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. We may not take the kaiila in, said one of the guards. We have water sufficient for the return trip, said another,  moving at anunimpeded pace.To my amazement I saw one of the guards unlocking the stomach-chain andmanacles of one of the prisoners.Already the man s slave hood had beenremoved.And we had, already, been freed of the neck chain.I looked about, through half-shut eyes.I stood unsteadily.I counted.Therewere twenty prisoners standing in the crusts.I shuddered.Hamid rode to my side.He had wiped his blade in the mane of his kaiila.Heresheathed the blade.I felt the heat.We stood on a crest, overlooking abroad, shallow valley.file:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor.html (227 of 353) [1/21/03 7:52:03 PM]10 Tribesmen of GorHamid leaned down. There, he said, pointing into the broad valley. Can yousee? Yes, I said.In the distance, below, perhaps five pasangs away, in the hot, concave, whitesalt bleakness, like a vast, white, shallow bowl, pasangs wide, there werecompounds, low, white buildings of mud brick, plastered.There were many ofthem.They were hard to see in the distance, in the light, but I could makethem out. Klima, said Hamid. I have made the march to Klima, said one of the prisoners.He cried out,elatedly,  I have made the march to Klima! It was the man who had, for manyof the days, cried out for us to be slain.It was he who had, since the noonhalt of four days ago, been silent.I looked at the prisoners.We looked at one another.Our bodies were burnedblack by the sun.The flesh, in many places, had cracked.Lighter coloredflesh could be seen beneath.There was salt on us, to our thighs.The leatherwrappings about our legs were in tatters.Our necks and bodies were abraded,raw from collar and chain.In the last days we had been denied salt.Ourbodies were cruel with cramps and weakness.But we stood, all of us, andstraight, for we had come to Klima.Twenty had come to Klima.The first prisoner, whose bonds had been removed, was thrust in the directionPage 160ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlof the compounds.He began to stagger down the slope toward the valley,slipping in the crusts, sometimes sinking in to his knees.One by one the prisoners were freed.None attempted to flee into the desert.Each, as he was freed, began to trudge toward Klima.There was nowhere else togo.The man, who had cried out,  I have made the match to Klima! was freed.Hestaggered toward the compounds, running, half falling, down the long slope.Hassan and I were freed.Together we trudged toward Klima, following thestraggling line of men before us.We came upon a figure, fallen in the salt.It was be who had run ahead, whohad cried out, disbelievingly, joyously,  I have made the march to Klima!We turned the body over in the salt. He is dead, said Hassan.Together, Hassan and I rose to our feet.Nineteen had come to Klima.I looked back once, to see Hamid, he who was in the fee of the Guard of thefile:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor.html (228 of 353) [1/21/03 7:52:03 PM]10 Tribesmen of GorDunes, the Salt Ubar, who was supposedly the faithful lieutenant to Shakar,captain of the Aretai.He turned his kaiila, and, with a scattering of salt,following the others, disappeared over the crest.I looked up toward the merciless sun.Its relentless presence seemed to fillthe sky.I looked down.About my left wrist, knotted, bleached in the sun, was a bit of slave silk.Onit, still, lingered the perfume of a slave girl, one who, purchased, had beenuseful toKurii, who had testified falsely against me at Nine Wells, who had,contemptuously, insolently, cast me a token of her consideration, a bit ofsilk and scent, to remember her by, when I served at Klima.I would not soonforget prettyVella.I would remember her well.I looked up at the sun again, and then, bitter, looked away.I put the wenchfrom my head.She was only a slave girl, only collar meat.The important work was that of Priest-Kings.Hassan and I had not found thesteel tower.We had failed.I was bitter.Then I followed Hassan, who had trudged on ahead, wading in the salt,following him toward Klima.15 T ZshalAt Klima, and other such areas, salt is an industry.Thousands serve there,held captive by the desert.Klima has its own water, but it is dependent oncaravans for its foods.These food stores are delivered to scouted areas somepasangs from the compounds, whence they are retrieved later by salt slaves.Similarly, the heavy cylinders of salt, mined and molded at Klima, are carriedon the backs of salt slaves from storage areas at Klima to storage areas inthe desert, whence they are tallied, sold and distributed to caravans.Thecylinders are standardized at ten stone, or a Gorean  Weight, which is someforty pounds.A normal kaiila carries ten such cylinders, five to a side.Astronger animal carries sixteen, eight to a side.The load is balanced, always.It is difficult for an animal, or man, ofcourse, to carry an unbalanced load.Most salt at Klima is white, but certainof the mines deliver red salt, red from ferrous oxide in its composition,which is called the RedSalt of Kasra, after its port of embarkation, at the juncture of the Upper andLowerfile:///F|/My%20Shared%20Folder/John%20Norm.%20Gor%2010%20-%20Tribesmen%20of%20Gor.html (229 of 353) [1/21/03 7:52:03 PM]Page 161ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html10 Tribesmen of GorFayeen.In Gor s geologic past it seems that the salt districts, like scatteredpuddles of crystalline residue, are what remains of what was once an inlandsalt sea or several such [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]