Kur of Gor (67 page)

Cabot, shielded by the wings of his friends, sensed that the purple scarves were very close, no more than feet from the ledge itself.

Cabot heard the clawed feet of a purple scarf touch the ledge, and then, rather as the two leaves of a mighty gate might swing open, outwardly, the left wing of Lord Grendel, and the right wing of Lord Statius, swung toward their bodies, and Cabot released the first shaft, point-blank, through the chest of the officer, the fletching literally disappearing into the body, and half the shaft emerging from the back, and a length of chain clattered to the metal flooring of the ledge, and a second shaft left the string, and no more than two Ehn later another, and then another. At the same time Lords Grendel and Statius pushed from the ledge and with a blow of the wide canvas wings were each entangled with a foe. One of the purple scarves freed an arm from the wing harness and groped for a hand weapon, as he spun about, loose, helplessly, in the atmosphere. By the time he could free it from its holster another arrow had found its mark and the weapon seemed to float away, as might an object in water. Cabot saw blood streaming loose in the atmosphere, like a shredding silken ribbon, and Lord Grendel, eyes half blinded with blood, spit away throat and bone. Statius and his foe grappled, spinning in the atmosphere. Cabot scanned the remaining foes who had seemed startled, almost paralyzed, at the sudden appearance of his threat. Such are commonly left to last. The foe who cries out, registering the threat, too, has hesitated. His priority is thus less than the silent foe who reacts instantly, seeking cover, drawing a weapon, such things. Needless to say, the officer had not had time to react, in any way. To be sure, other things being equal, an officer is usually given priority as a target. Accordingly, in situations of danger, as indicated earlier, at least among Kurii, insignia are often removed, salutes left unexchanged, and so on. Too, as earlier referenced, such practices are also commonly in effect amongst Gorean warriors. And, one supposes, such practices are not likely to be unfamiliar to any, whatever the world, who adopt the profession of arms, who tread the ways of war.

Statius, his teeth fastened in the shoulder of his howling foe, brought up his hind legs, ripping and gouging, tearing, digging, within his foe's belly, a reflex perhaps genetically coded in long-vanished, unspeeched ancestors of the modern Kur, ancestors not yet Kurii. This modality of aggression, interestingly, frequently characterizes the feeding attack of the smaller Gorean forest panther. It is not unknown amongst larls and sleen, but the sleen usually strikes for the throat and the larl, where practical, particularly after it has bled and exhausted its prey, bites through the back of the neck.

Cabot saw loops of gut loose amongst the beating wings, and Statius’ foe, striking Statius’ jaws away from his shoulder with a mighty blow, turned about, erratically, and tried to strike away. Cabot saw fur and meat in Statius’ jaws. He was too weak to pursue his foe who fled, a rope of gut dangling behind him.

Cabot drew one of the arrows from his belt, and then leaped aside as a line of fire, narrow and perfect, as straight as a beam of light, seemed to stand still beside him, quiet in the air, and then, at the back of the arsenal, yards behind him, where it touched, a metal wall blackened, and drops of molten steel suddenly burst forth and floated in the atmosphere, as might have oil droplets in water.

To free the weapon, a shoulder weapon, the Kur had had to abandon his control of the wings, and he floated, without control, some yards from the ledge.

Lord Grendel thrust up the weapon with his wing, and then, spinning about, close to his foe, who floated before him, had one hand loose from the wing harness and tore the weapon from the Kur's grasp, and the Kur recovered control of the wings, and backed away, warily. Then its eyes grew wide. Lord Grendel had the weapon in one hand, had braced it against his chest, and leveled it. Cabot saw the chest cavity of the Kur disappear, as though punched into nothingness.

Two Kurii remained, other than the figure retreating in the distance.

Neither attempted to free their weapon.

Cabot aligned an arrow.

"No,” said Lord Grendel, in his Gorean.

He then spoke to the Kurii, and they, carefully, removed their weapons, and thrust them, floating, softly, toward the arsenal gate.

Lord Grendel, transferring his weapon to his harnessed arm, with his free hand flicked on his translator, that Cabot might follow what was said.

