Blade didn't wake up until well after dawn. By then Geyrna was gone, and his head was throbbing with a ferocious hangover. By the time he'd washed and shaved, he felt ready to face Peython and the others.

Either Peython had stayed awake all night or got up very early. Even more annoying, he still showed no signs of all his drinking. That was more than could be said of his son, Geyrna, or Kareena, who wobbled in last of all, obviously nursing a hangover even worse than Blade's.

They quickly unrolled a map of the Land and made their plans. Saorm would lead them to where the fire jewels were hidden, and Kareena, Bairam, and Blade would take fifty fighting men and women and twenty munfans to Gilmarg. That was all Kaldak could spare at the moment, although there might be enough fire jewels and other valuable Oltec to load every munfan the city had.

"Gilmarg is also, in land claimed by Doimar," said Peython. "The last time we sent men to Gilmarg, the Doimari killed many of them. The same thing could happen again. I would not be sending either of you or Blade if I had a choice, but-"

"You have no choice," said Bairam, with unexpected dignity. "And we have the duty of proving ourselves worthy children of Peython of Kaldak."

Bairam and Kareena would in theory be leaders of the expedition, with Blade serving them. In fact, Blade would be a third leader.

"And you will both swear to listen to his advice," said Peython sharply.

"Yes, Father," his children chorused.

Blade would teach them all he knew about Oltec, then let them do all the actual work with it. "Under the Law, Blade, you cannot touch Oltec-or carry any weapon until the Gathering gives its judgment. Even I could not set the Law aside without making many tongues wag. Then we might lose all we have gained."

The "cover story" for the expedition was mostly the truth. In Gilmarg there was a great h.o.a.rd of fire jewels. If enough could be brought home to Kaldak, Peython would ask the Gathering to allow wise men to study the fire jewels: This would prepare everyone for a possible change in the Law, without giving away the secret of Blade's discovery.

Kareena looked at the map and traced the march from Kaldak to Gilmarg with her forefinger. "This should be easy enough. It is a short journey."

"It is the longest journey ever made by men of Kaldak, daughter," said Peython. "It is a journey from the past of the Land into its future."

Chapter 9.

From the top of the tree where Blade was perched, the city of Gilmarg looked like a smaller, more battered edition of Mossev. Two of its eighteen towers were only piles of rubble, and the rest had lost most of their color and ornament. Tall trees grew up through the paving of some streets, and vines choked many of the doors and lower-floor windows. There was no sign of human life. Although the Doimari claimed Gilmarg, it was far enough from Doimar so they didn't keep a permanent garrison in it.

Blade sat up, straddled the branch, and shouted down to the people on the ground eighty feet below. "No sign of the Doimari!"

A voice floated up through the needles. "Would Blade recognize a Doimari if he saw one? Best that I go forward and see."

That could only be Hota. He couldn't be denied a place on the expedition. He was a leading warrior of Kaldak, who'd been to Gilmarg several times before. This honor hadn't improved his manners. He considered being obliged to a.s.sociate with Blade an insult, and being obliged to take Bairam's and Kareena's orders was almost as bad. He said whatever he pleased whenever he pleased and seemed to be hoping to provoke Blade or Bairam into a quarrel. Sooner or later, he was going to succeed with Bairam.

Blade scrambled down the tree too late to hear what anyone said to Hota. Hota and four other fighters were already on their way toward the edge of the forest and Gilmarg. Blade was relieved to hear that one of them was Sidas. He at least would keep his eyes open enough to keep Hota from returning and talking nonsense. For a while there was nothing for Blade to do except join the men who were cutting ferns for the munfans. As a man outside the Law, he wasn't allowed to carry a weapon, so he couldn't even sit down and sharpen his sword.

Blade was feeding the last munfans when Bairam came up behind him. The boy carried two swords, to mark his rank as Peython's son even though he was also a man under judgment for breaking the Law. "Hota will push himself forward every time he can," Bairam said. "He wants to be the hero of this journey, so he can ask our father for Kareena."

"Would Peython give her to him?"

"Hota's courage has won him many friends. If they spoke for him, Peython would have to listen, or fear them becoming his enemies."

"Kareena would not be happy with Hota, I think."

"No. I have heard her say she would rather marry an ox, or live without a man all her life."

