Deathworld Vol2 Part 3

"You're a liar!"

"Hate you, Fasimba!"

"Hate you, Ch'aka! Where's the other one?"

"Got a good one. Stranger from the ocean. He can tell you funny stories, work hard."

Jason turned in time to avoid the full force of the kick, but it was still strong enough to knock him sprawling. Before he could get up, Ch'aka had clutched Mikah Samon by the arm and dragged him across the invisible line to the other group of slaves. Fasimba stalked over to examine him, prodding him with a spiked toe.

"Don't look good. Big hole on the head."

"He works hard," Ch'aka said. "Hole almost healed. He very strong."

"You give me new one if he dies?" Fasimba asked doubtfully.

"I'll give you. Hate you, Fasimba!"

"Hate you, Ch'aka!"

The slave herds were prodded to their feet and moved back the way they had come.

Jason shouted to Ch'aka. 'Wait! Don't sell my friend. We work better together. You can get rid of someone else. .

The slaves gaped at this sudden outburst and Ch'aka wheeled, raising his club.

"You shut up. You're a slave. You tell me once more to do what and I kill you."

Jason kept still, since it was obvious that this was the only thing he could do. He had a few qualms about Mikah's possible fate: if he survived the wound, he was certainly not the type to bow to the inevitabilities of slave-holding life. But Jason had done his best to save him, and that was that. Now Jason would think about Jason for a while.

They made a brief march before dark, just until the other slaves were out of sight; then they stopped for the night. Jason settled himself into the lee of a mound that broke the force of the wind a bit and unwrapped a piece of scorched meat he had salvaged from the earlier feast. It was tough and oily, but far superior to the barely edible krenoj that made up the greater part of the native diet. He chewed noisily on the bone and watched while one of the other slaves sidled over towards him.

"Give me some your meat?" the slave asked in a whining voice, and only when she had spoken did Jason realize that this was a girl; all the slaves looked alike in their matted hair and skin wrappings. He ripped off a chunk of meat.

"Here. Sit down and eat it. What's your name?" In exchange for his generosity, he intended to get some information from the girl.

"Ijale." Still standing, she tore at the meat, held tightly in one fist while the index finger of her free hand scratched in her tangled hair.

"Where do you come from? Did you always live here-like this?" How do you ask a slave if she has always been a slave?

"Not here. I come from Bul'wajo first, then Fasimba, now I belong to Ch'aka."

'What or who is Bul'wajo? Someone like our boss Ch'aka?"

She nodded, gnawing at the meat.

"And the d'zertanoj that Fasimba gets his arrows from-who are they?"

"You don't know much," she said, finishing the meat and licking the grease from her fingers.

"I know enough to have meat when you don't have any-so don't abuse my hospitality. Who are the d'zertanoj?"

"Everyone knows who they are." She shrugged with incomprehension and looked for a soft spot in the sand to sit down. "They live in the desert. They go around in caroj. They stink. They have many nice things. One of them gave me my best thing. If I show it to you, you won't take it?"

"No, I won't touch it. But I would like to see anything they have made.

Here, here's some more meat. Now let me see your best thing."

Ijale rooted in her skins for a hidden pocket and dragged out something concealed in her clenched fist. She held out her hand proudly and opened it, and there was enough light left for Jason to make out the rough form of a red gla.s.s bead.

"Isn't this very nice?" she asked.

"Very nice," Jason agreed, and for an instant felt a touch of real compa.s.sion when he looked at the pathetic bauble. This girl's ancestors had come to this planet in s.p.a.ceships, with a knowledge of the most advanced sciences. Cut off, their children had degenerated into this: barely conscious slaves, who could prize a worthless piece of gla.s.s above all things.

"All right now," Ijale said, settling into the sand on her back. She unwrapped some skins and began to pull the others up around her waist.

"Relax," Jason told her. "The meat was a present-you don't have to pay for it."

"You don't want me?" she asked, surprised; pulling the skins back over her bare legs. "You do not like me? You think I am too ugly?"

"You're lovely," Jason lied. "Let's just say that I'm too tired."

