The Tritonian Ring and Other Pasudian Tales (30 page)

             
"Oh, is that so? Judge, the usual wont of such robbers is to kill first and discuss ethics afterwards. If you do not—"

             
"The gods will take care of us. Once previously raiders came out of the eastern deserts, and before they reached our land a sandstorm overwhelmed them and killed the lot. Another time an army of Gorgons marched up the Kokuton River to attack us, and a plague smote them in the marshes so only a few fled back to the Gorgades. However, we cannot continue this interesting discussion because I have other cases to judge. I find you guilty and sentence you both to be placed in the arena this afternoon
with the ape-man Nji, and then that will happen which will happen. Take them away."

             
"Ha!" shouted Vakar. "You speak so virtuously of never taking life, but if you shove me into a pit with that monster it is the same thing—"

             
The attendants dragged Vakar, still shouting, out of the courtroom and back to his cell.

-

             
"Hells!" growled Vakar as the big bolt slammed home again. "This time it looks as though they had us."

             
Fual said: "Oh, my lord, say not that, or I shall die of despair even before the ape rends us! You've gotten us out of worse fixes ..."

             
"That was mostly luck, and any man who presses his luck too far will at last run out of it." Vakar kicked the wall, hurting his toes. "Ow! If this were a civilized country the door would have a bronze lock to which you might steal the key, but I have no idea of what to do about that great stupid bolt."

             
They settled down to a despondent wait, but before they had sat staring for long Vakar heard the bolt drawn back. In came a young Gamphasant.

             
"Master Vakar!" said this one in Hesperian. "Do you not know me?
Abeggu the son of Mishegdi, in Sederado?"

             
"I am glad to see you," said Vakar. "I did not know you without your clothes. What brings you here?"

             
"Hearing two foreigners were to be tried today I came to watch and recognized you. I tried to catch your eye, but you were otherwise occupied."

             
"You find us in a sad state indeed, friend Abeggu. What is your tale? How goes it with you?"

             
"Far from well."

             
"How so?" asked Vakar.

             
"My travels
unsettled
many of the ideas with which I started out, and when I returned home I imprudently went around telling people how much better things were done abroad. As any such talk is frightful heresy to a Gamphasant, I was ostracized, and for months nobody would have anything to do with me. If my family had not let me have access to their food-stores I should have starved. Now, though folk are beginning to ease up, they still look down
upon me as one corrupted by foreign notions. But what brings you to this doom?"

             
Vakar outlined his travels since leaving Sederado, adding: "What happened in Sederado after Thiegos's body was found?"

             
"I do not know, for like you I went into hiding and fled at the first chance after my wound healed."

             
A rumble came from the cell across the corridor. Vakar said: "That thing across the way looks like the giant servant of Qasigan, that wizard who tried to kill Porfia and me—"

             
"It is indeed Nji! Not many days ago Qasigan and his ape-man came to Gamphasantia in a chariot. They were not stopped when they first appeared, as you were, because they raced through the villages and because the peasants were afraid of the chariot, most of them never having seen a wheeled vehicle. However, as they entered Tokalet their way was blocked by an ox-drawn sledge and the people seized them. The ape-man slew three with his club before they threw a net over him. It was intended to expose them in the arena to the attentions of a lion we kept for the purpose, but the next day there was a great hole in the wall of this cell and the wizard was gone, no doubt with the aid of his magic. You can see where the wall has been closed up with new bricks.

             
"When the ape-man was thrust into the arena, he wrenched the door out of its sockets and broke the lion's back with it. Then it was decided that as Nji was more beast than man, it would be more just to keep him as the national executioner in place of the Hon he had slain,"

             
Vakar said: "Why do you kill people in this unusual manner? For such a peaceful people it seems like a bloodthirsty amusement, watching men eaten by
li
ons."

             
"It is no amusement! We are required to attend as a salutary moral lesson. Since our principles forbid us to kill undesirables ourselves, our only alternative is to let a beast do it."

             
"Quibbling!" said Vakar. "If you force a man into a pit with a lion you are as responsible for his death as if you had sworded him personally."

             
"True. We Gamphasants, being an honest folk, admit it, but what can we do? Our ethical standards must be maintained at all costs, or at least so think most of my people."

             
"What happened to Qasigan's other servant, the one with the ears?"

             
"I visited Qasigan in his cell—did I understand you to say he had tried to kill you and the queen?"

             
"Yes; he brought the serpent throne to life with his damned piping. But go on."