Blade smiled, remembering Kareena's lips hot against him and her graceful red-brown body naked in the firelight. He doubted she would be happy with a celibate life, or would need to accept one, although he hoped she would not have to accept Hota just to keep peace in Kaldak. She would never be happy with a man who had more courage than sense, even if he wasn't a loudmouthed boor as well.

It was well past noon before Hota and the other scouts returned. "There cannot be enough Doimari in Gilmarg to fight us," said Hota.

"Not unless they can hide themselves better than usual," added Sidas.

"The warriors of a city without the Law cannot have such skill," said Hota crushingly. Sidas was about to reply, but a black look from Kareena silenced him. Blade was glad. Sidas was too intelligent to believe much of Hota's superst.i.tious nonsense about the Law, and much too likely to blurt out his heretical opinions in Hota's presence.

It was mid-afternoon before they got all the munfans untethered and on the move. They seemed more skittish than usual, and several broke their hobbles and tried to bolt. Even the most experienced hunters and munfan-leaders couldn't say what was bothering the animals.

The light was failing by the time they reached a safe refuge among the towers of Gilmarg, with a cracked roof overhead and crumbling vine-grown walls on three sides. Kareena decided against making any fires, and they ate a cold dinner of bread and meat. Then the sentries took up their posts for the night, and everyone else fell asleep.

Blade took the first watch with the sentries, then rolled up in his blanket. He managed to sleep in spite of the chill and the sharp rocks digging into all the more vulnerable portions of his anatomy. Sometime in the darkest hours of the night he awoke to find Kareena curled up against him, one arm across his chest. He tried to move her, but she only pressed herself closer without waking up and made a noise like a contented kitten. He gave up, wrapped his blanket around both of them, and went back to sleep with her firm warmth resting against him. Hota might be jealous, but Blade's patience with Hota was just about gone. If the warrior said one more word out of turn, Blade was going to find it hard not to take him apart, Law or no Law!

It didn't take them long the next morning to find Saorm's tunnel. Either the merchant had a naturally good memory, or knowing the number of swords pointed at his back gave him one. Before the sun was well up he'd led them through a maze of ruined side streets to a crumbling building with a half-exposed bas.e.m.e.nt. In one corner of the bas.e.m.e.nt stood a slab of concrete taller and thicker than a man.

"There," said Saorm. "Under the lower end of that stone. The tunnel is narrow, though. I did not get through it easily then. I do not think I could get through it at all, now."

Hota poked the merchant in his stomach. "Too fat, eh? We should have marched you harder, made you skinny. Well, there will always be men to go where you cannot."

At first Blade doubted that Saorm was telling the truth about pushing the slab into place single-handed. Then he noticed several other slabs balanced more or less precariously around the bas.e.m.e.nt. One of them fell over as he watched, nearly crushing Sidas. When the dust settled, Kareena had the men go around and push the rest of the slabs over, so they could go to work on the tunnel without looking over their shoulders every minute.

One man might have pushed the slab into place, but it took the sweat of at least a dozen before it was clear. With Blade and Hota working together for once, the slab was then dragged to one side. Everyone stood around the gaping black maw now exposed, peering down the rubble-strewn slope until it vanished in the darkness. Blade noticed that while everyone wanted to look, no one seemed particularly eager to linger on the edge of the darkness.

To his credit, Saorm volunteered to be the first man down the tunnel. He stripped himself naked, tied a rope around his waist, then on hands and knees scrambled down into the darkness. A lot of cursing and grunting and the clatter of falling stones floated up from the darkness, followed by a cloud of dust. Then Saorm himself reappeared, panting, sweaty, bleeding slightly in several places, and shaking his head grimly.

"The tunnel is not as it was when I found it. The stones have moved, so that there is much less room. Even if I was the man I was then, I could not get through."

Kareena gave him the kiss of honor. "Do not grieve, Saorm. You have done well. Someone else will have to finish your work, that is all."

Kareena's words touched off a ferocious argument over who should have the honor of finishing Saorm's work. Blade was the first to volunteer to go down the tunnel. Inevitably, Hota objected. "This man is outside the Law and facing the judgment of the Gathering. It will bring a curse upon Kaldak if he is the first to enter the hole and see this great wealth of Oltec. Let me go." He looked ready to draw his sword against anyone who argued.

Saorm saw his chance to get back at Hota for his earlier insults. "You are larger than I, and the Law will not make you smaller. If I cannot get down, how can you?"

