“This is how much I will pay for the trousers and a blouse,” said Moor.
The woman hardly glanced at the money, but like others I’d seen she seemed to catch all with her glance. “Try them on, my darling lady, see what I mean. Then we will discuss price. We needn’t discuss price when the lady hasn’t even tried anything on.”
I put on the new clothes, and again the woman appeared faint. She slapped her hands to her head and threw her head back like the most advanced drummers in Bakshami, after they’d been playing intensely and were reaching their climax. Even as a cool breeze blew, sweat fell from the woman’s brow. She grabbed a passer-by and pulled him over. “Does she not fit in well? Why, she almost vanishes into the background!”
The passer-by grunted and mumbled “Very nice” and pulled away.
“Oh, how your precious knees will be protected in these trousers.”
Moor held out even less money than he had to begin with. “The blouse doesn’t please me. But we’re in a hurry, here’s your money.”
He took me by the arm, and we rushed off, the woman calling after us, “But sir, what about you! I have something that will feel like clouds against your knees. You will fit in so well you will not be able to find yourself in a reflection.”
“Where are we going now?”
“Penn told me he’d meet us behind a certain inn in this village. Ah, there it is, with the large green sign.”
We sat in some bushes behind the inn. I admired my trousers and compared them to the heavier trousers Moor wore. “Yours protect your knees better than mine,” I said. “But I do fit in, don’t I?”
“You’re starting to sound like that woman.”
“Is everyone so eager to make money here?”
“Yes, this is your paradise. But the land is lovely.”
“The people don’t look like I expected. They’re smaller and less strong. But they do have a sort of grace, or agility, particularly with their tongues.”
“The woman is not a native Artroran. Neither is Penn. In the outer villages live many immigrants. Later on we’ll see more Artrorans. Believe me, they’re a strong people. But some of them are growing soft,” he added with a touch of disdain.
“What makes softness such an evil to you?”
“If your body grows soft, how will you defend your home sector?”
“If your heart grows hard, how will you care enough to protect the home sector?”
“My heart might turn to steel and I would still protect my home.” Hearing his proud voice and seeing his fierce eyes, I knew that this was true. I felt a flush of shame to remember that the Bakshami could not protect themselves. But how could I protect my home?
Penn’s piercing siren filled the air. He stopped in front of us and called out with irritation. “Hurry, you didn’t tell me you were fugitives. I’ve already been questioned once today. The price for this grows every moment. Most drivers wouldn’t do this for any price.”
“As you well know, any driver would do it for a price,” said Moor. We got into the motorsled. “It becomes tiresome to speak of the price of this and the price of that all day and all night. Isn’t there anything else you can talk of while you drive, Penn?”
“We must get these things straight. I cannot waste my time when there isn’t an adequate fee involved,” he said. “For a price, however, I can be induced to waste the rest of my days.”
His cheerfulness had diminished greatly since the last time I saw him, and in his eyes I saw the same grasping focus as the woman at the inn, but I also saw the same flinty courage as Moor possessed. The group of us would make a formidable opponent.
“We’re going to Clasmata,” said Moor. “Did you bring us food?”
“Clasmata! Do you know how far that is?”
Moor closed his eyes and suddenly looked sick. “I have to sleep,” he murmured. “Save me some food.”
As I ate the food Penn had brought us, I felt the same greedy focus toward the food as I saw in his eyes when he looked at us. The more he drove, however, the more relaxed he became, and his natural cheerfulness returned.
“Have you pondered the story I told you the other day?” he asked me. In the fields surrounding us I saw all manner of animals as colorful as the bountiful flowers. “The one about the pheasants? I was speaking to my woman Lederra, and telling her what a fine young couple you were, and she said she would if you wished be willing to talk to you for no price at all. See, your friend is wrong when he says only money dominates my mind. For no price at all my fecund Lederra can tell you secrets that will bring you babies beyond your wildest dreams. Conversely, she can tell you secrets that will bring you no babies for the rest of your life.” He laughed heartily. “Of course, having no babies is easy, even you know how to do that!”
I stood up in the motorsled. I’d never felt the wind on my face in quite this way before. I could hardly breathe or open my eyes. The wind whipped loudly in my ears and I couldn’t help smiling. When I sat down again I felt especially cozy, knowing how hard the wind whipped all around me.
“What a job you have!” I said to the man, leaning forward. “It’s wonderful. To think this exists while others suffer.”
His face lit up at the chance for more conversation. “It’s dangerous, young lady. As a driver I meet all manner of mean, insane people. Once a day I meet a robber. One day I met three. They were delightful people, if you ignore their line of work.”
“You’re fortunate they didn’t rob you.”
“Of course they robbed me, but I don’t hold a grudge. If I did, where would I be? Sitting here full of grudges. And as I said, all three were delightful. Two were a nice couple like you and your friend. You two don’t plan on robbing me, do you? I’ve been robbed once already this day. If you plan to rob me, come back early tomorrow instead. I won’t have much of value with me so early, but I’ll be tired and off guard. By the end of the day I’m mean and alert.”
“We don’t plan to rob you. I like you,” I said.
