Bunduki (Bunduki Series Book One) (28 page)

Having achieved his purpose, Bunduki
set off after the animals, but at an angle which would take him to
the rear of the second blazing pavilion.

Despite being encumbered by having her
wrists manacled and the knife in her right hand, Dawn contrived to
draw ahead of the two guards who were chasing her. They were
carrying their long lances and had less inducement to speed. When
the challenge roar thundered out, the girl felt her heart give a
bound. There was no doubt in her mind as to who had made it. From
behind her came startled exclamations as the pursuing Mun-Gatahs
heard the call. Ahead, there were snorts of alarm, mingled with
furious yells as men were thrown from their mounts. Then hooves
drummed as the mass of zebras took flight.

Taking a chance of expanding
much needed air from her lungs, Dawn answered Bunduki with the
distress call of a
she-Mangani.
Once again, the pair of guards expressed their
astonishment. Hoping to add to their consternation, the girl
stopped to confront them.

Crouching slightly, grasping the knife
with grim determination, Dawn peered through the surrounding gloom.
As soon as she saw the two vague shapes starting to form, she
repeated the call. From not too far away, although the sound of his
running feet was being drowned by the rumbling caused by the
stampeding zebras, Bunduki gave his reply.

Staring ahead of them, the two
Mun-Gatahs could make out Dawn’s figure. The faint light thrown by
the stars did not permit great clarity of vision, but tended to
distort it. To their eyes, the ill-seen form appeared to be very
different from that of the beautiful and shapely girl who had
emerged from the tent. That impression was increased by the sound
which came from her. Nor did the response which it received do
anything to steady their nerves.

Brave enough under normal
circumstances, the eerie sounds—associated with the mysterious and
dreaded ‘Hairy People’—filled the two warriors with superstitious
dread. Then they made out an even larger form that came looming out
of the blackness. It proved to be the final straw. Discarding their
lances, the pair spun around and fled toward the camp.

Dropping the knife as her pursuers ran
away, Dawn turned. A moment later, she was in Bunduki’s
arms.

‘
Dawn!’ the blond giant
said. ‘Are you all right?’

‘
Yes
,’ the girl confirmed. ‘Are you?’

‘
I am,’
Bunduki replied and a har
der note crept into his voice. ‘Did any of
them—?’

‘
No
,’ Dawn assured him, knowing what the question had
implied.

Releasing his adoptive cousin after
having satisfied himself that she had not been harmed or sexually
assaulted, Bunduki looked at the camp. Following the direction of
his gaze, Dawn watched and listened to the confusion and
pandemonium as the zebras rushed through it. Tents were collapsing
and their erstwhile occupants were being scattered by the
panic-stricken animals.

‘
We’d better
get going,’ Bunduki suggested, after a few seconds.
‘I don’t think
they’ll be coming after us just yet, but we might as well build up
as good a lead as we can before they do.’

‘
Can you get
these hobbles off first, please?’ Dawn inquired, holding out her
hands.
‘Then I’ll find my knife and we’ll be going. It looks as if
you’ve lost your bow and arrows, if you had them with
you.’

‘
I
didn’t,’ the blond giant answered, starting to unbuckle the
hobbles. While he was setting the girl free and she was retrieving
her knife, he explained why he had not been in possession of the
weapons.

After a final check that nobody from
the disrupted and ruined camp was coming, Dawn and Bunduki set off.
Using the stars as a way of guiding themselves, they made for the
ford across the river. It was their intention to rejoin Joar-Fane
and At-Vee. Not only would they have a better chance of evading any
pursuers from the plains-dwelling Mun-Gatah nation in the jungle,
but they would be in possession of weapons with which to defend
themselves and the two Telongas.

Knowing the need to keep constantly
alert against the possibility of meeting dangerous animals, or so
that they could detect any attempt that might be made to recapture
them, Dawn and Bunduki kept as quiet as possible while walking
along. Much as they would have liked to discuss the matter which
was of such interest and importance to them both, they agreed to
put it off until a more suitable occasion.

Daybreak found the girl and the
blond giant at the edge of the river. They had reached it without
incident, or hearing anything to suggest that the Mun-Gatahs were
following them. Nor did they anticipate any difficulty in making
the crossing. Wading into the ford side by side, they started to go
over. As they were approaching the
opposite bank, they saw something which
brought them to a halt and sent their hands to the hilts of their
knives.

Coming from nowhere, or so it seemed,
something started to glow about ten feet from the river’s edge.
Faintly at first, it became brighter and brighter.

Neither Dawn nor Bunduki had ever seen
anything like it in all their lives.

Dawn Drummond-Clayton
and Bunduki stared
at the shimmering, intangible glow and wondered what it might be.
They were not kept waiting long for an answer, but when it came
neither of them was much the wiser. After a few seconds, the glow
began to take shape as a tall, white-haired and venerable-looking
old man clad in long, flowing white robes.

‘
Good morning, Miss
Drummond-Clayton, Mr. Gunn,’ the figure said, in a gentle and
pleasant voice. ‘Or may I call you “Bunduki”, sir?’

‘
What the—!’ the blond giant
began.

‘
Please come
out of the water
,’ requested the man, or whatever it was. ‘There’s
no cause for you to be alarmed and your knives won’t be
needed.’

‘
What shall we do, Bunduki?’
Dawn inquired, glancing at her adoptive cousin in
perplexity.

‘
Get out of
the water
,’ the blond giant answered, without taking his eyes from
the figure. ‘Who are you?’

