Jack Vance - Planet of Adventure

An alcove held a chest half-full of sequins. Two smaller coffers contained jewels, ornaments, trinkets, trifles: a magpie's hoard. The committeemen selected steel swords with filigree pommels and guards for themselves; Traz and Anacho did likewise. Traz, after a diffident glance at Reith, arrayed himself in a fine golden ocher cloak, boots of soft black leather, a beautifully wrought casque of thin steel, drooping and splaying to protect the nape of the neck.

Reith located several dozen energy pistols with spent powercells. These, according to Anacho, could be recharged from the power-cells which drove the drays: a fact evidently unknown to Naga Goho.

The sun was low in the west when they departed the gloomy palace. Crossing the courtyard Reith noticed a squat door set back in a niche. He heaved it open, to reveal a flight of steep stone stairs. Up wafted a dismal draft, reeking of mold, organic decay, filth-and something else: a musky dank stench which stiffened the hairs at the back of Reith's neck.

"Dungeons," said Anacho laconically. "Listen."

A feeble croaking murmur came up from below. Inside the door Reith found a lamp, but was unable to evoke light. Anacho tapped the top of the bulb, to produce a white radiance. "A Dirdir device."

The group descended the steps, ready for anything, and stepped forth into a high-vaulted chamber. Traz, seizing at Reith's arm, pointed; Reith saw a black shape gliding quietly off into the far shadows. "Pnume," muttered Anacho, hunching his shoulders. "They infest the ruined places of Tschai, like worms in old wood."

A high lamp cast a feeble light, revealing cages around the periphery of the room. In certain of these were bones, in others heaps of putrefying flesh, in others living creatures, from whom issued the sounds which the group had heard.

"Water, water," moaned the shambling figures. "Give us water!"

Reith held the lamp close. "Chaschmen."

From a tank to the side of the room he filled pannikins of water and brought them to the cages.

The Chaschmen drank avidly and clamored for more, which Reith brought to them.

Heavy cages at the far end of the room held a pair of massive motionless figures with towering conical scalps.

"Green Chasch," whispered Traz. "What did Naga Goho do with these?"

Anacho said, "Notice: they peer in a single direction only, the direction of their horde. They are telepathic."

Reith dipped up two more pans of water, thrust them into the cages of the Green Chasch. The creatures reached ponderously, sucked the pans dry.

Reith returned to the Chaschmen. "How long have you been here?"

"A long, long time," croaked one of the captives. "I cannot say how long."

"Why were you caged?"

"Cruelty! Because we were Chaschmen!"

Reith returned to the committeemen. "Did you know they were here?"

"No! Naga Goho did as he pleased."

Reith moved the linch-pins, opened the doors. "Come forth; you are free. The men who captured you are dead."

The Chaschmen timorously crept forth. They went to the tank and drank more water. Reith turned back to examine the Green Chasch. "Very strange, strange indeed."

"Perhaps Goho used them as indicators," Anacho suggested. "He would know at all times the direction of their horde."

"No one can talk to them?"

"They do not talk; they transfer thoughts."

Reith turned to the committeemen. "Send up a dozen men, to carry the cages down to the plaza."

"Bah," muttered Bruntego the Gray. "Best kill the ugly beasts! Kill the Chaschmen as well!"

Reith turned him a quick glare. "We are not Gnashters! We kill from necessity only! As for the Chaschmen, let them go back to their servitude, or stay here as free men, whatever they wish."

Bruntego gave a sour grunt. "If we do not kill them, they will kill us."

Reith, making no answer, turned the lamp toward the remote parts of the dungeon, to find only dank stone walls. He could not learn how the Pnume had departed the chamber, nor could the Chaschmen give any coherent information. "They would come, silent as devils, to look at us, with never a word, nor would they bring us water!"

"Odd creatures," ruminated Reith.

"They are the weirds of Tschai!" cried the Chaschmen, trembling to the emotion of their new freedom. "They should be purged from the planet!"

"As well as the Dirdir, the Wankh and the Chasch," said Reith, grinning.

"No, not the Chasch. We are Chasch, did you not know?"

"You are men."

"No, we are Chasch in the larval stage; this is prime verity!"

"Bah!" said Reith, suddenly angry. "Take off those ridiculous false heads." He stepped forward, jerked away the conical headpieces. "You are men, you are nothing else! Why do you allow the Chasch to victimize you?"

The Chaschmen fell silent, glancing fearfully at the cages as if they expected a new incarceration.

"Come," said Reith brusquely. "Let's get out of here."

A week passed. With nothing better to do, Reith flung himself into his job. He selected a group of the most obviously intelligent young men and women, whom he would teach and who would teach others. He formed a civic militia, delegating authority in this case to Baojian, the erstwhile caravan-master. With the help of Anacho and Tostig the old Nomad, he drew up a tentative legal code. Over and over he explained the benefits to be derived from his innovations, arousing a variety of responses: interest, apprehension, dubious sneers, enthusiasm, as often as not blank incomprehension. He learned that there was more to organizing a government than merely giving orders; he was required to be everywhere at once. And always at the back of his mind was apprehension: what were the Blue Chasch planning? He could not believe that they had so easily abandoned their efforts to capture him. Beyond doubt they employed spies. They would therefore be informed of events in Pera, and hence be in no great haste. But sooner or later they would come to take him. A man of ordinary prudence would flee Pera instantly. Reith, for a variety of reasons, was disinclined to flight.

The Chaschmen from the dungeons displayed no eagerness to return to Dadiche; Reith assumed that they were fugitives from Chasch justice. The Green Chasch warriors were a problem. Reith could not bring himself to kill them, but popular opinion would have been outraged had he released them outright. As a compromise the cages stood in the plaza, and the creatures served as a spectacle for the people of Pera. The Green Chasch ignored the attention, facing steadily to the north, telepathically linked-so stated Anacho-to the parent horde.

Reith's principal solace was the Flower of Cath, although the girl mystified him. He could not read her mood. During the long caravan journey she had been melancholy, distrait, somewhat haughty. She had become gentle and loving, if at times absentminded. Reich found her more alluring than ever, full of a hundred sweet surprises. But her melancholy persisted.

Homesickness, decided Reith; almost certainly she longed for her home in Cath.

With a dozen other preoccupations, Reith postponed the day when he must reckon with Derl's yearnings.

The three Chaschmen, so Reith presently learned, were not citizens of Dadiche, but hailed from Saaba, a city to the south. One evening in the common-room they took Reith to task for what they characterized as "extravagant ambitions." "You wish to ape the higher races; you will only come to grief! Sub-men are incapable of civilization."

"You don't know what you're talking about," said Reith, amused by their earnestness.

"Of course we do; are we not Chaschmen, the larval stage of the Blue Chasch? Who would know better?"

"Anyone with a smattering of biology."

The Chaschmen made fretful gestures. "A sub-man, you; and jealous of the advanced race."