Pug nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t know yet. I feel much for her, but something holds me back. It’s as if . . .” He shrugged, at a loss for words.
Kasumi regarded him closely for a time, then said, “It is by my father’s will you live and by his whim how you live.” Kasumi stopped for a minute, and Pug became painfully aware of how large a gulf still stood between the two men, one the son of a powerful lord and the other the lowest of his father’s property, a slave. The false veneer of friendship was ripped away, and Pug again knew what he had learned in the swamp: here life was cheap, and only this man’s pleasure, or his father’s, stood between Pug and destruction.
As if reading Pug’s mind, Kasumi said, “Remember, Pug, the law is strict. A slave may never be freed. Still, there is the swamp, and there is here. And to us of Tsuranuanni, you of the Kingdom are very impatient.”
Pug knew Kasumi was trying to tell him something, something perhaps important. For all his openness at times, Kasumi could easily revert to a Tsurani manner Pug could only call cryptic. There was an unvoiced tension behind Kasumi’s words, and Pug thought it best not to press. Changing the topic of conversation again, he asked, “How goes the war, Kasumi?”
Kasumi sighed, “Badly for both sides.” He watched the grey stallion. “We fight along stable lines, unchanged in the last three years. Our last two offensives were blunted, but your army also could make no gains. Now weeks pass without fighting. Then your countrymen raid one of our enclaves, and we return the compliment. Little is accomplished except the spilling of blood. It is all very senseless, and there is little honor to be won.”
Pug was surprised. Everything he had seen of the Tsurani reinforced Meecham’s observation of years ago, that the Tsurani were a very warlike race. Everywhere he had looked when traveling to this estate, he had seen soldiers. Both sons of the house were soldiers, as had been their father in his youth. Hokanu was First Strike Leader of his father’s garrison, due to his being the Lord of the Shinzawai’s second son, but his dealing with the slave master at the swamp camp showed a ruthless efficiency in Hokanu, and Pug knew it to be no quirk. He was Tsurani, and the Tsurani code was taught at a very early age, and fiercely followed.
Kasumi sensed he was being studied and said, “I fear I am becoming softened by your outlandish ways, Pug.” He paused. “Come, tell me more of your people, and what . . .” Kasumi froze. He seized Pug’s arm and cocked his head, listening. After a brief instant he said, “No! It can’t be!” Suddenly he wheeled and shouted, “Raid! The Thun!”
Pug listened and in the distance could hear the faint rumbling, as if a herd of horses were galloping over the plains. He climbed upon the rail of the corral and looked into the distance. A large meadow stretched away behind the corral ending at the edge of a lightly wooded area. While the alarm sounded behind him, he could see forms emerging from the tree line.
Pug watched in terrible fascination as the creatures called Thün came racing toward the estate house. They grew in stature as they ran furiously toward where Pug waited. They were large, centaurlike beings, looking like mounted riders in the distance. Rather than horselike, the lower body was reminiscent of a large deer or an elk, but more heavily muscled. The upper body was completely manlike, but the face resembled nothing so much as an ape with a long snout. The entire body, except the face, was covered by a medium-length fur, mottled grey and white. Each creature carried a club or ax, the head being stone lashed to the wooden haft.
Hokanu and the household guard came running from the soldiers’ building and took up positions near the corral. Archers readied their bows, and swordsmen stood in ranks, ready to accept the charge.
Suddenly Laurie was at Pug’s side, holding his nearly finished lute “What?”
“Thün raid!”
Laurie stood as fascinated by the sight as Pug. Suddenly he put his lute aside, then jumped into the corral. “What do you think you’re doing?” yelled Pug.
The troubadour dodged a protective feint by the grey stallion and jumped upon the back of another horse, the dominant mare of the small herd. “Trying to get the animals safely away.”
Pug nodded and opened the gate Laurie rode the horse out, but the grey kept the others from following, herding them back Pug hesitated for a minute, then said, “Algon, I hope you knew what you taught.” He walked calmly toward the stallion, silently trying to convey a sense of command. When the stallion put back his ears and snorted at him, Pug said, “Stand!”