Read The Virgin of Zesh & the Tower of Zanid Online
Authors: L. Sprague de Camp
“What?” said Althea and Bahr in chorus.
“A stage hand! An assistant scene shifter, to crawl around tacking up pieces of burlap to symbolize the decadent Social Capitalism of Earth! The black shame of it! And if I was good, they said, maybe they’d let me carry a torch in the final procession that symbolizes the triumph of natural Roussellian man over the evils of civilization. Imagine that!”
###
The Temple of Zesh stood in a rocky part of the island, two or three hoda from Elysion. Althea Merrick, Gottfried Bahr, and Brian Kirwan felt their way along the trail leading to this structure. They were helped by the fact that, for a short period, all three moons were in the sky at once.
Suddenly, they were in front of the temple. To Althea, it looked like an oversized salt cellar with a light in the top.
They approached it warily. Kirwan said, “D’you see anything that looks like a bell-button, now?”
They looked around the door, but no knocker or other means of announcing their arrival appeared.
“Well,” said Kirwan, the sweat on his forehead glistening in the moonlight, “we can’t stand here all night.”
He smote the door with his knuckles. Nothing happened. Althea looked more closely at the structure. From the recent advancement of the Záva, she had the impression that the building must be of late origin. The weathered look of the stones, however, belied this. She whispered a question to Bahr.
“It is not known,” he replied. “Possibly the tower was built back in the time of the Kalwm Empire, and later the tailless Krishnans who built it abandoned the island for one reason or another. My archaeological colleagues have not settled the question yet, albeit by radioactive methods it should be possible the date of construction to fix—”
The door opened silently, framing a cloaked black figure. Bahr fell silent, and Kirwan recoiled with a start. The figure and the Terrans regarded one another silently, until Althea began to fidget.
“The door of the righteous,” said the figure at last in Portuguese, “is ever open to the legitimate visitor. Do not let in all the flying things of the night.”
They entered the door, which swung silently shut behind them, and followed the figure. The apparition led them through a short hall, lit by one feeble oil lamp, into a big central chamber with a dais in the middle. On this dais was mounted a curious metal tripod. The figure heaved itself up on the tripod and settled cross-legged.
Several lamps lit the octagonal chamber. The walls bore weathered bas reliefs. Although blurred by time, the reliefs illustrated the amatory adventures of some hero or godlet. Althea, feeling herself blushing, saw that Bahr had lost himself in impersonal contemplation of these decorations.
Although her own heart pounded, Althea pulled herself together. “Are you the Virgin of Zesh?”
“The name of a thing is that which speakers commonly apply to the thing, whether or not it be well-applied.”
A little taken aback, Althea decided that this oracular reply meant yes. She said, “We are three new arrivals at Elysion—one member of the cult and two non-members. We have news of interest to the Záva.”
“News is judged by its verity, novelty, and portentousness, not by its origin.”
In stumbling Portuguese, Althea told of her experience with the lecherous sailor on Memzadá’s ship. When she had finished, the cloaked figure said, “News, like fruit, spoils if delayed too long in transit.” She started to lower herself off the tripod.
Bahr said, “Excuse me, senhora, but would you please also inform your Chief Yuruzh that I, Doctor Professor Gottfried Bahr, of the University of Jena, should like an interview with him?”
“No time,” said the Virgin. “Out of my way, Terrans!”
She scuttled through one of the arches and disappeared. Althea heard the diminishing sound of ascending footsteps. She and her companions waited around for some time, but nothing more happened.
“Br-r-r, let’s be getting out of here!” said Kirwan. “The place gives me the shuddering creeps.”
“Atavistic fears,” said Bahr. “However, as we do not seem to be accomplishing anything further, I am not averse with your suggestion to comply.”
They trailed out. Althea looked back at the octagonal tower in the moonlight, from an upper window of which a light was winking. Then she plunged into the forest.
