Fortunately Nungor's dislike of the Seekers did much of Blade's work for him. Most of the time Blade had only to mention that a certain vehicle might be useful to the infantry "-but would be far more useful to the Seekers, I'm afraid." Then Nungor would immediately start talking about ways of hiding this fact from the Seekers.

After a while he would always remember that this was hardly possible, as long as Feragga was sympathetic to the Seekers. Then he would finish with more or less the same words: "We'd better keep quiet about this one for a while."

Nungor might not be willing to see Doimar defeated rather than let the Seekers get the credit for a victory. But he was certainly willing to risk many things to reduce the Seekers' share of glory, including the lives of his own men. Blade was perfectly happy to encourage this desire. It not only made his own job of sabotaging Doimar's war effort a great deal easier, it made it considerably safer as well. If the Seekers and the infantry ever got together and compared notes on what Blade was telling them, he'd be finished. Thanks to Nungor's stubborn prejudices, that meeting would probably never take place.

They were halfway through the last room when Blade's eyes widened. The next six vehicles were identical-light Hovercraft with a large shrouded propeller in the rear and a domed pa.s.senger compartment in front. They didn't look heavily armed, so they were probably scout vehicles of some sort, relying on speed rather than firepower.

Nungor had noticed Blade's expression. "Ah, you think these are worth studying? So do we. We have even made one of them live for a short time." He pointed to the fourth Hovercraft.

"Why didn't you keep it alive?"

"We could make it rise and move. We could not make it move in one direction for long. It was like a wounded munfan running wild."

Blade nodded. Hovercraft could move fast and cross any sort of surface, but they were hard to steer. In a crosswind it was almost impossible to keep them on a straight course, and even in a calm air they needed plenty of room to turn. Large Hovercraft like the ones used as ferries across the English Channel overcame the problem by sheer weight and power, but smaller machines simply needed careful handling.

Fortunately Blade was in a position to provide that careful handling. He'd learned to drive Hovercraft while taking his commando course with the Royal Marines. If the controls on the Tower Builders' machines were anything like those in Home Dimension... Blade hurried over to the fourth Hovercraft, scrambled up on the front, and peered in through the scratched and dusty windshield. A quick look was enough. He let out a shout of real pleasure, then dropped to the floor and hurried back to Nungor.

"Can you use this machine?" asked the War Captain.

Blade nodded. "We do not have such machines among the Oltec of England. But we did find books which spoke of them and how they were guided. I have read those books, and I think I can remember how to guide the machines. I will need a few days to practice, of course, and many large fire boxes to power the machines, but----"

"You can have anything you need, Blade, if-" Then he shook his head. "No. I must not promise too much. We shall have to get Ferraga's orders for what you need. She will insist that the Seekers learn of it, and then..." He sighed.

Blade grinned. "For once, this will make no difference. The Seekers will get no good from these machines, no matter how many we use." Nungor's mouth fell open and Blade continued smoothly. "To begin with, it will need strong and swift men and women to guide these machines. That means men and women like the foot soldiers, not like the weak and sickly Seekers." That did the Seekers an injustice, but it was what Nungor wanted to believe about them.

"Also, these machines cannot carry anything the Seekers need. They cannot carry the Fighting Machines or anything else heavy. They can easily carry foot soldiers or foot soldiers' weapons." That might even be the truth. The Hovercraft had a rear deck obviously able to hold cargo, but they were certainly too small to lift a three-ton waldo. Blade was prepared to take his chances that they could not carry the radios.

"So-the foot soldiers will have this Oltec all to themselves, whatever Feragga says?"

"I do not know what Feragga will say," Blade pointed out. "She may try to favor the Seekers. But you can certainly trust me to speak strongly for the foot soldiers. Even Feragga of Doimar cannot make an Oltec machine into something it is not."

"No." Nungor was staring at the Hovercraft like a starving man offered a seven-course banquet. Blade practically had to drag him away.

