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The man then turned to the Fleer. He pointed to the Kur, and then, with a sweeping guesture, indicated a direction. He then crossed the index fingers of his right and left hand, like lodged poles. He then lifted his head and opened his mouth, as though baring fangs, and lifted a the same time his right hand, the fingers crooked like claws, in a threatening gesture.
The Fleer in charge of the captive nodded and, with a movement of his hand, indicated that his companions, the Kur in their charge, should follow him.
My eyes and those of the Kur met. He, too, I think, recalled our previous encounter.
He was then, shuffling in the dust with bloody feet, from which the claws had been extracted, bound helplessly, dragged on ropes and prodded with the butts of lances, conducted toward the lodge of Zarendargar.
Chapter 52
A BOON
"Take up your sword, I beg you," said Alfred. He had already seized up his sword from the low, flat rock in the midst of the encircling savages. Kaiila, Dust Legs, Fleer and Sleen. I looked at the sword, lying on the rock. I had little taste for what must be done.
"I do not think you are my match," I told him.
"If you do not," he said, "they will strip me, and put bells on me, and run me for boys on kaiila, as sport for their lances!"
Of the soldiers there had been only five survivors from the fray, Alfred, and four of his officers. Only the four officers had been permitted to draw lots. Of these three would be run for the boys, in the grasses, stripped and belled for lance sport. The other woiuld be returned west of the Ihanke, that an account might be rendered of what had occurred in the Barrens.
"Please!" begged Alfred.
"They respect you as a commander," I said, "else they would not permit you this option."
"Please," he said.
I did not wish to see Alfred, belled as though he might be a slave girl, ru
"You are of the Warriors, are you not?" asked Alfred.
"Yes," I said. My collar had been removed yesterday. I was now free.
"Please," he said.
I took up the sword from the flat rock.
It was soon finished.
I had then wiped the blade.
Chapter 53
THE RED-HAIRED SLAVE GIRL
The naked, large-bosomed, red-haired slave licked and kissed at me and then, when I wished, unable to help herself, cried out her yielding to me.
She was still muchly covered with mud and had been somewhat beaten.
I had acquired her as a portion of my share of the loot from the Yellow Knives.
It seemed that when she had come to my lodge she had thought that her life with me, I being white, might be easier than it would be with a red master.
She had then spent the night outside the lodge, naked, in the rain, her hands tied behind her back, her neck tied to a stake.
She lay beneath me in the mud. I had freed her hands, but her neck was still fastened to the stake.
"Master," she gasped. "Master!"
"Cespu, Mira!" I called. The girls came ru
I indicated the large-bosomed redhead at my feet.
"Free her of the stake," I said, "and then clean and comb her. Make her sparkle."
"Yes, Master," said Mira.
"Then take her to Grunt, as a present," I said. "He will know what to do with her."
"Yes, Master," said Cespu.
"Yes, Master," said Mira.
Chapter 54
I RETURN TO MY LODGE
" 'Where is this one called Cuwignaka? " translated the young, light-ski
The warrior who had spoken was Fleer. This could be told at a glance from the hair, which was worn in a high, combed-back pompadour. He carried a feather lance, with a long iron point, a trade point, socketed, fastened to the lance shaft with two rivets. His kaiila had a notched right ear. It bore various coup marks and exploited markings. Among these, on the flanks, on each flank, therewas a society marking, a flat black line, a semicircular, curved blue line above it, the line of the earth, the overarching blue dome of the sky above it. He was a member of the Blue-Sky Riders. Grunt and I had seen him once before, long ago, in the vicinity of the field of a massacre, where a wagon train had been destroyed. Only recently had we learned that he was a war chief of the Fleer.
"I am Cuwignaka," said Cuwignaka, stepping forward. He now wore a breechclout. Yet still, the shreds of the white dress clung about his upper body. Cuwignaka's words were translated by the light-ski
"I had thought," Gurnt had told me yesterday, "that I was dead, but I discovered that I was not dead. I had a son, among the Dust Legs."
Grunt had found the lad in visiting the Dust Legs after the massacure of the summer camp. It had been largely through Grunt's influence that Dust Legs had made the long journey to Council Rock, to aid the Kaiila. The lad's mother, long ago, had loved Grunt. It was said she still lived. The lad had something of Grunt's facility with languages and his father's shrewdness and good sense in trading. He had been one of the few Dust Legs who was permitted in Fleer encampments and had lived with them. He, originally conversing in sign had subsequently learned their language.
Dust Legs and Kaiila, as I have earlier indicated, are closely related languages. Kaiila is commonly, interestingly, regarded as a dialectical version of Dust Leg. Dust Leg and Fleer are also related, but much more distantly. Commonly Dust Legs and Fleer, when they meet in peace, communicate in the lingua franca of the plains, sign. The lad, it was said, had children of his own.
The lad and Grunt had decided to go into partnership, this being thought to be to the advantage of both. Grunt could speak Gorean and the lad was fluent not only in Dust Leg and Kaiila, but Fleer as well. I had little doubt they would become famous on the plains. This winder, instead of returning west of the Ihanke, Grunt had told me that he pla
The Fleer warrior regarded Cuwignaka. His kaiila moved under him, resteless with its energy.
" 'I have heard of you, " translated the light-ski
Cuwignaka, standing, his arms folded, regarded the Fleer warrior. He said nothing.
"It is because of you," said the Fleer warrior, "why we came to Council Rock."
Cuwignaka looked puzzled.
"Do you know," asked the Fleer warrior, "why we came to Council Rock, and, because of us, the Sleen came?"
"No," said Cuwignaka. The Fleer and Sleen are allies.
"Because," laughed the warrior, "we have no quarrel with Cuwignaka!"
He then turned his kaiila about, by its jaw rope, and rode away.
"There will be peace, I think," I said, "between the Kaiila, and the Fleer and Sleen."
"No," said Canka, standing nearby, "I do not think so. It is only, rather, that it was a noble warrior's gesture."
"I did not think they were capable of such," said a man.
"Of course they are," said Hci, with us. "They are fine enemies."
"Canka does not think there will be peace," I said.
"Let us hope not," said Hci.
"I do not understand," I said.
"Ah, Tatankasa, Mitakola," said Hci, "I fear you will never understand us, or folk such as the Fleer or Sleen."