So far the god Sahhiridar had not reappeared, but deities often did not show themselves in their true persons, instead manifesting themselves in disguise.
"All right, Paga," Hadon said. "Where is this place?"
"The place you often spoke of when we were roaming the savannas," Paga said. "A place far to the south, at the extreme of the Southern Sea, up in the mountains. Your native city, Hadon. Opar."
8.
Kebiwabes woke him with rough shakes on his shoulder. He lay for a moment without moving or speaking until the bard whispered fiercely, "Hadon, it's time! Hadon, for the sake of Kho, wake up!"
The sky was black, clouded with the promise of more rain. He turned his head and saw that the campfire had almost died out. A man, wrapped in a blanket, sat by it, his head bent low. Snores issued from him.
The others lay under the pines, blanketed, silent. No. There were some missing. Hinokly, Paga, Abeth.
"They are behind a tree," Kebiwabes said. "We let you sleep until we had everything packed. You need all the rest you can get."
Hadon got up and quickly bundled his blanket around his pack. Making sure that he had his weapons—he was so sleepy he wasn't thinking straight yet—he stumbled after the little bard. The three were waiting for him under the tree, as Kebiwabes had said. Hinokly held the child in his arms, but she was awake. Her eyes were huge holes in a dim whiteness. Before they walked softly and slowly away, he turned for one last look. Awineth was a dark shape under a tree, surrounded by four villagers. The sentinel and two more made seven. All of them were hunters, not fishermen, skilled in providing meat from the forest for the village, familiar with the mountains. They would be good trackers. Hadon, however, was betting that Awineth would not waste time sending them after him. She would rant and rave for a while and talk of what she would do to him when he was caught. But she would know that she was in danger as long as she stayed in this valley.
Though he would be handicapped by them, he had decided to take his friends and the child along. He could not take the chance that Awineth, in her rage, might kill them all. For all he knew, she might be planning on doing just that anyway.
Once she had used them to assist her on the perilous way to the stronghold, she could get rid of them. She hated Hadon; Abeth was the child of the woman she hated most, so she would be murdered. And Awineth would take satisfaction in having disposed, of Hadon's friends, who had witnessed her humiliation.
They moved along softly in the darkness, bumping into trees or bushes now and then. The trail they had followed up was narrow and winding, felt more than seen. Two hours later, they were partway down the slope. The sun rose and they went more swiftly. At noon they stopped to eat the food in their packs.
Hadon said, "We can't cut straight across the valley. We'll have to go around the edges, up on the slope. From this point, we leave the trail. The underbrush will slow us down even more."
Having eaten, he climbed a tall pine. He was near the top when he saw smoke rising from the lake. He looked around the entire valley carefully, then descended.
"The village is on fire. The soldiers must have taken it."
"And probably slaughtered the fishermen," Kebiwabes said.
"If so, that will mean fewer men will be out hunting for us," Paga said cheerfully. "Those fisherfolk may be peaceful, but they would have fought."
"We are in another Time of Troubles," Hinokly the scribe said. "There will be thousands of such fires before this is over. Minruth will not find it easy to force the people of Kho to admit that She is inferior to Resu. Besides, there are many cities which would like to be independent. They will seize this opportunity to do so."
"Let us hope that She does not get disgusted with us all and destroy the world," Kebiwabes said. "She did that once, long ago, before the Khoklem came to the Kemu. She was softhearted, however, and spared one man and a woman. She may not be so merciful the next time."
"Was it a flood that drowned all but one couple?" Paga asked.
"Yes, how did you know?" the bard said.
"My tribe had a similar story," Paga said. "Only it was not Kho but our god, the Sleeper, who sent the waters to rid the earth of the pernicious race. He too allowed one couple to live. The man built a huge raft and put on it all of the animals of the earth. Some raft, when you consider how many beasts, birds and insects there are! I have seen enough to crowd a raft as big as this mountain if it were flattened out—even if only two of each kind were on it. And I know there must be many more kinds of creatures than I have seen. It would take a raft six times the size of this mountain just to hold them. And a raft twenty times that big to hold the food needed to feed them until the waters subsided."
