The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate
- Автор: Де Камп Лайон Спрэг
- Год: 1968
- Язык: английский
- Год: Lancer Books
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
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Dragon is probably closest in mood to de Camp's fantasy novels, while Bronze God and Arrows are closer to his science fiction, with their description of engineering problems, and personality clashes among researchers and engineers. Dragon also reflects de Camp's then-recent acquaintance with the Conan stories and other works of Robert E. Howard. Bessas, the huge Persian nobleman, is not only a close match for Conan in physique, but his mood swings, fixation on his mother, and tendency to toss of verses, seems a reflection of Howard himself. (Fortunately, his poems reflect de Camp's verbal dexterity and wit, not Howard's melancholy.)
"Don't give up hope, my dear girl," he said. "Some day I may be able to do for you what Puerma said he would."
XIII – The River of Darkness
Bessas, Myron, Kothar, Skhâ, and Shimri sat on the edge of a steep brown bluff near Meroê. Below them the azure Nile flowed placidly northward, while above, thin white veils of cirrus wafted across the face of the high hot sun. Bessas spoke:
"Men, I have brought you out here so that we could talk freely without our Arabian friends' overhearing. I have asked in Meroê how travel hence to southward is managed, and this is what I have learnt.
"He who would journey up the River of Darkness meets a peculiar hindrance, to wit: ignorance of the value of silver and gold. To one of Myron's philosophers this might seem an ideal state of affairs, but it makes the way hard for the farer. The distances are too great and the country too difficult for the traveler to take all his food with him; but wherewith shall he buy more from the locals?
"The usual trade goods, I am told, are iron hoes and spearheads, beads, and salt, which comes in little brown cones. Howsomever, these trifles are exceedingly heavy and bulky for their worth.
"Moreover, not all kinds are acceptable everywhere. Thus one tribe may refuse iron spearheads for some superstitious reason; another will accept red beads but not those of any other hue. Therefore the traveler must needs carry a vast fardel of trade goods of all kinds, to ward against being stranded and perishing of starvation.
"So it seems we shall have to bear much more dead weight than before. The established method is to hire fifty or a hundred Kushites as bearers, and another score or more of soldiers to guard the bearers. And these must all be fed.
"Now, Zayd means to return to his oasis as soon as I pay him off on the morrow. But our reckonings show that one of his camels can easily bear seven, eight, or even ten times as much as a human porter. Therefore, these beasts can carry more than can a hundred Kushites, even counting the weight of their riders.
"Moreover, camels will not desert, or mutiny, or rob and rape the natives and thus embroil us in unwanted conflict. They live off the leaves of thorn trees, whereas the Kushites must be fed and led, bullied and cajoled. Dip me in dung, but it seems pure folly to hire scores of wayward, lustful, and foolish men when these docile beasts can do the work!
"Since our plans have perforce been changed by the matter of Takarta's treasure, I therefore purpose to make Zayd a sporting offer: to carry us to the sources of the Nile, in return for half of the part of the treasure remaining after Puerma has taken his moiety; that is to say, one quarter of the total."
The men looked at one another. Skhâ asked: "How much will the treasure come to?"
"By the thousand senses of Azi Dahaka, how should I know? The tale avers it was borne through Meroê on the back of an ass, so it could hardly come to more than three talents of gold."
All fell to discussing how much three talents of gold would be. The two younger men became wildly excited when calculations, made by drawing figures in the dirt, showed that this would be the equivalent of about a hundred and thirty thousand shekels of silver.
"A kingly fortune!" cried Skhâ. "By Ashtarth's pubic zone; do you mean you would give half of that to a lot of flea-bitten sand thieves? The whole crew and their beasts cost us less than five shekels a day!"
Bessas smiled grimly. "When you can fare over waterless wastes as ably as these men do, Skhâ, it will be time enough to scorn them. And you forget several things. One is that Puerma gets half of the total, leaving half for Zayd and me to divide betwixt us. The other is that the sum I gave was but the upper limit. We may find that this fabled treasure is nought but a handful of tarnished silver, or that it has been scattered or destroyed, or that it never existed save in some flap-tongued fellow's fancy."
Myron looked at his friend with new respect. Ever since his disastrous game with Puerma, Bessas had seemed more mature. The big fellow was now less the roistering, reckless ruffian and more the thoughtful and responsible leader.
Skhâ said: "Of course, we can promise them aught and give them the slip later—"
"Enough!" barked Bessas. "I keep my word, whatever others may do." He continued-: "Now, I have formed an opinion of Zayd, having dealt with men of his ilk in the deserts of Aryana. I am sure that, if I try to haggle with him and compel him to go on with us at his present rate of pay, he'll refuse. He waxes impatient to see his clan and get his hands once more on the reins of his tribal affairs. But offer him a chance at a daring exploit, with a hope of vast wealth at the end, and methinks he'll come."
Shimri, chewing a stalk of grass, asked: "How—how about us? What share have we of this treasure?"
"I propose that we divide the quarter remaining to us into eight parts. Of these, I as captain shall receive three parts, Myron as my lieutenant shall have two, and the rest of you one each. At least, that's how the pirates of the Hyrkanian Sea divide their loot. Is any man so hardy as to gainsay me? Good; we have decided."
On the last day of Duuzu, the expedition assembled for the march to southward. Besides Bessas, his four men, and Phyllis, there were the shaykh and his daughter, each riding a camel, and five other Arabs of the Banu Khalaf, riding and leading nineteen more of the beasts. One Arab and a camel had been sent back to the Fifty-League Oasis, while one new man had been added to the party. This was Merqetek the guide. Merqetek was a Dankala from Karutjet, a slight man with a sly grin that bent the tribal scars on his raisin-colored cheeks.
"Well," said Bessas, walking up and down before the line of waiting men and laden beasts, "henceforth we shall have no letters from princes and politicians to smooth our way. I'll wager no man south of here can read. Tighten that girth, Shimri."
Myron mused: "I wonder if we did right to decline those soldiers Puerma offered us. At a ha'penny a day, we could surely have afforded them."
" 'Tis not the money but the time. They'd have wended afoot and halved our speed."
"Suppose ten thousand naked blacks assail us—"
"Then we should be no stronger with forty than with fourteen. As we stand, we have at least a chance to outrun them on our beasts." Bessas shook his massive head. "Nay, for speed give me a small party. Further, I have had somewhat to do with unlettered tribesmen on the other frontiers. Unless "you drag an army with you, your best protection is to move swiftly and mind your own business. If you linger, you give the barbarians time to think, and they may think either that you mean them ill, or that they can profit by robbing you."
"At least, I am not sorry to see the last of fabled Meroê. For a capital city, it's the dullest and dirtiest place of my experience."
Shaykh Zayd, astride his kneeling camel, caught the drift of Myron's words and said: "You Hellenes are spoilt with your city-dwelling! By Hah and Hat, only we badawin know how to live so that such tilings are not needed. Bide with us for a year and you will never wish to sleep within walls again!"
Bessas poetized:
The Bactrian was in high good humor. The ten-day of waiting in Meroê for Puerma to return had jut him into his foulest mood', but since that low point he had steadily waxed more cheerful.
It was well, thought Myron, that someone felt thus. He himself had swallowed a knot of apprehension, which stubbornly remained in his stomach. A dozen times a day he told himself that he had been a fool to come on this jaunt and should begin devising excuses for turning back. And a dozen times a day he berated himself for cowardice, inconstancy, and neglect of a matchless opportunity to advance the knowledge of man.