by John Norman
"The Lady Bina has escaped!” cried Archon, rushing forward.
Lord Grendel leaped to his feet, wildly.
"How can that be?” said Statius.
"Some confederate in the camp!” said a Kur.
Lord Grendel was already at the stake to which the lovely prisoner had been fastened.
Tools had been used on the slave bracelets, for they lay to the side. The neck chain and the shackles had been opened. They, too, lay to the side.
Lord Grendel howled in rage, his eyes raised to his far sky, where one could see the heights of the trees descendent, so far above him, visible through wisps of clouds. Then, wildly, he crouched down and scratched at the dirt, gouging it. His visage was terrible. Cabot feared to address him as he was, for it seemed maddened Kur had suddenly somehow become his friend.
"What is wrong?” cried Flavion, hurrying forward.
"The traitress is gone!” said a Kur.
"No!” cried Flavion. “It is impossible!"
Then Flavion leaped back, for it seemed Lord Grendel would leap upon him, as to rip his throat from his body.
"Dear Lord Grendel, beloved commander,” said Flavion, “believe me, I know nothing of this!"
Lord Grendel shook with rage, his fangs emerged, his ears darted back, smoothly against his head.
"Surely it is Cestiphon, the human, who has done this!” said a Kur.
"Spare Flavion!” cried a Kur.
"Lord Grendel resents the wisdom of our Flavion,” said a Kur.
"He would destroy him, the most valuable and courageous of scouts,” said another.
"Kill me if you wish,” said Flavion. “I had rather die than be suspected of some part, however small, in this foul deed."
Lord Grendel seemed poised to hasten forward in the savage, bounding rush which Cabot knew well from his dealings with enraged Kurii.
"Flavion would be the last to wish her freed,” said a Kur.
"He has always urged that justice be meted out to her,” said another.
"He is innocent,” said another.
Cabot put his hand out, gently, and touched the arm of Lord Grendel.
Lord Grendel spun about and Cabot feared his arm would be torn from his body. It was terrible to look into the raging eyes of Lord Grendel.
Then, with a mighty effort, almost as though an exploded cliff, tumbling and showering boulders, might arrest itself in flight, and then, slowly, carefully reassemble each pebble and each stone in its place, Lord Grendel slowly straightened his body, and looked about himself.
"Forgive me,” said Lord Grendel.
"It seems, dear Flavion, you will survive the day,” said Statius.
"Lord Grendel is perhaps not himself,” said Flavion, uncertainly.
"He has gone mad,” said a Kur, softly.
"This,” said another, “is our commander, in whose hands lie our fates?"
"Where is Cestiphon?” asked Lord Grendel.
"Bring him here,” said Flavion, “in chains!"
"No,” said Lord Grendel. Then he looked about himself. “Has anyone here seen anything, does anyone here know aught of this?"
Only demurrals greeted this inquiry.
Shortly thereafter, ushered forward by two Kurii, came Cestiphon.
"Lord Grendel?” he said. Then he looked about himself, and then to the ground. “Where is the pretty little chain slut?” he said.
"Beware,” said Flavion, “you are speaking of a free woman."
"She is gone,” said Archon.
"Where?"
"We do not know,” said a Kur.
"Do you know aught of this?” demanded Flavion.
"No,” said Cestiphon, “but I am not displeased. There are better things to do with an exquisite female than tear her to pieces."
"Put her up for sale,” suggested Cabot.
"I would have liked to have had her on my neck rope,” said Cestiphon, “with my others."
"Kill him!” said Flavion.
"No,” said Lord Grendel.
"Why would anyone free her?” asked Cabot. “She is nothing to Kurii, as she is human. At best, they would want her blood. And why would humans free her, unless they could have her for their own? But there is nowhere to keep her, or hide her."
"I do not see her bell here,” said Lord Grendel.
"It is not here,” said Statius, looking about.
"Then it is still on her,” said a Kur.
"No one heard it sound,” said another Kur.
"She could hold it silent, in her escape,” said Lord Grendel.
"Perhaps,” said Flavion, “one who wished her blood made off with her."
