"I know darling; you've already told me all about it, more than once. You're a compulsive confesser. Let's not hear any more about your amatory adventures, which don't amount to much anyhow. Compared to most people nowadays, we've both been pretty abstemious. Instead, let's think how lucky we are that Sarf didn't decide to cut his risk by pitching us overboard tied up in those bags."
"What a gruesome idea!"
"Yes. The thought came to me in that sack, with no way to get out and no way to defend you. It made for a nasty couple of hours."
"I suppose he has too much regard for his cousin Sainian." She pulled away and wiped the backs of her hands across her cheeks. "I hate being a silly, sentimental feminine female! I'd better go rescue Aristide. That egg-layer is beating his ears off, and he's too polite to tell her to go jump in the Zigros."
VII - THE LANDING
All next day, Alicia subjected herself to Qa'di's confidences, taking endless shorthand notes. Glad to be relieved of that chore, Reith and Marot stood with elbows on the rail and watched the riverbank slide past. Marot said:
"Your Alicia is a most amazing woman. It is too bad that you and she could not—what is the expression? Make a do of it?"
"Make a go of it. Yes, it is too bad. We're one of those unlucky couples who can't live happily together and can't live happily apart, either." Reith stared moodily at the water wafting by. "I suppose each of us should have put more effort into trying to please the other. I'm often blunt, tactless, and dictatorial; while she has a temper that would make the surface of Roqir seem cool."
"She appears to retain a very warm affection for you, and I perceive that you entertain similar feelings. Is it likely that you two might make another attempt?"
"I've thought of that, and I'm sure she's thinking the same thing. I suppose that, having sampled the competition, she's decided I'm not quite the gloop she thought when she ran out on me." Reith sighed. "It would take careful thought. I don't intend to re-fight old battles, and one bath in lava is enough. So please, Aristide, don't try to play Cupid. It's something we have to work out for ourselves." Reith set his jaw and stared at the scenery. After a while he said: "We sure had luck that time! Those guards were told to look into all the sacks. So they opened a few, failed by chance to find us, got bored, and went back on deck telling the priest they'd opened them all."
Marot chuckled. "You have reason. We owe our lives to the fact that the Krishnan nature exhibits the same frailties as the human."
"But say! The Bákhites had orders to search the ship not only for us but also for your fossils. How would they know about them? Foltz thought he'd destroyed the specimen."
"He did not finish the job. After they captured him, he must have guided them back to the dig. Not seeing the pieces, he drew the obvious inference."
"Why should the Bákhites be so hot after these bones?"
Marot shrugged. "I suppose they think the fossil crucial evidence against their creation myth, which it is. In Darwin's day, people spoke of 'missing links.' Anti-evolutionists said: where is the link between apes and men? In time, not one link but whole chains of them were found.
"Ozymandias is a 'missing link' as important in its way as were Australopithecus and other ape-men. It shows how the transition from aquatic vertebrates to terrestrial ones took place on Krishna. If the Bákhites could destroy it, they could continue for a while to preach their Creation myth without fear of confutation."
"If Earthly experience is any guide," said Reith, "they'll go right on preaching their myth and collecting followers, regardless of scientific evidence."
As Roqir sank scarlet behind the forest, Reith wandered past Alicia and Qa'di. The Krishnan female was still chattering, but Reith observed that Alicia had ceased taking notes. She cast an appealing glance at Reith.
"Come along, Lish," he said. "Ship's passengers should walk at least a kilometer a day to keep in shape."
She rose, saying in English: "Thanks for die rescue. That girl had begun to repeat herself for the seventh time. I think I have all the data I can squeeze out of her, and she's a frightful bore."
"I suspected as much."
After walking, they stood at the rail, watching the green water. There was a stir on the surface, a splash, and a flash of leathery gray hide. Waves marched out in expanding rings from the center of the disturbance.
"An 'avval, I think," said Reith.
"That thing between a crocodile and a sea serpent?"
"Yes. The Zigros is not safe for a swim."
"I'm glad to have you watch out for me," she said, pressing against him.
Looking down at her, Reith suppressed a smile. Her last sentence was not in the least characteristic of the headstrong, belligerently independent Alicia he knew. It did not take a shrink to understand why she had said it; she was the world's most incompetent liar. Instead of voicing his thoughts, he slid an arm around her and kissed her; she responded warmly, squeezing him and flattening herself against him.
Aft at the tiller, with a cigar cocked at an angle in his jaw, Captain Sarf watched them. Spreading out from Novorecife, the Terran custom of kissing had been enthusiastically taken up by Krishnans. Alicia said:
"I know what's on your mind, Fergus Reith."
"I haven't said a word—"
"But you'll just have to wait till Jazmurian. I won't make love with people looking on. Unless, that is, we could persuade Captain Sarf to lend us his cabin."
Flattered and amused but also a little taken aback, Reith thought: My impetuous little darling was never one to wait demurely for others to take the initiative; whatever she wants, she goes straight for, hammer-and-tongs. He said:
"I doubt if he would, especially since you turned him down."
"Are you too embarrassed to ask? Well, I'm not!"
In fact, Reith was embarrassed. He said: "You're not afraid of anything, are you? Okay, I'll try to live up to my role as hero. I'll take a deep breath, suck in my guts, and ask. Come along!"
Reith halted in front of Sarf. "Captain, would you mind— that is—I wonder if we might borrow the use of your cabin for, say an hour while you're out here on deck?"
Sarf's olfactory antennae rose. "Wherefore would ye that? I like not strangers in my privy domain."
Reith reddened. "Well—ah—Doctor Dyckman and I have a matter to discuss in strict privacy, and that's the only private place on the ship."
"Ohé!" Sarf gave a coarse, gobbling laugh. "So ye be fain to jig on my pallet, eh? I offered the same regalement to the learned doctor, but she renied me."
Reith scowled. "I said, she and I have an important matter to discuss; nothing more."
"As if ye were but a pair of savants discussing the fat doctor's petrified bones? Ha! I've watched the pair of you, slobbering on each other in that uncouth Terran fashion."
Reith's emotions flared up from mere anger to homicidal fury. Holding himself in check, Reith grated: "If it's any affair of yours, Captain, Doctor Dyckman is my former wife, and ..."
He caught himself before blurting out that they might resume that relationship. He was not yet ready to commit himself. "Will you lend us your cabin or not?"
Captain Sarf drew a big puff on his cigar, took it from his mouth, and studied it. "I'll tell you. Ye may use my cabin wherein to futter your heads off—provided that the lady concedes me the same privilege there tonight."
Reith and Alicia exchanged glances, angry and appalled. Stiffly, Reith said: "Forget it, Captain. That would be quite against Terran custom. Come along, Lish; we haven't yet walked our kilometer."