Blood Brothers of Gor (65 page)

"It is no use!" cried Hci, a few yards away, on tarnback, some two hundred yards above the rolling grasslands beneath us. On my right, urging his tarn ahead, was Cuwignaka.

"They are gaining!" cried Hci. "They will catch us!" It was now half an Ahn past dawn.

I looked back over my shoulder. Five riders, men of the Kinyanpi, pursued us, relentlessly. We heard their whooping behind us.

We were slowed by the lines we held. Behind each ofus, strung together by neck ropes, swpt five tarns. The Kinyanpi hobble lines had not been well guarded. In the vicinity of a Yellow-Knife camp, their allies, amongst tribes unfamiliar with tarns, they had feared nothing. We did not expect that such laxity would be repeated in the future.

A white female slave, one whipped from a Yellow-Knife lodge, had seen us. She had given the alarm. Ironically, in the moonlight, I had recognized her. She was a short-legged, luscioius blonde, a former American. Her name, when Grunt had owned her, when she had been a member of his coffle, had been Lois. She, with three others, Inez, Corinne and Pricilla, had been taken from Grunt by Yellow Knives in the vicinity of the field whre the battle had taken place between a coalition of red savages and the soldiers of Alfred, the mercenary captain from Port Olni. Sleen, at the same time, had

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taken two others of Grunt's girls, Ginger and Evelyn, and his two male prisoners, Max and Kyle Hobart, the latter presumably to serve as boys, given such duties as watching over kaiila. Another girl, too, at the same time, had been taken from Grunt, the former debutante from Pennsylvania, once Miss Millicent Aubrey-Welles, a girl he had planned to sell to Mahpiyansapa, civil chieftain of the Isbu Kaiila, for five hides of the yellow kailiauk. This girl, however, had not been taken by Yellow Knives or Sleen' she had been taken by a Kaiila warrior, Canka; she was now Winyela, his slave. When the luscious, short-legged blonde had seen us, she who had been Lois when wearing a collar of iron in Grunt's coffle, she had turned about and fled back among the lodges, screaming, spreading the alarm. I did not think that she recognized us but, even if she had, she would still have done what she did. Slave girls on Gor obey their masters with perfection.

"We have as many tarns as we can well handle now," I had said to Cuwignaka and Hci, slipping the noose over the head of the last tarn, "Let us go!"

We would have preferred to walk the tarns a bit from the camp, before taking to flight, but we had not time, the camp being roused, to do so. Accordingly we swiftly took to flight, the screaming of the birds, the smiting of their wings, serving further to alert the camp, both Yellow Knives and Kinyanpi. Too, doubtless we were well seen in flight, against the moons.

It seemed we had hardly seen the camp fall away beneath us but what red tarnmen were aflight, plying their pursiut in our hurried wake. Five cam first and beind these, I did not doubt, would sarm others.

"We cannot outdistace them!" cried Hci.

I again looked over my shoulder. They were even closer now.

"Come closer!" I cried to Hci. I then, as he did so, hurled the line I carried to him, it falling across the back of his tarn where he seized it, wrapping it about his fist.

"I am turning back!" I cried. "go on without me!"

"We will release the tarns!" cried Cuwignaka.

"No!" I said.

"We will turn with you to fight them!" called Hci.

"No!" I said. "Conduct the tarns to camp! We must have them!"

"No!" cried Cuwignaka.

"You will not rist all!" I said. "You will continue on your way!"

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"Tatankasa!" cried Cuwignaka.

"The Kaiila must live!" I said.

"Tatankasa!" cried Hcu.

"I have a plan!" I said. "Go! Go!" Then, remonstrating no further with them, I swing the tarn about, I jerked back on the reins, then held them back. Beating its mighty wings the bird hung almost motionless in the air,its back a steep line. From beneath the girth rope I drew forth an object which I had placed there, which had been pressed between the girlth rope and the body of the tarn. It was the large black feather which I had obtained in the vicinity of the tarn pit, days ago, that feather the possession of which had so distressed my friend, Hci. I brandished it over my head, grasping it in the middle, like a spear or banner.

That feather, I had hoped, would be even more meaningful, more terrifying, to the Kinyanpi than to Hci.

It was a feather of a sort with which I thought they, the Kinyanpi, might be even too familiar.

Belief in the medicine world, I hoped, would hold as potent a sway over the minds of the Kinyanpi as it seemed to over the minds of so many of the red savages, friends and foes alike.

The leader of the Kinyanpi, when some fifty yards from my tarn, suddenly drew back on the reins of his tarn, and held it in the hovering postion. His fellows joined him. He pointed at me. They shouted among themselves, over the beating of the birds' wings.

I held the feather up, prominently, almost brandishing it. I wanted them to make no misake about it.

I did not reach for weapons. What need had he of weapons who comtrolled the medicine of Wakanglisapa? And what medicine or weapons might hope to prevail against it?

Unfortunately, when the leader had drawn back his tarn he had seemed to do so more in surprise than fear. It was more as though he had been taken unaware than frightened. I had hoped they would all retreat in terror. Unfortunately, they were not doing so.

The birds, wings snapping and striking, their backs almost vertical, the men leaning forward on them, were an impressive sight.

I rejoiced in one thing. Each moment was precious. Cuwignaka and Hci, each moment, were speeding farther and farther away.

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I then, to my dismay, sw the five riders freeing their weapons. It was clearly their intention to attack.

They were brave men.

