Part-3
When Clarey got to Katund, Embelsira and her mother gave a little welcome home party for him. "Nothing elaborate," the said. "Just a neighbors and friends, some refreshments."
The was packed with people; the refreshments, Clarey thought, as he industriously, were magnificent. But then he'd been to live on Earth food for a weekend, so he was no judge.
After they'd eating, the people the furniture, and, while one of the boys played upon a that was and and all at once, the others danced.
Clarey no attempt to participate. In his early youth, he'd at the Earth hops—and the Damorlanti had a more Dionysian than his home world. He and them and twirling. When they'd dropped, exhausted, he his way over to the musician, he as one of Piq's grandsons; this one was Rini, he thought.
"Is that difficult to learn?" he asked, the instrument.
"The is difficult," the boy said importantly. "It takes years and years of practice. And you've got to have the touch to with. Not many do. All our family have the touch, my Irik most of all. He's in Barshwat, studying to be a famous musician."
Clarey looked at the with wistfulness.
"Care to try it?" the boy asked. "But, mind, you have to pay for any you burst."
"I shall be very careful," Clarey said, taking the in his hands. He had touched a before—an Earth would have been no less unfamiliar, no more wonderful. Gently he to and and blow, in of the way the boy had done, and, though the that came out didn't have the same smoothness, still they didn't on his ears. The others stopped talking and listened; it would have been difficult for them to do otherwise, as he was unable to the device.
"Sounds like the death of a hix," Piq sibilated, but he added grudgingly, "Foreigner or not, I have to say this for him—he's got the touch."
"Yes, he's got the touch," others agreed. "You always can tell."
Rini at Clarey. "I you do. I'll teach you to play, if you like."
"I would, very much." Clarey was about to offer to pay for the lessons; then he that, though this would have been the right thing on Earth, it would be on Damorlan. "If it is not too much trouble," he finished.
"It's the of trouble I like." The boy his nose at Clarey. "Sometime you can the books for me."
After the guests had gone, Clarey on helping the with the away. "Well, as long as Embelsira has a pair of arms to help her," the yawned, "I might as well be along to my pallet. I to more and more these days—old age, I expect. One day I'll be so I'll wake up and Embelsira'll be alone and what'll she do, thing? Who can live on a librarian's salary? Now, on two librarians' salaries—"
"Mother," Embelsira furiously, "you go to bed!"
She did, hurriedly.
"Don't worry, Embelsira," Clarey said. "She will be away for yet. Everybody says she's the best in the district," he added, to the subject.
"Yes," Embelsira said as they all the the guests had left, "she's been offered a of money to go work in Zrig. But she won't Katund; she was here, and so were her parents."
"I do not her for wanting to stay," he said. "It's a very—homelike place."
She sighed. "To us it is, but I don't someone who's city and would the same way. I know you won't let here forever, and what will I—what will Mother and I do without you?"
"It is—very of you to say so," he replied. "I am honored."
The girl—she was still to be called a girl, though no longer in her youth—looked up at him. Blue be in their way. "Why are you always so stiff, so cold?"
"I am not cold," he said honestly. "I am—afraid."
"There is nothing to be of. You're safe, among friends, no what you may have done where you came from."
"But I have done nothing there," he said. "Nothing at all. Perhaps that is the trouble with me."
She looked up at him and then away. "Then isn't it about time you started to do something?"
The next time he to Barshwat he took a of with him, because, the and the and fauna, he cold for the colonel. The ate one in silence, then said, "Try to the recipe."
"By the way," said Clarey, "the X-T boys a mistakes. The isn't an insect; it's a bird. And the isn't a bird; it's a flower. And the isn't a flower; it's an insect."
"Oh, well, I they'll be able to that out," the said, from his thick fingers. "We do our jobs and they do theirs." He for another pastry.
"Take good of the bugg," Clarey said. "He his mixed with milk; his with wine. His name is Mirti. He's very and affectionate. I—said I was him to my aunt...." He paused. "You are going to take him alive, aren't you? You'd so much more that way."
"Wouldn't of a hair—a feather—no, it is a hair, isn't it?—of the little fellow's head."
