Demon princes 01 05 the.., p.72
Demon Princes 01-05 The Star Ki, page 72
“I’m looking at you, and grateful for the opportunity.”
Jerdian made a mocking sound between her teeth. “Sssssss! You are gallant in your phrases.” She looked him up and down. “You are more relaxed, more easy than the grim banker-swindler-space wanderer of Serjeuz. You seem almost a young man.”
“That can’t be. I’m at least six years older than Aldo. Still, at this moment, I don’t feel at all grim.”
“Why, at this moment?”
“Must I explain? I am standing here with you and I find you bewitching.”
“More gallantry!” Jerdian, despite a cool little laugh, seemed not displeased. “Words are cheap. You already have a spouse and a large family.”
“Nothing of that sort whatever. I have no one but myself.”
“How did you become a banker?”
“I bought the bank for a special purpose.”
“But a bank costs money! Are you a wealthy criminal?”
“I’m certainly not a criminal. At least, not altogether.”
“Then what are you, in all truth and candor?”
“A space wanderer is really the best description.”
“Kirth Gersen, you take pleasure mystifying me, and I detest secrets.” Then Jerdian added, in a voice dictated by her Methlen training “Still, your secrets are no concern of mine.”
“Quite right.” Gersen looked away across the plaza, out upon the dusky desert “In fact, I should not so much as talk to you I succeed only in tantalizing myself”
Jerdian stared at him a minute, then uttered a sudden laugh “What marvelous dramas you enact. The picaresque adventurer, the banker who out-swindles my father, the patrician in languid garments, and now the lovelorn boy, wistful and noble, renouncing his love.”
Gersen’s own amusement was somewhat more constrained “I don’t recognize myself in any of these roles.” A reckless mood came over him, almost an intoxication “Come over here, where we’ll be secluded.” He took her arm and led her to a table at the far dark side of the garden. She walked stiffly, half-resisting, and seated herself in a posture tentative and prim. She looked at Gersen coldly, now all disdainful Methlen “I can only stay an instant, we are making an excursion out on the desert, and I must help with the arrangements.”
“The desert is said to be beautiful by night Especially by moonlight Are you walking?”
“Indeed not We have hired a charabanc Now I must go My interest in your affairs is really most casual.”
“Our feelings complement each other, since I didn’t want to tell you anything.”
Jerdian made no move to rise “And why not?”
“You might tell someone else and cause me no end of trouble.”
Jerdian scowled “So you think I prattle of everything I know to my friends.”
“Not necessarily. But as you yourself point out, our interest is casual, you might easily make an idle comment which eventually would reach the wrong ears I’ll take you to your friends.” He rose to his feet.
Jerdian perversely refused to move “Be so good as to sit down. In effect you are asking me to leave, which is far from flattering. Where is your vaunted gallantry now?”
Gersen slowly resumed his seat “I vaunted no gallantry. I just spoke impulsively.”
“You show very little concern for my vanity,” said Jerdian crossly.
“Your vanity is quite safe in my hands,” said Gersen “May I express myself frankly?”
Jerdian pondered a moment. “Well—there is no one here to stop you.”
Gersen leaned forward, took her two hands in his “The truth is this I have a spaceship outside; I would like nothing better than to take you away with me and make love to you across all the constellations of the universe. But I can’t indulge myself even in the speculation.”
“Indeed? And—again from idle curiosity—why not?”
“Because I have work to do which is urgent and dangerous.”
Jerdian asked mischievously ‘Would you give up your work if I agreed to come with you?”
“Don’t even suggest such things, my heart stops beating when I hear you.”
“The gallantry is now back in full force.”
Gersen bent forward across the table, Jerdian made no move to draw back With their faces only inches apart, Gersen halted, then drew abruptly back. He felt Jerdian’s hands twitch in his.
After a moment Gersen said, “If you recall, at Serjeuz, we spoke of Lens Larque.”
Jerdian regarded him with pupils dilated “He is the most evil man alive.”
“You mentioned an unpleasant episode What happened?”
