Assassin of Gor Read Free Page A

wad of flesh to free itself.
     
    Many in the crowd laughed at the small fool's discomfort.
     
    Hup was indeed an ugly thing, for he was small, and yet thick, almost bulbous, and under the dirty tunic, perhaps that of the potters, there bulged the hump of some grotesque growth. One of his legs was shorter than the other; his head was too large for his body, and swollen to the left; one eye was larger than the other. His tiny feet thrashed about, kicking at the man who held him.
     
    "Are you truly going to kill him?" asked one of the patrons at the low table.
     
    "This time he dies," said the man who held Hup. "He has dared to speak the name of Portus and beg a coin from him."
     
    Goreans do not generally favor begging, and some regard it as an insult that there should be such, an insult to them and their city. When charity is in order, as when a man cannot work or a woman is alone, usually such is arranged through the caste organization, but sometimes through the clan, which is not specifically caste oriented but depends on ties of blood through the fifth degree. If one, of course, finds oneself in effect without caste or clan, as was perhaps the case with the small fool named Hup, and one cannot work, one's life is likely to be miserable and not of great length. Moreover, Goreans are extremely sensitive about names, and who may speak them. Indeed, some, particularly those of low caste, even have use names, concealing their true names, lest they be discovered by enemies and used to conjure spells against them. Similarly, slaves, on the whole, do not address free men by their names. Kuurus surmised that Portus, doubtless a man of importance, had been troubled by the little fool Hup on more than one occasion, and had now decided to do away with him.
     
    The man who held the sniveling Hup held him with one hand and struck him with the other, and then threw him to one of his three fellows, who similarly abused him. The crowd in the tavern reacted with amusement as the small, animal-like body was buffeted and thrown about, sometimes flung against the wall or on the tables. At last, bleeding and scarcely able to whine, Hup curled himself into a small, trembling ball, his head between his legs, his hands holding his ankles. The four men, then having him between them in the pit of sand, kicked him again and again.
     
    Then the large man with missing teeth seized Hup's hair and pulled up the head, to expose the throat, holding in his right hand a small, thick, curved blade, the hook knife of Ar, used sheathed in the sport of that name, but the knife was not now sheathed.
     
    The eyes of tiny Hup were screwed shut, his body shivering like that of an urt clenched in the teeth of a sleen.
     
    "Keep him on the sand!" warned the proprietor of the tavern.
     
    He with the missing teeth laughed and looked about the crowd, his eyes bright, seeing that they waited with eagerness for his stroke.
     
    But his laugh died in his throat as he looked into the eyes of Kuurus, he of the Caste of Assassins.
     
    Kuurus, with his left hand, pushed to one side his bowl of paga.
     
    Hup opened his eyes, startled at not yet having felt the deep, cruel movement of the steel.
     
    He too looked into the eyes of Kuurus, who sat in the darkness, the wall behind him, cross-legged, looking at him, no emotion on his face.
     
    "You are a beggar?" asked Kuurus.
     
    "Yes, Master," said Hup.
     
    "Was the begging good today?" asked Kuurus.
     
    Hup looked at him in fear. "Yes, Master," he said, "yes!"
     
    "Then you have money," said Kuurus, and stood up behind the table, slinging the sheath of the short sword about his shoulder.
     
    Hup wildly thrust a small, stubby, knobby hand into his pouch and hurled a coin, a copper tarn disk, to Kuurus, who caught it and placed it in one of the pockets of his belt.
     
    "Do not interfere," snarled the man who held the hook knife.
     
    "There are four of us," said another, putting his hand on his sword.
     
    "I have