Like the other times Blade dined with Feragga, this meal ended with a huge bowl of fruit sliced up in honey. As usual, Feragga served herself the lion's share of the bowl. The chief of Doimar had a sweet tooth.

As she spooned up the dessert with childish pleasure, Blade watched the candlelight play on Feragga's smooth brown skin, showing the muscles rippling under it. There was more skin than usual on display tonight. Feragga wore her knee-length boots with knives in them, a skirt of blue leather reaching to her ankles but slit up to one hip, and nothing else except a heavy dose of perfume. The perfume could not entirely hide Feragga's reluctance to take a bath more than once a week.

Otherwise Blade had to admit that the less Feragga wore the better she looked. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were large, in proportion to the rest of her, but well shaped and solid. The curve of her belly told of muscle rather than flab, and her surprisingly graceful throat- Blade realized he was staring at her a moment before Feragga laughed. "Ah, Blade. Sometimes I think I should bed you. Sometimes I think I should not. Sometimes I think I should ask you to decide for me. But if you are going to look at me like that, I know the answer you would give if I asked. So perhaps I should not trust you that much in matters where your p.r.i.c.k might rule you."

She pushed the empty dish away, lit a fresh candle from the dying one, and signaled to the maidservant at the door to leave them. When the door closed, Feragga's smile faded. "You are wiser in matters of war and Oltec, I think. So there I will trust you." She filled both their cups with beer from a jug on the floor beside her. "Nungor says you can make one of the Oltec carrying machines live again. Is this so?"

"If he says that I am sure of it, he is hoping for too much," began Blade cautiously. "If he says that I think I can learn the machine's ways, then teach them to others... " He shrugged. "I will not give you false hopes, Feragga."

"Good. I would not thank you for that." She gulped her beer noisily. "Nungor also says that the Seekers cannot use these machines."

Blade nodded. "There he says what I think, too. I know the Seekers' wisdom and do not think they lack courage. But I do not know what they could do with these machines. If I knew more of the Seekers' work-"

Feragga raised a hand. "You shall, Blade. You shall, as soon as you have learned how to guide these machines. You shall teach the Seekers as well as the footmen how to guide them. In return the Seekers will tell you everything they know."

"Thank you, Feragga. This will make my work easier. But-will Nungor-"

Feragga slammed her cup down on the table hard enough to knock spoons and knives off onto the floor. "I p.i.s.s in Nungor's beer! He will like it, or I will find another War Captain. For too long the Seekers and the footmen have been fighting like tomcats. The Doimari will never rule the Land if we go on running off in different directions like a flock of sheep when a great-hawk swoops down!" She poured herself more beer. "But with your help, Blade, this can change."

"I will be glad to help," said Blade. He was still cautious. In spite of her coa.r.s.e manners, Feragga was dangerously sensible. She might ask him to do something which would be fatal to Kaldak.

"Good." She explained. Once he'd proved he could make the Oltec vehicles live again, Blade would be named Doimar's Captain of Oltec, ranking equal to both the First Seeker and Nungor the War Captain. He would be given a staff of intelligent men and women, chosen equally from the Seekers and from the foot soldiers. With this staff, he would find, study, and learn to use any Oltec found in the cities Doimar conquered. Then he would teach what he'd learned to both the Seekers and the foot soldiers.

"How many people will I have under me?" Blade asked. So far, the plan didn't seem to present any immediate danger to Kaldak, but he wanted to be sure. "If I'm going to have to search each city in the Land from tower top to cellar-"

Feragga laughed, spraying beer into Blade's face. "Don't worry, Blade. We've got maps of at least a dozen of the cities, showing where all the Oltec is hidden. Those Lawbound fools have been sitting on treasures for centuries. That proves how unfit they are to hold it. In Doimar we've gone beyond the Law, and that proves we're the destined rulers of the Land!" Feragga seemed to be feeling the beer.

