Nomads of Gor (67 page)

 
Tuchuk courier, soon proved its worth and I was led to the

 
dais of the Ubar of the Kataii. I was permitted to speak

 
directly to Hakimba, when I made it clear to my escort that

 
I knew the identity of their true Ubar and that it was with

 
him I must speak.

 
As I expected, Haldmba's brown eyes and richly scarred

 
countenance showed little interest in my presentation of the

 
plight of the Tuchuks.
                        

 
It was little to him, apparently, that the Paravaci should

 
raid the herds and wagons of the Tuchuks when most of the
      

 
Tuchuk warriors were engaged in Turia. He did not, on the

 
other hand, approve of the fact that the raid had taken place

 
during the Omen Year, which is a time of general truce

 
among the Wagon Peoples. I sensed, however, that he was

 
angry when I spoke of the probable complicity of the Para-

 
vaci with the Turians, striking when and how they did, even

 
during the Omen Year, presumably to draw the Tuchuks
      

 
away from Turia. In short, though Hakimba did not approve
      

 
of the Paravaci action and was incensed at their presumed
      

 
league with the Turians, he did not feel sufficiently strongly

 
to invest his own men in a struggle that did not seem to
        

 
concern him directly.
                        

 
"We have our own wagons," said Hakimba, at last. "Our
     

 
wagons are not the wagons of the Tuchuks or of the Kas-
        

 
ears or of the Paravaci. If the Paravaci attack our wagons,
         

 
we will fight. We will not fight until then."
  

 
Hakimba was adamant and it was with a heavy heart that
        

 
I climbed once more to the saddle of my tarn.

 
In the saddle I said to him, "I have heard that the

 
Paravaci are killing bask."

 
Hakimba looked up. "Killing bosk?" he asked, skeptically.

 
"Yes," I said, "and cutting out the nose rings to sell In

  
Turia after the Tuchuks withdraw."

         
"Will you help?" I asked.

       
"We have our own wagons," said Hakiba. "We will

       
watch our own wagons."

       
"What will you do," I asked, "if in another year the Para-

       
vaci and the Turians turn on the Kataii and kill their bosk?"

       
"The Paravaci," said Hakimba slowly, "would like to be

       
the one people and own the grass of all the prairie and all

       
the bosk."

          
"Will you not fight?" I demanded.
        
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"If the Paravaci attack us," said Hakimba, "then we will

       
fight." Hakimba looked up. "We have our own wagons," he

       
said. "We will watch our own wagons."

       
I drew on the one-strap and took the tarn into the air,

       
striking out across the prairie skies to intercept my Thousand

       
on its way to the wagons of the Tuchuks.

       
In my flight I could see at one point the Omen Valley,

       
where the haruspexes were still working about their numer- |

       
ous, smoking altars. I laughed bitterly.

       
In a few Ehn I had overtaken my Thousand and given the

       
tarn over to five men, who would keep it until its wagon I

       
should, following the tracks of the riders, reach them.

       
Within perhaps the Ahn a grim, angry Harold brought his

       
tarn down between the- two columns, that of his Thousand

       
and of mine. It took only a moment for him to give the tarn

       
into the keeping of some five warriors and leap on the back

       
of his kaiila. I had noted, to my satisfaction, that he now

       
handled the tarn rather well. He had apparently, in the past

       
several days since our escape from Saphrar's keep, been

       
familiarizing himself with the saddle straps and the bird's

       
habits and responses. But he was not elated as he rode beside

       
me nor did he speak lightly.

       
Like my own mission to the Kataii, Harold's mission to the

       
Kassars had been fruitless. For much the same reasons as the

       
Kataii, Conrad was unwilling to commit his forces to the

       
defense of Tuchuk herds. Indeed, as we rode together, we

       
wondered that Kamchak had even sent us on an errand so

       
unlikely of success, an errand in its way, considering the

       
temper of the Wagon Peoples, so foolish.

       
Our kaiila were spent when we reached the wagons of the

       
Tuchuks and the herds, and we were only two thousand.

