Planet of Adventure Omnibus (34 page)

Dordolio gave
a snort. He started to speak but thought better of it and turned away. The
clothier gave order to his assistants. Reith looked at Anacho with an
appraising frown. “For this gentleman, the traveling costume of a high-caste
dignitary.” And for Traz: “A young gentleman’s casual dress.”

New garments
appeared, conspicuously different from those ordered out by Dordolio. The three
changed; the clothier made small adjustments while Dordolio stood to the side,
pulling at his mustache. At last he could no longer restrain a comment. “Handsome
garments, of course. But are they appropriate? You will puzzle folk when your
conduct belies your appearance.”

Anacho spoke
scornfully. “Would you have us visit Settra dressed like bumpkins? The clothes
you selected hardly carried a flattering association.”

“What does it
matter?” cried Dordolio in a brassy voice. “A fugitive Dirdirman, a nomad boy,
a mysterious nonesuch: is it not absurd to trick such folk out in noblemen’s
costume?”

Reith
laughed; Anacho fluttered his fingers; Traz turned Dordolio a glance of
infinite disgust. Reith paid the account.

“Now then,”
muttered Dordolio, “to the airport. Since you demand the best, we shall charter
an air-car.”

“Not so fast,”
said Reith. “As usual you miscalculate. There must be another, less
ostentatious, means to reach Settra.”

“Naturally,”
said Dordolio with a sneer. “But folk who dress like lords should act like
lords.”

“We are
modest lords,” said Reith. He spoke to the clothier. “How do you usually travel
to Settra?”

“I am a man
with no great regard or ‘place’;
[vi]
I ride the public wheelway.”

Reith turned
back to Dordolio. “If you plan to travel by private air-car, this is where we
part.”

“Gladly; if
you will advance me five hundred sequins.”

Reith shook
his head. “I think not.”

“Then I also
must travel by wheelway.”

As they
strode up the street Dordolio became somewhat more cordial. “You will find that
the Yao set great store by consistency, and a harmony of attributes. You are
dressed as persons of quality, no doubt you will conduct yourselves in
consonance. Affairs will adjust themselves.”

At the
wheelway depot Dordolio bespoke first class accommodation from the clerk; a
short while later a long car trundled up to the platform, riding a wedge-shaped
concrete slot on two great wheels. The four entered a compartment, seated
themselves on red plush chairs. With a lurch and a grind, the car left the
station and trundled off into the Cath countryside.

Reith found
the car intriguing and somewhat of a puzzle. The motors were small, powerful,
of sophisticated design; why was the car itself so awkwardly built? The
wheels-when the car reached top speed, perhaps seventy miles an hour-rode on
cushions of trapped air, at times with silken smoothness, until the wheels came
to breaks in the slot, whereupon the car jerked and vibrated abominably. The
Yao, reflected Reith, seemed to be good theoreticians but poor engineers.

The car
rumbled across an ancient cultivated countryside, more civilized than any Reith
had yet seen on Tschai. A haze hung in the air, tinting the sunlight antique
yellow; shadows were blacker than black. In and out of forests rolled the car,
beside orchards of gnarled black-leaved trees, past parks and manors, ruined
stone walls, villages in which only half the houses seemed tenanted. After
climbing to an upland moor, the car struck east over marshes and bogs, to
outcrops of rotting limestone. No human being was in sight, though several
times Reith thought to discern ruined castles in the distance.

“Ghost
country,” said Dordolio. “This is Audan Moor; have you heard of it?”

“Never,” said
Reith.

“A desolate
region, as you can see. The haunt of outlaws, even an occasional Phung. After
dark the night-hounds bell...”

Down from
Audan Moor rolled the wheelway car, into a countryside of great charm.
Everywhere were ponds and watercourses, overlooked by towering black, brown and
rust-colored trees. On small islands stood tall houses with high-pitched gables
and elaborate balconies. Dordolio pointed off to the east. “See yonder, the great
manse in front of the forest? Gold and Carnelian: the palace of my connections.
Behind but you cannot see-is Halmeur, an outer district of Settra.”

