The Asutra by Jack Vance Read Free Book Online Page A

window. He observed furtive motion along the dock, near the area where the boat was moored. The starlight was too dim for precise vision, but Etzwane noticed a hobbling irregularity in the gait of the skulker. The man stepped into a dinghy and rowed quietly out to the boat. He shipped his oars, made fast the dinghy, and clambered aboard the boat, to be instantly surrounded, by tongues of blue flame, while sparks jumped from his hair to the rigging. The man danced across the deck and more by accident than design plunged overboard. A few moments later be feebly hauled himself into his dinghy and rowed back to the dock.
    At sunrise Etzwane arose from his straw and went to the first-floor washroom, where he found Ifness. Etzwane reported the events of the night, regarding which Ifness showed no great surprise. "I will see to the matter."
    For breakfast the innkeeper served only tea and bread. His limp was more pronounced than ever and he glowered spitefully toward Ifness as he banged the food down upon the table.
    Ifness said sternly, 'This is spartan fare; are you so exhausted from your foray that you cannot provide a suitable breakfast?"
    The innkeeper attempted a blustering retort, but Ifness cut him short. "Do you know why you are here now, instead of dancing to the music of blue sparks? Because I require a satisfactory breakfast. Need I say more?"
    "I have heard enough," muttered the innkeeper. He hobbled back into the kitchen, and presently brought forth a cauldron of stewed fish, a tray of oatcake and eel-jelly. "Will this appease your appetite? If not. I can furnish some good boiled ermink and a sack of cheese."
    "We have enough," said Ifness. "Remember, if on my return I find so much as a splinter of the boat disarranged, you shall dance again to the blue music."
    "You misinterpret my zeal," declared the innkeeper. "I rowed out to the boat because I thought I heard a suspicious noise."
    "The matter is at an end," said Ifness indifferently, "so long as now we understand each other."
    The two Sorukhs looked into the inn. "Are you ready to depart? The pacers are waiting."
    Etzwane and Ifness went out into the cool morning. Four pacers pulled nervously at their curbs, hooking and slashing with back-curved horns. Etzwane considered them of good stock, long-limbed and deep-chested. They were equipped with nomad steppe-saddles of chumpa leather, with pouches for food and a rack on which a tent, blanket, and night boots might be lashed. The Sorukhs refused to provide these articles for Ifness and Etzwane. Threats and persuasion had no effect, and Ifness was forced to part with another of his multicolored jewels before the requisite food and equipment were supplied.
    Before departure Ifness required the identities of the two Sorukhs. Both were of the Bellbird fetish in the Varsk clan; the mustached man was Gulshe; he of the ringed nose was Srenka. Ifness wrote the names in blue ink upon a strip of parchment. He added a set of marks in crimson and yellow, while the Sorukhs looked on uneasily. "Why do you do this? " challenged Srenka.
    "I take ordinary precautions," said Ifness. "I have left my Jewels in a secret place and now carry no valuables; search me if you care to do so. I have worked a curse upon your names, which I will lift in good time. Your plans to murder and rob us are unwise and had best be dismissed. " Gulshe and Srenka scowled at what was obviously an unpleasant turn of events. "Shall we be on our way? " suggested Ifness.
    The four mounted and set off across the Plain of Blue Flowers.
    The Keba, with its fringe of almacks, receded and at last was lost to sight. To all sides the plain rolled in great sweeps and swells out into the sunny lavender haze. Purple moss padded the soil; shrubs held aloft flowers which colored the plain a soft sea-blue in all directions. To the south appeared an almost imperceptible shadow of mountains.
    All day the four men rode, and at nightfall made camp in a shallow swale beside a