Seven Kurii, dead, were in the vicinity, winged, inert, floating, in the gravity-free zone. Another, he who had fled, he muchly eviscerated by Statius, had died within moments. The body, harnessed within the wings, was now little more than some fifty yards from the ledge, drifting aimlessly, eccentrically, sometimes rolling over, a length of its entrails wrapped about a leg.

"Now you will kill us,” said one of the two Kurii at bay.

"No,” said Lord Grendel. “There has been enough killing."

"Kill us,” said the other Kur. “Agamemnon will have us killed, if we return without the weapons."

"Free your hands,” said Lord Grendel. Then he spoke to Statius. “Return to them their weapons."

The hair on the back of Cabot's neck rose.

Statius, not questioning Lord Grendel, slipped his harness, and moved the weapons to the two Kurii.

"Lower your bow,” said Lord Grendel, to Cabot, who, however reluctantly, complied.

Lord Grendel then turned his back on the two Kurii, and, with one sweep of the wings, returned to the ledge.

"We have escaped,” said Lord Grendel to the two Kurii, without turning to face them.

"Yes,” said one of them. “You have escaped."

The two Kurii regarded one another, and then reslung their weapons, regained their harnessing, turned about, and moved away from the platform.

"They could have killed you, all of us,” said Cabot.

"True,” said Lord Grendel.

"Why did they not do so?” asked Cabot.

"They are Kur,” said Lord Grendel.

"I do not understand,” said Cabot.

"Would you have done so?” asked Lord Grendel.

"No,” said Cabot.

"You see,” said Lord Grendel. “You, too, are Kur."

"What now is to be done?” asked Cabot.

"We will gather the weapons,” said Lord Grendel.

"Agamemnon would have killed you, instantly, without a thought,” said Cabot.

"He is not Kur,” said Lord Grendel.

"He is Kur,” said Cabot.

"Not every Kur is Kur,” said Lord Grendel.

Cabot was silent.

"We will take you to the surface,” said Lord Grendel.

"They were waiting for us at the arsenal,” said Statius. “They knew we were coming."

"Clearly,” said Lord Grendel.

"You believe Agamemnon to have been informed of our plans?"

"Certainly,” said Grendel.

"He may have anticipated such a move,” said Cabot.

"It is unlikely,” said Lord Grendel, “that without intelligence he would have anticipated, and prepared so carefully for, even to the removal of guards, so unlikely and bold a stroke as an attempt on the arsenal itself."

"Even we ourselves,” said Statius, “regarded our attack as little more than an act of desperation, if not of madness. We expected to battle through legions of guards, in a venture in all likelihood foredoomed."

"Agamemnon is shrewd,” said Cabot. “The devising of such a trap would be well within his ken."

"How would he have known where to lay it, and when?” asked Statius.

"I do not know,” said Cabot.

"The Lady Bina,” said Statius, “fled the camp, days ago."

"Aii!” said Cabot, softly.

"It is true,” said Lord Grendel.

"She had overheard our plans,” said Statius.

"How could she escape from the camp,” asked Cabot. “Was she not belled. Was she not chained at night?"

"She slipped away from the camp master, before her chaining, perhaps with the assistance of a confederate,” said Statius. “As her hands were not bound behind her, as in our treks, she could hold the bell silent."

"You suspect her of revealing our plans?” said Cabot.

"Certainly,” said Statius.

"Agamemnon might have foreseen such an attack,” said Cabot.

"There was treachery, clearly,” said Lord Grendel. “Intelligence had described the security at the arsenal. It was only after the escape of the Lady Bina, and shortly prior to our attack, that it seemed to change, as though Agamemnon had decided at last, in virtue of our weakness, that such precautions were no longer necessary."

"And the ambush was laid,” said Cabot.

"In all its deadliness,” said Statius.

"Perhaps she is innocent,” said Cabot.

"It would not be the first time she has betrayed Kurii and others to Agamemnon,” said Lord Grendel.

"We will have her blood,” said Statius.

"Even now,” said Lord Grendel, “in robes and veils of beauty, she doubtless banquets with Agamemnon."

"We do not know that,” said Cabot.

"I do not think we will see her again,” said Lord Grendel.

"If we do,” said Statius, “it will be the privilege of Lord Grendel to gouge out and roast the first ounce of her flesh, to be eaten before her eyes."

