The hostage of zir, p.17
The Hostage of Zir, page 17
“If it impassionated me any more—well, my lady, I know not what to say. I try to stay within the bounds of courtly manners.”
She giggled. “Most excellently put, Master Reese! I take your meaning and rejoice in your unspoken thoughts. With me, alas, such things have perforce been kept on the plane of thought, for my tyrannous cousin has allowed me no lover or husband. But now tell me of your latest escape. You must, ere you depart our demesne, dictate the tale to one of our scriveners. Our poets shall make it into an heroic lay.”
Glad to have the conversation take a less perilous turn, Reith launched into his story. By concentrating on flights, pursuits, and close calls, he managed to forget the pounding of his pulse. He was still talking when supper was cleared away.
“Come to my sitting room,” said Vázni, “where we shan’t have these honest yokels of guards breathing down our necks.”
She led him into the sitting room into which he had blundered that earlier time, when he had gotten drunk playing piza with Strachan. She rang a little bell on the table, and a serving girl brought another jug and goblets. Pouring, Vázni said: “Master Reese, I’ve heard that among earthmen, you have two names apiece.”
“At least two,” said Reith. “Three is usual. My full name is Fergus MacNairn Reith.”
“And they say you use the second name—I mean the last name—for formal occasions but the first among intimates. Be that right?”
“Aye, Douri. Customs, howsomever, differ. In my America, we use the first name on short acquaintance.”
“ ’Tis otherwise amongst us. Now, my true and only name is Vázni. The bad-Dushta’en means merely offspring of Dushta’en. Now let’s leave these philological quibbles. May I call you Fergus?” She pronounced it “fair-goss.”
“I shall be honored, Douri.”
“ ’Twere easier than your other, which ends in a hissing sound I cannot frame. And you shall call me Vázni. Go on with your tale, Fergus. You were sliding down the trail in the dark and storm on the backs of those bishtars.”
Fergus told his story. He had now drunk enough kvad so that his head spun a little. He stifled a yawn.
“Naughty, naughty!” said Vázni, wagging a finger. “But, sooth to say, I, too, wax sleepy. Yet I’ll not forgo the rest of your tale of feats that overpass the Six Labors of Qarar. I know what!”
She rang the bell again. When the maid appeared, Vázni whispered to her. The girl hurried away, and Vázni rose.
“Come,” she said. “I’ve made sure we shan’t be disturbed.”
Taking Reith’s hand, she led him into her bedroom. Inside, she closed the door, faced Reith, and slid her hands up his arms. They kissed.
From then on, everything seemed to happen without volition, as in a dream. Reith was hardly aware of buttons and snaps; their garments seemed to flow off them as if somehow liquefied. Vázni’s jewels littered the rug.
They walked to the bed with neither haste nor hesitation, as if they had long known each other. Entry was as easy as that of a key into a well-oiled lock.
###
Reith was relaxing afterwards. Looking up from the pillow, Vázni said: “Fergus dear, what’s that little pit in the center of your belly? Is’t a scar from some wound?”
“Oh, you mean my navel, as we call it. You egg-layers don’t have them, do you? It has to do with—”
A deep voice said: “Well, well, sirrah! I trust you’ve found my cousin’s hospitality to your liking?”
Tashian, sword in hand, had entered the bedroom. Four armed guards followed him. The huge Regent wore the Krishnan version of a grin.
Reith made a strangled sound. There flashed through his head the Krishnan legend of the lovers Sivandi and Zerré. The latter had rescued the former from captivity by the giant Damghan. In their flight, however, they stopped to make love. Catching them in coitu, the giant had pinned both to the earth with a single thrust of his spear. Reith wondered if Tashian had something of the sort in mind. A naked man in his present posture was about as defenseless as one could be.
“Well, get up!” said Tashian. “You cannot lie there all night, and we have tasks to perform.”
Reith, who had been paralyzed with dismay, separated himself from Vázni. “Ouch!” he said as he planted a bare foot on one of Vázni’s jeweled ornaments on the floor.