             
"I did not know that and supposed him merely an old acquaintance. Besides I do not often get a chance to converse with foreigners, and after my travels I find my own folk dull.

             
"Qasigan told me he had been following you—he did not say why—with the aid of this Coranian, whose ears served not only to hear sounds of the usual sort but also to hear men's unspoken thoughts—even though the men were miles away. Thus so long as he followed you closely enough Yok could always tell what direction you were in. You left Huperea at such a clip that for a while you were out of Yok's range, but the King of Phaiaxia had told Qasigan you were bound for Tritonia—"

             
"Curse the old rattlepate!" cried Vakar, but then remembered that he had no cause to blame Nausithion, whom he had not sworn to secrecy. Abeggu continued:

             
"They had a hard time getting to Tritonia. First you stole a wheel from their chariot, which took them many days to replace, and then the vehicle kept breaking down and getting stuck. Qasigan may be a mighty magician, but he is no wainwright. In Tritonia the Amazons captur
ed this odd trio and took them
to Kherronex. The warrior women had just chosen a new queen to replace the old, who had died in some confused sea-battle wherein the king of the Tritons had also perished. Now, the Amazons extend the ultimate in female hospitality to any male they catch. Nji performed nobly, serving the queen herself; Qasigan begged off on grounds of loss of his magical powers; but poor little Yok succumbed under the strain of so much love-making and died."

             
"I can see how he might. What then?"

             
"Without the Coranian, Qasigan lost the trail, as nobody among the Amazons knew whither you had gone. Therefore he escaped from the Amazons by magical means and started homeward."

             
"How did he do that?"

             
The Gamphasant's melancholy face lit up with a rare smile. "He cast upon them the illusion that an army of lovers came to visit them: tall beautiful men with great— ah—thews. These phantoms told the Amazons they loved them but would not consummate their love until Qasigan were safely ashore on the mainland, and so he set out for our land."

             
Vakar grinned. "I imagine the girls were in a rare rage when their promised gallants faded away. Go on."

             
"Well, Qasigan came hither as I have told you. When
I
saw him he was in a gloomy state, fearing that even should he escape his present predicament and win back to the Gorgades, King Zeluud would take off his head because of his failure.

             
"However, let us concern ourselves with methods of saving you, for
I
have no wall-shattering magic like that of Qasigan.
I
have a plan, though. If when you enter the arena you take three paces straight out from the door and dig in the sand, you will find two broadswords. These
I
brought back from my travels, but I had to hide them or the magistrates would have had them thrown into Lake Kokutos."

             
"Why are you helping us?" asked Vakar.
"Because you once spared my life in Sederado when, by your principles, you were entitled to take it.
"

             
"
If we beat Nji, what then?"

             
"It will give us time to plan something else while the consuls send men to catch another lion. This is a hard land to escape from, being flat treeless country with few places to hide; and horses are not tamed here."

             
Vakar mentioned the impending attack of the Gwedulians. Abeggu shook his head, saying:

             
"The judge's action is what I should have expected. Even if he had wished to defend the land by force, what could he have done? The folk have no weapons and would not know how to use them if they had, for they have been taught weapons are accursed things."

             
"Could you not appeal to the king?"

             
"We have no king. There is a hereditary senate of big landowners—my father is a senator,
which
is how I could travel—and every year the people elect two consuls. As these consuls are men of conventional Gamphasantian outlook, it would do no good to appeal to them."

             
Vakar said: "I believe some free cities like Kern
ê
are governed like that. Judging from your people, the masses are not enough aware of their own interests for the scheme to work."

             
Abeggu shrugged. "It might work if they could all read, and if papyrus were so common every family could own a scroll containing the wisdom of the race. But here writing is deemed an evil foreign innovation, and all knowledge is handed down by word of mouth. However, I must go now to bury those swords, or it will be too late."

             
He called to the jailer, who came with his assistants to unbar the door. Vakar, watching Abeggu's departing back, said:

             
"It's nice to know we have one friend in this hog-wallow of a country. Cheer up, Fual; we're not dead yet
...
Yes?"

             
The jailer had placed his face against the grille and was saying: "What is this?"

             
Vakar took a look. The fellow had the Tahakh in one hand and held Abeggu's arm with the other. Using the latter as interpreter the jailer explained:

             
"We have burned your clothes and thrown your weapons into the lake, and your other possessions we have placed in the common store, but we do not know what to do with this. What is it?"

             
"Tell him," said Vakar, "it is a talisman—you
know,
a good-luck piece."