"That is incredible," I said. Clearly the complex was tiers in depth and pasangs in width.
"It was simple to gyroscopically stabilize and mine an ice island," it said. "We have created this within the ice, and the mined ice is simply shredded and discarded in the sea, attracting no attention."
"You wanted to close the tabuk off in their northward migration to drive the red hunters south and away from the area?" I asked.
"Particularly before the winter," it said, "when they might roam too far northward on the ice."
"There is a fantastic amount of stores here," I said.
"Electrical equipment, explosives, weapons, supplies, vehicles," it said. "And much, much more."
"It would take years to assemble this depot," I said.
"It did," it said. "But only recently did I assume command."
'The Kur invasion then, using this staging area, is iniminent."
"We did not wish to risk the great fleet," it said. "With this depot we need bring in, in the fierce strike, little more than the hibernated marches." A march is a Kur military expression. It refers to twelve bands and their officers. It consists of between twenty-one hundred and twenty-two hundred animals.
"In twelve Kur hours, all cities on Gor can be destroyed," it said.
"What of the Priest-Kings?" I asked.
"I do not think they can meet an attack in force," he said.
"Are you sure of that?" I asked.
"I am sure," he said, drawing back his lips about his fangs.
"Though not all are sure," he said.
"That is why the great fleet is not being risked?" I asked.
"Of course," he said. "I could urge the launching of the great fleet. But then I am only a simple soldier. Others stand higher on the cliff than I."
"Troopships, beaching their personnel, should be sufficient," I said, "given the supplies present here."
"Yes," he said, "on the assumption that the Priest-Kings are as weak as I speculate."
"Why do you think them weak?" I asked.
'The Nest War," he said. "Surely you have heard of it."
"I have heard stories," I said.
"I believe them true," he said. "Now is the time for the People to strike." He looked at me. "Oh, I could have your mind torn open, and could break you, or kill you, as anything can be torn and broken, or killed, but, in the end I, at best, would know only what you believed to be true, and that may or may not be true." He dropped down to the floor, and I dropped down beside him. "Priest-Kings are clever," he said.
"I have heard that," I said.
"I think I could not break you," he said. "I think I could only kill you."
I shrugged.
"You are like a Kur," he said. "That is why I like you." He put a heavy paw on my shoulder. "It would be wrong for you to die in the machine of truth," he said.
"There are many valuable supplies in the complex," I said. "What if they should fall into the hands of the Priest-Kings?"
"There is an arrangement to prevent that," he said.
"I had thought there would he," I said. Not all areas in the complex, I was confident, had been scanned by the cameras I had seen. The overhead tracks, too, those controlling the movements of neck-chained slaves, presumably did not reach to all areas.
"What are Priest-Kings like?" asked the beast. "Are they like us?"
"No," I said, "they are not like us."
"They must be fearsome things," said the beast.
I thought of the lofty, delicate, golden creatures. "Perhaps," I said.
"Have you ever seen one?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"You do not wish to speak?" he asked.
"No," I said. "I would prefer not to speak."
He put both paws on my shoulders. "Good," he said. "You are loyal. I will not press you!"
"Thank you," I said.
"But someday," he said, "we will know."
I shrugged. "Perhaps," I said. "I do not know."
"Let us speak of less sensitive topics," he said.
"Agreed," I said.
We returned to the table, on which reposed the paga.
"How was I captured?" I asked.
The beast poured another glass of paga for each of us. "That was simple," it said. "A gas was introduced into your shelter of snow, from the outside, rendering you, and the others, unconscious.
"Imnak was on guard," I said.
"The red hunter, like Karjuk?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Karjuk spoke to him and he, a rational fellow, in the light of economic and prudential considerations, joined us promptly."
"I never doubted that Imnak was a man of decision," I said.
"Do not be bitter," he said.
"What would you think if a Kur betrayed his own kind?" I asked.
He looked at me, startled. "It could not happen," he said.
"Surely Kurii, in their own wars, have occasionally demonstrated treachery."
"Never to men, never to another species," said the beast. "That is unthinkable."
"Kurii, then," I said, "are in this regard nobler than men."
"It is my supposition," it said, "that in all respects Kurii are nobler than men." It looked at me. "But I except you," he said. "I think there is something of the Kur in you."
"In the room of the dueling," I said. "There was a large mirror."
"An observation port," it said.
"I thought so," I said.
"You fought splendidly," he said. "You are very skilled with that tiny weapon."
"Thank you," I said.
"I, too, am skilled in weaponry," it said, "in various weapons traditional with my people, and in modern weapons, as well."
"You maintain, even with your technology, a dueling tradition?" I asked.
"Of course," it said. "And the tradition of the fang and claw is continued as well."
"Of course," I said.
"I am not fond of modern weapons," it said. "An egg-carrier or even a nondominant could use them. They put one at too great a distance from the kill. They can be effective, and that is their justification, but they are, in my opinion, boring. They tend to rob one, because of their nature, of the closeness, the ininiediacy, the joy of the hot kill. That is the greatest condemnation of them. They take the pleasure out of killing." It looked at me. "What can compare," it asked, "with the joy of real victory? Of true victory? When one has risked one's life openly and then, after a hard-fought contest, has one's enemy at one's feet, lacerated, and bleeding and dying, and can then tear him in victory and feast in his body, what can compare with the joy of that?"
The eyes of the beast blazed, but then the fierce light subsided. It poured us again a glass of paga.
"Very little, I suppose," I said.
"Do I horrify you?" it asked.
"No," I said.
"I knew I would not," it said.
"How did you know that?" I asked.
"I saw you fight," it said.
I shrugged.
"You should have seen your face," it said. "You cannot tell me you did not like it."
"I have not told you that," I said.
"In time the war will be finished," it said. It looked at me, "If we should survive it, there will be afterwards no use for such as we."
"We will, at least," I said, "have known one another."
"That is true," it said. "Would you like to see my trophies?" it asked.
"Yes," I said,
33
I Leave The Complex
It was chilly in the low, steel room, one serving as a port to the outside ice.
Near the circular, heavy door, now closed, stood the white-pelted Kur, that which had rings in its ears, that which had accompanied Karjuk, the traitor to his people. It held a leather harness looped in its paw.
I donned the furs.
I was to be taken outside and there, some distance from the complex, out on the ice, slain. It would seem as though the sled sleen had turned upon me. If I was found, it would be conjectured that the death, violent though it might have been, was not one unnatural for the Gorean north. I would have been lost in the north, apparently lost in a fruitless, misguided venture, one ill-fated from the beginning, one in which nothing but a meaningless, bloody conclusion would have been encountered. If there were a search for me, or curiosity concerning me, it would terminate when the carcass, torn and frozen, was found.