"Then Blade cannot go either, because he is bigger still."

"I am smaller than either of you," put in Sidas. "And I-"

"I am the smallest of the men," began Bairam. "I-"

"You may be Peython's son, but you are not in the Law's favor either," said Hota sharply. "You are not so much better than Blade."

"I am-yah!" said Bairam, breaking off as his sister kicked him hard in the shin. Kareena glared at everyone, then started taking off her trousers.

"I am the smallest of all. I am of Peython's blood. And no one can say that I am at fault before the Law. So I am the best one to go down, and no one will stop me."

When Kareena was naked, she bound her hair up, then let Blade tie the rope around her waist. When he'd done that, she picked up a rifle and vanished down the tunnel like a rabbit. They heard more curses and clatters and saw more clouds of dust. They also saw the rope vanishing steadily into the darkness. Then they heard Kareena's voice, distorted by the tunnel and by a spasm of coughing.

"I'm all the way-down. The fire jewels-by the Law, there must be thousands of them! Big stone in the tunnel, though. No one bigger than I-can get through. I'll try to move it."

"Be careful, Kareena," shouted Bairam. There was no reply, except more clattering stones. Dust poured out of the tunnel like smoke from a fire, and Blade started stripping off his own clothes. He might be the largest man in the group, but he was also the strongest and the most skilled in this sort of work.

Then Kareena's voice came again, even more broken by coughing. "Can't-move-it. Almost-but somebody-push from above." She sounded as if she was about to strangle on the dust.

By now Blade was naked, wearing only his silver loinguard. Hota moved to block the tunnel, but Sidas and Bairam both stepped between him and Blade. Blade threw them both a look of grat.i.tude, then got down on his hands and knees and started crawling. His natural caution over moving into the unknown fought with his desire to hurry to Kareena's rescue.

Stone by stone, Blade crept downward, the air growing thicker and the light fading with each foot he descended. He was in a weird sort of twilight by the time he came to what had to be the obstacle. It was another slab of concrete, tilted so that it left only about a two-foot s.p.a.ce clear. Blade wondered how even Kareena could have slipped through, and hoped the stains on the slab were Saorm's blood and not hers.

Fortunately there was enough light to let Blade see how the slab could be moved out of the way. He crawled up onto the slab and shouted down into the darkness. "Kareena! Get out of the way. I'm going to be throwing the stones off the slab. Then you pull out the ones underneath."

A choking "Yes, Blade," from below rea.s.sured him that the girl was still alive and functioning. He started wrestling chunks of stone up over the lip of the slab and shoving them down into the lower part of the tunnel. As they crashed down, the dust rose about him until he was working more by touch then by sight, and he soon found himself coughing almost as hard as Kareena. Finally he'd cleared the top of the slab and scrambled back up to get a breath of fresh air and a crowbar.

It took Blade several tries before he found a position where he could pry up the slab without breaking either the crowbar or his back. Then he thrust the crowbar into place, waited until Kareena signaled she was ready, and heaved with all his strength.

Even Blade's powerful muscles nearly weren't enough. The slab was heavier than he'd expected. He had to lock muscles and joints, then press his back against the wall until he felt blood flow to keep holding it up. About all that kept him going was the knowledge that if he let the slab fall, it would squash Kareena like a c.o.c.kroach.

Sweat oozed from every pore and his eyes nearly popped out of his head, but he held the slab long enough. Suddenly he heard Kareena's m.u.f.fled, "All right, Blade. I'm safe." He jerked the bar free and the slab fell with a crash. The tunnel vanished completely in dust, and there were so many more rattles and crashes that for a horrible moment Blade was certain he'd brought the whole tunnel down on himself and Kareena. Then the noise died away and Blade clawed his way down the slope, through a gap now large enough to pa.s.s three men abreast.

He found Kareena sprawled on the floor, writhing and half-choking. She'd put the last of her strength into the effort, and if she didn't get out to the fresh air soon she was going to be in even worse condition. Blade opened his dust-clogged mouth to shout, but only a croak came out. Before he could get the breath to try again, there was another avalanche of small stones and Sidas, Bairam, and Hota came tumbling down the tunnel. Hota was carrying another crowbar, Sidas a torch and flint, and Bairam-bless him!-a leather skin full of water.

