Warriors Of Latan

Chapter 4

Cutting up an animal the size of one of the Red-Horns with only two knives was as long and bloody a job as Blade had expected. Cheeky kept a safe distance from the whole thing. He was a rigid vegetarian, barely able to tolerate even the sight and smell of so much meat.

By the time he'd finished, it was nearly dark, and the Great Hunters had long since gorged themselves and fallen asleep. So had some of the hunters, including the one who'd flinched aside from the charging Red-Horn. He was sleeping a little apart from the rest of the hunting party, Blade noticed. His spear was thrust into the ground near his head, and the tuft of feathers had been removed from the butt.

Blade made a separate bed after going through an improvised ritual over his clothes and equipment. Once you got started on a reputation as a wizard, you had to keep up the act until somebody allowed you to abandon it. Blade wondered if the Wise One would grant him that freedom before he ran out of things he could use for incantations and spells!

Apart from this, his stay in this Dimension seemed to be off to a good start. The hunters of the Rutari didn't seem ready to stab him while he slept, Cheeky was with him, and he had food, water, and the promise of an introduction to a local potentate. Best of all, nobody appeared to know the Dimension X secret from a sack of fertilizer or care about finding out! After the return to the Dimension of Kaldak, he'd have slept soundly enough with nothing going for him but that!

A messenger with word of the great kill of Red-Horns had left for the Rutari village before dawn. A whole caravan of the lizard-horses returned by early afternoon, some of them ridden by women. The women wore as little as their men, and some of the younger ones were more than good-looking, if a trifle on the lean side.

Everyone turned out to sling the meat in nets of lizardhide thongs on either side of their mounts, wake up the Great Hunters (who were still sleeping off their meal of the night before), and clean up the campfire. By the time the caravan was ready to leave, there were no traces of the Rutari camp left except bloodstains.

«Seldom do our enemies, the Uchendi, come this far into our lands,» Teindo explained. «But Those Who Have Gone Before watch everywhere. They do not honor carelessness or other weakness-«with a glare at the young man who'd flinched. «If they thought we needed a lesson, then they might allow the Uchendi here.»

As they marched, the Bigfeet were again kept way in the back, in the care of several lizard-riders who prodded them from time to time and kept them moving and in line. Blade was marching in the rear of the line of hunters, along with the young hunter, whose name turned out to be Awgal. «You have done nothing to prove yourself weak like Awgal, Blade,» said Teindo. «But until we are sure of your strengths, you must march with him.»

«I should say that I have done much to prove myself strong,» snapped Blade. Among primitive peoples, letting yourself get pushed around wasn't just embarrassing; it could be fatal. You always had to tread a fine line between being polite and being self-deprecating.

«So you have-I think,» said Teindo. The conversation appeared to embarrass him. «But only the Wise One can be sure that you are strong in the ways that make you fit to be truly one of us.»

«I do not like this,» said Blade coolly. «The Cheeky does not like it either. But it is not worth fighting over. Do you swear that no harm will come to me, from Awgal's presence, if the Wise One judges me strong?»

Teindo swore this so earnestly that it was hard for Blade to keep a straight face. At last Blade said, «Very well. But I warn you. If there is any curse on me from marching with Awgal, I will not just turn it away from myself and the Cheeky. I will send it on to you, and you can tell the Wise One why you need her help to take it off!»

Teindo gulped but nodded. «So be it, Blade.»

With the lizard-horses heavily loaded and most of the people on foot, it took until evening of the next day to reach the main village of the Rutari. Blade had hoped that Awgal would talk freely to him on the way; outcasts and criminals frequently were his best sources.

However, Awgal apparently feared that if he talked to Blade, either the Wise One's magic or Blade's would make his already bad situation worse. Or perhaps it was just that he didn't feel kindly toward the wizard who'd slain the Red-Horn he let escape. Blade got about six words out of Awgal during the whole march.

They reached the village at sunset, passing along a river valley sown with grain and vegetables. Apparently the Rutari weren't completely dependent on hunting: however, Blade noticed the soil was quite stony.

The Bigfeet were led away to the lair where they were kept when not on hunting expeditions. Then the meat was unloaded and hauled to a cave that exhaled clouds of mineral-smelling steam. The Rutari preserved their meats by salting and boiling it over natural hot springs deep in the cave. That made sense to Blade. Hauling loads of firewood on lizard-back over rough mountain trails was something anyone would gladly avoid. After unloading the meat, most of the hunting party scattered to the welcome awaiting them in the huts, which were set on the sides of the valley, clear of the cultivated land. Teindo and six other hunters led Blade and Awgal uphill to the most remote hut of all, to meet the Wise One.

If the Wise One was more than forty, she was very well preserved in spite of her gray-white hair. She wore an embroidered leather skirt, boots with leather tassels around the top, and a complicated headdress of something that reminded Blade of porcupine quills. She was bare to the waist, and Blade could see two long scars on her smooth brown skin, one across her stomach and the other down her left breast.

Perhaps it was the scars that gave her such a forbidding appearance. Or maybe the total lack of expression in her wide gray eyes. Either way, Blade was sure from the moment he entered the hut that the Wise One deserved her name. Keeping up his cover story with her was going to be a challenge, one he'd better be able to meet. She looked quite willing to have him thrown to the Great Hunters if she thought he was lying.

Blade was so intent on studying the Wise One that he didn't notice her pet until Cheeky went «Mreeep!» and pointed toward the gravel floor of the hut. Sitting beside the Wise One was a creature that seemed to have a monkey's body and a cat's head. The fur was brown and long enough to curl, the eyes nocturnal, and the delicate paws busy playing with a strip of leather. When it saw Cheeky, the animal made a faint hissing noise, then dropped the leather and scurried behind its mistress. She reached down to stroke it until it was silent, then looked back to Blade.