"It would have been easier to remove her head, in a single bite,” said Statius. “And who would steal her? And where, if she were stolen, could she be taken?"
The confluence of these realities and speculations whirled about in the mind of Tarl Cabot, Lord Grendel's human ally. It seemed the hand of his mind reached out to grasp something, but it slipped from his grasp.
"Where is the tiara?” suddenly asked Cabot.
It was shortly discovered that it was missing.
"She must be making her way to the lines of Agamemnon,” said Flavion, “for she was his human."
"He would have had her on the slaughter bench,” said Lord Grendel.
"Is that worse than dying on the torture table?” said Cestiphon.
"It seems clear she must have had a confederate in the camp,” said Flavion. “Who knows what she might have been promised?"
"Of what use could she now be to Agamemnon?” asked a Kur.
"To the forward lines!” said Lord Grendel.
So the Lady Bina was missing.
That she was missing, however unaccountable this might seem, was less disturbing to Cabot than why she might be missing.
On the surface there seemed little that was rational here.
But there must be, he was sure, a concealed rationality, a rationality awaiting some intelligible elucidation.
Threads of thought, like strands in water, like half-visible snakes, coiled and uncoiled in Cabot's mind.
Certainly the Lady Bina would have welcomed any opportunity to escape.
But she would have had to have help to effect her escape, help to elude her constraints, and presumably help to pass through the insurrectionists’ lines.
There would thus have to be a purpose other than her own involved in all this.
And what purpose could that be?
"Of what use could she now be to Agamemnon?” had asked a Kur.
He then recalled, suddenly, sharply, his conversation in the redoubt with Flavion.
"Arrangements have already been made,” had said Flavion.
With a cry of alarm Cabot hurried to the forward lines.
"Where is Lord Grendel!” he cried.
"There, there!” cried a Kur, pointing to the wide, long field separating the near side of the habitats from the forward lines. “We could not stop him!” said the Kur.
"The glass, give me the glass!” cried Cabot, and the instrument was placed in his hands.
"He heard the bell below, from a half pasang distant,” said Statius. “He leaped over the parapet and sped below, to rescue the Lady Bina."
"Down there,” said a Kur, “in midst of the cattle humans."
"He will fetch her back,” said another.
"He should have sent others,” said a Kur. “He is commander."
"He is mad,” said another.
"We could not stop him,” said Flavion. “He will return shortly."
Cabot peered anxiously through the glass. “I know that herd!” he said. “Its leader is the cattle human from the time of the slaughter bench, he who noted the Lady Bina, he who understood in his simple, doltish, stupid way her role in leading others to the slaughter bench, he who would have her blood!"
"No!” cried Flavion, in dismay.
"It is no coincidence that it is that herd and not another which is foraging below!” cried Cab
ot.
"Surely it is a mere coincidence,” protested Flavion.
"No, no!” cried Cabot.
"They will kill the Lady Bina!” said Statius.
"Nonsense,” said Flavion. “Lord Grendel will have her before they even realize she is amongst them."
"He will return shortly,” said a Kur.
"We will then learn who abetted her escape,” said another Kur.
"Certainly,” said Flavion.
"No, no!” cried Cabot. “Seize power weapons! Follow me!"
"Are you mad?” said Flavion.
"This is not about the Lady Bina!” cried Cabot, taking a rifle. “This is about Lord Grendel! The herd is cover! Mingled in that herd will be the minions of Agamemnon!"
Cabot then scrambled over the parapet, and began to run, wildly, toward the herd.
"He is mad!” cried Flavion. “Do not follow him! Remain here!"
Concealed amongst the cattle humans were somewhere between twenty and twenty-five Kurii, these picked minions of the elite of Lord Agamemnon's forces, each armed with a power weapon.
Lord Grendel had entered the herd unarmed, save insofar as a Kur can be said to be unarmed, given their size, might, agility, fangs, and claws.
We might suppose that given the odds involved and the importance of Lord Grendel that the Kurii of Agamemnon would have been charged with his capture, that he might be later exhibited and dealt with according to the dictates of the war and day, but it seems they had no such charge.
