"Anyway, that's how the story got around. Vizman did offer an unusual inducement to marry him."
"What was that?"
"I stayed several days at his palace, and we had long discussions, mostly about Terran laws and institutions. He'd heard that most Terrans regarded slavery as wrong, and he wanted to know our reasons. So I told him—and don't accuse me of meddling in native affairs!"
"I wasn't going to," said Reith.
"Anyway, when I presented all the arguments, he came around to the anti-slavery point of view."
"I thought there were only a few slaves in Qirib?"
"Several thousand, mostly in the mines of the Zogha Range. I don't suppose they like it better than slaves do elsewhere. Vizman had to move cautiously; but he promised that, if I accepted his proposal, he'd abolish slavery in Qirib within a year. I feel a little guilty about turning him down, when I think of those poor slaves."
"If you'd accepted him," said Reith, "you wouldn't have met me in Novo after Percy rescued you. And we wouldn't have had—whatever we had."
Alicia began to sniffle again. "Now you're thinking, maybe that would have been just as well! Oh, Fergus, for all my bluster about being self-sufficient, I sometimes feel as if I were standing naked in an icy wind. Hold me tight!"
He cuddled and stroked her until she calmed. At last he said: "Good-night, Lish darling," and settled himself to sleep. Outside, a flash of lightning illuminated the crack of the tent flaps. Rain began to drum oh the canvas.
V - THE DIG
As Reith peered forth from his tent, a small voice behind him said: "How's the weather?"
"Drizzling." He turned to see Alicia, barely visible in the pre-dawn light, throw off the quilt and stretch. Through a yawn she asked:
"What does one use for a bathroom here?"
"We haven't given the matter much thought. There's a thicket on the river bank, about fifty meters downstream."
"Do you know what I need, Fergus? A good bath. I haven't had a decent bath in a ten-night, and you don't exactly smell like roses either."
"Little wonder," said Reith, "the way I've been kept hopping. Tell you what! I'll meet you at the river in ten minutes, with a bar of genuine soap."
A quarter-hour later, they stood waist-deep on the sandy bottom of the Zora, splashing, soaping, and scrubbing each other. In the course of this play, they somehow found themselves in each other's arms and, inevitably, began hugging and kissing. At last Alicia drew back and giggled:
"My goodness, and in this cold water, too! I wouldn't have believed it possible, you old satyr!"
"It's been a long time," said Reith. "Well?"
"I'm just a poor, weak, helpless woman, at your mercy."
"About as helpless as Jengis Khan," he said as they waded ashore hand in hand. They dried each other off and started for the tent. At the entrance, Reith paused.
"Wait!" he said. "I should have asked sooner, are you safe? You couldn't have brought your FMs with you."
"I took my last one three days ago," she said. "So I couldn't get preg for another thirty days anyway. Come on!"
Later, Alicia sighed: "Fergus, you're wonderful! How could I have been such an idiot?"
"We all do things we regret later. Speaking of your FMs, I wonder, considering how adamant you were about not mixing children with a profession, why you never had yourself sterilized, as so many career women do?"
"I once intended to, but Lucy McKay warned me away from it."
"The one you learned anthropology from?"
"Yes, the famous xenathropologist. She had herself sterilized young, for the usual reasons—"
"The usual reason," Reith interrupted with a trace of scorn in his voice, "is to be able to screw around ad libitum with impunity."
"If you think I considered a tube job for that reason, you're wrong, whatever Lucy's purposes. But sometimes a woman is put in a position where she has little choice; and accidents will happen."
"She can always say no, unless there's actual force—"
"That's what you think, but I know better! I've been through it three times, beginning with my doctorate. The old creep made it plain that either I gave him his or flunked my oral. And then there was—"
Reith put up a hand: "I know; I know. Please, Lish, don't confess again. But—"
"Anyway, the year after Lucy had herself fixed, she fell desperately in love with a man who wanted a family and wouldn't marry any girl who couldn't give him one. She never really got over it. When I knew her, she'd been through eight husbands and at least a hundred lovers but was still unhappy. So I've left that option open, just in case I should change my mind. Fergus dearest, have you a spare clean toothbrush I could borrow?"
As the only gourmet in Reith's party, Marot had taken over the cooking. While he lit a fire and juggled his supplies to put together a tasty breakfast of native ingredients, Reith shaved with a hand mirror. When the paleontologist called the others together, Reith and Alicia fell ravenously upon their food. Marot explained:
"I must reduce the block containing our specimen, so that we can hoist it to the back of an aya. When I need your muscle, Fergus, I shall call. Amusez-vous donc!" he added with a knowing twinkle.
"He must think I'm a superman," muttered Reith as Marot and the Krishnans trailed off.
"You're superman enough for me," said Alicia. "If you were any superer, you'd wear me out. Let's get at the packing."
As they worked, they talked and gossiped and laughed and paused for kisses. When their task was done, Reith cast an uneasy glance at the leaden sky, saying:
"It'll be just our luck to slog back to Kubyab in another downpour."
When all was ready for departure except for striking the tents, Marot and the Krishnans appeared for their midday repast. Marot said: "The work is finished. Let us eat before we go."
As Marot finished mixing one of his salads and Reith was frying squares of shaihan steak, a rider appeared against the sky. He came down the long slope at a canter, drew up, and sprang lithely from his saddle. Beneath the brim of the floppy straw hat, Reith recognized the shaihan-herd Herg, who had guided them to the site.
"Good morrow, sirs!" said Herg. "The squire hath sent me to see how ye fare, and what treasure ye've found."
"I will gladly show you my treasure," said Marot, looking up from his salad-making. "The rest of you, eat! I shall take Master Herg to the dig."
When the paleontologist and the shaihan-herd returned, the Krishnan wore a puzzled frown. "Is it that these bones turned to stone have magical or medicinal properties?"
"No," said Marot. "We seek them only to give us knowledge. This knowledge, we hope, will explain life on this world and on ours as well."
Herg shook his head. "I shall never understand Ertsuma."
"Your fellow beings speak enviously, do they not, of the wonders of Terran machines and devices? The reason we have them is that certain Terrans first sought out the knowledge needed to make them."
"That idea bears thinking on," said Herg. "But now I maun tell you ye'll soon have company."
"Eh?" said Reith. "Who's coming? Foltz and his people?"
"Nay—at least, not that I wot of. The party whereof I speak is a priest of Bákh, one Behorj bad-Qarz, with guards and attendants numbering a score in all."
"How do you know this?" said Reith, looking sharply at Herg.
"I passed them on my way hither. They sought your camp, so I gave them directions and continued on."
"Why didn't they come along with you?"
"The Reverend Behorj, being aged, travels but slowly. They'll be here within the hour."
"What do they want?"
"A guard told me a rumor hath reached Jeshang, that these diggings by you and Master Folt may cast doubt upon our holy scriptures. Father Behorj comes to inquire."