Nomads of Gor

by John Norman

  "No," she said. "But I would prefer in any case to remain in Turia—it is my home."

  "How do you live?" I asked.

  "I shop for wealthy women," said she, "for pastries and tarts and cakes—things they will not trust their female slaves to buy."

  I laughed.

  In answer to her questions I told her the reason for which I had entered the city—to steal an object of value from Saphrar of Turia, which he himself had stolen from the Tuchuks. This pleased her, as I guessed anything would which was contrary to the interests of the Turian merchant, for whom she entertained the greatest hatred.

  "Is this truly all you have?" she asked, pointing at the pile of stones.

  "Yes," I said.

  "Poor warrior," said she, her eyes smiling over the veil, "you do not even have enough to pay for the use of a skilled slave girl."

  "That is true," I admitted.

  She laughed and with an easy motion dropped the veil from her face and shook her head, freeing her hair. She held out her hands. "I am only a poor free woman," said she, "but might I not do?"

  I took her hands and drew her to me, and into my arms. "You are very beautiful, Dina of Turia," I said to her.

  For four days I remained with the girl, and each day, once at noon and once in the evening, we would stroll by one or more of the gates of Turia, to see if the guards might now be less vigilant than they had been the time before. To my disappointment, they continued to check every outgoing person and wagon with great care, demanding proof of identity and business. When there was the least doubt, the individual was detained for interrogation by an officer of the guard. On the other hand I noted, irritably, that incoming individuals and wagons were waved ahead with hardly a glance. Dina and myself attracted little attention from guardsmen or men-at-arms. My hair was now black; I wore the tunic of the Bakers; and I was accompanied by a woman.

  Several times criers had passed through the streets shouting that I was still at large and calling out my description.

  Once two guardsmen came to the shop, searching it as I expect most other structures in the city were searched. During this time I climbed out a back window facing another building, and hoisted myself to the flat roof of the shop, returning by the same route when they had gone.

  I had, almost from the first in Kamchak's wagon, been truly fond of Dina, and I think she of me. She was truly a fine, spirited girl, quick-witted, warm-hearted, intelligent and brave. I admired her and feared for her. I knew, though I did not speak of it with her, that she was willingly risking her life to shelter me in her native city. Indeed, it is possible I might have died the first night in Turia had it not been that Dina had seen me, followed me and in my time of need boldly stood forth as my ally. In thinking of her I realized how foolish are certain of the Gorean prejudices with respect to the matter of caste. The Caste of Bakers is not regarded as a high caste, to which one looks for nobility and such; and yet her father and her brothers, outnumbered, had fought and died for their tiny shop; and this courageous girl, with a valor I might not have expected of many warriors, weaponless, alone and friendless, had immediately, asking nothing in return, leaped to my aid, giving me the protection of her home, and her silence, placing at my disposal her knowledge of the city and whatever resources might be hers to command.

  When Dina was about her own business, shopping for her clients, usually in the early morning and the late afternoon, I would remain in the rooms above the shop. There I thought long on the matter of the egg of Priest-Kings and the House of Saphrar. In time I would leave the city—when I thought it safe—and return to the wagons, obtain the tarn and then make a strike for the egg. I did not give myself, however, much hope of success in so desperate a venture. I lived in constant fear that the gray man—he with eyes like glass—would come to Turia on tarnback and acquire, before I could act, the golden sphere—for which so much had been risked, for which apparently more than one man had died.

  Sometimes Dina and I, in our walking about the city, would ascend the high walls and look out over the plains. There was no objection to this on the part of anyone, provided entry into the guard stations was not attempted. Indeed, the broad walk, some thirty feet wide, within the high walls of Turia, with the view over the plains, is a favorite promenade of Turian couples. During times of danger or siege, of course, none but military personnel or civilian defenders are permitted on the walls.

  "You seem troubled, Tarl Cabot," said Dina, by my side, looking with me out over the prairie.

  "It is true, my Dina," said I.

  "You fear the object you seek will leave the city before you can obtain it?" she asked.

  "Yes," I said, "I fear that."

  "You wish to leave the city tonight?" she asked.

  "I think perhaps I shall," I said.

  She knew as well as I that the guards were still questioning those who would depart from Turia, but she knew too, as I, that each day, each hour, I remained in Turia counted against me.

