Reith sighed. "I never meant to hurt you, Vázni. But I never wanted to marry you in the first place. I was forced to do so, literally at sword's point."
"Aye, after you'd robbed me of the jewel of maidenhood!"
"Oh, come off it! I didn't rob you; you were just as ready, willing, and eager as I. Nobody's to blame but your cousin the Regent. He planned the whole thing, knowing you and I could never produce a legitimate heir to threaten his position.
"Now let's get to the point. Excuse me, Vázni, if I speak to Alicia in our Terran tongue; it'll go faster." He gave Alicia a quick resume of the princess's tale.
"She can't possibly come with us," said Alicia. "No telling what this crazy baron would do if he found her missing. If he didn't arrest us on our way out of Ruz, he'd at least refuse cooperation on the movie." She turned to Vázni with a forced smile. "My dear Princess, Strachan leaves Ruz soon. I'm sure you could persuade him to smuggle you out; he's harum-scarum enough."
Alicia walked to the door with the firmness of a practiced interviewer ending a session. With a hand on the doorknob, she said brightly: "It's been pleasant meeting you, Princess. Some other time we must—"
"Oh, I mean not to depart!" said Vázni, resolutely sitting down on the bed. "Let us compare our recollections of Sir Fergus. When you were intimate with him, were his lectual powers as great as those I enjoyed? He could perform—"
Reith broke in. "Vázni, please! This is most embarrassing. If you must dissect me—"
" 'Tis no more than you merit," said Vázni, turning to Alicia. "Tell me, fellow ex-wife, did he—"
"Really, Princess," said Alicia, "it's not the sort of thing—"
Reith raised his voice. "Enough nonsense! It's late, and we must be on site early tomorrow. Good night to both of you!"
"I'll not go until she doth!" exclaimed Vázni, eyeing her rival coldly.
"Nor will I leave until she goes!" retorted Alicia with a steely stare.
Reith scratched his scalp. "Well, I'm going to bed, right now. If you want to see a male strip act—"
Vázni gave the Krishnan equivalent of a shrug. "Proceed, and sprackly, husband-that-was! Bákh knows I've seen you naked often enough, and I doubt not that Mistress Dyckman hath, too. I shall relish the spectacle."
"Very well," said Reith, red-faced but determined. "You asked for it."
As he shed his underwear, Vázni remarked: "He's still as lean as ever, save in the belly. There he doth bulge a trifle."
"He's in marvelous shape for a man of his age!" said Alicia defensively. "He keeps in trim by constant exercise."
"Good night, dear ex-spouses!" said Reith, sliding into bed and pulling the covers over his head.
For a while he lay, hearing the verbal fencing between his visitors and hoping that it would not escalate to hair-pulling. If it came to physical combat, he was sure that Alicia knew enough of the martial arts to make mincemeat of the Krishnan woman.
At last Reith faked a gentle snore. Soon he felt the weight of Vázni's cloak removed from the blanket above him and heard his door open and close. When he turned the blanket down, he found that the two women had tiptoed away. With a sigh of relief, he put out the lamp and fell asleep.
IV - Kenneth Strachan
The third hour of the next day saw Reith, with Timásh at the reins, driving Alicia and her associates to the drill field beyond the city walls. The adjacent fairgrounds dozed in the morning sun; multicolored pennants hung limply from the poles of tents, as a few of the fair folk moved sleepily about, feeding and watering their animals. Even the guard eshuna lay somnolent with heads on outstretched paws.
In contrast, the parade ground seethed with activity. Liveried flunkeys from the palace were briskly setting out rows of light chairs as an assortment of Rúzuma, from rich to ragged, scrambled for choice locations.
A drumming of aya hooves heralded the arrival of the Dasht. A splendid rider, flanked by several henchmen, the Dasht galloped across the field in still another martial costume. Over a long coat of silvered mail he wore a linenlike surcoat like that of a Terran Crusader, save that instead of the cross, the garment was embellished with astrological symbols in red and yellow and blue. Reith recognized one of the entourage as a bodyguard and another as a minor bureaucrat from the Treasury.
While Timásh secured Reith's ayas to a hitching post, Reith led his clients to the edge of the drill field. The riders drew up sharply before them.
"Good morning!" barked Gilan, leaning down, "You passed a comfortable night, I trust? As soon as we are mounted, we shall commence our discussion."
"Mounted?" muttered Ordway. "Oh, God!" he exclaimed, as grooms appeared with four saddled ayas.
Reith and Alicia swung easily into their saddles, but the others had more difficulty. A groom had to boost the pudgy Ordway up. White waved aside an offer of similar assistance; Reith could see him biting his lip, visibly working up his courage to mount as he rehearsed the steps that Heggstad the trainer had taught him.
White's aya craned its long neck to stare at its hesitant rider. Then it rolled its eyes, uttered a bleating cry, shifted its feet, and lunged at White in an effort to hook him with a horn.
"Damn you, hold still!" cried White in a voice cracking with tension.
"He doesn't understand," Reith called out. "The word is urám!"
"Urám!" yelled White. The aya paused in its tarantellic dance long enough for the location manager to get a toehold in the stirrup and swing into the saddle.
"Let us go!" cried the Dasht, urging his aya to a fast walk. The others followed. When they were out of earshot of servitors and spectators, the Dasht said: "You see, my friends, I do things efficiently. I think best when mounted; so I combine my business of state with my morning's ride.
"Now, let us address your proposal to rent one of my castles and hire my aya-men for this living picture. To get right down to numbers: how many soldiers will you need, and for how long? How much will you pay them? Some think it base for a nobleman to concern himself with crass commercial matters; but I am a modern noble, who comprehends that money is the bloodstream of the state ..."
Thus began an hour's chaffering, at which Ordway showed himself an able negotiator despite his physical discomfort. From time to time the Dasht, also a shrewd bargainer, forced the mounts into a fast trot. At these times, White and Ordway, gasping for breath, were unable to say a word. The aya's trot was especially jarring, because the saddle was placed over the middle pair of legs.
At length Gilan and Ordway reached a tentative agreement. Since the Dasht refused to release a thousand of his men-at-arms from duty, it was agreed that five hundred should be enlisted whenever they were needed. He would not permit his palace in Rosid to be used as a movie set; but he made Castle Shaght, an abandoned fortlet in the hills, available to the shooting crew.
"It is time for a gallop!" cried Dasht Gilan. "Ziddav!" His aya broke into a canter. Ordway and White, ashen with fear, bounced along clutching their saddles as the group rode the length of the field and circled back towards their starting point.
As they neared the spectators' seats, Gilan reined to a sudden stop. All the other animals obediently pulled up save White's. This aya, with a defiant bleat, broke into a full gallop, pounding towards the far end of the field.
"Hey!" said Reith. "We've got to stop that critter!" He kicked his mount into a run, and Alicia galloped beside him. The Dasht followed, shouting orders to the grooms.
As they neared the end of the drill field, Timásh, who had been left with the carriage, ran out shouting and waving his big straw hat. The Krishnan shaihan-herd intercepted the runaway.