Part 2 (1/2)

Here at close range Flinx was able to study his two charges better. He did so, intently. The tail human was a fair sixth metre shorter than the huge Symm, but the thranx was truly a giant of its kind. With its upper body raised as it was now, its eyes were almost on a level with Flinx's own. The entire insect was a full two metres long. One and a half was normal for a male of the species. That their eyes were busy in their own scrutiny of him he did not mind. As a performer he was more than used to that. But he found himself looking away from those great golden orbs. Meeting them was too much like staring into an ocean of shattered prisms. He wondered what it was like to view life that way, through a thousand tiny eyes instead of merely two large ones.

When the man spoke, it was with a surprisingly melodious voice. 'How do you do, youngster. Our good dispenser of spirits here informs us that you are practically Indispensabie to one who wishes to see: something of your city.'

He extended a hand and Flinx shook it, surprised at the calluses there. As the enacts of the mildly hallucinogenic brew wore off, he became increasingly, aware of the uniqueness of the two beings he was going to be a.s.sociating with each exuded an aura of something he'd not encountered before, even in his wanderings among the denizens of the shuitle-port.

'My name is Tse-Mallory .. Bran. And this, my companion is the Eint Truzenzuzex.'

The insect bowed from the 'waist' at the introduction, a swooping, flowing motion not unlike that of a lake-skimmer diying for a surface swimming fish, Another surprise: it spoke Terranglo, instead of symbospeech. Hero was a learned and very polite bug indeed! Few thranx had the ability to master more than a few elementary phrases of Terrangio. Its inherent logical inconsistencies tended to give them headaches. The insect's p.r.o.nunciation, however, was as good as his own. The rasping quality of it was made unavoidable by the different arrangement of vocal cords.

'High metamorphosis to you, youth. We've been in need of a guide to this confusing city of yours for several days, actually. We're very glad you've agreed to help us out of our difficulty.'

'I'll do what I can, gentlesirs. 'This flattery was embarra.s.sing.

'We would prefer to start at dawn tomorrow,' said Tse-Mallory. 'We're here on business, you see, and a more intimate acquaintance with the city is a prerequisite which we have put off” too long already. We were expecting a guide to meet us, actually, but since he has apparently changed his mind, you will have the commission.'

'We are staying at a small inn a short distance down this same street..' added Truzenzuzex. It's sign is three fishes and...'

'... a stars.h.i.+p. I know the place, sir I'll meet you at first-fog - seven hours - tomorrow, in the lobby.' The two shook hands with him once again and made as if to take their leave. Flinx coughed delicately but insistency. 'Uh, a small detail, sirs.'

Tse-Mallory paused. 'Yes?'

'There is the matter of payment.'

The thranx made the series of rapid clicking sounds with its mandibles which pa.s.sed for laughter among its kind. The insects had a highly developed, sometimes mischievous sense of humour.

'So! Our guide is a plutocrat as well! No doubt as a larvae you were a hopeless sugar-h.o.a.rder. How about this, then? At the conclusion of our tour tomorrow - I daresay one day will be sufficient for our purposes - we will treat you to a meal at the finest constabulary in the food crescent.'

Well! Let's see now, twelve courses at Portio's would come to ... well! His mouth was watering already.

That'll be great ... sufficient, I mean, sirs.' Indeed, it would!

Chapter Two.

Flinx was of course not a guide by profession, but he knew ten times as much about the real Drallar as the bored government hirelings who conducted the official tours of the city's high spots for bemused off-worlders. He'd performed this function for other guests of Small Symm more than once in the past.

These, however, had proved themselves rather outretouristas . He showed them the great central marketplace, where goods from half-way across the Arm could be found. They did not buy. He took them to the great gate of Old Drallar, a monumental arch carved from water-pure silicon dioxide by native craftsmen, and so old it was not recorded in the palace chronicles. They did not comment. He took them also to the red towers where the fantastic flora of Moth grew lush in greenhouses under the tender ministrations of de dieted royal botanists. Then to' the tiny, out-of-the-way places, where could be bought the unusual, the rare, and the outlawed. Jewelled dishware, artwork, weaponry, utensils, gems, rare earths and rare clothings, tickets to anywhere. Scientific instruments, scientists, females or other s.e.xes of any species. Drugs: medicinal, hallucinogenic, deadly, preservative. Thoughts and palm-readings.

Only rarely did either of them say this or that small flung about their surroundings. One might almost have thought them bored.

Once it was at an antique cartographer's, and then in a language incomprehensible to the multilinguistic Flinx.

Yes, for two who had seemed so needful of a guide, they had thus far shown remarkably little interest in their surroundings. They seemed far more interested in Flinx and Pip than in the city he was showing them. As late afternoon. rolled around he was startled to realize how much they had learned about him through the most innocent and indirect questioning. Once, when Truzenzuzex had leaned forward to observe the minidrag more closely, it had drawn hack wanly and curled its head out of sight behind Flinx's neck. That itself was an oddity. The snake's normal reaction was usually either pa.s.sivity or belligerence. This was the first time Flinx could recall it's displaying uncertainty. Apparently Truzenzuzex made little of the incident) but he never tried to approach the reptile closely again.

