"So it is! You are a particularly clever girclass="underline" almost as clever as you are appealing to the eye."
Glyneth compressed her lips. "Please keep your compliments to yourself; the implications make me sick to my stomach. When would the pulse again be favorable at the hut, if so it became necessary?"
"When the moon reached the same place in the sky. Notice these notations: they refer to the azimuth of the black moon."
Glyneth went forward and reported to Kul what she had learned.
"Very well," said Kul. "We will sleep less soundly and travel more briskly."
Two or three leagues further along the way, a road slanted down from the north, where a small village of gray houses could be seen. It came around a forested knoll and led off into the east. Kul urged the wole upon the road, but the creature preferred to run on the blue turf, which provided a kinder footing. This road, according to Visbhume, might well lead all the way to Asphrodiske. He pointed at the map. "First we cross the River Haroo, here by the town Pude, then Asphrodiske lies onward, across the Plain of Lilies."
Down from the slopes of neatly tiered mountains flowed the River Haroo, to pass across the way to Asphrodiske. The road led to a stone bridge of five arches and away to the east, beside the village which Visbhume had named ‘Pude'.
Glyneth asked Visbhume: "Who are the people of the village? Did they come into being here?"
"They are folk from Earth, who across the ages have inadvertently dropped through sink-holes into Tanjecterly. A certain number have been placed here for one reason or another by magicians like Twitten, and they too must bide on Tanjecterly."
"That would seem a bitter fate," said Glyneth. "How cruel to be torn away from those who love you! Do you not agree, Visbhume?"
Visbhume put on a lofty smile. "Sometimes stem little reprimands become necessary, especially when one deals with wilful maidens, who refuse to share the bounty of their treasure."
Kul turned his head and stared at Visbhume, whose smile instantly faded.
Along the road came a wagon, carrying a dozen peasants. They turned to stare in wonder and awe as the wole went by. Their attention seemed primarily fixed upon Kul, and several jumped down from the wagon to take up staves as if to defend themselves from attack.
"That is an odd attitude," said Glyneth. "We offered them no threat. Are they timid or merely hostile to,strangers?"
Visbhume gave a fluting chuckle. "They are fearful for good reason. Feroces live in the mountains and no doubt have earned themselves a dubious reputation. I foresee problems. It might be wise to dismiss Kul from our company."
Glyneth called to Kul. "Come into the pergola, on the low bench and draw the curtain, so that the village folk will not be alarmed."
Kul somewhat reluctantly slid into the lower bench of the pergola, and drew the curtains. Visbhume, watching carefully, came forward and stood in Kul's previous place. He looked back at Glyneth: "In case questions are asked, I will say that we are pilgrims visiting the monuments of Asphrodiske."
"Be sure that is all you say," came Kul's voice from behind the curtains.
Glyneth, now uneasy, looked in the wallet and brought out a Tormentor Bulb, which she placed in her own pouch.
The wole ran smartly across the bridge and down the principal street of the village. Visbhume seemed extraordinarily alert, and looked back and forth, from side to side. He touched a pad on the wole's crest and the creature sensibly slowed its pace. Kul rasped: "What are you doing? Keep moving at speed!"
"I do not wish to arouse adverse comment," said Visbhume. "It is best to pass through settled areas at a seemly and sober pace, so that they will not think us irresponsible hoodlums." From a tall structure of dressed stone stepped three men wearing tight black trousers, voluminous tunics of green leather and elaborate widebrimmed hats. The foremost held up his hand. "Halt!"
Visbhume brought the wole to a stand-still. "Whom is it our privilege to address?"
"I am the Honourable Fulgis, Constable and Magistrate for the village Pude. And you?"
"Innocent pilgrims bound for Asphrodiske, that we may see the sights."
"All very well, but have you paid toll for the use of the bridge?"
"Not yet, sir. What is the fee?"
"For such a medley as I see before me, ten good dibbets, of sound tolk."
"Very good! I was afraid that you might ask for a tassel from the rug, each of which is worth twenty dibbets."
"I meant to include in the toll such a tassel."
"What?" Visbhume jumped to the ground. "Is not this slightly excessive?"
"Would you prefer to return over the bridge and swim your way across the river?"
"No. Glyneth, pass me down my wallet, that I may pay Sir Fulgis his due."
Glyneth wordlessly passed down the wallet. Visbhume now took Fulgis aside and spoke earnestly into his ear. Kul spoke to Glyneth in a husky whisper: "He is betraying us! Start the wole to running!"
"I do not know how!"
Visbhume returned and taking the wole led it into a walled courtyard. Glyneth called sharply: "What are you doing?"
"There are certain formalities which I fear we must endure. Kul may be discovered. If he becomes violent, he will be dealt with harshly. You, my dear, may step down from the pergola."
Kul jumped from the pergola, seized the wole's horns and caused it to canter from the courtyard. Warriors ran forward and hurled nooses; Kul was pulled from the wole and lay dazed for an instant; during this time he was bound hand and foot with many turns of rope, then dragged off to a barred cell in the side of the courtyard.
The constable spoke to Visbhume: "Well done! Such a feroce might well have done damage!"
"It is a clever beast," said Visbhume. "I suggest that you kill it instantly, and make an end to its threat."
"We must wait for the Lord Mayor, who may well call in Zaxa and provide us some sport."
"And who is Zaxa?" asked Visbhume indulgently. "He is defender of the law and executioner. He hunts feroce in the Clone Mountains and it is his delight to derogate their prideful savagery."
"Zaxa will do famously with Kul. Now we must be on our way, since time is short for us. From my esteem, I give you personally two rich tassels, worth many dibbets. Glyneth, we will proceed. It is a pleasure to be rid of that cantankerous beast."
IV
THE WOLE PACED SMARTLY EASTWARD beside the Road of Round Stones, with Visbhume riding in state high on the top bench of the pergola and Glyneth huddled miserably below. Visbhume, with the wallet once more under his command, made a suspicious inspection to ensure that Glyneth had sequestered none of his properties to her own use. Satisfied that all was as it should be, he brought out the almanac and, discovering a mistake in his computations, made a flurry of new measurements, but discovered nothing to alarm him.
At last reassured, he brought out his fiddle, extended the bow to its almost excessive length, tuned to a call of'Twiddle-dee-doodle-di-diddle-dee-dee!" then played a rousing selection of ear-tickling tunes: tantivets and merrydowns, fine bucking jigs and cracking quicksteps, rollicks, lilts and fare-thee-wells. His elbows swung first high then low, while his feet pounded the floor of the pergola in full justice to the meter. Peasants standing by the side of the road looked in wonder to see the great eight-legged wole running at speed, with Visbhume playing fine music and Glyneth sitting glumly below, and when the peasants returned to their farmsteads, they had much to tell of the strange sights they had seen and the excellent music they had heard.
Visbhume suddenly remembered a new aspect to the calculations, which he had not heretofore considered. He put aside fiddle and bow and made his corrections, to such good effect that, halfway along the road to Asphrodiske, he decided that the black moon afforded him somewhat more than adequate time for all his purposes, which brought him a great exhilaration of spirit.