index


Message-ID: <36466asstr$1021255803@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: mandil_k@hotmail.com (mandil)
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
NNTP-Posting-Date: 13 May 2002 00:36:47 GMT
Subject: {ASSM} Masters of the Arches   chapter 16
Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 22:10:03 -0400
Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail
Approved: <assm@asstr-mirror.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d

.                            Masters of the Arches
                                 by Mandil

 

                                 Chapter 16 

  

For the first two days after they arrived in Cold Wind's village, most
of their time was spent celebrating the return of the chief's son
while Vincent and his two women were treated with honour and with much
respect for having rescued and helped Cold Wind in escaping.

Round Stone, who was Cold Wind's father, gave Vincent and also to both
women, all sort of gifts including many arrows and pelts.

It had been a very touching sight to see father and son reunited and
there was no doubt in Vincent's mind that these people loved and
respected their leader. At the end of the festivities of the first
evening, much to Vincent Surprise, Round Stone offered his eldest
daughter to Vincent so that he could spend the night with her.

At first Vincent didn't want to accept Round Stone gift, but Nika made
him understand that it would be considered as an insult to both,
father and daughter, if he were to refuse. Nike did urge him to accept
as she explained to him that it was quite common to be offered such a
gift, the chief was placing on him a great honour in offering his
daughter to him.

He was to learn later that the chief's daughter had undergone a
fertility ritual and it was hoped that she would get pregnant from
Vincent, and thus perpetuate his presence in the village by mean of
his descendants.

Indeed it was impossible for him to refuse such an honour and he
learned later that both Nika and Verla had also each been offered a
warrior of the village to spend the night with. Much to Vincent's
surprise they both had also accepted. It thus only confirmed what he
already knew, mainly that the rules of morality on this world were
quite different than what they were on Earth

On the second day he was finally able to talk to Kowa, even if it was
only for a few minutes. Of course he had explained to Nika before they
entered the village that she was to remove her metal knife and hide it
just as he would do with his own knife. He didn't want anyone starting
to ask them questions about these metal knives since metal was unknown
to the native of this world.

During these few minutes with Kowa, he became even more convinced that
the sorcerer had something to hide. The first question that Kowa asked
him was why he wanted to travel in the direction of the south. It was
the sort of question one did not ask in this world. A man or a woman's
business was a private matter and it was no one else affair. It was
thus extremely unethical from the sorcerer's part to inquire about his
reason to travel south.

But beside his curiosity, he was a very friendly person and one felt
immediately at ease in his presence. He had a facility with words and
this by itself was quite uncommon, this plus his being in possession
of the magic box were probably the reasons that he had risen to the
position of the village sorcerer in less than two or three years.

At last, on the third day, the village life return to a more normal
pattern where groups of men went hunting while women got busy taking
care of the few children, cooking and the making of garments. Vincent
was thus able to walk about in the village and to observe Kowa more
closely. After the chief, Kowa was the most important person in the
village and everyone treated him with respect, it was also evident
that many were actually afraid of his magic.

In the middle of the afternoon Vincent got the visit from one of
Kowa's women. She had a message from Kowa. She said that the sorcerer
wanted to talk to him about important matters and that he should
follow her to his hut.

Vincent didn't like this sort of invitation that seemed more like an
order than anything else, but he was real anxious to meet him and this
was his chance, so he did follow her. Of course before leaving he
explained to Nika and Verla where he was going just in case something
was to happen to him. He then followed the almost completely naked
woman between the rows of huts until they were in front of Kowa's hut
in the centre of the village.

As soon as he entered the hut following the woman, he was able to make
his mind about Kowa. On a small shelf made of thin sticks, supported
by two thick branches, was a manufactured object of black plastic-like
material and leather. Although Vincent was not familiar with the
model, it was very evident that it was some sort of radio. Even the
three knobs were evident and so was the tiny hand microphone, which
was hooked on its side support attached to the radio.

