“I came for you,” said Kta. “You are also of Elas, though you cannot continue our rites or perpetuate our blood. When the Methi struck at you, she struck at us. We are of one house, you and I. Until one or the other of us is dead, we are left hand and right. You have no leave to go your way. I do not give it.”
He spoke as lord of Elas, which was his right now. The bond Mim had forged reasserted itself. Kurt bowed his head in respect.
“Where shall we go now?” Kurt asked. “And what shall we do?”
“We go north,” said Kta. “Light of heaven, I knew at
once where you must go, and I am sure the Methi does, but it would have been more convenient if you had brought your ship to earth in the far north. The Ome Sin is a closed bottle in which the Methi’s ships can hunt us at their pleasure. If we cannot escape its neck and reach the northern seas, you and I are done, my friend, and all these brave friends who have come with me,”
“Is Bel here?” Kurt asked, for about him he saw many familiar faces, but he feared greatly for t’Osanef and Aimu if they had elected to stay in Nephane. T’efur might carry revenge even to them.
“No,” said Kta. “Bel is Sufaki, and his father needs him desperately just now. For all of us who have come, there is no way back, not as long as Djan rules. But she has no heir. And being human… there is no dynasty. We are prepared to wait.”
Kurt hoped silently that he had not given her one. That would be the ultimate bitterness, to ruin these good men by that, when he had brought them all to this pass.
“Break camp,” said Kta. “We start-”
Something hissed and struck against flesh, and all the camp exploded into chaos.
“Kta!” a man cried warning, and went down with a feathered shaft in his throat. About them in the dawn-dim clearing poured a horde of- howling creatures that Kurt knew for his own kind. One of the nemet pitched to the ground almost at his feet with his face a bloody smear, and in the next moment a crushing blow across the back brought Kurt down across him.
Rough hands jerked him up, and his shock-dazed eyes looked at a bearded human face. The man seemed no less surprised, stayed the blow of his ax, then bellowed an order to his men.
The killing stopped, the noise faded.
The human put out his bloody hand and touched Kurt’s face, his hair-shrouded eyes dull and mused with confusion. “What band?” he asked.
“I came by ship,” Kurt answered him. “By starship.”
The Tamurlin’s blue eyes clouded, and with a snarl he took the front of Kurt’s nemet garb and ripped it off his shoulder, as though the nemet dress gave the lie to his claim. But then there was a cry of awe from the humans
gathered around. One took his sun-browned arm and held
it up against Kurt’s pale shoulder and turned to his comrades, seeking their opinion. m
“A man from shelters,” he cried, “a ship-dweller.
“He came in the ship,” another shouted, “in the ship, the
ship.”
They all shouted the ship, the ship, over and over again, and danced around and flashed their weapons. Kurt looked around at the carnage they had made in the clearing, his heart pounding with dread at seeing one and another man he knew lying there. He prayed Kta had escaped-some had dived for the brush.
He had not. Kta lay on his face by the fire, unconscious- his breathing was visible.
“Kill the others,” said the leader of the Tamurlin. We keep the human.”
“No!” Kurt cried, and jerked ineffectually to free his
arms. His mind snatched at the first argument he could
find. “One of them is a nemet lord. He can bring you some
thing of value.”
1 “Point him out.” .
“There,” Kurt said, jerking his head to show him. Nearest the fire.”
“Let’s take all the live ones,” said another of the Tamurlin, with a look in his eyes that boded no good for the nemet. “Let’s deal with them tonight at the camp.”