“It isn’t a matter of liking me, who wouldn’t like me?”
The scent of flowers made the air seem thick and hard to breathe. And with all the bustle and colors around me, I began to wish for stillness and the quiet beauty of sand. Penn talked on. “As a rule I don’t hold grudges, but I must tell you that every now and then I am tempted to hold a grudge against certain of my neighbors. The ones I’m thinking of cheated me during a business arrangement. You’re not going to cheat me, are you? They owe me money, and I told them that in the interests of fairness I’m going to take it off the money I owe them. So don’t cheat me. I’ve been cheated enough in my life.”
“How can your neighbors owe you if it is you who owe them?”
“Money is a complicated thing, young lady.”
“But between two separate entities, only one can owe the other money,” I persisted. “If you both owe each other money, then either the debts cancel each other out or one of you owes more than the other, in which case the one who owes the most is the one you would have to say owes money. Do I make myself clear?”
“An interesting perspective, and I assure you I’ll give it serious contemplation when I get home.”
“But can you explain your point of view?”
Penn, driving carelessly, almost hit someone hurrying across in front of us. He paused the vehicle and leaned out the window, “Watch where you’re going, you brainless father of whores!”
“You frigid son of murderers!” the pedestrian shouted.
“Frigid! I have twenty children, you ugly son of dogs!”
“Half-blind driver of petty thieves!”
“What! Insult my passengers? I’ll speak with you no more, sir!” Then they both giggled and saluted each other before Penn drove on.
“Did you know that man?”
“What man? That was no man, that was an animal.” He laughed, tooted his siren and waved at the man we’d left behind. “You have to keep your tongue sharp in this business. I practice sh
arpening it with whoever will practice with me.”
“It seems in Artroro a tongue is the most important part of the anatomy.”
“Another interesting perspective! I’ll contemplate that later as well.”
“You yourself just said you need to keep your tongue sharp.”
“Once said, the moment is past, young lady. We must move on to more important details. Tell me, who do you two run from?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to ask my friend, Moor. My name is Mariska, by the way. Moor understands these things better than I.”
“You understand these things well enough to avoid my question.”
“Tonight while you contemplate what I’ve said, I shall contemplate what you have just said.”
“I risk my freedom by driving you to Clasmata. Have I not the right to know why you run and from whom?”
“Perhaps your freedom will be better served by not knowing.”
He laughed. “Son of a blue-bellied beast! You’re right, it will be better served. But my curiosity will not. Ordinarily I don’t make it my business to know my passengers’ affairs, but the two of you have opened wide my sympathies. So confide in me, and I promise you you’ll reach your destination safely.”
I looked at Moor, who still slept deeply. I liked Penn. He struck me now as not so much greedy as happily and unabashedly opportunistic.
“In the act of protecting ourselves, it seems we may have inadvertently caused someone’s death,” I said.
“Who would not give you the right to protect yourself?”
“We were protecting ourselves during the commission of a crime, at least by Soom Kali’s laws.”
“Ah, no offense to your sleeping friend, whom I swear to you I respect and love as if he were my own son, but the Soom Kali are insolent warmongers. Then I take it you murdered a Soom Kali?”
“A soldier.”
“A soldier! What? You ask me to drive you to Clasmata without telling me you’ve murdered a poor innocent soldier who was only doing his job and whose death for all you know has left a family of ten to starve? I will speak to your friend Moor the Soom Kali as soon as he awakes. The price as quoted to me is entirely insufficient.”
“You just said we had the right to protect ourselves.”
“And I meant it. I don’t fault you, I only say the price will not do.”
“Perhaps you’re exaggerating your case.”
“What? And now you accuse me of exaggeration. Young lady, you’ve wounded me even as my own children wound me when they don’t live up to my expectations.”
I thought that over, and then laughed.
He grumbled to himself. “Moor will hear of this,” he said.
We drove quietly along for a while through the heavenly fields that now surrounded us. Every so often ships passed overhead, or vehicles passed us by. As evening approached I saw something I’d never seen before but had only heard existed: fog, the presence of so much water in the atmosphere that you could see the air. The fog blew across our path and over the endless fields as if it were alive rather than simply drops of water moved by the winds. These fog beings seemed to have a destination, and I looked at where they’d come from, and where they were going. In one direction night had nearly fallen, the horizon deep gray. In the other direction the sun had just passed out of sight and the fog diffused the sunlight and colored the air red.
I fell asleep and dreamed that Moor and I were light enough to ride this humid air that you could see. We felt the breeze against our cheeks as we floated on a wisp of fog, traveling from a world of darkness into a world of romantic light. I awoke to hear Moor and Penn arguing.
When I sat up straighter Moor looked at me balefully. “I tell you, it’s not enough, sir,” said Penn.
Moor said, “Then you must let us off at the next town, and we’ll pay you for your troubles.”
“Now listen to yourself,” Penn said, suddenly conciliatory. “I would sooner drive myself over a cliff than abandon you.” He turned around toward me. “I thought I heard you back there. Talk some sense into this young hothead, tell him how much I love him.”
“He claims to love you like his own son,” I said.
