"Some of the humans here," I said, "prisoners, were among your cohorts."
"My men?" it asked.
"They fought bravely," I said.
The beast seemed lost in thought. "They are in my command," he said. "Though they are human, yet they were in my command."
He depressed the second of the two switches.
I tensed, but the room, the complex, did not erupt beneath me.
"You are a good officer," I said.
"The second switch was depressed," he said. "The signal to the worlds, the ships, the fleet, is transmitted. Secondly the destruct sequence is now initiated."
"But it is a second destruct sequence," I said.
"Yes," said Half-Ear, "that which allows for the evacuation of the complex."
"How much time is there?" I asked.
"Three Kur Ahn," he said. 'The device is set on Kur chronometry, synchronized to the rotation of the original world."
"The same chronometry which is used in the complex?" I asked.
"Of course," he said.
"That is a little more than five Gorean Aim," I said.
"Two Ehn more," he said.
I nodded. The Kur day was divided into twelve hours, the Gorean day into twenty. The periods of rotation of the original Kur world and of Gor were quite similar. That was one reason the Kurii were intesested in Gor. They wished a world which would be congenial to their physiological rhythms, developed in harmony with given environmental periodicities of darkness and light.
"But I would advise you to be better than a Kur Ahn afoot away before the time of destruction," he said.
"I shall act quickly," I said. "You must accompany us to safety."
The great Kur lay back on the dais, his eyes closed.
"Come with us," I said.
"No," it said. I could see the blood emerging from the large body of the animal.
"We can transport you," I said.
"I will kill any who approach me," it said.
"As you will," I said.
"I am Zarendargar, Hall-Ear, of the Kurii," it said. "Though I am in disgrace, though I have failed, I am yet Zarendargar, Half-Ear, of the Kurii."
"I will leave you alone now," I said.
"I am grateful," it said. "You seem to know our ways well."
"They are not dissimilar to the ways of the warrior," I said.
I poured him a glass of paga, and left it near him on the dais.
I then turned away and went to the portal of the chamber. He wished to be left alone, to bleed in the darkness, that no one might see or know his suffering. The Kurii are proud beasts.
I turned at the portal. "I wish you well, Commander," I said.
No response came from the translator. I left.
36
To The Victors Belong The Spoils; I Lift A Glass Of Paga
Orders were swiftly given.
In two Ahn we were ready to withdraw from the complex. Sleds were readied; prisoners, men of the complex, now in furs, some forty of them, were tied, their hands behind them, their necks linked by a long rope of rawhide, placing them in coffle. There was no fight left in them; they knew that on the ice, away from the technology of the complex, they could survive only if the red hunters chose to let them do so. Some would be sold to traders in the spring; others might be kept in the camps, to serve the red hunters; they, male slave beasts, would be stronger than female slave beasts. Perhaps eventually a hunter would take a trading trip south and take them with him, bound, to dispose of them in, say, Lydius, with his furs and other trade goods.
I regarded fifteen women who had been in the complex. women being trained as Kur agents for work in their cause. All were kneeling naked; most already had bondage strings on their necks; those that did not the hunters could sort out or do contest for.
"Put them in the sacks," I said.
Each was thrust in a deep furred sack, which was then placed within another heavy fur sack, larger than the first. There was an opening in the sacks only for the head, which was then rimmed with a hood, so that only the face was exposed, and that could be withdrawn to protect it from the cold. The rawhide straps on the sacks were then drawn tight. looped about, and tied tightly behind the hoods; the women could not reach the straps; they were, thus, effectively imprisoned.
"Tie the sacks on the sleds," I said. It was thus that the women would be transported.
The women moaned as they were carried helplessly to the sleds.
They would eventually learn to serve red masters.
She who had been the Lady Rosa was not, of course, with them. She was elsewhere, where I wanted her.
"Are we ready for departure?" I asked Imnak.
"Almost," said Imnak. Poalu, already furred, was with him.
"Come with me," I said to Imnak. "And bring, too, the bravest and best of your hunters, who performed for our cause in this place the best and noblest works of war."
There was a cheer.
"Surely Karjuk stands highest among them," he said.
"Come with us, Karjuk!" I cried.
"Go on without me," he said. He smiled wryly. "I am a sour and solemn man."
"Surely you would like a little thing to warm and pleasure you in your house?" I asked.
"I might grow too fond of it," be said. He bent down. tying a bundle, which he would put on his sled.
Imnak winked at me. "Come along, grim friend," said he. "You can help us make our choices."
"I know little of such matters," said Karjuk. "I am a lonely man."
"Come along," said Imnak. "Surely you can tell us which would be best at pulling sleds."
"You must look at the legs," said Karjuk. "Strong legs are important."
"Come along," said Imnak.
"Very well," said Karjuk.
We walked along a hallway. With us were many of the red hunters, some seventy or eighty, and Ram, and Drusus.
We entered a large room, off the hall.
In the room, alone, in its center, knelt a young red woman, her head down. She had been the only woman of her race, other than Poalu, who had been slave in the complex. She had been found in security chaining, in one of the slave rooms. She looked up.
"No one wants this one," said Imnak, "She has been a slave to white men."
There were tears in the girl's eyes. She was very pretty. She was short and plump like most of the women of the red hunters.
"What are you going to do with her?" asked Karjuk.
"Put her out in the snow," said Imnak. "She shames the People."
"I live apart from the People," said Karjuk.
"Do you want her?" asked Imnak.
"Of course not," said Karjuk, quickly. "She is too pretty for me."
"Do you know her?" asked Imnak.
"She was Neromiktok, of the Copper Cliffs Camp," he said. The word 'Neromiktok', in the language of the People. means 'Smooth-and-Soft-to-Touch'. I had learned this from Imnak. I had learned, too, that she had once been the beauty of the Copper Cliffs Camp.
"Do you know him?" inquired Imnak, innocently, of the girl.
"He is Karjuk, Master," she whispered, "once of Bright Stones Camp, who became the guard."
"It is said he left the camps and became the guard," said Imnak, "because his gifts were once refused by a proud girl of the Copper Cliffs Camp."
She put down her head.
"How did you become a slave," asked Imnak.
"I was too good for men," she said.
Several of the red hunters with. us laughed, to hear a slave so speak.
"I ran away from Copper Cliffs to avoid an unwanted match," she said. "I was captured. I was made a slave."
"Are you still too good for men?" asked Imnak.
"No, Master," she said.
"You have shamed the People," said Imnak sternly.
"Yes, Master," she said, her head down.
"What sort of woman are you?" asked Imnak.
"One who wants to kneel at the feet of men, and love them," she said.