Marauders of Gor coc-9 Read online

  "Blue Tooth is no fool," said the Forkbeard. "There is not a man here who believes Kurii to gather in the country of snows. There is not enough game to support many in such a place."

  "Then how far would they be away?" I asked.

  "It is not known," said the Forkbeard.

  "You know us, unfortunately," said the Kur, to the assembly, "only by our outcasts, wretches driven from our caves, unfit for the gentilities of civilization, by our diseased and our misfits and our insane, by those who, in spite of our efforts and our kindness, did not manage to learn our ways of peace and harmony."

  The men of Torvaldsland seemed stunned.

  I looked at the great axes in the hands of the two Kurii who accompanied the speaker.

  "Too often have we met in war and killing," said the speaker. "But, in this, you, too, are much to blame. You have, cruelly, and without compunction, hunted us and, when we sought comradeship with you as brothers, as fellow rational creatures, you have sought to slay us."

  "Kill them," muttered more than one man. "They are Kurii."

  "Even now," said the Kur, the skin drawing back from its fangs, "there are those among you who wish our death, who urge our destruction."

  The men were silent. The Kur had heard and understood their speech, though he stood far from us, and above us, on the platform of the assembly, that platform cut into the small, sloping hill over the assembly field. I admired the acuteness of its hearing.

  Again the skin drew back from its fangs. I wondered if this were an attempt to simulate a human smile. "It is in friendship that we come." It looked about. "We are a simple, peaceful folk," it said, "interested in the pursuit of agriculture."

  Svein Blue Tooth threw back his head and roared with laughter. I regarded him then as a brave man. Beside me, Ivar Forkbeard, too, laughed, and then others. I wondered if the stomach or stomachs of the Kurii could digest vegetable food.

  The assembly broke into laughter. It filled the field. The Kur did not seem angry at the laughter. I wondered if it understood laughter. To the Kur it might be only a human noise, as meaningless to him as the cries of whales to us.

  "You are amused," it said.

  The Kurii, then, had some understanding of laughter. Its own lips then drew back, revealing the fangs. I then understood this clearly as a smile.

  That the Kurii possessed a sense of humor did not much reassure me as to their nature. I wondered rather at what sort of situations it would take as its object. The cat, if rational, might find amusement in the twitching and trembling of the mouse which it is destroying, particle by particle. That a species laughs bespeaks its intelligence, its capacity to reason, not its goodness, not its harmlessness. Like a knife; reason is innocent; like a knife, its application is a function of the hand that grasps it, the energies and will which drive it.

  "We were not always simple farmers," said the Kur. It opened its mouth, that horrid orifice, lined with its double rows of white, heavy, curved fangs. "No," it said, "once we were hunters, and our bodies still bear, as reminders, the stains of our cruel past." It dropped its head. "We are by these," it said, and then it lifted its right paw, suddenly exposing the claws, "and these, reminded that we must be resolute in our attempts to overcome a sometimes recalcitrant nature." Then it regarded the assembly. "But you must not hold our past against us. What is important is the present. What is important is not what we were, but what we are, what we are striving to become. We now wish only to be simple farmers, tilling the soil and leading lives of rustic tranquility."

  The men of Torvaldsland looked at one another.

  "How many of you have gathered?" asked Svein Blue Tooth again.

  "As many," said the Kur, "as the stones on the beaches, as many as the needles on the needle trees."

  "What do you want?" he asked.

  The Kur turned to the assembly. "It is our wish to traverse your country in a march southward."

  "It would be madness," said the Forkbeard to me, "to permit large numbers of Kurii into our lands."

  "We seek empty lands to the south, to farm," said the Kur. "We will take only as much of your land as the width of our march, and for only as long as it takes to pass."

  "Your request seems reasonable," said Svein Blue Tooth. "We shall deliberate."

  The Kur stepped back with the other Kurii. They spoke together in one of the languages of the Kurii, for there are, I understood, in the steel worlds, nations and races of such beasts. I could hear little of what they said. I could detect, however, that it more resembled the snarls and growling of larls than the converse of rational creatures.

  "What crop," asked Ivar Forkbeard, who wore a hood, of the platform, "do the Kurii most favor in their agricultural pursuits?"