The car swung
through a forest and came out into a region of scattered farmsteads with the
domes and spires of Settra on the sky ahead. A few minutes later the car
entered a depot and rolled to a halt. The passengers alighted, and walked to a
terrace. Here Dordolio said: “Now I must leave you. Across the Oval you will
find the Travelers’ Inn, to which I recommend you and where I will send a
messenger with the sum of my debt.” He paused and cleared his throat. “If a
freak of destiny brings us together in another setting-for instance, you have
evinced a somewhat unrealistic ambition to make yourself acquainted with the
Blue Jade Lord-it might serve our mutual purposes were we not to recognize each
other.”

“I can think
of no reason for wanting to do so,” said Reith politely.

Dordolio
glanced at him sharply, then made a formal salute. “I wish you good fortune.”
He walked off across the square, his strides lengthening as he went.

Reith turned
to Traz and Anacho. “You two go to the Travelers’ Inn, arrange for
accommodations. I’m off to the Blue jade Palace. With any luck I’ll arrive
before Dordolio, who seems in a peculiar state of haste.”

He walked to
a line of motorized tricycles, climbed aboard the first in line. “The Blue Jade
Palace, with all speed,” he told the driver.

The mechanism
spun off to the south, past buildings of glazed brick and dim glass panes, then
into a district of small timber cottages, then past a great outdoor market, a
scene as brisk and variegated as any Reith had observed in Cath. Turning aside,
the motor-buggy nosed across an ancient stone bridge, through a portal in a
stone wall into a large circular plaza. Around the periphery were booths, for
the most part unoccupied and barren of goods; at the center a short ramp led up
to a circular platform, at the back of which rose a bank of seats. A
rectangular frame occupied the front of the platform, of dimensions which Reith
found morbidly suggestive.

“What is this
place?” he asked the driver, who gave him a glance of mild wonder.

“The Circle,
site of Pathetic Communion, as you can see. You are a stranger in Settra?”

“Yes.”

The driver
consulted a yellow cardboard schedule. “The next event is Ivensday, when a
nineteen-score comes to clarify his horrible desperation. Nineteen! The most
since the twenty-two of Agate Crystal’s Lord Wis.”

“You mean he
killed nineteen?”

“Of course;
what else? Four were children, but still a feat these days when folk are wary
of
awaile
. All Settra will come to the expiation. If you’re still in
town you could hardly do more for your own soul’s profit.”

“Probably so.
How far to Blue Jade Palace?”

“Through
Dalmere and we’re almost there.”

“I’m in a
hurry,” said Reith. “As fast as possible.”

“Indeed sir,
but if I wreck or injure, I’ll feel extraordinary shame, to my soul’s sickness,
and I would not care to risk despondency.”

“Understandable.”

The
motor-buggy spun along a wide boulevard, dodging and veering to avoid potholes.
Enormous trees, black-trunked with brown and purple-green foliage, overhung the
way; to either side, shrouded in dark gardens, were mansions of the most
extraordinary architecture. The driver pointed. “Yonder on the hill: Blue Jade
Palace. Which entrance do you favor, sir?” He inspected Reith quizzically.

“Drive to the
front,” said Reith. “Where else?”

“As you say,
your lordship. Although most of the fronters don’t arrive in three-wheel
motor-buggies.”

Up the driveway
rolled the vehicle, and under a porte cochere the buggy halted. Paying the
fare, Reith alighted upon a silken cloth laid under his feet by a pair of
bowing footmen. Reith walked briskly through an open arch into a room paneled
with mirrors. A myriad prisms of crystal hung tinkling on silver chains. A
majordomo wearing russet velvet livery bowed deeply. “Your lordship is at home.
Will you rest or take a cordial, though my Lord Cizante impatiently awaits the
privilege of greeting you.”

“I will see
him at once; I am Adam Reith.”

“Lord of
which realm?”

“Tell Lord
Cizante that I bring important information.”

The majordomo
looked at Reith uncertainly, his face twisting through a dozen subtle emotions.
Reith understood that already he had committed gaucheries.
No matter,
he
thought,
the Blue Jade Lord will have to make allowance.

