The Mountains Of Brega

Chapter 7

It took several exhausting hours with Nugun for Blade to get a picture of the world in the Mountains of Brega. Not that Nugun was either stupid or unwilling to talk-on the contrary, he had ample native intelligence. And he saw it as his duty to the new Hairless One who had spared his life to answer all the Hairless One's strange questions.

But Nugun knew only three hundred or so words to express all the concepts that his mind could conceive. And it was a long time before Blade knew even roughly what those words were. Much time was therefore wasted asking the Senar questions he could not even understand, let alone answer.

Even when Blade had figured out Nugun's limitations, matters still went slowly. Blade had to put each question into words in his own mind. Then he had to translate them into words that Nugun could understand. Finally he could ask the question-and settle back to wait for Nugun's answer. Again, Nugun was not slow or unwilling. But the new Hairless One was asking him about things he had never had to think about before in all the thirty-odd years of his life. Why should he think about them? They were part of the world, like the air he breathed and the water he drank.

But Nugun did his best, and his best soon became good enough. Blade was a fairly good rule-of-thumb anthropologist from his experience with the strange lands and stranger peoples of Dimension X. It took from noon until nightfall, but when darkness came Blade had a rough notion of how the Senar and the Hairless Ones-the Blenar-lived in the Mountains of Brega.

The mountains themselves «went up to the sky,» starting about three days' fast march from the western edge of the forest. That edge was about four additional days west of where Blade and Nugun were. From what Wyala had said, Blade knew that the forest also extended about the same four days to the east. It was another week beyond that across rolling plains to the city of Brega itself. Neither Wyala nor Nugun had any notion whether there might be other lands beyond Brega in any direction.

Nugun apparently knew nothing about the previous society in Brega or was unable to put what he knew into words. But from Wyala Blade knew that there had once been a normal society of men and women living more or less in harmony in the land of Brega. At least, so the legends went.

But this society had destroyed itself in a great and terrible disaster, a war brought on by the violence of the men. From Wyala's recounting of the legends of the war, Blade recognized atomic, chemical, and bacteriological warfare. How long ago the war had been, Blade had no idea. Certainly long enough for the land to recover and for the whole history of the war to become a hazy mass of legend.

The disaster had smashed the old society, but some of its people had survived. Most of the survivors were women, who decided that the violence of the men had been responsible for the war. Therefore they would build a society of women, with only enough men for breeding purposes. Enough of the knowledge of the old society survived to make this possible.

Unfortunately, there were inevitably surplus males. What to do with them? Regardless of their hatred and fear of male violence, the women could not uproot violence from themselves. So they decided to make the surplus males into game animals. They were released into the forests at the age of twelve or so. Then when they had reached the age of about twenty, hunting parties from the city slipped into the forests to track them down.

All of this Wyala had told Blade. The rest of the story he got from his talks with Nugun.

The women of the city did not catch all the men they released into the forest. Some at once fled farther west, toward the mountains, out of the reach of the hunting parties. Others learned so much skill in the woods that they could avoid the hunting parties. Sometimes they even turned the tables, making the huntresses the hunted. When they did that, they sometimes killed the women they caught outright. But at other times they enslaved them, perhaps later trading them to the mountain dwellers. In time, children began to be born of these strangely assorted matings.

Most of these children were Senar-the Hairy Ones. A few were of the Blenar-the Hairless Ones. No couple could tell in advance what their child might be. Whatever poison did this seemed to lurk in the air or the soil or the water, and there was no getting away from it. (Blade suspected it was a case of lingering radioactivity or bacterial contamination from the disaster.)

The time came when the women stopped releasing their surplus males into the forest to improve the game supply. There were enough of the Senar already.

«What about the Blenar?»

«Oh-Blenar not come into forest. Live in mountains. Not strong, I tell you. Women of city not know what are Blenar.»

«I see.»

So the women of Brega did not know that a race of intelligent males was growing up in those distant and inaccessible mountains. The years passed, and the number of men living in the mountains increased steadily. It was a harsh life, and many of the babies that were born did not live long. But there were many girls among those who did. In time it was no longer necessary to mate with women of the city captured in the forest. There were still not enough women to go around, however, and the Blenar usually wound up with more than their fair share. This would have meant war between the Senar and the Blenar, except that the Blenar's weapons were too good. Also, they taught the Senar many useful skills and made for them many things they could not have made for themselves. So there was an uneasy peace among the two kinds of men in the mountains.

More years passed, and the numbers of the men in the mountains increased still further. Blade could get only a very rough notion of how many there were now. Nugun could not count beyond a hundred. But Blade gathered that there were many more than a hundred clans and tribes among the Senar. And the area they occupied was nine days' march from north to south and three days' march from east to west. So there were a hundred thousand Senar, at least.

But in the last few years, some of the Blenar had been making friends with the Senar, or at least pretending to make friends. Nugun trusted no Hairless One's intentions toward his people, never had, and never would. Blade was no exception, for he was not really one of the Hairless Ones of the Mountains of Brega.