For a few seconds Vincent's eyes rested on the high-tech electronic
and before he was finally able to look elsewhere it was already too
late since he knew that Kowa had already notice him. It then occurred
to him that the radio had purposely been place there so that Kowa, who
was sitting on an animal skin on the ground, could watch his reaction.
It had been a test and he had failed miserably.

There was now no doubt in Vincent's mind that Kowa knew that he had
knowledge of the use of the radio. His staring at the radio for these
long seconds, then his fast reaction in looking somewhere else when he
realized that Kowa was observing him, had plainly revealed the fact
that he had previous knowledge of its use.

As soon as the woman left, the sorcerer invited him to sit on the fur
in front of him. He then went right to the point.

"My questioning you, the last time we talked, about your reason for
traveling south must have seemed bad manners from my part and I
apologize for this. The only reason I wanted to know is because I will
soon be going in that direction also.   My asking was only to let you
know this and to offer you the possibility of us traveling together.
But unfortunately I was interrupted by our chief before I could
explain this."

Vincent did remember indeed that Round Stone had seemed much
displeased when the sorcerer had questioned him about his reason for
going south, and he had interrupted the conversation by asking Vincent
if he would follow him so that he could be introduced to the rest of
his family.

"You don't need to explain, no offence was taken and to answer your
question, we are traveling south because we are looking for Nika's
tribe. She was separated from them a while back and we were told that
they did move into that direction."

"Well my offer still stands. If you wish it, we could be trekking
together for a while at least, I have a good knowledge of that region
and I do know what dangers are to be expected there."

"You mean you will leave your position here as second to the chief so
that you can accompany us?"

"It is not the way it looks. I am leaving only for a while, I will
return. My people live far to the south and I have not seen them in
five years. Beside they might be able to help you find the tribe you
are looking for."

In his mind, Vincent began to debate whether he should accept Kowa's
proposition or not. He now knew that Kowa's only reason to join his
group was so that he could spy on them and also probably to report
their progress by mean of his radio.

On the other hand, he reasoned that it would be preferable to have him
traveling with them instead of having him follow them, this way he
could at least keep an eye on him. Beside, Vincent wanted to find out
for whom he was doing his spying. The fact that he had the transmitter
in his possession surely met that Valdo was behind this, but still
Vincent needed proof of this.

It was then agreed that the following day at dawn, the four of them -
Kowa would be leaving his two women behind - would leave by canoe.
Kowa explained to him that they would save a lot of time and hardship
if they were to travel on a river that emptied into the lake. The
waters of that river were mingling with those of the lake at its very
southern tip. After entering the mouth of the river, they could go
upstream for at least three hundred miles in a generally southern
direction before it went east.

The following morning, most of the residents of the village were
gathered on the shore of the lake so as to wish them all a safe trip
and to thanks them one again for rescuing Cold Wind.  Round Stone and
Cold Wind said goodbye to them in the fashion of their people - facing
them each in turn with a hand on each of their shoulders - and they
bid them farewell while extracting from them a promise that they would
return to the village as soon as possible.

The canoe, like other floating embarkations constructed by the people
of the village, was made of plants fibres, which consisted of long
strips of the bark of a particular kind of trees. The many joints were
coated with a yellowish resin so as to prevent water from entering the
delicate craft. As soon as the bottom of the canoe was loaded with
their supplies of dry meat, fruits and nuts of all kind, their weapons
were finally loaded.

As expected, Kowa had a bundle containing his private possession all
wrapped in a pelt and Vincent was positive that inside was his small
transmitter radio.

In a little more than two hours, with the four of them paddling, they
reached the southern tip of the lake where the river emptied into the
water of the lake. They had covered a distance of forty miles by then;
it had taken Vincent well over a day to walk that distance though the
dense forest on his way to the village with Cold Wind.

Under the guidance of Kowa, they entered the mouth of the river that
was to be their highway for the next three hundred miles. Their speed
on the river was not as great as on the lake since they were going
upstream and even if the current wasn't very strong, it did added a
little on their paddling effort. They managed to cover another 20
miles before it was too dark.

