So Serana Zotair had to learn all the Wizard's secrets, carry them safely to Morina, and reveal them. Blade could tell her everything she needed to know, but getting her out of the castle was another problem.

"I think I see a way," he told her, on his third visit. "The Wizard thinks I am a learned man. I will say that I believe you will not be cured of your madness unless you are returned to Morina. I will say that you may even die, if you are not sent home for at least a few months. The Wizard does not want to have your death on his hands."

"No, and neither does Duke Efrim, my brother. He will keep me closely confined, though."

"Will you be able to send messages to your friends?"

"Yes. But will they do anything? They have not done so, in all the years there has been talk of a new rebellion. Some call themselves leaders in that rebellion, but they have done little enough leading."

"They may have done nothing because it seemed they would be throwing their lives away in vain. With all the Wizard's secrets in their hands, the odds will be much better."

"I hope they will see this as clearly as you do. Will you be coming with me to Morina?"

"The Wizard does sometimes let me leave the castle, but not without an escort of Wolves. You would be safer going alone. Go on pretending to be mad, but eat a little more and get some strength back. You may need it, after you reach Morina." Then there were no further words, only quick breathing and writhing flesh. They had to make love as if Serana was still mad. Blade was sorry they would never be able to do it with the tenderness and affection they both now felt and wanted.

There were dangers in the plan. He could not go with Serana, and only partly for the reason he gave. He had to stay in the castle, close to the Wizard, or throw away any chance of taking the man home with him. Serana would have to play a lone game in Morina, but that should be almost easy for her after what she'd done these past two years in the Wizard's castle.

Blade would also have to make sure the Wizard didn't try to read Serana's thoughts before letting her go. He obviously hadn't done so before, otherwise he would have known that she wasn't mad. Suppose he did so now? There would be h.e.l.l to pay, for he would be almost certain to learn not only that Serana was quite sane but that Blade had told her all his secrets. Blade suspected the best thing to do in that case would be kill the Wizard and then try to get clear with Serana in the resulting uproar and confusion. It would be a very poor "best."

Blade mentally kept his fingers crossed, and as the days turned into weeks, he began to think his plan might work. Serana stayed as wild-eyed and incoherent as before, but slowly she put on flesh. The Wizard listened politely to Blade's proposal, seemed to suspect nothing, and said he would give his answer in a week or two. Blade could only hope he would make up his mind before the computer reached out to haul one or both of them back to Home Dimension. If the Wizard did decide to let Serana go, and did not probe her mind, everything should be simple.

Then all at once nothing was simple, because of the Wizard's latest idea.

Chapter 16.

Blade and the Wizard were sitting up late in the Wizard's private dining room. Blade reached for the silver wine jug on the low table between them. Then the Wizard spoke and Blade froze with his hand in midair.

"I think it will not be necessary to return Serana Zotair to Morina. In fact, it will not even be possible. In another few weeks there will be no Morina."

Blade forced himself not to sit up with a jerk, and leaned back in his chair. "Oh? What is going to happen to it?"

"Happen to it, Blade? I am going to happen to it. My Wolves and I. It will be destroyed, so that when I am gone from Rentoro the people will come to where Morina stood and remember me. It will be destroyed, its houses and even its walls cast down, and its people slain to the last graybeard and squalling infant."

"Certainly the Rentorans will not forget you, if that is your farewell to them," said Blade. "But isn't it a rather large task?"

"Not for all my Wolves striking together, with surprise and terror on their side. It will be a most unusual sort of terror, for it will be mine."

"Yours?" Blade was having trouble understanding the Wizard's cryptic references. He was having even more trouble keeping his face expressionless.

"Yes, mine. I shall cross the sky-bridge with my Wolves for the first time, and I shall send terror into the minds of all the people of Morina. They will be an interesting sight, when they find my terror destroying their minds and my Wolves destroying their bodies."

Blade nodded politely, although "interesting" was not precisely the word he would have used. "Forgive me for raising this possibility again," he said. "What if we do not return to England and it is your fate to remain here to the end of your life?"