  "It is my hope that you will be successful," she said.

  I put my arm about her and together we looked out over the parapet.

  "Look," I said, "there comes a single merchant wagon—it must be safe now on the plains."

  "The Tuchuks are gone," she said. And she added, "I shall miss you, Tarl Cabot."

  "I shall miss you, too, my Dina of Turia," I told her.

  In no hurry to depart from the wall, we stood together there. It was shortly before the tenth Gorean hour, or noon of the Gorean day.

  We stood on the wall near the main gate of Turia, through which I had entered the city some four days ago, the morning after the departure of the Tuchuk wagons for the pastures this side of the Ta-Thassa Mountains, beyond which lay the vast, gleaming Thassa itself.

  I watched the merchant wagon, large and heavy, wide, with planked sides painted alternately white and gold, covered with a white and gold rain canvas. It was drawn not by the draft tharlarion like most merchant wagons but, like some, by four brown bosk.

  "How will you leave the city?" asked Dina.

  "By rope," I said. "And on foot."

  She leaned over the parapet, looking skeptically down at the stones some hundred feet below.

  "It will take time," she said, "and the walls are patrolled closely after sundown, and lit by torches." She looked at me. "And you will be on foot," she said. "You know we have hunting sleen in Turia?"

  "Yes," I said, "I know."

  "It is unfortunate," she said, "that you do not have a swift kaiila and then you might, in broad daylight, hurtle past the guards and make your way into the prairie."

  "Even could I steal a kaiila or tharlarion," I said, "there are tarnsmen—"

  "Yes," she said, "that is true."

  Tarnsmen would have little difficulty in finding a rider and mount on the open prairie near Turia. It was almost certain they would be flying within minutes after an alarm was sounded, even though they need be summoned from the baths, the paga taverns, the gaming rooms of Turia, in which of late, the siege over, they had been freely spending their mercenary gold, much to the delight of Turians. In a few days, their recreations complete, I expected Ha-Keel would weigh up his gold, marshal his men and withdraw through the clouds from the city. I, of course, did not wish to wait a few days—or more—or however long it might take Ha-Keel to rest his men, square his accounts with Saphrar and depart.

  The heavy merchant wagon was near the main gate now and it was being waved forward.

  I looked out over the prairie, in the direction that had been taken by the Tuchuk wagons. Some five days now they had been gone. It had seemed strange to me that Kamchak, the resolute, implacable Kamchak of the Tuchuks, had so soon surrendered his assault on the city—not that I expected it would have been, if prolonged, successful. Indeed, I respected his wisdom—withdrawing in the face of a situation in which there was nothing to be gained and, considering the vulnerability of the wagons and bosk to tarnsmen, much to be lost. He had done the wise thing. But h
ow it must have hurt him—he, Kamchak—to turn the wagons and withdraw from Turia, leaving Kutaituchik unavenged and Saphrar of Turia triumphant. It had been, in its way, a courageous thing for him to do. I would rather have expected Kamchak to have stood before the walls of Turia, his kaiila saddled, his arrows at hand, until the winds and snows had at last driven him, the Tuchuks, the wagons and the bosk away from the gates of the beleaguered city, the nine-gated, high-walled stronghold of Turia, inviolate and never conquered.

  This train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of an altercation below, the shouting of an annoyed guardsman at the gate, the protesting cries of the driver of the merchant wagon. I looked down from the wall, and to my amusement, though I felt sorry for the distraught driver, saw that the right, rear wheel of the wide, heavy wagon had slipped the axle and that the wagon, obviously heavily loaded, was now tilting crazily, and then the axle struck the dirt, imbedding itself.

  The driver had immediately leaped down and was gesticulating wildly beside the wheel. Then, irrationally, he put his shoulder under the wagon box and began to push up, trying to right the wagon, surely an impossible task for one man.

  This amused several of the guards and some of the passersby as well, who gathered to watch the driver's discomfiture. Then the officer of the guard, nearly beside himself with rage, ordered several of his amused men to put their shoulders to the wagon as well. Even the several men, together with the driver, could not right the wagon, and it seemed that levers must be sent for.

