Chapter 28
City of Taz
After the Fernlanders had unpacked, freshened up and explored their new lodgings they drifted back one by one to the outer courtyard. They waited with their gifts, wondering if they had, in fact, been invited to lunch.
A soldier leading a line of horses rode up in a cloud of dust and stopped abruptly. He seemed to be in a hurry.
Hilgard listened carefully and turned a confused face to his countrymen.
"These are our horses. We are going to take the goat. I suppose that means we are having goat for lunch."
Rabar gave his own translation in a low voice. He did not want to show his familiarity with the Barburee tongue.
"We will watch a game called 'grab the goat', or buzkashi."
Prince Avor ran to his horse, excited to see the first of the games. "Hurry. We don't want to miss the start."
The other Fernlanders ran to their horses. Electra caught the soldier's eye and pointed to the stack of gifts. The soldier nodded and said something that Hilgard translated as "later".
They rode through the city and back out to the valley to a very large round tent. Bataar emerged from the yurt and greeted them. He mounted his horse and led them to a spot further down the valley where a playing field had been set up. There was a flag at one end and a circle drawn on the ground at the other end.
"Buzkashi. Good game. We play soon."
The Fernlanders dismounted, leaving their horses free to graze. They watched as twenty horsemen circled the field. Half wore red tunics and half wore blue. Trumpets blared and the carcass of a goat was dragged onto the field and placed in the circle.
The twenty riders surrounded the large circle, waiting for the trumpet fanfare to end. At the last note, the pushing and shoving to get to the goat carcass began. Every man carried a whip clenched between his teeth to allow his hands free to clutch the reins of his horse and grab the goat. Now the whips came out from between their teeth as the men assaulted one another with whips, fists, head butts and any other means at their disposal to get themselves in a position to grab the heavy carcass from the ground and carry it off to the flag at the other end of the field.
One man managed to grab the remnant of a goat leg long enough to fling the heavy carcass up onto his own leg and take off. His team members galloped along beside him, protecting him and his precious carcass from the opposing team. Halfway down the field, his horse was cut off and turned by the other team. With twenty horses on the field it was often difficult to make out who had the carcass.
As one man leaned far out to snatch the carcass away, another man took the opportunity to push him completely off his horse. The horse behind, trained for such a maneuver, deftly sidestepped in time to avoid trampling the unseated rider.
People on the sidelines cheered wildly and often ran out onto the field for a better view. The buzkashi players took no note of them and many spectators were saved from being trampled themselves by a hairsbreadth.
The goat carcass had changed hands several times and was again on the ground—up for grabs.
One of the blue team members came up with the goat carcass. He clamped it to the side of his horse with his leg and took off at high speed. Three of his team members shielded him on two sides and the back. The red team was in pursuit. The red team caught up with him at the flag and tried to move his horse aside by brawling with the men protecting him. One managed to reach in and grab the leg of the carcass just as both rounded the flag. The red team member jerked the carcass free and pulled it onto the saddle in front of him. Now the red team turned with their prize to fight their way around the flag.
Having gained momentum by rounding the flag, the red team started down the field cheering one another on. The blue team, so close to gaining a point for rounding the flag, just to have their carcass stolen away at the last second, came after the red team with a vengeance. Even the horses seemed in competition, snapping their teeth at competitors' horses and kicking with their hind legs.
As the red team approached mid-field, the Fernlanders had to back away quickly to avoid being trampled. A blue team rider grabbed at a carcass leg stump and pulled for all he was worth. The red team rider strained to hold on, but the strain was too much. The blue team member was stronger and the red team member was pulled from his horse, still holding on to the carcass. He was dragged a few feet before finally letting go and was then unavoidably trampled by his own horse.
The red team member was thrown almost into the laps of the Fernlanders. Rabar and Electra quickly pulled the man to the side as the teams flew by on their horses without a backward glance.
Rabar began to question the man as to where he had pain. The man's eyes still followed the carcass down the field. Electra could see that his leg was broken. Finally, the pain registered and the man moaned and spoke a few words.
"His leg and his shoulder," Rabar translated.
A great cheer went up from the crowd. The blue team had scored. A new goat carcass was carted onto the field and dumped into the circle.
Rabar cursed the absence of his medical bag and medicines. No one came to assist Rabar and Electra. They were too wrapped up in the game. Electra searched the empty yurts for supplies and found two straight boards to serve as splints and some rope to secure them. She returned to find that Rabar had returned the man's dislocated shoulder to its socket and was giving him water and willow bark for the pain.
The man asked who had won the first match. Rabar told him the blue team had won. The man frowned and asked if they could prop him up so that he could watch the second match. Rabar told him he should rest or he might go into shock. The man insisted, so Rabar and Electra found some large pillows and blankets to prop him up and keep him warm. They sat down beside their patient to watch the second match.
Riders from the blue team thundered down the field with the red team in hot pursuit. Electra watched as the blue team member carrying the carcass rode by with another blue team member protecting his flank. She jumped up and stared open-mouthed. The man with the carcass was Bataar and the teammate close on his flank was her brother, Prince Avor.
Princess Electra Book 3 Gypsy Music Page 28
