The Five Gold Bands

by Jack Vance

  Fay glanced at Paddy significantly. Paddy raised one eyebrow. Evidently the death of the five Sons had not been announced to the universe at large. The Eagle was saying, "And when you get down to Sugksu be sure to take the deep-sea tour and see the strange sights under the gas. Have you been on the planet long?"

  "Not too long. But we've lost track of time," she added coyly. "You see, we're on our honeymoon. But we couldn't resist coming to see Alpheratz A."

  The Eagle nodded sagely. "Wise-very wise. We have a world from which much may be learned." And he stalked on.

  Paddy spat. "Damned meddlers. It's hard to know when their curiosity is official and when it's just curiosity."

  "Sh," said Fay. "They're leaving."

  Three minutes later the top of the peak was bare to the sweep of the wind.

  "Now," said Fay. "A Sacred Sign-where is it? And how do we know it's sacred when we see it?"

  Paddy vaulted up on the base of the trestle, glanced appraisingly up at the spinning vanes of orange and blue and red. "That whirlymagig must be it."

  He scrambled up like a monkey until he came under the sweeping blades. He reached up, wrenched down the whole tangle of fiber, metal and feathers.

  Fay yelled, "You fool! They can see that from below!"

  Paddy said, "I had to if I wanted to see what was under."

  "Well-what is under?"

  "Nothing," Paddy said uncomfortably.

  "Get down then for heavens sake. The riot squad will be here in five minutes."

  They walked briskly down the slope. Hardly had they gone a hundred yards when Fay put out her hand. "Listen!"

  A fierce anxious sound, still faint-Sweeee-eeeeee-eeeee. Far below a pair of motorcycles turned into the road, started up the grade. The sound grew louder, keening, whining. It stopped short. A moment later two Eagles, each with official medallion on his uniform, roared to a halt beside them.

  One alighted. "Who caused the destruction? He who is guilty will receive the severest of treatments."

  Fay said in a worried voice, "We're not guilty. It was a party of Kotons and they went down the other way, I think."

  "There is no other way."

  "Ah, but they were wearing sky-skates," said Paddy hopefully.

  "They were drunk, the scoundrels," said Fay.

  The Eagle officials inspected them skeptically. Paddy sighed, cracked his knuckles behind his back. He speculated about the Pherasic jails. Were they more comfortable, he wondered, than the old brick fort at Akhabats?

  The chief of the Eagles said to the subordinate, "I'll continue to the top. You wait here. We will presume them guilty until I find otherwise."

  He twisted power on his motorcycle, continued up the hill.

  "We're in the soup, Paddy," said Fay in Earth-talk. "I'll distract his attention. We want that motor-bike."

  Paddy stared at her, aghast. "It's a long chance."

  "Of course it is," she snapped. "It's our only change. We've got to get away. If they arrest us, march us in, check our psychographs…"

  Paddy grimaced. "Very well."

  Fay stepped around in front of the wheel. The Eagle blew his cheeks out, pulled back his narrow head. "Clout him, Paddy," yelled Fay.

  The Eagle turned his head just in time to meet Paddy's fist. In a great thrash of rickety arms and legs the Eagle sprawled over backwards into the road.

  "Now we've really done it," said Paddy ruefully. "It's long years picking oakum for this."

  "Shut up-jump on that bike. Let's get moving," panted Fay.

  "I don't know how to run the thing," Paddy grumbled. "Run it! We'll coast! Let's go!"

  Paddy threw his leg over the narrow seat and Fay jumped on behind. He turned it downhill, threw levers till he found the brake. With a lurch the motorcycle started.

  "Wheel" yelled Fay in Paddy's ear. "This is like the roller coaster at Santa Cruz."

  Paddy stared big-eyed down the hill and the wind whipped water from his eyes.

  "I don't know how to stop her!" yelled Paddy. "I can't remember where the brake is!" The rush of wind tore the words from his lips. He pulled frantically at unfamiliar knobs, levers, handles and at last chanced on a pedal that seemed to have some effect.

  "Watch that side-road," screamed Fay in his ear. "It goes down to the city!"

  Paddy leaned and the motorcycle screeched around a party of pedestrians, who shouted raucous insults at their backs. And now to Paddy's horror the brake pedal had lost its effect.