  I looked away, across the prairie, bemused. Dina was still watching the broil below and laughing, for the driver seemed so utterly distressed and apologetic, cringing and dancing about and scraping before the irate officer. Then I noted, across the prairie, hardly remarking it, a streak of dust in the sky.

  Even the guards and townsfolk here and there on the wall seemed now to be watching the stalled wagon below.

  I looked down again. The driver I noted was a young man, well built. He had blond hair. There seemed to be something familiar about him.

  Suddenly I wheeled and gripped the parapet. The streak of dust was now more evident. It was approaching the main gate of Turia.

  I seized Dina of Turia in my arms.

  "What's wrong!" she said.

  I whispered to her, fiercely. "Return to your home and lock yourself in. Do not go out into the streets!"

  "I do not understand," said she. "What are you talking about?"

  "Do not ask questions," I ordered her. "Do as I say! Go home, bolt the door to your rooms, do not leave the house!"

  "But, Tarl Cabot," she said.

  "Hurry!" I said.

  "You're hurting my arms," she cried.

  "Obey me!" I commanded.

  Suddenly she looked out over the parapet. She, too, saw the dust. Her hand went to her mouth. Her eyes widened in fear.

  "You can do nothing," I said. "Run!"

  I kissed her savagely and turned her about and thrust her a dozen feet down the walkway inside the wall. She stumbled a few feet and turned. "What of you?" she cried.

  "Run!" I commanded.

  And Dina of Turia ran down the walkway, along the rim of the high wall of Turia.

  Beneath the unbelted tunic of the Bakers, slung under my left arm, its lineaments concealed largely by a short brown cloak worn over the left shoulder, there hung my sword and with it, the quiva. I now, not hurrying, removed the weapons from my tunic, removed the cloak and wrapped them inside it.

  I then looked once more over the parapet. The dust was closer now. In a moment I would be able to see the kaiila, the flash of light from the lance blades. Judging from the dust, its dimensions, its speed of approach, the riders, perhaps hundreds of them, the first wave, were riding in a narrow column, at full gallop. The narrow column, and probably the Tuchuk spacing, a Hundred and then the space for a Hundred, open, and then another Hundred, and so on, tends to narrow the front of dust, and the spaces between Hundreds give time for some of the dust to dissipate and also, incidentally, to rise sufficiently so that the progress of the consequent Hundreds is in no way impeded or handicapped. I could now see the first Hundred, five abreast, and then the open space behind them, and then the second Hundred. They were approaching with great rapidity. I now saw a sudden flash of light as the sun took the tips of Tuchuk lances.

  Quietly, not wishing to hurry, I descended from the wall and approached the stalled wagon, the open gate, the guards. Surely in a moment someone on the wall would give the alarm.

  At the gate the officer was still berating the blond-haired fellow. He had blue eyes, as I had known he would, for I had recognized him from above.

  "You will suffer for this!" the commander of the guard was crying. "You dull fool!"

  "Oh mercy, Master!" whined Harold of the Tuchuks.

  "What is your name?" demanded the officer.

  At that moment there was a long, wailing cry of horror from the wall above. "Tuchuks!" The guards suddenly looked about themselves startled. Then two more people on the wall took up the cry, pointing wildly out over the wall. "Tuchuks! Close the gates!"

  The officer looked up in alarm, and then he cried out to the men on the windlass platform. "Close the gates!"

  "I think you will find," said Harold, "that my wagon is in the way."

  Suddenly understanding, the officer cried out in rage and whipped his sword from his sheath but before he could raise his arm the young man had leaped to him and thrust a quiva into his heart. "My name," he said, "is Harold—of the Tuchuks!"

  There was now screaming on the walls, the rushing of guardsmen toward the wagon. The men on the windlass platform were slowly swinging the great double gates shut as much as possible. Harold had withdrawn his quiva from the breast of the officer. Two men leaped toward him with swords drawn and I leaped in front of him and engaged them, dropping one and wounding the other.

  "Well done, Baker," he cried.

  I gritted my teeth and met the attack of another man. I could now hear the drumming of kaiila paws beyond the gate, perhaps no more than a pasang away. The double gate had closed now save for the wagon wedged between the two parts of the gate. The wagon bosk, upset by the running men, the shouting and the clank of arms about them, were bellowing wildly and throwing their heads up and down, stomping and pawing in the dust.

