
Godsmountain and all its doings had waxed greatly in importance since then.
Many of the waiting entrants were half naked in the mild weather, their bodies all muscles and scars and
hair. The clothes of some were very rough, and those of others soft and rich. A few wore scraps of body
armor, or carried shields of hardened sloth-leather or bright iron. Full armor was unknown on Hunters',
where a man stood on his feet to fight and never rode. These fighters were chiefs' sons and peasants'
sons and sons of unknown fathers. Nothing but merit, merit with sword and spear and battle-axe, had
won them their places here. Around him now Leros saw blue eyes and dark eyes, eyes with epicanthic
folds and eyes without, deep eyes here, mad eyes there, and a pair or two of eyes that seemed as
innocent as babes'. The original colonists from Earth, some six standard centuries in the past, had been
eclectically selected from a world already well mixed in race and culture. Around Leros the faces were
brown or white or black, with hair of black or brown or yellow or red-there was one iron-gray, two
shaven bald. Here was a heavily tattooed face, with stripes across from ear to ear, and over there a smile
showed teeth all filed to points. More numerous than the oddities were other men who looked as prosaic
as herdsmen, save for the weapons at their belts. Besides their human maleness, only one thing was
common to them all: uncommon skill at killing other men in single combat.
"Rejoice, ye chosen!" Leros called again, more softly. "Before the sun goes down upon this day, half of
you will stand within our god's great hall-" he pointed toward Godsmountain's top, out of sight behind the
wooded bulges of its lower slopes-"and face to face with Thorun himself." Leros prepared himself to
retell, and his listeners made ready to hear yet again, the promises that had been carried down from
Godsmountain a standard year earlier by Leros and his aides.
Thorun, warrior-chieftain of the gods (so the message went) had been pleased by the spirit shown by the
race of men in the recent series of wars extending Godsmountain's power across most of the habitable
world. The god was pleased to grant to humankind the privilege of fighting for a seat at his right hand, the
competition being open to the sixty-four finest heroes of the age. To accomplish this purpose the
inhabited world had been arbitrarily divided into sixty-four districts, and the local rulers of every district
were invited to send-the details of the selection process being left largely to them-their mightiest warrior.
All but one of the contestants was expected to die in the Tournament of Thorun, and that one, the winner,
would be granted the status of a demigod and would take his seat at Thorun's right hand. (Out in the
country somewhere, some irreverent logician would be sure to ask the priest who brought the message:
How about Mjollnir: Will he have to move down a peg? Not at all, my nephew. No doubt he and the
Tournament winner will share the honor of being next to Thorun. No doubt they will fight for the day's
turn whenever it pleases them.)
By all reports it pleased them to fight a lot in Thorun's hall atop the mountain. There the great god and
the more or less deified men, slaughtered heroes of wars and combats past, re-slaughtered one another
daily for the joy of it and were miraculously healed of their wounds each evening in time to enjoy the
perfect meat and drink of Thorun's table, the tale-telling of immortal eloquence shared by the company of
the gods, the endless supply of maidens eternally made virgin for their pleasure. (Out in the country, the
questioner relaxes with a sigh; there is more here than a simple warrior knows how to argue about. Even
if he is not so simple, the questioner sees that he is not going to beat this talking priest at his own game of
words.)
Leros on this bright morning was formally spelling out once more what his listeners already knew: "Those
of you who fall in the first round of fighting will be the first to feast with Thorun-but eternally around the
lowest portion of his table. The next sixteen who perish, in the second round of fighting, will be granted
places higher up. In the fighting of the third round eight will die and will be seated higher still-and each of
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