"And then what? Would not the trees and the grasses be drowned? What would grow for the plant-eaters to eat? And would not the meat-eaters destroy them before they starved?"
"For that matter, where did the waters come from? And where did they go?"
Hinokly smiled. Kebiwabes and Hadon were shocked. Then Kebiwabes said, "All things are possible to Kho."
"According to my people it was not Kho but the Sleeper who sent the flood. Does your deity look like an elephant, a hairy elephant, and sleep in a vast block of ice?"
"Kho takes many forms," Kebiwabes said.
"I think the Sleeper was an elephant, bigger and hairier than your southern beast," Paga said. "It fell to its death into the ice and so was kept from decaying. And the ice moved slowly down a valley and out into the sea, carrying this dead beast. And my tribe, the ignorant fools, took it to be a god."*
* The full story is told in H. Rider Haggard's Allan and the Ice Gods.
"You think, then, that the priests and priestesses are lying to us?" Hadon said.
"First they lied to themselves."
Hinokly said, "It would be wise, Paga, not to voice those thoughts. The priestesses are tolerant. They do not mind non-Khokarsans worshiping others than Kho. They say that these really do worship Her because Kho is everywhere and is, in fact, every deity. The minor deities are only Her varying manifestations. But the godless are exiled; if they try to reenter the land they are killed."
"The priests of Resu maintain that all who do not worship Kho and Resu should be slain. So far their views have not become law, but if Minruth wins he will impose the will of the priests on the people."
There was silence for a long while as they followed a new trail. They went down the slope of the western range, heading for the southwest corner of the valley. Once they stopped as they heard the pig-like grunting of bears somewhere near. Hadon went ahead, spotted a female and her two cubs in a hollow and gestured to the others to follow him. The mother, a large reddish brown fat beast, stood up on her hind legs to sniff the air. She dropped down after a moment and went back to eating berries.
At dusk they were in the oak forest. A fire was too likely to be seen, so they ate a cold meal. Hadon found enough large flat branches among three trees for them to lie on, and they tied themselves to them for a night's sleep. It was broken occasionally by the cough of a leopard, the grunting of a herd of pigs, the scream of an animal caught by a predator, the uproar of a pack of disturbed monkeys. They rose at dawn, ate a hurried breakfast and traveled under the mighty branches. Their progress was swifter now because of the relative scarcity of underbrush. On the other hand, they were more exposed to view.
At the end of half a mile, Hadon stopped, his hand held up., The others halted behind him.
"What is it?" Kebiwabes said in a low voice.
"Men. Coming this way. Get down in that hollow behind that tree."
As they crowded together, Paga said, "Do they have dogs?"
Hadon said, "No, I don't think so. We'd hear them. Abeth, do not say anything no matter what happens. Hinokly, if she opens her mouth, put your hand over it."
"I won't say anything," Abeth said, "I'm not scared." But her pale skin and wide eyes showed that she was just trying to be brave.
"Get down," Hadon said. "Lie absolut
ely quiet until they have passed."
He pressed into the earth, his ear against the ground. The bard's body, close against him, trembled. Paga, on the other side, was as steady as a rock. Presently the thud of footsteps came faintly through the earth. The men were passing only ten feet from them. They were silent, moving at a swift walk. The odor of long-unwashed bodies drifted to his nose. Someone spit loudly and was shushed. Hadon wondered who they were. The two men he'd seen in the lead were unarmored and carried large packs. They certainly were not soldiers.
Then he remembered the men he'd seen in the valley from the ledge on which he'd left Lalila.
But if they were traders, as he guessed, why were they sneaking through the forest? Why so far from the village? Was it because they had witnessed its destruction? No, they wouldn't be this far off the track. They would either have returned to the lowlands or gone through the next pass to the valley beyond.
