Still the picture of Alexis, lush and pink in the yellow lamplight, kept crowding into his mind, and blood kept crowding into his loins. He thought: Ah, sweet mystery of lust! paraphrasing an old song from the Massacre Era.
Towards noon the procession halted. Salazar slid out of his litter, thankful for a chance to stretch his legs and relieve the tender backside that constant bounce was giving him. He found Alexis talking intensely with one of her Kook bodyguards. As he approached, the Kook departed, running up the trail.
"What's this?" asked Salazar.
Alexis said: "This trail passes close to Cantemir's lumber camp. I want to scout it before I try to run past. We'll eat while waiting for Hagii."
At her command, the other Kooks produced a pair of folding chairs and a folding table. They set out the luncheon in a formal, well-rehearsed way as if serving for royalty. Alexis poured two generous glasses of bumble-berry wine, first for herself and then for Salazar.
The biologist attacked his food. For a few minutes he was able to keep his mind off Alexis's maddening body. He said:
"Think George might try to ambush us again?"
"Can't tell. Whatever he does, I want to be ready. Where are your guns?"
"They're both in my baggage."
"Well, get one out, silly! What good would it do us buried in that duffel bag?"
Salazar strolled back to the litter containing his bag. When he opened the bag, he was startled by Alexis's voice close behind him. She had a way of silently stealing up on one.
"What's that funny smell, Kirk?"
"Oh, that. I bought a supply of mitta nuts to tempt the kusis."
"So they'll eat out of your hand?"
"Not quite, but close enough so I can watch and take pictures." He was fitting his rifle together.
"But if they become half-tame, they won't behave the same as they would in the wild alone."
Salazar shrugged. "That's the dilemma of the field biologist, observing without being observed by the observee. It's a chance I have to take, since I can't hover invisibly over them like one of the spirits these island Kooks believe in." He finished assembling the piece and rose.
In her dictatorial manner Alexis said: "Don't you dare make skeptical remarks about spirits around my followers! Shiiko is a Kukulcanian spirit, and our faith in her holds the community together."
"I'll try to be careful."
He slung the gun across his back. Then a need for privacy compelled him to walk off into the forest. His visions of the previous night's adventure crowded back into his mind, so that he nearly stepped on a boshiya, a venomous black-and-white wriggler sometimes called a snake-lizard by Terrans. He saw it in time and jumped back.
When he returned to the trail, Hagii had come back from his errand. The Kook was talking with Alexis, who turned, laughing.
"Kirk, you'll never guess! Hagii talked to the head Kook in the camp, an oldster named Juugats, without showing himself to the lumberjacks. They're on strike against Cantemir for exposing them to gunfire. They had two killed and several hurt, after they'd been promised there would be no danger. So before they do anything like that again, they want combat pay, at least twice what he's paying them now.
"So we can keep on up the trail. But now your litter shall go first, and you're to have your gun ready. Understand?"
"Okay," muttered Salazar.
He did not relish being point man; his newfound virility would have liked to find an excuse for contradicting her dogmata and defying her commands. But those orders had so far seemed reasonable, and he could not think of an excuse that would not make him sound craven. Alexis was an able if exacting boss.
The party passed the lumber camp closely enough for Salazar to smell the smoke of a cook fire and hear sounds of Terran talk and movement. The sounds faded away as the Kooks with the litters trotted along the trail, the slope of which became steep enough to slow even Kukulcanians' iron muscles and leathern lungs.
Hours later, at a word from Alexis, the cortege again halted. Salazar got out and watched as she walked briskly aft to fumble in her baggage. She pulled out a white, gauzy garment. Stripping off her dirty khakis, she flipped the white robe over her head, pulled it into place, and tightened its straps. She came forward, saying:
"Kirk, from here on I go first."
"You mean we're near your community?"
"Of course! When I come in, the Kashanites will make a big production of my return. Play along with them, understand?"
"I'll do my best," said Salazar. "What's expected of me?"
"Nothing much; just be polite and do as I ask."
A ray from the low sun caught Alexis slantwise, turning her coppery hair to a flaming halo. Half-seen through the gauze, Alexis was even more exciting than Alexis naked. But either the bull elephant had gone away or Salazar rationally thought Alexis too difficult and dangerous for a love object. He said:
"What—ah—arrangements will be made for tonight?"
"If you're thinking of a repeat," she snapped, "I'm now the Supreme Choraga, a pure and holy ascetic. Anyway, you've had it three times in twenty-four hours, which must set a record for a beginner. And by the way, if you tell anyone about our little—ah—exercises, I will kill you, and I don't mean that as a figure of speech."
"All I wanted," rasped Salazar, "was to know where I'm to sleep. I have my own tent, if someone will show me where to put it."
"You'll be shown, never fear. What's your plan for your professional work?"
"First I must hike around the neighborhood until I know it well enough not to get lost in the woods. Then I buckle down to serious study of the local biota, and the kusis in particular."
"Okay. Tomorrow I'll take you up the mountain. If we start early, we can make the crater Shikawa by midday."
A space around the community of Kashania was given to plowed fields and vegetable patches. Salazar saw no one at work in the fields, but the sun was setting and the workers must have gone back to the village. The Kooks trotted past the fields and halted at the edge of a village-sized clearing encircled by huts. Young trees, apparently planted by the designer of the settlement, stood between the cabins. Another circle of tables ran around inside the circle of the huts and concentric with them.
The space within the circle swarmed with Terrans of both sexes and all ages. All were naked but for sandals and but for the sweaters and shawls that a few had put over their upper bodies against the cool of evening. Some were building a fire in the center; others were setting tablewear on the circle of tables.
Salazar's litter approached the village behind that of Alexis. Her conveyance halted where the trail ran through a gap in the circle of huts. She slid out of her litter, her gauzy draperies floating, and motioned Salazar's litter forward to a position beside hers.
Salazar got his first good look at the Kashanites. He had once seen a flier promoting a naturist colony. In its photographs of jolly naked crowds playing vigorous outdoor games, all the men had flat, hard-looking bellies and the women firm, outstanding breasts. That could not be said of most of the Kashanites.
As Alexis advanced, the Kashanites began pointing and jabbering. When she raised a hand, they cried in unison:
"Hail, Supreme Choraga! Hail, mouthpiece of the great spirit Shiiko!"
All but the youngest children dropped to their knees and bent to touch their foreheads to the ground. Alexis raised her arms, lifting her gauzes with an effect like spreading wings. In a strong, penetrating voice she called:
"Arise, ye faithful!"
As the Kashanites rose, she waved her arms and led the crowd in a song in a language that Salazar did not know. It seemed to have a wailing, Oriental-sounding tune, but most of the singers were so far off key that the melody would have been hard for a musician to recognize.