«I am glad to see you safe and well, sire, and glad that we meet again. I am sent to take you from this place to another. If you are ready? T4pre is no time to waste.»
Blade went to the stout idd and: shook his hand. He smiled. «It is I who am glad to see you, Edyrn. We go, I trust, to the volcano to see lzmia?»
Edyrn bowed again. His blue eyes were as cool and direct as ever, but his smile was tentative. TheЈe was a fresh dent in the steel helmet covering his flaxen pate and blood — on his body armor. Blade admitted;his mistake again. This was no boy, never mind his years-.this was a man and a warrior.
«We go to the Pearl,» said Edyrn, «but the long way around. Matters have taken course much faster than we anticipated, sire, and Patmos is in mortal peril. Hectoris cannot yet be ready to invade us-all our spies tell of his unpreparedness-yet he does make the attempt. A small party of Samostans landed on our coast not an hour gone. This must be seen to at once.»
For once Nob appeared awed. He followed Blade as they were escorted down the corridor and out of the building. Blood and bodies were strewn around the hallway and, somewhat to his sorrow, Blade saw that one of them was the Captain Osric who had taken him prisoner on the beach. Osric had died well enough, his dainty ceremonial sword through the throat of one of Edyrn's big Soldiers. All the other dead were the effete troops whom Blade had so despised at sight.
Edyrn pointed with.his sword at: the dead Osric. «A former friend of mine, and a good man, but he chose a different path. He was coming for you, with his men, just as I came with mine. A near thing, sire.»
Blade's glance flicked around the bloody hall. «tuna's men? She sent Osric for me?» She had promised that she would not forsake him.
But Edym shook his head. «No. Not Juna. Osric loved her, and sometimes served her, but he was commissioned to the King and Queen. To Kador and Smyr. It was they who sent Osric for you, Sire Blade, not Juna. You are most fortunate that I came when I did, and that I brought soldiers with me and not courtiers.»
Blade's head was spinning. Later he would sort it all out. Much later, if he had his way. Now ft was enough to step out into the sunset and smell the perfumed breeze again. And to think of food. Food without penthe.
Edyrn handed Blade a sword and belt. Blade hefted it with joy. It was a broadsword, longer and heavier than the one Juna had thrown into the sea. He buckled it on with a grin. Matters were beginning to shape to his liking at last.
«We will get you full armor later,» Edyrn explained. «Now we had best be gone into the countryside as soon as may be. I have but few men and a task to do, and I do not wish to encounter any more palace troops. In case you do not yet entirely understand, sire-there is civil war in Patmos this night.»
Blade had not understood; not at all. Civil war? Just another of a thousand things he did not understand, but he let his face show no.trace of his bewilderment.
«Civil war, Edyrn? Who fights?»
«The King and Queen have risen against Izmia, the Pearl of Patmos. They think victory certain because they know that the Pearl has only her Guard to protect her. But they choose a bad time for it-as I told you, Hectoris has chosen this very time to put his first troops ashore.»
Blade gave him a look. «Are you sure that it is coincidence? Is it such a bad time for them, for- Kador and Smyr? Is it not possible that they intend to betray Patmos from within? And what of Juna in all this? You seem reluctant to mention her, Edyrn. Why? Has Juna come to some harm?»
By now they had left the prison complex and were marching across far-stretching fields of loti. Cybar was behind them. Blade, glancing back, could see the shining silhouette of the palace against the sunset. It was quiet. None moved but themselves and a few Gray People working in the fields at late tasks.
Edym gave a command and his men flung themselves on the ground to rest. Nob looked at Blade, then did like-
wise. Edyrn took Blade to one side and spoke most respectfully.
«There is much I do not know, sire, and much I could not tell you ever if I did know. All that has happened has come suddenly and caught us unready.»
Blade sniffed at the perfumed air, bearing a slight tang of salt now, and listened to the omnipresent music from the kiosks; he watched the drugged Gray People toiling in the fields and thought it not at all strange that Patmos had been caught off balance. Unready, as Edyrn put it. Blade doubted if Patmos had ever been ready.
Edyrn continued, «Jung, as near as I know, is safe in the palace, though under arrest. There is much political in this that I cannot explain at the moment, sire.»
Blade nodded agreement and fondled his sword hilt. «I agree. Forget everything else but this force of Samostans. Where are they and in what strength? Who leads them? What are their intentions? Have we men enough to handle them?»
Edym gave him a strange smile. «Some of those questions I can answer and some I cannot. But first you should know, sire, that we were most fortunate and have taken a prisoner-a prisoner I am sure you would like to question.»
Blade scowled. His first elation was passing and he had hunger pains again. «No riddles, Edyrn! Who is this prisoner? And why is it so important that I must question him personally?»
Edym slapped his thigh and laughed. He called to his men, then bowed to Blade and said, «His name is Ptol, sire. We caught him seeking to sneak into Cybar in the dress of the Gray People. Are you answered, sire?»
Blade laughed and nodded. He was answered indeed. Ptol! As Nob would say-by the Goddess Juna's golden assl Ptoll The fat little priest himself. The lisper. Caught trying to get into Cybar. Must have been heading straight for the palace. Blade could smell it. Another sell-out was in the making. Treason and treachery. How could he stop it? What could he and Edym and Nob and a few others do against the barbarian horde, the tough soldiers,
of Hectoris? Blade had seen the fall of Thyme-he knew the mettle of the Samostans.
So did the king and queen-thus the treachery. Hectoris had probably promised them their thrones if they aided in the overthrow of Izmia. Not that he would keep his word when the need for them was past.
And Juna? What of her? Why should he, Blade, worry about.her? His own life was at stake.
Edyrn had waited patiently, unspeaking. Blade said, «Where is this Ptol?»
Edyrn smiled. «A mile from here, sire. Near our lookout point. Shall we go and have a look at him?»
Blade's look was grim. «I care not so much to look at him, Edyrn, as to hear him speak. He lisps and he sprays spit this way and that, but I think there is much he can tell us.»
They were on the move again. Edyrn said, «He is defiant, sire. He knows that I am only a captain and he keeps demanding to be taken to a: higher up.»
«Does he, now?» Blade nodded. «I think we can arrange that.»
Edyrn went to the head of his troop. Blade fell back to be alone. Nob, seeing the expression on his face, gave him a wide berth.
Blade knew that the time had come. Time to move in and take command of the situation. He must be head man, must seize and use all the power he could, as speedily and effectively as he could. It was a tried and true technique and the only way to survive in Dimension X.
He stopped and drew the broadsword and examined it. The last rays of sun glinted red along the shining steel. He closed his great hand about the cold hilt until his knuckles were white.
Blood! So be it. Perhaps his own. But there was no other way-no other way in this strange world he must contrive to live in. Or die in.
CHAPTER 8
He came awake and was aware of warmth, of a fire flickering somewhere in the vast cavern. He thought the cavern floor trembled occasionally as there came a rumbling roar from afar, and sometimes over' the drift of incense he caught the acrid odor of volcanic ash. He was only dreaming, of course, for he was safe in bed in his Dorset cottage. The real nightmare would not start until tomorrow-when he must journey to London and meet J and Lord L and go once again through the computer into Dimension X. Yes. It was a dream. And yet….