The following day they got another 40 miles or so upstream and as Kowa
explained to them, they still could expect to travel on the river for
at least another two hundred miles. Of course he did not use the mile
as the unit of distance, but Vincent had no difficulties converting
his unit of distance into his more familiar unit of distance.

It was on their second night stop, with their camp established near
the river, that Vincent discovered definite proofs of Kowa's true
alliance.

Previously the sorcerer had insisted in taking the last shift of guard
duty, it was just after Vincent's turn. The moment that Vincent
pretended to be asleep, he saw him reach for his carefully wrapped
bundle and he watched him through half opened eyes quietly walking
away into the darkness of the forest.

No sooner had Kowa disappeared that Vincent got up and he quietly woke
both Nika and Verla. After explaining to them what he had seen, he
told them to remain where they were and to wait for him while he went
in pursuit of Kowa.

Even though he couldn't see any track, he went in the general
direction in which he had last seen him enter the forest and after a
couple of minutes he did see his black silhouette against a grey
boulder.

While being very careful so as not to make any kind of noises while
walking, he went toward Kowa until he was about 30 feet from him. He
then hid in the low foliages and waited.

Kowa had the radio in his hands and he was busy adjusting the settings
by turning a dial. In the starlight Vincent could also see the outline
of a small parabolic antenna that had been placed on a rock nearby. It
was most probably connected to the radio my mean of a wire that
Vincent couldn't see. It therefore met that there were satellites in
orbit around this world and the small parabolic antenna had thus been
previously aimed in the proper elevation as well as the proper angle
so as to use one of the satellites as a mean of reflecting the radio
signal to whomever it was intended for.

Vincent would have given a lot to be able to examine closely this
compact device that was a manufactured product from a completely
different civilisation than his own.

"Tiger One this is Baby Nine. Tiger One this is Baby Nine." 

A few second later Kowa began to talk again. Vincent couldn't tell if
he was holding a microphone in his hand or not but it was evident that
he had a hearing devise in his ears since there seamed to be no
apparent answer from the radio as he stood very still for long
seconds. Then once again he began to talk.

"My position is about ninety miles (given in units of distance of his
world of course) up the White River. I am traveling with a man and two
women and by the look of it I think that the man is an outsider. For
one thing, he seemed to be ignorant of many of the things that we all
take for granted here and further more he is in a great hurry to be
getting south to some unspecified destination. But most important, he
does know what a radio is and when he saw mine he had much
difficulties hiding his surprise even though he did not ask any
questions about it."

Again there was a pause, this time it was much longer. It became clear
to Vincent that Kowa was receiving his instructions as to what to do
next.

"Very well I will stay with them until the ambush." 

Another long pause. 

"Don't worry, I will not keep them out of sight, you can depend on
me."

Once more he was quiet while he listen to further instructions. 

"Yes I will contact you again tomorrow at the same time, and I will
tell you our exact position. Baby Nine signing off."

There were no doubts now in Vincent mind, Kowa was a spy and he wanted
to harm them. They were going to be ambushed, but the fact that he was
supposed to signal their position again the following night met that
the ambush was not going to take place on the following day.

But still it now became very urgent that they should get away from
Kowa and also destroy his transmitter.

All of a sudden, his thoughts were disturbed by a sharp noise that
came behind him. He did recognise the sound as that of breaking twigs
under the weight of someone's feet.

 Everything was quiet again for long seconds and this was what
bothered Vincent since if the noise had been cause by a walking animal
he would certainly have heard it again. Only a human being, and
especially one that was trying to be quiet, could have made that noise
since after that initial loud snap which had  probably been an
accident, nothing was heard again.

 While in the process of packing the transmitter back in his bundle,
Kowa suddenly stopped moving. Worse still, he was now looking directly
where Vincent was hiding; the noise had been emitted from the general
direction where Vincent was hidden. To Kowa, the noise must have
seemed to originate just about where Vincent was hiding.