"That will be a long time," said the Wizard. He shrugged. "If it is my fate to remain in Rentoro, the destruction of Morina will still do me no harm. The people will think that what I have done once, I can do again. They will be even more obedient than they have been, for they will be even more fearful than they have been. I will lose nothing, not even wealth, by destroying Morina. And if it is fate that we both remain here in Rentoro-" He broke off and looked at Blade, who tried even harder to seem perfectly calm. Then, "Richard, do you have sons-sons of your own loins?"

"Yes. I have left several behind me, during my travels."

The Wizard relaxed visibly. "That is good news-the very best news I could imagine." His voice was level as he continued. "You see, I have no children, neither sons nor daughters. I had none in Milan, and I have none here in Rentoro. I greatly fear there is no power in my loins to beget children. So I can have no heirs of my body, and I fear that all I have built in Rentoro will fall when I die. I would not have that happen. Too much of my life in Milan was wasted. I would not have it so here in Rentoro as well."

The Wizard smiled. "You wonder what I am trying to say, Blade? Well, I shall tell you in plain words. If it is our fate to both remain here in Rentoro, you shall be my heir. You shall be the next Wizard, and your sons shall come after you."

Once again, only the fact that he was getting used to surprises in this Dimension kept Blade from gaping. He returned the Wizard's smile. "I am vastly honored, and believe me when I say that I am grateful beyond words. But-I do not have your mental powers. Could I hope to rule Rentoro without them?"

"You do not have those powers," said the Wizard, in a gently chiding tone. "But you know those powers can be taught. How else would my a.s.sistants be able to control the viewb.a.l.l.s and the sky-bridges? I have only given my a.s.sistants some of the powers, but to you I would be prepared to give all of them. We would have many years, and you have a powerful mind. I would be very surprised if you could not learn to do everything I can do, and teach your sons in their turn."

"We may not have many years," said Blade. "Remember, it is also possible that I may return to England while you stay here in Rentoro."

"I know that," said the Wizard impatiently. "I admit that would not make me happy. Still, something can be done about this. The most intelligent of the castle's women will be sent to your bed, and I shall teach the children you get on them. The best shall become my heir. And if we are fortunate, and do have years-"

"Yes?" Blade could not quite control his impatience. He wanted to learn the rest of the Wizard's plans, and then get out of here before he did anything to make the man suspicious. His self-control would not be enough to deceive a telepath much longer.

"If we have years, I shall pick out all the finest young women from Rentoro. I shall examine both the body and the mind of each one. The ten best shall all be sent to the castle, and all ten of them will become yours. You will get children on them, children strong in mind and body like their father and mothers. Then there will be heirs for both me and you, and the rule of the Wizards of Rentoro will never end!"

"You are an ambitious man, Bernardo."

"If I was not ambitious, would I be where I am today?"

There was no possible reply to that. Blade frowned in a pretense of concentration. "What about Serana Zotair? Do you plan to make her one of my harem?"

The Wizard shook his head. "Her mind is not strong enough to make her a worthy mother for your heirs. I have other plans for her." The Wizard smiled, but it was a smile Blade knew too well meant bad news.

"I shall have to examine her mind before I send the Wolves against Morina. If she is not helplessly mad, I shall take her with me when the city falls. It will be interesting to enter her mind and read her thoughts as she watches her city and her people die."

Blade's face was a mask and his voice was very level. "And if she is too mad to know what she is seeing?"

The Wizard shrugged. "Then there would be no pleasure for me in reading her thoughts. I will turn her over to the Wolves and they can do as they please with her."

"So I suppose I shall have to take as much pleasure as I can from her, these next few days?" said Blade, trying to smile.

"Yes," said the Wizard. "Unless you have a taste for corpses?" He laughed coa.r.s.ely.

"Not I," said Blade. "Live ones only-the livelier the better."

"Shall we drink to that?" said the Wizard. He filled both cups and raised his. "To lively women!"

Blade drank and after that there was no more discussion of the fate of Morina. He found it easy to keep his face under control and after a few minutes was able to find an excuse for leaving.

Outside in the hall, he found he had to lean against the wall briefly before he could walk the rest of the way to his own rooms. Had the Wizard gone completely mad or was he just indulging himself more than usual?

