" 'Twas a' clever scheme, anyway, worthy of your repute."
Tondi allowed herself a Krishnan smile. "If ye futter as well as ye flatter, I may not regret sparing your worthless life. Be ye not Captain Gendu, of Goftan and Fori?"
"Aye."
"I know the firm. They'll pay well for one of their ablest skippers. So consider your life prolonged for the nonce; but ye'd better give me a good stroking when your turn comes!"
She passed on to Reith: "Ah, he of the fiery hair! What's your name and business?"
Reith gave the information. Tondi asked: "How be ye in bed? Canst deliver many a mighty stroke?"
"My women haven't complained," said Reith, trying not to show how repelled he felt by her stench.
"Ye shall have your chance to prove your words," Tondi said, "and woe betide you if ye prove but a bladder filled with air."
"What's this about the High Priestess of Balch in Jeshang?" asked Reith. "When we left Chilihagh a ten-day ago, the Dasht had ordered Lazdai and her council clapped into prison."
"Ah, but things have changed yet again! The High Priestess and her folk were delivered from jail by a mob of her faithful. Lazdai called for an uprising, and part of the army joined the Bákhites. The latest word is that Lazdai rules the Dashtate, whilst the Dasht and his few loyal followers are besieged in's palace."
"How do you learn these things?"
Tondi laid a finger beside her nose. 'Trade secret. My spies are everywhere!"
She turned to Alicia. "Aha, the Terran female we were besought to watch for! I'm told they provide high pleasure for virile human men like my knaves. Lusty though I be, I can't keep the whole shipful happy." She raised her voice. "Men! See ye this Ertsui? Who craves to ram his yard into her alien cleft?"
"I!" shouted a pirate, and others took up the cry.
"Line up, then. We must needs do things in an orderly way. Ye two, hold the strumpet down."
Two pirates seized Alicia and threw her to the deck. She tried to kick and bite but, with her hands tied, her struggles were unavailing.
Reith was in agony. His mind raced in an effort to find some way to save Alicia. Then he remembered his talk with Alicia after Gendu had made advances to her. He forced a loud, raucous laugh, as if he had just heard the dirtiest joke of his life.
Tondi scowled. "Wherefore so buffoonish?" Reith said: "I look forward to the sight of your lusty rouges' losing their privy members. A revenge fit for the god Qondyor!"
"What mean ye, rascallion?"
"Only that, as all Terrans know, the female Terran is provided, in her tunnel of love, with razor-sharp teeth. If her lover please her not, these teeth go—" He closed his jaws with a click. "—and the poor wight's unmanned forever. Many die of this rough usage."
Tondi turned to Marot. "Be this tale true?"
"Of a certainty, mistress. It is the sure defense against unwanted entry, wherewith the gods of the Ertsuma have provided the females of my species."
"Absolutely!" added Reith. "That's why rape is unknown among us."
Tondi growled: "Methought rape was unknown amongst Terrans because your females were so hot to be tupped that there's never a need for force. What if the male hold a knife to the female's throat, commanding her to keep her nether fangs sheathed till the deed be done?"
"That would be useless," said Reith. "The action works of itself, whenever the female's inner spirit be unwilling."
"What know ye of this?" Tondi asked Gendu.
"Only what these aliens tell," replied the captain. "But I'm not lief to risk my own precious pintle to make a test of the tale!"
"I know not whether to believe this taradiddle," snorted Tondi. Turning away, she said to her crewmen: "Ye heard these rascals, did you not? Who's fain to put this story to the proof? Tokh! Ye?" She pointed to the first pirate in line.
"Pray excuse me," said Tokh. "I've not been well of late."
After several others had given similar excuses, Tondi burst into a bellowing laugh. "Gods, this is the funniest thing that hath befallen since we flayed alive that fat Majburo merchant! My lusty rogues, unmanned by the mere thought of a tooth-bearing cunt! For this enjoyment, I'll have you unbound. But ye shall remain here on the deck—" With the point of her sword she scratched a square on the planking. "—and not stir therefrom without express permission. Tokh, ye and Ferdur shall guard them; let none stray. Allow the drab to rise!"
The four prisoners, with hands untied, huddled miserably on the square of deck outlined by Tondi. Another hour passed before Marot remarked:
"I once read a romantic novel about a pirate queen, in the days of the flintlock musket and the muzzle-loading cannon. She was tall, slender, beautiful, and fastidious, with hair as fiery red as yours, Fergus. Any man who approached her lewdly was spitted on her rapier like a pat of butter. Somehow our present hostess fails to match that description."
Reith gave a grim smile. "If there ever were any of those— pirettes, I guess you'd call 'em—on Terra, they probably looked more like Tondi than that fictional heroine."
"Yes. I—" Marot clapped a hand to his forehead. "Mon dieu! I have just realized that I have no eyeglasses! If something demands itself to be read, you or Alicia must read it to me. They took my ring camera and film. And my longevity capsules, also, remained on the other ship."
"Alicia has obviously lost her LPs, too," said Reith. "Mine are in my money belt, which I've been sleeping in. These yucks haven't searched me yet. I haven't pills enough to last the three of us to Novo; but I'll share those I have as far as they go."
Alicia leaned against Reith, who put an arm around her. She murmured: "Oh, Fergus, I'm so bruised and miserable! And my beautiful notes, all burned up on that ship!" She began to cry.
Reith, his anger forgotten, hugged and kissed her and stroked her blond hair. Despite her nearness and nudity, he felt no sexual arousal, but only a vast tenderness. If at that moment, despite all that had happened, she had begged him to take her back ... But she did not. He said:
"Things could be worse. At least we're still alive, and you weren't gang-raped."
"Much as I'd have hated it, I'd rather put up with that than with the loss of my notes."
Marot said: "I understand, my dear. But whereas you have lost notes, much of which you can reconstruct from memory, I have lost the specimen that I crossed light-years of space to find."
She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. "You're right, Aristide. I'm sorry to be a sissy, when you've suffered a worse loss than I. My, this sun's getting hot! I know Roqir doesn't affect human skin so severely as Sol, but I just burn and peel."
"Same here," said Reith, taking off his khaki shirt and wrapping it around her. "Hey, Tokh!" He addressed one of the pirates guarding them. "How about some water?"
When a dipperful had been passed around, and each had drunk a few swallows, they were silent for a while. Then Alicia said: "This is worse than yesterday. Wouldn't some shade ..."
"Seaman Tokh!" said Reith.
"Aye?"
"We Ertsuma can't endure so much direct sunlight without covering. A full day of this could kill us."
"That were your misfortune, alien. I got you water."
"But if we're dead, you'd get no ransom. Hadn't you better warn your captain?"
"To what avail? We can't turn off the sun."
"I saw you bring our clothing aboard. Could this female have her own garments back?"
Tokh conferred in an undertone with his companion and departed to the cabin. Presently he returned.
"The captain saith to put you all in the hold," he announced. "Come."
They followed the guards aft to where a large wooden grating occupied much of the deck between the bulwarks. The guards yelled for help, and four brawny pirates heaved up the hatch cover. Another picked up a hooked ladder and lowered it into the hole until the hooks caught in the coaming.