Nomads of Gor (86 page)

  
the sky."

   
"And courage," added Harold, "and such things."

   
Kamchak and I laughed.

  
"I think it is because at least in part," I said, "that you

  
reverence the sky and courage and such things that the

  
egg was brought to you."

  
"Perhaps," said Kamchak, "but I shall be glad to be rid of

  
it, and besides it is nearly the best time for hunting tumits

  
with the bole"

     
"By the way, Ubar," asked Harold, winking at me, "what

     
was it you paid for Aphris of Turia?"

     
Kamchak threw him a look that might have been a quiva

     
in the heart.

       
"You have found Aphris!" I cried.

     
"Albrecht of the Kassars," remarked Harold, casually,

     
"picked her up while raiding the Paravaci camp."

       
"Wonderful!" I cried.

       
"She is only a slave, and unimportant," growled Kamchak.

     
"What did you pay for her return?" inquired Harold, with

     
great innocence.

     
"Almost nothing," muttered Kamchak, "for she is nearly

     
worthless."

     
"I am very pleased," I said, "that she is alive and well

     
and I gather that you were able to purchase her from A1-

     
brecht of the Kassars without difficulty.""

     
Harold put his hand over his mouth and turned away,

     
sniggering, and Kamchak's head seemed to sink angrily into

     
his shoulders.

       
"What did you pay?" I asked.

     
"It is hard to outwit a Tuchuk in a bargain," remarked

     
Harold, turning back, rather confidently.

     
"It will soon be time to hunt tumits," growled Kamchak,

     
looking off across the grass toward the wagons beyond the

     
walls.

     
Well did I recall how Kamchak had made Albrecht of the

     
Kassars pay dearly for the return of his little darling Ten-

     
chika, and how he had roared with laughter because the

     
Kassar had paid such a price, obviously having allowed

     
himself to care for a mere slave girl, and she a Turian at

     
that

     
"I would guess," said Harold, "that so shrewd a Tuchuk as

     
Kamchak, the very Ubar of our wagons, would have paid no

     
more than a handful of copper tarn disks for a wench of

     
such sorts."

     
"The tumits run best this time of year rather toward the

     
Cartius," observed Kamchak.

     
"I'm very happy," I said, "to hear that you have Aphris

     
back. She cared for you, you know."

       
Kamchak shrugged.

     
"I have heard," said Harold, "that she does nothing but

     
sing around the bask and in the wagon all day I myself

     
would probably beat a girl who- insisted on making all that

     
noise.

"I think," said Kamchak, "I will have a new bole made

for the hunting."

 
"He is, of course," observed Harold, "quite handsome."

 
Kamchak growled menacingly.

"At any rate," continued Harold, "I know that he would

have upheld the honor of the Tuchuks in such matters and

driven a hard bargain with the unwary Kassar."

"The important thing," I said, "is that Aphris is back and

safe." We rode on for a while more. Then I asked, "By the

way, as a matter of fact, what did you pay for her?"

 
Kamchak's face was black with rage. He looked at

 
Harold, who smiled innocently and questioningly, and then at
   
I

me, who was only honestly curious. Kamchak's hands were

like white clubs knotted on the reins of the kaiila. "Ten

thousand bars of gold`," he said.

I stopped the kaiila and regarded him, astounded. Harold

began to pound his saddle and howl with laughter.

Kamchak's eyes, had they been jets of fire, would have

frizzled the young, blond Tuchuk in his saddle.

 
"Well, well," I said, a certain regrettable malicious elation
  

 
perhaps unfortunately detectable in my voice.
  

 
Now Kamchak's eyes would have frizzled me as well.

Then a wry glint of amusement sparkled in the Tuchuk's

eyes and the furrowed face wrinkled into a sheepish grin.

'Yes," he said, "Tart Cabot, I did not know until then that I

was a fool."

"Nonetheless, Cabot," remarked Harold, "do you not

think, all things considered, he is on the whole albeit unwise

n certain matters an excellent Ubar?"

"On the whole," I agreed, "albeit perhaps unwise in certain

Matters an excellent Ubar."

Kamchak glared at Harold, and then at me, and then he

looked down, scratching his ear; then he looked at us again,

and all three of us suddenly burst together into laughter, and

tears even streamed down Kamchak's face, running here and

there among the scarred furrows on his cheeks.

