by Jack Vance
Someone nearby turned on his heel and began to walk away. The motion caught Glinnes’ attention; he jumped forward, caught the man’s arm, swung him around. “Lute Casagave.”
Casagave’s face was pale and austere. “I am Lord Ambal. How dare you touch me?”
“Be so good as to step this way,” said Glinnes. “The matter is important.”
“I choose to do nothing of the kind.”
“Then stand here.” Glinnes signaled the members of his group. Casagave once again sought to walk away; Glinnes pulled him back. Casagaves’s face was now white and dangerous. “What do you want of me?”
“Observe,” said Glinnes. “This is Ryl Shermatz, Chief Inspector of the Whelm. This is Janno Akadie, a formerly accredited mentor of Jolany Prefecture. Both witnessed Vang Drosset’s confession that he had murdered Shira Hulden. I am Squire of Rabendary and I now demand that you depart Ambal Isle at once.”
Lute Casagave made no response. Filidice asked peevishly, “Is this why you brought us here, merely to confront Lord Ambal?”
Sagmondo Bandolio’s merry laugh interrupted him. “Lord Ambal, now! Not so in the old days. Not so indeed!”
Casagave turned to depart, but Shermatz’s easy voice checked him. “Just a moment if you please. This is an official inquiry, and the question of your identity becomes important.”
“I am Lord Ambal; that is sufficient.”
Ryl Shermatz swung his mild gaze to Bandolio. “You know him by another name?”
“By another name and by many another deed, some of which have caused me pain. He has done what I should have done ten years ago—retired with his loot. Here you see Alonzo Dirrig, sometimes known as the Ice Devil and Dirrig the Skull-maker, one time master of four ships, as adept among the starmenters as any you might find.”
“You are mistaken, whoever you may be.” Casagave bowed and made as if to turn away.
“Not so fast!” said Filidice. “Perhaps we have made an important discovery. If this is the case, then Janno Akadie is vendicated. Lord Ambal, do you deny the charge of Sagmondo Bandolio?”
“There is nothing to deny. The man is mistaken.”
Bandolio gave a mocking caw of laughter. “Look across the palm of his left hand; you’ll see a scar I put there myself.”
Filidice went on. “Do you deny that you are the person Alonzo Dirrig; that you conspired to kidnap three hundred lords of prefecture; that subsequently you killed a certain Lempel?”
Casagave’s lips curled. “Of course I deny it. Prove it, if you can!”
Filidice turned to Glinnes. “Where is your proof?”
“One moment,” said Shermatz in a voice of perplexitv. He spoke to Bandolio. “Is this the man with whom you conversed on the beach near Welgen?”
“Alonzo Dirrig calling on me to implement his schemes? Never, never, never not Alonzo Dirrig.” Filidice looked dubiously at Glinnes. “So then, you are wrong, after all.”
Glinnes said, “Not so fast! I never accused Casagave, or Dirrig—whatever his name—of anything. I merely brought him here to clear up an incidental bit of business.”
Casagave turned and strode away. Ryl Shermatz made a gesture; Filidice instructed his two constables; “After him! Take him into custody.” The constables ran off. Casagave looked over his shoulder, and observing pursuit, bounded out upon the dock and into his boat. With a surge and thrash of foam he sped away across Fleharish Broad.
Filidice roared to the constables, “Follow in the launch; keep him in sight! Radio for reinforcements; take him into custody!”
Lord Gensifer confronted them, face clenched in displeasure. “Why do you cause this disturbance? Can you not observe that we celebrate a solemn occasion?”
Chief Constable Filidice spoke with what dignity he could muster. “We are naturally distressed by our intrusion. We had reason to suspect that Lord Ambal was the accomplice of Sagmondo Bandolio. Apparently this is not the case.”
Lord Gensifer’s face became pink. He glanced at Akadie, then back to Filidice. “Of course this is not the case! Have we not discussed the matter at length? We know Bandolio’s accomplice!”
“Indeed,” said Akadie in a voice like a saw cutting a nail. “And who is this person?”
“It is the faithless mentor who so craftily collected and then secreted thirty million ozols!” declared Lord Gensifer. “His name is Janno Akadie!”
Ryl Shermatz said silkily, “Sagmondo Bandolio disputes this theory. He says Akadie is not the man.”
Lord Gensifer threw his arms up in the air. “Very well then; Akadie is innocent! Who cares? I am sick of the whole matter! Please depart; you are intruding upon my property and upon a solemn ritual.”
“Accept my apologies,” said Chief Constable Filidice. “I assure you that this was not my scheme. Come then, gentlemen, we will—”
“Just a moment,” said Glinnes. “We haven’t yet touched the nub of the matter. Sagmondo Bandolio cannot positively identify the man he faced on the beach, but he quite definitely can identify the mask. Lord Gensifer, will you bring forth one of the Fleharish Gorgon helmets?”
Lord Gensifer drew himself up. “I most certainly will not!.What sort of farce is this? Once more I require that you depart!”