She had been plodding at the tail of the procession, seeing only Kirwan’s broad back as little splashes of moonlight ran over it, for some time before she realized that Bahr was out of sight and hearing. She spoke, “Brian, you’d better hurry—”
“And would you be afraid of being lost, now?” he said, turning. “To be sure, nobody’s ever lost with Brian Kirwan. And you don’t suppose,
cuisle mo croidhe,
that ’twas out of sheer weariness of spirit that I lagged?”
“Why, I never thought—”
Kirwan snatched Althea’s right hand in his. “Listen, darling, for days I’ve been tongue-tied with love for you, and me so eloquent and all. Even though the natural man turns out to be a fake and a disappointment, there’s enough romance left in the galaxy for a well-matched pair of hearts like ours. Let me show you—”
“Brian! Let go!” said Althea, her voice rising in alarm. She twisted her arm, but Kirwan’s grip was too strong to break.
“But me no buts, darling, for as sure as Ireland’s a damp little country, you belong to me body and soul. Why, if we could someday poison that worthless husband of yours, I might even let you marry me legal and all! Why should we let—”
As Althea struggled to escape, the poet slid an arm around her waist. Squeezing her to him, he pinned her free arm between his body and hers and began to press slobbery kisses on her face. She squirmed and dodged while he poured out a stream of broken phrases: “Me little Sassenach rose . . . with three moons, we’ll love thrice as ardently . . . stop squirmin’, darlin’, and let me find a soft spot . . . isn’t one virgin on Zesh enough?”
“Brian, please!” she cried. “Stop!
Help!”
His hot breath fanned her face. The bristles of his burgeoning beard scratched her skin. No help came.
When Kirwan began to try to bend her down to the moss grass, Althea kicked him in the shins. He grunted and flinched. Getting an arm free, Althea raked his face with her nails, bit his wrist, and butted him in the nose.
“Ye devil!” he panted. She got loose enough to bring a knee up to his crotch.
He bawled with pain, and she broke free and ran like a deer. Kirwan blundered after. She had the advantage; besides his fat, his legs were short and his vision not the keenest.
Althea tripped over a root and sprawled but was up again in an instant. Behind her, Kirwan fell even more heavily over another obstacle. After a few minutes of dodging, she stopped to get her breath and listen for sounds of pursuit. From afar came a call.
“Althea, darling! Where the devil are you? Sure, come back; I’ll not be hurting you! You’ll be lost in the woods!” Althea supposed that they were both lost by now, but she did not intend to trust Kirwan again. She walked at random until she could no longer hear his calls. Then she found a thicket, pulled together a bed of vegetation, and curled up to sleep.
VIII
When it was light enough to see, Althea shook herself awake and climbed a tree. From her perch, she could see the top of the Temple of Zesh to the north, and in the opposite direction the clearings and hutroofs of Elysion. She knew that the path from one to the other ran close to the cliffs along the east side of Zesh, sometimes coming out to the edge. If she simply walked east, watching carefully, she should soon pick up this trail and follow it south to the village.
She arrived back at her cabin to find Bahr leaping to his feet to seize her. She let herself be hugged but discouraged the scientist when he proffered more intimate attentions.
“Althea, tell me what happened! Brian came limping in a couple of hours ago, with a wild story of having met a tailed Krishnan savage in the forest and fought him in the dark, while you ran away and disappeared. I doubted the story, having made a psychological analysis of the man. I concluded that it was more likely a fantasy composed to account for the scratches on his face, which he had received at your hands.”
Althea told Bahr what had happened. The psychologist commented, “That is typical of these emotionally infantile types. They will lie to avert an immediate unpleasantness, even though they know that the truth will shortly transpire.”
“What are you going to do about it?” she asked.
“What should I do? I doubt if Brian is willing to be psychoanalyzed, even if I had the time to do so.”
“That’s not what I meant!” said Althea in exasperation.
“What did you mean, my dear?”
“I thought maybe you’d like to knock his block off.”
