"Anything more definite?"
"Nay. For the past year, they've kept the border sealed, save for a few well-guarded crossing points.
They've put up new fences, bishtar-strong, shomal-high, and burha-tight. Their patrols gallop along these barriers day and night. Thus little news gets out."
Back in Zinjaban, Ordway greeted his dusty location team as they dismounted. "I'll wager you've all got sore buns. Any luck, Jack?"
"Absolutely!" said White. "The castle is splendid— very visual."
"D'you think we're finished here?"
"I believe so."
Ordway continued. "Obviously, this lousy little inn won't hold our shooting crew. We shall have to get tents, portable WCs, etcetera. I say, Fergus! Are we going back through Mishé?"
"No; it's quicker to follow the river road down the Khoruz to its junction with the Pichidé, then along the Pichidé to Novo. There's no point in going out of our way—through Mikardand—again until the whole crew's here."
"Damn! I wanted another go at the lady treasurer, the fair Gashigi."
"You'll have more chances later," said Reith dryly.
"How will our people keep clean in Zinjaban? Manshu's rotten little inn doesn't even have a tub."
"They'll have to use the river, as the natives do."
"But doesn't the river have those man-eating sea serpents—or I should say, river serpents? They call 'em evils or awfuls or something."
"Avvals? They're more like giant eels. I'm sure they don't range this far upstream; they prefer deeper waters."
Ordway sighed. "I see we shall have to face a cold plunge. Haven't had a bath since Vasabád. While I don't insist on one daily, like you Americans, we're all jolly ripe by now."
"Good idea," said Reith. "I'll tell Manshu to have dinner late, and I'll meet you all at the ford in a quarter-hour, with soap and towels."
Ordway looked sharply at Alicia, and the pupils of his eyes dilated. "You mean—her, too?"
"I'm an old Krishnan hand, Cyril," said Alicia severely. "We make nothing of it and expect you to do likewise."
The setting Roqir reddened the water as the travelers assembled at the ford, wearing raincoats in lieu of robes. White said nervously: "Shouldn't the men bathe in one place and Alicia in another, for decency?"
Reith snapped: "Alicia and I have taken more baths together than I can count. If it'll make you happy, wash below the ford, while she and I dunk ourselves above it."
"What about me?" said Ordway.
"Wherever you like."
"The water looks kind of muddy," said White.
"They had a heavy rain recently; so the river is high. We'll still come out cleaner than we went in." Reith and Alicia cast off their coats and strode resolutely into the ford, then upstream to deeper water. Behind they heard low-voiced complaints of the cold.
Soaping himself, Reith found Ordway staring at him in a marked manner. With a mischievous smirk, Ordway said: "I see you've got 'em after all."
"Got what?"
"Oh, you know! For a while I wondered ..."
Reith pressed his lips together in an angry line. After manfully resisting his growing enchantment with Alicia, he did not need such gibes.
Oblivious of Reith's annoyance, Ordway persisted: "The trouble with you, old boy, is, you don't give your natural instincts a chance—assuming you've got—yeeow!"
With a cream, Ordway leaped almost clear of the water and splashed madly towards shore. He yelled, "An awful has got me! An awful bit me!"
A blond head emerged from the turbulent water like a Rhine maiden rising to complain of the theft of the Rheingold. Alicia stood up, spat water, and put her hands on Reith's shoulders to steady herself while she shook with laughter. Reith asked, "Did you bite old Priapus in the leg?"
"You just bet! I won't have that—that microorganism teasing you about your manhood; I could tell him a thing or two about that! I figured he couldn't see me under this muddy water."
"Darling!" said Reith, enfolding her. "There's nobody like you on two planets." After a hearty kiss, he drew back. "But we'd better finish and get out!"
Ordway had disappeared, though his yells of "Awful! Awful!" could still be heard. Soon a dozen Krishnans converged on the ford, carrying hunting spears, axes, and other improvised weapons. Ordway, shouting and pointing, hopped about among them, his belly bouncing. He ceased his antics when Reith and Alicia, hand in hand, waded out of the shallows towards the rescue party.
"It—it d-didn't bite you?" he stammered.
"There wasn't any," said Reith. "It was just your guilty conscience." In a few words of Mikardandou, he explained the contretemps to the Krishnans, who broke into the gobbling Krishnan laugh and walked off, shaking their heads.
Four days after leaving Zinjaban, the scouting party came to Rimbid, on the northern bank of the Pichidé. Reith looked furtively about in case they should encounter Sari, his local occasional sweetheart. Much to his relief, she failed to appear. Another confrontation like those with Vázni and Gashigi, he thought, would be just more than he could bear.
When they were settled, Alicia heaved a sigh. "Well, at least you won't have to sleep on the floor tonight."
"No," said Reith, his lips twitching in a secret smile. "The boys and I have the big room, with four beds. The only trouble is that they snore like thunder in the hills."
"Well, if we ever—" She broke off.
"Ever what?" said Reith with ill-concealed eagerness.
"Never mind. Maybe I'll tell you some day." As Reith opened his mouth to carry the conversation further, Alicia gave him a quick kiss and pushed him out her bedroom door.
Now why the hell, Reith asked himself as he walked to the big bedroom, can't we make up our minds and speak them? Because, Fergus my lad, you're basically a coward. You're in a blue funk at the thought that she might turn you down in a scornful, humiliating way, to get even with your rejection of her. If she's watching for a chance to tell you off, her words would take the hide off a rhinoceros.
But if you dillydally much longer, she'll either go back to Terra, take off on some scientific safari, or start looking around. There are plenty of mateless male Krishnanders who'd be delighted at the chance. If she really wanted to hurt me, she could even let Cyril...
Half an hour later Reith, filled with resolution, knocked on Alicia's door. "Yes?" she said, opening it a crack.
"Lish, we have a couple of hours before dinner. Like a little walk?"
"Oh, good! I've never seen Rimbid. Give me a minute to dress."
"Okay; I want to discuss something serious."
Another quarter-hour saw them strolling arm in arm along Rimbid's main avenue. After lingering before some shops, they came to a small park, where a gaggle of Krishnan children chased one another screaming. Reith said: "Lish, I want to ask you something."
"That makes two," she said, "because I want to ask something of you."
"Oh?" Reith felt a rising tension. "Go ahead."
"No, you spoke first. You ask."
"Absolutely not! By my honor as a male chauvinist, the lady gets first whack."
"Oh, all right. I want the whole story about you and Elizabeth. Don't think I was fooled by your dismissing the matter in a few words! Meilung hinted that the tale was dramatic."
"Hmm." Reith looked around. "Very well; you'll have to know some time. It's a long story, so how about sitting down?" He gestured towards a stone bench in the park. Seated, he said: "Here goes. Every so often, some nubile young tourist falls in love with her guide. It's a hazard of the profession. A smart man keeps them at arm's length; but this one sneaked into my bed and—well, the woman tempted me, and I did screw.