The sergeant made hasty, flustered inquiries, and: “Er, actually, only two. One male, one female.”
“That âfemale' was one of my daughters!” Ham had started to thump the desk. “Which means that my other daughter, her sister, is still here!
Here,
locked up like a common criminal! Where?” Accompanied by the now
completely unnerved sergeant, Ham and the Elder Councillor had then searched the place cell by cell and top to bottom. To no avail. But at least Ham had seen the severity of the cells, and he knew that his daughters had spent the night in one of them â¦
Then, just when the powerful merchant was on the point of violating several city ordinances, an experienced junior officer, Inspector of the Watch, had come forward. He'd spoken to the two VIPs in private, voiced certain fears, made certain cautious half-allegations.
“It's probably my job on the line if I'm wrong, I know, but ⦔ And he'd told something of a tale about Gan's peculiar obsession with the ruins on Yath's shore, and of the Chief Regulator's apparent friendship withâor at least his relaxed attitude towardâan inordinately large number of visiting Kledans.
Ham Gidduf's high-ranking friend had found all of this very interesting and not a little disturbing, and again in confidence, he too had voiced his concern. He didn't know just how Ham's daughters fitted into the picture, or their quester friends (Kuranes' men, weren't they?âgood sorts, if a bit unorthodox), but for some time now Gan had been acting strangely and, indeed, was under a gathering cloud of suspicion. No charges had been brought against him as yet, he was not being investigated, but â¦
What?!âHam Gidduf's daughter in the hands of a man who rubbed shoulders with Kledan slavers?
Now Ula's and Una's father was a man of action; while the Elder went off in a hurry to seek advice from his fellows on the Council, Ham went and spoke to the captains of three of his ships, unloading their cargoes at that very moment on Baharna's docks. Likewise, he approached the captain of a warship out of Serannian, in the yards for repairs. Hero and Eldin were celebrities
(some might say characters of notoriety) in the sky-floating city, and of course there was a degree of chivalry in respect of the ladies, and so the captain at once agreed to the loan of certain items of ship's hardwareâto wit, cannons!
In no time at all Ham's merchantmen were unloaded, armed and airborne; by then, too, the Council of Elders had agreed to lend their assistance, consisting of orders to three platoons of Regulators, all tried men and true, eager to scratch a previously inaccessible itch. As the population of Bahama gaped and gawked from its various levels down upon Regulating HQ, so those worthies had gone aboard the three sky-ships up rope ladders suspended directly over the balconies of their canal-hugging establishment, and then Ham's rescue force was fully manned and under way.
They'd come across Yath without lights, had seen the Kledans moored low over the lake. More, they'd seen the campfires and the large parties of slaves sleeping ashore, watched over by their Kledan guards. Then those guards had in turn seen Ham's ships against the stars, when but for quick thinking, the advantage were lost. Since the Kledans were quite obviously
in flagrante delicto
(keeping, selling, or otherwise using slaves was strictly forbidden now in Oriab) and since slavers were normally armed to the teeth, direct and violent action was the only recourse.
Venting flotation essence for all they were worth, the merchantmen had dropped down to the level of the Kledan vessels and opened fire on them. One of the enemy, half-crippled, had fled for Kled, another had tried it but got flanked over Yath and forced down; as for the rest of it, the questers and their ladies had seen that for themselves.
“But what,” Ham then wanted to know, frowning, “did Gan want with you lot?”
“Er, p'raps he thought we were spying on him,” Hero replied. “I mean, Eldin and myself. And the girls were with us, so they got roped in, too.”
“But you
were
spying on him, weren't youâfor meddlesome old Kuranes?” Ham frowned.
“Ah!” Eldin put in, holding up a stiff finger. And not unmindful or incapable of a measure of diplomacy: “Well, not
quite.
We were here simply to ⦠to offer our services to Baharna's Council of Elders!”
“Oh?” Ham Gidduf found that just a bit suspect. He grinned a sharp-eyed grin. “And there was I thinking you'd merely been visiting my daughtersâwhich in fact is why you
told
me you were here. Hmm! Anyway, when we're all finished here you can tell it to the Council of Elders for yourselves, for that's where I'm taking you.”
And he did.
Â
Â
The Elders were mainly a dour lot; doddering, most of themâbut to a man honest and honorable. After the preliminaries of a hearing, their spokesman asked:
“And is it your business, questers, to go interfering in the internal affairs of Serannian's neighbor states and countries? We'd have brought Raffis Gan to book sooner or later without your assistance, you know.”
“Later, most likely,” Eldin mumbled, only half to himself.
“Eh? What's that?” the gray-pate wasn't totally deaf.
“He said âOf course, sir, quite right'!” Hero quickly spoke up.
Ham Gidduf, however, was more outspoken and knew nothing of diplomacy. “Hah!” he snorted. “What?
You'd have sent out warships, would you, to drag the dog back from Kled or wherever? And what of my two daughters by then, eh?”
“Merchant Gidduf,” said the spokesman, raising an eyebrow, “you must surely be aware that Oriab has no warships.”
“Of course I'm aware of it!” Ham was scornful. “And so is wily old Kuranes in Serannian or Celephais or wherever. So he sent these two buckoes to advise you how best to handle the affair. Spies? They're allies, and a good thing for all present, too!”
“In fact, sir,” Hero added, thinking quickly, “Kuranes was sure you already knew of Chief Regulator Gan's bentâthat is to say, that he
was
bentâand only sent us because of our, er, tactical experience. In the event of hostilities, that is. Before we could report to you, however, Gan picked us up.”
The Elder nodded. “Hmm! Well, it seems we must thank you for these timely revelations concerning Raffis Gan. And certainly we're in your debtâyou and all concernedâfor the, er,
dissolution
of Yath-Lhi. But since it appears that there was no treasure, and so no more treasure-seekers, bent or otherwise, she at least is a terror that can never rise again.”
