Harold and I chewed on some bask meat roasted over a fire built on the marble floor of the palace of Phanius Turmus. Nearby our tethered kaiila crouched, their paws on the bodies of slain verrs, devouring them.
'Most of the people,' Harold was saying, 'are out of the city now.'
'That's good,' l said.
'Kamchak will close the gates soon,' said Harold, 'and then we shall get to work on Saphrar's house and that tarn roost of Ha-Keel's.'
I nodded. The city now largely clear of defenders, and closed to the outside, Kamchak could bring his forces to bear on Saphrar's house, that fort within a fort, and on the tower of Ha-Keel, taking them, if necessary, by storm. Ha-Keel had, we estimated, most of a thousand tarnsmen still with him, plus many Turian guardsmen. Saphrar probably had, — behind his walls, more than three thousand defenders, plus a comparable number of servants and slaves, who might be of some service to him, particularly in such matters as reinforc- ing gates, raising the height of walls, loading crossbows, gathering arrows from within the compound, cooking and distributing food and, in the case of the women, or some of them, pleasing his warriors.
After I had finished the bask meat I lay back on the floor, a cushion beneath my head, and stared at the ceiling. I could see stains from our cooking fire on the vaulted dome. 'Are you going to spend the night here?' asked Harold. 'I suppose so,' I said.
'But some thousand bask came today from the wagons,' he said.
I turned to look at him. I knew Kamchak had brought, — over the past few days, several hundred bask to graze near Turia, to use in- feeding his troops.
'What has that to do with where I sleep?' I asked. 'You are perhaps going to sleep on the back of a bosk because you are a Tuchuk or something?' I thought that a rather good one, at any rate for me.
But Harold did not seem particularly shattered, and I sighed.
'A Tuchuk,' he informed me loftily, 'may if he wishes rest comfortably on even the horns of a bask, but only a Koroban is likely to recline on a marble floor when he might just as well sleep upon the pelt of a larl in the wagon of a commander.'
'I don't understand,' I said.
'I suppose not,' said Harold.
'I'm sorry,' I said.
'But you still do not understand?'
'No,' I admitted.
'Poor Koroban,' he muttered. Then he got up, wiped his quiva on his left sleeve, and thrust it in his belt. 'Where are you going?' I asked.
'To my wagon,' he said. 'It arrived with the bask along with better than two hundred other wagons today including yours.'
I propped myself up on one elbow. 'I do not have a. - wagon,' I said.
'But of course you do,' he said. 'And so do I.'
I merely looked at him, wondering if it were merely Harold the Tuchuk at work again.
'I am serious,' he averred. 'The night that you and I to departed for Turia, Kamchak ordered a wagon prepared for each of us to reward us.'
I remembered that night the long swim against the un- derground current, the well, our capture, the Yellow Pool of Turia, the Pleasure Gardens, the tarns and escape. 'At that time, of course,' said Harold, 'our wagons were not painted red, nor filled with booty and rich things, for we were not then commanders.'
'But to reward us for what?' I asked.
'For courage,' said he.
'Just that?' I asked.
'But for what else?' asked Harold.
'For success,' I said. 'You were successful. You did what you set out to do. I did not. I failed. I did not obtain the golden sphere.'
'But the golden sphere is worthless,' said Harold. 'Kamchak has said so.'
'He does not know its value,' I said.
Harold shrugged. 'Perhaps,' he said.
'So you see,' I said, 'I was not successful.'
`'But you were successful,' insisted Harold.
'How is that?' I asked.
'To a Tuchuk,' said Harold, 'success is courage that is the important thing courage itself even if all else fails that is success.'
'I see,' I said.
'There is something here I think you do not realize,' said Harold.
'What is that?' I asked.
He paused. 'That in entering Turia and escaping as we did even bringing tarns to the camp we the two of us won the Courage Scar.'
I was silent. Then I looked at him. 'But,' I said, 'you do not wear the scar.'
'It would have been rather difficult to get near the gates of Turia for a fellow wearing the Courage Scar, would it not?'
'Indeed it would,' I laughed.
'When I have time,' said Harold, 'I will call one from the clan of Scarers and have the scar affixed. It will make me look even more handsome.'