Bairam took one look at his sister, propped her up with one arm, and offered her the water. She vomited up the first mouthful, but kept down the second and third. After the fourth, she felt well enough to use some of the water to wipe her face. This left her with a sort of dark mask on her otherwise completely dust-coated skin. Like Blade, she was so thickly coated with dust that you had to look twice to see that she was naked.

Blade drank water until he no longer felt the dust grinding between his teeth. Then he lit the torch and slowly walked around the underground storeroom of the fire jewels. They were there as Saorm and Kareena said, thousands of them. No, tens of thousands, Blade corrected himself. There were crates which must contain at least a thousand of the smallest power cells, or a hundred of the larger ones. There were covered racks of cells larger than any Blade had seen, and on the floor stood still more cells, each at least four feet high. If their power capacity was in proportion to their size, each of the big ones must hold enough power for a tank or even a small town! He was looking at nothing less than an Industrial Revolution for Kaldak, the saving of hundreds of lives and a whole generation on the road back to civilization...

Blade corrected himself again. He could be looking at all these things. He couldn't be sure, until he knew if most of these cells still held their power. Even after that, the Kaldakans would have to do some serious thinking about their Law before they could get the benefits of all this Oltec. Blade was sure there were far too many Kaldakans who would think like Hota, if you could call that "thinking" at all.

From the noise up above, it seemed that everyone in the expedition except the munfans wanted to come down the tunnel and stare at the Oltec. Kareena was now in shape to give orders again, and she kept everyone except Saorm and two men with rifles from coming down. "There is more Oltec here than we dreamed of," she shouted. "Who knows what the Sky Masters may have left behind to protect it? Until we know, the fewer down here the better."

Then, still naked, Kareena took one of the rifles. Slowly she raised it, and fumbled at the panel which covered the slot for the power cell. Saorm, Hota, and even Sidas stared horror-struck as she opened the panel and pulled out the old power cell. All eyes followed her as she stalked around the room, looking for the right size of power cell. She found an open crate, picked up a cell, blew the dust off, and held it up in the torchlight. It gleamed like new. By now even Blade was holding his breath.

Slowly, with trembling fingers, Kareena put the power cell in the rifle. It took her three tries before she could close the panel. She had to stop completely, her eyes closed and her b.r.e.a.s.t.s rising and falling, before she could raise the rifle.

Then in one smooth motion she raised it, aimed at the ceiling, and fired. The beam crackled across the room, dust and ozone stung Blade's nostrils, chips of hot stone stung his skin, and everything in sight turned a sickly green. He' still felt like cheering. Some of the storeroom's Oltec lived!

"Then-we can make dead Oltec live?" said Sidas. He looked surprised half out of his wits.

"Yes," said Kareena. "The fire jewels are great Oltec. With their help-"

"You would destroy the Law?" grated Hota. He sounded like a rusty piece of machinery. "You, Peython's daughter? Then you must have his will for this-"

"We do have our father's will," said Bairam. "It is his will-"

Before Bairam could provoke a quarrel, Blade interrupted. The laser's light was brighter than anything from the torch. In the green glow he'd seen what appeared to be the head of a ladder in a far corner of the room. He took the torch from Saorm and led the merchant over to the corner.

He'd been right. The torch showed the top half-dozen rungs of a metal ladder, running down a circular metal shaft into the darkness. "Saorm, did you see this when you were here the first time?"

"Y-yes. I did."

"Did you climb down?"

Saorm looked horror-struck. "Blade, that would have been so far beyond the Law... !" He looked down at the blackness. "Also, I was afraid. Who knows what the Tower Builders left down there?"

Blade looked at the ladder reaching into nothingness and couldn't blame the man. "Who knows indeed?" he said. "I say nothing against you for that. But we must go down there now. We are already so far beyond the Law as it used to be, that there is no going back within it."

"For you, perhaps," said Hota. "But as for the rest of us, the Law-"

"Is not your own toy," said Bairam. It looked as if the quarrel Blade had hoped to prevent by calling attention to the ladder and the shaft was going to start after all.

Then a shrill scream floated down the tunnel and echoed horribly around the storeroom. Everyone with a weapon grabbed it. Another scream came from above, then in quick succession the crash of falling masonry, a heavy metallic thud, and the crackle of a laser much more powerful than any rifle.