Many thousands of the Senar were listening to the Blenar, however. The Blenar were saying that the Senar could become the rulers of Brega. All they would have to do was learn the war skills that the Blenar could teach them and how to use the weapons the Blenar would give them. Then thousands of the Senar could march out of the mountains and through the forest and into the lands beyond the forest. They could take that land, where they could grow good crops and feed many children. Perhaps they could even take the city of Brega itself, with all its women. Then there would be a woman or even several women for every man old enough to know what to do with one, whether he was Blenar or Senar.

Blade could see how this might be a tempting vision and how it had attracted many thousands of the Senar. But it had not appealed to Nugun.

«Nugun think Hairless Ones want to kill Senar so they have all land in mountains, all women. Blenar not strong to kill Senar themselves. So want women in city to do it. Blenar think good. But Nugun also think good, yes?»

«You do think good,» said Blade. «Very good. I think that is exactly what the Blenar want to do with the Senar.»

«Blade not want to do this with Senar? Not listen to other Hairless Ones?»

«The other Hairless Ones are bad people. I do not listen to bad people or help them do what they want to do.»

«Blade think good, even more than other Hairless Ones,» said Nugun with a broad grin.

Blade appreciated the compliment. But it did not take much «good thinking» to realize what a ridiculous project the Blenar had conceived. No number of Senar could hope to make headway against the bows and swords and throwing ropes of the fighting women of Brega. Perhaps in the forest they might have a chance. But the Blenar were apparently talking of a war down on the plains around the city. There the women would be on their home territory, fighting for their own way of life. And how many of the Senar could make the journey from the mountains, through the forest, and down to the plain? Ten thousand? That would be a generous estimate.

Blade sighed. Once more he seemed to have landed in a dimension where none of the people had anything worth taking back, or even worth fighting for. Blade could not help feeling that the wisest thing for him to do would be to give both Wyala and Nugun the slip. Then he could spend the rest of his time in this Godforsaken dimension prowling the forest, living on what he could catch and pick. Summer seemed to be coming on, and Blade knew more than enough about survival in the field.

But Wyala and Nugun had put themselves under his protection, and he could not abandon them. He would go with them to the Mountains of Brega. At least the mountain people would be less likely to shoot him on sight than the women of the city.

But Nugun was looking at Blade with a worried expression on his face. He appeared to be feeling for words to ask a question of his own.

«Blade, not tell woman about Hairless Ones?»

«Why not?»

«Women not know about Hairless Ones. If they know, they maybe come into mountains. Kill all men, take women back to city. Hairless Ones make women in city afraid.»

That made good sense to Blade. As long as the women of Brega thought they had only the violent but comparatively stupid Senar to deal with, they would continue to play their vicious little games with them in the forest. But if they realized that the men had now developed brains as well as brawn, a war of extermination might begin.

«I understand, Nugun. You are right. I will not tell Wyala.» He doubted that he would ever even have the chance to break that promise. Wyala had been gone for nearly ten hours now. It seemed more than a little unlikely that she would ever be coming back.

But Blade still took the night guard duty. If Wyala did slip back in the hours of darkness, Blade wanted to be the one awake and on watch to greet her. Nugun had sworn to keep his hands off Blade's woman. But if Wyala returned to the camp while Blade was sound asleep, armed only with her knife-Blade didn't want to tempt Nugun that much right now.

Just as the eastern sky began to turn pale, he heard a soft voice calling from the trees on the far side of the stream.

«Blade? Are you there?»

«Is that you, Wyala?»

There was a small, indignant snort. «Of course it's me.»

Blade nocked an arrow to the bow and trained it in the general direction of the voice. «Are you alone?»

«Yes.»

«Then step out onto the bank of the stream.» Blade almost trusted Wyala. But she might have fallen in with a hunting party from the city and changed her mind. Or the hunting party might be using her to bait a trap.

There was a rustling in the underbrush beyond the stream, and a familiar slim figure stepped out onto the bank. Blade examined her all over as carefully as the dim light permitted, without letting the arrow drop away from his bow. She looked more tired and dirty than before, but that was all.

Finally he nodded and called, «All right, you can come on over.» She obeyed with a speed that suggested she was far from happy about standing there with her back to the dark forest. As she stepped up on the near bank of the stream, she saw Nugun's sleeping form sprawled on the ground beyond the campfire. She gave a little gasp.

«Is he dead?»

«No, only sleeping.»

«Did you-beat him?»

«Yes. I defeated him in a fair fight, with my bare hands. The warriors of my people are taught to fight that way, as well as with weapons.»

«But-is it-is he-?»

«He knows that you are my woman.» Blade smiled reassuringly.

Wyala snorted indignantly. «No woman of the city can belong to a man. It is against the Laws of-«

«Perhaps,» said Blade sharply. «But keep your voice down, you little fool! The Laws of Mother Kina have nothing to do with the way we are living now, here in the forest. Nugun cannot understand them, and I could not make him do so. As long as he thinks you are my woman, he will not touch you or harm you.

He has sworn to be my friend, to die for me if necessary, and to protect what is mine, even including my woman.»

