Blood Brothers of Gor (64 page)

"Yes, Master," she said, happily.

Mira had shown her how to kneel, lower her head and proffer the tray, properly. Tuka, I saw, would be an apt pupil in bondage. Slaves learn quickly. They are beaten if they do not.

"And those," I said, "are the details of my plan."

"It is bold and simple," he said.

"You see the significance of your role?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"You understand, of course," asked Cuwignaka, "that there is a great danger in this?"

"But for all of us," said Seibar.

"Yes," said Cuwignaka.

"You honor us with such responsibility," said Seibar.

"Rewards, I assure you," said Cuwignaka, "will be commensurate with risk."

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"We have recieved our manhood," said Seibar. "That is reward enough."

The slave then returned to our area and knelt down, closely, behind Seibar.

"You are then with us?" I asked.

"I am," he said. We then clasped hands.

"Let us rehearse those details again," I said. "There must be no mistake."

"Very well," he said.

As we spoke the slave, apparently unalbe to control herself, and not struck back or disciplined, began, at first timidly, then more boldy, to kiss and foldle Seibar. Soon she began to gasp and pant, pressing herself against him. At last he took her in his arms and put her on her back, across his legs. Her body wasn then like a bow, her head down on one side, in the dust, and her heels on the other side. "Keep you rhands back, over your head," he said. "Yes, Master," she whimpered. He then, as we talked, caressed her. Soon her hands were clenching and unclenching and she was whimpering, writhing helplessly. Then, mercifully, he lifted her up by the shoulders and she put her head against his chest, her arms about his neck. Her eyes were wide. She squirmed, almsot in shock, astounded, unable to believe the sensations she felt in her body.

"I think the plans are clear," I said.

"Yes," said Seibar.

"We must be on our way," I said.

We stood up. "You may kiss the feet of our guests, Tuka," said Seibar.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Do not be weak with her," I said.

"I will not," he said. I smiled. I saw that it was true.

"Tuka," said Seibar, "fetch what was once your blanket and put it with mine, on the shelf, by the wall, where I sleep."

"Yes, Master!" she said. I smiled. I saw that Tuka, at least, would not be tied by the neck, out in the yard for the night.

Seibar and I again clasped hands, sealing our bargain.

"I have done as you wished," said Tuka, returning, dropping to her knees before her master.

"I am weary," said Seibar. "I think I will tie your ankles together."

"Please do not tie them together, Master," she said.

"Very well," he said. He then indicated that she should rise

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and she did so. He then lifted her in his arms. She kissed at him eagerly.

"I wish you well," I said.

"I wish you all well," he said.

We then, Hci, Cuwignaka, Mira and myself, took our leave. I did look back once, to see Seibar placing Tuka gently on the blankets in his sleeping place, on the dirt shelf, near the log-and-dirt wall.

They seemed oblivious of their surroundings. They were absorbed in one another. They were master and slave.

Chapter 41

HCI WILL COME WITH US

"I tell you it exists!" exclaimed Hci.

"Did you see it?" I asked.

"No," he said, "Mira saw it."

"She is only a slave," I said.

The girl, near the lodge at Two Feathers, amidst trees, knelt, trembling.

"You were gone," she said, shuddering, "with Cuwignaka and Canka, training tarns. It came like a great, black thing, screaming. Leaves were torn from the trees in its passage!"

"It is gone now," I said.

"It is rea, Tatankasa," said Hci. "Make no mistake about it. It exists!"

"It is only a tarn," I said.

"It is Wakanglisapa," said Hci, "the medicine tarn."

"I do not believe in the medicine world," I said. "I do not think it exists."

"It is following us," said Hci. "It is looking for its feather."

"That is absurd," I said.

"Get rid of the feater," said Hci. "Return it to the Barrens. Throw it away. Burn it. It is dangerous!"

"We may have need of it," I said.

"Get rid of it!" said Hci.

"It is only a feather," I said.

"Than the feather of Wakanglisapa there is no medicine more dangerous or powerful," said Hci. "That is why he has come looking for it."

"The medicine tarn does not exist," I said.

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"She saw it," said Hci, pointing to Mira. Mira was half white with fear.

"It was only a tarn," I said.

"It was Wakanglisapa, the medicine tarn," said Hci. "He is angry." He looked at the sky, apprehensively. The moons were now out. White clouds scudded across the sky.

"I see no signs of a tarn now," I said.

"He has followed us," said Hci.

"It is probably a different tarn," I said.

"It is Wakanglisapa, the medicine tarn," said Hci.

"You are one of the bravest men I have ever known, Hci," I said. "How can you think in this way? How can you act like this?"

"You know more of tarns than I, Tatankasa," he said. "Do tarns behave in this fashion?"

"No," I admitted, "not normally."

"Then it is no ordinary tarn," said Hci.

