When Blade came back down the hill, he found that Kareena had fainted. He cut her loose with his sword, and was lifting her in his arms when a bolt of lightning hit the crest of the hill. The light half-dazzled him, the thunder left his ears ringing, and sulphur stank in his nostrils. Then the rain poured down, washing away the sulphur smell but soaking them both to the skin in moments.

The journey back to the Hovercraft was a nightmare in the storm. Fear that other Tribesmen might have found it didn't ease Blade's mind. But it was intact and unharmed when they reached it, although the rising wind was shaking it. He didn't dare try moving to another place in this storm-they'd be blown out onto the lake the moment they lifted clear of the ground.

Instead he turned the cabin heat up as high as it would go, then stripped off Kareena's clothes and wrapped her in everything dry he could find. She woke up while he was heating some soup.

"Blade, are we-where are we?"

"In the Oltec machine, on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Mison, a long way from Doimar. Right where we were a few hours ago."

"Then-it was a dream, those Tribesmen and-your fight?"

"It wasn't a dream, Kareena. They'd captured you. I fought them and killed them."

"Yes. I remember now. But-Blade, you didn't need to fight. They weren't going to kill you. They were only-only..." She shuddered.

Blade desperately wanted to hold her but restrained himself. "Yes. I would not allow that. I wouldn't have allowed anything that happened in Doimar, if there'd been any other way to learn the city's secrets. I had no choice. Believe me, I had none."

"Blade-you really-didn't-betray Kaldak?" Her words were getting slurred.

"No. They haven't learned anything about us, and we've learned everything about them. Not only that, but everything about where Kaldak's Oltec can be found. Kareena, you went through h.e.l.l, but now we can fight Doimar and win!"

"Fight," she said. "Fight-like you fought for-me." Her hand crept out from under the blankets and reached for Blade's. Before their fingers touched her eyes drifted shut, and she was asleep. She was also smiling.

Blade sat there, looking at the smile. He supposed he ought to feel dirty, even animallike. He'd certainly slaughtered those seven Tribesmen more like an animal than like a man. Yet he could hardly feel that gang of would-be rapists was much of a loss to any Dimension, and Kareena's smile was worth a lot.

Chapter 20.

Kareena was still smiling when she woke up after the storm. In the evening twilight Blade moved the Hovercraft a few miles down the sh.o.r.e, out of reach of anyone searching for the missing Tribesmen. Then he and Kareena both got their first really good night's sleep since leaving Kaldak on the way to Gilmarg.

The next morning they left the sh.o.r.e of Lake Mison and headed out across the plains. Blade took his time, now that they were beyond the reach of both the Doimari and the Tribes. They were more than halfway home, but it would still be a long walk for Blade and probably an impossible one for Kareena.

After some arguing, Kareena took off her trousers and let Blade examine her injured leg. As he'd suspected, the fracture was setting slightly crooked. In Home Dimension it would have been a simple matter to rebreak the leg and set it properly. In this Dimension there'd be no point in putting Kareena through another painful ordeal with not much chance of success. So she would always have a slight limp as a souvenir of her captivity in Doimar.

She shrugged when Blade gave her the bad news. "I'm still too happy just to be alive to worry about being crippled. Perhaps in time we'll find Oltec which can finish healing the leg. Meanwhile, we've already found Oltec which will let me fight the Doimari sitting down."

It took them several days to cross the plains and reach the hills which marked the boundary of the lands claimed by Kaldak. Blade stopped once to shoot and butcher a wild munfan, to give them a change from the wholesome but dull emergency rations in the Hovercraft. That night they had a feast of munfan steaks broiled over a brushwood fire. Kareena sat across the fire from Blade, eating with the first real appet.i.te he'd seen her show, happily smearing her face and her bare arms with grease. She looked like the warrior-queen she'd been when Blade first saw her.

By the time they reached the hills, Kareena was willing to be naked in front of Blade and have him naked in front of her. She still didn't care to have him touch her, but she was willing to touch him. Her fingers hadn't lost their skill in ma.s.saging kinks out of muscles, and after hours hunched over the controls Blade welcomed those ma.s.sages.

They met a Kaldakan patrol the morning after they crossed the hills and nearly fought a battle with it. The Hovercraft had Doimar's insignia on the hull, which confused the Kaldakans. The Kaldakans were entirely armed and equipped with Oltec, which confused Blade. Fortunately someone in the patrol knew Blade, and several knew Kareena, so the confusion was settled before any shots were fired.

