Renegade of Callisto
- Автор: Картер Лин Спрэг
- Серия: Callisto #8
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Renegade of Callisto». Краткое содержание книги:
Far from his adopted home, the Golden City of Shondakor, Koja, self-exiled insectoid of the Yathoon Horde, has blundered into the savage land he had renounced, accompanied only by little Taran, ward of Prince Jandar. Lost in the treacherous scarlet plains, the two are hurled to separate, unnamable fates —Taran forsaken in shackles, along with the lovely Princess Xara, while the renegade Koja is locked on a perilous course of vengeance for the evils done to his clan. All destinies collide at the Great Yathoon Games in the hidden valley of Sargol — the impenetrable citadel girdled by a seething mote of flames.
In the spine-tingling tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lin Carter again transports us to a strange and sublime landscape pulsating with the flash of swords, secret splendors, and ever-lurking danger.
Despite the unfriendliness Xara of Ganatol displayed toward him, Koja did what he could to make her burdens lighter, even taking upon himself certain of the dirtier tasks given to her by one-eyed Hoog, the slavemaster.
The first few times Koja did this, Xara pretended not to notice, although her curiosity was aroused. One who regards a Yathoon as a barely sentient lower life form does not expect to find them possessing the instincts of a gentleman. For this reason, Xara was intrigued by Koja’s protective ways and occasionally studied him intently when she did not think he might notice.
But on the sixth day after they were chained together, Koja deliberately interposed his body between the Ganatolian girl and the punishment of Hoog’s lash, and she could no longer ignore his peculiar behavior toward her.
It came about in this wise: they had been toiling together in the galley tent where the Yathoon prepared their food. Xara was weary from the long day’s labor and, when instructed to carry a huge platter of food into the adjoining tent where the chieftains ate, her ankle turned, she slipped, and spilled the food onto the ground. Hoog was upon her in a trice. Seizing her wrist, he twisted it cruelly and hurled her upon her face in the filth. But when he unlimbered his whip to beat her, suddenly Koja was there.
“Step aside, while I teach this female not to turn a feast into so much garbage,” growled Hoog, clashing his mandibles.
“It was my fault,” said Koja, “for I tripped her and made her drop the tray.”
“Your fault, was it?” snarled Hoog, making his whip sing in the air. “Then the punishment is yours as well!”
And while Xara lay there, petrified with astonishment, staring up with wide eyes, Koja stood with bent shoulders, stolidly and uncomplainingly accepting the bitter kiss of the lash that should have been hers. He did not utter a sound, and eventually Hoog wearied of whipping one who neither whimpered nor cowered, and turned away . to other business.
The Yathoon are not ordinarily a cruel people, for they seem to lack almost every emotion found in humanity, including the urge to be cruel as well as the impulse to be kind. Hoog, like his master Fanga, was somewhat unique in this respect, that they both seemed to faintly enjoy either inflicting pain upon the helpless or watching it being dealt out.
But they are essentially practical. An injured slave is a slave that can do less than an ordinary day’s work. Hence Koja was returned to his quarters so that the wounds caused by the whipping could be treated medically.
“Let me do that,” said an unexpected voice from behind Koja as he lay on a cot in order that his wounds might be cleansed. The next moment he felt the soft touch of human hands as they spread a soothing ointment which eased the sting of his cutsfor while the chitin armor is not easily cut, the cartilage which connects the plates of this armor is indeed vulnerable to such injuries.
Turning his head stiffly, he saw that the unguent was being gently applied to his back by none other than Xara of Ganatol.
That night they were chained together in the slave pens, and Koja without thinking arranged Xara’s sleeping-cloths for her.
“Why do you do things for me?” she murmured perplexedly. “Why did you accept the punishment that was my due because it was caused by my own clumsiness? Always I have thought that capoks are immune to kindness and to sentiment, yet you seem to possess these emotions.”