Everyone made a rush for the tunnel at once and jammed in the entrance. As they struggled to get untangled, a third scream came, another laser-crackle, then the unmistakable odor of burning flesh. Then Blade finally heard coherent words coming from the tunnel entrance above.

"Help! Help! A giant is attacking us! An Oltec giant!"

Chapter 10.

Blade could understand the words but still didn't know exactly what was happening. However, the cries, the laser fire, and the falling masonry said clearly enough that the people up on the surface were facing new danger.

Ruthlessly using feet and elbows, Blade got out of the tangle. He scrambled up the tunnel, more screams and laser fire echoing around him as he climbed. The smell of burning flesh grew stronger. As he hurled himself out of the mouth of the tunnel, the laser fire stopped and the metallic thuds came again.

As Blade stood up, he saw most of the people who'd been in the room vanishing up the stairs to the second floor. One lay on the floor, writhing silently, too horribly burned to be able to scream. Two others crouched in a corner, a man and a woman with their arms around each other. A moment later Blade heard an appalling crash. Cracks appeared in the wall to the right of the door to the street. Crash, crash, crash! A section of wall twice as high as a man disintegrated and came down in a pile of fragments and a cloud of dust. Through the hole Blade caught a glimpse of something moving-then a laser burned a yardwide gap in the stairs. At the same time the breeze outside swept away the veil of dust. At last Blade had a good look at the Oltec "giant." He threw himself on the floor behind the largest piece of rubble he could find, as another laser blast deepened the crater in the stairs.

The giant was a humanoid robot at least twelve feet tall. Its slab-sided rectangular body was mounted on two ma.s.sive legs with armored knee and ankle joints. Two equally ma.s.sive arms with armored elbows and hands with four jointed fingers were tearing chunks out of the wall. In the middle of the chest glowed the laser tube.

The head was a grotesque parody of a World War II German helmet, with eyes, a mouth, and ears. The "eyes" were obviously some sort of scanner, although one was cracked and dark. The "mouth" was the black tubular muzzle of what looked like another weapon. The "ears" were sound receptors or possibly radio receivers; one of them had a long antenna trailing from it. The whole robot was a silvery brown--once this might have been a finish designed to reflect laser beams. Now it seemed tarnished and worn from many years of neglect and many battles.

The two Kaldakans in the corner now sprang up and made a dash for the stairs. The woman hesitated on the lip of the smoking gap in the stairs, giving the robot an easy shot at her. A laser beam cut her in two before she could scream. Her torso and head dropped into the crater, while her legs rolled back down the stairs.

The man howled like a wild animal. He leaped the crater safely, then turned and fired at the robot. It was a wild shot, hitting the robot in one knee and doing no harm. The robot lifted in one hand a chunk of wall the size of a man's head and flung it with horrible precision. The Kaldakan fell backward into the crater, his chest a crushed red mess.

Blade frowned. The war robot was obviously a creation of the Sky Masters, and therefore centuries old. It was still formidable enough to wipe out the whole Kaldakan expedition if it wasn't led away and destroyed. That was a job Blade knew he'd have to face single-handed. Some of the Kaldakans were fast and quick-witted, but none of them had the understanding of modern technology needed to give them the right reactions. The Law had suppressed their curiosity for too long.

Blade mentally d.a.m.ned the Law and looked at the robot again. The hole in the wall was now large enough to let it come into the room, but it seemed to be hesitating. Perhaps it was programmed not to walk on floors which might be unable to support its weight. The thing must weigh two or three tons!

However, it wasn't going to stand there making up its mind forever. Blade crawled to the mouth of the tunnel and called down, hoping the robot's "hearing" was impaired with age. "Kareena! Keep everyone down there until someone tells you it's safe. There's an Oltec war machine up here that's gone mad with age. I've got to lead it away from here, then destroy it." He hoped she would understand what she had to do from this brief explanation.

He heard Kareena's m.u.f.fled voice agreeing, then heard her cursing. After that came the scrabbling and rattle of someone climbing rapidly up the tunnel. A moment later Saorm popped out, pale and sweating but carrying two laser rifles and a bulky leather sack over one shoulder.

"What-?" began Blade, but Saorm only handed him a rifle, pointed at the bag, and whispered: "Fire jewels. For the Oltec."

Blade nodded. Extra power cells for the rifles would be useful, although he doubted if rifle fire would be enough for the robot. It had to be armored against much heavier weapons.