Ordway looked from Reith to Alicia and shook his head. "You two must be made of steel and india rubber. You both seem as lively as ever."
"Just practice," said Reith.
"And we love our jobs," Alicia added.
They reached the abandoned castle, towering over a ridge in the forest. They found it ruinous, with crumbling walls and holes in the roof. White and Ordway prowled, stepping over fallen blocks and conferring in undertones. When they had completed their inspection, White told Reith: "I'm afraid this won't do at all."
"Jack's right, you know," said Ordway. "It would cost almost as much to restore this tumbledown pesthole as to build a new one." He glanced at the attendants, unpacking foodstuffs and supplies. "Must we stay the night here?"
"Afraid so," said Reith. "If we started home now, night would catch us on the road."
As darkness descended, White uttered a shrill squeak from where he stood arranging his bedding. "My God, what's that?" He pointed to a pair of luminous spots near the ground at the margin of the lantern fight. The spots were joined by another pair, and another.
"Just some of the present tenants," said Reith. "They're harmless; those big enough to be dangerous have been frightened away."
"Come on, Jack!" said Ordway. "Where's your courage? Summon up the sinews, stiffen the blood!" As rain began to foil, he sighed. "Remind me to strike Cosmic for combat pay."
Reith's bedraggled party reached Rosid late the following morning. In sight of the capital, the rain ceased and Roqir broke through the clouds, gleaming against the gilded onion domes of the temples. Reith announced: "We've got time to rest a bit and clean up before lunch. Afterwards, if you like, we can take in the fair."
"The way I feel now, old boy," said Ordway, "it takes all my self-control not to tell you where to stick your bloody fair."
Later, however, the motion-picture executives felt better. Ordway volunteered: "I say, Fergus, when do we visit the fairgrounds?"
"I'll have Timásh hitch up the carriage."
They found the fair athrong with gaping visitors. On one side of the Midway, three jugglers tossed their sharp-honed knives and hatchets. Beyond, a pair of acrobats in red-and-white loin cloths balanced on a wire stretched between two poles. The male leaped into the air, turned a somersault, and landed with his feet on the wire. The impact threw the female into the air, to come down in her partner's arms. Then the pair bounded to the ground while the crowd shouted and cracked thumb joints.
Across the way, hidden puppeteers manipulated the strings of their marionettes. "By Jove!" said Ordway. "A Punch-and-Judy show, with caricatures of us!"
In the act, a villainous Earthman, identified by blond hair and a huge nose, was dragging off a Krishnan maiden, saying in Gozashtandou: "Come with me, my love! I'll show you pleasures beyond the compass of your degenerate race—"
Then a Krishnan hero appeared to belabor the Terran with a slapstick, crying: "Take that, ye alien scoundrel!" while the Earthman begged for mercy.
Reith and his clients pushed past mountebanks hawking nostrums. They dodged reeling drunkards and sidestepped harlots displaying blue-green nipples. Alicia whispered: "Fergus, I see low-cut dresses are still worn in Ruz—but considering the class of women who wear them, no wonder people stared at me at the banquet!"
On they went, their noses assailed by strong Krishnan body odors and the pungent smell of Krishnan cigars. The people running the concessions were mostly Gavehona —members of a nomadic ethnos that wandered (some said infested) the Varasto nations. They lived by handiwork, petty trade, fortune-telling, and less reputable occupations.
Passing a booth, White exclaimed: "Hey, that's for me!" He pointed to an astrologer's sign, beneath which sat a wrinkled old Krishnan with ragged antennae. The sign advertised his wisdom in Gozashtandou, Portuguese, and English. The English version read:
ALL-KNOWING STARGAZER GHAMIR OF MENZAL SHALL READ FORTUNE IN STAR FOR TROUBLED MORTAL RATE VERY GOOD. CLIENTS SHALL BE EXECUTED IN ORDER OF INCOME
White said: "You go on; I'll catch—hey, wait a minute! Does that sign say what I think it does? Is he going to slice off my head for his fee?"
Reith laughed. "Just his fractured English. He means first come, first served."
Looking apprehensive but determined, White vanished into the astrologer's tent. Alicia said: "Fergus, I want to talk to that young Gavehon over there! I mean to study their culture for a book I have in mind. You and Cyril go on; we'll meet at the flagpole."
Reith and Ordway strolled on until a whore sidled up to the Briton and spoke in Gavehonou.
"Eh, what?" said Ordway. "Don't you speak English?"
The whore said in Gozashtandou: "Would my Terran lord be fain for pleasure?" She gave a sensuous wriggle.
Ordway caught the drift. "Yes! Oui! Fergus, what the hell's the right word for yes'?"
"Irrá." Reith chuckled. "Want me to come along and translate?"
"Thanks, but no thanks. Lend me the going fee, will you like a good bloke? I'll pay you back in Novo ... Thanks a million! Irrá!" Ordway and the female disappeared.
Later, Reith found Alicia still interviewing the Gavehon youth. As they walked away, Alicia said: "After we got friendly, I twitted him on his people's reputation for theft. Know what he said?" She rapped her own chest with her knuckles. " 'A Gavehon who does not steal is not a real man!' "
Reith smiled. They strolled towards a clump of Krishnans, swiftly growing into a crowd, who stood around an orator esconsed on a cask. As they neared, they made out his words.
"... never, never trust these aliens from across the black depths of space! Believe not their protestations of friendship and non-aggression! Their own history shows their beguiling words to be but a pack of crafty lies. Their annals drip with the scarlet of their alien blood!
"On their own world, whenever a nation with mightier machines meets another with lesser, the former sends in explorers, traders, teachers, and preachers, who subtly undermine the faiths and traditions of the weaker folk. When the victims seek to expel these subversives, the more mechanized state sends armies with death-dealing weapons, to crush the people and make them slaves. And so it will be here, if ye heed not my warnings ..."
Reith felt Alicia stiffen. She said: "I'd like to get up beside that fellow and demand equal time. I'd show him—"
"No, you won't!" said Reith sharply. "He'd set a mob on us—"
"But, Fergus, someone has to—"
"Lish!" exclaimed Reith, taking a firm grip on her arm. "You know how volatile these folk are, and they're a hundred to one of us. It's lucky nobody's noticed you and me. Now come along!"
Reith forcibly swung Alicia away from the orator and started marching her back toward the tent that had swallowed White. He braced himself for an explosion of temper or even a physical assault, like that by which Alicia had felled Ordway. In a fight, she was a hundred-and-seventy-centimeter stick of dynamite.
Instead, after a few long breaths, she said: "You may release my arm, Fergus. You were right and I was wrong."
Reith drew a deep breath. "You've certainly changed, my darling Wart Hog!"
"I try not to make the same mistake twice, that's all."
"If that's what the Moritzian therapy accomplished—"
"Look, Gilan's men are taking an interest in the proceedings!"
Reith turned back. A squad of mailed fairwardens with quarterstaves were moving in on the crowd. The orator cut short his speech, hopped down from his cask, and vanished in the dispersing throng. The fairwardens grabbed one auditor after another, barking questions; but each fairgoer so seized wrapped himself in a cloak of innocence. Soon the area was clear save for gaping passersby.