The Virgin of Zesh & the Tower of Zanid by L. Sprague de Camp Page B

supposed that they were both lost by now, but she did not intend to trust Kirwan again. She walked at random until she could no longer hear his calls. Then she found a thicket, pulled together a bed of vegetation, and curled up to sleep.

VIII
    When it was light enough to see, Althea shook herself awake and climbed a tree. From her perch, she could see the top of the Temple of Zesh to the north, and in the opposite direction the clearings and hutroofs of Elysion. She knew that the path from one to the other ran close to the cliffs along the east side of Zesh, sometimes coming out to the edge. If she simply walked east, watching carefully, she should soon pick up this trail and follow it south to the village.
    She arrived back at her cabin to find Bahr leaping to his feet to seize her. She let herself be hugged but discouraged the scientist when he proffered more intimate attentions.
    “Althea, tell me what happened! Brian came limping in a couple of hours ago, with a wild story of having met a tailed Krishnan savage in the forest and fought him in the dark, while you ran away and disappeared. I doubted the story, having made a psychological analysis of the man. I concluded that it was more likely a fantasy composed to account for the scratches on his face, which he had received at your hands.”
    Althea told Bahr what had happened. The psychologist commented, “That is typical of these emotionally infantile types. They will lie to avert an immediate unpleasantness, even though they know that the truth will shortly transpire.”
    “What are you going to do about it?” she asked.
    “What should I do? I doubt if Brian is willing to be psychoanalyzed, even if I had the time to do so.”
    “That’s not what I meant!” said Althea in exasperation.
    “What did you mean, my dear?”
    “I thought maybe you’d like to knock his block off.”
    “Really? But my dear Althea, that is a most impractical suggestion. In the first place, he is stronger than I and no doubt more proficient in using his fists. Therefore, the probability is that I should be the one to have the block knocked off, as you so picturesquely put it.”
    “You defied Halevi on the playing field,” she said in a last effort to arouse Bahr’s masculine belligerence.
    “That has nothing to do with the case. My analysis of the psychological factors told me that there was little chance of Halevi’s forcing the issue. There is no doubt, on the other hand, that Kirwan, if attacked, would fight vigorously. In the second place, even were I victorious, such treatment would do nothing to abate the urges and the neuroses that cause Brian to behave in this irrational manner. I think that you are being a little emotionally infantile yourself.”
    Althea sighed. No doubt a wish to see Bahr wipe up the alleys of Elysion with the battered remains of Brian Kirwan did indicate emotional immaturity. But if Bahr had done so, she thought that she might even have managed to fall in love with him. As it was, he was hung more securely than ever on his pedagogic peg.
    At the sound of voices outside, she looked out. It was not, however, another disturbance involving Kirwan. Diogo Kuroki was standing on the square, talking with the lookout. The latter said, “. . . only one galley, but it’s their biggest. I think I saw Yuruzh himself in the bow.”
    “Round up the Council,” said Kuroki. “We shall go down to meet them.”
    Bahr, looking over Althea’s shoulder, said, “Let us go, too, yes?”
    Althea and Bahr started for the beach. The news swiftly spread, so that the path became crowded with other villagers. Bahr and Althea arrived just ahead of Kuroki. Several older members had wreaths on their heads and their cloaks pinned about them in artistically Classical folds. Most of these had also greeted Kirwan on his arrival.
    The Council scrambled breathlessly down the last few meters of the path. As they reached the sand, they lined up and advanced toward the water with