Blade climbed down from the Hovercraft, and the Kaldakans gathered around him while he told his story briefly. At the same time he was studying them. Now close up, he could easily tell they were not Doimari. Their Oltec was all new and shiny, and they didn't wear it as though they were used to it. Two of them were wearing hand grenades hung by the rings. Blade quickly corrected that.

"The Lords of the Law must watch over fools, or both of you would be dead by now," he said sharply. He showed them the correct way of handling grenades, then asked, "Why are you all armed with Oltec? Has there been a new find? Or did Peython give everything there was to the guards on the border?"

"Oh, Peython gave first choice to us of the border, sure enough," said the leader. "But no one in Kaldak is short of Oltec now. When Bairam and Saorm came back from Gilmarg, they turned out every man and woman as you urged. We tore the city apart almost stone by stone. There is Oltec now for many more things than killing Doimari, although we will have to do that-"

Laughter interrupted the man and made Blade turn around. Kareena was standing in the Hovercraft's hatch, laughing wildly. For a moment Blade was frightened, thinking she'd gone into hysterics. Then he realized that she was just amused. He had a nasty feeling he knew what was making her laugh.

"All right, Kareena," he said when she'd quieted down. "What's the joke?"

"I'm sorry, Blade. But when he was telling you they'd found all the Oltec themselves, you looked like this." She opened her mouth in an idiotic gape with her tongue sticking out and rolled her eyes up in her head.

"Did I really-?" Blade began to ask the men around him, then shook his head. "No, don't tell me."

It was embarra.s.sing to work hard at the risk of your life for weeks on end, then come home and find somebody else had done most of the same job while you were away. But it was also good news. The Kaldakans' work would save months in arming and equipping their army with Oltec, and might very well save their city.

Also, if Kareena could laugh this way after learning that her ordeal might have been unnecessary, she was on her way to being healed. Every war has its inevitable victims, but it was good to think Kareena wouldn't be a victim of this one.

It was normally five days' travel from where Blade met the patrol to Kaldak. In the Hovercraft Blade covered the distance in less than five hours. They arrived in plenty of time for Peython to put on a truly magnificent party that evening, celebrating his daughter's safe return and Blade's discovery of Doimar's secrets.

Blade learned that in his absence, the Lawmakers had already met to begin a reappraisal of the existing Law. So many changes had occurred in Kaldak after the discovery of the h.o.a.rds of Oltec that the Law had to be carefully rewritten. What was more, it was decided that Blade was a great hero and that there would be no need for a meeting of the Gathering to pa.s.s judgment on him.

Blade also had time to learn exactly what else the Kaldakans did in his absence. It was really quite a lot, even if most of it was done by trial and error. The only person who really seemed to have known what he was doing was the merchant Saorm.

"Did you know more about the cellars of Kaldak?" said Blade. "Or did being the father of Bairam's future bride inspire you again?"

"A family can always use more honor fairly gained," said Saorm. He grinned. "As for the other question-does it matter now?"

It was on the tip of Blade's tongue to tell Saorm that if he'd spoken out earlier and admitted to his knowledge of Kaldak's store of Oltec, he might have saved his chief's daughter a gruesome ordeal. He decided to hold his peace. No one in Kaldak except her father and Bairam knew the details of Kareena's captivity, and Blade wanted to keep it that way. Also, Saorm had done his best according to his own standards. That "best" had not been really too bad, either in Gilmarg or here in Kaldak.

The Kaldakans found many things they knew how to use, and more things they thought they knew how to use, such as the hand grenades. There'd been several fatal accidents, and plenty of croakers to proclaim that this was what came of meddling with the Law. When Blade studied what the Kaldakans were doing with machinery and weapons they barely understood, he was surprised they hadn't wiped out a good part of their city.

They'd even discovered the waldoes and their command center. Fortunately Peython and Sidas prevented any dangerous experiments here. "Other Oltec weapons kill only those close to them if they go wrong," said Sidas. "These steel men could walk through Kaldak, killing everyone they found. They could do us more harm than the Doimari!"

At the party Blade drank a toast to Peython, Sidas, and their common sense. In fact he drank quite a number of toasts, but still managed to get to bed early. There was more work facing him than he liked to think about. He suspected that he'd be up at dawn tomorrow, and for many days after that.

Blade was right.

