Planet of Adventure Omnibus (11 page)

She turned
and looked at him, but said nothing.

“Come over
here,” said Reith, “so that I can speak to you.”

Slowly she
crossed the cage to peer down at him.

“What do they
do with you?” Reith asked.

“I don’t
know.” Her voice was husky and soft. “They stole me from my home in Cath; they
took me to the ship and put me in a cage.”

“Why?”

“Because I am
beautiful. Or so they say... Hush. They hear us talking. Hide.”

Reith,
feeling craven, dropped to his knees. The girl stood holding to the bars,
looking from the cage. One of the priestesses came to look in the cage and,
seeing nothing amiss, returned to her sisters.

The girl
called softly down to Reith. “She is gone.”

Reith rose to
his feet, feeling somewhat foolish. “Do you want to be free of this cage?”

“Of course!”
Her voice was almost indignant. “I don’t want to be part of their rite! They
hate me! Because they are so ugly!” She peered down at Reith, studied him in
the flicker from a nearby window, “I saw you today,” she said, “standing beside
the track.”

“Yes. I
noticed you too.”

She turned
her head. “They come again. You had better go.”

Reith moved
away. From across the compound he watched the priestesses thrust the girl into
the dray-house. Then he went into the common-room. For a period he watched the
games. There was chess, played on a board of forty-nine squares with seven
pieces to a side; a game played with a disc and small numbered chips, of great
complication; several card games. A flask of beer stood by every hand; women of
the hill tribes wandered through the room soliciting; there were several brawls
of no great consequence. A man from the caravan brought forth a flute, another
a lute, another drew sonorous bass tones from a long glass tube; the three
played music which Reith found fascinating if only for the strangeness of its melodic
structure. Traz and the Dirdirman had long gone to their chambers; Reith
presently followed.

Reith Awoke
with a sense of imminence which for a space he could not comprehend. Then he
understood its source: it derived from the girl and the Priestesses of the
Female Mystery. He lay scowling at the plaster ceiling. Utter folly to concern
himself with matters beyond his comprehension! What, after all, could he
achieve?

Descending to
the common-room, he ate a dish of porridge served by one of the innkeeper’s
slatternly daughters, then went out to sit on a bench, aching for a glimpse of
the captive girl.

The
priestesses appeared, proceeded to the caravansary with the girl in their
midst, looking neither right nor left.

Half an hour
later they returned to the compound, and went to talk to one of the small men
from the hills, who grinned and nodded obsequiously, eyes glittering in a
fascination of awe.

The Ilanths
trooped from the common-room. With sidelong glances toward the priestesses and
leers at the girl, they crossed the compound, brought forth their leap-horses
and began to pare the horny growths which gathered on the gray-green hides.

The
priestesses ended their discussion with the mountainman and went to walk out on
the steppe, back and forth in front of the outcrops, the girl lagging a few
steps behind, to the exasperation of the priestesses. The Ilanths looked after,
muttering to themselves.

Traz came out
to sit by Reith. He pointed across the steppe. “Green Chasch are near: a large
party.”

Reith could
see nothing. “How do you know?”

“I smell the
smoke of their fires.”

“I smell
nothing,” said Reith.

Traz
shrugged. “It is a party of three or four hundred.”

“Mmmf. How do
you know that?”

“By the
strength of the wind, the smell of the smoke. A small group makes less smoke
than a large group. This is the smoke of about three hundred Green Chasch.”

Reith threw
up his hands in defeat.

The Ilanths,
mounting their leap-horses, bounded off into the outcrops, where they halted.
Anacho, standing by, gave a dry laugh. “They go to plague the priestesses.”

Reith jumped
to his feet, went out to watch. The Ilanths waited till the priestesses strode
by, then bounded forth. The priestesses sprang back in alarm; the Ilanths,
cawing and hooting, snatched up the girl, threw her over a saddle and carried
her off toward the hills. The priestesses stared aghast; then, screaming
hoarsely, they all ran back to the compound. Seizing upon Baojian the
caravan-master, they pointed trembling fingers. “The yellow beasts have stolen
the maid of Cath!”

“Just for a
bit of sport,” said Baojian soothingly. “They’ll bring her back when they’re
through with her.”

“Useless for
our purposes! When we have journeyed so far and borne so much! It is utter
tragedy! I am a Grand Mother of the Fasm Seminary! And you will not even help!”

The
caravan-master spat into the dirt. “I help no one. I maintain order in the
caravan. I steer my wagons, I have time for nothing else.”

“Vile man!
Are these not your underlings? Control them!”

“I control only
my caravan. The event occurred upon the steppe.”

“Oh, what
shall we do? We are bereft! There will be no Rite of Clarification!”

Reith found
himself in the saddle of a leap-horse, bounding across the steppe. He had been
activated by an impulse far below the level of his conscious mind; even while
the leap-horse took him on prodigious bounds across the steppe he marveled at
the reflexes which had sent him springing away from the caravan-master and up
onto the leaphorse. “What’s done is done,” he consoled himself, with somewhat
bitter satisfaction; it seemed that the plight of a beautiful slave-girl had
taken precedence over his own woes.

The Ilanths
had not ridden far; up a little valley to a small flat sandy area under a
beetling boulder. The girl stood bewildered and cowering against the stone; the
Ranths had only just finished tying their leaphorses when Reith arrived. “What
do you want?” asked one without friendliness. “Away with you; we are about to
test the quality of this Cath girl.”

Another one
gave a coarse laugh. “She will need instruction for the Female Mysteries!”

Reith
displayed his gun. “I’ll kill any or all of you, with pleasure.” He motioned to
the girl. “Come.”

She looked
wildly around the landscape, as if not knowing in which direction to run.

