Planet of Adventure Omnibus (44 page)

“What?” cried
Reith. “A young man, black-haired, very elegant.

“The person
precisely. He stares out over the dancing field with never a word to say.”

Reith, Zarfo,
Anacho and Traz went to the inn. In the dim taproom sat Helsse, long legs in
tight black twill breeches stretched under the heavy table. Brooding, he looked
straight ahead and out the doorway to where black-skinned white-haired boys and
white-skinned blackhaired girls skipped and caracoled in the tawny sunlight.

Reith said: “Helsse!”

Helsse never
shifted his gaze.

Reith came
closer. “Helsse!”

Helsse slowly
turned his head; Reith looked into eyes like lenses of black glass.

“Speak to me,”
urged Reith. “Helsse! Speak!”

Helsse opened
his mouth, uttered a mournful croak. Reith drew back. Helsse watched him
incuriously, then returned to his inspection of the dancing field and the dim
hills beyond.

Reith joined
his comrades to the side where Zarfo poured him a pot of ale. “What of the Yao?
Is he mad?”

“I don’t
know. He might be feigning. Or under hypnotic control. Or drugged.”

Zarfo took a
long draft from his pot, wiped the foam from his nose. “The Yao might think it
a favor were we to cure him.”

“No doubt,”
said Reith, “but how?”

“Why not call
in a Dugbo practitioner?”

“What might
that be?”

Zarfo jerked
his thumb to the east. “The Dugbo have a camp back of town: shiftless folk in
rags and tatters, given to thieving and vice, and musicians to boot. They
worship demons, and their practitioners perform miracles.”

“So you think
the Dugbo can cure Helsse?”

Zarfo drained
his pot. “If he is feigning, I assure you he won’t feign long.”

Reith shrugged.
“We have no better occupation for a day or two.

“Exactly my
way of thinking,” said Zarfo.

The Dugbo
practitioner was a spindly little man dressed in brown rags and boots of
uncured leather. His eyes were a luminous hazel, his russet hair was confined
in three greasy knobs. On his cheek pale cicatrices worked and jumped as he
spoke. He did not appear to consider Reith’s requirements surprising and with
clinical curiosity studied Helsse, who sat sardonically indifferent in one of
the wicker chairs.

The
practitioner approached Helsse, looked into his eyes, inspected his ears, and
nodded as if a suspicion had been verified. He signaled the fat youth who
assisted him, then ducking behind Helsse touched him here and there while the
youth held a bottle of black essence under Helsse’s nose. Helsse presently
became passive and relaxed into the chair. The practitioner set heaps of
incense alight and fanned the fumes into Helsse’s face. Then, while the youth
played a nose flute the practitioner sang: secret words, close to Helsse’s
ears. He put a wad of clay into Helsse’s hand; Helsse furiously began to mold
the clay and presently set up a mutter.

The
practitioner signaled to Reith. “A simple case of possession. Notice: the evil
flows from the fingers into the clay. Talk to him if you like. Be gentle but
command, and he will answer you.” “Helsse,” said Reith, “describe your
association with Adam Reith.”

In a clear
voice Helsse spoke. “Adam Reith came to Settra. There had been rumor and
speculation, but when he arrived, all was different. By strange chance he came
to Blue Jade, my personal vantage, and there I saw him first. Dordolio came
after and in his rage maligned Reith as one of the ‘cult’: a man who fancied
himself from the far world Home. I spoke with Adam Reith but learned only
confusion. To clarify by acquiescence, third of the Ten Techniques, I took him
to the headquarters of the ‘cult’ and received contradictions. A courier new to
Settra followed us. I could not dramatically divert, sixth of the Techniques.
Adam Reith killed the courier and took a message of unknown importance; he
would not allow me inspection; I could not comfortably insist. I referred him
to a Lokhar, again ‘clarifying by acquiescence’: as it eventuated, the wrong
technique. The Lokhar read far into the message. I ordered Reith assassinated.
The attempt was bungled. Reith and his band fled south. I received instructions
to accompany him and penetrate his motivations. We journeyed east to the Jinga
River and downstream by boat. On an island-” Helsse gave a gasping cry and sank
back, rigid and trembling.

