Nomads of Gor (28 page)

       
Kamchak's booted feet.

       
For an instant I saw Kamchak's eyes gleam and thought

       
he might at the very table at which he stood accept the

       
challenge of the Champion of Turia, but instead, he shrugged

       
and grinned. "Why should I fight?" he asked.

       
It did not sound like Kamchak speaking.

       
"You are a coward!" cried Kamras.

       
I wondered if Kamras knew the meaning of the word

       
which he had dared to address to one who wore the Courage

       
Scar of the Wagon Peoples.

       
But to my amazement, Kamchak only smiled. "Why should

       
I fight?" he asked.

      
 
"What do you mean?" demanded Kamras.

       
"What is to be gained?" inquired Kamchak.

       
"Aphris of Turia!" cried the girl.

       
There were cries of horror, or protest, from the men

       
crowded about.

       
"Yes!" cried Aphris of Turia. "If you will meet Kamras,

       
Champion of Turia, I, Aphris of Turia, will stand at the

       
stake in Love War!"

       
Kamchak looked at her. "I will fight," he said.

       
There was a silence in the room.

       
I saw Saphrar, a bit in the background, close his eyes and

       
nod his head. "Wily Tuchuk," I heard him mutter. Yes, I said

       
to myself, wily Tuchuk. Kamchak had, by means of the very

       
pride of Aphris of Turia, of Kamras, and the offended

       
Turians, brought the girl by her own will to the stake of

       
Love War. It was something he would not buy with the

golden sphere from Saphrar the merchant; it was something

he was clearly capable of arranging, with Tuchuk cunning, by

himself. I supposed, naturally, however, that Saphrar, guard-

ian of Aphris of Turia, would not permit this to occur.

"No, my dear," Saphrar was saying to the girl, "you must

not expect satisfaction for this frightful injury which has been

wrought upon you must not even think of the games

you must forget this unpleasant evening you must try not to

think of the stories that will be told of you concerning this

evening what the Tuchuk did and how he was permitted to

escape with impunity."

"Never!" cried Aphris. "I will stand, I tell you! I will! I

will!"

"No," said Saphrar, "I cannot permit it, it is better that

the people laugh at Aphris of Turia and perhaps, in some

years, they may forget."

"I demand to be permitted to stand," cried the girl. Then

she cried, "I beg of you Saphrar, permit mel"

"But in a few days," said Saphrar, "you will attain your

majority and receive your fortunes then you may do as you

wish. "

"But it will be after the games!" cried the girl.

"Yes," said Saphrar, as though thinking, "that is true."

"I will defend her," said Kamras. "I will not lose."

"It is true you have never lost," wavered Saphrar.

"Permit it!" cried several of those present.

"Unless you permit this," wept Aphris, "my honor will be

forever stained."

"Unless you permit it," said Kamras sternly, "I may never

have an opportunity to cross steel with this barbaric sleen."'

It then occurred to me, suddenly, that, following Gorean

civic law, the properties and titles, assets and goods of a

given individual who is reduced to slavery are automatically

regarded as having been transferred to the nearest male

relative or nearest relative if no adult male relative is avail-

able or to the city or to, if pertinent, a guardian. Thus, if

Aphris of Turia, by some mischance, were to fall to

Kamchak, and surely slavery, her considerable riches would

be immediately assigned to Saphrar, merchant of Turia.

Moreover, to avoid legal complications and free the assets

for investment and manipulation, the transfer is asymmetri-

cal, in the sense that the individual, even should he somehow

later recover his freedom, retains no legal claim whatsoever

on the transferred assets.

     
"All right," said Saphrar, his eyes cast down, as though

     
making a decision against his better judgment, "I will permit

     
my ward, the Lady Aphris of Turia, to stand at the stake in

     
Love War."

     
There was a cry of delight from the crowd, confident now

     
that the Tuchuk sleen would be fittingly punished for his bold

     
use of the richest daughter of Turia.

     
"Thank you, my guardian," said Aphris of Turia, and with

     
one last vicious look at Kamchak threw back her head and

     
with a swirl of her white gown, bordered with gold, walked

     
regally from between the tables.

     
"To see her walk," remarked Kamchak, rather loudly,

     
"one would hardly suspect that she wears the collar of a

     
slave."

