The Honorable Barbarian

by L. Sprague De Camp

  Kerin resumed his wait with growing unease. Surely, he thought, it should not take so long for Nogiri to tell her tale and for Lord Vunambai to arrange to receive her rescuer; unless, Kerin wondered, the uncle planned somegrand reception, with feasting and dancing. That would be nice, but Kerin did not really expect it.

  He turned at the sound of motion. The porter stepped out of the gate, gripping his spear. After him came a pair of Salimorese wearing a livery of spangled vests aboves their skirts and armed with krises.

  "Well?" said Kerin. "Am I to be escorted in?"

  "Nay!" said the porter. "Lord Vunambai says: Go away!"

  "What?" Kerin's jaw sagged with astonishment.

  "Go away! Get hence! Get out of sight!"

  "What is matter?" asked Kerin. "I rescued his niece—"

  "That is nought. He wants you not. So go!" The two behind Trojung the porter drew their swords.

  Kerin looked the trio over. To try to force this issue would probably get him killed, even if he succeeded in taking one of the three with him. This was the sort of situation that Jorian had warned him to avoid at whatever cost to his pride. Kerin had traveled enough to have an idea of the troubles arising from getting into a fray in a foreign city, regardless of rights and wrongs. He fought down his anger and asked, in as level a voice as he could:

  "Very well; could you gentlemen name me a place to eat?"

  "What meanst?" said Trojung. "People eat in their houses."

  By much repetition and fumbling with the language, Kerin learned that Kwatna had no such thing as a place serving ready-cooked meals for travelers. There were drink shops along the waterfront. If he made arrangements at one of these and bought the food himself, he might persuade the shopkeeper's wife to cook it for him.

  An hour later, Kerin was sitting in a room behind the liquor counter of a dramshop, gingerly sampling the unfamiliar foods—a fish, a small bowl of rice, and some strange greens—that he had procured at the goodwife's direction. Belinka returned, saying:

  "Oh, there you are, Master Kerin! I have searched all over."

  "I'm sorry; I knew not how to get word to you. What didst learn?"

  "But little. I followed Mistress Janji to her home, one of those little houses of bamboo and leaves of the palm.She shares it with a timid-seeming little man; but whether he be husband, lover, or servant I could not ascertain."

  "Belike all three at once," said Kerin.

  "We must be more careful to let each of us know where the other will be found. How fared you with the barbarian lord?"

  "Alas!" Kerin told of his repulse. "Now will you please go back to Vunambai's house and see what has become of Princess Nogiri? You will find me, when I finish this much-needed repast, back at the ship."

  An hour later, when Kerin was dozing on the deck of the Benduan, Belinka returned saying: "I searched that big house from roof to crypt but found no trace of your brown barbarian maid. Nor is she on the grounds. It is as if she had vanished from the earth."

  "Crypt, eh?" responded Kerin. "Has the place underground chambers, as we often have in Novaria?"

  "Aye. One such chamber seems a prison cell for disobedient servants. It held but one occupant, chained to the wall; but he was a burly man of middle years."

  "Too cursed many mysteries," grumbled Kerin. "Could I but find an all-knowing seer or soothsayer. . . ."

  "Master Kerin! Let yourself not be distracted from your proper goal! These Easterners do all sorts of ghastly things to one another, and 'tis not our business to interfere. You must get to Kuromon!"

  Kerin bridled, then sighed resignedly. "I fear you are right, Belinka. But the day is gone, and our next step must await the morrow."

  Next day, Kerin hunted down the harbor master. Yes, said this official, the two batten-sailed ships were from Kuromon. Yes, they would soon return thither. How soon? The harbor master shrugged and spread his hands.

  "They will sail when the gods will, tuan."

  Kerin controlled his impatience. "Have you any idea of when that will be?"

  Another shrug. "What mortal knows the thoughts of the gods?"

  Kerin gave up and walked to the nearer of the two ships, of a kind that the Salimorese called a jong. The ship was even larger than he had expected, with four masts and a hull painted grass-green. A swarm of short, yellowskinned, flat-faced men crewed it. At first he seemed unable to communicate at all, and he had to fight down the rush of embarrassment that accosting strangers always gave him. At last they directed him by gestures to a ship's officer in a thin silken robe whereon scarlet flowers were embroidered, who identified himself as Second Mate Togaru. This man told Kerin in strangely accented Salimorese that they expected to sail in seven or eight days.

