point.
'The young man finds you, at least at present, of some interest,' I said.
She whimpered, the sharpened metal in her mouth.
'Do you understand what it means,' I asked, 'when a man finds a woman of interest?'
She nodded, a timy motion, but desperate, fervent.
'I think it would be in your best interest,' I said, 'to strive to be pleasing, fully.'
She nodded again, tears in her eyes, desperately, fervently.
'When I give you the word,' I said, 'you will turn about and run to the lines of the Kaiila. There you will find a white man, who wears a broad-brimmed hat. His name is Grunt. You will thorw yourself to your belly before him and tell him that you are the slave of Cotanka, of the Wismahi.'
She nodded, her eyes wide.
I removed the point of the lance from her mouth. It was wet and muddy, from her saliva and from the dust, in which it had been thrust, point down, to the binding, from which I had retrieved it. She coughed and spit. She ran her tongue out, at the side of her mouth, leaving a stain of mud at the corner of her mouth.
She stepped back, terrified, shuddering. She wiped her forearm across her mouth.
'What is your name?' I asked.
'I have no name,' she said. 'Cotanka, my master, of the Wismahi, has not yet given me one.'
'It is a suitable answer,' I said. 'Who are you?'
'The slave of Contanka, of the Wismahi,' she said.
'What are you to do?' I asked.
'I am to seek out one called Grunt,' she said, 'and tell him who I am, that I am the slave of Contanka, of the Wismahi.'
'And how are you to do this?' I asked.
'Lying on my belly before him,' she said.
'As befits a slave,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Go, Slave,' I said.
'Yes, Master!' she cried. She then turned about and ran, stumbling, back toward the Kaiila lines.
'I think she will make you a suitable slave,' I said to the young man.
'I think so,' he said.
'Let us return to the fray,' I suggested.
'Let us do so,' he agreed.
We then wheeled our kaiila about, once more to tread disputed, bloody dust.
Chapter 27
FIGHTING
'They are coming! They are coming!' we heard. 'The Kinyanpi! They are coming!'
Several times in the afternoon had the battle whistles formed from the wing bones of taloned Herlits, blasted in the air, and the feathered battle staffs raise and lowered, communicating their signals to the combatants, not only to the Kaiila but to the Yellow Knives, as well. I did not know the codes, nor, for the most part, did Cuwignaka, as he had not been trained in the whirling, shifting tactics of his people, but Hci, and others, knew them well, much as Gorean soldiers know the meaning and the beating of tarn drums. We followed their lead. Not once had Mahpiyasapa, communicating his will by the whistles and battle staffs, permitted his brave, ragged lines to pursue retreating Yellow Knives. I think this was wise for, as far as we could conjecture, we were muchly outnumbered. Surely fresh Yellow Knives had, from time to time, swept into the combat. Others, too, had been seen on nearby hills. The feigned retreat, drawing pursuers, strung out and disaligned into ambush, is a favoiet tactic of red savages. Too, we wished to hold the camp. In it were women and children. In it was the meat which must nourish the Kaiila in the impending winter.
'They are coming,' we heard. 'The Kinyanpi!'
'Maybe it is smaller birds, a flock, much closer,' said a man.
We heard blasts on the whistles of war.
'It is the Kinyanpi,' said a man.
'Let us mount up,' said Cuwignaka, swallowing down a piece of pemmican.
I continued to wipe down the flanks of the kaiila.
Warriors about me were mounting. Many of the animals were covered with dust to the belly. The hair about the lower jaws of many of them was stiff with dried blood, from the control of the jaw ropes. Blood, too, was on the braided leather.
I heard men about me. Some recounted their coups aloud to themselves. Some called upon their medicine helpers for assistance, usually birds and animals. Others sang their medicines of war. Still others spoke to their shields and weapons, telling them what would be expected of them. Many sang their death songs. 'Though I die it is true the sun will blaze in the sky. Though I die it is true the grass will grow. Though I die it is true the kailiauk will come when the grass is high.'
I made the jaw rope snug again on the lower jaw of my kaiila. Then, shield and lance in hand, I mounted.
'Do you think we can stand against the Kinyanpi?' asked Cuwignaka.
'I think so,' I said. 'Kahintokapa has prepared well.' Arches concealed under ropes and hidden among lodges lay between te Kinyanpi and our main forces, at the western edge of the camp. If the Kinyanpi attacked as they had before they would encounter, unexpectedly, sheets of arrows fired from close range. They would then, too, if they maintained their early attack patter, strike inot the ropes strung between lodges. These were intended to serve the same purposes as the swaying, almost invisible tarn wire sometimes strung in the high cities, wires which can cut the wings from a bird or tear off the head or arm of a rider. Sharpened stakes, too, fashioned from lodge poles, supported by shorter, crossed poles, archers at their base, could be oriented to the trajectory of the attack. This would tend to prevent, we hoped, not only swooping, talon attacks but also the close-quarters work of which the red savage, with his small bow, is fond.
We expected the Kinyanpi to be much less effective at a greater distance. too, if the Kinyanpi were at heights of even fifty or a hundred feet, it would be difficult for them to fire accurately through the overhead network of ropes and cloths which we had suspended between several of the lodges. This form of reticulation is calculated to ave a confusing and distractive effect on wiftly moving, airborne archers. By the time a target can be identified there is usually not enough time to fire. The ground-based archer, on the other hand, the defender, has the solid earth beneath him, and he, because of his nearness to the openings in the network, or loosely linked canopy, can both track the approaching enemy and fire through it with ease and efficiency. In this respect it functions something like a window. It is difficult to hit a particular window, particularly at late notice, while one is moving at high speed, but it is ot difficult to see what is approaching through one and to fire through it. The defender, meanwhile, between passes, may change his position or, if you like, window.
'Do you think the Yellow Knives will coordinate their attack with that of the Kinyanpi?' asked a man.
'I think they should,' I said.
'I think they have had their stomach filled at the moment with fightin,' said Cuwignaka. 'I think they will wait to let the Kinyanpi do their work for them.'
'Perhaps,' I said.
'If we can stand against the Kinyanpi,' said the man. 'I think we can hold the camp.'
'I think so,' I said.
'I can see them,' said Cuwignaka, turned on his kaiila. 'I can see the riders clearly. They are coming in, as before.'
'I think it will be the last time the Kinyanpi will attack a Kaiila camp so incautiously,' I said.
We then turned to face the Yellow Knives, some three hundred yards away. We were in long lines, our ranks two and three deep. We kept a distance of a lance length between riders. This was to minimize hits by the