Was the girl ugly or lovely? He couldn't tell. Her unwashed and tangled hair covered half of her face, while dirt threw an obscuring film over the rest. Her lips were chapped raw, and a red, bruise covered one cheek.

"Let me stay with you tonight, even if you are too old to want me. Mzil'kazi wants me all the time, and he hurts me. See, there he is now."

The man she pointed to was watching from a healthy distance and skittered back even further when Jason looked up.

"Don't worry about Mzil'," Jason said. "We settled our relationship the first day I was here. You may have noticed the b.u.mp on his head." He reached for a rock and the watcher ran swiftly away.

"I like you. I'll show you my best thing again."

"I like you too. No, not now. Too many good things too fast will only spoil me. Good night."

5.

Ijale stayed near Jason the next day, and took the next station in line when the endless krenoj hunt began. Whenever it was possible he questioned her, and before noon had extracted all of her meager knowledge of affairs beyond the barren coastal plain where they lived. The ocean was a mystery that produced edible animals, fish, and an occasional human corpse. Ships could be seen from time to time offsh.o.r.e, but nothing was known about them. On the other side the territory was bounded by desert even more inhospitable than the one in which they scratched out their existence-a waste of lifeless sand, habitable only by the d'zertanoj and their mysterious caroj. These last might be animals- or perhaps mechanical transportation of some kind; either was possible from Ijale's vague description. Ocean, coast, and desert-these made up all of her world, and she could conceive of nothing that might exist beyond.

Jason knew there was more; the crossbow was proof enough of that, and he had every intention of finding out where it came from. In order to do that he was going to have to change his slave status when the proper time came. He was developing a certain facility in dodging Ch'aka's heavy boot; the work was never hard, and there was ample food. Being a slave left him with no responsibilities other than obeying orders, and he had ample opportunity to discover what he could about this planet, so that when he finally did leave he would be as well prepared as was possible.

Later in the day another column of marching slaves was sighted in the distance, on a course paralleling their own, and Jason expected a repeat performance of the previous day's meeting. He was agreeably surprised that it was not. The sight of the others threw Ch'aka into an immediate rage that sent his slaves rushing for safety in all directions. By leaping into the air, howling with anger, and beating his club against his thick leather armor, he managed to work himself into quite a state before starting off on a slogging run. Jason followed close behind him, greatly interested by this new turn of affairs.

Ahead of them the other group of slaves scattered, and from their midst burst another armed and armored figure. The two leaders churned towards each other at top speed, and Jason hoped for a shattering crash when they met.

However, they slowed before they hit and began circling each other, spitting curses.

"Hate you, M'shika!"

"Hate you, Ch'aka!"

The words were the same, but they were shouted with fierce meaning, with no touch of formality this time.

"Kill you, M'shika! You coming again on my part of the ground with your carrion-meat slaves!"

"You lie, Ch'aka-this ground mine from way back."

"I kill you way back!"

Ch'aka leaped in as he screamed the words and swung a blow with his club that would have broken the other man in two if it had connected. But M'shika was expecting this and fell back, swinging a counterblow with his own club, which Ch'aka easily avoided. There followed a quick exchange of clubwork that did little more than fan the air, until suddenly both men were locked together and the fight began in earnest.

They rolled together on the ground, grunting savagely, tearing at each other. The heavy clubs were of no use this close and were dropped in favor of knives and knees: Jason could understand now why Ch'aka had the long tusks strapped to his kneecaps. It was a no-holds-barred fight, and each man was trying as hard as possible to kill his opponent. The leather armor made this difficult and the struggle continued, littering the sand with broken-off animal teeth, discarded weapons, and other debris. It looked as if it would be a draw, when both men separated for a breather; but they dived right back in again.

It was Ch'aka who broke the stalemate when he plunged his dagger into the ground and on the next roll caught the handle in his mouth. Holding his opponent's arms in both his hands he plunged his head down and managed to find a weak spot in the other's armor. M'shika howled and pulled free, and when he climbed to his feet blood was running down his arm and dripping from his fingertips. Ch'aka jumped after him but the wounded man grabbed up his club in time to ward off the charge.

