Kamchak's face was impassive.
At last, perhaps an Ahn after daylight, no more men came from the compound and the gates were left open.
Kamchak then descended from the roof and mounted his kaiila. Slowly, at a walk, he rode toward the main gate of the compound. Harold and I, on foot, accompanied him. Behind us came several warriors. On Kamchak's right there walked a master of sleen, who held two of the vicious, sinuous beasts in check by chain leashes.
About the pommel of Kamchak's saddle were tied several bags of gold, each weighed out to four stone. And following him, among the warriors, were several Turian slaves, dad in chains and the Kes, among them Kamras, Champion of Turia, and Phanius Turmus, the Turian Ubar, all of whom carried large pans filled with sacks of gold.
Inside the gate of the compound I saw that it seemed deserted, the walls emptied of defenders. The clear ground between the walls and the first buildings was similarly empty, though here and there I saw some litter, pieces of boxes, broken arrows, patches of cloth.
Kamchak stopped inside the compound and looked about, his dark, fierce eyes looking from building to building, examin ing with great care the roof tops and windows.
Then he gently moved his kaiila toward the main portal. I caught sight of two warriors standing before it, ready to defend it. Behind them I was startled to see suddenly a currying figure in white and gold, Saphrar of Turia. Then he stood back from the door, holding something large in his arms, wrapped in purple cloth.
The two men prepared to defend the portal.
Kamchak stopped the kaiila.
Behind me I heard hundreds of ladders and grappling hooks strike against the wall, and, turning, I saw, climbing over the walls, as well as entering through the open gates, hundreds and hundreds of men, until the walls were swarm- ing with Tuchuks, and others of the Wagon Peoples. Then, on the walls and within the compound, they stood, not moving.
Astride his kailla Kamchak announced himself. "Kamchak of the Tuchuks, whose father Kutaituchik was slain by Saphrar of Turia, cads upon Saphrar of Turia."
"Strike him with your spears," screamed Saphrar from within the doorway.
The two defenders hesitated.
"Give greetings to Saphrar of Turia from Kamchak of the Tuchuks," said Kamchak calmly.
One of the guards turned woodenly. "Kamchak of the Tuchuks he said, "gives greetings to Saphrar of Turia." "Kill him!" screamed Saphrar. "Kill him!"
Silently a dozen Tuchuk bowmen, with the short horn bow, stood afoot before Kamchak's Kaiila, their arrows trained on the hearts of the two guards.
Kamchak untied two of the sacks of gold from the pom- mel of his saddle. He threw one to one side for one guard, and the other to the other side for the other guard. "Fight!" cried Saphrar.
The two guards broke from before the door, each picking up his sack of gold and fled through the Tuchuks.
"Sleen!" cried Saphrar, and turned and ran deeper within the house.
Not hurrying Kamchak walked his kaiila up the stairs of the house and, on kaiilaback, entered the main hall of the House of Saphrar.
In the main had he looked about and then, Harold and I following, and the man with the two Sleen, and the slaves with gold, and his archers and other men, he began to walk his kaiila up the broad marble stairs, following the terrified Saphrar of Turia.
Again and again we encountered guards within the House but each time, when Saphrar took refuge behind them, Kamchak would throw gold to them and they would dissipate and Saphrar, panting, puffing, clutching the large, purple- wrapped object in his arms, would on his short legs hurry off again. He would lock doors behind himself but they were forced open. He would throw furniture down stairs towards us, but we would step around it. Our pursuit carried us from room to room, through hall after hall, in the great house of Saphrar of Turia. We passed through the banquet hall, where long before we had been entertained by the fleeing merchant. We passed through kitchens and galleries, even through the private compartments of Saphrar himself, where we saw the multitudinous robes and sandals of the merchant,` each worked predominantly in white and gold, though often mixed with hundreds of other colors. In his own compartments the pursuit had seemed to end, for it seemed Saphrar had disap peered, but Kamchak did not show the least irritation or annoyance. He dismounted and picked up a lounging garment from He vast sleeping platform in the room, holding it to the noses of the two sleen. "Hunt," said Kamchak.
The two sleen seemed to drink in the scent of the robe and then they began to tremble, and the claws on their wide, soft feet emerged and retracted, and their heads lifted and began to sway from side to side. As one animal they turned and pulled their keeper by the chain leashes to what appeared to be a solid wall, where they rose on their back two legs and set their other four legs against it, snarling, whimpering. "Break through the wall," said Kamchak. He would not| bother to search for the button or lever that might open the panel. In a few moments the wall had been shattered, revealing the dark passage beyond.
"Bring lamps and torches," said Kamchak.
Kamchak now gave his kaiila to a subordinate and, on foot, carrying torch and quiva, began to prowl down the passage, beside him the two snarling sleen, behind him Harold and I, and the rest of his men, several with torches, even the slaves with gold. Guided by the sleen we had no difficulty in following the track of Saphrar through the pas- aage, though often it branched variously. The passage was, on the whole dark, but where it branched there was often set a mall, burning tharlarion oil lamp. I supposed Saphrar of Curia must have carried lamp or torch, or perhaps that he knew the passage by heart.
At one point Kamchak stopped and called for planks, The door of the passage had been dropped, by the release of a bolt, for an area of its width and for a length of about twelve feet. Harold tossed a pebble into the opening and it took about ten Ihn before we heard it strike water far below. Kamchak did not seem disturbed at the wait, but sat like a rock, cross-legged before the opening, looking across it, until planks were brought, and then he, and the Sleen, were the first to cross.
Another time he warned us back and called for a lance, with which he tripped a wire in the passage. Four spears, with bronze heads, suddenly burst across the passage, emerg- ing from circular openings, their tips striking into other small openings across the passage. Kamchak, with his boot, broke the spear shafts and we moved between them.
At last we emerged into a large audience room, with a domed ceiling, heavily carpeted and hung with tapestries. I recognized it immediately, for it was the room in which Harold and I had been brought prisoner before Saphrar of Turia.
In the room there were four persons.
Sitting in the place of honor, cross-legged, calm, on the merchant's cushions, on his personal dais, applying a bit of oil to the blade of his sword, sat the lean, scarred Ha-Keel, once of Ar, now a mercenary tarnsman of squalid, malignant Port Karl On the floor below the dais were Saphrar of Turia, frantic, clutching the purple-wrapped object, and the Paravaci, he who still wore the hood of the Clan of Torturers, he who would have been my assassin, he who had been with Saphrar of Turia when I had entered the Yellow Pool of Turia. I heard Harold cry out with delight at the sight of the fellow, and the man turned to face us, a quiva in his hand. Beneath his black mask I wager he turned white at the sight of Harold of the Tuchuks. I could sense him tremble. The other man with them was a young man, dark-haired and eyed, a simple man-at-arms, perhaps not more than twenty. He wore the scarlet of a warrior. He carried a short sword and stood between us and the others.
Kamchak regarded him, and I thought with the merest trace of amusement.
"Do not interfere, Lad," said he, quietly. "There is the business of men afoot in this place."