Wyst: Alastor 1716 Read online

  Now I must go to drudge: I have traded stints with a certain Arsmer from an apartment along the hall. This week is unusually busy! Still, by Zeck standards, an idyll of leisure!

  With my dearest love to all: your wayward

  Jantiff

  Chapter 6

  Jantiff became ever more aware of Skorlet’s strange new manner. Never had he thought her placid or stolid, but now she alternated between fits of smouldering silence and a peculiar nervous gaiety. Twice Jantiff discovered her in close colloquy with Esteban, and the discussions came to such an abrupt halt that Jantiff was made to feel an intruder. Another time he found her pacing the apartment, shaking her hands as if they were wet. This was a new manifestation which Jantiff felt impelled to notice. “What is bothering you now?”

  Skorlet stopped short, turned Jantiff an opaque black glance, then blurted forth her troubles. “It’s Esteban and his cursed bonterfest. Tanzel is sick with excitement, and Esteban wants full payment. I don’t have, the tokens.”

  “Why doesn’t he pay for Tanzel himself?”

  “Hah I You should know Esteban by this time! He’s absolutely heartless when it comes to money.”[22]

  Jantiff began to sense a possible trend to the conversation. He gave his head a sympathetic shake and sidled away toward the bedroom. Skorlet caught his arm, and Jantiff’s fears were quickly realized. Skorlet spoke in a throaty voice: “Jantiff, I have a hundred tokens; I need five hundred more for the bonterfest. Won’t you lend me that much? I’ll do something nice for you.”

  Jantiff winced and shifted his gaze around the room. “There’s nothing nice I need just now.”

  “But Jantiff, it’s only an ozol or two. You’ve got a whole sheaf.”

  “I’ll need those ozols on the way home.”

  “You already have your ticket! You told me so!”

  “Yes, yes! I have my ticket! But I might want to stop off along the way, and then there’ll be no money because I squandered it at Esteban’s bonterfest.”

  “But you’re squandering money on, your own place in the group.”

  “I also squandered my pigments on your cult-globes.”

  “Mutt you be so petty?” snarled Skorlet, suddenly furious. “You’re too paltry to bother with! Give thanks that I convinced Esteban of this!”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Jantiff stiffly. “It’s not Esteban’s affair whether I’m paltry or petty or anything else.”

  Skorlet started to speak, then suppressed her remarks and said merely: “I’ll say no more on that subject.”

  “Exactly so,” said Jantiff frigidly. “In fact, nothing more need be said on any subject whatever.”

  Skorlet’s face twisted askew in a darkling leer. “No? I thought you wanted to move in with that slang[23] Kedidah.”

  “I spoke along those lines,” said Jantiff in a measured voice. “Evidently it can’t be done, and that seems to be the end of it.”

  “But it can be done, and quite easily, if I choose to do it.”

  “Oh? How will you accomplish this miracle?”

  “Please, Jantiff, don’t analyze my every statement. What I undertake to do, I achieve, and never doubt it. Old Sarp will move here if Tanzel will copulate with him from time to time, and she’s very anxious for the feast so everything works out nicely.”

  ,.Jantiff turned away in disgust. “I don’t want to be part of any such arrangement”

  Skorlet stared at him, her brows two black bars of puzzlement. “And why not? Everyone gets what he wants; why should you object?”

  Jantiff tried to formulate a lofty remark, but none of his sentiments seemed appropriate. He heaved a sigh. “First, I want to discuss the matter with Kedidah. After all—”

  “No! Kedidah has no force in this affair. What’s it to her? She’s busy with her hussade team; she cares not a whit whether you’re here or there!”

  Jantiff, looking up at the ceiling, composed an incisive rejoinder, but at the end held his tongue. Skorlet’s concepts and his, own were incommensurable; why incite her into a new tirade?

  Skorlet needed no stimulation. “Frankly, Jantiff, III be pleased to have you out of here. You and your precious posturings! Piddling little sketches hung up everywhere to remind us of your talents! You’ll never forget your elitism, will you? This is Arrabus, Jantiff! You’re here on sufferance, so never forget it!”

  “Nothing of the sort!” stormed Jantiff. “I’ve paid all my fees and .I do my own drudge.”

