Chapter 29
The Cage Cart

The men on either side of the cage cart carried some sort of projectile weapon. It fired, I conjectured, judging from the breech, a long, conical, gas-impelled dart. The principles of the weapon, I assumed, were similar to those of a rifle, except that the missile would not be a slug of metal but something more in the nature of a tiny quarrel, some six inches in length. The weapons had carved wooden stocks, reminiscent of a time in which rifles were the work of craftsmen. Eccentric designs surmounted these stocks. The actual firing of the weapon was apparently by means of a button in the forepart of the stock. Although this button could be depressed quickly it could not be jerked, as a trigger might be, either on a rifle or crossbow, an action which sometimes, in moving the weapon, ruins or impairs the aim. Each man carried a bag at his left hip. It contained, I supposed, among other accouterments, the missiles, or darts, for the weapon.

I grasped the bars of the cage cart.

It was wheeled through the halls by two men, leaning on handles from behind. Bringing up the rear, also with a dart weapon, was Drusus.

A comely slave girl, naked, carrying a roped bag of wine flasks over her shoulder, knelt to one side as we passed. Her head was down. Besides her collar there was a neck chain fastened on her throat. This dangled downward from one of two overhead tracks in the ceiling. The guard on my left lifted the chain over his head and held it to the side, that the cart might pass. He then let it fall behind us. I saw the girl, when we had passed, rise to her feet and hurry, barefoot, along the steel all. She did not look back. If she had been caught looking back, I supposed she might have been beaten. From what I could gather the girls were kept under close discipline in the complex. That is, of course, as it should be, in a master’s house. I was puzzled, though, at the overhead track system. That seemed a security unwarranted by the minimal damage or mischief which, presumably, might be wrought by a lightly clad or naked slave. What harm might one woman or man wreak in such a formidable complex?

“Hold!” said Karjuk. The cart stopped.

“Greetings, someone from the south,” he said.

“Greetings,” I said to him.

Karjuk had emerged from a door at the side of the hall. He wore fur trousers and boots, and some necklaces. He was stripped to the waist. There was a headband about his brow. “It seems we have you in a cage,” he said. “That is where wild animals belong.”

I grasped the bars. The cart was on eight wheels, some four inches in diameter, rimmed with rubber. It was some four feet by four feet, by some seven feet in height. It was barred on four sides, and closed at the top and bottom by steel.

“You were easily tricked,” said Karjuk.

“Perhaps not so easily,” I said.

In the doorway, to one side that through which Karjuk had emerged, there loomed a white-pelted Kur, a large one. In its ears were golden rings. Its lips drew back from its fangs, a Kur’s sign of amusement or pleasure.

“Behold the Kur, my ally,” said Karjuk. “It was he who attacked Ram, your friend, but was prevented from finishing him by the interference of yourself and the men of the village. You thought I slew him.”

“No,” I said, “I did not.”

“No?” said Karjuk.

“No,” I said. “I examined the head which you brought to the camp. The rings of gold in the ears of that ice beast were smaller and lighter, I think, than those in the ears of this beast. Further, they had been newly set in the ears, as might have been determined by the condition of the ear. Beyond this the head of the ice beast was such that it had not been recently killed, but had been dead for some two or three southern days, at least. Too, the ice beast which had attacked Ram had eaten of the sleen which drew his sled. There was no trace of blood on the tongue, or in the mouth or jaws, or on the lips or fur of the head you brought to camp. Lastly, it was simply not the same animal.”

Karjuk looked at me.

“Do you think I cannot tell one Kur from another?” I asked. Warriors are trained in acute observation and retention. The recognition and comprehension of a detail, sometimes subtle, can sometimes make a difference between life and death.

“You are right,” said Karjuk. “It was the head of an ice beast, earlier slain, in whose ears we had placed the golden rings.”

“From what I have heard of your skills in the ice,” I said, “too, it did not seem likely that a beast would have slipped past you, or, if it did, that you, trailing it, would have taken so long to apprehend it.”

“You honor me,” said Karjuk.

“Considering all these things, and the obvious fraud of the severed head, which you purported was that of the infiltrating ice beast, it seemed clear that you were in league with Kurii, and that, indeed, you and the first beast had presumably been traveling together. You arrived almost at the same time in the vicinity of the camp.”

“You are clever,” said Karjuk.

“Too, in the journey, from time to time, Imnak and I found sign, and occasionally even glimpsed this beast,” I said, indicating the white Kur, “paralleling or following our trail.”

Karjuk looked at me.

“He was clumsy,” I said. I was curious as to what the Kur could understand. I saw its eyes flash and its ears lay back against its head. That told me he could follow Gorean. He was then a ship Kur, trained in the apprehension of a human mode of speech. He could probably, too, make some sounds recognizable to humans. He and Karjuk would have had to have some way to communicate. I saw no translation device in the vicinity. I did not know if Kur technology had attained to this sophistication.

“He was unused to the ice,” said Karjuk, excusing him. “He is, as you have doubtless conjectured by now, not a wary ice beast, but a different sort of Kur, one from faraway.”

“He is a ship Kur,” I said.

Karjuk looked puzzled. I gathered he did not know of the remote, orbiting steel worlds.