"I do not know," I said. "Perhaps not."

"Do you not remember the warrior of the Kinyanpi?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. I shuddered.

"That could only have been the work of Wakanglisapa." said Hci.

"Wakanglisapa does not exist," I said.

"I am not afraid of men," said Hci. "I am not afraid of what I can see. I am not afraid of what I can fight."

"I understand," I said.

"Do these things seem normal to you?" asked Hci.

"No," I said.

"Do they not seem strange?" asked Hci.

"Yes," I admitted.

"Do you understand them?" asked Hci.

"No," I said, "not really, certainly not fully."

"Get rid of the feather," said Hci.

"No," I said.

"Get rid of it," he said.

"I do not believe in the medicine world," I said. "I do not think it exists."

"I know the medicine world exists," said Hci.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Once," said he, "I grievously lied. Later, in battle, my shield betrayed me. It would not obey me. I could not control it. It refused to protect me. Of its own will it rose, exposing me to the lance of my enemy."

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"We know what happened," I said. "What we do not know, really, is why it happened. Such things are not absolutely unknown, even to the physicians in the cities. There are technical names for them. They are still not well understood. Often their causes are deep and mysterious."

"The shield rose," said Hci.

"The shield cannot rise by itself," I said. "It was your arm that rose."

"I did not lift my arm," said Hci.

"Such movements, over which we have no control," I said, "are sometimes connected with such things as guilt, and a conviction of the fittingness of certain behaviors. They result from undetected occurrences in the brain. It is like on part of you at war with another part. They seem to occur by themselves. They can be frightening."

"The shield rose, like a moon," said Hci.

"Doubtless it seems so," I said.

"It rose," said Hci, "as firmly and inexorably as a moon."

"We understand things in various contexts of belief," I said. "When something happens it might be interpreted one way in one context of belief and in another way in another context of belief."

"This is hard to understand," said Hci.

"That is because you are thoroughly familiar with only one context of belief," I said, "your own. Thus, you are not accustomed to draw a distinction between what is to be interpeted, so to speak, and its interretation. These two things tend, then, in your understanding to merge into only one, in this case that your shield betrayed you."

"It did," said Hci.

"Look up," I said. "See the moons?"

"Yes," he said.

"Do you not see how they fly through the sky?"

"It is the clouds moving in the wind," said Hci, "going the other way. That is why it makes the moons look like they are moving."

"Look again," I said.

Hci again regarded the sky.

"Can you see the moons flying?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, after a time. "I can see it that way."

"You see," I said, "there are many ways to understand what we see."

"I understand," said Hci. "Are all expanations of equal merit?"

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"No," I said. "Most are presumably false."

"How do we know when we have the one true explanation?" asked Hci.

"I suppose we can never be absolutely certain," I said, "that of all the theoretically possible explanations, all expanations which would respond effectively to all conceivable tests, all explanations which would agree in explaining phenomena and in yielding predictions, that we have the one true explanation."

"That is interesting," said Hci.

"That we cannot prove that an explanation is absolutely correct does not, of course, entail that it is not correct."

"I understand that," said Hci.

"We can sometimes be rationally certain of the correctness of an explanation," I said, "so certain that it would be foolish not to accept it."

"I understand," said Hci.

"Good," I said.

"Do you know the medicine world does not exist?" asked Hci.

"I do not think it exists," I said.

"Do you knw it does not exist?" asked Hci.

"No," I said. "I do not know that it does not exist."

"Perhaps it exists," said Hci.

"Perhaps," I said. "I do not know."

"You do not believe it exists," said Hci.

"No," I said.

"I do believe it exists," he said.

"I understand," I said.

"Perhaps, then," he said, "It is your explanation which is false, not mine."

"Perhaps," I said.

"This is the Barrens," he said.

"That is true," I said.

"Perhaps things are not the same here as in your country," he said.

"Perhaps," I said. I supposed it was an act of faith that nature was uniform, surely an act of rational faith, but an act of faith, nonetheless. The universe was surely vast and mysterious. It was perhaps under no obligation to conform to our prefrences. If it did seem congenial to our limitations perhaps this was becuase we could experience it only within these same limitations. We might unknowingly live in the midst of dimensions and wonders, things beyond the touch of

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our tools, things beyond the reach of our imaginations and intellects, things too different to know. Yet what bold, gallant mice we are. How noble is man.

"You are determined to keep the feather?" asked Hci.

"Yes," I said. "Are you coming with us tonight?"

Wakanglisapa can bring ruin to all our plans," he said.

"Nonsense," I said. "Are you coming with us?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"We must start soon," I said.

"I must do something first," he said.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Sing my death song," he said.

Chapter 42

THE SKY SEEMS CLEAR BEHIND ME

"Hurry!" I cried, on tarnback. "Hurry!"