A moment later Silora's mouth opened, but not to smile. She let out a wide-mouthed, almost terrifying yell, that went floating away across the lake into the silent darkness of the plain. There was pain in that yell-real pain-but also triumph, joy, surprise-all mixed together in a terrible, wonderful confusion. The tears turned from a trickle into a flood, sweat broke out all over her body, her pelvic muscles jerked in a frantic rhythm, her body arched and bowed and twisted. Then she started sagging forward, eyes glazed. If she had to save both her life and Blade's by a single extra movement, they would both have died on the spot.
Blade's own moment arrived as Silora sagged forward onto his chest. He clutched at her until his fingers dug into the firm flesh of her thighs and buttocks and twisted his own hips around as his terribly pent-up beat jetted upward into her. As that jetting came to an end Silora collapsed onto him, as boneless as a jellyfish and for the moment as helpless as one cast up on the beach after a storm. Blade did not need to disturb her and wouldn't have done so even if he had needed to.
How much time passed before Silora's eyes flickered open, Blade didn't know or care. The same warm bath of satisfied desire was washing over both of them. But eventually he found her dark eyes staring into his, and her lips curling in another smile. Then she raised herself on her elbows and looked down the length of his body, then the length of hers.
«What are you looking for, Silora?»
«You wouldn't believe me if I told you. The shtafari-«
«-are not here. I am not one of them, not a Principal Technician of War, not even a Very Unimportant Technician of War!»
For some reason his feeble joke made her giggle and then laugh long and loud. «No, you are not anything of that sort,» she said, after catching her breath. «I think it is time we found out more about what we really are, as you said. I do not know for certain what you will do with what you learn, Mazda. But I am as certain as I need to be that you will not use it to hurt me or the Peace Lords. That is something new for me. Just how new, perhaps you will understand in time.»
Chapter 23
They stayed in their Adam-and-Eve home by the little lake for several more days. By the end of that time Blade understood clearly why a bout of healthy lovemaking was something so rare and wonderful for Silora. He also knew nearly everything he needed to know about the Looters in order to continue the people's fight against them. He did not know enough to guarantee victory, but no general ever knew that much. So Blade did not worry. He and Silora would do their best.
To start with, there were two different groups among the Looters: the shtafari-which meant «mercenaries»-and the Peace Lords. Most definitely they were not on good terms. Silora made it clear that the two groups in Konis got along about as well as sheep and wolves.
The Looters could indeed travel between dimensions, and in fact had been doing so for nearly a century. That was one of the causes of their present problems. When Blade heard this, he could not quite manage to stay seated or keep his face straight. Eventually he had to tell Silora his full story, swearing her to secrecy beforehand.
«Do you think that the people of Konis have ever reached your-your England on earth, you call it?»
Blade shook his head. «Not with their war machines. If they did, they would be discovered quickly. And most of them would not get back to Konis.»
«That is likely, from what you tell me. But for the moment the mercenaries are here in Tharn. If they are to be fought, it must be here.»
«Too true, unfortunately.»
Konis was, or had been, a nation of the world in Silora's «Home Dimension.» It was a world with a history as long and complex as earth's. But most of that history had nothing to do with what Blade faced in Tharn now. The part that did began only about a century before, with a full-scale global atomic war.
«No one knows any more what caused it. Most of those who did were killed in the war. But the principle of travel among the dimensions was discovered in Konis about then. Perhaps some of the nations that were our enemies got word of the discovery and decided to try to destroy us before we gained too great an advantage over them.»
«Possibly.» It was a sobering thought for Blade. What would England's enemies say if they knew about Project Dimension X? What would even her friends say-and do?
In any case, Konis won the war, as much as such a war can ever be won. It was left as the only relic of civilization in a world rapidly reverting to wilderness inhabited by savages.
Over two generations, Konis came to have only two groups that wielded real power. There were the scientists and learned people in general, the Peace Lords. They were busy trying to recover lost knowledge, and also kept control of the process of interdimensional travel.
Then there were the mercenaries, the formidable warriors who held the line against the barbarians and even extended the frontiers of Konis from time to time. As formidable as they were in war, the Peace Lords held them in contempt and showed it.
«That was a mistake,» said Blade.
«It was,» said Silora grimly. «Even some of the Peace Lords themselves realized it, my parents among them. They tried to change the minds of their fellow Peace Lords. Then when that failed, they joined the mercenaries in a rebellion. They thought it was only justice. I think what they really hoped was that it would be easier for them if someone else took over and ruled Konis. They were sick and tired of endless work that produced nothing.»
The mercenaries were of course only too glad to take over Konis and rule it according to their own notions. The Peace Lords soon found that one of those notions was treating all nonmercenaries as virtual slaves, particularly the women. But that was only the beginning.
«They had defeated and driven back most of the barbarian peoples on the frontiers by then. So they thought-why not use the dimension door to go raiding in other dimensions? They dreamed of more war and killing and loot and slaves they could keep themselves or sell in Konis to make people grateful to them.»
So the Looters were born. Frightened Peace Lords built a dimension door in the heart of the mercenary city. Then the mercenaries took the machines they had been using to fight the barbarians and went off to other dimensions in them, to kill and destroy and loot.
«Of course it wasn't quite that simple, or I wouldn't be here now and you and your people would mostly be dead. The mercenaries had been fighting nobody but barbarians for so long that they had lost the knowledge of how to use many of the weapons and machines they had. Also, some of the machines themselves were only powerful enough to fight against people who could not really fight back. I think of the ones with the purple rays, for example.»
So the mercenaries needed the help of the Peace Lords after all, to program and fight their machines. This meant that each expedition of Looters that traveled out from Konis through the dimension door into the unknown contained two groups who hated and distrusted each other. The mercenaries needed the Peace Lords and the Peace Lords usually had to leave hostages behind. So most of the time there was peace, at least on the surface.
But the Peace Lords seldom gave the mercenaries the best advice on tactics, or did the best possible job in programming the computers of the war machines. Some committed open acts of sabotage. The boldest of the Peace Lords plotted to find chances of running away entirely.