«What you are, no one has told me, not even Those Who Went Before. So we must learn for ourselves. As for you, Awgal, there is nothing strange about you or what you have done. However, I must still be as wise about you as I can be, before I give judgment. In the presence of the Spirits, I must find out if you were truly weak. Now take this.» She picked up a handful of what looked like dried red peas from a bowl in her lap and handed them to Awgal. He seemed reluctant to take them.

«Will you eat of the kerush as you're told, or do you ask that I pronounce judgment without knowing all I should?»

Awgal grunted. «What have I to lose?» Teindo and the other hunters glared at him for this defiance.

«If you think you have nothing to lose, then you are not only weak but foolish, Awgal. You know how the Great Hunters kill. «

Awgal grunted again. «I do. But I would rather lose my life to them than to you.»

That defiance was too much. At a signal from the Wise One, Teindo and the other hunters knocked Awgal down and rolled him over on his back. For a moment Blade thought Awgal really was going to lose his life to the Wise One; she had a knife in her hand.

She only used the knife to threaten him, holding it against his neck. Then she held his nose until he had to open his mouth, and popped a handful of the kerush beans into it. He choked, gasped, tried to spit them out, but finally swallowed them. A moment later his nostrils flared, then the pupils of his eyes began to contract.

By the time they'd constricted to pinpoints, his breathing was slow and shallow. The Wise One hitched up her skirt and knelt astride his torso, almost as if she were planning to ride him sexually. Instead she placed one hand on each temple, closed her eyes, and controlled her own breathing until it was exactly in time with the hunter's.

Blade's attention was on the Wise One when Cheeky interrupted his thoughts. The mental picture he sent left Blade sure what was happening. According to Cheeky, the kerush was making Awgal send his thoughts telepathically, and the Wise One was reading them.

Suddenly the Wise One's pet hopped up on her stool, hissing, squeaking, lashing her tail, and waving her arms furiously in the direction of Cheeky. The hunters who were free to move stared at the two animals, then started to move toward Blade. He dropped into karate stance and got ready for a fight.

The Wise One jumped to her feet, so abruptly that her knees rammed into Awgal's stomach. He doubled up, gasping and wheezing. Her sharp gesture to four of the hunters made them pick up the helpless man and carry him out. The Wise One turned to face Blade, glaring at him but holding her knife as if she wasn't entirely sure she was still in control of the situation.

«My pet and I heard you and the Cheeky doing wizard work or kerush-magor in my presence!»

Blade shrugged. «I don't know what you mean by this. Would the Wise One of the Rutari, an honorable people, accuse me of doing something I did not do?»

«I am the judge of the honor of the Rutari, Blade!»

«Then speak as a wise judge, and not as one who fears spirits roaming in the night. If I did wrong it was without knowing that it was wrong. If that means nothing among the Rutari, then I ask myself-are they an honorable people?»

Blade knew this blunt appeal to the Wise One's notions of honor might be taken as an insult, and if it was, he'd have a devil of a fight on his hands. Teindo and the other two hunters were armed, and the Wise One herself was no weakling. Blade doubted he could fight without someone getting killed, which would mean he'd have to leave the Rutari, not to mention the secret of the kerush and its effects on telepathy. It seemed that every time he was on the edge of discovering something vital, he ran into someone's hot temper or tribal taboo!

Apparently unable to think of anything better to do, the Wise One sat down on her stool again, then laid the knife in her lap and crossed her hands over the hilt. The silence lasted so long that Blade wondered if she'd withdrawn into a telepathic trance again. Finally she looked up.

«I judge that you did no harm, and indeed did not know that you were doing wizard work, or kerush-magor. Still, you must be cleansed by the Great Hunters before you come to kerush-magor in my presence. And Awgal, the Red Hunter, has shown weakness in the presence of the Spirits of the Hunt; the Spirits demand that he be cleansed before he is allowed in their presence. Those Who Went Before demand the same.»

«And I shall be cleansed as Awgal? If that is your judgment, I would rather die here. I think I can do a better job than he did of defending myself.» He'd measured the distance to all of his prospective opponents and knew he could have two of them down before they could move.

The silence dragged on, and the tension mounted. Just as Teindo seemed about to open his mouth to shout for help, the Wise One's pet began squawking and hissing indignantly. Then it hopped up on its mistress's shoulder and put both paws on her forehead. They stayed like that for a minute, reminding Blade very much of himself and Cheeky having a particularly intimate telepathic conversation.

In fact, that was probably what they were having. Blade only hoped that Cheeky could resist the temptation to eavesdrop again, even though the «pet» had to be the Wise One's «First Friend,» Moyla, and could let them in on some important information.

Finally the Wise One smiled thinly. «You will face your cleansing from the Great Hunters as you came from your mother. But you will face only one, and you will face him on your feet, with all your strength and wits as they are.»

So he was not going to be tied up or drugged until he was helpless, then devoured by the Great Hunters. That was something. Maybe quite a lot. And if he could secretly carry a weapon…

«May I have the Cheeky standing beside me, so that he may be cleansed, too?»

«Is he your First Friend?»

«No.»

«Teindo says you told him he wasn't. But-if he is not your First Friend, then what is he?»

«A friend of a sort not every man has. I can say no more. «

«I hope he is a very rare sort of friend indeed. Otherwise he shall be hardly more than a mouthful for a Great Hunter.» She waved her knife at Teindo. «Take them to the caves. «

Blade let the hunters lead him and Cheeky out. So far, so good, was his feeling. He'd proved that he was ready to fight for his honor and for just treatment. He'd even given himself a chance of learning more about the telepathy of the Rutari.

Now all he and Cheeky had to do was survive a barehanded duel against one of those hairy nine-foot monsters. Or almost bare-handed, at least…