23

Escape; Kisu Pays A Call On Tende

"Is she not beautiful?" whispered Ayari.

"Yes," I said.

"Be quiet," said an askari.

"Stand straight," said another askari. "Hold your heads up. Keep the line straight."

"Which is the one called Kisu?" asked an askari, wading up to us.

"I do not know," I said.

"That is he," said Ayari, indicating tall Kisu a few places from us.

Slowly the state platform was drawn toward us. It, fastened planks, extending across the thwarts of four long canoes, like pontoons, moved slowly toward us, drawn by chained slaves. On the platform, shaded by a silk canopy, was a low dais, covered with silken cushions.

"Why did you tell him which one of us was Kisu?" I asked.

"She would know him, would she not?" he asked.

"That is true," I said.

On the cushions, reclining, on one elbow, in yellow robes, embroidered with gold, in many necklaces and jewels, lay a lovely, imperious-seeming girl.

"It is Tende," whispered one of the men, "the daughter of Aibu, high chief of the Ukungu district."

We had known this, for the message of the drums, coming from the east, had preceded her.

On either side of Tende knelt a lovely white slave girl, strings of white shells about her throat and left ankle, a brief, tucked, wrap-around skirt of red-and-black-printed rep-cloth, her only garment, low on her belly, high and tight on her thighs. Both slaves were sweetly bodied. Each had marvelously flared hips. I found it hard to take my eyes from them. They were among the gifts which Bila Huruma had sent ahead to his projected companion, Tende. I smiled and licked my lips. Though they had been bought to be the serving slaves of a woman I had little doubt that their purchase had been effected by a male agent. In the hands of each of the slaves was a long-handled fan, terminating in a semicircle of colorful feathers. Gently, cooling her, they fanned their mistress.

I looked at the blond-haired barbarian, she who had been Janice Prentiss, who knelt now to my right, at Tende's left. She did not meet my eyes. Her lower lip trembled. She did not dare to give any sign that she recognized me.

About Tende's right wrist, I noted, fastened to it by a loop, was a whip.

"Stand straighter," said an askari.

We stood straighter.

On the raft, near Tende and her two lovely, bare-breasted white slaves, stood four askaris, men of Bila Huruma, in their skins and feathers, with golden armlets. Like most askaris they carried long, tufted shields and short stabbing spears. The daughter of Aibu, I gathered, was well guarded. Other askaris, too, waded in the water near the platform.

One other man, too, other than the askaris, stood upon the platform. It was Mwoga, wazir to Aibu, who was now conducting Tende to her companionship. I recognized him, having seen him earlier in the palace of Bila Huruma. He, like many in the interior, and on the surrounding plains and savannahs, north and south of the equatorial zone, was long-boned and tall, a physical configuration which tends to dissipate body heat. His face, like that of many in the interior, was tattooed. His tattooing, and that of Kisu, were quite similar. One can recognize tribes, of course, and, often, villages and districts by those tattoo patterns. He wore a long black robe, embroidered with golden thread, and a flat, soft cap, not unlike a common garb of Schendi, hundreds of pasangs distant. I had little doubt but what these garments had been gifts to him from the court of Bila Huruma. Bila Huruma himself, of course, in spite of the cosmopolitan nature of his court, usually wore the skins, and the gold and feathers, of the askari. It was not merely that they constituted his power base, and that he wished to flatter them. It was rather that he himself was an askari, and regarded himself as an askari. In virtue of his strength, skill and intelligence, he was rightfully first among them. He was an askari among askaris.

"Behold, Lady," said Mwoga, indicating Kisu, "the enemy of your father, and your enemy, helpless and chained before you. Look upon him and inspect him. He opposed your father. Now, on a rogues' chain, he digs in the mud for your future companion, the great Bila Huruma."

The Ukungu dialect is closely related to the Ushindi dialect. Ayari, softly, translated the conversation for me. Yet, had he not done so, I could have, by now, followed its drift.

Kisu looked boldly into the eyes of the reclining Tende.

"You are the daughter of the traitor, Aibu," he said.

Tende did not change her expression.

"How bravely the rebel speaks," mocked Mwoga.

"I see, Mwoga," said Kisu, "that now you are wazir, that you have risen high from your position of a minor chief's lackey. Such, I gather, are the happy fortunes of politics."

"Happier for some than others," said Mwoga. "You, Kisu, were too dull to understand politics. You are headstrong and foolish. You could understand only the spear and the drums of war. You charge like the kailiauk. I, wiser, bided my time, like the ost. The kailiauk is contained by the stockade. The ost slips between its palings."

"You betrayed Ukungu to the empire," said Kisu.

"Ukungu is a district within the empire," said Mwoga. "Your insurrection was unlawful."

"You twist words!" said Kisu.

"The spear, as in all such matters," smiled Mwoga, "has decided wherein lies the right."

"What will the stories say of this?" demanded Kisu.

"It is we who will survive to tell the stories," said Mwoga.

Kisu stepped toward him but the askari at his side forced him back.

"No people can be betrayed," said Mwoga, "who are not willing to be betrayed."

"I do not understand," said Kisu.

"The empire means security and civilization," said Mwoga. "The people tire of tribal warfare. Men wish to look forward in contentment to their harvests. How can men call themselves free when, each night, they must fear the coming of dusk?"

"I do not understand," said Kisu.

"That is because you yourself are a hunter and a killer," said Mwoga. "You know the spear, the raid, the retaliation, the seeking of vengeance, the shadows of the forest. Steel is your tool, darkness your ally. But this is not the case with most men. Most men desire peace."

"All men desire peace," said Kisu.

"If this were true, there would be no war," said Mwoga.

Kisu regarded him, angrily. "Bila Huruma is a tyrant," he said.

"Of course," said Mwoga.

"He must be resisted," said Kisu.

"Then resist him," said Mwoga.

"He must be stopped," said Kisu.

"Then stop him," said Mwoga.

"You style yourself a hero, who would lead my people into the light of civilization?" asked Kisu.

"No," said Mwoga, "I am an opportunist. I serve myself, and my superiors."

"Now you speak honestly," said Kisu.

"Politics, and needs and times, calls forth men such as myself," said Mwoga. "Without men such as myself there could be no change."

"The tharlarion and the ost have their place in the palace of nature," said Kisu.

"And I will have mine at the courts of Ubars," said Mwoga.

"Meet me with spears," said Kisu.

"How little you understand," said Mwoga. "How naively you see things. How your heart craves simplicities."

"I would have your blood on my spear," said Kisu.

"And the empire would endure," said Mwoga.

"The empire is evil," said Kisu.

"How simple," marveled Mwoga. "How dazed and confused you must be when, upon occasion, you encounter reality."

'The empire must be destroyed," said Kisu.

"Then destroy it," said Mwoga.

"Go, serve your master, Bila Huruma," said Kisu. "I dismiss you."

"We are grateful for your indulgence," smiled Mwoga.

"And take these slave girls with you, gifts for his highness. Bila Huruma," said Kisu, gesturing to Tende and her two servitors.