thrust them over the side.

The lazaret
at last was empty of all but smoke. Hrostilfe was hustled up on deck, where he
became unctuous and over reasonable. “All can be explained! A ridiculous
misunderstanding!” But Reith refused to listen and Hrostilfe joined his fellows
over the side, where, after shaking his fist and bellowing obscenities at the
grinning faces aboard the
Pibar
, he struck out for the shore.