Stumbling backward, he managed to pick up most of his discarded weapons with his wounded arm and beat a hasty retreat. Ch'aka ran after him a short way, shouting praise of his own strength and abilities and of his opponent's cowardice. Jason saw a short, sharp horn from some sea animal lying in the churned-up sand and quickly picked it up before Ch'aka turned back.

Once his enemy had been chased out of sight, Ch'aka carefully searched the battle ground and salvaged anything of military value. Though there were still some hours of daylight left, he signaled that this was a halt and distributed the evening ration of krenoj.

Jason sat and chewed his portion reflectively, while Ijale leaned against his side, her shoulder moving rhythmically as she scratched some hidden mite. Lice were inescapable; they hid in the crevices of the badly cured hides and emerged to the warmth of human flesh. Jason had his quota of the pests, and found his scratching keeping time with hers. This syncopation of scratching triggered the anger that had been building within him, slow and unnoticed.

"I'm serving notice," he said, jumping to his feet. "I'm through with this slave business. Which way is the nearest spot in the desert where I can find the d'zertanoj?"

"Over there, a two-day walk. How are you going to kill Ch'aka?"

"I'm not going to kill Ch'aka, I'm just leaving. I've enjoyed his hospitality and his boot long enough."

"You can't do that," she gasped. "You will be killed."

"Ch'aka can't very well kill me if I'm not here."

"Everybody will kill you. That is the law. Runaway slaves are always killed."

Jason sat down again and cracked another chunk from his kreno and ruminated over it. "You've talked me into staying a while. But I have no particular desire now to kill Ch'aka, even though he did steal my boots. And I don't see how killing him will help me any."

"You are stupid. After you kill Ch'aka you'll be the new Ch'aka. Then you can do what you want."

Of course. Now that he had been told, the social setup appeared obvious.

Because he had seen slaves and slaveholders, Jason had held the mistaken notion that they were different cla.s.ses of society, when in reality there was only one cla.s.s, what might be called the dog-eat-dog cla.s.s. He should have been aware of this when he had seen how careful Ch'aka was never to allow anyone within striking distance of him, and how he vanished each night to some hidden spot.

This was free enterprise with a vengeance, carried to its absolute extreme, with every man out for himself, every other man's hand turned against him, and your station in life determined by the strength of your arm and the speed of your reflexes. Anyone who stayed alone placed himself outside this society and was therefore an enemy of it and sure to be killed on sight. All of which added up to the fact that he had to kill Ch'aka if he wanted to get ahead. He still had no desire to do it; nevertheless he had to.

That night Jason watched Ch'aka when he slipped away from the others, and made a careful note of the direction that he took Of course the slave-master would circle about before he concealed himself, but with a little luck Jason would find him. And kill him. He had no special love of midnight a.s.sa.s.sination, and until landing on this planet he had always believed that killing a sleeping man was a cowardly way to terminate another's existence. But special conditions demand special solutions, and he was no match for the heavily armored man in open combat; therefore the a.s.sa.s.sin's knife-or rather, the sharpened horn.

He managed to doze fitfully until some time after midnight; then he slipped silently from under his skin coverings. Ijale knew he was leaving; he could see her open eyes in the starlight, but she did not move nor say a word. Silently he skirted the sleepers and crept into the darkness between the dunes.

Finding Ch'aka in the wilderness of the desert night was not easy, but Jason persisted. He made careful sweeps in wider and wider arcs, working his way out from the sleeping slaves. There were gullies and shadowed ravines, and all of them had to be searched with utmost care. The slavemaster must be sleeping in one of them and would be alert for any sound.

The fact that Ch'aka had taken special precautions to guard against a.s.sa.s.sination was apparent to Jason only after he heard the bell ring. It was a tiny sound, barely detectable, but he froze instantly. There was a thin strand pressing against his arm, and when he drew back carefully the bell sounded again. He cursed silently for his stupidity, remembering only now about the bells he had heard before from Ch'aka's sleeping site. The slaver must surround himself every night with a network of string that would sound alarm bells if anyone attempted to approach in the dark. Slowly and soundlessly Jason drew back deeper into the gully.

