Nomads of Gor (33 page)

       
"You tharlarion," she said. "You sleety"

       
"What do you think?" asked Kamchak.

       
"She is marvelously beautiful," I said.

  
"She must be plain indeed," remarked Kamchak, looking

  
closely again at Aphris.

  
"No," said the judge, "it is because she is defended by

  
Kamras, Champion of Turia."

  
"Oh, no!" cried Kamchak, throwing his fist to his forehead

  
in mock despair.

  
"Yes," said the judge, "he."

  
"Surely you recall?" laughed Aphris merrily.

  
"I had had much Paga at the time," admitted Kamchak.

  
"You need not meet him if you wish." said the judge.

  
I thought that a humane arrangement that two men must

  
understand who it is they face before entering the circle of

  
sand. It would indeed be unpleasant if one suddenly, unex-

  
pectedly, found oneself facing a superb, famed warrior, say,

  
a Kamras of Turia.

  
"Meet him!" cried Aphris.

 
 
"If no one meets him," said the judge, "the Kassar girl will

  
be his by forfeit."

  
I could see that the Kassar girl, a beauty, at the stake

  
opposite Aphris of Turia was distressed, and understandably

  
so. It appeared she was to depart for Turia without so much

  
as a handful of sand kicked about on her behalf.

"Meet him, Tuchuk!" she cried.

   
"Where are your Kassars?" asked Kamchak.

  
I thought it an excellent question. I had seen Conrad

  
about, but he had picked out a Turian wench to fight for

  
some six or seven stakes away. Albrecht was not even at the

  
games. I supposed he was home with Tenchika.

  
"They are fighting elsewhere!" she cried. "Please, Tuchuk!"

  
she wept.

  
"But you are only a Kassar wench,') pointed out Kamchak.

  
"Please!' she cried.

  
"Besides," said Kamchak, "you might look well in Pleasure

  
Silk."

  
"Look at the Turian wench!" cried the girl. "Is she not

  
beautiful? Do you not want her?"

  
Kamchak looked at Aphris of Turia.

  
"I suppose," he said, "she is no worse than the rest."

  
"Fight for met" cried Aphris of Turia

  
"All right," said Kamchak. "I will."

  
The Kassar girl put her back against the stake, trembling

  
with relief.

  
"You are a fool," said Kamras of Turia.

  
I was a bit startled, not realizing he was so close. I looked

 
at him. He was indeed an impressive warrior. He seemed

 
strong and fast. His long black hair was now tied behind his

 
head. His large wrists had been wrapped in boskbide straps.

 
He wore a helmet and carried the Turian shield, which is

 
oval. In his right hand there was a spear. Over his shoulder

 
was slung the sheath of a short sword.

 
Kamchak looked up at him. It was not that Kamchak was

 
particularly short, but rather that Kamras was a very large

 
man.

 
"By the sky," said Kamchak, whistling, "you are a big

 
fellow indeed."

 
"Let us begin," proposed Kamras.

 
At this word the judge called out -to clear the space

 
between the stakes of Aphris of Turia and the lovely Kassar

 
wench. Two men, from Ar, I took it, came forward with

 
rakes and began to smooth the circle of sand between the

 
stakes, for it had been somewhat disturbed in the inspection

 
of the girls.

 
Unfortunately for Kamchak, I knew that this was the year

 
in which the Turian foeman might propose the weapon of

 
combat. Fortunately, however, the warrior of the Wagon

 
Peoples could withdraw from the combat any time before his

 
name had actually been officially entered in the lists of the

 
games. Thus if Kamras chose a weapon with which Kamchak

 
did not feel at ease, the Tuchuk might, with some grace,

 
decline the combat, in this forfeiting only a Kassar girl,

 
which I was sure would not overly disturb the philosophical

 
Kamchak.

 
"Ah, yes, weapons," Kamchak was saying, "what shall it

 
be the kaiila lance, a whip and bladed bole perhaps the

 
quiva?"

 
"The sword," said Kamras.