  On the other jong they told him that they would not sail for at least a fortnight; so he returned to the first ship to engage passage to Koteiki, the main southern port of the Kuromon Empire. He accosted the first officer he saw and was referred to another who, Kerin learned, was Zummo the purser. Zummo quoted fares and said:

  "Alone, or bringing a woman?"

  "Alone, sir."

  "Then I can put you in Number Eighteen. Your cabin mate will be the Reverend Tsemben."

  "What kind of reverend is he?" asked Kerin.

  "A priest of the goddess Jinterasa, returning from a tour of missionary duty to Salimor. You will find him a quiet roommate."

  "I should like to see the cabin, please."

  The officer summoned a deckhand to show Kerin the way. The sailor bowed to the officer, bowed again to Kerin, and led his passenger to the forward hatch and down the ladder.

  On either side of the cabin deck were a score of cabins opening on a central corridor. Kerin tried out the rudimentary Kuromonian he had learned from Nogiri on the sailor. He learned that most of these cabins were occupied by Kuromonian merchants, each of whom had brought a stock of goods to Salimor to sell. Most of the merchants were then ashore; only a couple of flat yellow faces peered out of cabin doors as Kerin passed.The sailor opened the door of one cabin, which proved already lit within. The sailor bowed to Kerin and stood in the anticipatory stance of a man expecting a tip. Kerin gave him one of the smallest Salimorese copper coins and turned to the cabin. Failing to stoop low enough, he banged his head on the door lintel. While he was of but little over average height for Novarians, most Kuromonians were substantially shorter than he, and the spaces on the ship were proportioned accordingly.

  Kerin found that shipboard spaces were compact to the point of being cramped, and those of the Tukara Mora were even more so than those he had already seen. The cabin had just room for two pallets, one taking up half the floor and the other, of the same size, on a shelf directly above it. Otherwise the furnishings consisted of a single stool, a small shelf jutting from the wall at one end of the pallets, pegs driven into the wall at an angle for hanging clothes, and a small bronze lamp suspended from above.

  The cabin also had an inhabitant, a small, wrinkled, yellow-skinned, black-robed man, who sat cross-legged on the edge of the lower pallet with a scroll in his lap. The man looked up.

  "Good-day, sir," said Kerin in hesitant Kuromonian. "The Reverend Tsemben?"

  "Good-day to you," said the priest, and rattled off a string of unintelligible syllables. Seeing Kerin's blank look, he changed to Salimorese, saying: "Are you my cabin mate?"

  "Aye. You are, I understand, a missionary?"

  "Aye, young sir. And whence come you? Your aspect is of one of those Western barbarians of whom I have heard."

  "From Kortoli, in the Twelve Cities of Novaria. And you? . . ."

  Kerin and the Reverend Tsemben cautiously felt each other out. Kerin said: "Are you happy to return to your homeland?"

  The priest sighed. "Alas, nay! It means that this wretched worm has failed."

  "How, failed?"

  "This inferior one came to enlighten these barbarians in the true religion, but I made no converts. They stubbornly adhere to their heathenish little gods, Bautong
and Luar and the false deities of Mulvan. Mere demons, betimes useful if captured and coerced into worthy labor, but otherwise useless or hostile.

  "So, when my superiors learned that the worship of the Queen of Heaven was getting nowhere, they ordered me home. Had I been a man of honor, I should have cut mine own throat; but I lacked the courage even for that. Forsooth, this person is the lowest of the low."

  Kerin saw a tear, highlighted by the lantern beams, trickle down the wrinkled yellow cheek. He felt silly consoling a man at least twice his age, but he said: "Come, Reverend Sir! If you have done the best you could, nobody can expect more. Would it comfort you to do me a service on the way to Koteiki? I can pay a modest fee."

  "What would that be, young man?"

  "I need lessons in the Kuromonian language, starting forthwith. I have never gotten beyond a few simple sentences, such as 'Good-morning,' and 'How much does this cost?' and 'Where is the latrine?' " They agreed on a figure, and Kerin departed to pay his fare.

