by Джеффри Лорд
His hands closed on a stone of about the right size. It was heavier than he expected, but the Kaldakan plastic of his harness was strong enough to hurtle it. Blade started tugging one of the straps into shape. Between the heat of his body and the warmth of the morning it was almost too hard to shape. He was sweating by the time he had a useable sling.
Meanwhile the Great Hunter hadn't noticed Blade or attacked the Uchendi. It lurched toward the lizard-horses. When they caught its scent and heard its cry, they went mad. Rearing and hissing, they broke their tethers and headed for the trees at a gallop. The Great Hunter lumbered after them for a few yards until the beast's slow wits discovered that it could never catch such swift prey. It turned back toward the three Uchendi.
By then Blade was ready with his improvised sling and four stones for it. He dropped the first one into place, stepped from behind the tree, then whirled the sling until it was a blur and let fly.
The stone whistled straight into the Great Hunter's chest, hard enough to make it grunt and stagger. A second one made it stop and look wildly around, trying to find this mysterious enemy. Blade picked up the third stone and took a more careful sight on the Great Hunter. He could bounce stones this size off the beast all day without doing damage, unless he hit it in the head.
As Blade whirled the sling for the third time, the injured hunter staggered to his feet. He was using his spear as a sort of crutch, and in his free hand held a short spiked club.
«Run, Eye of Crystal!»
«I will not leave you, River Over Stones!»
«Do you wish my company in the Sky Hunt?»
«If that is our fate-«
They nearly met their fate in the next moment. The Great Hunter charged, and River Over Stones raised his club. The movement drew the Great Hunter's eye. It turned, giving Blade a perfect shot. He released the sling, the stone flew free, and suddenly the Great Hunter was clawing at its throat, gasping, and trying to scream.
Then it was trying to breathe. A moment later it was down on the ground, writhing and coughing blood as shattered bones pierced flesh. The girl snatched the club from her companion's hand, dashed up to the Great Hunter, and brought the club down with both hands on its head. Its body arched in one final convulsion, then slumped limp in death.
Blade quickly reshaped the sling into a harness, then held his hands palms up and away from his body and stepped out into clear sight of the three Uchendi. They shifted their wide-eyed gaze from him to the dead Great Hunter, then back to him. River Over Stones raised his free hand in a vague salute, as if he didn't quite know what Blade was or how to greet him but knew he had to be polite to anybody who'd just saved his life.
Blade grinned. He knew he must look only a little less dangerous than the Great Hunter itself-gaunt, filthy, shaggy haired, and apparently able to slay Great Hunters by magic. He raised a hand in reply to River's gesture.
«Greetings. I am of the English. The name you may call me is Blade. Are you of the Uchendi?»
Eye of Crystal nodded. «You-the English? Where are they? Beyond the Rutari?» She sounded curious rather than suspicious.
«Yes,» said Blade. «I entered Latan through lands of the Rutari. They asked me to do things unlawful for a warrior of the English, so I did not stay with them.»
«The Rutari ask things unlawful for a mad dog!» snapped River.
That was a promising beginning to his stay among the Uchendi, Blade thought. He was just about to agree, when the boy cried out.
Four men were coming out of the nearest stretch of forest. They were carrying something like a wild boar covered with green scales on a litter improvised from four lances and a leather cloak. When they saw Blade, they dropped their kill and ran toward the campfire, swinging their lances. Before Blade or the Uchendi could take a step or say a word, the four hunters were upon them. Suddenly Blade found four sharp bronze points aimed at his stomach.
Chapter 13
Blade got into karate stance as fast as he could without making any sudden moves. From their headbands Blade could see that the four newcomers were clearly the rest of the Uchendi hunting party returning with their kill; they should be friendly after they heard what Blade had done.
Crystal spoke sharply. «Put down your weapons. This is the warrior Blade of the English. He slew a shpuga with a magical English weapon and saved us.»