     
Aphris spun to face him, her right fist clenched, her left

     
hand muffling her veil about her face, her eyes flashing. The

     
circle of steel gleamed on the silk at her throat.

     
"I meant only, little Aphris," said Kamchak, "that you

     
wear your collar well."

     
The girl cried out in helpless rage and turned, stumbling

     
and clutching at the banister on the stairs. Then she ran

     
up the stairs, weeping, veil disarranged, both hands jerking at

     
the collar. With a cry she disappeared.

     
"Have no fear, Saphrar of Turia," Kamras was saying, "I

     
shall slay the Tuchuk sleen and I shall do so slowly."

 
It was early in the morning, several days after Saphrar's

 
banquet, that Kamchak and myself, among some hundreds of

 
others of the Four Wagon Peoples, came the Plains of a

 
Thousand Stakes, some pasangs distant from lofty Turia.

 
Judges and craftsmen from Ar, hundreds of pasangs away,

 
across the Cartius, were already at the stakes, inspecting

 
than and preparing the ground between them. These men, as

 
in every year, I learned, had been guaranteed safe passage

 
across the southern plains for this event. The journey, even

 
so, was not without its dangers, but they had been well

 
recompensed, from the treasure chests of both Turia and the

 
Wagon Peoples. Some of the judges, now wealthy, had offici-

 
ated several times at the games. The fee for even one of their

 
accompanying craftsmen was sufficient to support a man for

 
a year in luxurious Ar.

 
We moved slowly, walking the kaiila, in four long lines, the

 
Tuchuks, the Kassars, the Kataii, the Paravaci, some two

 
hundred or so warriors of each. Kamchak rode near the head

 
of the Tuchuk line. The standard bearer, holding aloft on a

 
lance a representation of the four bask horns, carved from

 
wood, rode near us. At the head of our line, on a huge kaiila,

 
rode Kutaituchik, his eyes closed, his head nodding, his body

 
swaying with the stately movement of the animal, a half-

 
chewed string of kanda dangling from his mouth.

 
Beside him, but as Ubars, rode three other men, whom I

 
took to be chief among the Kassars, the Kataii, the Paravaci

 
I could see, surprisingly near the forefront of their respective

      
lines, the other three men I had first seen on coming to the

      
Wagon Peoples, Conrad of the Kasars, Hakimba of the

      
Kataii and Tolnus of the Paravaci. These, like Kamchak,

      
rode rather near their respective standard bearers. The stan-

      
dard of the Kassars is that of a scarlet, three-weighted bole,

      
which hangs from a lance; the symbolic representation of a

      
bole, three circles joined at the center by lines, is used to

      
mark their bask and slaves; both Tenchika and Dina wore

      
that brand; Kamchak had not decided to rebrand them, as is

      
done with bask; he thought, rightly, it would lower their

      
value; also, I think he was pleased to have salves in his

      
wagon who wore the brand of Kissers, for such night lie

      
taken as evidence of the superiority of Tuchuks to Kassars,

      
that they had bested them and taken their slaves; similarly

     
 
Kamchak was pleased to have in his herd bask, and he had

      
several, whose first brand was that of the three-weighted

      
bole; the standard of the Kataii is a yellow bow, bound

      
across a black lance; their brand is also that of a bow, facing

      
to the left; the Paravaci standard is a large banner of jewels

      
beaded on golden wires, forming the head and horns of a

      
bosk its value is incalculable; the Paravaci brand is a symbol-

      
ic representation of a bask head, a semicircle resting on an

      
inverted isoceles triangle.

      
Elizabeth Cardwell, barefoot, in the larl's pelt, walked

      
beside Kamchak's stirrup. Neither Tenchika nor Dina would

      
be with us. Yesterday afternoon, for an incredible forty

      
pieces of gold, four quivas and the saddle of a kaiila, Kachak

      
had sold Tenchika back to Albrecht. It was one of the

      
highest prices ever paid among the wagons for a slave and 1

      
judged that Albrecht had sorely missed his little Tenchika;

      
the high price he was forced to pay for the girl was made

      
even more intolerable by Kamchak's amusement at his ex-

      
pense, roaring with laughter and slapping his knee because

      
only too obviously Albrecht had allowed himself to care for

      
the girl, and she only slave! Albrecht, while binding her wrists

      
and putting his thong on her neck, had angrily cuffed her two

      
or three times, calling her worthless and good for nothing;