       
Hundreds of the wagons were burning and fighting was

  
     
taking place among them. We found thousands of bosk slain

 
in the grass, their throats cut, their flesh rotting, the golden

 
nose rings chopped or torn away.

 
The men behind us cried out with rage.

 
Harold took his Thousand into the Wagons, engaging the

 
Paravaci wherever he could find them. I knew that in little

 
more than fifteen or twenty Ehn his forces would be lost,

 
dissipated among the wagons, and yet surely the Paravaci

 
must be met and fought there as well as on the prairie. I

 
swept with my Thousand about the outskirts of the herds

 
until we found some hundred or two hundred Paravaci en-
   

 
gaged in the grisly work of destroying Tuchuk bosk. These

 
two hundred, stood, looking up with their quivas

 
axes, startled, screaming, were ridden down in a matter

 
of an Ehn. But then we could see, forming on the crest of a
    

 
hill, thousands of Paravaci warriors, apparently held in read-
    

 
iness in case reinforcements should come. Already they were
    

 
mounting their fresh, rested kaiila. We could hear the bosk
    

 
horns forming their Hundreds, see the movements of the
    

 
sunlight on their arms.

 
Raising my arm and shouting, I led the Thousand toward

 
them, hoping to catch them before they could form and

 
charge. Our bosk horns rang out and my brave Thousand,

 
worn in the saddle, weary, on spent kaiila, without a murmur

 
or a protest, turned and following my lead struck into the

 
center of the Paravaci forces.

 
In an instant we were embroiled among angry men the

 
half-formed, disorganized Hundreds of the Paravaci striking

 
to the left and right, shouting the war cry of the Tuchuks. I

 
did not wish to remain on the crest of the hill long enough to

 
allow the left and right flanks of the Paravaci rapidly as

sembling to fold about my men and so, in less than four .

Ehn as their disorganized, astonished center fell back our

bosk horn sounded our retreat and our men, as one, with-

drew to the herds only a moment before the left and right

flanks of the Paravaci would have closed upon us. We left

them facing one another, cursing, while we moved slowly

back through our bosk, keeping them as a shield. We would

rennin chic cuough that small parties would not be able to

approach the bosk with impunity again. If they sent archers

 
forth to slay the beasts, we could, from within the herd,

 
answer their fire, or, if we wished, open the herd and ride

 
forth, scattering the archers.

  
Among the bosk I ordered my men to rest.

 
But the Paravaci neither sent forth small groups nor con-

       
tingents of archers, but formed and, en masse, riding over the

       
bodies of their fallen comrades, began to approach the herd l

       
slowly, to move through it, slaying them as they went, and;

       
close with us.

       
Once again our bosk horns sounded and this time my

       
Thousand began to cry out and jab the animals with their

       
lances, turning them toward the Paravaci. Thousands of

       
animals were already turned toward the approaching enemy

       
and beginning to walk toward them when the Paravaci sud-

       
denly realized what was happening. Now the bosk began to

       
move more swiftly, bellowing and snorting. And then, as the,

       
Paravaci bosk horns sounded frantically, our bosk began to

       
run, their mighty heads with the fearsome horns nodding up

       
and down, and the earth began to tremble and my men cried

       
out more and jabbed animals, riding with the flood and the

       
Paravaci with cries of horror that coursed the length of their

       
entire line tried to stop and turn their kaiila but the ranks

       
behind them pressed on and they were milling there before

       
us, confused, trying to make sense out of the wild signals of

       
their own bosk horns when the herd, horns down, now

       
running full speed, struck them.

       
It was the vengeance of the bosk and the frightened,

       
maddened animals thundered into the Paravaci lines goring

       
and trampling both kaiila and riders, and the Paravaci who

       
could manage turned their animals and rode for their lives.

       
In a moment, maintaining my saddle in spite of the leaping

       
and stumbling of my kaiila over the slain bosk, fallen kaiila

       
and screaming men, I gave orders to turn the bosk back and

       
reform them near the wagons. The escaping Paravaci could