Ooma poked Blade with the stick. «Are you asleep, then?»
He kissed her. «No. I was listening. It was all very interesting. But what of the Books of Birkbegn?»
Ooma pouted a bit. «All I have told you was written in the Books of Birkbegn. Birkbegn was the first man, he who evolved from the egg, the father of all the Jedd tribe. All this way written in the Books, by Birkbegn and his sons, and once it was read. But now it must be told, because the writing has faded and been forgotten. No Jedd can read the Books now. The tale is told at night around the fires, along with the stories, all true, of how great the Jedds were and of how they alone ruled the egg of the World.»
Blade yawned. «What happened?»
Ooma stroked his face as she prepared for sleep. «Who can know all the answers — except that the Jedds did not live by the Books of Birkbegn and suffered, were punished for their evil ways. More than that I do not know for, to tell the truth, I did not always listen closely when the old men spoke. I had other and more interesting things to do and I did them. I would creep away from the fire and do them.»
«I’ll bet,» murmured Blade. Jedd females, he thought, must come to puberty very young by HD standards. Possibly nine or ten years old.
Ooma wormed her tongue into his ear. «I have decided that I do not wish to sleep right now. First we will—»
«You are insatiable,» said Blade. «In fact, I am beginning to think you are a nympho.»
She crashed her mouth against his and began to stroke his more sensitive parts. As dead beat as he was, Blade responded instantly. She squealed softly in delight and began the usual oral foreplay, talking all the while.
«This,» said she, «is a proper time and place. It is dark and we have eaten and soon we will sleep.»
«I hope,» he said feebly. «And I also hope you leave me some strength to fight the Api, if I must fight them.»
«Tomorrow we will worry about the Api,» said the practical Ooma. «For now it is no sin and I will have it. Be still. Do not move. I, Ooma, will do everything.»
Which she did.
In the morning, after a plunge in the brook and breakfast, they continued on their way. Blade, as he listened to Ooma’s chatter, grew somber and looked to his weapons. He did not like what she told him of the Api.
For one thing, he did not know just how much credence to place in her reporting — for Ooma was a feckless little creature. This he had to acknowledge despite his growing fondness for her. So, as they finally left the forest behind and plunged into a narrow falling and winding defile — once again descending, the significance of which did not escape Blade — he listened and made mental notes and took nothing for granted. He became aware of a coldness along his spine. The Api sounded formidable in the extreme — Blade might very well reach the end of his trek long before he reached the mountains and the Jedds. But then death was always a possibility in any Dimension X.
If Ooma was frightened she did not show it. She was matter-of-fact.
«If the Api slay you,» she explained, «they will take me captive and use me as a common woman for all of them. Unless you kill me first, or I can kill myself.»
He shot her a glance. «Do you want to die? Are the Api so bad that death would be better than being taken and used by them?»
For a moment she pondered this, frowning. «I do not really know. I am very young and the Jedds live long. I am fond of life and all it offers, and now that you have come to me, Blade, it will be even harder to die. But the Api! They are hairy monsters, though very intelligent, and their ways are not those of the Jedds. I suppose I would be better off dead.»
Surely a strange child. Blade eyed her. «But you are not really sure?»
Again a fatalistic little shrug. «It does not really make much difference, Blade. If you lose and if I am taken prisoner and used by them, I will not live long anyway. They are brutes, much too large for a Jedd woman — which is exactly why they take so much pleasure in Jedd women — and I would be ripped apart after a little time. I would not like to die that way — no, Blade, I think that if I see you are losing I will manage to kill myself. If you would give me your little stone knife it would be easier. It is hard to kill yourself without a weapon.»
Blade gave her the stone knife, thinking that in any case it would be of little use against the Api. Ooma fashioned a sheath of bark and bound it to her thigh with vines. At Blade’s suggestion that she make a kilt and a bra of the same material — he thinking that if her breasts and pubic area were covered the Api might not be so aroused — she only stared at him and said with disdain that out here clothing was of no importance. Only in the land of the Jedds, her own people, did covering oneself matter. Among the primitives, beastmen and the Api, clothes had no significance.