The lance points wavered, but the four men didn't move. Their eyes shifted to River Over Stones. «Is this true?» one said.
River looked from Blade to Crystal, then nodded slowly. «We might not be alive without the magic of the English.» Then his expression changed subtly, into something Blade didn't quite understand but knew he didn't like. The man no longer looked quite so friendly. «But I do not know if there is a price to be paid for being saved by English magic. Is your magic unclean, Blade?»
Blade knew he had to weigh his words as carefully as he'd done before the Wise One. This man might not be telepathic, but he was playing some game. «That is not a word used among the English, River Over Stones. So I can swear no oath about my magic that would mean anything. Not until I know more of the magic of the Uchendi.»
«The Rutari taught you nothing about it?» said Crystal.
Blade laughed harshly. «They told me much. They are also your mortal enemies, so why should I believe anything they told me?»
Everyone except River Over Stones laughed at this. The hunter frowned. «Then-we may have been saved by unclean magic. I would rather have died quickly, by the shpuga.»
«I would rather not have died at all,» said Crystal. «And we did not.»
«Spoken like a woman,» said River Over Stones. Crystal glared at him, and the lance points rose again. Blade knew that if River so much as blinked an eye, he was going to be the first one down. Blade didn't plan to kill anybody, but he had the feeling the conversation would go a lot better with fewer lances pointed at his stomach.
Before the tension could spark a fight, a fifth hunter came out of the trees, took one look at the camp, then broke into a run. As he reached them, the four hunters lowered their lance points. They looked relieved. River Over Stones looked sullenly at the ground.
«Wait until you are healed before you give orders, if you cannot wait until I am dead,» said the new arrival coldly.
«Only Crystal was here beside me,» said River. «Should I let a woman command, Father?»
«Yes, if she has more sense than you,» said the new hunter. Blade now saw deep lines in his face, gray in his hair, and a long scar down one arm. «Eye of Crystal, this man is angry, is he not?» he said, looking at Blade.
«Yes, and with good reason.» Crystal told the story of Blade's arrival and the battle against the Great Hunter-or shpuga. The other hunters told of what happened after they arrived. By the time everyone was finished, River Over Stones looked as if he would like to sink into the ground or strangle Blade, and didn't know which.
The older hunter, whose name was Winter Owl, listened in silence, then paced up and down for a moment before replying. «The Spirit Voice speaks to Eye of Crystal strongly, so that she knows this man is angry. It does not speak to her as strongly as it does to her father: He Who Guards the Voice. Only he can hear what lies within this warrior, Blade of the English, and know if his magic is clean. Shall we bring Blade before He Who Guards the Voice, or shall we slay him as River over Stones thinks best?»
Crystal closed her eyes suddenly. «Mother's brother Winter Owl, you have made Blade even more angry than he was.»
Blade looked sharply at the girl. Was she reading his mind without the aid of the kerush, or just bluffing to help him? Certainly she was telling the truth. He decided to use that fact.
«Yes, I am angry,» said Blade. He crossed his arms on his chest. «Do the Uchendi have neither honor nor sense? If so, I will neither appear before He Who Guards the Voice nor stand here and be slain. I will find my friends among the shpugas, who seem to be more like men than the Uchendi! Winter Owl, you appear wiser than others here
. What do you wish? And let your tongue move swiftly, before my feet do so.»
This at least got Blade an explanation of what was involved here. The Uchendi couldn't be sure whether the unknown magic Blade used against the shpuga was unclean and wouldn't also curse the people he'd saved. A wizard's curse, however, died when the wizard himself did. So it might be wise to kill him, just on the chance that he'd done something bad to River Over Stones, Eye of Crystal, and the boy by saving their lives.
On the other hand, his magic might be perfectly clean. But Crystal couldn't be sure, and she was the most powerful telepath among the band of hunters. They could take Blade to her father, He Who Guards the Voice, who was the chief shaman of the Uchendi, and have him examine Blade. But that would mean keeping company with a possibly dangerous wizard for several days, and who could say what curses he might lay on those around him in that time?
