Chapter IV (2)

    Though the sun was warm, Iimmi shivered. He waited for a moment, and then he began. "We took a skiff out from the ship and managed to get through the rocks somehow. It was evening when we started and the moon, I remember, had risen just above the horizon, though the sky was still deep blue. 'This light of the full moon is propitious to the White Goddess Argo,' she said from her place at the bow of the boat. By the time we landed, the sky was black behind her, and the beach was all silvered by the light, up and down. Whitey and I were left to guard the skiff at the water's edge, and sitting on the gunwales, shoulders hunched in the slight chill, we watched the others go up the beach, five and five, with Argo behind them.
    "Suddenly there was a scream, and the first man fell. They came from the air like vultures. The moon was overhead by now, and a cloud of them darkened the white disk with their wings. They scurried after the fleeing men, over the sand. All we could really make out was a dark battling against the silver. There were swords raised in the white light, screams, and howls that nearly sent us back into the ocean. But Argo and a handful of those men left began to run toward the boat. They followed them down to the edge of the water, loping behind them, half flying, half running, hacking one after another down with swords. I saw one man fall forward and his head roll from his body while blood squirted ten feet along the sand, crimson under the moon. One actually caught at her veils, but she screamed and slipped from it into the water now, and climbed back into the boat, panting. You would think a woman would collapse, but no. She stood in the bow while we rowed our arms off. They would not come over the water, apparently, and somehow we managed to get the skiff back to the ship without foundering against the rocks."
    "Our aquatic friends may have had something to do with that," said Geo. "Iimmi, you say her veils were pulled off. Tell me, do you remember if she were wearing any jewelry or not?"
    "She certainly wasn't," Iimmi said. "She stood there in only her dark robe, her throat as bare as ivory."
    "She wasn't going to bring the jewel to Aptor where those monsters could get their hands on it again," said Urson. "But Geo, if Jordde's the spy, why did he throw the jewel in the sea?"
    "Whatever reason he had," said Geo, "our friends have given it to me now."
    "You said Argo didn't know whose side these sea creatures were on, Leptar's or Aptor's," said Iimmi. "But perhaps Jordde knows, and that's why he threw it to them." He paused for a moment. "Friend, I think you have made an error; you tell me you are a poet, and it is a poet's error. The hinge in your argument that Snake is no spy is that Argo must have dubious motives to send you on such an impossible task, without protection, saying that it would be meaningful only if all its goals were accomplished. You reasoned, how could an honest woman place the life of her sister below the value of a jewel ..."
    "Not just her sister," interrupted Geo, "but the Goddess Argo Incarnate."
    "Be patient," said Iimmi. "Only if she wished to make permanent her temporary condition, you thought, could she set such an impossible task. There may be some truth in what you say. But she herself would not bring the jewel to the shores of Aptor, though it was for her own protection. Thanks to you, all three jewels are now in Aptor, and if any part of her story is true, Leptar is now in more danger than it has been in five hundred years. You have the jewels, two of them, and you cannot use them. Where is your friend Snake who can? Both Snake and Jordde could easily be spies and the enmity between them feigned, so that while you focused on one, you could be misled by the other. You say he can move into men's minds? Perhaps he clouded yours."
    They sat silent for the lapsing of a minute.
    "Argo may be torn by many things," continued Iimmi. "But you, in watching some, may have been deluded by others."
    Light from the river quivered on the undersides of leaves. Urson spoke now. "I think his story is better than yours, Geo."
    "Then what shall we do now?" asked Geo, softly.
    "Do what the Goddess requests as best we can," said Iimmi. "Find the Temple of Hama, secure the stone, rescue the young Goddess, and die before we let the jewels fall into hands of Aptor."
    "From the way you describe this place," muttered Urson, "that may not be far off."
    "Still," mused Geo, "there are things that don't mesh. Like why were you saved too, Iimmi? Why were we brought here at all? And why did Jordde want to kill you and the other sailor?"
    "Perhaps," said Iimmi, "the god Hama has a strange sense of humor and we shall be allowed to carry the jewels up to the temple door before we are slaughtered, dropping them at his feet." He smiled. "Then again, perhaps your theory is the correct one, Geo, and I am the spy, sent to sway your reason."
    Urson and Geo glanced at each other.
    "There are an infinite number of theories for every set of facts," said the Negro. "Rule number one: assume the simplest; that includes all the known conditions to be true until more conditions arise for which your theory no longer holds. Rule number two: then, and not until, change it."
    "Then we go on into the jungle," Geo said.
    "I guess we do," said Urson.
    "Since we've got this job, we've got to trust ourselves and do it right. Let's see if we can put one more of those things around your neck before we're through." He pointed to the two jewels hanging at Geo's chest. Then he laughed. "One more and you'll be all the way up to me," and he rattled his own triple necklace.