Blood Brothers of Gor (73 page)

"He will think that he has," I said. I myself, at close range and with impunity, had scouted our position. I had also souted it from a distance, from the presumed perspective of an enemy, from the grasslands below. From the surface of the prairie certain things, cleavages and fissures, certain irregularites in the rock face, appeared to be weaknesses. They were not.

"Let us hope that he is mistaken," said Cuwignaka.

"Aside from the main trail," I said, "there is no easy route, not even a narrow pathe, to the summit of Council Rock."

"It can be climed," said Hci. "Men have done so."

"Yes," I said, "but I think our enemies will find it difficult, costly and dangerous to do so, particularly in the face of determined defense."

We watched the sun beginning to set over the western prairie. The smells of cooking fires drifted up from the Yellow Knife camp.

"My captor," whispered Iwoso.

"Yes," said Hci.

"I am in pain," she said. "My body aches."

"Do you beg as a captive to be released from the post?" asked Hci.

"Yes, my captor," she said.

"Do you bet it as a humble captive?" he asked.

"Please do not make me so beg!" she said.

He looked out again over the prairie.

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"Yes," she said, "I so beg it! I beg it as a humble captive!"

We stood up and turned about, regarding the girls.

Iwoso looked pleadingly at Hci.

"The proud Iwoso looks well clothed in humility," said Hci.

"It is all she is clothed in," said Cuwignaka.

Iwoso looked away, as nude as a slave.

"Bring their hoods," said Hci.

"Very well," I said.

In a few moments I returned with the hoods. The girls, in them, bound, would be returned to the prison lodge.

I freed the necks of Bloketu and Iwoso from the posts.

"You said that I was to be judged today," said Iwoso, "but you were wrong. I was not judged."

"That is thanks to the Yellow Knives," said Hci. "We had hoped that by now our business with them would ahve been concluded, but it has not been."

"When, then, am I to be judged?" she asked, lightly, as though scarcely interested.

"The business of battle is to be first concluded," he said. "Then, when you are totally within our power, when you are helplessly ours, when you are ours, fully, to do with as we please, then, and then only, will you be judged."

Her eyes widened with fear.

Then I drew the hood over her head and tied it under her chin. I then, similarly, hooded Bloketu. I then freed their hands from the post and, on either end of a common tether, I tied their hands together before their bodies. I then freed them from the posts and prepared to lead them to the prison lodge.

"Tie them well," said Hci.

"I shall," I said.

"In the morning," he said, "put them again, well roped, precisely as today, at the posts."

"I will," I said.

I then led them, hooded and stubling, by the common tether on their wrists, to the prison lodge.

After a time, after I had secured the girls, hooded and tied, wrists to ankles, in the prison lodge, I returned to the edge of the escarpment.

"The next attack will doubtless occur at dawn," said Hci.

"No," I said.

"When, then?" asked Hci.

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"Tonight," I said.

"The soldiers?" asked Cuwignaka.

"Yes," I said.

Chapter 45

WHAT OCCURRED AT NIGHT AT COUNCIL ROCK

I felt the hand of Cuwignaka gently on my shoulder. I opened my eyes.

"The first," he said, "are nearly to the summit."

I sat up. "We will let a few attain the summit," I said, "that the others may be encouraged. Then we will greet them."

Hci was already awake. He stood nearby, his lance in his hand.

The night was cloudy and dark. I did not envy the soldiers. The back faces of Council Rock were extremely dangerous even in daylight.

We treaded our way though the lodges, across the top of our fortress.

Our lines were already in place waiting.

"Sing no medicine," said Hci. "Be silent."

Hci, Cuwignaka and I, then, leaving our weapons at the lodges, dropped down to our hands and knees and then, in a few moments, to our bellies, crawling forward.

We were then about four or five feet from the edge.

We heard small scrapings.

We then withdrew.

"Climbing the rock face is extremely dangerous," I said. "Too, these men are cavalrymen. They are not used to such tasks. Surely some must have fallen."

"We heard no cries or screams," said Cuwignaka.

"Such would surely have alerted us, had we not already been anticipating their climb," said Hci.

"Their plan is surely a bold one," said Cuwignaka. "Surely, normally, we would not have expected an attack at night, and surely not from this quarter."

"It is interesting," I said, "that no cries have been heard."

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"Perhaps they are all expert climbers," said Hci.

"That is unlikely," I said.

"Let us hide under kailiauk robes near the edge," said Hci. "We may then cut their throats, one by one, as they climb over the top."

"These men are professional soldiers," I said. "There will be command chains. If certain signals of clear passage are not conveyed there will be standing orders to withdraw. Such signals I want conveyed. Then we will attack."

"Thus," said Hci, "more men should be exposed, trapped, on the rock face."

"I would think so," I said.

"Good," said Hci.

"It is odd," I said, "that none seem to have fallen."

"Perhaps it is a diversion," said Cuwignaka. "Perhaps the true attack is to come elsewhere."

