"My room will serve," said Mjipa. "Irants, get Master Kuimaj a drink of falat, and put it on my bill. In here, good my sir."
Settled in Mjipa's room, the Mutabwcian at last began to read, in a voice that could have addressed a thousand:
KNOW YE, MISTRESS ALICIA DYCKMAN, THAT HIS AWESOMENESS THE HESHVAVU AINKHIST OF MUTABWK IS SMITTEN WITH A BURNING PASSION FOR YOUR FAIR SELF. HE CURSES THE DAY WHEN HE SUFFERED YOU TO DEPART FROM HIS PRESENCE AND HIS KINGDOM. NOW HE WOULD FAIN WOO YOU BACK, SINCE YE SURPASS ALL HIS OTHER WOMEN AS ROQIR SURPASSES SHEB. DO BUT RETURN TO HIS LOVING BOSOM, AND HE WILL MAKE YOU HIS FIRST WIFE OR QUEEN. FAVORS UNTOLD SHALL BE YOURS: FOOD, DRINK, RAIMENT, JEWELS, SLAVES, ENTERTAINMENTS, THE HEADS OF YOUR ENEMIES. YE HAVE BUT TO ASK AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN, SO THAT YE RETURN TO THE EMBRACE OF THE MIGHTY MONARCH, WHOSE LIVER BURNS WITH DESIRE AS ARDENT AS THE FLAMES OF HISHKAK. COME BACK TO YOUR TRUE LOVER AND HE WILL BE YOUR OBEDIENT SLAVE.
"End of missive," said Kuimaj. "Well, when comes she?"
"We shall see," said Mjipa. He went to the door of Alicia's room, calling: "Open up, Lish! It's Percy. I'll see this cove doesn't drag you off against your will."
Alicia came out, casting a scornful glance at the herald. "He read me his message once. When I said no, he read it again. When I still said no, he started to read it a third time, with gestures. I told him what he could do with his scroll and went to my room."
"You might as well give up and go back to Yein," Mjipa told the herald. "The lady has no intention of complying. Since this is not Mutabwk, Ainkhist's writ runs not here."
"But she must come!" cried Kuimaj. "For a maiden to refuse the suit of a king were unheard-of! 'Tis a thing impossible! Especially when he offers to make her his official consort. Is't that she understands not Khaldoni, which she speaks with an accent? Or is't but a zany lune, by one of unsound mind, wherefore she should be committed to the care of learned doctors of physick?"
"I understand well enough," said Alicia. "It is you who fails to understand plain Khaldoni. When I say no, I mean no."
"So," said Mjipa, "kindly go about your business and cease to trouble us."
"I'll not move until yon joltheaded jade agrees to my master's hest!"
Mjipa sighed. "One damned Donnybrook after another," he said in English. "Minyev, you and Irants take his legs; I'll manage his arms."
"Fang him, bullies!" cried Irants. The three pounced upon the herald and picked him up. They carried him, kicking and yelling threats and defiance, down the stairs and out the front door. There they gave him a heave-ho that tossed him into the middle of the street. As he got up, Kuimaj shook a fist at the group in the inn door, shouting:
"Ye carls shall rue your insolence! None flouts the commands of my mighty master with impunity! Ye have not seen the last of me, and Mistress Dyckman shall yet reign as queen in Mutabwk!"
He limped off, patting dirt from his person.
Over dinner, Mjipa told of his interviews with the Phathvum and the Heshvavu. Alicia exclaimed: "You mean, it turns out that this underworld bigshot is the one opposing the king's crazy tower? The one on what we'd consider the right side? And you did us good with the government by bumping him off?"
"Exactly, my dear. Life is full of ironies, isn't it? Of course, I didn't set out to put paid to anyone on either side of the tower dispute; but if some johnny attacks me, I must defend myself."
"Thank the Krishnan gods you came through! I was sure they had you this time."
"They would have, if Khostavorn's vanity hadn't made him hold the others back, so he could have the glory of killing me single-handed."
"So you see what happens to the guy who plays the fearless hero! If you'd only taken my advice and killed him after you knocked him out—"
"And then we shouldn't have got our bond money and a pat on the back from the government. You never know how these things will turn out."
"Why wouldn't we have gotten our money back, etcetera?"
"Because, not knowing how the government felt about the fellow, we should have kept our mouths tightly shut."
Alicia sighed. "I give up. How was your night at the station house?"
"Not bad. I had two cell mates. One was drunk and wanted to show he could thrash the biggest man in the place, and guess whom he chose for the honor? But one straight left put him to sleep. The other was an admirer of the late Khostavorn, who praised the blighter's virtues for an hour before he fell asleep. I thought it more tactful not to tell him what had befallen his hero."
"And now you're going to visit Isayin like you said?"
"Yes indeed."
"If that doesn't work, you'll be sorry you got on such chummy terms with the king. It'll only get us in more trouble—as if we didn't have enough already, with King Khorosh out for revenge and King Ainkhist smitten with love."
"Sorry about that, but with me it's a matter of obligation. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least have a go at it."
She continued to argue against Mjipa's trying to free the condemned heretic. At last Mjipa burst out:
"Look here, you wouldn't like it, would you, if I told you to take Ainkhist up on his offer and go back to Yein? It would certainly simplify life for me."
"Of course not! That's a ridiculous comparison. Anyway you're the one who was ready to fight the whole Mutabwcian court to save my so-called honor."
"Oh, I wouldn't think of asking you to do such a thing; I merely cited it as an example. The mere idea of a human woman giving herself to one of these—these aliens gives me the bleeps. Well, I feel the same way about leaving Isayin in the lurch, after I helped to convict him. You 're partly responsible, too, for selling him the round-planet idea."
"But he's only an alien, and you said yourself ..."
The argument grew into another quarrel. They finished the meal in silence, and Alicia retired to her room and slammed the door.
Mjipa took Minyev with him to the Old Prison, to show the way. The head warden scrutinized the pass, returned it to Mjipa, and led him down a corridor lined with barred cells, leaving Minyev in his office. He unlocked the door of one cell and waved Mjipa in, remaining outside the bars.
The small, wizened Kalwmian in the cell looked up. His antennae rose and his eyes widened as they took in Mjipa's towering height and sable coloring.
"You!" said Doctor Isayin. "What in Phaighost's name brings you hither? To gloat over my fate?"
"Not at all, Doctor." Mjipa then asked: "Do you speak Gozashtandou?" in that language.
"Aye," said Isayin in the same tongue. "Wherefore ask you?"
"Because we can speak more freely thus, since that jailer watching us probably understands it not." Mjipa shot a glance at the warden, to see if he reacted to the words; but the Krishnan gave no sign of interest.
"If you come not to sneer, then what?"
"First, tell me how you got into this plight."
"Discovering from a Terran female, a person of forceful spirit and deep learning, that the spherical planet was universally credited by the space-traveling Terrans, I let myself be convinced of the truth of this doctrine. Its verity I had long suspected from small indications; for ensample, the hull of a ship vanishes o 'er the horizon whilst one can still perceive the masts and sails; so the surface of the sea must bulge upward. After all, space travelers have in sooth viewed this and other worlds from afar and thus beheld their true form.
"I sought to present my heretical views to my class with discretion, cautioning them that 'twas but a theory, however cogent the arguments therefor. But one student, a thrasonical young cuttle on whom the higher learning is wasted, resented my failing him in the course. His revenge was to denounce me to the powers of the palace. The rest you know."