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.Oddly, I was now cold.It was the Tahari night.I could see the stars, thethree moons.The two guards had now gone. By noon tomorrow, we shall be dead. said Hassan.I moved the stake again, to which my right wrist was fastened, another quarterof an inch.Then, slowly, bit by bit, I drew it from the crusts.Hassan s face was turned toward me. Do not speak, I told him.With the freed stake and my right hand, I rolled to my left and attacked thecrusts about the stake that held my left wrist down.Then I bad it free, andwith my teeth and right hand, freed my left wrist of its impediment, then Ifreed my ankles of the straps. Save yourself, said Hassan. I cannot walk. I freed him of the restraints at his wrists, then of those which held hisankles.To my right wrist, dangling, hung the stake I had first drawn from thecrusts. Leave, Raid Hassan. I cannot walk! I bent down and lifted him to his feet.I supported him with my left arm abouthis waist.His right arm was about my shoulder.We looked up.About us, in a dark cloud, scimitars drawn, were more than a dozen men.file:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor.html (256 of 353) [1/21/03 7:52:04 PM]10 Tribesmen of GorI seized the stake in my right fist, to do war with steel.The men about us parted.I saw, among them, carried on a sedan chair, thefigure of T Zshal.The chair was placed before us. T Zshal! I cried.He regarded us, under the moons. Are you still determined to enter the desert? he asked.Page 180 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html We are, I said. Your water is ready, he said.Two men, with yoke bags, falling before their body, on each side, steppedforward. We sewed together several talu bags, said T Zshal, to make these. I was stunned. I hoped, said T Zshal, to teach you the sun and the lack of water, that youmight be dissuaded from your madness. You have well taught us, T Zshal, said I, the lack of water and the meaningof the sun. He nodded his head. You will now, at least with understanding, said he, enter the desert. He turned to a guard. Cut the stake from his wrist, hesaid.It was done.Then he turned to another guard, one with a one-talu bag,who had been one of the men who had watched us, when we had been staked out. Give them water, he said. You did not let me struggle in the straps, I said to the guard. You saved the life of T Zshal, said the man. I did not wish you to die. Then he gave Hassan and I to drink from the water he carried.Before we finished the bag, we passed it about the men, and T Zshal, that eachof us, there together, might have tasted it, the water from the same bag.Wehad, thus, in this act, shared water. You will, of course, said T Zshal, remain at Klima for some days, torecover your strength. We leave tonight, I told him. What of him? asked T Zshal, indicating Hassan. I can walk, said Hassan, straightening himself. I now have water. Yes, said T Zshal. You are truly of the Tahari. A man handed me a bag of food.It contained dried fruit, biscuits, salt.file:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor.html (257 of 353) [1/21/03 7:52:04 PM]10 Tribesmen of Gor My thanks, I said.We had not expected food. It is nothing, he said. Will you not, I asked T Zshal, in your turn, when your wounds heal, marchfrom Klima? No, said T Zshal. Why? I askedI have not forgotten the answer he gave me. I would rather be first at Klima than second in Tor, he said. I wish you well, said 1, T Zshal, Salt Master of Klima. Hassan and I turned and, with the water, and our supplies, into the nightdesert, took our way.We stopped outside the perimeter of Klima.From the place in the salt crusts,where I had hidden it, I took the faded, cracked bit of silk that had beenthrust in my collar on the march to Klima.I held it to my face, and to theface of Hassan. A trace of the perfume lingers, he said. Perhaps I should give it to those of Klima, I smiled. No, smiled Hassan. They would kill one another for it. But I had no wish to give it to any at Klima.Rather I wished to return it,personally, to a girl.I tied the bit of silk about my left wrist.Then together, under the Gorean moons, through the salt crusts, we began thetrek from Klima.We stopped once, on the height of the great shallow bowl, which enclosesKlima, to look back.We saw Klima white in the light of the three moons.Thenwe continued our journey.19 The Wind Blows from the East; We Encounter aPage 181 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlKurI heard Hassan cry out.Through the sand, I plunged toward him.He stood on the side of a dune, in the moonlight.There was a flattish, largeexpanse of rock, exposed by the wind, below him. I saw it there! he cried. I saw it. He pointed to the flattish extent ofrock.Thefile:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor.html (258 of 353) [1/21/03 7:52:04 PM]10 Tribesmen of Gor wind swept across it.I saw nothing.I It is madness, said Hassan. There is nothing there.I am mad. What did you see? I asked. A beast, he said. A large beast.It stood suddenly upright.Its arms werelong.It looked at me.Then it was gone. He shook his head. But it could nothave been there.There is nowhere for it to have gone. You describe a Kur, I conjectured. I have heard of them, said Hassan. Are they not mythical, creatures ofstories? Kurii exist, I said to him. No such beast could live in the desert, said Hassan. No, I said, such a beast could not live in the desert
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