  I saw the ears of the Kur lie swiftly back against its head. Then it relaxed. Its lips drew back from its fangs. "Sa-Tarna" it said.

  The men in the field grunted their understanding. This was the staple crop in Torvaldsland. It was a likely answer.

  Ivar then spoke swiftly to one of his men.

  "What will you pay us to cross our land?" asked one of the free men of Torvaldsland.

  "Let us negotiate such fees," said the beast, "when such negotiations are apt."

  It then stepped back.

  Various free men then rose to address the assembly. Some spoke for granting the permission to the Kurii for their march, many against it. Finally, it was decided that it was indeed germane to the decision to understand what the Kurii would offer to obtain this permission.

  I, in this time, now came to understand that Torvaldsland stood, in effect, as a wall between the Kurii and the more southern regions of Gor. The Kur, moreover, tends to be an inveterate land animal. They neither swim well nor enjoy the water. They are uneasy on ships. Moreover, they knew little of the craftsmanship of building a seaworthy ship. That now, suddenly, large numbers of Kurii were conjoined, and intent upon a march southward could not be a coincidence in the wars of such beasts with Priest-Kings.

  I supposed it quite probable this was, in effect, a probe, and yet one within the laws of the Priest-Kings. It was Gorean Kurii that were clearly, substantially, involved. They carried primitive weapons. They did not even use a translator. In the laws of Priest-Kings it was up to such species, those of Kurii and men, to resolve their differences in their own way. I had little doubt but what the Kurii, perhaps organized by Kurii from the steel worlds, were to begin a march in Torvaldsland, which might extend, in a generation to the southern pole of Gor. The Kurii were now ready to reveal themselves. At last they were ready to march. If they were successful, I had little doubt that the invasion from space, in its full power, would follow.

  In their mercy or disinterest, Priest-Kings had spared many Kurii who had been shipwrecked, or shot down, or marooned on Gor. These beasts, over the centuries grown numerous and strong, might now be directed by the Kurii of the steel worlds. Doubtless they had been in contact with them. I expected the speaker himself was of the steel ships painfully taught Gorean. The Kurii native to Gor, or which had been permitted to survive and settle on Gor, would surely not be likely to have this facility. They and men seldom met, save to kill one another.

  The Kurii, I gathered, did not wish to fight their way to more fertile lands south, but to reach them easily, thus conserving their numbers and, in effect, cutting Torvaldsland from the south. There was little to be gained by fighting an action the length of Torvaldsland, and little to be lost by not doing so, which could not be later recouped when power in the south had been consolidated. I had strong doubts, of course, as to whether a Kur invasion of the south was practical, unless abetted by the strikes of Kur ships from the steel worlds. The point of the probe, indeed, might be to push Kur power as far south as possible, and, perhaps, too, for the first time, result in the engagement of the forces of Priest-Kings to turn them back. This would permit an assessment of the power of Priest-Kings, the extent and nature of which was largely unknown to the Kurii, and, perhaps, to lure them into e
xposing themselves in such a way that a space raid might be successfully launched.

  All in all, I expected the invasion of the south was, at this point, primarily a probe. If it was successful, the Priest-Kings, to preserve men on the planet might be forced to intervene, thus breaking their own laws. If the Priest Kings did not do this, perhaps for reasons of pride, their laws having been given, then, in effect,

  Gor might become a Kur world, in which, given local allies, the Priest-Kings might finally be isolated and destroyed. This was, to my knowledge, the boldest and most dangerous move of the Others, the Kurii, to this date. It utilized large forces on Gor itself, largely native Kurii in its schemes. Kurii from the ships, of course, as organizers, as officers, might be among them. And doubtless there would be communication with the ships, somehow. This march might be the first step in an invasion, to culminate with the beaching of silver ships, in their thousands, raiders from the stars, on the shores of Gor.

  It was possible, of course, that the Kurii would attack Torvaldsland when well within it, without large forces marshaled against them. Once within the country, before an army could be massed against them, they might cut it to pieces, farm by farm.