Part of his work was minor details, like teaching the Kaldakans not to hang grenades by their rings. Most of this detail he quickly delegated to Bairam, Sidas, or Kareena. With the help of a cane Kareena got around well enough, and keeping busy kept her mind off her memories of Doimar.

Another part of Blade's work was training Kaldak's infantry. They would need new tactics, now that they were heavily equipped with Oltec themselves and facing an enemy even better equipped. They had to be taught how to concentrate the fire of their own rifles, scatter to avoid the Doimaran mortars, and take cover to avoid the lasers of the waldoes. With Peython's help Blade picked fifty of the brightest leaders of the Kaldakan infantry and put them through a weeklong crash course in tactics. During that week Blade got hardly any sleep at all.

The results he got would still have made a Home Dimension company commander have a stroke. The Kaldakans' casualties were going to be appalling. However, they were tough, enthusiastic, and knew they were going to be fighting for their lives and the future of their city. They might just be able to take those casualties and go on fighting. Blade hoped so. There wasn't much else he could hope to do with the Kaldakan infantry in the time available.

Blade had better luck with the waldoes. The first thing he did was find out how many of Kaldak's waldoes and control chairs were still working. That meant another week of getting to bed at midnight and getting up at dawn. Fortunately he was able to teach a few Kaldakans how to make the tests, although in a "monkey see, monkey do" fashion. With their help he soon knew there were about a hundred working waldoes and at least fifty control chairs which might last out a battle.

Using the waldoes was not hard to learn. It wasn't so easy that Blade could hope to teach it to fifty Kaldakans in the few weeks or at most months he had left. Even if the Doimari didn't attack by then, he himself would probably be s.n.a.t.c.hed back to Home Dimension.

Not for the first time, Blade wished he had some control over the time of his return to Home Dimension. Lord Leighton would howl at the idea, since he didn't like the idea of guinea pigs with a will of their own. Even J might have doubts, fearing Blade would run unnecessary risks to finish some minor task.

Blade wouldn't admit either point. He was a man, not a guinea pig, and he trusted his own judgment of how many risks he should run. He absolutely did not like the idea of being completely at somebody's whim when he had important work to do. So far unexpected returns from Dimension X hadn't done worse than embarra.s.s him. A few times they'd actually saved his life. Sooner or later things would work out differently. He'd be s.n.a.t.c.hed home with something vital left undone. If he had to go home now before he'd taught Kaldak how to use the waldoes, the city might still go down in defeat. At best thousands of people would die who might have otherwise lived.

Unfortunately Blade was nearly helpless. Lord Leighton and J were both in Home Dimension, and they'd probably turn a deaf ear to his arguments even after he got home. All he could do now was make sure that he left behind enough knowledge of the waldoes to give the Kaldakans a fighting chance.

Blade explained his plan to Peython over a dinner of roast fish and plenty of beer.

"I'll set all of the waldoes and all of the chairs on a single group of frequencies-" he began.

"A single what?" asked the chief.

Blade stopped to quickly explain radio. Peython took in the explanation with only a few questions. "So any chair can send the Voice to any waldo," he said. "And any waldo can send back what it hears and sees to the man in any chair?"

"Yes. A man can climb into any of the chairs and control any or all of the waldoes, without having to waste time finding the correct frequency. This way all of the waldoes can be controlled by one man if necessary. He will have to make all of them do the same thing, of course-"

"That is much better than having none of them do anything," said Peython.

"Very true. In fact, I plan to have only three or four other people in control chairs at the same time, each controlling waldoes of their own."

"No more?"

"I can teach only three or four people how to fight and also how to teach others. Kaldak will be better off with three or four people who know everything than with thirty or forty who know only a little." Peython nodded.

When the Doimari advanced, Blade and his trained operators would march Kaldak's waldoes out to a hiding place close to the chosen battlefield. That would have to be within fifty miles of Kaldak, because there was no hope of getting any sort of radio relay.

"What if the Doimari have such a 'relay,' as you call it?"

Blade knew the Doimari probably did have the relay system now, thanks to his discovery of the Hovercraft, but that couldn't be helped. "As fast as possible we attack the machine carrying the Voice and destroy it."

"And if the Doimari do not march until they have many Voice relays?" said Peython. From someone other than Peython this persistent question might have annoyed Blade. As it was, it implied that Peython wanted to learn for himself most of what Blade wanted to teach. So Blade didn't mind explaining anything Peython wanted explained.