'You are an outstanding guide and a cheerful companion,'the thranx said, 'and I for one count my self fortunate to have you with us.' They had moved along until they were now quite a distance from the city's centre. Truzenzuzex gestured ahead to where the tower homes of the very wealthy stretched away in landscaped splendour. 'Now we would wish to see the manicured grounds and hanging gardens of Drallar's inurbs, of which we have both heard so much.'

I'm afraid I cannot manage that, sir. The grounds of Braav murb are closed to such as I, and there are ground-keepers - with guns - who are posted by the walls to keep the common folk from infesting the greens.'

'But youdo know the ways within?' prodded Tse-Mallory.

'Well,' Flinx began hesitantly. After all, what did he really know of those two? 'At night I have sometimes found it necessary to ... but it is not night now, and we would surely be seen going over the walls.'

'Then we shall go through the gate. Take us,' he said firmly, shutting off Flinx's incipient protests, 'and we will worry about getting past the guards.'

Flinx shrugged, irritated by the man's stubbornness. Let them learn their own way, then. But he mentally added an expensive dessert to the evening's meal. He led them to the first gateway and stood in the background while the large, overbearing man who lounged in the little building there came over towards them, grumbling noticeably.

It was now that the most extraordinary event of the day took place. Before the obviously antagonistic fellow could so much as utter a word, Truzenzuzex put a truehand into a pouch and-thrust under the man's eyes a card taken from somewhere inside- The man's eyes widened and he all but saluted, the belligerence melting from his att.i.tude like wax. Flinx had never, never seen an inurb guard, a man widely noted for his cultivated rudeness and suspicious mannerisms, react so helplessly to anyone, not even the residents of the inurbs themselves. He grew even more curious as to the nature of his friends. But they remained basically unreadable.d.a.m.n that beer! It seemed to him that he had heard the name Tse-Maltory somewhere before, but he couldn't be certain. And he would have given much for a glimpse of the card Truzenzuzex had so negligently flashed before the guard.

The way was now quite unopposed. He would at least have the opportunity of seeing some familiar things for the first time in the light of day. At leisure, too, without having to glance continually over his shoulder.

They strolled silently amid the emerald parklike grounds and tinkling waterfalls, occasionally pa.s.sing some richly dressed inhabitant or sweating underling, sometimes startling a deer or phylope among the bushes.

I understand,' said Tse-Mallory, breaking the silence, 'that each tower belongs to one family, and is named thusly.'

'That's true enough.' replied Flinx.

'And arc you familiar with them?'

'Most, not all. Since you are curious, I'll name the ones I do know as we pa.s.s them.'

'Do that.' It seemed silly, but they were paying, so who was he to argue the practicality? A fine wine joined the dinner menu ...

'.. and this,' he said as they drew abreast of a tail black-glazed tower, 'is the House of Malaika. A misnomer, sir. As I understand, it means ”angel” in a dead Terran language.'

'No Terran language is ”dead,”' said Tse-Mallory cryptically, Then. 'He who is named Maxim?'

'Why, yes. I know because I've performed here for parties, several times past. This next, the yellow ... '

But they weren't listening, he saw. Both had halted by the black tower and were staring upwards to where the rose-tinted crystal proto-porches encircled the upper stories and over hung the lush greenery of the hanging vines and air-shrubs.

'It is fortuitous,' he heard Truzenzuzex remark, 'that you know each other. It might or might not facilitate certain matters. Come. we shall pay a call on your Mister Malaika.'

Flinx was completely taken aback. Was this why they had hired him in the first place? To come this far to an impossibility? Next to the king and his ministers, the trader families of Drallar, nomads who had taken their talents off planet, were the wealthiest and most powerful individuals on the planet. And some might possibly be wealthier, for the extent of the great fortunes was not a subject into which even the monarch could inquire with impunity.

It is a slight acquaintance only, sirs! What makes you believe he will do anything but kick us out? What makes you believe he'll even see us?'

'What makes you think we can enter an oh-so-restricted inurb?' replied Truzenzuzex confidently. 'He will see us.'

The two began to head up the paved walkway towards the great arch of the tower entrance and Flinx, exasperated and puzzled, had little choice but to follow.

The double doorway of simple carved crystal led to a domes hallway that was lined with statuary and paintings and mindgrams which even Flinx's untrained eye could recognize as being of great value. There, at the far end, was a single elevator.

They halted before the platinum-in laid wood. A woman's voice greeted them mechanically from a grid set off to one side.

'Good afternoon, gentlebeings, and welcome to the House of Malaika. Please to state your business.'

Now they would finish this foolishness! The message was all very nicely put, the surroundings pleasant.