“Look not so fearful, earthman,” continued Tashian. “I intend no murder or mutilation. Happily, there’s a less sanguinary way to repair the harm you’ve done our family’s honor, if you but do as required.”
“May—may I don my garments?”
“Certes! ’Twere clean against custom to wed naked, as do the savages of Zhamanak. You, too, Vázni.”
“Oh, Tashian!” said Vázni. “Mean you that?” Reith thought she looked entirely too pleased.
“Certes,” said the Regent. “I generally mean what I say, saving matters of diplomacy.”
“Mean you he shall be all mine?”
“Aye, little fluffhead. Finish your dressing, Master Reese. Oh, Father Khorsh! They’re decent. Come in.”
The priest said: “Good even, Master Reese. ’Tis a goodly while since I’ve had the pleasure of your company. Now, I understand, you and the Douri are fain to wed?”
“Uk,” said Reith, his eyes on the five naked swords.
“That’s ‘aye’ in one of those Terran tongues,” said Tashian.
“And you, my lady?”
“With all my liver,” said Vázni.
“Very well, then.” The priest went into a long prayer to Bákh, which Reith could not follow because it was in Old Varastou. Khorsh shot questions at the pair, to which Reith mumbled replies and Vázni gave clear ones. At last the priest said: “And now, by the authority vested in me, I declare that under the laws of Dur and the blessing of the immortal gods, Reese and Vázni are wedded, so to remain until severed by death or divorce. Love each other; support each other in adversity; bear and forbear.”
Khorsh produced a paper covered with hooks and curly-cues. Although Reith could not read it, he signed where indicated. Vázni also signed.
Khorsh intoned another archaic prayer and gave a blessing. Tashian handed the priest a golden coin. Khorsh thanked him, put the money in the wallet at his belt, bowed to Reith and Vázni, and went out.
“So, beloved cousin-by-marriage,” said Tashian, “a few simple words have enrolled you among the great ones of this mighty empire, as well as made you the consort of my shapely cousin. You might as well relax and enjoy your lot. Think not to slip away, either. You’ll be closely watched. Should you rashly essay to flee, know that there’s an island, called Pak, where I keep subjects whose freedom is dangerous to the state. None has ever escaped it.”
“But—but my tourists!” cried Reith. “I’m responsible for getting them back to Novo.”
“That shall be taken care of. Khorsh will guide them.”
“He speaks no English and they no Portuguese.”
“Then they must needs use sign language. And now goodnight. Pleasant dreams!”
Tashian and the guards went out. Vázni said: “Is’t not wonderful, Fergus? Long have I dreamed of an heroic husband, but my cousin has fended off all suitors. And now I have the most heroic husband of all, who can also stroke me a mighty stroke! ’Twas all I’d dreamed of; let’s do it again!”
“I see nought heroic about getting out of a few tight fixes I shouldn’t have gotten into in the first place,” said Reith. “As for more love-making, I fear you must wait until morn. The night’s events have sapped my heroic vigor. How can I get my gear from the Old Palace? I need at least my toothbrush.”
“I’ll send a servant for your things. Oh, darling, we shall be so happy!”
We shall see about that, thought Reith.
###
Five days later, Kenneth Strachan entered the room in the New Palace that had been turned over to Reith for his private study. Reith was frowning over a Duro grammar, trying to master the written form. A sheet of paper, covered with his squiggles, lay on the table.
“Ken!” he cried. “How did you get in? They’ve been keeping me away from all other earthmen.”
Strachan grinned. “I walked. The guards all knew me and let me by from force of habit. These folk are amusing, but efficient they are not.”
“How’d you hear where I was?”
“I saw your tourists off on the Sárbez this morning. Not seeing you among them, I asked about. I suppose I ought to congratulate you.”
“Or commiserate. It wasn’t my idea.” In a few words, Reith told of his forced marriage.
Strachan suppressed a chuckle. “You silly stirk! Don’t you see what Tashian’s doing? He wants to make sure Vázni bears no legitimate egg. If she hatches a male chick and it grows up, that’s the end of his power. He’s sure he’s the only one who can modernize and consolidate this great, sprawling empire, divided by feuds among feudal families, fanatical sects, tribal rivalries, blood-thirsty revolutionaries, class conflict, and everything else you can think of. He may be right about that.
