Nomads of Gor (85 page)

    
he could fly."

    
"Was the body recovered?" Kamchak asked again.

    
"No," I said. "But what does it matter?"

    
"It would matter to a Tuchuk," said Kamchak.

    
"You Tuchuks are indeed a suspicion lot," I remarked.

    
"What would have happened to the body?" asked Harold,

    
and it seemed he was serious.

     
"I-suppose," I said, "it was torn to pieces by the crowds

 
   
below or lost with the other dead. Many things could have

    
happened to it."

    
"It seems then," said Kamchak, "that he is dead."

    
"Surely," I said.

    
"Let us hope so," said Kamchak, "For your sake."

    
We turned the kaiila from the courtyard of the burning

   
House of Saphrar and, abreast, rode from that place. We

rode without speaking but Kamchak, for the first time in

    
weeks, whistled a tune. Once he turned to Harold. "I think in

    
a few days we might hunt tumits," he remarked.

    
"I would enjoy that," remarked Harold.

    
"Perhaps you will join us?" inquired Kamchak.

    
"I think," I said, "I shall leave the Wagons soon for I

       
have failed in my mission on behalf of Priest-Kings."

    
"What mission is that?" inquired Kamchak innocently.

      
'No find the last egg of Priest-Kings," I said, perhaps

    
irritably, "and to return it to the Sardar."

   
'Why do Priest-Kings not do their own errands?" asked

        
Harold.

       
'Whey cannot stand the sun," I said. "They are not as

  
Men and if men saw them they might fear and try to kill

        
them the egg might be destroyed.

         
"Someday," said Harold, "you must speak to me of Priest

         
Kings."

    
"Very well," I agreed.

   
"I thought you might be the one," said Kamchak.

           
"What one?" I asked.

        
"The one that the two men who brought the sphere told

      
me might come one day to claim it."

   
"The two men," I said, "are dead their cities warred

      
upon one another and in battle they slew one another."

     
"They seemed to me fine warriors," said Kamchak. "I am

      
sorry to hear it."

      
"When did they come to the wagons?" I asked.

   
"As recently as two years ago," he said.

   
"They gave you the egg?" I asked.

 
"Yes," he said, "to keep for Priest-Kings." He added, "It

 
was wise of them, for the Wagon Peoples are among the

 
farthest and most fierce of the Goreans, living free hundreds

 
of pasangs from all cities, save Turia."

   
"Do you know where the egg is now?" I asked.

   
"Of course," he said.

 
I began to shake in the saddle of the kailla, trembling. The

 
reins moved in my hands and the beast shifted nervously.

   
I reined in the kailla.

 
"Do not tell me where it Is," I said, "or I should feel

 
bound to attempt to seize it and take it to the Sardar."

 
"But are you not he who is to come from Priest-Kings to

 
claim the egg?" inquired Kamchak.

   
"I am he," I said.

 
"Then why would you wish to seize it and carry it away?"

 
he asked.

 
"I have no way to prove that I come from Priest-Kings," I

 
said. "Why would you believe me?"

   
"Because," said Kamchak, "I have come to know you."

   
I said nothing.

 
"I have watched you carefully, Tarl Cabot of the City of

 
Ko-ro-ba," said he, Kamchak of the Tuchuks. "Once you

 
"pared my life, and we held grass and earth together, and

 
from that time, even had you been outlaw and knave, I

 
would have died for you, but still, of course, I could not give

 
you the egg. Then you went with Harold to the city, and so I

 
knew that to seize the egg against such overwhelming odds

 
you were ready to give your life. Such a venture would not in

 
all likelihood have been attempted by one who labored only

 
for gold. That taught me that it was indeed probable that you

 
were he chosen by Priest-Kings to come for the egg."

  
"That is why," I asked, "you let me go to Turia though

  
you knew the Golden Sphere was worthless"

   
"Yes," said Kamchak, "that is why."

  
"And why, after that," I asked, "did you not give me the

  
egg?"

   
Kamchak smiled. "I needed only one last thing," said he,

   
Tarl Cabot."

