Disturbed and a little alarmed, Reith put out the candle, went out, and made the circuit of the deck. He peered along the narrow walkways between the sides of the deckhouse and the rail, and searched the broader deck between the after end of the deckhouse and the shaihan pen. As he came forward, voices told him that Alicia was in converse with the crewman on night duty. He caught the end of her question: "... which has the greater say in your affairs: your father's brother or your mother's brother?"
He found them sitting on the deck with their backs against the forward end of the deckhouse. The lantern in the bow shed a warm yellow light over the deck, and against the deckhouse Reith saw the red spark of the crewman's cigar.
"Seaman Gamrok," said Reith, "I never thanked you properly for pulling me out of the river."
" 'Twas nought. Anyway, I saw ye could swim."
"Fergus!" said Alicia, rising. "May I talk with you?"
"Sure, Alicia. Come along."
They strolled aft and stood with elbows on the rail. After a long silence, Reith said: "You gave me a turn not being in the deckhouse with the rest of us. I wondered if you'd decided to take Captain Sarf up on his offer."
"Oh! How could you imagine such a thing?"
"Well, you certainly gave him a pitch, from the time you got back from your safari."
"I was just trying to make you jealous, silly! And I'm sorry about this afternoon. I really wasn't trying to push you overboard."
"If you weren't, it sure was a marvelous imitation."
"I just wanted to get you out of the way and show you I was not to be dictated to."
"You're stronger than you look—all made of steel springs and rubber bands. I hate to think of what would happen to anybody who really vexed you."
"Oh, Fergus! I'm not a robot; I do have feelings, even if I have to act rough and tough to get by in this hard world."
"Yes?" said Reith, in a rising inflection implying doubt.
"Yes. This afternoon I planned to ask you to come ashore with me. I thought, when I'd finished asking my questions, we could find some grassy spot out of sight of the ship and make love. But you spoiled everything by bellowing orders in your drill-sergeant voice."
Reith had been through this sort of thing too often with Alicia to be easily mollified. He said: "Sorry; I guess I owe you an apology, too. I realize I've been trying to take care of you the way I do my tourists. That authoritarian tone is the only way I can keep the fools out of trouble. Well, there won't be any more of that. The next time you want to do something that's likely to get you assaulted or killed. Doctor Dyckman, feel free."
"You're still angry?"
"N-no, not exactly. You should know me better. I don't lose my temper so quickly as you; but when I do get angry, I don't get over it so quickly, either.
"Now let me tell you something, Alicia. I've said this before, but it doesn't seem to penetrate. Whatever you want in life—"
"I know what I want!" she interrupted, staring him defiantly in the eye.
"Whatever it is, you're certain to spoil your chances of getting it, either by your bull-headedness or by your violent temper. What you need is a good shrink."
Her eyes fell and her shoulders drooped. "I suppose you're right, but what can I do? We don't have a first-class shrink on Krishna. Marina Velskaya's a good general practitioner and knows a lot about Krishnan anatomy and diseases, but in psychiatry she's just an amateur. If I went back to Earth for treatment, I'd be gone twenty years of Krishna time, and meanwhile some other woman would grab you."
"Then I guess you'll have to manage on your own. But remember what I've said."
After another pause, she asked: "May—may I have just one little kiss?"
He gave her a brief, brotherly kiss. "Maybe you'd rather I went inside," she said in a slightly choked voice.
"Let's both go in." He opened the deckhouse door for her.
VIII - THE TEMPLE
Reith and his companions stood at the rail as the sprawled-out city of Jazmurian hove in sight. From the waterfront, its houses seemed to consist mainly of slum dwellings and grog shops; although on higher ground, away from the river, could be seen a hint of costlier edifices, and the sun-sparkle of brass and glass on the temple spires. Downstream, where the Zigros opened out into the Sadabao Sea, appeared the masts and yards of seagoing ships, looking in the distance like a tangle of toothpicks.
"Fergus," said Alicia, "where can we stay until we get our finances in order?"
On the last two days of the voyage, she and Reith, while not unfriendly, had treated each other with a certain formal reserve. Reith felt he must soon decide about their joint future; and, being a methodical man, he meant to consider and weigh all possibilities. While having Alicia as his amorex was great fun, he doubted that, in the long run, this would prove a viable relationship. Besides, he liked clear-cut, definite agreements; ambiguities made him uneasy.
He was sure that Alicia would be delighted to marry him again. His emotions said: She's the one true love of your life; grab her! But his reason told him that there was no point in remarriage if it was sure to lead to another blowup. The qualities in Alicia that had sundered them before were still, alas, very much in evidence.
He replied to her question: "I brought my last batch of tourists to Angur's Inn. No Ritz, but it beats most of these fleabags."
"I know," she said, scratching at a bite from a Krishnan arthropod. "Jazmurian looks like a dismal place, like Jeshang on a larger scale. Has it any amusements, in case we have to wait over?"
"The ground floor of Angur's is one big night club. They have dancing and entertainers, if you don't mind inept imitations of Terran show biz."
"Dancing?" she said. "Oh, Fergus, I'm looking forward to this!"
Reith suppressed a smile. He had a surprise in store.
"Who rules this city?" asked Marot.
"It's under the Republic of Qirib, which occupies the peninsula in the Sadabao. Until a few years ago, Qirib had a matriarchate. Females were the ruling sex. They had a quaint custom: the queen took a consort; then at the end of each year they chopped off his head, cut him up, and served him at a ceremonial banquet. After that they chose another royal mate."
"Did they get volunteers?"
Reith grinned. "Oh, no; the victims were drafted."
"I should think," said Marot, "that anticipation of this untimely doom would render it difficult to perform one's generative duty."
Reith shrugged. "They assured the people that every egg laid by the queen was of legitimate origin. But Alvandi's daughter turned out to be a Terran girl, whom the queen had obtained as an infant and passed off as her own. The kid was brought up to wear false antennae and all the rest."
"What happened to the matriarchate?" asked Marot.
"It was overthrown by a revolution, led by a Terran named Barnevelt, whose war-cry was 'Equal Rights for Men!' They adopted a republican constitution of Terran style, with an ex-saddler and ex-pirate as president."
Marot gestured towards the house of Jazmurian. "Is this the capital?"
"No. That's Ghulindé, out on the peninsula. Jazmurian's the main seaport of the republic, and scorned by the other Qiribuma as a polyglot, decadent home of crime and corruption. 'Not the real Qirib,' they'll assure you."
Alicia put in: "I've been to Ghulindé. I never saw the first President, Gizil the Saddler; but I knew his successor, Vizman er-Qorf. If we stopped off there, I'm sure he'd entertain us."
"Not likely," said Reith. "We're taking the first northbound train we can rustle up the fare for."
Marot asked: "Did this formation of a republic effect a marked improvement in the lives of the people?"