“Up to now, he’s sent Vázni’s suitors packing, however rich or high-born or able. Vázni’s a hot little piece who wants a good stroking, but he makes sure she disna get it. Then come you, the answer to his prayer. If he marries her to you, there’ll be no egg, since he knows you and she are intersterile.
“He also knows you’re no threat to his power, since a foreigner—and even more a non-Krishnan—could never enlist a personal following. Tony Fallon got away with it for a while on Zamba, but those were the days when you could fool the Krishnans by disguising yourself as one. So Tashy lays a trap, and you walk blindly into it.”
“I thought there must be some such reason, but I was too dumb to see it.”
“How do you find her? D’ye love the lassie?”
“I like her; wouldn’t say loved. She’s pretty, even by our standards, and good-natured, with a certain girlish charm. She’s also a hell of a good lay. Trouble is, she wants it every night and morning. I think my endowments are normal, but I’m not quite up to such an exacting schedule. Also, she’s a flutter-wit and none too bright. My God, she’s dull! Next to lovemaking, she thinks mostly about clothes. After an hour with her, I’m bored and looking for an excuse to get away.”
“Weel, as the Krishnans say, count not the teeth of a gift shomal. Many a man finds a stupid wife just the ticket. Makes him feel big to do the thinking for both.”
“Not this Ertsu. I want to find my dream girl, settle down on good old earth, and have kids.”
Strachan shrugged. “Puir Fergus! Every female with a hot notch in her crotch makes a set for you. It must be that beautiful red hair.”
“Very flattering, but I could do with less flattery.”
“If you had an unco’ stiff yard, you should ha’ come with me. I’d have seen you were fucked out, so you wunda fall into the royal family’s trap.”
“It was that topless dress that did me in. Still, I doubt if Vázni knew what the Regent was up to. She hasn’t the brains—”
“Na, na, she just did what came naturally. But you’re not faring badly here.” Strachan glanced around.
“I’ve had my bellyful of what passes for luxury on Krishna. I don’t like even the fanciest jail, especially one without electricity, running water, or central heating.”
“You roughed it well enough in Zir.”
“That’s different. This sort of thing is okay for a visit but not for a life sentence.”
Strachan lowered his voice. “Have you thought of escaping? You got away from Barré and Shosti.”
“You bet I’ve thought of it! But Tashian’s thought of it, too. He has me watched night and day.”
“This episode won’t do Tashy’s tourism any good.”
“I told him that, but he just waved it off. Said if anything it would encourage tourism. I’d be his star attraction once I realized how lucky I was and settled down.”
“I know. He told your trippers you and Vázni were so madly in love he was forced to give in, and you’d decided to spend the rest of your life in Dur. Fact is, he likes the tourist trade, but he likes his power even more.
“Weel, keep your courage up, man. The Regent may die, or Vázni may die, or you may die. In either case, you’ll be free of your gilded cage. Now I’m off for Gha’id.”
“Give my best to Siggy.”
###
The three satellites of Krishna—Karrim, Golnaz, and Sheb—continued to orbit the planet. Little by little, as Reith played the devoted, contented consort, the restrictions upon him relaxed. He followed the tactics that had worked with the Witch of Zir.
He attended state dinners, where he found that Krishnan orators could say even less in more words than those on earth. He went to diplomatic parties, where he discovered that those who had interesting inside information would say nothing about it, so that people talked of their houses, their children, their servants, their incomes, and their aches and pains. He officially opened a new bridge to traffic by cutting a rope across it with his sword.
He sat by the hour watching Vázni try on dresses brought to the palace by eager merchants. He felt some sympathy for the Regent. Vázni had bought so many garments on credit that, at her present clothing allowance, it would take years to pay for the clothes she already had.
Reith was reminded that his own ready cash would not last forever, even though he was eating free and spending little. He asked the Regent: “Your Excellence, as royal consort, shouldn’t I, too, receive a regular wage?”
