Tal Goreans,
Greetings visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column.

Tarl Cabot is once again up to his ears in trouble as Blood Brothers of Gor continues. To be specific, the festival camp of the Kaiila (his current hosts in his expedition to the Red Savages of the Barrens) is under a sudden and treacherous attack by both the Yellow Knives and the Kinyanpi. The latter are especially troublesome because they are the only Red Savages to have tamed tarns, and while they might not perhaps be up to the quality of the tarnsmen of the cities, the proverb about the one-eyed man in the land of the blind is probably applicable. The most recent development of note is that Cuwignaka, the Kaiila tribesman who is remarkable for his pacifism, has just seen a murdered child and hence discovered that there is, after all, a cause for which he is prepared to go to war. At a time like this it helps to have a teacher like Tarl Cabot on hand.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Tarl and Cuwignaka dispose of a couple of the enemy, affording Cuwignaka the chance for battle trophies which no doubt jar somewhat with the woman’s dress he still wears. The second enemy, whom Cuwignaka himself kills, was watching over a pair of female slaves at what seems to have been intended as a collection point for such. This gives Cuwignaka the opportunity for another first experience, for being officially designated a woman up to now he naturally has not had the chance to enjoy himself with a woman, either slave or free. Once again, despite the gravity of the situation Tarl is not too busy to lecture his friend about female sexual arousal and orgasm. But they cannot dally over-long and are soon on their way, intending to find the rallying point of such Kaiila resistance as there is.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tarl, and Cuwignaka under his instruction, fight a pair of mounted Yellow Knives and beat them, winning possession of a kaiila apiece for them.

Chapter Twenty-Five

A little later, the mounted pair, also in possession of the slave Wasnapohdi, encounter Hci. He is on the lookout for Yellow Knives, and Cuwignaka acknowledges Hci’s courage in being willing to tackle the pair they have just defeated. Hci refuses to believe that a “woman” and a slave could have beaten the two warriors, but apart from scolding Cuwignaka for telling stories he doesn’t press the matter further. Hci claims to have taken many coups that day, but he seems to have difficulty controlling his shield as he does so (which should alert the reader to the Red Savages’ superstition that a shield will not protect a lying wielder). Hci’s manner seems less haughty than formerly, and he not only discusses the battle with the two despised men (which is all to the good, as Tarl knows much more about combatting tarn attack than any Kaiila) but advises them to flee for their own good. But when he has gone his way - and Cuwignaka has remarked the unusual behaviour of his shield - the pair decide to seek the council lodge and such resistance as is being mounted under the leadership of the chief, Mahpiyasapa.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The fighting continues. Tarl and Cuwignaka continue to add to their tally, and also meet another young warrior, called Cotanka. Tarl has to bail him out of a spot of bother caused by a sneak attack using a fleeing female slave as a distraction, but it all ends happily and Tarl sends the slave to Grunt, there to await collection by Cotanka at his convenience.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

When next the Kinyanpi attack, Tarl’s anti-tarn defences prove valuable, and the Winged Ones are driven off having had little impact. It seems as though the next attack will be better coordinated.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The next attack is conducted by Yellow Knives and Kinyanpi acting in concert, but it is broken and put to flight by some good generalship on the part of the Kaiila; they have outfitted themselves with the yellow scarves used to designate Yellow Knives to the tarnsmen, and they successfully embroil the Yellow Knives in hand-to-hand combat before the Kinyanpi are ready to intervene. At this point it would be past time for the attackers to withdraw, having won all the loot and coups they are going to without ruinous expense, but unusually they rally themselves for yet another assault. (We also see Hci having trouble with his shield when Mahpiyasapa is exhorting his men, and he receives an order to stay out of the fighting, which he does not obey.)

When yet another attack comes in the gathering dusk (again, thoroughly atypical of Red Savages) it is accompanied by two additional factors which together spell ruin for the Kaiila. One is an attack by white mercenaries, those scattered and presumed lost after an attack on a wagon train they were accompanying, as recounted in Savages of Gor; and the other is a creature of a kind Tarl recognises. It is a Kur; possibly Kog or Sardak himself, and if not, then certainly one of their party, which was seeking out General Zarendargar for summary execution. This explains much to Tarl; the persistence of the Yellow Knives for one thing, and the almost-unthinkable attack on the Kaiila festival grounds for another.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The fight continues, but despite the best efforts of the Kaiila under Mahpiyasapa, things are plainly hopeless. One minor mystery resolves itself when Grunt himself is attacked. Tarl learns how it is that the white trader is able to move so freely among the Red Savages. He takes his hat off and reveals himself to be missing most of his scalp, having had it removed on a previous expedition when he was knocked out and made the subject of a trophy-taking. Bitterly he alludes to another injury, clearly castration, inflicted at the same time, which explains why he delegated the breaking-in of a slave girl to Tarl. But the side-effect of this is that the Red Savages in effect consider him officially dead, and so no one will raise a hand to him. (It is surprising that Gorean Physicians, who are extremely accomplished, have never been able to restore his scalp.) Despite the protection of the taboo, Grunt justifiably considers the price to have been high; but he recollects himself and makes off with the slave Wasnapohdi, while Tarl and Cuwignaka go to rejoin Mahpiyasapa and the warriors.

