"Keeping an Argus eye on all the Terrans in your bailiwick, eh?"
"I try. I say, old chap, when Alicia Dyckman was on Krishna before, she had the reputation of being a sort of female drill-sergeant."
"Who knows better than I?" said Reith.
"But yesterday she seemed pleasant enough; if anything, rather subdued. And still single after all these years—but I forgot; to her the lapse of time is only a fraction of what it is to us. Mark my words, Fergus: she won't stay unattached long!"
"Maybe not. Here she comes now. Give me your bag, Alicia."
VI - Cyril Ordway
On their second night out of Mishé, they stopped at Vasabád, the third largest city of Mikardand. Of Vasabád's three inns, Reith tried two before he found one where he could provide Alicia with a room of her own. After they had all settled in, he knocked on her door. "Hey, Wart Hog! I'm giving the boys a little walking tour. Like to come along?"
"You just bet!"
While more impressive than Qou, Vasabád was still a small town. Its sights were nearly exhausted when they came upon the little temple of Bákh. White said: "Fergus, let's have a look. Can we go in?"
"I think so. They're at vespers; but I know the priest, who won't mind if we're quiet."
They found the sparse congregation standing, there being no pews, while an elderly Krishnan priest recited the lesson and a pretty young Krishnan acolyte illustrated the recitation by manipulating a triad of symbolic objects: a mirror, a sword, and a vessel of water. These she lifted from the altar one by one and, with a dancer's grace, gazed at herself in the mirror, clove the air with the sword, and flicked droplets of water from the bowl in the four cardinal directions. Ordway whispered: "I say, do they sacrifice virgins here in the dark of the moons?"
Reith shook his head. "Neither in the light or the dark of the moons; though a cult in Balhib, I understand, went in for that sort of thing a few years back. I sometimes wish the Krishnans hadn't gotten quite so civilized; I know some people I'd like to sacrifice." He gave Ordway a stony stare.
"Our script calls for human sacrifice," Ordway went on, oblivious. "I always thought it a foolish waste of a perfectly serviceable woman."
Reith cocked an eyebrow. "What's your script got to do with the real Krishna? For that matter, what's any movie got to do with real life?"
Ordway sighed. "Fergus, if you were in the business, you might make first-class documentaries; but in entertainment you'd be an utter washout."
The priest finished his reading, covered the sacred objects, led a hymn, and dismissed his worshipers. As they straggled out, Reith brought his Terrans forward. He and the priest grasped thumbs, and Reith introduced his companions to the Reverend Vizram.
"I don't see anything here for our picture," muttered White, peering about. "Nice little temple, but the one in Mishé has it beat."
"A moment, I pray, Master Reef," said the priest. "As ye know, Sifad's comet attains its greatest brilliance tonight."
"I'd forgotten," confessed Reith. "The sky has been so overcast, I've never even seen this comet."
"The sky hath cleared as even veils the day. Tell me, pray, what opinion have ye learned Terrans anent comets? The astrologers make a great to-do thereof, saying they bear messages from the gods. Some predict this world's destruction; others, a thousand years of peace and plenty. What think ye?"
"Terran space ships," replied Reith, "have found comets to be nothing but stones, dust, and frozen water.
We consider them natural phenomena and not signals from the powers unseen." He paused as an idea struck him. "Isn't the platform atop your temple the highest structure in Vasabád?"
"Aye. The cult that owned the temple, ere we servants of Bákh acquired it, used the building for their astrological observations."
Smiling guilelessly, Reith asked: "Would you mind if we returned after dark to view the comet from the platform?"
"I shall be glad to unlock the temple doors, Master Reef," said the aged priest. "Pray, present yourselves within an hour of Roqir's setting, and knock thrice."
Reith did not translate this exchange for the benefit of his male clients. He was less interested in comet watching than he was in finding a moment alone with Alicia, although he was unsure of just what he meant to say. Walking back to the inn, he was so absorbed in composing and discarding little speeches that he was unaware of Ordway's absence until, nearing the inn, Alicia asked: "Where's Cyril?"
White explained: "He ducked back into the temple. Said for us to go on; he could find his own way back."
"Now what's that idiot up to?" growled Reith with foreboding.
"There he is!" exclaimed Alicia. "Somebody's chasing him!"
Ordway had appeared around a corner, his short legs pumping. Behind him rushed a crowd of Krishnans, waving clubs, brandishing knives, and yelling threats and curses. Ordway reached the trio of Terrans just ahead of the pursuers. He dodged behind Reith and seized the slack of Reith's jacket to use the guide as a shield.
Reith clapped a hand to his sword, but common sense told him not to draw it. While he might take one or two Krishnans with him, against such odds he stood no chance. Assuming a loftily commanding expression, he raised a hand.
"Quiet, please!" he shouted. The mob continued to scream: "... rape our maiden ..."
"... filthy dazg ... flay the barbarian alive ..."
As Reith called again, without effect, for quiet, the elderly priest of Bákh pushed forward, waving the sword the acolyte had used in the rituals. He tried to get at the cowering Ordway. White and Alicia hovered anxiously on the fringe of the mob, ignoring gibes.
Reith bent towards the Reverend Vizram's ear. "Tell them to quiet down, so I can find out what happened!"
The priest endeavored, with no more success. On a sudden inspiration, Reith called out: "Sing!" His voice rolled out in a familiar hymn:
After the first line, the priest joined in. Then more and more of the mob added their voices, until all were singing. At the pause at the end of the stanza, Reith called out: "If all of you good people will be quiet, we shall get to the bottom of this. What happened, Father Vizram?"
The priest replied: "The fleshy Terran accosted my virgin daughter, who serves as acolyte. He made some obscene proposal in's Terran tongue. When she would have fled his lechery, he seized and would fain have distrained her; but I heard her cries for help."
Reith pulled Ordway out from behind him, the latter gasping: "What—what's the—the old padre saying?"
"Tell me your story."
Ordway's speech had become thick Cockney. "I saw this bonzer squid and remembered something I read, 'ow in ancient times the temples was combined viv 'ore 'ouses. Gels earned their dowries that way. So, bein' 'orny, I asks her, what's the price of a quick one? Since she didn't understand English, nor I 'er 'eathen speech, I tried sign language. When she starts off, I grabs her arm, thinkin' she 'adn' got it. Then she shrieks, and her gov' and some other wogs comes runnin'."
With a forced-air composure, Reith said to the priest, "My client was so deeply impressed by your service that he wished to give all his money to the temple. Since he and your daughter had no speech in common, a regrettable misunderstanding arose." He turned to Ordway and said in English: "Give him all your cash— every last arzu. Don't argue, or I'll let 'em tear you to pieces!"
The priest accepted the money, thanked Ordway, and apologized for the contretemps. The crowd broke up and drifted away. As the Terrans reentered the inn, Alicia said: "Fergus, I want to apologize."