"Aristide!" said Reith. "Can we load the pack aya quickly and be off for Kubyab before they arrive? We'll try to avoid them—"
"It will take half an hour at least, including the securing of our specimen." Marot shaded his eyes with his hand, peering up the long slope from the river. "Master Herg, do you see figures moving on the skyline?"
"Aye; 'tis indeed the priest's party." Herg looked up at the lowering sky. "I smell more rain, and the squire commanded me to visit Master Folt along of you. The master hath withdrawn Ghirch from that camp for duty with the roundup. So fare ye well!"
Marot said to Reith: "You see, my friend, it is too late to flee. They would arrive while we are still struggling with our block. We must face them with such equanimity as we can muster."
"You have the most training in that kind of argument, so you'd better handle the Reverend Behorj," said Reith.
Herg swung into the saddle and spurred his aya up the long slope.
"I want my say!" said Alicia. 'The Bákhites are making the same mistake that most theological religions on Earth have made. They try to impose their own doctrine on everyone."
"Of course!" said Reith. "A monopoly of the supernatural means more wealth, power, and glory for them."
"There must be some who take a less narrowly selfish view!" Alicia persisted. "I want to warn them that all they'll accomplish is to start a cycle of bloody wars."
"Good Lord!" said Reith. "You're out of your mind, Lish. These people won't listen to your reasoning. They'll take your talk as evidence of heresy and boil you in Lazdai's Kettle."
"But it's wrong, when you see people taking a disastrous course, not at least to tip them off. Don't worry about me; I'll flatter old Behorj and have him eating out of my hand."
"Dear lady," said Marot, "such a course would cause you trouble at Novorecife, even if you avoided difficulties here."
"I don't care. I'm merely doing what's right; somebody's got to."
"It would be a flagrant violation—" began Reith.
"Oh, fishfeathers! I'm not leaking technological secrets. I'm not doing anything Terran missionaries don't do all the time, and Novo tolerates their meddling in native affairs."
"Novo has to, because of pressure from the national governments," growled Reith. "But it's still dangerous meddling. Not long ago, the Reverend Jensen's head was sent to Novo packed in salt. And I just won't allow you to run such a risk."
Alicia jumped up. "Don't tell me what to do, Fergus Reith! You're not my husband, and I wouldn't let you stop me even if you were."
"That's one reason I'm not," barked Reith. "Since it's my hide you're risking along with your own, you will not attend this inquisition. You'll stay in one of the tents, as quiet as Aristide's fossils, until these priests have gone."
"I'd like to see you make me! I'm not going into your damned tent, and—what are you doing?"
Reith, who had risen, said to Marot: "Aristide, fetch me a length of rope, and bear a hand."
Reith seized Alicia's wrist, spun her around, and grabbed her other free arm. She screamed, kicked, and clawed; but with Marot's help, Reith tied her wrists behind her back. Then with another turn of the rope he lashed her ankles together.
"I'll kill you for this!" she panted.
Marot mopped his sweating face with a bandana. "She is strong, that one. I would rather tie up a wildcat."
"Sorry about this, Lish," said Reith. "If you had your way, we'd all be killed. Now for a gag. Aristide, can you sacrifice that handkerchief?"
Soon they carried Alicia, writhing and gurgling, into the larger tent and laid her on one of the pallets.
"That petite must be horribly uncomfortable," said Marot as they emerged. "I hate to treat her thus, but I comprehend the necessity."
Reith looked up the slope. Herg was just riding past the approaching priestly party. The shaihan-herd exchanged brief waves with the newcomers and vanished over the skyline. The priestly procession plodded slowly downhill.
As the visitors neared his camp, Reith saw that a boxlike sedan chair was slung on poles between two ayas in tandem, guided by a groom on the back of the lead animal. The party included six mailed guards, several Krishnans in the garb of shaihan-herds, and several others clad in uniforms of black and white. Reith guessed these to be acolytes or servants of the priest.
The procession halted before the tents. One of the attendants dismounted, handed his reins to another, and ceremoniously opened the door of the litter. He reached inside and took out a stool, which he placed on the ground.
The priest, whose apparel resembled that of his minions save that his diaperlike nether garment was scarlet instead of black, and he wore a red-and-white turban, lowered himself stiffly from the litter. Supporting himself by a staff fitted with a brazen finial of intricate design, he surveyed the Earthmen. Reith and Marot bowed. In slow, careful Mikardandou, Marot said:
"I am Aristide Marot, from the planet Terra. Have I the honor to address the Reverend Behorj bad—" He whispered fiercely to Reith, "What was the rest of his name? The patronymic?"
"Bad-Qarz."
"The Reverend Behorj bad-Qarz?"
The priest gave the Krishnan equivalent of a smile. "That is so, my son. I take it you have been apprised of my coming?"
"Yes, Your Reverence; but only after we had finished our midday meal. Had we known the time of your arrival in advance, we should have prepared a repast for you. As it is, may we offer you any refreshment?"
"Thank you, my son; but we have already dined along the road. Know you the purpose of this visit?"
"As I understand it, you wish to ascertain whether our researches bear upon your holy religion."
"Quite right. Where can we hold this discourse?"
"Doukh, set up three camp chairs and a table, quickly. Your Reverence, this other Terran is my guide, the intrepid Fergus Reith."
"My client flatters me," said Reith.
Behorj and the Terrans seated themselves. The priest leaned forward and fixed sharp black eyes on Marot, saying: 'Tell me, in your own words, what you do here."
Marot: "We seek the remains of beasts that once roamed your planet but no longer exist, save as petrified bones and teeth embedded in the rocks."
"Mean you that there once abounded monsters, like those whereof the legends tell, and that these have utterly vanished?"
"I believe that to be true, Your Reverence. Of course, we Terrans have as yet explored but a fraction of your planet's surface. It may be that creatures we believe extinct still dwell in places that we have not seen. I can only reason by the analogy of my own world, where hundreds of species have become extinct, many in recent centuries as a result of hunting or the occupation of their habitats. But what, Reverend Sir, has this to do with the Gospel of Bákh?"
Behorj paused before answering. "The first chapter of the Book of Bákh tells how, after Bákh had created the universe, the divinity established life on each planet where conditions favored its survival. Bákh presented a pair of each species to the first human pair and recounted the names of each, saying: "These creatures I have made to share the world with you forever. Have a care that ye take no more of each kind than ye need, lest the breeding stock be depleted to vanishment.' Now, if Bákh intended each species to last for all eternity, how could it permit any to become extinct?"
"Your Reverence, your question lies beyond my competence. I do know that many life forms have disappeared from my own world, where Bákh presumably established them with similar intentions. As for this world, it would not surprise me if the people, being weak and sinful like those of my own Terra, have disobeyed the commands of Bákh."