Don of the Clarks pointed. “In that direction lies your cursed New Sidon City. You will probably not make it before late tomorrow, at earliest. In your saddlebags are bread and meat. For the sake of your message, I hope you are not stumbled upon by raiders from the Highland Confederation or those from Ayr.”
DeRudder looked at him questioningly. “Your friend John seemed to be in favor of uniting with these other confederations to combat us. I wonder why you haven’t done it.”
Don looked at him uncomfortably. “Perhaps because although it is not against the bann, it is not meet. The Keepers of the Faith oppose such large scale raids that whole confederations would be involved. Too much of the blood would be spilt.”
DeRudder laughed suddenly. “The United Interplanetary Mining Company ought to subsidize these Keepers of the Faith of yours.”
The clannsman’s face darkened, but he said nothing.
Instead, his eyes had gone to the ground, and he scowled at something he evidently saw there.
He said, “I’ll go on with you for a way.”
DeRudder was mystified but shrugged it off and kicked heels into the side of his beast.
A few minutes later, he saw the reason for the other’s continued presence. They topped a rise and sported before them John, trudging across the heath, alone and unmounted.
He heard them shortly and turned. His face was empty.
Don drew up and dismounted. He unstrapped the harness around his waist and held out the claidheammor and skean scabbards and the reins of his animal.
He said simply, “I can walk back.”
John looked at him. Finally he said, “As a clannless one, I am forbidden the wearing of the claidheammor.”
Don said, “Yes, I know. And any clannsman who found you without clann kilts and bearing arms would attack you. But what is the alternative… John? Your only way to survive now would be to enter the longhouse of some clann as a servant. And I do not think he who was once supreme raid cacique could ever become a servant. I understand that in the mountains some clannless ones, products of the destroyed towns, have banded together and survive by raiding both the Sidonians and the phyla. Perhaps you can find them.”
John shook his head at him in surprise. “You would have me turn into a clannless bandit?”
“I would have you live, for until you were stripped of your kilts… John, we were blood comrades. And… and though it be against the bann, for me, we still remain.” He turned and walked back in the direction from which he and DeRudder had just come.
John looked after him until he disappeared over the rise of hill.
DeRudder said dryly, “Greater love hath no man, eh?”
John said, “You wouldn’t understand, Samuel of the DeRudders.” He swung his leg up over the saddle.
“Perhaps I would,” DeRudder said. “There’s another alternative to joining up with the hill bandits, you know.”
John grunted. “Yes. I can continue to roam the heath until I run into a raider band and am cut down.”
DeRudder fell in beside him. “You can come to New Sidon City.”
John grunted again. “It had never occurred to me.”
“Think about it.”
John was irritated. “What would I do in this city of yours? I know nothing of cities. Besides, you Sidonians carry the bloodfeud with he who was once Supreme Raid Cacique of the Loch Confederation.”
“We don’t have any such institution as the bloodfeud, John. And above all, we need capable men, and especially capable Caledonians, if ever we are to develop this fantastic world.”
John was scowling. “But you and I carry the bloodfeud. You shamed me when I was but a lad.”
DeRudder said in deprecation, “You forget your own ways, John. I thought a clannless one, such as yourself, was not allowed such luxuries as vendetta.”
The big man flushed. “You are correct,” he said in a low voice. “I had forgotten.” He added, “For that matter, you too are clannless. We are both men without honor.”
“Among civilized men, you can gain or lose honor only through your own actions.”
The conception was new to the Caledonian, and he could only scowl as he thought about it. “But one who is born clannless?”
“Like everyone else, makes or fails to make his own degree of honor, or ethics, if you will.”
“Any Keeper of the Faith can tell you that true honor and faith are only in the hands of the phylum and down, through it, to the clanns.”
DeRudder looked at him in amusement. “Don’t you think you have finally arrived at the point where you should reject some of these teachings of the Keepers of the Faith? In fact, you already have. That’s why you’re on your own. By the way, you’d better make up your mind whether or not you wish to accompany me to New Sidon City.”
“Why?”
DeRudder pointed. “Because there is a skimmer, and they’ve probably detected our body heat and will be on the scene shortly.”
John stared up at the distant dot in the sky. “It seems as though my decision has been made for me. If I refuse to go with you, they will undoubtedly cut me down with their flamers.”
“I can see no particular reason to allow you to take to the hills and do your best to raid our mining developments.”
As the aircraft grew larger, John, staring up at it, said, “What makes it fly?”
DeRudder chuckled. “John, you wouldn’t understand if I tried to tell you.”
“I am not a fool, Samuel of the DeRudders,” the Caledonian said coldly.
“It is not a matter of being a fool. You would not even understand the terminology. When you are in New Sidon City, you can attend school, possibly at night. At least you can already read and have even done a certain amount of studying of some of the books you’ve captured from us—in spite of the banns of your Keepers of the Faith. In a year or two, perhaps you’ll have progressed to the point where aerodynamics need not be a complete mystery.”
“School?” John said. “I thought you would put me to work in your mines.”
“School, too,” DeRudder said. “I keep telling you, we are here to develop this benighted planet. Uneducated half savages don’t lend themselves to a civilized culture. One of our biggest tasks is to get the population into schools. Besides, our mines are not the only projects that call for employees. There are a thousand tasks involved in conducting a city such as New Sidon. Where you’ll fit in, I don’t know at this stage.”
The skimmer came swooping in, circled them twice, then settled some fifty feet off.
A loudspeaker said, “Identify yourselves.”
DeRudder barked, “I am Cornet Samuel DeRudder of New Sidon City, and this is John Hawk, formerly of the town of Aberdeen but who now is to take a position with United Interplanetary Mines.”
An entry port opened, and a warrant and two enlisted men issued forth, all three with hand weapons at the ready. The warrant saluted DeRudder but turned a beady eye to the giant Caledonian.
“Drop those toad stickers you’re wearing, friend. You won’t need them in the city.”
John unbuckled his belt and let the claidheammor and skean drop to the ground.
Even as he dismounted, DeRudder said, “You can take us to New Sidon? I don’t seem to recognize you, Warrant.”
“Yes, sir. We’re from Berkeley, sir, but sure we can take you back to your own city. It’s more or less on the way. What are you doing out here, sir?”
DeRudder said briefly, “I was captured by clannsmen of the Loch Confederation, but they turned me loose. This man volunteered to return to New Sidon with me.”
“Turned you loose? That’s a new one, sir.” John had dismounted too. Now the Sidonian warrant approached him warily and gave him a quick frisking. “Sorry,” he said, “but you know how it is.”