“True,” said Hero, blinking rapidly. “She's gone, melted away forever.” But at the mention of treasure his hand twitched almost of its own accord toward his pocket â¦
“Ahem!” Ham Gidduf then ahemmed. “And now, if I may take the opportunity: I finally wish to offer the freedom of my home, of my home town Andahad, and of all Oriabâincluding Baharna”âhe looked all round the chamber, waiting until the Councillors had nodded as one manâ“to this fine, upstanding pair of utterly fearless questers!”
“Indeed! Indeed!” came reedy chirrups and dry rustles of approval.
“Also,” Ham wasn't finished, “I am pleased to announce the double engagement of David Hero and Eldin the Wanderer to Ula and Una Gidduf respectively! Of course,” he spoke now directly to the questers, “you've brought suitable tokens of the tryst with you?”
“Eh? Tokens? Tryst?” Eldin felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, and not solely at the prospect of appearing tokenless.
Hero gripped his elbow. “Certainly!” he replied. “Of course, there's much for us to be doing between times, but as tokens of our respect, our fidelity, our, er ⦔
“Foolhardiness?” prompted Eldin in a whisper.
“Our affection and esteemâ” Hero produced from his pocket a magnificent pair of emeralds, each as big as the end of his little finger. “This one for Ula”âhe handed it to the half-swooning girlâ“to wear in a pendant round her neck, to lie against her breast and remind themâer, remind
her
âof me; and this one for Una, to wear in a ring upon her finger, binding her to Eldin forever!”
As one man the Elders creaked to their feet and applauded; Ham Gidduf too. They were still at it when the questers and their ladies sneaked out and away into Baharna. And because the girls were with them Eldin couldn't clout Hero, and for the same reason Hero couldn't kick the Wanderer.
Â
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They had their fight laterâverbal, over a pint of muthâin the
Quayside Quaress.
But that was much later.
First there'd been a message to get off as quickly as possible to Kuranes (a priest at the Temple of the Elder
Gods had obliged with the loan of a pigeon), and then there'd been two whole idyllic days (and nights) spent in the company of the twins. That had come to an end when Ham, his delayed business now all done, turned up to spend some time with the girls himself. Not to be denied his jiggly-bits, however (forbidden fruits were ever juicier), Eldin had insisted that before they set sail for Serannian, they must go and pay their respects to Buxom Barba. And to her belly-dancers.
And while they sat there bickering, boozing, and never batting an eye for fear of missing something while Zuli Bazooli did many wonderful things on stage, with and without her pythons, who should park himself at their table but:
“Bâgods all!” Eldin gave a start, sent his drink flying. “It'sâ”
“The seer with invisible eyes!” Hero gawped.
“Aye-aye!” said that worthy, winking each empty orb in turn.
“You're dead!” Eldin accused.
The s.w.i.e. looked hurt. “I may pong a bit, butâ”
“You know what we mean,” said Hero.
“Oh, that poisoned dart. Immune!” he told them, with a mostly invisible grin. “Well traveled in Kled, I was, as a boy. Jungle-spawned poisons can't kill me. It merely knocked me down for an hour or two.”
“You didn't drown when we sank the
Craven Lobster
?” Hero still couldn't believe it.
“Do I look drowned? No, I came to draped across a barrel bobbing in the bay,” the s.w.i.e. answered. “Been draped across one ever since! It all worked out all right, thenâfor you two, I mean?”
“Apart from a promise or two we can't possibly keepâat least not yet awhileâit worked out perfectly!”
Eldin slapped the seer's shoulder. “All's in order and we're squared up all round.”
“Difficult, that,” said Hero. “To be square all round.”
“Ah ⦠not quite!” said the seer.
“What Hero said or what I said?” Eldin wanted to know. “Explain.”
“Lippy's after your blood. He's even offering a reward. To whoever breaks one of Hero's limbs, a week's free boozing on Lippy's five-star muth. Same goes for you, Eldin, except he drinks free for a month!”
“We'll worry about that later,” Hero shrugged it off. “Right now we're the ones doing the drinking. And it's good stuff we're drinking, not Lippy Unth's filth!” He grinned. “Anyway, he'll get no takers on a deal like that. What, a man should work us overâhazardous exercise at bestâfor the dubious privilege of damaging his brain on Lippy's guk? But this”âhe tapped a fingernail on the bottle on the tableâ“this is the
real
stuff! Will you join us?”
“Too true!” said the s.w.i.e.
“But tell me,” Eldin was still curious: “I mean, we were
sure
you were dead. See, we saw you lying there, saw pictures form in your ex-invisible eyes, saw 'em bleed and flood over.”
“Bleeding the poison out of my system!” the s.w.i.e. answered. “And those pictures were an eleventh hour warning to you two. These eyes of mine were looking after us, see?”
“Do you mean,” said Hero, frowning, “that your eyes are only invisible when you're conscious?”
“Dunno,” said the seer. “I've never looked when I'm asleep! Anyway, what are we drinking ⦠?”
All of which set the tone of the conversation for the rest of a very liquid night, which soon degenerated into a blur that none of the three would ever seek to bring
into proper focus. Best that they didn't know. In the morning they woke up in a tangle of nets on the quayside, and then it was time for Hero and Eldin to be on their way again â¦
Â
Â
They redeemed their flotation bag, had it pumped full of essence, went the way they'd come. The wind was off the land but somewhat aslant, so they used arms and jackets as sails, guiding themselves toward
Quester
where she lay moored to the old hulk's mast.
It was as they vented essence to begin their descent that Eldin spotted a small rowing-boat close to
Quester
tethered to the buoy with the scabfish warning.