After Winter Owl's explanation came a long argument among the six hunters. If sadistic cruelty was the Rutari tribal vice, debate seemed to be the Uchendi one.
While all the party were equal, obviously Eye of Crystal and her uncle, Winter Owl, were a little more equal than the rest and they saved Blade from being put to death for possible unclean magic. Also, two of the hunters pointed out that, wizard or not, Blade looked like a good man to help them catch their strayed mounts. The longer they argued about him, the more likely their mounts would wander too far to be caught. Did River Over Stones want to walk all the way home with his injured leg, or did he hope the wizard could fly him through the air?
Blade never got a clear idea of what River Over Stones wanted, except possibly that Richard Blade should disappear in a puff of smoke. He did see the man sullenly agree to spare Blade, if Blade would perform no more magic until He Who Guards the Voice had examined him.
«This I swear,» said Blade, «by the earth and the blood, the sky and the fire, by my manhood and my hope of sons-unless another shpuga comes against me, and there is no other way to protect us from it.»
That satisfied everyone, and Blade was paired up with Winter Owl when the party scattered to track their straying mounts.
It took the rest of the day to track down the ezinti, as the Uchendi called the lizard-horses. It took two more days to ride downriver to the settled land of the Uchendi, and two more to reach He Who Guards the Voice.
By then Blade was pretty sure he'd made the right decision in coming to the Uchendi-if they would let him stay among them. They talked too much and they were just as superstitious in their own way as the Rutari, but otherwise it was easy to get along with them.
They stopped at the first village they came to. The ezinti badly needed fat meat by this time; they'd been living off grass and the leavings of the hunters so long that the short rations were beginning to take their toll.
Winter Owl bought half a dozen of the villager's pigs, partly with some of the hides of his party's kills and partly with strings of green-dyed nutshells. There were several kinds of nutshells used as money among the Uchendi, as well as disks of polished stone strung on thongs and bronze chisels. In return for beer for the whole party, Winter Owl had Eye of Crystal visit an old woman of the village, who was sick and in continuous pain.
Blade would gladly have watched Crystal at her healing work. However, River Over Stones got to the village chief before Winter Owl did, and warned him about Blade. Fearful of English magic, the chief kept Blade in a hut on the far side of the village.
Blade met Crystal when she'd finished with the old woman. She was wandering outside his hut, her hair hung in tangled strings, and her eyes not focusing on anything until she practically stumbled into Blade's arms. She didn't speak clearly until she'd gulped down a skinful of beer.
«She will die,» Crystal said. «I cannot save her. I cannot even find the courage to tell her husband the truth. Is it my Voice that is weak, or me?» She gulped more beer. «Can the magic of the English save a woman, when a part of her body goes mad and starts eating the other parts?»
Cancer, Blade thought. Aloud, he said, «We have many magics, some stronger than others. Sometimes we can fight a person's body going mad, or if necessary, cut off the mad part. Sometimes, for all our magic, we can do nothing but try to find the courage to tell the person he is going to die.»
«But you are not helpless against the madness? You can at least, like us, teach the person how to think so that he will not feel the pain?»
«That wisdom we do not have. At least not many of us.» Blade remembered tales of yoga adepts and firewalkers, who seemed to be able to fight pain entirely by mental control. Could the Uchendi telepaths not only do this but teach it? If Blade had been a hunting animal, his ears would have been pricking up.
Eye of Crystal, however, was past doing or teaching anything. The beer was hitting her, and she slumped into Blade's arms, head against his chest and hair trailing over his shoulder. He held her quietly, very conscious of the magnificent breasts against his bare skin. He was even more conscious that the last thing on her mind would be sex. What she needed now was some rest and peace of mind.
He held her until she stopped mumbling, then brought her in his hut and laid her down on the furs and stripped off her clothes. His heavy-boned hands with the long fingers, which could break a man's neck at one blow, now became precision instruments, working up and down Crystal's bare body, unknotting tension-twisted muscles, working a little magic of Blade's own.
