Blood Brothers of Gor (52 page)

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garments. They appreciate the freedom of movement which they permit and relish, too, the insolent exposure and display of their desireaility and beauty to the bold appraisal of men. The young man's slave seemed quite pleased with her garment. It was, of course, all she wore. Mira I was keeping naked. I would decide later whether or not to permit her a garment. I smiled to myself. She had once been an agent of Kurii. She would accordingly, drink deeply of slavery under my tutelage. She would learn it well.

"There," said Cuwignaka, standing on teh crest of the small hill, in the deep grass. "below is the camp, nestled in the trees, by the small stream. You can see some lodges."

I stood, stock-still, on the crest of the small hill, beside Cuwignaka. I scarcely glanced into the shallow valley, at the trees along the stream, the lodges hidden among the trees.

It was something else which drew my attention. It was on a rise behind the camp.

"What is wrong?" asked Cuwignaka.

I could not speak. My blood began to race, my heart to pound. I began to breathe swiftly. I trembled.

"What is wrong, Mitakola?" asked Cuwignaka.

"There," I said. I pointed to the rise overlooking the camp.

"What?" he asked.

"There!" I said. "There!"

On that rise there were two trees, white-barked trees, some fifty feet tall, with shimmering green leaves. They stood within some thrity to forty feet of one another and both were outlined dramatically against the sky.

"What?" asked Cuwignaka.

I stared, trembling, at the lonely pair of trees. "The trees," I said. "The trees." They were Hogarthe trees, named for Hogarthe, one of the early explorers in the area of the Barrens, usually growing along the banks of small streams or muddy, sluggish rivers. Their shape is very reminiscent of poplar trees on Earth, to which, perhaps in virtue of seeds brought to the Counter-Earth, they may be related.

"It is from those trees," said Cuwignaka, "that this place has its name."

"What is the name of this place?" I asked.

"Two Feathers," said Cuwignaka.

"I thought that was a name," I said.

"It is a name," said Cuwignaka, "the name of this place."

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"Who is high man here?" I asked.

"It would be Kahintokapa, One-Who-Walks-Before, of the Yellow-Kaiila Riders," said Cuwignaka, "if he survived."

"He must have survived!" I cried.

I began to run wildly down the slope toward the camp.

"Wait!" cried Cuwignaka. "Someone is coming!"

"Tatankasa!" cried Canka, rushing towards us from the camp. But I ran past him. I ran as though mad. He, and perhaps Akihoka, who had gone to fetch him back from hunting, must have made contact with fugitives from the festival camp and then, with them, come to this camp.

"Master!" cried Winyela.

But I ran past her, too.

"Wait!" I heard Cuwignaka calling out behind me.

But I could not wait. It was late afternoon. This would be the time for the sunning of shields, hanging on the shield tripods behnd the lodge facing west.

Woemn looked up, startled, as I hurried through the camp. "Tatankasa!" cried more than one.

"Tatankasa!" called out Mahpiyasapa.

I, a slave, fell to my knees before him. He was chief of the Isbu Kaiila.

"You live!" he cried. "My heart sings!"

"Master," I cried. "Where is the lodge of Kahintokapa!"

"There," said Mahpiyasapa, puzzled, pointing.

"My thanks, Master!" I cried.

I clenched my fists.

"You may rise," said Mahpiyasapa, discerning my urgency.

I leaped to my feet.

"Tatankasa!" cried Mahpiyasapa.

"Yes?" I said.

"Know you aught of Hci?"

"Let your heart soar and sing, Master," I said. "Your son lives!" I pointed behind me, to the slope, down which the young, former Waniyapi lad and Mira and the former Waniyanpi girl, now a master's slave, drew the travois. Mahpiyasapa, his face radiant with joy, hurried from my side. I saw Canka and Cuwignaka embracing. Winyela, overjoyed, stood by. Others, too, from the camp, were running out to meet them.

I quickly turned my steps toward the lodge of Kahintokapa. I came to it, and then I stopped. Then, slowly, I walked

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about the lodge. I felt the warm sun on my back. Never before had I seen the shield of Kahintokapa outside of its shield cover, even when I had first seen him, long ago, with Canka and the members of the All Comrades, near the site of the battle of the wagon train, near, too, where the mercenaries had fought, and Alfred had escaped with the contingent of some three to four hundred men.

It is not uncommon for a warrior to keep his shield in its case or cover when not fighting. It is removed from the case, or cover, also, of course, when it is sunned, set forth to draw in power and medicine from the yellow, life-giving, blazing star of two worlds, Sol or Tor-tu-Gor, Light Upon the Home Stone.

I stood for a long time on the late-summer day, looking at the shild, hanging on the shield tripod. It turned, slightly, in the breeze, back and forth. I took care, in deference to the feelings of the red savages, not to let my shadow fall across it, while it was being sunned. Similarly, one does not pass between a guest and the fire in a lodge without begging his pardon.

I heard Cuwignaka and Canka coming up behind me. They, too, regarded the shield.

"You see it?" I asked.

"Of course," said Cuwignaka.

"The hunter, long ago, in the snows," I said, "was Kahintokapa."

"I do not understand," said Cuwignaka.

" 'Two Feathers'," I said, "was not a man's name, but the name of this place."

"Of what is he speaking?" asked Canka.

"I do not know," said Cuwignaka.

"Look upon the shield," I said.