I smiled.|
'Perhaps you would like me to call him for you as well?' inquired Harold.
'No,' I said.
Fit might take attention away from your hair,' he men- tioned.
'No, thank you,' I said.
'All right,' said Harold, 'it is well known you are only a, Koroban, and not a Tuchuk.' But then he added, soldierly. 'But you wear the Courage Scar for what you did not all men who wear the Courage Scar do so visibly.'
I did not speak.
'Well,' said Harold, 'I am tired and I am going to my wagon, I have a little slave there I am anxious to put to work.'
'I did not know of my wagon,' I said.
'I gathered not,' said Harold, 'seeing that you apparently spent the night after the battle comfortably resting on the floor — of Kamchak's wagon, I looked around for you that night but didn't find you.' He added, 'Your own wagon, you will be pleased to hear, was among the wagons, un- touched by the Paravaci as was mine.'
I laughed. 'It is strange,' I said, 'I did not even know of the wagon.'
'You would have found out long ago,' said Harold, 'had you not rushed off to Turia again immediately after our return when the wagons were moving toward Ta- Thassa. You did not even stop by Kamchak's wagon that day. Had you done so Aphris, or someone, might have told you.' 'From the sleen cage?' I asked.
'She was not in the sleen cage the morning of our return from Turia with the tarns,' said Harold.
'Oh,' I said, 'I am glad to hear it.'
'Nor was the little barbarian,' said Harold.
'What became of her?' I asked.
'Kamchak gave her to a warrior,' he said.
'Oh,' I said. I was not glad to hear it. 'Why didn't you tell me of my wagon?' I asked.
'It did not seem important,' he said.
I frowned.
'I suppose, however,' he said, 'Korobans are impressed with such things having wagons and such.'
I smiled. 'Harold the Tuchuk,' I said, 'I am tired.' 'Are you not going to your wagon tonight?' he asked. 'I think not,' I said.
'As you wish,' said he, 'but I have had it well stocked with Paga and Ka-la-na wines from Ar and such.'
In Turia, even though we had much of the riches of the city at our disposal, there had not been much Paga or Ka-la-na wine. As I may have mentioned the Turians, on the whole, favor thick, sweet wines. I had taken, as a share of battle loot, a hundred and ten bottles of Paga and forty bottles of Ka-la-na wine from Tyros, Cos and Ar, but these I had distributed to my crossbowmen, with the exception of one bottle of Paga which Harold and I had split some two nights ago. I decided I might spend the night in my wagon. Two nights ago it had been a night for Paga. Tonight, I felt, was a night for Ka-la-na. I was pleased to learn there would be some in the wagon.
I looked at Harold and grinned. 'I am grateful,' I said. 'Properly so,' remarked Harold and leaped to his kaiila, untethering the beast and springing to its saddle. 'Without me,' he said, 'you will never find your wagon and I for one will dawdle here no longer!'
'Wait!' I cried.
His kaiila sprang from the room, bounding across the carpet in the next hall, and then thudding down a corridor toward the main entrance.
Muttering I jerked loose the reins of my kaiila from the column to which I had tethered it, leaped to the saddle and raced after Harold, not wishing to be left behind somewhere in the streets of Turia or among the dark wagons beyond the gate, pounding on wagon after wagon to find which one might be mine. I bounded down the stairs of the palace of Phanius Turmus, and sped through the inner and outer court- yard and out into the street, leaving the startled guards trying to salute me as a commander.
A few yards beyond the gate I hauled my kaiila up short, rearing and pawing the air. Harold was sitting there calmly on the back of his kaiila, a reproachful look on his face. 'Such haste,' he said, 'is not seemly in the commander of a Thousand.'
'Very well,' I said, and we walked our kaiila at a stately pace toward Turia's main gate.
'I was afraid,' I said, 'that without you I would not be able to find my wagon.'
'But it is the wagon of a commander,' said Harold, as though puzzled, 'so anyone could tell you where it is.' 'I did not think of that,' I said.
'I am not surprised,' said Harold. 'You are only a Koro- ban.'
'But long ago,' I said, 'we turned you back.'
'I was not there at the time,' said Harold.
'That is true,' I admitted.