"You might have pointed out," said Harold to Kamchak,

"that the gold was Turian gold."

"Yes," cried Kamchak, "that is true it was Turian gold!"

He cracked his fist on his thigh. "Turian gold"

 
"One might claim," said Harold, "that that makes quite a difference.

"Yes!" cried Kamchak.

       
"On the other hand," said Harold, "I for one would not

       
claim that."

       
Kamchak straightened in the saddle and thought about it.

       
Then he chuckled and said, "Nor would I."

 
      
Again we laughed and, suddenly, we urged the kailla

       
forward in great bounding strides, eager to reach the wagons,

       
each of us, for waiting in these wagons were three girls,

       
desirable, marvelous, ours, Hereena, she who had been of the

       
First Wagon, the slave of Harold, her master; Aphris of

       
Turia, almond-eyed and exquisite, once the richest and per-

       
haps the most beautiful woman of her city, now the simple

       
slave of the Ubar of Tuchuks, he Kamchak; and the slender,

       
lovely, dark-haired, dark-eyed Elizabeth Cardwell, once a

       
proud girl of Earth, now only the helpless and beautiful slave

       
of a warrior of Ko-ro-ba; a girl in whose nose had been fixed

       
the delicate, provocative golden ring of Tuchuk women, a

       
girl whose thigh bore unmistakably the brand of the four

       
bask horns, whose lovely throat was encircled by a collar of

       
steel, bearing my name; a girl whose rapturous and uncon-

       
trollable submission had, in its utterness, astounded both

       
herself and me, both he who commanded and she who

       
served, he who took and she who was given no choice but to

       
yield unreservedly. When she had left my arms she had lain

       
upon the rug and wept. "I have nothing more to give," she

       
cried. "Nothing morel"

         
"It is enough," I had told her.

       
And she had wept with joy, pressing her head with its

       
loose, wild hair to my side.

     
    
"Is my master pleased with me?" she had asked.

       
"Yes," I had told her. "Yes, Vella, Kajira mire. I am

       
pleased. I am pleased indeed."

       
I leaped from the back of the kaiila and ran toward the

       
wagon and the girl waiting there cried out with joy and tad

       
to me and I swept her into my arms and our lips met and she

       
wept, "You are safer You are safer"

       
"Yes," I said, "I am safe and you are safe and the

       
world is safer"

         
At the time I believed that what I kind said was true.

          
I gathered that the best season for hunting tumits, the
 

      
large, flightless carnivorous birds of the southern plains, was
   

 
at hand, for Kamchak, Harold and others seemed to be

 
looking forward to it with great eagerness. Kutaituchik

 
avenged, Kamchak was no longer interested in Turia, though

 
he wished the city to be restored, perhaps in order that the

 
Wagon Peoples might have a valuable trade outlet whereby

 
they could manage, if the caravan raids turned out poorly, to

 
barter hides and horn for the goods of civilization.

 
On the last day before the withdrawal of the Wagon

 
Peoples from nine-gated, high-walled Turia, Kamchak held

 
court in the palace of Phanius Turmus. The Turian Ubar

 
himself, with Kamras, former Champion of Turia, both clad

 
m the Kes, were chained at the door, to wash the feet of

 
those who would enter.

  
Turia had been a rich city, and though much gold had
 

 
been given to the tarnsmen of Ha-Keel and the defenders of

 
t he House of Saphrar, it was a tiny amount when compared

 
with the whole, not even counting that lost by being carried

      
by civilians through the gates Kamchak had designated as I

 
escapes from the burning city. Indeed, Saphrar's secret hordes

 
alone, kept in dozens of vast underground storehouses,

 
would have been enough to have made each and every

 
Tuchuk, and perhaps each Kataii and Kassar as well, a rich

 
man a very rich man in any of the cities of Gor. I

 
recalled that never before had Turia fallen, not since the

 
founding of the city, perhaps thousands of years ago.

        
Yet a large portion of this wealth perhaps a third

        
Kamchak designated should be left behind in the city, to aid

        
in its rebuilding.

        
Kamchak, as a Tuchuk, could not bring himself to be quite '