Crystal was sound asleep by the time Blade finished. Blade became aware that someone was standing silhouetted against the twilight at the door of the hut. It was River Over Stones, and nobody could have mistaken his expression.
«You have touched her with your magic-?»
«I touched her with English healing magic, because she needed healing too. Nothing more, nothing less. If you say to anyone else that I have done more, I will call you a liar.»
«I cannot challenge a wizard. That is a vile trick, Blade!»
«I will need no magic to tear you into small pieces and use you for shpuga bait. Your mouth is the only strong part of your body, and I think Eye of Crystal knows it. Do not make me show all the Uchendi what you are. «
Blade had risen to his feet while speaking, and in the dim light of the hut he must have looked as formidable as a shpuga. River Over Stones grunted something Blade doubted was a compliment, then backed away.
Blade shrugged. He'd made an open enemy of someone who would never have been a friend anyway. That wasn't losing much. River Over Stones would keep his mouth shut, unless Crystal or Winter Owl brought up the matter. God knows what Uchendi law he might have violated by giving Crystal the massage she so obviously needed!
Chapter 14
Eye of Crystal sang as the hunting party rode the last mile to the main village of the Uchendi. She usually sang when she was feeling happy, and once she'd recovered from treating the cancer-stricken old woman she seemed to be happy most of the time.
Blade didn't want her to be unhappy. He was glad that his massage and other gestures of friendship helped Crystal shake off the memories of her helplessness. He still wished that she would find some other way of showing her happiness than by singing. Eye of Crystal was intelligent, brave, good-looking, and Blade suspected she would be good in bed. But she could not carry a tune with a pair of tongs, and was always off-key.
However, River Over Stones proclaimed her singing sweeter than a bird's. Blade couldn't entirely disagree. Eye of Crystal sounded better than a crow, a vulture, or most seagulls.
Blade couldn't decide if River Over Stones really expected Crystal to be taken in by such gross flattery. If he did, he was crazy, or at least didn't know the woman he was courting. No wonder she was barely polite to him, and sometimes not polite at all. Blade knew that if River Over Stones hadn't been the adopted «war-son» of her uncle Winter Owl, she would not have even been polite.
«River Over Stone is in a strange place,» she told him once. «He is no blood-kin, so if he is purified it is lawful for him to wed m
e. So he courts with all seriousness. Yet he is law-kin, so that an open quarrel between us would divide a family. This is something no wise man can wish, my father and uncle least of all.»
«Does he have so many enemies, then?» No harm in trying to get a little more information about what he might be riding into.
«Do you know so little of life among kin, then? Were you an orphan?»
«No.»
«Then I think you are trying to learn what I would not be wise to tell you now, before we know how you may use the knowledge.»
«You seem to trust me as little as River Over Stones does. «
«I will even endure that insult, Blade. I do not dislike you and I am not your enemy. Nor do I think my father will be either, when he has spoken to you as the law says he must. But until that time, who can say for sure whether you are a good man or what River Over Stones thinks you are? That we may be friends, please do not again seek to know what you may not.»
«On the blood of my kills and trueness of my eye, I swear I will not.» No one could doubt Blade's right to swear on those. He did not like having good-looking women angry at him, particularly if they were also as intelligent as Eye of Crystal.
If only she could learn to sing!
The hunters rode for miles through cultivated fields before they reached the village. The village itself was almost a town, stretching for a quarter of a mile along the bank of the River of Life. They even had a waterwheel at the upstream end of the village, pumping water into a tank of stone and clay. From there the women hauled buckets of water to their homes.
Blade also noticed that the stables for the ezintis, the tanners and smiths and slaughterhouses, and what smelled like public toilets were all at the downstream end of the village. These people seemed to have grasped the basics of sanitation. Blade's opinion of the Uchenti went up another notch.