We all regarded the shield. It bore, painted on it, with meticulous detail, outlined in black, colored in with pigments, the visage of a Kur. It was a broad, savage head. One could see the proturding canines. The eyes, I thought, had been particularly well done. They seemed to look upon us. The left ear had been half torn away.

"It is Zarendargar, Half-Ear," I said.

"Who is Zarendargar?" asked Cuwignaka.

"One with whom I once, long ago, and in a far place shared paga," I said.

"That is the medicine helper of Kahintokapa," said Canka.

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"I would like to make its acquantance," I said.

"These things are personal," said Canka. "These things are private. They are seen in dreams, in visions. How can one man see the medicine helper of another man?"

"I must speak to Kahintokapa," I said.

"Kahintokapa is grievously wounded," said Canka.

"Will you make known my desires to him?" I asked.

"We both will," said Cuwignaka.

I looked at the visage on the shield. The likeness had been well caputred. Even now, among certain articles on the travois, brought from the lodge of Grunt at the festival camp, was the story hide, acquired long ago in the delta of the Vosk, some four pasangs from Port Kar. On this hide was protrayed the story of a hunt and of the finding of a medicine helper. This
 
hide had been the clue which had brought not only Kog and Sardak, and their allies, to the Barrens, but myself as well. At the narrative's termination on the hide the artist had drawn a likeness of the medicine helper, protrayed as though on a shield. The image had been that, clearly, of Zarendargar. Now, deep within the Barrens, north of the Northern Kaiila River, in he country of the CAsmu Kaiila, I looked upon the shield itself.

I turned about.

Several people were gathered about.

I looked past the people, away from the camp, out over the grasses.

Then I turned again to Cuwignaka and Canka.

"I would speak to Kahintokapa," I said.

"You would seek this medicine helper?" asked Canak.

"Yes," I said.

"If you do," said Canka, "you must do so in accordance with our ways."

"I will, of course," I said, "abide by your wishes."

"Cuwignaka and I will speak to Kahintokapa," said Canka. "We will speak on your behalf."

"I am grateful," I said.

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Chapter 35

IN THE VISION PLACE

"The body was never recovered," I said.

"It would make a difference to a Tuchuk," said Kamchak, of the Tuchuks.

A cold wind swept across the flat summit of Ar's Cylinder of Justice.

The stones were cold some twenty passangs west of the Casmu-Kaiila camp at Two Featers.

Again I held grass and earth with Kamchak, of the Tuchuks. I could fee it, cold in my hands, between my fingers.

It began to rain. The rain washed the dirt and grass from my hands. The bridges of Tharna had been gray and cool in the soft, long, slow rain.

In this distance heard the roars of the crowds in Ar's Stadium of Tarns.

I emerged from the baths of Ar. They semed suddenly cold.

The silver mask seemed unnaturally large. The women's voice, from behind it, seemingly far away, was wild with rage. "We shall meet again!" I heard.

The tarn smote its way from the roof of the palace. Are tore past us.

The Dora was a ship, a tarn ship, a ram ship, shallow-drafted, stright-keeled, singl-banked, latten-rigged, carvel-built, painted gree, difficult to detect in the rolling waters of Thassa, our of Port Kar.

Lara, who had been Tatrix of
 
Tharna, kneeling before me on a scarlet rug, in the camp of Targo, the Silver, lifted, suppilicating, holding them in her hands, two yellow cords to me.

Misk, at night, stood in the grasses near the Sardar, loftly, slender, grand against the moons, on a small bill, the wind moving his antennae.

I should have returned that night, perhaps, to the tavern of Sarpedon in Lydius, to see Vella dance. I had had business.

How splendid women look in the collars of men!

The sky was white with lightning. There was a great crash of thunder.

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"It is a hurricane of stones!" cried Hassan, the wind tearing back his burnoose.

"Maybe it will be cold tonight," speculated Imnak, bending over the slate point of his harpoon, methodically sharpening it with a stone, in the light of the small sleen-oil lamp.

"Yes," I agreed.

The northern waters are cold. Torrents descended, lashing the sea. The serpent of Ivar Forkbeard, its mast and spar lashed down, pitched in the waves near the Skerry of Einar. I heard Ivar Forkbeard's great laugh.

Lightning crashed above the red crags of the Voltai.

"Let him be whipped," said Marlenus of Ar.

Blows fell.

My cheek lay on the cold wet stones. One does not leave the vision place. Rain fell. I put out my hand and clutched ice. It rattled and struck about me, leaping up from the stones. My back was cut. The white clay on my body was streaked. I covered my head and lay on the stones. One does not leave the vision place.

It was hot.

I could hear the birds in the jungle of the Ua.

"Let us continue on," said Kisu, and, again, the river before us, broad between the moist, tangled green thickets of the banks, backed on each side by the enclosing jungle, we dipped our paddles into the muddy, sluggish water.

I felt lightheaded. Perhaps it was the sun. The Ur force is being disrupted, I heard. It seemed the ground was far beneath me. My feet could hardly touch it.

I lay on my back. The high, hot sun of the Tahari burned in the sky.

"Drink," said Hassan, bending over me. "Alas," he said, "the water bag is empty."

"At least," said Samos, "it is cooler now. That is a relief."

"Yes," I said.

"I am sorry you are so hungry," said Imnak. "I would like to give you something to eat, but there is no food in the cam. I think maybe one should go hunting."

"Yes," I said. "Let us go hunting."

"Are you not coming?" asked Imnak.