“No!” cried Sura. “No!”
“Do not fear,” I said. “I will not kill you with your back turned.”
Ho-Tu turned to face me, with his arm pushing Sura to one side.
“Pick up your hook knife,” I said.
Ho-Tu, not taking his eyes much from me, found the hook knife and lifted it.
“Do not fight!” screamed Sura.
I crouched down, the killing knife now held by the hilt in my hand.
Ho-Tu and I began to circle one another.
“Stop!” cried Sura. Then she ran to the slave goad and picked it up; it was still incandescent, brilliant; one could not look on it without pain. “The goad,” said she, “is at the Kill Point. Put down your weapons!” Her eyes were closed and she was sobbing. The goad was clenched in her two hands, moving toward her throat.
“Stop!” I cried.
Ho-Tu flung away his hook knife and rushed to Sura, tearing the goad away from her. I saw him rotate it to minimum charge, turn it off, and fling it away. He took Sura in his arms weeping. Then he turned to face me. “Kill me,” he told me.
I did not wish to kill a man who was unarmed.
“But,” said Ho-Tu, “I killed no man—in Ko-ro-ba or elsewhere.”
“Kill us both,” said Sura, holding the squat, ugly Ho-Tu to her, “but he is innocent.”
“He killed,” I told her.
“It was not I,” said Ho-Tu. “I am not he whom you seek.”
“You are he,” I said.
“I am not,” said he.
“A moment ago,” I charged, “you attempted to kill me.”
“Yes,” said Ho-Tu. “That is true. And I would do so again now.”
“You poor fool,” said Sura, sobbing, to Ho-Tu, kissing him. “You would kill for a simple slave?”
“I love you,” cried Ho-Tu. “I love you!”
“I, too,” said she, “love you, Ho-Tu.”
He stood as though stunned. A strong man, he seemed shaken. His hands trembled on her. In his dark eyes I saw tears. “Love,” asked he, “for Ho-Tu, less than a man?”
“You are my love,” said Sura, “and have been so for many years.”
He looked at her, hardly daring to move.
“Yes,” she said.
“I am not even a man,” said he.
“In you, Ho-Tu,” said she, “I have found the heart of a larl and the softness of flowers. You have been to me kindness, and gentleness and strength, and you have loved me.” She looked up at him. “No man on Gor,” said she, “is more a man than you.”
“I killed no one,” he said to her.
“I know that,” said Sura. “You could not.”
“But when I thought of him with you,” sobbed the Master Keeper, “I wanted to kill—to kill.”
“He did not even touch me,” said Sura. “Do you not understand? He wanted to protect me, and so brought me here and freed me.”
“Is this true?” asked Ho-Tu.
I did not speak.
“Killer,” said Ho-Tu, “forgive me.”
“He wears the black tunic,” said Sura, “and I do not know who he is, but he is not of the black caste.”
“Let us not speak of such matters,” I said, sternly.
Ho-Tu looked at me. “Know,” said he, “whoever you are, that I killed no one.”
“I think I shall return to my compartment,” I said, feeling it well to be on my way.
“I wanted to hurt you,” said Ho-Tu, looking at me.
“But,” said Sura to Ho-Tu, “it was I whom you hurt, Ho-Tu.”
There still was the trace of pain in her voice, the memory in her nerves of the strike of the slave goad.
“Forgive me,” sobbed Ho-Tu. “Forgive me!”
She laughed. “A Master Keeper begging the forgiveness of a slave for touching her with a slave goad!”
Ho-Tu looked down at the square of silk, the tumbled vials and beads.
“What were you doing here?” he asked.
“He was teaching me to play the game,” she laughed, “with such things.”
Ho-Tu grinned. “Did you like it?” he asked.
“No, Ho-Tu,” laughed Sura. She kissed him. “It is too difficult for me,” she said.
Ho-Tu spoke to her. “I will play with you, if you like,” he said.
“No, Ho-Tu,” said she. “I would not like that.” Then she left his arms, to pick up the kalika in the corner of her quarters. Smiling at him she then returned to the center of the compartment and sat down, cross-legged, for the instrument is commonly played that way, and bent over it. Her fingers touched the six strings, a note at a time, and then a melody, of the caravans of Tor, a song of love.
