The Green Odyssey | Page 9

Swearing that he'd rip the hound
apart some day with his bare hands, the Earthman left for the House of Equality. It took
all the long rickshaw ride to the temple for him to calm down.
The great central room with its three-story ceiling was full that night. Men in their long
evening kilts and women in masks crowded around the gambling tables, the bars and the
grudge-stages. There was a large crowd around the platform on which two dealers in
wheat were slugging it out to work off resentment arising from business disputes. But by
far the greatest number had gathered to watch a husband-and-wife match. His left hand
had been tied to his side, and she had been armed with a club. Thus equalized, they'd
been given the word to go to it. So far the man had had the worst of the match, as bloody
patches on his head and bruises on his arm showed. If he could get the club away from
her he had the right to do what he wanted to her. But if she could break his free arm she
had him at her complete mercy.
Green avoided the stage, because such barbarous doings made him sick. Looking for
Miran, he finally found him rolling a pair of six-sided dice with another captain, This
fellow wore the red turban and black robes of the Clan Axucan. He had just lost to Miran
and was paying him sixty iquogr, a goodly sum even for a merchant-prince.
Miran took Green's arm, something he'd never have done outside the House, and led him
off to a curtained booth where they could get as much privacy as they wished. He
matched Green for drinks; Green lost, and Miran ordered a large pitcher of Chalousma.
"Nothing but the best for yours truly-- whenever someone else is paying," Miran said
jovially. "Now, I'm a great one for fun, but I'm here primarily for business. So-- let's have
your proposal at once, if you please,"
"First I must have your solemn oath that you will tell absolutely no one what you hear in
this booth. Second, that if you reject my idea you do not then use it later on. Third, that if
you do accept you will never attempt later on to kill me or get rid of me and thus reap the
profits."
Miran's face had been blank, but at the word "profits" it twisted into many folds and
creases, all expressive of joy.

He reached into the huge purse he carried slung over his shoulder and pulled out a little
golden idol of the patron deity of the Clan Effenycan. Putting his right hand upon its ugly
head, he lifted his left and said, "I swear by Zaceffucanquanr that I will obey your wishes
in this matter. May he strike me with lice, leprosy, lecher's disease and lightning if I
should break this, my solemn vow."
Satisfied, Green said, "First I want you to arrange for me to be aboard your windroller
when you leave for Estorya."
Miran choked on his wine and coughed and sputtered until Green pounded his back.
"I do not ask that you give me passage back. Now, here's my idea. You plan to be taking
a large cargo of dried fish because the Estoryans' religion requires that they eat them at
every meal and because they use them in great quantities at their numerous festivals."
"True, true. Do you know, I've never been able to figure out why they should worship a
fish-goddess. They live over five thousand miles from the sea, and there's no evidence
that any of them have ever been to the sea. Yet, they demand saltwater fish, won't use the
fish from a nearby lake."
"There're many mysteries about the Xurdimur. However, they needn't concern us. Now,
do you know that the Estoryans' Book of Gods places much more ritual-power in freshly
killed and cooked fish than in smoked fish? However, they've always had to be content
with the dried fish the windrollers brought them. What price would they not pay for
living sea-fish?"
Miran rubbed his palms together. "Indeed it does make one wonder...?"
Green then outlined his idea. Miran sat stunned. Not at the audacity or originality of the
plan, but because it was so obvious that he wondered why neither he nor anyone else had
ever thought of it. He said so.
Green drank his wine and said, "I suppose that people wondered the same when the first
wheel or bow and arrow were invented. So obvious, yet no one thought of them until
then."
"Let me get this straight," said Miran. "You want me to buy a caravan of wagons, build
water-tight tanks into them and use them to transport ocean fish back to here?