Barré's rival for control of Zir and the leader of a local religious cult; her designs on Reith are quite different, as her prophecies lead her to believe she must mate with a red-haired Terran to engender a savior god. A previous captive, Felix Borel (protagonist of the earlier Krishna short story "Perpetual Motion"), had been executed after failing to impregnate Shosti. Reith reads his own fate in Borel's, knowing Terrans and Krishnans are not interfertile – the latter, while near human in appearance, are an alien species. Once more he succeeds in escaping, subsequently leading a raid to free his tourists from Barré. Apparently safe back in Baianch, Reith relates his adventures to Tashian, with unfortunate results. The account of Terran-Krishnan biological incompatibility inspires the crafty prince-regent to trick Reith into an intimate encounter with Vásni bad-Dushta'en, Princess of Dur, and then marry her off to him by force. The continuation of Tashian's regency is dependent on Vásni producing no legitimate male offspring, a lack her marriage to Reith will ensure. Separated again from his tourists, Reith grimly sets about planning yet another escape. This he achieves thanks to a fortuitous diplomatic visit to Baianch by Pandr (prince) Ferrian bad-Arjanaq of the island nation of Sotaspé, whom Reith had previously encountered in Zamba. (Ferrian was the protagonist of the earlier Krishna short story "Finished".) Finally winning back to Novorecife, Reith learns his tour group has returned before him, and most have left the planet. He resolves to depart as well, but reconsiders when the guide of the second tour group to reach Krishna suffers an accident, leaving an opening for an experienced guide... Fergus Reith would go on to become the main recurring character in the Krishna series, reappearing in a minor role in The Prisoner of Zhamanak, and as the protagonist of The Bones of Zora and The Swords of Zinjaban. Setting The planet Krishna is de Camp's premier creation in the Sword and Planet genre, representing both a tribute to the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs and an attempt to "get it right", reconstructing the concept logically, without what he regarded as Burroughs' biological and technological absurdities. De Camp intended the stories as "pure entertainment in the form of light, humorous, swashbuckling, interplanetary adventure-romances - a sort of sophisticated Burroughs-type story, more carefully thought out than their prototypes." As dated in James Cambias's GURPS Planet Krishna