They did not notice me as I left the compartment.
* * * *
I found Flaminius, the Physician, in his quarters, and he, obligingly, though drunk, treated the arm which Ho-Tu had slashed with the hook knife. The wound was not at all serious.
“The games of Kajuralia can be dangerous,” remarked Flaminius, swiftly wrapping a white cloth about the wound, securing it with four small metal snap clips.
“It is true,” I admitted.
Even from the Physician’s quarters we could hear, at various points in the House, the laughing and sporting of drunken slaves in their cells, drunken guards running down one hall or another playing jokes on each other.
“This is the sixth hook-knife wound I have treated today,” said Flaminius.
“Oh?” I asked.
“Your opponent is, I suppose,” said Flaminius, “dead.”
“No,” I said.
“Oh?” asked Flaminius.
“I received this wound,” I said, “in the quarters of Mistress Sura.”
“Ha!” laughed Flaminius. “What a wench!” Then he looked at me, grinning. “I trust Mistress Sura was taught something this evening.”
I recalled instructing her in the game. “Yes,” I said, dourly, “this evening Mistress Sura learned much.”
Flaminius laughed delightedly. “That is an arrogant slave,” he said. “I would not mind getting my hands on her myself, but Ho-Tu would not permit it. Ho-Tu is insanely jealous of her, and she only a slave! By the way, Ho-Tu was looking for you this evening.”
“I know,” I said.
“Beware of Ho-Tu,” said Flaminius.
“I do not think Ho-Tu will bother Kuurus, of the black caste,” said I, rising to my feet.
Flaminius looked at me, with a certain drunken awe. Then he rose in his green quarters tunic and went to a chest in his room, from which he drew forth a large bottle of paga. He opened it and, to my surprise, poured two cups. He took a good mouthful of the fluid from one of the cups, and bolted it down, exhaling with satisfaction.
“You seem to me, from what I have seen and heard,” I said, “a skilled Physician.”
He handed me the second cup, though I wore the black tunic.
“In the fourth and fifth year of the reign of Marlenus,” said he, regarding me evenly, “I was first in my caste in Ar.”
I took a swallow.
“Then,” said I, “you discovered paga?”
“No,” said he.
“A girl?” I asked.
“No,” said Flaminius, smiling. “No.” He took another swallow. “I thought to find,” said he, “an immunization against Dar-Kosis.”
“Dar-Kosis is incurable,” I said.
“At one time,” said he, “centuries ago, men of my caste claimed age was incurable. Others did not accept this and continued to work. The result was the Stabilization Serums.”
Dar-Kosis, or the Holy Disease, or Sacred Affliction, is a virulent, wasting disease of Gor. Those afflicted with it, commonly spoken of simply as the Afflicted Ones, may not enter into normal society. They wander the countryside in shroudlike yellow rags, beating a wooden clapping device to warn men from their path; some of them volunteer to be placed in Dar-Kosis pits, several of which lay within the vicinity of Ar, where they are fed and given dr
ink, and are, of course, isolated; the disease is extremely contagious. Those who contract the disease are regarded by law as dead.
“Dar-Kosis,” I said, “is thought to be holy to the Priest-Kings, and those afflicted with it to be consecrated to Priest-Kings.”
“A teaching of Initiates,” said Flaminius bitterly. “There is nothing holy about disease, about pain, about death.” He took another drink.
“Dar-Kosis,” I said, “is regarded as an instrument of Priest-Kings, used to smite those who displease them.”
“Another myth of Initiates,” said Flaminius, unpleasantly.
“But how do you know that?” I queried.