"That will take until next year. I do not think they will wait that long. If they do not know of our new Oltec, they will think we are still weak and helpless. If they do know of it, they will also know they must strike soon, before we can learn to use what we have discovered. They have nothing at all to gain by waiting. Also, I think the quarrel between the Seekers and the infantry will keep them from stopping to think clearly about almost anything."

"I hope we will not have such a quarrel between those who love Oltec and those who love the Law in Kaldak," said Peython. He poured himself more beer and grinned. "However, I have thought of ways to make sure that those who love the Law can do no harm to us in the war. After that, we shall see." He drank, then poured some more beer for Blade.

Blade drank more than he'd planned that night, so when he left Peython he also was not thinking too clearly about anything. He drifted back to his quarters without really being aware of covering the distance.

He now had four rooms of his own. That was more than he needed, but Peython refused to listen to Blade's protests. "n.o.body was turned out into the streets to make room for you," the chief said. "And I will not give you less than you got from Feragga of Doimar! So for once in your life, Blade, you will do as I tell you!"

"Yes, Peython," said Blade with a wry grin.

Blade's new bedroom was the farthest room from the main door. Blade left clothes and weapons in each of the first three rooms, until he was naked when he entered the bedroom. Then he stopped abruptly, a few steps short of climbing into bed. The room was dark, but he saw a long bulge in the furs and a few trailing curls of dark hair on the pillow.

Instantly Blade's thoughts were clear, even though he wasn't exactly sober. He wasn't worried about an a.s.sa.s.sin. If there was going to be an attack, it would have come already. What he suspected was waiting for him in the bed might be more difficult to handle. He bent over the bed, rested a hand on the curls of hair, and murmured softly to the bulge in the furs, "h.e.l.lo, Kareena."

The furs churned briefly, then Kareena's head popped out. She was smiling. "You would have been embarra.s.sed if it had been Geyrna or some other woman."

"I didn't think it was." Blade sat down on the bed and took the hand Kareena stretched out to him. Then he bent over and kissed her upturned lips. They were rigid and cold under his for a moment. Then they trembled and broke apart. When he thrust his tongue slowly into her mouth, he felt her body stiffen. He didn't draw back, and after another moment some of the tension went out of her. Her own tongue crept up to meet his.

That saved a good many words. He now knew what she wanted-a night with him which would finish healing the wounds from Doimar. He didn't know whether he or any other man could give it. Well, in love as in war, a man could only do the best job he could do in the time available.

Without lifting his mouth from Kareena's, Blade slid one hand under the furs and down her body. Three fingers slid down the cleft between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, while two others played with a nipple. Once more the response took a little while, but when it came it was gratifying. The nipple hardened, and Kareena gave a soft little whimper.

An inch at a time, Blade worked one hand down Kareena's body while he went on kissing her. After a while he had to lift his lips from hers, but by then her eyes were closed and she was breathing hard. Now he had two hands and his lips free, and he used all of them everywhere they could go.

He'd taken less time and trouble with women he knew to be virgins than he took with Kareena. He held himself back as if on a steel chain, although before long Kareena was not only obviously aroused but was trying to arouse him. The furs were thrown off, they lay beside each other on the bed, and Kareena's long-fingered hands were roaming up and down Blade's body with a life of their own.

Blade stopped worrying about Kareena's response now, but still held back from entering her. He wanted it to be absolutely right for her. Anything less would be hardly more than another rape, as far as he was concerned. He only hoped he could ignore the growing fire in his own body long enough.

Then Kareena's breath rattled in her throat, and Blade could make out distorted, half-coherent words. "Blade-please-now-before-" Her voice failed her, and she could only gasp. Smoothly Blade shifted position and, with all the care and self-restraint he had left, entered her.

She went rigid under him for long enough to make him wonder if he'd made a horrible mistake. Then her arms went around him, her thighs clamped hard on his hips, and her lips came up to nuzzle his neck. Blade immediately stopped worrying, and before much longer he stopped thinking at all. The world shrank down to Kareena's body under him, her skin and her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and the warmth which held him so closely, and finally her happy cry of release.

That was the first night. The second night was better, the third better still, and the fourth as good as any man and woman could wish. After that Kareena came regularly, and within a month Blade had given Kareena the same gift he'd given the seven women of Doimar. She was pregnant.