  "Slow down, Paddy," cried Fay. "For heaven's sake; you reckless fool-"

  "I wish I could," gritted Paddy. "It's my dearest wish."

  "Throw in the drive!" She leaned past him, pointed. There-try that knob!"

  Paddy pulled the lever a notch toward him. There was a loud whine and the motorcycle slowed so rapidly as almost to toss them off. It wobbled to a halt. Paddy put out his leg.

  "Get off," hissed Fay. There's that little path, and right over that ridge of rock is our boat."

  Sweeee-eeeee-eeee-eeee ! From far above them a nerve-tingling sound, urgent and shrill.

  "Here comes the other," said Paddy. "Swooping like a panther."

  "Run," said Fay. "Over the ridge. We've got to get to our ship and fast."

  SWEEE-EEEEE-EEEEE!

  Too late," said Paddy. "He'd shoot us while we run. Come here with me. Watch this now."

  He pulled her off the road, down behind a rock.

  The sound of the motor increased in volume but dropped in pitch as the officer approached slowly, cautiously. He trundled past the boulder.

  "Boo!" yelled Paddy, jumping out. The Eagle squawked. Paddy heaved at the handle bars, the motorcycle left the path, bounded, bumped down a steep ravine. The last they saw was the Eagle frantically trying to steer the machine around outcrops and boulders, his crest tense, elbows wide, legs spraddled out into the air.

  There was a crash, then silence.

  Paddy sighed. Fay said, "You're not so smart. You wouldn't believe me when I said the point was not on the cliff but at the base."

  Paddy was disposed to argue. "How could it be? There was the Sacred Sign just as the sheet said."

  "Nonsense," said Fay. "You'll see."

  Their boat had not been touched. They crawled in, sealed the port, Fay climbed into the pilot's seat. "You keep watch."

  She lifted the boat, slid it off the table, let it sink under the gas, which showed luminous yellow through the observation window.

  The color is from suspended dust," said Fay off-handedly. The gas is dense and the dust seeks the level of its own specific gravity and there it floats forever. A little deeper the gas will be clear-or so I've been told."

  "What's the composition of the gas?" asked Paddy. "Or is it known?"

  "It's neon kryptonite."

  "That's a strange pairing," remarked Paddy.

  "It's a strange gas," replied Fay tartly.

  Now she let the boat fall. The sun-drenched dust disappeared and they found themselves looking out at a marvelous new landscape. It was like nothing else either had seen before, like nothing imagined.

  The yellow light of Alpheratz was toned to an old gold suffusion, a tawny light that changed the landscape below to an unreal hazy fairyland. Underneath them was a great valley with hills and dales fading off into golden murk. To the left loomed the great cliff of Kolkhorit Island, rising up and out of sight above. Fay followed the cliff till it jutted out, fell back.

  "There's North Cape," she said. "And there on the little plateau-that's exactly the right spot."

  Paddy said in a subdued voice, "Yes, by all that's holy, you seem to be right for once."

  "Look," said Fay. "See that thing like a sundial? That's what we want."

  Paddy said dubiously, "How're we to get it?"

  She said angrily, "In your space-suit, of course! And hurry! They'll be after us any minute."

  Paddy gloomily let himself out through the space-lock, stalked across the plateau. Bathed in the eerie golden light he a
dvanced on the pedestal. On its face was inlaid a red and gold pentagram.

  He tried to lift-nothing happened. He pushed, felt a quiver, a wrench. He put his shoulder down, heaved. The pedestal fell over. In a little lead-lined cavity was a brass cylinder.

  Badau lay below, an opulent blue-green planet with a thick blanket of atmosphere.

  Paddy pinched Fay's calves, felt her thighs. She jerked, turned to him a startled glance.

  "Now, now-I was merely testing to see if you might be fit to walk on the planet," explained Paddy. "You'll be monstrous heavy, you know."

  Fay laughed ruefully. "I thought for a moment you were making love Skibbereen-style."

  Paddy screwed up his features. "You're not my type. It's the cow-girls of Maeve for me with all their upholstery. Now-as I've just discovered-you've hardly enough flesh to keep the air away from your bones. You're so pale and peaked. No, for some you might do but not for Paddy Blackthorn."

