He looked at Sos, for the first time since staff and rope bad parted, and if he recognized him as anything more than the heralded nameless challenger, or found this unheralded mode of contact strangh, he did not say. 'I would give you her mother, since your bracelet is dead.'
'I would accept her, in the name of friendship.'
'In the name of friendship.'
They stood up and shook hands. It was as close as they could, come to acknowledging recognition.
The camp was monstrous. Five of the remaining tribes had migrated to rejoin their master, anticipating the arrival of the challenger. Two thousand men spread across plain and forest with their families, sleeping in communal tents and eating at communal hearths. Literate men supervised distribution of supplies and gave daily instruction in reading and figuring to groups of apprentices. Parties trekked into the mountains, digging for the ore that the books said was there, while others cultivated the ground to grow. the nutritive plants that other books said could be raised. Women practiced weaving and knitting in groups, and one party had a crude native loom. The empire was now too large to feed itself from the isolated cabins of a single area, too independent to depend upon any external source for clothing or weapons.
'This is Sola,' Sol said, introducing - the elegant, sultry high lady. He spoke to her: 'I would give you to the nameless one. He is a powerful warrior, though he carries no weapon.'
'As you wish,' she said indifferently. She glanced at Sos, and through him. 'Where is his bracelet? What should I call myself?'
'Keep the clasp I gave you. I will find another.'
'Keep the name you bear, I have none better.'
'You're crazy,' she said, addressing both. .
'This is Soli,' Sol said as the little girl entered the compartment. He picked her up and held her at bead height. She grasped a tiny staff and waved it dangerously.
'I'm a Amazon!' she said, poking the stick at Sos. 'I'm fighting in circle.'
They moved on to the place where the chieftains gathered: Sav and Tyl together, Tor and Tun, and Neq and three others Sos did not recognize in another group. They spread out to form a standing circle as Sol and Sos approached.
'We have reached a tentative agreement on terms,' Sav said. 'Subject to approval by the two masters, of course.'
'The terms are these,' Sol said, not giving him a chance to continue. 'The empire will be disbanded. Each of you will command the tribe you now govern in our names, and Tot his old tribe, but you will never meet each other in the circle.'
They stared at him uncomprehendingly. 'You fought already?' Tun inquired.
'I have quit the circle.'
'Then we must serve the nameless one.'
'I have quit the circle too,' Sos said.
'But the empire will fall apart without one of you as master. No one else is strong enough!'
Sol turned his back on them. 'It is done,' he said. 'Let's take our things and go.'
'Wait a minute!' Tyl exclaimed, running stiff-legged after them. 'You owe us an explanation.'
Sol shrugged, offering none. Sos turned about and spoke. 'Four years ago you all served small tribes or traveled alone. You slept in cabins or in private tents, and you did not need anything that was not provided. You were free to go and to live as you chose.
'Now you travel in large tribes and you fight for other men when they tell you to. You till the land, working as the crazies do, because your numbers are too great for the resources of any one area. You mine for metals, because you no longer trust the crazies to do it for you, though they have never broken trust. You study from books, because you want the things civilization can offer. But this is not the way it should be. We know what civilization leads to. It brings destruction of all the values of the circle. It brings competition for material things you do not need. Before long you will overpopulate the Earth and become a scourge upon it, like shrews