For half a minute everything was very quiet in the night, even the
normal noises of the forest seemed to have ceased. Now Vincent had the
strange impression that there was more than one presence behind him.
Even though he could not hear or see anything at his back, he just
felt that they were there and waiting for him to make his move.

"Well, I will not walk right into their hands." He told himself, and
he made up his mind to simply outwait them right where he was.

But Kowa did force him to move out of his hiding place. He saw his
silhouette approaching toward his position in the foliages. Vincent
knew that he now had only two options; one was to wait and let Kowa
discover him while his other choice was to run away toward the source
of the noise he had heard. He decided on his first option and he
suddenly stood up and met Kowa coming toward him. At least he knew
what to expect by walking toward him.

It was a mistake from his part. As soon as he was less than ten feet
from Kowa and he was sure that the sorcerer had recognized him, he
shouted at him so as to warn him of the danger behind him. But at the
same time he saw that Kowa was holding some kind of hand gun in his
hand, then all of a sudden his body became paralysed and he felt to
the ground.

He could still see and hear everything, but his body refused to move.
Even breathing was difficult and he had to will his stomach muscles to
dilate and contract so that air could enter his lungs. The act of
breathing, which until then had been done without his thinking about
it, was now requiring his complete concentration and even then his
lungs were getting only the strict minimum of air.

Even while struggling to breath as he was, he realized that Kowa was
not aware that there was some kind of danger behind them since he
didn't even look behind Vincent. He also didn't even bother to check
how Vincent was. Instead, he went to pick his pelt bundle from the
ground, he had already put away his transmitter inside and he now
placed his hand gun inside the bundle. This more than anything else
convinced Vincent that Kowa had not heard his warning; otherwise he
would at least have kept his gun in hand to defend himself.

Kowa then walked toward Vincent and with an evil smile on his lips he
said to him.

"I see that you have discovered what I am up to. But don't let it
worry you because it only mean that we will wait here instead of
having to paddle another day up the river."

His hand next went in front of Vincent's eyes and in the starlight he
saw Vincent closing his eyes in a normal reflex. He probably wanted to
make sure that the paralysing hold on him was not too strong and thus
have him suffocate, as soon as he saw his eyes flinch he seemed
satisfied with this reaction.

"There is one other thing I must do now. Your two beautiful companions
will have to be paralysed also. I was ordered to take good care of the
three of you, but nothing is wrong with my having a little fun with
your women while we wait."

"The Master want to interrogate all of you, then he will dispose of
you in his favourite manner I suppose."

Even in the darkness, Vincent could see that he was smiling again; he
was enjoying himself greatly and he was not trying to hide it.

He then disappeared from Vincent's field of vision. When he reappeared
a minute later, he was holding his rolled bundle in his hand and he
placed it on the ground at Vincent's feet. Again he went out of
Vincent's field of vision. Less than ten seconds later Vincent heard a
few branches cracking on his left and this was followed by a dull
noise make when an arrow hit its marks.

A shout of pain and surprise came to Vincent's ears; next there was
the sound of a falling body on the ground. Everything was then quiet.

Finally he heard footstep coming toward him, next he saw a face just a
few inches over his own face and it was joined by another face. Of
course he did recognise Verla and Nika who were now bent over him and
trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

Both seemed relieved to see that his eyes were opened and moving but
their joy soon changed to fear when they realized that he couldn't
talk or move.

Between the two of them they were able to move him back to their camp
site and they stretched him near the fire. While the two women were
moving him, he had a glimpse of Kowa's body with an arrow sticking out
of his chest; it was evident that he was dead.

He was glad to be near the fire since they now could hear the growling
and moving of large predators in the forest. The smell of blood from
Kowa's fatal wound was attracting night hunters from a radius of at
least a couple of miles.

Both Nika and Verla examined him all over to see if they could find
any trace of a wound. They seemed mystify by the fact that he could
not talk of move, even though he seemed able to hear them and move his
eyes.