Blade let it go.
The defile ended and widened onto a plain. Far across the plain, shining in the sun, reared the serrate tips of a vast mountain range. The wind sweeping toward them over the plain bore the chill tang of ice and snow.
Ooma gave a little cry of joyous recognition. She pointed toward the far-off mountains. «That is where my people dwell. Once past the first mountains there is a valley where they have lived all the years since being driven from this land in the time before knowing. Oh, Blade, you must win today! I want to see my home again.»
He hardly heard her. He was examining a large stone hut that stood on the plain some three hundred yards from the mouth of the ravine. It was flat-topped, with a mortared wall around all four sides that he guessed had been built to catch and hold rain. Water must be scarce on this plain.
At the moment Blade was more interested in the lookout on the roof. It was his first view of an Api and he did not like it. He let out his breath in a slow whistle of dismay. The thing was about eight feet tall and appeared to be a cross between a gorilla and a baboon. The face was snouty, dog-like, and the body a massive and hairy block of bulging muscle. Blade blinked and stared again. The lookout was wearing a horned helmet and a swordbelt — nothing else. And it was peering over the plain at Blade, studying him under a raised forepaw. Just as intently as Blade was studying it.
The Api vanished suddenly through a trap in the roof. The stone hut brooded on the plain. Blade looked at the girl.
«So that is an Api?» He kept his voice calm and steady, making no outward sign of the trepidation he felt. What a brute! And he with only a spear and makeshift bow and arrows. He was on the verge of asking for his knife back, then decided against it. Ooma might very well need the knife to kill herself.
A coil of dark, greasy smoke was rising from the hut now. Ooma pointed to it.
«They signal. This is only the first outpost of the Api. There are others, many more, guarding the pass leading into the mountains. But they are not important. It is here, Blade, that we will live or die.»
Blade had been watching the door of the hut. He counted them as they emerged and lined up in military fashion. Ten of them. Nine in the single rank and one leader. All wearing the horned helmets and the swordbelts. Blade’s lips quirked in dour amusement as he watched the leader dress and order his men like any squadleader back in Home Dimension. The commands came drifting across the plain, borne on the wind, and Blade perked his ears. The voice was that of a woman or, at best, an emasculate! High-pitched, shrill, a near falsetto. He looked askance at the girl.
«Are they women, these Api?» She had mentioned nothing of this.
Ooma, who had gone a bit pale, shook her head. «No. How I wish they were. Or that they had females of their own. But they do not — all Api are males, which is why they are so few now, and all children born of women taken by them are always males. And always Api. Oh, Blade, I begin to be much afraid. If I spoke bravely before it was a lie. They will slay you and make me their group whore — for I will not have the courage to kill myself.»
She snatched at his hand. «Come. We can still escape back into the forest. They will not pursue us. Their duty is only to guard this plain.»
Blade pushed her away. «Too lat
e for that now. Trust me and obey me. Exactly. Stay back and keep silent. Not one word. You understand?»
Her voice quavered. «Yes, Blade.»
«See that you do. And trust me. I will deal with these Api.»
The leader of the Api gave a high-pitched command. The line wheeled and began to march toward Blade. The maneuver was executed with grace and precision, the leader marching four paces in front. Blade leaned on his spear and, with a coolness he did not really feel, watched them come. He curled his mouth into a sneer, a grimace of disdain, as if the Api were scum and he the lord and master. How else to play it? Bluff it must be. Bluff and brass. Cold nerve. And when the time for killing came?
He must wait and see.
Chapter Eleven
The leader of the Api halted his men twenty paces from Blade. He ignored the big man leaning so indolently on his spear and sneering, and addressed the rank again. On his command, the Api drew their swords and presented them in salute. Faint hope stirred in Blade — they were so correct and formal. Maybe he would not have to fight for his life, and the girl’s, after all. Of this notion he was soon disabused.
The leader Api barked a last command at his troops. «Rest. Remain as you are until further orders from me. It should not take long to settle this little matter. And remember, all of you, that as the ranking officer, and in command here, I will have the woman first.»