With proper surgical attention this mode of execution can be extended over several days, before the more grievous tortures are inflicted, with the needles, and irons, the tiny flames, the dollops of acid, and such.

"I will defend her, to the death,” said Lord Grendel.

"She is guilty,” said Statius.

"Yes,” said Lord Grendel.

"Then, dear friend,” said Statius, “you will die with her."

"It is not clear she is guilty,” said Cabot.

"Why do you say that?” asked Statius.

"I do not know,” said Cabot. “It is something which continues to elude me, a small something, a something I cannot place, a something that has troubled me, like a whisper not really heard, now and again."

"Perhaps,” said Statius, “when, at the side of Agamemnon, in regalia, a tiara upon her brow, she presides over a thousand executions, those of our fellows, Kur and human, you might be convinced."

"Doubtless,” said Cabot.

"Do you love her?” asked Statius.

"No,” said Cabot. “But in my way I am fond of her. Another may love her."

"Who?” asked Statius.

"Another,” said Cabot.

"Lord Grendel?” said Statius.

"Perhaps,” said Cabot.

"The evidence, the incidents, the circumstances, a thousand details, are incontrovertible,” said Statius.

"Perhaps,” said Cabot.

"We will take you to the surface,” said Lord Grendel. “My dear Statius, will you gather the weapons."

"Yes,” said Statius.

Chapter, the Forty-Eighth:

THE AMNESTY

"You hear it?” said Lord Grendel.

"Of course,” said Cabot.

Interestingly, the message was in both Kur and Gorean.

The world rang with the words of Agamemnon, pronouncing peace and amnesty.

"There is little food left,” said Cabot.

"Do not feed me, Master,” said Lita.

"Take this,” said Cabot, pressing a rind of sul into her hands, and she put down her head and fed on it, kneeling, gratefully, her hair falling about her wrists.

How beautiful they are, thought Cabot. How desirable they are. How natural that men will take them, and make them their own, and put them in collars.

Lord Grendel's group was now small, consisting of some dozen Kurii, and some seven humans.

They were deep in the forested areas between the habitats and the far villages, those toward the far pole, and Lake Fear.

"We cannot run forever,” said a Kur.

The rebellion, or insurrection, was now devastated, the revolutionary groups decimated, and scattered, in flight, pursued.

Hundreds, both Kur and human, had responded to the conciliations offered by Agamemnon.

"We had eight power weapons,” said a Kur.

These were the weapons which had been acquired by Lords Grendel and Statius, and the human, Tarl Cabot, in the vicinity of the far pole, that beyond the small villages.

"Agamemnon has hundreds,” said a Kur.

"Go, pledge fidelity to him,” said another.

"Should we not have kept them all?” asked a human, Archon, now skilled with the bow.

"I think not,” said Lord Grendel.

The reasoning had been rather as follows. The eight weapons would doubtless have made one of the insurrectionary groups more formidable than otherwise, say, that of Lord Grendel, but presumably the eight such weapons would have been of little avail against the full, massed power which might be brought against them by a reasonably large contingent of enemy forces, and, of course, given such an arrangement, concentrating the weapons in a single group, the other rebels’ groups, now distributed, now muchly out of touch with one another, would have remained as before, limited to their original primitive, simple weaponry, sticks, spears, axes, knives, and such, and more dangerously, of course, and more happily for them, the arrow. Indeed, the arrow, loosed from the great bow, remained a not unformidable tool, even against foes equipped with a more sophisticated weaponry. It had then been decided, shortly after the defeats of the preceding days, on a variety of fronts, that eight of the several groups, of which Lord Grendel's was one, would have one weapon apiece, this at least, hopefully, acting as some deterrent for several of the groups, or bands, against a too rash approach by the forces of Agamemnon. Some thought had been given to the concentration of the eight weapons for a raid on the palace itself, but it was soon understood that the palace was not only closely guarded, but was, for most practical purposes, impregnable. Accordingly the weapons had been allotted amongst eight groups, of which Lord Grendel's was one. In his group, the power weapon, a shoulder rifle, in this case, to use a convenient term, one with several charges remaining, had been given into the keeping of the scout, Flavion. This seemed judicious considering his frequent departures from the camp, and the likely dangers of his encountering Purple Scarves.