  Returning to the Benduan, Kerin sought out the proprietor of the grogshop where he had been taking his meals. He explained: "Master Natar, I need a good wizard or soothsayer. Can you recommend one?"

  "As to that, since the Balimpawang Pwana returned, none in Kwatna rivals him."

  Kerin winced. "Pwana back?"

  "Aye; he came in a fortnight past and resumed the rule of his old Temple of Bautong as if he had never been exiled."

  "I thought he was at outs with the Sophis."

  "With the late Sophi, aye; but the new one, Vurkai—may whose virility never flag—was also at outs with his brother. Hence he welcomed Doctor Pwana's return."

  Kerin frowned. "I know of Doctor Pwana; but I fear his charges are out of reach. Canst recommend one of less—ah—exalted repute?"

  "Let me think," said Natar, stamping on a foot-long centipede that rippled across his dirt floor. "I know of Pawang Klung, who seems a good enough sort. You reach his house thus. . . ." The shopkeeper squatted and scratched a street map with his finger in the earthen floor.

  "Thankee!" said Kerin. "How is business?"

  "Good, did not the Sophi's publicans skim off any profit for taxes. It is his mad scheme to pave the whole city, as if yon cobblestones along the waterfront were not good enough."

  Kerin went in search of Pawang Klung. The magician occupied a stone-and-timber house of moderately prosperous aspect, behind a fenced courtyard in which several Kwatnites lounged. At the door, a burly guard blocked Kerin's way.

  "May I see Pawang Klung?" Kerin asked.

  "In your turn, after these folk," said the guard, indicating the loungers.

  Kerin found a place in the courtyard and sat on the grass with his back to a tree. He was hungry and tired after a morning of juggling the tones of the Kuromonian tongue. Then he heard Belinka's tinkly voice:

  "Master Kerin, I like this place not! I feel other supernatural presences within. I trust no magician or soothsayer save my mistress, the good Madame Erwina."

  "We must take that chance," grumbled Kerin.

  A man issued from the house, followed by a large, stout Salimorese carrying a yard-long dowel with a silver star on the end. The stout one pointed his stick at a woman among the loungers, saying:

  "You next, madam!"

  The woman scrambled to her feet, then dropped to her knees and bowed until her straight black hair swept the ground. She rose and followed the stout one into the house. Kerin asked a fellow lounger:

  "Is that Pawang Klung?"

  The man looked surprised. "Certes," he sneered. "You must come from a distant land indeed, to be so ignorant. But you should call him the Balimpawang."

  "Thankee," said Kerin, returning to his doze.

  The next he knew, the door guard was shaking him awake, saying: "Wouldst see the Balimpawang or not?"

  Kerin blinked the sleep out of his eyes, discovering that he was the last of Klung's clients. All the others had departed. "I—ah—where—of course I am fain to see him," he mumbled. Then he sighted the wizard nearby and gave him his best Novarian bow.

  "You!" barked the guard. "Why show you not due reverence to my great master?"

  "Let him be," rumbled the fat wizard. "He is from a land where customs differ from ours. We will consider the obeisance as given." The stout man turned to Kerin; his dark slanting eyes flickered right and left, up and down. "Aha! I see you have a familiar spirit in tow."

  "Forsooth," said Kerin, "you could say she has me in tow. Her witch-mistress commanded her to ward my welfare."

  "Well, I cannot allow her into my house. She must wait without."

  "Indeed!" squeaked Belinka, dancing about in full visibility. "And what is so obnoxious about me, O great and mighty wizard?"

  Klung chuckled. "Nought with you, my winsome sprite. But I dare not admit a strange familiar, lest strife erupt betwixt the stranger and my established stable of spirits. They wax ferociously jealous of outsiders' influence."

  "Master Kerin!" cried Belinka. "Wilt put up with such shabby treatment of one who hath faithfully served your behalf for lo these many months? I demand—"

  Kerin, his anger rising, barked: "Belinka you may go—" He was about to add "jump in the Eastern Ocean" but thought better of it. Jorian had cautioned him against unnecessarily forcing issues. He changed his words:

  "Pray, go spy on Janji and find out what her Navigators' Guild be up to. That's the most useful thing you can do just now. Then join me back on the Benduan, will you?"