«But I tell you, I am not-«

«For your own safety, you had best keep your mouth shut about that. If Nugun comes to believe you are not really my woman-well, he will think he can do to you whatever he wants. Do you want to risk that, Wyala?»

Wyala gasped, then was silent. The silence continued.

«Well?» said Blade coolly.

Wyala swallowed. «I will be your woman, Blade.»

«Good,» said Blade. He went over to the sleeping Nugun and shook him by one thick-muscled shoulder. «Wake up, my friend. It is almost dawn, and my woman has returned. It is time to start on our march to the mountains.»

They spent the first part of the day's march retracing the path Blade and Wyala had followed the morning before. They stopped about noon to refill their water bottles at a spring. Nugun dug under a bush with his bare hands, turning up half a dozen or so pale yellowish tubers about the size of small potatoes. He presented them to Blade with the air of one giving a valuable gift.

«Good to eat,» he said. «Senar eat, in forests.» Blade thanked the man and stowed the tubers away in his own sack. Then they moved on.

The afternoon's march took them into territory strange not only to Blade, but even to Wyala. Apparently the hunting parties from the city never went much farther west than their night's campsite, at least not any more. Once they had done so, but now the Senar in the western parts of the forests were too numerous. Some of the hunting parties that had gone far toward the mountains had never come back. Blade wondered if ambushes laid by the Blenar had something to do with this.

He also knew he would just as soon not find out from personal experience. With a little luck and a lot of care he could easily protect Wyala from Nugun. But he doubted if he could do so against a dozen or a score of armed Senar, perhaps led by a Blenar. The farther west they got, the more careful they would have to be about hiding their tracks and camps and keeping a watch at night. He explained this to Nugun very carefully.

The Senar nodded. «I help you hide. Nugun know forest. Other Senar not get Blade's woman.»

«Good,» said Blade. Wyala merely sighed with relief. But she still did not take her hand far from the hilt of her knife.

Nugun did indeed know the forest and kept his promise better than Blade had dared hope. The Senar was brilliant at finding hard ground that would leave no tracks, leading them through streams to break their trails, and so forth. He even found a campsite for the night near another growth of the yellowish tubers. He dug up nearly two dozen more of them and showed Blade and Wyala how to split them and roast them on sticks over the fire. They were tasteless but filling.

After all three had eaten their fill, Nugun pointed to the ground. «Blade and woman sleep. Nugun watch tonight.»

Blade was more than willing to lie down and drop off into a deep sleep. He had been marching or fighting or keeping watch for the better part of two days. But Wyala's eyes widened in fear. She stepped up close to Blade and whispered in his ear, «Can we trust him? Suppose he betrays us to all the other Senar? They would kill you and-«

Blade sighed wearily. «I do not think he will do that. I think he will be faithful to me.»

«He is a man, Blade.»

«I know that,» said Blade shortly. He was becoming rather weary of Wyala's nervousness, although he could understand her reasons for it. «But a man can keep faith just as well as a woman. It's time you started learning that. And even if he isn't trustworthy, it's better to find out now than when we're in the mountains. There aren't nearly so many Senar around here.»

Wyala was still doubtful. Blade suspected that she would not sleep very well tonight. But he was not going to worry. Even if it turned out that Nugun could not really be trusted, there was nothing to do about it except kill him. He could not be watched every minute of the trip. Blade was damned if he was going to kill the Senar merely on Wyala's suspicions! He would trust Nugun unless and until the Senar betrayed that trust.

Nugun did not betray Blade's trust, not that night nor any day or night of the trip after that. He led them steadily westward, through country that was slowly but unmistakably rising. The forest was still as thick as ever, but the hardwoods now began to give way almost completely to evergreens. The undergrowth also began to get thinner, and patches of the yellow tubers were fewer and farther between. But Nugun was as reliable as ever in nosing out what was left. And there was plenty of small game for Blade's bow. They had to eat both tubers and meat raw, however. Nugun warned them that they were getting into country where it was not wise to build a fire if they did not want to be found. Blade and Nugun did not particularly enjoy the diet of raw food, but neither did they balk at it. Wyala, however, would not eat for a day, until hunger and weakness drove her to it.

Blade said nothing to Wyala about this, nor about her continued suspicion of Nugun. She was no fool, and he knew that she would make the right decision in her own time. But she was having more new experiences in a single week than she had had before in her whole life. It would take her a while to get used to things.

Nugun was certainly right about the Senar becoming thicker on the ground. Three times during the day they had to hastily hide themselves to avoid roaming parties of them. None of them included any Blenar, however.

One night Nugun was mounting guard when a party of Senar approached. He promptly awoke Blade and Wyala and kept watch while they ducked under some bushes. Then he scattered any signs of their camp before he joined them. After that night, Blade had no more doubts at all about Nugun's loyalty. Even Wyala stopped worrying about it.

Toward noon of the next day, the woods began to thin out noticeably. By midafternoon, the ground was rising more steeply than before. And just before they made camp for the night, Blade caught a clear glimpse of the western horizon. High above it, silhouetted against the blazing colors of the sunset, loomed the jagged masses of a mountain range. He looked at Nugun and pointed.

The Senar nodded. «Those are the mountains,» he said.