Just as Reith put a foot in the stirrup of Fodor's huge aya, Jengis, Cassie Norris rushed up. "Fergus! I want to go with the second party."
"Why? Accommodations are too tight for any more shifting around."
"It's that!" she said, pointing an accusatory finger.
Reith saw Fairweather and Valdez standing close to Alicia, vehemently arguing in low, tense voices, and realized that both had chosen to travel with the second group in hopes of a chance to be alone with Alicia.
Reith grinned. "You don't want Randal making a pitch for Alicia, eh?"
"No! I'll snatch her bald—"
"Calm down! I don't like that scenario, either. I'll see what I can do."
Reith strolled over to the disputants, leading his mount. As he approached, the men fell silent.
"Lish!" he said, crooking a finger.
They walked off together, leaving the two admirers glaring at each other. Out of earshot, Reith asked, "What's their argument?"
"Both want to ride in the gig with me," she replied. "I kept saying I'd pick my own passenger, but they refused to quit bickering."
"How about if we decide you haven't had enough carriage-driving, and we change places? You ride Jengis at the head of the first group while I drive the gig with the second. I don't think those lechers will quarrel over the privilege of riding with me!"
"What if they demand to go with the first group?"
"Too late! We already have as many in that lot as the smaller inns will hold. We won't announce it. Just climb aboard Jengis here and take off! By the time those jerks catch on, it'll be too late."
Reith made a stirrup of his hands. Alicia placed a toe in his cupped hands and swung into the saddle. She leaned down, smiling. "Give me a kiss for remembrance, Fearless ... See you in Mishé!"
She trotted the animal to the head of the column, raised an arm, and cried "Go!" The drivers cracked whips, and the vehicles lurched into motion.
Grinning, Reith strolled back to Fairweather and Valdez, who stood openmouthed. "We had a last-minute change. I hear both you fellows are hot to ride in the gig. You can flip a coin, or you can take turns enjoying my company."
Valdez sputtered "You—you—animalejo baboso!"
Reith laughed. "No quisiera ser cabrón! See you all here tomorrow at this hour."
Four days later, at Vasabád, Reith settled his people in the inn. As he finished assigning rooms, the taverner stopped him. "You are Sir Fergus Reit'? He who slew that ging of rogues in the temple of Bákh? Methought I espied a familiar face, notwithstanding that many oft maintain that all Terrans look alike."
"I am he," said Reith. "Is aught amiss? Your magistrate cleared me of wrongdoing."
"Nay, sir, he not concerned! Pray hide ye here; I'll return instanter."
The Krishnan departed at a run, leaving Reith to wonder whether the taverner had gone to raise a mob against him. Presently he heard a shout from the street: "Ohé, Sir Fergus! come ye forth!"
Reith drew a deep breath and, displaying a mien of more self-confidence than he felt, strode out the front door.
A swarm of townspeople had gathered before the entrance to the inn. Moment by moment their numbers grew.
In the front rank, Reith recognized the magistrate, his friend the priest of Bákh, and the mayor. "Well, sirs, why this assemblage?" asked Reith, concealing his trepidation as best he could. Hearing the commotion, members of the shooting crew crowded the common room behind Reith.
The mayor swelled visibly as he stepped forward. "Sir Fergus, we have gathered here, suspending our workaday tasks, to pay condign homage to the savior of our fair land. Though ye be a alien from a for, fantastical world, yet we know you for a true human being at liver ..."
The speech went on until, when the mayor paused for breath, Reith interjected: "Pardon, Your Honor, but I do not understand. Why think you I saved your country?"
"Ah, good my sir! When your fellow Terrans of the living-picture folk passed here last night, one, who spake our tongue, told us how ye devised the plan for the vanquishment of the barbarous riders of Qaath, against great odds, and how ye bravely fought and sustained a grievous wound in the battle."
He must mean Ken Strachan, thought Reith.
The major continued. "So we besought this Ertsu to tell us how we might do just honor to your esteemed self when ye in turn reached our splendid city, as this Master Satrakhan said ye would erelong. This Terran graciously vouchsafed to us that, in his world, a city would betimes give up one whom they wished thus to adulate a key to the city. Since our gates be secured by wooden beams, there is no such Key; but Master Satrakhan explained that any large key would serve as a symbol. So the worthy blacksmith, Master Hangra, working the night through, hath forged one for you."
The mayor raised a hand. Thereupon a burly Krishnan stepped forward with a huge iron key, having a stem the size of a baseball bat and a bit as large as a dinner plate.
"Sir Fergus Reef," said the mayor, "I have the inexpressible honor and ineffable pleasure to present to your surpassingly worthy self this minuscule token of our undying esteem!"
The blacksmith thrust the key into Reith's hands. The unexpected weight of twenty-odd kilos almost overbalanced him. He staggered, almost dropped the object, and recovered, as the mayor and the other Vasabáduma stared expectantly.
Reith, with the muscles of his lean arms taut, carefully lowered one end of the monster key to the ground. Knowing the Krishnan passion for fustian oratory, he launched into a speech that he had delivered on many formal occasions on Krishna.
"Dear friends! I have come to you from a distance so vast that the minds of mere mortals like unto us cannot truly grasp its magnitude; yet here, amongst folk of vastly different internal anatomy, I have found respect, friendship, and love. Verily, I have learned to regard your world as my true spiritual home ..."
After a quarter-hour, Reith ran out of clichés. He ended his speech with, "Last night, when the first group sojourned here, you beheld my affianced bride, Dr. Alicia Dyckman. In consequence of her breakneck ride to fetch reinforcements, her part in the victory was every bit as vital as my own. Since we shall soon wed, one key will suffice for the twain of us."
Reith paused to allow a ripple of Krishnan laughter. "In any case, my beloved and I offer our heartfelt thanks!"
The Krishnans whooped, cracked their thumb points, and hoisted Reith to their shoulders for an impromptu parade.
Roqir had set, and a gaggle of townsfolk were escorting Reith back to his inn, when a clatter of hooves interrupted the merrymaking. A lathered aya rounded a corner and staggered to a halt. The rider, Reith was astonished to see, was Jacob White, reeling in his saddle and gray with fatigue.
"Jack! What the devil?" exclaimed Reith, breaking away from his companions. White got a foot free, but instead of dismounting normally he collapsed in a heap on the cobblestones. Reith leaped forward and helped him up. White gasped: "They've kidnapped Alicia and Cassie!"
"What? Not again!" Fear knotted Reith's stomach, though he showed no sign save a tightening of his mouth. He dismissed his escort with a brief good night and turned back to White. "Who are 'they'?"
"Those Krishnan culture people. Schlegel."
Reith half led and half dragged the exhausted White into the common room of the inn and ordered a goblet of kvad for him. He himself took nothing, to avoid dulling bis wits. In a low voice he asked: "What for? Ransom?"