  But he was smiling and she laughed back and Paddy said, "In truth, sometimes when you've got that devil's gleam in your eye and you're showing your teeth in a grin, you're almost pretty in a puckish sort of way."

  "Thank you very much. Enough of the blarney. Where are we going?"

  "It's a place called the Kamborogian Arrowhead."

  "And where's that, I wonder?"

  Paddy studied the charts. "There's no mention of it here. It sounds like an inn or hotel or something of the sort. Once we land we'll be able to find out for sure. And you'll be frightful tired, for the gravity's strong as a bull here."

  "I'm not worried about the gravity," said Fay. "I'm worried whether or not the Badou police have received our description yet."

  Paddy pursed his lips. "Badau's a popular place with Earth tourists, gravity or none. Though why they come surpasses my understanding, since it's nothing but insults and slights and arrogance they get from the Hunks, the conceited omadhauns."

  "It's a very beautiful planet," mused Fay. "So gentle and green-looking with those million little lakes and rolling valleys.

  "There's no mountains," said Paddy, "because the water tears them down as fast as they're pushed up.

  "What do you call that?" Fay pointed to a tremendous palisade flung across the countryside.

  "Ah, that's a big segment of land being pulled down," said Paddy. "With so much gravity there's these great movements of the crust and these great cliffs. The Badaus build dams across all the waterfalls and make use of the power. Then the water doesn't tear a great gully into the land."

  "Land, land, land," said Fay. "That first Son of Langtry was a glutton for land."

  "And the Langtry clan still owns all Badau. It's a feudalism or so it says in the book. Langtrys own the big estates, rent out to lesser noblemen, who rent out again, and sometimes there's another subletting and another until it's the little farmer that's supporting them all.

  "And marvelous crops they grow here, Fay. The finest fruits and vegetables-all Earth imports, since the original growth was rank poison. And the plants have changed as much as the men when they came to be Badaus."

  Paddy looked at Fay earnestly. "This is Mary's own truth now I'm telling you and as I'm Patrick Delorcy Blackthorn I've been here before and I know the country. You won't believe it when you see oranges growing on vines and them as big as pumpkins.

  "And they grow a wheat that comes in heads the size of my foot, low to the ground, with a pair of leaves like lilypads. They've got grapes now with a brittle end that you knock off and a gallon of wine pours out. They're marvelous good botanists, these Badaus."

  Fay was studying the chart. "There's Slettevold-that's the largest city. A clearing-house for export and import, it says. We could land there and maybe have our boat vapor-plated. A nice dull green instead of this gunmetal. I don't think we'd be conspicuous."

  Paddy squinted down at the wide bright face of Badau. "There's such a lather of little boats flipping in and out of here that an Earther would hardly believe it, not knowing the secrets of Langtry's sons. One little space-boat the more or the less will hardly be looked at."

  "They might think it strange for Earthers to own a space-boat. Not many do. Mostly they come by the passenger packets."

  Paddy rubbed his chin. "If we land at Outer Slett Field about dusk-there's no control or examination there-we should be able to walk into Slettevold without question."

  "It's about dusk now at Slettevold," said Fay. "There's the field so let's set down before they send a warhead up after us."

  Outer Slett Field lay behind the warehouses and packing sheds which lined the main field. It was a wide irregular space, undeveloped, used by private owners, small traders. There was no control tower, no radar beam, and when Paddy and Fay climbed out into the warm dusk no eye turned to look after them.

  Paddy took a few steps, turned to watch Fay walking toward him-slowly as if she were wearing a heavy knapsack. He grinned.

  "Bed will be the finest thing you ever felt, young lady. Your knees will be like oiled hinges and your feet will ache as if they'd been trod by a horse. But in a day or so you'll not notice so much. And if you stayed here a while your neck would swell and your sons would grow up short and tough and rubbery and your grandsons would be Hunks as coarse and ugly as the best of 'em."

  Fay sniffed. "Not if I have the picking, as I intend, of their father." She stared around the luminous blue-green sky. "Where's the town from here, Mr. Baedeker?"

  Paddy gestured toward a grove of low heavy-trunked trees at the edge of the field. "If memory serves me there's a tube station in this direction. It'll take us to the heart of the town."

  Painfully they walked to the concrete ramp which led down to a pair of metal doors. Paddy pressed twice. A moment later the doors snapped back and they entered a little car with two seats.