“I have learned gentle ways from gentle masters,” said Koja. “For I believe that I am the first of my race to have learned the meaning of the word `friendship.’ And I have learned also that a kindness given freely is oft repaid a thousand times over. Even a capok, my Princess, is capable of learning.”
The girl from Ganatol flushed scarlet to hear that word from Koja, and she bit her lip in vexation. A while later she spoke, in a subdued voice.
“Forgive me for calling you a capok, Yathoon.”
“I forgive it freely, for the word was spoken in ignorance,” said Koja.
“Have you … a name?” she asked shyly. “Mine is Xara of Ganatol.”
“My name is Koja, Princess.”
“How do you know that I am a princess … Koja?” the girl murmured.
The Yathoon warrior explained that Borak of the Haroob Clan had told him something of the circumstances surrounding her capture, and that she was a daughter of the royal house of Ganatol and had been en route to Shondakor the Golden when seized by Fanga’s warriors.
“That is true,” she sighed. “By now my royal father will have become convinced of my death, or of the futility of my mission to Shondakor, or perhaps of both.”
Koja surveyed the despondent girl, his glittering, jeweled eyes expressionless, his armored features inscrutable.
“I, too, desire nothing so. much as to reach the Golden City of the Ku Thad, together with my small human friend, the boy Taran,” he confessed. “Perhaps we can yet be of assistance to each other in securing our freedom, and together we can find our way to Shondakor. Two heads are better than one, as I have often heard Jandar remark.”
She glanced at him, surprised.
“Why should a Yathoon of the Horde seek the city of the Ku Thad? And how came you to be upon such close terms with Prince Jandar―if it is truly he of whom you speak?”
Koja patiently explained that he had long been resident in Shondakor the Golden, and that he was a courtier in the retinue of Prince Jandar, whom he accounted his first and oldest friend. Xara may perhaps be forgiven for viewing this information with some certain suspicion, for chieftains of the Yathoon have never been known to entertain friendly relations with the human beings who share their planet with them. And yet―and yet …
“Come to think of it,” she whispered doubtfully, “I have. heard it related that the two courtiers closest to the heart of Jandar of Shondakor are a swordmaster, whose natal city is my own―”
“My friend Lukor,” nodded Koja. “With perhaps the single exception of Jandar himself, the finest swordsman on all of Thanator―”
“―and a renegade Yathoon,” the girl finished breathlessly, “whose name I do not recall.”
“Myself,” said Koja solemnly. `
“We must talk further of these matters,” the Princess of Ganatol concluded doubtfully. Koja somberly agreed; he guessed that it had occurred to the Princess that he could have been an agent of Fanga, planted among the slaves to sniff out mischief by gaining the confidence of his fellow captives.
But there was nothing that he could think of to say that might reassure her.
While Koja found his new condition of slavery naturally irksome and degrading, Taran adjusted to the situation more easily and swiftly. Nobody paid any particular attention to the youngster. The reason for this was that to the Yathoon, an immature youth is not a full member of the tribal community, and is generally ignored and left to fend for himself.
Once beyond the years of infancy, the Yathoon young manage to attach themselves to the following of one of the warriors or chieftains, for whom they perform menial labor in exchange for training in the use of weapons. These adolescent Yathoon are considered “cadets,” and barely possess a personal identity of their own in the eyes of their masters, who in the majority of cases do not even know their names: they, are anonymous and virtually invisible. Taran fell into this classification.
He was mainly supposed to keep out (c)f the way and not make a nuisance of himself. True, he was chained in the slave pens at night along with the other captives, but during the days he was seldom assigned to any work groups.
This left Taran comparatively free and unobserved, and gave him considerable freedom of movement. He soon attached himself to the Princess of Ganatol, to stay with her and assist her on those occasions when Koja was assigned elsewhere. Xara used these opportunities to question the boy, who spoke freely of Shondakor and carelessly confirmed Koja’s high position at court and his close relationship with Jandar.