The
practitioner waved smoke into Helsse’s face and pinched his nose. “Return to
the ‘calm’ state, and henceforth, when your nose is pinched, return; this shall
be an absolute injunction. Now then, answer such questions as are put to you.”

Reith asked, “Why
do you spy on Adam Reith?”

“I am
obligated to do so; furthermore I enjoy such work.”

“Why are you
obligated?”

“All Wankhmen
must serve Destiny.”

“Oho. You are
a Wankhman?”

“Yes.”

And Reith
wondered how he could ever have thought otherwise. Tsutso and the Hoch Hars had
not been deceived: “Had you been Yao, all would not have gone so well,” so had
said Tsutso.

Reith glanced
ruefully at his comrades, then turned back to Helsse. “Why do the Wankhmen keep
spies in Cath?”

“They watch
the turn of the ‘round’; they guard against a renascence of the ‘cult.’ “

“Why?”

“It is a
matter of stasis. Conditions now are optimum. Any change can only be for the
worse.”

“You
accompanied Adam Reith from Settra to an island in the swamps. What happened
there?”

Helsse once
more croaked and became catatonic. The practitioner tweaked his nose.

Reith asked, “How
did you travel to Kabasas?”

Again Helsse
became inert. Reith tweaked his nose. “Tell us why you cannot answer the
questions?”

Helsse said
nothing. He appeared to be conscious. The practitioner fanned smoke in his
face; Reith tweaked his nose and, doing so, saw that Helsse’s eyes looked in
separate directions. The practitioner rose to his feet, and began to put away
his equipment. “That’s all. He’s dead.”

Reith stared
from the practitioner to Helsse and back. “Because of the questioning?”

“The smoke
permeates the head. Sometimes the subjects live: often, in fact. This one died
swiftly; your questions ruptured his sensorium.”

The following
evening was clear and windy with puffs of dust racing over the vacant dancing
field. Through the dusk men in gray cloaks came to the rented cottage. Within,
lamps were low and windows shrouded; conversations were conducted in quiet
voices. Zarfo spread an old map out on the table, and pointed with a thick
black finger. “We can travel to the coast and down, but this is all Niss
country. We can fare east around the Sharf to Lake Falas: a long route. Or we
can move south, through the Lost Counties, over the Infnets and down to Ao
Hidis: the direct and logical route.”

Reith asked, “Sky-rafts
aren’t available?”

Belje, the
least enthusiastic of the adventurers, shook his head. “Conditions are no
longer as they were when I was a youth. Then you might have selected among half
a dozen. Now there are none. Sequins and sky-rafts are both hard to come by. So
now, in pursuit of the one, we lack the use of the other.”

“How will we
travel?”

“To Blalag we
ride by power wagon, where perhaps we can hire some sort of conveyance as far
as the Infnets. Thereafter, we must go afoot; the old roads south have been
destroyed and forgotten.”

FROM SMARGASH
TO the old Lokhar capital, Blalag, was a three-day journey across a windy
wasteland. At Blalag the adventurers took shelter at a dingy inn, where they
were able to arrange transportation by motorcart to the mountain-settlement
Derduk, far into the Infnets. The journey occupied the better part of two days
under uncomfortable conditions. At Derduk the only accommodation was a
ramshackle cabin which provoked grumbling among the Lokhars. But the owner, a
garrulous old man, stewed a great cauldron of game and wild berries, and the
peevishness subsided.

At Derduk the
road south became a disused track. At dawn the now somewhat cheerless group of
adventurers set forth on foot. All day they traveled through a land of rock
pinnacles, fields of rubble and scree. At sundown with a chill wind sighing
through the rocks they came upon a small black tam where they passed the night.
The next day brought them to the brink of a vast chasm and another day was
spent finding a route to the bottom. On the sandy floor beside the river
Desidea, on its way east to Lake Falas, the group camped, to be disturbed for much
of the night by uncanny hoots and near-human yells, echoing and reechoing
through the rocks.

In the
morning, rather than attempt the south face of the precipice, they followed the
Desidea and presently found a cleft which brought them out upon a high savannah
rolling off into the murk.