All through the rest of the night they kept hearing the racket made by
the beasts of the forest as they fought for the remains of Kowa's
body. Vincent was hoping that his women had taken the precaution of
bringing Kowa's bag with them, but at the moment he had no way to know
that.

Of course they kept watch over him and they did place many logs into
the fire so as to scare any predator that would venture too near their
camp. By morning he began to feel the tip of his fingers and toes
tingling as if they had been frozen and were coming back to life
again. It was now much easier for him to breath and he could even turn
his head slightly.

After a while he did try to move his lips and say something, but he
only managed to grunt a little. But this did please his women
enormously since they now could tell that he was getting better.

An hour later they were helping him to stand on his feet and he could
talk fairly well. He explained to them what he had heard and seen Kowa
do in the middle of the night and how he had paralyse him with his
weapon.

He was pleased when he saw Kowa's bag nearby. After explaining to the
women that they would all have to leave soon and that they should
break camp immediately, he began to investigate the content of Kowa's
bad.

Inside, was the transmitter and also its small folded parabolic
antenna. It also contained two hand guns, the like of which he had
never seen before; next to the guns were two extremely sharps metal
knives that had a strange curving shape. The seven inches blades had a
cutting edge on both sides but one edge was a lot thinner than the
other and while the thin edge could be used for delicate carving, the
other could certainly be used for cutting more resistant material such
as wood. Vincent knew that these knives would be very useful to them.

In the bag he also found something that greatly amazed him. It was a
map made of extremely thin and resistant plastic-like material. It
could be rolled and bended, and when it was completely folded it took
less place than a wristwatch.

After unfolding the map he was surprised to see that its surface was
over two square yards in area. But what attracted his attention the
most about the map, was the small, red flashing point of light which
indicated a spot near a river on the map. There were words and symbols
written everywhere on the map, but of course he couldn't read any of
them.

 Then he did recognize the Great Lake, and at its southern tip he
could see the river, which Kowa had called the White River. He then
realized that the blinking red spot of light was indicating their
present position near the White River. In the top right corner of the
map, there was a flashing luminous red arrow; he became exuberant when
he realized that it was some sort of compass.

Of course he had no idea how the compass worked or how the blinking
red light could indicate their position on the map. As to where was
the source of power for the position lights as well as the compass, he
had no idea at all, but he knew that the map, the knives as well as
the two hand guns would all be extremely valuable to them.

By now it was evident to him that it had been a big mistake from
Brumelle's part to advise him to leave his riffle and hand guns as
well as his compass behind. After all, those working for Valdo were
using sophisticated weapons so if he was to engage in a fair fight
with them he needed similar weapons too. Had Brumelle made them leave
their weapons behind intentionally so that they would all get killed
or had she done it so that they could remain under cover for as long
as possible as she pretended?  He had no way to rally know.

He was now feeling much better and they still had over five hours of
light left, so as soon as they had everything packed they got ready to
leave. Before getting in the canoe Vincent destroyed the transmitter,
- which did required a lot of work since he had to drop a large stone
many time on it - then he threw the pieces into the river.

Kowa's friends were expecting them to come by way of the river about
sixty miles upstream and he explained to the women that their best
chance of escaping them was to get as far away from them and as fast
as possible. The quickest way to put distance between his group and
those waiting to ambush them was to use the canoe and go downstream
until they reached a small river that branched with the White River.
He had checked on the map and there was such a river less than ten
miles downstream. He still recalled seeing that small river emptying
in the While River on their way upstream the previous day.

  

                                 (end chapter 16)

                           <http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/mandil/www/>

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| alt.sex.stories.moderated ----- send stories to: <ckought69@hotmail.com> |
| FAQ: <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/faq.html>  Moderator: <story-ckought69@hotmail.com> |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Discuss this story and others in alt.sex.stories.d, look for subject {ASSD}|
|Archive at <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org>   Hosted by <http://www.asstr-mirror.org>      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+