Could they be volunteers for the army of Awineth? Had word passed down from the priestesses of Kho to gather in the mountains at the temple two valleys away?
It did not seem likely. Not unless there were long-range plans for just such a situation, calling for the temple to be Awineth's headquarters.
His guess was that these men were outlaws who had taken their loot down to the coast to sell. They had found civil war and, since there were too many soldiers around, they had turned tail.
Or perhaps these were criminals of the city of Khokarsa who had found the lowlands too hot for them and had decided to take refuge in the mountains—after they'd picked up some loot to bring with them.
The last of the band passed by. Hadon warned the others to keep still. He crawled out of the hollow and looked around the trunk. At least ten were still visible; the others had passed around the corner of the trail. The first two were carrying a crude pole stretcher.
On it lay a woman. A shaft of sunlight fell on long golden hair.
"Lalila!"
9.
"What did you say?" Paga whispered from below. Hadon turned a pale face, but he said nothing. Not until the last man had gone around the corner did he speak to them. "Abeth, don't cry out. Promise?"
She shook her head, Khokarsan for yes. He said, "Maybe you'd better hold her mouth anyway, Hinokly. They have Lalila!"
The scribe was just in time to stop the child from crying out. She struggled against him, then suddenly stopped and began weeping.
The others came out of the hole. Paga growled, "Who are they? What would they want with her?"
"What would any men want with her?" the bard said. "Though I may be doing them an injustice."
"The only thing we can do right now is follow them." Hadon said. "They may be all right. But if I show myself to them, I might find out that they are evil. And then it would be too late. There must be at least thirty-five of them, if they're the same fellows I counted two days ago. Far too many for us to handle if they're hostile."
Abeth got on Hinokly's back and Paga carried the scribe's pack. The five set out with Hadon about fifty yards in the lead. He kept the back of the last man in view, staying far enough behind and off to one side so that if the rearguard should look back, he would not be seen. After a while, he had left his companions way behind. The burdened scribe and the short-legged manling could not match his pace, and Kebiwabes had been ordered to stay with them.
After an hour, the caravan stopped to rest. Lalila sat up then and accepted a drink of water from a clay jug. She was pale, gaunt and stony-faced. A tall skinny man, heavily bearded, said something to her. She turned her face away while he and his fellows grinned. But they did not laugh. Apparently they had orders to keep the noise down.
Several conferred with the tall man, most likely the leader, then fresh carriers lifted the stretcher and they renewed the march. By then the others had caught up with Hadon.
"I don't think they're friendly," Hadon said. "Lalila doesn't seem to be at ease. They must be outlaws."
The party now cut across the forest to the west, leaving the marked trail. Hadon had no trouble following them, though they were not in sight. After half a mile of increasingly thick undergrowth, he came to another path. This was a hidden trail, starting abruptly from an oak, apparently not used very often. A person not skilled in detecting marks might not have noticed it.
He did not know whether to continue on it or go back to his group. Deciding that Paga was woodsman enough to see the turnoff, he went on.
After a quarter of a mile, the outlaws again stopped to rest. Hadon went back on the trail to make sure that his band had not missed it. Seeing them just coming out from the woods, he gestured for them to follow his tracks.
The oaks thinned out, pines replacing them. The trail zigzagged back and forth on ever-rougher and steeper ground. He topped a promontory and was looking down into a little bowl-shaped valley. Beyond it, the mountain continued another five hundred feet. Several hundred feet below the apex was an opening in rock, obviously a cave. Several men sat before it, sharpening iron swords. Seeing this, he knew that they were criminals, though he had by then convinced himself they could be nothing else. Some of their swords were those of the numatenu, which meant they had stolen them or killed their owners.
Goats browsed in the little valley. Five men sprawled near them, drinking from a goatskin bag under a tree. These jumped up as the caravan filed out from the pines. They ran grinning and shouting toward them.