Glinnes ignored him and spoke to Filidice. “When Bandolio described horns and the lolling tongue of the mask I instantly thought of the Fleharish Gorgons. On the fourth day of Lyssum, when the meeting took place, the Gorgons had not yet been issued their uniforms. Only Lord Gensifer could have used a Gorgon helmet. Therefore, Lord Gensifer is the guilty man!”
“What are you saying?” gasped Filidice, eyes bulging in astonishment.
“Aha!” screamed Akadie and flung himself upon Lord Gensifer. Glinnes caught him and pulled him back.
“What insane libel are you setting forth?” roared Lord Gensifer, his face suddenly mottled. “Have you taken leave of your senses?”
“It is ridiculous,” declared Filidice. “I will hear no more.”
“Gently, gently,” said Ryl Shermatz, smiling faintly. “Surely Glinnes Hulden’s theory deserves consideration. In my opinion it appears to be definite, particular, exclusive, and sufficient.”
Filidice spoke in a subdued voice. “Lord Gensifer is a most important man; he is secretary of the Order—”
“And as such, he forced you to imprison Akadie,” said Glinnes.
Lord Gensifer furiously waved his finger at Glinnes, but could bring forth no words.
Chief Constable Filidice, in a plaintive grumble, asked Lord Gensifer, “Can you refute the accusation? Did someone perhaps steal a helmet?”
Lord Gensifer nodded vehemently. “It goes without saying! Someone—Akadie, no doubt—stole a Gorgon helmet from my storeroom.”
“In that case,” said Glinnes, “one will now be missing. Let us go to count the helmets.”
Lord Gensifer aimed a wild blow at Glinnes, who ducked back out of the way. Shermatz signaled Filidice. “Arrest this gentleman; take him to the jail. We will put him through psychohallation, and the truth will be known.”
“By no means,” belched Lord Gensifer in a guttural voice. “I’ll never stand to the prutanshyr.” Like Casagave, he turned and ran along the dock, while his guests watched in fascinated wonder; never had they known such a wedding.
“After him,” said Shermatz curtly. Chief Constable Filidice lurched off in pursuit and pounded down the dock to where Lord Gensifer had jumped into his runabout. Dismissing caution, Filidice leapt after him. Lord Gensifer tried to buffet him aside; Filidice, falling upon Lord Gensifer, drove him backward, over the gunwale and into the water.
Lord Gensifer swam under the dock. Filidice called after him, “It’s no use, Lord Gensifer; justice must be served. Come forth, if you will!” Only a swirl of water indicated Lord Gensifer’s presence. Filidice called again. “Lord Gensifer! Why make needless difficulty for us all? Come forth you cannot escape!”
From under the dock came a hoarse ejaculation, then a
moment of frantic splashing, then silence. Filidice slowly straightened from his crouching position. He stood staring down at the water, his face ashen. He climbed to the dock and rejoined Ryl Shermatz, Glinnes and Akadie. “We may now declare the case closed,” he said. “The thirty million ozols they remain a mystery. Perhaps we will never learn the truth.”
Ryl Shermatz looked toward Glinnes, who licked his lips and frowned. “Well, I suppose it makes little difference one way or the other,” said Shermatz. “But where is our captive Bandolio? Is it possible that the rascal has taken advantage of the confusion?”
“So it would seem,” said Filidice disconsolately. “He is gone! What an unhappy day we have had!”
“On the contrary,” said Akadie. It has been the most rewarding of my life.”
Glinnes said, “Casagave has been evicted; for this I am most grateful. It’s an excellent day for me as well.”
Filidice rubbed his forehead. “I am still bewildered. Lord Gensifer seemed the very apotheosis of rectitude!”
“Lord Gensifer acted at precisely the wrong time,” said Glinnes. “He killed Lempel after Lempel had instructed the messenger but before the money had been delivered. He probably believed Akadie to be as unprincipled as himself.”
“A sad case,” said Akadie. “And the thirty million ozols who knows where? Perhaps on some distant world the messenger is now enjoying his astonishing new affluence.”
“That is probably the size of it,” said Filidice. “Well, I suppose I must make some sort of statement to the guests.”
“Excuse me,” said Glinnes. “There is someone I must see.” He crossed the garden to where he had seen Duissane. She was gone. He looked this way and that, but saw no Duissane. Might she have gone into the house? He thought not—the house no longer had meaning for Duissane…
A path led around the house to the beach, which fronted on the ocean. Glinnes ran down the path and saw Duissane standing on the sand looking across the water, toward that blank area where the horizon met the ocean.
Glinnes joined her. She stopped and looked at him, as if never had she seen him before. She turned away and went slowly eastward along the water. Glinnes moved after her, and in the hazy light of middle afternoon they walked together down the beach.
Notes
[1] Starmenters: pirates and marauders, whose occasional places of refuge are the so-called “starments.”
[2] Merlank: a variety of lizard. The continent clasps the equator like a lizard clinging to a blue glass orb.
[3] Cauch: an aphrodisiac drug derived from the spore of a mountain mold and used by Trills to a greater or lesser extent. Some retreated so far into erotic fantasy as to become irresponsible, and thus the subject of mild ridicule. Irresponsibility, in the context of the Trill environment, could hardly be accounted a critical social problem.