Two days the
adventurers marched south, reaching the extreme ramparts of the Infnets by
twilight of the second day, with a tremendous vista across the lands to the
south. When night came a sparkle of far lights appeared. “Ao Hidis!” cried the
Lokhars in mingled relief and apprehension.

Over the
minuscule campfire that night there was much talk of Wankh and Wankhmen. The
Lokhars were unanimous in their detestation of the Wankhmen: “Even the
Dirdirmen, for all their erudition and preening, are never so jealous of their
prerogatives,” declared jag Jaganig.

Anacho gave
an airy laugh. “From the Dirdirman point of view Wankhmen are scarcely superior
to any of the other subraces.”

“Give the
rascals credit,” said Zarfo, “they understand the Wankh chimes. I myself am
resourceful and perceptive; still, in twenty-five years, I learned only pidgin
chords for ‘yes,’ ‘no; ‘stop,’ ‘go; ‘right; ‘wrong,’ ‘good,’ ‘bad.’ I must
admit to their achievement.”

“Bah,”
muttered Zorofim. “They are born to it; they hear chimes from the first instant
of their lives; it is no great achievement.”

“One that
they make the most of, however,” said Belje with something like envy in his
voice. “Think; they work at nothing, they have no responsibilities, but to stand
between the Wankh and the world of Tschai, and they live in refinement and
ease.”

Reith spoke
in a puzzled voice. “A man like Helsse now: he was a Wankhman who lived as a
spy. What did he hope to achieve? What Wankh interests did he safeguard in
Cath?”

“Wankh
interests-none. But remember, the Wankhmen are opposed to change, since any
alteration of circumstances can only be to their disadvantage. When a Lokhar
begins to understand chimes he is sent away. In Cath-who knows what they fear?”
And Zarfo warmed his hands at the campfire.

The night
passed slowly. At dawn Reith looked toward Ao Hidis through his scanscope, but
could see little for the mist.

Surly with
tension and lack of sleep the group once more set off to the south, keeping to
such cover as offered itself.

The city
slowly became distinct; Reith located the dock where the
Vargaz
had
discharged-how long ago it seemed! He traced the road which led through the
market and north past the spacefield. From the heights the city seemed placid,
lifeless; the black towers of the Wankhmen brooded over the water. On the
spacefield, plain to be seen, were five spaceships.

By noon the
party reached the ridge above the city. With great care Reith studied the
spacefield, now directly below, through his scanscope. To the left were the
repair shops, and nearby a bulk-cargo vessel in a state of obvious disrepair,
with scaffolds raised beside exposed machinery. Another ship, this the closest,
at the back of the field, seemed to be an abandoned hulk. The condition of the
other three vessels was not obvious, but the Lokhars declared them all
operable. “It is a matter of routine,” said Zorofim. “When a ship is down for
overhaul, it is moved close to the shops. The ships in transit dock yonder, in
the ‘Load Zone.”‘

“It would
seem then that three ships are potentially suitable for our purposes?”

The Lokhars
would not go quite so far.

“Sometimes
minor repairs are done in the ‘Load Zone,”‘ said Belje.

“Notice,”
said Thadzei, “the repair cart by the access ramp. It carries components,
cases, and they must come from one of the three ships in the ‘Load Zone.’ “

These were
two small cargo ships and a passenger vessel. The Lokhars favored the cargo
ships, with which they felt familiar. In regard to the passenger vessel, which
Reith considered the most suitable, the Lokhars were in disagreement, Zorofim
and Thadzei declaring it to be a standard ship in a specialized hull; Jag
Jaganig and Belje equally certain that this was either a new design or an
elaborate modification, in either case certain to present difficulties.

All day the
group studied the spacefield, watching the activity of the workshop and the
traffic along the road. During the middle afternoon a black air-car drifted
down to land beside the passenger vessel, which now obscured the view, but it
appeared that there was a transfer between ship and air-car. Somewhat later
Lokhar mechanics brought a case of energy tubes to the ship, which according to
Zarfo was a sure signal that the ship was preparing for departure.