  My Turian foe took the short sword under the heart. I kicked him from the blade barely in time to meet the attack of two more men.

  I heard Harold's voice behind me. "I suppose while the bread is baking," he was saying, "there is little to do but stand about and improve one's swordplay."

  I might have responded but I was hard pressed. "I had a friend," Harold was saying, "whose name was Tarl Cabot. By now he would have slain both of them."

  I barely turned a blade from my heart.

  "And quite some time ago," Harold added.

  The man on my left now began to move around me to my left while the other continued to press me from the front. It should have been done seconds ago. I stepped back, getting my back to the wagon, trying to keep their steel from me.

  "There is a certain resemblance between yourself and my friend Tarl Cabot," Harold was saying, "save that your swordplay is decidedly inferior to his. Also he was of the Caste of Warriors and would not permit himself to be seen on his funeral pyre in the robes of so low a caste as that of the Bakers. Moreover, his hair was red—like a larl from the sun—whereas yours is a rather common and, if I may say so, a rather uninspired black."

  I managed to slip my blade through the ribs of one man and twist to avoid the thrust of the other. In an instant the position of the man I had felled was filled by yet another guardsman.

  "It would be well to be vigilant also on the right," remarked Harold.

  I spun to the right just in time to turn the blade of a third man.

  "It would not have been necessary to tell Tarl Cabot that," Harold said.

  Some passersby were now fleeing past, crying out. The great alarm bars of the
city were now ringing, struck by iron hammers.

  "I sometimes wonder where old Tarl Cabot is," Harold said wistfully.

  "You Tuchuk idiot!" I screamed.

  Suddenly I saw the faces of the men fighting me turn from rage to fear. They turned and ran from the gate.

  "It would now be well," said Harold, "to take refuge under the wagon." I then saw his body dive past, scrambling under the wagon. I threw myself to the ground and rolled under with him.

  Almost instantly there was a wild cry, the war cry of the Tuchuks, and the first five kaiila leaped from outside the gate onto the top of the wagon, finding firm footing on what I had taken to be simple rain canvas, but actually was canvas stretched over a load of rocks and earth, accounting for the incredible weight of the wagon, and then bounded from the wagon, two to one side, two the other, and the middle rider actually leaping from the top of the wagon to the dust beyond the harnessed bosk. In an instant another five and then another and another had repeated this maneuver and soon, sometimes with squealing of kaiila and dismounting of riders as one beast or another would be crowded between the gates and the others, a Hundred and then another Hundred had hurtled howling into the city, black lacquered shields on the left arms, lance seized in the right hand. About us there were the stamping paws of kaiila, the crying of men, the sound of arms, and always more and more Tuchuks striking the top of the wagon and bounding into the city uttering their war cry. Each of the Hundreds that entered turned to its own destination, taking different streets and turns, some dismounting and climbing to command the roofs with their small bows. Already I could smell smoke.

  Under the wagon with us, crouching, terrified, were three Turians, civilians, a wine vendor, a potter and a girl. The wine vendor and the potter were peeping fearfully from between the wheels at the riders thundering into the streets. Harold, on his hands and knees, was looking into the eyes of the girl who knelt, too, numb with terror. "I am Harold of the Tuchuks," he was telling her. He deftly removed the veil pins and she scarcely noticed, so terrified was she. "I am not really a bad fellow," he was informing her. "Would you like to be my slave?" She managed to shake her head, No, a tiny motion, her eyes wide with fear. "Ah, well," said Harold, repinning her veil. "It is probably just as well anyway. I already have one slave and two girls in one wagon—if I had a wagon—would probably be difficult." The girl nodded her head affirmatively. "When you leave the wagon," Harold told her, "you might be stopped by Tuchuks—nasty fellows—who would like to put your pretty little throat in a collar—you understand?" She nodded, Yes. "So you tell them that you are already the slave of Harold the Tuchuk, understand?" She nodded again. "It will be dishonest on your part," said Harold apologetically, "but these are hard times." There were tears in her eyes. "Then go home and lock yourself in the cellar," he said. He glanced out. There were still riders pouring into the city. "But as yet," he said, "you cannot leave." She nodded, Yes. He then unpinned her veil and took her in his arms, improving the time.