[4] Sheirl: an untranslatable term from the special vocabulary of hussade—a glorious nymph, radiant with ecstatic vitality, who impels the players of her team to impossible feats of strength and agility. The sheirl is a virgin who must be protected from the shame of defeat.
[5] Merlings: amphibious half-intelligent indigenes of Trullion, living in tunnels burrowed into the riverbanks.
Merlings and men lived on the edge of a most delicate truce; each hated and hunted the other, but under mutually tolerable conditions. The merlings prowled the land at night for carrion, small animals, and children. If they molested boats or entered a habitation, men retaliated by dropping explosives into the water. Should a man fall into the water or attempt to swim, he had intruded into the domain of the merlings and risked being dragged under. Similarly, a merling discovered on land was shown no mercy.
[6] Star-watching: at night the stars of Alastor Cluster blaze in profusion. The atmosphere refracts their light; the sky quivers with beams, glitters, and errant flashes. The Trills go out into their gardens with jugs of wine; they name the stars and discuss localities. For the Trills, for almost anyone of Alastor, the night sky was so abstract empyrean but rather, a view across prodigious distances to known places—a vast luminous map. There was always talk of pirates—the so-called “starmenters”—and their grisly deeds. When Numenes Star shone in the sky, the conversation turned to the Connatic and glorious Lusz, and someone would always say, “Best to steady our tongues! Perhaps he sits here now, drinking our wine and marking the dissidents!”—creating a nervous titter, for the Connatic’s habit of wandering quietly about the worlds was well known.
Then someone always uttered the brave remark: “Here we are-ten (or twelve or sixteen or twenty, as the case might be) among five trillion! The Connatic among us? Ill take that chance!”
At such a star-watch, Shame Hulden had wandered off into the darkness. Before her absence was noticed the merlings had seized her and had taken her away underwater.
[7] Whisk: star-drive.
[8] Paro: a hussade player, the darling of the cluster, celebrated for his aggressive and daring play.
Slabar Velche: a notorious starmenter.
[9] Trevanyi: nomadic folk of a distinctive racial stock, prone to thievery, sorcery, and other petty chicaneries; an excitable, passionate, vengeful people. They consider cauch a poison and guard the chastity of their women with fanatic zeal.
[10] Going off to visit friends: a euphemism for cauch-crazy lovers going off to camp in the wilds.
[11] By Trill law, a contract for land sale is considered provisional for a period of a year, for the protection of both parties.
[12] Trevanyi wagons are ponderous boats with wheels, capable on either land or water.
[13] Zanzamar: a town at the far eastern tip of Cape Sunrise.
[14] Urush: derogatory Trevanyish cant for a Trill.
[15] Spag: state of rut; hence spageen: individual in such a condition.
[16] Forlostwenna: a word from the Trevanyi jargon—an urgent mood compelling departure; more immediate than the general term “wanderlust.”
[17] The question “How much do I owe you?” is considered crass on Trullion, where easy generosity is the way of life.”
[18] Gialospans: literally, girl-denuders, in reference to the anticipated plight of the enemy sheirl.
[19] Stelt: a precious material quarried from volcanic necks upon certain types of dead stars; a composite of metal and natural glass, displaying infinite variations of pattern and color.
[20] The hussade field is a gridiron of “runs” (also called”ways”) and “laterals” above a tank of water four feet deep. The runs are nine feet apart, the laterals twelve feet. Trapezes permit the players to swing sideways from run to run, but not from lateral to lateral. The central moat is eight feet wide and can be passed at either end, at the center, or jumped if the player is sufficiently agile. The “home” tanks at either end of the field flank the platform on which stands the sheirl.
Players buff or body-block opposing players into the tanks, but may not use their hands to push, pull, hold, or tackle.
The captain of each team carries the “change a bulb on a three. foot pedestal. When the light glows the captain may not be attacked, nor may he attack. When he moves six feet from the hange, or when he lifts the hange to shift his position, the light goes dead; he may then attack and be attacked. An extremely strong captain may almost ignore his hange; a captain less able stations himself on a key junction, which he is then able to protect by virtue of his impregnability within the area of the live hange.
The sheirl stands on her platform at the end of the field between the home tanks. She wears a white gown with a gold ring at the front The enemy players seek to lay hold of this gold ring; a single pull denudes the sheirl. The dignity of the sheirl may be ransomed by her captain for five hundred ozols, a thousand, two thousand, or higher, in accordance with a prearranged schedule.
[21] Buff: a three-foot padded club, used to thrust opponents into the tanks.
[22] Half of the gate receipts were customarily divided between the competing teams in the proportion of
three parts to the winning team, one part to the losers.
[23] Tanchinaro: a black and silver fish of the Far South Ocean.
[24] isthoune: exalted pride and confidence; mana; the emotion which compels heroes to reckless feats; a word essentially untranslatable.
[25] karpoun: a feral tiger-like beast of the Shamshin Volcanoes.
[26] quorls: a type of mollusk living in beach sand.
[27] curset:: a crab-like sea insect.
[28] varmous: dirty, infamous, scurrilous; an adjective often applied to Trills.