  Skorlet’s round white face underwent a sly and cunning contortion. “Those sketches, they’re very strange! It gives me to wonder, these endless faces! Why do you do it? What or whom, are you looking for? I want the truth!”

  “I draw faces because it suits me to do so. And now, unless I’m to be late for drudge—”

  “And now: bah! Give me the money and I’ll make the arrangements.”

  “Absolutely not. You make the arrangements first. In any event, I don’t have so many tokens; I’ll have to change ozols at the space-port”

  Skorlet gave him a long grim look. “So long as I can make Esteban a definite answer, and I’m seeing him directly.”

  “Be as definite as you like.”

  Skorlet marched from the apartment. Jantiff changed into his work overalls and descended to the street where suddenly he recalled that today Arsmer had taken over his stint. Feeling foolish he returned up the ascensor to his apartment Stepping into the bedroom he removed boots and coveralls, and took them to the cabinet. At this moment the outer door opened and several people entered. Heavy footsteps approached the bedroom; someone pushed aside the door and looked in, but failed to notice Jantiff by the cabinet. “He’s not here,” said a voice Jantiff recognized as that of Esteban.

  “He’s gone off to drudge,” said Skorlet. “Sit, and Fit see if the swill is fit to drink.”

  “Don’t bother so far as I’m concerned,” said a husky-harsh voice which Jantiff failed to recognize. “I can’t abide the stuff.”

  Sarp’s plangent rasp sounded in reply: “Easy for you to say, with all your wines and fructifers!”

  “Never fear, soon you’ll say the same!” declared Esteban in a voice of reckless enthusiasm. “Just give us a couple months.”

  “You’re either a genius or a lunatic,” said the unknown Voice.

  “Use the word ‘visionary’!” said Esteban. “Isn’t this how great events have gone in the past? The visionary. seizes upon an idle reverie; he constructs an irresistible scheme and topples an empire! From Jantiff’s miserable little sketch comes this notion of a lifetime.”

  “Lifetime’: that is apt usage,” said the unknown man drily. “The word reverberates.”

  “Here and now we abandon negativity!” exclaimed Esteban. “It’s only a hindrance. We succeed by our very boldness!”

  “Still, let’s not be rash. I can point out a hundred avenues into disaster.”

  “Very good! We’ll consider each in turn and give them all wide berths. Skorlet, where is the swill? Pour with a loose hand.”

  “Don’t neglect me,” said Sarp.

  Jantiff went to sit on the bed. He uttered a tentative cough, just as Esteban spoke out. “Success to our venture!”

  “I’m still not altogether attuned to your frequency,” grumbled the unknown man. “To me it sounds implausible, improbable, even unreal.”

  “Not at all,” declared Esteban gaily. “Break the affair into separate steps. Each is simplicity in itself. In your case especially; how can you choose to act otherwise?”

  The unknown man gave a sour grunt. “There’s something in what you say. Let me see that sketch again… Yes; it’s really most extraordinary.”

  Skorlet spoke in a sardonic aside. “Perhaps we should drink our toast to Jantiff.”

  “Quite so,” said Esteban. “We must think very carefully about Jantiff.”

  Jantiff stretched himself out on the bed and considered crawling underneath.

  “He only typifi
es the basic problem,” said the unknown voice. “In simple terms: how do we avoid recognition?”

  “This is where you become indispensable,” said. Esteban. Sarp gave a rasping chuckle. “By definition, we’re all indispensable.”

  “True,” said Esteban. “For one of us to succeed, all must succeed.”

  “One thing is certain,” mused Skorlet. “Once we commit ourselves there’s no turning back.”

  Jantiff could not help reflecting that Skorlet’s voice, cool and steady, was far different from the voice she had used during their recent quarrel.

  “Back to the basic problem,” said die husky-harsh voice. “Your absence from Old Pink will certainly be noticed.”

  “We’ll have transferred to other blocks!”

  “Well and good, until someone looks at the screen and says: ‘Why, there’s Sarp! And dog defile us all, that’s surely Skorlet! And Esteban!”

  “I’ve considered this at length,” said Esteban. “The problem is surmountable. Our acquaintances, after all, are not innumerable.”

