Explorers Of Gor

46
The Balance Of The Talunas Have Now Been Captured; I Hear Of The Marchers

"There they are! We have them now!" cried the slender-legged, dark-haired girl.

I plunged through brush, dragging the bound, gagged blond girl, running and stumbling, bent over, by the hair at my side.

The talunas, more than forty of them, plunged after us, brandishing their weapons, in hot pursuit.

I turned when I heard their sudden cries of surprise, and then of rage, and then of fear.

I tied the blond girl by her hair to a slender palm and strode back to the nets.

Some of the talunas lay upon the ground, tangled in nets, the spear blades of the small men at their throats and bellies. More than twenty of them struggled, impeding one another's movement, in a long vine net about them.

The first girl I pulled from a net was the slender-legged, dark-haired girl. I cuffed her, and then threw her on her belly and bound her hand and foot. I then drew forth another girl and treated her similarly. Then, in a row, lying on the jungle floor, there were forty-two captives. I then released the blond girl from the palm tree and, tying her ankles, threw her with the rest. I did not bother to ungag her.

"Release us," said the dark-haired girl, squirming in her bonds.

"Be silent," said the leader of the little men, jabbing his spear blade below her left shoulder blade.

The girl gritted her teeth, frightened, and was quiet.

"Remove their clothing and ornaments," I told the little men.

This was done. The little men then tied a vine collar on the throat of each girl and, by the arms, dragged them, one by one, to a long-trunked, fallen tree. About this tree, encircling it, were a number of vine loopings. The little men then knelt each girl at one of the vine loopings. Pushing down their heads, they then, with pieces of vine rope, fastened both under the vine collars on the girls, tied down their heads, close to the trunk. The forty-three girls then knelt, naked, hands tied behind them, ankles crossed and bound, at the trunk of the fallen tree, their heads tied down over it. They could not slide themselves free sideways, moving the vine loopings, because of the roots of the tree at one end and its spreading branches at the other. They were well secured in place, their heads over the tree trunk. One of the little men then, with a heavy, rusted panga, probably obtained in a trade long ago, walked up and down near them. They shuddered. They knew that, if the little men wished, their heads might be swiftly cut from them.

"There are the mighty talunas," I said.

Many of the little men leaped up and down, brandishing their spears and singing.

"At the stockade of the talunas," I said, "there was a prison hut. Within it I heard the chains of a prisoner. The chains were heavy. It is probably a male. Women such as talunas sometimes keep a male slave or two. They are useful, for example, in performing draft labors. I would keep him chained until a determination can be made of his nature. He may be a brigand. I then suggest that the stockade be examined for any other slaves, or objects of interest or value. Then I would, if I were you, burn the stockade."

"We will do these things," grinned the leader of the small men.

"I now," I said, "must address myself to the attempt to rescue those of my party."

"We must move quickly," said the leader of the small men, "for there is going to be war on the river."

"War?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, "a great force of men is coming up the river, and the peoples of the river are joining, that they may be stopped." He looked up at me. "There will be great fighting," he said, "like never before on the river."

I nodded. I had thought that it would be only a matter of time until the peoples of the river would mass in an attempt to stop the advance of Bila Huruma. Apparently they were now on the brink of doing so.

"How many men may I have?" I asked.

"Two or three will be sufficient," said the leader of the small men, "but because we are so fond of you, I, and nine others, will accompany you."

"That is perhaps generous," I said, "but how do you propose that the camp of the Mamba people be stormed with so few men?"

"We shall recruit allies," said the small man. "'They are nearby even now."

"How many do you think you can recruit?" I asked.

"So high I cannot count," he said.

"Can you not give me some impression?" I asked. I knew that the mathematics of these men, who had no written tradition, who had no complex cultural accumulation of intricate tallyings and abstract inventions, would be severely limited.

"They will be like the leaves on the trees, like the bits of sand at the shore," he said.

"Many?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Do you jest with me?" I asked.

"No," he said. "This is the time of the marchers."

"I do not understand," I said.

"Come with me," he said.