"I do not think so," I said. "In any event, Mahpiyasapa and Kahintokapa maintain their posts at the main trail, and we have stationed guards at intervals about the perimeter."

"One has attained the level," whispered Hci.

"I see," I said. There seemed a darkness in the darkness, which had moved. Then it lay very still.

"There is another," said Cuwignaka.

"Yes," I said. "Wait."

A certain subtle judgment must now be made. Enough men must be allowed to attain the surface to convince the enemy that their approach was undetected, that the orders for continuing the climb be transmitted, but not enoubh men that they might effectively hold a postion behind which further climbers, in numbers, might be able to complete their ascent.

"Now?" asked Hci.

"No," I said.

In our lines we had fifty men. I would, accordingly, permit, as nearly as I could determine, someting in the neighborhood of twenty-five soldiers to attain the level. This should be a number large enough for our purposes and yet small enough, Ihoped, to be dealt with effectively and decisively.

"Now?" asked Cuwignaka.

"Wait," I said.

We watched the darkness grow at the edge of the rear escarpment.

"Now?" asked Hci.

"No," I said.

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"Now?" asked Hci.

"Yes." I said, "now!"

Kaiila warriors, like unleashed sleen, rushed toward the ledge.

What was done then, stabbing down, cutting and hacking, took little time.

I remained a bit behind. I did not wish to be struck in the darkness. I was white.

Then, in a moment, I went and stood near the ledge. The rocky face was dark with darkness. It was hard to tell what might be men and what shadows.

I spun and caught a lance being thrust toward me. "Tatankasa!" cried a man.

My clothes seemed suddenly soaked with cold sweat. I released the lance.

The soldiers seemed, for the most part, to have been swept from the ledge.

Bows and arrows were brought from the lodges. Men, with impunity, began firing into the shadows. More than once, below me, on the rock face, I saw a body pitch outward and then fall, silently, it seemed, into the darkness below.

"The torch!" I called. "Light the brush!"

An arm reached over the ledge, near me. I saw a face, wild. Hci thrust down with the point of his lance. The man plummeted backwards, down and away into the darkness.

The mystery of the silent climbers, however, had been solved. The man had been gagged. I could only conjecture how many might have fallen in the darkness, essaying that treacherous, terrible ascent.

A torch was brought. With it we set fire to the great bundles of brush, on ropes, which had been prepared earlier. These flaming bundles, on their ropes, were then hurled over the edge, to hang burning against the rocky face.

I again looked over the edge. The men, in great numbers, like insects, now illuminated, clung precariously to the rock. They could offere no defense. Barely could they hold thier position. At their leisure the Kaiila bowmen picked their targets. Some men, in terror, lost their hold on the rock. Others, terrified, remained where they were, to die. Most began, in haste, to attempt the desscent. Many of these fell. Some men released their hold altogether on the rock, hoping to risk less in the terrors of the slide downward than in facing the Kaiila arrows.

"How many died?" asked Cuwignaka.

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I looked down. I could not see, in the darkness, to the foot of the mountain.

"I do not know," I said.

"Many?" asked Cuwignaka.

"Yes," I said. "Many."

Chapter 46

THE SECOND DAY OF WAR

"I heard noises last night, cries," said Iwoso. "Oh!" she said.

I had tightened her neck bonds, pulling her head back against the post. She was then bound as she had been the previous day, helplessly, indentically, as Hci had wished.

It was near dawn. Bloketu was already bound to her post.

"There was an action," I said. "It need not concern you."

Iwoso struggled briefly in her ropes, futilely. I then tightened them.

"Must I be displayed like this?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. "Hci, your captor, finds it amusing."

She struggled, angrily, helplessly.

"Too, he thinks it might be of intrest to you, to observe the issuance of these military affairs, particularly as you are not likely to be unaffected by their outcome."

She looked at me, frightened.

"Too, of course," I said, "your presence here, naked, in your ropes, tied like a slave, is calculated to be an incitement to the Yellow Knives."

"You use me in many ways, it seems," she said, bitterly, "to serve your purposes."

"You are a captive female," I said. "It is thus only natural that you be used to serve the purposes of your captors."

"You use me," she said, "as thoughtlessly and brazenly as a slave!"

I regarded her. "Yes," I said, "you might say that."

She looked away.

"I would like to make a recommendation," I said.

She did not look at me.

"Things were perhaps closer for you yesterday than you realize," I said.

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She looked at me.

"It has to do with keeping you alive, my proud, pretty Iwoso," I said.

"Oh?" she said.

"Hci is your captor," I said, "and he is not a patient man. I think you should show him total respect and obey him with absolute perfection."

She looked at me, angrily.

"Do you understand?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

I turned away, to look down at the Yellow-Knife camp.

"Almost as though I were a slave!" she said.

"Yes," I said, "almost as though you were a slave."

"Never!" she cried.

"As you will, Lady Iwoso," I said. I continued looking down at the Yellow-Knife camp. I could see, too, their kaiila, grazing behind the camp.