rare on Fionnula.'
Traditional hospitality displaying peaceful intent. A custom familiar to Dumarest. The cakes were small, the wine perfumed. Cazele drained his glass and wiped his lips on a scrap of fabric. Leaning back in his chair he smiled as he noticed Nadine's interest in the furnishings of the room.
'My adornments interest you? That banner was carried by an ancestor in a bloody war. That scroll lists those who first settled here. That is a graph of population trends. With that gun I brought down a gravid ulharge in the Moreau Pass. An ugly thing. I was in my late teens at the time. But enough of an old man's memories. More wine?'
Dumarest said, 'What is that?'
He pointed to a glass case set against a wall. The yellow light shone in ruby reflections from a creature mounted beneath the transparent pane. A scaled and spined thing half the length of his forearm, winged, the mandibles lined with cruel serrations. The proboscis was like a needle. Compound eyes shone like jewels. The tail held a cluster of vents which could have housed stings.
'That?' Cazele was casual. 'A pylas. They breed in the hills. Now tell me about yourselves. Have you come to trade? We have a fine stock of dried loosh in the warehouse and I can talk Sinclair into letting it go for a reasonable price. If you want to settle there is land to the north. Good soil and plenty of water.'
'We have landed to effect minor repairs. We need parts and facilities. It seems your authority is needed before they can be provided.'
'That is correct. The field and the repair sheds are in my domain. Just what do you need?'
'My engineer could tell you that better than I. If you give me the necessary authority he and your technicians can get together.'
'Agreed. I also assume you would be interested in recreational facilities.' Cazele poured more wine. 'Fionnula may look bleak but things are not always what they seem. There is good hunting if you care to indulge in the sport. We have underground lakes and gardens. Soon it will be the time of the Carriere. The time of rain,' he explained. 'The sky will be thick with cloud and the air alive with waterfalls. Three days and the sun shines again and the crops grow before your eyes. The fields will be rich with glorious color yielding a heady perfume. It is a time of festival. You will enjoy it.'
'If we are here.'
'It would be a pity if you were not.' Cazele smiled and sipped at his wine. Shaking his head he set down the glass and rose to his feet. 'I am being inhospitable. The wine is not of the best. Please excuse me while I fetch a fresh bottle.'
An obvious excuse to leave them alone. Electronic eyes and ears could hear every word, see every movement and give Cazele an advantage if they were careless. Such a man would not miss the opportunity of learning what he could. Dumarest rose as Nadine leaned towards him and moved to where the pylas rested in its case. As she joined him he rested a finger on the pane.
Quietly, as if discussing the creature, he said, 'What do you read?'
'He wants the business but he wants us to settle even more. From what I've seen this planet needs new blood. He could hope we will provide it.'
By revitalizing the population with new children, the vitality of new minds, new energies. An influx gained by the promise of land, titles, the hint of given authority. An offer which held appeal and those so tempted would be reluctant to leave.
'Look around,' said Dumarest. 'See what you can learn. In a way you are looking at the history of a world.'
One barely investigated before Cazele returned. The wine he had selected was darkly red, flecked with tiny motes of gold, the taste giving rise to thoughts of firelight and clustered shadows.
'A wine for romance,' he said, lifting his glass. 'In it one can see pleasant memories and the hint of joys to come. A rare vintage. If the weather is kind we shall be able to repeat it. Your health!'
Dutifully Dumarest drank the toast. As he lowered his glass he said, 'Now to business. We have yet to come to an arrangement.'
'We will, but after a journey it is good to rest for a while. To enjoy what a new world has to offer. Good food and wine. Pleasant company.' Cazele lifted the bottle. 'Enjoy your stay. Why be in so much of a hurry?'
'A matter of finance,' said Dumarest. 'We are mercenaries and have a contract. It would be poor business for us to break it or to arrive late. Which is why we can tolerate no unnecessary delay.' Smiling he reached for the bottle. 'Now let us enjoy the rest of this wine.'
Dumarest stood on the field before the enigmatic cone, one hand resting on the surface, head tilted as he looked up at its height.
As Zehava joined him he said, 'What do you make of this?'
'Nothing. It's a freak of some kind. Maybe a monument of sorts. It could even be old garbage. Who the hell cares? Just relax, Earl. Why make problems? We've enough as it is.'
'The compliment,' he agreed. 'They're turning into a rabble.'
'That's your opinion. They aren't toy soldiers. The Kaldari don't take orders. They won't obey unless they want to and there's no reason they should. Anyway, where's the harm? What's wrong with a little recreation?'
Days and nights spent on their concept of fun, the natives eager for the money they squandered in taverns, casinos, and houses of pleasure. The normal pastimes of those to whom the future was always in doubt. For whom old age was an abstraction. Too many days and now parties were rafting into the hills to find what sport they could.
Zehava said, 'How can you blame them, Earl? They're bored. The repairs are taking too long. So they' re having some fun. Why don't we?'
An invitation he ignored. Mauger grunted as he entered the engine room. The basic work had been done, a new governor replacing the original spare, but the coils had needed more work than he had guessed and now there was a fresh problem.
'The air recyclers will have to be checked. We found one with damaged components which could have poisoned the air. Once the ionic exchanger breaks down there's a danger it can produce too much ozone or -'
'Sabotage?'
Mauger shrugged. 'How to tell? Filters break down like everything else.'
But not in a vessel correctly maintained. Not in a ship which dared not take the chance of malfunction. What else could he suspect? How much longer the delay?
Again the engineer shrugged. 'I can't tell you that. The generator took longer than I thought and now we have to take care of this. I won't be happy until I've checked every essential component. It'll take time but it's better to be sure. Anyway, this seems a comfortable world.'
Too comfortable, at least for the visitors, Dumarest wasn't so sure about the natives. Yet they seemed amiable enough if a little odd. Too detached, too prone to lose attention, sometimes seeming to shrink in abject terror and, at others, to be riding an euphoric high. All giving the impression of holding a common secret, one they were determined not to share.
Nadine was no help.
'I can't read them, Earl,' she confessed. 'I don't know their language. What would normally signal fear and terror comes out as joy and anticipation. There are places I can't enter. Closed houses. There are trips out to the hills in sealed rafts.'
'Hunters?'
'I'm not sure. They could be but where are the trophies? The skins and tails and heads. Cazele has things like that in his office. You'd expect to find them on sale.' Pausing she added, 'Land has been offered to some of the compliment. Land, servants, and titles if they will stay. Women, too, a lot of women. To revitalize the population, I suppose. Only the men have so far been approached.'
'Do any show interest?'
'Some of them. They talk of setting up here. Of turning this world into an extension of Kaldar. They will rule and the natives will do the work.' She shook her head, smiling. 'It's just talk, Earl. A dream. When the ship's ready to leave they'll forget it.'
Something he doubted. Cazele was offering a golden bribe and the promise was too enticing, the temptation too great. All they had ever hoped to attain delivered on a plate. The expedition would be abandoned. The ship
