The great man sank to his knees and kissed the hem of her skirt. He looked up at her. "Despite my devotion, I pray you will marry a man good enough, handsome enough, great enough for you, O Queen."
"I hope I shall, too," Soraya answered, and Solo knew what she meant, even if the king were too blind to see.
Solo sighed. He reflected that if he'd grown up on his mother's taunts, instead of the love he'd longed for, he, too, might have grown to doubt that any woman could care for him.
He scowled. He had to quit finding excuses for the things Zud did. The sheik had already revealed that he was planning an alliance with THRUSH, that international conspiracy against which U.N.C.L.E. waged constant battle. He and Zud were deadly enemies. He had to remember that, every minute.
He stood, waiting, until Queen Soraya had walked out of the splendid chamber. For some moments after Xanra's ruler was gone, Zud stood immobile staring impatiently after her.
Finally, he turned. He glared at Kiell. "We must redouble our efforts, Kiell! I want to marry her. Whatever else I have on earth is as nothing unless she is mine."
"If you married her," Solo said, "you need not wage war against Xanra."
Zud oaths turned the air in the room a hazy blue. He looked as if he'd attack his security minister.
"So you think to taunt me, too, eh, my Harvard delinquent? Just because I let Soraya tease me about my ugliness, you think you can get away with it?"
"No one thinks you're ugly, Zud," said the woman on the floor.
She was in her late twenties, lovely, in spite of a certain prudishness about her that Solo associated with women who turn to religion to the exclusion of everything earthly. He caught his breath, knowing he was seeing Ann Nelson Wheat, the evangelist from Los Angeles.
"Except you yourself," she went on. "You torment yourself and hurt others, because you're still trying to get even with your foolish mother."
"Listen to the evangelist, Kiell! Oh, in America, they allow their women to speak right up, eh? Listen to me, Ann Wheat! Nobody thinks me ugly in this country because they don't dare to! They think I'm ugly. And my mirror swears to it that I resemble a great beast!"
"It's all in your own mind," Ann Wheat said. "Like many other of your wrong ideas."
"Listen to her!" Zud shouted. "Do you know what she has told me? That it is wrong to have more than one wife? What can be wrong? What would a man do with just one wife? Eh, Kiell?"
Solo shrugged, smiling behind his plastic mask.
Zud said, "Enough of this talk. You teach my wives any more of this equality of women, Ann Wheat, and I'll have you beheaded. This time for sure. Meantime, get out of here so I can talk to my minister of security—as though I had any security."
When the woman evangelist was gone, Solo said, "What do you plan to do with her?"
"When our war with Xanra is won, I'll let her go home, if she still wants to. She came here to convert us—perhaps she'll learn much here. But do not presume to ask explanations of your ruler, Zud. I have been too long patient with you."
"Too long, Zud." Solo bowed low.
"Now, we have promised to deliver Illya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo to THRUSH. What they do with them is THRUSH'S concern, not ours. We want only the aid THRUSH has promised in our battle with Xanra. I want you to deliver Illya Kuryakin, Napoleon Solo and the young Chinese doll as a bonus to THRUSH. Tonight."
Solo swallowed hard. He had no idea where the THRUSH agents were, or where they might be found. He waited, but Zud only stared at him.
"Well!" Zud shouted. "What are you waiting for? This Kuryakin has made one attempt already to escape. I want them delivered now. If they do escape, Kiell, do not dare to show your face to me again, or by Allah, I will lop off your head personally and feed it to the tigers."
"I will not fail you, King of Lions."
Zud's laughter shook the silk draperies at the windows. "For your own sake, Kiell," he roared, "I hope you don't."
His wild laughter followed Napoleon Solo from the chamber.
Solo walked back into the sumptuous chambers where Illya and Wanda were held prisoners.
He closed the door. A soldier came to attention at his side.
He gave the young soldier only a glance, seeing that he was youthful, his face serious, his black eyes lighted with the fires of the fanatic. He thought, a fitting subject to be ruled by Zud.
He saw that Illya, Piebr, Wanda and Frun were sitting on the pillows in a circle, laughing, chatting and eating from the bowls of food and fruit. Only Piebr laughed less than the others, seemed preoccupied.
Ordwell remained on the floor, in what seemed to be a catatonic trance.
"What's going on here!" Solo said. "Fraternizing with the enemy?"
"Your men have been working sixteen hours without food, Kiell," Illya said. "We're just feeding them."
"Suppose they poison your food!" Solo shouted.
Both Piebr and Frun leaped to theft feet.
Illya said, "Where could we get poison? They issued me these clothes. They brought the food themselves. And Aly David on guard over there should be promoted to general in your army, Kiell! He foiled my escape. You know why? Because though his friends mean much to him, his country means more."
Solo turned his back on the laughing Illya. He said, "Piebr!"
The young detective stepped forward, clicking his heels together.
"What's the matter with you, Piebr?" Solo said. "You act as if you had the weight of the world on your shoulders."
"No, Master, it is nothing." Piebr stared straight ahead. But tears brimmed his eyes.
Illya shouted. "He's afraid to say anything in your presence. But how can you be so unfeeling? It's his father you shot tonight—as you well know!" Illya's voice rose and hackles stood on Solo's neck. Zouida Berikeen. Piebr's father! "Yet you expect him to perform like a machine."
Solo exhaled heavily. He spoke without looking at the young detective. "Take the night off, Piebr."
"If you please, Master, I'd rather work. I think less, working, about my father. If he was a traitor, he had to die. It is just so hard to believe. But—I do believe you, Master! You would do nothing to harm this country or our ruler."
Solo winced, still unable to look at Piebr. He had not killed Piebr's father, but he wore the mask that Ordwell had used when Ordwell had killed the ambassador. He wondered, as he had wondered for a long time now, who had killed the real Kiell, and had this mask awaiting the arrival of Ordwell on the plane?
He tightened his hands into fists, knowing the answer to that question, even if he didn't know the names of the actual traitors who were double-crossing Zud and all of Zabir. His old friends THRUSH.
He said, voice cold, "Piebr, do you know where the agents of THRUSH await our delivery of these prisoners?"
Piebr nodded.
"Good," Solo said. "Then you will drive us there. Frun and this soldier will go along as guards. Our orders are to leave at once."
Piebr bowed and backed away. "I will arrange for a car right away, Master."
Wanda cried softly. Illya put his arm around her, whispered, "It is no time to think about safety, Wanda. We'll never be safe until we ferret out THRUSH—and destroy it, eh?"
Wanda nodded, understanding. She stood up, ready to go.