  Belinka uttered a sound that could have been called a grunt, if so tiny and ethereal a being could be said to grunt. Kerin watched her zip out of the courtyard and turned back to Klung, who said: "Come along, young man."

  VI

  Kwatna City

  Following Klung down a hall, Kerin glimpsed through an open door a spacious chamber cluttered with apparatus, softly glowing with highlights of steel and brass and copper. Klung led him to a smaller room and waved him to cushions on the floor before a kind of stunted, crimson-lacquered desk, rising little more than a foot above the floor. The wizard plumped himself down on other cushions behind this furnishing.

  "Well, younker," he said in passable if old-fashioned Novarian, "What wouldst?"

  "Sir," began Kerin circumspectly, "first, I would fain not commit more discourtesies than I can help in a strange land. So pray explain the difference betwixt a pawang and a balimpawang."

  The wizard made a steeple of his fingers. "A pawang is simply our word for 'magician' or 'wizard.' But we also have guilds, and a balimpawang is the chosen arch of such a supernaturalists' guild."

  "And you are the leader of the Magicians' Guild of Kwatna?''

  "Aye, and of all of Salimor. Practically speaking, that means Ambok; the pawangs on the other islands are for the most part mere primitive witch doctors, ignorant of the higher branches of the magical sciences."

  "Then enlighten me, pray. Know you the wizard Pwana?"

  Klung gave a low growl. "Aye, I ken the scoundrel. What of him?"

  "I know him, too. When I met him, a month or so ago, he named himself a balimpawang."

  "Oh!" said Klung, his slant eyes rounding. "So ye must be he who brought the rascal back to Ambok! Better had ye left him on his isle till the crabs had picked his bones. Now he is up to his old quillets, reviving his Cosmic Diamond cult; the gullible flock to's temple."

  "I meant no trouble," said Kerin. "But he helped me and another captive to turn the tables on Malgo's pirates."

  "I heard something of that; another time ye must read me the tale entire." Klung paused. "This villain's rescue hardly prejudices me in your favor; still, I essay to weigh the issues fairly."

  "But about the title, sir?"

  "Oh. After Pwana was driven forth by exposure of his villainies, the Guild held an interim election and chose me by an overwhelming show of hands to succeed him. Then all went well until this losel reappeared, claiming he had never resigned his office, which still had two years to run; and that he, therefore, wa
s rightful balimpawang. There will be a special election to settle the matter when the members can agree upon a date. By then I shall have my great invention in working order, so I fear not the outcome.

  "But I must not while away the day in superfluous chatter. It is one of my besetting faults. Who be ye, and what your especial desire?"

  Kerin gave a brief account of himself, adding: "Now I wish to learn the fate of the Princess Nogiri. I last saw her entering Lord Vunambai's grounds; but anon, when I sent Belinka to find out what had befallen her, the sprite declared she was nowhere to be found. From the curious way her uncle used me, I fear that he, too, may be up to no good."

  "What is your interest in this damsel? Be ye lovers?"

  "Nay," said Kerin. "First, she is already betrothed; and second, as a result of her evil treatment by the pirates, she was averse to such intimacies. But she has been a true and helpful friend."

  "And ye would fain discover whither she have gone? Canst pay?"

  "Up to a point. How much?"

  Klung mused: "For this task, I fear my familiars be not up to the mark. I shall have to send my spirit through the astral plane to search. It will take an hour at least and cost you a hundred royals Salimorese, or the equivalent in foreign coin."

  They chaffered over rates of exchange until a bargain was struck. Kerin was losing his former embarrassment over haggling; he fished several gold pieces from a pocket in his money belt.

  "Ye may look about whilst my spirit be away," said Klung. "But touch ye nought, lest ye be turned to a crocodile or blasted to atoms. Here goeth!"

  The magician sat back, closed his eyes, and muttered a cantrip over and over. After a while he fell silent; then his body shuddered and stiffened.

  During the wait, Kerin got up, stretched cramped limbs, and prowled the building. At the door to the magician's sanctum he found the guard, who said:

  "Ye can look but not go in!"

  Kerin peered past the man's shoulder into the darkening chamber. Of the pieces of apparatus within, the dominant object was a kind of man-sized cage in the center, containing a congeries of hoops and wheels.