With a thud of rushing feet Ch'aka appeared, swinging his dub around his head and coming directly towards Jason. Jason rolled desperately sideways and the dub crashed into the ground, then he was up and running at top speed down the gully. Rocks twisted under his feet and he knew that if he tripped he was dead, but he had no choice other than flight. The heavily armored Ch'aka could not keep up with him, and Jason managed to stay on his feet until the other was left behind. Ch'aka shouted with rage and hurled curses after him, but he could not catch him. Jason, panting for breath, vanished into the darkness.

He made a slow circle back towards the sleeping camp. He knew the noise would have roused them and he stayed away for an estimated hour, shivering in the icy predawn, before he slipped back to his waiting skins. The sky was beginning to grey and he lay awake wondering if he had been recognized: he didn't think he had.

As the red sun climbed above the horizon Ch'aka appeared on top of the dunes, shaking with rage.

"Who did it?" he screamed. "Who came in night?" He stalked among them, glaring right and left, and no one stirred except to draw away from his stamping feet. "Who did it?" he shouted again as he came near the spot where Jason lay.

Five slaves pointed silently at Jason, and Ijale shuddered and drew away from him.

Cursing their betrayal, Jason sprang up and ran from the whistling club.

He had the sharpened horn in his hand but knew better than to try and stand up to Ch'aka in open combat, there had to be another way. He looked back quickly and saw his enemy still following, and in doing so he narrowly missed tripping over the outstretched leg of a slave.

They were all against him! They were all against each other, and no man was safe from any other man's hand. He ran free of the slaves and scrambled to the top of a shifting dune, pulling himself up the steep slope by clutching at the coa.r.s.e gra.s.s. He turned at the top and kicked sand into Ch'aka's face, trying to blind him, but the slave-master swung down his crossbow and notched a steel quarrel, and Jason had to run. Ch'aka chased him again, panting heavily.

Jason was tiring now, and he knew this was the best time to launch a counterattack. The slaves were out of sight, and it would be a battle between only the two of them. Scrambling up a slope of broken rock, he reversed himself suddenly and leaped back down. Ch'aka was taken by surprise and had his dub only half raised when Jason was upon him, and he swung wildly. Jason ducked under the blow and used Ch'aka's momentum to help throw him as he grabbed the dub arm and pulled.

Face down, the armored man crashed against the stones, and Jason was straddling his back even as he fell, clutching for his chin. He lacerated his fingers on a jagged tooth necklace, then grasped the man's thick beard and pulled back.

For a single long instant, before he could writhe free and roll over, Ch'aka's head was stretched back, and in that instant Jason plunged the sharp horn deep into the soft flesh of the throat. Hot blood burst over his hand and Ch'aka shuddered horribly under him, and died.

Jason climbed to his feet, suddenly exhausted. He was alone with his victim. The cold wind swept about them, carrying the rustling grains of sand, chilling the sweat on his body. Sighing once, he wiped his b.l.o.o.d.y hands on the sand and began to strip the corpse. Thick straps held the sh.e.l.l helmet over the dead man's head, and when he unknotted them and pulled the helmet away he saw that Ch'aka was well past middle age. There was some grey in his beard, and his scraggly hair was completely grey; his face and balding head were pallid white from being concealed under the helmet.

It took a long time to get the wrappings and armor off and tie them on himself, but it was finally done. Under the skin and claw wrapping& on Ch'aka's feet were Jason's boots, filthy but undamaged, and Jason drew them on happily.

When at last, after scouring the helmet out with sand, he had strapped it on, Ch'aka was reborn. The corpse on the sand was just another dead slave. Jason sc.r.a.ped a shallow grave, interred the body, and covered it.

Then, slung about with weapons, bags, and crossbow, the club in his hand, he stalked back to the waiting slaves. As soon as he appeared they scrambled to their feet and formed a line. Jason saw Ijale looking at him worriedly, trying to discover who had won the battle.

"Score one for the visiting team," he called out, and she gave him a small, frightened smile and turned away. "About face all, and head back the way we came. There is a new day dawning for you slaves. I know you don't believe this yet, but there are some big changes in store."

He whistled while he strolled after the line and chewed happily on the first kreno that was found.

6.

That evening they built a fire on the beach and Jason sat with his back to the safety of the sea. He took his helmet off-the thing was giving him a headache- and called Ijale over to him.