  Sarp asked: “Are you forgetting. Loudest Bombah?[24] The Whispers are inviting him to the Centenary.”

  “He’s invited, but I can’t believe that he’ll come.”

  “You never know,” said the unknown voice. “Stranger things have happened. I insist that we leave nothing to chance.”

  “Agreed! In fact I’ve considered the matter. Think! If he’s on hand he’ll be sure to mount the monkey-pole[25]; correct?”

  “A possibility, but not a certainty.”

  “Well, he’s either on hand or he isn’t.”

  “That is definitely true.”

  “If someone gave you a bag of poggets and you knew one might be deadly poisonous, what would you do?”

  “Throw away the whole bag.”

  “That’s certainly one possibility. A good number of poggets are wasted, of course.”

  “Hmmf. Well, we’ll discuss it another time. Are you still planning your bonterfest?”

  “Most definitely,” said Skorlet. “I’ve promised Tanzel and there’s no reason to disappoint her.”

  “It makes us all conspicuous, after a fashion.”

  “Not really. Bonterfests aren’t uncommon.”

  “Still, why not cancel the affair? There’ll be opportunities in the future.”

  “But I’m not confident of the future! It’s a spinning top which can totter in any direction!”

  “Whatever you like. It’s not a critical matter.”

  Skorlet, for one reason or another, chose to enter the bedroom. She went to her cabinet, then, turning, saw Jantiff. She gave a croak of astonishment. “What are you doing here?”

  Jantiff feigned the process of awakening. “Eh? What? Oh, hello, Skorlet Is it time for wump?”

  “I thought you were at drudge.”

  “Armor took my drudge today. Why? What’s the problem? Are you having guests?” Jantiff sat up and swung his legs to the floor. From the sitting room came a mutter of voices, then the outer door slid open and shut. Esteban sauntered into the bedroom.

  “Hello, Jantiff. Did we disturb you?”

  “Not at all,” said Jantiff. He looked up uneasily at Este-ban’s looming, bulk. “I was sound asleep.” He rose to his feet. Esteban stood aside as Jantiff went into the sitting room, which was now empty.

  Esteban’s voice came softly against his back. “Skorlet tells me that you are advancing her money for the bonterfest.”

  “Yes,” said Jantiff shortly. “I agreed to this.”

  “When can I have the money? Sorry to be abrupt, but I’ve got to meet my commitments.”

  “Will tomorrow do?”

  “Very well indeed. Until tomorrow, then.”

  Esteban turned a significant glance toward Skorlet and left the apartment. Skorlet followed him into the corridor.

  Jantiff went to the wall where he had pinned up certain of his sketches. He studied each in turn; none, to Jantiff’s eyes at least, seemed in the slightest degree, inflammatory. A most peculiar situation!

  Skorlet returned. Jantiff quickly moved away from the sketches. Skorlet went to the table and rearranged her few trifles of bric-a-brac. In an airy voice she said: “Esteban is such an extravagant man! I never take him seriously. Especially after a mug or two of swill, when he fantasizes most outrageously. I don’t know if you heard him talking—” She paused and looked sideways, dense black eyebrows arched in question.

  Jantiff said hurriedly, “I was dead asleep; I didn’t even know he was there.”

  Skorlet gave a curt nod. “You can’t imagine the intrigues and plots I’ve heard over the years! None ever amounted to anything, of course.”

  “Oh? What of the bonterfest? Is that a fantasy too?”

  Skorlet laughed in brittle merriment. “Definitely not! That’s quite real! In fact you’d better go change your money and I’ll make arrangements with Sarp.”

  Chapter 7

  Jantiff departed Old Pink and-walked slowly to the man-way. The day was cool, clear and crisp. Dwan hung in the sky, coruscating like a molten pearl, but for once Jantiff paid no heed to chromatic effects. He rode the lateral to Uncibal River, and diverted east toward the space-port. Odd, most decidedly odd, this affair. What could it all mean? Certainly nothing constructive.

  A mile east of the space-port a lateral led north past the Alastor Centrality and on to the Field of Voices. Almost without conscious intent Jantiff diverted upon the lateral and rode to the Centrality: a structure of black stone, set to the back of a compound paved with slabs of lavender porphyry and planted with twin rows of lime trees.

