Then Amadora was struggling out of her gown, bracing herself against the side of the carriage. Under the gown she wore only a linen half-shift embroidered with gold thread. She jerked the shift up past her waist. She looked as if she was going to jerk it all the way off and be totally naked. But once again her enthusiasm took over. With the shift still wadded around her slim waist, she lowered herself onto Blade. He speared upward into her, and in a moment they were locked together as she twisted and writhed and he thrust furiously upward.
Amadora's breath came in sharp little moans now, and her teeth worried at Blade's ears like a dog on a choice bone. Her arms went around him and her hands locked together in the small of his back with more strength than he could have imagined in this elegant woman. Her warmth and wetness held him, drew him in, were all around him, drove him steadily toward an explosion. Blade knew he had enormous endurance and he also knew this woman was going to test it thoroughly.
At last Amadora's head jerked back, and she caught hold of Blade's shoulders and pushed herself down on him harder than ever before. Blade felt as though she wanted to take all of him into herself, and didn't mind if she flattened him into the seat cushions in the process!
Instead her mouth opened and an animal-like howl came out of it. There was nothing human in that sound, only the exaltation of a female animal at last finding the release she sought desperately. Amadora's body arched like a bow strained almost to the breaking point, until her long hair hung down vertically in back and her breasts jutted almost straight upward. Her pelvis twisted in a furious, desperate circle.
That twisting was the end for Blade's self-control. His own body arched as his hips thrust upward. Amadora rose with them, until it seemed she was going to be pushed straight through the roof of the carriage. She hung there, legs and arms bracing her in place on Blade; while he writhed and heaved and poured himself up into her. Now it was his turn to let out the raw, jungle noises of something that wasn't quite human any more in the sheer fury of its passion.
For a long moment after he spent himself, Blade held Amadora aloft. Then he sagged downward into the cushions and she sagged down! on top of him. She folded forward onto him, her hair flowing down over his shoulders. Her ringed fingers played with the sweat-soaked hair on his chest, and she made little murmurs and chuckles like a well-fed baby. The howling, writhing female animal of just a few minutes ago was gone.
Blade had no doubt that would come again, at the right time and place. He couldn't help smiling as he thought of how this bout, at this time and place, must have sounded. But no doubt the coachmen, the outriders, and even passers-by were used to hearing the sounds of passion coming out of Princess Amadora's carriage.
Chapter 20
That was the first time Blade found himself making love to Princess Amadora. It wasn't the last. Over the next month or so the lady contrived half a dozen more occasions. They were all intended to look like accidents, but Blade wasn't fooled at all. The woman was testing him out as a lover. When she had done that she would start testing him out as a political ally. To replace Iscaros? Possibly. Certainly the count seemed more than usually worried about something, at the times Blade saw him.
Blade was very careful to play the naive, lustful barbarian, too blinded by Amadora's beauty and obvious passion for him to be suspicious of what she might have in mind. As long as he could do that, both he and Tera would be a good deal safer. If he could go on doing it long enough, he would probably learn a good deal of her plans.
And then what? It seemed to Blade that he had two choices. One was to act on his own, going straight to the Emperor. The other was to ally himself with Duke Pardes. Normally Blade wouldn't trust the eunuch as far as he could throw a war galley. But Pardes might consider anyone who helped him bring about Amadora's final downfall friendly, or at least valuable. He might also be willing to take Tera under his protection. Blade could not help thinking about what might happen to the girl after his return to Home Dimension. He knew he could not hope to stay in Karan much longer.
Amadora made her first move one night when the two of them were lying in her satin-sheeted bed, relaxing between two bouts of lovemaking. She traced circles on his stomach with one finger and murmured, «Blade, what would you say to always having me around to love like this?»
«I'd say you were joking. You are a Princess of the Blood. I am merely a newly promoted general, my origins honorable but obscure. Would the Imperial House swallow this?»
«The Imperial House has swallowed many such things in the past, Blade. Blood far stranger and less honorable than yours has flowed in the veins of those who sat on the Coral Throne.»
«Perhaps. But there is already a man who seems to care for you, and his origins are honorable and not at all obscure.»
«Care for me? Iscaros?» The princess gave a short, harsh, ugly laugh. It would have fooled ears less experienced than Blade's. «Care for me? He wants a sheath for his sword and thinks he can perhaps stab his way to power with it. That is all.» She bent over Blade until her hair flowed down across his face and her nipples brushed his chest. She was obviously ready again. Fortunately, so was Blade.
Things went on this way for quite a while. Autumn moved on toward winter and the warriors of Scador settled down in the occupied frontier land. They gorged on its crops, swilled down its wine, warmed their beds with its captured daughters and wives. Refugees from the frontier lands and from the Scadori raids farther into Karan crowded into the capital. They did not go hungry or homeless-Jores did his best to see to that. But their mood was ugly, and it grew uglier as they realized that the Emperor and his military advisers were holding back from anything that might free their homes and avenge their dead.
Amadora dropped only vague hints of what she had in mind. She was obviously being careful to say nothing that could serve as real evidence against her, just in case Blade did decide to carry tales to Pardes or the Emperor. Blade listened carefully, asked naive questions, and generally went on playing the lustful fool.
One thing was becoming more and more certain. Amadora was becoming dangerously fond of his company in bed. The danger there was not so much for him as for Tera. If the princess ever got the idea into her sleekly-groomed head that Tera was keeping Blade from doing his best-well, Blade did not like to think too much about what might happen.
Nothing did happen for a while. Amadora's lovemaking grew more and more furious and more and more demanding. At first Blade wondered if she was faking some or all of this lust, to test him. But it became more and' more obvious that she wasn't faking at all. She was being driven onward by a genuine, uncontrollable passion for Blade, beyond anything that mere political ambitions could have done.
Blade knew that could make her even more dangerous. A jealous woman could fly into rages that a merely ambitious one could never match. She could also watch more closely for any sign of his losing interest. If she found any, Tera would be in immediate, deadly danger.
Blade did what he could. He threw all his skill, experience, and endurance into keeping Amadora satisfied to the point of exhaustion. He also continued to post half a dozen picked guards around Tera's chambers. He would have liked to put Captain Zogades in charge of them, to ensure their loyalty and vigilance. But that would have gone beyond the limits permitted to even the most trusted generals. In the past, generals' bodyguards had turned too successfully against too many Emperors. If Blade pushed beyond the permitted limits, he would have open enemies besides Count Iscaros. Even Jores himself might start having suspicions of Blade's loyalty.