“Claims! What did I do to deserve this?” Penn said. “Oh, oh, the pain of betrayal is a great pain indeed.”
“We haven’t got enough to pay what you ask,” said Moor, himself becoming conciliatory. “We have no desire to cheat you. But you ask the impossible.”
“I’ll compromise with you. I have fifteen children at home and my wife herself works day and night as I do. I can’t take such a chance as you ask of me, but I will drive you as far as two villages over, and then you must pay me less than I ask but more than you think the ride was worth. Then I will return home, and you must find a new driver to Clasmata.”
“All right,” said Moor tiredly. “Drive us as far as you will.” He turned to me. “Perhaps I’ve made a mistake. We should have just bought a vehicle. It would be less trouble.” He leaned back and closed his eyes, murmuring, “But I was so sleepy I didn’t think I could drive.”
In front of us I could see the plains would soon end, replaced by prodigious hills. Night had fallen all around now. The fog had passed. I, too, closed my eyes, and this time dreamt somber dreams of capture and death. Another time I half woke to see Penn had gotten out and was talking on a contactor. I fell asleep again and didn’t wake up until we’d reached the second town over, a town surrounded by dark hills. Moor and I got out with our pack of jewels and the dogs, and Moor paid our driver. Penn took my hands and looked at me with no pretense and an expression of such solemn affection I knew it broke his heart to leave us this way.
“Please forgive me, young lady. And believe me when I tell you that what you’ve paid me will do much good in my family. And believe me further when I tell you how fond I am of you and your hotheaded friend. But Lederra and I have a family of twenty-one to support and I can’t put myself in danger. What would she do without me?”
“You mustn’t feel guilty,” I said. “My parents would have done the same thing, I’m sure, because of how much they loved us.” The air was crisp now, and the moonless sky black. The lights in this town were the strange lights of the first town we visited, and not the warm lamps of Soom Kali. I knew how to read the word “inn” now, and saw several before us. “At least it won’t be hard to find a place to stay.” I saw shadows moving in the distance.
Before I could stop him, Moor had grabbed hold of Penn’s arm and held his knife to the driver’s heavy neck. “Tell me, what do you think you’ve done that we must forgive you for? Who is that ahead of us?”
“Well, as I said, just, I, leaving, you, here.” I’d never heard him so inarticulate. Moor glanced furtively around. “Mariska, get the dogs back in, and yourself as well.” He pulled Penn back into the vehicle.
“Moor!” I said. “He’s done all he can for us.”
“You yourself said to trust no one. I don’t trust him.”
“Surely no one does, but does that mean we should abuse his hospitality?”
“Where’s your knife?”
“Here, but why?”
“You must hold it to his neck as you see me doing. I’m going to drive.”
“Moor, we mustn’t act like savages. I know you don’t like him but—”
Moor switched off the motorsled’s pale lights and turned the vehicle around, back toward where we’d come from.
“As time passes you’ll see that a savage is not what you think it is,” he snapped.
The path before us sloped downhill, and Moor let the motorsled move quickly by gravity down the slope. There were shouts behind us, and I turned around to see what seemed like an explosion of lights, vehicles, and people. Penn socked me hard in the face, and, yelling “Please forgive me,” hopped out of the motorsled with his jewels and ours as well. He fell with a shout of pain and disappeared immediately in the night. The motorsled moved frighteningly quickly now. In the darkness I could barely see
what came before us and could only hope that Moor kept us on course. I rubbed my aching eye socket. Moor turned down a side path, or what I assumed was a side path since I couldn’t see clearly. Gliding down the invisible path this way made me strangely giddy. A white doglike creature sprang through the bushes and turned to watch us. The motorsled itself was so quiet I could hear leaves rustling all around me. Though I’d been taught that one must be ever ready to accept death, as I glided through the fog the only thought in my head was, “I love this life.”
4
Down, down, down. I hadn’t realized how high we’d driven. At first I felt I shouldn’t talk, shouldn’t make any noise at all. I could barely make out the fields and bushes rushing silently by in the blackness. Behind us the black hill rose up and expanded as we descended. Above the very top of the hill a group of stars I knew well sparkled as I’d seen them do many times in Bakshami. Usually I hadn’t stayed up this late, so I rarely saw them so high on the horizon as they were tonight.
“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked softly.
“As is often the case when I’m with you, I know more about where I’m going from than where I’m going to.”
“Are you angry with me?”
He concentrated on maneuvering the motorsled around a perilous twist and after that didn’t talk at all. I hoped we would never reach the bottom of the hill and stop gliding in this way. At the bottom of the hill we would have to decide which way to turn, and I didn’t think he knew. Logically, we would turn in the direction we’d been going before we got sidetracked. Before we reached bottom Moor stopped the motorsled near a cliff.
“We should get out,” he said.
“Why not take this thing to Clasmata?”
“Too easily traced. No doubt they already know exactly where we are and will be waiting at the bottom.”
“How can they know?”
“Penn will already have given our pursuers the motorsled’s electronic tracking number. They’ll find us no matter where we go. If we steal this car now, we’ll have Artroran soldiers as well as bounty hunters involved.”