  It was possible, too, of course, that the Kurii had become gentle beasts, fond of farming, renouncing their war-like ways, and turning humbly to the soil, and the labors of the earth, setting perhaps therein an excellent example for the still half-savage human animals of Gor, so predatory, so savage, so much concerned with wars, and their codes and honor. Perhaps we could learn much from the Kurii. Perhaps we could learn from them not to be men, but a more benign animal, more content, more bovine; perhaps they could teach us, having overcome their proud, restless natures, to become, too, a gentler, sweeter form of being, a more pleasant, a softer, a happier animal. Perhaps, together with them, tilling the soil, we could construct a more placid world, a world in which discipline and courage, and curiosity and adventure, and doing what pleases one, would become no more than the neglected, scorned, half-forgotten anachronisms of remote barbarians. We would then have overcome our manhood, and become one with the snails, the Kurii and the flowers.

  "What will you pay," asked Svein Blue Tooth, "for permission to traverse our land, should that permission be granted?"

  "We will take little or nothing," said the Kur, "and so must be asked to pay nothing."

  There was an angry murmur from the men in the field.

  "But," said the Kur, "as there are many of us, we will need provisions, which we will expect you to furnish us."

  "That we will furnish you?" asked Svein Blue tooth. I saw spear points lifted among the crowd.

  "We will require," said the Kur, "for each day of the march, as provisions, a hundred verr, a hundred tarsk, a hundred bosk, one hundred healthy property-females, of the sort you refer to as bond-maids."

  "As provisions?" asked the Blue Tooth, puzzled.

  Among the Kurii, in their various languages, were words referring to edible meat, food. These general terms, in their scope, included human beings. These terms were sometimes best translated as "meat animal" and sometimes "cattle" or, sometimes, simply "food." The human being was regarded, by Kurii, as falling within the scope of application of such terms. The term translated "cattle" was sometimes qualified to discriminate between four-legged cattle and two-legged cattle, of which the Kurii were familiar with two varieties, the bounding Hurt and the human.

  "Yes," said the Kur.

  Svein Blue Tooth laughed.

  The Kur, this time, did not seem amused. "We do not ask for any of your precious free females," it said.

  The soft flesh of the human female, I knew, was regarded as a delicacy among the Kurii.

  "We have better uses for our bond-maids," said Svein Blue Tooth, "than to feed them to Kurii."

  There was great laughter in the field.

  I knew, however, that if such a levy was agreed upon, the girls would be simply chained and, like the cattle they would be given to the Kurii march camps. Female slaves are at the mercy of their masters, completely.

  But I did not expect men of Torvaldsland to give up female slaves. They were too desirable. They would elect to keep them for themselves.

  "We will require, too," said the Kur, "one thousand male slaves, as porters, to be used, too, in their turn, as provisions.

  "And if all this be granted to you," asked Svein Blue Tooth, "what will you grant us in return?"

  "Your lives," said the Kur.

  There was much angry shouting. The blood of the men of Torvaldsland began to rage. They were free men, and free men of Gor.

  Weapons were brandished.

  "Consider carefully your answer, my friends," said the Kur. "In all, our requests are reasonable."

  He seemed puzzled at the hostility of the men. He had apparently regarded his terms as generous.

  And I supposed that to one of the Kurii, they had indeed been generous. Would we have offered as much to a herd of cattle that might stand between us and a desired destination?

  I saw then the man of Ivar Forkbeard, whom he had earlier sent from his side, climbing to the platform. He carried a wooden bucket, and another object, wrapped in leather. He conferred with Svein Blue Tooth, and the Blue Tooth smiled.

  "I have here," called Svein Blue Tooth, "a bucket of Sa-Tarna grain. This, in token of hospitality, I offer to our guest."

  The Kur looked into the bucket, at the yellow grain. I saw the claws on the right paw briefly expose themselves, then, swiftly, draw within the softness of the furred, multiple digited appendage.

  "I thank the great Jarl," said the beast, "and fine grain it is. It will be our hope to have such good fortune with our own crops in the south. But I must decline to taste your gift for we, like men, and unlike bosk, do not feed on raw grain."

  The Jarl, then, took, from the hands of Ivar Forkbeard's man, the leather-wrapped object.

  It was a round, flat, six-sectioned loaf of Sa-Tarna bread.

  The Kur looked at it. I could not read his expression.

  "Feed," invited Svein Blue Tooth.

