Kaligg-Ma! part one:
Kaligg-Ma
"I say to you brothers this world is not the first or the last, the eternal has written the word of life over and over and man has risen and fallen from the shape of the beast to master of fire and back again to the stalking ape. In the place now called Antarctica there is only ice and cold waste but a quarter million years ago it was land of steaming jungles dotted with granite walled cities separated by vast deserts---"
from a speech given by Rev. Alton Bowers to the Society for Theosophical Enlightenment, New Orleans Chapter 1924.
1.
Two figures rode shaggy camels across the sea of dunes in the noonday sun. One was a voluptuous, dark-haired woman clad in a silken robe of brilliant emerald, worked with swirling designs in golden thread. Beside her rode a man taller than most, reddish gold hair hung to shoulder length and a short growth of stubble covered his jaw. The man was thickly muscled but still with the supple quality of a tiger in his manner. In contrast to the woman's courtly finery, he wore a shirt of steel chainmail, despite the desert heat. A steel buckler and saber hung from his saddle within easy reach. The warrior shielded his gray eyes with one sinewy bronze hand, staring into the distance.
" Do you see it there, Jaina?" Huurgan spoke.
"What are talking about-- that jumble of rocks miles away, how do you know there's water there?" the woman replied.
"I can smell it, you might too if you if you weren't covered in perfume. Likely a spring hidden among those boulders."
Jaina smiled languidly and ignored his practical observations, "The lotus essence prevents the smell of my perspiration from reaching your sensitive barbarian nostrils, look how this desert sun wrenches the water from me." With the grace of a temple dancer she raised one leg through the slitted robe bent it to rest a toe on the saddle. Jaina's fingertips glided from knee to the curve of her hip, she daintily touched the fingertips to her tongue, "Hmm, salty but with a bit of sweet, care for a taste barbarian?"
Huurgan grinned, admiring the way the sweat made the robe cling to her shapely form, the courtesans of Pellushar had been bred and conditioned for generations to be desirable in both body and mannerisms and she was a prime specimen, "Normally I would but I plan to deliver you with your honor intact to the merchant who bought you. Hell, the guild's mesmerist would have you boasting of our indiscretions within a dozen swings of his amulet and I intend to collect a handsome reward."
Jaina curled her lip in mock disgust, "Then I suppose you'll take up residence in the nearest brothel?"
Huurgan chuckled amiably, "If it's cheap enough. "
Jaina sighed, suddenly grown bored with flirting, "So you assume that pile of rocks has water?"
"For certain, an hour or so ride will have us there, we'll drink our fill and keep moving north until we reach borders of Pergath in two days. From there it will be an easy ride to the city. After the proper amount of coin fills my purse you will begin your life as the pampered plaything of a fat old merchant, but you can always daydream of your brief adventure in the desert with a barbarian mercenary."
Despite his cheerful talk Huurgan had his doubts, he was uncertain of the distance since they had fled into the deep desert to avoid the raiders who attacked the caravan transporting the Jaina and two other Pellushar courtesans the night before. Huurgan had signed on as a guard to earn a few coins for what he expected to be a somewhat dull week of desert travel. But four days into the journey a large force of blue robed Swenali tribesman had appeared suddenly in the moonless night, running down and spearing the drowsing caravan pickets with their fast war camels. Bursting into the sleeping camp from all directions, slaughtering drivers, porters, and merchants as they fumbled from their bedrolls.
Only Huurgan had been fully armed and armored, sleeping in his war gear in the exposed position. He and one other alert guard had desperately cut their way to their mounts and then to the tent of the courtesans to find only Jaina cowering inside. He pulled the girl across his saddle bow and blindly fled the camp, leaving the screams of slaughter and torture in the darkness behind as the night swallowed them.
After half an hour of hard riding they had stopped to get their bearings and the guard fell from his saddle, bled out from a spear thrust in his back. Huurgan transferred Jaina to the fallen man's camel and they rode on through the night and into the next day. Now they were in the wastelands with no provisions but if there was water in the pile of stones it might be enough to see them through.
"Well barbarian let's get on our way and see how good your nose is."
"Hold on" Huurgan replied his eyes scanning the desert behind them. "Skairne damn them all, they've found us."
2.
Jaina's eyes grew wide with panic as she saw what raised the dust in the distance. Three Swenali raiders whipping their camels like demons flogging lost souls in hell.
Huurgan shook her violently out of the fear trance, "GO! Ride for the rocks and hide, I'll catch up when I've finished those bastards." He slapped the rump of her camel with flat of his saber and she nearly fell when it took of.
Huurgan went towards the blue robed warriors at a leisurely pace, his animal couldn't maintain a long run at top speed, better to let them come to him.
At a hundred yards one of the raiders broke away and to the side, he meant to get behind the chainmail clad warrior. Huurgan kicked his camel into a run and went straight for the pair in front of him.
