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.
“Do you think he will be pleased or displeased when he learns that I have returned?” inquired Koja wryly.
The huntsman shrugged with a forward twitching of his knobbed antennae.
“He will be displeased, of course, for Gamchan has always feared and hated you, my komor,” he replied tonelessly.
“Why, then, did you offer me the salute due to a chieftain of the Horde, rather than taking me prisoner, which you could easily have done, since I bear no arms?” asked Koja.
“You were my komor once,” said Izon expressionlessly, “and you are still a komor of the Clan: how then could I deal toward you with disrespect?”
Koja said nothing, and they rode in silence for a time while he digested this valuable information.
The most surprising thing about it all was that Gamchan had not named him an outlaw. Nor, for that matter, had Pandol. This was truly a revelation to Koja, who had long since assumed that the warriors of his Clan had known or guessed that he had assisted Jandar and the Princess Darloona to escape. Now matters were cast in a completely different light, and suddenly the pattern became clear.
Something more than three and a half years before, Koja had permitted Jandar to escape from the captivity of the Horde; encountering Darloona in the jungles of the Grand Kumala, Jandar and the Princess did not enjoy freedom for very long, soon being recaptured by the Yathoon warriors. This time they were the slaves of Gamchan, a rival chieftain who had envied Koja his ownership of so rare an amatar as a human with yellow hair and blue eyes.
Gamchan had been struck down by Jandar in a quarrel; later, he had been about to deal “justice” to the rebellious slave who had dared to lift his hand against his master, but a sudden raid by the ornithopters of Prince Thuton, lord of the Sky Pirates, had thrown the encampment into turmoil; in the ensuing confusion, Koja had assisted the two humans to escape. All three had been captured by the Sky Pirates and were carried off together to Zanadar, the City in the Clouds.’
Now Koja realized that, in the confusion of the aerial attack, none of his fellow clansmen had noticed aught more than that Koja and the two humans had been captured by the Sky Pirates. Koja’s true role in their escape had gone unguessed. Therefore, he had never been declared aharj and still retained his rank among the Kandars, although it was doubtless believed that he was long since dead.
A chieftain retains his rank in the Horde until death, or until he has either been defeated by a challenger or has been officially declared an outlaw for some crime.
This simple fact totally altered the present circum stances. Suddenly, and most unexpectedly, Koja had found allies. And all might yet be well …
They entered the earthworks which surrounded the vast encampment of the Kandar Clan and at once made their way to the center of the camp, where Gamchan the high chief reposed.
There were many who recognized Koja as he rode through the rows of tents toward the residence of the akka-komor. And doubtless, in their coldly logical and unemotional way, there were many who were pleased at Koja’s return.
In his day he had been the mightiest chieftain of the Clan, second only to Pandol the high chief himself. As a chieftain of twenty tents, Koja had commanded a princely retinue, and his amatara―his treasure trove―was second to none.
Among the greatest chieftains of his Clan, he had been a warrior of high renown and a huntsman of enviable skill.
It was only natural, then, for the Kandars to be pleased at his miraculous return from the dead.
Gamchan, however, was not pleased at all. When he emerged from his tent at the exact center of the encampment and received the salute of Koja, he was about as surprised as a Yathoon can be. But he tried not to show it, as all of the chieftains and captains of the Kandars were in audience upon the scene.
“How is it that the former chieftain Koja returns to us after so long a time?” demanded Gamchan. “We believed you either enslaved by the Zanadarians or slain by them years ago.”
“I was indeed carried off into the captivity of the Sky Pirates,” replied Koja calmly, “and was long a slave in their city, toiling as a gladiator in the great Arena of Zanadar.”
“How, then, come you here?”
Koja shrugged. “In time there was a slave revolt, and in the battle I managed to escape,” he said simply. Gamchan looked dubious, as if guessing that Koja had left very much unsaid.
“And since then?” he prompted.
“My wanderings have been many,” said Koja expressionlessly, “and my adventures beyond the telling. Until just recently, I dwelt in Shondakor among the Ku Thad. Then, by an unhappy turn of Fate, I fell into the clutches of the Garukhs, who hold all of the Kandars in deadly enmity, as you know.”
“I know it well,” said Gamchan harshly. “It was that black devil Fanga who most opposed me for the high chieftaincy of the Kandars, even in view of my victory over Pandol in the duello! Tell me more. How did you escape from the villainous Garukhs, O Koja?”
Koja explained, having elicited the information from Izon during their journey hither. A hunting party of the Kandars had been organizing a drive of the vanth herds when one of the campfires ignited an accidental conflagration in the long prairie grasses, causing the mammoth herds, already in motion, to panic into a stampede. That stampede had shattered the Garukh caravan, destroying them utterly.
Gamchan looked mightily pleased at this information.
“Then the jealous and vindictive Fanga was trampled into red slime beneath the heavy hooves of the vanth herds, driven by my own proud and loyal Kandars?” he repeated gloatingly. “And he and all his warriors are slain?”
“I have no certain knowledge of the fact,” admitted Koja, “but I do not know how any of them could have escaped. I and my comrade here”―he indicated Borak with a gesture―“only narrowly escaped being trampled td death ourselves.”
Gamchan exclaimed in satisfaction.
“Then you return to us, 0 Koja, the bearer of excellent news! And we are pleased to welcome the former chieftain back to his people. Your `comrade,’ as you call him, will become one of my slaves. As for yourself, we can use you among the hunters, and with steady luck and faithful service you may again rise to a chieftaincy among us―‘
“I am already a chieftain of the Kandars and will remain one until my death,” Koja interrupted in a cold, level tone of voice. “You know as well as do I that this is the Law of the Clan, O Gamchan! I am a komor senior in rank to yourself, having attained to that rank long before you. Once it became mine, no one can deprive me of it.”
A murmur of agreement ran around the circle of listeners. But Gamchan looked surly and threatening, and it subsided.
“How can you be a chieftain, with no retinue to follow you in battle?” he asked skeptically.
Then it was that Borak spoke up.
“As for myself, I would rather walk in the retinue of Koja than be a slave in the shadow of Gamchan,” he said.
Others came forward, and among them were some of those who had served in the retinue of Koja aforetime as fullfledged warriors, like Sujat, or cadets like Izon.
“I, too,” said Izon, “would be numbered again in the retinue of Koja, my komor.”
“And I,” said Sujat and the others.
Gamchan looked angry, and if it had been within the limitations of the Yathoon physiognomy to scowl, he would have scowled―and thunderously.
“Your komor, is it?” he rasped. “And who has ever heard of a komor without a komor’s trove?”