The majordomo
signaled, a trifle less obsequiously than before. “Be good enough to come this
way.”

Reith was
taken into a small court murmuring to a waterfall of luminous green liquid.

Two minutes
passed. A young man in green knickers and an elegant waistcoat appeared. His
face was wax pale, as if he never saw sunlight; his eyes were somber and
brooding; under a loose four-corner cap of soft green velvet his hair was jet
black: a man richly handsome, by some extraordinary means contriving to seem
both effete and competent. He examined Reith with critical interest, and spoke
in a dry voice. “Sir, you claim to have information for the Blue Jade Lord?”

“Yes. Are you
he?”

“I am his
aide. You may impart your information to me with assurance.”

“I have news
relating to the fate of his daughter,” said Reith. “I prefer to speak to the
Blue Jade Lord directly.”

The aide made
a curious mincing motion and disappeared. Presently he returned. “Your name,
sir?”

“Adam Reith.”

“Follow me,
if you will.”

He took Reith
into a wainscoted room enameled a brownish ivory, lit by a dozen luminous
prisms. At the far end stood a frail frowning man in an extravagant eight-piece
suit of black and purple silk. His face was round, dark hair grew down his
forehead in an elflock; his eyes were dark, far apart, and his tendency was to
glance sidelong. The face, thought Reith, of a secretive suspicious man. He
examined Reith with a compression of the lips.

“Lord
Cizante,” said the aide, “I bring you the gentleman Adam Reith, heretofore
unknown, who, chancing past, was pleased to learn that you were in the
vicinity.”

There was an
expectant silence. Reith understood that the circumstances demanded a ritual
response. He said, “I am pleased, naturally, to find Lord Cizante in residence.
I have only this hour arrived from Kotan.”

Cizante’s
mouth tightened, and Reith knew that once again he had made a graceless remark.

Cizante spoke
in a crisp voice. “Indeed. You have news regarding the Lady Shar Zarin?”

This was the
Flower’s court name. Reith responded in a voice as cool as Cizante’s own. “Yes.
I can give you a detailed account of her experiences, and her unfortunate
death.”

The Blue Jade
Lord looked toward the ceiling and spoke without lowering his eyes. “You
evidently claim the boon?”

The majordomo
entered the room, whispered to the aide, who discreetly murmured to Lord
Cizante.

“Curious!”
declared Cizante. “One of the Gold and Carnelian scions, a certain Dordolio,
likewise comes to claim the boon.”

“Send him
away,” said Reith. “His knowledge of the matter is superficial, as you will
learn.”

“My daughter
is dead?”

“I am sorry
to say that she drowned herself, after an attack of psychic malaise.”

The Lord’s
eyebrows rose more sharply than before. “She gave way to
awaile
?”

“I would
suppose so.”

“When and
where did this take place?”

“Three weeks
ago, aboard the cog
Vargaz
, halfway across the Draschade.”

Lord Cizante
dropped into a chair. Reith waited for an invitation to do likewise, but
thought better of seating himself. Lord Cizante spoke in a dry voice: “Evidently
she had suffered deep humiliation.”

“I couldn’t
say. I helped her escape from the Priestesses of the Female Mystery; thereafter
she was secure and under my protection. She was anxious to return to Cath and
urged me to accompany her, assuring me of your friendship and gratitude. But as
soon as we started eastward she became gloomy, and, as I say, halfway across
the Draschade she threw herself overboard.”

While Reith
spoke Cizante’s face had shifted through phases and degrees of various
emotions. “So now,” he said in a clipped voice, “with my daughter dead, after
circumstances I do not care to imagine, you come hurrying here to claim the
boon.”

Reith said
coldly, “I knew then and know nothing now of this ‘boon.’ I came to Cath for
several reasons, the least important of which was to make myself known to you.
I find you indisposed to what I consider civilized standards of courtesy and I
will now leave.” Reith gave a curt nod and started for the door. He turned
back. “If you wish to learn further details regarding your daughter, consult
Dordolio, whom we found stranded at Coad.”