In any event, shortly after Lord Grendel entered the herd, two Kurii rose up from amongst the cattle humans and fired.
In this action may perhaps be detected the astute recommendation of Flavion, whose grasp of politics, diplomacy, and war was of a most direct, simple, and practical sort.
The head of one of the cattle humans was burned away but inches from the chest of Lord Grendel, and another cattle human's chest was burned through, in such a way that a portion of Lord Grendel's harness was blackened, and hair singed from his shoulder.
Lord Grendel then took cover amongst the cattle humans, precisely as had his foes.
Had Lord Grendel not been overwrought, or had he been less concerned with the safety of the Lady Bina, he might have chosen to remain within the safety of his lines and allowed her to perish as she might, and would, at the hands of the cattle humans.
The leader of the cattle humans, of course, was not privy to the machinations of Agamemnon's minions, nor would he have understood their concerns even had they attempted to explain them to him.
He did have his hatred, of course, and his memories, and a single-minded program in mind, to deal with a bell human, a human who would have led him, and others, to the slaughter bench.
The other Kurii then rose, too, weapons readied, from amongst the cattle humans, their heads now clearly visible amongst those of the unkempt, lumbering, shambling, obese, bovine herd.
This must have been obvious to those in the revolutionists’ lines, as they had access to more than one optical instrument of the sort with which Cabot had made his earlier determinations.
One of the Kurii suddenly seemed to sink into the herd.
Lord Grendel's jaws were foaming with blood.
The Kurii then, in pairs, for these were elite Kur warriors, began to thread their way through the herd. No longer might Lord Grendel isolate a foe, and the likelihood of taking two at once, given their spacing, which was considered, for they were elite warriors, would be negligible.
There was the sound of the Lady Bina's bell and her scream was heard in the field.
Lord Grendel then, unwisely, as most would agree, tried to make his way to her, to afford her succor.
Whereas the hunting Kurii had not the least interest in the Lady Bina herself they had been well apprised of her importance to their target, this information having been supplied by Flavion, and so they began to converge on that locality from which had emanated the sound of the bell, and the scream. It resembled that of a shrill, terrified, caught animal, something similar to that perhaps of one of the womb tunnel's scavengers suddenly seized in the teeth of a Kur infant.
Lord Grendel, unwisely, began to thrust cattle human after cattle human from his path, hastening to the relief of the Lady Bina, who was in the midst of several cattle humans squealing and stamping about her, some with stones, and others with sharpened sticks. The herd leader had a large club, with which he was trying to turn her to her back. She screamed, several times, and began to choke, and sob, as they dealt with her.
The leader of the herd pushed his confreres back with the club, and raised it high over his head, to strike the torn, and bloodied, piece of flesh at his feet.
The blow did not fall because the club was torn from his grasp and then Lord Grendel, the massive club in his hands, began to strike about him, and the cattle humans fled back before these blows, limping, arms dangling, faces a mass of bones and blood.
The leader of the cattle humans, blood about his teeth, where he had bitten his prey, was seized in the mighty paws of Lord Grendel, lifted high in the air, and then flung to the earth, this breaking the back and neck of the leader of the cattle humans, who was then, as Lord Grendel had not loosened his grip, jerked upward, and the head was seized in Lord Grendel's jaws, and torn away from the shoulders, and then, with a movement of his head, flung fifty feet away.
Meanwhile, the two foremost of the Kurii of Agamemnon, these first through the cattle humans, intent on their target, and now having isolated it, leveled their weapons.
By this time Cabot had reached the edge of the herd.
The Kurii of Agamemnon, concerned with their priorities, were unaware of his presence.
Indeed, the following Kurii were not even aware, immediately, that two of their number, those closest to Lord Grendel, were no longer with them, but had been, for most practical purposes, with two charges from Cabot's weapon, incinerated.
Lord Grendel crouched down, jaws red with blood.
Cabot fired three times more.
With these three charges, he had managed to hit one other Kur.