"You didn't have a map of Gilmarg, did you?" said Blade. He was fishing for more information about those maps.

Feragga grunted like a pig. "No, worse luck. If we had, we'd have stripped that storeroom empty long before you led the Kaldakans to it. Oh, well, we'll dig up that building you dropped on it someday, and we've got plenty of other maps." She laughed. "Would you believe we even have one of Kaldak?"

"I'll believe it if I see it," said Blade, trying hard to make a joke of the matter.

"You will, you will. You might as well start studying those maps while you're studying the machines. You've got to have something to do at night besides take slave girls to bed." She punched Blade in the shoulder. "I'm not jealous. I know you've got enough manhood to have some left for me. So don't look so worried about that."

Blade wasn't looking worried. He was trying desperately to hide his excitement. Feragga was offering him a map showing all Kaldak's hidden Oltec! That could save months in preparing the city for war, if he could get back there with the information. From now on, that was going to have to be his main goal-that, and making sure Kareena was not left to die horribly.

Feragga reached across the table, gripped Blade by both shoulders, and pulled him toward her as easily as if he'd been a child. He wound up with his face buried between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Then she ruffled his hair with one hand and kissed him on the forehead. It was rather like being kissed by an affectionate bear.

"This won't be our night, Blade," she said. "When you've done your work with the machines-ah, that will be the time. We can celebrate making you Captain of Oltec properly. Good night and skilled hands."

The ritual wish for anyone working with Oltec was Blade's dismissal. He left quickly, trying to stagger convincingly as if he'd drunk more than he actually had. It would do no harm if Feragga thought he was too drunk to remember all she'd said to him.

It would do even less harm if she kept her promise not to take him to bed until he'd finished his work with the Hovercraft. If she did it before then Nungor's jealousy could still wreck everything. If she waited, Blade didn't plan to be in Doimar, let alone ready to warm her bed.

He and Kareena would be either dead or on their way home to Kaldak.

Chapter 17.

For the next few weeks, Blade would have been happier if he'd been triplets. There was too much for any one man to do. Fortunately Blade knew what to do in this sort of situation. He sat down and divided all the work into what absolutely had to be done before he left Doimar, dead or alive, and what it would be merely useful to do. That shrank the work down to what one man could do, as long as the man had the const.i.tution of a horse and the ability to go for weeks on end with three hours' sleep a night. Blade qualified. Otherwise he'd have been dead years ago.

By day Blade practiced with the Hovercraft, not only operating it but also learning to maintain and repair it. He knew this could possibly give the Doimari knowledge they would afterward use against Kaldak. On the other hand, Blade needed the knowledge to be reasonably sure of escaping. The Sky Masters built their machinery to last, but the Hovercraft was still centuries old. It would do him and Kareena no good if it broke down ten miles outside Doimar.

The controls of the Hovercraft were so simple that Blade could operate it without being able to read the instruments. Unlike the waldoes, though, the Hovercraft was nothing for a child to handle. Even Blade needed all his training and reflexes to control it at high speed. He felt as if he was driving a sports car across slick ice, and didn't even try to push the Hovercraft to its limits. It would easily buzz along at eighty miles an hour, and at that speed it would leave everything in this Dimension far behind, including the waldoes.

The Hovercraft was designed on the modular system. When something broke, you simply pulled the whole piece out and shoved in a new one. With five other Hovercraft to cannibalize for parts, Blade had no trouble getting the sixth into nearly perfect condition. He also hoped to immobilize the other five by stealing parts from them. The Hovercraft could easily carry the radios the Seekers needed for their relay system. If none of the Hovercraft left behind ever moved again, it would be much safer for Kaldak.

That was Blade's day. Most of his nights were spent studying the maps of the cities of the land. He secretly made two copies of the map of Kaldak and hid each one in a different place in his suite. Then he set himself to the task of memorizing the locations of all the Oltec storerooms under Kaldak, so that if he had to escape without the maps the information still wouldn't be lost. When he wanted it that way, Blade's memory was nearly photographic.