“It was nothing important, simply an incident We live in a district known as Llalarkno. One day a Darsh wanted to buy the house next to ours My father is not partial to the Darsh, he hates the smell of their food, he can’t tolerate their music. He cried out in a passion ‘Go away, leave this land. You may not buy the house Do you think I want to look up every day to find your great Darsh face hanging over my wall? Be off with you’’
“The Darsh walked away Later we learned that it was Lens Larque himself.”
“What did he look like?”
“I hardly noticed I have the impression of a large man, with long arms. He had a big smooth head with a black mustache. His skin was brownish pink, pale Darsh color.”
“You haven’t seen him since?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“He never forgets a harm—so goes the Lens Larque legend—and he is famous for clever tricks.”
“He can trick as he pleases. We maintain a careful security, because we are so close to Beyond. But why are you interested in Lens Larque?”
“I hope to destroy him. First I must find him. So I buy Kotzash to attract his attention.”
Jerdian stared at Gersen in awe and wonder. She started to speak but a tall shape loomed over them. Aldo, his head tilted somewhat back, mouth set in an austere droop. He bowed jerkily to Jerdian—”If you please, your aunt, the Excellent Mayness, is anxious that you should join her.”
“Very well, I’ll come at once.”
Gersen spoke to Aldo. “You are planning an excursion out on the desert.”
“That is correct.”
“Where are you planning to go?”
“We are visiting the Chailles.” Aide’s tone was now icy. “Come, if you will, Jerdian.”
Gersen said: “The Darsh, both male and female, will be out in force.”
“That is no concern to us, so long as they stay out of our sight.”
“They may even cause you annoyance.”
“We have hired a charabanc, the driver declares that there will be no slightest inconvenience. In any event, we are Methlen, the Darsh will keep their distance.” He went to stand by Jerdian. Slowly she rose to her feet and walked away like a somnambulist.
Gersen sat brooding for a time, then went out to his spaceboat. He paused beside the boarding ladder; he stood looking to the east across the desert, where the rising moon already illuminated the sky Small groups of people slipped out from under the shade, riding vehicles, or going afoot, women and girls apart from the youths and men. On a dilapidated air-buggy came Delfin with three of his comrades, wearing light robes and gay head-sashes They passed close beside Gersen, who hailed them. Delfin brought the air-buggy to a bouncing halt. Gersen moved forward. “How goes the evening?”
“So far very well.”
“Have you located any more shares?”
“No. As you suggested, Bel Ruk is unhappy with today’s events. He intends to whip both you and me.”
“First he must catch us,” said Gersen. “Then he must raise his whip.”
“True. In any event, you will find no more Kotzash in Dinkelstown. Bel Ruk has ordained a great hadaul, to a prize of a thousand SVTJ. The roblers[44] must challenge with either a hundred svu or twenty shares of Kotzash. Needless to say, all remaining Kotzash will go to finance the challenges.”
“A pity,” said Gersen.
“Still, you did your best and cleverly; you are a trickish man. But why do you keep us talking? The kitchets are drinking moonlight!”
One of his comrades added—”Along with every old swagbottom of the Wale, as well.”
“Look yonder,” cried Delfin in a voice of mirthful amazement. “There go the constipated Methlen out to enjoy the moonlight. Notice the man who drives the charabanc? That is Nobius, a trickster as sly as yourself”
Gersen acknowledged the compliment. “Do you expect that Nobius will trick the Methlen?”
Delfin made a jocular sign. “There is a tender kitchet named Farrero, she is guarded by three enormous khoontzes. Nobius vows that tonight he will take Farrero. How he will do this while driving the Methlen charabanc remains to be seen. We must be off There rises the Mirassou. Kitchets are running the sand and dreaming delicious dreams. Hoy! Off we go. Cambousse[45] give us power.”
The buggy trundled off on soft wheels. Gersen turned to look after the charabanc, already a dark blur far across the sand.
Uneasy and fretful, annoyed by his own conflicting urges, Gersen watched the charabanc disappear. Methlen affairs were none of his concern—except the comfort and dignity of a certain Jerdian Chanseth, toward whom he felt a whole range of emotions, protective and otherwise.
