'I am he,' I said.
Msaliti reacted suddenly. It was a name, apparently, not unknown to him. His hand darted to the hilt of the dagger sheathed at his hip, but he did not draw the weapon.
'I will take you to Shaba,' said the scribe.
53
The Battle; Blood And Steel; We Survive
'I had hoped that you would follow,' said Shaba. 'When you were put upon the rogues' chain I feared it might be the end of you. I cannot tell you how overjoyed I am to find that you are here.'
Shaba, drawn and worn, lay upon a couch, blankets behind his head. His left arm seemed useless and he was haggard with disease.
'Then,' said I, 'remove these manacles in which I have been placed.' The scribe had led us through the city, ascending and descending streets, making our way through various buildings, following various ancient avenues, flanked by the ruins of what must once have been an impressive grandeur. Bila Huruma and I had followed the scribe most closely. Then had come the members of our various parties. Kisu had kept our girls, with the exception of Tende, in coffle. We had unbound the ankles of the dark-haired girl and of Turgus. We had kept them gagged. The neck rope of Turgus had been in the keeping of Ayari. Then we had come, more than two hundred of us, to a fortresslike ruin, on a raised level. We had been requested to wait within the ancient threshold, which had once held a gate. Shaba's men had, to some extent, refortified the ruin, placing stones within the threshold. so that only one man at a time might enter. Too, between the edges of the walls, over the stones, they had erected a barrier of lashed poles. Shaba had still with him some fifty men. While the rest of our two parties, including Bila Huruma, had waited within the threshold, I was conducted across the broad stone court to its center, where, on a huge stone couch, of ancient design, lay Shaba. Before being allowed to approach him closely Shaba's men, ringing me with spears, placed me in manacles, locking my hands behind my back. It was thus that I stood now before the geographer of Anango.
'Shaba is dying,' had said the scribe who had conducted us to this place. 'Do not speak long.'
I regarded Shaba.
'Please, my friend,' said Shaba to me, 'forgive the manacles. But surely you must understand that they constitute a sensible precaution of my part.'
About Shaba's neck, on a thin golden chain, hung a ring. It was heavy and golden, much too large for the finger of a man. In the ring was a silver plate. Opposite. the bezel, on the outside of the ring, was a circular, recessed switch.
'You display the ring boldly,' I said.
Shaba touched the ring. On his right hand, now, he wore another ring, the fang ring, which, filled with kanda, I had seen earlier in Schendi. A scratch from that ring would destroy a kailiauk in a matter of seconds. 'Do you think ill of me, Tarl Cabot?' he asked.
'You are a traitor to Priest-Kings,' I said. 'You have stolen the Tahari ring.'
'I am a scribe, and a man of science and letters,' said Shaba. 'Surely you can understand the importance of the ring to me.'
'It can bring wealth and power,' I said.
'Such things are not of interest to me,' said Shaba. The tribal stitching of tattoo marks on his dark face wrinkled with a smile. 'But I do not expect you to believe that,' he said.
'I do not,' I said.
'How hard it is for two who do not share caste to understand one another,' he said.
'Perhaps,' I said.
'I took the ring for two reasons,' he said. 'First, it made possible the ascent of the Ua. Without it we should not have come this far. In many villages, and among hostile peoples, the demonstration of the power of the ring, as I had hoped, permitted us safe passage. On the river, I am afraid, I am regarded as something of a wizard. Had it not been for the ring I and my men would have been slain many times.' He smiled at me. 'My exploration of the Ua,' he said, 'would not have been possible without the ring.'
'Surely you are aware that possession of the ring is dangerous,' I said.
'I am well aware of that,' he said. With his right hand he gestured about himself. He indicated the walls of the fortresslike enclosure within which he had ensconced himself and his men. Too, about this enclosure, at the foot of stairs leading from it, was a broad, shallow moat. Waters from the lake circulated through the city and fed this moat. In it, as had been demonstrated, by the hurling of a haunch of tarsk into the waters, crowded and schooling, were thousands of blue grunt. This fish, when isolated and swimming free in a river or lake, is not particularly dangerous. For a few days prior to the fullness of the major Gorean moon, however, it begins to school. It' then becomes extremely aggressive and ferocious. The haunch of tarsk hurled into the water of the moat, slung on a rope, had been devoured in a matter of Ihn. There had been a thrashing frenzy in the water and then the rope had been withdrawn, severed. The moat had been crossed by a small, floating wooden bridge, tied at each end. This had been built, being extended outward from the opposite shore, by Shaba's men. The effectiveness of the moat, aside from the barrier of the water itself, would become negligible with the passing of the full moon, until the next. The grunt, following the mating frenzy, synchronized with the full moon, would return to the lake. Given the habits of the fish I had little doubt but that this place was an ancient mating ground for them, for the grunt populations tend to return again and again to the places of their frenzy, wherever, usually in a lagoon or shallow place in a river, they may be. The grunt now schooling in the open moat, come in from the lake, could well be the posterity of grunt populations dating back to the time when the city was not in ruins but in the height of its glory and power. The grunt in the moat were for a time an effective barrier, but surely Shaba and his men realized that it must be temporary. Suddenly the hair on the back of my neck rose. I now understood the practicality of their present situation.
'You were waiting for us,' I said.
'Of course,' said Shaba. 'And if you had not come by today, I do not know what we would have done.'
'The wall of the grunt,' I said. 'It has protected you for some four or five days.'
'It proved enough,' said Shaba. 'It gave you time to arrive.
'You have been followed by Kurii,' I said.
'Yes,' said Shaba. 'That is our belief. We have, however, seen only tracks. I fear, even now, however, they may be gathering. They must be somewhere in the city.'
'Your man was courageous to come and fetch us,' I said.
'He is Ngumi,' said Shaba. 'He is courageous, indeed. We did not know if he would get through.'
'I did not know a scribe could be so courageous.' I said.
'There are brave men in all castes,' said Shaba.
'We may have been permitted, however, to come through,' I said.
'That Msaliti gain entrance to the fortification?' asked Shaba.
'Of course,' I said.
'Perhaps,' he said.
'You said,' I said, 'that you took the ring for two reasons, but you mentioned only one, that it facilitated your journey upon the Ua.'
'Look there,' said Shaba, indicating a table to one side, on which there lay a cylindrical leather case, with a leather cap, and four notebooks, heavy and bound with leather.
'I see,' I said.
'There is a map case there,' he said, 'and my notebooks. I have, in my journey, charted the Ua, and in the notebooks I have recorded my observations. Those things, though you, of the warriors, may not understand this, are priceless.'
'Your records would doubtless be of value, to geographers,' I said.
'They are,' said Shaba, 'of inestimable value to all civilized men.'
