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By the time it was full daylight, they'd reached the mouth of the Loga. Lake
Mison stretched out before them, so wide at this point it was impossible to
see the far bank. The rising wind was also kicking up whitecapped waves four
or five feet high.
Reluctantly Blade decided against taking the Hovercraft out to one of the
small islands in the middle of the lake. They'd be safer from the Tribes
there, but they'd also have to battle the waves. Even if they didn't run into
trouble on the way, they might find themselves stranded on the island until
the wind died.
He turned the Hovercraft onto the hard beach running south from the mouth of
the river and increased speed again. Kareena woke up, asked what he was doing,
listened to his explanation, and fell asleep again. Blade was happy to leave
her alone. Sleep would be better for her than anything he could do now.
Blade headed south along the lakeshore until he was sure they were far beyond
any territory the Doimari ever visited. Then he ran the Hovercraft up onto the
grassy hillside above the beach, cut the power, and woke Kareena. She shook
herself, climbed out, and stood in the long grass. The wind from the lake sent
her hair streaming out behind her. Blade alternated between watching her and
heating some emergency rations on the hotplate under the control panel.
Otherwise he was prepared to wait, then listen to whatever she would say to
him whenever she wanted to say it. Only after that would it make any sense for
him to speak.
The hours of Kareena's silence still tested Blade more than some of the
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battles he'd fought. She moved around as stiff-limbed as a wooden puppet, her
mouth tightly shut but her eyes wide and staring. It looked as though she
wouldn't believe she was safely out of Doimar until she'd taken in every
detail of the landscape. She drank some water but refused to eat or show an
unnecessary inch of skin. She kept her boots on and made a hood for her face
out of a spare piece of cloth. She even insisted on walking a hundred yards
away from the Hovercraft to empty her bladder. Blade didn't care for her
taking that risk, and said so.
"The Tribesmen are thinly scattered, but we don't know where they might pop
up. So why take chances?"
Kareena said nothing in reply-at least nothing in words. Instead her mask
broke again and a wild animal looked out at Blade. By sheer reflex he took two
steps backward and dropped into karate stance.
Before he could recover, Kareena was walking off into the grass. He didn't
waste his breath chasing her or even shouting. She wouldn't hear words, and if
he chased her she might break completely and plunge away into the wilderness.
She was like a brutally-treated horse. She'd have to set her own pace.
By the time Kareena wandered off for the third time it was midafternoon. The
wind was still rising, the waves were breaking hard on the beach, and the sky
was turning gray. Blade hoped Kareena would come back soon and not let herself
be caught outside the shelter of the Hovercraft by the storm.
By the time she'd been gone half an hour, Blade was pacing up and down outside
the Hovercraft like a caged lion. He had to wonder if she might have finally
run off. If so, the coming storm would make it almost impossible for him to
pick up her trail.
Blade paced for a few minutes longer, then decided to throw caution to the
rising winds. He hadn't brought Kareena this far simply to let her die in the
wilderness. He went back inside the Hovercraft, and when he came out he was
carrying a laser rifle and his jacket pockets were full of hand grenades.
Although Kareena hadn't left much of a trail he could follow, Blade knew which
way she'd gone. He tramped up the hill, rifle in hand and eyes searching the
landscape ahead. By the time the Hovercraft was out of sight behind him, the
day had faded to a weird half-twilight and the wind was turning cold.
A mile inland he came over the crest of a low ridge and found himself looking
down into a narrow valley where a few stunted trees grew among the rocks.
Kareena was tied to one of those trees, her face pale and blood running down
her chin. Seven men in ragged outfits of leather and fur were standing around
her or sitting by a small fire. All of them had swords or spears, and one of
them had a battered laser rifle as well.
Blade felt like raising his own rifle and blasting away but knew the men down
there could easily kill
Kareena before they went down themselves. He'd try diplomacy first, rather
than brute force. The fact that Kareena was still clothed and apparently not
badly hurt suggested that those Tribesmen might listen to argument.
Blade slung his rifle aside, but unbuttoned the flaps over the pockets where
he carried the grenades.
They would be his ace in the hole, if he could use them without hurting
Kareena. Then he stood up, his empty hands held in clear sight. The Tribesmen
shouted and pointed, then the largest of them stepped away from the fire,
repeating Blade's gesture. So far so good. Blade started down into the valley.
The exchange of peace gestures was the last bit of clear communication for
several minutes. It wasn't that Blade didn't understand the language of the
Tribesmen. It was a recognizable dialect of the universal language of the
Land. The problem was that they hardly used the language to communicate,
preferring an elaborate code of grunts, gestures, and headshakes which they
seemed to expect Blade to, understand.
Perhaps the Doimari or other city traders did, but as far as he was concerned
the Tribesmen might have been speaking some South American Indian language
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he'd never even heard of, let alone learned! The computer's work on his brain
was no help at all.
After a while the leader seemed to understand that what they had here was a
failure to communicate. He waved his followers back and stepped close to
Blade. Blade felt like gagging at the chief's smell.
"Your woman?" he said, pointing at Kareena.
"My woman."
"You are in land of Hoirccchhh." Or at least the name of the tribe sounded
like that to Blade.
"I have heard of the Hoirccchhh," said Blade, hoping he'd pronounced it right.
"They are a strong and brave people."
The chief smiled. "Yes. Strong and brave. We take a price to come on our land.
You pay with this woman for us, for tonight."
Blade saw Kareena stiffen and had to fight not to do so himself. The chief was
asking for the right to gang-rape Kareena as the price of peace between him
and Blade. Blade wondered if he hadn't wasted everybody's time trying to be
diplomatic.
"My woman is not strong," he said in a level voice.
"Then why you keep her?" said the chief. "You are strong warrior, need strong
woman to give you sons."
"She is strong enough for me," said Blade. He noticed that the seven men were
now forming a circle around him. The man with the laser rifle was in plain
sight, though. Also, the men were now all out of easy reach of Kareena.
"She strong enough for you, strong enough for us," said the chief bluntly.
"You pay for coming on our land with her, or some other way."
Blade was tempted to play for time by seeming to agree, then Kareena raised
her head. The trapped look in her eyes drove the temptation out of Blade. He
wasn't going to add anything to Kareena's
burden, even if it meant greater danger for him.
Unfortunately the chief seemed to take Blade's look as a sign of agreement. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]