"What does it matter?" cried Dordolio in a brassy voice. "A fugitive Dirdirman, a nomad boy, a mysterious nonesuch: is it not absurd to trick such folk out in noblemen's costume?"
Reith laughed; Anacho fluttered his fingers; Traz turned Dordolio a glance of infinite disgust. Reith paid the account.
"Now then," muttered Dordolio, "to the airport. Since you demand the best, we shall charter an air-car."
"Not so fast," said Reith. "As usual you miscalculate. There must be another, less ostentatious, means to reach Settra."
"Naturally," said Dordolio with a sneer. "But folk who dress like lords should act like lords."
"We are modest lords," said Reith. He spoke to the clothier. "How do you usually travel to Settra?"
"I am a man with no great regard or 'place' ;* I ride the public wheelway."
Reith turned back to Dordolio. "If you plan to travel by private air-car, this is where we part."
"Gladly; if you will advance me five hundred sequins."
Reith shook his head. "I think not."
"Then I also must travel by wheelway."
As they strode up the street Dordolio became somewhat more cordial. "You will find that the Yao set great store by consistency, and a harmony of attributes.
You are dressed as persons of quality, no doubt you will conduct yourselves in consonance. Affairs will adjust themselves."
At the wheelway depot Dordolio bespoke first class accommodation from the clerk; a short while later a long car trundled up to the platform, riding a wedge-shaped concrete slot on two great wheels. The four entered a compartment, seated themselves on red plush chairs. With a lurch and a grind, the car left the station and trundled off into the Cath countryside.
Reith found the car intriguing and somewhat of a puzzle. The motors were small, powerful, of sophisticated design; why was the car itself so awkwardly built?
The wheels-when the car reached top speed, perhaps seventy miles an hour-rode on cushions of trapped air, at times with silken smoothness, until the wheels came to breaks in the slot, whereupon the car jerked and vibrated abominably. The Yao, reflected Reith, seemed to be good theoreticians but poor engineers.
The car rumbled across an ancient cultivated countryside, more civilized than any Reith had yet seen on Tschai. A haze hung in the air, tinting the sunlight antique yellow; shadows were blacker than black. In and out of forests rolled the car, beside orchards of gnarled black-leaved trees, past parks and manors, ruined stone walls, villages in which only half the houses seemed tenanted.
After climbing to an upland moor, the car struck east over marshes and bogs, to outcrops of rotting limestone. No human being was in sight, though several times Reith thought to discern ruined castles in the distance.
"Ghost country," said Dordolio. "This is Audan Moor; have you heard of it?"
"Never," said Reith.
"A desolate region, as you can see. The haunt of outlaws, even an occasional Phung. After dark the night-hounds bell..."
Down from Audan Moor rolled the wheelway car, into a countryside of great charm.
Everywhere were ponds and watercourses, overlooked by towering black, brown and rust-colored trees. On small islands stood tall houses with high-pitched gables and elaborate balconies. Dordolio pointed off to the east. "See yonder, the great manse in front of the forest? Gold and Carnelian: the palace of my connections. Behind but you cannot see-is Halmeur, an outer district of Settra."
The car swung through a forest and came out into a region of scattered farmsteads with the domes and spires of Settra on the sky ahead. A few minutes later the car entered a depot and rolled to a halt. The passengers alighted, and walked to a terrace. Here Dordolio said: "Now I must leave you. Across the Oval you will find the Travelers' Inn, to which I recommend you and where I will send a messenger with the sum of my debt." He paused and cleared his throat. "If a freak of destiny brings us together in another setting-for instance, you have evinced a somewhat unrealistic ambition to make yourself acquainted with the Blue Jade Lord-it might serve our mutual purposes were we not to recognize each other."
"I can think of no reason for wanting to do so," said Reith politely.
Dordolio glanced at him sharply, then made a formal salute. "I wish you good fortune." He walked off across the square, his strides lengthening as he went.
Reith turned to Traz and Anacho. "You two go to the Travelers' Inn, arrange for accommodations. I'm off to the Blue jade Palace. With any luck I'll arrive before Dordolio, who seems in a peculiar state of haste."
He walked to a line of motorized tricycles, climbed aboard the first in line.
"The Blue Jade Palace, with all speed," he told the driver.
The mechanism spun off to the south, past buildings of glazed brick and dim glass panes, then into a district of small timber cottages, then past a great outdoor market, a scene as brisk and variegated as any Reith had observed in Cath. Turning aside, the motor-buggy nosed across an ancient stone bridge, through a portal in a stone wall into a large circular plaza. Around the periphery were booths, for the most part unoccupied and barren of goods; at the center a short ramp led up to a circular platform, at the back of which rose a bank of seats. A rectangular frame occupied the front of the platform, of dimensions which Reith found morbidly suggestive.
"What is this place?" he asked the driver, who gave him a glance of mild wonder.
"The Circle, site of Pathetic Communion, as you can see. You are a stranger in Settra?"
"Yes."
The driver consulted a yellow cardboard schedule. "The next event is Ivensday, when a nineteen-score comes to clarify his horrible desperation. Nineteen! The most since the twenty-two of Agate Crystal's Lord Wis."
"You mean he killed nineteen?"
"Of course; what else? Four were children, but still a feat these days when folk are wary of awaile. All Settra will come to the expiation. If you're still in town you could hardly do more for your own soul's profit."
"Probably so. How far to Blue Jade Palace?"
"Through Dalmere and we're almost there."
"I'm in a hurry," said Reith. "As fast as possible."
"Indeed sir, but if I wreck or injure, I'll feel extraordinary shame, to my soul's sickness, and I would not care to risk despondency."
"Understandable."
The motor-buggy spun along a wide boulevard, dodging and veering to avoid potholes. Enormous trees, black-trunked with brown and purple-green foliage, overhung the way; to either side, shrouded in dark gardens, were mansions of the most extraordinary architecture. The driver pointed. "Yonder on the hilclass="underline" Blue Jade Palace. Which entrance do you favor, sir?" He inspected Reith quizzically.
"Drive to the front," said Reith. "Where else?"
"As you say, your lordship. Although most of the fronters don't arrive in three-wheel motor-buggies."
Up the driveway rolled the vehicle, and under a porte cochere the buggy halted.
Paying the fare, Reith alighted upon a silken cloth laid under his feet by a pair of bowing footmen. Reith walked briskly through an open arch into a room paneled with mirrors. A myriad prisms of crystal hung tinkling on silver chains.
A majordomo wearing russet velvet livery bowed deeply. "Your lordship is at home. Will you rest or take a cordial, though my Lord Cizante impatiently awaits the privilege of greeting you."
"I will see him at once; I am Adam Reith."
"Lord of which realm?"
"Tell Lord Cizante that I bring important information."
The majordomo looked at Reith uncertainly, his face twisting through a dozen subtle emotions. Reith understood that already he had committed gaucheries. No matter, he thought, the Blue Jade Lord will have to make allowance.