“I do not care,” said Flaminius, “if it is true or not. I am a Physician.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“For many years,” said Flaminius, “and this was even before 10,110, the year of Pa-Kur and his horde, I and others worked secretly in the Cylinder of Physicians. We devoted our time, those Ahn in the day in which we could work, to study, research, test and experiment. Unfortunately, for spite and for gold, word of our work was brought to the High Initiate, by a minor Physician discharged from our staff for incompetence. The Cylinder of Initiates demanded that the High Council of the Caste of Physicians put an end to our work, not only that it be discontinued but that our results to that date be destroyed. The Physicians, I am pleased to say, stood with us. There is little love lost between Physicians and Initiates, even as is the case between Scribes and Initiates. The Cylinder of the High Initiate then petitioned the High Council of the City to stop our work, but they, on the recommendation of Marlenus, who was then Ubar, permitted our work to continue.” Flaminius laughed. “I remember Marlenus speaking to the High Initiate. Marlenus told him that either the Priest-Kings approved of our work or they did not; that if they approved, it should continue; if they did not approve, they themselves, as the Masters of Gor, would be quite powerful enough to put an end to it.”
I laughed.
Flaminius looked at me, curiously. “It is seldom,” he said, “that those of the black caste laugh.”
“What happened then?” I asked.
Flaminius took another drink, and then he looked at me, bitterly. “Before the next passage hand,” said he, “armed men broke into the Cylinder of Physicians; the floors we worked on were burned; the Cylinder itself was seriously damaged; our work, our records, the animals we used were all destroyed; several of my staff were slain, others driven away.” He drew his tunic over his head. I saw that half of his body was scarred. “These I had from the flames,” said he, “as I tried to rescue our work. But I was beaten away and our scrolls destroyed.” He slipped the tunic back over his head.
“I am sorry,” I said.
Flaminius looked at me. He was drunk, and perhaps that is why he was willing to speak to me, only of the black caste. There were tears in his eyes.
“I had,” he said, “shortly before the fire developed a strain of urts resistant to the Dar-Kosis organism; a serum cultured from their blood was injected in other animals, which subsequently we were unable to infect. It was tentative, only a beginning, but I had hoped—I had hoped very much.”
“The men who attacked the Cylinder,” I said, “who were they?”
“Doubtless henchmen of Initiates,” said Flaminius. Initiates, incidentally, are not permitted by their caste codes to bear arms; nor are they permitted to injure or kill; accordingly, they hire men for these purposes.
“Were the men not seized?” I asked.
“Most escaped,” said Flaminius. “Two were seized. These two, following the laws of the city, were taken for their first questioning to the courts of the High Initiate.” Flaminius smiled bitterly. “But they escaped,” he said.
“Did you try to begin your work again?” I asked.
“Everything was gone,” said Flaminius, “the records, our equipment, the animals; several of my staff had been slain; those who survived, in large part, did not wish to continue the work.” He threw down another bolt of paga. “Besides,” said he, “the men of Initiates, did we begin again, would only need bring torches and steel once more.”
“So what did you do?” I asked.
Flaminius laughed. “I thought how foolish was Flaminius,” he said. “I returned one night to the floors on which we had worked. I stood there, amidst the ruined equipment, the burned walls. And I laughed. I realized then that I could not combat the Initiates. They would in the end conquer.”
“I do not think so,” I said.
“Superstition,” said he, “proclaimed as truth, will always conquer truth, ridiculed as superstition.”
“Do not believe it,” I said.
“And I laughed,” said Flaminius, “and I realized that what moves men is greed, and pleasure, and power and gold, and that I, Flaminius, who had sought fruitlessly in my life to slay one disease, was a fool.”
“You are no fool,” said I.
“No longer,” said he. “I left the Cylinder of Physicians and the next day took service in the House of Cernus, where I have been for many years. I am content here. I am well paid. I have much gold, and some power, and my pick of Red Silk Girls. What man could ask for more?”
“Flaminius,” I said.
He looked at me, startled. Then he laughed and shook his head. “No,” said he, “I have learned to despise men. That is why this is a good house for me.” He looked at me, drunkenly, with hatred. “I despise men!” he said. Then he laughed. “That is why I drink with you.”
I nodded curtly, and turned to leave.
“One thing more to this little story,” said Flaminius. He lifted the bottle to me.
“What is that?” I asked.
“At the games on the second of En’Kara, in the Stadium of Blades,” said he, “I saw the High Initiate, Complicius Serenus.”
“So?” said I.
