Lisma Bloodax was in her early twenties, at his guess. She had the blue eyes and flaxen hair of her race. Her teeth were good and she wore her hair long to her waist, caught up behind with a band of beaded leather. The Hitt women, at least some of them, covered their breasts. Lisma wore a bandeau of soft worked leather. Her midriff was bare and she wore tight breeches to her knees. On her feet were high-laced buskins with long, curling toes.
Lisma put her chin in her hand and stared at Blade. «You are well? You wish for anything?»
He smiled. Every visit began with the same inquiry.
«I am well and I want for nothing-save for an audience with your father. How much longer am I to be kept in solitary on this crag, Lisma? I find it most strange. Does your father not want to see his prisoner? I would have thought he would-if only to take his revenge at first hand. I am not a common soldier, you know. It was I who defeated him and smashed his army. Has he no curiosity about such a man?»
Lisma said, «My father's greatest curiosity is that I am not yet pregnant. He begins to think that your seed is poor. Galligantus swears it so and also swears that you are no god. He took the girl Sariah to wife but three short weeks ago and already her monthly blood does not flow. Galligantus asks every day that he be allowed to kill you.»
Sariah had married Galligantus. She was a Hitt to the core and had led them into the trap.
Blade went to crouch by the fire and eye Lisma. «And what does your father say?»
Lisma shrugged. «Every day he says no. He still believes you a god-for how else could you have defeated him? — and he wants me pregnant by you. If it is a son, it will be at least half a god and bring the Hitts luck in everything-war and peace, crops, rain when we need it, strong children and bold leaders. He bids Galligantus hold his peace-at times they come near to quarrel over it. But we are wasting time, Blade. I have not all day for this. Put your man weapon in me and have done.»
It struck Blade that he had been missing a bet. He had not been thinking right. He put thought into action at once. He went to her and, as she would have moved to the pallet to lie for him, he caught her to him and kissed her hard. He had never kissed her before.
At first she struggled. He crushed her to him and sought her lips and kissed her until she went limp in his arms. Her tongue crept into his mouth and began to respond.
«I will show you something of loving,» Blade muttered. He carried her to the pallet. She was a simple little thing, a savage, and if he could not get around her he had no business in Dimension X. Why had he not thought of it before?
When he had done with Lisma she lay limp and gasping, her eyes soft as she caressed his face. Blade thought briefly of the Princess Hirga, whom he could never satisfy or dominate. Something wrong there-something he meant to discover, if and when he ever got back to Zir.
Lisma peered up at him through half-closed lids. «I near to swooned, Blade. How is it that I never felt like this before? I saw visions and my spirit fled this room and into the skies. How is it? Why have I not known such pleasure before?»
«Because you have not loved before,» said Blade. «and I did not love. Now we both love and want each other and it is different. You will be pregnant soon, Lisma.»
Her fingers toyed with his dark beard. «Do we love? I had no thought of that. You are a prisoner, even if a god, and I am the daughter of a king.»
«I had not thought of it either,» said Blade. «Now I know. I love you, Lisma, and you love me. We have found our destiny.»
He met her glance without difficulty. It was no great task. He had faked love many times before.
He did not give her time to think. He entered her again and for an hour rang every sexual change he knew. When she left him she had promised to arrange an audience with her father as soon as possible. When he walked with her to the trapdoor she clung to him and whispered, «I will have you out of this place soon, Blade. You will be consort and lover to me. We cannot marry, for Hitt law does not permit marriage to a foreigner, but we will be together. I vow it.»
«Beware of Galligantus,» said Blade, «for I think he is my real enemy.»
She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. «I have my father's right ear-Galligantus has only his left.»
Blade went back to sew on his balloon. His spirits were back and he felt more alert and confident than in weeks. The old Blade was back. No more bewailing the past and blaming himself. What was past was done and could not be changed. Look to the future. Look to himself.
That night the crystal worked again for the first time since his capture. The computer, meaning Lord L, was worried about his mental condition, more so than his present physical peril, for based on past performance he would somehow extricate himself.
Blade concentrated long enough to tell them of his plans, of the balloon, and then had the best night's sleep in many a day. The following morning they came for him.
He was not bound or chained. He walked inside a square of armed guards. He was taken down through passages and stairs and out into a valley, past crowds of staring Hitts, to a cavern where Loth Bloodax held his court. There, in the garish light of a hundred torches, he found Bloodax sitting on a natural seat of stone that served as throne. He was attended by warriors and by his council, the latter wearing iron chains of office and with blue marks of rank painted on their forehead.
Lisma squatted at her father's feet. She smiled as Blade was brought forward. To the king's right was the man Galligantus and his new wife, the girl Sariah. She did not look at Blade. Galligantus stared and his lip curled in contempt. In that moment, even before he had spoken, Blade determined to kill Galligantus if possible. It would be some revenge for Thane.
Loth Bloodax leaned to peer at Blade. The man was short-sighted. He was also enormous, not tall, but with a span to him that bespoke great strength going a little to blubber. He wore an iron crown, and beneath it his hair was thin and dry, the yellow fading into gray. He wore a dress kilt and light chest armor. His eyes, a pale, washed-out blue, were set too close to a blobby nose. Nothing distinguished about him, thought Blade, and then he remembered how the man had fought.
Blade did not bow. He had noted that Hitts never bowed or were in any way obsequious. Loth Bloodax had a low, harsh voice.
«You have worked a new magic, Prince Blade. My daughter who came to you first for child now comes to me for your life and comfort. She tells me that you seek to live with her, to be her lover and man and warrior. This is true?»
Blade inclined his head. «It is true.»
Galligantus glared meanly at Blade and spat. «It is false, Loth. He is weary of his perch atop our rock, and lonely, and in fear of his miserable life. He has fooled Lisma and now he is trying to fool you. I will kill him for you. A pleasant enough task.»
Bloodax waved him off. «There will be no killing until I say so. I gave you the man Thane to carve as you pleased. Be content for now.»
He looked at Blade for a moment, frowning and plucking at his teeth with a forefinger. He dislodged a bit of meat and spat it out.
«Is it true, Blade, that in Zir you grew from a babe to full man in a month?»
«That is true.»
Bloodax nodded slowly. «My spies brought word of it. I did not believe it.»
«I still do not believe it,» said Galligantus.
«I begin to,» said Bloodax. «And I will not tell you again, Galligantus. I am king here, not you. Hold your tongue.»
Galligantus subsided, muttering, but his glance toward Blade was hate-filled. Blade's likewise. Somehow he must find means to kill this man.
«You defeated me,» said Loth Bloodax, «and that was no small thing. I know how you crossed the water behind me, for I watched your Captain Ogier tear up the hidden bridge. But it would have taken a god to think of that. I have use for a new god, Prince Blade, for our old ones have deserted us. But tell me-can you work that magic again?»