Hadon lay down to watch. Lalila was carried toward the cave while the men at its mouth entered it. They soon emerged, followed by a dozen more. Lalila was taken into the cave. Her stretcher-bearers came out quickly to join in the drinking and talking. Everybody seemed to be very happy, judging from their laughter.
Paga and the others joined him. Kebiwabes said, "They must not get a chance to have a woman often. Yet they aren't raping her. Why not? The gang that brought her here may have done it already, but those others… they wouldn't wait."
"Lalila is easily identifiable," Hadon said. "Minruth must have put out the word that he wants her and will give a large reward for her capture—unharmed. What I don't understand is why they didn't take her back to Khokarsa."
Paga hissed with excitement and grabbed Hadon's wrist. He pointed with his other hand. "There's the reason!"
Hadon followed the direction of his finger. A woman had stepped out of the cave into the sunshine. She stood as if reveling in the heat and light. The tall skinny man shouted at her. Two men hurried toward her and she stepped back into the darkness.
"Awineth!" Hadon said.
10.
It was not difficult to imagine what had happened. Part of the outlaw band had been returning from the next valley and had intercepted Awineth's party as they came through the pass. Her guides had probably been killed, as they were worthless for ransom purposes. She would have announced her identity, hoping that this might cow them into releasing her. She had probably promised them a big sum if they conducted her to the temple.
Instead they had brought her back here to get their chief's decision on her disposal. He, realizing what a treasure he had, would take her back to the city. There he and his fellows would be pardoned and would become rich citizens. Their cave now held a double prize.
"Who said crime doesn't pay?" Hinokly snarled.
"They'll rest tonight," Hadon said. "Then their leader will send messengers to the capital to notify Minruth that they have the two women. They'll negotiate for all they can get, then they'll arrange to bring the women in. That's why they brought Lalila here. And why they haven't raped her. The King wouldn't want the spoiled meat of filthy outlaws."
"Then we have time to do something," Paga said. "How many men are there?"
"About fifty-five," Hadon said. "But they won't all be around at the same time. A gang that size eats a lot of food. They'll have to send out a number of hunters. We'll just lie low here until nightfall."
Shortly after dusk the men, all drunk, retired into the cave. Two of them piled a great heap o
f brush over the opening and went through a passageway left in it. They reached out with hooks and dragged in more brush to conceal even that. The covering was thick, but not enough to hide all the light from a fire inside the cave.
"There must be another opening somewhere in there," Hadon said. "Otherwise there'd be no ventilation."
He left after a brief argument with Paga, who wanted to accompany him. He Went slowly down the slope and skirted the grove where the goats were kept. They bleated at him. He paid them no attention, knowing that the noise the outlaws were making would drown out the beasts. He made for the side of the cave and climbed up on top of the projection. His nose led him to the smoke issuing from a vent, a natural crack in the rock.
Upwind of it, he placed his ear close to it and was gratified when he was able to distinguish some voices. These were from speakers who stood near the fire. Other voices were mumbles or slurs, though advanced drunkenness could account for the latter. He got the impression that the cave was large, extending deep into the mountain. It had to be to hold so many comfortably.
What seemed hours passed while he tried to eavesdrop. There was so much shouting and singing now that he could not even clearly hear the conversation of those who stood almost directly below the vent. Suddenly all voices but one were stilled. That, he presumed from the words, was the chiefs.
"Yes, by Kho, I will have her and only I! I haven't had a woman for three weeks! The last was that stinking fat fisher-woman I caught in the forest and I smelled of fish for a week afterward!"
"You still do!" someone shouted. Laughter bellowed, then died.
"You have heard what the Queen said. The King isn't concerned about her chastity. All he wants is a healthy body he can torture. He isn't going to make her his concubine; he could care less. Ain't that right, Your Majesty?"
"That is right," Awineth's voice came faintly.
"So, if Her Majesty don't care, and His Majesty don't either, why can't I have her?"