Well, there was no help for it. With a muttered curse, Gersen climbed into the vessel, opened a side port, swung out davits, and grounded the utility boat. He pulled a helmet over his head and clamped a night-seeing panoptic to the visor. Into the side rack he stowed a pair of weapons, then, stepping aboard, he took the boat into the sky.
Mirassou floated free of the horizon a great silver-white disk, subtle and serene, which nevertheless projected an ardent force. The Wale became a place where events otherwise unthinkable became not only conceivable but reasonable. Gersen, as always, aware of at least two levels of consciousness within his mind, was amused to find himself no less susceptible to Mirassou than Delfin .... He slanted his boat somewhat to the south of the charabanc and drew abreast at an altitude of a thousand feet. Pulling the panoptic down over his eyes, he switched on the nocturnal phase, turned up the magnification, the charabanc with its passengers seemed only yards away. With splendid garments and moonlight-pale faces the Methlen seemed a company unreal: a troupe of Pierrots on a frivolous escapade Gersen watched in fascination, half-sardonic, half-envious. In all, ten Methlen rode the charabanc. Three young men sat along the stern seat. Four girls, a pair of older women, and Aldo occupied the side seats. Jerdian, frail and wan-seeming, sat far forward, turned somewhat away from the others. Influenced perhaps by Mirassou, Gersen felt a swelling of exhilaration for his own escapade on this moonlit night.
High in the front, on the coachman’s bench, Nobius rode in a comfortable slouch, occasionally glancing back at his passengers in easy condescension. The older ladies, whenever they chanced to notice him, became annoyed by what they conceived to be insolence and made haughty gestures, signaling Nobius to mind his driving; commands which Nobius totally ignored, to augment the antic mood of the expedition.
Over the silken sands moved the charabanc. Ahead and somewhat to the side stood the Chailles. a decayed volcanic crag rising from a shoal of ledges and outcrops. One of the older ladies gave Nobius new instructions, signaling him to veer away from the Chailles. Nobius gave obsequious acquiescence, twitching the controls to change course, but as soon as the lady’s attention was diverted, he swung the charabanc back toward the rocks. Scanning the Chailles Gersen detected the flicker of white Darsh robes; other folk had gone out to enjoy Mirassou.
The Methlen ladies once again noticed the proximity of the Chailles, instantly and with vehemence they ordered Nobius to bear away, and again Nobius politely complied with the order, only after a moment cunningly veering the craft back to its original direction. His destination seemed to be a rocky hummock perhaps twenty feet high, standing free a few yards from the principal ledges. On top of the hummock stood a kitchet, quiet and pensive, looking south across the sands.
Nobius suddenly curved the charabanc smartly about, accelerated, and drove it into the sandy avenue between the hummock and the main ledges of the Chailles. The ladies expostulated sharply;.
Nobius blandly paid them no heed, then suddenly pretended to hear. Bringing the charabanc to a halt just under the hummock, he turned in his seat as if the better to hear instructions.
The ladies spoke briskly and made agitated gesticulations, which Nobius attentively acknowledged. He turned in his seat, but now something had gone wrong with the machinery. The charabanc lurched forward a few yards, then halted even while Nobius diligently worked switches and levers. At the stern of the charabanc the three young men rose questioningly up in their seats. Nobius desisted from his efforts and sat wanly watching to the side.
Out from the shadows lurched three heavy figures in black gowns. They jumped forward; each seized one of the young Methlen men on the rear seat about his middle and carried him flailing and squirming off into the darkness.
Nobius crouched and became tense. From the shadows under the hummock came a fourth figure, even more massive than the others. She jumped aboard the charabanc, seized Aldo, and despite his shouts, carried him away.
Instantly Nobius bounded from the charabanc and up to the top of the hummock. He seized the kitchet, led her down the far side and off into the dunes.
Stunned by events, the Methlen ladies rose dumbfounded in their seats. In the shadows and on the ledges was further motion; the swirl of white robes, then a sudden rush to the charabanc and aboard. The first to arrive seized the girls, and the next, less enthusiastically, possessed themselves of the chaperones, and all retreated to their preferred places.