The nights he didn't spend studying maps were spent making love to slave girls or sometimes free women of Doimar. Rumors of his silver loinguard were spreading, and many women seemed convinced that the p.e.n.i.s it protected must be something special. Blade was always willing to do his best to prove the point, as amusing as he found the notion. Very few women seemed to go away unsatisfied.

In fact, it was the kind of satisfaction Blade gave some of them which brought on the crisis.

Another blood-red sunset was tinting Doimar outside Blade's window. Another company of infantry was training in the courtyard three hundred feet below. This time they were practicing hand-grenade throwing. Blade heard sharp explosions as the grenades went off behind walls of piled earth and stone. Sometimes he heard screams as a grenade went off prematurely in someone's hand. If Blade hadn't known already that the armies of Doimar were going to march soon, the training he'd seen these past few days would have convinced him. Nungor and Feragga didn't seem to care if they killed a third of their infantry as long as the other two-thirds were properly trained.

Blade decided to treat himself to a good night's sleep for once. There were no women coming tonight, the Hovercraft was about as ready as it ever would be, and he'd memorized all the information about Kaldak's Oltec anyone was likely to need during the war. He drew a cup of beer from the barrel in the corner of the bedroom, drank it, then started taking off his clothes.

He'd stripped down to the loinguard when he heard the sound of many feet shuffling outside the door. Then he heard a furious knocking, with fists, spear b.u.t.ts, sword hilts, and clubs. It sounded as if the people out there were rioters who wanted to break down the door. He grabbed his sword but didn't worry about his clothes.

Feragga's voice cut through the din outside. "Stop it, you fools! I wouldn't blame him if he killed the first half-dozen if you burst in on him this way!" Blade smiled. He'd been planning to do exactly that if the Doimari had come to arrest him. Apparently they hadn't-or at least Feragga hadn't.

Her voice came again. "Blade, we mean you no harm. But we must have your silver loinguard."

"My-silver loinguard?" said Blade. He wasn't playing for time; he was honestly confused.

"Yes. Seven of the women you have taken to your bed are with child. Seven! No man in the memory of Kaldak has done so well in his whole life. You have done this in less than a month. We must have your loinguard to study, to know if it holds your secret!"

Blade laughed. "I have said the secret is in me, not in the loinguard. Do you doubt my word, Feragga?"

"I do not doubt that you are telling the truth as far as you know it, Blade. But do you know everything? The Seekers doubt it and would like to study the loinguard itself. Now may they have it peacefully?" She left the implied threat unspoken, but Blade heard the rasp of swords being drawn.

If he gave up the loinguard, there'd be practically no chance of his ever seeing it again. One of Lord Leighton's key experiments would lack its final results, and the scientist would not be happy, to put it mildly. The work of getting a protective garment for Blade-and possibly another traveler-to take into Dimension X would be set back. The Seekers might even learn enough from the loinguard to develop some suspicions about Blade's origins.

Yet they could hardly deduce the whole Dimension X secret from one piece of strange alloy. Nothing short of the Dimension X secret itself was worth the trouble Blade would face if he didn't give up the loinguard. The Doimari were obviously prepared to take it by force. They might not want to kill the goose who laid the golden eggs--or in this case, the gander with the golden loins. But accidents could happen, and in any case Kareena might be horribly punished for his stubbornness. At best, he would probably be put under guard like a stud stallion, and his chances of escaping would practically disappear.

"All right," he said loudly enough to be heard by everyone outside. "I give up my badge of a warrior of England for the good of Doimar. But it is unseemly for a warrior of England to be without his badge, so I must ask you to return it to me in five days' time." Blade didn't know if they would agree to this condition, but he had nothing to lose by asking and everything to gain. He'd be able to make his getaway as he had planned and still return to Home Dimension with the silver loinguard.

