However, the Princess did not refuse but bound my wound in silence. I was aware of a slight breach between us but I did not quite know how to mend it. Darloona could not know the extent of my unfamiliarity with the customs common to all four human races upon Thanator: hence she could not be blamed for thinking me a bit of a boor.
As she bent near, tying the cloth about my wound, her eyes suddenly dilated with incredulous disbelief and she stood apart from me abruptly. I did not understand what had so forcibly repelled her, and I glanced down, to see that the boarlike tusk of the vastodon had torn open the front of my leather tunic, laying bare my chest and the green, black, and crimson "possession" symbols which still remained upon me, to mark me to every eye as a belonging of the Yathoon.
I was not to understand until much later. Her shock at discovering me to be a slave, or a former slave, of a Yathoon, was not so much an aristocrat's disgust at encountering a servile being as her instant suspicion that I was what you might call a Judas goat. The Yathoon sometimes take servitors from the human races, although as it happened there had been no human servitors in the camp of Koja's clan during the period of my stay. And sometimes these slaves, their markings disguised beneath the tunic of a free warrior, such as I wore, are used to lure unsuspecting humans into entrapment by the arthropods. Had I understood her instant revulsion, had I known of this vile custom and understood the suspicion which she now entertained, I could of course have explained and set her mind at rest. But, not knowing, I did nothing but stare at her.
And in the very next moment it was too late for any explanation.
The foliage parted and a dozen Yathoon warriors stepped into the clearing to confront Darloona and myself. The leader of the party was Koja's rival and enemy, Gamchan. If ever I read the slightest shade of expression in the featureless casque of a Yathoon face, it was then. For Gamchan smirked in an oily, ominous, very self-satisfied way. How his immobile masklike face managed to express this emotion I cannot say. For all I know it was sheer telepathy. But smirk he did, and nastily at that.
He had followed on my track the instant it was learned that : was no longer in the encampment. Koja had a perfect right to set me free if he desired, although his motives for doing so would have been incomprehensible to his brethren. But Gamchan, equally, had a perfect right to pursue and, if possible, recapture me, making me his possession, if he wished. And, his former slighting remarks notwithstanding, he had gone after me with a pack of junior warriors with just that purpose in mind. It would have made a splendid coup against the prestige of Koja if he were able to seize me for his own. And now he had done so, and had taken a second prize as well! It was no wonder that Gamchan was pleased with himself.
As far as I was concerned, I would gladly have been his possession voluntarily, if only I could somehow have prevented him from making the remark that he now made.
Of all the conceivable words that could have been uttered, no more damning phrase could have been imagined.
"Well done, Jandar," he grated. "The female will make a splendid possession!"
My heart sank, not so much at again becoming a captive. But if you could have seen the look of icy loathing and utter contempt that the Princess of the Ku Thad turned on me the next instant, you would understand my profound depression.
Her cold, contemptuous eyes traveled over me once, and then lifted away. She disdained the futility of attempting battle against so overwhelming ,a force of the Yathoon and held out her wrists in cold silence while she was bound and led to the thaptors.
As for myself, I was surrounded with drawn swords; my own weapon lay many yards distant. And I was so paralyzed by the shock of Gamchan's sudden appearance that I was frozen or I would doubtless have flung myself against the warriors. But before I could think or move, a lasso settled about me, jerked tight, and imprisoned my upper arms.
I have no doubt that the lack of any sound of a battle from the clearing only served to further confirm Darloona in her opinion of me as she was led away.
And thus, for the second time, I became the property of a chieftain of the Yathoon.
Towards evening Gamchan's war party caught up with the main body of the Yathoon host and rejoined it. The Horde was marshaled in order of rank, and Gamchan's place in the hierarchy was directly behind the position held by Koja. Thus Gamchan was able to flaunt his two prized acquisitions directly under Koja's nose, as it were.
Koja made no remark on my recapture. Neither did he attempt to exchange words with me, although I am certain he felt regret that I had not succeeded in making my escape, or at least as much regret as a Yathoon warrior is capable of feeling. The Yathoon have a sort of crude, fatalistic philosophy which they refer to by the phrase va lu rokka―"it was destined." They seem to regard the future in a dour, Calvinist light as predetermined. No degree of luck or valor or skill on the part of intelligent beings can in their world view avert a coming catastrophe.
I assume that it was with the pessimism of this belief in va lu rokka that Koja observed my imprisonment in the retinue of Gamchan. And I knew that he neither would nor could be of any further assistance to me, uhorz or no uhorz. This fatalism infects the entire Yathoon civilization and probably, in part, accounts for the indifference with which they view a fallen comrade's injuries. If he is destined to die, he will die. If not, he will live. Whatever the outcome, va lu rokka.
As a possession of Gamchan I was tied with a noose about my neck and forced to run along behind one of the thaptors ridden by a member of the household of Gamchan. I am not sure whether this grueling punishment was awarded me out of malice alone, or whether it was an attempt on the part of Gamchan to display the slightness of his regard for his new amatar. I noticed, however, that the girl, securely trussed, was tossed across the cruppers of one of the thaptors and was not forced to run along behind its heels. That much at least I could be grateful for.
We covered some miles before it became too dark to go any further. I was trembling with exhaustion by the time the order finally was passed down the length of the host to halt and make night camp. The experience had not, in fact, been as terrible as it could have been, for I had envisioned falling and being dragged for miles, or being forced to run for hours at breakneck speed. Actually, as it turned out, since the Horde moved together in strict order, it could progress at no speedier pace than that of its slowest member, which was Pandol himself.
I have not yet mentioned Pandol in this narrative because I had no contact with him whatever during my captivity. Pandol was the leader of the clan, the akka-komor, or highest chieftain. He had been a mighty war champion in his youth but now was very old and could not endure hard riding for very long. Hence I found the pace a mild one, wearying but not unendurable.
The night camp was set up in a deep valley ringed about with smooth, rounded knolls. As this was but a temporary camp, set up for the night's rest, it did not boast the elaborate earthworks, the barriers of packed earth that had encircled the semipermanent encampment that had been the clan's home during the months I had been an amatar of Koja.*
Once the warriors and servitors of Gamchan's household had set up his circle of tents, Darloona and I were led forward. I did not know exactly what to expect, but I doubted if Gamchan would inflict any punishment on so valuable a possession as I represented in his eyes. At his command, I was stripped of my leathern tunic, baldric, and girdle, although I was permitted to retain my buskins and the strip of cloth wound about my loins. The pictoglyphs on my chest, which specified me as an amatar belonging to Koja, were removed with an application of some soapy, slightly acidulous cleanser, and a new group of emblems were painted on my chest in their place. Doubt less they denoted my new owner.