The man who had seized Jerdian carried her out into the desert, ignoring both her outcries and her blows. A hundred yards out among the dunes he halted and lowered her to the sand. A flying platform landed beside them. Gersen stepped off. Jerdian made a sound of incredulous joy and relief.
The Darsh assumed an attitude of menace. “Be off with you; I am about to entertain this kitchet.”
Speaking no words, Gersen pointed a hand gun at the man’s feet and burnt the sand into a molten puddle. The Darsh jumped back in fear and fury. Gersen lifted Jerdian to her feet and put her aboard the boat; an instant later they were in the air, leaving the disconsolate Darsh staring after them.
At no great altitude the boat drifted southward over the dunes, Jerdian from time to time looking askance at Gersen. Presently she said in a husky voice: “I’m grateful to you .... I don’t know what else to say .... How did you happen to be so promptly to hand?”
“I saw you on the charabanc. The driver is notorious; I came out to protect you from his tricks—even though you had not asked me to watch over you.”
“I’m glad that you did.” Jerdian drew a deep sigh. She looked back toward the black rocks, and made an odd sound, something between a sob and a laugh. “My aunt Mayness and my aunt Eustacia are back there. Can’t we help them somehow?” Then by implication she answered her own question: “I suppose nothing too dreadful will happen.”
“Whatever may happen, it’s already in progress.” Gersen removed his helmet and placed it in a locker. He allowed the boat to drift low, only thirty feet above the dunes. Jerdian leaned back in the seat and looked off across the sand. She showed neither anxiety nor any urgent desperation to be elsewhere. In a soft thoughtful voice she said: “The desert is a very strange place by moonlight. It gives off an enchantment like a dream place .... No surprise that it works so much mischief.”
“I’m very conscious of this,” said Gersen. He put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close. She looked up and went limp against him; he kissed her, again and again.
The boat drifted low and grounded upon a sand dune. The two sat quietly, looking out over the moonlit sand. Presently Jerdian said, “I am unutterably surprised to find myself here with you .... And yet, perhaps not really surprised .... I can’t help thinking of everyone’s outrage. What will they say tomorrow? Will I be the only one returning with my virtue intact?”
Gersen kissed her again. “Not necessarily.”
Ten seconds passed. Then Jerdian said in a husky whisper: “But I do have the option?”
“Yes indeed,” said Gersen. “You have the option.”
Jerdian stepped from the boat and walked a few feet out along the dune. Gersen came to stand beside her. Presently she turned to face him; again they embraced. Gersen spread the white Darsh cloak down upon the sand, and on the ancient dunes of the Wale, in the light of Mirassou, they became lovers.
The moon reached the zenith, and sank beyond. The night was becoming old; slowly the magic was dying. Gersen took Jerdian back to Dinkelstown, then returned to the charabanc. The four young men, sullen and disheveled, stood to the side. One of the chaperones and one of the girls sat silently in the charabanc. As Gersen approached, the other chaperone appeared through a cleft in the rocks. Wordlessly she climbed aboard the charabanc.
Gersen came forward; they looked at him with suspicious stares. “I happened past and was able to help Jerdian Chanseth,” said Gersen. “She is back at the hotel, and you need not worry about her.”
One of the older women, Aunt Mayness, said grimly: “We are sufficiently worried about ourselves; we all have had beastly experiences.”
Aunt Eustacia said in a voice somewhat more moderate: “I suppose that we must be philosophical. We have suffered outrage, but no irreparable damage; let us be grateful at least to this extent.”
“That is hardly my present emotion,” snapped Aunt Mayness. “I was set upon time after time by a gross beast smelling of beer and that intolerable food.”
“The man who attacked me also smelled poorly. Otherwise he was almost courteous, if the word is at all appropriate.”
“Eustacia, you are far too bland!”
“I am, most of all, tired. If Jerdian is back at Dinkelstown that leaves only Millicent and Helen to be accounted for. Here they come now, together. Let us leave this awful place.”
“And what of our reputations?” cried Aunt Mayness in a brassy voice. “We’ll be the laughingstock of all Llalarkno!”
