THIRTY SEVEN

I did not want to be touched by the animals. I feared them terribly.

One must have been fifteen feet in length, and the other close to twenty. I could not have begun to put my arms about one.

The leg just above the paw in the larger animal must have been some six inches in thickness.

They were leashed, the leashes going to rings on huge leather collars, four to five inches in width, an inch or two in thickness. I dreaded even that they might rub against me, those huge bodies, with their glossy, oily fur. It was easy to see how men might not be able to control such beasts. Their tongues lolled out now. They seemed pa.s.sive enough, at the moment. Their breathing was heavy, a sort of panting, as they padded along with us, but it was regular, and showed no signs of particular excitement. Perhaps they were merely being exercised. Their heads, broad at the back, tended to taper toward the snout, rather like those of vipers. The length of their body, too, with its six legs, tended to suggest a furred serpent, or reptile. Such things are mammalian or mammalianlike, however, in the sense of giving live birth and suckling the young.

Two of the black-tunicked men clung to each leash. Again the blacktunicked men did not wish pit guards present. Once again they had been dismissed. Even with two men on a leash I did not think they would be able to hold the animals if they should be determined to go their own way. But, to be sure, these were hunting sleen, and not intended to hunt on the leash, but rather only when unleashed.

I cried out a little as one of the beasts brushed past me. I had felt its ribs, like iron bands beneath the smooth, rippling muscles, sheathed in the oily pelt. Even in that brief, smooth touch I had sensed a considerable force, like a wave in the sea. But such beasts are not only powerful. They are extremely agile as well, and can easily top a thirty-foot wall. Over a short distance they can outrun fleet game. Their front claws used in burrowing, can tear through heavy doors. Sometimes it takes ten spears to kill one.

"We will loose them here," said the leader of the strangers.

We stopped.

We were at the intersection of several pa.s.sages, at a point we had reached last night, and a point we were sure the prisoner had occupied at least once, for it was here that the extinguished lamps had ended.

The beasts looked about, puzzled.

This was surely not their pen.

In our group were the leader of the strangers, his lieutenant, Gito, his seven men, the pit master, the officer of Treve, and ten slaves, in two groups of five each. The members of each group were tied together by the neck, presumably not merely to control us, as a coffle chain might, but to keep us together. making our disposition as a shield, or wall, more effective. The two groups might precede the men, forming a double wall in the pa.s.sage, or, if the men wished, one group might precede and the other follow, in this fashion providing protection for both the front and rear. I was in the second group as I had been seventh in the slave line, my position there determined by my height. Both groups, however, at this point, were muchly together. As before, we were unclothed. Our hands, too, as before, were tied behind our backs.

"Bring the sack forward," said the leader of the strangers.

This was done.

This was the sack which contained the blanket which had been taken from the prisoner's cell yesterday morning. It was sealed, and the seal, with its dangling string, had not been broken.

"Loose the sleen," said the leader of the strangers.

The heavy collars were removed from the throats of the two sleen. There is a difference in custom here with various sorts of sleen, which might be remarked. War sleen, watch sleen, fighting sleen, and such, when freed, would normally retain the collars, which are often plated and spiked, for the protection of the throat. With hunting sleen, on the other hand, the collars are usually removed. There are two views on this matter. One view is that the collar might jeopardize the hunt, for example, that it might be caught in a branch, or be somehow utilized to restrain the animal before it has located its quarry. The other is that the removal of the collar returns the beast to its state of natural savagery, that it removes from it any inhibitions which might have resulted from its familiarity with human beings. Certainly it is difficult to recollar a hunting sleen until it has made its kill, until it has been pacified, sated with the predesignated blood and meat. The two views, of course, are not mutually exclusive.

When the collars were removed the behavior of the two animals was significantly altered.

They seemed to become a great deal more restless.

Usually, of course, such things hunt in the open.

One urinated in the pa.s.sageway. Its urine has an unusually strong odor.

In the wild, urine and feces are used to mark territories.

The head of the larger animal moved from side to side. The smaller animal began to make tiny, excited, antic.i.p.atory noises. I had heard such noises before meat had been thrown to them. Saliva fell from the jaws of the larger animal. It moved between the men to put its head against the thigh of the pit master. It was only he, one supposes, of those in the corridor, it recognized.

I began to cry.

"What is wrong with her?" asked the lieutenant.

"Nothing," said the pit master.

I could not help myself.

"She attended to the prisoner, for months," said the pit master.

"Any might weep," said the officer of Treve, "given the enormity of what you intend."

I recalled the prisoner, as he had been, before he had risen in his chains, in madness, intent upon the planting. He had been little more than a remote, inert form, as simple as rock, as distant as a far-off mountain, sitting cross-legged, chained, on the stone floor of a cell in the lower corridors. He had seldom even seemed to be aware of my presence in the cell. Now he was somewhere out there in the pa.s.sages.

He would not know for a time that the swift beasts pursued him, padding swiftly through the dark halls.

Then I did not think he would be aware of it for long. It was not as though he might see them coming, across a plain, from hundreds of yards away. It was unlikely he could run before them, once he realized them behind him, for more than a few minutes. I shuddered, and wept Might it not have been better, I thought, if he had died in his chains yesterday morning, in the cell, by the knife? How terrible to die beneath the fangs of beasts!

"Be silent!" said the pit master.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Break the seal, open the sack," said the leader of the strangers.

The seal was broken away by he who had been the custodian of the bag, and the bag was opened.