  The Kur reached out and took the loaf. "I shall take this to my camp," it said, "as a token of the good will of the men of Torvaldsland."

  "Feed," invited Svein Blue Tooth.

  The two Kurii behind the speaker growled, soft, like irritated larls.

  It made the hair on my neck rise to hear them, for I knew they had spoken to one another.

  The Kur looked upon the loaf, as we might have looked on grass, or wood, or the shell of a turtle.

  Then, slowly, he put it in his mouth. Scarcely had he swallowed it than he howled with nausea, and cast it up.

  I knew then that this Kur, if not all, was carnivorous.

  It then stood on the platform, its shoulders hunched; I saw the claws expose themselves; the ears were back flat against its head; its eyes blazed.

  A spear came too close to it. It seized it, ripping it from the man, and, with a single snap of its teeth, bit the shaft in two, snapping it like I might have broken a dried twig. Then it lifted its head and, fangs wild, like a maddened larl, roared in fury. I think there was not a man in the field who was not, for that instant, frozen in terror. The roar of the beast must have carried even to the ships.

  "Do we, free men of Torvaldsland," called our Svein Blue Tooth, "grant permission to the Kurii to traverse our land?"

  "No!" cried one man.

  "No," cried others.

  Then the entire field was aflame with the shouts of angry men.

  "A thousand of you can die beneath the claws of a single Kur!" cried the Kur.

  There were more angry shouting, brandishing of weapons. The speaker, the Kur, with the golden spiral bracelet, turned angrily away. He was followed by the two others.

  "Fall back!" cried out Svein Blue Tooth. "The peace of the thing is upon them!"

  Men fell back, and, between them, shambling, swiftly moved the three Kurs.

  "We are done with them," said Ivar Forkbeard
.

  "Tomorrow," called Svein Blue Tooth, "we will award the talmits for excellence in the contests." He laughed. "And tomorrow night we shall feast!"

  There was much cheering, much brandishing of weapons.

  "I have won six talmits," Ivar Forkbeard reminded me.

  "Will you dare to claim them?" I asked.

  He looked at me, as though I might be mad. "Of course," said he, "I have won them."

  In leaving the thing field I saw, in the distance, a high, snow-capped mountain, steep, sharp, almost like the blade of a bent spear.

  I had seen it at various times, but never so clearly as from the thing field. I suppose the thing field might, partly, have been selected for the aspect of this mountain. It was a remarkable peak.

  "What mountain is that?" I asked.

  "It is the Torvaldsberg," said Ivan Forkbeard.

  "The Torvaldsberg?" I asked.

  "In the legends, it is said that Torvald sleeps in the mountain," smiled Ivar Forkbeard, "to awaken when, once more, he is needed in Torvaldsland."

  Then he put his arm about my shoulder. "Come to my camp," said he. "You must still learn to break the Jarl's Ax gambit."

  I smiled. Not yet had I mastered a defense against this powerful gambit of the north.

  Chapter 12 - IVAR FORKBEARD INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO SVEIN BLUE TOOTH

  About my forehead were bound two talmits, one which I had won in wrestling, the other in archery.

  The men of the Forkbeard, and many others, clapped me on the back. I was much pleased. On the other hand I was not certain that I had much longer to live. Soon it would come the time to award the talmits to the mysterious Thorgeir of Ax Glacier.

  Two men of Svein Blue Tooth rose to their feet and silenced the crowd with two blasts on curved, bronze signal horns, of a sort often used for communication between ships. The men of Torvaldsland have in common a code of sound signals, given by the horns, consisting of some forty messages. Messages such as "Attack," "Heave to," "Regroup," and "Communication desired" have each their special combination of sounds. This sort of thing is done more effectively, in my opinion, in the south by means of flags, run commonly from the prow cleats to the height of the stern castle. Flags, of course, are useless at night. At night ship's lanterns may be used, but there is no standardization in their use, even among the ships of a given port. There are shield signals, too, however, it might be mentioned, in Torvaldsland, though these are quite limited. Two that are universal in Torvaldsland are the red shield for war, the white for peace. The men of Torvaldsland, hearing the blasts on the bronze horns, were silent. The blasts had been the signal for attention.