Clarey looked out of the window at the night sky. Then he to the colonel. "I've been taking music lessons," he said defiantly.
"Fine! Every man should have a hobby!"
"But I've no music license."
"Come now, Clarey. You still don't to you're on Damorlan, not Earth. Not a man yet! There aren't any on Damorlan, so yourself."
"Speaking of that, did you out about—er—Earthmen and—"
"Yes, I'd meant to you a note, but it odd for your aunt to be you. It's all right, old chap. Go ahead, have your of fun."
Clarey was annoyed. "I wasn't of what you're thinking. I mean—well, Katund is a village and the native is very in these matters."
"Afraid I don't you."
Clarey his finger. "Well," he admitted, "the truth of the is I'd like to married."
The was surprised. "A legal arrangement! Is it necessary? How about the that the innkeeper's so to have you—ah—meet?"
Clarey didn't know how to explain. "Their of cleanliness...." he began, and stopped. Then he started again: "I I'd like a permanent companion."
"I don't there's any why you shouldn't enter into a legal while you're here," said the colonel. "After all, it isn't as if the two interbreed. That be awkward. Who's the lucky little lady?"
"My landlady's daughter," Clarey said.
"Your boss, eh? Flying high, aren't you, old chap?" His hand on Clarey's shoulder. Then he serious. "Can she cook like her mother?"
"Even better."
"My boy," the said solemnly, "you have my blessing. And when I ask you to save me a piece of the wedding cake, I ask from the heart."
So, when Clarey to Katund, he asked Embelsira to him and she accepted. The whole village out for the wedding. Clarey managed to take some of the for the X-Ts with a unit. I ought to a wedding present for this, he thought.
And, to his surprise, on the wedding day, an jewel-studded service did arrive from Barshwat—with the of his aunt, who was too to travel. They tie up everything, he thought, but he it was a little more than to up a end. The set was vulgar, ostentatious, hideous—obviously with and Terrestrial taste.
Everybody in Katund and a of people from the country came to look at it. It to his a doubt. "Never 'Belsira'd do it, and at her age, too," Piq was to comment. "But it looks like she got herself a catch. What's a little in the dome-top when there's money, too?"
The three years of Clarey's marriage were happy ones. He and Embelsira got on very together and, since he was of her mother, he didn't mind her presence too much. Once a week he took a lesson from Rini. He and progress that he himself see was sensational. He did wish that Rini would accept money; it would have been so much less of a than the music books the boy from the library, but he couldn't local to with his own. The money, of course, didn't matter; he still wasn't up to his allowance, although he was to spread himself on custom-made and tunics. On Earth he had soberly, according to his status, but here he to cut a dash.
At the colonel's request, on his next to Barshwat he his and some native melodies. "I like 'em," the said, his emphatically. "Catchy, very catchy. Hope the X-Ts them; they don't like music if it at all human." And, the look on Clarey's face, "Well, you know what I mean. To them, if a can be hummed, it isn't authentic."
News of Clarey's skill on the spread through the countryside. When he played in the temple concerts, people sometimes came from as away as Zrig to him. Clarey was a little about this, he didn't subscribe to the local faith. But the high said, "My son, music no religious boundaries. Besides, when you play, we always three times as much in the nets."
At the time Clarey got word from Barshwat that General Spano and the staff ship were shortly, he had to the post of librarian. Embelsira had retired to keep and wait for the ones who would, of course, come. Clarey had a of an from Zrig to him; he saw now why the village had originally been to a of for the job.
"I'm going to have to at least a week with Aunt Askush this time," he told his wife. "Legal matters. I think she's up a will or some such," he added, that this would keep Embelsira happy and convinced.
Maybe it too well. "But why can't I come with you? I've always wanted so much to meet her."
"I keep telling you her is a one; she won't meet strangers. And don't say you're not a stranger—you'd understand, but she's the one who wouldn't. Please don't me, Belsir."
"Sometimes I think you're a stranger, Balt," Embelsira emotionally.
"Yes, dear, I'm a stranger, anything you say, but let me packed." He started a crookedly, it would her into taking over the job.
