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.Besides he had had adifficult night of it in the desert. Have you found the assassin yet? Iasked. No, he growled. Sometimes I fear I am not safe, I said. Do not fear, Citizen, said he. Very well, I said.The search parties would recuperate during the afternoon and night, I hadlearned.There was little chance of picking up a subtle trail by moonlight.It wasimpractical to begin again, the men and animals exhausted, until morning.Thatwould give me a start, I speculated, of some fifteen Gorean hours.file:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor.html (125 of 353) [1/21/03 7:51:59 PM]10 Tribesmen of GorIt would be more than sufficient.In the neighborhood of noon, moving slowly, in the yellow and purple stripedburnoose, with sash, water bags at the flanks of my kaiila, sacks ofpressed-date bricks tied across the withers, kaiila bells ringing, callingattention to myself and my wares, I left the oasis.Once, the lofty palmssmall behind me, I had to turn aside, to avoid being buffered by the return ofthe last of the search parties.On a hill, more than two hundred pasangs north and east of Nine Wells, twodays after I had left the oasis, I reined in, the kaiila turning on thegraveled crest.Below, in the valley, between the barren, rocky hills, I observed the smallcaravan being taken.Two kurdahs were seized in the hand of a rider, by their frames, and jerked tothe side on the kaiila, spilling their occupants, free girls, in a flurry ofskirts, to the gravel.Drovers and merchants were being herded, at lance point, to a side.A guard,holding his right shoulder, hurried by a lance tip, was thrust with them.The packs of kaiila were being slashed, to determine the value of themerchandise carried, and whether it would be of value to raiders.Some of these kaiila were pulled together, their reins in the hands of arider.One of the burdens tied among others on the back of one of the pack kaiila wastransferred to another beast, one whose rein was held by the rider.The hands of the free girls were bound before their bodies.Their hands were bound at the end of long straps.The lengthy, free end ofthese tethers, then, was, by their captor, looped and secured about hispommel.One man tried to break and run.A rider, wheeling after him, struck him in theback of the neck with the butt of his lance.He fell sprawling in the dust androcks.I saw a water bag being slashed, the water dark on the side of a kaiila itshifting and fearing, the water falling, soaking into the dust.I saw other water bags thrown to the ground, before the cornered man.Packs were cut from kaiila, their contents spilling on the ground.These weregoods not desired.The kaiila, then, freed of reins and harness, with the flatof scimitars, and cries, were driven into the desert.The two girls now stood naked in the dust, stripped by the blade of theircaptor.One of the girls had her hands, wrists bound, in her hair, pulling at it,crying out with misery.The other girl seemed angry.She looked at her boundwrists, herfile:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor.html (126 of 353) [1/21/03 7:51:59 PM]Page 89ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html10 Tribesmen of Gor tether, as though she could not believe herself secured tothe pommel.Her head was high.She had long, dark hair.Their captor, who seemed to be chief of the raiders, mounted.He stood in hisstirrups.He shouted directions to his men.The raiders, then, as one man,turned their kaiila, and, unhurried, rode slowly from the trail.Two of themen held the reins of two pack kaiila; another man, by the rein, pulledanother beast, shambling after him.The leader, his scimitar across hissaddle, rode first, his burnoose gentle, swelling in the hot wind, behind him.Tied to his pommel, stumbling, followed his two fair captives.Behind, the men shouted.Some dared to raise their fists.Others went to thewater bags.On foot, on the trail, they would have only enough water to reach the tinyoasis ofLame Kaiila, where there would be for them doubtless sympathy, but little aidin the form of armed men.Indeed, it lay in a direction away from Nine Wells,which was the largest, nearest oasis where soldiers might be found.By thetime word of the raid reached Nine Wells the raiders might be thousands ofpasangs away.I turned my kaiila and dropped below the crest of the hill.I had scouted thecamp of the raiders last night.I would meet them there.I had business with their leader. You work well, I told the slave girl.The camp was abandoned, save for her.She cried out.The heavy, round-ended pestle some five feet in height, morethan five inches wide at the base, dropped.It weighed some thirty pounds.When it dropped, the heavy wooden howl, more than a foot deep and eighteeninches in diameter tipped.Sa-Tarna grain spilled to the ground.I held her bythe arms, from behind.Like the camps of many nomads the camp was on high ground, which commanded theterrain, but was itself concealed among scrub brush and boulders.There was acorral of thorn brush, uprooted and woven together, which served for kaiila.Within it, now, were four pack kaiila.There were five tents, each of tawny,inconspicuous kaiila-hair cloth, each pegged down on three sides, each withthe front, facing east, for the warmth of the morning sun, left open.Thesetents, typical nomad tents, were small, some ten feet in depth, some ten tofifteen feet wide; they were supported on wooden frames; the ground, withinthem, leveledfile:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]