Jack L. Chalker Rings 1 Lords Of The M

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enemies will be upon us at any moment."
They went back down to the canoe, which, in their new mind-set, seemed a real
luxury to them. They crossed the river before the light failed and continued
south, slowly and very near shore, looking for a proper camp. Then, working as
a team, they left the river, methodically covered or disguised all traces that
anyone had ever landed there, and carried the canoe well inland.
Academically and from old experience, Hawks understood what was going on what
the program was designed to do and what it was doing to them but he did not
fight it. It was the first thing he'd done by chance that had turned out
right, and he was going to use it. Neither woman, of course, could understand
the process and know how to fight it, anyway. For all the People, the
priorities were family, then tribe, then nation. By accident, the survival
program had reoriented those three categories to go with different labels.
Their loyalty was to him now, and he to them they were their own tribe. The
threatening wilderness and the treacherous yet mighty river were their friends
and allies against all other tribes and nations.
He got one of the bottles from the archaeologist's pack and opened it.
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Primitive hunter-gatherers they might now be, but they could neither hunt nor
gather in this darkness and strange wood. Food would wait until dawn.
"There is energy in this fire drink, which is called bourbon," he told them.
"We must use it for now, although too much will cause dullness and throbbing
heads
the next day. Drink in celebration, for now we are one."
They drank, all coughing as it made its way down. "It is like a fire inside
that warms," Cloud Dancer noted. "Now I see why it is called fire drink." But
they finished it off.
When the bottle was empty, he broke it on a stone and washed the sharp point
in the river. "Until now I had a wife who stands here. Now I have two wives,
and they are proven warriors as well, as brave as any man and as skilled."
Silent
Woman gave a short gasp, and he realized that until now she'd still considered
herself a slave his slave. "Tonight we will mix our blood and bind ourselves
forever to one another."
Three cuts on three wrists were joined one after the other, then all together.
And then, full of togetherness and in the knowledge that they were as safe as
they could expect and could do nothing more until morning, and being loosened
with bourbon, the two ministered to him and he to them on the forest floor,
and they slept entwined together.
* * *
"You assholes just stood there and let him steal a damned mindprint machine?"
Raven was aghast.
"And twenty bottles of good bourbon," the archaeologist chief added
mournfully.
"It was only a portable unit. Not programmable. I can't imagine what good
it'll do him."
"It'll make those bitches linguists," Raven replied. "Make it a lot easier
moving south. You tell me quick what the nonlanguage cartridges were. I want
to see just who and what we're dealing with now."
The survival cartridge's importance did not escape the Crow. "They've shown
themselves to be right resourceful up to now," he told Warlock. "Now they can
avoid all human company and still fill their bellies. Probably do better with
the canoe, too."
"I have studied the charts," she responded. "If they get south of the
Arkansas, they are going to be in a region that is heavily populated and
thickly traveled.
He picked this place because it is of Council; his actions here will not
affect his relations with the tribes. Down there he cannot escape detection or
at least notice. The tattooed woman stands out in any situation. I cannot
understand why he keeps her along. He must know that."
"Oh, he'll keep her," the Crow assured Warlock. "He's incurred an obligation,
and that's an honorable man there. Still, the more people, the harder to use
sensors to find a camp. We can't hardly roust every camp we find. Some of the
tribes down there get a mite touchy and wouldn't be at all impressed with
Council. My feeling is that we ought to pack it in, call in a skimmer, and
wait for 'em at Mud Runner's place."
"Only as a last resort. If we were to spook him there, in those swamps, we
might get him killed or lose him forever. We don't know where he thinks he's
going, but he does, and he is one single-minded man. Whatever he knows, he
believes it
is worth any price."
"Well, I got to admit I don't like the odds down there," he said. "He's a
stranger there, true, but so are we, and, pardon, we're just as conspicuous as
he is. Those swamps have defeated just about everybody who ever tried to beat
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'em rather than live with 'em. You got any ideas?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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