Chapter Thirty

The Kaiila hold their lines while the Yellow Knives make medicine. Uneasily, Tarl sees that they are wearing masks that resemble Kurii. This leads inevitably to the arrival of the Kurii themselves, at which point Kaiila morale evaporates altogether, as they naturally believe that the Kurii (who are after all literally not of this world) are monsters out of the spirit world. Few stand firm amid the rout. Hci seems curiously detached from reality, and when a Yellow Knife attacks him he neglects his defence entirely. Indeed his shield seems to levitate as if by magic, and he is struck by his enemy’s lance and falls. Tarl donates his kaiila to a fugitive woman and child, and then accompanies Cuwignaka on his mission to retrieve Hci, if Hci is still alive.

Chapter Thirty-One

He is. The pair convey Hci to Grunt’s lodge, where he makes a full confession of his crimes, acknowledges that his shield has judged him fairly, and admits he was wrong to think Cuwignaka was not a true Kaiila. Though hurt, he is not dying, and soon he is asleep.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Cuwignaka and Tarl survey the enemy camp, where the victorious Yellow Knives, Kurii and white mercenaries are all celebrating their triumph. Tarl takes particular note of the Kur wagons. There were seventeen once upon a time, but nine Kurii were killed when their wagon train was attacked and now there are only seven present. This does, of course, leave one unaccounted for, which Tarl suspects of having fled the Barrens some time since. But there are other matters than Kur affairs to think of. Cuwignaka’s people are broken and scattered and, having lost their winter store of meat, will be doing well to cling meanly to life over the next couple of seasons, let alone resume their place high on the totem pole of the Barrens.

Cuwignaka also takes note of Bloketu, the haughty female he has fallen foul of in the past, but who is now a mere woman’s slave, the property of Iwoso who was formerly her own slave. He thinks Bloketu looks very well as a slave, but there is nothing to be done about it for now. Instead he repairs to the lodge where the sacred dance was to have been performed. He announces his intention to dance and asks for Tarl’s assistance; but he will have to manage matters rather quickly, as there is much that must be done, and he resolves to free himself by morning. We don’t yet know what that means, but we may guess, especially if we have seen A Man Called Horse.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Tarl and Cuwignaka go to beg charity at the compound of the Waniyanpi, the “Sames”, the white pacifist vegetable farmers who deny the difference between the sexes and supposedly practise egalitarianism. There is no charity to be had; Radish, the female leader they obviously don’t have, will have nothing to do with them and is determined to put them out into the Barrens, just as she earlier put out a young couple caught touching each other. With some difficulty Tarl refrains from putting the Waniyanpi to the sword; but one of them, Turnip, formerly the Lady Mira, begs for Tarl’s collar even though it means being put out into the Barrens with them. He grants it her, and at least gains an additional pair of hands to help transport Hci. This is just as well as Cuwignaka is still weak from the dance, which has left him with bleeding chest wounds that have been re-opened by the labour of pulling Hci’s travois.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Soon the small party make the acquaintance of Squash and Strawberry, the young couple (the female half of which is only about sixteen or seventeen) put out as mentioned in the previous chapter. Tarl seems to judge more or less at once that the proper relationship between these two is as Master and slave, and it soon appears that his judgement is sound, for the girl is all for it on the evidence of her reactions. Indeed, this is the only practical course of action in the circumstances, for they are headed for a Red Savages settlement where there will be no place for a free white woman. Soon she is collared, much to her own satisfaction and her young master’s, and the trek continues.

On arriving at the encampment, Tarl notices the two feather-like trees and something clicks in his brain. He realizes that this is the Two Feathers referred to in the message hide that started this whole undertaking off, and therefore that the local chieftain, Kahintokapa, must be the author of the hide and know General Zarendargar. He greets Mahpiyasapa and passes the news that Hci, his son, is alive, and leaves Canka and Cuwignaka making their own greetings, while he goes in search of Kahintokapa.

He makes known his desire to see the “medicine helper” of Kahintokapa, and although Canka and Cuwignaka do not well understand what is meant or why one man should seek the spirit-creature that came in another man’s dream, they promise to convey his wishes to him. However, this will have to be done in the manner of the Red Savages.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Tarl lies in delirium in the vision place of the Kaiila. He has undergone the ritual of the sweat lodge to prepare himself for this ordeal, and he is now fasting and waiting for a medicine helper to come. Figures from out of his past come and go without rhyme or reason; Imnak of the Red Hunters, Kamchak the Tuchuck, Ivar Forkbeard, Marlenus, Talena, and many more. He reflects on the privations he is enduring and speculates that visions often come to those who believe in them simply because the subconscious mind decides to relieve the body of any further suffering. But for his own part he is waiting to meet something quite real, and after several days and nights a creature approaches him. It regurgitates food and water for him, which Tarl, having previously been fed by a Kur in the desert (Tribesmen of Gor), is able to accept. He asks it if it is Kahintokapa’s medicine helper; and it replies via a translator that it is Zarendargar himself.

So at last Tarl Cabot has met the creature he set out in search of - the great General Half-Ear whose endeavours he thwarted in Beasts of Gor and who is now under sentence of death from the Kurii, and whom Tarl resolved to warn simply because the two, who are much alike in some ways, once shared paga. Of course, things have become complicated since then. Nearly half of the original Death Squad that were searching for Half-Ear are slain, but the rest are at large and with a considerable army backing them, and the Kaiila are in a desperate condition. What is to be done? What plan shall Tarl and his almost-friend devise? What of Canka and Cuwignaka, and Hci who has now learned his lesson? The reader must join me next month to find out!

I wish you well,

Socrates