He felt them under the robe, small gracefully curved cones, not full but flawlessly proportioned. He could even guess that the nipples were large-and he could be certain that they were rising and hardening as she felt him against her.
Gently he reached for her hands and pulled her arms away from her body. As she straightened up, the robe fell from her shoulders and slid to the floor. She made no effort to cover herself now, but stood with her arms outstretched and her eyes fixed on his face. She seemed to be waiting for a judgment of her body to show in his eyes.
The dim light of the room softened any angularities in Harima's naked body. Slender neck, rounded shoulders, breasts as Blade had felt them, with large dark nipples standing up in hard little cones. A slender waist with the belly curving gracefully down toward the blue-black mat of hair between the graceful thighs. A slim body, spare of flesh, but beautiful on its own terms. Blade no longer had any doubts of that-or of his own increasing, response to the sight of it.
Quickly he stripped off his own clothes and stood naked before Harima. Her eyes inevitably fixed on his massive organ, and he could see her shiver again as she saw its size. «You-you are-huge, Pendarnoth. Are you-?»
«I am not like ten ordinary men,» said Blade with a laugh. «I am a man and do what a man does. But I know enough of what I am doing.» He motioned toward the rug. «Lie down, Harima. And do not be afraid. There is nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all.» He spoke soothingly, caressingly, speaking to both the woman and the child in Harima.
She flowed gracefully down onto the rug and he lay down beside her and pulled her to him. He did nothing at first but let his hands play over her body, touching lightly here, pressing harder there. He spent a long time on her breasts and a long time stroking and fingering her pubic area, until he felt her body beginning to move of its own will. He heard her moaning and hard breathing, saw her eyes close, then quickly lifted himself up and let himself down into her.
She was indeed a virgin, and she gave a rasping scream as he penetrated. He did not go in deeply at first, for he had promised to be gentle. He waited until he felt her legs come up of their own accord to lock around his body before thrusting with his full great strength. Even then he paced himself, holding back to the limits of his endurance until he reached those limits, and in a series of fierce pulses poured himself into her.
He had not brought her to climax this time, but this did not bother him. That was not always possible with a virgin. But there was a smile on her face as she lay back on the cushions and used her robe to wipe the sweat from her body. It was a smile of triumphant discovery. So Blade was not at all surprised when within a few minutes she reached out again. Her hands closed around his organ, now limp and exhausted but not for long. Her fingers were gentle, delicate, and surprisingly skilled. Soon he was fully aroused again.
This time she welcomed him into her with joy and passion. It was an easy matter to bring her to climax, not merely once but three successive times. Her cries as her body writhed in its spasms were so loud that Blade wondered if they might be overheard. But no one came in. They were left undisturbed, to lie half-exhausted beside each other until desire came a third time. It was not until nearly two hours later that Harima showed Blade the door to the secret passage. Then she gave him directions, kissed him full on the lips, and like King Nefus vanished with ghostly silence.
Blade had no very clear recollection of making his way through the dark tunnels away from Harima's chambers, and then through the corridors back to his own suite. But he had a very clear memory of waking in the morning light and seeing Guroth standing over him. The captain was obviously waiting to speak, and on his face was a look so bleak that Blade was awake in an instant.
«What is it, Guroth?»
«Word has come from the border, oh Pendarnoth. It arrived during the night, while you were with the Princess Harima.»
«Yes?»
«The Lanyri army is on the march. It crossed the border six days ago.»
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Three weeks later Blade sat on his horse and watched Rojag horsemen milling about on the outskirts of a burning Pendari town. His horse was not the Golden Steed, for that beast was too sacred in the eyes of the Pendari to be risked in battle. Instead he rode a tall, dark gray stallion from the royal stables, the personal gift of King Nefus. It was larger than the average Pendari horse, and so quite equal to Blade's two hundred pounds. The Golden Steed was back in the palace stables in Pendar, no doubt gorging itself in luxury.
Blade almost wished he could be there also. He had been furiously busy during those past weeks, working night and day training the soldiers of the Pendarnoth's Guard. That was no easy job, for Blade had to polish up his own skills at mounted archery at the same time. All that kept the job from being completely impossible was Guroth's constant and loyal aid. The new High Captain of the Pendarnoth's Guard was as able an instructor as he had been a combat soldier. He was able to teach Blade at the same time he was teaching the guard. And he had won the confidence of the soldiers to such an extent that Blade had no hesitation about leaving them in Guroth's hands when he himself rode off to war. Only a small force of guardsmen rode with him, for it was not part of the plan for him to do any heavy fighting now.
It was as well that Guroth had proved so loyal and so able. Klerus was pushing his plots ahead as fast as he dared, now that his Lanyri allies were actually on the march. The Pendari armies were being ordered to fall back before the invaders. One general who had given battle on his own initiative, and actually wiped out a small Lanyri force, had been assassinated. That had produced much grumbling among the soldiers. But the more outspoken grumblers had met the same fate as the aggressive general. After that there was silence in the ranks of the army, although the western horizon was marred each day by the smoke from burning Pendari farms and villages.
And Klerus was recruiting his own guard. Since Blade had the blessing of the priests as well as the support of the king for the formation of his own guard, Klerus had chosen not to oppose it openly. Instead he was secretly assembling a force of his own. It was already so large that any attempt to arrest Klerus would mean a pitched battle. Before too much longer Klerus would have enough men around him and under his orders to stage an outright military takeover, if he couldn't manage things any other way. So much of the Pendari army was now out in the field watching the advancing Lanyri that it would be easy to seize the palace and even Vilesh.
Fortunately, Guroth and most of the Pendarnoth's Guard were back in Vilesh. They would do all that could be done there to fight Klerus. Blade could stop worrying about that and concentrate on learning about the Lanyri.
He had not seen enough of the tough Lanyri infantry to really know if they were as good as he had been told they were. But he had seen far too many Rojag horsemen scouting and marauding ahead of the Lanyri. Apparently the Rojags had turned out every man they could put on a horse. No doubt they hoped that their alliance with the Lanyri would bring them Pendari land and slaves when the Lanyri had won. Some of them even now had bows, no doubt captured from the Pendari, although they could not yet use them well from horseback. But they did provide the Lanyri with a scouting force that could move just as fast as the Pendari. Not to mention the looting, burning, and massacring they accomplished wherever they went. Blade had seen a Pendari village after the Rojags got through with it, and he still felt a little sick at the memory.