There was no sound out in the hallway for a few seconds, then Blade heard Feragga's voice. "All right, Blade, we agree to return it to you in five days' time. Now let's have it."

"There's just one more thing," Blade said. "Let me get some clothes on. Then I will let you in." He was d.a.m.ned if he'd face the crowd out there in his bare skin. His private parts were not going to be on public display for the Doimari.

Feragga and Nungor led the crowd into the room. Blade handed the loinguard to Feragga, who handed it to Rehna, the Seeker woman who'd trained Blade in using the waldoes. She looked so unhappy that Blade drew Feragga aside and asked why.

"Rehna has not conceived from your seed," said Feragga. She sighed. "Yet she has had you in her, and she may have another chance. Consider my situation. Now I cannot bed you at all, for I am certainly past bearing children if I ever could. Your seed is abundant, to be sure, but you do not have enough to waste on dried-up old husks like me." There was real pain in her voice.

Blade kissed her gently, ignoring Nungor's frown. "Do not call yourself harsh names, Feragga. There will be a time when duty is done and pleasure is our right. Meanwhile, you are the mother of all Doimar. You have twenty thousand children, and that is more than I will ever sire."

Blade was glad to see Feragga smile, because his praise was almost sincere. Like too many rulers he'd met, Feragga was cruel, ruthless, and ambitious for power and conquest. Unlike some, she was not mad. Confronted with a Kaldak armed, able to defend itself, she might see reason and make peace. Then the work of Doimar's Seekers would in the long run benefit everyone in the Land.

However, she was still going to have to be defeated first.

Blade quickly discovered that in fact he was going to be kept in a gilded stall as Doimar's prize stud stallion, even though he'd given up the loinguard peacefully. He would have every luxury Doimar could supply and a different woman each night. He would also have very little privacy and therefore not much chance of escaping.

"You look worried, Blade," said Feragga, when she'd finished explaining how he'd be treated. "Does any of this go against the Law of England? I would not have suspected you were the sort of Law-bound fool to think of such things."

"I am not," said Blade firmly. "You should know that by now. It is entirely Lawful for a warrior of England to give his seed to women of other lands, and even leave his children in them. But if I am to do this as you wish, I must have two things."

"If they are in Doimar, you may have them," said Nungor.

"Good. One is five days to go through certain rites. It is the custom of England for a man to perform them before he goes to his bride. They are said to increase his powers both to please women and to give them children." Five days should be enough to finish his work with the Hovercraft and stock it with food, water, weapons, and spare power cells for the escape-not to mention getting the loinguard back.

"We are glad to honor the customs of England," said Feragga. "What is the second thing?"

"I would like to have Kareena, daughter of Peython, here as my slave, to begin her Initiation and-"

"You don't mean to put your seed into her?" said Nungor sharply. "She is not worthy to bear children who will be the strength of Doimar."

Apparently Nungor's suspicions weren't being lulled by the fact that Feragga was no longer planning to take Blade to bed. The man was simply suspicious by nature.

Feragga glared at Nungor and opened her mouth, but Blade spoke first. "Nungor, your tongue runs ahead of your wits. I have said nothing about giving seed to Kareena. I wish her to do some useful work as part of her Initiation, by keeping these rooms clean, waiting on the women I take to bed, and so on. If she has her strength back, it is time we put that strength to use. Like my seed, it should not be wasted."

He let an edge creep into his voice. "And if I did wish to put my seed into Kareena, Peython's daughter, I would do so. You could not stop me. I would not call her unworthy to bear sons for any city. She is Peython's daughter, and although he fears the Law too much I have not heard that he is weak, foolish, or a coward. Neither is his daughter." Blade caught his breath, realizing that he might have put himself and Kareena in danger but not caring too much. He'd be d.a.m.ned if he was going to kiss Nungor's a.r.s.e forever!

