Savages of Gor (50 page)

"Cuwignaka is a man," I said, "and you do not permit him to wear it."

"It is fortunate for you that you are not a warrior," said Canka.

"Akicita hemaca!" I said angrily, in his own language, striking myself on the chest. "I am a warrior!"

"Be careful," said Grunt. "Do not put yourself within the coup system."

Canka sat back on the kailla. "I do not know if you are a warrior or not," he said. "But it is perhaps true. You did free Cuwignaka. You are thus, at least, a brave man .You have the respect of Canka''

I was puzzled. I had not expected this attitude on his part.

"Was it you," I asked the young warrior, "Who staked him out?"

"It was Kaiila," said Canka, carefully.

"It was Hci, with his fellows of the Sleen Soldiers, of the Isbu, the son of Mahpiyasapa, civil chieftain of the Isbu, who did it," said Cuwignaka.

"It was not Canka, then, and the All Comrades, who did it?" I said.

"No," said Cuwignaka. "But it was Canka, and Hci, with the Ali Comrades and Sleen Soldiers, who first put me in the dress of a woman and later bound me in that dress and took me to the country of the Dust Legs, there selling me as a slave. That was on the decision of the council of the Isbu, presided over by Mahpiyasapa."

"Canka," I said to Cuwignaka, in Gorean, "does not seem to be displeased that you have been freed."

"No," said Cuwignaka.

"You wear the dress of a woman," said Canka to Cuwignaka, suddenly, angrily. He said this, personally, emotionally. It was as though he, somehow, found this personally shameful.

"I am Cuwignaka," said Cuwignaka, defiantly.

"You hold to a lance of the Kaiila," said Canka. "Surrender it"

"It was you yourself who, when you found me staked out, placed it unbroken beside me. It was you yourself who took the woman's dress which Hci had thrown beside me and wrapped it about the shaft of the lance."

Canka did not respond to this. Such an action, of course, had served to mark, and conspicuously, the place where the lad had been fastened down. The location had been marked, almost as though with a flag. Grunt and I had seen it almost immediately upon coming to this portion of the field. And even had there been none to see it, at least none of our common world, that marker, the unbroken lance, the cloth wrapped about it, might have seemed to have served some purpose to he who had placed it there, perhaps standing for some measure of recollection and respect. This it might have mutely symbolized, if only to the grass of the Barren, the winds and clouds, and perhaps to those of the Medicine World, should they exist, who might have looked down upon it, and pondered it.

"Surrender the lance," said Canka.

"No," said Cuwignaka. "You put it beside me, and it is unbroken."

"Surrender it," said Canka.

"I will not," said Cuwignaka. "If you want it, you must take it from me."

"I will not do that," said Canka. Then he said, "You were freed. Someone must pay." He was looking at me.

"He is my friend," said Cuwignaka.

"I am Blotanhunka," said Canka. "Someone must pay."

"I will pay," said Cuwignaka.

"What is owed here," said Canka, "it is not yours to pay."

"I will pay," said Cuwignaka.

"It is not you who must pay," said Canka. "It is another who must pay."

"I am a warrior," I said to Canka. "I demand the right of combat."

"I do not wish to kill you," said Canka.

This startled me. It seemed to me that Canka had shown me unusual solicitude. He had protected me with Akihoka Keglezela, in the matter of the trade goods. Now, it seemed, he had no wish to enter into combat with me. He was not afraid of me, of that I was sure. I had little doubt but what he thought he could kill me, if such a combat were joined. As a red savage I had little doubt but what he regarded himself as the superior or equal of any white man in single combat. White men, on the whole, did not even count as being within the coup system. Similarly, he had explicitly professed his respect for me. Thus it did not seem that his disinclination to fight with me was motivated by any supposed indignity or shame in doing so. He was not refusing to fight with me as the larl might refuse to fight with the urt.

"I do not understand," said Grunt to me, in Gorean.

"Nor do I," I said.

"He does not seem to bear you any hostility," said Grunt.

"No," I said.

"Someone must pay," said Canka.

"Then we must fight," I said, stepping back.

"I cannot fight you, for a reason which you cannot understand," said Canka, "but these others, my friends, the All Comrades, do not have this reason." Several of his fellows, at these words, grasped their lances more tightly. Their kaiila moved under them, sensing their excitement.

"Set a champion against me," I said. "I will fight him, and, if successful, each of the others, in turn."

"I am Blotanhunka," said he. "I will not risk my men in that fashion."

"It is then all or none," I said.

"Yes," said he.

I stepped back, further. "I am ready," I said.

"Do not fight," said Grunt. "These are Isbu Kaiila, All Comrades. There are seventeen of them. They, each of them, are skilled warriors. All have counted coup. You would be, doomed."

"You would fight, would you not?" asked Canka.

"Yes," I said.

"Tatankasa," said Canka.

"'Red Bull'," translated Grunt

"It would make my heart heavy to have you killed," said Canka. The kailiauk bull is 'Tatanka. The suffix 'sa' designates the color red, as in 'Mazasa', 'Red Metal', 'Copper. The expression 'Kailiauk' is used by most of the tribes for the kailiauk, which is not an animal native to Earth. The expression 'Pte' designates the kailiauk female, or kailiauk cow. It is also used, colloquially, interestingly, for tire kailiauk in general. This is perhaps because the "Pte" is regarded, in a sense, as the mother of the tribes. It is she, in the final analysis, which makes possible their hunting, nomadic life. Like any similar peoples, the red savages have generally a great reverence and affection for the animals in their environment. This is particularly true of the animals on which they depend for their food. The useless or meaningless slaughter of such would be unthinkable

"I am ready to fight," I said.