The leader of the strangers drew out the dark, thick blanket. He thrust it to the pit master.

"Give the command," said the leader of the strangers.

"I beg you not to do this," said the pit master.

"Give the command," said the leader of the strangers.

"I do not advise you to pursue this course of action," said the pit master.

"Give the command!" said the leader of the strangers.

"I will not give it," said the pit master. "It is a simple "Scent-Hunt"

command."

The larger beast suddenly squealed, hearing these words. It looked eagerly about itself. Men drew back.

I and others screamed, shrinking back against the wall of the pa.s.sage. Swords were loosened in sheaths.

"You will be dealt with later," said the leader of the strangers.

"You," he said to the officer of Treve.

"I do not set sleen on free men," he said.

"Do not think your place in this city is so secure," said the leader of the strangers.

"Give me the blanket," said the leader of the strangers.

It was surrendered by the pit master.

"It is a simple "Scent-Hunt" command?"

"Yes."

"Back away, to the sides of the pa.s.sage," said the leader of the strangers. "We do not know in which direction the trail will lie."

My group was thrust to one side of the pa.s.sage, and the other group to the other side. We were aligned in our groups, close to the wall, side by side, facing outward. I could feel the rock behind me with my bound hands. The others, too, the lieutenant, Gito, the pit master, the officer of Treve, the black-tunicked men, drew to the side, to one side or the other, leaving only the leader of the strangers, clutching the blanket, and the two animals in the center of the pa.s.sage.

"Beware," said the pit master. "Where sleen are concerned, there is always danger."

"Do you think I do not know that the pits of Treve are renowned for the reliability of their hunters?" said the leader of the strangers.

"You cannot always depend upon sleen," said the pit master.

"Hi, hi," said the leader of the strangers, slapping his thigh, calling the animals to him.

"Be careful," said his lieutenant.

"Here," said the leader of the strangers, crouching down, thrusting the blanket to the Snouts of the beasts. "Here, take scent, take scent,"

The two animals, eagerly, tails lashing, thrust their snouts into the wadded blanket.

The larger animal then, as had the smaller, earlier, in its excitement, loosed its urine. This is apparently a behavior selected for in the evolution of the sleen. I do not think that it is simply a device to clear the bladder prior to strenuous activity, for example, to avoid discomfort in the chase. I think, rather, it has to do, at least in part, with the common prey of the sleen in the wild, which is usually the tabuk, a single-horned antelopelike creature. A filled bladder, gored, releases wastes into the ventral cavity, with considerable danger of infection. If the bladder is cleared prior to the wound the chance of infection is considerably reduced. Over thousands of generations of sleen this behavior has, I suspect, been selected for, as it contributes to the survival of the animal, and its consequent capacity, obviously, thereafter, to replicate itself.

"Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers. "Scent! Hunt!"

The blanket was literally torn from the grasp of the leader of the strangers, who then stood up, watching the sleen. They began to scratch at it, and seized parts of it in their jaws, ripping it. At one point it fluttered, shaken, in the pa.s.sage, like a flag.

"Scent! Hunt! Scent! Hunt!" urged the leader of the strangers.

The two beasts looked up from the blanket, it torn in shreds beneath their paws.

"They are beauties," said the leader of the strangers, "beauties."

"It is done," said the officer of Treve angrily. "They have taken the scent."

"Watch them!" said a man.

I had never seen sleen hunt in a situation such as this. I had seen them, in a little demonstration which had been staged for my benefit, one I was never likely to forget, seek out and rip apart particular pieces of meat, pieces of meat which had been given particular names.

The smaller of the two sleen was one which had been imprinted with my own scent and name. I knew a given command could set it upon me. Both of these sleen had also been imprinted, I knew, with the scent, and some name, or signal, a.s.sociated with the peasant, and could be set upon him. On the other hand, the pit master had not volunteered the appropriate signals to the leader of the strangers. This was not surprising, of course, given the pit master's obvious reservations concerning the intentions of the black-tunicked men. One does not need such signals, of course, when one has at one's disposal an article of such utility as the quarry's robes, or tunic, or blanket.

"Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers.

"I do not understand," said a man.

"Surely they have the scent now," said another.

The sleen had not left the area. The larger one snarled, menacingly.

"Scent! Hunt!" cried the leader of the strangers.

The larger sleen turned in a circle, as though confused. Then it ran down the corridor for a few yards.

"It is hunting!" cried a man.

But then the animal stopped, and turned about.

"It is coming back," said a man.

The large sleen thrust past the leader of the strangers and ran a few paces down the corridor behind us.

In this it was accompanied by the smaller animal. Then they turned about, together, and returned. They went again to the shreds of the blanket. Then they lifted their snouts into the air, and then they put them to the floor of the corridor.

"What is wrong with them?" asked the lieutenant.

"They seem confused," said the pit master.

"They are stupid animals," said a man.

"Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers.

The two sleen now turned about, then they crouched down, their bellies no more than an inch or so from the floor. I heard a very low growl from one of them.

Their tails moved back and forth. I saw their ears lie back, against their heads.

"What is wrong with them?" said another.

The eyes of the first sleen, the larger, the more aggressive, fixed on the leader of the strangers. He stepped back.

The larger sleen snarled. There was no mistaking the menace in that sound.

I could now detect a rumble in the throat of the smaller animal. It, too, seemed to regard the leader of the strangers.

"Something is wrong," said a man.

The leader of the strangers took another step back and drew his blade.