After four trips through the computer Blade had thought his capacity for amazement exhausted. Now he found that this was not so — it way amazing to find gorillas with baboon faces speaking, making sense, executing fairly intricate military maneuvers. As the leader swaggered toward him Blade found himself thinking of an American word — goon. A word that had its genesis in gorilla and baboon. From that moment he began to think of these strange creatures as goons. Intelligent goons.
The leader stopped five paces from Blade. He had drawn his sword, but let it dangle carelessly at his side. Just as careless was his first glance at Blade. He hardly deigned to notice the man. He was looking instead at Ooma, who had retreated to the mouth of the ravine and was crouching behind a boulder. Now, too late, she thought it better to conceal her nakedness.
Blade, always bold, said: «Your business is with me. Not with the woman. She is my woman. I will have that understood at once.»
A look of surprise flashed across the baboon face. The deep-set eyes studied Blade again, this time with more care. Strong man that he was, inured to travail and danger, Blade felt a shock of apprehension as the little eyes studied him intently. Pale. Colorless. Albino eyes without the pinkish tint. Intelligent eyes lacking any hint of emotion. As cold as death itself.
Still the goon did not speak. The white eyes swept Blade up and down. The fang-like teeth flashed in a snarling laugh as the long baboon muzzle crinkled in amusement. Finally it spoke. The voice, though still high-pitched, a treble, had nothing feminine about it. It was loaded with menace.
«What manner of thing are you? Whence come you? What do you want and where do you go?»
Blade left off leaning on his spear. His eyes were as cold as the goon’s when he replied: «I am called Blade. I am a man. That is enough for you to know of me. I want nothing of you except to pass by in peace. I go to the mountains yonder and I take the woman with me. That, I think, answers all your questions. If so, and by your leave, we will be on our way. It was most courteous of you to turn out a guard of honor for us.»
And Richard Blade, cradling his spear in the crook of his elbow, standing tall with legs apart, put his hands on his hips and laughed at the leader of the goons.
For a moment doubt flickered in the pale, feral eyes. The goon put a paw to its hairy muzzle and stroked it. Slowly the sword came up until it was pointed straight at Blade. The weapon was long and pointed, double-edged, of wood cunningly inset with jagged flints to make a cruel edge. A terrible weapon, given the five to six hundred pounds of gorilla muscle behind it. Blade stood little chance against it. This he had known from the outset. Bluff was his best weapon.
Bluff was not going to work.
The goon leader was in no hurry. He gave Blade a deadly smile — the incisors were dog-like — and said, «You tell me your name is Blade, but what is that to me? My name is Porrex and what is that to you? You say you go to the mountain people, and yet I have had no word from the Jedds that they expect you. What of this, Blade?»
Blade scowled. «Nothing at all of it. The Jedds do not expect me. They know nothing of me. How could they? I come as a stranger from a far-off land. Yet it is to the Jedds that I will go — and nothing will stop me.»
Once again doubt showed in the colorless eyes and the goon hesitated before answering. Blade remembered what Ooma had told him — the Api were mercenaries, though vastly independent ones and not to be trusted, and their normal duty was to guard the Jedd borders against raids by the beastmen. Often they did not attend to duty, but went off hunting and searching for women. The Api never had enough women to go around. It had been on just such an occasion, when the Api were lax in duty, that the beastmen, the lake people, had slipped through on a raid and captured Ooma and many other Jedds.
This Porrex was now deep in thought, but he did not think long. The pale eyes stared at Blade and he said, «You may be right. I, Porrex, will not try to stop you. What my superiors do at the pass station is another matter, but it does not concern me. You who call yourself Blade may pass. But you must leave the woman to us. The Jedds have been very stingy of late, and we in the outposts are always last when it comes to women.»
Ooma had also explained that — now and then the Jedds gave women to the Api. Old women, or young women who had been condemned to die for some crime. Most of the latter, Ooma said, managed to kill themselves before they could be turned over to the goons.