  The doors slid shut, there was a sense of rapid motion. A moment later the doors opened to the sounds of the city. Fay looked at Paddy. "Free? Doesn't someone make us pay?"

  Paddy said, "All the utilities were put in by the Langtry family. They're so wealthy that they don't need our miserly coins. Noblesse oblige. We're on the biggest family estate in the universe."

  They stepped out on a broad street lined with low heavy buildings, all with plate-glass fronts on the lower levels. Fay read a legend on the portico of a long arcade. " 'Slettevold Inn'-that sounds good. Let's get ourselves a bath and some fresh food."

  "Hah!" Paddy laughed. "That's not for the likes of us, young lady. We're Earthers. They'd not let us past the doors."

  Fay stared incredulously. "Do you mean that they wouldn't serve us merely because we're-"

  Paddy nodded. "That's right. The Earther keeps his place on Badau."

  Fay turned away. "I'm too tired to argue. Let's go to the Earther hotel."

  VII

  The Kamboroglan Arrowhead? The desk-clerk, a sour-visaged Badau, told them it was a resort on the shores of the Iath Lake. To Fay's diffident inquiry he smirked wryly.

  "Earthers at the Kamborogian? They'd as soon serve a run of lard-legs. You must understand the quality of Badau take their pleasure at the Kamborogian. It's where the Son himself goes. Everything must be quiet and elegant."

  Paddy nodded. "Ah-then we miserable Earthers would be out of place indeed."

  Fay asked desperately, "Don't Earthers go there at all?"

  "Only as scullions or entertainers. The Ryeville Ramblers, a trio of acrobats, just returned from an engagement and were well satisfied with their treatment."

  "Hmm." Paddy rubbed his chin. "How does one get these engagements?"

  The clerk turned away. "Oh-through the amusement syndic, I suppose."

  Paddy turned to Fay. "Now young lady, can you dance, sing, mimic, eat fire or turn handsprings?"

  Fay said, "I'm no acrobat, not in this gravity. I suppose I could play a comb or recite Gunga Din with gestures."

  "I'm a magician," said Paddy. "I perform card tricks that'll mystify them, especially if they're drunk as they're apt to be. We'll
be the finest act ever brought on the floor. At least we'll be allowed on the premises."

  The Kamborogian Arrowhead was a block of concrete five stories high and a quarter mile long, ornamented with a profusion of gold quincunxes, quatrefoils, fleurs-de-lis. Alternate sections were stained pink and light green and the overhanging pediment was light blue.

  Iath Lake, rippling, twinkling very swiftly to the strong gravity, half encircled the building and the formal gardens. Beyond, the land fell away in a vast sweep of rolling turf up to a mile-high cliff, running horizon to horizon.

  The air of wealth and opulence clung to the hotel. It glistened with crystal panes and bright metal. The canopies glowed like satin. Oval shell-like pleasure boats rode the lake, moving under small square sails.

  Paddy and Fay discreetly went to the rear, entered a waiting room, stated their business to a tired-looking Asmasian porter, who brought them to the Chief Steward in a brightly lit office.

  The Chief Steward was short and fat even for a Badau. His jowls hung like the wattles on a chicken. His eyes were deep-set and clever.

  Paddy said, "The gentleman at the Amusement Syndicate sent us up here to see you. We're Black and Black, Entertainers Extraordinary."

  The steward looked them up, down, ran his eyes over Fay's figure. Like some of the other planetary races the Badaus found Earther women attractive. "Did not the Syndic give you a card for me?"

  "Ah, we lost it," said Paddy. "The wind blew it clean out of my hands and away in a twinkling. However the Syndic was much pleased with us and said to say a kind word to you for him."

  "What do you do?"

  "I'm a magician," said Paddy. "I'm an accomplished prestidigitator and objects come and go at my command. I change water into purple vapor and then to a swarm of frogs and they melt into a big flash of light. But my specialty is with the cards. I make the ace of spades jump out of the deck and bow from the waist, and there's a trick I know with the kings and queens that'll have 'em giggling for months to come.

  "Then there's my wife here. She's the cleverest thing alive. She's great. She'll have them agog with their eyes so you could knock them off with sticks. Sure, they'll clap your back for giving them such rare enjoyment."