‘
You can call
me your “Supplier”
,’ the figure replied, still in friendly tones. ‘I
should explain that this is not my real form. It is merely an
appearance for your convenience, a conventionalization which allows
you to see and communicate with us.’

‘
But what are you?’ Dawn
insisted as she and Bunduki waded from the river.

‘
An alien life
form so complex that you could not understand
it
,’
the “Supplier” answered.

‘
Then
it must have been you who saved us when the Land Rover went over
the edge of the Gambuti Gorge,’ Bunduki guessed.

‘
It
was,’ the “Supplier” confirmed. ‘And, as you both surmised,
transported you to the planet you may call Zillikian. You have
never heard of it. It lies exactly opposite Earth and follows the
same orbit around the sun.’

‘
If
you were so close,’ Dawn said indignantly, ‘why didn’t you stop
whoever it was shooting M’Bili?’

‘
We are not
permitted to interfere in such matters
.’

‘
You
saved
us
,’
Bunduki pointed out.

‘
Only because
there was no way in which you could have saved yourselves. I think
it would be advisable for me to give you a full
explanation
.’

‘
Can we walk
while we’re talking?’ Bunduki requested.
‘If you’re the one who’s been
watching me, you’ll know that we didn’t exactly leave the
Mun-Gatahs in a peaceful and friendly manner.’

‘
We have been
keeping both of you under observation
,’ the “Supplier” admitted,
turning and starting to stride along between the girl and the blond
giant with the vigor of a young man despite his aged appearance.
‘It is strange, but none of the others have ever been aware of our
scrutiny. However, throughout your ages, we “Suppliers” have
brought many life forms to Zillikian, including humanoids from
Earth and other planets.

‘
The
Telongas were the first human beings, brought from the South Sea
island which had always been their home just before it was
destroyed by a volcanic eruption. We settled them in villages in
the jungle and began to supply their needs. As you have noticed,
there are no noxious, nor disease-bearing insects here. Nor did the
specimens—if you will excuse me referring to human beings in such a
fashion—bring harmful genus and bacteria with them. During the
transportation, we purged all such from their bodies to ensure that
they would have nothing to prevent them from establishing their
species.

‘
Incidentally, the reason you both felt so hungry on
recovering was that we subjected you to the same treatment, which
includes emptying out your stomachs and alimentary
tracts.

‘
But I
digress.

‘
The
Telongas established themselves in a way which exceeded our
expectations. Given adequate protection against the predatory
beasts, with their needs supplied by us and the jungle, their
numbers increased at a truly amazing rate. Normally that could not
have happened, as illness, starvation or warfare would have held
the population in check.

‘
As
the animals could not do it, we had to find some other means of
control. So we decided that human predators were the only solution.
The other nations of this continent maintain their own balances by
raiding and fighting with each other, but none of them had come
across the Telongas—’

‘
So you gave
the Mun-Gatahs a similar kind of subconscious auto-suggestion, as
you did Dawn and I, letting them know about the
Telongas
,’ Bunduki interrupted. ‘Was the People-Taker your idea
too?’

‘
It
was,’ the “Supplier” admitted. ‘That was to prevent them from
de-populating the Telongas, who had been living in such ease that
the majority of them had lost all will, or knowledge, of how to
defend themselves against human foes. The People-Taker removes only
sufficient of the population to maintain a natural balance. In
return, the Mun-Gatahs protect the Telongas against the other
nations.’

‘
And you
supply them all with arms, clothing, equipment, most of their
needs, in fact
,’ Dawn guessed.

‘
We do. Each
nation has its supply point, to which we deliver their
needs
.’

‘
And that
means they never need to invent anything, or to advance
technically
,’ Bunduki stated.

‘
Is
that such a bad thing?’ the “Supplier” challenged mildly. ‘You have
seen what technical advancement has done to Earth.’

‘
You could
have a point there, sir
,’ the blond giant conceded. ‘Your supplying them
accounts for why their property looks as though it has been made by
more sophisticated machines than they seemed capable of inventing.
But why did you rescue Dawn and I and fetch us here?’

‘
It
has long been our wish to do so with a pair from your family,’ the
“Supplier” replied. ‘But we are not permitted to remove any life
form from its natural habitat unless it is on the point of dying.
Every time we saw one of your family in danger, we computed that,
no matter how serious the situation might be, they would contrive
to escape. There was no way that you could have survived. So we
collected you and equipped you for your presence here. Your
facility for learning languages was of the greatest use, allowing
us to give you the means to communicate with members of any nation
with whom you come into contact. For the rest, post-hypnotic
suggestion informed both of you that the other was alive and gave
you rough directions where to find each other. You might call it an
initiative test and, I may say, you have passed it with great
success.’

‘
Do you mean
that you manipulated the meetings we had with the
Mangani
and all the
others?’ Bunduki demanded angrily.

‘
No
,’ the “Supplier” assured the blond giant. ‘That was pure
chance.’

‘
I’d
still like to know why you brought us here,’ Dawn insisted
and Bunduki nodded his agreement.

‘
To
offer you much the same position as you held in Ambagasali,
Bunduki,’ the “Supplier” explained. ‘We want you to be the Chief
Warden of Zillikian.’

‘
Have I any choice?’ asked
the blond giant.

‘
We
can take you back to Earth, but you will have difficulty in
explaining how you came to escape from the Land Rover. I’m afraid
that time travel, at least as far as going back through it, is
still only feasible in the works of your science-fiction writers
and a week has elapsed since the incident.’