She wasn't sure whether to curse him or bless him. A child of her own was the dream of any woman of the Land. On the other hand- "If this keeps me out of the war with Doimar, I'll never forgive you!" she said.

"Don't worry, daughter," said Peython. "If I know Feragga of Doimar, she'll attack long before the child has grown enough to slow you." His eyes met Blade's, and they shared an unspoken thought: If only we could keep Kareena out of the battle completely. However, they both knew her too well.

"I hope so," said Kareena. "I owe the Doimari a debt, and the sooner it's paid the better."

Peython was an accurate prophet. The morning after the party to celebrate Kareena's pregnancy, word came from the frontier patrols. The army of Doimar was on the march.

Chapter 21.

Nungor was already half-dressed when Feragga got out of bed. When she was barefoot and he wore boots, the top of his head almost reached her shoulder. She bent down to kiss him, rumpled his hair, then started pulling on her clothes. Through the door of the tent trickled the dawn light and the sounds of the Doimari camp coming awake.

Nungor heard the crackle of wood fires, the bubbling of stewpots, the curses of munfan drivers, and the growls and hisses of the munfans themselves. Sometimes he heard the crack of whips as Kaldakan prisoners were driven to their day's work. Once he even heard the whir and whine as the Seekers tested their new Oltec machine.

Nungor didn't quite know what to think about that machine. On the one hand, without the machine and the Voice equipment it carried, the hundred Fighting Machines the army had with it would not be so strong: This far from home, the Voices from Doimar could hardly get the Fighting Machines to walk straight most of the time, let alone fight well. But on the other hand, Nungor and his infantry had no control over the Carrying Machines, which were claimed by the Seekers. That made the whole affair of the machines eat at Nungor's guts like a meal of rotten meat. But Feragga had said it must be so, and then the best man at handling the machine turned out to be a Seeker! There wasn't much Nungor could do about Feragga even if he wanted to, but he could do something about that cursed Seeker! The man wasn't going to survive more than a single day beyond the last battle of the war, if Nungor had to kill him with his own hands!

Now another question nagged at Nungor. As the Doimari penetrated the frontier of Kaldak, there were few Kaldakans to be seen, let alone taken prisoner. Had Blade returned to Kaldak and told the people to retreat so far, instead of giving battle on the frontiers where the Fighting Machines would be deadly? Maybe he had. Even so, Blade had already lost all chance of victory before leaving Doimar, by showing how the Carrying Machines could be used.

"Think we'll meet them today?" said Feragga's voice behind him. He turned. She was ready for battle, complete with body armor. Since there was no one single set of armor large enough to fit her, she wore two fastened together. Nungor hoped this improvisation would protect her. The thought of losing her to the Kaldakans hurt, though not as much as it would have hurt to lose her to that cursed Blade!

"They have to turn and fight sometime," said Nungor. "We've chased them three days' march across their own land and burned many of their farms. We're only two days from Kaldak itself. Peython's gambling with his people's loyalty. Or do you suppose this is Blade's doing?"

Feragga shrugged. "Don't underestimate Peython. He's the sort of man to come up with new answers when he faces new problems. I suspect we'll have to beat him not just once but several times before he gives up. Fortunately there won't be many more chiefs like him, so once we've got Kaldak we've got half the Land."

"Pray that it be so," said Nungor evenly. He was getting a little tired of Feragga's evading a discussion of Blade. He could understand why she was embarra.s.sed at the treachery of a man she'd so nearly taken to her bed, even at the cost of her long comradeship with the War Captain. What bothered him more was not knowing if her spy network in Kaldak had broken down. If it had, they couldn't know if the Kaldakans were planning any surprises, and it was going to be hard for him to plan more than the simplest battle.

Very well, he would plan a simple battle. He'd keep all the foot fighters together, and the first time the Kaldakans showed themselves he'd hit them with everything he had except the Fighting Machines. The machines would guard the rear while the footmen stamped the Kaldakans into the ground. That would start off the war with a good solid victory and maybe frighten the Kaldakans out of pulling any surprises, Blade or no Blade!

He squeezed Feragga's hand and side by side they went out into the morning to take their place among their soldiers.

The Hovercraft whined through the nearly deserted streets of Kaldak toward the entrance to the waldoes' command center. Kareena was at the controls, with Blade in the other chair and six armed infantrymen behind them in the cabin. Blade and Kareena hadn't spent all their time together in the past month making love. In good weather she could now handle the Hovercraft almost as well as Blade.