Porrex was watching him narrowly. Blade smiled coldly and shook his head. «That I cannot do. I have told you— the woman is mine. She goes where I go.»
The baboon snout tightened. The wooden sword flashed in an arc. «Then she goes no further. Nor do you, Blade. I offered you your life and you refused. So be it. I will kill you and take the woman anyway. Wherever you come from, Blade, they must breed fools.»
Blade backed off slowly, his spear poised. There was sickness in his gut and a vile, hot fluid in his mouth. His heart was racing. The spear was nothing but a fire-sharpened stick of brittle wood, his arrows crooked and untrustworthy, the bow a poor thing meant for the smallest game. Against six hundred pounds of gorilla-baboon they were useless. As he backed away, circling, the spear poised bravely enough, he doubted if the spear or arrows would even pierce that massive furred body.
And yet maybe — the eyes?
Something sharp jabbed him in the back. There was pain and he felt blood trickle on his flesh. Blade glanced around. He was ringed by the other nine goons. They made a small, tight circle, their swords out-thrust to pen him in, nine pairs of eyes glittering in malefic glee. Life was dull at a dreary outpost like this — a little bloodshed would be a change of pace. Plainly they would enjoy seeing Blade gutted. And there was, of course, the woman.
The goon that had jabbed Blade spoke harshly. «Next time, stranger, I will put my sword through you. There is no escape this way. Fight Porrex and die, but do it quickly. We have not had a woman for months.»
The other Api guards laughed at that. One said, «Yes, get it over with. Kill him, Captain Porrex, and have done.»
Another goon muttered, «And then let Porrex have done as quickly with the woman! I am content to cast lots for my place, but it had better not be like last time when the captain kept the woman to himself for two days and a night.»
A third goon said, «Hah — I remember. And when finally she got to us she was no good — too near dead to move. It was like making love to a corpse.»
With a high, chattering giggle, another of them said,
«Fool! She was a corpse by that time. I told you so, remember? But you—»
Porrex let out a roar of outrage
d command. «Be quiet, you scum. Mind your duty and your discipline and keep your mouths shut. The next man who speaks without permission gets no chance at the woman. Now — tighten the circle a bit. This is an agile fool, and a brave one, and I have no desire to chase him over half of Jedd before I kill him. Move in, I say!»
The circle tightened. Porrex, calm and unconcerned, kept his distance from Blade, of whom he seemed scarcely aware. The leader Api’s attitude was that of a man who had a not too distasteful, but very boring, task to perform. Blade contemplated making a rush at the huge Api, pressing the fight, trying to catch his opponent by surprise and blind him before the battle was really joined.
He decided against it. He must let Porrex come to him. He must retreat constantly, slipping and avoiding, feinting and counterfeinting, judging and studying his foe and waiting for him to make a mistake. Blade, who knew his own prowess and could kill most men with his bare hands, was not at all sure he was going to get out of this. He was, after all, fighting a gorilla. A baboon-gorilla with an intelligence nearly as great as his own. Porrex weighed six hundred pounds and stood eight feet tall. Blade weighed two hundred-odd and was a little over six feet. His sweat ran cold and, deep within himself, Blade admitted that maybe this was it! His time to die.
Porrex leaped without warning and swung his sword at Blade’s head. The Api was nimble for all his bulk, and Blade ducked just in time. The flint-edged sword missed him by inches. Porrex looked disappointed. Blade thrust with his spear at the massive hairy chest. Porrex grunted in surprise, his little eyes glaring down at the stick that had dared to puncture him. There was a faint trickle of blood. Porrex slapped at the spear with an enormous paw. The spearpoint snapped off, still embedded in Porrex’s chest fur. He fumbled at it, pulled it out, snarled and flung the point at Blade.
Blade did not toss away the broken spear. He poked with it, trying to keep the giant off balance as he retreated and circled and retreated again. Whenever he got too close to the watching circle of Api he was jabbed in the back. The wounds were only superficial, but they bled copiously and Blade realized that in time the blood loss would weaken him. Already his lower trunk and his legs were covered with his own blood.
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