“Open the gate!” called a man, pounding from our side. We heard the heavy bar thrust up, and then creak, rotating, on its four-inch-thick pin. Four men, from our side, pushed open the gate. The crowd in the courtyard stood back, in a circle. Torches were lifted as men looked to the stones of the courtyard. My eyes examined the heights of the walls, the adjoining roofs. Then I, too, gave my attention to the stones of the courtyard.
Eleven men lay there, and parts of men.
“What could have done this,” whispered a man.
I wondered if any had escaped. I doubted it.
The heads of four of the men had been torn from them; the heads of two others had been half bitten from them; one man’s throat looked as though it had been struck twice with parallel hatchets; I was familiar with the spacing of the wounds; two men had lost arms, one a leg; one of the men without an arm had been disemboweled; there was also the print of jaws in his shoulder; I was familiar with this sort of thing; I had seen it often enough in Torvaldsland; the man is seized about the neck and shoulders and held, while the squat, powerful, clawed hind feet rip at the lower abdomen; twenty feet of gut was scattered in the blood and robes, like wet, red-spattered rope; the man who had lost a leg had had his spine bitten through; I could see the stomach from the back; the other man who had had an arm torn from him, too, had been half eaten, ribs erupted from the chest cavity; the heart and the left lung were missing; the eleventh man had been the most cleanly killed; about his throat, on the sides, were six black, circular bruises, like rope marks; his head hung to one side; the back of his neck had been bitten through.
I looked again to the walls, the roofs about the courtyard. “What could have done this?” asked a man.
I turned and left the courtyard. Beside the two men in the street, who had lasted my scimitar, were gathered several townsfolk of Tor.
I looked down on the two bodies. “Do you know them?” I asked a man.
“Yes,” he said, “Tek and Saud, men of Zev Mahmoud.” “They will kill no more,” said a man.
“At what place might I expect to find the noble Zev Mahmoud?” I inquired.
“He and his men are often to be found at the Cafe of the Six Chains,” said the man. He grinned.
“My thanks, Citizen,” said I.
I wiped my blade on the burnoose of one of the fallen men, and resheathed it.
Looking up, I saw, hurrying toward us, carrying a torch, the small water carrier I had encountered several times. He looked up at me. “Did you see?” he asked.
His face was white. “It was horrible,” he said. He trembled.
“I saw,” I said.
I pointed to the two men in the street. “Do you know these men?” I asked.
He peered at them closely. “No,” he said. “They are strangers in Tor.”
“Is it not late to carry water?” I asked him.
“I am not carrying water, Master,” he said.
“How is it that you are in this district.” I asked.
“I live but a short way from here,” he said. Then he left, bowing, carrying the torch.
I looked at the man to whom I had spoken earlier. “Does he live near here?” I asked.
“No,” said the man, “he lives by the east gate, near the shearing pens for verr.”
“Do you know him?” I asked.
“He is well known in Tor,” said the man.
“And who is he?” I asked.
“The water carrier Abdul,” said the man.
“My thanks, Citizen,” said I.
“Zev Mahmoud?” I asked.
The heavily built man in the kaffiyeh and agal looked up, angry, then turned white.
The point of the scimitar was at his throat.
“Into the street,” I told him. I looked at the two other men, who sat, cross-legged, about the small table, with him. I gestured with my head. “Into the street,” I told them.
“There are three of us,” said Zev Mahmoud.
“Into the street,” I told them.
They looked at one another. Zev Mahmoud smiled. “Very well,” he said.
One of them, who had lost his scimitar, took one from a man in the cafe.
“Our fees will yet be paid,” said one of the men to Zev Mahmoud.
I followed them into the street.
There I finished them.
I did not wish to leave them behind me in Tor.
It was late when I returned to the compartment in the district of tenders and drovers.
I was not surprised to find the water carrier waiting for me; sitting on the steps.
“Master,” he said.
“Yes,” I responded.
“You are new in Tor,” said he. “and may not know the ways of the city. I know many in Tor, and might be of much help to you.”
“I do not understand,” I said.
“There will soon be war between the Kavars and the Aretai,” he said. Caravan routes may be closed. It may be difficult to get tenders and drovers who will, in such dangerous times, venture into the desert.”
“And how,” I asked, “should such misfortune come to pass, might you be of assistance to me?”
“I could find you men, good men, honest, fearless fellows, who will accompany you.”
“Excellent,” I said.
“In troubled times, though,” he said, cringing, “their fees may be higher than normal.”
“That is understandable,” T said.
He seemed relieved.
“Whither are you bound, Master?” he asked.
“Turia,” I told him.
“And when will you be prepared to leave?” he asked. “Ten days,” said I, “from the morrow.”
“Excellent,” he said.
“Seek then,” said I. “such men for me.”
“It will be difficult,” said he. “but depend upon me.”
He put forth his palm. I put into it a silver tarsk. “Master is generous,” said he.
“My caravan is small.” I told him, “only a few kaiila. I doubt that I shall need more than three men.”
“I know just the men,” grinned the man.
“Oh?” asked I.
“Yes,” he said.
“And where will you find them?” I asked.
“I think,” said he, “at the Cafe of the Six Chains.”
“I hope,” said I, “you are not thinking of the noble Zev Mahmoud and his friends.”
He seemed startled.
“The word has spread through Tor,” I said. “It seems there was a brawl, outside the cafe.”
The water carrier turned white. “Then I must try to find you others, Master,” said he.
“Do so,” I said.
The silver tarsk slipped from his fingers. He backed away. Then, suddenly, looking over his shoulder, he turned, and fled.
I reached down and picked up the tarsk. I slipped it back in my wallet. I was weary. I did not think I would hear, soon, from the water carrier. It would be ten days, as I recalled, before I was due to leave for Turia.
Now I must rest, for I must be up at dawn. In the morning there were various preparations to be made. Among them, I must pick up a girl from the public pens of Tor. Achmed, the son of Farouk, would be waiting for me at the south gate of the city. We would join the caravan of Farouk on the trail, probably before noon.
I hoped there would not be war between the Kavars and the Aretai. It would not make my work easy.
I hoped to obtain supplies, and a guide, at the Oasis of Nine Wells. It was held, I recalled, by Suleiman, master of a thousand lances, Suleiman of the Aretai.
I then turned and began to climb the narrow wooden stairs to my compartment. I had heard the last, I conjectured, of the water carrier, he called Abdul.
4 Riders Join the Caravan of Farouk
The caravan moved slowly.
I turned my kaiila, and, kicking its flanks, urged it down the long line of laden animals.
With my scimitar tip I lifted aside a curtain.
The girl, startled, cried out. She sat within, her knees to the left, her ankles together, her weight partly on her hands, to the right, on the small, silk-covered cushion
