The Tritonian Ring and Other Pasudian Tales by L. Sprague de Camp

besides the rowers and three' passengers. The ship had a beak of bronze jutting out at the waterline forward, and (like all ships) a pair of eyes painted on the bow so that, sailors believed, she could see her way. No device or insigne, like the mermaid of Ogugia or the octopus of Gorgonia, variegated her plain brown sail, nor did any pennant or banderole betray her origin.
     
                  One of the passengers was a man of medium height with a small round cap perched on his shaven poll, a small pointed gray beard, and a loose robe to his ankles. The other two, who wore no clothes, were not really human. One was a pigmy about four feet high with huge membranous ears like those of an elephant in miniature, and covered all over with short golden-brown fur. The other was eight feet tall with a low-browed apish countenance and coarse black hair all over. He carried a great brass-bound club over one stooping shoulder while his other arm embraced a large wooden chest with bronze clamps.
     
                  "By all the gods, what are those?" said Vakar. "Some kind of satyrs? The large one looks like the giant in the Lay of Zorm é :
     
                  "Grimly glowering                             and fearsomely fanged
                  The monster menaced               the vulnerable virgin ... "Eh?"
     
                  Fual said: "The larger I don't know, but the smaller is a Coranian. "
     
                  " A what?"
     
                  "A native of the northern isle of Corania. It's said they can hear any word uttered for miles around."
     
                  The second ship tied up as their own had done, and its people climbed ashore and set out in various directions. Vakar said:
     
                  "We can't wait around all day; I'm for the palace. You stay here to dispose of the stuff ... "
     
                  Just then the shaven-headed man pushed through the spectators towards Vakar. After him came the giant ape-man and the Coranian.
     
                  "You are for the palace, sir?" said the man in strongly accented Hesperian. "Perhaps you will permit me to go with you, for my errand takes me thither also and I am not familiar with Sederado. And while I have never met you, something tells me I ought to know you. My name is Qasigan."
     
    -
     
                  "And whom have I the honor of addressing?" said Qasigan, smiling pleasantly as he fell into step beside Vakar. His leathery skin was even darker than Vakar's, and his broad head bore a round blunt-featured face. He stooped slightly and shuffled rather than walked.
     
                  "My name is Vakar."
     
                  Vakar happened to be looking at the man's face as he spoke, and observed the pleasant smile vanish and flicker back again.
     
                  "Not Prince Vakar of Lorsk!" said the man.
     
                  Vakar tended to take a dour and suspicious view of untried strangers—especially queer-looking ones who travailed about in their own war-galleys with inhuman assistants and showed an egregious interest in his identity. He shook h is head.
     
                  "Merely a relative. And what, sir, do you know of Lorsk?"
     
                  "Who does not know t he world's greatest source of co pper?"
     
                  "Indeed. Where do you come from? "
     
                  " Tegrazen, a small city on the mainland south of Kernê ."
     
                  "You have unusual servitors. The first, I understand, is a Coranian? "
     
                  " That is correct. His name is Yok. "
     
                  " And the other?" said Vakar.
     
                  "That is Nji, from Bl ackland. The Blacks caught him y oung, tamed him, and sold him.