Planet of Adventure Omnibus by Jack Vance

horny growths which gathered on the gray-green hides.
    The
priestesses ended their discussion with the mountainman and went to walk out on
the steppe, back and forth in front of the outcrops, the girl lagging a few
steps behind, to the exasperation of the priestesses. The Ilanths looked after,
muttering to themselves.
    Traz came out
to sit by Reith. He pointed across the steppe. “Green Chasch are near: a large
party.”
    Reith could
see nothing. “How do you know?”
    “I smell the
smoke of their fires.”
    “I smell
nothing,” said Reith.
    Traz
shrugged. “It is a party of three or four hundred.”
    “Mmmf. How do
you know that?”
    “By the
strength of the wind, the smell of the smoke. A small group makes less smoke
than a large group. This is the smoke of about three hundred Green Chasch.”
    Reith threw
up his hands in defeat.
    The Ilanths,
mounting their leap-horses, bounded off into the outcrops, where they halted.
Anacho, standing by, gave a dry laugh. “They go to plague the priestesses.”
    Reith jumped
to his feet, went out to watch. The Ilanths waited till the priestesses strode
by, then bounded forth. The priestesses sprang back in alarm; the Ilanths,
cawing and hooting, snatched up the girl, threw her over a saddle and carried
her off toward the hills. The priestesses stared aghast; then, screaming
hoarsely, they all ran back to the compound. Seizing upon Baojian the
caravan-master, they pointed trembling fingers. “The yellow beasts have stolen
the maid of Cath!”
    “Just for a
bit of sport,” said Baojian soothingly. “They’ll bring her back when they’re
through with her.”
    “Useless for
our purposes! When we have journeyed so far and borne so much! It is utter
tragedy! I am a Grand Mother of the Fasm Seminary! And you will not even help!”
    The
caravan-master spat into the dirt. “I help no one. I maintain order in the
caravan. I steer my wagons, I have time for nothing else.”
    “Vile man!
Are these not your underlings? Control them!”
    “I control only
my caravan. The event occurred upon the steppe.”
    “Oh, what
shall we do? We are bereft! There will be no Rite of Clarification!”
    Reith found
himself in the saddle of a leap-horse, bounding across the steppe. He had been
activated by an impulse far below the level of his conscious mind; even while
the leap-horse took him on prodigious bounds across the steppe he marveled at
the reflexes which had sent him springing away from the caravan-master and up
onto the leaphorse. “What’s done is done,” he consoled himself, with somewhat
bitter satisfaction; it seemed that the plight of a beautiful slave-girl had
taken precedence over his own woes.
    The Ilanths
had not ridden far; up a little valley to a small flat sandy area under a
beetling boulder. The girl stood bewildered and cowering against the stone; the
Ranths had only just finished tying their leaphorses when Reith arrived. “What
do you want?” asked one without friendliness. “Away with you; we are about to
test the quality of this Cath girl.”
    Another one
gave a coarse laugh. “She will need instruction for the Female Mysteries!”
    Reith
displayed his gun. “I’ll kill any or all of you, with pleasure.” He motioned to
the girl. “Come.”
    She looked
wildly around the landscape, as if not knowing in which direction to run.
    The Ilanths
stood silently, black mustaches a droop. The girl slowly clambered up on the
horse in front of Reith; he turned it about and rode off down the valley. She
looked at him with an unreadable expression, started to speak, then became
silent. Behind, the Ilanths mounted their own horses and bounded off past,
yipping, hooting, cursing.
    The
priestesses stood by the entry to the compound, gazing across the steppe. Reith
halted the horse and considered the four black-clad shapes, who at once began
to make peremptory signals.
    The girl
spoke frantically: “How much did they pay you?”
    “Nothing,”
said Reith. “I came of my own