"What?" cried Zarfo. "After I risked my life in that infernal chute and endured all manner of hardship?"
But Reith had walked away. Zarfo came after him, somewhat crestfallen. "Adam Reith, you have made a serious mistake."
Reith nodded grimly. "Instead of an honest man I hired you."
Zarfo swelled up indignantly. "Who dares name me other than honest?"
"I do. Hrostilfe would rent his boat for a hundred sequins. He gave you a price of five hundred. You told him: 'Why should we not both profit? Adam Reith is credulous. I'll name a price and anything over a thousand sequins is mine.' So, be off with you."
Zarfo pulled ruefully at his black nose. "You do me vast wrong. I have only just come from chiding Hrostilfe, who admitted knavery. He now offers his boat at"-Zarfo cleared his throat-"twelve hundred sequins."
"Not a bice more than three hundred."
Zarfo threw his hands into the air and stalked away. Not long after Hrostilfe himself appeared with the plea that Reith inspect his ship. Reith followed him to the Pibar: a jaunty craft forty feet long, powered by electrostatic jet.
Hrostilfe kept up a halfhectoring, halfplaintive commentary. "A fast seaworthy vessel! Your price is absurd. What of my skills, my sea-lore? Do you appreciate the cost of energy? The voyage will exhaust a power celclass="underline" a hundred sequins which I cannot afford. You must pay for energy and additionally for provisions.
I am a generous man but I cannot subsidize you."
Reith agreed to pay for energy and a reasonable amount for provisions, but not the installation of new water tanks, extra foul-weather gear, good-luck fetishes for the prow; furthermore he insisted on departure the following day, at which Hrostilfe gave a sour chuckle. "There's one in the eye for the old Lokhar. He had counted on swanking it a week or more at the Sea Dragon."
"He can stay as long as he likes," said Reith, "provided that he pays."
"Small chance of that," chuckled Hrostilfe. "Well then, what about provisions?"
"Buy them. Show me an itemized tally, which I will check in detail."
"I need an advance: a hundred sequins."
"Do you take me for a fool? Remember, tomorrow noon we leave."
"The Pibar will be ready," said Hrostilfe in a sullen voice.
Returning to the Sea Dragon Inn, Reith found Anacho on the terrace. Anacho pointed to a black-haired shape leaning against the seawall. "There he stands: Helsse. I called him by name. It was as if he never heard."
Helsse turned his head; his face seemed deathly white. For a moment or two he watched them, then turned and walked slowly away.
At noon the travelers embarked on the Pibar. Hrostilfe gave his passengers a brisk welcome. Reith looked skeptically here and there, wondering in what fashion Hrostilfe thought he had won advantage for himself. "Where are the provisions?"
"In the main saloon."
Reith examined boxes and crates, checked them against Hrostilfe's tally sheet, and was forced to admit that Hrostilfe had secured good merchandise at no great price. But why, he wondered, were they not stored forward in the lazaret? He tried the door, and found it locked.
Interesting, thought Reith. He called Hrostilfe: "Best to stow the stores forward in the lazaret, before we start pitching to the waves."
"All in good time!" declared Hrostilfe. "First things first! Now it's important that we make the most of the morning current!"
"But it will only require a moment. Here, open the door; I will do it myself."
Hrostilfe made a waggish gesture. "I am the most finicky of seamen. Everything must be done just so."
Zarfo, who had come into the saloon, gave the lazaret door a speculative frown.
Reith said, "Very well then, just as you like." Zarfo started to speak but catching Reith's gaze, shrugged and held his tongue.
Hrostilfe nimbly hopped here and there, casting off lines, starting the jet, and finally jumping into the control pulpit. The boat surged out to sea.
Reith spoke to Traz, who went to stand behind Hrostilfe. Bringing forth his catapult Traz checked its action, dropped a bolt into the slot, cocked it and hung it loosely at his belt.
Hrostilfe grimaced. "Careful, boy! A foolhardy way to carry your catapult!"
Traz seemed not to hear.
Reith, after a word or two with Zarfo and Anacho, went to the foredeck. Setting fire to some old rags, he held them in the forward ventilator, so that smoke poured down into the lazaret.
Hrostilfe cried out in anger: "What nonsense is this? Are you trying to set us afire?"
Reith set more rags burning and dropped them into the ventilator. From below came a choked cough, then a mutter of voices and a stamping of feet. Hrostilfe jerked his hand toward his pouch, but noticed Traz's intent gaze and his ready catapult.
Reith sauntered aft. Traz said, "His weapon is in his pouch."
Hrostilfe stood rigid with dismay. He made a sudden move but stopped short as Traz jerked up the catapult. Reith detached the pouch, handed it to Traz, took two daggers and a poniard from various parts of Hrostilfe's person. "Go below," said Reith. "Open the door to the lazaret. Instruct your friends to come forth one at a time."
Hrostilfe, gray-faced with fury, hopped below and, after an exchange of threats with Reith, opened the door. Six ruffians came forth, to be disarmed by Anacho and Zarfo and sent up to the deck where Reith thrust them over the side.
The lazaret at last was empty of all but smoke. Hrostilfe was hustled up on deck, where he became unctuous and over reasonable. "All can be explained! A
ridiculous misunderstanding!" But Reith refused to listen and Hrostilfe joined his fellows over the side, where, after shaking his fist and bellowing obscenities at the grinning faces aboard the Pibar, he struck out for the shore.
"It appears," said Reith, "that we now lack a navigator. In what direction lies Zara?"
Zarfo's manner was very subdued. He pointed a gnarled black finger. "That should be our heading." He turned to look aft toward the seven bobbing heads.
"Incomprehensible to me, the greed of men for money! See to what disasters it leads!" And Zarfo gave a sanctimonious cluck of the tongue. "Well then, an unfortunate incident, happily in the past. And now we command the Pibar! Ahead: Zara, the Ish River, and Smargash!"
CHAPTER TWELVE
ALL DURING THE first day the Parapan was serene. The second day was brisk with the Pibar pitching up and over a short chop. On the third day a black-brown cloud loomed out of the west, stabbing the sea with lightning. Wind came in massive gusts; for two hours the Pibar heaved and tossed; then the storm passed over, and the Pibar drove into clement weather.
On the fourth day Kachan loomed ahead. Reith steered the Pibar alongside a fishing craft and Zarfo asked the direction of Zara. The fisherman, a swarthy old man with steel rings in his ears, pointed wordlessly. The Pibar surged forward, entering the Ish estuary at sunset. The lights of Zara flickered along the western shore, but now, with no reason to put into port, the Pibar continued south up the Ish.
The pink moon Az shone on the water; all night the Pibar drove. Morning found them in a rich country with rows of stately keel trees along the banks. Then the land began to grow barren, and for a space the river wound through a cluster of obsidian spires. On the next day a band of tall men in black cloaks were seen on the riverbank. Zarfo identified them as Niss tribesmen. They stood motionless, watching the Pibar surge upstream. "Give them a wide berth! They live in holes like night-hounds and some say the night-hounds are kinder."