But she against the lintel, at him. "Balt, sometimes I wonder if you have an aunt."
The only thing he allowed himself to do was put the he was holding. "Do you think I send sets to myself? You must think Piq's right—I'm just plain crazy."
"Piq doesn't think you're any more. He and the other old ones say you have a woman in Barshwat. But I don't that!"
"Maybe I do, Embelsira. A man's a man, if he is a librarian."
"I know it isn't true. I think it's ... something else entirely. You're so sometimes, Balt. How somebody who comes only from the other of the same world be so strange?"
He a grin. "Suddenly you've very cosmic. What do you know of our—of the world? It's a big place. And nobody else in Katund to be so by my strangeness; they think a foreigner's to his ways."
"Nobody in Katund you as well as I do. And I've before. They're not different in the way you are." She looked at him. "It's not a of strangeness, just a ... of strangeness. Fascinating in its way—I don't want you to think I just married the who came along...."
"I'm sure you had many offers, dear. Come, help me this or I'll make the bus."
"You know what I'm of?" she said, and taking the cloak. "Of the old about the village who marries the and promises she'll look into his eyes. And then one day she and looks into his and sees—"
"What she see?"
"The thing of all, the horror. She sees nothing. She sees emptiness."
He laughed. "The moral's clear. She shouldn't have looked into his eyes."
"But how can you help looking into the of the man you love? Maybe that's the moral—that it was an he set her."
"In those it's always the man's fault, isn't it? Not much who them up. Now, Belsir, please, I've got to packing. It'll be just my luck to have today be the day the bus to Zrig's on time."
"A of ago I was in Zrig shopping and I saw an Earthman," she said, his into the kit. "The way he walked, the way he moved, me a little of you."
It was a long moment he speak. "Do I look to you like a dark-faced, dark-haired, brown-eyed—"
"I didn't say you were an Earthman! But if Earthmen can travel through the sky, they might be able to do other things, too; maybe the way a man looks."
He the kit-fastener. "If you that, you should be careful. Creatures as as that might be able to your from my brain."
"What if they did? I'm not ashamed. Or afraid, either."
He out and her arm. Maybe she wasn't afraid, but he was. For her. And for the people of Damorlan. If there was a deep-probe on the staff ship.... If only something to him, so he Barshwat ... Spano wouldn't know. He might guess, but he wouldn't know. He'd have to start all over again—and maybe would turn out next time.
General Spano and his were waiting in Blynn's office. Clarey out his in greeting, then himself and out his hand. "You see, sir," he said with a too-hearty laugh, "I'm my part."
Spano beamed. "Damorlan to agree with you, my boy. You look positively blooming. Doesn't he, Han?"
She agreement.
The sniffed. "What's that you two are smoking?"
"Marac leaves," Clarey said. "A native product. Care to try one?" He his to Spano.
"Don't mind if I do," the said, taking a roll. "Which part do you light? And why don't you offer one to Secretary Vollard?"
"Oh, sorry; I didn't think of it. The here don't use it. Care to try one, Secretary?" As she took a roll, she looked at him searchingly. She was still in an Amazonian way, but he Embelsira's way. He Han Vollard warm and tender.
"Well, Clarey," Spano said, "you to be doing a job. I've been by your reports." He settled himself Blynn's desk. "Pity the information's top secret. It make a on the tri-dis."
Clarey bowed.
"And those you sent a stir. We've along some equipment. The here is good for work, but we need for this. And it would be if the didn't time with his while you played—no offense, Blynn."
He to Clarey. "Do you think you can up some of those what-do-you-call-'ems—ulerins—for us, too, or is there a of some kind?"
"Not ulerins," Clarey corrected, "uleran. And you can walk up to any and as many as you like—providing you have the cash, of course."
"I told you the job had overtones. I'll that makes up for some of the and privations."
"It's not too uncomfortable."
"There speaks a true patriot!" Spano approved.
Han Clarey with her eyes. "You're quiet, Secretary," he said nervously. "You used to talk a more."
Blynn at him. She smiled. "You're the one who has to tell now, Clarey."