“He does not know it,” said Flaminius, “nor will he learn for perhaps a year.”
“Learn what?” I asked.
Flaminius laughed and poured himself another drink. “That he is dying of Dar-Kosis,” he said.
* * * *
I wandered about the house. It was now past the twentieth hour, the midnight of the Gorean day, yet still, here and there, I could hear the revels of Kajuralia, which are often celebrated until dawn.
My steps, as I was lost in thought, brought me back to the hall of Cernus, in which we had sat table. Curious I opened the door off the hall, through which the slave taken to the beast had been led. I found a long set of stairs, and I followed them. I came to a landing, and there was a long corridor. At the end I saw two guards. They immediately sprang up, seeing me. Neither was drunk. Both were apparently perfectly sober, rested and alert.
“Kajuralia,” I said to them.
Both men drew their weapons. “Do not pass this point,” said they, “Killer.”
“Very well,” I said. I looked at the heavy beamed door behind them. It was not locked on this side, which interested me. I would have thought it would have been bolted shut, for fear of the beast locked within. There were, however, the means for shutting it at hand, two large beams which might be placed in iron brackets.
Suddenly I heard an enraged roar from somewhere behind the door.
“I was wounded,” I said to them, “in the sport of hook knife.”
I shoved back the sleeve of my tunic, revealing the bandage. Some blood had soaked through it.
“Leave!” cried one of the guards.
“I will show you,” I said, drawing down the white cloth, revealing the wound.
Suddenly there was a wild cry from behind the door, of almost maniacal intensity, and I thought I heard something moving on the stones behind it, uncontrollable, clawed.
“Go!” cried the second guard. “Go!”
“But it is not a serious wound,” I said, pinching it a bit, letting some blood move from it, trickling down my forearm.
To my horror I heard something behind the door fumbling wi
th a bolt. It seemed to draw it open, and then, wildly, to thrust it back, keeping the door locked; and then I heard the bolt rattling in its brackets as though something had seized it and trembling was trying to hold it in place. The door I then realized had been locked on the inside, and could be opened from the inside.
There was another wild, eerie cry, an uncanny almost demented roaring noise, and the bolt on the other side was dashed free of the door, and the two guards, with a cry of fear, hurled the beams in the two brackets, fastening the door, which was made to swing outward, shut. The two guards leaned against the door. Behind it I heard an enraged, frustrated roaring, weird and terrible; I heard clawing at the wood; I saw the heavy door, as if struck with great force, buckle out against the beams.
“Go!” screamed the first guard. “Go!”
“Very well,” I said, and turned and walked away down the corridor.
I could hear the guards cursing, and hear the door being thrust against the heavy beams. Then, when I was far down the corridor, I fixed the bandage again in place, shoved down my sleeve, and looked back. The thing behind the door was no longer making noise, and the door was no longer pressing against the beams; from where I stood I could hear the bolt on the inside being thrust back in place, locking it from the inside. Then, after a minute or two, I saw the guards remove the beams. What was inside was then apparently quiet.
* * * *
I continued to wander about the House, here and there bumping into inebriated guards or staff members, who would invariably hail me with “Kajuralia!” to which greeting I would respond in turn.
A given thought kept going through my mind, for no reason that I was clearly aware of. It seemed unrelated to anything. It was Cernus saying to me, outside the Cell for Special Captures, “You, Killer, would not make a Player.” His remark kept burning its way through my brain.
But as I walked the halls it seemed to me that, on the whole, things were not proceeding badly, though I regretted the amount of time lost, apparently necessarily, in the House of Cernus. Elizabeth, and Virginia and Phyllis, by tomorrow at this time, would be free. And Caprus, now that Cernus was often in the Central Cylinder, attending to the numerous duties of Ubar of the city, had more time for his work. By Se’Var he hoped to be finished. Caprus, I said to myself, a good man. Caprus. Thought well of by Priest-Kings. Trusted. He himself had arranged for an agent of Priest-Kings to purchase the girls. Caprus who seldom left the house. Brave Caprus. You, Killer, would not make a Player. Brave Caprus.
Assassin of Gor Page 29