The Ilanths
stood silently, black mustaches a droop. The girl slowly clambered up on the
horse in front of Reith; he turned it about and rode off down the valley. She
looked at him with an unreadable expression, started to speak, then became
silent. Behind, the Ilanths mounted their own horses and bounded off past,
yipping, hooting, cursing.

The
priestesses stood by the entry to the compound, gazing across the steppe. Reith
halted the horse and considered the four black-clad shapes, who at once began
to make peremptory signals.

The girl
spoke frantically: “How much did they pay you?”

“Nothing,”
said Reith. “I came of my own accord.”

“Take me
home,” begged the girl. “Take me to Cath! My father will pay you far
more-whatever you ask of him!”

Reith pointed
to a moving black line at the horizon. “I suspect those are Green Chasch. We’d
best go back to the inn.”

“The women
will take me! They will put me in the cage!” The girl’s voice quavered; her
composure-or perhaps it was apathy-began to disintegrate. “They hate me, they
want to do their worst!” She pointed. “They come now! Let me go!”

“Alone? Out
on the steppe?”

“I prefer it!”

“I won’t let
them take you,” said Reith. He rode slowly toward the caravansary. The
priestesses stood waiting at the passage between the rock juts. “Oh noble man!”
called the Grand Mother. “You have done a fine deed! She has not been defiled?”

“It is no
concern of yours,” said Reith.

“What’s this?
Not our concern? How can you say so?”

“She is my
property. I took her from the three warriors. Go to them for restitution, not
to me. What I have taken, I keep.”

The
priestesses laughed hugely. “You ridiculous cockbird of a man! Give us our
property, or it will go poorly with you! We are Priestesses of the Female
Mystery.”

“You will be
dead priestesses if you interfere with me or my property,” said Reith. He rode
past, into the compound, leaving the priestesses staring after. Reith
dismounted, helped the girl to the ground, and now he understood why his
instinct had sent him in pursuit of the Ilanths, all the urging of good
judgment to the contrary.

“What is your
name?” he asked.

She
reflected, as if Reith had asked the most perplexing of riddles, and answered
with diffidence. “My father is lord of Blue Jade Palace.” Then she said, “We
are of the Aegis caste. Sometimes I am announced as Blue Jade Flower, at lesser
functions Beauty Flower, or Flower of Cath ... My flower-name is Ylin-Ylan.”

“That is all
somewhat complicated,” stated Reith, to which the girl nodded, as if she too
found the matter overly profound. “What do your friends call you?”

“That depends
on their caste. Are you high-born?”

“Yes, indeed,”
said Reith, seeing no reason to claim otherwise.

“Do you
intend me to be your slave? If so, it would not be proper to use my
friend-name.”

“I’ve never
owned a slave,” said Reith. “The temptation is great-but I think I’d rather use
your friend-name.”

“You may call
me the Flower of Cath, which is a formal friend-name, or, if you wish, my
flower-name, Ylin-Ylan.”

“That should
do, temporarily at least.” He surveyed the compound, then, taking the girl’s
arm, led her into the common-room of the caravansary, and to a table at the
back wall. Here he studied the girl, Ylin-Ylan, the Beauty Flower, the Flower
of Cath. “I don’t quite know what to do with you.”

Out in the
compound the priestesses were expostulating with the caravan-master, who
listened with gravity and politeness.

Reith said, “The
problem may be taken out of my hands. I’m not sure of my legal footing.”

“There are no
laws here on the steppe,” the girl said. “Fear alone rules.”

Traz came to
join them. He appraised the girl with disapproval. “What do you intend with
her?”

“I’d see her
home, if I could.”

“You would
want for nothing, if you did so,” the girl told him earnestly. “I am the
daughter of a notable house. My father would build you a palace.”

At this Traz
showed less disapprobation, and looked off to the east as if envisioning the
journey. “It is not impossible.”

“For me it
is,” said Reith. “I must go to find my space-boat. If you want to conduct her
to Cath, by all means do so, and make a new life for yourself.”

Traz looked
dubiously out at the priestesses. “Without warriors or weapons, how could I
convey one like her across the steppes? We’d be enslaved or killed out of hand.”

Baojian the caravan-master
entered the room, approached. He spoke in an even voice: “The priestesses
demand that I enforce their claims, which I will not do, since the transfer of
property occurred away from my caravan. However, I agreed to put the question:
what are your intentions in regard to the girl?”

“It is no
concern of theirs,” said Reith. “The girl has become my property. If they want
compensation, they must approach the Ilanths. I have no business with them.”

“This is a
reasonable statement,” remarked Baojian. “The priestesses understand as much,
although they protest their misfortunes. I am inclined to agree that they have
been victimized.”

Reith looked
to see if the caravan-master was keeping a straight face. “Are you serious?”

“I think only
in terms of property rights and security of transfer,” declared Baojian. “The
priestesses have suffered a great loss. A certain sort of girl is necessary for
their rite; they strove inordinately to procure a suitable participant, only to
lose her at the last minute. What if they paid a salvage fee-let us say, half
the price of a comparable female?”

Reith shook
his head. “They suffered loss, but I feel no concern whatever. After all, they
have not come to rejoice with the girl for having regained her freedom.”

“I suspect that
they are in no mood for merrymaking, even at so happy an occasion,” remarked
Baojian. “Well, I will communicate your remarks. Doubtless they will make other
arrangements.”

“I hope the
situation will not affect the convenience of our travel?”

“Naturally not,”
declared the caravan-master emphatically. “I enforce total ban upon thieving
and violence. Security is my stock in trade.” He bowed and departed.

Reith turned
to Traz and Anacho, who had come to join the group. “Well, what now?”