It didn't matter. Mad or sane, the Wizard was perfectly capable of carrying out his plans for the destruction of Morina. Those plans had to be defeated. It would be better to defeat them without killing the Wizard himself, but if there was no other way- If Morina could only be saved by killing the Wizard, then the Wizard would die. Blade's mind was made up on that. Twenty thousand people lived in and around Morina. He was not going to stand by and let them die, on the chance that he might be able to take the Wizard back to England with him.

He would also do his best to leave the Wizard alive.

The Wizard could teach all his skills and powers-or at least believed he could. If he could be brought back to Home Dimension, alive, sane, and ready to teach those who could learn- It would be worth a good deal, even if not the lives of twenty thousand people. Blade's mind was made up on that, too.

The Wizard seemed to be in no hurry to launch the attack on Morina, so Blade chose not to arrange a special meeting with Serana. He wanted to avoid anything that might possibly arouse suspicion until he and Serana were safely inside the walls of Morina-or at least safely out of reach of the Wolves' swords and the Wizard's mental control.

So Blade visited Serana on schedule and they made love. It was becoming steadily harder for Serana to pretend to be mad while she was with Blade, and steadily harder for Blade to conceal the real affection he felt toward the woman. He knew both of them would be happy to drop the disguise.

They lay together afterward, in the usual wild tangle of sweaty limbs and tousled hair, and Blade told Serana the bad news. He felt her go rigid as a board against him and she was silent for a long time.

Then she said, her voice shaking slightly, "We must flee. At once."

"I know that. We must also begin the rebellion against the Wizard, whether your friends in Morina are ready or not."

"They can make themselves ready, once we tell them of what awaits the city if they do nothing."

"What about your brother?"

"He may not be our friend, even now. It is less likely that he will be our enemy. He is not evil enough to wish all his people slaughtered by the Wolves."

"You hope."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that we must be on our guard against even your brother. We must be ready to deal with him as an enemy."

"Blade, you know I have no great love for my brother. Yet I must also think of the House of Zotair, and what my brother's death might mean for it."

"Think of Morina, then of your House."

"Blade, if my brother makes himself our enemy, then my hand will not tremble, any more than yours. Is that enough?"

"Yes."

Blade's hand drifted across Serana's breast. She shivered, then whispered, "How shall we flee?"

"We shall use one of the sky-bridges."

"How can we hope to do that? Does the Wizard trust you that much?"

"He has even let me use sky-bridges, as long as a few Wolves go with me. We can deal with them once the Wizard's a.s.sistant has activated the sky-bridge. Then we step between the crystals and pa.s.s beyond the Wizard's reach."

Serana let out a shuddering sigh. "Which sky-bridge do we use? Can we go straight to Morina? I would-"

Blade shook his head. "No, we go to Ka.s.saro." That was a small town ten miles north of Morina. "Before we go, we destroy the castle end of the sky-bridge to Morina. After we reach Ka.s.saro, we destroy the outer end of that skybridge. Then the Wolves will have to ride nearly twenty miles to reach the walls of Morina. They will lose surprise, face ambushes, and in general not have such an easy time of it."

"Morina cannot hold out against all the Wolves, even then."

"It won't have to. It only needs to hold out long enough for messages to go to all the other cities and towns in Rentoro. We will tell everyone the Wizard's secrets. Then every man, woman, and child will be seeking the outer ends of the sky-bridges and smashing the crystals. In a few weeks there will not be a sky-bridge left in Rentoro. Then the Wizard might still be able to see us gathering our armies, but he will not be able to send the Wolves against us."

"Not any faster than normal men can ride normal heudas, at any rate."

"No. Then the Wolves will be doomed. They will be outnumbered four or five to one, and they are not good enough to meet such odds. Not when the fighting men of Rentoro will have so much to avenge. It will be the end of the Wolves and the end of the Wizard's power in Rentoro." Blade was finding it hard to keep his voice down to a whisper. Excitement at the prospect of defeating the Wolves and breaking the Wizard's power swept through him.

"I pray that it may be so," murmured Serana. She was silent for a moment. "We go to Ka.s.saro, you say, not to Peloff?"

Blade understood what Serana meant. "No. If Lorya is still alive and has obeyed my orders, she has long since left Peloff. If she is dead, we cannot help her. If she is alive but still in Peloff, she will have to take her chances."

"Poor chances they may be, against the Wizard and his Wolves."