“That you should, my lord Fergus.” (Tashian pronounced it “fog-gas”.) “As soon as our present problems of state grant me the leisure to think on’t, I’ll arrange a stipend.”
Although Reith renewed his request every few days thereafter, Tashian was always too busy to attend to the matter. The Regent did, however, find time to elevate Reith to knighthood—a rank that had become purely ornamental in Dur. Reith did not mind being addressed as “Garm” or “Sir” Fergus, but he would really have preferred an assured income, even a small one.
For the present, he managed for drink and sundries money by selling one of the emeralds from the girdle of his Senarzé temple costume. When these gave out, he wondered, would he have to hunt a job, say as a teacher of Terran languages?
One evening, suitably guarded, he attended a play with Vázni. This was a revival of Harian’s The Conspirators, in five acts and twenty-two scenes. He started to read a metrical romance, Abbeq and Danqi, in the original Gozashtandou. But he never got through more than a few of its 264 cantos, finding Duro spelling almost as erratic as that of English.
He wheedled from Tashian permission to walk abroad in Baianch, accompanied by four stalwart guardsmen. Then the Regent, ever alert for ways to cut expenses, reduced the escort to two and finally to one, an amiable but simple-minded young Duru named Tázád.
Reith explored the city as thoroughly as he had Senarzé, tramping down the slopes to the lower city and back up until his escorts complained of exhaustion. He borrowed scooters from the royal stables and, with his escorts, went bumping over the cobbles of Baianch.
###
One day, Reith and Tázád came out of a grog shop on the waterfront. Sitting on a bollard at the edge of the wharf, below the frowing gray battlements of the upper town, Reith said: “Ohé, what’s that yonder?”
He pointed to a vessel anchored out in the shimmering bay.
This ship differed greatly from the usual Va’andao square-rigger.
“That?” said Tázád. “Means Your Lordship that black craft with the tall pipe in the middle?” Tázád had a habit of making a questioner repeat every question.
“Aye, lad.”
“That, Sir Fergus, hight the Mokinam, a ship of the Prince of Sotaspé.”
“I thought I knew her,” mused Reith. “I’ve seen her before at Reshr.”
“They say she’s driven by a magical spell, the which Prince Ferrian stole from the earthmen,” said Tázád. “The priests warn us against such things, saying they’re worked with the aid of evil spirits.”
“What does Prince Ferrian here?”
“Mean, ye, Sir Fergus, on what business visits he Dur?”
“Certes.”
“Well, sir, I know not truly the secrets of the great. Your Altitude were better fitted than I to hear. They say he be here on some mission to His Excellence but dare not come ashore, lest Lord Tashian clap him up in prison. So the Regent’s man is busy all day, being rowed back and forth betwixt ship and shore, to carry the details of their chaffer.”
“Interesting,” said Reith, staring at the steamship. “Let’s have another drink.” Perhaps he could make Tázád insensible as he had the unfortunate Captain Parang.
Tázád said: “May it please Your Lordship, I’ll watch whilst ye drink but will decline the offer. My commander strictly charged me to stay sober.”
Reith grunted. Just his luck, to have so conscientious a Krishnan for watchdog! He took Tázád into the drink shop, ordered two kvads, and tried to tempt the Dura with one of them. Tázád, politely respectful, proved adamant. Not daring to put on enough pressure to arouse suspicion, Reith ended by drinking both mugs himself.
###
Two days later, the Mokinam was still at anchor. Although Tashian had tried to insulate Reith from the levers of power, Reith still managed to coax information of Ferrian’s visit from the Duruma whom he knew around the palaces. Krishnans were great gossips.
The visit, Reith learned, was not going well. Ferrian was constructing a federation of the islands of the Sadabao Sea; his own Sotaspé, Zamba, Jerud, Zá, Ulvanagh, and the rest. He wanted trading privileges for this confederacy in the Va’andao Sea, which the navy of Dur now barred to non-Duro ships. Tashian, on the other hand, would relax his monopoly of Va’andao shipping only on terms that virtually made the Sadabao Isles a Duro protectorate.