“Really? But my dear Althea, that is a most impractical suggestion. In the first place, he is stronger than I and no doubt more proficient in using his fists. Therefore, the probability is that I should be the one to have the block knocked off, as you so picturesquely put it.”
“You defied Halevi on the playing field,” she said in a last effort to arouse Bahr’s masculine belligerence.
“That has nothing to do with the case. My analysis of the psychological factors told me that there was little chance of Halevi’s forcing the issue. There is no doubt, on the other hand, that Kirwan, if attacked, would fight vigorously. In the second place, even were I victorious, such treatment would do nothing to abate the urges and the neuroses that cause Brian to behave in this irrational manner. I think that you are being a little emotionally infantile yourself.”
Althea sighed. No doubt a wish to see Bahr wipe up the alleys of Elysion with the battered remains of Brian Kirwan did indicate emotional immaturity. But if Bahr had done so, she thought that she might even have managed to fall in love with him. As it was, he was hung more securely than ever on his pedagogic peg.
At the sound of voices outside, she looked out. It was not, however, another disturbance involving Kirwan. Diogo Kuroki was standing on the square, talking with the lookout. The latter said, “. . . only one galley, but it’s their biggest. I think I saw Yuruzh himself in the bow.”
“Round up the Council,” said Kuroki. “We shall go down to meet them.”
Bahr, looking over Althea’s shoulder, said, “Let us go, too, yes?”
Althea and Bahr started for the beach. The news swiftly spread, so that the path became crowded with other villagers. Bahr and Althea arrived just ahead of Kuroki. Several older members had wreaths on their heads and their cloaks pinned about them in artistically Classical folds. Most of these had also greeted Kirwan on his arrival.
The Council scrambled breathlessly down the last few meters of the path. As they reached the sand, they lined up and advanced toward the water with majestically measured strides, wielding their staves as they went.
Out in the emerald sea lay a war galley, her toothed ram pointing shoreward. The oars on each side lifted and fell in unison as the ship felt her way toward the beach. A command resounded. The oars dug in, water foamed, and in she came with a rush, to stop with a sigh of sand at the water’s edge.
A swarm of dark beings spilled off the bow on the sand. Althea had seen tailed Krishnans before. They were a little shorter than most human beings, hairy, and less human of visage than the tailless Krishnans. By human standards, they would be deemed ugly. Now a score of them, naked but for helmets, sword belts, and small shields slung over their backs, leaped down on the sand and lined up on either side of the ship’s bow.
Then came another tailed Krishnan, different from the rest. Evidently a creature of distinction, he wore a great black cloak with a scarlet lining and a kind of soft-leather legging on his shins. A band of gold cloth encircled his head. His tail was shorter than the others’ tails, his pelt was less, and his features were more human. In fact, had his head sat on human shoulders, Althea would have described him as “attractively ugly.” He had hawk-nosed, wide-cheeked features, like those of some American Indians. He moved with abundant vitality, and Althea found him attractive in a satyrlike, non-human way.
“Good morning, senhores,” said the newcomer in perfect Portuguese. “We are on our way to consult the Virgin.”
“Good morning,
chefe,”
said Kuroki-Zeus. “Is that all? You do not wish to see us about anything else?”
“N&aTilde;o.
But thank you for your courtesy in welcoming us.”
With a shake of his cloak, Yuruzh strode across the beach. Followed by his minions, he disappeared up the trail. Kuroki called out, “Back to the village, my children. We have work to do. No fooling around on the beach just because our landlord has paid us a visit!”
The Roussellians started up the trail, too. They left the galley stranded, with her hairy crew climbing down into the water and splashing about. Althea and Bahr trailed after. Kirwan had not appeared.
Althea was just finishing breakfast in the Hall when a Roussellian touched her arm. “Excuse me, but are you Senhorita Althea Merrick?”
“Sim.”
“Will you step outside, please?”