 
The Turian's decision plunged me into despair. In all my

 
time among the wagons I had not seen one of the Gorean

 
short swords, so fierce and swift and common a weapon

 
among those of the cities. The warrior of the Wagon Peoples

 
does not use the short sword, probably because such a weap-

 
on could not be optimally used froth the saddle of the

 
kaiila; the saber, incidentally, which would be somewhat

 
more effective from ltaiilaback, is almost unknown on Gor;

 
its role, I gather, is more than fulfilled by the lance, which

 
may be used with a delicacy and address comparable to that

 
of a blade, supplemented by the seven quiva, or saddle

 
knives; it might further be pointed out that a saber would

 
barely reach to the saddle of the high tharlarion; the warrior

 
of the Wagon Peoples seldom approaches an enemy more

 
closely than is required to bring him down with the bow, or,

 
if need be, the lance; the quiva itself is regarded, on the

 
whole, as more of a missile weapon than a hand knife. I

 
gather that the Wagon Peoples, if they wanted sabers or

 
regarded them as valuable, would be able to acquire them, in

 
spite of the fact that they have no metalworking of their own;

 
there might be some attempt to prevent them from falling

 
into the hands of the Wagon Peoples, but where there are gold

 
and jewels available merchants, in Ar and elsewhere, would

 
see that they were manufactured and reached the southern

 
plains. Most quivas, incidentally, are wrought in the smithies

 
of Ar. The fact that the saber is not a common weapon of

 
Wagon Peoples is a reflection of the style, nature and condi-

 
ffons of warfare to which they are accustomed, a matter of

 
choice on their part rather than the result of either ignorance

 
or technological limitation. The saber, incidentally, is not

 
only unpopular among the Wagon Peoples but among the

 
warriors of Gor generally; it is regarded as being too long

 
and clumsy a weapon for the close, sharp combat so dear to

 
the heart of the warrior of the cities; further it is not of

 
much use from the saddle of a tarn or tharlarion. The

 
important point, however, in the circumstances was that

 
Kamras had proposed the sword as the weapon of his en-

 
counter with Kamchak, and poor Kamchak was almost cer-

 
tain to be as unfamiliar with the sword as you or I would be

 
with any of the more unusual weapons of Gor, say, the whip

 
knife of Port Kar or the trained varts of the caves of Tyros.

 
Incidentally, Turian warriors, in order to have the opportunist

 
to slay a foe, as wed as acquire his woman, customarily

 
choose as the weapon of combat in these encounters, buckler

 
and dagger, ax and buckler, dagger and whip, ax and net, or

 
the two daggers, with the reservation that the quiva, if used,

 
not be thrown. Kamras, however, appeared adamant on the

 
point. "The sword," he repeated.

     
,,"But I am only a poor Tuchuk," wailed Kamchak.

 
Kamras laughed. "The sword," he said, yet again.

   
I thought, all things considered, that the stipulation of

 
Kamras regarding weapons was cruel and shameful.

   
"But how would I, a poor Tuchuk," Kamchak was moan-

 
ing, "know anything of the sword?"

   
'when withdraw," said Kamras, loftily, "and I will take

 
this Kassar wench slave to Turia.

The girl moaned.

 
Kamras smiled with contempt. "You see," he said, "I am

 
Champion of Turia and I have no particular wish to stain my

 
blade with the blood of an urt."

 
The urt is a loathsome, horned Gorean rodent; some are

 
quite large, the size of wolves or ponies, but most are very

 
small, tiny enough to be held in the palm of one hand.

 
"Well," said Kamchak, "I certainly would not want that to

 
happen either."

 
The Kassar girl cried out in distress.

  
"Fight him, filthy Tuchuk" screamed Aphris of Turia,

   
pulling against the retaining rings.

   
"Do not be uneasy, gentle Aphris of Turia," said Kamras.

   
"Permit him to withdraw branded braggart and coward.

    
Let him live in his shame, for so much the richer will be your

    
vengeance."

    
But the lovely Aphris was not convinced. "I want him

    
slain," she cried, "cut into tiny pieces, the death of a thou

    
sand cuts!"

    
"Withdraw," I advised Kamchak.

     
"Do you think I should," he inquired.

      
"Yes," I said, "I do."

      
Kamras Divas regarding Aphris of Turia. "If it is truly your

      
wish," he said, "I will permit him to choose weapons agreea

      
ble to us both."

      
"It is my wish," she said, "that he be slaint"

       
Kamras shrugged. "All right," he said, "I will kill him." He