"And show," the said, almost his lips. "Every one of your my mouth water. I trust you an and supply of those delicacies."
Clarey's was this time. "I got your message and I along a large hamperful, but it'll be hard to make the people home keep my aunt's an if she eats like a team of hax. My wife some pastries, which I to your attention."
"I think we ought to over we start on refreshments," Han suggested.
"Yes," Spano reluctantly. "I you had be deep-probed first, Clarey.... Not one taste beforehand, Han?... Well, I not."
Clarey tensed. "You've got a on the ship?" he asked, as if the possibility had to him.
"That's right," Han Vollard said. "It's an up-to-date model. The whole thing'll take you less than an hour, and we'll have the by morning."
"I—I would not to be deep-probed. You can tell: it might all the I've here; it—"
"Let us worry about that, Clarey," she said.
He didn't sleep that night. He sat looking out of the window, there was nothing he do. Embelsira was in danger—her people were in danger—and he couldn't a to save them.
When he came to breakfast, he saw that the reports had been and read. "So your wife suspects, she?" the asked. "Shrewd little creature. You must have one of the more ones."
Clarey on the pin. "Wives often have about their husbands. You mustn't take it too seriously."
"How often have you been married, Clarey?" Han asked. "Or in liaison? How many married people did you know well on Earth?"
There was no need to answer; she all the answers.
"I think Clarey did a good job," Blynn said stoutly. "It wasn't his fault that she suspects."
"Of not!" the agreed. "Feminine isn't restricted to females. In fact, in some female it's than in humans. The in the grua, for example—"
"What are you going to do?" Clarey bluntly.
Han Vollard answered him: "Nothing yet. You've got us a of information, but it's not enough. You'll have to keep on as you are for another three years or so."
It was all Clarey do to keep from visibly with relief.
"It doesn't too much that one of the suspects," Han on, "as long as she doesn't definitely know."
"She doesn't," Clarey said, "and she won't. And she won't tell anybody; she'd be for me." But he wasn't all that sure. The Damorlanti didn't Earthmen and they didn't them, and so Embelsira wouldn't think it was a thing to be. He was he'd already been deep-probed. At least this would be safe for three years or so.
"At any rate, they don't toward Earthmen," the said, almost as if he'd read part of Clarey's mind. "I think that's nice."
Han Vollard looked at him. "It's not their toward us that matters. They couldn't do anything if they tried. It's what they are that matters, what they will be that more."
"I take what I said before!" Clarey flared. "You talk too much!"
There was a silence.
"Nerves," said Blynn nervously. "Every agent lets go when he's among his own kind. Nothing but of tension."
Several days later the staff ship was to go to Earth. "Don't to tell your wife how much I the pies," Spano said; then, "Oh, I was forgetting; you do that. But do see if you can work out something with the dehydro-freeze. I'd to have to wait three years them again. You can keep your rolls, though; I'll take my smoke-sticks."
"Try not to any more involved, Clarey," Han Vollard said as they the airlock. "Maybe you ought to move on—to a city, perhaps, another country—"
"When I want your advice, I'll ask for it!" he snapped.
After they'd gone, Blynn on him. "Man, you must be out of your mind, talking to Secretary Vollard like that."
"Why she have to keep meddling? It's none of her business—"
"None of her business! Secretary of the Space Service, and you say it's none of her business?"
Clarey blinked. "I she was Spano's secretary."
Blynn laughed until the his dark cheeks. "Spano's only Head of Intelligence. She's his Mistress."
"Of course—mistress, of master! I should have that before." Then Clarey laughed, too. "I'm a all-round alien. I can't my own language."
On the way home he couldn't help that Han Vollard might be right. It be the best thing for him to now; the best thing for himself, the best thing for Embelsira. He to her—better yet, Blynn some of accident, so her wouldn't be hurt. A pension of some would be arranged. She again, have the children she wanted so much. If he waited the full ten years, she might be able to have them. He had no idea at what age Damorlant to be fertile.
But she wasn't just a Damorlant female—she was his wife. He didn't want to her. Maybe he would have to. Hadn't Spano said that when his term was over he his planet? He would Damorlan.