“From worlds in the sky,” I said.

“Are there worlds in the sky?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Are they far off?” he asked.

“Not as far as many would like to think,” I said.

“If you are so clever, why did you follow me north?” he asked.

“I have business in the north,” I said. “I have an appointment with one called Zarendargar, Half-Ear.”

“None sees him,” said Karjuk.

“You were the guard,” I said.

“I am the guard,” he said.

“You betrayed your post,” I told him.

“I keep my post in my own way,” he said.

“Where is Imnak?” I asked.

“He, too, is one with us,” said Kaijuk.

“You are a liar,” I said.

“How do you think you were taken?” he asked.

“Liar!” I cried. I reached out to seize his throat, through the bars, but he stepped back. “Liar!” I cried. “Liar!”

Then the cart was again being wheeled down the hall, “Traitor!” I cried, turning in the cart, looking back at the thin, dour Karjuk, in his necklaces, standing behind me in the hall, the Kur at his side. “Liar! Traitor! Liar! Traitor!” I cried.

Then they turned and withdrew into the room whence they had earlier emerged.

“If I am not mistaken,” said Drusus, walking behind the cart, behind the two men who wheeled it along, “your friend, Imnak, approaches.”

I spun about, to look down the hall, in the direction in which the cart was moving.

Down the hall came Imnak. He lifted his hand in greeting. fifty yards away.

“Imnak!” I cried.

He, like Karjuk, was clad in boots and trousers. He, too, was stripped to the waist. He, too, wore a headbafld, tying back his blue-black hair. Several heavy gold necklaces were looped about his throat. He was chewing on a leg of roast vulo. Behind him, in pleasure silk, came three girls. Poalu was in brief yellow pleasure silk, and Audrey and Barbara in brief red pleasure silk. They were barefoot, and collared; they wore cosmetics; their right wrists wore bracelets; each, on her left arm, had a golden armlet; each, on her left ankle, had a golden anklet.

“Greetings, Tarl, who hunts with me,” said Imnak, grinning widely.

“You, too, have been captured,” I said.

“No,” said Imnak. “I have not been captured. You have been captured.”

“I do not understand,” I said.

“It is too warm in here,” said Imnak, biting on the vulo leg.

“How is it that you are free?” I asked.

“Why do you think they keep it so warm in here?” he asked.

“You were on watch,” I said.

“I was watching for Karjuk,” he said.

“Why are you not in a cage, as I am?” I asked.

“Maybe I am smarter than you,” said Imnak.

I looked at him.

“Why should I be in a cage?” asked Imnak. “I do not understand.”

“You have been captured,” I said.

“No,” he said, “it is you who have been captured.” He turned to Poalu. “Isn’t Poalu pretty?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“These garments are not practical for the ice,” said Poalu. “Maybe that is why they keep it so warm in here,” speculated Imnak.

“They would have me believe that you have betrayed me, Imnak,” I said.

“And you do not believe them?” he asked.

“Of course not,” I said.

“If I were you,” said Imnak, “I would give the matter serious consideration.”

“No,” I said. “No!”

“I hope that you will not permit this to interfere with our friendship,” said Imnak, concerned.

“Of course not,” I said.

“That is good,” said Imnak.

“It is strange, Imnak,” I said. “With some other man in your position, I would doubtless wish to kill him, and yet I find it hard to even be angry with you.”

“That is because I am such a friendly, genial fellow,” said Imnak. “You can ask anyone in the camp. I am very popular. It is only that I cannot sing.”

“But you are not loyal,” I said.

“Of course, I am loyal,” said Imnak. “It is only a question as to whom I am loyal.”

“I never looked at it just that way before,” I said. “I suppose you are loyal to Imnak.”

“He is a good fellow to be loyal to,” said Imnak. “He is friendly and genial, and he is popular in the camp. It is only that he cannot sing.”

“I hope you are proud of yourself,” I said.

Imnak shrugged. “It is true that I am pretty good at many things,” he said.

“Among them, treachery,” I said.

“Do not be bitter, Tarl, who hunts with me,” said Imnak, “I talked with Karjuk. It is all for the best.”

“I trusted you,” I said.

“If you had not, things would have been more difficult for me,” admitted Imnak.

I looked at Barbara, in the red silk. “We were worried about you,” I said.

“Not me;” said Imnak.

“I was captured by an ice beast, or something like an ice beast,” she said. “It had rings in its ears. It seems in league with Karjuk. I was brought here. When Imnak arrived, I was returned to him.”

“You are very beautiful,” I said.

“Thank you, Master,” she said.

“You, too, Audrey,” I said, looking at her.

“A girl is grateful if she is found pleasing by a free man,” she said, tears in her eyes.

“We must be on our way,” said Drusus.

“I wish you well, Tarl, who hunts with me,” said Imnak, lifting the roast vulo leg in salute.

I did not speak further with him. The cart was pushed past the four individuals. I did not look back.

“Gold buys any man,” said Drusus, walking behind the cart, behind the two men who wheeled it along. His sword was at his hip. In his right hand was the light, tubular, stocked, dart-firing weapon. “Any man,” he said. I did not respond to him. Bitterly, I clutched the bars of the confining cage, moving slowly down the long, steel hall.