    
"And what was that?" I asked.

  
"To know that you wanted the egg for Priest-Kings alone,

  
and not for yourself." Kamchak put out his hand and

  
touched my arm. "That is why," he said, "I wanted the

       
golden sphere shattered. I would have done it myself had it

       
not been broken, to see what you would have done, to see if

       
you would have been enraged at your loss, or if you would

       
have been overcome with grief, on behalf of Priest-Kings."

       
Kamchak smiled gently. "When you wept," he said, "I knew

       
then that you cared for it, and for Priest-Kings that you

       
had truly come for the egg and that you wanted it for

       
them and not for yourself."

         
I looked at him, dumbfounded.

        
"forgive me," he said, "if I am cruel for I am a Tuchuk,

        
but though I care much for you I kind to know the truth of

        
these mattes."

        
"No forgiveness is necessary," I said. "In your place, I

        
think I might well have done the same thing."

         
Kamchak's hand closed on mine and we clasped hands.

         
'Where is the egg?" I asked.

      
   
"Where would you think to find it?" he asked.

        
"I don't know," I said. "If I did not know better, I would

        
expect to have found it in the wagon of Kutaituchik the

        
wagon of the Ubar of the Tuchuks."

        
"I approve of your conjecture," he said, "but Kutaituchik,

        
as you know, was not the Ubar of the Tuchuks."

          
I gazed at him.

         
"I am Ubar of the Tuchuks," he said.

         
"You mean" I said.

        
"Yes," said Kamchak, "the egg has been in my wagon for

        
two years."

          
"But I lived in your wagon for months!" I cried.

          
"Did you not see the egg?" he asked.

          
'No," I said. "It must have been marvelously concealed."

          
"What does the egg look like?" he asked.

        
I sat still on the back of the kaiila. "I don't know," I

        
said.

        
"You thought, perhaps," he asked, "it would be golden and

        
spherical?"

          
"Yes," I said, "I did."

        
"It was for such a reason," he said, "that we Tuchuks dyed

        
the egg of a tharlarion and placed it in the wagon of

        
Kutaituchik, letting its position be known."

          
I was speechless, and could not respond to the Tuchuk.

        
'I think," said he, "you have often seen the egg of Priest-

        
Kings, for it lies about in my wagon. Indeed, the Paravaci

        
who raided my wagon did not regard it as of sufficient

        
interest to carry away."

   
'That!"" I cried.

 
"Yes,' said he, "the curiosity, the gray, leathery object

 
that."

   
I shook my head in disbelief.

 
I recalled Kamchak sitting on the gray, rather squarish,

 
grained thing with the rounded corners. I recalled he had

 
moved it about with his foot, that once he had kicked it

 
across the wagon for me to examine.

 
"Sometimes," said Kamchak, "the way to conceal some-

 
thing is not to conceal It, it is thought that what is of value

 
will be hidden, and so it is natural to suppose that what is not

 
hidden will not be of value."

 
"But," I said, my voice trembling, "you rolled it about

 
you would throw it to the side of the wagon once you even

 
kicked it across the rug to me that I might examine it." I

 
looked at him, incredulously. "Even," I said, "did you dare to

 
sit upon it"

  
'I shall hope," chuckled Kamchak, "that the Priest-Kings

  
will take no offense, but understand that such little bits of

  
acting rather well carried off, I think were important

  
parts of my deception."

  
I smiled, thinking of Misk's joy at receiving the egg. "They

  
will take little offense," I said.

  
"Do not fear the egg was injured," said Kamchak, "for to

  
injure the egg of Priest-Kings I would have had to use a

  
quiva or ax."

   
"Wily Tuchuk," I said.

   
Kamchak and Harold laughed

   
"I hope," I said, "that after this time the egg is still
 

  
Kamchak shrugged. "We have watched it," he said, "we

  
have done what we could."

   
"And I and Priest-Kings are grateful to you," I said.

  
Kamchak smiled. "We are pleased to be of service to

  
Priest-Kings," he said, "but remember that we reverence only