The three beasts crashed together biting and kicking. Spears thrust at Huurgan, one to his face was deflected by the rim of his shield and the other glanced from his mail clad ribs, his saber flashed and lopped off the hand that held it. The man fell from his mount to roll in the sand clutching the spurting stump, Huurgan's camel stomped his skull, pulping it to jelly. Seeing no further purpose in fighting the fallen raider's mount ran off into the open desert.
Huurgan's saber struck again and again like razor edged lightning and the Swenali warrior desperately blocked the blows with his spear shaft. The raider was overwhelmed by the bronze warrior's speed and strength, it would be only a matter of moments before the saber found it' s way to flesh and blood. Then the war camel's huge head came over Huurgan's shield and the great square teeth clamped on his mailed shoulder, he screamed involuntarily at the pain. The camel lifted him from the saddle and tossed him like toy into the sand. The raider broke away and circled to charge the downed man.
Huurgan rose on shaky legs, he had lost his saber. Bracing the shield with both hands he ran straight for the charging raider. Driving the shield into the beast's neck he shattered the vertebrae and sent the camel back on its haunches to topple over dead in the sand. The raider scrambled out from beneath the carcass seeking the spear he had lost but the edge of Huurgan's shield crushed his skull before he found it.
The bronze warrior retrieved his saber and readied himself to face his third opponent but the raider was nowhere to be seen.
Huurgan's camel stood placidly nearby observing the bloody scene with indifference as the warrior stripped the dead swenali mount of a waterskin and a small bag of provisions. Huurgan mounted the beast and gave it a reassuring pat on the hump, "Thanks for the help old man, now let's see where that other bastard went."
3.
Nognat'shi saw the fate of his comrades and decided the most practical course of action was to pursue and capture the woman before the steel-shirted warrior could regain his mount and give meaningful chase. The woman's tracks were plain as day and he was certain his camel could overtake her and still maintain a strong lead over the warrior. Once he had her a day's hard ride would return him to the Swenali camp, glory and wealth assured as the value of the courtesan far outweighed the loss of the two raiders.
The woman's tracks lead in the direction of the pile of rocks the swenali tribes called "The House of Kaligg-Ma". This perturbed the Nognat'shi slightly, for did not the old men teach that it was a cursed place to be avoided even though the wind from it carried the scent of water and the promise of shade? The old men said in ancient times when water filled the land that is now desert the House of Kaligg-Ma had been at the center of a great city. The ships of that city had plied the oceans capturing the lesser people to serve as food for the god-king Kaligg-Ma. But in time the sea retreated and the gods of sun and wind had decreed that sand bury the city so the world might forget the evil of the place.
The swenali tribe had many legends and taboos but the courtesan and the wealth she would bring were real and near to hand. Nognat'shi resolved he would find her no matter what pile of rocks she might hide in, let Kaligg-Ma be damned to the Twenty Nine Hells of Shimshalla if he interfered.
4.
Jaina had ridden hard as long as she could bear it but she slowed a few hundred yards from the rocks, her bottom was sore and there was no need to make it more so. Moving at a leisurely pace she noticed something odd, there were circles scattered about in the sand that seemed somehow different as though they were a clever camouflage. Perhaps it was subtle change in the tone of the sands in these circles, perhaps an alteration in the heat they reflected, regardless there was something unusual. Like all Pellushar courtesans Jaina's visual acuity was highly trained to spot the slightest trace of a blush or quickening of the pulse in the neck so she had great faith in her visual acuity. She decided to avoid the circular areas and gave it no further thought.
When Jaina reached the rock pile she whispered a word of thanks to Sass'ela the goddess of delight for there was indeed a shady cave in the midst of it. It looked quite comfortable, wide enough for three people to stand shoulder to shoulder and half again the height of a tall man. She hopped from the camel and went into the cave, the beast shied away a bit to stare into the darkened entrance and would come no closer.
The interior of the cave was a rounded tunnel that went back and down at a slight angle . A cool, slightly damp breeze blew lightly from the depths, it sent a shiver through Jaina as it passed over her sweat soaked robe. She sat and rested her back against the cool wall, it was very smooth and unusually comfortable. Jaina dozed for a bit. To her amazement she was stirred back to wakefulness by the faint music of a flute coming up the tunnel. Her eyes had adjusted to the half light and she could make out a tall thin figure clad in a ragged hooded cloak coming towards her, in the depths of the tunnel behind him there was a faint blue glow.
The figure stopped just short of the light coming from the cave entrance, he stood perfectly still in the gloom softly playing the flute. Without understanding why Jaina moved closer to the flute player, surely he was here to lead her to place more comfortable where she could bath in the cool water and rest under the blue light.
She stood before him swaying slowly to the music. He stopped playing and drew in a long breath, a blue cloud was exhaled from the flute and Jaina collapsed to floor unconscious.
More tall emaciated figures in ragged cloaks came from the gloom, they lifted Jaina and carried her sleeping form into the depths.
*end of part 1*
Swenali Raider