"You think I don't know this?" Blade's whisper held an angry bite. "But Peloff is two weeks' ride from Morina. The Wolves would have many chances to catch us on the journey. If they could not do that, they could still ring Morina so thickly we could never get through to safety. They could also move into the city and have all your friends hanging dead from the walls before we came. It will be war-war to the death-the minute we lift a hand against one of the Wizard's people. Do you see that clearly?"

"Yes."

"Good. We have a little time to spare, since the Wizard does not seem ready to move against Morina at once. I think we can move the next time I visit you. Now, what I think is our best course is to-"

His voice faded until he was hardly more than moving his lips. Yet Serana understood, and a smile spread across her gaunt face.

After they'd talked, they made love again. Blade took extra care to seem harsh and brutal, and Serana screamed and howled like ten madwomen together.

At least this was the last time they'd have to put on such an act to deceive the Wizard's spies. With good luck, the next time they shared a bed, it would be in Morina. There was no point in thinking about what would happen if their luck was bad.

Chapter 17.

Blade came to Serana after dark. They alternately made love and talked, until Blade was sure the Wizard must have gone to bed. He'd been boasting over dinner of how a new girl awaited him tonight, a peasant maid of sixteen. The Wizard took a great deal of pleasure with such new girls-so much pleasure that afterward he slept like a dead man, almost impossible to awaken and likely to fly into a rage at anyone who disturbed him. Tonight the castle servants, the castle guards, even the Wolf leaders would be reluctant to awaken their master for anything much short of the end of the world. That would make things a great deal easier for Blade and Serana.

In spite of this, Serana was so nervous that she spoke in jerky phrases, and Blade felt as if he was making love to a wooden statue. He was as relieved as she when the hourgla.s.s showed three hours had pa.s.sed. If the Wizard wasn't dead to the world by now, he never would be.

"Ready?" he said, kissing her.

"Ready," she replied, between clenched teeth.

Blade threw back the blankets and started to climb out of bed. As he gave Serana a perfect target, she exploded into action. With a shrill scream, she lashed out with both feet and hands. She caught Blade in the groin, and now it was his turn to scream. With the horrible cry of a man who's just been castrated, he doubled up and toppled backward. As he fell, he managed to swing his head against the carved night table. He went limp and sprawled helpless on the floor, as Serana leaped out of the bed and started kicking at his ribs.

The next move was up to the guards outside the door, if they were watching. Blade's whole plan depended on their doing so, but he didn't think that was much of a gamble. This castle had the air of a place where everyone spied on everyone else. Besides, the guards wouldn't pa.s.s up a chance for some free entertainment, watching him and Serana together.

Serana went on kicking and screaming until Blade's ribs began to really hurt. He wondered if the guards would come before she had to go on to the next stage, clawing at him with her fingernails.

The door crashed open and two guards dashed in. Blade waited just long enough to be sure the hall outside was empty, then jerked one hand as a signal to Serana. She stopped kicking him and ran at the two guards, whimpering, clawing at her body, and tossing her head wildly. She made a frighteningly convincing madwoman, and she convinced the two guards. They came at her, one from each side, well apart, hands reaching out to grab her. They must have orders not to hurt her. As the guards came at her, Serana backed away. They followed her, until they were both within easy striking distance of Blade.

Suddenly Blade's limp body stiffened. Both feet shot out like a cannonball, to smash into the stomach of one guard. The man didn't scream, because he had no breath to scream with. He simply folded double, sat down in midair, then thumped to the floor. The other guard turned, realizing he'd walked into a trap. His mouth was opening to shout when Blade bounced to his feet and chopped the man across the throat. Instead of a shout, only gurgles and gasps came out as the guard choked to death. Blade turned to finish off his first victim, in time to see Serana stab the man to death with his own dagger.

Both guards were down, no alarm was up, and the hall outside lay empty before them. Blade shut the door, locked it from the inside, and stuffed a strip of blanket into the keyhole. Then he and Serana went to work.

Both guards were stripped naked and dumped into the bed. Blade arranged them so that they looked naturally asleep. Then he pulled the blankets over them and shoved pillows under their heads. Through the keyhole, no one who wasn't already suspicious would be likely to see anything unusual.