Cabot's rifle, as most of its model, contained five charges, one in the bore, four in the magazine, which five had now been expended.
His foes having now clearly discerned his presence, and the nature of his weapon, and being quite as well aware as he of the likely expenditure of ammunition, began to approach his position, though warily.
Cabot, naturally, shifted his location, as he could. His rifle now was of little more use than would have been a metal club.
There was a bleating from the herd as Kurii now began to burn their way through the massive, obstructive flesh, almost as one might have set fire to a palisade, in order to clear a line of fire to its garrison. The herd then, many of its members stung and burned, several now no more than smoking meat, confused and tormented, finally alarmed, wildly bleating, piteously squealing, began to hurry away.
Some of the Kurii were buffeted one way or another, but then the herd was muchly scattered, and Lord Grendel would not move from his place, which was near small, torn flesh, and Cabot walked to join him, presumably that they might die together.
The remains of Agamemnon's Kurii then raised their rifles, but were almost immediately cut down in a withering torrent of flame.
"Are you all right?” called Statius.
Archon raised his rifle and brought down one of the two fleeing Kurii. The other made it to the habitats.
With Statius and Archon were more than a dozen Kurii and humans, armed with power weapons.
Lord Grendel reached down and lifted, tenderly, in his arms the limp, lacerated form of the Lady Bina.
He stood there, in the field, silent, in the grass, amongst bodies, those of cattle humans and Kurii, holding her.
"Is she alive?” asked Cabot.
Lord Grendel was looking toward the habitats.
"She is still bleeding,” said Archon.
"She is alive,” said Statius.
; "It might be better were she not,” said a Kur.
"What is wrong with our commander?” said a Kur.
"There is water on his face,” said a Kur.
"Those are tears,” said Cabot.
"Kurii cannot weep,” said Statius. “They lack the means."
"He is partly human,” said Cabot.
Lord Grendel turned about and slowly made his way back to the insurrectionists’ lines, the unconscious, torn body of the Lady Bina in his arms.
Cabot, bending down, picked up a tiara, and followed them to the insurrectionists’ lines.
Chapter, the Sixty-Fourth:
THOUGHTS BEHIND THOUGHTS
"She is no longer beautiful,” said Archon.
The bell had been removed from the neck of the Lady Bina.
For four days she had been unconscious, and had then awakened raving, in delirium, her body burning with fever. In all this time Lord Grendel had remained at her side, watching over her, tending her, while the governance of the camp was surrendered to the human ally, Peisistratus, and the rule of the insurrectionists’ lines, the orders of the day, the arrangements of signs and countersigns, the inspection of weaponry, the postings of guards, the arrangement of patrols, and such, was accorded to Statius, who had once been a nondominant.
"If there should be any sign of enemy activity,” had said Lord Grendel, “I am to be notified, immediately."
But the habitats were quiet, and the field below was largely deserted, save for some cattle humans who had drifted back, to scavenge.
Flavion was missing.
This had been discovered shortly after the return to the insurrectionists’ lines.
Some ten days after her escape and recovery, and six days after it had begun, the Lady Bina's fever broke. She then, after imbibing some broth administered to her by Lord Grendel, slept soundly for a full day. When she awakened her delirium had passed, and she looked about herself, wonderingly, trying to gather together her thoughts, and comprehend what had happened to her. She then suddenly half sat up in the coverlets and screamed, but was gently pressed back by Lord Grendel. She felt about her neck for the bell, but it was not there. “Sleep,” he advised her, tenderly, and she again slept. Once she thrashed in her sleep and screamed, and awakened, but he again soothed her, and she again slept. It was on the twelfth day after her return to the insurrectionists’ lines that she awakened, lay there awake, not moving, for a long time, and then dared to touch her fingers to her face, and she then cried out, a long, wavering wail, one of horror. She then demanded a mirror. Lord Grendel demurred and tried to soothe her, but she would not be soothed, and would have the mirror. She looked into the mirror and then flung it away and begged to be brought a knife. This request Lord Grendel refused. “Kill me,” she begged. “Kill me!” This request was also refused.