Althea stood up. Bahr hastily wiped his mouth to follow her. Outside the Hall, she found Yuruzh and his guards facing Kuroki and several other Roussellians, including Halevi-Diomedes. As soon as Althea appeared, Diogo Kuroki swung on her.
“You!” he barked. “You were told to have no contact with the Záva!”
“What’s this?” said Althea.
Yuruzh said in English, “You’re English-speaking, aren’t you, Miss Merrick?”
“Yes.”
“I thought so. Our Noble Savage claims you’re a member of his society. Are you?”
“No,” said Althea.
“Let me explain,” said Bahr. “I am a psychologist from Terra, come here to make some psychometric tests, and this young lady is my assistant. We came with another Terran, who really is a member of the cult. Now, if you could set a time for some preliminary tests, of yourself and a representative sample of your subjects, the Interplanetary Council would be most—”
“Sorry, old man, but that’ll have to wait,” said Yuruzh. He then addressed Kuroki. “If she’s not, she had every right to warn me. Even if she had been, I should consider a deliberate refusal to tell us of the approach of our enemies as an unfriendly act. You seem to forget that this island belongs to us, and you’re merely tenants. Now get along about your business, and consider yourselves lucky that I do not hang a few of you on general principles.”
Fuming but cowed, the leading Roussellians departed. Yuruzh spoke in his own language to one of the tailed ones, who ran toward the beach. Then he spoke to Althea:
“And now, my dear Miss Merrick, where can we discuss this threat in comfort?”
Althea led the tailed Krishnan to her hut, Bahr trailing after. Inside, she once again told the story of the sailor on the
Labághti
and produced the crumpled note.
Yuruzh scrutinized the paper and said: “I hope my people will be able to write their own language better than this fellow does his. This calls for thought.”
For some minutes, Yuruzh sat with his chin on his fist. Then a long-tailed Zau dashed into the hut and spilled out a whole paragraph in his own speech.
“Merde!”
said Yuruzh. “The Dasht moved swiftly. One of our gliders has sighted his whole fleet, headed for the south coast of Zesh.”
“You mean for
us?”
said Althea.
“Precisely. He seems to have made a detour so as to take this island by surprise.”
“Why should he attack Zesh instead of Zá? I thought he was after your people.”
“Perhaps he knows that Zá will prove a tough nut and prefers to seize Zesh as an advanced base first. Or maybe he thinks he can thus force our smaller fleet out for a pitched battle, where he’d have the advantage. However, I have work to do, my friends. Thanks for your cooperation.”
Yuruzh squeezed Althea’s hand, waved to Bahr, and walked out.
“Quite a personality,” said Bahr, staring after the Zau chief. “I suspect that he is one of the few Krishnans who have been to Earth. He could not so easily the Terrans mannerisms have acquired otherwise. He is also devilishly intelligent.”
“What’ll we do?” said Althea. “We never got a chance to ask to be evacuated from Zesh.”
Bahr shrugged. “I don’t know. We might go out to ascertain whether we can see the attacking fleet.”
They wandered out toward the cliff top. Halevi-Diomedes shouted at them, “Why aren’t you two at work?” but without real conviction. Most of the Roussellians had taken a spontaneous day off, despite the commands of their leaders.
Roqir blazed down upon a tranquil Sadabao Sea. Far out, just breaking the horizon, Althea saw a row of little specks.
“Those would be the ships,” said Bahr, peering through his glasses. “Unfortunately, I am too myopic to discern them at this distance.”
They watched the approaching fleet. Althea said, “Let’s see if that galley is still on our beach.”
She began to stroll westward along the clifftop toward the beach. She had not, however, gone many steps when voices caused her to turn. There stood a score of Roussellians, both men and women, stripped for action. Some held clubs; some, stones. Diogo Kuroki was haranguing them.
“There they are! The decadent products of a rotten civilization, who have tried to destroy our noble experiment! I warned them not to take sides in this squabble among the natives. But they did so anyway, because of their jealousy of the simple bliss of our Utopian life and their implacable hatred of whatever is natural and beautiful. So now we are involved in this battle and may be destroyed. Is it just to let them go scot-free?”
