Free Planet of Adventure Omnibus by Jack Vance Page B

steppes of Tschai! A particularly massive dray
carried a house with barred windows and iron-bound doors. The front deck was
enclosed by heavy wire mesh: in effect, a cage. Looking forth was a young
woman, with a beauty so extraordinary that it seemed to have a vitality of its
own, like the Onmale emblem. She was rather slight, with skin the color of dune
sand. Dark hair brushed her shoulders; her eyes were the clear browngold of
topaz. She wore a small rose-red skull-cap, a dull red tunic, trousers of white
linen, rumpled and somewhat soiled. As the dray lurched past she looked down at
the three wayfarers. For an instant Reith met her eyes, and was shocked by the
melancholy of her expression. The dray rolled past. In an open doorway at the rear
stood a tall woman, bleak-featured, with glittering eyes, an inch-long bristle
of brown-gray hair. In vast curiosity Reith applied to Anacho for information,
but to no avail. The Dirdirman had neither knowledge nor opinion.
    The three
followed the caravan past the fortified rock-juts, into a wide sandy compound.
The caravan master, a small intensely active old man, ranged the vehicles in
three ranks: the cargo wagons next to the depot warehouse, then the
slave-carriers’ houses and barracks, and finally the gun-carts with the weapons
directed toward the steppe.
    Across the
compound stood the caravansary, a slope-sided two-storied structure of
compacted earth. The tavern, kitchen and common-room occupied the lower floor;
on the second was a row of small chambers opening upon a porch. The three
wayfarers found the innkeeper in the common-room: a burly man in black boots
and a brown apron, with skin as gray as wood-ash. With raised eyebrows he
looked from Traz in nomad costume to Anacho and his once-elegant Dirdir
garments to Reith, in Earthstyle whipcord breeches and jacket, but made no
difficulty about providing accommodation and agreed to provide new garments as
well.
    The chambers
were eight feet wide, ten feet long. There was a bed of leathern thongs across
a wooden frame, with a thin pallet of straw, a table with basin and ewer of
water. After the journey across the steppe, the accommodations seemed almost
luxurious. Reith bathed, shaved with the razor from his survival kit, donned
his new garments in which he hoped to be less conspicuous: loose trousers of
brown-gray canvas, a shirt of rough white homespun, a black short-sleeved vest.
Stepping out on the porch, he looked down into the compound. His old life on
Earth: how remote it seemed! Compared to the bizarre multiplicity of Tschai,
the old existence was drab and colorless-though not the less desirable for all
that. Reith was forced to admit that his initial desolation had become somewhat
less poignant. His new life, for all its precariousness, held zest and
adventure. Reith looked across the compound toward the dray with the iron-bound
house. The girl was a prisoner: so much was evident. What was her destiny that
she should display such anguish?
    Reith tried
to identify the dray, but among so many humped, peaked and angular shapes it
could not be found. Just as well, he told himself. He had troubles enough
without investigating the woe of a slave girl, glimpsed for five seconds in
all. Reith went back into his room.
    Certain items
from his survival kit he thrust into his pockets; the rest he concealed under
the ewer. Descending to the common-room, he found Traz sitting stiffly on a
bench to the side. In response to Reith’s question, he admitted that he had
never before been in such a place and did not wish to make a fool of himself.
Reith laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, and Traz managed a painful grin.
    Anacho
appeared, less obviously a Dirdirman in his steppedweller’s garments. The three
went to the refectory, where they were served a meal of bread and thick dark
soup, the ingredients of which Reith did not inquire.
    After the
meal Anacho regarded Reith through eyes heavy-lidded with speculation. “From
here you