Blood Brothers of Gor (74 page)

"Yesterday," she said, "I was weak! But I am not weak today!"

"The whip," I said, "is often useful in dispelling such illusions from the mind of women."

She was silent.

"Have you ever been whipped, Lady Iwoso?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"The Yellow Knives," said Cuwignaka, coming over to where I stood, "are beginning to mass at the foot of the trail."

"It would appear to be a major assult," said Hci, joining us.

"This time they will finish you!" called Iwoso.

"Iwoso seems to be in good spirits today," observed Cuwignaka.

"She is in fine fettle," I said.

"Tonight," said Iwoso, "I will be with my people, safe!"

"What are they carrying?" asked Hci.

"It looks like screens," I said, "probably of branches and hides." Such devices, I speculated, dismally, would arrest or turn most arrows from the bows of red savages. Their small rapidity of fire, so useful from the back of a racing kaiila, lacked the driving power, naturally enough, of heavier weapons. In impace they were inferior not only to the peasant bow, Gor's fiercest missile weapon, but even the common, hand-drawn crossbow.

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"Some soldiers are with them," I said.

"Yes," said Hci.

"Do you see any sign of the beasts?" I asked. I did not.

"No," said Hci.

"Free me," said Iwoso. "There are soldiers there. Free me, and sue for peace. Beg to be permitted to surrender. Some of you might be spared."

"There are not enough soldiers to control the Yellow Knives," said Cuwignaka.

"And I doubt," I said, "that either the soldiers or the beasts, having come this far, and sustained such losses, are much interested in the taking of prisoners." To be sure, beyone such considerations, there was little to do in the Barrens with prisoners, unless they were females, who might then be reduced as love prizes to suitable, helpless slaveries.

"Surrender!" said Iwoso. "Surrender!"

"What is wrong with Iwoso this morning?" inquired Hci.

"I do not think that she has taken leave or her senses," I said. "Rather I think that yesterday she was forced to look inside of herself, and there she discovered things which frightened her. She is now trying to fight them. She is now, in compensation, unwilling to accept these startling, alarming insights, trying to restore her former self-image, trying to be pronouncedly defiant."

"What are you saying?" asked Iwoso.

"she thinks that yesterday she was weak, but that today she is strong."

"Interesting," said Hci. He walked over to Iwoso. "Do you think that you are strong?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said.

"You are mistaken," he said.

"They are coming up the trail now," said Cuwignaka.

The Yellow Knives, probably some four of five hundred of them, with perhaps some fifty soldiers, were now climbing the trail. They moved slowly, to conserve their strength. Some of them held our position. Others held them overhead, advancing beneath them. There was little doubt their main party would reach the barricade at the summit in much of its full strength. I looked at the ropes left lying at intervals along the edge of the escarpment. I had little doubt but what their utility was oon to be realized.

"In the distance, to the west," I said, "the praries seem clear."

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"Yes," said Cuwignaka.

"They are passing the first barricade," observed Hci. This, now, was the lower barricade, the first to be met in the ascent. We had lowered it into place yesterday, to make the retreat of kaiila difficult. Undefended, it posed no serious obstacle to men afoot.

Our approximately two hundred men were divided into five groups. Two of these groups of some forty each, were stationed near the summit barrier. One of these groups, under Mahpiyasapa, was defensive. Given the narrowness of the trail, so few might, for a time, adequately maintain the barricade against much greater numbers, the effective application of these numbers being reduced by the nature of the terrain. The second group near the summit would appear to be being held in reserve, to reinforce as necessary the contingent at the barricade. It was, however, a strke force. There were three other groups, of some forty men each. They would have their diverse deployments.

In a few moments the Yellow Knives and the soldiers with them, shielded by their screens, were passing beneath our position, advancing toward the summit. A few moments later, screaming, crawding forward, they rushed toward the barricade.

"The men of Mahpiyasapa are holding," said Hci.

I nodded. They would certainly be able to do so, at least for a time.

"The enemy seems now to be suitably positioned for our purposes," I said. "Too, as we had anticipated, their attention is much concentrated on the barricade,"

"Iwoso may cry out," said Cuwignaka.

"I do not think they would hear her," I said. "There is too much noise. They are too intent upon their business at the barricade."

"Nonetheless," said Hci, "it is a risk I do not choose to take."

"Are you going to cut her throat?" asked Cuwignaka.

Iwoso shrank back against the post.

"Should she be permitted to so easily escape the judgment of the Kaiila?" asked Hci.

"No," said Cuwignaka, his voice hard.

Iwoso, roped, trembled.

"A gag, if noted, might alert perceptive Yellow Knives," said Cuwignaka.

"Open your mouth, Iwoso," said Hci. "Widely."

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He then bent down and picked up a small rock, about an inch in diameter, from teh surface of
 
our position.

He placed this in Iwoso's mouth. "Close your mouth," he said.

She complied.

"Do you wish to keep your tongue?" he asked.

She nodded, frightened.

"When we return," he said, "if this rock is not still in your mouth, your tongue will be cut out. Do you understand?"

She nodded, terrified.

Hck, Cuwignaka and I then hurried along the edge of the escarpment, about three hundred feet to our left, joining others, already waiting there.