Feragga gave one of her robust laughs. "Blade, you have said what I was going to say better than I could have said it myself. Certainly you can have Kareena to serve you. When you have taken all the women of Doimar who will share your bed, you can even put your seed into her if you have any left. Indeed, a child of Peython's daughter will not be unworthy of Doimar. When do you want Kareena brought here?"

"Oh, in a day or two will be soon enough," said Blade with elaborate casualness. "I would like to teach her some of her duties before I start entertaining the ladies of Doimar every night."

"It shall be done," said Nungor, his face and voice both expressionless.

The last of the guards rolled off Kareena and rejoined his fellows standing around her. He didn't bother looking at her, let alone try to help her to her feet. She lay on the filthy straw until she felt she could stand up easily. She would not let these swine see her struggling to her feet, let alone ask one of them for help.

Gradually what strength she had left returned to her limbs. She was able to sit, then stand up. No one made a move to offer her any clothing, but she would have been surprised if they had. She'd been naked most of the time since they carried her out of the room where Blade stood, calmly betraying Kaldak to that b.i.t.c.h Feragga!

Blade! The mere thought of his name nauseated her. She would have vomited if there'd been anything in her stomach. She hated him more than any of the Doimari guards who'd made her their plaything for the past weeks. They were hardly more than animals. Blade knew what he was doing.

A sharp pain in her leg made her bite her ragged lips and lean against the wall of the cell for a moment. She could stand and even walk slowly, but not much more. The leg would probably never be completely right again. Once the thought of spending the rest of her life walking with a limp would have been agony. That time now seemed long ago, in the life of a person other than the Kareena who now stood naked in a filthy cellar in Doimar.

More guards were coming now, bringing one of those metal chairs they used to carry her. She started walking over to it herself. She would not give them any excuse to manhandle her, not when the bruises from the last beating hadn't healed yet, and she would certainly be getting fresh ones when she got to wherever they were taking her. That had been the rule-a beating every time she was moved. At least they hadn't used the iron-tipped Initiation whip. She'd seen what that did and knew it might have broken her.

The guards lifted the chair and trotted down the hall, then turned right and stopped before a tall metal door. To Kareena's surprise it slid open, revealing one of the elevators. Where was she going, that they were taking her there by elevator? As far as she knew, the elevators only worked in Feragga's tower and one or two others in all of Doimar.

The elevator lurched upward, creaking and hissing, for quite a while. When the door opened again Kareena saw the guards outside wore Feragga's house badge. She was in the b.i.t.c.h-chief's tower. Then she saw something which drove all thoughts of Feragga out of her mind.

Blade was standing behind the guards, arms crossed on his ma.s.sive chest. He looked as she'd expected him to look-clean, well-fed, self-satisfied, and as arrogant as if he ruled here instead of Feragga. Then he started giving orders, as if he took it for granted that he'd be obeyed.

"Bring hot water and soap and give Kareena a bath. Clean her wounds, rub her with oil, and give her a meal with some meat in it."

"And the chain, Blade?" asked the chief of the guards carrying the chair.

"To be sure, the chain. But make it a long one, and wrap the leg iron in cloth. She'll have a lot of work to do, so I want her to be able to move about the rooms."

"As you command, Blade."

In front of Blade, Kareena was suddenly self-conscious about her nakedness for the first time since reaching Doimar. She wanted to cover her face or her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with her hands. Instead she forced herself to raise her head and stare hard at him. For a moment he stared back, then he looked sharply away.

She knew that he hadn't looked away because he was ashamed: clearly he felt nothing for her. He'd only ordered the bath and the meal because he didn't want a filthy, starved scarecrow of a slave in his comfortable rooms. Angrily she told her stomach to stop rumbling at the thought of meat, the first she would be tasting since she reached Doimar.

Perhaps Blade felt guilty over betraying Kaldak. He certainly should, by the Lords of the Law! But that wouldn't save him, either. If she was on a long chain, she would have a chance to explore his rooms when he wasn't around. There should be something she could hide, then use as a weapon at the right time.