  Jantiff crossed the compound, passed through an air curtain into a foyer. Behind a counter sat a slender dark-haired young man, apparently no Arrabin by evidence both of his hair style and an indefinable off world manner. He addressed Jantiff politely: “What are your needs, sir?”

  “I wish a few moments with the cursor,” said Jantiff. “May I inquire his name?”

  “He is Bonamico, and I believe that he is presently disengaged. May I ask your name?”

  “I am Jantiff Ravensroke, from Frayness on Zeck.”

  “This way, if you please.”

  The clerk touched a button and spoke: “The Respectable Jantiff Ravensroke of Zeck, is here, sir.”

  A voice responded: “Very good, Clode; I’ll see him at once.”

  Clode made a sign to Jantiff and conducted him across the foyer. A door slid aside; they entered a study paneled in white wood with a green rug upon the floor. A massive table at the center of the room supported a variety of objects: books, charts, photographs, cubes of polished wood, a small hologram stage, a six-inch sphere of rock crystal which seemed to function as a clock. Against the table leaned the cursar: a short sturdy man with. pleasant blunt features and blond hair cropped close.

  Clods performed a formal introduction: “Cursar Bonamico, this is the Respectable Jantiff Ravensroke.”

  “Thank you, Clode,” said the cursar. He spoke to Jantiff: “Will you be pleased to take a cup of tea?”

  “By all means,” said Jantiff. “That is very kind of you.”

  “Clode, would you see to it? Be seated, sir, and tell me how I can be of service.”

  Jantiff lowered himself into a cushioned chair. The cursar remained by the table. “You are a recent arrival?”

  “Quite true,” said Jantiff. “But how did you know?”

  “Your shoes tell the tale,” said the cursar with a faint smile. “They are of better quality than one sees about the ways of Arrabus.”

  “Yes, of course.” Jantiff gripped the arms of his chair and leaned forward. “What I have to tell you is so odd that I don’t quite know where to begin. Perhaps I should mention that at Frayness on Zeck I trained in dimensional drafting and pictorial composition, so that I have some small skill at depiction. Since arriving here I’ve made dozens of sketches: folk along the man-ways and at my block, which is Old Pink, 17-882.”

  The cursar nodded. “
Proceed, please.”

  “My roommate is a certain Skorlet. Today, one of her friends, Esteban, arrived at the apartment with a man named Sarp and a fourth man whom I don’t know. They were not aware that I was in the bedroom and held a colloquy which I could not help but overhear.” To the best of his ability Jantiff reproduced the conversation. “Eventually Skorlet found me in the bedroom and became very disturbed. Sarp and the fourth man left instantly. The episode impressed me very unfavorably. In fact, I regard it as rather sinister.” He paused to sip the tea which Clode had brought in during, his account.

  The cursar considered a moment “You have no inkling as to the identity of the fourth man?”

  “None whatever. I glimpsed his back through the door as be left the apartment; he seemed large, with heavy shoulders and black hair. This is my impression, at least”

  The Lamar gave his head a dubious shake. “I don’t quite know what to tell you. The tone of the conversation certainly suggests something more than idle mischief.”

  “That was my definite impression.”

  “Still, no overt acts have been committed. I can’t exert the Connatic’s authority on the basis of a conversation which, after all, might be only wild talk. The Arrabins, as you may have noticed, are prone to extravagance.”

  Jantiff frowned in dissatisfaction. “Can’t you make inquiries, or perform an investigation?”

  “How? The Centrality here is a very minor affair, to an extraordinary degree. We’re like an enclave on foreign soil. I have a staff of two: Clode and Aleida. They’re underworked, but neither qualifies as a secret operative; no more, in fact, do I. There’s not even an Arrabin police agency to deal with.”

  “Still, something must be done!”

  “I agree, but first let’s assemble some facts. Try to discover the identity of the fourth man. Can you do this?”

  Jantiff said reluctantly, “I suppose this is possible. Esteban has organized a bonterfest, and this man apparently intends to be on hand.”

  “Very good; learn his name, and watch what goes on. If their activities exceed simple talk then I can act.”

  Jantiff grumbled: “That’s like waiting for the rain before you start to fix the roof.”