Read Online The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens by L. Sprague de Camp - Free Book Online

Viagens security force uniforms. To all appearances the Earthmen were a pair of raffish-looking Krishnans in divided kilts, stocking caps, and cutlery.
    “Right sorry am I, sirs,” said King Eqrar’s commissioner. “The Kerukchi departed at dawn, as I warned you she might, taking Prince Ferrian and his moldering mummy with her.”
    “That can’t be helped,” said Abreu in his fluent, accentless Gozashtandou. “What I need is a fast ship to catch them.”
    “There be some large merchantmen in harbor—”
    “Scows! Too slow for a stern chase.”
    “Are you planning—”
    “Never mind what I’m planning! Whatever happens, it’ll be on the high seas where it’s every man for himself. The only law that can touch me will be Sotaspeo law, and I don’t intend to come under that jurisdiction. Where can I get a galley?”
    Gorbovast raised his antennae. “Majbur Town will hardly rent out the ships of their navy.”
    “How about the King of Zamba?”
    “No. He has no wish to become embroiled with Sotaspé.”
    “And anyway it would take too long to arrange,” said Abreu. “Think, man, think!”
    “I think,” said Gorbovast. “Ohé! How about Captain Zardeku and his Alashtir?”
    “What’s that?”
    “A tern bireme which Zardeku bought from Arisang last year and converted to a fast merchantman. He has eighty stout rowers pulling forty oars, and a good spread of sail, and can outrun aught hereabouts save Majbur’s great quinquireme Junsar.”
    “How on Krishna can he make a profit with eighty rowers to feed? They eat like bishtars. And there can’t be much cargo space.”
    “Ah, but ’tis for a special purpose! With the Alashtir he trades in the Va’andao Sea, in defiance of the monopoly claimed by Dur. Should any normal merchantman venture into those waters, the Duruma would catch him ere he’d gone ten hoda and throw his folk to the fish. Zardeku, however, dashes in and out and wiggles his tongue at ’em, for they can catch him no more than King Gedik could catch the rain god in his net. Methinks some of the goods he brings to Majbur were obtained by plain piracy, though there’s no proof of that. At all events, he was still here yester-eve; why seek you not him?”
    Captain Zardeku turned out to be a tall heavy Krishnan lolling on a bench in a waterfront dive with an air of sleepy good nature. Somebody had once flattened his flat Krishnan nose still further with a blunt instrument. He said: “For the terms ye mention, gentlemen, I’d take the Alashtir over the waterfall that legend used to place at the other end of the Sadabao Sea, where the water poured over the edge of the world. When would ye set forth?”
    “This afternoon?” said Abreu.
    “Nay, not quite so fast as that! ’Twill take me till the morrow to drag my sturdy boys from those entertainments that sailors seek ashore, and to get supplies aboard. If ye would, though, I’ll cast off an hour ere dawn.”
    “Agreed,” said Abreu. “I hope your men are willing to spend nights at sea.”
    “Aye, they’ll do it if I so tell ’em. They’ve had to sleep on their benches ere this, when the Duro galleys were crawling on our track like the bugs from under a flat stone. And for a chase of this kind I’d better embark some supplementary rowers.”
    Captain Zardeku, almost as good as his word, cast off half a Krishnan hour before sunrise. The forty oars, two men to an oar, thumped in their locks as the prevailing westerlies carried them down the estuary and out into the Sadabao Sea. To the west, to landward, great piles of clouds swept in stately ranks across the greenish sky, but as they reached the shoreline they dissolved into nothing, so that the seaward half of the dome of heaven was clear.
    The wind filled the three triangular lateen sails. “ ’Tis a new rig in these parts,” said Zardeku. “For fast maneuver a tern has it all over a two-sticker, and can sail closer to the wind, for ye can control the ends of your ship with