“N&aTilde;o!”
shouted the Roussellians, and arms bearing stones swung up to throw.
“Run!” cried Althea, doing so.
Bahr ran after her. Stones whizzed. As Bahr came abreast of Althea, one struck him in the back with a horrid thump. Another grazed Althea’s left hip, not hard enough to do serious damage. Behind her, she heard the yelps and tramplings and pantings of the pack.
“The beach path!” gasped Bahr.
Althea found the trail and bounded down it in great leaps, her eyes glued to the ground ahead. She had a horror of turning an ankle, falling headlong, and being beaten to jelly by the enraged Roussellians.
The beach seemed much farther than she had thought, and she feared that she had gone astray. Behind her, the Utopians pounded grimly on. She would have thought that, in view of her speed, she would have left them behind by now. But the children of nature were able runners.
Bahr’s breath came in gasps behind her. If she was not in training for such athletics, the psychologist was in even worse case. Althea guessed that for decades he had done no more strenuous exercise than hoisting a stein.
Behind came Kuroki’s scream, “Faster! Catch them before they reach the beach!”
With a final burst of speed, Althea ran out of the forest and on the beach. Yuruzh’s galley was still beached in the middle of the crescent-shaped strand. Another galley lay alongside it. Tailed Záva were all over the beach. Althea picked out Yuruzh by his stature and his cloak and diadem, near the bow of the first ship, talking with others of his kind.
“Help! Yuruzh!” she cried.
The chief looked around. The next instant, he had snatched a bow from another Zau. He drew, aimed, and released all in one motion. The arrow whizzed past Althea and struck something behind her. There came the thump of a body’s falling on the sand. Althea halted and looked back.
A big Roussellian, vaguely familiar, lay a few feet behind her. The point of an arrow protruded from his back. The shaft had struck him in the chest, and he had fallen forward on it, driving it the rest of the way through his body. His club lay beside him.
The other Roussellians scattered and dodged back into the shelter of the trees. In a twinkling, they had all disappeared. Gottfried Bahr collapsed and lay sucking in great gasps of air. Yuruzh, with a second arrow nocked, walked toward Althea, saying, “My word, young lady, you certainly seem to lead a full life! What is it this time?”
When she got her breath, Althea told Yuruzh what had happened. He pondered and said, “I fear that we shall have to terminate this Arcadian dream. Your fellow Terrans are simply too difficult to put up with. But—”
“Yes?” said Althea.
Yuruzh had turned his attention seaward. The Daryao ships were nearer. Because Althea was now closer to the sea level than before, she could not see any more of them, only their sails. Yuruzh said, “I was going to send for you. We have one small chance of beating those fellows, but it depends upon a ruse. For the purpose, I need one non-Zau who is also a powerful swimmer. I fear our Roussellian friends won’t help us, but perhaps one of you two could. How about you, Doctor Bahr?”
Bahr, who had gotten his breath back, shook his head. “I am no athlete, Herr Chief. I can perhaps a dozen meters swim, but that is all.”
“How about you, Miss Merrick?”
“I’m a pretty good swimmer, even if out of practice.”
“Can you swim a
hod?”
“How far is that?”
“About one and one-fifth kilometers, or three-quarters of the old English mile.”
“Y-yes, I think I can.”
“Very well, I should like you to wait until those ships are closer and then swim out to them. They’ll probably heave to, about a
hod
out, because the rocks and shoals extend almost that far out and they’ll halt for final orders and formation. Call to them when you get near them, and they’ll haul you aboard. When they ask you what you’re doing there, tell them I’m on Zesh with a few Záva consulting the Virgin, and that you escaped from durance vile.” Yuruzh grinned. “You’d better lay it on thick; tell ’em I’ve been subjecting you to my bestial lusts.”