"Do not be a fool," said Grunt.

"I am ready," I said to Canka.

"There is an alternative," said Grunt. "Can't you see? He is waiting."

"What?" I asked.

"The collar," said Grunt

"Never," I said.

"Please, Tatankasa," said Canka.

"Please," said Cuwignaka.

"Please," said Grunt.

Numbly I unbuckled my sword belt. I wrapped the belt out the sheaths, the sword sheath and the knife sheath, and handed the objects to Grunt. I was disarmed.

Words were spoken. One of the savages, he at the left of Canka, Akihoka, leaped to the ground. Canka threw him a collar. It was tied on my neck.

I regarded Canka. I was his slave,

The hands of Akihoka fastened themselves in the collar of my tunic. I was to be stripped naked before them.

"No," said Canka.

Another warrior approached me, with thongs and a rawhide rope. Another jerked my hands behind me. I was to be bound, and put on a tether, like the mere animal I now was, only a slave.

"No," said Canka.

The warriors then withdrew from me, puzzled, and remounted their lofty beasts.

Canka then turned his kaiila about. He looked over his shoulder at me. "Follow us," he said.

"'Very well," I said.

"Howo, Winyela," said Canka to Winyela. He pointed to a place in the grass near the left flank of his kaiila.

"Quick," said Pimples to Winyela. "Run to the place he has indicated. It is the place for you to follow his kaiila, the lace of a slave."

Swiftly Winyela ran to her place beside the kaiila. There she stood with her head down, submissively.

"Good," said Pimples.

"Winyela," said Canka.

She lifted her eyes to his.

"Winyela," said Canka, again. In this context he was not saying her name so much as reminding her of what she was.

"Say, 'Ho, Itancanka,'" said Pimples.

"Ho, Itancanka," said Winyela.

"Good," said Pimples.

Canka, then, in good humor, set his heels to the flanks of his kaiila and, slowly, the beast walking, took his way from the place. The girl, stripped and barefoot in the grass, her throat tied in his beaded collar, hurried along beside him, taking care to remain exactly in her place.

"I am ruined," said Grunt.

"You are ruined?" I asked. "I am a disarmed slave."

''There is something strange about that," said Grunt. "You have not been stripped, or tied. I do not understand it."

"Winyela, too," I said, using her new name, "has not been tied." We looked after the retreating warriors. Winyela was hurrying along at the left flank of Canka's kaiila, a girl's running place by the beast of her master.

"Have no fear," said Grunt. "In the collar of Canka the red-haired beauty will learn her slavery well."

"You still have most of your trade goods," I said.

"And I am among them, Master," said Pimples. "Surely I am worth something."

"Lie on your belly," said Grunt.

"Yes, Master," she said, immediately complying. She had spoken without permission.

'The red-haired girl," said Grunt, looking after the warriors, "was for Mahpiyasapa, civil chief of the Isbu. Last year when I was in the country of the Kaiila, he put in an order for such a woman. Such a woman was on his want list, so to speak."

"Doubtless when Canka returns to the main camp he will surrender her to Mahpiyasapa," I said.

"Do you think so?" asked Grunt.

"No," I said.

"I am thirsty," said Cuwignaka, sitting down in the grass. "And I am faint with hunger."

These were the first signs of weakness which he had showed. How shamed and foolish I suddenly felt. How little consideration, how little attention, we had given him.

I hurried to the pack kaiila and fetched from it the water bag. Grunt, from his own stores, brought forth some dried, pressed biscuits, baked in Kailiauk from Sa-Tarna flour. We watched him eat and drink. We did not feel that his stomach would be ready yet for the meat of kailiauk. We had some from the Dust Legs. It was in sheets, cut almost as thin as paper, dried in the prairie sun, layered in a flat, leather envelope, a parfleche, originally scaled with a seam of hardened fat. By confessing his need for drink and food before us Cuwignaka had, in his way, honored us. This was the sort of thing that a Kaiila warrior would be likely to do only among those whom he considered his friends and comrades.

"Meat," said Cuwignaka.

Grunt and I exchanged glances but, in the end, we fetched Cuwignaka some of the strips of dried kailiauk meat.

He sat, cross-legged, in the grass, and ate some. "It is enough," he said. He thrust back the remainder to Grunt, who inserted it in the opened parfleche.

"I am now ready to go to the camp," said Cuwignaka.

"You are in no condition to travel," I said.

"I am ready," he said.

"You will ride," I said.

"I can walk," he said, rising unsteadily to his feet. He picked up the lance, using it as a staff to maintain his balance.

I began to remove my things from my kaiila, with the exception of the bridle, the saddle and saddle blanket.

"What are you doing?" asked Grunt.

"I am preparing the mount for Cuwignaka," I said.

"Do not be foolish," said Grunt. "This is your opportunity to escape. Ride westward, like the wind. Flee."

"I do not understand," I said.

"Do you not see, my friend?" asked Cuwignaka. "They have given you this chance to escape."

"They could doubtless follow me, tracking me, with strings of kaiila, until my own beast played out," I said.

"Doubtless," said Cuwignaka, "but I do not think they will do so."

''They are letting you go," said Grunt.

Go now," said Cuwignaka, "for, later, in the main camp, others may not be so lenient."

"Go," said Grunt. "You would then have a fine lead on others, in the main camp, days from here, who might wish to follow you. Make good your escape now. It is doubtless their intention."

"But why should they permit me this?" I asked.

"I do not know," said Grunt.

"I was told to follow," I said, "and I said that I would do so. "

"It was necessary that such a command be given," said Grunt. "None expects you to follow."

"I said that I would," I said.

"They will not expect a white man to keep his word," said Grunt.