Hci raised and lowered his hand. The forty men in his party, including myself and Cuwignaka, then, on the ropes left along the edge of the escarpment, held by the members of the fourth group, under the command of Kahintokapa, lowered ourselves to the trail below.

We moved swiftly.

Then we fell upon the Yellow Knives.

Eyes, wild, regarded us over their shoulders. Men attempting to escape us pressed forward, forcing their fellows toward the barricade, causing several to lose their footing on the trail. In the press, it was difficult for them to turn and flight. Arrow screens were broken and dropped.

Then Yellow Knives, in sufficent numbers, had managed to turn and face us.

"Back!" called Hck.

Swiftly we withdrew.

Elated, Yellow Knives rushed after us, down the trail. Men withdrew even from the barricade to join the pursuit.

At our withdrawl our fifth group, some fifty yards behind us, lowered itself from the escarpment. This was under the command of Napoktan warrior. His name was Waiyeyeca. They carried lances strapped on their backs. As soon as we were among them they aslung these lances, bracing them like pikes on the trail. Pursuing Yellow Knives, thrust from behind, unable to stop, rushed into the lances. The eighty of us, then, the lancers and Hci's group, held our ground. This was not difficult to do given the narrowness of the trail. War clubs, shields and knives met. Then over the barricade, now deserted by the enemy, passing between Mahpiyasapa's defenders, came our second group, that which, seemingly, had

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been held in reserve. It now struck the Yellow Knives on the trail itself. Most of the Yellow Knives, of course, hemmed in by their fellows, on the frong, and in the rear, and on the flanks by the drop and the wall, must remain inactive. Then, into this trapped mass, its arrow screens no longer in position, and many of them scattered and lost, sped hundreds of arrows. These were fired by the men of our forth group, suddenly appearing at the top of the escarpment, that which had handled our descent ropes, that under the command of Kahintokapa, of the Yellow-Kaiila Riders. In that contingent, it might be mentioned, there served a blond youth, one who had taken the Kaiila name of Wayuhahaka, "One-Who-Possesses-Much," who had once been of the Waniyanpi.

Many of the Yellow Knives and soldiers, rather than face this withering fire, lowered themselves from the trail, slipping and sliding, then, abrasively, down the side of the rock face. Some may have survived. In moments then our groups, that of Hci and Waiyeyeca, and that from the barricade itself, met, Yellow Knives and soldiers slain or forced from the trail. Cuwignaka, in joy, embraced the leader of the group come down from the barricade. The name of the leader of that group was Canka.

I looked over the edge of the trail.

There were many bodies below. Some had caught on rocks. Others had fallen to lower segments of the trail. Some, even, had plunged bounding, and turning and striking, from plane to plane, to the grass.

"Yellow Knives on kaiila approaching the lower barricade!" called Kahintokapa, from above.

Ropes were thrown down to us. Our weapons and shields slung about us we then climbed the ropes to the height of the escarpment. By the time these Yellow Knives had dismounted and cast aside the lower barricade, it tumbling downward, breaking and shattering in its descent, and remounted, we were safe. Some of them rode about a bit on the trail but then, under sporadic arrow fire, they withdrew.

There were many Yellow Knives left on the trail below. I had recognized one of them. It was he who had been the second of the war chiefs from the summer camp. No longer did he sing medicine.

Kaiila warriors, laughing and joking, congratulated one another, exhibiting grisly trophies.

In the Barrens conflict is typically quarterless.

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"Open your mouth," said Hci to Iwoso.

She did so, expelling the wet stone into the palm of his hand.

Chapter 47

THE THIRD DAY OF WAR

"I think they will be coming in the neighborhood of noon," said Cuignaka.

It was now the third day in the siege of Council Rock.

Yesterday afternoon we had seen Kinyanpi. Yesterday night we had lit a great bush beacon which we had prepared. This beacon, whether used for the emisson of smoke in daylight hours, or its flame at night, could be seen for pasangs across the prairie.

"The Yellow Knives, left to their own resorces," said Hci, "would have withdrawn after the failure of the first day. It seems to me highly unlikely that the discipline of the soldiers and beasts can long be maintained over them."

"Doubtless they now have the backing of the Kinyanpi," I said. "Flighted scouts, at any rate, were observed yesterday."

"More than Kinyanpi will be required to bring them again to the barricade," said Hci.

"You expect, then," said Cuwignaka, "only one more major assault."

"And it will be the most determined of all," said Hci, grimly.

"And who will be its leaders?" asked Cuwignaka.

"The beasts, of course," I said.

"Yes," said Hci.

"It is nearly noon," said Cuwignaka, looking upward.

"I hear drums," I said.

"Medicine drums," said Hci.

"Soldiers are leaving the camp," I said.

"Yes," said Hci.

"They are riding south," I said.

"Interesting," said Hci.

"There is a Kinyanpi rider," said Cuwignaka, pointing upward.

"Doubtless a scout," said Hci.

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"There is movement now, in the Yellow-Knife camp," I said.

"They are coming," said Hci.

"Who is their lead?" asked Cuwignaka.

"The beasts," I said.

"We do not know how long the day will last," said Hci. "Feed and water Bloketu."

She was roped to her post, just as she had been the first two days.

"Do you beg food and drink?" asked Cuwignaka.

"Yes, Master," she said.

He fed her and watered her.