"08 - Hunters of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

"Those of Ko-ro-ba," he said, "have often found them so."

"I am Bosk, of Port Kar," I said.

"Of course," said Samos.

I moved my Ubar's Rider of the High Tharlarion to command the file on which the Home Stone of Samos lay richly protected.

"It is long since you have been the Free Companion of Talena, daughter of Marlenus," said Samos. "The Companionship, not renewed annually, is at an end. And you were once enslaved."

I looked at the board, angrily. It was true that the Companionship, not renewed, had been dissolved in the eyes of Gorean law. It was further true that, had it not been so, the Companionship would have been terminated abruptly when one or the other of the pledged companions fell slave. I recalled, angrily, with a burning shame, the delta of the Vosk, when I, though of the warriors, once, on my knees, begged the ignominy of slavery to the freedom of honorable death. Yes, I, Bosk of Port Kar, had once been slave.

"It is your move," I said.

"You have no obligation," said Samos, "to seek the girl Talena."

I knew that. "I am unworthy of her," I said.

I had never forgotten her, the beautiful, olive-skinned, green-eyed Talena, so stunningly figured, such fantastic lips, the proud blood of Marlenus of Ar, Ubar of Ar, Ubar of Ubars, in her veins. She had been my first love. It had been years since we had touched.

"Priest-Kings tore me from her," I told Samos, hard-eyed.

Samos did not look up from the board. "In the game of worlds," he said, "we are not important."

"She was taken to the northern forests, I have learned," I said, "by the outlaw girl, Verna, to serve as bait for her capture of Marlenus of Ar, who is presumed to be concerned for her rescue." I looked up. "Marlenus on a hunting expedition, with other animals, captured Verna, and her girls. He caged them and exhibited them as trophies. They have escaped, and they wish their vengeance."

"You would do well to stay in Port Kar," said Samos.

"Talena is held slave in the northern forests," I told him.

"Do you still love her?" asked Samos, looking at me, directly.

I was startled.

For years Talena, the magnificent Talena, had been in my heart's deepest dreams, my first love, my never forgotten love. She had burned in my memory, unforgettably. I recalled her from the fields near the Swamp Forest south of Ar, in the caravan of Mintar, at the great camp of Pa-Kur's horde, as she had been upon Ar's lofty cylinder of justice, as she had been in lamp-lit Ko-ro-ba, when, with interlocking arms, we had drunk the wines of Free Companionship.

How could I not love Talena, the deep, and first love, the first beautiful love of my life?"

"Do you love her?" asked Samos.

"Of course!" I shouted, angrily.

"It has been many years," said Samos.

"It matters not," I muttered.

"You are both, perhaps, other than you were."

"Do you care to dispute these matters with the sword?" I asked.