Solo bowed, and then stood up. He hesitated because he did not know where to go from here. He sweated. The chief of security would know where a political enemy was imprisoned. He couldn't even ask.
Suddenly at his side, Piebr spoke. "This way, Master. Frun and I will go ahead of you."
"Bless you," Solo said under his breath, and then they retreated from the chamber, bowing.
But even when he was in the splendid corridor, following Piebr along it, he still shivered slightly because he had seen in the last moments, a strange doubting light, dazzlingly bright, in Zud's black eyes.
TWO
ILLYA KURYAKIN sprawled in the sumptuous softness of pillows stuffed with flamingo down. He wore linen robes and fed himself from bowls heaped with grapes, chunks of lamb, onion, peppers, roasted tomatoes, hunks of chicken breast.
He sat up in the high-ceilinged, lavishly appointed room, when suddenly the door opened and Solo entered, followed by Ordwell and Wanda under the guard of Piebr and Frun.
They closed the door and the two secret police stood beside it, guns drawn.
Illya waved his arm. "If you've come to take me out of all this opulence, forget it! I'm just learning how to live."
Wanda cried out, "Oh, Illya!"
She ran to him and hurled her self into his arms. She cried, "Illya! Are you all right?"
"I am now!" he said. "It hasn't always been like this. I might have known they were just dolling me up because we were having guests. On the other hand, I don't care why, just so long as it goes on like this."
Wanda said, her voice pitched warningly, "That's poor Napoleon Solo there—" She gestured toward Ordwell, paralyzed, but conscious of all that was going on.
Solo strode forward in his Kiell mask, raging. "Shut up, girl! How many times have I ordered that you say nothing! Nothing! No matter what happens?"
Wanda gasped, realizing she had spoken again when silence was indicated. She pressed herself close to Illya.
Illya smiled, pleased. "Things are getting better all the time. Maybe I'll start my own harem here."
Wanda subsided, still clinging to him. She watched him and Solo in the Kiell mask, frightened.
Solo walked close He held out the key club card with the code X on it. He said, "I believe this is yours. Your clumsy attempt to reveal a secret to your fellow agents."
Wanda's eyes widened as she saw how quickly Illya understood everything. She saw in his face that it was as if he and the masked Solo had spent three hours in urgent exchange of information.
He said, shrugging, "You won't get anything out of me, Kiell. Or my friend Solo there."
Wanda exhaled. It was as if she was breathing for the first time since she had entered this room.
"Where have they moved the woman evangelist?" Solo asked.
"I don't know anything about her, Kiell," Illya said. "I've been telling you that."
"You worked with her when she first arrived in Zabir!" Solo shouted at him.
"You're wrong! How many times do I to tell you fellows I'm here only because your king invited me? I don't know anything about Ann Nelson Wheat. But I'll tell you what I think, Kiell."
"Do that, infidel," Solo said.
"I don't think Ann Nelson Wheat was spying on you people any more than I was. I think you arrested her along with me so you could make it look good to the world—and you want to know what else I think?"
"Yes, if you dare speak!"
"What have I got to lose?" Illya said, shrugging. "I think this whole bit, arresting the evangelist and me, was just to cover up a game of footsie you people are playing with THRUSH."
"That's enough out of you!" Solo shouted.
"Sure." Illya sank back into the pillows. He picked up a roasted chicken breast, took a deep bite, chewing pleasurably. "Just one thing I ask of you. If I'm dreaming, don't wake me up."
"I want information about Ann Nelson Wheat!" Solo raged.
Illya gestured upward toward him. "Then I suggest you talk to Sheik Zud."
Piebr sprang across the room, brandishing a pistol toward Illya.
Illya said, "If you shoot me, friend, be sure you hit me and not this chicken. It's too good to waste."
Piebr snarled at him. But Solo waved the detective back to the door. "It's all right, Piebr. I can handle the infidel."
"He has no right to speak to you in such a tone, Master."
Illya took another bite of chick en. "I was only being friendly. After all, it's a good suggestion. You want to know what happened to Ann Nelson Wheat, Kiell, ask your king. After all, we're his prisoners here; you're not. The head of his security police ought to be able to arrange a private audience with the sultan, it seems to me."
* * *
WHEN THE servants parted the silk curtains at the innermost chambers of the sheik, Solo walked in and bowed low, going down to his knee, hoping this was the correct genuflection expected of a minister-level subject of Zud.
He saw there were two women with Zud. One sat on a recently installed throne that was slightly higher than Zud's. The other woman sat at the ruler's massive feet.
Zud spoke at Solo sharply. "Off your knee. I warned you about this false show of humility. You want me to start mistrusting you? I should never have permitted your going to Harvard for your education. You came back thinking you were just slightly better than any one except Allah himself. I should have sent you to West Point—there they would have taught you to respect your superiors. Off your knee, unless you make obeisance to our most exalted lady, Queen Soraya Haidar of Xanra."
"I pledge my life to both of you," Solo said hesitantly.
Zud threw his head back laughing. "You'd have a difficult time fulfilling such obligation, eh, Soraya? Eh? If he tried to give his life for both of us—since we are in enemy camps, eh?"
"We do not need to be, Zud," Soraya said. Solo saw she was of a loveliness that was breathtaking, a dark and splendid beauty. "We could do much together, you and I."
Zud raged. "Only I am too ugly for you, eh?"
"Only you have ever suggested such a false thing, Your Highness," Soraya said.
"Oh, I know!" Zud shouted. "You're too polite to laugh in my face as my mother did. How do you hold your laughter until you get back among your own ladies-in-waiting?"
"There is no laughter in my heart, except that I would share with you, O Mighty King, if you would let me."
Solo saw the pain in Soraya's black eyes, the love that shone there for the huge king. He decided that if the King of Lions couldn't see it, the beast was as blind as a bat.
"So you taunt me in a different way than my mother did;" Zud said. He leaped up, raging. "But in the end it is the same. I don't blame you, Queen of Xanra. I know that if I want your hand, I'd have to overthrow your country and enslave you, wouldn't I?"
"I am ready to join my country, and my heart with yours, when I hear it asked of me," the lovely queen answered.
Zud put back his head, laughing. "Well, it's good to have you visit me! It reminds me of the ugly brute I am. I had to enslave the women I made marry me. Perhaps in the end I shall force you to marry me, Soraya, unless your larger army is finally victorious over mine."
Xanra's Queen stood up. Her face was bleak. "I shall leave you now, Great Zud. I come to you no more to ask for peace. I am sorry. Good-by."