Too, I had perhaps miscalculated. If the feather was not that of Wakanglisapa they would assume they had nothing to fear. If it was the feather of Wakanglisapa, then why should they not attempt to capture it, to secure its mighty medicine for themselves?

The five riders then broke their formation by swerving to the side and began to circle, to build up momentum, and then, soon, they had brought their birds onto an attack course.

I thrust the feather back under the girth rope, angrily, cursing. Much good had it done me! I strung the small bow at my side. I drew forth three arrows from the tabukhide quiver behind my left hip. I put one arrow to the string. I held two with the bow.

They were coming swiftly.

Their formation resembled the perimeters of a geometrical solid. Their point rider would pass withing lance range. The other four riders were somewhat behind him, on the left and right, top and bottom. Whatever adjustment is made to meet the point rider will presumably provide at least one of the following, flanking riders with an exploitable advantage.

I would try to pass swiftly through the formation, compounding the velocities and, in the passage, turn back to fire over my left shoulder.

I must wait for the exact moment to speed the tarn forward. They must expect me to hold my ground.

The lead rider was now in the neighborhood of a hundred yards away. I saw the lance lower, the Herlit feathers on it torn backward in the wind against the shaft. It reminded me for a moment of the ears of a sleen, laid back in its attack.

Another few yards and I must snap the reins of the tarn, kicking back at it, screaming, startling it forward.

I kicked back but then, suddenly, drew back on the reins. The tarn, arrested in its lunge, screamed, rearing back, starled, wild, in the air. I was flung back. I held my seat.

The lead rider, when only a few yards away, had jerked back wildly on the reins of his tarn. I saw him swerving up, and to my right, and then back. He was not even looking at me. He was looking at something, apparently, behind me. His face seemed contorted with terror. He swung his tarn about and began to flee. Almost at the same time the flanking riders

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had, in seeming terror, in disarray, their formation lost, burst like a star about me and then, frantically, on all sides of me, their tarns about and, like their leader, sped away.

I turned about on the back of the tarn. I saw nothing. Only the clouds, the sky.

I shuddered, seemingly suddenly chilled, and then turned the tarn about.

I set a course away from Two Feathers, in case I was followed. Then later, I would make suitable adjustments.

The sky seemed clear. The early morning air was fresh and cool.

"And thus it happened," I told Cuwignaka and Hci. "They turned away, suddenly, at the last moment, and fled."

"They saw something behind you," said Hci.

"What was it?" asked Cuwignaka.

"I do not know," I said.

"It could have been only one thing," said Hci.

"What?" I asked.

"Wakanglisapa," said Hci.

"I saw nothing," I said.

"The beasts of the medicine world appear or not to men, as they please," said Hci.

"Wakanglisapa does not exist," I said.

"It is interesting," said Hci.

"What?" I asked.

"You held the feather. Yet you were not attacked. I do not understand that."

"Do not try to explain things in unlikely categories," I said.

"Perhaps you were protected my the medicine of the feather," said Hci.

"I am sure there is a rational explanation," I said.

"There may be," said Hci. "Wakanglisapa may not be your enemy."

"Wakanglisapa does not exist," I said.

"He may be your ally," said Hci.

"Wakanglisapa is a myth," I said. "He does not exist."

"What shall we do now?" asked Cuwignaka.

"We will proceed with our plans," I said. "We will send riders to the Dust Legs, the Fleer and the Sleen."

"The Fleer will not cooperate," said Hci. "They are blood enemies of the Kaiila."

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"The Sleen are not likely to be of help either," said Cuwignaka.

"The riders will be sent out," I said.

"Very well," said Cuwignaka.

"We must now, in the next weeks, train tarnsmen," I said.

"They will need a Blotanhunka," said Cuwignaka.

"Canka," said Hci.

"Counting your tarn, Hci," I said, "and not counting my tarnor the tarn of Cuwignaka, we have sixteen tarns. We will form two groups, each with a leader and seven men. The Blotanhunka of one group will be Canka. The Blotanhunka of the other group will be Hci."

"Hci?" asked Hci.

"Yes," I said.

"Perhaps it should be Cuwignaka," said Hci.

"You are a far greater warrior than I, Hci," said Cuwignaka.

"You trust me to be Blotanhunka?" asked Hci.

"Yes," I said, "and so, too, now, will the men."

"In you is the blood of Mahpiyasapa," said Cuwignaka. "You are a great warrior. You are a natural leader of men."

"I will do my best," said Hci.

"How much time do we have?" asked Cuwignaka.

"The Kaiila have little meat," I said. "Winter is coming."

"The riders must make their journeys," said Cuwignaka. "The men must be trained."

"I wish to be ready no later than the end of Canwapegiwi," I said, "the moon when the leaves become brown," It is in Canwapegiwi that the autumnal equinox occurs.

"That is soon," said Cuwignaka.

"The hunting must be done," I said. "The winter must be prepared for."

"This is soon," said Cuwignaka.

"I only hope," I said, "that it is not too late."

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Chapter 43

WHAT OCCURRED WHEN WE VISITED A YELLOW-KNIFE CAMP

"You must make swifter progress in learning Yellow Knife," said Iwoso to Bloketu, in Kaiila.

"It is hard for me," said Bloketu. The two girls knelt, Bloketu behind Iwoso. Bloketu was combing Iwoso's hair. They were in a lodge. We could observe them through the tiny aperture we had opened in the rear of the lodge, behind them, with the point of a knife. A small fire burned in the lodge. The two girls knelt behind the fire, between it and the rear of the lodge, opposite the entrance.